Holy shit! Doesn't seem like it has been SO long since I have been on here! Wow! Guess I will kinda fill you in...

I am no longer working at Home Depot. I have finally decided that retail can kiss my ass and I will not be going back unless I absolutely have to. (The plan is NOT going back FOREVER to retail!) I got a job working full time at a bakery and so far, seem to be enjoying it very much. My days are seriously long and I never see mom, but I have a feeling that it is definately worth it. I get up at 3 a.m. to be there by 4 to make the bread.

-I get to make bread! I always wanted to make bread, but the first time I ever tried it by myself, I was very disappointed and never tried it again. Now that I have gotten some idea about yeast, I know that it was not ALL me...I am sure that the yeast that we had in our fridge was probably 10 years old! Poor little yeasties never had a chance!

So, I now work 4-11 a.m. then drive to the other side of StL for school at 1230 (this gives me about 15 min. of not driving to get gas/food/soda...alone time to gather my thoughts...)and get done there at 630. Home and in bed by 8. Very long days! Until we change our hours, I have Sunday and Monday's off from the bakery and Fri, Sat, and Sun off from school.

Homework is beginning to backup and my friends are being horribly neglected. I have been putting off going to that hell called Wal Mart for like 3 weeks simply because just walking in to that place pisses me off. Maybe I will get the chance to go while everyone is in church today...I gotta go roadtrip for gas today. Mom told me on her way out the door for work this morning that gas is $2.09 by her work. Definately worth driving for it and it looks like it might be a nice day for a drive. Maybe I will take her something to eat for lunch. -Granted, it is only 8 a.m. but I could make her up some chicken salad to go with the croissant that she took to work.

Work is going well. My bosses are super cool and are very accepting that I have no experience in this industry other than cooking for the residents and my schooling. Debbie makes the pastries and Matt and I do the breads. The bakery is an artisnal bakery, which is what I think I would like to have for myself in the future. They both went to SFBI (San Fransisco Baking Institute) and their mentor/teacher has won the coupe de monde something like 3x. (This is a super big deal as the coupe de monde is the best in the world!) Anyways, Matt was asking me the other day when I graduated and that if I put an investment into the bakery (not monetary investment!) that they would pay for me to go to SFBI for one of their courses. Matt said that the first course, Artisan I, would not be anything for me as I am basically his apprentice.

Wanna hear a little about us? Well, as I have stated, we are an artisan bakery. This means that we do everyting by hand. (with the exception of the mixing of the dough) All of our breads start out with a sourdough starter, then we mix and let it rest. After that, we scale it out to portion size by hand and do a pre-shape then let it rest again. After that, we shape all the loaves by hand and after another rest, we bake them in a hearth oven on the stone. I am getting pretty handy with a peal! We make baguettes daily and through out the week, there are several different breads that we make. Matt also roasts all the coffee beans for the bakery and it's his other business. Debbie, the other owner/Matt's wife, makes the pastries. We do this all...fresh...daily! MMMmmm!

School is going ok. Had some issues this semester where we were told to have a talk with the director of the school. Getting my film developed to show my chocolate box showpiece that I made. I ran out of film to take pictures of the underwater chocolate scene showpiece that I made Thursday, but it is still at the school and I am going to get more film today while I am at the horrible place. We start working with sugar next week! I am SO excited! We have to make a showpiece of poured sugar and one of compressed sugar. THIS is what I have been waiting for! Next semester, we are supposed to be doing breads and cakes. That is going to be semester that is going to be challenging. Not necessarily the breads (then again, I have gotten used to doing things at the bakery and they might not be what our chef is expecting) but the cakes. I am not the best at decorating! Oh well, at least I will have my usual competition with John...This time it will be different though! He is not the only one with a job in the industry and now we both work at bakeries. -Both completely different too! He works at a commercial bakery and they have to send loafs of bread to their home office in like Oregon for quality control...I just go "hey Matt...whadda you think?" hehehe This could prove to be great fun!

Hottie Ben that I used to see and he quit calling me because of Amber works at the school now too. He keeps flirting and thinking that he might get somewhere with me. I keep letting him and letting him think that he is, but there is no way in hell that he is getting anywhere with me! Assholio!

Anyways, I need to get gettin off here and heading towards the shower so that I can get all my things done today! I promise I will try to post more often! (Probably at the butt crack of dawn when I wake up! I slept in today until 430 and there was NO ONE to talk to until 6!)

Currently Listening Meteora By Linkin Park Lying From You see related

well, here I am sitting at school in the resource center waiting for class to start. I had to be up at 630 this morning to ride in with the mechanic to get my car. -Apparently the fan went out last Thursday when I got to school. It's better than yesterday, I had to be up at 530 to take mom in to work. It cost $200 to get my car fixed, which isn't too awful bad, because most of the charges were for the towing that had to be done from the school to the shop that my mechanic works at. He got me the best price that he could. Gonna make him some bread tonight when I get home to thank him for the ride and the price break.

I am sitting here listening to Chef Frattini tell a prospective student that he might be able to test out of some of our AGE classes. These classes are bullshit and it pisses me off that I have to take them since I have pretty much taken them in some form or another when I was in school for other things. Like right now, we are in a business presentation class...I had to do this shit in other speech classes before, and now I have to do it again! University level classes that I have previously taken are not able to test out of or not have to take, he's telling this kid that he might not have to take. Grrrr!!!! I'm gonna have to have a little chat with him about this.

I also need to talk to the new admissions guy, as the last admissions person was supposed to be getting me the gifts that the school gives to students for referring people. If you refer someone, you are supposed to get a backpack with the school logo embrodried on it. (If that person makes it past the first phase.) I have referred 2 people that are in their 3rd phase now.

Although...I am not in a bad mood at all! Vinnie sent me the best text to wake up to this morning! He said that he woke up wanting to cuddle this morning. I really hope that he gets to come for the 4th, it would be nice to get to see him by himself. He is such a sweet guy, it's a shame that we never talked before this last time I went to Chicago...and that he lives that far. -For me though, that might be a good thing since I have the commitment/relationship phobia thing.

gonna go and actually start working on my midterm project. I brought a few of my cookbooks from home and looked through more last night for several hours.I have a few ideas, but since my partner has not been here for 2 days, we're cutting it down to the wire. We are supposed to have our ingredient/purchasing list for our 7 items in by tomorrow. Shit! We have not really even worked on it, so this part is going to suck! I can't wiat for the second half of the phase to do plated desserts. I like that part much better. (Although playing with the spun sugar was pretty cool!)

Anyways, outie for now...

This is what we did in school the other day! The tower is pate a choux filled with pastry cream (cream puffs) that is held together with carmelized sugar. There is spun sugar on top but you can't see it 'cause it looks like thread. There are lemon curd tarts that have sliced strawberries on top along with spritz cookies and pecan diamonds. Spritz cookies are like the butter cookies you get in a tin, only we partially dipped ours in chocolate. The pecan diamonds, now those are awesome! They are like pecan pie cut into diamonds and drizzled in chocolate. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!