So after we finished all the paperwork (incredible how many times the same people want the same information) I stayed up with our driver, an awesome guy named Randy, and read a book.
I'm really enjoying this book. It's called "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom. I'm really glad my mom asked me to read it. Very exciting.
Anyway, I read till about 12:30 Then read scriptures till quarter till 1. Then I finally went to bed and pretty well enjoyed an uneventful night.
This morning, after sleeping 6 hours broken up by the cold of the bunk room and the hard bed and pile of blankets I'd used for a pillow, I was woken up 45 minutes before my alarm went off by Ms Caruso's alarm. (how rude :)) So I packed up my stuff and put it in my car. One of the people for today's crew was already here so I was getting ready to leave when Ms Caruso reminded me we had some paperwork to fill out that gave an evaluation of my performance last night. So we got it together and brought it outside to do so we could talk to the other people that were there while we filled it out. Mostly it was Ms Caruso that needed to do it, but at the end I had a page to fill out. It took awhile because of all the visiting but it finally got filled out, signed and copied and I went home informing her that I would drop it off at the station near Chick-fil-A when I went to work later today; I never did get there though.
When I got home I ate some of the leftover pancakes and fried spam from breakfast.
I love fried spam! Sounds kinda gross I know, but it's really tasty! It's easy too since all you have to do is throw slices of spam into a heated pan. It pretty well fries itself.
While I was eating Mom talked to us about getting together a three months supply of food for an emergency. She's been trying to get that together for awhile but has been having a hard time since people have a tendency of getting into more of the food than what she had planned.
When breakfast was over I changed out of my volunteer uniform and Joyce and I headed over to the Poffenbarger's for a fundraiser so we could raise money to go to camp this year. The fundraiser was mulching the Poff's yard. It's pretty big and most of it needed mulching. It is a beautiful yard though, full of flowers and trees. They must have had a landscaper do it then just weeded and mulched it every year themselves with the help of the youth in the ward. I know most years in the spring I hear about how some of the guys from church have gone over there and spent the day doing "yard work" but I've never been before. Joyce and I couldn't stay the whole time, but we did stay till most of the yard was done. It had gotten a little warm but thankfully the weather had been pretty nice for the endeavour. We left after the lunch break and just before they started with the last load of mulch. And To each of us Mama P endowed $20 for our camp funds.
We left the Poff's and got home with just enough time for me to help Mom put some tomatoes in a temporary planted spot, weed my garden, harvest my lettuce and take a shower. Of course though, by the time I got out of the shower all but one of the people who were going to the next destination had left. That other person being Christopher; that next destination being a constitution class.
We made it just before class started. It was being held in the back room of Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, one of my favorite places! Dad, Carolyn, Samuel, Christopher, Joyce and I are all taking it along with a few other people, some of which have already taken it and want to teach their own classes.
I had the most awful time staying awake! The first half hour was watching a video and, not that it was too bad, but it was not very animated at all. After dozing awhile I finally thought to follow along in the workbook on the table; that helped so much. The only problem was there was only ten minutes till I had to leave for work and I was still sleepy.
I did however make it to work safely. I got there on time and I got the position I wanted for the day. I got to bag food. Recently that's mostly what I've wanted to do. Baggers are the ones with the least contact with customers; and tonight, since I'm in charge of making sure the front of the store gets closed, I would need any extra time I could to get stuff done. It shouldn't be bad in the way of participation however; Priscilla, Paola and Dawn are three of the six I started with and Mark would be a big help till he left. Despite the fact I do have such a great team I am not a fan of being in charge. I feel grateful that this manager thinks I'm so capable and trustworthy, but all the other times I've had this responsibility we haven't left the store till 11 or after. And I always get frustrated cause there's a lot of people that come while we're trying to get stuff done. And, albeit I love this manager, an older, larger man in his sixties who reminds me of a teddy bear, I don't tend to see him an awful lot during closing time. And tonight was no exception.
It wasn't too bad when I got there. All the trash cans had been emptied and things were relatively slow, but I was soooo tired! Still drowzy from class, yard work and lack of sleep the night before all I wanted was to go home and sleep in my own bed. Things only got better when I had to bag food for the drive-thru window and the front counter at the same time, make milkshakes and made me get behind, and had to take food out to a customer who's food had taken so long getting to us that we'd asked her to park. I'm glad my co-workers are so nice or I probably woulda left. The person who was taking money and handing out the food in the drive thru window (Paul) was going on break and offered to take the food to the woman in the parking lot; Tom, the teddy bear manager, came and bagged the front counter; and Kristen, one of our newer employees, came and helped me catch up on the orders in the drive-thru. It always seems to be when I stop to make someone a milkshake that I fall behind, I guess I need to stop doing that.
I was so ready for my break! When Priscilla had gone on hers with Paul, I had inherited the headset to take orders from her, Paola had gone and taken the money at the window, and no one had come to bag food. Finally someone, I'm not sure who, came and relieved Paola (understandable, she got here first) then Priscilla came and took back the headset. I caught them up on drinks, food and got Priscilla more ice as I had used quite a bit of it while making drinks for drive-thru then Tom sent me to take my break. I just prayed I would have the courage to return and finish the night.
Actually I prayed for some things that, looking back now, were pretty silly. Like "few customers", I not really plausable for a Saturday night. Not like I doubted it could happen, but a normal Saturday includes lots of customers.
I did, although, have a very enjoyable dinner. I got to sit with Zack "Scratcher" and Paola, two good friends and we had a blast. We talked about computers, Paola and I both trying to get Zack to diagnose our problems from the limited information we could give him; about how Zack "stalked" some of the girls at work (he really doesn't he's just really friendly and knows a lot about them), and about my service project and the camps Paola and I are going to. We laughed so hard and had such fun I thought maybe I could get thru the evening.
Since they'd both started their breaks before me I was eventually left alone and so I got an ice cream. Unfortunately I got it just a few minutes before I had to start work again and had to eat it really fast. I managed to do it with only one minor brain freeze, but I also got back on the clock late. Oh well.
The night went pretty fast-paced. At one point my fav manager, Terri, came back from delivering food to a prom and came to say goodbye before going home and I almost started crying. She said goodbye and I just looked at her and said in a quiet voice "please don't go". Since she'd left for the delivery I'd had a rush in drive-thru and hadn't been able to keep below the desired 5 minutes for service, had gotten in such a tissy with the person in charge of the kitchen I'd almost caused irrepiarable damage to our relationship and had been given the list of things that needed to be done to close the store and hadn't been able to get to any of it! The long miserable night that awaited me loomed before my mind and my heart had sunk all the way to my feet. Terri, even if I hadn't seen her all day, was my only consoler at that point and I thought if she would stay I might be able to make it through the night. But I completely understood when she told me she wanted to go home. Not only was this not a fun place to be on Saturday night, but she'd been there since 5 that morning, it was then 6:30. She did come over and give me a hug upon seeing my distress and told me if I had any problems to call her and she would come. With her arms wrapped around my neck from behind in a warm and comforting embrace I had to use all my will to keep from breaking down. I was glad she couldn't see my face, I couldn't say anything or make any acknowledging gesture, but she didn't see my face. I wanted her to stay, but I knew she was tired and I wanted her to go home and be with her kids. At least I was unselfish then.
It ended up Priscilla did most of the closing stuff for the drive-thru area and I did the headset. I felt like a complete failure while doing it, but by 9 o'clock I looked at the list and found almost everything was done. Mark and Dawn had both left, but before doing that they had both gotten a lot done. Oh, I forgot there was one other person who got a lot done but left early, Joey. Joey is pretty new here but he did the bathrooms and checked the parking lot for trash before he left. Go Joey! My greatest asset at that point was Paola. She's too cool, she has picked out her fav things to do for closing and they just happen to be the most time consuming ones. Yeah girl you know I love you! :) Kristen needed to be guided more but whatever I asked her to do got done.
Later in the night we got Teddy. He's in his 20's and has been working here awhile but doesn't close much and usually works in the kitchen during the morning. He's fab though cause since the morning crew is mostly older women he does lots of the lifting, fetching and refilling things like ice cream, shake base and lemonade. So though he doesn't close he knows a lot of the the stuff that needs to be done. With his and Priscilla's help we got everything done by 10:20. A A whole 40 minutes before we usually finish let alone leave!
I was so happy to get home. Everything I'd been entrusted with at work was done with the help of lots of team work and now I could go to sleep and feel good about my day. I'd had a bit of a fit with Kerry (the kitchen person) but I'd kept myself from saying something too awful and tomorrow I can go to church and take the sacrament. That feels so good!
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