Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Dear Diary

May 23rd, 2013
Dear Diary,
I graduated from the best culinary school in the country! It was pretty exciting and a whirlwind all at the same time. I left some really good friends behind but many I will see again soon. It's funny to think that some of those people I met in Culinary school will be on the news here and there. I wonder who will be the runner up on Chopped in a couple of years, bragging about how great they were in culinary school. It was nice that my family visited me for graduation. My siblings had never visited the campus and I think they really enjoyed it. I got to speak with one of my favorite teachers- Chef Clark. He was my fish fabrication instructor and gave me some words of wisdom before graduation. We marched in with our toques standing high and smiles plastered on our faces, all a little nervous I think. We watched as the Pastry students from our class were recognized. One of my best friends Corey (who I went on externship with) was our class speaker and shared an insider look on some of the struggles we face every day in Culinary school. Alex Lee was our guest speaker. He is what they call a chef's chef. He had been around the world and was the opening chef of restaurant Daniel in the heart of NYC in 1992. Then came the awards. No one was aware of the recipients of the awards until the names were called. Christopher received the management award, which recognized him for working for the highest grade in the management classes that we took while at the CIA. I was very proud of him. As our names were called we walked across the stage and removed our toques to shake hands with the president and bow our heads so our alumni medal could be hung around our necks. It was a superb ceremony but the reception that followed left a lot to be desired. We packed the remaining luggage left in our rooms and I headed home.
Chef Clarks' wise words

Christopher and I 

Corey, Chris, and I

Casey, Brenton, and I (the three of us have been cooking
together since day one in skills)

My first friend Valerie :)






























































May 30th, 2013
Dearest Diary,
Today Chris and I made a trip up to Rochester to sign the lease on our apartment. We drove through the up and coming neighborhood of Park Avenue. The streets were walled with numerous bistros and cafes. It seemed to be a part of town that we would venture to often. We sat at the big oak table and gave away our signatures in exchange for one key. A key to the next chapter. Excitement swept over us. We then made our north to a doctor's office so that Chris could take his drug test for Wegman's. As you can imagine he had to wait forever to see a doctor. I hate waiting. He came out of the room with three chunks of hair out of his head. Neither of us were aware that was a form of drug test- at Roaring Gap we just had to put a cotton swab in our mouth for a couple of minutes. As soon as he was dismissed from the office, we shot over to Next Door Bar and Grill for lunch in hopes we would reach the front door before it closed. We made it with four minutes to spare. After sushi and a bowl of homemade pasta, I was stuffed. Chris had shared the sushi with me and was now gorging on a unique style bahn mi sandwich. I wasn't even thinking of dessert when the Chef came out to our table and welcomed Chris to their team. He ordered us dessert and we stuffed ourselves to the gullets. It was satisfying. Then we headed over to our new home to drop off a car load of bins. This was the second time ever we had been in the apartment, and we loved it just as much and more. I found closets I had not seen the first time and it brought thrill into my eyes. As we took the road home, we noted that this was our new trip from our home to my family's home.
Nutella Creme Brulee

The kitchen view from the dining room
The richest chocolate cake ever

June 1st, 2013
Dear Diary,
I am exhausted.

June 3rd 2013
Dear Diary,
Today is my twenty first birthday. Wow, I'm getting old. I woke up to a sweet aroma wafting through the air. Chris had crept around to make me a wonderful birthday breakfast. I felt like a princess with the spread that he laid out on the table. After sharing a delicious perfectly presented breakfast, I dressed for the day and we rode off to the DMV. It was time to make Chris an official New York resident. After signing a few papers, and handing some money over to the state, Chris walked away with a temporary license and two license plates for his car. That was a check off of our list. Now we only needed to get his car inspected. Did you know that only 18/50 states require a annual vehicle inspection- Michigan is not one of them. Since we were downtown we scooted over to Dinosaur BBQ, a infamous place known for, well their BBQ. Chris encouraged me to celebrate and so I ordered my first cocktail. It was nothing to write home about but it was the fact that I handed over my ID and that I was officially legal. The food was filling and we both went home in a food coma. I took a short nap n the couch only to wake up to Christopher with flowers in his hands. What a sweetheart. We journeyed to my parents house for a family gathering my father put together. It was very warming to be home after only two days and to be enveloped by family that loved and wanted to celebrate me. We mingled, ate steak and hamburgers (there were hot dogs, but if there is one thing I hate it's hotdogs), blew out candles, and I opened presents- all gifts that would fit nicely in our new home. After the fun was over and the last guest shuffled down the driveway, I sat with my parents and we talked a little about my new home. I failed to mention earlier that when I arrived and checked out my old room, my sister had already put a lot of effort into moving all of her belongings into it. My mom packed me a cooler with some champagne and food that we could freeze and we were on our way. When we arrived home we were beat and ready to recharge.
My Cousin Sarah helping me blow out the candles

My family on my birthday




Breakfast






























June 5th, 2013
Dear Diary,
So today we decided to get to know the area a little bit better. We visited the information center and came away with a whole bag of assorted maps, flyers, and coupons. We drove around a bit in order to familiarize ourselves with the area. I picked it up rather quickly, Chris on the other hand, did not. He exasperated a couple of sighs and defended himself with the fact that his head is too full of other directional information. Yada-yada, is what I have to say to that. We then stopped at the VOA (equivalent of the salvation army) just to look around. To our delight we were able to cross one piece off of our list; we found a great desk. We took a look at the oak woodwork and the insides of the drawers. Christopher pointed out that it was from the Bassett furniture company, which was quite ironic because the Bassett's were among the members whom we served last summer while at Roaring Gap Country club- it's a small world.  After discussing a couple of reasons we absolutely needed a desk, just to confirm our purchase, the sales manager came up to us and offered a discount. We were sold. We took it home and were proud to make space in our sun room turned study. Everything is starting to fall right into place.
Delightful Discount Desk

June 7th, 2013
Dear Diary,
Last night we got two parking tickets. Just as we thought we were beginning to adjust to everything, it slipped our minds to move from one side of the street to the other. Now I can make excuses all day, but we were in the middle of dinner and our landlord was doing construction on our bathroom and we just lost track of time. Chris was in the middle of saying, "Isn't it wonderful that this is our life.." When we heard a beep outside and I suddenly sat up plank straight. "WE DIDN"T MOVE THE CARS" Now it had been raining all day, and I peeked through the blinds and spotted something waving from the windshield. Chris said "Stop playing around Tricia, we didn't get a ticket." Well sure enough we did, and not five minutes before. The anger set in on Chris first, which is unusual, and I reasoned with him that we wouldn't make that mistake again and we would figure something out. We emptied the piggy bank, counting each penny, and came up about twenty dollars short. Feeling a tad discouraged, we trekked down to the parking violation center and took a number. We would wait for about an hour to discuss our situation with the judge. There were many people there with every story in the book as to how they would dispute their parking ticket. It was interesting to see all of the different residents of the city, sitting and speaking about their work. One citizen entered the department warning people of the time left on their parking meters, and another offered some change from the vending machine to fill the meter.  At one point Chris had to run out to the car and move it so that we would not be charged with another ticket. We went in to the hearing room together, as we had the exact same explanation, and we explained to the judge that we were new to the area. He gave us a warning and reduced each ticket from forty five dollars down to fifteen. We were very grateful. Because we had saved money, we figured it would be alright to continue collecting household needs on our list. We went in search of a butter dish and coasters. You wouldn't think that such things would be difficult to find, but to us they had to be perfect. Long into our search we found some wonderful stone coasters, and the cutest butter dish I have ever seen. That's all for now, until our next adventure.
Change Count

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