How come I didn’t know there was a hurricane coming until this morning? I was talking to an ex-co-worker this morning and they mentioned the storm. Oops. I guess I’d better keep up on the news more often.

My friend’s new restaurant opening was delayed. We were supposed to be opened tomorrow, but it’s looking more like Thursday or even Friday. I say we because I’ll be working for her sometimes for lunch. It’s a Mexican place right on the beach. The chef made me chicken nachos the other day and they were awesome. Today she did all things shrimp, burrito, taco, quesadilla, salad, and nachos. We were going to have chicken but she didn’t want to thaw it out seeing as we may not be open for a few days. She also made a really good bean burrito and 4 different kinds of salsa. Mmmmmm! Did I mention that they make their own chips too?

Sunday I had brunch with a few girlfriends. Imagine 7 black women sitting in a room discussing politics, men, hair, food… It was a lot of fun. We had some mimosas along with a ton of food. Everyone brought something, so there was more than enough to go around. I think the menu included pancakes, cheesy hash browns, grits, smoked turkey sausage, guava pastries, pound cake, carrot cake, strawberry short cake, and banana nut muffins. I think there were a couple of other items that have slipped my mind. Needless to say, lots of doggie bags were passed around. This was before I had to go to work. I realize that mimosas make the work day go much better!

I HAVE to tell you what happened at work tonight. It was completely dead because of the possible approaching storm. In fact, I didn’t have a single table tonight and we closed 3 hours early! Before we closed, a couple came in. I was in the back when they walked in and they were asking the bartender about wines. They had been in before, but couldn’t remember what they had. As soon as the guy saw me he was like “Hi again! Do you remember what I was drinking last time?” I love it when people ask me that. Ummm, there are 160 wines and I’ve seen hundreds of people since they were last in. They should be happy that I recognize their faces! Anyway, he is looking at the retail side which is about 50% cheaper to buy a bottle than the wine bar side. I know, 2 prices, but you really pay for me to open the bottle and continuously pour it for you all night long along with the ambiance. Nice huh? Service is everything… Anyway, He sees one wine that is supposed to be really good that retails for $150, but costs $300 to drink in the restaurant. He wants to buy it, but he wants it for the retail price. When I tell him he can’t open it in the store/bar if he pays retail he tells me he’ll pour me a glass if I let him. As tempted as I was to try this wine, I said no like a good girl. The other servers says “Now, if you pour us (me, him, and bartender) all a glass, that’s a different story.” Why does dude say ok??? I asked the AM who was in the back office and he basically said no, like I knew he would. If we did it this time, this guy would want to do it every time he came in. When I told the guy again that I couldn’t let him open it, the other server went to ask AM. He came back and opened the bottle for the guy. I guess AM had a change of heart. True to his word, this guy poured 5 glasses of wine. One for him and his girlfriend and 3 for us! It was damn good wine. We actually realized that we should give some to AM since he agreed to break the rules, so we (the employees and even the guy!) poured some of our wine into another glass for him. He came out of the office to thank the guy. After talking for a while and finishing our expensive wine, this guy is talking to AM about how it can’t be that hard for the people who decide on what blends to create and how it must be a good job. FYI, lots of wines are not made with a single grape type. They actually mix certain percentages of the different grapes together to get the flavor they want. AM tells this guy, “Well, you never know unless you try it.” So this man says ok. He buys 4 bottles of wine, the cheapest one being $30 retail. He gets a cabernet, a merlot, a syrah, and a malbec. Then, he proceeds to tell me how he wants it blended together… 5% of this, 15% of that, basically doing his own thing. I just said to him “You don’t want to taste them first??” So I poured him a couple of sips and then he revised his percentages. I must admit, this was for totally selfish reasons! I had never tasted 2 of these wines because they were damn expensive and no one had ever ordered just a glass. So, when I poured him a little taste, I got a little sip in for myself too. LOL! Anyway, after blending them the way he wanted, we tried it and it wasn’t bad. This time he was pouring glasses for the 3 employees, AM, and him and his girlfriend. After drinking his batch, he asked the AM to try to create a blend of his own. You should have seen his face. “No, I don’t’ want to screw up the wines!” He eventually did it and the guy liked it better than his own blend. Then he had me mix a batch too. They like that too, but after all that wine, I think anything would be good in their eyes. After chatting for a long time and drinking a lot, they still had some wine left. I corked it and packed it up for them to take home. After all, we couldn’t drink all of the nearly $500 in wines they bought.