Thursday, August 31, 2006

Happy Blog Day 2006

Today is officially Blog Day 2006, so I thought it appropriate to return to my poor neglected little food blog after my lengthy summer vacation. Hi everybody (if you’re still there) – I’m glad to be back! I’m looking forward to reading your blogs again, as well as writing this one.

On blog day one should link to five new blogs, but I’m so out of touch I don’t know five new ones, so I’m going to defer that project for a little while and get back to the business of tending to this blog.

Did I spend the summer sunning myself on luxurious beaches while drinking pink fruity umbrella cocktails? Was I whisked away on a yacht to private islands and fanned with fronds while munching exotic fruits? Did I win the lotto and spend the past two months redecorating my new brownstone and shopping for mid-century Danish furnishings? Or have I been working my ass off making food until one in the morning and then going home to scrape walnut bits out from under my nails until I pass out and wake up just in time to do it all over again.

Hmmm, if you guessed #4 you’d be correct! Yes, it is a glamorous life I lead. There is the cutting of the kale into ribbons, and the juicing of the lemons, and the breaking of the large pieces of cheese into smaller, more manageable bits. And all this before service even starts! At about 4, the making and serving of the food begins. The salads, the sardines, the beets, the octopus, the sliced meats. Escarole, walnuts, dressing, red onions, cheese. Repeat. And again.

I still enjoy my job, but I am juuuuust about ready for a promotion. I thought I was being promoted, but then I was un-promoted because of confusing reasons related to scheduling and staffing and the phases of the moon and whatnot. So now I am ready to be re-promoted. Upon re-promotion, if such an event ever occurs, I will work three days a week and two nights, rather than five nights (Wednesday through Sunday), as I do now. I will be involved in more advance preparation of food (actual cooking), although I will still be doing quite a bit of service as well. I’ll also have a chance to hang out with what’s-his-name, that guy who also showers in my apartment and has a wedding band that, for some reason, looks just like mine. So I wait. And I plan. And perhaps I sharpen my little potato peeler just in case that person whose job I may be promoted into may happen to have an unfortunate and tragic peeler “incident” that leaves him unable to perform his duties.