last call, folks

So here's my (tentative) schedule for the next two weeks. I'd love to see everyone before I leave (or before YOU leave for the holidays).

Claim it while it's free!

Thurs 12/22 -- free all day
Friday 12/23 -- free after 7:30
Sunday 12/25 -- free all day
Monday&Tuesday&Wednesday 12/26-28 -- free after 7
Friday 12/30 -- free all day (actually have to work...)
Sunday 1/1 -- free all day
Tuesday 1/3 -- free all day (but also probably packing)

1/4 -- probably packing all day or something...

I leave the morning of the 5th of January

closure?

I was talking to an old friend today about my potential move coming up, and he asked me what I was doing to get ready for my transition out of NY. I replied sheepishly that I wasn't doing much because I wasn't even 100% sure that I would be moving... But then, I admitted that I was actually just too scared and too sad to have to start planning a goodbye party. Once I start telling people I definitely am moving, it's going to feel so... finalized and imminent, ya know? 


He encouraged me to recognize the importance of getting closure from this chapter and facing that fear because I won't want to be carrying that emotional baggage into my next chapter. I should acknowledge all the great joys of what happened in these past 6.5 years, realize that saying goodbye doesn't mean that I'm ending these friendships, and mentally and emotionally prepare myself to dive into the next step of my life, without all of the longing and strings attached to my previous chapter. And at the end of the day, if I cry, I cry. (which will happen a lot, trust me). These emotions are all part of our human experience; I shouldn't try to be repressing them or denying what's about to happen in my life... Plus, when I really think about it, I wouldn't want to leave NY any other way than to spend time praising God for all that He's done in my life here.


So I guess this is it, guys.


I'm moving.


*cue tears*

I get downright giddy about

eating out at nice restaurants. I love the ambiance, the service, the elegance, the details, the company, and everything that makes the experience just that -- an experience. 


Some of my favorites (in NYC) thus far:
Jean-Georges
Daniel
Blue Hill Stone Barns
Marea
L'atelier de Joel Robuchon
Del Posto
Gramercy Tavern
Park Ave Autumn
JG Nougatine

Still on my bucket list:
Riverpark (going tomorrow! YAY)
PER SE!!!!!!
Eleven Madison Park
Blue Hill West Village
Lincoln

[such elegance! oh yes, and champagne on arrival :) | blue hill stone barns 7.31.11]

[vegetables have never tasted this good | blue hill stone barns 7.31.11]

[still one of my most memorable dining experiences | jean-georges 8.27.10]

[this fish course literally left me speechless | marea 5.14.11]

[foie-gras burgers! | l'atelier 10.12.11] 

 [so impressed with this sugar sphere dessert | l'atelier 10.12.11]

[admiring our tower of canapes and enjoying world-class cocktails in the lounge | daniel 7.23.11]

[only the most incredible bread basket known to man | del posto 9.3.10] 

[I experience deep cravings for this pork shoulder and cornbread in bacon broth. It's seriously magical | gramercy 8.10.11] 

[Plus, having a friend as a bartender at the tavern isn't bad either, esp. when she makes me fun cocktails and throws extra desserts my way :) | gramercy 8.10.11]

on moving

Oh man! I'm a little surprised at the reaction I received regarding my previous blog post about moving! I almost didn't think anyone read this anymore =P Hahaha

but YES. to answer everyone & their moms' questions. . .

I officially finish my "training" on January 3, 2012, after which I will be placed at one of the 48 H. restaurants across the country. I get a minor say in my preference, but it's more of a courtesy question they ask me, rather than a request they take seriously. This restaurant group is notorious for moving their managers around all the time, so even if I did get to stay in NY for the time being, I'd probably end up moving sooner or later anyway. Besides, they won't really promote you to a higher level manager until you've worked in a few different locations. My friend just got her assignment to Long Island, which kinda sucks, because her whole family is in Boston and she would have LOVED to go back to Boston. I'm super impressed with her attitude towards her LI placement though, and I just hope&pray that I will be equally thankful and excited for wherever I end up.

How do I feel about moving? To be honest, I'm still in denial. It's too sad for me to actually take it seriously... but maybe I should start soon. I'm sure there are 1000 reasons why moving would be good for me, and 1000 reasons why staying in NYC would be good for me. At the end of the day, I just gotta go where God puts me. And really, even though it's the VPs and GMs that make the final decision on where I go, God is the one who is directing even that show. God's been so good to me in my life up till now, so even if I have to move, how can I question that He won't continue to be faithful to me?

So yes. There is a verrryy high chance I'll be moving. That is, unless something crazy happens and I hop off this career path and start doing something else...

...

...

O_O

my new york bucket list

Since I don't know how much longer I'll be able to stay in New York, I should probably get a list of things I want to do before I leave...

Here's what comes to mind. The bigger challenge, though, is finding people who will willingly (and happily) spend the money to do these with me :P

- eat / have cocktails at the Per Se lounge
- eat / have cocktails at Blue Hill in Manhattan
- eat / have wine at Lincoln
- go back, visit people, and have cockatils / dessert at Daniel
- NYC chocolate show (next week!!!)
- go back and eat some more pasta/fish at Marea!
- hang out at Pegu after closing
- eat at colicchio and sons
- have another bread basket at Del Posto
- get cocktails at PDT and Milk&Honey
- try the pancakes at Sullivan St. Bakery

HM. I should probably think of other things that aren't food related...

- watch another opera at the Metropolitan Opera
- catch a sunrise at the 23rd street park
- convert as many people as I can to going local
- share the Good News with a few more coworkers and friends
- catch a jam session at the Blue Note, Dizzy's, or Birdland


New York City is full of cool stuff!!!! I don't want to leaaaaaaaaaaaveeeeeee :( :( :( SIGGHHH. 9 weeks to go... *GULP*

hospitality

I've been thinking a lot about what this looks like in the past few days, and I can tell you one thing: some people can't help but exude it, but sadly, many don't. I want to strive to be hospitable in all parts of my life and to all sorts of people -- to friends, to strangers, to anyone needing to "be seen" (in the words of Danny Meyer).

once a pastry chef, always a pastry chef?

Don't get me wrong. I am super grateful for the opportunity to learn the FOH-side management and everything that comes with it, but I also can't deny the fact that I dearly miss making pastries in a kitchen...

Just bee yourself

Working at a place like H, there's a very certain.... "look", "style", and "feel" they are going for in their service and food. For example, we're never allowed to say "specials" or "drinks". Rather, they are "noteworthy additions to our menu" and "beverages." We count how many sugar packets go into our sugar domes, and we don't offer coin change with the bill. When picking up the telephone (with never more than two rings), you smile while you answer, and it's always "please hold." Never "hold on a second."

With so many guidlines and what seems like memorizing a script of thoughtfully-concocted phrases we all use, (which comes naturally for the staff, since a majority of them are professional actors/performers), it's been a little tough for me to "come into character", if you will. I find myself having to repeat these phrases to myself over and over in order to ingrain them into my second nature.

At the end of the day, though, I feel that it's not the robotic acts or words that will "wow" the guest. Rather, it's a real connection, and I think I need to remind myself to just...be myself. As much as I DO need to act professionally and treat the guests in a H-way, I still need to let Nancy come through and let the innate hospitality that I know is within me guide my conversations with the guests. With that comfort comes confidence, and with confidence comes influence.

So yes. "Just beeeee yourself."

Come, Lord Jesus

When we decide to intentionally engage unreached people groups with the gospel, we can expect to be met with the might of hell. Divisions within us, distractions around us, deceptions tempting us, disease and death threatening us. Satan doesn’t want the end to come. The question is, do we? Are we willing to pay the price? Are we willing to reexamine everything we’re doing in our churches, all of our budgets and ask how can we make disciples here in a way that is intentionally engaging and making disciples there? Are we willing to pay the price? 


You say, “Well, aren’t there other Christians who can do this better than us? Local Christians who can do this in those places around the world? Why don’t we just support them financially and let the locals do it?” That’s the point! There are no locals! There are no local Christians. There is no local church; that’s what it means to be unreached. God’s design is not for us just to send our money while we sit back, watch TV, get fat, and let them lose their lives. No. We pay the price, and brothers and sisters, we receive the reward. See it, the reward: the end will come. 


Privilege and Responsibility of the Missionary Problem

of ALL nations

Brothers and sisters, this is our command, and it is clear. We have not been given a general command just to make disciples among as many people as possible, as natural as that might sound to us. Our God has said to us, “Make disciples among every single people group.” Our Commanding Officer has said, “I mean to rescue a people from every tribe, tongue, language, nation for king Jesus.” Therefore, obedience to the Great Commission necessarily involves commitment of resources to get the gospel to unreached people groups.

This is not an option for us biblically. God has told us from the very beginning that this is how he has always defined mission. All the way back to the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12, and all the way forward to the heavenly chorus in Revelation 7:9-10 where a people, not just as many people as possible, but a specific people comprised of every tongue, tribe and nation will gather around the throne of Christ and sing “Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb who sits on the throne.” Revelation 5:9 says, “And they sang a new song, saying,‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.’” Our King deserves the praise of more than just 5,000 people groups. Our king deserves the praise of all 11,750 people groups on the planet. 


-- David Platt

Whatever is at the center of your life will be the source of your security, guidance, wisdom, and power.

Security represents your sense of worth, your identity, your emotional anchorage, your self-esteem, your basic personal strength or lack of it. 

Guidance means your source of direction in life. Encompassed by your map, your internal frame of reference that interprets for you what is happening out there, are standards or principles or implicit criteria that govern moment by moment decision-making and doing. 

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, an integrated wholeness. 

Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.

Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 

What's at the center of your life? 

feeding the 5000

Remember the story where Jesus fed thousands of people with one boy’s small lunch? In that story, according to Matthew, Jesus gave the loaves to His disciples and then the disciples passed them out to the crowd. Imagine if the disciples had simply held onto the food Jesus gave them, continually thanking Him for providing lunch for them. That would’ve been stupid when there was enough food to feed the thousands who were gathered and hungry. 

- Francis Chan, Crazy Love

hilarious birthday wishes

Friend : happy birthday Nancy!! couldnt write in on your fb because your profile is a pic of chicken and im afraid of chicken haha

but hope you have a safe, sound, blessed birthday :)
HAHAHAAHAhahahahaha.....

my keeendle

My reading list on my kindle:

finished | currently reading | in queue

The Hunger Games; Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire; Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay; Suzanne Collins

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; Stephen Covey

The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy; Chris Martenson

Setting the Table; Danny Meyer

When I Don't Desire God; JPiper

For Your Joy; JPiper

Don't Waste Your Life; JPiper

ESV Bible

The Pursuit of God; A.W. Tozer

Crazy Love; Francis Chan

Drink This: Wine Made Simple; Dara Grumdahl

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership; Harvard Business Reviews

[samples]

Battlefield of the Mind: Joyce Meyer

Strengths-Based Leadership: Tom Rath

Atlas Shrugged; Ayn Rand

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith; David Platt

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People; HBR

A Game of Thrones; George R.R. Martin

Letters to a Young Chef; Daniel Boulud

The Essential Cocktail: Dale Degroff

wise words from Danny Meyer

Since the beginning, people have told me that in going into the restaurant business, I chose one of the hardest businesses in the world. True, a restaurant has all kinds of moving parts that make it particularly challenging. In order to succeed, you need to apply—simultaneously—exceptional skills in selecting real estate, negotiating, hiring, training, motivating, purchasing, budgeting, designing, manufacturing, cooking, tasting, pricing, selling, servicing, marketing, and hosting. And the purpose of all this is a product that provides pleasure and that people trust is safe to ingest into their bodies. Also, unlike almost any other manufacturer, you are actually present while the goods are being consumed and experienced, so that you can gauge your customers' reactions in real time. That's pretty complex, emotional stuff.

Why Work?

In nothing has the Church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the worlds intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion. But is it astonishing? How can any one remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?

- Dorothy Sayers

making amends w/ the working life

People need work. They need its challenge, its product, its achievement, its aesthetic and emotional rewards, its relational dynamics, its drama, its routine, its remuneration. Reduce the workplace only as a soapbox for evangelism, and you destroy a gift of God. For that is what work is, a gift.

- William Hendricks

rhythm, III

You see, anything that starts with depth and purpose and beauty, if it's not nurtured and taken care of, that passion and beauty and depth will always give way to dry technique.

---

Now, the Sabbath was one of those things that God gave mankind to enjoy life, to drink deeply of all that is, and over a period of time, it became so technical that it stopped giving live and started sucking the life right out of the Hebrews.

---

Now here's why you were created, that God might be admired, that He might be famed, that He might be worshiped. That's why you are. Now Dr. John Piper, he's made the Westminster Catechism the most popular thing in the world. And the funny thing is that people always quote it like it's him, but he's quoting the Catechism. And it says this, “God is most glorified in us when...” what? “...we are most satisfied in Him.” Here's why this is such good news. It's such good news that you and I were created to bring glory to God, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. So, the way we give God glory and honor and reflect the magnitude of His worth to the world around us is by enjoying Him, not by simply obeying Him and doing everything He says, because we know He can damn us to hell, but rather enjoying the goodness of the way of Jesus.

So, let's go back to the Sabbath now. Go back to Mark 2. So God scoops up the dirt, breathes into it, man is born, knocks him out, breaks his rib, creates the woman, tells them to be fruitful and multiply. The prophet Habakuk would say that man was going to cover the whole globe...said that, “the whole earth would be covered with the knowledge of the glory of God.” And He creates man to display, reflect the glories, beauties and magnitude of God. Now let's get back to the Sabbath. Verse 27, “Jesus said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath'” So watch this...God begins to create...He begins to speak into being...He speaks the universe into being...the stars into being...the planets...the mountains, the oceans, the camels, the ducks, the weird things at the bottom of the ocean,He speaks all of that. The He creates man to reflect His glory, to make known his manifest wisdom.

He creates it all and everyday takes a step back and goes, “It's good...It's good...It's good...It's good...It's good.” And on day 7, He creates what for man?...Rest. Sabbath. He creates man for His glory. He creates man to enjoy Him thereby glorifying Him. And He creates the Sabbath as a tool for man to accomplish that purpose. Your enjoyment of God is inseparably woven into the idea of Sabbath. Which is why God is so serious about it throughout scripture. He puts it in the top 10, doesn't He? Right in the 10 Commandments. Leviticus 23:30 says “as for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy.” I mean He's serious enough about the Sabbath to say, “take it, or I'll kill you.” He's serious enough about the Sabbath to say “stop, or I will destroy you.”

----

And the thing about the Sabbath, the Shabbat, it slows you down enough to see people again...to be grateful again. Because gratitude is the foundation of worship, and worship is the consummation of the glory of Christ in our lives.

-- matt chandler. rhythm, pt. 3

rhythm, II

'I’ve been wondering why silence bothers us so much. I think that when things go quiet, we find ourselves in the quiet. We see more clearly our own spiritual reflection and sometimes it’s hard to look at. And so, if we can fill our lives with enough noise, we won’t have to look at it! For instance, if you’ve ever tried to get quiet, and meditate, and slow down your life, whatever you really are bubbles to the surface. If you don’t have any patience and you try to slow down you’ll think “How long have I been here, 45 minutes?” No, 7 seconds. It feels like forever. If you’re angry or have a lust problem, it won’t be long until that surfaces.

Jesus gets quiet in Luke chapter 4, and within two verses, who shows up? Who? Satan, the devil. Jesus gets quiet to prepare, to prepare His heart, to prepare His mind, to hear from God. He slows it down, gets silent, and within two verses – here comes temptation, here comes distraction, here comes religious tom-foolery. Do you get it? It’s not a naked woman running through the woods that tempts Jesus. The devil is actually using Scripture on Him. “Oh sure, if you’re the Son of God you’ll be lacking in nothing. Eat. God would want you to eat, you’re his own son. God loves you Jesus. Eat.” Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” The Satan says, “Look at all the kingdoms of the earth. They can all be yours. You know they can all be yours. Scriptures say that all the kingdoms of the earth can be yours. For now they’re mine, but I’ll give them to you.”

And it’s in the silence that we must confront our demons.

--------------------------------

I’ll end with this. Jesus says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30). “Yoke” is a weird word – we don’t use it a lot. It has to do with plowing fields. But Jesus here is not talking about plowing fields. The term is used to refer to a Rabbi’s teachings. So, Jesus is saying “My yoke, my teachings, the way I’m asking you to live, is easy. And the burden is light.” So let me ask some questions and then pray. I wonder if this thing we’ve been caught up in isn’t the way of Jesus at all. I wonder if this kind of mathematic, scientific approach to spirituality isn’t the

way of Jesus at all. I think if we were honest a lot of us has spent some time in church and have not found our hearts and souls relieved of the weight that seems to crush it. I wonder what would happen if we quit running, quieted the soul, faced the demons, and started on the journey to wholeness. I wonder how much easier it would be to pray, how much weight would come out of the Word, how our lives might be changed. Does your life and schedule reflect a person who wants to hear from God?'

-- matt chandler, rhythm pt. 2

rhythm, I

' I am wondering how many of us are walking with a great conversion story, but

we feel all out of rhythm. We feel that the tune our life is playing, is off. Before

we get into this though, we have to answer a pretty big question. Maybe it is

better for me to say it like this, “You have to answer a big question.” Before we

can get into this and really start examining the life of Jesus and how he lived his

life and how he teaches us to live it, before we get into this, we have to answer

the question – “Who is Jesus to you?” I did not say, “Who is Jesus to us?” That

is not the question tonight. We have a doctrinal statement that clearly defines

who Jesus is to us. The question tonight is, “Who is Jesus to you?” Because there

can be some subtleties there that make all of the difference in the world. '

-- matt chandler, rhythm pt. 1