Tag Archive for 'job'

What’s The Rush?

Published on November 30, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This morning was another typical Monday involving the morning commute to work.  I’m lucky that I only live 3 miles from my place of employment but it’s amazing what you can see along that 3 miles.  This morning in particular I noticed the hurry that people seemed to be in.  Were people really that rushed to get back into the office and into the grind after a 4 day weekend?  Apparently so as I witnessed countless acts of road rage, close calls from vehicles changing lanes abruptly and tailgating.  What’s the rush people?  Five minutes will not make a bit of difference in your day (unless of course you are an ambulance driver and then 5 minutes will definitely make a difference in someones life).  Take a deep breath and enjoy life.  Your job is not that important in the grand scheme of things and if you think it is you are seriously deluding yourself that 5 minutes makes a difference.  Then of course there are those that want to start their work day from their car along the way by texting or emailing from their phones while weaving and dodging through traffic.  Not long ago while I was walking my kid to school we were about to cross through the crosswalk and a driver blew through the intersection through a red.  I glanced up just in time to see them texting on their phone, oblivious to the carnage they came so close to causing.  Let’s get up a little earlier folks so we don’t feel the need to rush around like tomorrow will never come, because an error like running a red light may mean tomorrow never comes for a kid walking to school.

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Into the Fire

Published on October 21, 2008 in blogging. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Watching Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations last night brought back a lot of memories. It was the episode entitled “Into the Fire” where he goes back to work his old Tuesday double shift at Les Halles in New York. He tries to get back into the hustle and bustle that is a kitchen during the dinner rush and ends with the statement that “line cooking professionally, day in and day out is a young persons game”. Years ago I worked as a cook in a Herndon Virginia seafood restaurant called “The Blue Channel Inn”. I was just out of high school and it was my first real gig. I started out working the steam table which is really the table of death. As orders for lobsters, clams, oysters and mussles start popping out of the orders printer, you give them their last rites, stuff them into baskets, lower them into pots on the steam table and crank the lever to scald them alive. The bad thing was that you spent a good part of your shift banging on the pipes with a hammer trying to get it to work while cursing under your breath. From there I moved up to fry cook, lowering baskets of breaded goodness into bubbling hot peanut oil. The worst thing about being a fry cook (besides trying to wash the smell of french fries away) is cleaning the fryers. You gotta drain all the hot oil and scrub the insides of the fryers out and then refill with fresh oil. One lesson I learned the hard way is that hot oil and water don’t mix. If you drain the oil and then forget to close the valve and spray water into the fryer you get an explosive, frothy and bubbling mess overflowing everywhere. From fry cook I moved up to broiler/grill, cooking steaks, burgers, grilled seafood and prime rib. I worked with Lucio an interesting man who had a weakness for beer. One night we had margarita scallops special which was made with a sauce of tequila and triple sec. After every order of the special that came in Lucio lined up shot of tequila. Thank goodness it wasn’t a very popular special. It was always a lot of fun in the kitchen be it throwing crushed ice balls at the dishwasher, sneaking a beer out of the cooler or just the comradre of working together to make food for a party of 50. Like Anthony Bourdain, I’ve got a lot of fond memories from that period of my life and met a lot of good/interesting people. It was a good experience and a lot of fun but no way could I do it today.

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