Employee Eval

Over the last few days everyone has had their employee evaluations at work and I have to say that it didn't go badly.  Not that I was expecting it to, but as a bad liar, an occasional trouble-maker (never at that job, I swear!), and one who tends to run her mouth, I have the natural inclination to feel like I'm getting in trouble every time I have to talk to someone in authority.  My parents call me and my first thought is that someone died (I know, not really getting in trouble, but as a teenager when they called I thought I was in trouble.  I would have to say that thinking someone has died is not an improvement on thinking I'm in trouble).  I get called into the boss's office at Primary Job and I'm wondering if they've found something I did wrong (even if I can't fathom what that might possibly be) and now I'm going to get fired.  EVERYONE gets called to do employee evals and I still feel like I'm getting called to the principals office.*

We got gift cards (to a fabulous local cheese shop where I will pick up something delicious to make with my beau) and a bonus based on how many shifts we've worked.  I haven't worked a lot of them, so mine isn't that big, but I'm glad that everyone else that works more than I do gets a bonus.  The deserve it.  There was also a little drawing for some additional gift cards (I didn't win).

Miscellaneous stuff:

• If our pizzeria was a horror movie, general consensus is that I'd survive.
• We have a new beer that's kindof weak but would make a good introductory beer to someone who doesn't want to be overwhelmed**.  The brewery is doing their grand opening this weekend and I will definitely be there.
• I'm glad that I didn't decide to pick up delivering again.  Every time I run low on cash I think about how much nicer things would be if I was still delivering and brought home a bunch of cash.  Then I remember how I didn't have any free time and didn't have a social life whatsoever (it sucks to build one from scratch, ask anyone who's not spectacular at making friends and moves to a new place, that's me except that I didn't move).
• Pizza adventuring is going well.  I'm spoiled on sourdough crust for my Neopolitan pizzas.

*Funny enough, and perhaps this is the source of the problem, in school I never got called out on how much class I was skipping (my grades were still good) or any trouble we might have been making (it really wasn't trouble trouble, just kid stuff that I thought I should have gotten in trouble for but that my parents probably knew about and chose not to prosecute me for).

**On my recent beer adventures, which are less frequent than I'd like and more frequent than my waistline would like, I've decided that I fall on the malt side rather than the hops side.  I don't mind drink beers with a lot of hops, but I'd rather be punched in the face by malt than hops.  On a recent excursion with my father we tried a beer called Old Speckled Hen and it tasted a lot like fermented malt vinegar filtered through musty chicken feathers.  I, oddly enough, didn't mind it so much but my father made such a face that sent me into fits of giggles for several minutes.  He falls on the hops side.

Breeders.

It's nice to be back working both jobs.  Our owners close down the pizzeria for two weeks around Christmas every year, which is both a blessing and a curse.  On the one hand it was nice not having to worry about trying to schedule off New Years Eve or being forced to cover a million shifts for people who were out of town; On the other hand, for those employees who rely on the job for income, a forced two week unpaid vacation is a source of stress.

Last night was pretty busy and it started off with a bunch of families coming in with their toddlers.  It turned out that they all knew each other and they stood around in the middle of the walkways chatting.  There was also several cases of runaway toddlers.  I'll admit that it was annoying, but one of our front of the house guys kept muttering angry things about "Breeders" and how "they think they're so special" as he carried dishes to the back.  It was amusing.  I don't come down either way on the families.  They should have moved out of the way, but I understand the necessity of setting the child down for a moment.  He has no perspective on just how impossible it can be to keep a child under control at all times.  Plus, we are a family-friendly restaurant, so there's bound to be kids around sometime.

I was having problems with dough all night.  Mine just would not work into a circle. Finally Basil showed me a few tricks to get rid of corners (the dough had proofed to where instead of nice round patties they were smooshed into squares).

I've decided that I really want to serve mint iced tea at my pizzeria.  I have no idea why more places don't do this.  I love mint iced tea.

Kids in the Restaurant

Night before last a couple of kids came in that were freaking adorable (they remind me of my favorite webcomic character Rittz as a kid). Two chubby 10 year old boys that were obviously best friends (or brothers) came into our pizzeria and ordered a single pepperoni pizza. They were going to stay but after a few minutes of waiting they decided that they would take it to go.

We were busy in the kitchen. Even take-out waits were taking 30 minutes or more and I felt bad for the kids. As a predominately adult establishment (we don't really get a lot of teenagers) most people will grab a beer or a glass of wine while they wait; these kids weren't even offered breadsticks.

They waited and waited as long as their little hearts could wait, squirming and trying to be patient, trying so hard not to be annoying to the staff by asking every three seconds when their pizza would be out, but they asked a time too many and the front of the house staff was getting annoyed, so they gave them the next pepperoni pizza that came out. It messed up the queue in the kitchen because they didn't tell us, but I'm okay with that because I like to think that, the day before yesterday, those kids ate a non-chain-delivery pizza and loved it and will be working front counter at my pizzeria in 6 years as their first job as a continuation of their lifelong love of pizza inspired by us.

December Update

It's been over a month since I have updated and I wish that I had a lot to talk about. I've been working a couple of shifts a week, more since Hipster Girl got a second job, less this week because I had to to take time off for holiday engagements (my daughter's Kindergarten Christmas recital that I wouldn't miss for anything, for example).

I've been think more about owning my own pizzeria and the extraordinary hurdles I have to overcome before that will ever become a reality. It's not a sudden thing for me to think about, it's always on the backburner, but I've made the decision at my primary job not to pursue career advancement in the traditional sense; there won't be any ladder climbing for me. I have decided to stay in the position I am, getting better there, collecting any advantages that may come my way but not accepting additional responsibility. I have decided to take a different approach to my life which has been, up till now, about always trying to get into a bigger and better situation.

I suppose I need to start with the pizza and that's the only part I've really started on and yet I feel like it's so far away. I'm just not a chef and I never will be. I don't have a refined palate. I just want to make really awesome pizza alongside people that want to make awesome pizza with me. Both things are equally important to me.

On the pizza side:
Tonight I think I'll try Pizza Paradise again. There's something about the pizza there that makes me want to go back even though it's a little neighborhood takeout place that isn't even in my neighborhood. Maybe if I can ferret out the good places in town, I can figure out what it is about their pizza that I like and work it all together into my own style.

On the people side:
I'm still counting on luck for this one; that some day the right mix of people will come into my life that will make this dream a reality.

On the whole I've decided to be patient and that means that things are less exciting (and less blog-worthy).

I wish that whatever holiday you do or do not celebrate, that you are having fun and making fond memories.

Walking To Work

Last shift I decided to walk to work on a whim. I've been trying to walk and take public transportation more (mostly because I hate finding parking) and work is only about a mile and a half from where I live. The problem is that my mind is constantly thinking of terrible scenarios no matter how unlikely they are. For walking alone at night my two worst scenarios are running across a group of men who decide to hassle/beat/kill me or a van pulling up and abducting me.

Neither of those things happened. I passed a couple of homeless people without incident, tripped on a crack but didn't fall down, and had very achy legs at the end of the walk.

I want to do this more often though. I want to be in shape. I realize that choosing to not be in shape now will hurt me later.

***

We've had a new special pizza for a couple of weeks and it looks delicious and smells delicious (it has leeks sauteed in butter, cremini mushrooms, Gruyere cheese, and prosciutto) but when I tried it I didn't really like it. It just didn't taste like a pizza to me. I would probably be fine if it was leeks and mushrooms with Gruyere melted over it, as a side dish to a traditional meal.

I don't know quite how to feel when I don't like a menu item. I know that this is a completely silly concern as no one is expected to like everything, but I really really want to like everything. Luckily there are a lot of menu items for me to sincerely recommend to anyone who asks.