Week 15

Day 98: Nov 16, 2014

Another cold day. Luckily it is getting warmer by the day! Today was pretty much like any other day except that the Packers set a new franchise record of scoring more than 50 points in two games in a row. It was a pretty great game from what I saw on the play by play updates. We also started up the kiln tonight. I helped to put up the door. It was basically like playing tetris with bricks. So, hopefully, the pottery will be done and cooled by Tuesday.

Day 99: Nov 17, 2014

It was a miserable morning. My only unbroken grinder broke, only this was a break that I had to fix if I wanted to use the grinder at all. Basically, I could hear the motor running but it wasn't reaching the grinding wheel to make the grinder spin. So, being the person that I am, I spent all morning taking apart the machine, cleaning it, checking the wiring, testing it, putting it back together, testing the grind, realizing that the grind was too fine (the espresso machine could not force any water through the grounds), spending another two hours trying to make the dumb grind adjustment knob to move, all while making coffee for people and really just wanting to take a sledgehammer to the dumb thing. After lunch, I tried to take a nap but it was too cold in my room. I even covered my face with a pillow to try to help warm me up (it didn't really work). However, even though my nap was basically nonexistent and my morning sucked, the evening totally made up for it. After dinner, I taught Alex how to knit (we have meetings all day tomorrow and he wanted something to do). I think he has it down. He is working on some fingerless gloves as his first project which is nice because he learned how to knit and purl and, later he will learn how to increase and decrease. Equally as awesome, was the hootenanny that happened after vespers. A five gallon bucket of popcorn was made, a fire that actually produced heat was lit, I was truly warm, if not hot, for the first time in days. It was wonderful! Lots too look forward to tomorrow. I am pretty much the only one, besides the people who are leading the meetings, that has to work tomorrow. I start at 5am, work until 7:45, breakfast and morning vespers until the meeting starts at 8:30. Then the whole village will sit together in HR meetings until 4:30pm. Basically I am going to have a 12 hour day tomorrow and I won't be able to get my nap in. I am SO not looking forward to tomorrow. But hey, at least I will get lots of knitting done.

Day 100!! Nov 18, 2014

Well, this morning wasn't too bad. There were many questions asked that I felt were clearly answered in what had been said so that was a little frustrating but I did get almost a foot of my scarf done. At coffee break I ran back to the cart because we were giving away free lattes. Earlier in the morning I had set up a system to help things go faster. I knew that there were going to be three of us working the cart, which is a lot of people in a small place. It could have been really hectic but I decided to label all of the syrups and I set up a system so that I could label the cups with a dry erase marker so that the person pulling shots and putting in syrups would know what went into each drink even though they did not take the order. It worked out pretty well and we were each able to focus on our areas with only one mix up made (it was the last drink so our minds were a little fried). I was really glad it worked out because I feel like it increased my credibility for at least the one person who I did not train. It is one of those things where they work at the cart maybe once a month but because they have been doing that for a longer amount of time, they feel that they know more about the cart. I respect that they have seen it through the years but they have not taken it apart to fix it, they have not spent hours, upon hours, upon hours, with the cart. It is really frustrating when someone like that comes in and then reorganizes things or tries to change things. Oh well, I do have other things to talk about because right now I am only up to 11am in the day.

The second half of the whole village meeting was where we did the sexual harassment video and harassment talk. It was ok until a request was made that we do not as openly talk about sexuality. The person was a parent and was basically making the request that we try to be more aware of what we are talking about around the kids. People kinda freaked out and thought that she was asking that we don't talk about homosexuality at all. I don't think that that was her intent but then again, this is the same parent who doesn't want her kids to go through sex ed in the school. I think her request, in the general sense, was totally valid. It is not ok to talk about sex in front of a 10 year old but I do think it is ok if people talk about how their brother (or whoever) loves a person of the same sex. It didn't help that I was not feeling very good at this point so I just really wanted to leave.

The afternoon small group session was really no better. In fact, in the afternoon session, I almost felt a little attacked, not personally but as a person of my age group. The fact that prohibition is going to be lifted soon was brought up and many of the parents seemed very concerned that (they did not say specifically but did imply) the twenty-somethings were going to go crazy. I mean, yeah, we are younger but most of us have gone through college and know our limits, preferences, and how to be responsible. Our manager actually brought up the fact that our chalet was once known as the party house and that made the two moms freak out (especially the one with the teenager). They almost said that they felt it should be prohibited because they don't want their girls to see people drinking. You can be protective, that is your right, but if you are too protective your kids are going to go crazy once they are on their own. Another thing is that there are two entrances into our building and one of them goes upstairs without going through the living room. Basically, they could avoid any party completely. The other thing is that the twenty-somethings living here are all pretty calm. There are maybe two young adults in this house who actually drink more than one drink in a sitting. Even then, when they have the opportunity to get drunk and do they have the experience from school to be smart and it ends up being more of a chance to talk more openly than they might otherwise. I hope the moms are not so protective that they don't want their girls to see anyone drink any sort of alcoholic beverage even if it is a beer or glass of wine during a movie. If they have a problem with that, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a problem with that. If they really want to go there, it is still 5 to 2. I don't drink but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't side with the twenty-somethings. They might be moms but they are not our moms and do not have the power to control everything that happens in this chalet. They need to have the faith that we will be responsible. They have no reason and no evidence to the contrary. Basically, I felt indirectly attacked but the meeting ended before I could say anything. I am going to talk to the mom with the younger girl just to let her know that the twenty-somethings who live with her have talked about this and do not plan on having parties here. There are better places for parties where there are not kids. I just want her to know that we considered them even before the topic was brought up by the higher up and that we respect them and their wishes. Maybe it will increase the trust level.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cutting up vegetables with the other lead cooks. It was fun to gather as a group and prepare a meal (I will talk about that later) but I was also intimidated because as of right now I am the only one in the group who does not have any experience in an industrial kitchen. I think the most number of people that I have ever cooked for was about 20 and it was in a cruddy college dorm kitchen. I don't really know any of the practices or anything beyond the actual process of cooking or chopping. I am sure it will all be fine but it is still intimidating.

Dinner, however, was great. We made hobo meals (vegetables and sausage in tinfoil) and cooked it over a long fire out in the middle of the village. The food took a while to cook (35-40 minutes) but was amazing. It was simple, the only extra flavorings were salt and pepper but the fire just cooked everything wonderfully. There was some nice caramelization on the carrots, bell peppers, and onions. The potatoes were easily pierced with a knife and the sausage was nice and charred on one side and cooked all the way through. It was interesting, though, I think my meal tasted like it had a little bit of pine smoke flavoring. It was not a bad flavor by any means but it was definitely interesting. It was all capped off with s'mores and fresh of the kiln pottery. My mug came out ok. A bunch of people really like it but I was kind of disappointed with the glaze. It just didn't do what it should have. Oh well, I still have something like 8 months to make more things and plan on spending more time in there during the winter when I can't really spend as much time outside.

Ok, that was a ridiculous amount of writing and I have been up since 4:30am and worked almost 12 hours today. I think it is time for bed (even though it is only 8:30pm).

Day 101: Nov 19, 2014

Today was pretty good except that we found out that tomorrow is going to be a late start day. My entire day is before the day is going to start tomorrow which means that Hannah does not have a late start. Even if I did, the main reason why I am there in the morning is for the remediation guys and they are why we are open so early. Basically, no matter what, I have to be at the cart at 5am I was really frustrated because I felt like my manager had forgotten about me (which he had). People were excited and talking about how they were going to sleep in and I was just like, yeah, not me. I will be the only one working tomorrow. It is not that I don't love the coffee cart because I really do, it just sucked that everyone else was given off work except for me. After our staff meeting today, I was talking to Tamera, the craft cave lady, about my day and my manager was in the same room. I was just talking about how it had been a long few days and it sucked that I had to work. Tamara, being the mom that she is, immediately got up and went over to our manager and basically told him to give me part of the day. So, I will still serve the remediation guys in the morning but then I will close down pretty much right away. That way I can still have the time off that everyone else will have. I feel bad though. Some of the villagers were excited to just hang out at the coffee cart in the morning. Oh well, I need to learn how to tell them to basically suck it up. I do that anyway sometimes when people come after closing and I have already started cleaning up. At that point I just tell people, “Hey, I am sorry but we closed 5 minutes ago”. I just wish I had the time at this point to let people know that we will be closed. But hey, since I am closing early I will be able to take my Washington Food Handler's permit test after I close and then I will get breakfast and then I can go back to bed, all before 8am-ish. Let's just hope I don't hear about it tomorrow. At least, I can always pull the “My manager told me to” card and I will leave a few pots of coffee out so that people can still get their caffeine if needed. And of course, PMS does not aid in the emotional roller coaster that I have been on in the last few days. I am just going higher on the good parts and lower if not much lower on the low parts. I mean, I almost cried when talking to my manager about working tomorrow. A mix of frustration and perhaps relief, maybe? I don't know but it is time to go to bed before I use too many kleenexes.

Day 102: Nov 20, 2014

Well, the power has gone off 5 or 6 times now. It was off for most of the afternoon. I am not quite sure why but part of my afternoon was spent reading my book in the living room with only the sunlight coming in through the window to aid me. Alex and Leah were quick to join me. When the power came back on the first time we decided to finish up the puzzle that has been in our living room for a while. The power went out 3 times while we were working on it but we pulled out our headlamps and continued. I like to call it extreme puzzling. Vespers started in darkness and ended in darkness with a little bit of light in the middle. It has been getting us ready for the winter ;). This morning I worked a little while but then closed up and took my food handler's permit test. I was back in bed by 8:00am and asleep by 8:30. It was wonderful.

Day 103: Nov 21, 2014

I think we got over a foot of snow in just the afternoon. When I got off of work there were probably 3 inches of snow but by the time I went back outside at around 4 there were 10 inches on the ground. It was awesome! A bunch of us went sledding down Chalet Hill. The hill is maybe the size of a football field and is the perfect amount of steepness. You get to the top just after you get tired of climbing the hill. It is pretty much perfect. We spent about an hour outside on the hill. It was mostly some twenty-somethings but Jade, one of the ten year olds, and Keith, one of the dads, were out there with us for a while. There are probably about 20 sleds here so we can pick and choose which sled we want to use. We sled down regularly, on our stomachs, head first, in chains, holding hands, and raced. It was a wonderful way to spend the evening and it is still snowing. Who knows how much I will wake up to in the morning. I am so excited!

Day 104: Nov 22, 2014

Today was a day filled with sledding, engineering, photography, and cinematography. So, this morning, right after breakfast, I took a few trips down the hill with a few of the kids. It was pretty great and I even found my favorite sled. It is a classic, bright orange, 3.5ft by 1.5ft sled. It is a beaut. In the afternoon I grabbed my camera for a few action shots of the sledding but mainly, I spent my time working with Ellen, a recent engineering grad. We built an awesome snow fort. It isn't quite finished but the walls are about 3 feet high and there is even an arch on one of the walls. Now this was not an arch that was dug out of the snow. Rather, it was constructed with snowballs, a little finessing and leaning, with the final touch of a keystone made of snow. It was a beautiful work of snow engineering. Once we got cold, we headed inside for some cocoa and a little bit of warmth. The day of playing ended with a showing of some episodes of the Simpsons and the movie I Love You, Man. Oh! I almost forgot! It was one of the directors' birthday today and so, along with singing Happy Birthday, we also did a snow dance in the hopes that instead of the rain predicted, we will get snow instead. I hope it worked.