Current Issue #1

I feel sad that I haven't had much time to blog recently because a lot of stuff I want to talk about has happened. I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in. I guess I'll start with what's weighing most strongly on my mind.

Evan is our current workshift manager and he's been doing a piss-poor job of it. He's really unavailable for people to talk to, so any concerns they have never get addressed. He doesn't update the website. He's updated it maybe once or twice all year and there are still a lot of gross inaccuracies. We're several thousand in debt to central office since he didn't get our central level shifts filled. Things are bad.

So he's probably going to be recalled, but that is a long and arduous process. First we need 22 signatures to initiate a discussion (or a majority vote at a house meeting). It is possible that this will happen next Monday, but it could be the week after that as well. Then we need to vote on whether or not to give Evan a conditional contract. Then we need to have a separate meeting at least a week later to reevaluate the situation and decide on what the conditional contract is. Then we need to spend a week voting on the conditional contract. Then we need to have a week where people can nominate new workshift managers. Then we need to have a week where we vote upon the new managers. Then finally we have a new workshift manager. Phew! Of course it will be much easier if Evan steps down. Let's hope the other manager can convince him. Though admittedly we can suspend Evan pending a recall vote. I think some of this bureaucracy can be avoided, but even so, it will take a while.

So the real big question is do I run for the position? I think I've already made my decision, but I might as well go over it. I want to see the job done right. I want to be there fixing it myself so that I know everyone gets heard appropriately. No one would do it as well as me. However, I'm really enjoying cooking with Susan. It's a lot of fun and I'm learning a lot. I don't want to stop. I had already decided I would run for the position in the spring, but it feels a little premature to run now. However, if I don't run now, it might be harder to run in the spring since someone (potentially competent) would already be entrenched. Let's just say it wouldn't be a shoe-in the way it would be now. One factor from today more or less cemented my position though. Sabira wants to run. She asked me yesterday if I would run for the position in the spring and I said probably. Then she got really quiet. She overheard me talking about the position potentially opening up for fall today and she asked me not to run because she really wanted to do it and promised she would do a good job. Honestly, I'm more worried about her doing a good job than a mediocre or bad one. I really dislike Sabira. She makes me uncomfortable. She's utterly unpredictable and socially awkward. She likes making people uncomfortable. She can't stand other people acting like they have control over her, even when done playfully. I saw her washing dishes once (before I got creeped out by her) and went to give her a hug. I said, "Haha! You're washing dishes! There's no way you can avoid this hug now!" So she turned and splashed me in the face with scalding hot water. Not hot enough to burn, but I was really soaked and it felt really uncomfortable. She apologized later, but I've never gotten close to her again. And I try not to turn my back to her. She's fucking crazy. There's no way I'm leaving my house in her hands. She got punched at the room to room. I know why. She said she was herding people out of the kitchen like a mother hen and someone must have taken offense. Of course they did. You're not their mother. You ask them to leave. You don't shoo them away with your arms like they're animals. I really dislike her and I don't want to have to answer to her.

So that's enough to sway my opinion. If Sabira runs (and she will), then so will I. It sucks a little that someone else is making my choice for me, but it might well have been the choice I decided on anyway. I'll miss cooking, but I might not have to miss it really. I could do both. Cooking is something I honestly enjoy. Aside from getting workshift hours, I'm getting a lot of experience at something incredibly useful that I haven't done much of before. So is it still worth it if I don't get workshift anymore? It might be. The more hours you put into something, the more you get out of it. Practicing something makes you improve substantially. Because of cooking with Susan, I had the courage to make something on my own the other day when I had to bring a dish to supe group (they supervise teaching and each person has to bing in food once a semester). A lot of it was mundane like cutting apples, but I might have been nervous about even that before doing all that cutting for Susan. And then when I tried the apples and found them too sour, I wasn't too nervous to try making caramel for the first time. And I made it. And it was amazing. And people complemented me. *glow* So I might have less free time, but that's not so bad. It just means I'd be using my free time for something productive, learning to cook, from one of the best teachers I could find. Many people would pay for the privilege. If something is important to you, you'll donate time to it. I don't always need to get something tangible as a result (if workshift credit is tangible. it's at least more tangible than experience).

So there's my dilemma and I think it's more or less solved. Still it's a sticky situation. I'd rather Evan just got his act together so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning up after his mess, or worse yet, Sabira cleaning up after his mess.