Who are the people in your neighborhood?

I've realized that at 10 a.m. on a Monday, everyone at Panera's falls into one of the following categories:

* Sleepers - the retirees who come here to get their senior coffee and literally fall asleep in front of the fake fireplace

* Freelancers - people like me, who work from home but don't actually like working from home. So we come for the breakfast and free Wi-Fi

* Meeters - pharmaceutical reps, insurance agents, etc., reviewing spreadsheets with their clients 

* New moms - Awwwww. 

* College kids - I can call them kids now that I'm 15 years out of school. Yikes. 

So, here's what Panera's should do:

1. Set up sections. If I know where the other freelancers are sitting, I might choose to sit with them, and at least have some company / networking opportunities. 

2. Name breakfast items after these groups, or at least put together combo meals. 

3. Cross-sell. Panera limits the free Wi-Fi at lunch, so I usually clear out around 11:30. But if they offered me $1 off a sandwich to go....  

These are a few of my favorite things

1. Where will the "5 things" Facebook app end? "5 favorite shades of red!" "5 favorite Baldwin brothers!" "5 favorite things I found between my toes!" Once you get past beer and music, I. Really. Don't. Care. 

2. Found a good piano tuner. He quoted me a price, spent twice the amount of time he thought it would take, fixed a few stuck keys, and didn't charge a penny more. That's the way to get a customer for life.  

3. My younger brother is taller than I am, lives in Hawaii, once ran a 17-flat 5K, and graduated from Harvard Law School. You'd think I could at least beat him at Facebook Scrabble. You'd be wrong. 

4. Johnny Rockets is not on Twitter. If they were, they would have seen my Tweet about my last post and responded.

5. Need a great freelance proofreader? I know two of them - email me for details. 

6. Need a great freelance art director / production artist? Let me know.  

All for now. 

 

Johnny Be Bad

Went to Johnny Rockets tonight with the kids. It's usually average, which I'm OK with, given that there's a jukebox on the table. But tonight seriously sucked. There was nobody there. Literally, no other guests from the time we got there at 5:15 until the time we finished our dinner and left. And the staff couldn't have been less interested. Our waitress was barely OK. Hardly smiled until the end. The manager (I think he was the manager) just sat at the counter, never looking up from his papers. Other servers / cooks were just hanging at a back table. And they charged me $.39 for chocolate instead of white milk. For each kid. That's $.78 for 2 squirts of Hershey's syrup. Seriously? I know we're in a recession and all, and traffic is down. Which is exactly why the manager should have taken 2 minutes to stop by our table and say he appreciated our business. Which is why the staff should have been out near the front of the store, where they could greet people walking by (there were plenty) and invite them inside. Which is why they shouldn't be nickel and dime-ing customers. The place was literally empty, except for us, and nobody seemed to care, let alone be doing anything about it. Turns out there's a reason the store was empty - they deserved it. 

Need to get out more

I took Ben to Amherst State Park yesterday, over on Mill Street. Great big space, lots of dogs, a little creek and a bridge. As we were leaving, he looked at me and said, "Daddy, I got some fresh air in my mouth!" Can't wait for spring to really get here. 

Things I learned today

1. Take the pizza off the cardboard before you put it in the oven

2. There are very few consequences when you wear pajama pants to preschool

3. In March, 52 feels like 75

Tell Yourself How Lucky You Are

Perspective helps. Yes, the economy sucks. We're cutting back here and there, and I have friends who have lost their jobs. But still - I live in a house that 95% of the world would consider a mansion. I see my kids for hours and hours every day; there are workers in China who only see their kids once a year. I can write whatever I want here without fear of being put in jail or executed. My kids have never gone hungry - and most likely never will. There are probably families who could live on what I throw in the trash every day. 4,000 children die every day because their drinking water isn't safe to drink. Read that again - 4,000 kids. Just like ours. Every. Single. Day. And while we're putting off buying a new car, our "old" one still has a gazillion working airbags and fold-down seats. Sure, I recycle, have a programmable thermostat, and stick to a mostly vegetarian (sushitarian?) diet. But I'm still a middle-class American, which is pretty much like winning the lottery, when you think about it. Sure, I'll still get upset about Terrell Owens and my March Madness bracket and the fact that I really want a Diet Coke but I'm really trying not to drink aspartame. But a bit of perspective makes a difference.