Black Friday

It has been way to long since my last blog post.  Some of you who actually read my ramblings have said you missed my blog.  Tear.  Seriously, that really made me sit down and take note that maybe my ramblings are good for you, too.  Well, I've got a lot to ramble about. 
It's the day after Thanksgiving and I have no leftovers.  I didn't cook because I had to be at work at noon so the whole cooking thing was out for the day.  Jack and the girls were going over to one of my bff's for dinner w/ around 15 or so of our friends.  My friend  made the turkey and then everyone else was assigned a dish.  Jack's dish was a salad because my friends know what an excellent salad person I am.  I whipped up some pea salad I had never made before and of course I made some red jello and put little marshmallows on top because that is what we Minnesotans do.  After all, a Minnesota salad bar consists of iceberg lettuce and 5 different kinds of jello.  The jello was a hit but the pea salad, mmm, not so much.  I should have made my standard 7 layer pea salad but I went out on a limb and tried something new.  Change.  People do not like change. 

Work was great.  It was something like 20 below yesterday so I wore my bikini shirt to work for a laugh.  I walked into the kitchen, punched in and Chef and his staff of 7 were all working hard chopping, sauteing, grilling, whatever they do, and I walked through the kitchen frenzy and they all stopped and just stared.  Chef started laughing and rolled his eyes and since he calls me "hefnar" he said, "Hefnar, livin' the dream aren't you?"  I figured it was a good way to start our busy day and get everyone to smile.  I did just that. 
The kitchen staff whipped up a staff dinner for us and since this was the first Thanksgiving I have worked in almost 7 years I was so excited to sit down with everyone and eat my turkey dinner w/ mashed potatoes and stuffing.  Especially the stuffing.  Stuffing is my all time favorite.  I grabbed my plate and went to the chow line and looked at the plates of food in the window.  Brussel sprouts on the first plate, turkey sausage in gravy next, diced potatoes w/ onions, meatloaf and a spinach salad.  Now, that dinner was wonderful, don't get me wrong.  We get fed dinner every night and it's always good.  But, by God this was THANKSGIVING!!  I wanted some stuffing for crying out loud.  With gravy.  I didn't even need turkey.  Just stuffing.  I loaded my plate up and took a seat at the table with my co-workers and asked everyone else if they were bummed about the no stuffing thing.  Everyone was content and I said my peace.  My dinner was fabulous, as usual, and I had a huge serving of chocolate moose for dessert and I was stuffed.  It was time to get changed and start waiting on tables. 
We always sit down with our chef and go over the nights menu, since it changes pretty much every night.  Well, we were serving the normal 4 course dinner.  Choice of 2 soups, choice of salad or app, choice of 5 entrees, choice of dessert.  The entree selection was Veal, Lamb, Beef, Fish, Turkey w/ all the fixings.  Except there was no stuffing in all the fixings.  My jaw dropped and I let out a cry of "WHAT???"  I was literally in shock at this choice our chef had made and thought that every person who would be ordering the turkey plate would blame me when they were digging around their plate looking for their stuffing.  Since Dupster was the one to relay this message to us in the meeting I blamed him.  I said if anyone of my tables complains about having no stuffing on Thanksgiving I would be happy to send Dupster over and they could discuss it with him.  Dupster is a lowly waiter just like me so he has no control over that situation.  He was the messenger and I was about to kill him.  I did have a panic attack and was thinking maybe I should take a Valium but since I have never popped a Valium before, and I was at work, I decided against it.    I must have sold 10 plus turkey plates and not one person said a word.  Seemed no one cared two hoots about the no stuffing issue.  But man, did we ever have some good laughs over it.  That is how my job is.  Constant jokes, good laughs and great friends.  We have all worked together for years and years and we know each other so well.  It helps to be amongst good people if you have to work a holiday.  

They call this day Black Friday.  Black Friday is supposedly the hugest  shopping day in the country with the best sales EVER!   The commercials on TV are all about advertising Black Friday.   It's almost as bad as election time.  Keystone has black-out days meaning when it's a blackout day employees can't ski.  Jack tried to take Hannah out skiing a couple of weeks ago and it was a blackout day so they were denied.  Our plan was to go skiing today as a family.  Hannah has been so excited to ski.  She said to me, "Mom, to bad we can't ski on Friday because it's Black Friday."  I asked here how she already knew that they weren't letting employees on the mountain since this was back on Monday that she was saying this.  Her reply was, "because they are advertising it all over on TV."  A total Hannah ism.  It's not a blackout day at Keystone today and they are going skiing later.  She still wants to know what all they hype is about Black Friday so I am taking her shopping.  Happy Black Friday everyone.  I hope you all have some leftover stuffing.