Today's rambling: Work sucks...I know
Written on August 5, 2001 at 12:24 a.m.
while feeling a bit

Remember how last night I said that I'd better be trained further in the cake decorating department, BEFORE they started making me decorate the ones that people order? Well, guess what happened? I'm sure you already know, but I'm going to tell the whole story anyway, just because this is my diary and I can do whatever the heck I want. ;)

Came in this morning at 8 am, feeling rather...well, tired. No lie, all these people were like, "Amber, you're back!" all at the same time! There was Erin, and Beverly, and Rebecca, and Carol and Kay...oh my, they were all trying to talk to me at once, and I was like, "Ahhh, leave me alone!" Hehe..not that I actually said that, of course!

So I went into the back room, put on my oh-so-stylish Genuardi's white jacket (which you have to wear if you work in the food service department), and went over to the bakery, where Karen (one of the cake decorators) was. She was having problems with the photo machine (the gadget that prints out edible images to put on cakes), so my first few minutes were spent trying to help her with that.

A few minutes later, she informs me that she's only there until 11, and that she actually wasn't supposed to be in at ALL, but they called her in or something. At that point, I started to panic, because there were like nine cake orders or something like that. The most I was trained to do was base ice, put borders on, and airbrush. So needless to say, the thought of having to make these things myself was a little daunting. It would have been different if I'd been making cakes to put out in the refrigerated case, because it's not like people are going to be as picky as they would be if they'd ordered and paid lots of money for one! But no, I had to attempt to do ordered cakes, and I have NO experience!

Someone apparently was misinformed, and thought that I'd actually had training for cake decorating. Suuuurrrrrre. At any rate, I did a really simple one first that consisted of putting on a white border, taking lots of different colored icings and making 'streamers' (basically just using a narrow decorating tip and squeezing icing out to fall over the sides of the cake), writing a message on the top of the cake, and sprinkling candy confetti. That was surprisingly fun, hehe!

Karen and I finished all the cakes that were due at 10 and 11, and then she left (she was actually running a few minutes late). She showed Debbie (a woman who does morning bread setups in the bakery) and I how to make the next two cakes (One had The Little Mermaid on it, the other had Winnie the Pooh and Tigger), airbrushed them both for us, and then said she had to go. Debbie said she'd help me if I needed it, but that I could be creative and that I shouldn't panic. She was like my Bakery Mum today, hehe...she complained to John (the department manager) that I was stuck with all of this on my first day, and she checked up on me to make sure I was doing alright. I knew her before I quit the first time, but I didn't know she was so nice, LoL!

So yeah. I had to make the Little Mermaid cake. And you know what? Considering that it was my FIRST EVER truly decorated cake (the streamers don't count 'cause anyone could do that), it came out WONDERFULLY! I set the little plastic Ariel and Flounder in the middle of the airbrushed pink shell, made some long green seaweed streamers, added a few flowery things in the corners, and even made little white bubbles coming up from both sides of the plastic doll! *giggles* Yeah, I basically just did what was on the picture, but even so, I was surprised I could do it! Then I wrote the Happy Birthday message on the front side of the cake (it wasn't on the top where all the decorating was, it was on the actual side), stuck it in a box, and it was all done!

A kid named Joe started working soon thereafter, and I didn't even know he'd seen that particular cake (which was the best out of the three that I did after Karen left). But later, when I was finishing up a photo cake, he was like, "I really liked that one you did, where you wrote the name on the side. It was really cool." And I beamed. ;) Well, actually I just smiled embarrassedly and said "Thank you!", but inside I was just glowing! Debbie said the Little Mermaid one looked excellent, Mum of course loved them (though I probably could have finger-painted the cakes and she would have said they were good, hehe), and Mare, another bakery lady, also liked my work! And Kay, and Carol, and Frank...wow, I'm talented even WITHOUT the training! ;)

Oo, but this Joe kid. I never saw him before (I think he must have started after I quit), but he's really nice, so I'm glad I get to work with him instead of, say, some stuck-up guy who refuses to talk to anyone. ;) He's younger than me (I only know that because of the name tags, which are different for minors), and shorter than me (*giggles*), but he's got these EYES that are just the brightest shade of blue I've ever seen! And no, I have no hidden affection for him, but I can't help liking his eyes, LoL! But enough of that. ;) It was funny, as I was cleaning up he said, "Did you go to school for that stuff?" (meaning the cake decorating.) "Nope," I replied, "this was my first time ever doing it!"

He got a very surprised look on his face then, and proceeded to tell me that I did a great job, at which point I inwardly glowed again...because praise was exactly what I needed today, LoL! Oh, but then he asked me how old I was, and when I told him that I was 20, he kinda laughed and averted his gaze...it was too funny! But he's a nice guy. Like I said, I'm glad I got to work with him, rather than this guy Jay who works across the way in the deli department.

Ugh. I didn't even get a chance to talk to that guy, but he just looks like a jerk! He's unbelievably short, and he has this very arrogant sort of demeanor, this smirky, "I'm better than you" aura. I hope I never have to work with him, LoL! Frank can't stand him, either, though I suspect it's because he thinks that Jay likes Erin, who he (Frank) has fallen for.

Not that I exactly know why. Erin's a nice girl, and I generally like her, but she's kind of...I don't know, there's something about her that I just don't like. She flirts with every guy in the store, basically, and she's just got this attitude that sometimes doesn't seem genuine. I don't know how to explain it. I know she can be genuine, but it's like she doesn't care how she plays with people's (well, guys') emotions! Poor Frank, I think he has it bad for her, and she just tra la la's around, like nothing's going on...She knows he likes her, and I'm not saying that she should go out with him because of that, but Frank's my friend so I feel bad for him! :-

This diary entry's getting a little long, though, so I'm going to shut up for the evening! I went to sleep as soon as I got home, slept 'til after 10, and now I think I might try to go BACK to bed so that I'm not tired again when I wake up. Only have to work 'til 2 tomorrow, so it'll be okay...and then I don't work at all during the week! OH! I have to explain that, LoL!

John apparently has no room for me during the week, because my schedule has to be like Mum's (since she's my transportation, hehe). So he can stick me in on weekends, but that's it. I originally thought that maybe I'd ask Dave (store manager) to schedule me in the Health-and-Beauty-Care aisle, but on the way home I got the brilliant idea that I could work at the stables during the week! And this would kick ass, because not only did I have fun over there the other day, but I wouldn't have to worry about driving or any of that...AND, I wouldn't have to worry about pesky customers, whee! ;)

So cross your fingers and hope that things can go the way I want them to, for once! ;oD

*goes off to look at that Daniel Lapaine picture again* Bwe he he he... ;)