University of Oklahoma Week 2 ! :)

            It is starting to warm up very quickly around here. Illinois weather is similar to Oklahoma, so I do not find the heat to be quite so unbearable, but it’s still hot. Nova, on the other hand, is basically dying. I can’t help but laugh when we have to venture outdoors because it is like a whole new world for her! We do have had 94 degree days so I can’t really blame her, but still it’s rather humorous. In fact, we stepped out of the building the other day to walk home and immediately Nova whips out her sunglasses, rolls up her pant legs a whopping 6 inches (which apparently makes a world of difference), pulls her hair into a ponytail, and de-layers as much as possible without reaching the ‘socially unacceptable’ status. It’s all quite funny!

The rolled pants... 

Monday

After our fun-filled weekend of shopping and laying out (Yes, we both laid out. No, it was not my idea..), Nova and I returned to Couch restaurant. There is a new batch of campers using the campus this week (cheerleaders, gymnasts, softball players and the like), and they eat like crazy! Sam Ford (Couch manager) arranged for us to work on the line for the lunch period. This meant serving 500+ children lunch...by ourselves! I have worked on a line before, but it was NEVER this busy! I can’t even tell you how many times we ran out of chicken fried steak (apparently a crowd favorite).  Even though it was a teeny bit overwhelming, I really liked serving on the line especially during a higher-traffic time. First, because it makes time FLY by and secondly, because Couch is FREEZING…everywhere! When we are serving food, at least we get to stand over the warmers!

Once lunch had died down, Sam explained the online-job-board to us. It is simply where people can apply for open jobs on the OU campus. Currently, there is a managerial position as well as a few level IV server positions open. Nova and I reviewed some of the applications and made Sam a list of people that we thought would best fit the job description. This was super cool because it allowed us to see a little bit of the hiring process, and probably decreased some of the work load that Sam had to accomplish. Claire, and a few other managers will also go through all the applications and compile a list, but I still felt really important being involved in the process! J

For dinner, we returned to the front of the house and were Suppliers for one of the food lines. Couch anticipated serving about 1300 people that evening (so they could use all the help they could get)! The nerve-wracking thing about being a supplier is that:
1.) The food trays are really hot.
2.) It is easy to accidentally drop your fresh pan of food into the hot water under the serving station and
3.) If you are not paying attention, people run out of food really fast and hungry kids are impatient!
Despite these points, I had fun being the supplier. Plus, everyone is super appreciative of suppliers because it makes everything SO much faster (I know I was, anyways). After a day this crazy, I’ll sleep like a baby!

Tuesday

                This morning we met with Rachel who is in charge of C- Board. C-Board is a program that basically keeps track of the purchasing, receiving, transfers, and inventory in all food & housing operations (which sounds very deceptively simple). Rachel did her best to make us understand all of the different things that C-Board does, but despite my best efforts to follow along, I just could not get a handle on it! Apparently it has TONS of helpful things that it can do once you take the time to become and expert (like Rachel). Part of the reason C-Board seemed so complicated was due to the fact that Rachel had all these different icons to use. Nova and I will be using it tomorrow to enter recipes into the system. We will not even have half of the things that Rachel showed us, so that is good!

                In the afternoon we met with Shawn Henry, the Retail manager of basically everything. She is currently in the middle of a bunch of different projects. One of them is renovating Bedrock Café in the library, which will hopefully be complete by the time the fall semester starts. Another is to put an Einstein Bro’s Bagels in the new dorm room (in progress) called Headington Hall. It sounds like a really neat little coffee shop-type place to eat, and it is not all that common across the country, which will make the university even more unique. At the end of our discussion, Shawn let us sit in on a typical Retail manager’s meeting. It was kind of like they are in the movies- casual, everyone is welcome to talk, a few snacks on the table…the works!

                Oh, I almost forgot! We also were interviewed for the housing & food newsletter! We’re basically celebs. No big deal ;)

Wednesday

So for some reason, Oklahoma has deemed it necessary to maintain 90+ degree weather into the evenings. And I mean 7-8pm kind of evening! This really limits our evening activities to a workout video in the living room and watching movies…living on the edge. 

Round 2 of C-Board was a bit easier. It just takes quite a lot of thought and special attention! For instance, I was trying to enter a simple Brownie Baked Oatmeal recipe and it took 45 minutes at the very least! (The average C-Board expertise may have taken 7 minutes) On the bright side, now I know how to plug in the recipe information, so that is always good (since we will be using this later on).

Because we were scheduled to have a tour of the National Weather Center this afternoon, Nova and I ate lunch at the Flying Cow. As stated before, Wednesday is Indian Taco Day, and those things are pretty good! It turns out that the famous fry bread is really what MAKES the Indian Taco; the tortilla shell that they used last week simply did not do it justice. I understand why everyone endlessly raves about it! Now, the actual tour of the weather center was super cool! Most of the information went WAY over my head, but that’s beside the point… Who knew that Oklahoma was responsible for nation-wide severe weather updates?! (not me, that’s who!) The Weather Center was built to withstand an EF-4 tornado, I believe. I know where I'm going if Oklahoma decides to get hit again!

The observation deck view from 7th floor

The office that issues Severe Weather info.

All the campers decided to flock to Couch right when we got off work, and eating with multitudes of children was not really in our agenda for today; so we unanimously decided to experience a townie pizza place, and it was delish! Best dinner choice ever!

Don't let looks deceive you. It was really good pizza!

Thursday

90°F
feels like 98°F

This is the information that I see on my weather app as we walk across campus. I am intrigued to know who comes up with the “feels like” temperature. I have a decent heat tolerance, and even with that I walk outside and am sweating within 5 minutes or so! I should start packing 2 outfits for work: 1 for when we are walking across campus, and another for when we are back indoors. That way, I would not be feeling all gross and dry-sweat-freezing every time I enter a building.
            This morning we met with Robert Weaver who is the Assistant Director of Board Operations (meaning: he is a step under Frank Henry, the big man on campus [which has nothing to do with his actual size]). Back in the day, Robert was in the work-study program in the dish room. Since then, he has been working his way up the ladder and managed to become one of the top dogs! His job is actually pretty stinking cool. He comes up with new ideas to ensure that OU keeps up with the current trends in foodservice, and he does this for every all-you-can-eat operation on campus (Couch, Cate, Headington {Wagner Diner} and Biostation {located near the Texas border}). Robert, Curtis, Nova and I went to see how the construction of Wagner Diner was coming along. I have never seen the construction of a large corporation kitchen, so I was pretty pumped (even though I was wearing a bright yellow vest and construction hat).

Our classy construction outfits! ;)

We were not the only ones getting the run-down of Walker Diner. Dave (the director of housing & food [Frank’s boss]) made an appearance; Tiffany Byrd (the football dietitian) along with Jerry (football strength & conditioning trainer) came along to discuss what types of food would be offered exclusively for the football players; Frank Henry (foodservice boss, with two first names) came and talked to Nova and I for a while which was cool because everyone else was discussing logistics such as why the dish room placement may become a problem; and of course Gary (the man who designed the entire kitchen) was there to tell us everything there is to know about Walker. For instance, he explained the “special training station” off to the side of the dining area where the football players can get supplemental protein if needed and healthier drink options than the typical fountain soda. I just thought it was so shocking to see how everyone had so many intelligent questions regarding the kitchen layout, food placement, and even cleaning concerns with the meal hall. It really goes to show that the workers here know their stuff! (especially Curtis; he’s super smart. And no, this is not office-buddy-bias)

Friday

It’s finally Friday! I don’t say this in a complaining manner, because this has actually been an interesting and very quick week!

            This morning we went to Crossroads restaurant in the Union and met Gary, the general manager. Gary is a pretty cool guy in my book! First off (so you can try to see where I’m coming from) Gary is somewhere around 5’7”, football-ish build, used to be in the military (don’t know where... didn’t ask), always smiling, loved by everyone kind of guy. He immediately took us on a tour of all the storage units that Crossroads uses (which I thought was kind of an interesting place to start; but it was definitely informative!). There are 7 or 9 different storage rooms in the Union that Crossroads has to use in order to have everything stocked and handy. It has an ENORMOUS menu with 96 different things to choose from (hence all the storage). Included in these 96 options is a Fitter Foods menu. These items are typically adaptations of regular menu items, but do not have the cheese or sauce included, which lowers the calories, sodium, and fat content. After describing each cooler/freezer/shelf to us, Gary sent us to the back of the house where Anthony (a line cook) put us to work! He showed us how to wrap the sandwiches, burgers, and breakfast burritos; make fries, hash browns, and wings; and where to call out the number when the order is up. It was exciting! Once the breakfast mini -rush died down, Sherri talked to us about the front of the house, the cash register, and ice cream! J Apparently it’s a big seller late at night (ironically, so is a veggie sandwich).
            Gary also told us about the different computer programs used to run Crossroads. First, you have the EMC which is linked to the cash registers. Right now, the register is extremely complicated and fairly unorganized, but Gary is working to fix the layout so it will actually make sense. Next, he explained the RMC which is where all the financial information is recorded such as labor costs. Finally, Crossroads uses C-Board. I am still fairly confused by it, but I know that Gary does not have to deal with it as extensively as Rachel. On top of everything else, Gary is working with the marketing department to separate the Fitter Foods menu from the rest of the food so that it is more appealing to the eye and easier to maneuver. He is doing a lot of different things with his current menu as well: consolidating it so that it is more efficient and less intimidating, expanding the Fitter Foods menu to include more than 18 items (including salads); and adding new items to the menu such as a fruit & yogurt parfait (which will hopefully be here soon enough for Nova and I to do a taste test J).
             At the end of the day, I liked trying to think of some ways to increase or improve the Fitter Foods menu. It was kind of hard because Gary kind of put us on the spot, but hopefully we gave him a couple good suggestions that he can look into. Overall, it’s been a great week!