NY bar is open and there are candles all over the place. Now I feel sick. I am so nervous. No flights there. Trying to get Kevin to drive there and help Tahnee. I cant find any flights there. OK my mantra: I have faith in Tahnee and the crew. They love that bar and from the picture they posted on facebook so do the regulars.

Woke up today worried about the NY situation. I definitely have become desensitized to hurricane issues living in the south. I know Tahnee ( GM) feels overwhelmed. As far as I know the power still hasn’t gone back on in the East Village. As of yesterday the staff that didn’t live in Manhattan proper could not find transportation to the bar. Right now we are opening in the day but with no electricity we haven’t been able to open at night. Tahnee bought battery powered lights so perhaps we can open tonight. Chantel called me this morning ” Lil not to stress you but NY taxes are due soon the bar needs to get opened.” Happy Halloween. Now I am depressed.

http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html?hpt=hp_t1#/video/bestoftv/2012/10/30/pmt-chris-christie-barack-obama.cnn

NY bar closed early yesterday because of no power. Tahnee is safe and as far as I know all the NY bar employees are safe. The power might be out for a week. I told her to go to the bar and figure out what we have to work with. I have my phone on so I will be waiting for updates. URGH!
Having no power when Irene hit, I know how it feels. The difference being the temperature. When Isaac hit New Orleans the temperature was in the high 90’s. The temperature right now in NY is 54 degrees. Let’s see
Trying to get in touch with Jeff and Rob D to see how they faired.

Now I have to worry about the NY bar. Well we didn’t lose power last night. The bar actually did pretty well. Let’s see what happens today. Now that I have been through so many hurricanes, I realize that the news is not an accurate description of the truth.
Jackson and I went with his friend to The House of Shock in New Orleans. Its a haunted house. Before you enter they do a live stage show. This man did a routine where he drives a nail up his nose, followed by a drill bit. The grossest part of this performance was when he shoved a condom up his nose and pulled it out of his mouth. The condom was bloody and mucusy. Gross. But we had fun. Jackson and his friend were scared. Jackson leaned over to me. ” Mom I am scared shitless.” The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Its 50 degrees in New Orleans. My heat doesn’t work. I am wearing a sweatshirt and scarf in my house. Feeling very lazy today.

Jackson is 13 today! omg. I am a lucky mother.
Key west rocking. I am sure these hurricanes have hurt us a little but the numbers are still on point.
I think my Kangoo Jumps are working. It’s 54 degrees in New Orleans today. I love it!

Bad Hair Day. But Good Eyelash Day! Trying to look at the positives. Heading to KW. I am excited to witness in person Fantasy Fest. Ernie is down there kicking some ass. He fired a merch girl the other day. Separately, Daniel and I both called him ” dude the island has a population of less then 20,000 people. We can’t afford to fire people.” In his defense he secretly sent one of the managers in to the merch store to steal shirts and see if she noticed. Lizzie was able to steal 15 shirts without the slightest bit of awareness by this girl.

American staff coming home tomorrow. I do not envy them. 3 of them are going straight from Constanta, Romania to Key West for Fantasy fest. Fantasy Fest is supposed to be the closest thing to the Brazilian Carnivale in the states. Nuts ! I already see the KW numbers have been going up. They are going to be bone tired jumping right into working the KW bar. Hopefully they will all make a lot of money and everyone will be happy. I am going to KW for at least one day to check it out. I was already told that the raucous sex acts on the street are pretty wild. I cant wait to see! LOL

Key West tops our bars in Sales last night under the fine management of Kevin Bailey. I get a text from Kevin last night. ” Lil there is this homeless guy who dances in front of the bar every night so I decided to give him a Coyote tshirt to wear. He loves it” Really? we have beautiful girls in the bar who have to pay for a tshirt but the aggressive business move is to give the guy outside a free tshirt? As a humanitarian if the man is truly homeless then it was a good deed to give him a tshirt. But really for business? come on?
This is a great story

A homeless man hitchhiking at a truck stop near Oklahoma City turned out to be an angel for a young pregnant woman.
Keaton Mason and her fiance were heading to a hospital because Mason was labor. They didn’t make it, and Mason ended up giving birth in their white Honda at a truck stop along Interstate 40, News9.com reports.
Mason’s baby girl was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.
“The lady was screaming, ‘My baby, my baby’s blue. … She’s not breathing,'” said Jennifer Morris who was at the truck stop and called 911.
Then Gary Wilson appeared.
“Her angel was there,” paramedic Sandra Lesperance later said. Wilson was hitching a ride to Memphis but stopped to assist the panicking couple.
Wilson kept Mason calm and removed the cord from the newborn’s neck, News9.com reports.
“He did everything perfectly right,” Lesperance said. On the 911 tape you can hear a polite Wilson following directions from the operator.
Mason said, “He kept me pretty calm. … He said, ‘Everything’s OK. She’s OK, she’s breathing.'”
Truck stop employee Waneva Morris told News9.com that Wilson sort of looked like Jesus. “He had the long hair, the long beard. A very nice gentleman,” Morris said.
Mason agreed, saying, “He was our angel that night. That’s for sure.”
Tatum Brown was born four weeks early, weighing 4 pounds, 11 ounces, and doctors say she is doing fine.
For his heroism, Wilson—who told folks at the truck stop he was from Montana and en route to his final destination of Jacksonville, Fla.—got a free meal at the truck stop and was offered a place to stay.
By the next morning, Wilson was already gone. But he will be forever in the graces of Mason and little Tatum for his help along the way.

Unbeknownst to me , yesterday was National Bosses day. I received 4 emails thanking me for being a good boss. Thanks to Daniel, Mac, Tommy, and Jazz. Your words made my day! Thanks so much
Both Tommy and Daniel’s words actually had me teary! I may be the big boss but I am still a chick and the sentimental stuff is always wonderful!

From Daniel : “I’ve been rewearing the only two shirts I have for the last 3 days as they took our laundry but haven’t returned it. I can’t leave my hotel because all of my shit smells and Jean isn’t answering his phone….Awesome”
Lol. I feel his pain. When you work in smokey bars you can’t reuse your clothes. If that’s not bad enough, in Russia and Romania every where you go is smokey not just the bar, hence you are screwed if you didn’t bring enough clothes. This trip , I thought I was smart by packing Febreeze in my suitcase. Lets just say that when I got my bag in Novisibirsk, Siberia all my clothes were soaked. I spent an hour blow drying the essential clothes. Lol
Went out with Chantel for steak . We had such a great time just chatting.
Looking at the Coyote newsletter with Halloween parties at the bars. For the most part, I was very very impressed with all the ads and the creativity . ” NY, Austin, and Memphis. Come on you can’t get a little more creative.” Well hopefully those bars will out ring every other bar and make me eat my words. I love the New Orleans Warrior versus Greeks party.

3 times I had to ask the accountants to check. Well , I am sorry to say that the accountants misinformed me and Memphis did not have the 2nd highest dividends. They still did great. Nashville had the 2nd highest to San Antonio.
“Sorry Mac. Something to strive for. You still did well”
Still a bit off today. I have been juicing up a storm trying to purge toxins and get back to health. I ran outside today instead of the treadmill to try and clear my lungs. I swear I still feel bad from all the smoke in the Romanian bar.

I want to give a big gratitude to Mac our Memphis GM. This morning I was going through the numbers and was astounding that our Memphis bar has paid out the second highest dividends in the company this year! I definitely fall into a pattern of watching the highest grossing bars . But this proves that if you manage your bar well then you don’t have to gross the highest to be a big earner! Well done! So proud!

So far the american girls are still more nuts then the Russians, germans, or Romanians. Chantel is working as a manager at the New Orleans bar. She has texted me a few times. ” Lil there is something jacked up about Lanie’s teeth”. Lanie is a new girl and it ends up that she paid for veneers with specially made fangs.” that’s nuts. You know how expensive veneers are? Well its working for her. Chantel says that everyone seems to love her and she has a great attitude. When she gets sick of the fangs she can get them filed down. OK. thats awesome

Opening night in Constanta was a success. Packed wall to wall! Daniel made sure we all had our barkeys since we would all be bartending. I bartended for a little while but the language issue made it very hard. The staff really stepped it up which is nice. I will say the Constanta ” Prima Donna” girl stepped up on opening night and was really working. On the other end, the resident unisexual girl really let all of us down. Its funny but it doesn’t matter what part of the world you are in there are always a few of the same type. 1. Prima donna. Pretty. Talented in something but never works quite as hard because she never had to. 2. The beautiful lesbian. You are not 100% sure she’s a lesbian but there is a rare beauty about her with a touch of masculinity. 3. The really hard worker. This is the girl that has the best work ethic. Always there giving 100% but there is a spark missing. This is the girl who you have to push and push til finally you get emotion out of her.
24 hours to get home! But I made it. I slept 6 hours then Jackson and I headed to his Cross Country meet. He came in 6th out of 80 kids . So I was very pleased. And he was very proud of himself. OK life is back on again. I am going to try and take at least 1 week off from traveling. My body just aches today. There is something about flying that dehydrates you. It doesn’t matter if its an hour flight or longer, I can tell in my lips and my hand how dehydrated I am.
3 bars open, in 3 different countries in less then a month! I am very proud!