Wednesday June 16th

A few days to cover now.
Sunday. It was the "college" group day off for doing weekend services, so three of us, Staci, Sarah and myself drove up to Bozeman for the day. It was a blast. A very long drive, but this time it was much better actually having people with me to talk with. We met with Sarah's Aunt and Uncle for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Pretty good food, highlight was catching a glimpse of the Germany-Australia game. Unfortunately, that's gotten me more desperate than ever to see a game. Fortunately, looking ahead, the final is on a Sunday and I've already cleared it with Linda, you can bet that I won't miss a minute of that one! After the restaurant, we went to Target to pick up "supplies". More like junk food, but hey! I also bought a fan. Very helpful to fall asleep to since our walls and floors are paper thin and people like walking around and slamming doors at 3am. That's been a life saver! We also went to REI... drool. Unfortunately, it wasn't a whole store, more like an outlet but still amazing! I only spent $60... One purchase was a pair of belaying gloves for work. I wasn't entirely sure if they'd help with the cold or if I'd have a good enough grip on boxes... but a few days in and it was definitely the right choice. We also went to the World Market and looked around for a while since we had time. After that we headed back and drove into West Yellowstone... which is kinda misleading, it should be West "of" Yellowstone as it isn't in Yellowstone but just outside. A tourist trap of a town for sure, to which I'll be going back to this Sunday with Nam and Toong.
Monday.
Staci and I hiked to Fairy Falls and Imperial geyser. We started early, about 9am (for some reason I've been waking up earlier on my days off than when I work... strange) and things were pretty foggy. A couple hours later though and we had beautiful weather, white puffy clouds and blue sky, really couldn't have asked for better. I got a lot of really good pictures, hopefully I'll be able to throw some online sometime. We had a packed lunch so we took our time. It was great being outdoors again, and the scenery was most excellent! After that, I passed the rest of the day reading. I'm almost done with Red...
Tuesday.
Back to work, and things did not seem like they were going too well. I've been hearing more and more complaints about Chris, the storekeeper... which is good and bad. Bad for him, but good for me, it's looking better and better that I'll have his job soon. I feel bad, but honestly, he's bringing it on himself. I had a lot of stuff to put away and we were missing a lot of other items. Stuff just didn't get ordered or we went through them faster than expected. As a restaurant of course it's the end of the world if you run out of food! For me, this keeps thing interesting and there is a definite adrenaline rush while I'm at work at those times. Of course, it would be much much MUCH worse if Frank were yelling at me instead of complaining about Chris, but I stay busy and just follow instructions.
One quick anecdote, we had run out of Romaine lettuce heads, and our Pantry Chef Lead, Adam was kinda tied down without it. (I work fairly close with Adam, since he's Pantry Lead I ask him about pars and if he needs any items, staying informed, he's a really nice guy and I've got more to tell about him...) He asked if I could make some phone calls, either to a warehouse or otherwise to see what we could get. Well... I hate phones, so I was dreading this one. I couldn't get through to our main warehouse where all of our food comes from, but I was able to connect to another of our restaurants here, the one in the Snowlodge. A quick trip over and we had half a box of Romaine lettuce, enough to get us through the day at least. I keep learning more and more of what I'm capable of doing with my job :)
Wednesday.
Today was possibly just as hectic, although this time we weren't running out of stuff. I know that things were bad today because I was in our freezer putting stuff away and head chef Jen walks in. She had tears in her eyes and was just about to breakdown it seemed. Lots of things hadn't been done and she was under quite a bit of stress. I think there was more to it, but that's all I got from it. Anyway, she was on edge, Adam seemed a little jumpy, and Frank... well, he was just Frank.
Here's what made today really great. Twice I was talking with Adam, mostly about stuff that needed ordering. In our first conversation he told me that I've been doing a great job and that a lot of people have noticed, if they hadn't said anything. The second conversation he finished by saying something along the lines of, "it's a good thing we have you to rely on." Those compliments alone would have gotten me through the week. A little while later I was talking with Jen and she brought up a "disaster in the Thaw Box". The Thaw Box is mostly my responsibility, I have to unpack raw meats so that they can thaw for the cooks, shuffle them around so that the latest date is used first, keep it clean and a few other things. So when she mentioned that, I basically asked what I did wrong. On Monday, Jen had come in and the meat racks in the Thaw Box were empty. Meat unpacked in the Thaw Box usually takes about 3 days to completely thaw out. We can water thaw meat, but that's a hassle and it wastes a lot of water and time. So on Monday there were a lot of people mad at Chris. Jen finished by telling me that I've been doing an awesome job... Any wonder why I love my job? :)
I have a few things left to learn, ordering bread, and ordering kitchen supplies: latex gloves, cups, knives etc. But otherwise, I've got this job down.
So many times today I found myself thanking God for all that He's blessed me with. Tomorrow I'll be working the early shift as a cook, 7am. I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing since I haven't been trained in much, but I'm sure they'll find something to keep me busy.
Bed time! Thank you again for all your prayers, no doubt it's working :)