July 15, 2002
Creative Gourmet

Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha ha. I got a job.

I'm sorry to those who looked up to my previous statement, about how no one at 14 should get a job, and here I am suddenly, working.

But do as I say, not as I do. Do not get a job. At least in a fast food court.

I work in the Plimouth Plantation Food Court at the register. Yesterday was my first day. Fortunately, I have today off (thank you, dermatologist!). But I have never lived a longer day.

I got in at 10 AM, and met my boss, Patti. My brother made her out to be a very horrible person, but I wasn't bothered by her. She introduced me to Andy, a cook, and two other employees, Sarah and Michelle. Michelle was smiling all friendly-like, but Sarah didn't seem to like me.

I followed Michelle around for a while, and she showed me where everything was kept, how things were operated, and then we had to do stock. So I had to pile 6 cases of Nesquik, apple juice, and orange juice into the freezer. When I was done, we had to break down the boxes they came in. They should just collapse, but we ended up ripping them in millions of pieces.

Michelle brought me down to the basement, and we passed this little machine.

'That's the punching machine, but you already... you punched in, right?' she asked.

'Uh, no.'

'You didn't punch in?!' she said frantically, grabbing a card and making me fill it out. Then she added a note at the top that said "Came in at 10 didn't know to punch in" and punched it for me. I was embarrassed.

I forget what I had to do next, something like carrying really heavy coffee pitchers somewhere... I don't know. I counted out spoons, knives, forks... 75 each. That was boring. But I could have done it all day. Because soon after, I had to start helping another employee, Chelsea, with the register. I watched her through 5 customers, then she asked if I wanted to get someone a small coke.

I went over to the machine, which was one of those that knew how much to fill the cup with, so you just hit small or large. I didn't hear Michelle say next to me, 'Ice.' Once it was filled, I said, 'Hey I forgot ice!' I poured a little of it out, took another cup and dropped in the ice. There wasn't much coke in, so I pushed the button again, intending to hit the top-it-off button, where you can control how much goes in. I hit the fill-up-the-entire-cup button. So it overflowed for a while. My hands started shaking, and desperately I jammed the cover on the cup.

Throughout the day, I was able to get pretzels, make nachos, make coffee, make icecream, get fries, get sodas, and I was able to determine the difference between Greek, Tossed, and Caesar salads. (Greek has the powdery stuff on top, Tossed has the croutons, and Caesar is the other one.)

The day was dragging by so slowly, I thought it was never going to end. And the people! The people there could not have been ruder.

'This hotdog is cold.'
'I got more fries than this.'
'I didn't want sweetened icetea!'
'Which one is the rootbeer?'

Then they would come up to the window. The window is, as it sounds, a window that connects to the dining room, so that when meals that took a while to make were done, we would call out a number. We said to come up to the window when they were called.

'Is my pizza ready? I'm number 147...'
'Can I get a pretzel? Oh, I have to go in line again?'
'Can I have a plate?'
'We ordered chicken 15 minutes ago.'
'Do we have to wait in here, or will you go outside to call the number too?'

Ahh morons. Oh man, and the foreigners. There was one French guy, and his mouth was foaming and he was shaking and I felt really bad, but I couldn't understand what he or his translator was saying.

They closed the kitchen, so the people couldn't get sandwiches or chicken or anything. That's when I used the register. I sucked, I dropped change everywhere, I told them the wrong totals... I sucked. It was literally the longest day I ever lived. And I didn't sit down for 5 hours. (Seriously, I stood from 12 to 5.) Now my shins are throbbing, I can't put any weight on my heels, and I'm just gonna sit for the rest of my life.

Today just wasn't a writing day for me... I never like writing out my day, recapping everything. Plus, Tom DeLonge was on TV, so, you know. I took a little break to watch. Then there was a makeover story, so I took another break. And I didn't use a thesaurus today, so I wish I had more sophisticated and sarcastic writing today. oh well.

- Molly{12:39 pm}

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