Required Work Post

Posted by JessAnn on , , , ,
For those that don't know, I work as a waitress in a Native-operated Casino/Hotel.  There are only two girls on my shift, myself and pregger-Jess.  Because pregger-Jess can't work in smoking, she has the earlier shift and I take the late shift.  We tend to work really well together and generally there are no problems on our shift, regarding shitty service, because we help each other out as needed.

Last night, was concert night.  Buddy Guy, whom I had never heard of before, was playing.  Also, there were three buses, the last of which left around three.   Overnight buses suck by themselves.  Concerts suck by themselves.  Put the two together, especially when the buses are from Cleveland, and the night is going to be full of suck.


Sorry, you just suck.

Because of my lack of car, and my ride's starting work time, I arrived at the SAC an hour and a half before my scheduled shift.  Joy for my managers!  "JessAnn is here anyways, lets put her to work!"  Yeah, I tried to ignore them and read my book, but it didn't work.  (Not that I cared, it was just the point.)  Between 10pm and 11.30pm I did nearly $300 dollars in sales.  I think my twitter said it all:
"Ahhhhhh!"

My favorite part of the night?  When all the printers in the kitchen decided they were on strike.  Yes, that's correct, pregger-Jess and I thought we were putting orders back to the kitchen to be cooked, but instead, we were feeding the same monster that eats the socks from your dryer.


"Gimmie your socks and orders!!"

One table took great advantage of the sock monster's craving for order tickets, 103.  103 had been transferred to me, as the original waitress wanted to head home, standard procedure.  I go back to check on the food some five minutes after the table was transferred (she said she just put the order in, it was two orders of wings, that takes around nine minutes).  Oh joy, she put the order in fifteen minutes before it was transferred to me, add my five minutes of dicking around, the wings have been in for a total of twenty minutes.

But, where are my wings?  "We don't have a ticket for wings," one of the cooks says to me.  Oh joy.  I pick up the expo ticket on my side of the line and hand it to him.  He reads it, looks at the time on it, "Oh shit.  I never got this!"  Luckily, Chef Pretty was walking by and he heard the ruckus.

What do I tell my table, Chef?  "Tell them.. tell them we ran out of wings and had to get fresh.  Yeah, tell them that and that we need five minutes."

Wonderful.  I go to the dining room, fake smile in place, head held high, and explain the situation.

"This happened to us last time too!"  Ah, fuck.

Chef Pretty gave them each an extra half order of wings, to apologize for the wait.  He even left the comforts of the kitchen to explain to the table himself what had "happened," not something most chefs are willing to do.

But, sadly, 103 was still unhappy.  They were standing around looking for me when I delivered the food.  "We were about to leave," the man says, "this is ridiculous." 

 Whatever, we gave you extra food, shut it.  "I'm sorry for the wait sir, but Chef did give you each an extra half order of wings for your paitence."

"Is it half off day at this table?" the lady quips, "Tell your manager it's buy one get one free on chicken wings today."

Aw, shit.  "Will do m'am"

Needless to say, they ate every fucking bite of the three orders of wings we gave them and payed for only one, with comp points.  Luckily for me, Chef Pretty was already in a bad mood before my lovely table, so now I can fear his wrath that much more.

Pet Peeve #1

Posted by JessAnn on , , ,
Recently, I've been playing Kingdom Hearts again.  (I saw Chain of Memories for the PS2 and couldn't resist!) It's made me realise one of my biggest pet peeves: Disney.

Not Disney, as a whole, but actually, more Disney characters.  Well, no, not really.  I don't know what to call my pet peeve, exactly.  Maybe Disney animators?  The people in charge of Disney characters?  I'll give you an example (or two) of what I'm trying to say:

The Genie - Even after good ol' Al sets him free from the droll life of servitude he still has the wrist shackles on.
Maybe they're a fashion statement?

This wouldn't bother me so much, if they wouldn't have made his bling so strongly tied to his being free from the masters of the lamp.  (Although, I do have to admit, when I was GISing Genie, I did see a few pictures of him without the shackles-o-gold, so I could have misplaced anger here.)


The Beast - This is a big one for me, as this is my absolute favorite movie/ story/ play/ musical/ kink.  If you go Disney World (or Land) and you get the chance to see Belle and her prince (I like to think his name is Christopher), he is always in beastie form.  Now, I get that he's more reconizable as a horrible looking, yet sweet, monster as opposed to a hot slab-o-hunk human.

This would be so much easier on the eye.

Plus, maybe, finally, Belle's loveable prince would get a name.  A real name, not just whatever the directors decided to call him three quarters of the way through the commentary on the DVD.  (Hopefully they won't call him "Adam," like some fans claim that "The Disney Encyclopedia" calls him.)

Toasters (And the girl who catches them on fire.)

Posted by JessAnn on , , , ,
Last night, during an extremely boring shift at work, I found myself contemplating what I should write about in here.  As with anything, I had many ideas in mind for this space up until it was actually created.  My mind was blank, until I was in the car this morning, on my way home.

My bestest friend, Kara, and I stopped at Mac Daddy D's (McDonald's for all you not in the know) and got breakfast.  Halfway through her McMuffin, she turns to me and asks, "How do you burn an english muffin?"

"Well," I began, giving her the look I often do when she asks stupid questions like that.

Thus, inspiration hit me smack in the head, much like a V8 commercial.

We have an industrial toaster where I work.  You know, the kind that the toast kind of rolls through, instead of just sitting in one spot warming up.  It's nice in one respect (and one only), you can fit nearly a whole loaf of bread in this thing at once.  But, this stupid toaster has a mind of it's own.  You can put two pieces of white bread in at the same time and on the same setting, and you'll get out two pieces of toast - one of which is burnt to a crisp.

Also, the toaster has it out for me.  Seriously.

When I first started working at the Seneca Cafe, a year and a half ago, the toaster and I got along.  Sure, every once in a great while, I'd get a piece of raisin toast stuck in the back and burn my hand pulling it out.  Well, after cussing the toaster out for the third time, it's decided that I'm public enemy number one and I must  be destroyed.

Example 1: I was minding my own business, making white toast for a customer, when the toaster started to crackle.  Toasters aren't supposed to crackle.  I run over to see what the hell is going on, and sure enough, the stupid thing is on fire, again.  I tried to pull the crumb tray out, hoping that'll cause the toaster to get it's act together.

Normally, this works.  

Not today though, no.  The actual heating element of the toaster had decided it was sick of just sitting there, burning my toast all day.  No, it wanted to go on the same fun ride that the toast went on.  Then, the heating element managed to get stuck in the conveyer belt.

I had no idea what the hell to do.  So I did what I do best.  I yelled "fire" a few times.  We work in a kitchen, this should have people running.  The cooks stood there and stared at me like I had three heads.  After the fourth time of yelling it, the sous chef, Chanin, came running from the other end of the kitchen.  

She tried turning it off, but the thing kept crackling.  So, she ended up unplugging the toaster.  With an amused look on her face, she asks me, "How do you manage to break things without even really touching them?"

The fire caused the toaster to be taken away for a whole week.  To make up for the missing toaster, maintenance brought us two normal, push down toasters.  It was the best week of my life.

Stay tuned for Example 2.

I've caved.

Posted by JessAnn on ,
For the past few months, I've been noticing things happening around me.  Well, I've noticed things before, but lately I've been retelling these things as little snippet stories in my head.  I've always wanted a place just for my random thought-stories, but never really had the gumption to create a special place just for those little darlings of ramble.

Well, this morning, while purchasing way-too-much chocolate, I finally decided to create a home for the strange, yet normal, things that happen around me.  Who knows if I'll ever update this space ever again, but the fact that it's here is a start.

Welcome, to the start of something still unkown.