EASY BREEZY JUNE 1

      It's cloudy here today. The back door was open and a chilly breeze was blowing through the kitchen when I arrived. Doug had pizza on baking sheets. Fries and fruit were planned for the sides. There were 45 sack lunches in the fridge and a box full of PBJs already made. Eventually, he decided that I could make up 12 breakfast sacks (bagel, jelly, plastic knife, two granola bars, and a soda). Beyond that, there was little for me to do before serving time. I did find a large storage tub of goodies with melted candies in the bottom. All the gum packages were sticky, so I clean it—and them.

      As for the pizza, it was the good kind, but still there's never enough product on it, so I got some shredded mozzarella, and we piled it on. The pre-release got pizza, fries and fruit, with gum and a candy car. About 5 minutes before we were ready to serve, an enormous fellow came to the counter to take one of the two plates I had set forth. "We're not ready," I told him. He eyed the food and argued a bit. I stood my ground. He told Doug that there was a new boss in the kitchen. "No," I said, "Mom's here."

       Eventually, I had enough plates on the counter and I called Gatekeeper to announce lunch. They were all in good spirits and ate heartily.

       Before calling in the homeless, we hid what was left of the pizza and fries in the warming oven, and we put more than a dozen plates of leftover spaghetti and meatball dinners on the counter. When those had all been taken, we began serving out the remaining pizza and fries. Eyes were rolling all around the dining room. Folks began coming to the counter for "seconds," specifically pizza and fries. Many of their spaghetti dinners were simply abandoned.

       The bitty baby and her mom have moved out. The 1-yr-old was at lunch, as was her 9-yr-old cousin and the two teens. They each got something special. I went into the cooler to get some cheese and turkey for the baby. It took a minute or two. When I opened the door to step out, poor Doug was standing there and gasped, "Oh, Miss Joy, you scared me! I've looked all over for you!" Nice to be missed.

       When the flurry was over, and all the diners had left, a wispy little blonde came to the kitchen and introduced herself as our new community-service "volunteer." Seems she tried her hand (the one and only time…) at shoplifting, but not being able to pull it off, she had waved to the security cameras to come and get her. They did. She's about 21 and quite full of herself—spoke of the many world religions which convinced her that there isn't any "right" one, and how she'd spent all last year traveling the U.S. "Why not Europe?" I asked. Too expensive… all of her relatives live in the U.S. As for working off her service hours, she'd first signed up for the animal shelter, but when she discovered that service meant poop scooping, she asked for reassignment. Kids.

       Doug put the child to work sacking up all those PBJs. She was happily occupied when I left.

       Nothing to do about MY time at the shelter today but smile :)