my debt
18 years i've been cooking pizza. when i first started i swore that i would never do this again once i got out. i got out over and over but kept coming back. i even managed to quit once and get a gig in an office but it was bullshit and after three weeks i quit and started working as a bike messenger. even then, i would pick up pizza gigs during the winter slow months.
since moving to portland in 2003, i had been working as a pizza cook at the same location until around august when i was fired. reason's are a little shady and don't matter anyway, so....immediately picked up another gig as a pizza cook and after two weeks realized that job was NOT gonna last. for all kinds of reasons. so i jumped ship to yet another pizza gig. fun place, good food, good music and nice co-workers. probably the nicest co-workers i've ever had. but....it just wasn't the right place for me.
the "climate" is changing in the service industry due to some new labor laws. mostly laws to make an abusive industry a little more sustainable for the workers but all it really did was give the owners and management an excuse to exploit it's workers even more.
this industry has given me a lot. it's given myself and people like me a chance to make something happen if we applied ourselves and took our trade just a little serious. people, like myself, who've at times made a real mess of our lives, our bodies, our resumes, etc. but needed just ONE MORE SHOT. this is going away. this business has always been just a merry-go-round of alcoholics, addicts, students, ex-cons, artists, musicians, part-timers and in-betweeners. wages at any given shop could range from minimum wage to more than double that. you could spend ten years making that jump or one year. it was up to you. that's not the case anymore. i know there will be some good people, shop owners who'll take that hit and try to keep that going but i can't count on that anymore.
the pizza business gave me an opportunity to look for a job without "no experience necessary" as the main qualification. it gave me confidence and gave me opportunity to pass that along. when there's a line out the door for hours on end and you and a cooking partner or you alone are making food that's feeding hundreds of people, you have reason to stand proud. most people can't do that. most people think they can but take my word, most of them can't.
i've made friends in this business that i'll know the rest of my life. for good or bad, the rest of my life. i've made deeper connections in this business than i did as a musician, a cyclist, a recovering addict, room mates, or even through sex or sharing drugs.
i'm even leaving this life of pizza with a fucking tattoo of a pizza on my person.
of course i've said so many times that i wasn't coming back to pizza and who knows? but i think i know. as i was going through my divorce several months ago, my therapist said that my debt to pizza has been paid and maybe it was time to accept that and move on. really didn't have any clue to what he meant at the time and still not sure i do now but i feel this happening now and i'm moving on it. my debt to pizza has been paid. we're even
the "climate" is changing in the service industry due to some new labor laws. mostly laws to make an abusive industry a little more sustainable for the workers but all it really did was give the owners and management an excuse to exploit it's workers even more.
this industry has given me a lot. it's given myself and people like me a chance to make something happen if we applied ourselves and took our trade just a little serious. people, like myself, who've at times made a real mess of our lives, our bodies, our resumes, etc. but needed just ONE MORE SHOT. this is going away. this business has always been just a merry-go-round of alcoholics, addicts, students, ex-cons, artists, musicians, part-timers and in-betweeners. wages at any given shop could range from minimum wage to more than double that. you could spend ten years making that jump or one year. it was up to you. that's not the case anymore. i know there will be some good people, shop owners who'll take that hit and try to keep that going but i can't count on that anymore.
the pizza business gave me an opportunity to look for a job without "no experience necessary" as the main qualification. it gave me confidence and gave me opportunity to pass that along. when there's a line out the door for hours on end and you and a cooking partner or you alone are making food that's feeding hundreds of people, you have reason to stand proud. most people can't do that. most people think they can but take my word, most of them can't.
i've made friends in this business that i'll know the rest of my life. for good or bad, the rest of my life. i've made deeper connections in this business than i did as a musician, a cyclist, a recovering addict, room mates, or even through sex or sharing drugs.
i'm even leaving this life of pizza with a fucking tattoo of a pizza on my person.
of course i've said so many times that i wasn't coming back to pizza and who knows? but i think i know. as i was going through my divorce several months ago, my therapist said that my debt to pizza has been paid and maybe it was time to accept that and move on. really didn't have any clue to what he meant at the time and still not sure i do now but i feel this happening now and i'm moving on it. my debt to pizza has been paid. we're even
