*Autumn* My new job - long one

[Guest guest]

Hey Autumn,

Thanks for the congrats - you are everyone's biggest cheerleader & I know

it's greatly appreciated. As for my new job. I'm working for an imported /

specialties food store.

They make home made cannolis. We import proscuito, all kinds of meats &

cheeses, make our own gyro meat, hummus, tabouli, pesto, and we bake the

bread daily - it is a great shop. The owner is this rather tall Italian man

but he sounds like he's fresh off the boat from Israel. He & his wife run

the store & they seem like wonderful people. He's a bit hard to understand,

but he's a very shrewd business man (a quality I hold in high esteem). He's

very direct, which some in the shop read as being harsh, mean, insulting or

rude - we had an encounter the other day that was kind of funny actually.

There is a procedure to everything and I am learning. So when I was

instructed to clean the pans off of a shelf, I was told to wipe off the

shelf it self & the wall behind it (this area gets dirty quickly, because

all the food drips onto the shelf). Now the pans are in 3 separate spots

along the deli counter shelf, so as I would take out the pans to clean them

off, I washed down the shelf & the wall. Then my boss came behind me & told

me to " hurry up " .

It was an hour later when he asked me if I had washed down the entire

shelf. I told him no, just the spots where we keep the pans. He looked at me

kind of funny, and asked me - here I will quote him.

" Did you think this wasn't part of the store? Tell me what you were

thinking! "

So I did... I told him, " You told me to hurry up, so I did. I assumed

that when we cleaned these other things, we would then clean the shelfing

underneath them. "

He liked that. He smiled, nodded, told me that was OK & to go ahead &

clean the rest of the shelf. No big deal. I don't think the girl that is

training me has ever been that direct in response to him. She seems almost

afraid of him. She was warning me about his manner of speaking, and when my

rather sizable back end knocked something over & broke it, she made it out

like he was going to freak. When I told him about it though, he wasn't even

fazed.

The only problem I have is that he seems to want me to train on my own

time (for example, he's inclined to tell me to clock out, and then go back

to him because there is something he wants to show me. That something can

take anywhere from 30 minutes to more than an hour). I'm paying someone to

watch my kids at that time of the day though and as a single mom - I can't

do that if I am not being paid.

This was my first week though & he was pleased. He even told me I had

done " very, very good work " . One of the guys who has been there only a few

months caught that one. He stopped cold & just stood with his jaw agape. 30

seconds later he looked at me & said " WOW " . My boss doesn't dole out the

compliments freely, so when you get one it is a big deal.

I think this will be a good job for me. I basically get to walk around

feeding people, convincing them to eat food they didn't know they wanted,

making food or cleaning.

So far I have been able to avoid the foods I love, but know aren't going

to keep me on track while working at this job. I never thought I'd see

proscuito or cannoli this side of the mason / dixon, but then again, it isn

t that I can't have them, I just can't have them every day!

Cannoli is a Christmas tradition in my family - you have to have at least

one with your coffee on Christmas morning. Our 1st Christmas here I couldn't

find a bakery anywhere that made them. I ended up having to drive 2 towns

over - God bless the guy that opened up his cafe' on Christmas eve day,

because he understood! Thats the south for ya - its crazy & nothing like

home, but then there are these bright spots - like Mr. Petronella, that make

the heat & humidity almost worth enduring.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. Working this much has really cut into

my adult exchange time.

Have a great weekend!!

Fawn