Wall-paper paste and shrimp scampi

Hello blogging world! Its been a long time since I blogged, mainly because I completely forgot and partly because I haven't had much Internet access lately. So, I will sum up my first few weeks of classes and life in the last few months.

After the main WYOBA camps came to an end I went back to Buffalo, in hopes of finding work and a place to live in Sheridan, where I am going to school. Talk about challenging! I turned in several applications and heard back from one! I interviewed and turned the job down because the hours would have interfered with my school schedule, and I had a bad vibe from the interview. Needless to say I called Super 8 and was put back on the schedule there, this week is the last week I am working there tho so the job search is on again!

Looking for a place to live was just as challenging, since its my sister and I we needed a 2 bedroom place that was affordable for us. After much searching, and plenty of gas, we finally found a place! We've been moved in for about 2 weeks now and its starting to feel like a home. My favorite part about this place is the hardwood floors, although they are pretty, they are also v. cold!

School is much more challenging than I anticipated and sometimes I feel like a complete idiot! Take last night's class for example; we had to make shallow poached chicken, deep poached salmon, mashed potatoes (who knew there was a right way and a wrong way to mash potatoes!), steamed broccoli, and spaghetti squash compote. I chose to plate the chicken, which meant that I had to make an extra sauce for it. I used a little too much roux (butter and flour cooked together to be used a a thickener) and my sauce was rather thick....ok it was more like wall paper paste, as Chef demonstrated by turning the pan upside down for a few minutes and it didn't even change shape! Luckily, it is an easily remedied mistake and my partner and I were commended for being only ones who plated the chicken instead of the salmon.

We have 3 instructors in the program, Monty, who teaches all the hospitality and management related classes, Chef RJ who teaches the morning sections, and Chef Tim who teaches the evening sections of the culinary classes. Currently I only have had class with RJ once, and that was a 4 day long sanitation class. Chef Tim is v. knowledgeable and sometimes intimidating, imagine the short French Chef from Ratatouille, add a mouth like a sailor and you've got the right idea.

The school caters different functions in both Sheridan and Johnson County, I have worked on the catering trolley once and this last weekend 20 of us catered a function in Buffalo for the Girl's and Boy's Club of the Big Horns. I worked the sushi station and the shrimp scampi station. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work. I am so thankful that we get to do these kinds of functions because it gives us the opportunity to gain experience as chefs and in a public setting. Soon, I will be gaining more experience serving in the restaurant.

Be the Change: 100 Things - My list

Be the Change: 100 Things - My list

Dianna,

I think you can cross off #100. You have changed my life just by being my friend and summer roomie. Your blogs remind me to be a smarter consumer and Christian. And finally you are just amazingly gifted and loving!

Done.

Check.

I am better because of you.

Dream Log 5/29

Just woke up from a dream that I did not want to end. It started off a little strange but ended great!

We begin in a town similar to Sioux Falls, I think I was visiting friends. I was driving to meet someone somewhere and missed a turn so I decided to just keep going down the road I was currently on. I started speeding, and finally got to the end of the road, it was a big store like Wal Mart, but wasn't a WM. While wandering around the store I entered another building and suddenly was at my wedding.

The place was small and had windows looking out to the mountains. The guests were making their way in and at one point there were tables all over and each table and a mini cake on it that the guests were to share. Someone was angry that all they got was a tiny piece of cake and I pointed out that there was still a larger cake up front.

I was being a bit of a bridezilla throughout the rest of the dream, but it was over things that were legit. There were about 5 mom's with their small children sitting right up front, and the children were being so noisy that when the wedding started I knew that they would drown out any other sound on the video. So I asked that they move to the back.

I had 2 bridesmaids and one other girl was there in this weird flowing white gown thing that kinda looked like a satin sheet toga. She was supposed to be the flower girl or something, but I didn't really want her there because she kept trying to be the center of attention. My sister was one of the bridesmaids but the other was a girl I have never met, but it felt like we were the best of friends.

Finally it was time for the ceremony to start but things were still a little chaotic, guests were still arriving and as the groomsmen started walking out I was still in the main room. I was pissed at the number of people who were late and mad that we were starting without them.

Once everyone got to the proper places we were actually ready to start. Did I mention that in the dream I still hadn't figured out who the groom was? Well the groomsmen and groom got to their places and while the bridesmaids made their way down the isle, I was sneaking peaks at the groom...let me say that me dreaming didn't know who it was, but the me as a bride did.

He ended up being someone I had a HUGE thing for back in high school! Needless to say it was a good dream even though I woke up right after I figured out who the groom was.

Spring Cleaning

Well spring has finally arrive in Buffalo WY and with it comes that overwhelming task of spring cleaning. I find myself in need of a good cleaning in several different aspects of my life. The first is the physical, over the past year or so I have really let my space (being my tiny little room at home) get overly cluttered and just plain messy. I’ve always been a "throw it on the desk now and deal with it later" kind of person and that is why my room gets the way it does. However this year has been a little different, between poor health and a very hectic schedule I had very little downtime and when I did get it I generally just wanted to veg. But that is no excuse for only taking out the trash when its overflowing or letting the space under my bed become my filing cabinet.

So, in the next few weeks I will be pulling EVERYTHING (minus the bed and other large furniture) out of my room and going through it all. Its time to get rid of the stuff that clutters up my spaces. My rules for keeping things: sentimental value must be a 7 or above. If I don’t use it it goes. If I haven’t worn it in the last 6 months it goes. So…be on the look out for photos of my decluttering process! This will also make my move in August go more smoothly as I will have already gone through everything and will have boxed much of it up.

Second, I need to do some cleaning in my social life, and this may sound a little strange but it means that I will be going through my Facebook friends and removing connections to people that I either don’t talk to or people that may not be good influences on my life….don’t worry there aren’t very many of them and if you read my blog you probably won’t be one of the removed connections. Its just something I feel I need to do.

Thirdly, and most importantly I need to do some spiritual spring cleaning. This is the part that will be the hardest and will take the longest because I have a lot of skeletons in my closets…Things that I need to talk to God about and actually hand over to Him. I've always had trouble handing things to Him and completely surrendering my life to Him. I just like to be in control, or at least I like to think that I am in control.

I’ve been in a spiritual dessert lately, my home church is no longer a place where I feel I can grow as a Believer. I find that I have been turned off by many “Christians” and all their “Christian” things. I am a firm believer in God and I want to persue my relationship with Him, but I feel that the “Christian” community has become so bogged down with doctrines and poltics and other childish behavior that none of what they teach seems real to me. I want to find a body of believers who want to a. worship God, b. encourage and uplift one another, c. be real with one another and d. spread the Gospel in a real way not the candy coated “Christian” way.

As I search for a new body of believers to plug into I will be doing some serious soul searching and praying. Weeding out the things that get in the way of my relationship with Christ. I know that He has a plan and that He is going to do some amazing things in my life, and in order for those things to come to fruition my heart needs some serious cleaning.

Spring has always been a time of renewal for me. The rain falls and nourishes the plants which then grow and produce beautiful flowers and green stuff. Baby animals are running around in that cute baby way signifying a new-ness and a clean slate. And we start wearing our summer clothes and shoes. Everything seems so fresh and new. For me, Spring is New Years and that's when I make my resolutions. This year I want to clean out my life and then continue to keep it clean.

Let the cleaning begin!!!!

Dream log 3/31/10

Its funny how our dreams take events and thoughts from our day and stores them while we sleep. Last night I had one of the strangest dreams I have had in a long time (personally I blame the Zoloft).

It began with me and a group of my college friends going on a trip to NYC. I remember walking around in some of the neighborhoods and talking about the things we would do and see. Then all of the sudden we were getting off a plane in London, still talking about NYC. We were then put on some very futuristic looking buses that were going to take us to our train-themed motel. As we drove around my friend Haley would randomly squeel as she recognized buildings and such (some of them were London buildings and some were NYC buildings). I also remember seeing a building from one of my dreams a few months ago, it was a cool second hand kind of store that sold retro/indie stuff.

When we finally arrived on the outskirts of town (whether London or NYC I couldn't tell), and pulled into our motel it turned out to be a sort of summer camp/monastary/Catholic girl's school. As we piled out of the buses a nun rushed out and asked us to wait quietly while a class was finishing in the main hall.

While i waited I checked my phone and was listening to music, after a bit i realized everyone was gone so I started to roam around looking for where our rooms were. I then found Haley sitting in a very large gazebo at the back of the property, so I joined her there and we noticed that our place was next to an all boys summer camp, with some very nice looking counselors!

The gazebo began to fill up with said counselors and other Brits. There were two of the couselors that were clearly interested in Haley and I; they were talking in such thick accents we couldn't understand them. But they were funny and we laughed and joke with them for a while. One of the teachers from the girls school came over and asked us to be wary of the (get this) white chedder spiders that were currently infesting the grounds. In about 2 seconds everyone had cleared out of the gazebo and Haley and i made our way to the dorms.

Between the gazebo and the dorms was a large wooden staircase that led up to a sort of walkway in the trees. we decided it would be faster to climb the stairs and make our way to the dorms that way but halfway up someone started comeing down and told us that the stairs were too rickety to cross. So we ran accross the yard instead.

In the dorm we found an empty fold out couch to sleep on and one of the nuns warned us to keep ourselves wrapped up tight in the covers to keep from being bitten by the white chedder spiders. These spiders were about as big as a wolf spider but had spikey legs. The bodies and six legs were orange and brown but two of their legs were the color of white chedder. They were crawling all over the place making me squirm with fear.

After this my dream started to fade and I woke up thinking "What in the world?!"

Dream Log

3.18.2010

The dream began in a downtown area of a town similar to the one I live in; shops and cafes all lined up down a zig-zagging street. I'm not sure how it started but I do remember that I ended up in an antique shop concerned about a blue coat and black gloves. I think I was some sort of CSI b/c I was looking over everything and there were several others interviewing the store owner and neighboring stores. One neighbor in particular was very disturbed about something getting into his place and swimming in the vats (not sure what was in these vats but he was pretty angry and old).

I remember talking with several of the other CSI's and again the coat was a huge concern.

We must have solved the case because we all decided to go out for drinks. Well, we were the night crew so it was about 5am, and yet there was a bar still open so we went there. While there me and another female CSI got into some weird verbal contest with another patron at the bar. I eventually got bored with this and decided to go sit at an empty table by myself.

On my way home the grouchy old man from the store with the vats was following me and was really angry that we didn't do anything about the people swimming in his vats. I was kinda scared of him and went down this creepy ally lined with what turned out to be dorm rooms. As I was walking down the ally-turned-hallway I remember thinking to myself, "I give up on dating. So unless I see a light at the end of this tunnel I'll never date again." About 5 doors down there were lights on in two of the rooms on the right and as I walked past the first I glanced at the door and saw a man staring at me, so I went in.

He had 3 roommates, a cat and a small bull dog. He offered to buy me Pizza Hut and I agreed. His mother showed up before we left and she was all excited to meet me. Instead of going to Pizza Hut he took me to this weird cafeteria place where all the food was frozen. I was disappointed because I couldn't eat any of it and while he was filling his plate I kept thinking, "I should have gone to the second door."

Weird!

Dreaming of you

I've been sitting here for ages thinking about what I could possibly say to make all these feelings known. Your presence in my thoughts is so constant that even when I don't think I am thinking about you, you're there; the wind in the trees, a whisper in the dark, its all you.

We haven't talked since that day; did you forget the things you said? When we walked together I was full of life. When you held my hand it felt like you wanted the same things I did. Have you forgotten the way you looked at me?

We live far away and rarely see each other, but no matter who I meet or what I do, there's no one like you. You are my ideal, you were there before I learned what dreaming was, you are my dream. A small piece of light in darkness that keeps me from giving up.

For years I've tried to tell myself that I am over you, for years I've believed that lie. No matter what you'll always be my first love. No matter what you'll hold a place in my heart, my dreams and my soul. I can't let go of you.

Now, you're with another. Now, I can't even hope for something more. Now, I am alone. I will always have that night, that walk and that look, but I'll never have you. I won't let go of that dream.

Maybe one day I'll get over you. Perhaps someone better will come along, but for now, tonight, I'll settle for dreams. I'll walk alone and remember the times we had.