Written: July 19, 2008 at 11:54AM EST
Ok, raise your hands. Upon reading that statement, the image of a dog snarling at me came to mind. Now, what would you say, if I told you that a dog didn’t snarl at me, but rather a woman did! I found it hilarious as I’m sure did everyone who was working with me.
Let me start from the beginning, this rather round woman entered Dunkin Doughnuts and ordered a medium iced coffee (approx 16 ounces). Now, this sounds like a rather reasonable request, correct? The woman then goes on to ask demand that I add cream to the drink, a whopping 12 ounces.
The second I start making the woman’s drink, an order comes through my headset asking for an iced coffee with sugar in it. I went to make this order and not thinking, I added sugar to the womans coffee. In a rush to finish the womans order, I give her the drink, she pays and prepares to leave.
Just as she goes to leave the store, she stops dead in her tracks. Turns around and rushes back to the counter. “Theres sugar in this! I can taste the crystals!” she screams at me. Rather suprised to see her again, I just kinda stood there for a second, before apologizing. As I go to reach for the iced coffee, shes showing her teeth and snarling at me. Now, I’m trying not to laugh and am genuinely trying to show concern in her problem, but I mean, come on! I was actually waiting for her to start barking. Now that would have been funny.
But, who seriously snarles when returning a drink?! I can understand that there are reasons for not wanting sugar, but resorting to snarling?
Oh well, it takes all kinds, right? It should be interesting to see other types of customers I get to meet at this job! 
Written: July 15, 2008 at 3:14PM EST
Oh yes, boys and girls, it is time for another tale of my experiences in the “working world.” Todays episode of course takes place in none other than Dunkin Doughnuts.
It all started, in… well I guess November. I left subway (I miss it more than anything… 
) and struggled to find work the entire time I was in high school. It seemed like everywhere I went, no one wanted me. It was extremely discouraging and I began to feel worthless and bum-like. I was forced to mooch and I hated it (I don’t know how people can do it!)
Anyways, weeks turned to months and a few jobs came and went, and finally I graduated from high school. Driving around I saw a sign at Dunkin Doughnuts and went in and applied, basically as a last resort (I honestly wasn’t holding my breath). Much to my suprise, I received a call for an interview a few days later. A second interview followed promptly, and then I started yesterday. To be perfectly honest, I was shocked at the entire thing. To go from making $0.00/hr doing nothing, to making $8.00/hr making coffee is a pretty good deal.
Now, that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me ask you this… what is a fruity frenchmen in a sauna. Pretty strange, eh? Just one of the many orders I must memorize. I can only assume my old customers from subway who would complain about having mustard touching their pickles were bliss compared to this macabre new language I must learn. Oh well, for $8, I will learn.
As an aside… why is it that everything smells like coffee now?
Written: February 18, 2008 at 1:55PM EST
Today I had my first interview in quite some time, and much to my amazement, I snagged the job. It was at a fast food joint, not exactly my first choice, but its a job. Arby’s around here isn’t too big, nor does it ever get unbearibly busy, so thats a plus. And lets not forget, its a little extra money so I can stop mooching off people (e.g. Sarah). 
Digressing, I arrived to the interview dressed up and before I sat down, I was offered the job. So what I believed to be the interview turned out to be a training/orientation session. To my dismay, I discovered I would be doing the fryer for quite some time, not exactly my favorite station, but I’ll survive. So sitting through the lovely Arby’s Propaganda, I was finally able to leave.
When I got home, my mom said Burger King called and said they wanted an interview as well. (Isn’t it funny how these places time their hiring calls?). So, I’m not really sure what I want to do. At Arby’s, I’m guaranteed a job and I know for a fact I can do it. But Burger King, I know the manager and theres a good chance I could do something other than fryer… I’m not sure. Depending on if I get called in for an interview, I may go and see what they have to say. I mean, what do i have to lose.
And now for a completely random note, my mommy bought a neti pot and I have to say it was the weirdest feeling having the water running through my sinuses, but after I was done, it felt so good. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with allergies, it works wonders.
Written: November 2, 2007 at 3:46AM EST
I am no longer a sandwich artist. It’s so bittersweet. For one thing, I did enjoy the job and working with people… on the other hand some of the policies were down right outrageous. Overtime without pay, unfair treatment from one person to the next. The worst part I would have to say is the talking behind the backs of others. It was downright disgusting.
I’m done and unemployed. I have a fre paychecks to tide me over and hopefully I can get another job fairly soon…
Written: October 15, 2007 at 5:52PM EST
Ok… theres a creepy girl walking in the parking lot wearing yellow cleaning gloves carrying what I hope was a plastic machete… Wow O.O there are some strange people around here. Oh, if you are wonder what the hell I’m going on about, I’m at work. The last hour has been pretty slow, so I’m not complaining and it gives me time to recap the last few days.
The last few weeks have been rather chaotic, from getting my work schedule sorted out, to attempting to write two newspaper articles (both of which, in my opinion sucked). This is all sprinkled nicely over the move to the new house.
Suprisingly, I believe this is the first time I mentioned the new house at all! Anyways, the new house is about a mile away from our old house and is nearly 3X the size. My room is way off on the other side of the house and I have my own entrance and bathroom! Basically I can come and go as I please.
Anyways, for the last week or so, furniture has been moved over there slowly. First the living room furniture and the kitchen table. Then followed by my computer. Then everything came to an abrupt halt. So I spent the week sans computer… It nearly killed me.
Seriously, they need something like AA for computer addicts.
But anyways, I had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off and we managed to get the beds, dressers, tvs, computers, desks, washing machine, dryer, and stove over to the new house. But at least it’s done. Now onto the other little crap.
Now, its nearly 40 minutes later and I’m still attempting to finish this post. The dinner rush came and went and I have made a whole 14 subs since I came in at 4 (its now 5:45). I’m actually quite surprised. Whenever I’ve worked alone any other time, I usually get slammed and made subs non-stop for the entire shift. Not today!!!
So, I should probably do something somewhat work-related…but then again… 
Written: August 12, 2007 at 9:18PM EST
I would most definitely sat not! Usually at the Subway where I work, Sundays are dead. Because of this, it is a nice day to go in and work on making subs quickly and preparing foods for the next day (Monday Lunches are murder). But today, was NOT a normal Sunday.
First off, I was scheduled to work from Noon until 7pm. I get there and things are going fine. Normal Sunday lunch. Come two O’Clock, my manager Arlo began making the subs for the huge order for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. They ordered about 85 subs and 16-or-so salads. All of which were BMTs, and the salads were just BMTs without the bread. But just as we started, we got a call asking for everything to be packaged separately. This meaning:
- Each sub will be bagged separately
- Each sub will have a separate container of:
This in itself would not have been a problem, even for 101 subs/salads, but to call this in an hour and a half before it was due was uncalled for. Grudginly we did this, only to be slammed for lunch. In Subway Terms, slammed is over 80 subs in the course of two hours with three people on shift. So while assisting customers and making the god-awful order, we were swamped. Then the real fun began.
We began running out of soda, tomatoes, lettuce and all the other essentials. So while attempting to do all this, we needed to prepare food for use in the front line. It was almost too much to handle. We did manage to get the order completed (and on time too, in fact).
Then when the huge order was done, we had to transport it to Earnhardt’s private jet. My boss, not having a large enough car was freaking out, and no one else on staff was able to drive it over, I called my mom and she was able to come right over and help. Thankfully she did, otherwise we would’ve had some unhappy customers, to say the least.
The day continued, on as normal, until two more Nascar drivers came and ordered another 100 subs. Grudgingly we made them, and of course ran out of white bread. Then once again we get slammed. We were running out of everything in the store, then to make matters worse, Debbie, the closer called in because she didn’t sleep well-enough last night. So my boss and I stayed until close, at 10:00 tonight. Finally closing rolled around and I wanted more than anything to get out of there, and there was still customers pouring in. So I stayed and helped with that and finally I was able to leave. So now, exausted and smelling of Pepperoni, I am writing this. Then I am off to take a shower and I am planning on sleeping until 4 or 5 in the afternoon tomorrow.
Luckily this is the last big event around here for the Summer, but come Black Friday, I have already been recruited to help… All I can say is I am SO looking forward to that. </sarcasm>
Written: July 12, 2007 at 3:24PM EST
It’s official. I quit Wendy’s. I have to say it was easily one of the worst experiences of my life. Albeit, there were some good points, the bad generally outweighed the good.
First off was the fryer. When I started, I had envisioned working ANYTHING but the fryer. Of course thats what I was put at. I didn’t really want to complain, so I put up with it. At first, everything was fine. It was still spring and it wasn’t insainly hot out. But then came summer. 100 degree weather working over a 400 degree stove… not fun at all!
Then the managers — nevermind. I’m not going to go there.
I was lucky enough to get a job interview for Subway (like I had last summer). Thinking I bombed the interview, I was bracing myself for a life in hell… er I mean grease-ville. But after a few days, I surprisingly was offered the job. Thinking sub-making wasn’t for me, I went in to try it, and within the first day, I did nearly 3 times as much as I did at Wendy’s and the time went by so fast! So last Sunday I put in my notice that I was quitting.
Hopefully, my co-workers at Wendy’s won’t think poorly of me, but something better came along. 
Written: June 30, 2007 at 11:27PM EST
Nice! So glad to see I am able to keep up with writing of ANY sort over the summer. Oh well. In a sad pitiful attempt to write the events of the last, oh say, two months, I will attempt to do this in one sitting (due mainly to my short attention span over the last few weeks).
Prior to Myrtle Beach: I became employed at Wendy’s, probably one of the better fast food places, but like everything today, still has it’s skeletons. Before I went away, I was scheduled for two days of training, which consisted of the following*:
- How to wash your hands.
- How to obey the overlord (manager)
- The customer is the most important person on the face of the earth
- You are the slime beneath the customers feet
During the 4 hours of watching videos, I met the other three trainees who, I would easily say were the most unique group I have ever met (at least who were eventually forced to work together). And as a result of this, I will probably be killed
First off was Christina. She was a senior at my school. Prior to coming to Wendy’s she worked at Burger King so she probably had the most experience working with the slop which someone calls food.
Then was Tiffany. One word to describe her…. “Bubbly.”
I forget the other kids name Dustin was the final part of the interview group and I honestly don’t have much to say about him. During the entire course of training, he said probably 10 words. All I know is he goes to my school (what grade however, I have NO idea).
Once I arrived home from vacation, I was put to work on the fryer. I hate loath it. Nothing better than working for 5 hours over a 300 degree fryer.
But sadly, I don’t feel the need to dwell on that. </sarcasm>
Anyways, now on to the vacation. This year, like we have for the last two or three, we went to Myrtle Beach for week. This year, amazingly started out well. We made it to the airport on time, made it through all of the terminals and actually were there semi-early. An amazing feat for our family, considering the Andrus Family Curse (This of course is the constant inability to arrive to ANYTHING on time. No matter what it is; to give an example, one family member was late to her own wedding!).
After sitting in the airport for a little while we were allowed to board the plane. As usual, we played music plane seats and finally after a bit of rustling around we were all set to go. Just as the flight crew was about to shut the door, a man carrying a rather large “carry on” suitcase came aboard. I immediately got a strange feeling, which was further fueled by the large roll of red wire which fell out of the bag. Because of my completely uncalled for fear (which if I were to blame anyone, I would blame on the media) which left me white knuckling the entire flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. After flying for about 45 minutes my fear of the “terrorist” soon turned to disgust. For the entire flight I found myself looking over and seeing what he was doing. But towards the end of the flight, I was just too disgusted to look anymore. Of course, he began picking his nose, then rolling the “contents” around on his finger, then finally eating them… :vomit:
Upon arriving at Charlotte, my mom and sister met Gene Simmons and were freaking out about it the rest of the trip to Myrtle Beach. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. The days went by and I did some things I never dreamed of doing before. From para sailing, to riding a roller coaster (I don’t like the droppy felling in my stomach), and then getting into a huge fight with my uncle, which broke the almost non-existent relationship we shared. But overall the trip was a nice one, but sadly it hurt my chemistry grade because I “stopped working” (or so the teacher said).
Then every student in New York State’s favorite time of the year, Regents Exams! This semester, I had only two: American History and Chemistry. The American History one, I can only describe it as eventful.
June 19th was the day of the American History regents and of course it had to be close to 100 degrees when I have to take it. My school district decided when Regents first came out, that its students would take them in one of the two gymnasiums at the High School. This inevitably led to problems. Lets look at the flaw to this plan.
1. It’s 100 degrees. Gee, lets put all the kids in a room with windows that won’t open and lets not run any fans.
2. It’s 100 degrees, lets cram 250-300 kids into one room for three hours.
So the second the test begins everyone is sweating and the minutes begin to drag by slowly. I was able to get through the 50 multiple choice questions rather quickly and I began the first essay, which was a thematic essay. I had just finished the intro and all of a sudden I became light headed and my ears started ringing. Then the next thing I know I am being escorted out of the gym by the nurse and my American History teacher. Not at all fun. Then come to find out, the news of my trip to the nurse spread throughout the school and teachers were talking about me and other kids were talking about “the kid who passed out during the regents exams.” So nice to see the rumor mill at work because apparently, I had a heart attack and was escorted out by ambulance (when In reality, I went to the nurse, laid down for maybe 10 minutes and finished my exam.) The funniest part of the whole ordeal was the fact that I received a 98% on the exam.
Chemistry was the next day and that was a rather uneventful exam. I did ok on it and I think I got an 89%. Not the best grade in the world, but at least I passed.
After regents had ended, I officially began summer vacation. With work however, it seems as though its not really summer at all. I like working at Wendy’s, yet I hate it at the same time. I don’t know what I should do, but I have the rest of the summer to decide.
*By the way, that was sarcasm. I know for a fact someone will comment about that list…
Written: May 23, 2007 at 12:29PM EST
After months and months of searching, I was finally able to get a job! It may not be my dream job, but its a start and at $7.25/hr, I can’t complain. Starting from the beginning is probably the best way to go about this, so that is what I will do.
Last Summer I applied at Subway, was interviewed, but didn’t get the job. After that rejection, I began looking at other places, asking for applications, seeing if they were hiring, but I was not able to get a job.  I even went so far as to go to the mall and enter EVERY store and ask for applications; quite sad if I do say so myself.
Lucikly, one day, my mother and I went into Wendy’s and were eating and the manager came into the dining area and my mom asked if they were hiring, and they were. A week or so later I was at my interview and I was hired on the spot.
Today was the first day of orientation and I have to say it was one of the most boring experiences of my life. First off, we learned how to wash our hands and then what to do if a customer comes in with a seeing-eye dog, basic stuff that is common sense, but they still need to teach. We then took a tour of the kitchen and it was crazy, the entire space was probably 10ft long by 4ft wide and there were somthing like 20 people crammed in there. To make matters worse, the floors were slippery and people were running all over the place!Â
After the tour, the did sort of a background check on the phone and were asked questions like, in the last 6 months have you or your family recieved food stamps, have you or your family recieved government aid checks in the last 2 years, and general stuff like that. Not too sure why they needed to do it over the phone as we answered questions like that during the interview, but its not a big deal.  Finally 9:00 rolled around and I could FINALLY go home. The entire ordeal was probably one of the dullest things I have done in my life, and the splitting headache I had certainly did not help any.
So tomorrow I go back and pick up my uniform and other stuff required to work, then after my trip to Myrtle Beach, I start work. It should be nice having extra money, but I still am going to miss having my summers completely free.