My First Day!

As you probably have already guessed, today was my first day at my new job! It's so fun and exciting yet completely nerve-wracking at the same time. Sleeping last night was like the night before Christmas for me. I slept well, but I was constantly up every hour checking to see what time it was. I couldn't be late on my first day! I wish I could turn that feature off in my brain, especially because it's not like Glenn wasn't waking up at the same time! Well, actually, he wakes up 15 minutes later because taking the dog out is my responsibility. Yay!

As a completely random side note, I would like to point out that fresh papaya does not taste very good. We we were at the market the other day and I thought they looked so pretty. Glenn bought me one. Since I had lunch kind of early today, I thought it would be a yummy pre-dinner snack. I cut it up and put it in a bowl and as I sat down to write this, I munched on a few pieces. Bleh. It tastes like feet. Or something equally appetizing. What a shame too, because it really is a beautiful looking fruit!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming... It was really quite nice to be able to get up with Glenn and get ready, ride down the elevator together and then kiss goodbye on the sidewalk all at the buttcrack of dawn. My walk to work is quite interesting. Seattle, particularly downtown, is really quite beautiful when the sun is just making it's way up the horizon. The sky is a gorgeous deep blue color and everything has a romantic hazy glow to it. I just love it! I walked past a theatre and then walked right back and stared at how beautiful it was. It's funny, because I have passed this theatre a couple times before and never gave it a second look until now. I think one of these mornings I might give myself a few extra minutes just so I can take some photographs. Maybe I will wait until after Glenn's birthday and he might let me borrow the fancy new camera I'm buying him :o) The picture at the top of this post is the ridiculously tall building I work in. I work on the bottom floor. I thought it looked really neat looming above the street in the not-quite-daylight.

When I got to work, exactly on time, I was a little confused because it was all caged up but there were people behind it. I stood there like a dork and waved until I got someone's attention and they told me to go through the door on the side. After a very brief introduction to the people who were at work this early, which was surprisingly a lot, I sat down and filled out pages upon pages of paperwork. It wasn't really that bad though, it was mostly just reading.

Next I was acquainted with Dakotah, the former PM Production worker and my trainer for the week. He's a really nice guy and he is quite hairy. We have a lot of the same tastes in things like music and movies, so we get along pretty well. He quickly showed me where stuff was and set me to work. Right away I was making huge batches of bundt cake batter. First was orange poppyseed and then triple chocolate. Yum. Then I made some individual coffee cakes followed by a batch of triple cheese quiche muffins. There was almost 15 pounds of cheese in it! After that I started making the muffin batters. There was carrot raisin bran, apple cranberry, and something else that I completely forgot. I had to make double batches of everything because another one of the stores downtown is out a production member and needed the help. What a way to start my first day! Usually I would only make single batches which ends up being about 12 quarts of batter.

Another interruption: Rally doesn't like the papaya either.

I also learned how to do a bread pull, which entails go into the freezer and pulling out the next day's par for bread. That way they can sit out all night to proof and get nice and fluffy. The freezer is so cold that every time I walk in there I get short of breath and start coughing. It kind of makes me laugh. In case you were wondering, I am not technically a baker. I do all of the production work, like the job title says, so that all the baker has to do is pull my dough or batters out of the walk-in and scoop and bake.
Here is a picture of the shirt and hat I wear at work. I also have to where khaki pants (or shorts) along with an apron. I don't know if you can tell but my shirt has binary code on it. For those of you that aren't complete nerds, it's a computer language that consists of 0's and 1's. I don't know what it says, but Glenn probably will when he sees it. The back of it has some dorky saying on it that has to do with computer programming. Only in Seattle right?

I really think I will enjoy this job. The hours are pretty good, the people I work with are extremely nice, it's a positive environment, and it keeps my skills sharp. The only drawback is that it is very physical work with lots and lots of lifting. There is one bowl that I use that I could literally sit in if I wanted to. Imagine trying to pick that bowl up when it's full of batter. Not fun. I am really happy to have found a job that I think will make me happy and keep me occupied. I am also very excited that I am on my way to earning money to finish up my education. About a year or so of work and I will have saved enough money to completely pay for a year and a half, maybe even two, of college. Yay!