Tuesday, September 28, 2010

No Time to Eat

I work in a very busy restaurant; in the summer there are days where you really do not have time to eat, days when you stuff a piece of bread in your mouth, or, if you are like me, start an apple, and then hours later, discover the warm brown fruit and in a state of desperation, finish it off. It is not healthy, and we all try and find ways to avoid feeding 120 strangers and starving ourselves.

After being told many, many, times that it is important to stop once in awhile, that you can take a break, eat something, make time for your own health and sanity, I am only just beginning to listen and understand. There is nothing wrong with needing to eat and then feeding yourself, no matter how busy: Willi is persistant about this, Monika the baker lives by it, and recently, Andrea insisted on it. Urs however...

I have been working at the Farmers Market in Kelowna since April, and every Saturday morning when we finished setting up, served a rush or two, did a little shopping, and served another rush, i would bring out my breakfast: a couple of old mustard jars of homemade mueslix with fruit and yogurt. I'd sneak bites between customers, scarf during short free moments on crazy days, the cereal generally lasting til the near end of the market, and hardly put before customers, rather resembling the afformentioned apple, plus soggy.

It keeps me going throughout, having those jars to munch on, and none of the customers seem to mind (in fact, some have offered to buy it off me). Besides asking what it is and how to make it, the most common reaction to me with a the jar up to my mouth--at times shovelling--is to carry on: "eat your breakfast girl, go ahead".

Yet Urs, in a message left on my phone tonight, said that my market schedule had changed, and that he would need me to eat my breakfast at home, before i came because it was so busy there lately. .... ????? Besides the fact that that would mean eating at 6 am and not again until 1:30 (not physically possible-- or even humanly, actually-- for me), eating breakfast (like a normal person, i must emphasize) has never interrupted my work there, or let things slide. It is not as though i sit down and let the chaos pile up as i take a half hour break (which, technically i am entitled to in a six hour shift), but i eat as i go, a bite here and there keeping me going. What would effect my work is being starving halfway through--which i would inevitably be having had to eat so early in the morning--and not allowed to eat. Can you actually tell someone that they cannot eat? Ok, sure, with a "not on shift" to follow, but then you get a break to prevent yourself from dying of starvation. i do not get a break at the market, a quick jaunt around to do my own shopping, but i get scorned if it is longer than ten minutes. He has been so funny lately, and this is just...

Granted, i am not the type of person who wakes up and has breakfast second to whatever happens in the washroom. I go for a run, i start picking tomatos on farm days, or baking dessert on days off, or serving customers at the market; my body needs time to wake up and get excited about the day, then ask for energy to tackle it. I would rather warm soggy cereal it too, then force it down when it isnt wanted or needed, no matter how busy i expect the day to be. Besides, it is not like i am pulling out a hotplate and whipping up pancakes...

Am i wrong? Is it just me that telling a person when to eat seems a bit strange? I know Urs is, but this is different, even for him. Then again, maybe he would understand if he ate once in a while...

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