July is My New Favorite Month

I love it when the future secures itself. Or God lets you think you were doing something right, even when it was pretty obviously entirely Him. This has been a a fantastic week.
I am making a dollar less an hour, but I've given up a job that gave me little joy for a job that will turn into my internship for school, and I'll get to stay in the area and get paid. Paid internships in Portland are hard to come by. Thanks, God.
I have only 5 more weeks left to use school as an excuse for anything, but I'm still in touch with the cool cats who are my close friends from school, it will lighten my physical 'hours available in my day' schedule, and I'll be done with school. If I can manage to turn in all my paperwork for the internship, I will have a degree, and feel like I've finished something for the first time in five years.
I've let something go that was weighing on me emotionally. I'm not going to exposit that one out here, but it's a good thing for sure.
My parents are getting rid of their travel trailer (I'll never be able to say "I'll be in my trailer" ever again....or something..) but I'm getting some rockin' stuff out of it the next time someone makes a Portland trip. Hello toaster oven, DVD/VCR, bizarre electric griddle, and whatever other wondrous joys should appear from the underbelly of the Crow family RV.
It's summer, and it's beautiful. Say a thank you prayer to an awesome God for an awesome season this week.
Living situations are possibly a new and wonderful adventure for the near future, and I'm ready for the challenge. More about that when I have more information and permission to share it.
I'm going to have to do more laundry, but I won't ever have to wear all-black again. That's pretty much the fashion highlight of my life. On a similar note, since I've lost a ton of weight, I have all sorts of pants that don't fit me anymore. Looks like I get to make another Goodwill run. Ask me about my TYRANNOSAURUS LAMP from the last one.
I'm down to one kitty. There's no but here. It's self-explanatory, and beautiful. I love my Max, and I don't need to be responsible for a second one now. At all. Yay one kitty houses.
Happy Sunday, kids.

Incidentally, does anyone want to go to the Zoo on Thursday?

Pastry school back when I liked it...

Sugar. That's all sugar. Every bit above the cardboard presentation board it's on. Sugar.
It's a piggy! It's pretty much the first thing I've felt really good about the final product for, too. I love it. Other people found this project really difficult, and while I did too, it just seemed to come together for me. My muscles are apparently attuned to the molding, bending and blowing of hot hot hot sugar. This lil' guy is going in the display case downstairs. Hopefully I won't have dropped out of school before then.

Comics and Spoons

Spoons! The first panel is from class. Some guy we sat in front of solidly fell asleep for the better part of our two and a half hour class. At one point, Amy glances casually over her shoulder, then nearly spins off her uncomfortable stool as she whips around to me and whisper shouts "He's got his hands in his pants!"

I was too shocked to say anything funnier than that.

We laughed so hard we cried, because who does that? Who falls asleep in class and finds themselves unconsciously shoving their hands down the front of their elastic banded checked chef pants?

I'm never eating anything anyone else in this class makes. Ever.

Plus apparently later the spoons went on a jungle hike. I don't know, you'll have to ask them. I wasn't invited.

Earlier in the week, when I decided I wasn't going to take any more notes in this class because I think it might cause some kind of boredom induced paralysis, and because watching her pace strains my neck, I started drawing lil' class inspired comics. Some are taken from some insane line in the teacher's lecture. Some are me thinking I'm funny. All are being posted here, like some abandoned and unloved vacation slide show images. Enjoy.

Stop Whining and Clean Your Room, Already

There is laundry that beckons, crying to be bleached and doused and detergent-ed. There is a living room with scattered debris, the remnants of my flurrying week. There is a bedroom floor that is skulking around down there, somewhere, to the best of my knowledge, and is dreaming of the freeing song of the vacuum. There are dishes festering in the sink, and food particles racing to prove the evolutionary process.

I need to clean.

But right now I'm in a Jon Foreman-induced nirvana, because of procrastination. That's right. It finally paid off. I would like to pretend it was some kind of self control. I would like to say that I bought the package deal last year sometime, intentionally avoiding downloading it until all four sections were released so that I could truly enjoy the most Jon Foreman bang-for-my-buck. I was just too lazy to buy some CD's and get the job done, actually. I did get around to downloading it last week (several weeks after the last section's release, and several MONTHS after the first's) but I've owned it since they started releasing tracks. I'm the worst fan ever.

On the upside, I uploaded them all this weekend to my personal "tuning everyone else in the world out, no I don't have a dollar, I can't hear you if you whistle at me, and wow, I ought to be paying attention to the trains when crossing the street" listening device. It's been a good week. Jon walks me to work, rides the MAX with me, even goes running. Sometimes we get lunch in a little cafe, just the two of us. It's been amazing to wade through the music several times, pulling the strings to see what meaning can be found, lyrically and musically. I love these guys.

New class? Hate the lecture soooo much, and being a culinary kid is not too conducive to vegetarianism. I hate this. Now, I'm going to be honest here. Those of you who know me know that I'm not veg for any ethical reasons, really. But everything I learn in culinary school reinforces it for me (we were talking about worms in the flesh of halibut this morning) and I've done a good job about being really consistent for months now (almost 8). Yesterday I ate a cheeseburger. I was craving it, I indulged the urge, and I think that's my prerogative. But with this new class, the teacher is CRAZY UPTIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. Sorry, I hardly ever resort to typing in caps, but some people just merit that level of insane, inane, low-level communication. She's so arbitrarily irritating about everything, in fact, that I'm going to be a real martyr about the vegetarianism this month. She says I don't have to eat anything we make, but I have to at least taste it. I hate spitting things out, I think that's gross. But I didn't sign up for this part of life, and I'm milking my pretentious eccentricities for all they're worth. Ha!

Bite me, veal stock.