From Cold to Hot in One Shift

Friday night at work was spent making pepperoni pizzas. LOTS of pepperoni pizzas. They are on coupon right now so we are selling LOTS of take-and-bake pepperoni pizzas, therfore creating a need for deli workers to make LOTS of pepperoni pizzas. It's that whole supply and demand concept I've heard so much about:) Did I mention we made LOTS of 'em?

The point to all of that is that a couple of the floor managers were helping to make all of these pizzas. One of them either is or was the bakery manager so asked if I wanted to pick up a few extra hours. Since I didn't work on Wednesday (K.C. was out of town) I decided a few extra hours would help the pay check a little. So, I went from the nice, comfortable 41 degree work room to the hot, hot, HOT bakery. I peeled off as many layers as was appropriate but since my base layer was my thermo pants and shirt, I was pretty much screwed!

One thing is for sure. I could not work in the bakery regularly. Here's why. My first task was to make pecan pies. I did this by scooping pecans into this jug until it measured 14 ounces. Next, I dipped this other jug into this vat of liquid that held I don't know what. I can only assume sugar, butter and whatever else goes into making pecan pie. Once I cleared out the scale, I poured this liquid into the jug of pecans until it measured four pounds. Yes. FOUR freakin pounds! Then I poured that jug into a pie crust - trying not to spill it over the sides but not being very successful at that. That all wasn't the problem. The problem was I had to keep talking myself out of jumping in the vat of buttery, sugary, whatevery peacan pie filling goodness and swimming around while sucking in mouthfuls of it.

And if that wasn't bad enough, my next task was to spray pies that had already baked with some sort of glaze. And when I say spray, I don't mean from a stinking can. I mean this stuff was ran through some sort of machine that heated it up and then I used what looked like a paint sprayer to spray two ounces of it on top of the pies. Three carts worth of pies. Each cart holds 24 pies. I had 72 opportunities to turn the sprayer just so so that I got some over spray on my face. On purpose. I think I gained 10 pounds just from the over spray. It was good that I got to taste it a little. It quieted the voices in my head that were telling - no, YELLING at me - to turn the sprayer and spray it directly in my face. Or, rig it up so that I could take a nice, long, hot glaze shower under it.

I'm so ashamed of the thoughts that went through my head. And this is why, when asked on Sunday if I wanted to pick up a few more hours, I politely declined and got the heck out of there as fast as I could before I changed my mind! Yes, I think I'll stay in the deli where I'm not tempted at all to do anything inappropriate with the food.