A Little Catch-Up

I started working full time at the restaurant on January 12th and since then I have been a bit crazed. My days have mostly gone as follows:
wake up between 12pm - 1pm
get dressed and head to work
work until 1am - 2:30am (depending on the day of the week)
sometimes drink with co-workers
get home and eat/watch tv/internet for an hour or so
go to sleep

I have done very little else than what is listed above. The disgraceful state of my apartment is proof.

The transition to full-time at the restaurant has been good, but at times frustrating. I was initially trained over a day or two and then was let loose to go about my business on my own. People would then check-up on me constantly. It was rather frustrating because either the person checking up on me would give instructions that contradicted what I was told during training, or the person checking up on me would tell me to do things that I already knew to do but just hadn't done yet. I am still on the slow side with some of my daily duties, so when said person would check up on me they woudl see a number of things not done yet. They would then tell me that I have to do said things. Well, I know I have to do them. I am not an idiot. I am just slow (in a non-retarded kind of way.)

I think I finally made it clear that I generally know what I am doing, so things have eased up a bit. I am still slow, though. I am unable to tell yet if I am at least improving. Some days are good, but there are still plenty of days where I feel behind before I even start.

Carpal Tunnel

I haven't blogged in ages. I have been working fill time for about 2 weeks so far and I have not had the time to sit down and adequately tell about my experience/transition. I DO have enough time to tell you that I may be demonstrating more symptoms of carpal tunnel. For almost 2 weeks now I constantly find that my fingers are numb while sleeping. The only time they don't go numb is if I have my arms flat at my sides while sleeping on my back. I never sleep this way, hence why my fingers are always numb.

During the past day I have found that anytime my arm is raised higher than my heart, my fingers begin to get a numb. As I type this, my wrist (specifically the right one at this moment) starts to feel "funny". Both wrists felt especially funny today while peeling 35 apples with an apple peeler. There is a whole lotta wrist action going on with that one. Oh, and if you have ever wondered, the fastest and easiest way to peel an apple is totally with a regular ol' vegetable peeler. Peel from stem to butt. Rotate and repeat until all the skin is gone.

Saturday was quite a night. We were pretty much out of our semifreddo dessert at the start of the night. Basically, the item was the dessert for a private party and we only had enough to accommodate the party. We had to make a substitution on the main dining room's tasting menu, which is very poor form for such an upscale restauarant. This really pissed off Chef. When Chef gets made (and throws a roll of masking tape) you resort to the techniques you used as a child when one of your parents gets really angry about something that doesn't involve you. You keep quiet and you hope to stay well out of the way.

After Chef threw the tape and left the room, I picked it up and put it away. Later I noticed she was looking around in the area where she threw the tape. I wasn't certain she was looking for the tape, though, so I never told her I picked it up. I hoped she figured it out without me having to speak up.

Just as I thought things were about to settle down after the semifreddo disaster, I hear Chef scream some expletives from our walk-in refrigerator. Apparently our poached quince are 22 days old. Did I mention that it was Chef's birthday? She was so pissed she even said to herself, "Happy fucking birthday to me."

She ended up being cranky for most of the night. She didn't really take anything out on me, except for a few minor comments. Other than running out of a dessert, things went rather smoothly.

Let's Catch Up a Little

I haven't made an entry in ages and so much has happened. I formally resigned from my day job. Yay!!!! I got a "raise" at the restaurant, so now I am being paid the same hourly wage as the full-timers. Yay!!!!

Since I had a break from my day job over the holidays I decided to work at the restaurant a few extra days. The one thing it made me realize is that I ABSOLUTELY need to get new shoes before I start working there 5 days a week. I think I may try to get some Birkenstocks. I hate Birkenstocks. I think they are hideous. Hopefully their promised comfort will overcome their hideous appearance.