A Hard Day's Night

 I can't believe this little boy is nineteen now!

So Zach is officially working!! He is working in the kitchen of the restaurant where I work.  It's not easy working in any kitchen...most definitely not in this one. He has no experience, where most all  our cooks have culinary degrees or extensive training. He was thrown to the wolves and has somehow survived for over a week now. New cooks are usually subjected to hazing that could make a FAMU freshman shudder. Okay, they haven't killed him but it has been rough.

I am sure a lot of it was because they all thought "Mama pulled a few strings." I really didn't... or maybe I did. I just asked my boss to give him a chance and he complied. I thought they would start him off making salads and dropping taters in the fryer. His first night the owner had him working the line with him learning to make Chicken Parmigiana and other entrees. Zach seemed pumped but beat like a drum when he got home. He screwed up a couple of things but was introduced to a ton of things...mainly one of the best chefs I have ever known.

There  are three invisible lines in any restaurant. One divides the hosts from the servers another divides the servers from the cooks and the last one separates the cooks from everyone. The cooks are behind the line (literally) and verbally shoot at will or whim. They are always right, even when they are wrong. They all think servers are idiots. They may have a point about servers, some are. Those servers are in it solely for the money...THEIR money  and could care less about anything else.

 Me? I do it because it is my job and chosen career. I'm not graduating from college in a year. I'm not graduating in two or even four years... I'm raising a family.

Zach had a rough shift this past weekend and thankfully I had already left.  The owner is half Italian and half French. His wife is half Polish and half German. Their son is half insane half the time. They have most of Europe covered between them and most of the heritage background includes some mighty explosive temperment. Zach took a verbal beating but weathered it. When I heard about it my heart hurt for him.

I did nothing but  listen to Zach vent on the ride home. I picked him up at one in the morning. Everyone else had left and he was standing in the parking lot by himself. His dew rag was sideways with the flap flying in the wind like a kercheif with him looking like an abused animal. He told me about his night and I simply said "Just let it go, it's over."

I told him when I first started working there,  their son had come down hard on me one day and made me cry.  Zach asked "What did you do?" I told him I did what any other grown fifty year old woman would do...I tattled on him to his daddy.

The difference is I was an emotional wreck when I started working there. We were being threatened with foreclosure and having utilities cut off and couldn't even buy dog food much less REAL food.

Zach has to tough it out...step it up a notch and prove his worth.

That's the problem with most kids today...they are wimps and spoiled rotten. My kid's aren't spoiled rotten by any means but have never had to face the "Real World."

My husband told me Zach will be just fine...his biggest problem is he's just like me. Dang! I always thought that was his Forte' !!

I left work tonight after working another double shift and picking up another shift tomorrow. I have Wednesday off...Barb is taking me to a wine expo at the High Museum in Atlanta.  Guess I better eat breakfast on Wednesday!

Raising kids used to be easy. Raising teens now is brutal. It's not the same as when I was a teen. When I was a teen you turned eighteen and you were gone from the nest for good.

I love my kids... would and often HAVE gone the extra mile for them.  I say a prayer daily for all of them. I am still living and learning at the tender age of almost fifty two.

Life can be tough...more often than not but I'm still hanging on and hanging in there. I have a great job and relentlessly trying to take care of my own.

Heading to bed and hopefully getting up to do it all again tomorrow.

Til next time...COTTON