21 posts from August 2007

Yeah, so I'm all over the charts about working at a pizza place.  One day I love it, the next day I hate it.  I actually now have nightmares about waiting tables and managing waitresses.  But the good news is that I've created a line of T-shirts and stuff that has graphics I've designed on them – all Pizza themed!  I'm really happy with how they look so surf on over and look around and give me some feedback.  THANKS! 

So here's the link:  http://www.cafepress.com/carmenrose

I'm thinking that I don't like how much of my away from work time is consumed with thoughts of work.  I don't like how hard it is to keep an open attitude toward boss couple.   I don't like how many employees come to me to confide their complaints.  That is hard for me.  I don't like how much of my day is consumed by being at work, and how much harder it is to get anything done that is important to me.  I actually enjoy the work most of the time though some of the dynamics really do get on my nerves.

I'm thinking I'll hang in with these people through their move to the new location and see if I can make some serious cash between now and then.  They've told me repeatedly that they will make a list of the positions they need for the new place along with the pay rates.  Current employees will have the opportunity to apply for the new positions – knowing the pay cuts – and then they will hire whatever else is needed.  And the pay cuts will be significant – the servers are going to take a more than $3 cut per hour and there are cuts for the production staff as well.  Bosses talk about how generous they are and spoke at length one afternoon about the places where they give away pizza.  Yeah, they are generous, but isn't it interesting that they A) talk a lot about what they give away, and B), complain that they are paying more than other places in town as if it had been someone else's choice to do that and not their own?  Other business owners tell them they are crazy for hiring at those rates.  Those people don't know how much of our business is carry out that doesn't tip at all.  Yet Bosses have had such trouble finding new people to hire at these current rates.  How do they think that's going to work when it's the new place and the new rate?

The new place renovation project is about a month off.  I haven't said "boo" to other employees about the coming pay cuts.  I feel like I can't because it isn't my news to break.  But I also feel that some of them will really be hurt by this and I'd like to warn them to keep an eye out for other options.  Yet I can't go there.  How will it go over when we get into a million dollar renovated building with more than double the capacity plus some new computer equipment that boss lady is going to program herself?  And these employees are supposed to take this on with a pay cut?  This offends my sense of justice and fairness.  But it's life.  Working people all over the country deal with this kind of thing every day.  I'm no better or more worthy of a nice working environment than they are.  And people around the world don't have it nearly this good. 

I work hard and I enjoy my co-workers and the work itself is rewarding when I do it well.  I'm really trying on my attitude.  Despite the fact that bosses are people I'm struggling to respect, I do want to do a good job for them and help them through this stressful transition to the new place.  I'm really concerned with how jumpy, agitated and ADD I've seen them become, and it seems to only be getting worse.  It's the stress of the amount they are juggling right now.  The problem is that kind of jumpiness and agitation is catching.  It rattles the staff.  ARGH! 

I want them to know that when I'm there they can be away and not have to worry.  That's what I told them when they hired me and that hasn't changed.  But I can't make the choice for them on whether or not to trust me, or whether or not to worry.  I see that more realistically now that I know them better.  It was an unattainable goal.  I'm thinking some of the promises they made early on will be pretty unlikely to develop as well.  I'm actually ok with that because I made it clear coming in that I'd like to help them through their transition.  And that's the promise I made in terms of how long I expected to be around.  So at the moment I expect to see them through the transition, hopefully help get things settled into place, and see where the pay rate settles out.  It will be interesting.

Well, the horrid customer of the day slot went unfilled today.  Amazing! 

Staunton’s umbrella man came in today and the teeny boppers were asking each other if he was homeless.  They say he gets mean and abusive but he just kinda talked to himself and prattled on and on.  I gave him water and the piece he asked for plus some pizza that would have gone to the mission anyway.  He kept talking about being in a rush.  Where does a homeless man have to get to in a hurry?  He completely refused to make eye contact.  I thought that was sad.

There were a number of really sweet customers today.  The boss took one guy’s order and didn’t tell me about it.  I found burned pizza in the oven and started looking around for who it belonged to.  I finally found the guy and explained what had happened and got him fresh pizza.  He was sweet and understanding.  He knew the boss had taken his order and forgotten about it, but he didn’t seem to really mind at all.  Sweet human!

There were two guys that came in and sat at the bar that is out of sight from the service area.  I found pizza that boss man had put in the oven and couldn’t figure out where it went.  So as soon as I interrupted boss man (who was sitting at a table talking to friends) to ask him where it belonged – I saw those two guys that were out of sight.  They were sweet about the extra wait.  Their food was really hot because it had been in the oven a bit too long.  But they were sweet humans also!

And finally, the two real sweathearts of the day were a pair of guys who were moving.  It was 100 degrees today in Staunton, not the kind of day I’d want to be moving boxes.  I sure didn’t see this one coming at all.  I took a carry out order for a Newsleader Pizza, which is a gourmet pizza with shrimp on it.  I’ve never had it but it sounds excellent.  It’s named after the local newspaper.  Then two fashionistas came by and ordered a cheese pizza.  So the first order comes up and I sent the two ladies out with their fresh hot pizza.  Then another “to go” order comes up and it’s a cheese pizza.  So I told the guy that it was supposed to be for the bar – so he unboxed it and we put it on the bar.  Then the two guys came for their carry out pizza with the shrimp on it.  I looked everywhere, no pizza, the order slip was missing…  no pizza.  Hmmmmmm…  When I started looking everywhere for the pizza and peppering the cooks with questions.  It turned out that I gave the Newsleader Pizza to the two pretty ladies who had ordered the cheese, put their cheese pizza on the pizza bar and so… uh… there would be no new Newsleader Pizza until they made another one.  Gulp!  The two guys had already been waiting for a while because my waitress didn’t know how to help them.  So I explained my mistake to them and told them how long it would be before the new one was finished.  I asked them where they were located and said I’d bring them the new one when it came out.  They went ahead and paid for the pizza while they were there and the guy adds a tip on the receipt.  I told him, “I screwed up your order and you’re going to tip me?  That’s so wrong.”  They basically said I’d have to live with it, which I found really funny indeed and thought that maybe I could.  I got slammed about the time their pizza came up but I worked through it and got their pizza delivered.  I was really sweating, it was soooo hot out there.  So they win the award for the sweetest humans of the day.  I wonder what those ladies thought when they opened up their hot fresh “cheese” pizza that also had shrimp and a few other exotic things on it. 

Lesson of the day:  Open the box and look at the contents before you give it away.

It was another day in the rat race today.  I work in a privately owned boutique pizza shop that has some of the best pizza ever.  There are eight pizzas on the bar and people can order from that or have one specially made for them.  Most people at lunch time are ordering slices.  I work the lunch shift. 

The customer jerk of the day award goes to a horrid little old lady who stood at the check out banging really hard on the counter making this colossal racket until someone came to take her money.  Now if you can picture the whole staff running around working really hard to get pizza and drinks to a restaurant that had just been slammed with customers with this loud racket – it made me want to scream "OFF with her head!"  I mean really!  Some people just never grew out of the terrible twos I guess.  She had at least six decades to try.

I hate the new phase of a job where I have to go through this process of revising my opinions of the business and how it's run.  No matter how good the reputation of a business is, there are things you find out after you've been there a while.  And that can be a challenge.  This place comes with a good reputation in the community that comes basically from giving away a lot of pizza.  We send the stuff that is past selling at full price to the mission and I think that's great.  We're closed on Sundays due to the owner's religious views and they have also decided to be closed Monday.  But they still call their staff at home various times throughout those days to talk about work. 

I'm working my flab off and some days I am not sure I can really do this much longer.  I'm prepping for the lunch rush by myself, a job which used to be done by two servers.  And when boss lady or boss man come in, they look around and see what isn't done yet and make me aware of it.  Now, if you can picture me working at full tilt, knowing full well what I have to get done and what time I have to do it in, gauging my time trying to work efficiently…   Then picture someone in my face telling me that such and such needs to be done…  well, it looses it's charm pretty quick.

Boss lady seems to suggest from time to time that I shouldn't be taking tips because I'm getting paid the manager's rate.  But she doesn't hire waitresses, so "managing" actually means some kind of weird wonder woman version of waitressing.  I take care of my own tables and watch over the other servers and see that they are doing ok.  The worst part though is watching over the bosses.  They are really known for putting pizza in the oven and walking away and forgetting it.  That basically means that I have to watch over everything I see them doing and make sure it gets finished.  Otherwise the place starts getting smoky from blackened pizza.  If they would stay out of the fray it would be easier, but one can't tell one's boss to get the heck out of the way.  It just doesn't work that way.  They are both so ADD that they aren't completing much of anything right now, so it really gets to be a challenge.  They don't realize how disconnected they are from the process but among the staff the consensus is to just keep them out of the way so we can get our work done. 

I'm really learning a lot from these two.  Here are some of the things I'm learning.  People want to do a good job and just need to space to get it done, get out of their way and affirm a job well done.  Let them figure out their own way of accomplishing the task – your way will not be the only way to get it done.  Just make sure they understand what the product needs to be, and let them achieve that their own way.  Leave your executioner hat at home and be a supportive force instead.  Staff that never gets an "atta boy/girl" will contemplate being "outa here" and moral suffers.  When moral suffers you're more likely to start getting serious attitude.  Finally, if you are going to choose to reach beyond your ability and live in a frazzled and frantic place, then don't take it out on your staff.  They don't have to share your fanaticism.  And it's unreasonable to expect them to do so.

So, if I can take the money I earn and the lessons I learn into my next new business, then this job could really be doing me a huge favor.  Provided I don't flip over to the dark side dealing with demanding little old ladies.

The saga of the new job continues.  I’ve worked at a pizza place for about two weeks now.  And today.  Well…  Today was a day!  The lunch rush on Tuesdays is typically one of our busiest days all week for some unknown reason.  To cover the lunch rush (just on the service side) we need two waitresses and the boss lady jumping in to help.  And that’s pushing it.  Today it was just me and so I did the work of two servers to prep for the lunch rush.  Then it all hit from about 11:30 – 12:15.  The new waitress I was supposed to train showed up at 12:15 after I was about to borrow a kitchen knife for personal use.  Boss lady helped to whatever degree she could but she’s just had shoulder surgery so she’s not supposed to lift a pan or open the oven door, let alone carry stuff to the table.  I had seven full tables plus people at the two bars and it got pretty insane.  If I would have had time for a rational thought it would have been something to do with throwing myself from a bridge.  Boss man gets flustered when it gets really slammed, and then he really starts getting annoying and in the way.  He already is a pretty jumpy little creature anyway.  I didn’t get flustered, I was mentally in the game, but my hands started to shake.  Now that wasn’t a big deal to me until one darling little construction worker decided to point it out to the other guys at his table.  I wanted to lose my pacifism on the lot of them but they were nice to me in spite of how I messed up their order.  They didn’t get the best service but hey, they could certainly see how slammed we were.  So after things calmed down a while I started in training the new girl and she seemed to catch on pretty well.  Good thing, this is pretty much a sink or swim kind of job. 

There’s more.  I’m on the schedule for the rest of the week.  And who works the lunch shift with me?  Well, the girl who can’t make it until 12:15 – 12:30.  And Boss Lady says she can’t find someone else to work days.  So there is no end in sight. 

I went from work to the shoe store to see if I could find a pair of shoes that wouldn’t rub up blisters or crunch my toes into irrational configurations or generally hurt like heck.  My feet hurt so bad that I couldn’t answer the simple question that the sales clerk asked me.  Pathetic!  I settled on a pair of crocs.  Now I’ve been known to make fun of these shoes and people who are willing to wear such atrocities on their feet.  Well, I’m the chagrined owner of a new pair of crocs myself and they feel pretty good on in spite of all my feet have been through today.  To pacify my aesthetic sensibilities I also purchased a couple of croc flowers to decorate them with.  That’s lame but maybe my feet will thank me tomorrow. 

Uh, please tip your waitress nicely, and often.  LOL!  ;)

Yesterday’s sermon was about Gideon.  This really unassuming humble guy got up and spoke about Gideon in a way that really captured me Sunday.  Sad to say that is really unusual because if there isn’t something to go with the intellectual content I have a hard time staying tuned in.  I love Gideon; he and I go way back.  I’m always thinking I’m nobody but there is something in the back of my spirit that dreams of bigger things, bigger adventures, and even a desire for greatness.  This preacher guy with the sweet spirit talked about how God sees us the way He created us, we view ourselves very differently.  God says to Gideon “Mighty Warrior” and Gideon goes looking all over the place to see who God is talking to, because certainly it couldn’t be him.  I get that.  Moses got that.  There are others who get that.  And Gideon struggled to believe the truth about himself.  He saw the fire burn up the food he had prepared, he saw the angel vanish from the place where he had just been standing.  He saw the fleece dry with the ground wet, and again the fleece wet with the ground dry.  Over and over God confirmed Himself to Gideon while he struggled and wrestled with how these things could possibly be true.  And then God started messing with his army.  So Gideon sent the scared ones home.  Then he watched them drink from the creek and sent some more home.  I can picture his journal reading something like this:  “God, do you even like me at all?  You’re going to send me up against the biggest army I’ve ever seen and you want me to go with 300 wirey little guys?  Well, I might as well die an honorable death, that way I’ll be spoken of with respect when I’m gone.  I can be somebody in death at least.”  But God continued to patiently work to confirm His word to Gideon.  This time he got to overhear the enemy as they pronounced their own defeat.  And Gideon defeated them. 

I often wonder how it was for Gideon on the evening of that battle.  He must have sat at a fire with a weary body thinking back over his day.  He had seen a lot of death that day, and he probably had some cuts and bruises.  But three hundred men had captured an amazing victory.  Did he turn to God in absolute humility and confess his shock and amazement that the God of the universe would use him to do this?  Did he turn to the mirror and smile at himself and puff out his chest and say “I know you could do it ol' chap!”  I don’t know.  I’d love to sit down with Gideon and ask him questions about what it was like.  I wonder if he ever ceased struggling and wrestling with the truth of who God created him to be in contrast with what he believed of himself. 

Abram was a tired old man with plenty of wealth and no one to leave it to.  He was a childless man.  God gave him a son and then asked for him back.  And Abram started to obey before the angel said ‘just kidding.”  God called him Abraham.  God made his children like the stars.

Elijah was a lunatic who poured water on the wood and provoked and picked at his enemies like a mosquito asking to be swatted.  But God poured out fire from heaven and toasted everything.  Then God visited him when Elijah started hanging out on the mental ward section of the desert.  How amazing that encounter must have been.

Joseph, that annoying dreamer child, the convict with abandonment issues, became the best friend of Pharaoh and the brightest star in his family, a provider and administrator and gifted in interpreting dreams.

Moses was a judge and liberator, but he went about it his own way until that blew up in his face and he had to scurry off to the desert for fear of his life.  Then the burning bush thing rocked his world.  There is a little verse about God considering squashing him like a bug but Moses’ wife did something that saved his neck.  I wonder what that was all about.  Was Moses trying to weasel out of this gig that God had planned for him?  We humans are slow to comprehend and slow to believe.  But Moses grew into God’s design, and we know his name all these generations later. 

Rahab was a women used and abused by many men.  But God made her a haven and protector.  And the spies that she protected liberated her and her family.

Ruth was an abandoned and bereft woman, but God made her steadfast and her fidelity to Naomi brought her into God’s redemption plan.

Joshua had to be reminded to be strong and courageous repeatedly.  Was he really a weak and cowardly man that God transformed?  How many nights lingering in the Presence of God after Moses and turned in did it take till the old weak and cowardly man began to give way to the strong and courageous man?

John was the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  He really lost his head.

Peter was all over the charts, one day up and the next day.  One day he was recognized for listening to the Holy Spirit and another time it’s “Get thee behind me satan.”  But God called him Peter  - rock. 

Paul was the guy who held truth above all.  But he went about it his own way and had really quite the list of martyrs to his credit.  Then he “saw the light” on the road and it wasn’t a UFO.  His grip on truth transformed him into a door keeper for those people out there beyond the Jews – the Gentiles.  That’s how I (a gentile) came to be writing about him.

David was a man whose whole life was a search for the beauty and presence of God, from shepherd to king – that was his primary vision.  He faced his Goliaths and engaged his own epic battle to break through the garbage and grief of life to get to God.  And God saw a man after this heart.

I don’t get it.  I look today back over a checkered history.  I see failures and triumphs.  Times that I won big, and times that I lost even bigger.  I remember people who are not a part of my life any more because our relationship was broken.  I remember those who misused me and, sadly, those I’ve misused.  I remember times when I’ve been a good friend and times when I’ve gotten into the face of a good friend and said some really horrible things – even with good intentions.  I’m nobody.  I fight the truth of that because it isn’t what I want to be, but that doesn't change the truth.  I haven’t done anything exceptional that hasn’t already been done by others.  I have not become something amazing or assended to some great height.  But there is something within that God sees when He looks at me.  I shake my head at the silly grin on His face, wondering if He’s really thinking of someone else.  There is greatness within.  Or at least God sees it.  And I have vision for a future that can be most different and unusual.  And I have vision for what I can grow into.  My new employment, the transitions in my life this year, the paradigm shifts I find in my own mind, all this is preparation for what He’s got around the bend on my journey.  I can’t see it from here but I don’t have to.  And maybe I don’t have to even fully believe it as long as I try to listen and do as I’m told.

If He can look at

Gideon and see a warrior,

Moses and see a judge and ruler,

Peter and see a rock,

Abraham and see a father,

Rahab and see a haven,

John the Baptist and see a voice in the desert

John, the disciple that Jesus loved, and see a mystic seer,

Paul and see a doorway for the Gentiles,

David and see a man after his own heart,

Mary and see a mother,

Well, then

There is hope

Sweet hope

For me.

I think the shout still echos through history...  "For the Lord and for Gideon."  Yeah, for the Lord and for nobodies everywhere who dare to hope that God still creates something from nothing, still takes on the impossible, still sees the possibilities in someone like me.  For that kind of God.  Yeah, I'm all for that! 

Well, I’ve been making these little creatures a lot lately - it's a full blown obsession with me.  And I would like to come up with a good name for them.  A friend of mine makes beaded people and she calls hers “dancing divas” – which I think is an awesome name.  She’s not in the business at the moment but I don’t want to snitch her name, cause she may want it again.  So anyway, help me come up with a great little name for my little bead people.  They really crack me up!  They move as you move.  I'm thinking about selling them with a poem about hanging in there or something like that.  Any ideas?

Fresh Garden Salsa Recipe

I consider making salsa more of an art than an exact science so if you are looking for a recipe with a cup of this or two cups of that – well – this isn’t it.  I choose things to go in based on color and texture… and (oh yeah!) flavor.  This is a good two person project, and it really takes a while to cut and cook the ingredients, so convince someone to help you and give salsa artistry a whirl.  And pick up a bag of chips while you're out, you're going to want them!

First things first:

Peel and cube garden tomatoes.  Quantity is determined at my house by how many tomatoes are ripe in the garden.  Put them in a large kettle and bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer, stirring often.  It will have lots of chunks and be pretty watery to start with but as they cook they will become a darker red and thicken up considerably.

Garlic and Heat

Jalapeño peppers – cut off the stem.

Garlic Cloves - peel

Be careful handling jalapenos, any cut part of this pepper will burn your skin, especially sensitive areas of skin.  I whack off the stem end and toss them straight into the blender and rinse my knife and cutting board afterward.  Combine the peeled cloves and peppers in the blender.  I use a simple formula to know how much of each:  One pepper equals one large garlic clove.  So far that’s worked well for me.  Add some liquid from the cooking tomatoes and puree this mixture, careful to fully seal the lid on the blender.  Do not touch this mixture.  Put this mixture in a sauce pan and bring it to boil then turn to simmer.  Some of the heat of the pepper will burn off as it cooks so be careful not to inhale this steam too closely.  Use the hood fan to ventilate but this mixture is fragrant and will make the whole kitchen smell divine!  Be careful as you wash the blender and DO NOT TASTE TEST this mixture – it will cause you pain!

The Chunks

I cook each item on the list separately then combine them in a large stainless steel bowl.  Here are the things that I included in my last batch:

• 2 Green bell peppers – remove seeds, stem and membranes and cube.
• A variety of spicy and sweet peppers from the garden – next year I will not plant these, they just weren’t that great.  Remove seeds, stem and membranes and cube.
• 2 Yellow bell peppers – remove seeds, stem and membranes and cube
• 4 – 5 small Onions – red ones, white ones, whatever color you like.  Cube.
• 1 large Zucchini.  For real!  I cut out the seed section and carefully cube the vegetable leaving the skin on.  I cube these fairly fine.  I used them as an experiment because we have so many right now and have gotten tired of eating them but they are very nutritious.  They turned out to be an excellent addition!
• 2 cans pineapple tidbits in their own juice.  (No heavy syrup)  Drained.  This adds just a bit of sweet to the heat, and it is sooooo good!  I’ve also had salsa with mango in it – that’s really good also.
• 2 large bunches of fresh Cilantro.  Pick out the icky looking leaves and carefully wash and drain.  Cut with kitchen sheers.  This is a heat that hits you mostly in the sinuses and is very yummy in my opinion.

Cut each ingredient and lightly sauté each vegetable with ½ cup of liquid from the simmering tomatoes.  (Don't cook the pineapple or cilantro.)  I separate them because different ingredients require different cooking times.  Vegetables should be underdone because the canning process will finish the cooking.  Remove to a large stainless steal bowl.  If I am making a lot I will use a carefully sterilized 5 gallon bucket.  Stir the bowl of cooked chunky stuff and see what seems to be missing.  Tweak the colors and textures of the mix by cutting and cooking whatever needs to be added.  Drain canned pineapple tidbits and stir them in.  Add the cilantro and stir in.

Putting Together the Salsa

Add the pepper and garlic mixture into the chunks and stir thoroughly.  Add the tomato mixture and stir thoroughly.  If it doesn’t seem thick enough to you, then stir in some canned tomato paste.  Some people also add sugar but I think the pineapple is just the right amount of sweet for the heat, so I don’t.  Break out the chips and taste test the salsa.  Be careful because it can be both temperature hot and spicy hot.  Check it for pepper and garlic flavor especially, and if it needs more of one, carefully blend and cook the addition and stir it in.  Keep in mind that the peppers seem to intensify a bit as the salsa sits, so don’t over do it on the heat.  If you’ll be giving the salsa as gifts then consider keeping it rather mild. 

Canning

Fill pint jars with this mixture and seal the cans using the instructions on your pressure cooker.  Add some chili pepper fabric to the jar lid, tie with ribbon and give to your friends with a bag of those tortilla chips that are shaped like little bowls.  Yummmmm!  Who wouldn't love to get that as a gift?! 

If you give it a whirl, let me know how it goes.

Chow

What are the 10 foods you must have in your refrigerator and/or your kitchen cabinet? 
Submitted by Carol.  

Ten foods that really should be in my kitchen…  If I had to eat for a week on ten things, what would they be?  Most of the time I’m too distracted to really cook, so I’ll choose a few things that are pretty quick and easy.  Hmmm… 

1. Chocolate, well duh!  No nuts please.  Caramel, or maybe peppermint, but no nuts.
2. Salsa – we just made a batch right straight from our garden – SO gooooood!
3. Sour Cream or Ranch Dressing
4. Fish  – isn’t this just about the wonder protein?
5. Bagels – whatever looks healthy.
6. Cream Cheese, preferably with some fruit mixed in.
7. Peanut Butter preferably smooth but the man who buys groceries around here always chooses chunky. 
8. Crackers – whole wheat club crackers
9. Granola Bars – anything Kashi
10. Miracle Whip

Ok, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, peppers, beans and watermelon are all in my garden.  So they should be in my garden until I want to eat them and that doesn’t count in the ten, right?  LOL!