24

I just wanted to give a quick update now that I finally have two seconds to sit down. It looks like we are a "go" for the opening tomorrow. It has been one hell of a stressful week. We are getting down to the wire and things are definitely tight. We all sat down this weekend to decide if Thursday was still going to work for the opening party, and I didn't want to waver one bit. In my opinion, all that does is allow people to delay their work even more. If you tell someone that it needs to be done on Friday, they will get it done by Friday. If you tell that same person that it has to be done by Saturday, they will get it done by Saturday and act like it couldn't have been done a minute sooner. It's so funny how that works. Anyone who has ever opened a restaurant can tell you that it's ALWAYS like this. I have heard the word "tomorrow" about 10,000 times and all I can do is laugh when I hear it. I just try my hardest to keep a positive attitude and keep people moving forward so that we're always making progress. The crazy thing about being in Brazil is that I have a whole different set of problems to deal with that I never would have thought of. For instance, at night we have to take the light bulbs out of our lights in the garden because people steal them. And if you can believe this, someone stole a piece of wood today that was on our deck and nailed in (that one even shocked the Brazilians - definitely a desparate move). Anyway, today was the big day for sure. I was at the restaurant yesterday for 21 hours straight (sleep has definitely gone out the window - didn't I come here to relax?), and if you looked at it when I left this morning you would say that there was no way that we could be open by Thursday. However, I just left tonight (it's 3AM here) and things really came together today. We have to rig a few things. For instance, a piece of black glass has yet to come in so our plan B was to paint that wall black for now (I don't think we had another choice). This was a perplexing one. Yesterday a piece of the black glass broke and so they had to redo it. It will be ready by tomorrow. Yet, one of the main pieces on the bar has still yet to show up and they don't think it will by tomorrow. Therefore, I asked the glass guy how they could make an entire piece in one day yet not make the bar piece in three weeks. My answer was a blank face. Those of you who have visited Brazil might recall that face. One of the other hilarious things is seeing how people work with the guest list on this type of party. Everyone has an opinion and everyone says that you have to invite such and such because he/she is the "most influential person in Floripa!" Based on everyone I have talked to, apparently there are about 25 different "most influential people in Floripa." I'm less concerned about some person I don't know who may get offended if I don't invite them and more concerned with everyone just having a good time. That's what this is all about right? And the end, I think it's going to be great. Invitations have been sent out, and it's going to be one hell of a party. The photographers will be there so I will make sure to post plenty of pics. Surely, there is still a lot of work to do, but the next 24 hours is going to be one hell of an experience....