RED ALERT: aka my bout with late nights and the infamous norwalk virus

As of right now, it is after 2am.
I clocked out of work around 130am after what could have been one of the most deepest cleansings of a workplace I have ever survived.
In fact, the cooks/chefs are STILL cleaning as I type, and probably won't get out intil 3am earliest.

Why is this happening?
Two reasons:
1) health inspector is coming tomorrow. wuh woh.
2) theres a massively contagious virus that reared its ugly head at our resort.
THE NORWALK VIRUS.

Norwalk virus? Whats that, you ask? Well it is one of the biggest, contagious diseases that spreads in...you guessed it, outbreaks. This virus is often associated with cruises, because so many people are kept in such close quarters and it spreads like wildfire. Well, guess what happened...some people ended up getting it on a cruise that takes guests to my resort. When the news hits us, we are immediately put under CODE RED which now has officially made my shit list. CODE RED means we have to wipe everything on each table (salt, pepper, flowers, fronts and backs of seats) with Virox, an agent that in large doses gives you a nice dry red peeling burning sensation. It's supposedly an accelerated hydrogen peroxide, but I swear there has to be some flesh-eating agent added to it. Also, we cant serve the breakfast buffet which makes all the guests super-pissed. Sorry folks, you got sick...all we can do is make sure you dont infect us or each other. No buffet? Deal with it. Overall it just makes for at least 1-3 hours of extra preparation and cleaning a night which is a waste of time. Oh yeah, and we cant serve ourselves in our employee dining room...we have to wait for the chefs to serve us which is a burden for everyone. Overall, Norwalk virus needs to take a hike. So does CODE RED.

Well we have hit our 2nd CODE RED of the season this past week and it just ended this afternoon. Thank God. But not before good old Norwalky took a pot-shot at me. I actually handled questionable materials which may be linked to the most recent virus scare. A guy and his family came to eat, then promptly left after 4-5 minutes. I had to clean his table and my buddy Kirk comes up to me and says, "Dude. Wash your hands and use the most caution you can for this table. Sanitize everything. Dont even blink without washing your hands." So of course the father of the family leaves his bulky wallet under a napkin so i tempted fate, grabbed it and ran after him. Caught up with him and my general manager saw me and said, "Ryan...go wash your hands NOW. They are all sick and its almost determined they're our cause for CODE RED." Terrific. But then my co-worker goes home with Norwalk instead of me. Go figure. But hey, wahooooo it wasnt me. Poor Bonnie though.

Side little fact: guess what the virus is named after?
Its birthplace.
NORWALK, OHIO.
way to go Ohio, next time someone at school calls my home state "Pennsyltucky" I have some ammunition :-p At least we dont produce a virus that causes (i'm going to be graphic) explosive diarrhea and explosive vomiting, often simultaneously. Ha ha ha.

Ok it is officially one of my days off, I need a good old night of 7-8 hours of sleep. Mmmmm sleep.

But seriously, don't get me wrong. THIS JOB ROCKS. CODE RED is just a slight issue that I have to deal with like last summer and, oh, say...being constantly poor. As in, poor poor. But this time around, I'm walking out of here with almost $2000 (hopefully).

Does anyone read this?

taking it day by day,
-yohe