I Can't Believe It!!!

I finished school last Thursday. I got my official grades for the semester today - I got a 4.0! I can't believe after working 3-4 days a week and four classes I still kept my 4.0. Thank goodness for extra credit in my last class because I didn't do as well as I had thought on the final. The best part of the finals? My Baking and Pastry practical! You might recall that I did not so well on my mid-term practical. Well, I got 95-100 on my final. Everything went well, I was a little late getting everything plated, but there was a traffic jam at her table to grade the dishes, so it was alright. She told me and the class that I was the winner. I said what? She said you are the winner on the cinnamon rolls - best in two days! OMG! My partner said, Oh, Ron, she beat you! Then it started. Ron used to work at Cinnabon! So, I guess we'll have a Cinnamon Roll Smack Down some day soon! Anyway, for me, to have the BEST of something, it really made me feel like a million bucks!

I'm in a server uniform right now, getting ready to leave the house and go to an off-premise catering event and train as a server. I'll actually get paid as a server, too, which is better than I get paid right now. I'm learning so much, the servers are wonderful to work with, and they respect the fact I don't have much restaurant experience and still respect me as a manager, and someday their manager. So it's good all the way around.

I start school again on Monday. I decided to take an on-line class as well so I have at least two classes this semester.

I've been sleeping in, which has been wonderful. I signed up for a Yoga 101 class on Sunday. I'll go there after church, then I work an event. I'll probably be home late.

Feelings...I have so many right now. Feelings about one year ago when Dan officially decided he wanted a divorce. I can't believe it's been almost a year - April 30. Feelings about school - excitement. Feelings about work - excitement and trepidation. Feelings about Dan...all over the place. All I know is I miss him and I miss us. It gets a bit easier...but it's taking an extremely long time.

I Should be Studying!!

Oh, my gosh!!! What a wild couple of weeks! It's Wednesday evening - I have two finals tomorrow - a practical in Baking and Pastry, and a written in Baking and Pastry Theory. I hope to do better on the practical than I did at mid-term. One of my friends today said, "I turn into a completely different person during practicals." She's right - I have absolutely no confidence in myself. I just need to relax and what happens, happens. My supply list is done, my timeline is done, my recipes are done, I have my knife kit packed, all I have to do is relax and go with the flow. On Monday I had my final in Purchase and Product ID. I only missed seven questions out of 178 and ended up with a 96.6% in the class, so that's an A for the semester. I really screwed up a quiz and did just OK on the mid-term, but yeah!!! Then today I had the written part for Baking and Pastry - tomorrow I do the practical. This afternoon my Effective Speaking final was an eight minute speech about a progress report. I was the ONLY one within the 8 minute mark - 8 minutes, 8 seconds! We could be 15 seconds under or over before it started effecting the grade. All those practice runs I went through paid off. But then, all that time I spent on it. I saw a young girl in the library this afternoon just writing it a half hour before class!! She went way over the time because there's no way she had time to practice it, too! I'm such a nerd. LOL! So, three finals down, two to go. I've been working like crazy and am so looking forward to no school next week. I was supposed to go to Florida to visit with Ramzi's Mom, but I can't take a vacation from work until I've been there a year :-( So, I hope to only have to work a few days next week and visit with Jason and Brittany, CLEAN this apartment, and catch up on bills, etc. I really am looking forward to only one class next semester, along with working full-time. With all the homework I'm NOT going to have to do, I'll maybe be able to start running or just get to the gym. Who knows what's going to happen in the next couple of months...I'm excited to see...

CRAZY!

I can't even express how crazy things have been since my first day of work/training on Valentine's Day. Today is Tuesday, March 6 and I think I've had two days off, which means no school or work, but still worked all day on homework. The homework this semester is killing me. I seriously did not imagine I'd have this much homework with four classes. Now that I'm working 3-4 days a week...

The training for my new position has been going pretty well. I've helped out on banquet events at Temple Israel, Jewish Community Center(the biggest temple in the US I believe),
and Coach Insignia (the restaurant at the top of the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit (used to rotate, not anymore, but the view is breathtaking and the restaurant is soooo fancy!) I will help out on an event this weekend at another location. I'm in awe of the staff working the events - I could never do what they do and I have such respect for each one of them. I will depend on them to keep my on track and refer to their knowledge and experience. I get along great with them all and I'm so happy about that.

Just got the green light from Matt Prentice that my location - Morels - will officially open on  April 11th with a charity event for 200 people. This will be a restaurant event, not catering event, but all hands will certainly be on deck. I'm so excited and nervous. The management crew and our staff will be working like crazy the next few weeks to get the restaurant in order. Unpacking equipment, dishes, linens, etc..., training to get everything perfect for opening night. We have two events the two evenings before as a warm-up. I already have three events I need to meet with clients for and it's not even opened yet!

Now, OK, last Saturday...well last weekend really. We had two big events at Coach Insignia, so I was asked to work both of them. The event on Friday was for 60 people and it was a banquet event. So it was great to see it from beginning to end and how if should flow. It went smoothly, but guests really don't know what happens behind the swinging kitchen doors!!! Then Saturday was a "buyout" where the event was the only thing going on that evening in the restaurant. It was a University of Detroit Mercy Law School event. 300+ guests and it was crazy! The guests had no idea what was happening in the kitchen. The salad course was crazy but we pulled it off. The dinner course went very smoothly, as did the dessert course. They were young kids so they drank all evening and probably wouldn't have noticed anything wrong anyway LOL! AND....you know what I did? I was trying to help, started to pull a tray of 10 already plated desserts off a rack to transport over to the other kitchen, the trays were not made for that rack and had to be put on the rack cocked a bit...and you guessed it, I tried to straighten it out so it would slide out easier...and...yep the tray went crashing to the floor! I didn't even have time to see my life flashing before me it was that quick, crash!! I felt like a little kid and I was so embarrassed. I can't believe it, I didn't cry. I wanted to find an open window and jump 72 stories...but everyone came running and I was so embarrassed. The chef was super nice, said don't worry about it, the staff kidded with me a bit and said, OK, she's not allowed to carry anything! I told the chef I wanted to help clean it up and we did (by the way, the restaurant manager was not so nice about it - he was pissed), then I said I wanted to please help put 10 more together. So he let me help him put 10 more together. He had a million things to do at that moment, but wow, he took the time for me to help me feel better. THAT'S the kind of person who makes working in a stressful situation so much better. And the restaurant business is nothing but stress as I'm finding out. So, the rest of the night I felt a little off and a lot in the way. It's like a well-oiled machine and everyone has their role. So, I worked from 3:30 to 10:30 and asked the banquet captain if I could go, even though the assistant manager said no one goes until everything is done, then everyone goes at the same time. I had worked the previous day from 11:00 am-10:30 pm, talked to Jason for about 1/2 hour in the parking lot before I got on the road, got home, started to do some homework and finally went to bed about 12:30 and got up at 5:00 to start homework again, so by Saturday night I was exhausted and emotional. I did cry on the way home Saturday. I then got up early Sunday and started homework and worked the entire day. It's getting to the end at school, and besides all the usual homework I had a paper and two Power Points to write. I have FIVE finals coming up in two weeks and things are starting to move at the restaurant. I can only hope God helps me through these next two weeks. So far I have an A in three classes and an A- in the other class. I hope I can keep it up.  Then I have an entire week off school, then when I start back, I have only one class. It meets twice a week - Wednesday and Thursday from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm so that will be much better. I can answer voice mails on the way to work. Then the following semester I've got to take at least 3 classes or I'll never graduate in this decade! I keep asking myself why did I get this fantastic opportunity at the worst possible time? I want the job and I want to go to school and I want to have a life - I want it all.