Thursday, June 5, 2014

Day Nine of Training to Be a Brain Surgeon

I guess if Jethro Bodine thought HE could be a brain surgeon I can surely learn the ropes to this new serving job.

I've been given so much material to study and learn, Rain Man would even be baffled by it all. I got to the international terminal thirty minutes early and sat in the atrium making even MORE notes for me to study. I think I'm getting pretty good with the menu items but had a hard time coming up with adjectives to make Beef tongue sound enticing. Lucky for me I'm selling to a lot of Europeans and quite surprised at some of the things they consider enticing and delectable. Number one they aren't as glutenous as Americans and portion sizes aren't their main concern. Not one customer has asked if something could be "Super Sized" but a man (yes, an American) asked me for a side of ranch dressing today.

I took this selfie in the atrium after studying for thirty minutes before clocking in for another training shift and think the stress is starting to get to me, what do you think?


The good news is they didn't fire me like I dreamed last night waking up sweating out a hot flash AND nightmare, and the better news is the managers were busy and let me continue to make notes and study for another hour or so while running food when they needed me.

I had to stop for gas this morning before work so of course skipped breakfast. The bigger bummer was left my ziploc baggie full of Sweet Tarts on the kitchen counter. I'm all about some fruit snacks!

By six thirty even Beef Tongue sounded good.

If you are working over a five hour shift you get a thirty minute break to go get something to eat. The bonus is they give you a voucher for up to nine dollars and can go to any other restaurant run by the company and get something to eat for free. So I sat for another thirty minutes eating and taking / making even more notes. I learn best when I write it down and by this point in training have written a small novel.

I followed a server tonight who helped me a lot with my greatest weakness, the massive wine list. She gave me a list of "Go To" wines to learn about and rely on.

By the time I clocked out, I NEEDED a "Go To" wine! The terminal always shakes and shifts with all the huge jets taking off and landing but the thunderstorm starting outside made it even worse.

Just my luck.

I had found a parking spot pretty quickly today after creeping on two guys walking out of the train station towards the parking lot. Their car was parked in the last row of the lot but at least I found one.

Tonight with the thunder pounding and lightning cracking as I left made the spot seem even further away.

Good ole MARTA was out of service when I made it back to the train station and sat for thirty minutes waiting. At least by the time it started running again the weather was down to lightning and light drizzle.

I was back to Newnan by a little before ten. I stopped and filled up my "Loaner Truck" to return to my wonderful neighbor's who should be putting up a 'For Sale' sign any day now.

No more studying tonight, gotta be back at Mama Lucia's by ten thirty to open and back on the floor at three thirty for the night shift. Open again on Saturday morning and back on the floor at three thirty again for yet another night shift.

Massey is coming home this weekend for a visit and plan on recruiting her to quiz me on the new menu I'm trying to learn while squeezing in some Momma / Daughter time. Maybe we'll do Waffle House early Saturday morning and should be off early enough to do some more quizzing Saturday night.

This is how I feel at my new job right now.

At least at Mama's I feel more like this, confident.
And this is how I feel when I'm home...

Just going to bed and hoping I wake up with more confidence because that is what's missing in my life right now.



As I sat in the MARTA station tonight waiting for the train to decide to move, looking over the literally hundreds of pages of material and notes in front of me, came up with an excellent idea...



Yes I'll eventually get it  and yes six months from now may even feel comfortable about it but giving up has never been an option for me so why start now?


I want to make my life GREAT!

Til next time...COTTON

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