Finding Equilibrium Pt. III in My New Life

Before The Pandemic I had plans to open my own chain of restaurants. The town I am in, Food & Bev, and Hospitality are the hands that rock the cradle. It was a thriving economy with us having a winning team. Back then, I was having fun and slinging pizza dough. I’m a bit of a performer when it comes to cooking. I’m that pizza guy you would walk in and say to yourself, “I didn’t know people still threw the dough like that”. It adds a feeling like going to a circus. Plus, my recipes are very well known. I can cook just about anything. It was a lot of fun while it was happening. I like that lifestyle. I love throwing pizza. It takes a lot of activity, and skill. It’s very athletic based. The problem as it happened to unfold is that thugs moved into town. Its the part of the business you won’t see on TV: the overwhelming amount of thugs who are in that business. Many people who have felonies make a living in kitchens. While I was more of career chef; I had interviewed with Norwegian Cruise Lines literally a month or two before The Pandemic, but the thugs I was working for saw competition instead of a career chef. I was working towards opening my own place, not on company time, but neanderthals and thugs can’t differentiate between the two. It’s a highly competitive business, but almost in a laughable way. Edward Norton in Death To Smoochy would come to mind a lot. I was teaching Yoga on the side, and a health advocate in my life outside of the Food Industry. One manager in particular comes to mind. He was a felon, and I would come to work after teaching yoga or just more or less living a sophisticated life. He was a Narcissist and a popular good looking man set-up to be making good money in his career there. I, however, am more interested in literature and yoga in my life outside of work, so I wasn’t groveling at his feet when he entered the room. He saw competition where I saw someone else in the fast lane going a different direction than me. People like that can’t be just another face in the crowd. All the attention must be focussed on them, and their was conflict in everything I did. The clothes I wore, bringing a book to work. The fact that that set of managers weren’t the most special people I had ever met really bothered them. Where before The Pandemic I was considering traveling the world as a chef. But when it hit, I was stuck in thug central at a place I was working. While I was working as a chef, I would still be reading my English literature from college. And a Cormac McCarthy novel was where I found myself. The dark places in life. If there were dead bodies associated with that company I would not be surprised. Terror in many levels during The Pandemic. I do plan on writing a Cormac McCarthy-esque novel on my experience there, and other terrifying experiences when I get my Nursing Degree and move somewhere with a better climate.

I still have a reputation that follows me. I was hoping I could just move on to new company or restaurant, but that was not working. More thugs. This time, while I was helping them open their new restaurant, they broke in my apartment and stole one of my drawings and tore a page out of a book of mine. I am 95% sure it was person I was working for. I had texted her pictures of both items that were stolen or torn before it happened. I’ve moved to a new apartment, and avoid that part of the city, and I haven’t told anyone from that part of my life I’ve moved.

Anyway, all this lead me to my new career path working in a Mental Institution and taking classes for Nursing. When I can move to a better place in the world, I still may open a pizza joint and run it on the side, but really, I’m pretty happy just going to work doing something fulfilling and working on my novels safe at home.

(Journalling like this is really an exercise to help my writing novels, as well as therapeutic.)

Last updated October 25, 2023