Taking Responsibility

Our POS (Point of Sale) system we use for our lunch account system records each transaction that you make on the computer. This is good and this is bad. The good news is that when you have a problem on the register, you can go back and check out the detailed transaction report to see what the problem might have been. That is also the bad news.

Last week, when I went in to start a "session", which would be either a lunch or breakfast, I mistakenly put in "Breakfast" instead of lunch. So, all the lunches I put in, came through the system as a breakfast instead of a lunch. Now you might be thinking "well, no big deal" but it is a big deal. You see, the school district gets a "government reimbursement for meals served". When you serve breakfast, you get a certain percent reimbursement, and when you serve lunch you get more of a percent reimbursement. So, if the meals stay in the system as a breakfast, we lose money on our reimbursements. That means we have to back out and void every transaction and re input them in a lunch session. DAMM.... Of course it was a Dominos Day, when I made probably a 1,000 transactions or more.

Our administrative assistant who helps with these problems is probably one of the nicest persons I have ever met. She has offered to void out all the entries made and I will be re-entering them back in. I did offer to do that. I don't feel that she should have to do that when it was my mistake. She shouldn't even have to void them out, however I am so grateful to her for offering to do that.

Now I knew that day that I had made the mistake. Something "weird" came up on the register as the kids were coming through and I went back to look at the computer monitor and I saw what I had done. I quickly changed the session from breakfast to lunch but it was way too late. I thought that since I had hit the lunch key, that they would register as a lunch. But it doesn't work that way.

What a mess I have made. If I was the administrative assistant, I would be furious at me for causing all the extra work. But she was so nice. I think I should send her some flowers or something. I, on the other hand, am so pissed off at myself for doing something so stupid. Once I heard it all had to be redone and the extra work for the administrative assistant and me, my mood changed dramatically. I really beat myself up about it.

Part of the problem is that my hands (I have carpal tunnel) have been hurting and cramping so bad these days that the thoughts of re inputting all the information in, is overwhelming. However, it doesn't have to all be done at one time. I am thankful for that. I am very, very quick on the register so it really won't take long to do it. (I used to do data entry) The most work will be reading what to input, not the actual putting it in.

So I guess I have to think about what I should be thankful for. Here they are:
I am thankful for the administrative assistant who was so nice and understanding.
I am thankful that my staff has offered to help with the inputting.
I am thankful it doesn't all have to be done right away or all at the same time.
I am thankful that on Friday we are supposed to have an extra person which will give me the extra time to input the transactions.
I am thankful I finally made a doctors appointment to check on my hands.

That is about all I can think of at this moment. Sometimes its hard to be thankful when your miserable. I need a nap....

And one more thing about doing extra or double work. Karma is really something. About two weeks ago at my other job, I was told to do something, then found out after 45 minutes of working on it, I was told that we didn't need all that work I had done. I was angry and complained to anybody that would listen to me. I wasn't nice and understanding like the administrative assistant at my school job who has all this extra work to do because of something I did. I guess I need to remember that next time. Mistakes happen. I need to ask myself "what is the opportunity in this lesson for me to learn."

On a happier note:

It was Chinese Day in the cafeteria today. Yumm! I made Wonton soup, General Tso's chicken (which you might not believe it, but it was pretty good for school Chinese), egg rolls, and vegetable fried rice (not really fried, it was steamed). And you got a fortune cookie. The kids love getting the fortune cookies. The lunch mom's hated it. They said the little wrappers were hard to get open and the wrappers were all over the place. Hmmm, can't please everybody.

Well, another day done. We have two whole weeks without an extra day off. Bummer!!!
All is well.

Chapter Dinner Meeting

On Thursday I went to a Chapter Dinner Meeting. This is a meeting were lunch ladies gather for, of course, dinner, and someone usually speaks about a topic relating to what we do, and some entertainment.

I wanted to go because I do enjoy going to these meetings, plus I wanted to pass out some of my "story request letters". I made up a letter with my web addresses which are my blog and my youtube which I have a video on.

We got there early and filled out the paperwork since we decided to join the Chapter which gives you some benefits like discounts on conferences and things like that. I asked the woman in charge if I may pass out my letter and she said "yes, would you like to speak about it to everyone"? Wow, how nice was that. She didn't know me and I appreciated her trust. However, I didn't think I was comfortable speaking in public like that.... yet.... I went around to each table and handed out some letters and spoke to the wonderful women attending. Everyone was very receptive and thought it was a great idea. I already got a story emailed to me. I am very grateful for that and for the opportunity to spread the word.

The dinner theme was Middle Eastern. I don't know how many people were there but it was well attended. One school district had (I think they said) 34 people. That is awesome. They said their school district pays for their dinner to attend which makes a big difference. They had someone speak to us about child nutrition and then had a belly dancer give us some instruction. She had some hip scarves which we used and they showed us some moves. If you can imagine 50 0r so lunch ladies shaking their groove thing. It was great fun! My friend got some pictures that I will use on my power-point for our end of the year breakfast.

I am glad I went. We have another one to go to in Feb. I am looking forward to that one too.

It was a good week at work too. All is well.

Sundae Bar Day

Ohh, it was sundae bar day today. We call it the dreaded sundae bar. In our district at the elementary schools, you get a free sundae bar WITH the purchase of a lunch. Now I know I have talked about "giveaway" days in an earlier post but here I go again. You only get the FREE sundae bar if you buy a lunch. Its like "if you go into a WaWa store and they give you a free bag of chips when you get a hoagie, can you go in and just get the chips for FREE?" I don't think so. Now I know elementary kids don't understand this concept but the adults do or should. The purpose of the giveaways, as I said before, is to drum up business, increase our lunch count sales. And it does work. I sold an extra 30-40 lunches today. But it sets us lunch ladies up to look like the bad guy, again.

I figure our school has about 500 students, give or take 50. About 1/2 that amount buy lunch most days. So you have over 250 give or take that aren't buying lunch. Now most of those kids have a lunch account with money or they bring in the extra money ($1.25 ala carte). You take out the students with milk allergies who can't have ice cream, take of the students not in that day and the kids who don't like ice cream and I am left with about 10-20 students that don't have money for the sundae bar. When an elementary students looks at you and asks you if they can have one, and they don't have money, it is really hard to tell them "no". I tell them, "I'm sorry, but you don't have money for sundae bar". I hate saying that, but... I have to. It is my job. You also have students whose accounts are marked with "no snacks". For most parents, they don't mind if they get sundae bar, but, how the heck am I supposed to determine that. Last sundae bar day I let 2 students buy one since they had money but were marked as "no snacks" and the parent called me and was very upset.

It is almost a no win situation and I don't like being in that position. I know its my job, but it sucks and I accept that it is my responsibility to tell them "no". Before the day even gets going, I am dreading it. That is why we call it the "dreaded sundae bar". My son asked me "if you know its going to happen, then why do you let it upset you". The answer is I hate to tell somebody they can't have something. Especially since it is something like a ice cream sundae for $1.25. It makes me feel petty, little and mean. I can't help that is the way I feel. Enough already, at least it is over! Won't have another one till Spring. Thank you Jesus!

Thank God Its Friday

Ahhh.. Friday. And we are off again on Monday. We had a good week. I was busy and I only posted one blog on Monday. One of my staff was out for a few days but we had a good substitute so it went well. But it was tiring. On Thursday night, I crashed. It had snowed so I didn't go to my aerobics class at night. Instead I slept. I "napped" for about two hours, then I got up and watched Celebrity Apprentice, then went to bed. I am applying to be a contestant on Deal or No Deal so I was busy working on that this week. The application is quite a lot of work. It asked some odd questions so I have been thinking about those questions. One is "what is the most daring and dangerous thing you have ever done.?" Hmmm. I admit I don't do a whole lot of things that are dangerous. I think going to places where you don't know anybody is "daring", but not usually dangerous. I have to think about that question. You also have to do a "rap or a poem". Fun stuff.

I tried to go to a Toastmaster's meeting this week on Monday. I worked myself up to go since I would not know anybody. I dressed nice and drove about 4o minutes. It was snowing so I was concerned about coming out of the meeting and have an icy ride home but I really wanted to go and see what it was all about. I would like to learn about public speaking and people are telling me you can learn a lot by going to the Toastmaster meetings. So I get there, go to the room and there is nobody there. I wait for 1/2 hour and nobody (except for one "new person like me) shows up. I had investigated the meeting though the website. The website looked like somebody had put some work into it so I thought it would be well-run. I had the printout from the website so I called the phone number and someone answered, it sounded like a teenager, and I asked if anybody there knows whether the Toastmaster's meeting that was supposed to be tonight, was happening. The kid said, I don't know, and that was the end of the call. The other person that was new had said that she had emailed the president of the Chapter before the holidays but had never heard back. Hmmmm. Not a good way to run a program. (Just my opinion). I was pissed. I drove all the way 40 minutes, in the snow flurries, and nobody shows up. I think that if they change something, they should update the website. Gas is $3.09 a gallon. I used about 1/4 tank to get there. Now I have to find another way to get some "public speaking" in.

I got another wonderful story from somebody today. I was so grateful and thankful for her story. It is a perfect example of what I am looking for, for my book. Next week I am going to a Chapter Meeting for school food service employees. I hope to network there and pass out my "request for stories" letter. I am really looking forward to it. I also had someone post me a note on my Youtube site. She said she would tell her co-workers about my book too. So, things are moving along.

All in all, a good week. All is well.

Monday, Monday

Today was very exciting at work. The Board of Health came in. The Board of Health comes in twice a school year. Sometime between September and October and again between January and February. Usually they arrive at the first school and all the other schools alert every other school that they are "in the area". If it quite comical. We instant message when she is at your school, then you announce they left, then the next school will instant message they are there, and so on and so on. This can go on for days and days depending on how many schools you have. We had a great inspection. We had no violations. We take the Board of Health visits very seriously. No one wants violations. Even when they seem like something so "picky or menial". Sometimes I get written up for the plastic silverware not being all in the same direction. Now I swear they always get put in the right direction when we place them in the pans, however it takes only one child to get a spoon or fork for them to be all which way. However, today, even in-between classes, we were fixing plastic wear. They also came at the end of the day so that is great timing. Most of the food is gone and all the temperatures on the food is high since they have been in the warmer for ahwile. Most schools are always careful to follow all the rules and regulations however once in a while there is a rag half out of a bucket (they must be in the sanitizing solution) or a water bottle where it shouldn't be or a light bulb out or some icing in the freezer (duh... it is a freezer you know). These are usually the things schools get written up for.
So, today was a great day at our school.

Hey, we are off on Wednesday. And next week we are off on Monday. Doesn't get any better than that. You gotta love this job!

All is well...

What do I want to accomplish

Hmmm. I have some questions for myself. I guess I am wondering what I want to accomplish with my blog. Why am I really doing this, what makes me think this is a good idea, questions like that.

Let's see. I really wanted to network and find other lunch ladies who might be interested in sharing their stories with me for my book. However, when it really comes down to it, will other lunch ladies really "read a blog"? Is this the place where I will get stories? In all likelihood, "no" would be the answer. Most of the lunch ladies I know don't spend time reading blogs or looking for people to network with. So, I wonder why I am writing a blog, and why am I wanting to write a book. What makes me want to do something others don't want or need to do? As of right now, I don't know. And, I hate the old "I don't know" answer.
I am interested in something called "Life Coaching". Life coaches help a "healthy individual get to the next level in their life". Life coaches ask questions to help YOU get to the answers you are looking for. So I guess what I need to do is ask myself some questions. I am going to think about that and figure that out.

I know one thing. If I want lunch lady stories, I have to go where the lunch ladies are. There are conventions and dinner meetings that I plan to attend. But I am one of those people who want what I want now. I want stories NOW. I want to get my book going NOW. Hmmm, if I was life coaching somebody and they said this to me, I would ask them "what's the hurry? Can you enjoy the ride? Enjoy being where you are in the developmental stage of the book. Books don't happen overnight! " Why do I have the need to have it NOW. I wonder what would happen if..... I just enjoy now, planning.. gathering....meeting new people.. spreading the word. Well, sounds like a plan. I feel better.

As far as my blog goes, I am going to continue. Because I feel better after I write it. I feel better when I get to say what I want to say and "post it". Even if nobody views it and I don't get a single story from it, it makes me feel better. Like I am doing something for the "cause". Like I am doing something for ME. And ultimately, that is what it is all about. Bringing myself to the next level in my life.

Ahhhhh......All is well.

A whole five days with no days off

We joke at work about having to work a whole 5 days straight. Seems like we get quite a few days off in the year. We only had three days last week and next week we have Wednesday off (the students go home early and do not eat lunch at school). So, we joke around complaining we have to work all week. We know we are very lucky to have such a great schedule (unless of course, you need the hours in your paycheck, then its not such a great thing).

One of my staff members is cooking this week. I like for everyone to be cross-trained so that when somebody is out, its not such a disruption. I also believe that your have to walk in some body's shoes to really understand their job. Once you see what somebody has to do and what makes it easiest for you when your doing their job, I believe you are more likely to appreciate them and what they do. For instance, today since I was doing the other job of the person who is doing my job, I had to do the bagging. It is very time-consuming. The "cook" had to help me out with all the jobs she usually does since it was taking me forever to get it all done. When your not used to something, it just takes you longer. I was bagging thinking, Geez, I am glad I don't have to do this all the time. I do really enjoy cooking. I know its mostly heat and serve but I still enjoy it. I also make tuna, chicken and turkey salad every week for teacher salads we sell. I get great feedback from the staff about how they enjoy the nice salads we make.

So, today was different, but a good day. I got another story (from a first grader today) for my book. Reminds me I better go write it down. Every day I get another story is a great day. 9 more for the month. (My New Year's Resolution is 10 stories per month). Hey, maybe I will be able to up the amount per month. Now that would be really, really great.

All is well. (4 more days to go till the weekend)

Give-Away Day

Give-away days are tough. The kids get very excited about getting something. You can only get something if you buy lunch. That is the purpose of give-away days. To bring in more students to buy lunch which ups how many you serve. Today was "animal give-away" day. I had about 200 little, plastic/rubber dogs. Different kinds of dogs. I served 239 today so I didn't have enough. I added some other little items hoping to make it to the end of the day with enough "dogs". I did have enough. I even had a few left. It is very hard for the students to choose "a" dog when there are different ones. And, all the students want to come in and get one, even when they don't buy lunch. It makes me feel like the bad guy when I have to say "no, you can't have one since you didn't buy lunch". However, that is why we have give-aways. I am glad its over. I hope there are no more Giveaway days.

My son came to work today to do some video for me for my book and some other projects I am working on. I was hoping to get some video of the students "play acting" something out for me but I mentioned to one of the teachers about taking some video and she said she had students that may not have their pictures taken. So, I had to change my plan and I nixed the whole segment that included the kids. I didn't want any close-ups but I was afraid that it might cause problems. I do some fun PowerPoint's and I hope to do a video for our next Food Service Christmas Party, or for our end of the year Breakfast. I always have so many ideas about fun things to do but it is hard to follow through and get them done when you have to consider all the details.

I have to thank my staff today since I was distracted with all that going on. They are so wonderful. They just pick up any slack that might come up when I am involved in "one of my projects". Whenever I have something like that going on, I get all consumed in it. I guess they are used to it by now. I am involved in the planning and organizing of the Food Service Christmas Party, and sometimes other projects (retirements, etc) that come up. I also like to do the Lip sync that the school has once a year. The Lip sync's are really fun. You pick a song and sing along to it, without being heard (which is really good for me since I can't carry a tune). I love doing choreography and stuff. Such an adrenaline rush when you get on that stage in front of hundreds of people, the kids screaming, the loud music. How great is that!!

Well, another weekend is here! We have had a great three days in the new year in the life of a lunch lady.
All is well.

Dominos Day

It was Dominos Day today however we didn't serve 300. I don't know why we didn't serve over 300. Usually we do. Especially after a break. I think the students are tired. They were fairly quiet for a Dominos day. I got some things done. I sent out my blog address to all the managers. I received an email from someone I met who will pass on my "story request letter" to someone she knows. That is exciting. I hope to hear from them. My resolution for the New Year is to work on my book 4 hours a week. It doesn't sound like much, but it is. I have two jobs. My other job is on the weekend at a hotel in the banquet department. It wipes me out. It can be very physical. All that lifting of the heavy trays and dinners. But.. I think it helps keep me young.

I think I will try and write up a few pages tonight for my book. Next week I start back to Aerobics and I am joining Toastmasters. That is on the 1st and 4th Monday of the month. I hope I can remember to go. I am pretty booked up next week so it would be best to do what I can tonight and Friday.

All in all, a good day. All is well.....

Back to Work, Back to School

Its weird, after a break I usually say I going back to school, really meaning back to work. I don't "go to school" for the purpose of learning, I go to school for the purpose of working. I wonder if others do that, think about it as going back to school when they work in a school.

Anyway, what I thought would be an "easy" day, turned out to be frantic. On the last day of work/school before break, I kept telling myself, "don't forget to order the rolls, don't forget to order the rolls". But, looks like I had a menopausal moment. I forgot to order the rolls. So I spent the first hour of work, instant messaging and calling around for rolls. Then, I had to go pick them up. I get so mad at myself for making a mistake like that. I can really beat myself up about it. Also, as soon as I came in, the light was blinking on the phone so that means I had a message. I called to see who it was and it was the milk company, asking where my order was for Wed, January 2nd. Now, they called on Friday, Dec 21st. I KNEW that I did fax that order in, for sure, since I wrote the time and day that I faxed it in on my order but it sure was possible that the fax didn't go through. And, mind you, I didn't have a single milk carton in the school that didn't have an expired date). But... about 15 minutes later (while I was busy checking around for rolls first, then I would worry about milk)the milkman, thankfully, was at my back door. I could'a kissed him. I didn't of course, but I was so happy to see him. They must have found the order after they had left the message. Whew...... I dodged that bullet.

I managed to get enough rolls for the day so a disaster was avoided. But I had to smile, there were other managers looking for rolls and stuff so I wasn't the only one that had a menopausal moment. Sometimes it makes you feel better when you find out your not alone. That is the great thing about my job and one of the things I like best. You make a mistake, but nine times out of ten, it can be fixed without the customer ever knowing a thing.

I had off for 11 days, you would think that by the time I went back, I would have everything organized. NOT!!! Also in the first half hour (worrying about rolls and milk) I also had to put the lunch count forms into the teachers mailboxes. I had taken them home to work on and update. (The students at our school have a form that has their name on it and they mark which lunch they want) The teachers need to have these first thing in the morning so they can have the students mark it, then they send it down to me). Well.. I had forgot to get some new plastic sleeves for them. I remembered I had some at school/work so I figured I would quickly put the new ones on the lunch count forms. But, I only had a few new plastic sleeves so I ended up having to use some old ones along with the new ones. Then I had to walk around the school to the rooms to distribute them to the teachers who had already picked up the mail in their mailboxes. What a start to the day and the NEW YEAR.

But, all in all, we had a great day. The students were quiet in line (they seemed tired) and they moved along well. And its already Wednesday. Two more days till the weekend. Hurray!
All is well.

Looking for Stories

I have created this blog in hopes of connecting with other lunch ladies who have a funny, sad, heart-warming story to share with me for my book. Your story does not have to be long. I have some stories that are only a line or two about something a student said in the lunch line that made them laugh, cry, scream or say hmmmm. I also want to share my blog with students, teachers, parents and peers. I am interested in the opinions of all as to how you view what we do, how we do it, and how we can improve.

Example story:

One day I was making soup and I wanted to use chicken base. I had a gallon jug in the refrigerator already made up. I poured the contents of the jug into the soup and quickly put it in the steamer. I took the soup out at serving time and realized it had a very distinctive smell. Pickles.... I had used a gallon jug of pickle juice (all the pickles were gone) instead of the chicken base. It was too close to serving time to do anything about it so we had Pickle Soup. Of course, it seemed like every teacher wanted to buy soup that day. I ended up giving the soup away for free.

This is just an example of things that happen to us everyday. At our school we have lots of fun along with hard work.

My goal is to get lunch ladies respect. We work hard and greatly affect the students. The students love lunch time. Most people of all ages remember lunch time as being their favorite time while they were in school. Not all lunch ladies are like Adam Sandler's song "Lunch Lady Land". We don't just sling sloppy jo's and pizza.

Let me know your thoughts, encounters and your experiences with lunch ladies. I will be happy to publish your name in my book if you submit a story to me. You can also submit stories to me at my email address which is: jomarie026@aol.com. I look forward to hearing from all of you.