Work, Exhaustion and the Flour Ninjas

It's been a crazy couple of weeks over here in NY.  I officially started my new job at the bakery on August 18th and have been working like a madwoman ever since.  That first week I only worked two days, one with the bread bakers and one with the pastry team because I was still finishing out my final 2 weeks at the veterinarians office.  However, last week I officially started full-time on the 25th and have worked every day since.  This doesn't sound so bad except that weeks at the bakery are scheduled from Monday through Sunday.  So, since I started on Wednesday, to work a full week I worked every day through Sunday = 5 days.  Then on Friday they put up the schedule for the next week (starting today) and I'm working Monday through Wednesday with Thursday & Friday off, and then again on Saturday and Sunday.  That doesn't sound too bad until you realize it means that you're working 8 days in a row, and friends let me tell you, I am exhausted!!!  I'm still getting used to how physically intensive this job is and I'll be starting day 6 in a row tonight.  My whole body is sore, plus flour has now become like sand after you leave the beach - it somehow gets everywhere, and even when you think you've cleaned yourself off completely and changed clothes - there's still flour!  I'll wear one outfit on my way to the bakery, change into my work clothes, come back to change after working my shift and somehow the clothes I wore on my way into work will already have flour on them.  I think flour ninjas break into my locker at work while I'm downstairs just to smear flour on everything.  I'm not crazy - I will bet $5 and a loaf of sourdough bread that there are flour ninjas....oh man, I think I am going crazy *sigh*

So yes, I started out almost 2 weeks ago and everything went fairly well.  Like I said, it's really labor intensive work, but I think I'm managing it alright so far.  After all, I haven't cried OR thrown up so far from the stress...I know you're impressed, you don't have to say anything, I just know.  Of course this being me, my first day couldn't go off completely without a hitch.  For whatever reason, they couldn't assign me a locker on my first day, so I had to put my bag on top of the lockers.  I've since switched to carrying an old NYSC backpack, but that first day I was so nervous that I'd forgotten to switch all of my stuff out of my regular purse.  So I go about my work shift and get told I can clock out, only to find that when someone else had opened their locker, my purse strap had fallen over the side and either they hadn't noticed or didn't care, because they closed their locker door on the strap and lo-and-behold, I couldn't get my purse out!  I was so embarrassed having to go back downstairs to tell my supervisor that I couldn't leave because my purse was stuck in someone else's locker.  Three other people tried to yank it loose and finally one of the other guys came in wielding a gigantic pair of bolt-cutters, said, "to hell with this!" and cut the person's lock off!  They all assured me that it wasn't my fault, plus the company has extra locks so it all works out in the end.  It was just ridiculous to me that my good first day could be taken down by my damn purse strap.

I'm still having trouble adjusting to my new schedule.  It's a lot harder than I expected to get used to going to work at the end of my day as opposed to the beginning.  I'm so used to waking up, getting ready and even if I'm not totally with it yet, heading off to work and being ready to go by the time I get there and taking care of my own stuff later when I finally get home.  Now I have to start organizing my own day better so that I can get up, try and be productive at home in the morning because I don't leave for work until about 3pm.  I'm also trying to force myself to go to sleep as soon as I get home (around 1:15am), but this is a lot harder than you might think.  Even though I might be physically worn out from work, my brain is still whizzing and it takes me a good hour to relax, calm down and be ready for bed.  This also makes it a lot harder on Dave and I, because when I'm working so many days in a row, we don't really see each other at all except for when he wakes me up to say goodbye in the morning before he leaves for work, or if he manages to stay awake long enough to see me come home at the end of my shift.  We've been able to see each other a little more over the weekend since he doesn't have work, but since my body's still adjusting to the amount of work I'm doing, I wound up sleeping through most of the morning.  I'm very lucky that he's so supportive though, and I know he definitely understands that my schedule's going to be pretty wonky for a while, but it's still really hard, and I miss him a lot.  I'm hoping that after the high holidays are over that I won't be working for more than 5 days in a row at a time, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

On a more amusing note, I forgot how much fun it was to people-watch on the subways.  It's been so long since I've ridden the train enough to have a monthly pass, but now that I do, I get to see a lot more of the other commuters.  I'm sure I'm no site to behold at the end of a long shift, but some of this stuff is just too funny.  I saw a guy on my way into the city wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet, riding the train with his girlfriend (she could do better) and some hipster who, at 1 o'clock in the morning was doing nothing but playing some game on his iphone and every 30 seconds adjusting a different piece of his hair to ensure that it was strategically and deliberately messy - get a comb you idiot!

Oh!  I almost forgot, I have a request for all of my lovely blog readers.  Send me bandannas!  I quickly realized that wearing baseball caps at work was kind of uncomfortable for me, plus, every time I went to wipe flour off of my face (damn flour!) I just got it all over the brim of my hat.  Then I noticed that most of the girls wore bandannas - genius!  The only problem being that I didn't think I had any.  I managed to find one, that I'm pretty sure was part of a pirate-themed birthday present from my friend Erica from several years ago, but it's the only one I have.  So if you would feel so inclined to send me bandannas, I will wear them with pride.

Cute, no?

And, I save the best for last.  Some of you may have already heard, but I had my exit interview at school a couple of weeks ago, and even though our official graduation ceremony isn't until November, I got my diploma/certificate already.  What's so exciting about that?  Well, as it turns out, my good pal Valerie and I will be sharing co-valedictorian honors for our class!  It's so surreal to me, I've never gotten top grades in anything before, but I guess I finally found out what I'm good at, which is feeding all of you!

3 Happy Announcements

I am extremely happy to make the best 3 announcements I've been able to relay in a really long time.

1. I got the job!!  As of Wednesday July 25th, I will be a full-time bread baker at a bakery on the west side of Manhattan.  The pay grade for someone just starting out isn't great, and the hours aren't the best (4pm - Midnight), but honestly, I couldn't be happier.  My Mom isn't thrilled about me taking the train so late, but I hope she'll at least be sated by the fact that they didn't put me on from 8pm till 4am or Midnight to 8am.  Plus, Dave's already said he's buying me a bottle of pepper spray, and won't that make for a potentially hilarious Brooke-safety story when I accidentally deploy it on myself?

Also, funny story.  Do you remember me telling you about the guy working at the bakery I'm interning at that I nicknamed Tarrel (Darrel with a T)?  So, I'm standing at the work table, getting my ingredients ready to make some buttercream when I suddenly feel as though my apron has come untied.  I turn around to see Tarrel slowly untying my apron.  I hit him, laughing, and yelled, "Stop trying to undress me!"  To which he laughed and ran away yelling, "Untying someone's apron is like unhooking their bra, but in the kitchen world!"  Seriously, I work with children!  At least I managed to hit him before he got away.  It wasn't quite as intense as the "slap heard round the N train," but like I said, at least I got him - he runs away quick!

Re-enactment of the N train slap - wedding style!

2. I get to go to the URJ KUTZ Camp 45th Reunion this Friday and Saturday!  Not only will I get to run around KUTZ, but I'll also get to spend time with some of my favorite people, including one who's coming all the way from England!

3.  I finally get to go home!  Dave and I are finally going to be able to take a trip back to Buffalo, which will coincide with Yom Kippur as well as my 30th birthday.

I am an extremely lucky girl :)

Exhaustion, Tim Horton's and Attack of the Sourdough Mustache

I don't think home cooks realize just how back-breaking it is to work in a professional kitchen, I feel like I just joined the marine corps!  I'm really going to have to get into better shape if I'm going to work in this kind of environment.  Of course, the argument could be made that as long as I don't pig-out like crazy during the day, and work like crazy at the bakery, that in and of itself will be a workout, but I still feel like maybe I should join a gym or at least try to be more active on my own.  Because seriously folks, I need to be a wee bit faster and to have a lot less of me to move around, lol.

I had my trial interview at the bakery in the city last night, and while it wasn't completely what I expected, I think that it went fairly well.  I showed up early for what I was expecting would be a 2-3 hour tops work trial, just to see how I'd fit in in their kitchen.  For starters, I was blown away by how amazing everything looked in their storefront.  Even though I'd arrived toward the end of their retail hours for Sunday, everything still looked delicious, there were a wide variety of breads, some with sweet or savory additions, as well as some tasty looking pastries.  Unfortunately, the person I'd been told I'd be meeting with had left for the day.  I was crestfallen at first, thinking I'd have to reschedule, but a minute later, the girl at the counter took me back to work with a couple of other guys in the bakery.

I'd never have guessed from looking at the storefront, but their warehouse/kitchen/bakery is huge!  There was this massive expanse of space in the back, as well as floor to ceiling ovens, that I still can't wrap my mind around how they all work.  Then the doorway to the bakery, which is in between the two giant sections of ovens, was flanked by these gigantic wooden peels (at least twice as long as I am tall) that stood like stationary guards keeping watch over the baking breads.

The guys I worked with were very nice, and at first I felt like, "this is going to be soooo easy!" There were only 2 other guys there, and all they had me doing at first was picking rosemary apart.  So I'm standing their happily with green finger tips thinking it's going to be a breeze, and boy was I ever wrong!  After that, the work level took a quick upswing and before I knew it I was portioning and shaping doughs, being taught how to throw wheat bran down a rack like a baseball, and lifting very heavy rubbermaid containers of dough.  All of the sudden 6 o'clock had rolled around and the guys were asking if I wanted something to eat from the storefront (they also make and sell paninis).  I joined them, but was a little confused.  After all, if they're offering to feed me, that makes it seem more like a break rather than sending me on my way.  So after I had a little something to eat, I tried to very casually ask how long the trial lasted for.  The guy I was observing called the guy I'd been told I was supposed to meet and then came back to me and said, "can you stay till 10pm?"  I had no idea that work trial meant that I'd actually be working a 6+ hour shift.  Of course I said yes, because I didn't want to seem flaky, and I really want the job, but I had to sneak upstairs to call Dave to let him know that I wouldn't be home till much later than expected.  I kind of get it, after all, what better way to see how I'll work out then by having me work a full shift.  It just would have been nice to know that up front.  Also, I have to tell you that it wasn't until about 4 hours into my shift there that another girl showed up.  After a little while she and I were chatting and she asked how long I'd worked there for.  While pleased that I looked to her like a regular employee, I admitted that I was only there on a trial, and asked her the same question - she had just started the day before.  So then she asked where I was working now and so I explained that I was about to graduate from pastry school and this would be my first full-time industry job, so again, I reciprocated and asked where she worked previously.  Jean Georges.  Freaking Jean Georges!  She's like, "oh I was a chef there, I didn't bake..."  Oh yes, that makes all the difference.  Don't mind me, I'm just going to go stand in the corner and think about the fact that you were a chef at Jean Georges!  For those who don't know, Jean Georges is one of those super-important, super-fancy-pants places that Dave and I might go to if say, we had upwards of $300 to spend on dinner.  I was stunned, I couldn't believe that there was a chance I could be starting work someplace with someone who had that kind of pedigree.  It's the kind of thing that builds you up and yet makes you feel inferior at the same time.

By the end of the night, let me tell you - I looked delightful.  I now fully understand why they have a full locker room and bathrooms with showers.  Every time I shook out my apron I was literally surrounded by a cloud of flour.  I had to beat the hat I'd borrowed from Dave out over the sink to get most of the flour off, and my jeans and sneakers were so coated, I looked like I'd been caught in the dust bowl of 1930!  No no wait...I looked like look like I trudged through a field of cocaine!  Or um...you know, flour...

I'm here all week folks.  Tip your waitress, try the veal!

By the time 10pm rolled around, I was thoroughly exhausted.  My supervisor dismissed me for the night and rewarded me with a pullman loaf of sourdough bread.  Also, since I had to take a different train that night (the train that would've gotten me closest to the bakery was running on a different track due to repairs, etc. aka: MTA hates me), I decided to treat myself with a stop at the Tim Horton's 1 block away from the train and get myself an Ice Capp.  Oh Tim Horton...I love you most of all...

My prizes, bread and a Tim Horton's Ice Capp

Dave was particularly fond of the bread and decided that it looked very nice as a mustache

I was so incredibly sore when I woke up this morning.  I honestly still don't know how I made it out of bed at all.  The good news is though, I got up the nerve to call the woman from human resources who had set the work trial up for me in the first place, to thank her and to follow up and see if she still wanted me to come in for a sit-down interview.  As it turns out, she did!  She told me that she'd gotten really positive feedback from the guys I'd worked with on Sunday, and that they'd conveyed to her that they would feel good about having me in the bakery with them. *insert squeals of excitement right about...here*  So I'm going there tomorrow at 10am.  Luckily, the Chef at my internship is so invested in me getting this job that he had no problem with me not being able to come in tomorrow morning.  Hopefully it will all go well, and I won't say anything stupid.  Thanks again for all of your support and for reading my little blog.  It always makes my day to see that other people are actually interested in what I have to say and invested in my making it in the ever so delightful world of cakes, pies and breads.

p.s. I really need to learn Spanish

p.p.s. no seriously, where is Rosetta Stone when you need it?

Internships and Interviews

The strangest thing happened to me the other day...Santiago actually complimented me!  Usually with him, no news is good news, so when he stops saying, "what are you doing?!" 15 times a day (usually I wasn't even doing anything wrong, he just wanted to mess with me...), I knew that I was doing alright, but the other day he actually took the time, to tell me he like something.  I made the chef's "oreo-style" cookies on Saturday after they'd both left for the day, and usually they're fine, but not perfect, but I guess I made them pretty well this time, yay me!   Of course, none of this matters since he doesn't like me anymore after finding out that I'm "judío" (aka: Jewish), and I'm not entirely sure whether this is a joke or not.

He always likes to tell me that he's teaching me Spanish and doing me a great service, so I was joking with him that I was going to teach him Yiddish, but he didn't really seem to get what that was.  So, I mentioned to Jolene that I was trying to teach him to say, "Oy Vey", and she said, "Oh, you speak Yiddish?" and I said a little bit, and she kind of paused like she wanted to say something but didn't know how to, and she said, "So, that means you're..." and I kind of chuckled and said "Yes, I'm Jewish." and she was like, "Oh! That's cool!" and then she told Santiago, and he just kept smiling and saying, "No...serious?" over and over again, and then he looks at me and says, "You no Jesus?" and I said, "No, me no Jesus..." and just looks at me, very puzzled and says, "why?"  I tried explaining to him that Judaism is just different, but as I'm sure you can guess by the fact that I refer to our interactions as the "Brooke and Santiago Variety Show", didn't really translate.  He seems fine with me now, but I can't really shake the feeling that I got after this happened.  It's been a long time since I've gotten this kind of reaction from another person, and I suppose that some of it has to do with our different backgrounds.  After all, I don't know the exact details, but I'm sure that Ecuador doesn't have much in the way of Jewish communities.  It's just kind of sadly funny, either people refuse to believe me when they find out that I'm Jewish, saying things like, "that's funny, you don't LOOK Jewish', or, "so how are you Jewish exactly?" Or, apparently they take offense to it.  But like I said, he hasn't mentioned it since, and as of today I only have 4 days left there, so I'm going to try and not worry about it for now.

In much happier news, I have an interview today!  My very first at a real bakery.  I'm extremely excited and terrified all at the same time.  I actually applied for a job there on the recommendation of a friend of my Mom's first, before I even saw them advertising jobs,  and when they first called me for an interview I was excited, but I guess I didn't realize what I'd stumbled into.  On Friday when I was at my internship, I casually mentioned to the chef that I had an interview lined up for today.  He asked where, and when I told him he just started laughing.  I was kind of surprised, but I know that he has very specific ideas on what makes a good bakery, so I said, "What, is that not good?" But to my surprise, he said, "No!  They're one of the very best bakeries in the city!  Do you realize how many people wish they were in your position right now?"  Needless to say, that made me a lot more nervous, but luckily he's been helping me prep since then, as he's determined that I get this job.  They're primarily a bread bakery, and they supply bread to a lot of well known places in the city, even the chef at my internship stocks some of their breads for sale in his bakery as it's one of the only things he doesn't make from scratch.  He's already joke that he's going to call me when I get the job so that he can finally learn the secret to making their foccacia, which I might add, is pretty fantastic - I had some last night, yum!

So please please please, think extremely good thoughts for me around 4 o'clock today, b/c that's when I'll be starting my working interview.  I won't say where for now so that I don't jinx it completely, but I'm excited that it's Manhattan, and also, not too far from where Dave works, so if our schedules ever coincide, we can try to catch-up with each other in the city.  I'll let you know how it goes!!

Thanks for Reading :)