Oh to work at the CSC...An Ode to Muffins.
The CSC is a special place to be. It truly is, especially at 5 in the morning.
Waking up isn't so fun. 4:40 rolls around reallllly fast some days. But I love it. I love being the only one awake, just me and a dark apartment. Unless someone gets up for water, looking like a zombie just risen from the grave.
And I love the bike ride there at oh-dark-hundred. Or some days I run. I love the moon watching over me as I travel. I love the special occasions when I see a herd of deer run across 900 east. I love the muffins I make, even though the batter is truly like glue and always sticks to my clothes. I love that dumb little freezer, that always hovers just around 2 degrees Fahrenheit (unless I catch it just around 5, then it's 14 degrees. Oh sweet relief!) I used to hate it, but it's kind of an interesting place. Proof that you really can learn to love things you once despised. I love my co-workers, I love the delivery people. Especially the Food to Go boy. I love how just around 7 the bakery begins filling with people, and gradually by 8 am it's bustling and as busy as a beehive. I don't really love when all the mixers are taken, but I do love talking with my co-workers and getting to know them just a little better.
I love Garth, and Erin, and Doug, and all the students workers I see each day. I love how Garth always greets me, even when I'm 20 minutes late. He is the king of bread-dough making. I love how Doug is a master bread sculptor, and makes food that looks too good to eat. I love how happy and driven Erin is, and how she listens to me blab all morning long, and yet never judges me and my eccentric mind. I love Susan, the pie maker, who every single day makes pie crusts in the exact same place. I get in her way every day, but she still presses forward and does her work. She makes some good lookin pie crust, let me tell ya.
I love the head chef, who has never said a single kind word to me. I've gotten, "Don't eat the pudding!" and "You're wearing the wrong shoes!". I think she feels bad for never talking to me except to correct my behaviors, and so today she told a different head baker to tell me to fix my hair net. I really do like her a lot though. She has a fierce Spanish accent, and makes the most bizarre desserts...like fake logs with seriously real looking mushrooms.Weird, but she's great. And I know she's only trying to help me.
I love watching the bakers make dough just across the room from me. Hundreds of pounds of dough are kneaded and then shaped, and finally cooked, making the bakery smell so yummy. I love watching the bagel machine, how the workers feed in wads of dough and somehow bagel are popped out. I love that every student worker in there is a girl, except for one lone dough boy who always reminds me of Peeta. The lone bread boy.
I love the workers from the other departments; the cheese-makers who sometimes bring up cheese-curds, the packaging department that wraps our bread, the sandwich room workers. The old women who work so hard for so little, yet always have a grin on their face and a laugh on their lips.
I really love the ice cream freezer. A chilly -20, but full of all the ice cream that is sold on BYU campus. Score.
I love the fancy dessert department just on my left. They are the masters of making food look cute. Who wouldathought. Sierra and Ragan are two cool girls. And Mariah, who is always up to something.
I love when people mess food up because that means we get to eat it.
I love the Christmas music that never stops playing. And even more than that, I love hearing all the workers singing under their breath as they go about their work. I love when the music gets too slow and Garth says that it's making him fall asleep, "demanding" the station on the radio be changed.
I love making raspberry bars and getting raspberry filling all over my white bakers coat. The red goop looks like blood, so when I leave at 9 it looks like I've been in a war zone. I love coating the Macaroons in chocolate, because when I'm done they look like little zebras, all 12 dozen of them standing in rows before sunrise.
And especially, I love those muffins. There's Banana Nut, and Butterscotch. Blueberry and Lemon Poppy Seed. There's always plenty in storage, 30 dozen or so of each type. I love going into that dumb Cheese freezer and freezing my hands, nose, toes, and ears off as I snake my way through the 50 or so keepers shoved inside there. I love "pulling muffins" every morning, and eating the rejects. I love counting muffins every week...4.5 dozen per sheet. 10 or so sheets per keeper. 4 keepers of muffins. The real fun comes on muffin making days. Lemon Poppy seed are the best, because the 7.7 cups of Lemon Extract always seem to wake me up just a little more. I love making blueberry, and mixing in the 14.5 pounds of blueberries by hand into my 93 pounds of batter. I love making the butterscotch, but that activity is a rarity. Not sure why, but the best tasting muffins are ordered the least often. Go figure. Then there's banana nut. I love lots of things about banana nut. But especially the 25 pounds of bananas I get to peel. I've gotten pretty speedy, and I know of 3 different techniques for removing the peels. I love mixing in the shelled walnuts, and the little green squirrel on the box. Really, I just love muffins.
I love sending off those muffins to missionaries at the MTC, to freshmen in the Cannon center, to hungry students in the Cougareat. But especially the MTC. One day I'll be sitting in the MTC chewin' on a muffin, and reminiscing about my time at the CSC.
It was a short 2 months. But it was good, so good. It was hard, and I barely slept, but it was good, so good. Those first few days felt like I was living a nightmare, sleeping at 11 and waking at 4, but I know that Heavenly Father blessed me with the strength I needed to get up every day, with a prayer and gratitude in me heart for the opportunity. I know that He first blessed me with the opportunity and then blessed me with the strength I needed to fulfill my responsibilities. He is so merciful like that, and I love Him.
I could go on and on about all the things I have learned to love about where I work. It's a bizarre little place. Unique. And such a blessing. Here's to one more week!
Waking up isn't so fun. 4:40 rolls around reallllly fast some days. But I love it. I love being the only one awake, just me and a dark apartment. Unless someone gets up for water, looking like a zombie just risen from the grave.
And I love the bike ride there at oh-dark-hundred. Or some days I run. I love the moon watching over me as I travel. I love the special occasions when I see a herd of deer run across 900 east. I love the muffins I make, even though the batter is truly like glue and always sticks to my clothes. I love that dumb little freezer, that always hovers just around 2 degrees Fahrenheit (unless I catch it just around 5, then it's 14 degrees. Oh sweet relief!) I used to hate it, but it's kind of an interesting place. Proof that you really can learn to love things you once despised. I love my co-workers, I love the delivery people. Especially the Food to Go boy. I love how just around 7 the bakery begins filling with people, and gradually by 8 am it's bustling and as busy as a beehive. I don't really love when all the mixers are taken, but I do love talking with my co-workers and getting to know them just a little better.
I love Garth, and Erin, and Doug, and all the students workers I see each day. I love how Garth always greets me, even when I'm 20 minutes late. He is the king of bread-dough making. I love how Doug is a master bread sculptor, and makes food that looks too good to eat. I love how happy and driven Erin is, and how she listens to me blab all morning long, and yet never judges me and my eccentric mind. I love Susan, the pie maker, who every single day makes pie crusts in the exact same place. I get in her way every day, but she still presses forward and does her work. She makes some good lookin pie crust, let me tell ya.
I love the head chef, who has never said a single kind word to me. I've gotten, "Don't eat the pudding!" and "You're wearing the wrong shoes!". I think she feels bad for never talking to me except to correct my behaviors, and so today she told a different head baker to tell me to fix my hair net. I really do like her a lot though. She has a fierce Spanish accent, and makes the most bizarre desserts...like fake logs with seriously real looking mushrooms.Weird, but she's great. And I know she's only trying to help me.
I love watching the bakers make dough just across the room from me. Hundreds of pounds of dough are kneaded and then shaped, and finally cooked, making the bakery smell so yummy. I love watching the bagel machine, how the workers feed in wads of dough and somehow bagel are popped out. I love that every student worker in there is a girl, except for one lone dough boy who always reminds me of Peeta. The lone bread boy.
I love the workers from the other departments; the cheese-makers who sometimes bring up cheese-curds, the packaging department that wraps our bread, the sandwich room workers. The old women who work so hard for so little, yet always have a grin on their face and a laugh on their lips.
I really love the ice cream freezer. A chilly -20, but full of all the ice cream that is sold on BYU campus. Score.
I love the fancy dessert department just on my left. They are the masters of making food look cute. Who wouldathought. Sierra and Ragan are two cool girls. And Mariah, who is always up to something.
I love when people mess food up because that means we get to eat it.
I love the Christmas music that never stops playing. And even more than that, I love hearing all the workers singing under their breath as they go about their work. I love when the music gets too slow and Garth says that it's making him fall asleep, "demanding" the station on the radio be changed.
I love making raspberry bars and getting raspberry filling all over my white bakers coat. The red goop looks like blood, so when I leave at 9 it looks like I've been in a war zone. I love coating the Macaroons in chocolate, because when I'm done they look like little zebras, all 12 dozen of them standing in rows before sunrise.
And especially, I love those muffins. There's Banana Nut, and Butterscotch. Blueberry and Lemon Poppy Seed. There's always plenty in storage, 30 dozen or so of each type. I love going into that dumb Cheese freezer and freezing my hands, nose, toes, and ears off as I snake my way through the 50 or so keepers shoved inside there. I love "pulling muffins" every morning, and eating the rejects. I love counting muffins every week...4.5 dozen per sheet. 10 or so sheets per keeper. 4 keepers of muffins. The real fun comes on muffin making days. Lemon Poppy seed are the best, because the 7.7 cups of Lemon Extract always seem to wake me up just a little more. I love making blueberry, and mixing in the 14.5 pounds of blueberries by hand into my 93 pounds of batter. I love making the butterscotch, but that activity is a rarity. Not sure why, but the best tasting muffins are ordered the least often. Go figure. Then there's banana nut. I love lots of things about banana nut. But especially the 25 pounds of bananas I get to peel. I've gotten pretty speedy, and I know of 3 different techniques for removing the peels. I love mixing in the shelled walnuts, and the little green squirrel on the box. Really, I just love muffins.
I love sending off those muffins to missionaries at the MTC, to freshmen in the Cannon center, to hungry students in the Cougareat. But especially the MTC. One day I'll be sitting in the MTC chewin' on a muffin, and reminiscing about my time at the CSC.
It was a short 2 months. But it was good, so good. It was hard, and I barely slept, but it was good, so good. Those first few days felt like I was living a nightmare, sleeping at 11 and waking at 4, but I know that Heavenly Father blessed me with the strength I needed to get up every day, with a prayer and gratitude in me heart for the opportunity. I know that He first blessed me with the opportunity and then blessed me with the strength I needed to fulfill my responsibilities. He is so merciful like that, and I love Him.
I could go on and on about all the things I have learned to love about where I work. It's a bizarre little place. Unique. And such a blessing. Here's to one more week!
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