Its a strange world.

This happened a few months back but is still one of my favorites:

Everything looks perfect. Each nasty, walk-in special salad is stocked, the shiny spoons and tonges are all aligned like soldiers' bayonets, the rolls are damn near geometric in their pans, even the hot, nasty, bland soups are looking edible, not even a cup taken yet from all four liners. Plates, bowls, cups, forks and spoons are stocked up. My back ups are ready for battle, this salad bar is ready for a dinner rush.

It looks like, for the first time in weeks, I'll win today's round. Everyday before leaving work, the owner of the restaurants tears through the kitchen, through the walk-ins, cooks' line, low-boys and out on to the floor in search of something, anything wrong to berate the perpetrator about. She stops and looks at everything on my salad bar as I wait, standing practically at attention.

I can see the crazed look in her opaque eyes. She needs blood.

She grabs a service spoon from the 6 pan of sunflower seeds.

"this spoon is too dramatically placed into the seeds, just put it in normally."

She walks out the back door without saying a word to anyone else.

I smile and count the victory as mine.