The Weekend
Grace and I met my sister and brother-in-law for dinner and drinks in Oklahoma City on Friday. We went to Deep Deuce Grill. I would definitely come back to this place. We sat out on the patio sent it was gorgeous out. More of a laid back type of place. I had the BBQ pork shanks and they were delicious! The meat was falling right off the bone. Afterwards, we decided to check out the new hotel, a loft, for cocktails on the rooftop. This is probably the only place in the city where you cannot see the Devon tower in Oklahoma City. Very pretty watching the sun set and nice set up to relax. After that, we met my sister friend, Michelle, at Whiskey Lounge sent she was working in the city. Here I tried the Beignets. I never had them before but Grace kept saying how good they were when she went to France and I was having a sweet tooth so I couldn't resist. Grace was certainly right, they were really good! The whip cream was even home made, I would definitely recommend them. On Saturday, it was finally nice to lay out by the pool and get some color (even though I got slightly burnt on my back). I am not use to being this pale during the summer sent I normally live down at the shore. But laying by the pool on Saturday was very relaxing and much needed! Grace and I didn't do much Saturday night besides relax. Unfortunately, Grace got sick Saturday night and into Sunday and is now missing work on Monday. Apparently there is a virus going around because my sister had it last week. Hopefully Grace feels better by today so she can come back to work and I won't get sick! Anyway, on Sunday I decided to meet my sister for lunch at Pops. I got the Arcadia burger, which is a 1/3 lb burger with homemade BBQ sauce, bacon and blue cheese. Me and my sister shared onion rings and the Root Beer bread pudding. She got the B.E.L.T which is bacon, egg salad, lettuce and tomato on Texas toast. Everything was really good. Afterwards me and my sister planted her plants she got the other day and then did a little shopping in Midwest city and then had homemade dinner at her in-laws farm. Janice (mother-in-law) made fried chicken, fried zucchini, baked beans, potato salad, and strawberry cake. Everything was really good :) Obviously you can see this weekend was filled with plenty of comfort food and that I will be paying for it the gym this week!
Monday
As I mentioned before, it is just me in the office today sent Grace is sick. Hopefully, she will be feeling better by the time I get home and be back to work tomorrow. I stayed at my sisters last night because I am trying to not catch the virus. I brought Grace home some Gatorade, 7up and saltine crackers though so maybe that'll make her stomach feel a little better. Today, I had a meeting with Danna Todd to discuss her job responsibilities in the Housing and Food Services department at OU. She is in charge of the Room and Board Work Program that OU has to offer and has been in charge ever since before her son has been born (who is bout to turn 18)! OU offers a great program to their students who qualify. The Room and Board Work Program is a separate employment opportunity for students who live in either the Residence Halls or OU Traditions Square. Students who qualify for Federal Work Study may take part in this program. These students generally work 16 hours each week and 10 service hours per semester. Where the students will work is based on their availability. If they call in sick one day, they are required to make up their hours within the two week paid period to stay in the program. As soon as the students get paid, they must go pay their bill. There are 150 spots for the Room and Board Work Program. Additionally, these students are able to move in a week before classes start to attend training and be fully prepared to start when classes start. Danna Todd is also in charge in the purchasing of the housing and food services. Today, I also got to try a new meatloaf recipe that is gluten and allergen free. It was actually pretty good!
Tuesday
Today Grace was well enough to come back to work, thankfully! We had a meeting with Kevin Barker who is in charge of the Business Operations. Being in charge of business operations entails financial report, franchise payments and budgeting. For budgeting, he uses historical data and does it month by month. Budgeting ties in with purchasing and planning on what he is going to buy. Kevin is also in charge of Food Safety. He teaches the ServSafe course once or twice a year and does assessment of the on campus food operations. Today we also put together all the pieces to our in-service project and have the date that we are going to present, June 26th. We finished our powerpoint, brochure and lesson plan. The last thing that we still have yet to do is actually make the snack that we are going to hand out to give it a test run and see if it is appropriate for our presentation and practice to become more familiar with what we are going to say.
Wednesday
Today we met with Kevin Barker again, however this time, we performed a sanitation inspection of Couch. We did a quick assessment of the operation and went through all the things that he usually does. The inspection started as soon as we walked in the door. Kevin says that is the front area isn't clean then the back isn't likely to be clean, meaning the front waiting area is a good area to see if the operation is clean. We got a closer look into the little details on how Kevin checks to make sure the operation is clean and sanitized and all items are stored properly. We also were able to check the temperatures of all the items on the line. We saw that if the temperature of an item falls into the danger zone then it gets thrown away to decrease the risks of food borne illnesses and is replaced. Additionally, I noticed that Kevin does not assume anything, he always asks a supervisor why something is happening. For example, a towel was on a prep area. Kevin asked the supervisor what that towel is used for and why it was there to make sure that it was safe. I never realized before how much detail goes into inspection and how every little inch of an area must be monitored to ensure the safety of a customer. A lot of things must be taken into perspective and a lot of regulations are to be followed to decrease the likelihood of someone to become sick. Today, we also started brainstorming ideas for our business plan/special event. We came up with the idea of doing something nutrition related sent we are both nutrition majors. We decided to plan a week long event during National Nutrition Awareness Month, which is in March, and it is Nutrition Awareness Week where each day would have a different theme.
Thursday
Today we got to meet and speak with both Nancy and Shawn. Nancy is the Director of Customer Relations, she is also Franks assistant and like all the other people that we have spoke to so far, wears many hats. For example, she does administrative work and keeps track of all the calenders. She is also in charge of the meal plans. OU offers so many options for meal plans, it's almost overwhelming! Nancy also makes all the travel arrangements and the university vehicle reservations. Furthermore, Nancy serves as a liaison of Food Service and companies. One thing that I thought particularly interesting are the athletes meal plans and the tight regulation on the athletes diet. For example, Nancy was telling us about the pasta penalty...the athletes had to pay NCAA $1.50 because they went to an event where they ate pasta and pasta isn't on their diet so they got in trouble. While Shawn is the Director of Retail Operations. She is in charge of 16 or 17 operations here on OU campus. Shawn does the bid processes, departmental orders, and deals with discipline leave. There are a lot of improvements that are currently happening in some of her operations. For example, Wendy's got tore down and made into the Union Market. The Union Market will be serving upscale grilled cheeses, pouton, has a salad bar, hot bar, soup bar, sushi, cow of the fly sandwiches, and infused water!! This is a great improvement from Wendy's and addition to the Union. I am excited to try the specialty grilled cheeses!! Also, the bookmark cafe is currently being renovated and Starbucks just finished being renovated. Then on June 30th, the Chinese place in the Union is going to be walled off to expand Chick-fil-A which will increase productivity. The managers that Shawn is in charge of are TJ (the laughing tomato, chick-fil-a, and quiznos), Rhonda (flying cow cafe), Windeon (Union Market), Chris (Starbucks), and Donna (Einstein Brothers Bagels). Shawn is strict on three things when terminating someone, those three things are time, attendance, and cell phone usage. Which I completely agree with Shawn, employees should be fully present when scheduled to work, that is what they are hired for. To terminate someone though, the Vice-president must give permission.
Friday
Happy Friday!! Today we got a free root beer float which is just what we needed after this long week :) Today, we researched grilled cheese options that we could add to the Union Market's specialty grilled cheese sandwich menu. We also overlooked our employee in-service project sent we will be turning in our lesson plan to Dot on Monday.
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