<story>
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		<stage id="1" file="stage1.ogg" image="photo1.png">
What a month it's been! Things are moving so fast I can hardly keep my head straight. I'm worried that all this is going to be a blur for me later on, so I've decided to keep a journal.

This is going to be a short one, because it's 11 o'clock and I just got home… I've got to be back at the restaurant at 6 tomorrow to prep for breakfast! I knew this was going to be hard work, but boy oh boy.

The good news is that business is great. I'm feeling really confident I made the right call, but I'm going to need some help soon or I'm going to go nuts trying to keep up with everything on my own.
		</stage>
		<stage id="2" file="stage2.ogg" image="photo2.png">
Great news! I think I've found just the person to help me out. There's this guy, Marcel, who's an old friend of my mother's, who came to family parties a lot.

Anyway, he used to be a chef at a fancy restaurant but he retired a few years ago. When he heard I was running my own place, he dropped in for lunch. I mentioned how crazy things were getting and he offered to help! How generous is that? 

He's a great guy. I bet everything's going to be smooth sailing from here.
		</stage>
		<stage id="3" file="stage3.ogg" image="photo3.png">
Oh my gosh, I'm so nervous and excited. I still can't believe what happened today.

Marcel's been helping out so much, it's amazing. Business is great, we're opening new locations...

But anyway, today he comes running into the kitchen and he's got this look on his face, so I ask him what's going on. He pulls me out the front and points at this guy who's eating alone and says, "You know who that is?"

I didn't, but he tells me, "That's Norman Lapointe." I hate to admit it, but I still didn't know who that was, but he explains the guy's a big, big, BIG name restaurant critic. If he's eating at my place, he must be planning on writing a review, right?

I hope it's a good one; I've got some serious butterflies going on right now!
		</stage>
		<stage id="4" file="stage4.ogg" image="photo4.png">
I can't believe it. That bigshot reviewer that came in a couple weeks ago, Norman Lapointe?

His column came out today and he completely trashed us! He said the meat was dry, the soup was too salty, the vegetables over­seasoned. Can you believe he even had the nerve to complain about the font we use on the menus?

It's just a font! UGH, THIS GUY!

I know I've got to be a grownup and have thick skin about this kind of thing. Marcel says bad reviews are just a fact of the business. I was feeling like things were going so well though! We just opened another new location too. If business drops off because of this I am going to be so mad.

My soup is not too salty, darn it!
		</stage>
		<stage id="5" file="stage5.ogg" image="photo5.png">
Well, it looks like there's a silver lining to the whole Lapointe fiasco. Apparently the review caught the attention of Kurt Snark, or his producers anyway. He's that guy that does that show, Restaurant Boot Camp. They saw the review and got in touch with us to say that they want to help us "achieve our franchise's full potential." Put us on the show in other words.

Marcel's not too thrilled about having another chef come in and boss the two of us around, but I think it's a great opportunity. Snark's always really mean to everyone on the show but I think he's just playing that up for the cameras. I hope so anyway!
		</stage>
		<stage id="6" file="stage6.ogg" image="photo6.png">
Wow! Okay, so Snark's attitude is totally not​ an act. If anything, he's even more of a jerk when the cameras are off. Sometimes I think he's actually trying to make me cry. Maybe he just thinks it makes for good television or something, but I'm not going to give him the satisfaction. Not until at least episode four, ha ha.

I had to talk Marcel down today because he too was ready to explode. He was working on the soup and Snark was hovering over his shoulder the whole time, making some comment about every little thing.

Good grief! Such arrogance… but I told Marcel the show's going to get us lots of publicity, so we've got to tough it out. It's going to be a long few weeks!
		</stage>
		<stage id="7" file="stage7.ogg" image="photo7.png">
Oh man, what a disaster. We had a busy dinner service tonight and I was running around trying to handle the broiler and pasta station all at the same time, but meanwhile my mise­en­place was getting kinda sloppy and Snark was on my case about it… so I stop to let him yell at me while I try and look tough for the cameras. Meanwhile the pasta still needs to be drained and the steak needs to get flipped.

So I go for the steak and holler at Marcel to get the pasta for me, but he's busy plating the salads so it takes him a moment and by the time he gets there, the pasta is only one nanosecond past al dente and Snark goes through the roof.

Out of respect for Marcel I won't describe his response, but let's just say he's not going to be on the show anymore. So it's just me and Snark now: yikes! How many more episodes do we have to film?
		</stage>
		<stage id="8" file="stage8.ogg" image="photo8.png">
Well, he finally got me. Just one tear, mind you, but of course the cameras were right there to catch it. My brother even called me up after the episode aired to ask if I was alright, ha ha. I didn't even know he was watching the show. So embarrassing.

Honestly, Snark's been even worse since he threw Marcel off the show. The things that come out of this guy's mouth, you have no idea.

On the plus side, apparently the viewers are eating up all this drama. Even that reviewer Lapointe dropped in to see how things were going and mentioned that the show's ratings were higher than they'd ever been. That's good news, I guess? I can get through this!

I think...
		</stage>
		<stage id="9" file="stage9.ogg" image="photo9.png">
I don't know if I can do this. We're only halfway through shooting the show and Snark's getting really hard to take. There are times when he's so over the top it's almost funny, but at the same time, running a restaurant is hard enough without some self­important dweeb yelling at you the whole time.

I paid a visit to Marcel today. He's feeling kinda down and said he was enjoying helping out… I promised he'd be right back at my side as soon as the show's done, assuming I even make it that far.

Speaking of the show though, I told him about Lapointe dropping by and Marcel thought it was weird that he was so interested in the show and knew about the ratings and so forth.

It's true, it is a little weird. I wonder what's up with that.
		</stage>
		<stage id="10" file="stage10.ogg" image="photo10.png">
Holy cow, Marcel is amazing. You would not believe what happened this morning. Snark was even worse than usual, throwing a fit about how coarsely I was chopping the bacon bits for the salad. I'll be honest, I was this close to dumping the whole bowl of Caesar dressing over his head and pulling the plug on the whole thing. Then Marcel comes in.

He had this hunch about Lapointe, right. So he did some digging around and it turns out Snark's been paying​ Lapointe to give bad reviews to good restaurants so he can get them on the show and "miraculously" turn them around. Wow. Unbelievable!

So, Marcel had called in the show's producers and he dropped this bomb right in front of them, Snark, the cameras and everything. No one knew what to do and then Snark looked like he was going to be sick and then just ran off. What's going to happen now with the show, I don't know, but it's kind of hilarious and awesome regardless.

Go Marcel!
		</stage>
		<stage id="11" file="stage11.ogg" image="photo11.png">
I've got to say, things have worked out in what has to be the best possible way. Snark's gone… the producers kicked him off the show. Apparently they didn't know anything about his deal with Lapointe, or so they claim. You never know with these guys.

But here's the thing: they still need to finish the show. They can't just cancel the whole thing mid­series, so who are they going to get to replace Snark? MARCEL! They gave him the spot ­ it's perfect!

Things are still pretty chaotic in the kitchen because of the changes Snark had introduced, but now we know we were on the right track to start with, so we're just going to get back into our groove.

And Marcel's pretty good on camera too; I think this is going to be great.
		</stage>
	</stages>
</story>