Ooh...Pretty...

Note: I attempted to send this entry last night, but it didn't take.  Let's try that again, shall we?
************************************************
I apologize in advance that there is no photo to go along with this long story.  I will add one in the morning if I have time before work. 

So there I was on the phone with a guy booking a private party for this December (dude - I want SO BADLY to be invited to their party!  It's a group of 18 friends who live about an hour away.  They're going to rent a couple of limos, come up here and look at Christmas decorations at some of the local hotels, and then have dinner here.  "Please, mister? Can't I be your friend too?") and one of the servers came in and dropped a bouquet of flowers on my desk.

I thought it was yet another example of something left in the cooler or otherwise unwanted that was being given to me.  Well imagine my surprise when I looked at the card and it had MY name on it!  Who could possibly be sending flowers to ME?

It turns out that the arrangement is from a guy I first spoke to about a month ago who called me up yelling and screaming demanding the highest manager available (which was, at that moment, umm… me) because he wasn't able to book our kitchen table (I believe the word "conspiracy" was mentioned) .  He was a classic example of the "let them get it out of their system" philosophy of conflict management.  He just didn't want to believe me that the one table per night books that quickly.  By the time he finished his rant, I knew about his family, how much money they spend on family vacations every year, and he was threatening to not renew his annual passes because of the crappy customer service at The Restaurant. So I finally got him calmed down and offered him the dates that we had available at the time that had cancellations and no wait list.  I also offered to put him on the wait list for every day for the rest of the year. 

At that point, he was trying to book for Thanksgiving.  I could have booked Christmas for him right then and there, which wasn't open to the public yet, but I was holding my line of "this is when we can book and we don't make exceptions because it's just not fair."  Well, that first phone conversation ended ok.  He had a list of dates to consider, and we agreed to speak in a week.  None of those dates ended up working for his family, but I promised to keep in touch if anything else opened up.  And he was going to try to book the table the old-fashioned way for a date around the holidays.  I called him since 3 or 4 times with various dates, and each time he declined the table, but thanked me for keeping him in mind. 

A strange fluke ended up occurring and the table on New Years Eve didn't get booked.  Of course, he was my first phone call.  I left him a voicemail, and then on my days off I got an e-mail from another girl in the office saying that he had accepted the table and was very excited and thankyouveryverymuch.  Yay!  Mission accomplished!

And today, 2 weeks later, this absolutely gorgeous tropical arrangement shows up on my desk with a card that says, "NEW YEARS EVE, WOW!  THANK YOU SO MUCH" from him and his family.  I nearly peed myself!  And ever since then, I've had a steady stream of people in the office asking if it is my anniversary, if I have a secret admirer, if my husband is in big trouble, if I'm up to something I shouldn't be…  It's great fun.  And I'm still in shock.  This is no bouquet of daisies (which I still would have been shocked and thrilled with). 

When it comes down to it, I was doing what I have done for lots of other people.  In this job, I'm lucky when I get a thank-you e-mail.  Little does this guy realize, but he's given me motivation to keep plugging along and busting my butt for our new and repeat clients.  Oh - and he's also given me a mandatory OT shift.  NYE is a Monday, and I've already been told that I'll have to make an appearance and thank him in person.  And really, I have no problem with that at all.  I called him tonight and gushed at his voicemail, but I think a personal greeting is certainly appropriate.

So anyway, I'll try to stick in a picture tonight or in the morning, but no promises.  I'm going to Wal Mart tonight with Cat to buy Harry Potter 7 at midnight, and my posts will probably be pretty minimal for the next few days until I finish the book.

***************************************************
So that's yesterday's entry.  I took a picture this morning, which is safely stored on the camera.  I was up until just about 5:00 reading HP7, and woke up at 9 for work.  I'm just about halfway through the book (finished 18 of 36 chapters) and so far, I'm not loving it.  Yep - 363 pages of "meh."