Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Potentially One of the Worst Days Possible....And Yet I Lived

I think my Skype yesterday with Boober says it all: 

Me: OMG!!! You will never *%&#ing believe my *%&#ing day!!!!
Boober: what happened??
Boober: good or bad?
Me: (angry) <------------ this represents a little face character that they have on Skype
Boober: ugh
Boober: is that why you didn't want to talk to me ALL DAY? :(
Me: 1. Forgot to charge phone last night and left it plugged in at home.
Boober: gah!
Me: 2. Got up early to shower and take mom to Bart so I could go straight to my interview in Oakland.
Me: 3. Realized I didn't have my phone after I was getting on the bridge and had no directions for how to get to the place and no GPS.
Me: 4. Pull off the freeway cuz I see a FedEx/Kinkos sign and think I can use the computer to look up the directions.
Me: 5. Before I can get to the store, my car stalls in the middle of a *%&#ing railroad track!!
Me: no way
Me: 6. After I get the car started and move past the tracks, the train comes 1 minute later.
Me: 7. I hear a sound that sounds like a Harley chopper and it will not stop, although I see no motorbike around.
Me: 8. I press the excellerator and the car won't move faster than fucking 5 mph!
Me: 9. I realize the car is making the damn noise!!
Me: 10. I get to the FedEx/Kinkos and their fucking computers won't work.
Me: 11. I get directions to a nearby autoshop, approximately 7 minutes away.
Me: 12. I drive noisily down the road at 10 mph max and cannot find the damn place where they say it is.
Me: 13. I finally find the only auto shop I can find and the asshole wants to charge me $65 just to look at it and tell me what's wrong with it.
Me: 14. I decide that's fucked so I drive, between 10 and 20 mph, all the *%&#ing way back to the city, across the bridge and everything, to MY autoshop.
Me: 15. They do the diagnostic and tell me it's an exhaust leak and my muffler's so *%&#ed up they can't fix it and I need to go to a specialist.
Me: 16. Again driving 10 mph on hilly streets over by Van Ness, I drive to another autoshop and finally get someone to tell me they can fix it.
Me: 17. But the part won't come until tomorrow and it will cost $225.
Boober: jeezus
Me: 18. So I take a *%&#ing bus to school.
*%&#ing: 19. And home.
Boober: :(
Me: 20. I also had a final exam today.
Me: And somehow I'm not nearly as upset as I should be....
Me: Let's laugh it off!!
Me: (rofl)
Me: I think I'm going loony.
ME: :P

Sunday, September 18, 2011

DIY wedding cake

Had a fiasco last weekend doing a first trial on my wedding cake. I was going to do it from scratch but since I'm also doing 4 other flavors of cupcakes, and the kitchen I have to work in so soooo small (as are all kitchens in San Francisco) I decided to try a box. I've never done a fully iced and decorated cake using a box mix.

First I tried Betty Crocker Super Moist White Cake.... it fell apart when I tried to ice it. I even tried keeping it in the freezer for a couple of hours. It was just too moist and fluffy.

I then went out and bought Dunken Hines White Cake, which was definitely better. But after a very crumbly crumb coat, and keeping it in the freezer for a couple hours, icing it still was a bit tough as it was still kind of fluffy. Then when I put the fondant on, it didn't stick very well to the Whipped Icing from a can and I ended up with large bubbles. I'm thinking the later results from not having a fondant smoother.

I am next going to check out a tip from a friend in baking class regarding the cake. She says they add shortening to their cake recipes to make them a bit more solid and they still taste okay. I will let you know how it goes. I also got some tylose powder to whip up a batch of royal icing to help the fondant stick better.

Unfortunately, I only have one more chance to get it right. But, as I reminded my mother, a Power Rangers cake from Safeway will be just as memorable. :)



Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Mind Rantings

Last night I couldn't sleep again until about 3am. That's the 4th time in the past week. And it's not like I can sleep in either. My brain won't stop ticking and neither can my mind stop racing.There are too many changes happening in my life. It's like being on a roller coaster, without all the drops.

A couple months ago I had a complete breakdown when my knife bag was stolen while at school. I hated school. I hated the class I was in and the people I was in it with. My trust in the world was completely lost and I felt like I'd truly hit bottom. The great thing about that is, as long as you can scrape yourself off the canyon floor, there's only up from there. And it really feels like I've been moving up ever since.

I've found an instructor that has really helped me see how far I've come and the potential I have. I can do a lot with what I've learned and that is truly exciting. I've won 4 competitions in school, the most recent one being 1st place in a Food Business Plan competition where I had to come up with a real business that I wanted to entrepreneur (used in the vernacular). Somehow that boosted my self-confidence and desire to really take on all the things I want to do in life. I finish school in 2 weeks and the world is my tomato sauce.


I know that none of this is particularly relevent to anyone but myself. And I also know that most of the blogs I've seen cover important subjects such as DIY weddings and how to frost a cake...but this is just what I feel like writing.



There are also a lot of scary things, such as how to afford kids, how to buy a house or have money for healthcar and all that. And for some reason, I just feel that it's all going to work out. We just have to work together, right?




Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Glee-diction

I have an addition to Glee. Not just the show, but the concept. 

I think the fact is that we'd all like an endless supply of back tracks, musicians and back-up singers to help us break into song whenever we need to express some deep-felt emotions.

I've tried singing through my own frustrations but all I get is funny looks in the halls.




An update on life....

I can't even believe how long it's been since I've blogged. And so much has happened! I had completely forgotten that my blog link was still attached to my email account, when someone I sent an email to commented that they liked my blog. Oops.

I was highly considering deleting this blog, but looking over it I think it deserves another chance. So much really has happened in the past year I feel like I'm a completely different person. Even just on a personal level, I think this blog can help me with my perspective on life.

Okay, here's the update:

I am about 2 weeks out from completing my last class on the school campus. I have 2 more classes that require an externship (meaning I work somewhere outside of the school for 12 weeks and get a good review). The externship I applied for several months ago and got chosen to do is in Walt Disney World. It's supposedly a tough one, but to me it is so exciting. I will have housing and transport and everything provided for me. I just have to cook and probably smile a lot. Super! I have always been a bit of a Disney "tramp," growing up in Los Angeles and spending as many birthdays as possible at the happiest place on earth. I couldn't think of a better place to help me get my degree as a chef.

I'm 3 weeks out from getting married! OMG! Boober (undercover name for the love of my life) is an amazing, kind, gentle and caring man. We have different taste in music, movies, food , clothes, and you name it. And yet we somehow bond on the most random things. He is an extreme cat lover and we've already taken in 2 stray kittens during the last 6-8 months. We both desparately want kids but also have personal goals we are looking to settle first. Life is very exciting and the wedding - a DIY masterpiece - is going to be spectacular. I promise I will blog again and go into great detail.

For now let me say, it's good to be back!