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.

Ew

I have written in a while. Things have gotten much busier with all the holidays.

A few weeks ago I was given my own locker at the restaurant. My shoes are the only thing I leave in the locker over the days I am not working. Without fail, when I come in on Fridays, I always find an alarming amount of mold on the outside of my work shoes. SUPER GROSS. I end up having to wash the shoes every single Friday. Where is the mold coming from? Before I got the locker, I would keep the shoes in the same plastic bag in a corner somewhere at home. Mold never developed. I don't understand what it is about the locker room (or my locker) that is more conducive to mold than a sealed plastic bag. I still need to get new work shoes in general. You'd think having painful plus moldy shoes would have motivated me to make some purchases. Nope. I'm lazy.

I end up doing a lot of repetitive work at the restaurant. On Saturday I had to peel a little over 40 apples for two different desserts. Usually this happens because we are running very low on a menu item and I am pulled away from my normal duties to make more in a pinch. I may not be the best person for that kind of job because repetitive tasks seem to lull me into complacency. I begin to forget that the matter is urgent, and my peeling rate drops. Then I remember why the apples are before me and I speed up. Without fail, though, I will be lulled again within a few minutes. I am really looking forward to doing service almost full-time. I will probably have completely different feelings on the matter once I am doing dinner service 5 nights a week. (To be fair, I have no idea if I will be doing dinner service all 5 shifts a week. I am just assuming.) No matter what, doing service will be a nice change of pace. I am sick of making coffee cake. I am especially sick of zesting 12 oranges for the coffee cake. I still like making marshmallows, though. I am damn good at marshmallows. My batches always look better than the other batches I come across. :-)

Done!

Last night I finished all my extern hours. Woo hoo! I will continue to work at the restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights until January. When January rolls around I am totally dumping my office monkey job so that I can completely dedicate myself to pastry monkeying. That will also make me a bit poor. That won't matter much since I won't have time to spend money while working almost 60 hours a week. Perhaps I will also start my hunt for a sugar daddy -- preferably one that will kick the bucket and leave me a ton of money sooner rather than later.

Working at the restaurant has made me realize I have a problem -- a listening problem. Chef will tell me to do something and not even a minute later I will be unable to recall incidental parts of the instructions. Usually the parts easily forgotten are 1) the amount to be made, and 2) where to put it when I am done. I usually repeat things out loud as I am being instructed, but I only do that with ingredients or procedures. For instance, Chef will ask me to wrap something up a certain way and put it away. I'll remember everything except where to put it. I will at least recall that she was rather vague with where to put it, so I can get away with a follow-up question later. When I am done wrapping things I'll ask, "Chef, did you have a specific spot in mind for this, so you can find it later?" The best is when the answer is "anywhere on the bench in the chocolate room", because I wasn't even thinking of the chocolate room as an option before asking. I feel stupid when I ask these follow-up questions but I don't really know what else to do. I can only tell myself that I will attempt to be more mindful and attentive when given instructions, but I know that won't happen.