To Plastic Wrap or Not To Plastic Wrap?

I was at work yesterday (I work in a restaurant with my mother and sister) and my mother decided to give my sister a lecture about how the chicken breasts that she tenderizes should be packaged and stored. Those two don’t agree on anything, especially when it comes to chicken & plastic wrap. I always just observe the verbal fireworks between them because no one really listens to me when I try to put in my two cents. Having said that, I don’t recommend ever working with your family. It's like drinking acid for breakfast everyday. I should know. We've been working together for 25 years.

Anyway, this chicken & plastic wrap business drives my sister bonkers. You see, mother likes to wrap 2 pieces of chicken at a time, and then wrap 6 packs of 2 pieces together. (Are you following me??) This drives my sister nuts because not only does it take double the plastic wrap to do this & make for twice the work, it also really slows us down when we're busy. With the chicken wrapped & re-wrapped in plastic, it's not exactly easy to get it unwrapped, especially when we need to get orders out on time. My sister said, "Mom, you use too much plastic wrap. It’s a waste. Why not put 12 pieces in Tupperware containers, since we have them? This would save time & it would be easier to get at the chicken when we need it. Do you know how much plastic wrap you use? One roll a month! That’s insane! It's 5000 feet! What the hell are you wrapping?!

Sometimes, that type of conversation goes on for a good 20 minutes. Mom wraps everything in plastic wrap. I swear she put plastic wrap diapers on us. The woman is obsessed with plastic. I've tried to explain that it's really bad for the environment, but it's pointless. She thinks recycling is throwing everything in the garbage. She says, "I be dead before the earth explodes. Oh, fack off (seriously, with her accent, that's how it sounds). You be brainwashed by TV and that guy, Al Gore. Him he’s fat now because you guys go buying that DVD he selling on Oprah. Stop be so stupid."

You know what's funny, though? Washed plastic bags used to hang on our clothes line with our laundry when I was a kid. No joke! Those bags were wrinkled to the point of being unrecognizable, but washing them in order to reuse them would now be considered recycling. I could bring that up, but I wouldn't dare.

JB