Feburary 10, 2008
1:35p.m.-3:45p.m.
Booth # 31 and Kitchen
Left Side of Pages 1-3.
"Observations"
-I'm sitting in a resturant, in a closed booth surrounded by walls... four walls to be exact.This is a place with shrines of car parts, Berr advertisments and reciently added the game "Keno". The tables are all neatly placed with napkins and silverware.
-There is a large bar that wrapes around in a short of oval shape. The place is swarmed with Flat-screen T.V.'s hence it being called a "Sports Bar".
-Slowly the bar fills up again for another uneventful night, well atleast in my eyes.Today is the day that I will be "running".
- I now remove myself from the booth and postition myself in the kitchen. The kitchen is a fithy place, full of uneducated, over-weight, cooks in an enviorment tha is anything but clean.
- I pace back and forth on one side of the kitchen, waiting....waiting...untill I am needed to run.
-I noticed that a man (mentioning no names for legal reasons) that works only at the pizza station or at least that's what we call it and he only makes things like pizza, calzones and subs has this little set up. Kinda like a converier belt that has every thing he'll need to make things in that sort. Right behind him is a huge over that allows him to accomplish his work faster. He always looks so dirty and down. We will call him the "pizza man".
-The owner walked in and turned directly towards the "pizza man" and told him to go..and these were his words, " I told you that you were suppose to shovel the walk way and what did you do you put salt over it like a dumb ass. Go Fuck youself." Before the "pizza man" was able to defend himself the owner had left.
-At this point everyone in the kitchen felt ackward. I chose to grap a plate and leave. Anything to make things less weird, plus I didnt want the owner to come back and find something to yell at me about.I knew from that point I had to get out,leave this place for good.
-I now lean against the counter where right behind me is a coffee maker and an Ice-Tea machine. I can see from the distance the "pizza man", how embaressed yet pissed he is. Yes I know that he did something else when he was specifically told to do one thing, but come on.
- I see the expo, she is leaning down grapping a knife for a Sonora steak that we serve a lot. I noticed she's red, very red on her back. Must have been tanning a little longer that usual.
- I also can hear a rhytem, like a beat outside the doors from the kitchen. When the door swings open every few seconds I can pick up what song it playing. Usally those damn bar songs you hear from movies like "Coyote Ugly".
- I take a large breath and brace myself and I attempt to lift a very heavy tray. I believe it is four mexican dishes and a salad (our salads are the size of a Hippo)I steady myself and that in one quick motion lift the tray onto my right shoulder. I them kick the door open with my foot weave threw the table as I grind my teeth with pain up 10 stair and place the large tray on a tray jack.
- I stair as I count the tables making sure I get the right table number.70,71,72,73...ahhh 74 here you are. I then grab two plates postion myself infront of the table, simle and say.." Tres amigos..for you mam, Chicken Burrito, for you mam. He's the Sothern Chicken for you sir, ahh yes and for you mam the Taco Platter." Then I grab the tray put back the tray-jack and scurry away back to the kitchen for my next run.
Right Side of Pages 1-3.
"Ouestions and Observations"
- I see tables lots of tables high-tops, booths, round tables, and pool tables. There arranged in all sorts of ways , actaully more like lines. Lines of fields like corn fields, lines and lines of crops about 10 rows. Why Keno? All these people spend so much money on such a waste of time game. I get so sick of looking at these lisences plates. I mean who really wants to put something like that on a wall, why not hand toliet seats up there?
-I see so much liquor on that bar, I mean why so much. They actually wanted me to memorize all the booze up there. Why does it matter I'm 18 I'm not going to be drinking it, or even making it. The bartenters are so pushy, they think they have it so hard back there, they remind me or rats runing threw a maze since there stuck back behind the counters.
-Some times there lines of people who come in. We I seat someone who comes in i always ask how many even if i see that there are only two, they always give me such rude looks but I must ask that question in case there are more outside. Then I ask smoking or non but like that really matters since the whole bar eventually fills up with smoke.
- I hate leaving this booth, it's the only place I can hide from work, plus I know that when I leave ill start my horrible shirft. I had the guys that work in the back, there always looking at me like I'm actaually going to give them the time of day, it makes me want to throw up.
-When I'm walking back and forth from the kitchen I look down at my feet and see all the nasty remains of food that has fallen or bad parts of it that have been riped off, plus there's sauces that have made it to the floor and nasty water that leaks from the sinks pipes. Its a fithy place to stand. I have no choice.
-I don't really know much about the "pizza man" except that he's in a band because every now and then he hands me a flyer and says " I know you won't go but here anyways." Which he's right I won't go. not because I think I'm better then him but simply because I dont like that scary kind of music. Ha ha.
- I know that when I worked at the movies "Regal" if any profanity was used there would be hell to pay. I miss being in a corporate job. They had to treat you far there. Here your nothing they can fire you because you have red hair. Its cruel and I have taken so much harsh words. If I were to get lashed every time they got mad at me for something so small I would now have scars and scars on my back from them.
-I'm the worst person to go to when something weird happens I dont know what to say I feel almost as bad as they do. It's like when I had to go to my grandmothers funeral I didn't know what to say and other than that I did't know what to say when people were coming up to me that I didnt't even know and telling me how sorry they were.I guess one day Ill be able to be better at that.
- I think that I must be the only one that can make coffee in this damn place. It's the easiest thing to do but no one can do it, or maybe they act like they can't do it so that I will always make the coffee. When people actaully get around to making it the usually forget to put the de-cafe in the pot labled de-cafe and vis-versa. They think it's so funny to get an old lady asking for de-cafe all hyped up on regular.
- I finally talked to the expo which is actaully a close friend of mine that agrees with me about our job and she too is currently looking for a new job. She has been here about a year longer than I have. She's one of those really nice people that let everyone walk all over them, just like me. I asked her about her badly red skin and she told me that she went tanning at one salon, then after that went to another salon to tan again, stupid I know. I guess she said she wanted to get burned the first day and get it over with then be tan after a while.
-Sometimes when the manager is being nice he'll give me some quartors for our very nice electonic jukebox that allows you to pik from music that can be accessed on the internet, so pretty much anything you'd like. I try to change it up since there is always the same crap that places over and over. I don't like rap so I never play that and a lot of the music I like is undergroud, so I end up letting the other girls play music. I do admit it lets the time go by faster when you have music to listen to. Even though we have T.V.'s everywhere the only time I watch is in the morning when the bartender allows me to watch MTV...she hired me she likes me a lot. She actally hired me because I knew her when I worked at a tanning salon that she came to often.
- After so many runs of taking plates of food to ungrateful, rude people I begin to feel the starin on my body. I start to shake the night is later. I almost start to slack as I walk back from the kitchen because I don't want to kill myself more than I already have that night.
End of Day 1 notes...
1 comment:
I'm not sure what you were worried about - these seem like detailed fieldnotes to me! I assumed your fieldnotes, like everyone's, would have your own flavor, and might be "train-of-thought-like," which is part of the style you've used here. Were you worried that you put too much of yourself into this? The only issues I see are this: I think it's fine to take certain approaches to writing your fieldnotes, and to let your own feelings come into them, as long as you are aware of your biases, and aware that the way you present these observations in your actual research essay may need to be changed from the way they are presented here. When you write, for instance, that some of the workers are uneducated and overweight, you do start to sound judgmental. Being aware of the language and tone you use to make these observations when it comes to the actual essay is important. Now, being overweight is something observable, but this observation can easily be interpreted as judgmental by readers if not written about in just the right way. But being uneducated isn't something you can observe in the same way. Clearly you have brought your "insider" knowledge of this place into your observations. If you had just gone in there without having worked there, you might have described these people differently. You can't totally separate yourself from being an insider, but you can try to be hyper-aware of your insiderness. But these notes are for you, as I've said, and although I want you to try and be objective and observe as an outsider too, I also want you to use these fieldnotes in a way that works best for you. What you have posted here is really amazing - so detailed and so interesting. I don't want you to lose your passion and "edge" in these observations. So that's a rambling, complicated answer to whether or not these fieldnotes are okay! Oh, and the word "expo" is an insider term: I have no idea what this means. So as you make these notes and consider how you will use them in your actual essay, keep in mind how these insider terms and understanding you have will need to be balanced with the goals of ethnographic research: to defamiliarize the experience for yourself so that you can describe it in a way that combines an objective and subjective perspective.
I hope that made some sense...we can definitely continue this conversation!
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