I love my vocation

Today was La Patrona carving a lot of chaos into something less chaotic and some truly beautiful moments. My absolutely indispensable sous chef had the flu. He's been sick for a while but he finally was too sick to come in. Brion saved me and the week was one of our slowest ever, so I made it thru and put out our weekly special and our Friday meatball slider special without losing my mind.

It was a week of magic. I am still tired but I feel clearer. I feel like I am embracing my reality. It seems too good to be true; this beautiful little bay side town with so many passionate food people. I  feel embraced; like I am home.

This morning two of my favorite regulars (Lita and her husband) came in for Beignet and a charc plate and I got to putter around and talk salumi. The day was sunny and bright and I hustled to get the stuff done that Stein would normally do, fry off some chips, slice the smoked duc for the special... plus my own prep; the pasta, the charc plates, the Muffuleta sandwiches for Savour's Groupon special.

Dejan From Savour came by to grab the sandwiches and Bri and I chatted briefly with him. It was a busy and happy day. Hirsch and Aldith came in for lunch. So did the beautiful and fabulous Alicia Stein. The woman who had the horrific ccustomer service experience last Thursday came back in (YAY!) and I got to 1. grovel for forgiveness (much to her amusement) and 2. Buy her a salad. I think we both had a good laugh about my abject miserableness over her prior experience. And I think she was charmed by my honest desire to make it right, and that I had been waiting for her to come back for that purpose.

Then at the end of the day a group of seven come in, three women, three men, and a beautiful tiny baby girl all wrapped up in a cloth around momma's body. There was something special about the group... a euphoria... like people who had just seen the face of God smiling directly at them. The mom and dad of the baby were starving; they had not eaten all day but he had a tiny scrap of paper in his lapel with his list of food allergies... dairy... eggs... nuts... I sold them some of our beef and potato soup in duck broth, two teas and a latte. They all sat in the middle of the restaurant with grins on their faces... This BTW is pretty unusual for people who were clearly in town to deal with stuff at the court house.

We got to chatting, while baby girl flirted with me (giant blue eyes, big dimples) over the top of the snuggi she was firmly wrapped in. Today her adoption was final. Momma and Dad were there with her aunts and uncles and they had just left the courthouse with the papers that made it official that they all would belong to each other forever. And the whole family was glowing with joy, relief... joy.

Life can be so unbelievably beautiful.