Before we get into the actual post, I have to tell a typical New York story.  We went out to dinner this evening at a local diner, the West Side Restaurant.  It’s a good diner, been there for years, but nothing super special.   Not a ‘see and be seen’ type place.   We were sitting eating dinner when in walked Kyra Sedgwick with a friend.  They sat at a booth next to ours and had coffee.   (In case you don’t know, Kyra Sedgwick is the star of the TV show The Closer, and is married to Kevin Bacon.)   Nobody even blinked an eye.    As Maya said, “Well, even famous actors have friends and like to go out for coffee.”

Back to resume’s.   As a result of the interviews Maya and I held last week, we hired two data entry people to help out at the store.   Both of them have been excellent in their first couple of days on the job.   Then over the weekend we found out that the woman who has been doing our billing for several years will be leaving at the end of February.  (Her citizenship application was denied, and she is required to return to her home country while the appeal is filed.  Considering INS is just now looking at appeals from 2003, we don’t expect her back any time soon.)   Because of this, we need a replacement.   So I placed another Craigslist ad.  You should have seen Maya’s eyes light up when she heard more applications would be coming in.   For this job, I did request resume’s, as well as a brief paragraph outlining the applicant’s qualifications for the job.   We’ve received about 75 email responses so far, and only 14 made it to round two.      Our favorite flubs this time?   The guy who told us he is very ‘porfessional’ and the person who addressed the email to “Dear:”.     Maya simply eats this stuff up.    She’s asked to attend the interviews for this position as well, and of course I said yes.

The other development, as a result of our data entry hiring success, is that Maya is going to attend staff meetings at our store with Joshua.   He’s set them up to be on Monday evenings, and plans on listening to any comments or complaints then putting together a plan of action for the store for the coming week.   He’s asked Maya to come along and take notes and then consult with him afterward about what was said.

There was an article in the Times today about how some colleges have started offering classes to teach students about credit ratings, handling money and things like mortgage applications.   That’s all good, but why wait until college?   And why always be learning in a hypothetical setting, where nothing is really at stake?    I would not be surprised if by the time Maya is at an age where most kids are going to college, she has the knowledge and experience to start her own business if she so chooses.   Actually, she told me today that she thinks it would be good to get some work experience as a barista at Starbucks or a server in a restaurant before opening her own business.   Smart girl.