My 53

I worked 53 hours this past week ending tonight, and as I was skimming over my friends blogs, I noticed my sister's Mondays-Friday thuoghts. Being in my profession, there are too many people that don't appreciate the work that goes into there food, or perhaps have never had to really 'work' to pay bills, therefore tip badly and over critize the food. Blah had to get that out, happens too often.

The reason I worked so many hours this week was because of three(3) reasons. The Kitchen Manager was on vacation, one line cook is still out for 'sick leave' because of that burn I talked about before. One other line cook was out for a death in the family. Undersandable, you can't plan on it but you can sure count on it. So in short this past week I was down to workers(out of 11) and the guy that 'runs the kitchen'.

Back to the point, my sister ran through her Monday-Friday, so I though I may run through my Monday-Sunday:

Monday - Tuesday: We get our orders twice a week, Mondays, and Fridays. So Mondays I take in the order and properly rotate and re-organize (from the weekend mess) the cooler, dry-storage and freezer. Also Myself and the line cooks get tons of cleaning done on the line from the very messy weekend and half-ass cleanup from the weekend. Cleanup and closing sucks on the weekend, everyone is tired. So I spend Monday and Tuesday getting the line back in shape. Monday and Tuesday in also the day I utilize for mantance calls for things that may be breaking or are broken. Somewhere in between this we cook the dinner customers. It mat not sound like much, but when you spend 6 of your 8 hour shift cooking for customers, that does not make for much cleaning time(and we aren't exacatly 'dusting' either). That's my Monday/Tuesday.

Being that I don't have the tenacity of my sister nor the conversatioal gifts as her, I'm getting tired of talking about work, that really you probably don't want read about. I've had a long week, that is the point of this post, but I had fun at the same time, so that is certainly a bonus. There is nothing better than working your ass off, but enjoying those you work with all the while.

I consder myself lucky at the end of the day, no matter how the night went.

My Arrogance

Not that I can really expect that Anonymous from Chicago(oh it's in Illinois?) will be back but his comment really surprised me. Just two simple tings I want to say.

First, I do not consider myself an errogant person, I will say that I ahve alot of confidence in wht I do, but being that I don't like egotistical people, I humble myself. If my friends and people who now me think I'm arrogant, I would be surprised and disappointed in myself.

Second, I'll really really try to keep my feet on the ground and my head below the clouds, although I don't see any other way of standing, unless your on a really really high mountain.

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Now for some really cool news! My sister calls me yesterday around One-ish too share a really cool tid-bit of information that I feel completely obligated to share with everyone. My life has changed, it's that powerful. TV-Land (Channel 62 for non-digital TIme Warner Cable) is showing Knight Rider at Noon and 1:00 in the afternoon. I'm so excited about it. My family would watch it every week together when we were kids. That car is still so damn cool!

My Co-Worker

Last Friday a cook of mine burned himself. He went to the hospital and won't be working for a month. The tough part is I know he was going to hurt himself sometime. I've been working with him for about a year now, so I think it's fair to say I know him fairly well, especially when it comes to his work. It's unfortunate that his burn was that bad, but I hope he comes back full force with a lesson learned.

No matter how busy and stressful things get, in particular in the kitchen during the rush hour, you must keep your cool. You can't forget what your working with heat, oil, knives. My co-worker would get too worked up and too sloppy, he's burned my feet a couple times spilling boiling water.

Unfortunately with this guy, I'm not sure if he will get anything from it all. With him, nothing is his fault. He plays the victim of someone else's doing too often. He has made himself the victim. If I ask him how long for a dish to be finished, he will come back with a long explanation of why, and who else's faultit is and what not, when all I want is 'how long will it be?' It took him two months to learn that. From that a burned a phrase in his brain. 'I don't want excuses.'

Sometimes I see people similar to him out, and it makes me cringe.

In other news.. Monday, the 6th will be my year mark at Bazil. This will be the first job that I've stayed at for a year since Bahama Breeze. I hoe things continue to pan out for me here. I really can't complain at all about my job. I feel I do a good job at what I do, and my superiours recongnize it. My boss left me a voice mail this past week, basically praising the way I handled a certain situation. It was really nice to hear.