So, months go by without additional postings.  Let's just start fresh, shall I? We opened our doors after months of cleanup and renovations on the first weekend of July 2011. It was a complete disaster. The waves of folks kept coming and we had no idea how to train the kids out in the front of the restaurant while we were working the kitchen and trying to stay afloat under a sea of yellow order forms piling up in the "order in" basket.  By the end of the first week, we knew changes had to occur fast. We were putting in seemingly 16 hour workdays with absolutely no end in sight. It was exhausting and confusing and I desperately wanted to cry, but that was not an option for so many reasons. Number one being that all these lovely people in my family were in this mess because of me! How could I be the one to break down?
On our second Sunday the one waitress we'd hired to help us was a no-show. That afternoon, I had a "milkshake birthday party" coming in after hours for my niece's 8th birthday. I believe there were 9 littles in that party. "D", one of my sister's best friends, who'd had a restaurant of her own and was now all-hands-on-deck helping us, told me to pick up the phone and hire Carrie. Asap. We didn't hesitate. This is the conversation per my memory:
me: Carrie?
C: yes.
me: this is Kate from The Country Girl Diner. I NEED you to come work for us! Please, say you will!
C: Be there tomorrow morning.
me: There is a God in Heaven.

That was the start of calm and normality. Carrie walked in and started helping us set things to right. We started to breathe again. She is a voice of reason and one of the hardest workers I've ever met in my life. We have an agreement with each other. If she ever quits, I will schedule her as normal and expect to see her walk through the back door. If I ever fire her, she will just show up for work the next day anyway. It really works for us.

Next was a visit from a family who lived up a dirt mountain turnpike. Oddly enough in this town of 3,000 in the south of Vermont, their daughter was about to start her first year of college at Covenant College, Lookout Mtn, GA. Which as life would have it, is where one of our daughters was about to start her junior year. The family came in to introduce themselves and to give us Barnaby for the summer as an intern. I don't remember him being offered to us. I remember him being thrust into our kitchen as a dishwasher. He was a Godsend in a bowler hat and suspenders spouting strange dinosaur noises and singing tunes from the twenties.. For the entire summer he showed up as often as he could and worked himself right into an indispensible part of our Diner family. He is quirky and positive and funny and absolutely perfect as himself. He never left and it will be a heartbreak the day he does take off for college.

Our staff continued to grow. we added a few other dishwashers and cooks and servers. You'll meet them in these words in coming posts. A few have moved on to other parts as they continue their life growth. But, always now with our blessing and good wishes.

I now love walking through our door. I've grown to love the regulars who grace our seats and share their lives with us. And, I love waking up and realizing that I don't have to wait, for the perfect time, season, place or anything else to try anything new. I never did have to...I just let myself get stuck in the expectations of others, real or imagined.
I have so many new mottos in my life.
We are now working to live, not living to work.
And I am not going to wait for myself anymore. If I want to try something new and adventurous, I'm going to do it. Sometimes that simply means setting up an easel in the backyard and painting grass. Sometimes it means taking a box of smashed Emma Bridgwater Pottery I've been toting around for five years and mosaic-ing it into a framed mirror. And sometimes it means renting a paddle board and getting exercise while making an unbalanced fool of myself while wearing a bathing suit. In public view. I'm not waiting anymore. I'm moving on my thoughts and making them happen.
And if I fail? So what? There will be a lesson learned on how to do better the next time. Failure is not bad. A little failure is actually really good thing. It gets us to think outside the box (or outside our own perceived notions of what we think we should be doing, acting, behaving etc.) What a freeing lesson to have learned in my second half of life.