life: the taste of link

every year, we have many tastes in chi-town--it's like a fair full of food.

last year, we had just started serving real fruit smoothies, and it was a hit. i had also picked up a bit of register-experience, actually helping coustomers and doing orders.

going back, ever since i was little, i looked forward to it--we (my cuzins, my sis & i) would raid the fair, going around looking for free things--many companies would rent a space there: KISS FM, IL LOTTERY, iGo, BudLite and several others would give away free things with logos on them, like key chains, cup holders, chap-sticks, sunscreen, hand sanitizers, mints and t-shirts. we would do this about a couple times a day--and this is for 2 days.

i remember one year--i was old enough to understand what ppl were saying to me, this guy that worked @ one of the tents said: "you guys again!" yea. we were a fairly large croud of children raiding their free stuff.

besides getting free stuff, i had lots of fun doing little things, like telling the kitchen we needed more __________ and just running in and out. i also remember cleaning the tables from beer cups (liquor is a must every year--90% of every adult there drinks, esp. since BudLite sponsors us), used condiment pakages, and other garbage. it was fun doing those little things.

talking about family, we would invite all of our familly (the closest ones: keni & jim) to help out--so we would have a family owned and run business. that also meant that during meals, it was a large table of ppl with good food for everyone. it was very nice.

it would start @ 12 and end @ 10--10+ hours of running back and forth, and lots of fun for us children. every year @ about 10, my grandmother would yell out in her bad english the things that were on sale since we needed to stop selling @ 10, and the police would normally come buy, start yelling, and stand there to make sure we weren't selling anymore. there would be a fairly big crowd--enough ppl to move it inside where we would continue selling, getting rid of the extra food.

back to last year. we started doing smoothies, and it was so in demand, the blender was always in motion, and ppl would form lines. it was amazing! even though i had to run back inside with them to rinse out with every cup of smoothie.

this year, the smoothies sold horribly. i was disapointed. we had bought lots of fruit, and done a lot of prepping. the previous year we had to stock the freezer full of fruit because it was so in demand. but this year, a couple of cups were good. nobody bought them, even though we had bought a $400 blender that was a lot better then the ones we would buy every year to use from target, then return 1 of them after we were done with it.

another change this year was that i worked up front most of the time, standing for about 11-12 hrs. everyday. i refuse to eat or sit in front of potential coustomers--it's lazy and unprofessional.

so my ma and i had worked upfront most of the time, but since there were so many ppl--we had way too much help, my ma moved back inside to help with the phones, and let my aunts work upfront. because of this, my ma and i would eat after everyone else's leftovers.

on the second day, @ around 10:30 (they let us sell for a bit longer then 10 every year--on the first day, WE voluntarily stopped selling @ 10:45, and they didn't even come tell us to stop! i was like, "what's up w/ this? where are they? they're like, an hour late this time!")

yea. 10:30-ish. we started to yell out for a sale--every year when i was younger, i would think, "this is SUCH an embarassment!" but this year, i was one of them yelling--"everything's on sale!" i attracted a couple of ppl, with a smaller crowd then previous years.

rice would sell for $5 in the morning, then @ 10:30, it would be $4, then about 10 min later, $3.
egg rolls this year was $3/2 in the morning, then $1/1.
rangoons were $5/5, and later on, $4.

but we still got about 3 rounds of smaller crowds then previous years.

i remember this:
me: "everything's on sale!" "egg rolls $1 for 1!" "fried rice for $4!"
and this one guy would pester me with $1--and the only thing i could get him was an egg roll.
the things he wanted for $1 would make us loose profit, so i was like, "no. i can only get you an egg roll for $1"
and he got mad--he didn't want an egg roll, so he left, flashing me and a couple that was standing there buying something a hand sign. i don't kno what it was, but i completely ignored him. i don't give a f*ck. and i'm NOT letting him upset me.

so i moved on.

next drunk guy: "come on, you need to get rid of this stuff..." so he made some really deal-breaking prices.
so i was like, "i need to get rid of this, but i am NOT DESPERATE!"
the lady standing next to him was like, "OH! DANG!"
i was completely not afraid to talk to a coustomer like that. at this hour, we're still able to real in coustomers, and even if we do have leftovers, it wouldn't kill us. we can make less profit on an item, but I REFUSE TO MAKE A NEGATIVE PROFIT. i'm not afraid to talk to my grandma like that either. i'm stubborn, headstrong, and i speak what's on my mind.

afterwards, there was this drunk lady that bought something and she liked the deal we made her: $4/5 rangoons. she was like, "i got your back sister!"
every year, there's someone very intoxicated that buys from us. just ignore them. but she really had us, yelling out "BIG SALE!!!!YEA!!! WOOOO!!!" now, normally, this is disturbing, what drunk ppl yell out. but she helped. though it was ineffective, my voice didn't carry far enough w/ a bar next door, and 2 music stages nearby. i liked her.

there was this guy (mind you, @ this hour, most of our coustomers have consumed some alcohol) that kept pestering us for about like 20min, standing there wanting a breakdown deal. my grand mother was refusing his deals, but he kept at it, like:
"come on, i'm your friend!"
she refused.
"i'll make trouble next year!"
so i shot back @ him-- " AND WE'RE FRIENDS WITH THE COPS!" and i went back inside, carrying something. i WASN'T LYING. the police liked to frequent our restaurant, and my ma would give them 20% off.

my grandma is annoying: she yells at everybody "you don't know your math! don't do upfront work! you don't know how much change to give back! get out!" and, "there's too many ppl outside! go! get out!" when we seriously had nothing to do, and we were willing to do it. and when there's still half a tray of food left, she would go like, "tell the kitchen to make more _____" when there was plenty left in my opinion.

so, my uncle that came out to observe commented when another batch of crab rangoons came out and we were trying to get rid of all the stuff (last call): "yuet mai yuet daw" basically meaning, no matter how much you sell, there's still more! (the kitchen still wansn't stop cooking)

for our last coustomer (the cops finally came) we pushed some noodles onto a guy for $5 (a steal, but it was out there for some time, and the noodles were probably all broken) and he had no idea what he just bought. he just got it for $5.