It was eight days after I started working at Subway: that is, about two weeks ago, but I've been putting off writing about it, for no particular reason.
-That day I showed up at about 1000, I suppose. Sarah had me take some bread out of the interesting item that is called the "retarder" and put it in the proofer, which is where the bread rises for a while. I also chopped some tomatoes and made some sandwiches. Pretty uneventful. At about 1130 I suppose, Sarah looked in the proofer and told me with some disdain, "Common sense says you should season some of these, not just make all white and wheat." Seasoning is where you roll the bread in some stuff to make it a different type of bread, like for example Parmesan Oregano. She hadn't told me to season any bread, much less how many of each kind to season. But I apologized anyhow and she made an interesting gesture that was a combination of a shrug and "don't mention it". I clocked out at 1200, because it was going to be a slow day and she said I might as well go home. And then she said, "[Chuck], it's not going to work out."
-I was too jolted to say anything relevant. I just said, "What?"
-She said, "You're not getting it, I don't see you getting it..." and trailed off.
-I said, "So, do you--want me to come back tomorrow?" She shook her head no. She said I could bring my two Subway shirts and my apron and hat up to the store some other time and also pick up my paycheck. I did her one better and left her everything right then except for one shirt I had at home. I left her with the enigmatic and underconstructed thought, "I thought I had something there."
-So as quickly as I got into it, I'm back out of the working world. The next day I brought back my remaining shirt, but my paycheck hadn't come. Last Friday I went back and picked up the check, but it turned out to be the check for the week where I worked one day: $28.53. I went back today, and Sarah said the other check still hadn't come.
-In the week that I worked I was also reading The Trial, which I find sort of appropriate. Perhaps my fate wasn't quite as grim as Josef K.'s, but the process was similar (if not as lengthy). I was expected to catch on to the subtleties and unmentioned aspects of the operation far too quickly and with nobody really telling me. Sarah was always telling me things I needed to do that she had never told me to do but which I could see she thought it was obvious I should do. I was finally kind of starting to catch on, but then I got fired. I hadn't thought of that interesting parallel between the book I was reading and real life until just now.
-On Grandpa's suggestion, I also read The Templar Legacy, and afterward I started the process of reviewing books in my journal after I'm done with them, kind of on a whim. I'll paraphrase, because it was long, but my sentiments regarding The Templar Legacy were approximately this: it used as a climax what should have been an inciting incident; the first 400 pages could have been summed up in a fifteen-page prologue, but instead they just dragged on and on with no purpose but to make the book longer. The plot stuck around in one place too long, getting bogged down, and at the end of the "scavenger hunt" plot the payoff, rather than redeeming the rest of the book, is a weak attempt to be controversial, and also for author Steve Berry to profess his own religious view by deliberately attacking a different one. Bottom line: subdued "action" masquerading as something other than a waste of time. Also rife with typos.
-Currently I've got some other summer reading to do. I picked up a couple books at Borders the other day, and also found out that for AP English the required summer reading is Heart of Darkness and either Pride and Prejudice or Beloved.
-Band has also started up. Unless you are in band, you probably become very bored reading about band, and come to think of it even if you are in band, the case is probably the same. I'll be pithy. Leaders went in for two days of training from 1730 to 2100; then we taught some eight- and ninth-graders how to come to attention, do faces, march, turn, do flanks, &c. I don't know any of their names except one called Sally, one called Nicole, and one called Ricardo (who incidentally is our first male flute). Sally doesn't like me, but I also get the feeling that she doesn't really like anyone, and she always doesn't like them in a very peppy and cheerful way. Today we meet at 1730 again, and tomorrow we have the innovative Bonding Night, which is where we are ordered to have fun with the rest of our section. I assume we'll go out to eat.
-Also, yesterday Micah and Mom and I went to Grandma & Grandpa's, had Chinese food, and then drove to Uncle Dan's to pick beans out of his really big garden. We picked zucchinis and cucmbers and Swiss chard and onions as well.
