Can You Even Do It?

Sometimes I wonder if I should have become a chef at all. Sure I like it, but I also like to dance and believe me when I say I can't dance. At all. Just because I like something doesn't mean I should attempt to do it for a living. But I've made my bed, and this week, someone short-sheeted it. Every dumb mistake I could make, I've made.

I tried to roast veggies for sandwiches, didn't set the oven timer and walked off. Needless to say, when I remembered them, they were carbonized shadows of their former selves.

I ordered chicken legs for lunch and they brought me drumsticks. Not the same thing at all. So I sent them back and I had to scramble to find something to feed the first group of kids. Granted this one was not entirely my fault, but a smart chef would have ordered the chicken for the day before. Sometimes I do that, but had no room in the cooler to store it.

You know, I bet I could become a plumber...

First To Go

They say your memory goes as you get older and I think they may be right. Because last week, I went into work to put a turkey in the oven for the next day. I took the turkey out of the fridge, placed it on the table. Turned on the hood and the oven. Went and did a few things while waiting for the oven to heat. Then I locked the doors and turned out the lights and went home. When I got to work the next morning, what do you think I saw on the table...

The *#^#&* turkey.

Save the Libraries!!

I'm blogging right now from my local branch library, Morrison Regional. Friends, they are closing all our libraries! April 3, the doors close on this one, Myers Park, Scaleybark, and many many others. Why? Because the budget has been cut. Because the city/county wants something else besides programs for our kids, books, research materials, Internet access for those who can't afford it (like me) and a community gathering place! What could be more important than libraries?
It is appalling and if you live in this community, maybe you don't use the library every day, but you know if you needed to, it would be there.

Not anymore.

FIGHT THIS!!! CALL YOUR COUNCILPEOPLE!!! DONATE!!!!

Friendly Fire

I've been under the weather lately. Benadryl is my newest best friend, and Claritin can get me thru a day. However for the past two days, I've not taken my Claritin and consequently, get these boggling headaches about halfway thru my day. So I pull the Tylenol from the secured location and took two. Yesterday, I took the last two. I put the bottle on the table to throw away before I left.

I forgot.

The people in charge of things did a walk thru and discovered my forgetfulness. While not an unpardonable sin, it is a definite black mark on a mostly-spotless record. Gah. That's enough to put my head on a swivel for the rest of the year.

Sigh.

Here's the thing I learned: People can be friendly but that does not make them your friends. It pays to remember that your job exists at the sufferance of someone else.

Bring your A game.

The Inmates are Running the Asylum

Yes, indeedy they are. Hamburger day is always busy, but then the boss shows up and wants to chat, and the QC people for the company show up and that's a time suck...Then there's a drama production for lower school so they need lunches early, but come in even earlier than they should...It was 3PM before dishes were done and paperwork is yet to be done...

It's a two-martini night. Dirty. Two olives.

Rain on My Parade

Fridays are generally a good day. Especially on a pay week. Everyone is happy, even the kids. After all, it's Sloppy Joe day, what could be bad about that? Unless it's raining...and raining...and raining. Unless the patch on the roof doesn't hold and the rain comes through the roof of the dining hall. Unless your hood system starts to sound like a car with a troubled transmission. But the show must go on, there are still kids to feed. So you hang on and hope they can get it fixed over the weekend and you go on home. You live to fight another day. Sometimes I meet other chefs, and when they hear about what I do, they chuckle and say what a cushy job I have. I want to slap those people. Because they can close shop and go home. I cannot. They have to worry about the occasional visit from a health inspector. I have two health inspectors. They do payroll and orders and some accounting. I have audits, corporate visits, payroll, orders and flashes.

If this is cushy, I don't want to see hard.

Just One Good Day

That is my wish for this week. I just want a nice, normal, not-strung-up-on-wires day. I feel like I've been living the last month plus in a state of permanent hysteria. I've been worried about inspections, caterings, my co-worker falling ill and the general panic induced by trying to toe the line. Even when the line is dumb. Even when they move the line. I'm tired, I'm eating crap, I'm not exercising and I miss Christmas. But I am hanging on by my fingernails and teeth. Even though part of me wants to say "Chuck it" and run away to my mom's house, where my mom will make me dinner and my dad will solve all my problems. I miss the days when it was that easy. It isn't anymore and being an adult largely sucks. So I'm just waiting for a better day.

But home is calling.