Honorary Sharpie

It is day my second day on shift. I am not a nervous as I was yesterday. But not feeling totally comfortable yet. Once I stepped into the kitchen my supervisor Jay asked to speak to me privately. Oh No! what did I do, I must of been to bossy last night or even worse he is shoving me in the salad pit. Its not that the pit is so bad it is just I was hoping to learn as much as I could throughout the kitchen and being down in the pit you are on your own and there is not much interaction with the kitchen.

So I follow him to the office (prep walk-in cooler number 3) and he starts to talk. Now you need to know I am not good with accents and the fact that he is a good 2 1/2 feet taller then me mixed with his Australian accent makes it very difficult understand just what he is saying to me. But the gist of what I got was I have been promoted to Salad Bar lead and I will have a group of staff to help me. He may of said more but all I remember is thinking "whew I am not in the pit". Jay handed me my very own Sharpie in a shade of green of course and then we made our way to the kitchen pre shift pep talk.

The Chef gave me a nod in which I nodded back (not sure what that all meant but I am all for the nod). Chef Tom then introduced me to the crew and we picked a team, I let him do the picking as I really didn't know anyone.

The shift went well, very busy, major learning curve, but we made it through. At the end of the shift during our post pep talk, I was asked to come up with a team name, nicknames and a cheer. What the heck was that about I am not sure. Something to stress over.

At this point very few know that I know Mr. Sunshine. Which is good with me but I know it wont last, soon word will spread soon.

To Serve and Protect

Originally posted June 19, 2010

I made it through my first shift. Remember I said I started at 1:00 pm and we finished at 12:45 PM. I got one 20 minutes break to eat some dinner. But I guess after working with the food and seeing, smelling it nothing looked all that appetizing. I have been trying to stay away from anything I know is processed food which is hard as I know who the supplier of the product is. I have been eating a lot of salad and drinking a lot of water. I haven't had a Diet Coke since last Monday! I sent Sunshine a text asking her to tell Mr. Sunshine if he goes home to bring me some. But I doubt it. I see Mr. Sunshine in passing but that is about it. If I get a chance to talk to him I am to tell him his family loves and miss him and I am also to tell him Lisa from the RCMP says thanks and the food is great. Which I of course was very friendly to her but thought to myself. What the heck does Mr. Sunshine got to do with the food taste! Shouldn't the compliment go to the 20 people in the kitchen working 10 - 16 hour days. But just to make everyone happy MR. SUNSHINE, LISA FROM THE RCMP SAYS THANKS AND THE FOOD IS GREAT!

So my shift was long and I spent the night prepping for the 4 salad bars. Doing a lot of running back and forth up and down stairs. Which I am sure I will pay for in a day or two. I had a massive headache all night which didn't help matters. Just before the Salad Bar supervisor guy left he came to me and we had a 2 minute chat. He said he was moving me tomorrow to the front to keep the salad bars full and will get someone else to do the prep. :( I don't want to work the front as it is BORING. I don't know if he was frustrated with me cause he asked me to get some cherry tomatoes and I couldn't find them and then when I turn around he had the box in his hand. I felt like an idiot. Or if I didn't chop fast enough some of these guys are real fast. But I found it real hard while wearing some stupid cut resisent glove and a latex glove over top which where both way to big. Oh Well it is only for 10 more days. Suck it up princess!

At the end of our shift while outside waiting for our bus to take us back to our beds. We say many police officers (not on duty, nor in uniform) staggering around. They were drunk beyond drunk, in some cases they could barely stand up! I was a little shocked by there behaviour as they have the guns and who was protecting who.