cloud nine

Holy wow! It's been a while since I've written, eh?

Since becoming a Lethbian, I've acquired employment. I applied at The Keg, Boston Pizza and Montana's. Montana's was my least favorite place to eat out of the three, and thus I really didn't want to work there. At all. But alas, Montana's was the first (and only) place to phone me for an interview. And they loved me. And the fact that I had experience and full-time availability was apparently exactly what they were looking for. So that's where I work. And I have to say that it's really not been terrible at all. I had this awful idea that all I would be cooking was steak and burgers and that I would be only doing really monotonous things like flipping burgers all day and that's not at all what I wanted in the least. But it's been really great so far, and I've officially been there a week.

So I'm a cook now. I work in a kitchen again, and I loveloveLOVE it. So much. So much so, that I would actually contemplate doing it for the rest of my life, except for the fact that I don't eat much when I cook. I feed others but not myself, which could be a cause for problems if I do this for long, extended periods of time. (Camp, anyone?) But it's been absolutely amazing so far. Well, after my first shift. That left much too much to be desired. I was working an evening shift and had some 14 year old yahoo who didn't know what on earth he was doing, training me. It was a long, tiring shift of much confusion. For the rest of the week, I've been working day shifts. I have to say that day shifts rock! When I work evening shifts, I'm the oldest in the kitchen by a long shot, but when I'm on days, I'm not. I think I'm actually the youngest. But I like it. The guys I work with are great and are incredibly understanding that I can't do everything all at the same time, or even sometimes remember how to make some things.

My first shift was eventful in the fact that Mark (the usual day cook/the guy who's training me) taught me how to light the kitchen on fire. No joke there, either. The flames on the grill were touching the inside of the hoods (aka - the ceiling), and were, I'd say, about 5 or 6 feet tall. It was awesome. But very dangerous. Had the fire system gone off, we would had to have closed the kitchen for the day. Which would have sucked.

Another interesting shift was the one I met the owner of the restaurant two days later. That's the day I almost flooded the building when I was trying to fill the steam tables in the morning before we opened. While talking to him. (Oh, and for those who are at camp, guess what my new boss' name is? Yup. Rick. It's really trippy, because they're nothing alike.) But all the water was mopped up before we opened, and everything was fixed. I also learned to ask which valves and switches were tricky after that one.

All in all it's been nice; working again, meeting new people and learning to cook different things. I'm one of two girls who work in the kitchen, and the other one only works evenings, so that makes my days interesting too, being the only girl. Working with guys is actually a lot more fun than I had anticipated. I don't have to be the best or the strongest or have to do the jobs that no one else wants to do because they're too gross (or whatever). I like it. Working with them makes me push myself to do everything that they do, even though I don't have the strength or the skills yet. All of which is challenging beyond all reason, but it's shown them that I'm not just another useless girl who only wants to work with a bunch of guys. I've come out with some really interesting bruises, though, which is pretty dang sweet. And many new skills, too. I really hope that it's going to stay this fun for a long, long time, because going off my first week's experiences, I'm not likely to quit any time soon.

Oh! And in other news, Aileen and I are going to be moving soon! Hopefully to a half-duplex really near my work, Aileen's work, the College and the University. So that'll be a blast. And Aileen's getting a puppy! And Steph's wanted a puppy for a long time, so we're getting her one as well, and I'm going to be caring for him until she comes to Lethbridge for school in the fall. I'm super pumped to have puppies around so soon, and for Een and I to have our own place. And now that y'all are updated on what's going on around here, I'm going to go and hang with the boys.

Until next time, keep fit and have fun!
~Blackbird