Its Been A While!

ashaw

Cathlete
Its been awhile since I've been on the forum and I, like probably everyone else, have taken advantage of that huge DVD and equipment sale, although I only bought some DVD's to round out my collection. I felt sad when I read about Cathe's decision to go to streaming only, although I know its probably easier for her in the long run, I loved it that she still produced DVD's for those of us who prefer that option as well as can't afford a yearly membership fee or don't have the internet speed to support it.

I'm still living with my mom and stepdad and I've been working at restaurant called Mod Pizza since December. I'm working a few days a week and have been working in the back doing morning prep since shortly after I started. A few days after Christmas, they had me thrown onto the pizza makeline with only one other person who was running the pizza oven and I was struggling to keep up with large parties, multiple pizzas and running the register. The person I was working with was getting irritated with me because I was having trouble keeping up. Its the first time in my working life that I came very close to clocking out and walking off the job. We almost always have two people on the line and one running the oven. So, I'm glad I didn't because apparently, I was an epic fail at making pizzas, but I've caught on to working prep and am loving it. I get to work at 8:30 AM (great hours for a early morning exerciser!) with another manager and take inventory of the make lines, the coolers underneath and the walk in cooler and see what we have on hand versus what we need for the day, as well as making teas and lemonades and every now and then getting called to press out dough. I'm off by 12:30 - 1:00.

My mom's dementia has gotten significantly worse since I've been here. She has had far fewer mood swings that I've been on the receiving end of but she's just overall been very confused. Yesterday, I had to go over the "timeline" of her life starting in 1995 when she and my dad divorced to when she and my stepdad married in 2001 to now. My stepdad is so loving and patient with her and he told me the other day that he appreciates my being here. One thing is sure, Luca can always turn my mom's frowns upside down. She loves petting Luca and taking her out in the backyard.

My husband and I have been talking but I haven't seen any real change in him since I left last June. He has applied to substitute teach but we're only 2 months away from the end of school. He says he wants to work yet he will not apply for any job just to have income. People have kept giving him money and I don't know how he's survived since I left. He said something the other day that he couldn't have bought groceries if not for his credit card. I guess I've had to "keep the door open" with him so to speak because things are very unpredictable around here. My mom doesn't know my stepdad all the time and has told him more than once that he will have to leave the house. There will come a day and I'm afraid its going to be sooner than I think, that she won't know me and if she ever insists that I leave, I'll have to do whatever it takes to keep peace.

I love doing back of house restaurant work but I don't think similar jobs pay very much and I have no desire to work in management at a restaurant. I'm currently looking into something called "scoping". Its where you work with court reporters and you edit and correct their reports using special translation software. I've found a school and been talking back and forth with the owner as well as to two references she gave me. While I don't have any experience in proofreading or editing, I'm a grammar nerd and can catch typos and grammatical mistakes across the room. It would allow me to work from home, which I really loved doing. Also, should anything arise where I have to leave here abruptly, I don't have to worry about leaving a job and having to look for another one as I'm living 35 miles away from my old part of town. Because I'm not working much, I have extra time to devote to education.

I'm just checking out some Cathe rotations and am feeling nostalgic for her older workouts like ICE, Strong & Sweaty and the 2013 series.
 
Nice to hear from you Ashaw…so glad you have a job that you are liking, and still
checking out other options too. So sorry about your mom’s declining health, and it
may be a blessing you are there, with Luca, at this time to help out, & for Luca to
help as well, by bringing a smile & comfort to your mom.

Hang in there! & take care.
 
Seriously :) .
I'm glad you're still around and enjoying your workouts. I'm sorry to hear of your mother's medical condition - so hard! But it's good you and Luca can be there to help with her in this stage of life. My sis worked at Pizza Hut while in college, so your work story brought back lots of memories and laughs (although some of it wasn't so funny living through it, but we can laugh now almost 50 years later :p).
 
A pizza restaurant is the best kind of restaurant to work in, in my opinion…Pizza’s my
favorite food! :):)
Well, that's what my sis thought when she first took the job. OMG. She stunk of pizza at the end of her shift. I mean stunk! And we love pizza too, but OMG, the smell. LOL. We're both laughing now talking about how bad it was. And the pressure on those cooks/line workers on busy days/nights - it is just as ashaw describes - really hard to keep up .... think of Lucy on that assembly line lol. And back then you had to hand mix the pizza dough - that's when her carpal tunnel started - she eventually had to have surgery on both hands/wrists. It is not easy work. My hat is off to you ashaw, and all other workers who make and serve us our favorite pizzas! :)
 
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Ashaw so good to hear from you. I worked in a pizza headquarters for about 5-6 years but we all had to work in a pizza store for one week. I have to say it was not an easy job, and so glad when it was over. Not sure how it is in the back but being on the front line, ugh. I was thankful for going back to the headquarters to my desk job. I give you credit for doing that job. Brings back memories and we even had pizza taste testing (where they gave you three pieces of pizza and they wanted you to see which one has the best sauce/cheese/dough). They did this a couple times a week, but it was nice as it was a free dinner and my shift was 2pm-10pm as I was dealing with customers on the west coast. It was a nice job but then that dept was stopped and i found a new job at a university. Those were fun times though.

Sorry to hear about your mom's declining health but so nice to hear Luca can put a smile to her face.
 
Hey thanks for the sweet words y'all! Its been a long 9 months. I was thankful to get hired at Mod Pizza because I'd been turned down at Walgreens and Kroger and never heard back from Jason's Deli, the Goodwill Store, Wal-Mart, the vet clinic near my house or the Walgreens Pharmacy Tech apprentice program. I did think I had a chance at a holiday help job at the Kohl's down the street, the automated application system emailed me the next day to set up an interview but the problem was I couldn't schedule my virtual interview for 2 weeks and the day of the interview, I got a call about 20 minutes before my scheduled time that they were already fully staffed for the holidays. I was afraid of that because there's only so many extras that a store can take on and Kohls was one of the few that was still hiring for holiday help.

Yes, this is my first experience working at a restaurant and I'm so glad I'm been moved to back of house. If I were to go work at another pizza restaurant, I'd go to a Domino's or Pizza Hut where its only take out or delivery. I didn't realize how bad my anxiety was until I stepped out onto the makeline and was waiting on customers. I did OK until it got really busy. I remember my last day of making pizzas, I had these large parties of 10 or so people and it was like 3 adult pizzas and 3 kids pizzas and all the tickets had to be handwritten. The shift captain was getting aggravated with me and I told him I was having trouble keeping up. We always have one person running the oven and two on the makelines and I remember that Saturday, I kept thinking, surely Makaela is coming in, surely Ashley is coming in. Nope! I've been on back of house ever since and love it. Its busy work, its physical work and the time flies by. Plus I still get tips, which are divided up among all of us based on how many hours we work. I usually get an extra $80 - $100 in each paycheck.

That's so funny about your sister working at Pizza Hut. I remember going there when I was a kid. The red and white checker tablecloths, the red stained glass lamps above each table, and the bright red pointy roof! That was back when Pizza Hut was an actual dine in restaurant and not just a take out or delivery only place. And yes, I do come home smelling like everything that goes on a pizza. The worst is when I accidentally spill some of the juice on myself that the chopped garlic comes in. Our dough is shipped to us in rounds and kept in the walk in freezer. Every night, someone on the closing crew, pulls dough in the trays for the next day.

I'm thankful I'm getting this time with my mom because she's made a significant decline since I've been here. Everyday I have to go over the same things with her - that she and my stepdad are married, she has nothing to worry about financially, this is her home, and my dad (her ex) has been out of the picture for 30 years. My husband and I have been talking since October and he's said he wants me to come back only when he has steady income, the only problem is he's not really looking for a job, so that may never happen. I'm totally out of debt thanks to the generous gift from my stepdad back in 2024. If I did go back, there would be a lot of ground rules and not getting back in debt would be one of them. He can run up his credit cards but I'm not letting that happen again with myself. I've also been fortunate enough that I'm able to save all my paychecks because I just don't know what's going to happen. I'm working very part time hours now and its been a good thing because my stepdad doesn't feel comfortable leaving my mom alone for more than an hour. So, I've been with her enabling him to have dinner with his son twice, coffee with his other son twice and Thursday, I'll be with her because he has to meet with his attorney to make his oldest son his executor of his will as my mom is not mentally able to serve in that capacity.

Since I've been here my workouts have changed too. I'm more mentally tired, my sleep isn't as good so I'm sticking to things that are around 30-35 minutes. My room is also upstairs so I'm trying to limit jumping and I'm looking at a soundproof mat. I actually have done 21 Day Fix Extreme a few times as well as the Beachbody program Muscle Burns Fat. I'm trying to look at some time saver premixes so I can do some Cathe dvd's. Unlike the Hot Girl STS 2.0 summer of 2023, I nothing close to that level of energy now.
 
Yes indeed, I remember that, we were all going to pile into your car, convertible, if I
remember correctly :), and go pick up our dvds!!! :):)
Good memory! Yes you’re absolutely right! We were going to have a celebration parade to get our dvds! I think I was going to be the official grand marshal escort for the armada of ups trucks!!!
 
Well, that's what my sis thought when she first took the job. OMG. She stunk of pizza at the end of her shift. I mean stunk! And we love pizza too, but OMG, the smell. LOL. We're both laughing now talking about how bad it was. And the pressure on those cooks/line workers on busy days/nights - it is just as ashaw describes - really hard to keep up .... think of Lucy on that assembly line lol. And back then you had to hand mix the pizza dough - that's when her carpal tunnel started - she eventually had to have surgery on both hands/wrists. It is not easy work. My hat is off to you ashaw, and all other workers who make and serve us our favorite pizzas! :)
I remember the Lucy episode where her and Ethyl were on the banana line dipping them in chocolate. That was so funny!
 

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