02 10 00

jerks n noodles

This may sound a bit whiny and fussy, so I'll say in advance that it's not meant as such. I'm just Totally Peeved.

I really feel like I'm getting jerked around at work.

When I was originally hired on, they (meaning the Powers That Be) were planning a sales tax levy in November to provide us with operating funds. If the levy passed, I was told, I would go full time with benefits and a pay raise. "Sounds good," I said. I could have worked at other places, but this company knew me and I knew them. It was comfortable.

Well, obviously there wasn't a levy. They decided to skip the levy this year due to the merger. It would have been too much to deal with at one time. But I was assured that after the merger was finalized with a vote on January 25, I would go full time with benefits and a pay raise. "Sounds good," I said.

I am looking at the calendar and it is well past January 25. The vote was postponed. The Powers That Be are dragging their feet. I'm still part time under poverty wages and with no benefits.

"This sucks," I say.

Wait, wait... There's more.

The Maintenance Manger is having surgery in March and will be off work for a month. Today he asked that I take over his duties while he's off.

Now, I don't know if the Powers That Be asked him to ask me, or if he's just doing this without their say-so. But I intend to find out.

There is no way in hell that I am doing his job without at least a temporary pay raise. I'm sorry, but they can kiss my ass.

Granted, I haven't approached the Powers That Be or my supervisor about this. But I'm so fed up with promises of benefits and pay raises that haven't been met. This is just icing on the cake.

I am planning on speaking to my supervisor about this. I feel completely unchallenged in this job. There's practically no need for me to bring my brain to work. I'm bored. I'm underpaid. I'm disgruntled.

Yes, you heard me. I'm disgruntled.

Fortunately I don't own any guns.

But I'll bring this up after Dave has come and gone. I can't concentrate enough right now to effectively word my disgruntlement. grin

Oh, Gross!

I'm a terrible cook.

Frozen pierogies? You know, those pastry things filled with potato and cheese, and you toss them in boiling water for a while until the thaw?

Yep. I've screwed those up.

Most of my "from scratch" cooking is bland at best, since I'm too afraid to add any spices to anything. I'm afraid of what I'll end up with. Rosemary? Ginger? Tabasco? What do those do? I have no idea.

There are a few things I'm ok at. I can muddle my way thorough a chicken stir-fry, except everything ends up over cooked. Burgers are ok. Scrambled eggs are right up my alley.

And then there's fried spaghetti.

It's a delicacy that my grandmother use to make my sisters and I. My mom is pretty good at it, too. It's easy. It's yummy. It's almost nutritious.

However, every time I explain what this wonderful dish is to anyone, they recoil in disgust. I made it today and it was delicious. So you be the judge:

Sarah's Grandmother's Fried Spaghetti Recipe

• 1 tablespoon or so of butter or margarine
  
• breadcrumbs (nothing fancy - the cheap ones will do)
  
• a wad of clean leftover spaghetti

("Clean" spaghetti has not had any sauce or anything else applied to it. When you make spaghetti, wrap the clean leftovers in plastic wrap or something. It'll keep for a few days.)

Start melting the butter in a frying pan. Chop the spaghetti into pieces, since cold spaghetti is sticky. Once inch by one inch squares is good.

Once the butter is all melted, toss the spaghetti into the frying pan. Stir, or toss, or whatever you do to frying stuff.

Add breadcrumbs. I usually add just enough so that everything ends up stuck to the spaghetti. You can't use too much, since the extra just won't stick to the noodles.

Fry. When you see noodles that have started to brown, it's done. Any more and stuff starts to burn and taste/smell nasty. Remove from heat and slide it all onto a plate.

Serve hot, with ketchup.

Well? What do you think?

Most people are right with me up until the ketchup. And at that point they say, "Eww!"

I'm not a ketchup-holic. I hardly ever put any on french fries. But fried spaghetti needs ketchup. It's like mashed potatoes without gravy. Sure, you can eat it like that, but it tastes much better with gravy.

Trust me. Try it, you'll like it.

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