Haven't been able to make it to the library lately and since I'm too paranoid to use the computers at the Salvation Army I haven't posted much lately. Never fear, your humble narrator has continued with his journey through homelessness and the efforts to reorganize a self-created chaos into some semblance of a "normal life". A normal life of course is entirely subjective. Upon reflection, I sometimes think I actually feel happier these days than I did in the past. And that's when I had money. And a home, and all the ... stuff. I hope this whole experience doesn't turn out to contain the moral lesson that "possessions don't make you happy; YOU make you happy" or somesuch. Hell, if that's the case I could've picked up a Wayne Dyer book and saved myself all the misery.
So where was I ...? Right, I've become a college student once more. Now I'm enrolled at a local college taking an accelerated course in Basic Cooking, and I'm about to begin my second week there. Uniforms, books and all associated materials have been provided. Now all I have to to is ace the final and escape with at least a "C" to get the college credit. Hope that I do folks, because it's your money that's sending me to school. That's right. Your humble narrator is offering you you the chance to see your hard-earned tax dollars at work. So let's all pray that yours truly doesn't (bleep) it up.
My schedule is M-W from 3-9pm, and Ican tell you it's taking a toll on my daily routine. Normally I work in the SA kitchens from 5am-1pm, which was gruesome enough as it was. Add the extra school time and I look and feel as if I'm ready to joining the titular cast of The Walking Dead. Most of my 14 co-workers/students feel the same way. Over the weekend I've been studying the huge textbook they gave us. To be completely honest it's tough to get back into my old studying habits. After all, I can't party half the night and cram like I used to when I was younger.
The class involves lectures in a modern room with hi-def flatscreens and a lab/kitchen where grownups get to play with their food. The15 students are divided into 3 teams of 5 each. You beleive the maneuvering and politicking that went into the choosing of these teams. It was like high school all over again with all the quibbling about who won't work with whom, or so-and-so snitched on me or whatever. I frankly didn't care about which teams I landed on and so never lobbied to be on anyone's team per se. I figured no one would want me anyway because of my lack of restaurant experience.
As it happened I landed on a team with Rain Man (who you might recall is the ex-con/math wiz/iron Chef of the group) and a stocky, tempermental guy named Pitbull (not his real name, but he looks like the namesake I've given him). Pitbull had an accident in the SA kitchens earlier this week where he slashed off half his index finger while cutting lettuce. He's got far more experience that me, so you might understand why I'm nervous when having to display the mad knife skills required by good cooks.
In fact we did have to display some knife skills the second night we were there. Anyone who knows about pro cooking knows that it's all based on a foundation of French cooking. Therefore you have to learn a lot of French terminolgy, n'est-ce pas? So, you have various foodstuffs like tomatoes, potatoes being sliced and diced into cubes or batonnet, or the chiffonade, or whatever. How did I do? Let's just say it wasn't pretty. I felt dazed and confused and way out of myelement. RM and Pitbull fared much better. Frankly, I'm wondering if teaming up with them was actually the best idea. Watching them breeze through the assignments made me feel like I had to play catch up and that got me flustered on a few things.
I'll have to be honest with you here: I really don't enjoy working in a kitchen, and standing for hours in one position while cutting stuff into microscopic pieces doesn't expact get my blood pumping. At best I find it tedious, and that's being kind. So why am I putting myself through this torture? Well, you'll have to tune in for the next segment because the library is closing I have to hie me hence back to the Salvation Army.
That's a wrap!
Update (1.31.12): That was a bit of a fake cliffhanger. The reason I've stuck with the SA cooking program is because it's no money out of my pocket. However, it does take a lot of time out of my day, which I'll get into with the next installment which I'm jumping to forthwith. Be warned, it'll be one of my "creative" posts which doesn't always translate into a good post.
Incidentally, what's the distinctiion between the terms "bomb" and "bomb-ass?" Just curious.
Quote of the Day: "I have to go someplace because I have someplace to go."
No comments:
Post a Comment