Counter Productive
“Step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back. Step on a line, you’ll break your father’s spine.” Yikes. There’s sure have a lot of power in one misstep.
I am confident in stating that we all know the above phrase, “step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back.” It is commonly used by children and was created as a game where a group walking on a sidewalk would avoid stepping on cracks in the pavement. A misstep could result in losing the game and being heckled for dishonouring your mother.
It’s a saying that I occasionally find myself still relaying in my head when I’m walking down the street.
I already put my mom through enough, I don’t need to break her back too.
So this had me thinking about other similar sayings that we grew up learning, passed down from generations. Phrases that we believed in – even if we didn’t admit it.
Unfortunately, my mind went blank and I couldn’t think of anything remotely related. So I reached out to 1 brother, 12 friends and 1 friend reached out to her husband and her 6 year old.
I received enthusiastic and helpful responses from almost everyone. But you know who was not helpful? I won’t name any names but she is 6 years old.
This call out reminded me that 15 brains are definitely better than one. It also reminded me that all of these individuals have put up with my blog antics for many years and not one person questioned me.
So for that, I thank them for being my friend/family and for ghost writing this blog post. Even though one friend did say she would sue me if she didn’t get credit…
Top Tier:
- “Find a penny, pick it up and all day long you’ll have good luck” – You better believe I looked for my luck all day long.
- “Last one is a rotten egg” – You never argue this logic.
- “Apple a day keeps the doctor away” – it’s science.
- “Early bird gets the worm” – my family religiously lived by this.
- “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite” – I had those sheets tucked in TIGHT.
Honourable mentions:
- “Beans beans the magical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot” – am I right?
- “Flush you down the toilet to see if you enjoy it” – I would not.
All of this to say, my friends and family put their brains into overdrive for very little reward.
However, unfortunately, no one came up with a phrase to warn me about countertop cracks…
In Hi My Name Is, names confused me. Today, a crack confused me.
Like any space, building or home, after a while there’s unavoidable wear and tear. In a care facility with a lot of moving parts and people, it’s more like abruption and destruction.
More specifically, one of our kitchenette areas looked like it went through the recent New York earthquake. Little damage, but enough damage to be able to say it happened. Luckily, it was recently renovated and was not just given a face lift, but a whole new face.
I haven’t seen anything this pearly white since Ross’s teeth.
So I’ve talked about this in previous posts, but with the assistance of food services, we implement a special breakfast program titled “Enhanced Breakfast.” I don’t know how enhanced it is, but it is breakfast.
A few weeks ago, we rolled into the brand new kitchenette with our grills, eggs and questionable qualifications.
About halfway through breakfast, it became too crowded. When the space was renovated, they added a little door to enter the kitchenette area (similar to a playhouse door) to keep everyone safe and ensure safe food handling.
Therefore, the food services staff member asked all other staff to exit the area and accidentally swung the little door a little too hard. It slammed into the counter with a bang which quickly cleared the space.
At the end of breakfast when I was putting away the grill I noticed a large crack in the countertop.
I’ve never seen a crack I liked but this one was a cause for concern.
I turned to my coworkers asking if the crack had previously been there or if it was a result of the morning. No one could answer so I moved on with my day.
A few days went by when I received an email from a manager stating that it was possible that the crack was due to heat stress. Next time you’re feeling stressed, I hope you find comfort in knowing countertops get stressed too.
After putting the pieces together, she mentioned it may have been caused by the heat of our grill during the breakfast program. Thankfully, it would be fixed under warranty.
I was absolutely mortified. I’ve never been good in the kitchen but I’ve never destructed property before…
Okay, one time my friend, Kels, and I put popcorn in the microwave for an embarrassingly long time and destroyed the microwave but that’s the ONLY other instance (and I feel I should mention we were young).
Since then the countertop has been fixed and we now grill on carts which comes with its own obstacles (like wheels and blowing breakers) but at least I’m not cracking anything except eggs.
I hope the younger generation remembers, a hot grill on a cart, keeps the countertops from falling apart.
