First Quarter

So I have done it. I have started pastry school. It all happened very quickly. A phone call. A few letters. A visit and a loan . Now I wear a crisp chef's coat, standard checked chef's pants and carry a knife kit on the bus twice a week. I always thought that I would do something like this. I thought that I would do it later - as a hobby or an empty nest activity or as an indulgence. Instead I am doing it now, at 26, after spending a few years floating around trying on different hats. For awhile it was law, in a law firm and in a law school. That didn't take. Then I helped open a restaurant. I liked doing that. Alas, like many restaurants, it didn't last. The concept and the execution did not suit the venue and the clientèle. Then I worked in sales. I was really bad at sales. Then I lost my job. I went on many interviews, big non-profits, event planning, small non-profits, wine tasting. One day the phone rang and it was an admissions director at the pastry school I now attend. About two months later here I am. I still don't have another job - I am working on it. But I now have a focus. A focus on something I really like.

I don't really know where this is going to take me. What I do know is that I spend a lot of time reading about food, talking about food, thinking about it, making it, eating it and looking for it. Much to my parents disappointment, I have not turned into the high flying corporate attorney in a power suit (I tried though) or the doctor, or the accountant or the politician. They ask me about pastry school like you ask a little girl about her imaginary friend. It is ironic because every single one of my closest family members is deeply committed to their food. They grow their own vegetables, fruits and herbs. Catch their own fish, have butchered cows and pigs. Own restaurants. As we say at home - I come by this honestly. And irregardless of what they hoped I would be, I think they will soon understand that this is what I am supposed to be. When I worked in a law firm I would go to the bathroom, sit in the stalls and take naps. I would have slept a full 10 hours the night before, but the air-conditioning, the muffled corporate cubes, the constant typing would lull me to sleep. This would be a t 10am! Now I get up at 5am, spend 10 hours in the kitchen and look around for more to do. This is the sign of something.

I think that this year is going to be a very important one in my life and I want a record of it. This blog will be about school. It will be about my search for a job, my success in the kitchen and I anticipate, many failures. It will be about dates with my husband, at home and on the town. I am also using this forum to improve. I love to write but I need a lot of practice. It will also be about me learning how to take a decent picture of what I make, where I shop, what I buy and what we eat. I am very excited by all of this and I hope to to provide at least a little entertainment.