*waves*

I suppose I should get some of this down, before it becomes simply details
and I forget what I learned.

My Brother works at a very strange place.
It is acres and acres, and a Hall....

A whole wall smokes the meat.
Ten pound chunks of cow become brisket over night.
Even now, I believe my mobile smells of the smoke.

I enjoyed working there.
It was different from anything I have ever done, it was
the hardest physical work I have ever done in my life.

Early mornings, leaving the house before the family woke...summer sky still grey.
Driving along winding TX Farm Roads in his truck
watching the wheat get cut and the corn grow
in just the time I was there.

We drove for nearly an hour each morning, as the sun rose.
Through farms and over freeways.
Work was simple.
More simple work than I have had in a long long time.

We made food from scratch for a thousand and more...on a regular basis.
LARGE food. When you chop onions--it is a hundred pound sack.
Making baked beans? 18 hotel pans--serve a hundred folks each.
Potato salad? I never realised how hard it was to make the stuff.......
HUGE pots of water put to boil on a Mediaeval stove top?

I laughed when every day was done, slap happy--telling Mum I was glad
I never knew what was going to happen in a day
because I would not be able to do it.

Simple stuff was made, but the process was actuated by only THREE PEOPLE.
And I think now, dear gods, before my stay and after--it is done by TWO.

I came home at night and Brother and I just collapsed.
Wild eyed. We ate, we slept, we went back again.

In two days I carved 500 pounds of brisket.

My hand was brutalised
but did what I did not think possible...
I calloused.

The wet under my blue gloves made for a tight little blister,
but that had once been a callous before--it hardened over night.
The water went back into me, and left me something I haven't had in years.

A knife callous.

My Brother's worn Henckel broke me in proper.
Weight and balance--my hand remembered.

I slept in my carpel tunnel brace.
I marveled at my sudden callous.

Hands were numb most mornings, I plowed through.
I got good at it.
Meat is such a strange medium.

I learned how it worked, even when it was almost too hot to touch.
There is a natural split in the muscle--with fat.
I was shown where it was, I saw that it was better to feel for it.

I learned to slide my hand inside, peal it back......make the cut
when you have pan after pan after pan to fill?
It wasn't like waiting tables, there is no chatter.
He runs a really quiet kitchen.

I brought my Shuffle finally, and just played my running music.
I slid my hand into that beast and flopped it apart.
And slowly at first, and faster later--I learned to take it apart completely.
Fill a pan in slices.

I left Austin with a great deal of angst.
I thought I could no longer be a part of the restaurant service industry
because it was meaningless.

I wanted to learn how to do something in my caliber that could make a better influence.

The largest gigs with my Brother, off site and on:

All of the Methodist Hospitals--three HUGE ones,
we catered their EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION days.
Carnivals.

Then we catered the Fire Fighters and EMS of most of Dallas.
Their "Appreciation" days... (*swoons*)

Lastly, we catered the BIG BROTHERS and BIG SISTERS of Dallas.
On site.

@_@

I remembered why I do what i do.
I am good at it, and it matters.

Do not know what I am going to do next...
but I am Home, and I know more now than I did when I left.

I wish I had written all the stories,
they were wonderful.

The moments.

I may never catch up.

Why did she call me Ginger anyways............

*head in hands laughing*

OI!

I'm good for the tummy.

Happy Birthday AngryStan

I love you.
Live long and prosper, Skipper



your little buddy........Ginger.

I am coming Home this afternoon.
I have many tales to tell.

just exhausted.

I was born the Fall of 1970...
and can easily and enthusiastically agree with all said here:

Was being born in 1971 the perfect time to be born a geek?

Conversation this afternoon in the car with Nephew Corin
after Auntie Ginger picks him up from School:

GINGER- Hey look
there's a sticker from that MONSTER energy drink you like
on the back of his car...

CORIN- Yeah.
Monsters are getting popular, especially with kids like us.


Auntie Ginger grins behind her sunglasses and cranks up the stereo....
She and her Nephew
Rock Out.

\m/

It is overcast and 59 degrees F this morning in Waxahachie Texas,
in mid May??? Folks are probably putting on their snow tires for Church this morning!

Has DOLLHOUSE been renewed?

Happy Birthday omaha!!!

Oh yeah...whooooooo won the Stevens Family Scrabble game tonight?

ME ME ME ME ME MEMEMEMEMEMEMMEME Moi.

.

Daniel Tiger drove up to visit....
and we totally went to see Star Trek again.

*GRINS*

Still AWESOME, even better actually.
It's all about the company you keep.

^_^

That was AWESOME.

*sigh*

Went alone, to a tiny theater in Waxahachie at 4:30 this afternoon.
Caught the first show, with about 18 other people who didn't even know when to laugh.

Squirmed several times when I wanted to shake or smack or just
make 'knowing eye contact' with my buddy.....
but I was all alone with an empty seat on either side.

( SPOILER-ISH )

But I am glad I caught it opening day, and somehow seeing it all by myself
seemed fitting.

One week at The Southern Cross Dude Ranch, and I am a shell of my former self.
Beat, bent, sunburned and nearly unable to make a fist.

*laughing*

(I gotta tell you folks, this is much harder than I remember it being in the 90's at OPSC!!!)

The Event Center itself is gorgeous, and HUGE.
Everything from horseback riding, swimming, basket ball, soft ball, volley ball, "rock climbing"
paddle boats and ping pong--to a petting zoo a craft center and a playground with all the amenities.

Dinning room that seats a thousand, with a nice sized stage
and room for a kids "Bounce House"!

My Tyrannical kid-brother CHEF CRAIG has exhausted me as a resource
in every sense of the word. ^_^

I have prepped and swept, and scrubbed, and served and loaded and unloaded trucks
for the three OFF SITE catering gigs we have hosted to the tune of over a 1,000 folks.
As well as the in house parties of 600 or more.

I can barely wiggle, my Friends.
I am having fun, yes, but I take great comfort in the knowledge that this is only for a month.
Any more....

Would KILL me.

I got to play with a pot belied pig named Wilma today!!!

Pop's connection has been like pulling cold molasses through a swizzle stick
since Thursday evening--no idea why.

I made Mum and Pop a welcome home PIE yesterday, they come home tonight.
Especially for Mum it is a whole wheat low carb and sugar free cranberry apple--
probably dreadful
but it looks good!

Many stories, but I am dolled up in my "Black and Whites" and about to head out the door
with 'Chef Craig' for one of our smaller gigs this week--600 people.

^_^

Hard to believe annnnnnnnnybody



could possibly make 40 years together



look soooooooo easy?!

I love you both, thank you forever for the support and stability and love
you have always shown Craig and I.

My last job I got on April Fool's Day.

This one?

GOOD FRIDAY.

Wow, that just SOUNDS better, doesn't it?