What's In A Line

I woke up this morning thinking about more lines from Training. Here, for my fellow students are some of our regulars.

• "I said FRENCH!!"
  
• "Get in the ~!@#@$ VAN!"
  
• "Are you still (Morman), (allergic to soy), (lactose intolerant), (a nanny)?"
  
• "Get my chews, my chirt, and my chihuahua..."
  
• "China tomorrow."
  
• "I will cut you."
  
• "FAH!"
  
• The sodomized poodle sound.
  
• Master the moment
  
• "It is what it is."
  
• "Yuummm"..."Uhnhua"..."Whorrah"
  
• Ms. EP
  

Please feel free to chime in with others. I am sure there's a bunch more.

Did It In A Minute

With formal training behind, it is now time to focus on a new position in my new career. The school provides lifetime placement services for its graduates. I intend to continue to "trust the process", at least for the time being. I have been asked for my feelings on a number of placement situations since early in June. Unfortunately, little has come about. I will be calling in Monday afternoon to see what has developed.
Money is getting tighter. I could pick up some IT contract work, if push comes to shove. Though, I really do want to leave that behind. I just might start looking for part-time work up north to cover some of our more pressing expenses. I would just as soon tend bar than do Q&A work.
It is good to be home. It will be a bit of a transition from attached single life back to family life. Add to that the silly vernacular that developed over the 8 weeks with the team (Yes, I have my chews, my chirt and my chinchilla in the chower. No, I will not cut you. Yes, she is still allergic to soy. Anyone up for "FAH"?) and fitting in gets to be a bit of a challenge. The littlest things bring on the giggles and I suddenly find that I am laughing all by myself. Nothing like absolutely no context for an inside joke to break a mood.
With today's weather in Milwaukee, I really miss Denver's low humidity. However, it does feel good to gulp lung-full after lung-full of heavy oxygen.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

These "fishbowl" experiences always stretch me so thin. It started at Deer Park Lodge when I was in college where 30 or so college students worked, ate, drank, slept at the resort for 11 weeks. Think "Dirty Dancing" without Patrick Swayze. We called it the "fishbowl". The guests would move through our lives, but we were so wrapped up in the NOW that it really mattered little.
The 8 weeks at Starkey were similar. We were so pushed and pulled by the day to day, it was easy to loose focus on what was really important. Suddenly, the parlor being out of hand-towels was cause for argument. Suddenly, someone sitting on a breakfast stool out of the way of the culinary team was disruptive just because they were there. Suddenly, the fact that the flags were not brought in before 7 p.m. was an example of someone's inability to be effective.
However, as was pointed out to us by our instructors, we persevered as a team. We, mostly, stuck together. Our differences annoying to each of us the way way your kid brother bugs you. You know you love him, but do always have to like him?
At the same time I felt myself getting "thinner". As with my DPL days, I built myself a temporary support team here. I found kindred spirits; people that despite geography and age spoke the same language with the same sarcasm and wit. Like me, these spirits drive forward, never straight. Old friends will know why. I found great joy here meeting friends that I have been chasing around the sun for many years. It is a blessing to finally catch up to them, even for a few weeks.
I miss ma chère and my boys. There are 24 grueling and cruel hours left until I have them in my arms. I am so so home-sick.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Congratulations and best wishes to the Starkey Certified Household Manager class #92!
Press-tige!

Congratulations and best wishes to the Starkey Certified Personal Assistant class #2!
Second to None!

Shower the People

The Friday formal went off without too much ado. It's good to have that pressure off of us. I spent Saturday working on my book and attending the last of our Wine & Spirits classes. This week was the digestifs Cognac, Armagnac, Calvados, Scotch (highland and an Islay), ruby port, tawny port and a cream sherry. It's amazing I made it back downstairs to keep working on my book. I can tell you, though, while the Calvados was a very yummy first, the Lophraig Scotch was brilliant and the Armagnac fantastic. It took great self-control to only sip at the glasses.
As you might have seen in my previous posts, the process here includes a rather in-depth autobiographical look at who you are, where you came from and what your influences are. My attitude is I have to be very honest with myself and my employer if I am to justify entering their home on a daily basis. Some of the exercises were exhausting at both the spiritual and emotional level. The result of all this work was, for me, a 20 page examination of my past, experience, values and style and standards of work.
The Placement Team then creates a Curriculum Vitae for us based on this work plus several interviews with us, our existing resumes and job experience.
I got to see the draft of my CV last Monday. I was surprised to see excerpts from the transcripts taken during the school's check of my references. These are added to the end of the CV.
Here is the hard part. I was stunned. I still find myself crying at the memory of the responses. I cannot explain the wash of emotion I felt at seeing the wonderful words used by these people. I can only say that I am humbled and blessed to be surrounded by such generosity and love. Thank you all.

Peace Train

It's been a long 3 weeks. The amount of information coming our way can be a bit overwhelming. That combined with the dynamic of 8-10 people spending 12-14 hours a day just about every day makes for a good amount of tension. What is interesting is the group was warned about "Week 5". Right around week 5 the students begin to feel overwhelmed with the information and frustrated with life "in the fishbowl". It can make for some less than pretty moments.

Between our HM Book project and making up for the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays, there has not been much down time. I worked most of last weekend (18-20 hours) on my Book. We have the last of our wine tasting seminars tomorrow afternoon and then back to the Book. It looks to be another work weekend. However, we are down to the last two weeks. That's almost hard to believe.

I am just about finished with my HM Book. This is where we create a Principal and spouse/partner, their family, children pets, their house, their wardrobe, linens, china, etc. We create their service style and standards. We staff the house, create task sheets for cleaning areas of the house. Create a formal dinner event to honor an international guest. It is a long project with tons of research and data entry. The International Guest insert is due on Monday. The Carmichael's (my principals) will be hosting Richard Carmichael of Carmichael, Baron of Carmichael and Lady Carmichael for a formal dinner. The Book is due July 2, but I plan on being finished but for one or two details this weekend.

We served the first of two formal dinners last night. The class was divided into 2 teams for the events the kitchen staff ("Back of the House") and the serving staff ("Front of the House"). The Back of the House is responsible for preparing the food served. Since these are 8 course meals, there is a lot of preparation involved. Four classmates plus 2 chefs worked in the hot kitchen all day. However, the food was magnificent. The Front of the House polished silver, set the table and made sure the entertaining spaces were presentable for guests. The work is certainly less physically strenuous; however, the table and house are presented to exacting standards. The Principal's guests and the Principal left very satisfied. Tonight we get to do it all over again for 10 new guests plus our hosts.

We have a late start this morning, 10 a.m. instead of 7:30. Time to hit the showers, though, show time is only 8 hours away.

This just in...

A number of articles have run in the past few days with regard to "butlering". Let us be clear that what I am training for is a Household Manager. The distinction is important. A House Manager provides a service. Butlering is a style of service. The perception is that "Jeeves", or worse "Alfred", is the only way to manage a house. (Both, by the way, were Gentleman's Gentlemen or Valets, not really Butlers.)

In any case, the Wall Street Journal has an interesting article. You might actually recognize someone in the pictures. The Independent features another article sighting the apparent shortage of Butlers.

It was another long week, but I am finally finished with the kitchen rotation. Now it is time to kick the studying into high gear. I am doing fine on the tests and quizzes , so far. Now I have to focus on my HM Book. I am VERY far behind the rest of the class on this part. My goal is to have it finished before we have our Formal Dinners.

The Formal Dinners are our opportunity to practice entertainment service with real guests in the Mansion. Local or regional VIPs are invited by the Principal. The pictures in the WSJ show us practicing serving at the table. We will also have to work on everything from floral arrangements, seating charts, 4 different styles of serving (French, Russian, English & American Plated), formal table setting (though we had a lot of practice the week before last with all the media here), door greeting and announcement protocols, cocktail service, after-dinner coffee service, etc. And, that is just the "front of the house" stuff. The list for the "back of the house" is equally as long.

The Principal and a close associate have separate evenings to invite their guests to these events. For our class, the events will be in 3 weeks. We have a lot to get done in 3 weeks.