So working technically started last Friday, but we actually started working on site on Monday. It's basically just me and Nichole Henderson. And our boss Rick Smoot. And when he's not there, his picture beautifully drawn by Nichole in Sharpie on a styrofoam plate watches over us. Oh, and the afternoonies that come in and help with lunch/teacher afternoon snack, Rick's son-in-law and daughter/other employee.
We work for Too Fat Sandwiches catering at Sequoia Middle School for their teacher inservices and training days.
Rundown of my seven-hour work day:
Breakfast.
1) Put bagels and muffins/doughnuts and danishes on to pretty plastic trays and set them out.
2) Get out packets of butter, cream cheese, and jelly for the bagels.
3) Set out bowls of apples and bananas
4) Fill a bowl with ice and put in a zillion yogurts.
5) Find the utensils box and put forks, knives, and napkins into wicker baskets at the end of the tables
6) Put the individual-sized cereal boxes into a large bowl.
7) Fill a bowl with ice and throw in a gallon of milk.
8) Take frozen juice boxes out of the freezer, put them in a foil pan, and pray they turn into juice not slushies by the time the teachers come.
9) Rick puts out the toasters some time during all this.
10) Get out creamers, sugar, tea bags, and stir sticks for the coffee and tea.
11) Take plastic wrap off the scones and melon. Oh yeah, put out the tin of scones and bowl of melon.
12) Fill up a bus tub with ice and throw in some water bottles so the picky teacher folks can have their cold water. Psh whatever.
13) Double check that everything is out. Today we forgot the juices and some crazy was severely upset.
14) Breathe.
15) Fetch the bus tubs from the classrooms from the day before. (more to come about those...)
Then the teachers come. Usually from 7:20 to 8:00am. We restock everything several times. Especially doughnuts, yogurts, milk gallons, utensils, bagels, and juices. Teachers eat much yogurts. And that part SUCKS.
Some time during breakfast Rick heads back to the restaurant to get ready for lunchie lunch. Then after they leave for their classes, we breathe some more. Today we had dance parties/karyoke with Nichole's iPod & iHome. That was fun. We got all the way through her playlist of a trillion songs. From Billy Joel to Billy Joel.
Then they come back in for their "morning break". Basically another chance for them to gorge themselves with crap food. And yogurts. We restock some, but not as much. Whatever's out is what they get pretty much.
And that part is only crazy because we get crazies asking what's for lunch (when sometimes we don't even know) and asking why the coffee or melon is gone. Ummmmmmm you're eating lunch in like an hour! Get over it!! Dumb-Dummyheads.
So then after the endless amount of teachers get their 2nd breakfast/"morning snack" we clear everything out. Oh, and Rick comes back with lunch. In the cafeteria, one table becomes two. One breakfast line becomes four. Inevitably, there are a gajillion doughnuts and some muffins leftover from breakfast.
Lunchie-Lunch.
1) Set out utensils. Forks, knives, spoons sometimes, napkins, and plates.
2) Set out salt and pepper and butter cups.
3) Bring out varying numbers of chaffing dishes. Monday we used 8, yesterday only 4, and today 6. And Rick told us tomorrow we're using 8 again.
4) Make salad. (BEST PART OF THE ENTIRE DAY)*
5) Separate rolls and throw them in a bowl.
6) Usually drain water from ice bowl and restock ice and water bottles. But we do that several times a day not just at lunch.
7) Fill bowls with ranch and italian dressings and various condiments. Today for the deep pit we used BBQ sauce and salsa.
8) Open freezer box with the sodas so the teachers can get to them without asking us ever 4.7 seconds.
9) Cut (often times sucky frozen) cakes/separate brownies/scoop pudding/do whatever's needed for dessert that day and put them on little dessert plates to go out front.
10) Umm... I think that's it. Breathe again. Oh! But all prep is doubled because there are now TWO tables, not just one. Suuuuuck.
* Making salad is the best part of my day. Not restocking it, but the initial preparation of it. Okay these bowls are fan.tas.tic. Like 3+ feet wide. FILLED with salad. And we mix them by hand. I feel like a kid in a sandbox with these salad bowls. Except I never liked sandboxes as a child, so maybe this is my proxy sandbox.
So lunchtime=lots more restocking. We restock salad probably 4 times, rolls about the same, utensils and plates at least twice, dressings a lot too. And we don't even deal with the main dishes. Rick & the afternoonies deal with all of that. After all the groups of teachers go through the line, Nichole and I get lunch. :) Another good part of the day. We get Monday-chicken and tri-tip , Tuesday-lasagna, Wednesday-deep pit, Thursday-enchiladas, & Friday-sandwiches. After we eat, Nichole and I start washing dishes/minimal clean up, and Rick & the afternoonies eat. Then the teachers leave and we clear everything out/clean up/wash much dishes.
Once the cafeteria is clear, we start the "afternoon snack delivery". Basically we put brownies/granola bars/rice crispies/cookies (depending on what day it is) into plastic sandwich boxes, and load up the requested amount of water bottles into the bus tubs and deliver them to the individual classes. Now remember, this stuff is delivered less than an hour after the biggest lunch/buffet they've maybe had in years. Teachers are eating machines and severely obese because of it. So we deliver the bus tubs full of goodies. Yesterday when we were delivering the rice crispies, one crazy basically snatched the plastic tin out of my hands so she could be sure to get a crispie treat, not a granola bar, because we had half granola bars & half crispie treats.
Clean-up time! Usually there's a few dishes to be done, a few counters to be wiped off, a few boxes of salad or buckets of dressing still out from lunch to be put away, a few random water bottles outs. Seriously, we never know where they come from or who's they are. They just appear.
OH! And a few doughnuts still not eaten. Let me rephrase that, a few HUNDRED doughnuts leftover from breakfast still. And they stay out aaaaaaaaaaall day, barely touched, and then get trashed at about 2pm. Sad for doughnuts huh? NO!! Not sad! If you saw or understood the amount of doughnuts we have every morning, you would probably cry. And they're not even great! They make us (me and Nichole) sick. So we are on a No-Doughnut Diet as of tomorrow. Doughnuts=Satan.