Testing Ground

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Maria Wilson

So life must go on… Cleaning, because we have too, Eating because we have too, working cause we have too, living because we have too. Everybody keeps asking me… Maria how do you do it? I say… Do I have a choice? What else can I do? My heart aches every second of my waking hours, even at night I am torn out of a sound sleep, waking up in a cold sweat. For a split second I think to myself… Oh my God… am I dreaming, please lord let this be a very bad dream! Well its not a dream! Its reality. A reality I don’t wish upon any parent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandparent or any person out there. Now that tragedy has hit my home I am seeing so much clearer, I am truly understanding that there is so much more good in people than any of us know. All we hear about is the bad in people. It has amazed me on all levels, spiritually especially. A few years ago my father was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.The doctors took fluid from his chest and sent it in for a biopsy. When it came back they informed us that it was small cell lung cancer(he worked in mines for many years) and that he should go home and get his affairs in order because life expectancy was about three months. We were all in shock, how could this happen, he was an athlete, he watched everything he ate, he lived a healthy lifestyle. At that point my dad told me… Maria, its all written. He meant that our life and everything that happens is for a reason. He was a very spiritual man. As he lied in the hospital bed that night slipping  in and out of sleep he had a visitor. It was mother Mary, she came to his bed side and said to him son, don’t worry everything will be OK. Its not your time yet. The next visit I had with my father was amazing! He told me of his vision with eyes wide open and such excitement. He said Maria, the colors around her were colors we don’t have on earth. I remember joking around saying… come on dad, are you sure you were not sleeping. He looked at me and said I know what I saw! My father lived seven years after that! Now since Eleni has left us its been almost a month, a month of gut wrenching pain, I being a woman can freely cry, my husband … not so much. Men tend to keep it all inside… After all that’s what we have been trained in…Men are not supposed to cry right… I know though that men are weaker than women and even more sensitive than us. As we lied in bed Geoff jumped up with a sense of peace that he didn’t have before. He told me that Eleni came up to him and kissed him on the forehead and said ” Daddy everything in going to be OK”  Geoff said she had a glowing halo around her! He is now giving me strength. I just finished reading Heaven is for real..This is the story of a child that died and came back. The book explains his amazing joyrney with god and many other family members who had passed on…There are more and more signs helping me understand that Eleni was truly here as a saint, she was here to make a difference in our hearts and in our lives. How else can you explain all of the students from the West Fargo High school coming together the way they did? All the kids, even the ones that didn’t even know my daughter. Everybody young and old has come to us, to warm our frozen hearts, offering anything we need. Offering support. People have contacted me from all over the world! Yes… we only hear of the bad in people… But I’m here to tell all of you that nobody is truly bad, we can not judge anybody any time! We don’t know what anybody has gone through, or what anybody is going through. Somebody can snap at you because they are having financial, health or family problems, instead of judging them and getting upset offer a warm smile to them. Try to help them.  People … life is so short… And don’t think I am like this now because of what happened, sure it has made me more aware but  I as well as my family have always believed in the good in everyone, maybe Eleni’s passing was a way for me to tell everyone my true feelings. How else would I ever had everybody’s attention? We should not only say oh my god help me when times are tough, we should say oh my god… thank you for my blessings when times are good too! Especially when times are good. We are truly blessed to be able to live in the best place in the world with the best people in the world! On this Thanksgiving day I say God Bless America!!! God bless all of our families, God bless the soldiers, God bless the sick and please heal anybody that needs you to heal them.We are so truly blessed, Gods light shines on all of us! Eleni’s light is also now right there beside him. Yes I am the mother that got to have this wonderful human being for almost 18 years, now that I think about it I always knew down deep in my heart Eleni was special, I knew she was wise beyond her years, I always knew she was an old soul… She came to this earth to complete a mission, she has completed her job with straight A’z and left us. Lets make sure her teachings, her happiness, her love and thirst for life continues to glow inside all of us! I hope this holiday season all the families come together, I hope everybody forgets their difference’s and loves one and other. After all … that’s all we have! We surly don’t get to take anything else with us when we leave this testing ground.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Why Me?

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Maria Wilson

As I sit here all alone remembering every last thing I talked about and did with my daughter I cant help but get angry I keep asking why me? why me? why has this happened to me? Why has God taken my little girl? What did we do wrong? Then I begin to think… Why not me? Why did 911 happen? Why did the earthquake in Turkey happen? Why are people dying from cancer and why do some people suffer and some don’t? All of these questions are unanswerable. As I stood in the critical care unit watching over my daughter I got a nudge from my brother in law who is not religious at all. He looked at me and said Maria now is the time… All these years you talk about your Greek Orthodox religion and how strong it is. Now is the time that you must grasp it as hard as you can… He said I wish I had the faith you do… Its funny, as I sat there listening to him my heart stopped hurting a bit.  Right there when I was quietly thinking to myself, How could there be a god, how could he do this to us to our family, we did everything right. We don’t go any wear without our kids, We send them to Greece every summer so they can learn their heritage, We make them work hard for what they want, We make sure they study and have homework done, We make sure we take them to church and everything else every parent tries to do for their children. Right there as I was feeling very very angry my brother in law who is not a religious man saw the light and shined it on me. All of the sudden my husband looked at me and said Maria my brother is right. Eleni was put on this earth to change lives, to impact peoples lives, he just happened to pick us, we were the lucky ones that got her for seventeen years. He said a child is a gift from god. It was time for her to go home. He no sooner said that and my mother ran up to me to tell me that my cousin in Greece just called and told her that she had a dream and saw Eleni and my father holding hands. I asked if she looked happy and she said yes… very happy. Another very interesting thing just happened today, my son who has Aspergers, a very mild form of Autism woke this morning and came upstairs to where we were all having coffee to announce that he just saw Eleni in his dream. We all perked up and asked what he saw. Here is what he said, she was dancing, she was dressed in white and looked just like the angels we see in pictures. He said she was dancing with my father and grandparents and nan, gramps and my uncle.He said it was a very clear dream. My god, Kosta opened our hearts today. He literally took the weight right off our heavy dark hearts. We are going through what might possibly be the hardest time in our lives. Hearing things like this gives us strength. My whole life when times were tough and I would complain to my mother she would say to me, Maria dont complain… there is always worse off people in the world. I do truly believe we are all here not to see who collects the most money or who lives in the biggest house or who drives the best car but to do as much as you can for your fellow man. Can you volunteer, can you give someone a shoulder to cry on, can you open a door or say a comforting word. Even just as much as a smile. I remember when I was about nine or ten years old  asking my father one year at Christmas why we always have strangers with us at our family dinner. My dad looked at me and said Maria, we are fortunate we have a big family, there are people who are alone and I invite anyone of our customers who has no family to join us. That is how we spent our Christmas every year, always had people with us who were not family. I finally had to get some fresh air today and got out of the house … As I walked people stared at me. I don’t understand how anybody could feel uncomfortable, I walked into my restaurant and out of my eight employees that were working only two ran up to me to hug me, the others pretended I was not there. I know they don’t mean anything bad, Its just that they are speechless. After all what happened to us is not supposed to happen, a parent is not supposed to bury a child. I don’t see things this way, I see in a way that we are all human, we are all vulnerable to any catastrophe, to any disease, to happy and to sad times. We will all go through tough times, but speaking from experience now I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that the comforting words and out reach of people is really a very big help. The outreach and support from the West Fargo High school, the principal, the students the whole Fargo community has been unbelievable. Now more than ever I do know that Eleni was not one of us, she was too pure, to good to be here, she had a calling, there is no other explanation… God took her to help him. We will greatly miss you my sweet princess… I think back now and feel like I always pushed you too hard, I always told you to reach for the highest stars, to never give up! I now wish that we spent even more time together instead of always working, I wish I would have went to Footloose when you asked me too. I wish I would have really payed attention when you were talking about your play and prom and everything else you talked to me about. You see this is why I always said to you, try not to grow up to fast, take every second of innocent childhood and stretch it out as long as you can. When the other girls your age were out hanging at the mall you sat at home or worked at the restaurant with me, when you would ask to do something and I would tell you it was not a good idea you would say OK mommy… Any other girl your age would have stomped their feet and argued. I just wish I would have given you more credit while you were here with me. I love you more than life itself. There is no turning back the clock now. I can however send out a message to all the other parents, hug your children, kiss them. Take some time out from your very busy schedule and spend some time with your child. We all get so wrapped up in our daily routines and forget the important things in life. Our health and our children, our parents and our family. Please if you can get anything out of this it should be that just a smile to your fellow man, just a kind gesture makes all the difference in the world. I truly believe we all have a higher power, may it be God, Allah, Buddha, or any other word you may have for it but don’t ever question the unquestionable. Thank you for all your support Fargo, family and friends, we are truly blessed to be a part of this community!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 139 Comments

Village Greek Salad

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Maria Wilson

In Greece there are many different kind of salads. One thing that is very different from our salads here is that allot of their salads don’t have lettuce. Salad from the Greek word Salata is a mixture of several ingredients. Everybody loves a good Greek Salad, In Greece when you order a Greek Salad you will get just that. No lettuce. We wash fresh plump tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and green pepper. Then we cut in wedges, not too thin . Put all in a bowl and add Kalamata olives cubed Feta Cheese, and olive oil. Sprinkle Oregano, Salt and Pepper. Then toss all together and put on chilled plates. Some people also like to add some Balsamic vinegar as well. This is a delicious salad! We always have fresh crusty bread on the table as well as some chilled white wine. One thing I notice in Greece is people there will enjoy this as dinner on a hot summer day.Red Meat is a once a week treat. Chicken maybe twice a week, fish at least three times and one day is beans or just salads. If you get creative with salads its amazing what you can come up with. Some of you might say… a day with beans? Well… Take a pot put on stove very low heat. Julian slice a white onion, put in pot with some olive oil. Suttee and add a bit of garlic. Throw in some fresh or frozen green beans or peas and keep sauteing. Add salt and pepper and dill to taste. Take a can of crushed tomatoes and pour into our mixture. Slow boil until the most of the liquid is absorbed. This is truly tasty! Who needs meat… Some people also like to add a bit of sugar to kill the acidity of the tomato.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Canadians and Tipping

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Maria Wilson

Hello to everyone out there who is roasting! Last I checked we were still in Fargo I think… Kind of feels like Florida … Anyway, we will have snow soon enough and all be complaining about that! Enjoy while it lasts… So this blog is for all those poor little servers out there throughout the USA… So we live close to the Canadian border, this means that we get allot of Canadian customers, this is great! We love Canadians, only problem is that in Canada servers make a minimum of ten dollars an hour as a hourly wage. Here in the USA, (not my staff of course) most places, especially the chains pay 4.25 an hour. Our US. servers really work for tips, In Europe some servers even pay the restaurant to work there, funny hey… Anyway … so the Canadians come here, they eat, they rant and rave on how good everything was and then turn around and leave our excellent servers 5-10 some times if you are lucky maybe 10% tip. I can hear my servers complaining and I feel terrible. I tell them that in Canada servers make allot more and customers don’t expect to pay as much gratuity. Here in the US. people know servers get less of an hourly wage so they tip more. Its not only that though, around the world people have always said that the American tourist is the ideal visitor! Americans are not afraid to spend money, they are the most giving people in the world! So servers, the next time you get upset because a Canadian customer under tipped you just remember they don’t know how much you get paid. The are good people and it is not personal. Always feel proud to be an American and know this… Americans are over tippers. They are more giving… I hope this gives you all great comfort and understanding

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Parents and kids working

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Maria Wilson

Well… I am very confused here. What happened to teaching our children values and good work ethics. I have several employees that have come forward telling me that their parents do not allow them to work during the school year. Is this good or bad? The proper thing to do I would think would be to ask your child to drop some shifts but not quit altogether. Why would you want to teach your child to be a quitter? These are kids that are 18, 19 and 20 years old. It even sounds weired don’t you think? Telling your child to quit their job. I can see if your kid is a terrible student or you don’t think your child can handle a bit of pressure but to just quit because school is starting is honestly teaching your child not to multi task, not to grow up. Also another thing that just kills me is that there is just no loyalty in the job scene. You can have an employee for two three years and as soon as they get an offer for a five cent raise they think its the be all end all and quit. What is wrong with that you say… Well the grass is not always greener on the other side. And a good job is not only about the money. A good job is one that you wake up in the morning and are excited to get to, its a job that you feel a part of, a job you actually are not just a number at.  Just so you all know its not a good thing when you apply for a job and list ten jobs you were at for 5-6 months. This shows you are an unreliable employee. You are better of having 1-2 jobs that you have been at for 2 plus years. I wont even look at an application that looks like the applicant is a   job jumper. Find the place you like and stick around people! And parents you must loosen up those apron strings and give your children room to breath! We are sometimes suffocating our children causing them to not do well. As long as you are open with them and tell them how it is usually there is a mutual respect. By the age of 18 in some countries people are married with children of their own. It also does not hurt to push our kids in all aspects of life. They should be going to school, working, cleaning the house and making their own car payments. Life is hard… They need to know what to do. You would be amazed at how many employees I get that have no clue on how to  manage their money or their time. Parents… you are not doing your kids a favor by sheltering them so much. You are actually damaging them. I see a huge difference in staff that comes from families that both parents are home and that have money, and staff that comes from a single mom that works her butt off to make ends meet. Can I tell you something… Its the staff that comes from the single mom family that are absolutely incredible! They know how to clean they know how to work and how to be reliable. Its the kids that come from the wealthy families that are the ones who work two months and quit, its the ones who come from the over sheltered families that never want to work weekends of ever want to help someone cover a shift… Why is this? I think its because parents are actually spoiling their kids and destroying them.  I run a restaurant and am around young people all the time. I hear so many things from my staff, I stay close with some of my employees parents if they ask me too. Together we make sure the employee is doing what they need to be doing. If I see them swaying in a direction they should not be I have been known to call a parent or two. But I still believe in the Greek way to raise your children and that is to let them breath. Ask them lots of questions, let their friends come over and hang out, pay attention when they are talking to you. Pay attention as you would when an adult talks to you. Our kids are people, you lead by example. Let your kids make decisions In my home we got to vote on things Everybody gets a say. We as parents have a huge job ahead of us. Yes we will make some mistakes but if we pay attention our own kids tell us how we are doing. You know you are doing well when you get complimented from other adults on your kids. You know you are doing well when your kids say to you… Hey mom or dad its Friday night and I have the night off, should I rent a movie and make popcorn? We can all sit together and watch.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Greek Modo… Everything in moderation!

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Maria Wilson

OK… so I must tell everyone what the Greeks live by, its the word moderation. We all have heard about these crash diets and then the binging, We should never deprive ourselves of anything. However we should have self control. We can eat that piece of cheesecake or that ice cream cone we crave, but not every day. Never tell yourself you cant have this or that. Telling yourself no makes you want it even more. Instead treat yourself once in a while. Key word, once in a while. Another thing that is just so crazy here in the USA is all the hype over alcohol. Why does our media and our laws make our children think that alcohol is such a big thing? I say lighten up the rules a bit, human nature is to want something more when it is forbidden. We make such a big deal about turning 21 so you can drink and what happens our kids turn 21 and overdose on alcohol because of binging. In Greece there is no drinking age, you can send your child out to the corner store to buy wine for the evening dinner, or a cold beer on a hot summer day. And you know what alcoholism is not a problem like it is here. Why is this? Its because they don’t make a big deal about it. Mediterranean diet is very healthy eating, broiled fish, fresh veggies, lots of fruits and salads. Now because of all the American fast food chains that have opened in Greece you are starting to see much heavier people. If you stick to the Mediterranean diet you can eat all day long and never gain weight. With today’s technology our world has become a small place. Europeans watch our exciting American movies and want to be just like us, not realizing that Americans crave to be like them! Again go ahead and treat yourself once in a while, weather its having an ice cold beer or a big fat sloppy burger its OK… but… once in a while. And if you have that burger you wont be needing a milkshake, save that craving for another day. And whats up with the crazy law that a parent cant let their child sip a bit of their wine. I don’t want my kids to ever thing booze is any big deal. When my kid asks me if they could try a sip I say hey go ahead, it usually only takes one time and they pucker up and say, yuck.. that’s grouse. You see I would rather do that than yell, oh no you don’t… This leaves the child thinking in their mind that liquor is a big deal and they cant wait to turn 21, and we have all heard the horror stories …

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Is it just me or are people just miserable?

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Maria Wilson

I don’t know whats up? It seems that people in general are just not happy! You accidentally cut someone off and they flip you the finger, you pull up to a parking spot and another person zooms in and totally ignores you, you watch a young man sit in his chair and not even budge as a senior citizen stands next to them, you watch a person who is struggling with groceries and everyone around then just stands there? What happened to holding open doors for people, or even a common courtesy wave, or how about just a smile to warm someones heart? I don’t know what is happening but people have really changed. Is it that our town is just growing? Is it that the recession has just finally taken its toll on people? Is it that our schools are not teaching our kids about life ? I don’t know, I do know that times have changed and its such a shame, gone are the days when people said thank you or even a how are you? And actually listen for your response. Have we all turned into robots without emotions? What is causing this change? We all enjoy watching movies and especially comedies, So I know people like to feel happy, have we all forgotten how to feel happy? Has our daily stress taken over? Do people talk with their neighbors? Do people say… hey let me help you? Or what can I do for you? And please and thank you? What is up people?? Greeks are the innovators of hospitality, I being very Greek like to talk with people, know our daily stresses of heavy work loads, children, bill paying yadda yadda yadda may really seem like life is just a routine we must go through, but its not. If you take a walk through the cancer or the aids ward in any hospital or even talk with someone who is terminally ill you will change your perspective very quickly, why must people get bad news to make them realize that life is short and that we must make the best of every day? Remember this, money is not everything, health is. We in America have been born and raised to pray to the mighty dollar, yes money is good but we all must remember that life is good too! So the next time you see someone in need help them and the next time someone cuts you off, laugh about it! Put a little whistle in your tune and you will see that in the big scheme of things … don’t sweat the small stuff! Do as the Greeks do and yell OPPA once in a while, or even better yet smash a few dishes… For those of you who don’t know Greek tradition is to smash plates to the ground. Try it … feels great!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Greek style healthy snacking

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Maria Wilson

People always say to me, we sit by the TV and munch on potato chips or candy … I say why?? There are so many alternatives. Here is what I do at home, first of all I try to always have fresh homemade yogurt, the recipe for that is in a prior post. I also like to have fresh lightly boiled or steamed broccoli or cauliflower. The secret is to  fill a pot half way with water, add salt. As soon as water comes to a boil drop your washed broccoli or cauliflower, cover with lid for only a few minutes. Do not over boil. Strain hot water out. Add fresh squeezed lemon and olive oil. That’s it! Have it as a salad with dinner … I also like to portion out into small bowls and cover with saran wrap. As long as you have easy access in your fridge for you and your family to have good healthy items why would you pick potato chips over some fresh veggies or fruits? I like to buy a bunch of different fruits wash and make little bowls with fresh fruit salad. I have four teenagers. they are always hungry and wanting snacks, keep things ready in the fridge, they grab and go. I really do believe that people eat junk food because it is simple … remember this. It takes just as much time to take a bag of junk food out of cupboard as it takes to grab a bowl of pre made salad or fruit. All it takes is a bit of prep ahead of  time. Trust me the benefits out weigh the time it takes. Do you know my kids did not know what hot dogs were until they went to school and had lunch? My daughter came home and said, mom we had these things at school called hot dogs! How funny is that?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Greek Lemon Roasted Chicken

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Maria Wilson

Here is a very simple and healthy dish. The reason I like it is that you can prepare it ahead of time and pop it in the oven. As it is roasting you can have quality time with the family. Greek cooking is all about fresh herbs, fresh lemon, good olive oil and garlic. Its a simple cuisine and not expensive at all. Sometimes a bit labour intense but very well worth it. Here is one of my favorites, remember to make extra and keep left over in fridge for snacking. We will need, potatoes, a couple of lemons, bone in chicken, salt, pepper, some fresh garlic, and oregano, you can buy fresh oregano as well as jarred fresh garlic or use powder. I prefer fresh (much more flavor) So we wash our chicken with cold water and toss in to a roasting pot. Peel potatoes and run under cold water. Cut in wedges and toss in to roasting pan. Squeeze lemon on to potatoes and chicken. Sprinkle olive oil around, sprinkle salt pepper garlic and chopped up oregano. Toss everything in roasting pan together to make sure all spices and lemon has coated everything, add a little bit of water about half a cup.  Cover with tin foil and roast for about 40 minuets at about 425. After the 40 minutes take tin foil off, give food a light stir and put back in the over till golden brown. Pull out of oven and serve. I like to add some kind of green, you can have a bowl of peas or any kind of salad and some fresh bread and you have a typical Greek dinner. Mustard is a nice condiment to go with the chicken as well. Again you can prepare this dish ahead of time and keep in the fridge and pop in the oven one hour before dinner. Remember the more things you can make ahead of time the more time you have with your family. I hope you all enjoy this wonderful recipe.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Livin the dream!!

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Maria Wilson

Hello again! So here we are in the USA, so far so good, got a car an apartment and our eye on the most perfect location in Fargo! How do we put this all together and make it all happen? Well…… remember I said in an earlier blog that we couldn’t take no for an answer?  Here is what we did, We asked the realtor to set up a meeting with the owner of the building. He set it up at the guys house! We got to the house, there was a huge house and his wife washing dishes didn’t even talk to us, we sat down at the table and in came the “guy” who I would later hear from people is the shrewdest business man in Fargo! Anyway, so he asked again, why would I agree to giving you my store with your credentials? I said you just have too. I told him I will guarantee you we will not fail, I said give us a chance and you wont regret it, I said your building is empty anyway, just give us a chance. So what does this awesome guy do.. He says OK!! Can you believe this? We immediately signed papers and that was that! The next day we called a handy man out of the phonebook (you know the drill) told him we have no money and will pay him slowly after we opened, he too agreed. After construction was done we called the local equipment company and the owner was great! We told him we need 90 day terms so we could get up and running, he too agreed. Of course he called Winnipeg to get some references I’m sure. Nevertheless we were ready to begin hiring our employees. We put our now hiring sign up and were flooded by applicants, everything we needed but cooks that had experience in Greek cuisine. We hired about 12 servers and a few cooks. Got all of their information and headed for Calgary Alberta where United Stated Immigration office was. It was a 15 hour drive! We drove all night into the next day, in we went to the most intimidating place in the world. As we were sitting waiting for our turn we would wittiness countless people(investors) getting turned down… these were people in fur coats and expensive suits. Here we were in our jeans and sweat shirts, who knew you had to get dressed up to meet an immigration officer? So by now I was sweating to death, we were so nervous. All I kept thinking was Maria never get intimidated by another human being… I kept telling myself, whats the worst that can happen, they will decline us and we will have to go back to Canada and work for the rest of our lives to pay these people on Fargo back. OK… so over the intercom we hear, Geoff and Maria Wilson… omg! here we go.. The officer says, hello what can I do for you, I step up and say we want to live in the USA we want to work here we want to open a restaurant and hire Americans. He laughed and said… well you know its a very complicated process, you need to fill out all kinds of paper work and give us a business plan and how many employees you will hire etc… I looked at him and said, its done. He says what do you mean? I said well, we got a location, even showed him pictures of the inside, here is our contract we hired our staff here are all of their applications, We even had our confirmation of our liquor license. This guys jaw dropped. He said … you mean to tell me you went into all of this debt and trouble not knowing if you will be granted a visa to stay and work in the US. We said yes, we really want to do this. He laughed said I will be right back, went away left us stand there for about ten excruciating long, very long minutes. Came back and said… you got guts and proceeded to stamp out passports! We were absolutely thrilled! We later find out that we really did a gutsy thing. We were young, had no fear. For any decision is better than indecision, we had a dream and followed it with no regrets. We got lucky and fell upon allot of good people that were willing to give us a chance. We did our job and never let them down. So after we got our permission we got back in the car and drove the long trip home to Fargo. No sleep just adrenaline rush! Got to Fargo made our schedule and started to prep our food. Customers were calling, people were knocking on the door, everyone was so excited that a new restaurant came to town and it wasn’t a chain. We cooked and cooked two days straight. Finally it was opening day… wow!!  I feel like this was yesterday… we got opened and business was great ! It was so busy we could barley handle it, after about a week of sheer hell I woke up one morning looked at Geoff and said we need help. we cant do this alone! We needed Alex, my brother from Winnipeg. He was still single so it was easy, we did go to an attorney this time. He gathered all the information and submitted it. We got a response from immigration that it could take up to six months. So we wait… Well that’s easier said than done. Geoff and I could not keep up with the pace, we were so busy day in and day out. Yes we hired more people but we needed experienced staff. After all how the heck can you expect Norwegians to cook Greek! So I phoned Alex and said come visit us, you wont work but you can “visit” and give us instructions on how to do things in the kitchen. You see as we were growing up I always worked the dining room and public relations and Alex always handled the kitchen, And Geoff… well he played hockey! So Alex came, he hung in the kitchen with Geoff and the other cooks, gave pointers stirred a sauce or two and really just knowing he was here was just enough for me. What do I do… I get pregnant! Do you know what sleeping one one of those blow up mattress is like when your pregnant? Not good! So all was now going well. Fargo really loved our food! One of our cooks was just not getting along with any of the other staff so we decided to let her go, what does she do? She phones immigration and tells then we have an illegal immigrant working at our restaurant. Can you believe this? She knew he was not working but she just wanted to be a jerk! tbc……

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment