next week...

...is best described as a one filled with opportunities. I usually work on Sunday. I went in a week ago, on Sunday morning, after early church, arriving shortly before 11:00. There was a notice posted on the wall near the time clock, positioned so it was hard to miss when you stand there waiting to clock in. Asking for interested parties to notify the store manager if they would be interested in getting trained to work the food demonstration. I peeped around the corner looking into the store manger's office to see if he was there, and told him I thought I might, possibly would be interested in doing that sort of thing. Never expecting that I would start learning that new job on Monday morning: bright and early tomorrow.

I have a lot of cooking experience, and know I am capable. I fed a family for years, and they all turned out pretty much ok. But I am sure my home cooking experience is not at all what the test kitchen recipes at Publix require, so it's most likely that I will be expected to un-learn all I know.To start with a blank slate, and learn how to do everything 'the Publix way'. For several years I accidently found myself the chief cook and bottle washer at that little Presbyterian church we attended on the north side of town. Doing the menu, shopping, prep. work, cooking and cleaning to serve Wednesday Night Fellowship dinners for thirty to sixty people each week. So I know I am capable, but will likely have problems with doing it in a manner that carefully, deliberately, conscientiously follows the recipe. I'm much too prone to add random food/spices/stuff to 'improve' the end product. I guess my spontaneous days are over?

I don't know what the schedule is for the demo., but expect that the corporate requirements are for hot food to be ready to sample in the afternoons, and early evenings when there is the maximum amount of customer/foot traffic in the store. I am most definitely not looking forward to working late in the day. It has been so very long since staying late has been a job requirement, I don't know if I know how to do that anymore. It was a big surprise to find myself on the schedule for nearly thirty hours this week. All cooking. I know some part of that is training, being indoctrinated to learn to do things the Publix way: careful sanitation, careful measuring, careful of safety procedures when 'performing' right out there in the public eye.

 I need to start practicing a good attitude, and should probably get underway with that very soon. I think I will go take a nap first: it is such a novelty not being at work on a Sunday afternoon, a snooze is the first order of business.  Then I will consider the 'adjustment'...