Took The Plunge

The biggest thing in my life these past few days is my decision to take the leap. On Friday (Happy Birthday Phillip!), I signed up for a week-long culinary class at CIA @ Greystone (in St. Helena, CA). It was scary. It was exciting. I was sooo freakin' nervous about spending soooo much money w/o being 100% certain that I wanna be a pastry chef... I still can't believe I did it. It is my hope that by taking this class that I'll have a clearer understanding of what it is that I wanna do. This culinary school idea has been floating around for a couple of years now. It is truly time to take action. Enough waiting.

In talking with Sara, the person in charge of my schedule, a few minutes ago, there didn't seem to be a problem with me taking an entire week off of work. I asked about working more hours during the weeks before and after the week I needed off, and she said it'd depend on sales. Not exactly a "yes" or a "no", but that is the way that Safeway is. In fact, Sara didn't exactly say that I'd be getting the entire week off work either, but I'll deal with it when I need to. By no means am I gonna stress and delay in making plans like I did for my trip to AZ with Phillip in October. I need to reserve a room ASAP b/ I know the area will be all booked up soon.

A cool idea I ran across when I opened the internet connection: to paint our roofs white to reflect heat. Good for summer, but what about winter? The basic proposal can be found here.

Other big events of these past few days were Phillip's/Jen's birthdays and my sister's graduation.

I'd post some pictures from KT's graduation(s), but she's got my memory stick for my camera. Saturday was a day-long event. We got up early to attend the school-wide ceremony at 9am. Both KT and my cousin got to stand for their majors. We then went to my uncle's house for a quick lunch and socializing. Phillip got to re-meet some family, and we all enjoyed the homemade chili. Then, everyone but my "San Jose family" and their friends left the party to attend KT's second ceremony of the day. Her department's graduation in which she got to walk the stage and everything was way nicer and more personalized. It was awesome to see, and I wish that the pictures I took there had turned out. (I'm hoping to steal from Anna) Afterwards, we went back to my uncle's house for some cake and more socializing. It was a long, long, long day of ceremonies, but I'm glad that I got to see it all. My sister got her master's degree; she won't be graduating again.

Jen and Phillip's birthday party, hosted by the Heysteks, was held on Memorial Day. It was a lot of fun. We potlucked, and I brought the cake (to see a picture, click on Jen R's link). I think the cake had many flaws (esp since I spent the morning making all the frostings and trying to decorate it), but my friends all praised my work. It was wonderful to hear that my efforts didn't totally suck! :>) Dad actually baked the cake for me the night before while I was at work, and it turned out so yummy. It's a chocolate cake recipe that I'll have to use again. Yea Dad! :>) He was leary, too, as he doesn't bake much... I think that the "Family Feud" game that Louis made was the highlight of the activities. He made the board and downloaded the game's sounds. It was challenging and fun. It felt great to use my brain. After the couple of games we played, it felt like the party was winding down, and I didn't feel too bad for leaving "early" to have dinner with my grandparents. Katie was in town, and we were to meet up with her one last time before she left for Hawaii for her internship. Kate didn't even get a week after graduation to rest! (Her flight leaves tomorrow, and when I talked with her earlier today, she was doing some last minute shopping before she packed her bags tonight.)

Well, that's my life in a nutshell. Talk to y'all soon...