Bird-watching 1, Work 0

Lots of activity since I last posted, Dear Readers. Hours after my previous posting, I arrived at the restaurant for my sole dinner shift of the week, from 4pm 'til whenever. The dining room closes around 9:00 Sunday through Thursday, and after 9:00 I help the closing cook clean up and close the line. After that I cook for the bartender from a limited bar menu, and prep for the following day. I'm usually out of there on Sundays around 12-12:30, when I've finished the prep list. Then I typically stick around for a few beers and an unhealthy dinner. Those days are gone, Dear Readers, as I've been summarily removed from Sundays. The kitchen staff has been in flux since shortly after I arrived. For awhile there were four of us, then three of us, (with me covering extra shifts on days when the shipments arrived), now there are five of us. A former cook who quit is back, and he has been given my Sunday dinner/bar shift. You won't find me bitching about the decision, however. My own incompetance led to it. In the words of Led Zeppelin, "nobody's fault but mine." Out of all the Sundays I've worked, I've done well at precisely one of them. The rest I'm running around like a head-less chicken, fucking things up.

I was the wheelman/expediter on that shift, where I'm responsible for calling out tickets, setting up plates, plating starch and veg, garnish, and finishing and pulling the tickets. It was my responsibility to check on progress of the tickets on the grill and sauté stations, which were manned by the other cook. I'm also working the fryers and tending the convection oven, since they're both behind the pass-through, where I'm situated. Once we got more than about six dupes in, my brain stopped working right and I got overwhelmed. Not good. I'd been training for this every Sunday, and every Sunday but one I managed to forget what I was supposed to do in the heat of the moment. So of course I was replaced, it was necessary. There are no excuses in this business; you either get the job done or you don't. My removal wasn't punative, it was a sensible business decision for the good of the restaurant. But I get to dwell on the fact that I suck. There are a million reasons one could come up with as to why I wasn't good enough, but the bottom line is that: I wasn't good enough. End of story.

Which brings me to the fact that in two days I'll be in the REOC kitchens, cranking away on the new skills I'll be developing five days a week. If I don't learn something and speed up during this course, there's truly no hope for me. I'm getting really excited for it, too. At 7:30am on Monday I'll be at the Red Cross in Rochester, in chef's whites and checks, ready to embark on my new career training. Ready to learn how to cook for real. Ready to stop sucking.

In other groovy news, Heidi and I joined Kirk and Kristi for some birding on Thursday morning. Early Thursday morning. We arrived at Kirk and Kristi's house around 5:30am, and hopped in his deisel Jetta, and zoomed down to Letchworth State Park. We rolled into the practically empty park around 7:00, and began our expedition. Binoculars in hand, we enjoyed a beautiful, sunny morning seeking all the spring and summer birds. Without Heidi's life list, in which she noted all the birds we sighted, I can't remember them all. A few I can remember were the Eastern Bluebird, Blue-Winged Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Northern Flicker (yellow shafted), Rose-breasted Grosbeak, American Goldfinch, Solitary Vireo, Brown Creeper, Winter Wren (who has quite the song!), and Cedar Waxwing. We heard but did not sight the Hooded Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Eastern Wood-pewee, and Red-eyed Vireo. Heidi may chime in and revise, add to, or correct this list. And I missed out on the Blue-Winged Warbler... couldn't find him through the binoculars in time, the little bastard! We also saw some black squirrels, more chipmunks than you can shake a stick at (or flatten as they dash suicidally under your car tires, as it turned out...), and several fawns, still adorned with Bambi-like spotting.

Around 11:00 or so we returned to Geneseo for a brunch at a diner, where stuffed ourselves on yummy American diner fare. After this we dropped off Kristi, who had to get into her office, and we headed to Nations Road, which is a great conservancy area and has some of the best birding around. Wide open, with fields, pastures, and horse jumping courses on either side, it offered some commanding views. We must have spent a couple hours checking out some great field birds. We saw the Bobolink, with it's videogame-like song, loads more Goldfinch, Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, an Eastern Meadowlark (who put on a lovely display, showing off for us), Eastern Kingbird, Song Sparrows, and Savannah Sparrows. We were trying to track down an elusive Yellow Warbler we heard, but it evaded us. At one point we thought we had it in a bush in front of us, but the call changed, and Kirk told us that we were listening to a Mockingbird, which he then called an asshole. The Mockingbird also deceived us into thinking we were hearing a Flicker a couple minutes later. Little bastard. At various points during this a curious and very cute red fox was in one of the fields checking us out.

We sank back into Kirk's Jetta totally exhausted, and headed back home. We could barely stay awake, and as soon as Heidi and I hit a mattress at home we fell promptly to sleep for an extended nap. It was a tiring, but great day in the chronicles of bird-watching, hopefully to be repeated soon!