June 10, 2005 (IJ)

Bobbi Jo didn't show up to work today so I was in charge of the Grille Room again. It's kind of cool being the one that is giving orders on the line. I like it. Maybe I do want to be a head chef after all. I had to tell Christina what to do. She's the other intern and gets really nervous doing things without being told to do them. None of us know why Bobbi Jo didn't come to work, but I hope it's nothing terrible. I'm kind of worried.

Chad came into the Grille Room at around noon and said to Christina and me, "Which one of you wants to clean the soft-shelled crabs?" Of course, he looked right at me when he said this because he "knew I would be able to do it because of how I handled the lobsters.". Oy! I was pretty confident though because he said the crabs weren't as lively as the lobsters. That was the only part of killing the lobsters that bothered me. Well, he showed me how to kill the crabs. I had to rip off their tail, cut off their face and then their gills. It was pretty much disgusting having to cut off their faces. Ewww. Anyway, he handed me 3 boxes holding about 20 crabs each and said, "You can do these in the Grille Room." (which was well over 100 degrees today). So, I'm was still feeling pretty confident as all the servers and Christina start watching me in awe. I was feeling pretty cool. Then, they all went back to their jobs and I was left alone with Sebastian. I picked up the biggest crab in the box. That thing was really lively, but I fought back the urge to throw it down. Just as I started to rip off its tail, it wrapped its claws around my wrist and that's when I lost all my nerve. I put it down and just stood there - unable to finish killing the rest of them. After a breather, I tried again and that thing had a mind of its own. I just used tongs for the rest of them until Chad came in to help me finish the rest of them. Oooo, I do not like crabs.