the part I forgot...

... to tell when writing about the salmon. Is that I was working at a different store from the one I have been employed with for over seventeen years. The fact of not knowing where to find stuff I needed, and in an unfamiliar layout was part of the anxiety. Along with a recipe I had never made. The first attempt with a new list of ingredients and procedures is always nerve-wracking, especially doing it in front of an audience. (And if it is such a disaster that it needs to be surreptitiously slid into the nearest trash can - there is a camera observing/taping my every move!)

A couple of weeks ago, my area manager had asked  me if I was interested in going to do a shift at a store that would have someone absent one day. I jumped at the chance to make more hours/dollars. Without thinking through the other parts that would be included in the change of venue. Like not knowing where to find supplies, where to go wash dishes, who the people were I could call for more groceries/ingredients.

It all worked out, since I am still alive, here typing. I happened upon a nice young man who was working in the produce dept., came by my little booth to say he was just now going to get an item needed to complete the recipe. We conversed several times throughout the day, and I found him to be very helpful. Telling me who I would need to talk to for different re-stocking items, and where to go for what I would need.

The older I get, the more most other people working at these jobs look like youngsters.  This produce guy, P., said he had experience managing a large discount store here in town, but had to quit when he found  himself working excessively long days. And came home one day, surprised to find his baby walking. I thought it so sweet and touching that this guy decided his family/life was more important than a  job that left him so exhausted all he knew about home, was a place to sleep. Probably struggling now, financially, but also feeling like he has a life.

Interestingly, I think I know more about P. in this store across town, than I do about the guys I have worked with for years. Learned more in a couple of five minute conversations than I have discovered in months of association with the usual suspects.