sale pending

my house is in the process of being sold! :-) the closing is May 2, so i'm thinking of returning to Colorado the week of April 9 to pack up my stuff and say "see ya later" to friends and mountains.

i continue to work really hard at Sonic. the hours on my feet are still very tiring and painful, but i'm getting more used to it as each hour passes. the girls are warming up to me, for the most part, and most of us are getting along a lot better now, but the work is still enormously busy, hectic, and somewhat stressful on a continual basis. i've mostly been working in the front doing drinks and ice cream, but one night last week i worked in the kitchen, and i've been training a couple of girls in the front. that's helped speed the last week up a bit ... i need changes in my job like that.

otherwise, things are good. :-)

change

i worked a full week in the front ... i made drinks, smoothies, shakes, sundaes, cones, blasts, slushes, and scooped a truck full of ice. i was thrilled to have a day off. it was nice to not have to stand up for 8+ hours on Sunday. :-)

but monday brought another full day of work, but with talk of moving to the kitchen. i was happy to talk about it and consider it, but scared to commit to it. but today i had no choice. i was delegated. :-)

so for two hours i worked in the kitchen doing a little of everything. it was slow enough that i was able to dress a burger and learn what goes on a chicken strip wrap w/o feeling pressure to perform under 10 seconds. but around 4:00 or so i got put on the grill to cook meat. Tuesdays are half-price burger night, so we have to have a TON of meat ready to go after 5. so, i learned what to do on the grill and worked it until 8. i cooked meat, bacon, and grilled chicken, and cleaned the grills. it was hot, splattery, and easy. i handled it well. :-)

and so, that's about all i have to say about that. OH, the guys in the kitchen are WAY cooler than the girls in the front. they joke with me. they introduce themselves to me. they ask me how long i've been working there. they welcomed me and said it was cool to have me working in the kitchen with them. it was much easier to handle mentally because of the crew.

my house is selling. the inspection was on monday. don't know yet how that went, but assume since i haven't heard anything that it went fairly easy. not really sure when i'll get back to Colorado to pack it all up, but if all continues to go well i'll have to be out of there by the end of April.

i guess that's about it for now.

oh, and trailer life is just fine. :-)

progress report

i'm faster. i'm learning where things are. i'm mastering the ice cream and blending machines. i'm remembering the differences between items that sound and look alike. basically, i'm getting better. but i'm still tired.

and not only am i getting better at the front, i'm observing things i do and do not like that happen throughout the day with the employees and managers. if i can survive and be successful at my attempt to manage a store, i know what will and will not happen in MY store that is allowed in this one. i'm thankful for the chance to be a witness to these things. hopefully i'll be better for it.

our averages for today were under 5o seconds for drinks and just under two minutes for food. that's REALLY fast (and consistent from day to day), but apparently not fast enough. according to a managers meeting yesterday, it is a desire of someone (probably corporate) to get food out even faster. some stores are reporting 50 seconds for food! that's crazy and probably unacceptable as far as quality goes. then you have the other extreme ... i'd go to a store in Colorado and wait over five minutes just for a drink!

honestly, if i were managing right now, i'd be more than happy with three minutes for food. not only is that still very fast, but then it doesn't put so much pressure on the front to make a drink with a ton of fizz be ready to go out when the food's ready, especially when they have ten+ other drinks to make, plus ice cream items like banana splits and blasts (read dairy queen blizzard copy cat). two people in the front can only do so much. and five people in the kitchen can't do much better.

maybe i'm wrong, but i'm thinking if you spend a little more time making the food, you could cut a member of your team from having to be there, therefore serve the same amount of customers with less cost for labor. please tell me, am i wrong? i probably am. and i'll probably learn that the hard way one day when i have a chance to make the schedule. oh well.

anyways ... that's what i'm thinking and going through right now. i'm very tired and very ready for my day off. i'm going to drive to my parents' house on saturday after work, spend the night, and then spend sunday with my family doing sit-down things. :-)

just two more days, just two more days....

it's only day two?

oh my goodness. i've worked 20 hours and it seems like a week has gone by. wait, that sounds familiar. oh yeah! Guatemala! wow ... talk about similarities.

today was my long day ... 11 hours with no break, no sitting, no casual dining, and hardly any talking. i'm exhausted, again.

the positive is that i almost mastered the ice cream machine today. i successfully made several items without making a huge mess (but once i didn't have such success). the trick is to pull slowly. :-)

the people in this store cuss all the time. they smoke. they move fast. they complain. they talk faster than auctioneers. the girls are rude, bossy, and not afraid to tell you when you do something wrong. the guys are helpful, kind, and actually introduce themselves (to me).

the only time i talked about anything was after work when i Ricky and i were going home. when i was asking him a question, my voice actually sounded weird to me because i hadn't heared it conversationally in so long. throughout the day the only things i say are, "order up", and the names of items. M&M Blast, ice, large cups, chocolate shake, ORDER UP!!!

and now that another day has ended entirely too quickly, i must go to bed and get ready for another one.

first day on the job

oh my ... what have i gotten myself into? eight hours went by and i never sat down, never stood still, never stopped thinking, and didn't even talk to anyone. i have begun...

the ice cream machine doesn't like me ... everytime i touch it it spews ice cream everywhere. i can't remember to use both diet cherry juice and diet Sprite for the Diet Cherry Limeade. and there are two blue drinks that are actually different, but i keep making the same one over and over. i get busy making drinks for one order, but when i look up there are seven more and then i get lost.

when orders stopped for more than two seconds (which wasn't often, by the way), i filled ice, cups, lids, and limes. well, i should say i tried to fill those items. the minute i returned from the stock room with cups i had more drinks to make.

does it ever stop??? *sigh* i'm tired.

i was told i did much better than i think i did, especially compared with others' first days. but then again, i do have some experience to fall back on, even if it was 13 years ago. i still feel unsuccessful for the most part though. but that's just my perfectionism talking i guess.

my schedule is going to be busy and tiring. i hope i can survive. i think it'll go something like this... monday, thursday, friday, and saturday: 9-5; tuesday: 9-8; wednesday: 4-close. sunday: off. if i'm counting correctly, that's about 51 hours. and no, that doesn't include a break or lunch. for some that's a piece of cake. for me, at this point, it's an entire cake with a couple of tiers and layers. i hope, with a little time, it'll get easier again. today, as my feet and lower back ache, i'm fearful.

i have to remember my first days in Guatemala and how hard and impossible it all seemed. after 5 weeks or so i was feeling a bit successful. hopefully Sonic won't take that long.

a new life

so i've finally decided to go back to work. i'll be working as an assistant manager of a Sonic in Kingwood, Texas. i'll be living about 10 miles away from there in my parents' travel trailer in an RV park. the trailer is a nice one ... 35-feet long, three slide-outs, a fireplace even! and the park is really open and clean, has a pool, laundry, basic cable channels, and wireless internet (and the rent is much cheaper than in an apartment).

one good point is that it's all temporary. the timeframe is unknown, but as soon as i'm ready to be a manager of my own store and a position opens up, i'll be taking it and probably moving again. so, the second good point is that a travel trailer is easy to move (wheels!) and the space is being paid for month to month, so there's no contract i have to get out of. and the third good point is that it's furnished, so i don't have to worry about moving all my stuff from Colorado into a new place just to move it again in 6 months.

when my house sells, i'll move everything into a storage unit nearby and wait until the timing is right to buy a new house.

until then, i start working on Monday (March 12). my cousin owns this particular store, so he's going to be teaching me all the finer points of management. all the operations of the store í'll have to learn on my own with the help of the employees. i'm quite a bit nervous because i haven't worked in such an environment in 13 years. it's fast and crazy nearly all day long, with no breaks, eating while working, hardly sitting down, and 6 days a week. some days i'll have to be there at 6:30 in the morning and others i'll have to start at 4 in the afternoon. granted, i've done all this before, but i was 16 at the time.

anyways...

my family is thrilled to have me close by again. and it's good to have a job where i know the potential for growth is available and totally up to me and my abilities. and even though the temporary-ness of my life right now is kinda freakin' me out, i know that's good too.

so, that's what's going on. i'm not sure when i'm going to make it back to Colorado. this wasn't my initial plan when i left a few weeks ago, but it's the best decision for now. my new plan is to work until my house sells, then come back to Colorado to pack it up and move, then go back to work. hopefully when that happens i'll see most of you for at least a few minutes. :-)

my phone number will stay the same until my house sells. but if you need my physical address, you can mail stuff to my parents' house...

Jenny Mills
c/o Oma Mills
8775 Lone Star Rd.
Washington, TX 77880

i know i can do anything i set my mind to, but i'm worried i don't have the stamina for this kind of work anymore. when you think of me, i would appreciate your prayers for my body. i haven't stood for 8 hours in a long time. thanks. :-)