Some background….I am the food service director (cook and boss of cooks) at a nonprofit, residential, behavioral and substance abuse treatment center for adolescent boys.
Also, for years now, I have been engaged in the futile attempt to become a morning person: current job-required earliness pushing me daily in this endeavor. Note….getting up early each day no more makes me a morning person than hanging out in a chicken coup makes me a rooster.
On the mornings that I serve breakfast I get up at 4:30am, early enough to allow for my morning rituals, ample time for me to get to work and have breakfast for forty ready to be served at 7:30. Though it is part of my employer’s plan to keep the kids on a tight schedule, there are times when things lag behind. And, due to recent downsizing, we only have one cook at a time when there used to be two…so it is often a mad scramble to get breakfast together on time. The kids are usually a few minutes late, and sometimes don’t roll in until 8:00. The time between when I get everything ready to go and when they actually show up in the cafeteria is eventful. Those empty minutes allow my brain to go to some strange places.
“I could have stayed in bed for 30 extra minutes!” ‘How dare they be late!” “Who do they think they are?” “This must be some sort of conspiracy!” ‘That’s it, I quit!” “Don’t they know that I am a real chef?” “If they aren’t here in two minutes I’m throwing everything away and they can go hungry until lunch. That’ll show them!”
You get the picture….it is all about me. Some mornings I will allow this thinking to infect the rest of my day. Other mornings I will step back and realize that I have done my part and that I must leave the results up to higher powers. I must see that my role is to support and facilitate the mission of our business by having healthy and delicious meals, within Child Nutrition Program guidelines, prepared and ready to serve at the appropriate times. I have no control over what time my diners arrive, and for me to get bent out of shape about tardiness is a clear example of my own lingering addiction at work. Knowing this though, it still happens. Tomorrow is a brand new day.
Clean & Sober 