Birthdays and Rules to Live By

True story: the other night, while working at the bakery, I serenaded one of my co-workers with "Eternal Flame" when it came on the radio.  Shock value = 7/10

So I've been thinking about coming up with my own set of rules or guidelines for working in a bakery.  Granted, many of them may be focused toward the female employee, but I'm a girl, so I guess that's to be expected.  And on that note, here are the first two on what will become Brooke's rules for happy bakery employees:

Rule #1: Wash your hands before AND after you go to the bathroom.  Seriously, because when I'm working my hands are constantly caked in flour and dough bits, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to get either of those things near my lady parts.  Every time I think about it, it just brings this back into my mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twkV_xXPMvI

Rule #2:  If you're constantly being made to use the dough divider to make the rolls on your work shift, do not tell your co-worker that you're on "ball patrol."  Believe it or not, I am not the one who said this, rather it was said to me, and I had to stop working for a couple of minutes because I couldn't stop laughing.  The next day the same co-worker saw me using the divider and asked me if I was on "boule patrol" (boule is a term used for a rounded loaf of dough, which is how we shape larger amounts of it before putting it into the divider).  I concurred that I was, indeed, on boule patrol, and he said, "it sounds a lot better than when I say 'ball patrol', right?"  So true.

Work has been interesting lately.  I'm pretty well adjusted to being one of only 2 girls working as a bread baker as well as to working mostly with men who don't speak English as a second language.  My Mom bought me a set of Spanish immersion CDs which I'm looking forward to using, but until then, my Spanish is still incredibly rudimentary.  At time I feel like I'm living in some alternate "Smurf" reality, where everyone uses the same word for everything and anything, in this case it's, "claro" which from what I understand means, "clear" or "exactly".  Yes, my co-workers will use this for it's proper meaning, for example if I ask one of them if I have something right, they will respond with claro, but they'll use it for everything under the sun.  If they want your attention? Claro.  If they're teasing you? Claro.  If they want you to start doing something differently?  Claro.  If they want you to do something the same way you've been doing it, again, claro.  You can see how this would be confusing, yes? (Claro!)  Also, there's this song that they sometimes play on the Spanish radio stations, and the chorus goes, "waka waka...mole mole."  So one time I sang along with it and now one of my co-workers will randomly yell, "waka waka" and wait for me to say, "mole mole!" and if I don't, he will assume that I "didn't hear him" and will follow me around repeating "waka waka" until I respond appropriately.  I am definitely living in a cartoon.

Dave and I had a great time being back in Buffalo for my birthday.  It was a fun-filled weekend of driving, exhaustion, fasting (here's to being born around Yom Kippur!), birthdaying and babies.  Luckily we were able to see a lot of people, and spend time with most of our family members, especially since it had been 9 months since we'd seen most of them.  All of it just really makes me wish we were living back in Buffalo already.  I know that we're planning on getting back there in the future, but as with anything you want, it's always hard to wait for your plans to come to fruition.  Plus, just being able to hang out in the same room with my hubby and my sister Morgan is always a great time.  It's like we're in this never ending contest trying to make each other laugh and then my Mom will eventually throw her hands up in the air and say that it's like she's living in an improv show.  It was also fun to see some of my friend's kids, I can't believe how quickly they're growing up, I can't even really call them babies anymore seeing as they're all pretty much toddlers.  It's nice to see that they're already learning to ignore football games in favor of toys though...being a Bills fan is rough stuff, no matter what age you are.

p.s. I also want to send special thanks to all of my friends who conspired to make me a ridiculous amount of bandannas/hair-kerchiefs.  I love them all, and they greatly amuse my co-workers.

Holidays, Cakes and Crocs

Last night I worked my first holiday shift and my first shift at a later hour (for me anyway) - 6pm - 2am on Labor Day.  Not one of the bigger holidays, but it still gives me time and a half for hours worked so I'm a happy girl.  I thought it was going to be really hard starting work 2 hours later (and by extension, leaving 2 hours later), but it really didn't affect me that badly.  Actually, I think it was a better night for me than usual.  Maybe it was because I was joining a group that was already going strong as opposed to being one of the ones starting up at 4pm.  Ironically, it also took me less time to get home, leaving work at 2am, than it usually does when I leave at midnight.  This was even with me having to wait for my 17-year-old co-worker to finish changing because he wanted to walk me to the train.  I thought it was very sweet that he was worried about me, but by the time I got to the train, I had a feeling that he really just wanted to use the walk to remind me over and over again that I promised to lend him some DVDs.  Oh well, it was still pretty sweet.


Today I’m working from 5pm till 1am, and I’m still trying to adjust to this new life as a baker.  It takes a huge toll on my body and my emotions are always close to the surface these days.  I’m still very interested in learning more about cakes, especially structure and design-wise, and sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice for a first job.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful for the job, and I know that it’s a great experience for me, it’s just that it’s so frustrating knowing that any cake places want at least 1-2 years of cake decorating experience, and yet no one will hire you to give you that experience.  I’ve also been toying with the idea of trying to do more on my own (cakes, pastries, etc) as a way to keep my skill-set up and teach myself new things so that when I do decide to move on I won’t just be all about bread.  I’ve even been thinking of videotaping my attempts and posting them online.  Any thoughts?  Would you be interested in watching those/seeing my ridiculous attempts?

Oh, and I finally got some new footwear – a pair of crocs.  I didn’t cave and buy them on my own, the bakery is supposed to provide everyone who works there with a pair (makes sense since they technically require you to wear them), however I still hadn’t gotten any as of a couple of days ago.  Then, one of my co-workers was having her last day and asked if I had gotten a pair yet.  When I told her no, she asked what size I was.  As it turns out, they had bought her a pair that she had never worn because she doesn’t like crocs and has her own shoes that she prefers to wear, and we’re the same size so she gave them to me.  The only twist on this situation is that they’re yellow.  Bright, banana yellow.  This isn’t a problem for me, because as far as I’m concerned, crocs are ridiculous shoes, and I think that any shoe that is that ridiculous should only come in crazy, bright colors.  However, all of my co-workers seem to be highly amused that I’m wearing yellow crocs.  They keep pointing them out, and ask if I’m trying to “make a statement” by wearing shoes that bright.  I just keep telling them that the only statement I’m making is that I like free shoes.

Tomorrow night is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and I couldn’t be more excited.  It’s always been one of my favorite holidays, and not just because it sometimes coincides with my birthday.  Dave and I will be having a quite dinner, just the two of us tomorrow night, and then Thursday morning we’ll be off to visit our favorite Rabbi in Westchester for services before coming home to make a big dinner for some of our friends.  I hope that you all have a wonderful and sweet new year. Shana Tovah!

p.s. A big thank you to my lovely sister Morgan for visiting me this past weekend!  I hate that I couldn’t spend more time with you while you were here, but it was wonderful to see you, even if it was only for a few hours at a time