Inspiration or Motivation

There is one thing I am convinced of more than anything in the entire world: Everyone should work at a fast food restaurant for at least a month, maybe two. Two months is enough to learn a few different positions and be valuable to the store. The first two or three weeks is training in different basic positions: fries, sandwiches, registers, grill, and the hardest position of them all is order taking and collecting money in drive-thru. Let's see what people have to say about fast food when they're the ones stuck standing in a corner of a store for 3 hours straight counting money back in the alloted 10-15 seconds between when the total was stated and customer is suppose to be getting their food at the next window for 150+ orders. People do not realize that it is expected of us to have food fresh and ready for people in 60 seconds, 1 minute. Under 100 seconds is our goal time for the Wendy's drive-thru in Nixa. On most days we run 95-105 seconds. That includes the time it takes a customer to order. It's not the general manager that pushes this time, it's the customers who complain about slow service. Because there are so many complaints nationwide about slow service in fast food chains, a store is scored on speed and accuracy. My dad's bonus checks? Based on how fast the crew gets out orders. So the next time you pull up to a drive-thru and think that you can take your time to look over the menu during lunch, dinner, or anytime there is another car in line, think again. It took a lady 300 seconds to ORDER her and her children's food. She then added and removed items at the first window, which is to pay for an order, and by the time she got her food it was 436 seconds. Moral of the story, if you don't know what you're going to order or have screaming/misbehaving children, do not go into the drive-thru. You can get it to go or for carry out inside, where the menu is bigger and easier to read and it is suppose to be just as fast on front counter as it is in drive-thru, but when you're unsure inside, you can let others who know what they want in front of you. Not only that, but when YOU take your sweet time ordering in a drive-thru the people behind you think it is OUR fault that it is taking so long. That 436 second order? 8 dollars. You wonder why kids have bad people skills, it's because we have to be overly polite and nice to people, aka plaster on a smile, for at least 3 hours at a time. Also, I'd like to see someone work my hours: 11:30am-8pm almost everyday. That's lunch and dinner rush. A normal order during lunch rush is $4-6, one combo meal, a sandwich, fry, and drink. That's not so difficult. What's difficult are the large orders with screaming kids in the backseat on Sundays, Saturdays and at night on weekdays. Let's see you make and bag 4 sandwiches, 1 shake, 3 frosties, 3 large drinks, 5 orders of fries, 3 orders of nuggets, 1 broccoli and cheese potato, 3 kids meals (sandwich/nuggets, fry/oranges, toy, straw, napkin, and optional spoon in every individual kids bag with a drink to make for each one), and 2 taco salads (including a side cup of chili per salad since we can't put the chili on it for you) in 60-75 seconds with napkins, straws, spoons, salt, sauces, dressings, etc. That allows 40-35 seconds for someone to order.

It's been rough lately, can you tell? And this is at a store that's slightly on the slower side because we're in a small city. Tomorrow and Thursday, I go to Branson. One of the biggest tourist cities in the USA. I worked at a Springfield store once from 4-9 pm during the ice storm of 2007 when it seemed everyone was out of power and wanted food at Wendy's. I stood at the back register for drive the whole time without moving, dishes piling up in the sinks. No one moved from their station except to grab more things to use at their station. This included the President, the District Manager,and the General Manager of the store and company. We'll all be at Branson tomorrow in the new store that just opened. I am scheduled 46 hours this week, and that's only because I told my dad I needed off by 4 on Friday and that I need at least one day off a week. This week I clocked out with 39.33 hours only because we were slow twice a couple days so I got to leave about half an hour early two times.

Normal people would say quit. Quitting because the work seems too difficult or overbearing seems weak to me. Sure I may be standing on my feet serving people for 8 hours a day in a greasy shirt with a black hat and pants on in 80 degree heat, but I am making decent money and getting lots of hours for 3 months solid. What other college students can say they will get that type of job security, schedule flexibility, and pay for 3 months? Not many. Most of my friends work part time during the summer, not full time. Because no one will hire a full time person for 3 months only to have them quit.

Now, I am tired and have to be up at 8am. Good night.

l(a

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le
af
fa
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one
l
iness

E. E. Cummings, 1958

"Abandoned Farmhouse" by Ted Kooser

He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.

A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.

Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm-a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.

This Paper Boat

Carefully placed upon the future,
it tips from the breeze and skims away,
frail thing of words, this valentine,
so far to sail. And if you find it
caught in the reeds, its message blurred,
the thought that you are holding it
a moment is enough for me.

Number 22, and the last of the series.
Ted Kooser, Valentine's Day, 2007

This is one song that can be played for many years to come.  Possibly centuries.

Once upon a time, I used to have one of these.  Actually, I had a LiveJournal, GreatestJournal, and Xanga simultaneously.  Once that fad ran dry, I moved to MySpace.  Once I started college, I got a Facebook.  Now I seem to be regressing, because I prefer MySpace over Facebook, and am returning to LiveJournal.

Now I'm in need of place to rant again, so here I am.  Most of this will be private, but there will be times that call for a public and/or friends only post.

I feel this is sufficient for a first post.