CrazyJohn on the first day of work (yay! Work!!!)-
First of all: Hooray for work!
Ok... let talk "stuff." I got to ColdStone twenty minutes early, so I didn't go in (as it was before opening and the door was locked)... so I went to The Second City Training Center and emailed someone from my cell phone (such a neato feature). And, after I felt as though I had wasted enough time, I went to work and knocked on the window. Hannah, a co-worker (I HAVE COWORKERS AGAIN!!! HOORAY!), opened the door for me. I watched her and Andrea, my manager, prepare the store for opening. The night before the store had it's mandatory "pest spraying" so it was a lot more work to open the store than normal... or so I'm told. Then Andrea took me to the office downstairs and had me fill in some paperwork... I asked her how she and her father came to own a Coldstone and I got the whole story. She asked a bit about me, but I got the impression that she really didn't care enough at this point to really listen. Whatever. Her dad, Jim Johnson, was a stockbroker and had his own firm on the Chicago exchange... so he's really the entrepreneur in this film. Andrea says that he's planning on opening/managing ten (10!!!!!!!!) Coldstones in Chicago. So, as I get to know Jim and Andrea, I can't help but feel a little poopy that they might be taking care of other stores... Andrea said even by this summer. >pout<
So we spent a bit of time chatting... and then I got the tour. I saw where they make ice cream (almost every day... but it is always made right at the store), I saw where we make the brownies (again... made fresh right in the store... so get the brownies!), I saw where the ice cream, ice cream cakes, and "mix-ins" are refrigerated and stored. And then we tackled the stone... the cold stone itself! And Andrea asked if I wanted something... so I said "ok"... and she told me to "pull it" myself (you "pull" ice cream at Coldstone... it's not "scooped", it's "pulled"). So she asked me to make myself a Coldstone Original... so I picked "Apple Pie A La Cold Stone" as the first thing I ever made at Coldstone (that'll probably be a Trivial Pursuit question some day). So I pulled a small size (6 oz... the "like it" size or something, I don't know the names of the sizes)... Andrea said it was a little small, so I added some more Sweet Cream Ice Cream. Then I added Apple Pie filling, graham cracker crust, and cinnamon (which was a disaster! It's in a shaker and I was like >shake< and it was like >dump< so I said "well... that's way too much, good for me")... then I did the little fold thing, added some caramel, and did the foldy thing again. Then I scraped it off the stone, half-ass dumped it into a cup (Andrea said "We'll have to work on putting it into the cups"), and then starting digging in. And that, my lovely children, was two hours worth of work.... Andrea didn't want to overload me, and I felt a bit saturated as it was... the Coldstone originals are key because they're popular, and I'm going to have to memorize them all... and right now there seems to be a million of them! And pulling ice cream is SO HARD! It's way harder than it looks! There are all sorts of "regulations" on how you hold those spades... and she was all "think of this as a tennis ball, this as a juicy orange, and this as a grapefruit" and I was thinking "aren't tennis balls and oranges the same size?"... but I didn't say it.
Oh... and Court... I don't get all the free ice cream I want, but I DO get $5 worth of ice cream every day if I want (or drinks). So I could have some ice cream whenever I work, if I wanted to. But, honestly, I was still so nervous while I was at work that I didn't enjoy the ice cream that I made myself. Eventually that won't be the case, I'm sure... but I can't imagine eating ice cream every day that I work there.... I'd be the size of... well... me! And that's like two of you! (and I'm almost as annoying as two of you would be... but, damn, that would be annoying).
In good news, I'm not going to need to work over Thanksgiving, so I'll be able to go home this weekend, spend the week at home with my family (yay!!!)... but I'll be back in Chicago Friday afternoon for work (probably). But, that doesn't really matter to me, I want to go home so bad that I wouldn't mind just being there for one day.
Also, in different news, I may head to Albion sometime this weekend to see my girl Amy's play. She was my director, and she's damn good at it, and I really want to support her... it's just unfortunate that I won't be able to see it when it actually performs. But I'm trying to do what I can to still support my girls... even if I have to, you know, have casual sex with them for hours. Right... I'm glad we're on the same page there.
Anyway... I rented Tony Hawk's Underground so that I can make myself digitally cool... because I'm not cool otherwise. No, yes, that is true. There is also a Red Wings game on tonight on ESPN2... so tonight will be neato keen Resty McRestsalot. I'm working tomorrow too, so I might actually try to spend some time memorizing some of the Originals (I got a menu).
Right... basically I'm going to study ice cream. Yes... I take this seriously. Seriously... I'm good... when I put my mind to something... I'm good (hint: I may be talking about intercourse here). Hope you have a crazy night :)