El Fin

Song of the Day

Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield

The end. e-tha, e-tha, e-tha, e-that's all folks! My days at McD's are over. I must say, while it is mostly sweet, there's a little bittersweetness to it as well. I met some really cool people there and I will miss them. But the job...hm, not sure if I'll miss that. But think of the skills I've learned! I can make a cheeseburger in about 10 seconds (not an exaggeration) and wrap a sandwich like no other.

Here's how my day went:
I arrived at work early (whoa, definintly did NOT plan that one) so I waited to clock in until it was 7:00 (6:58 to be exact). I was in grill. Ah, I started there, so it seemed right that I finish there as well. Also, I saw that three of my favorite people were going to be in grill also, so it was a promising day. I headed back and so did one of the new guys. He doesn't have a lot of experience in breakfast grill, so he's kinda slow. I started out making the sandwiches, and my manager sent him to bring up stock. Pretty slow start. Then, he came back and I told him to take my place while I brought up some boxes for grill. So I did that, and got my grill stocked and ready for lunch. Meanwhile, we get SLAMMED and he's pending about 4 orders. He's getting confused and going fairly slow, but that's understandable. Our egg grill lady left so I was on egg grill and also trying to help him make all the stuff. He forgets to serve stuff off so I was getting confused in knowing where he was at. My main manager was getting frustrated because she had to wait and I really wanted to take his place but didn't want to be rude about it. Finally, my manager told us to switch places, which relieved him, and made me happy. So I finished up the orders and cleared the screen. Things were pretty steady and then my first favorite person showed up. I ate my last free McMeal, and took my last McBreak. After break, my second person showed up, right before change-over. Change-over was easy and I got to do breakfast stock, which oddly enough, is one of my favorite things to do. No one else really likes to do it, but I do.

At 11, my third person showed up so M and I declared that we were going to have "a fiesta" now that he was here. A Fiesta de la Grill, as we like to call it. We were going to have confetti and streamers, but alas, little did we know my time was going to be cut short. We entered lunch rush, and they called me off of stock to help out. I jumped in assembly. We had two people on side two, three on my side, our meat man, and then the head manager was our Prod Man. We were staying very busy and then a whole group of cheerleaders showed up, so Ms. Manager told me to leave and go back front-counter. I found that slightly silly, since that meant that they were losing a grill person, leaving two on our side, and front-counter already had a runner, so they didn't need me. That rush lasted about 5 minutes. They were cheerleaders, they didn't eat a lot. So then I stood around and asked to go back to grill, but John told me to stay up front. So I stayed. Ms. Manager then came up and said we were overstaffed and she was going to cut people. I was told I could go home once my replacement got there. He arrived and asked where I was so he could take over. "I'm right here." "Doing what?" he asks. "Standing." He was all too eager to take over that position, and I gladly relinquished it. So I went home an hour early after saying many goodbyes. There was no "fiesta de la grill." I was sad about that.

We only got to have two real fiestas. The first was with confetti. Not sure if I told the story, but my grill homie had ripped up a grill slip and given it to me. She told me it was confetti. So what do you do with confetti? Have a party of course, or as they say in Spain, a "fiesta." It was mid-afternoon and there were only three of us back there. The meat man totally was an accomplice although he denies it to this day. But he turned the fan for me to throw the confetti. So I held my hand up and opened it and the confetti went a-flying. "It's a celebration!!!" we declared! A Fiesta!!! John walked back later and asked, "which one of you girls did this?" Not ashamed, I raised my hand and he just smiled and shook his head. Apparently he thought it newsworthy because soon all the other managers knew about it. Our second fiesta involved the mock grill printer slips (post-it notes, pastel colors!). I ripped one up and threw it in the air, not in front of the fan because there were a lot of managers around. So up went the confetti. "Celebration!" That one involved streamers as well. One lady dropped the roll of stickers and they went rolling (or, unrolling) across the floor. "Streamers! It's a celebration! A Fiesta de la Grill!" We became quite well known for our celebrations.

Oh yeah, they got a cake out for me too. It was either for me, or in celebration of the new grill printer. I like to think it was for me.

*note to all McD's breakfast eaters - we have new Canadian Bacon. It smells funny, almost sweet. Tastes a little weird too. Eat cautiously.

So thus ends this chapter of my life and work experience. I will blog about what I've learned at a later date. Right now, I want to relish the fact that I am done with it. I've flipped my last piece of processed cow meat, wrapped my last double cheese without pickle, thrown down my last bag of nuggets, and served my last order. I've said my last, "Hi, what can I get for you?" "What to drink with that?" "Small, medium, or large?" "Is that all for you?" "Your order number is 16, please pull around and pay at the middle window" (or variation,) "That'll be order number 16 at the middle window please." I have a year of memories, good and bad, and I can say that it hasn't been all bad and I've met some really cool people. I doubt my new job will have much to blog about, but I'm sure I'll find something. Adventure can be found everywhere, even in a torn up receipt thrown into the fan in the grill of a small-town McDonalds.

Celebration!