It's Been...How Many Months?

Hello again!

I am not sure what it is with me taking so long between posts. I guess it's for lack of a good writing niche, and a lack of proper material to work with. With that said, it's been another wacky year. I'm still working at Glass Nickel (now voted the 4th best independent pizza company in the USA !), and there is still drama afoot, shocking as that may be. If any of you have never seen one of those reality cooking shows (I.E. Hells Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, etc.), because you think it's all blown out of proportion, fine. But believe you me, having worked in a few kitchens in my life as a line cook, prep cook, cook, dishwasher, busboy, and driver, I'm here to tell you, the kitchen industry is really not much more than a bunch of people cooking with drama. The natural stress of the environment in a busy kitchen is really to blame there. Long, hot hours, with other people working long hot hours, and, well, I think you can figure out the rest. So for the love of anything stable in a kitchen, please remember to tip your waitstaff and delivery people! I can not stress this enough. Waitress(er's) get well below minimum wage to this day, and guess what, so do the drivers.

So the Winter Solstice is today (for this side of the world anyway), so happy winter to everybody! As of yet, we haven't had much snow in this part of WI, although I did see some falling at about 4 a.m. today. Why was I up at 4 a.m.? Simple, I work nights now. For the last several months, I have gotten the awesome chance to work late nights, driving around, delivering to mainly drunk people at one o'clock in the morning. So when I get home well after 2, I have some down time before bed. Unfortunately, this morning's down time didn't want to last an hour, and instead I fell asleep sometime just before 6 a.m.. Stupid insomnia. Or maybe it was just me feeling the change of the season. Either way, I still wasn't thrilled about it. Although, something about standing outside in the still of the morning (save for the one guy who was going to work at 4:45), watching the snow fall was quite peaceful. Too bad it wasn't tranquilizing as well. It was also cool, because it was a thin layer of fluffy snow, that mostly melted, except on the trees and bushes. First day of winter, first snowfall of the season, and no shoveling! (Yet.)

In other news, my car is holding up pretty well. I still haven't gotten to take a proper road trip in it, but I have managed to rack up 116,000 miles on it, and counting. My little Golf GTI is truly a work vehicle. Gonna have to change the timing belt one of these days, and maybe the suspension. I have started to do my own oil changes this year, as it saves me money. Only because I need the high mileage synthetic oil, which shops always charge a lot more than $20 for. I also did all of my brake rotors and pads this year too. Of all the things I've done on my car, the oil and the brake service were definitely the most rewarding. I think I will leave the timing belt to a pro though.

Okay, as long as it's been since my last post, I think this is all I have to share for now. I hope you all had a good year, or at least a bearable year! Enjoy the holidays, as always, with good friends, good music, and good food! And don't forget to share some laughs too! Until next time, peace out, y'all!