I think we all have days that we can classify under "Day From Hell" but this past Monday was honestly one of the worst days I have had in a very long time.
This week I am doing fill in shifts for new clients of my company and Monday I had to go to a woman's house for what was supposed to be just a 10am-1pm shift to make a meal for her.
The shift ended up lasting until almost 2:30, but that is skipping way ahead so let me start at the beginning.
This woman is from Isreal and she has a very thick accent, so already it was a bit hard for me to understand her English. She also had a hard time getting certain words out or thinking of the right word for certain things, which is totally fine, I get it, but it did make things more difficult. When I got there, a gigantic English Mastiff was barking at me like I was his Monday morning brunch and that was already terrifying enough. I love my dogs and dogs I know won't kill me, but this dog was huge and sounded pretty pissed off. The woman's husband calmed the dog down and they had me sit down at the table. She went on into detail for about an hour (maybe a little more) about all of the things that were medically wrong with her and surgeries she has had and will need to have. She then said she has a "cleaner" come on Thursdays so I will just need to be making her a meal, which she said was simple, and maybe doing a load of laundry for her. Sounds easy enough, right?
I asked her if they had a recipe book and at first she said "the other girl wrote it down" but a few minutes later it changed to "no, why would you need a recipe?" So I asked what it was that she wanted me to make and she wouldn't tell me what it was called. She just kept bringing up other things. She told me to get parsley, spinach, carrots and potatoes out. I had never been to this woman's home before or even met her, I had no clue about my way around her kitchen. Obviously I knew most of those ingredients were in the fridge but it took me ten minutes to find the potatoes, in the very back of one of 20 cabinets under other things. She wouldn't tell me where anything was, pots or pans wise. They didn't have any sharp knives to cut veggies with and they also didn't have measuring spoons (for tablespoons, teaspoons, etc.)
I kept asking what this meal was and what it was called so I could try to look it up on my phone so I would know the ingredients and how much of what to put in but she just would not tell me. I was getting frustrated because she was getting frustrated with me for not knowing what I was doing. She also kept smacking my hand which seriously sent me over the edge in my mind, because I do not deal well with that kind of thing. However, as always with clients, I just kept smiling and nodding and trying to do my job as best as I could.
Now she wanted me to find a pot to boil water in for two separate things. After searching another 5 or 10 minutes I found two pots and tried to start the water. Well, that wasn't right either. She wanted me to take water from a tea maker and pour it into the pots. And when that water was gone I had to fill the tea maker back up and then pour it into the pots...strange.
So the water boiled and she had me put in some chicken legs, after cleaning them. She looked at it and then told me to get the parsley ready. I assumed she meant chop it up so I started doing that and she screamed at me, for what seemed like the hundredth time, "No! No! No! That is WRONG!" So I stopped and she said that was to go into the soup. I didn't even know I would be making soup. So she had me put it in the water with the chicken legs and then I had to put the carrots in there as well. In the other pot I had to put potatoes. They literally boiled for over an hour because she wouldn't let me turn them off and when I finally took them out they were mush.
Next she kept telling me, "I don't like spicy. I need the flavor mix, the flavor mix." I had no idea what she was talking about. No idea at all. So she was getting incredibly mad at me yet again and she kept yelling at me to "Find it!!!" Eventually, I realized she meant a Beef Bouillon Cube. She had me put it into a lime green solo cup with water from the boiling pot into it and mix it up and then dump it into the "soup".
Now, I had to take the chicken legs out of the "soup" and put it into a pan. She told me I needed to put oil on the bottom of the pan, okay, fair enough. I couldn't find oil anywhere and after searching for awhile I asked if I could use the cooking spray that I found. She was mad and said "It will do. I don't like cooking spray, I like oil" Well, lady, let me know when you find some because I can't.
So I greased the pan and placed the chicken legs in and she had me pour my (mashed) potatoes in ontop and cover it. I asked what now? She said "the oven of course" So I asked her what temp to put it on and she had no clue again. She told me 50 minutes. I said that was fine but I needed to know what temperature, she asked what I normally put things on and I told her it always depends but most things 350-425 and she said, "No, no that is all wrong, we do it for 160 degrees." So I put it on 160 degrees and 50 minutes.
I was literally almost in tears at this point because this woman was so incredibly rude to me. All she did was yell, slap my hand, talk down to me and make me feel so, so inferior. She called my boss at 1 and told her I had to stay because I got a late start and needed to finish her meal.
So I stayed.
Now, she looked at the water in the pot with the veggies and told me to put noodles in it. I did. Then she started freaking out saying there was too much water and she told me to scoop it out with "a thing" so I found a cup and scooped it out. And she literally had me scoop until there was barely any water in it. Now she said, "Go get my laundry from my bathroom and clean it." I asked where her bathroom was, it was a relativley big home and that dog was eyeing me. She said, "you go, you find it, down the corridor" So eventually I found her bathroom and found some clothes to be washed, I don't even know if they were dirty. She also expected me to know a bin was under her bed with laundry in it.
After this, I came back out into the kitchen and she was talking to her friend on the phone in another language and kept laughing. Probably about me, but I shouldn't jump to conclusions...
I had no idea what I was doing so I had to keep asking her and she was literally on the phone for the rest of my time there. She told me to cut up the spinach, so I chopped it with a butter knife, if you can imagine, like everything else I had to "chop" and it wasn't good enough it had to be in smaller pieced so I did it all over again. Then I had to take egg whites out and mix that and bread crumbs with it to make "quiche" which definetly did NOT turn out as quiche when I was through with it.
She came back out and yelled at me for there being not enough water in the soup after she made me take all the water out...
When I arrived that morning they had two sides of the sink filled up with all dirty dishes. Before leaving she made me do all of those plus the ones I dirtied and put them all away, I had no idea where they went. And then I had to unload the dishwasher. And then I had to go into her room and fold her clothes that were strewn about on the floor. My list seemed never ending.
Eventually I got to leave. I apologized and told them I hope their dinner is good, I had no idea what I made but hopefully it wasn't awful. She said she put the garage up for me but it was only up a little bit and the wall button didn't work. There was no way I was going back in there so I rolled out of the garage and left that house as fast as I possibly could.
I have to go back on Friday and my anxiety is already through the roof.
I know this little entry was terribly long but I had to get it all out. This woman made me feel so awful and honestly really hurt my feelings. That was one of the worst days I have had in some time.
Thanks for reading, if you made it this far you're seriously awesome.
XO
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