You had a bad day

It was a looong day. The pressure of getting things done is starting to build. Little surprises keep cropping up; keeping me on my toes. On top of that, Mr. Challenge, who has been pushing all the students buttons, finally broke through my defenses and we had a small yelling match in the kitchen.

Values, Standards & Morals

Here is what I spent the weekend working on. This is the first draft of what will become my Personal Statement.

In today’s advertising environment, phrases like “providing service over and above expectations”, “generosity” and “consideration” have become watered down. While I believe in these concepts, I believe further that only through example can these values be measured.

At Quigley Preparatory Seminary, I was taught that Christians in every walk of life are called to demonstrate love, generosity and consideration. Everything we do is to be done for the glory of God, including our work. I believe that honest work should be performed honestly. This means that all honest work can be a Christian vocation or calling. We do our jobs as Christians when we do our jobs as effectively and honestly as possible.

At seminary, I also understood that my vocation was not to the priesthood. I felt called to a different fatherhood. This decision was tested when we moved away from Chicago after my freshman year. I was given the opportunity to choose to live in the dormitory full-time or move to Milwaukee with my family. I did not return to Quigley.

I place great value in my family. I am thankful for the conscious effort my parents took to raise their children differently than they were raised. I take pride in providing a nurturing environment to my wife and children. In this environment, they are given the tools to materialize their visions; praise for their successes and sincere support for their failures. I cherish my time with Amy and the boys. After my faith, these are God’s greatest gifts to me.

That Was The Week That Was

I knew it would happen. Things would get hectic and the newest habits would be the first to be sacrificed. I will not make promises to do better. However, I might try to make smaller posts more frequently.

Last week was equal parts recovery from week 1, super busy in different ways and then a long weekend. A crew from NBC was on site with us most of Monday. CNBC and the Today show are doing articles about our school. First, we were filmed presenting our "Mirror" exercise. This is a self-evaluation done at the beginning and end of the course. We are challenged to measure our abilities against what we feel is the ideal. Afterwards, we had a crash course on setting a formal dining table for 12. After Sment Christmases and 8 years in dining rooms, this was not too much of a stretch for me.

On Tuesday, we began our Culinary courses. During the 3 hours, we were introduced to kitchen safety, hygiene and cleanliness. My zones so far have all been in the kitchen. It will be almost 3 straight weeks of dishes, sous chef and chef work. I will be very glad when this Friday rolls around and I will be finished with the kitchen zones. I cannot remember ever looking forward to dusting and vacuuming in this way. It is not that I mind working in the kitchen. Point of fact, I love it. However, it adds about 6 hours onto my day. By comparison, the non-kitchen zones are 2-3 hours extra per day. After 8 hours in class, the 2 hours of dinner prep, preparation and clean-up pretty much take the wind from my sails. I am not complaining, but I am looking forward to being in a different part of the mansion next week.

On Wednesday, we began our Wine & Spirits courses. During the 5 hours, we were introduced to the course layout (once per week for 3 hours). The instructor walked us through aperitifs: cocktails, sherries and other before dinner drinks. We also spent time in the kitchen mixing cocktails or trying aperitifs. We sampled a Manhattan, Lillet, a traditional Martini, Pernod, Margarita and a few others. No one really liked the Pernod, it is fortunate it is one of my favorite summer drinks. It went very well with dinner.

On Thursday, the camera man from NBC was back for some additional footage for the NBC spot. Otherwise, we were busy with in-class instruction and time to prepare our HM Books due at the end of June.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal was in the mansion. WSJ is also doing an article on Starkey. Apparently Starkey is mentioned rather favorably and at some length (the entire second chapter) in an upcoming book about service. We spent the better part of the day with a photographer for the WSJ. The article is being written by the same man that wrote the book.

Friday night, Mr. B, another student and I went out. There's a punk bar around the corner. Johnny Cash was playing when we walked in. We took our beer to a booth, plugged the predominately country music jukebox with $5 and kicked back.

The weekend was quiet. Mr. B was out all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday. I went for a long walk on Saturday morning (6 miles) and then worked on my HM Book for the rest of the day. On Sunday, I walked the 2.5 miles to Christ Lutheran Center, a WELS mission in Denver. The 45 minute service was not quite enough rest for the 2.5 mile walk back though the 2 tacos asada y coca did provide the energy for the stroll home. Man, I love authentic Mexican food!

On Monday, we hung low. Mr. B and I changed our bedding, cleaned up the room and mostly just hung out. We have a big assignment due in the morning, so we focused on that when we weren't resting.

That's all from Denver. Have a great week.

Good help is hard to find

To answer the question, "There's a market for that, Scott?" Here is an interesting article that ran in today's Chicago Tribune.

It takes every kind of people

Of course, one of the most interesting aspects of the training is the other people in the class. There are 9 students in the class for all eight weeks. Five of the students are living on site, the other three are Denver natives and commute daily. The class relationship dynamics started taking shape around Thursday. Everyone was feeling the stress of the upcoming test. Yet, everyone rallied in their own way to be supportive of the other members. There was no "reality TV"-esque tear-down of people in the group. Thankfully, we seem to be well rounded both emotionally and in experience and no one has snapped, yet.

I was considering introducing you to the class. However, it will be difficult. Our ability to stay behind the scenes is of great value to our potential employers. I hope you can appreciate my respecting their privacy.

There is no need to mess that up for them.

One down and three-point six

I have been remiss in posting. The end of the week was very busy. The first week focused on learning the system we will be implementing for our employers. It is similar to a project management process or requirements process. There is a system specific language, iteritive steps, documentation, the works. For the final, we pretty much had to replicate it all. There were 10 questions that required nearly 80 responses and one extra credit question worth the same as one regular question. I missed a page when I first turned it in. Our instructor was kind enough to ask me if I intended to skip half the exam. I demurred and finished it, quickly. Through his benevolence, I received a 105%. A good start to the class.

The stretch of being away started a bit earlier than I expected. Ma chère is having a bit of a rough time with the separation. Truth be told, so am I. The good news is we are very blessed with a fantastic "village" of friends and family back home. Thank you all so much for guiding and supporting her.

One week down, seven to go.

Keep On Doing

It was a late night last night. One of our major projects for the training is creating a Household Managers manual for an estate. It is a detailed description of the people and environment of the estate. It includes the residents, guests, staff, buildings, rooms, decor, inventory, etc. For the project, we make it all up. However, we are encouraged to create our dream job in the process. The motto is, "As you think, so you create."

Last night, I created the 2 home owners (principals), their children, the principals' careers, their home. We will continue to add to the project service standards & styles, staff, a floor plan everything, really, that goes into a high-end estate. All this adds depth of character to our near billionaire couple.

The hardest part was coming up with the names Mr. James Carmichael and Mrs. Diane Carmichael. When I was finished, I googled James. Turns out there really was one in the US and one in England. Go figure.