We’ve changed kitchen managers, and the result is overwhelmingly positive. Now, we are all being cross-trained on every station, from sauté to dish pit. This is because if someone calls out (rare, which means they are really sick), anyone can cover for them. It will make all of our lives easier, because we can switch shifts with anyone on the team, rather than calling the one other person that knows what to do. [Editor’s Note: You rarely get a day off in the restaurant business. Most likely, you are allowed to recuperate and just work on a different day. It keeps people’s hours up, better than just not getting paid when you’re out if your vacation hasn’t kicked in yet.] I am enjoying being switched around frequently, because there are different sets of movements for each part in the ballet, so different muscles hurt in the morning, rather than injuring the same ones over and over (and over, and over, and over #sisyphus).
But, there is something even more important to me now. One of my coworkers walked in and hugged someone (I think it was her cousin), and I jokingly said, “donde esta mi embrazo?” (where’s MY hug?). She laughed and hugged me, too. Now, she hugs me when she comes in every single day. She doesn’t know it, but she’s my lifeline to contact comfort. Let me repeat this… I am now being hugged almost every single day. If you don’t realize how huge this is, you’ve probably never been single and touch-starved. We rarely have different days off, another plus. I would never tell her this, but it just means so much. First of all, I am being hugged. Second of all, I have a coworker that actually likes me enough to hug me. 😛
I’m also taking on a new project, being an editor for one of my friends who’s trying to get published, either though a publishing house or self-publishing as an e-book on Amazon. I’ve read the first couple pages, and I like it so far. I’m on the first pass, which is reading it for fun so that I understand what’s going on before I take out my absolutely ruthless red pen. If you’ve never been through an editing session with me, know that you have to have a thick skin. I will murder your darlings (phrasing, not characters- “killing your darlings” means taking out sentences you form in exactly the same way because you like it so much), but I try to do it with kindness, or at the very least, no bullshit. If I sugar coat, I’m not being a very good editor.
For my services, I am being paid partly in money, and partly in barter for things I really, really want. I don’t want to tell you what they are, because it might “out” her in some way. Just trust me that they are manna from heaven.
I have also had a lesbian attorney say that she read my opinion on the cake mess, and liked it. I was over the moon that she separated her feelings from her JD.
Cutting this short because I played “what’s that smell?” and realized it was me. Service, for me, starts at 5:00, and I need coffee and a shower before then. It’s difficult to make a priority on that one.
It’s enough to make me waste time as I am unable to make a decision. I’m way too tired.
Wait, that did it. Coffee it is.
Stories That Are All True 