A Friend. :o) in A New Beginning

I am a lot happier at work this year than I have been for the past two or three years, because of our new Cook/Baker, Jennifer. I didn’t know her well until she came to work at our school, but oftentimes it’s kinduv easy to “tell” who the genuinely good-hearted, honest people are. And I could always tell just from the small bits of time I was around her that she was very down-to-earth, not snobby or catty like some women can be. I also figured her to be a hard worker. That goes along with being honest, really! Honest people do their jobs. They don’t slack off and make someone else do it!
So she and I are very good work-friends, and that is GREAT. I had missed having a work-friend! Even though all of us laugh, talk, and joke with one another, ya know, having a work-FRIEND means you have someone you can also tell your frustrations to, knowing they won’t go blabbing to everyone else! Jennifer is fun, funny, and interesting. She is just a gem of a person! I tell her pretty often how glad I am that she is at our school.
She gets very frustrated with Lori, the other Cook/Baker, the one who’s been there longer. So do I! Lori does such a half-assed job, and our manager Sophia lets her get away with it because Sophia “doesn’t like confrontation”! Well, I’m not crazy about confrontation either, but you can’t be an effective boss unless you can tell people what to do, and then see that they DO IT. Jennifer said that everyone knows it is really Lori and not Sophia who runs our kitchen. That’s not good!
Lori is kinduv like a bull terrier that won’t let you walk past his house. She has ten answers already planned out for everything. And she is a fast talker. She just wears people out, that’s her tactic. They end up just wanting to drop whatever subject they’re trying to settle with her because she makes it so damn much trouble. I figure she ought to have been a lawyer....one who defends the bad guys! :oD
And Lori thinks she does everything GREAT, because Sophia just lets her to things how-the-hell-ever she wants to! And she tries to get Jennifer to do them the same way she does (so Jennifer won’t show her up, probably!), but Jennifer was taught to do things THE RIGHT WAY by a manager who did not mind telling people how things ought to be done! So she just goes ahead and does them the correct way, in spite of Lori standing there going blabbety-blab-blab.
I applaud that! To be honest, I don’t know if I’d have that much fortitude! I’m glad somebody does! Of course, Lori rarely tries to “advise” me on how to do MY job, and I stand my ground when she does....but we don’t have to work in too close a proximity! For which I give great thanks!
Now we’re starting a three day weekend, thanks to Monday being Martin Luther King Day. This evening Joe and I are going to the Chinatown Buffet. I had something out to cook, but I worked my arse off today AND I DO NOT MIND NOT COOKING IT!! Tomorrow we are going to go up to a ceramics studio in Dover and paint and fire some pieces we have....chalices (greenware) that we plan on selling in our New Alexandrian Library Store that we run for The Assembly. We used to do ceramics in the distant past, but haven’t done any in years, so that will be fun!
It’s supposed to be cold and rainy/sleety tomorrow, but I hope we’ll have some clear weather on the other days so I can go hiking somewhere. I’m missing the woods!
Welp, Joe’s up from his nap so I am going to post this and get ready to go out. Here’s wishing you a nice Friday evening!