Keeping things interesting
India was amazing! All my thoughts were written in a separate journal though so I won't get into it here. I did end up getting some much needed relaxation time once we were in Goa. When I got back to Guelph I immediately started working again at La Cucina. Thankfully I didn't have to go back to Artisanale for 3 days. Oddly enough I didn't feel exhausted the next day after the 33 hour trip back home, so it wasn't so bad. I was excited to see everyone and I felt right back at home in the kitchen. I think George was more humouring me by letting me come in to work as it seemed pretty slow.
When New Year's Eve rolled around we were all told we had to work dinner service. It ended up being a fun evening. Lots of laughter and every ran smoothly. At the end of the night we started taking the kitchen apart, scrubbing everything down and packaging all the food up for staff (since we were going to be closed for the next month). At midnight we all had some champagne, followed by beer and wine. Once we had finished cleaning up we said our goodbyes and left. About a week later I got a call from George letting me know that La Cucina was officially closed. Apparently Ralph had decided to just not tell anyone and left it all up to George to inform us. The only part I regret is not truly having a chance to say goodbye to everyone. I've still kept some contact with George, Seth and John, but I feel like this happy family we'd created got torn apart by Ralph without him feeling the least bit apologetic. I really do miss that happy, joking environment at La Cucina, aside from Ralph.
Around the same time Dana put in her two weeks notice leaving me as the sole baker at Artisanale. I glady embraced the position happy to take on as many shifts as they needed me for, including shifts in the dish pit. I think this period of time really helped to make me feel like a part of the Artisanale staff. Like every frustration I felt towards La Cucina was being cleansed by the welcoming and understanding environment at Artisanale. I felt so thankful to Becky for having brought me into this. I remember feeling so down after finding out about La Cucina closing. For those next few days I was having a hard time smiling about anything and felt very lost. Everything had been going perfectly and so suddenly it felt like it had all changed. I was days away from signing my apartment lease and wasn't even sure if I could afford the place anymore. Then I told Becky about what had happened and her words were so comforting that I immediately felt relieved. All I needed was for her to tell me it was going to be all right and somehow I knew she'd help me figure it out. She immediately found shifts for me doing dishwashing and convinced Yasser that I could take over for Dana in the bakery. Amazing!
However Artisanale was only open until February 16th so I knew moving in to the apartment would be a bad decision. I decided to wait until Artisanale was open again to move out, which was supposed to be May 1st. Meanwhile I decided it was a great time to go visit my family. I left March 1st for Vancouver where I spent 2 weeks with my grandma. I hadn't been out there since I was 14 so it was about time! It ended up having a great time, meeting many wonderful seniors at my grandma's new senior's complex. They were all so friendly and eager to share their life stories.
After BC I left for Winnipeg for about a month. I spent most of that time with Sarah as Dave was working in the states during the weekdays. I had a great time visiting family and friends! I got to see Katherine 3 times while I was out there which was great! We had some really good talks that just couldn't be had over bbm the same way. April 5th my dad and I left for Pennsylvania to visit Heather, Peter and Kate. Beautiful area of the states! Rolling hills, lots of farm life and beautiful blue skies.
All right, will have to continue later as I'm heading to visit my mom and Mark!
When New Year's Eve rolled around we were all told we had to work dinner service. It ended up being a fun evening. Lots of laughter and every ran smoothly. At the end of the night we started taking the kitchen apart, scrubbing everything down and packaging all the food up for staff (since we were going to be closed for the next month). At midnight we all had some champagne, followed by beer and wine. Once we had finished cleaning up we said our goodbyes and left. About a week later I got a call from George letting me know that La Cucina was officially closed. Apparently Ralph had decided to just not tell anyone and left it all up to George to inform us. The only part I regret is not truly having a chance to say goodbye to everyone. I've still kept some contact with George, Seth and John, but I feel like this happy family we'd created got torn apart by Ralph without him feeling the least bit apologetic. I really do miss that happy, joking environment at La Cucina, aside from Ralph.
Around the same time Dana put in her two weeks notice leaving me as the sole baker at Artisanale. I glady embraced the position happy to take on as many shifts as they needed me for, including shifts in the dish pit. I think this period of time really helped to make me feel like a part of the Artisanale staff. Like every frustration I felt towards La Cucina was being cleansed by the welcoming and understanding environment at Artisanale. I felt so thankful to Becky for having brought me into this. I remember feeling so down after finding out about La Cucina closing. For those next few days I was having a hard time smiling about anything and felt very lost. Everything had been going perfectly and so suddenly it felt like it had all changed. I was days away from signing my apartment lease and wasn't even sure if I could afford the place anymore. Then I told Becky about what had happened and her words were so comforting that I immediately felt relieved. All I needed was for her to tell me it was going to be all right and somehow I knew she'd help me figure it out. She immediately found shifts for me doing dishwashing and convinced Yasser that I could take over for Dana in the bakery. Amazing!
However Artisanale was only open until February 16th so I knew moving in to the apartment would be a bad decision. I decided to wait until Artisanale was open again to move out, which was supposed to be May 1st. Meanwhile I decided it was a great time to go visit my family. I left March 1st for Vancouver where I spent 2 weeks with my grandma. I hadn't been out there since I was 14 so it was about time! It ended up having a great time, meeting many wonderful seniors at my grandma's new senior's complex. They were all so friendly and eager to share their life stories.
After BC I left for Winnipeg for about a month. I spent most of that time with Sarah as Dave was working in the states during the weekdays. I had a great time visiting family and friends! I got to see Katherine 3 times while I was out there which was great! We had some really good talks that just couldn't be had over bbm the same way. April 5th my dad and I left for Pennsylvania to visit Heather, Peter and Kate. Beautiful area of the states! Rolling hills, lots of farm life and beautiful blue skies.
All right, will have to continue later as I'm heading to visit my mom and Mark!