2.24.11 Vacation Week and Parfait Cups

Today it was back to the pudding cup grind. After spending three days as the second cook in the deli, I made the pilgrimage back to the “homeland” of the Governor’s Lodge around lunch time.  It’s been a crazy few days since my last post—filled with stints in the rental shop, ticket selling, and engineering the ideal steak and cheese sub in the deli.  I have an incredible respect for the rental shop cashiers. Some of the questions and issues that arise at that desk leave no rest for the weary.  Yvette, Geoff, Meg, and Jim know it all.  They can do anything short of selecting the upcoming Powerball numbers (however, if anyone had to guess, I would put my chips in their hands. That’s for sure!)  Vouchers, rental questions, booking private lessons, handling guest concerns or problems, answering questions about tubing reservations – you name it, they know the answer.  It’s really a one-stop-shop for everything you need.  After the morning rush and they get you all of your rental equipment and tickets, they may just be the ones ringing you up at the register at lunch or clearing your tray after you are done your meal.  There aren’t many resorts or businesses that are as cohesive as Loon Mountain.  You never know who will be dishing up your soup, making your salad, or assembling your pudding cups, jello, or fruit cups. 

The salads, like many other items in the Governor’s Lodge, are made fresh daily.  For the past few days, those salads have been carefully put together by the Director of Marketing, Molly.  And you can tell.  Molly’s attention to detail and remarkable talent are generally reserved for photography, graphics, Loon Magazine, and any media involving Loon, but this week, her eye for detail and quality were evident in her colorful and, I don’t want to pump up her ego, but they were perfect.  Sure, I made two Caesar salads to her one garden salad, but it wasn’t a race.  My salads only had three ingredients: romaine, shredded parmesan cheese, and croutons.  I did put considerable effort into the crouton placement, but she has 10 ingredients that she so artfully placed in that garden salad.  For those lucky enough to enjoy such fine salad art – I’m sure you enjoyed it. 

After the salad racks were filled, we moved on to pudding, jello, fruit cup and PARFAIT art.  I had no idea how popular those blueberry parfaits are until today.  They were flying off the shelves faster than the chicken fingers and fries.  I considered today a graduation of sorts. My parfait skills have been limited to putting the granola in the lids, but today I was the parfait engineer.  I’m not going to say it was as glamorous looking as Molly’s garden salad or Jackie’s dollops of whipped crème on the tops of the pudding and jello cups, but it was pretty good.  It’s not all about looks all the time; it’s about quality and enjoyment.  Even a plate of French fries that are all over the place tastes good when it comes down to it.  Sure, we aim for the marketing perfection, but Molly was helping Marcy with the soup rush, so I had to do my best.  In the middle of the parfait madness, Ashley from the Pavilion called; she needed more pretzels, STAT.  I put down the blueberries and made some pretzels and put them in the oven.   I went back to the blueberries and tried my darndest to create the parfait cup that would earn the seal of approval from Molly.  All that effort paid off, I think Molly approved of the end result, but at the same time I completely forgot that there were still pretzels in the oven.

I opened the oven after a slight panic that revels leaving your cell phone on a bus or some moving object that you may not see again for a while, and the pretzels looked, well, crisp.  They actually looked like chocolate covered pretzels, and Jackie, in her attempt to make me feel like they weren’t THAT bad (but not for human consumption), picked one up and tried to break off a piece.  I have no idea if she was actually going to try it, but it didn’t break.  They were SOLID.  We actually joked that they could serve as hammers if Norm in building maintenance ever needed some extra hammers in his shop.  As much as we hate to throw things away, these had to go.  I made another batch and, sure enough, remembered to pull them out of the oven at perfect baking time.  Jackie and Molly may disagree that it was ME that remembered to pull them out of the oven, but hey, I’m writing this, not them!

After a fun-filled few hours in the Governor’s Lodge fueled by excessive laughter, stellar parfaits, pudding cups, jello cups, salads, and soups, it was time to bid farewell for the day to Jackie and head back to my office to check e-mail and voicemail before our guests from the UK and Ireland departed – some for the day, some for the season.  Four schools ended today, so our friends at Cannon and Waterville came to pick up their rental equipment at Loon, while Joe and his staff headed off to Cannon to pick up our equipment.  It’s another aspect of Adam’s Picasso art; he’s in charge of arranging rental returns from these school groups and it’s always like a reunion of sorts when other mountains come to visit.  Ironically, it was the sales teams from both Cannon and Waterville who came to pick up equipment. We all travel together extensively in the fall and spring, so it’s always nice to see them in the winter, especially on our own turf!  We loaded up the trucks with skis, boots, poles and helmets and Julianne and Sherry from Cannon were first to head out.  Greg and Larkin from Waterville hung out to gather up the equipment that was straggling in from the schools that started at Waterville and ended at Loon.  After all the trucks were loaded and headed off to I-93, we headed down to the rental shop to help unload our equipment that Joe and his staff picked up at Cannon.  I had to miss out on that part of the fun; I had to pick up some very important East Ridge Cross Country Trail Maps at True Colors in Plymouth before 5pm.  I had to leave in time to get the shuttle to the employee parking lot and then head down the pike, so I couldn’t participate in the ski-pole sorting madness that I have come to really enjoy like a game of “Match” over the past six years. 

I’m not going to lie; it was really nice being home before the sun went down.  Thank you, True Colors, for closing at 5pm and a huge Thank You to our awesome Adventure Center for giving me a reason to get to Plymouth before 5pm.  My not-so-little four legged pal and I went for a nice long walk after work and it was a nice “download” after a busy day. 

Tomorrow’s forecast: HEAVY SNOW… Commander says 8-14 inches of the white stuff.  Ask Adam what time it’s supposed to start.  He’ll know the answer.  If you’re at Loon on Friday, swing by the Governor’s Lodge and hopefully Molly will be there assembling salads that could put Wolfgang Puck to shame. 

Yours in Pudding Cups and Parfaits,

Abby

February 25, 2011 | Categories: Day in the Life | Leave A Comment »

Yet Another Day in the Life of…The Loon Mountain Multi-taskers (aka Sales Team)

There are 365 days in a year.  The average person has about 12 days in a given year that they really look forward to.  Today was one of my 12 days. No, it’s not my birthday (yet), it’s not Christmas or anything like that- but it is a holiday- the annual Cardigan Mountain School Ski Holiday.  The annual ski holiday has been held at Loon since I started here six amazing years ago and it has morphed into quite the event. 

This year, 275 teenage boys descended on Loon Mountain in a caravan of three large buses and eight mini-buses. They brought along 25 kids from a Finnish Hockey Team visiting from, well, Finland, to participate in the festivities.  Every year, it’s tradition at Cardigan Mountain School that the entire school has a ski day, however, that day is kept in the dark to all of the students until that morning.  On the morning of the ski day, all of the teachers wear yellow ties to signify that TODAY is the annual ski day at breakfast.  Classes are cancelled and the entire school has 30 minutes to board buses bound for Loon Mountain for a day of FUN.  Preparations for this day are done well in advance, and we have post it notes and e-mail reminders throughout the resort to alert the staff that this day is an ABSOLUTE secret.  These teenage boys can be sneaky, of course they want to find out when their annual ski day is, but we all want in on the surprise.  They will try anything to find out the date but they have met their match.  We look forward to this day just as much as they do, and it really is quite the sight to see all of those Cardigan buses cross over the bridge to Loon and pull up in the turnaround in front of the Governors Pavilion. 

We couldn’t have ordered better weather for them; high 30’s, even low 40’s at times, and bright and sunny skies.  The kids flood into the Pavilion, get their tickets for the day, and head off to their activities; skiing/snowboarding, tubing, XC skiing, or lounging around in the Pavilion playing video games on their laptops.  Our incredible rental shop staff, under the guidance of a very supportive and energetic manager, Meg White, set up all of their rentals in advance so they can maximize their time on the snow instead of in line at the rental shop.  While they are in the rental shop gearing up, the amazing employees at the Governors Lodge are prepping pizzas for their lunch; 95 pizzas to be exact.  It’s no small task feeding 275 hungry teenage boys, but we’re prepared. 

Lucky for me, I pulled out my trusty running shoes for this event so I could descend and climb up multiple flights of stairs running pizzas from the Governors Lodge to the Pavilion.  The job-sharing sales team had to call upon other departments to job-share and help us out this time- Lisa from Accounting was ready and eager to help get all of the boys ticketed and through the rental shop- our Krumptastic Marketing Manager, Katelyn, also stepped up for the challenge and did the same, then came back for more and was the “Pavilion Pizza Lady” dishing out slices and calling my cell phone for more and more and, YES, MORE pizza to feed these hungry boys.  The fearless and hard-working Rental manager, Meg White, also couldn’t get enough, and she brought her running shoes as well- running more pizzas to the Pavilion than the average Dominos delivery guy delivers to college students at a major University on a Friday night. 

Once the pizza craze subsided and the kids were full and trying to stuff down the 500 cookies allotted for them for dessert, Adam and I went back to the Governors Lodge to help out the phenomenal staff that helped make this pizza party/CMS ski day a reality.  Adam scooped soup and I ATTEMPTED to wrap oatmeal/raisin cookies (I really should leave out the ‘cookie wrapping’ from my resume. I apologize in advance if you purchased one of these cookies. They are absolutely phenomenal, but the wrapping job is less than stellar, to say the least.  Up to my elbows in saran wrap, Jackie then uttered the words, “we need pudding cups”…  I don’t know what it is about those pudding cups, but they ARE popular.  I ran down the stairs to get the pudding stash and Jackie lined up the cups. After a rather hilarious attempt to open the cans of pudding, we “divided and conquered” the task at hand.   This is only my second attempt at mastering the pudding cup assembly skill, and I’m still a work in progress.  Thankfully, Jackie has the ‘touch’ and can make my pudding mess look presentable and delectable.  It’s an art – one of which I am having a very difficult time mastering.

After the kids were fed and the pudding cups stocked, it was time to venture back to the windowless office and do some invoicing.  We had nine groups today, six of whom were on the larger side (50 or more).  This takes time, but so does assembling pudding cups.  Thankfully, while assembling these pudding cups, I was multi-tasking and thinking of the invoicing I was about to endure.  A half hour later, the invoices were done, sent out, and it was back to the grind.  Honestly, the 30 minute invoicing break could have lasted a bit longer; it was really nice sitting down for an extended period of time.  We headed back to the rental shop to help with returns. The rental staff had processed more than half of the weekend rental volume on a THURSDAY with half the staff AND helped us out running pizza (they did wash their hands repeatedly before doing so, FYI), so it was the least we could do to help them.  “Many hands make light work” is my philosophy, I’m not right about much, but I’m sure I am right when it comes to that.  We helped hang poles, buckle boots, check in skis, and then we ventured out to the “adventure zone” (aka Governors Lodge turnaround) to park buses for pickup.  It turned out to be quite the task, but the reward was just awesome.  I have one heck of a tan… whoops – what I meant to say was that we had 275 very happy and FULL teenage boys boarding their buses to head back to the Cardigan Mountain School campus.   

There are not many careers on this planet that can mix fun, bus lane management, ticketing, pizza delivery, rental boot fitting, ski pole hanging, even pudding cup fulfillment, but I have managed to find one.  And I couldn’t imagine doing anything different!  That’s it for now…my energy level has gone from ¾ of a tank to empty- if only AAA was able to assist with that refill!!!

More excitement and job sharing fun coming up starting on Saturday- the start of Vacation week and non-stop fun!!! 

Until Next Time,

Abby Guinan
Sales Manager

February 18, 2011 | Categories: Day in the Life | 2 Comments »

A Day In the WEEKEND Life of a Sales Manager, Part 1:

Deep in the heart of the business office at Loon Mountain lives the sales office – a windowless mecca with cream colored walls, six desks and a very impressive refrigerator – five staff members stir about juggling phone calls, emails, and employees just stopping by to say “Hi”.  Its a few minutes shy of 7am. After getting up at 4:45am to walk the dog, shower (a necessity in a small office with no windows), we get to the South Mountain parking lot to catch the shuttle to work.  Eager to get to our other office (with WINDOWS!) where we greet groups, shuffle reservation forms and pre-printed tickets, pack our bags, and head out.

I have been at Loon for six amazing years and have learned more than I had ever expected in my life.  Sure, I can field calls and book groups and work on wedding contracts and everything else that comes with a “Resort Sales Position”, but I have also learned how to whip up an amazing steak and cheese, change frialator oil, scoop soup, fit rental boots, process rental forms, teach a few ski lessons here and there, sell tickets and season passes, and operate the incredible vacuums we use at Loon Mountain to clean the lodges at the end of the day.  It’s something we refer to at Loon Mountain as “job sharing”– exhausting, entertaining, fulfilling, and exciting, to say the least. 

Today started out much like any other weekend day at Loon Mountain, except for my “not so little” golden retriever who woke me up a little earlier than expected to go for a walk.  It’s never a great feeling when you wake up BEFORE your alarm goes off at 4:45am.  So, I bundled up and we headed out for our morning stroll. While my dog is eagerly sniffing snow banks 10 times the size of her, I’m thinking of what I need to do to start the day; V8 Splash and toast, shower, and find socks that match.  Then it’s off to South Mountain Parking Lot.  There’s always that moment in time when you cross over that bridge and HOPE there is a bus waiting, not pulling out of the lot.  For me, that’s a huge relief.  Park the car, say hello to the parking attendants who really deserve a medal of honor (or courage) for standing out in the frigid morning temperatures, and board the bus.  The bus ride in to work is probably the most relaxing part of my day (depending on who the driver is).  I get into the office around 6:30am (on a good day when the morning “commute” goes well), check voicemail and email, and then it’s off to the other office I go.  Our other office is at the Governors Lodge, really a “ticket annex” or a hallway if you will, where we greet groups, print tickets, and spend A LOT of time waiting.  It has windows – three to be specific – so we kill time “people watching” and fielding questions.  Around 8am, my cell phone rings.  It’s someone from Food and Beverage, guaranteed.  They have gotten quite skilled in calling early for assistance during the lunch rush.  Sure enough, I’m right.  My detail today: Governors Lodge grill area at 11:30am.  Shortly after, our groups flow in steadily and, remarkably, on time.  We divide and conquer – two people out greeting buses to welcome them to Loon, hand out trail maps and wickets (or metal hangie thingies, whichever you prefer), and bring the group leader to our little annex to collect payment and print tickets.  I’m usually on ticket duty – since I’m the one that reconciles the accounts, I like to be responsible for any mix-ups or the like.  It can be very complicated, but it’s also very rewarding to be able to work with such amazing group leaders who have become great friends over the years.  Today was typical for a Saturday – 12 buses and a few U-drive groups.  By 9:30am, everyone is on their merry way- or en-route to the rental shop and my phone rings again.  It’s a 7-4-5 exchange, so I know it’s a call from someone at Loon – usually with a problem or question.  This time, it’s the rental shop.  The line is out the door and they are in dire need of assistance.  Lucky for me, I have spent the past six Christmas Days helping a large group and other guests at the rental shop, so I have learned the skill (not mastered, FYI) of processing rental forms.  I leave the annex and head over to the rental shop – maneuvering my way through the line of anxious guests in need of equipment rental.  I log on to the POS (Point of Sale Unit- just learned that lingo, too) and start assisting guests.  This is no McDonalds.  The menu is varied with helmet rental add-ons, damage waivers, lesson upgrades, ticket sales, you name it.  There’s no “#7 hold the cheese” type selection, so it takes time.  We want to get everyone out quickly to enjoy the fabulous snow, but it’s not as easy as you would think. About 20 minutes into it, the line is manageable and I move over to the boot area to fit boots.  Another 20 minutes there, and the crunch is over.  WHEW.

It’s now only 10:30am.  I have just enough time to run back to our windowless office and reconcile some accounts, check voicemail and email again, and get ready for the next job sharing adventure.  My cell phone rings again.  Another 7-4-5 exchange.  This time, it’s just a question about a mysterious voucher at one of the ticket windows.  Luckily, I actually know the answer and walk the amazing ticket sellers through the transaction.  Done.  Off to the Governors Lodge.  This is the point in my day that I actually somewhat regret giving up Red Bull.  I have never been able to acquire a taste for coffee, so for years the Red Bull WIINGS got me through the day.  Thankfully, a nice Doctor named Dr. Pepper provides me the caffeine I need to push through thethird leg of my day without the jitters or the price tag of a Red Bull.  I grab my apron, my Dr. Pepper, and head over to the grill area.  Today’s job – expediting.  Yes, I’m the one who asks what suits your fancy and if you want fries with that.  Then I repeat it and it magically appears hopefully just 30 seconds later.  Sure, it may sound easy and sometimes it is, but I also need to learn “the lingo” and set up plates in advance.  Because the chef is busy making sure the burgers are done to perfection (and they are, let me tell you!) and the grilled cheeses are cooked to a golden brown – they don’t want to hear all the “jibberish” that goes with an order.  So, if you want a hamburger with fries, you yell “hamburger WITH”.  (Kitchen short-hand)  I love it.  You also need to set up each plate; corn-dusted bulkie rolls with crisp lettuce and a very large and juicy tomato slice and pickle spear.  It may sound easy, but when you “send” (kitchen lingo again) a few hundred cheeseburgers, it can be a daunting task.  Today’s emergency:  we ran out of pre-cut lettuce for the burgers.  Its high noon and lettuce is a necessity for these amazing burgers, so I ran downstairs to the walk-in, grabbed a case of lettuce, and started chopping.  Just another thrill of job sharing. 

The lunch rush was somewhat over around 1:30pm, but the cooler was bare and we needed pudding cups STAT.  The amazing soup guru and incredible salad assembler, Jackie, got me all set up and gave me a brief overview of filling these “hot items” of the Governors Lodge.  24 pudding cups later, it was another emergency; the grill area was out of sliced tomatoes.  Back downstairs I go, grab a case of tomatoes and the slicer, and it’s slicing time!  I am easily entertained, so spending 20 minutes slicing tomatoes in this high tech slicer thing is just pure enjoyment. 

It’s 2pm.  The special of the day at the Governors Lodge is Mac and Cheese and garlic bread.  I have a lot of food allergies that keep me away from the amazing mac and cheese, but I can (and did) enjoy a few incredibly delicious slices of the garlic bread before heading back to the office.  Adam has just completed his job share duties serving soup, so we grab some “to-go” containers and march back to the geographical center of Loon Mountain aka the Business Office.  A few more voicemails and emails to tend to, prepare for tomorrow’s groups, and finish invoicing the groups from today, and an hour later, we’re on the move again.  This time: to bid farewell to one of our international schools visiting from the UK.  They are heading out to North Conway to do some tax-free outlet shopping after a full day of skiing and lessons.  Shortly after, we also head on a bus – this time to the South Mountain Parking lot to pick up our cars and come back to the resort.  We have a great event going on tonight – the North Country Center for the Arts Auction and Dinner.  The shuttle bus ride is generally a sign that our day has come to an end, but this time, it has just started the second (or third, maybe fourth) phase of our day.  It was relaxing while it lasted, but we find ourselves back at the Governors Lodge just 20 minutes later. 

This time, it’s not expediting, slicing tomatoes, filling pudding cups, or serving soup.  We need to take ALL of the tables out of the lodge and bring in round tables and folding chairs, linens, china, silverware – the whole nine yards.  We’re under a time constraint and the challenge is more fuel than a few cans of Red Bull, that’s for sure.  I’m not going to lie – its fun.  We flip the lodge and by 6:30pm, we’re guzzling water and the chefs are cooking up a MAD feast for a great cause.  By 7pm, my “dogs were barking”, so it was my time to head home to a very literal barking dog, eager to go for our evening walk and play in the snow.  It’s now 9pm, I have checked messages again, replied to emails, and walked the dog AND wrote this blog, not really a job-sharing duty, but it really is just as enjoyable as slicing tomatoes with that really cool high tech tomato slicer.  It’s time for bed.  Tomorrow is another day and WHO KNOWS what excitement that will bring!  Just another weekend day in the life of a Loon Mountain Sales Manager. 

Until next time,
Abby Guinan

February 13, 2011 | Categories: Day in the Life | Leave A Comment »