So. I just filed all my paperwork for my diploma. I'll be handing in my notice at work in a few days. The bakery has been pretty much unbearable for the last few months. I'll be relieved to find a new job somewhere where the expectations are at least somewhat based on the reality of what one full timer, one part timer, and one person who's been there less than a week (and has been tasked with spending all her working hours doing test batches of new items) can actually produce while handling nearly all of the pastries for a bakery that operates 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. So I'm giving myself a month off before graduation to finish this class, find a new job in a new city, a new apartment, and get ready to move.
A friend of mine from college is opening a bakery in June and offered me a job. It could be a great opportunity and I know we work well together and could transition our relationship to boss/employee just fine. I'm worried that it's just outside Dallas though. If I'm going to stay in Texas I'd much prefer to be close to my sister. And personally, I'd rather be in a city. I'm a city person. So I'm looking in Austin and San Antonio. But this job offer is kind of throwing me for a loop. I need to talk to my friend about it more.
Basically my entire life is up in the air right now which is exciting but also frightening and I really don't want to mess it up or undersell myself. I don't want to miss out on doing something great or getting something great for myself because I'm afraid of messing it up or not being good enough. I've been down that road before and boy does it suck.
Anyway, that is the news here.
- Current Location:Humid Foggy Death City
- Current Mood:intimidated
- Current Music:Dearly Departed by Shakey Graves ft. Esme Patterson
So the other week I got some really exciting news that is now official. My sister and her husband are moving to Austin next year!
My sister took a new job with her company that has her working the southwestern region of the US building relationships with area colleges and working with students and study abroad offices to promote her company's study abroad programs. She'll be living in Austin and working from home most of the year, but traveling a lot around the start of semesters-- including to Dallas (where she can visit with me!) and Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arizona.
She'll be moving down some time next spring, probably, and her husband will be joining her once their lease is up in Virginia and he graduates in May.
This means my sister is going to be three hours away by car/bus! And bus tickets are only $25. Do you realize how much cheaper and less time consuming that is than flying from Dallas to DC? SO MUCH.
So I am really excited. I miss my sister like crazy and love her to bits, and her husband is a great guy, too. The move would also bring them closer to some of his family, so that's pretty great (his oldest sister, who's really nice, lives in the Austin area).
My sister is excited because it means that:
1. She won't have to deal with the parents of students as much as she does now (if you've worked in education/administration and had to deal with the parents a lot you know why this is a bonus -- now imagine you were shipping their precious 17-24 year olds off to China for a couple of months. That's my sister's actual job).
2. She gets to work from home so her commute will cost nothing and take her no time. She lives outside of DC right now and uses METRO to get to work--- it's expensive and crowded and takes forever and has ridiculous numbers of delays and other issues (I'm really not a fan of DC's public transit system and I only have to use it when I visit).
3. Even though her salary isn't getting much of a bump, her cost of living is going to cut almost in half from what it is now in the DC area (even though Austin has the highest COL in TX, as I understand it). She'll be able to pay off her loans completely, ad she and her husband will be able to save more and travel more, and going to grad school for any of the art/textiles/museum studies programs she's been looking into would be more attainable after a few years working there than it would be if she kept on where she is.
So yeah. I can't believe we're both going to be living in Texas. If you'd told me that four years ago I would have laughed in your face. Life is weird. I'm just glad my sister isn't going to be half the country away from me anymore. Woohoo.
Really the only downside to this is that it might make the decision to move to Portland, ME after I graduate more difficult. Having my sister in Austin would definitely be incentive to go there instead (and it would certainly be a much less difficult move) but I miss New England a lot and my Mom would certainly not be happy about both of us sticking around so far away from her.
Oh well. No point in worrying over it now, in any case. I'll figure it out when the time comes.
I just wish they were coming out here sooner. Spring is too far away!
- Current Location:Texas
- Current Mood:excited
- Current Music:"Child" - Natalie Holmes
So I'm still going to school and am working at Michael's (which is great and I can walk to work-- although, granted that would be more awesome if it weren't over 100 degrees out every day).
Class is going well except there's a lot of drama with my current group. So much drama. We work in groups in class for the "labs" which is normally good and helpful and all of that but not so much when my group members are acting like insolent children despite the fact that both of them are older than me. I'm literally in the middle of the thing where they're like "tell ___ ...." and the other one is like "tell_____ ..." and neither of them will talk to each other. Yeah. I might be a poor excuse for an adult in a lot of ways but at least I know how to suck it up and work with someone I don't get along with.
In any case, we're doing very cool things. We just made an orange coconut mousse cake with jaconde sponge and it is so pretty and awesome I can't even handle it. The day before we made a triple chocolate bavarois which is made up of layers of chocolate cake, white chocolate bavarian cream (like a mousse but more sturdy and less airy), milk chocolate bavarian cream, dark chocolate bavarian cream, another layer of chocolate cake, and a sacher glaze on top. It was lovely as well, and delicious. We're going to be doing French Macarons and Petit Fours in the next couple of weeks which is really exciting as well. I just love all the fussy fancy desserts. They're the best.
I have a crazy week this week. Not a single day off (although I only work four hours on Friday and I'm off by one so at least I can run some errands then).
I'm also seriously considering cutting off all of my hair because I spend 90% of the time with it up these days anyway and it's just ridiculous. My mom might have a heart attack, both of her daughters would have boyish cuts. I do like the longer hair (not this long, though, it's almost to my waist, and completely obnoxious) but in this climate with my job and school it is not practical. Really the only thing holding me back is the fact that I'd have to then go in for haircuts way more often to keep it from getting to that annoying length where it's in the way all of the time but too short to be put up. I haven't had my hair cut professionally in... 4 or 5 years. Holy cow. Yeah. WAY MORE FREQUENTLY.
So anyway. There's my update. I was also hoping to get something together for the new SIYE challenge but it's not coming together. We'll see if I can get it there by the 15th or not. At this point it's looking like not. Le sigh. I am so bad at plot.
- Current Location:TX
- Current Mood:geeky
- Current Music:The Suburbs -- Arcade Fire
Someone I know posted this:
- A.
I think marraige is a heterosexual tradition. Why should everyone automatically be entitled to it? It has a long tradition. It is a very special committment that a man and a woman make and it is the start of a family. It is one of special rights heterosexuals get to enjoy.
By denying it to homosexuals we are not saying they are inherently bad or worse than heterosexuals... they simply do not meet the requirements of marriage. I do think gay people can raise children just as well as straight people. But straight couples can produce children which is a big responsibility hence a strong union of two people is needed to raise said children. Gay couples don't have to worry about producing children. Just saying.Like · · Share · March 27 at 9:36am ·9 people like this.
( Read more...Collapse )
[EDIT: A. wrote back into the thread the other day with this:
"[ME], and anyone interested, I have changed my mind and think that gay people should be allowed to be married. Their love for eachother can and should be celebrated, in any way they see fit, so long as it does not interfere with another persons rights, which it really shouldn't. If I am not mistaken there are benefits for married couples with children that gay or infertile couples will not receive, and rightfully so. A title is just a title, and people rearing a child, whether married or not, is a feat which speaks for itself and a legal title will not change the work that adult did in raising that child. No one can force a man to stay with a woman he impregnates, only he can, and his actions will speak for themselves."]
- Current Mood:listless
- Current Music:"This Year" - The Mountain Goats
So I just found out that my school is now offering an apprenticeship program.
( Read more...Collapse )It's perfect. And since I've been striking out trying to find some relevant job for my internship requirements on my own... if I got this, it would be amazing. Everything solved. Sort of.Because there's still a problem. And it's really the only problem (besides the fact that I may not get it). Me.
( Read more...Collapse )Finally, it would mean committing to two to three more years here, in a city that I largely can't relate to that is thousands of miles away from anyone and everyone that I love. Admittedly, I'm going to be here at least-- at LEAST-- another year and a half anyway, but somehow this seems more damning.
And mostly I just really want to talk to someone I know about this, someone who loves me and understands how complicated this is for me but I haven't been able to yet. It's an amazing opportunity and I know I need to at least try, I'm just... scared. I don't trust myself.
( Read more...Collapse )
In other, less serious news, here are the things I have fallen in love with in the year 2013 so far:
- The second season of Sherlock (Why did I wait so long to watch it? Why?!)
- Breaking Bad (I really did not think I would like this but oh my god, it is unbelievably amazing)
- The big, comfy blue sweater, long necklace, and super comfy leggings I got for Christmas (also the mini tart pans, oh man)
- The Green brothers -- mainly Crash Course (World History is my fav!) and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, although I'm going through some of the vlogbrothers/brothers2.0 stuff too and it's awesome. I also really want to read "The Fault in Our Stars" and John Green's other books now.
- Theo Jansen's strandbeest (although this actually goes back to last year for me, it's too awesome not to mention)
- Liz Lawrence
- This video A.K.A the best PSA ever
I also just realized it's Valentine's day. BOO.
- Current Location:Dallas
- Current Mood:nervous
- Current Music:"Helplessness Blues" - Fleet Foxes
Harry can be a hero and be desirable to other characters while not being super tall or built like a brick wall, while having short sticky-outy hair instead of long flowing locks, while wearing glasses and probably having a bit of a case of chicken legs. I'm sorry, I thought that was part of the point. He wasn't supposed to be traditionally stud-like because most actual heroes aren't like gods. People can be attractive and have love interests (even attractive love interests!) without looking like they came out of a magazine ad or the cover of a romance novel. I'm pretty sure J.K. was making a point about this. So why, oh why, is fandom so dead set and tearing that point to shreds and forcing Harry Potter to conform to ridiculous beauty standards?
Stop it. It's not cool.
P.S. to everyone who does not do this: THANK YOU.
I came back from class to an email entitled: "Your comment about the use of false IDs not amounting much"
Which was... supposed to be in relation to what I had said about voter ID laws in a conversation a few weeks ago. I don't think he really got the message seeing as I'm 100% certain the term "false IDs" never crossed my lips, nor does it have anything to do with what I was talking about, but OK.( Read more...Collapse )
Alright. Down the rabbit hole we go:( Read moreCollapse )
- Current Location:Tehas, A.K.A.: WHY IS IT SO HOT?? IT IS NOV. 20TH, PEOPLE.
- Current Mood:lonely
- Current Music:Helplessness Blues -- Fleet Foes
That's when a huge window appears in the back of the classroom. It's getting dark outside but from the view, you just see a couple of stone/brick buildings. I say, I love this view because it reminds me of Boston and I feel safe.
Then the view flickers out, everything is a dark, indigo blue outside and gray inside, and everyone else is gone. I'm on the ground and I realize the building is falling before it actually does, in slow motion, start to tip on its side. I roll into a ball and cover my head and neck with my arms, and the windows blow in, and the room tips and then settles. I am still roughly where I was, with no one in the room but a pile of desks at the far end and a lot of broken glass. My phone starts ringing and I dizzily reach for it. I think my mother must be calling. I imagine her in her old office at work, having a coworker come in to tell her a bomb went off in Dallas, or maybe there was some kind of natural disaster. I grab my phone and see my sister's name but it stops ringing before I can answer it. I'm dizzy, and there are some scratches on my arms from the glass but they're superficial and I think: I have to look for survivors. So I start going through the pile of desks even though everyone was gone before the building fell and I don't see anyone in there. When I find nothing, I move quickly out of the room and down a short hallway into another.
My sister is lying there, in a bed, the wrong way around. The window above her is broken and I see a few shards of glass embedded in her nose. I try to scream for her, but my voice is so hoarse it comes out as a broken whisper. I run towards her, still trying to speak, and not understanding why she's there. Then I notice her face is there, the only blood is on the cuts in her nose, but I can see through her neck and the side of her head. Her skull is broken and her brain is sitting, fully intact, on the bed beside her, looking somehow like it crawled out through the gaping hole in her neck. I scream her name over and over, still just a cracking, useless release of air, and her face turns to me and smiles this creepy, empty little smile.
And then I wake up.
- Current Mood:distressed
- Current Music:"The Blower's Daughter" -- Damien Rice
It's really awesome for you to take the brunoise that I spent 20 minutes meticulously cutting into those even 1/8" cubes without asking and throwing it into the clearmeat for the consumme. If you're too lazy to rough chop some more carrots, use your own freaking brunoise instead of stealing mine. Especially considering that yours was not 1/8" and the rest of the brunoise that we had for our group was almost the exact same as mine. Even with your carrots being the odd ones out, I would never have essentially thrown them into the trash without making sure you were okay with that first, especially since we all spent so much time today trying to learn how to get it just right. Seriously, what an unnecessarily jerkish thing to do. I was right there, all you had to do was ask. I would have chopped up some new carrots myself. It's not like the extra brunoise would have gone to waste otherwise. Considering how ridiculously and uselessly competitive you are with everyone else in that class I can't help but think you did it out of some sort of spite because my chop was a little bit smaller than yours. And why do you take so much pleasure from our consumme (which you didn't even do much for) being an infinitesimally bit clearer than another group's? You did this last week too, and then sat there and rubbed it in one girl's face that her group's soup supposedly had more problems then ours. This is not a cooking competition. We are all learning. Ours could have very easily been worse than that. Judge our work on it's own merit, not on what other people are doing.
My God, I hate Fridays. Passive aggressive post of doom.
- Current Mood:bitchy
- Current Music:Skinny Love, Bon Iver
I'm taking the cake decorating classes for my degree in baking and pastry this semester. Today was the third day of class and we got to work with colors (yay!). I've done some decorating before, but until this last month it had been over two years since I picked up a pastry bag.
Everyone is picking it up really quickly in the class. It's really cool to look around a room and see twenty-odd different cakes in a rainbow of colors, all looking really excellent. There were some technicolor scary ones in there too, but that's also personal preference. To me, a heavily-dyed cake is gross, and you really only see heavily saturated frosting colors in the occasional, awful, "cake wrecks" qualifying, chain grocery store cake when in New England. It seems to be a lot more common in the South. I still have bad associations though. Also, all that dye makes the frosting bitter and stains your mouth. Then you poo weird colors... no. Not a fan. They are certainly eye catching though.
( Pictures of My CakeCollapse )
- Current Location:Texas
- Current Mood:accomplished
- Current Music:"Ho Hey" -- The Lumineers
One of these opinions is that nobody knows for sure what is actually going to save our economy right now, and the ideas that most people who actually have some authority on the subject (having studied it in depth) actually tend to agree upon are probably never going to get put in place regardless of who is in office because they tend to be extreme and would basically require overhauling everything (source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/07/18/156928675/episode-387-the-no-brainer-economic-platform / and proof that even when they agree with that they don't agree with that: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/07/26/157396666/the-disagreement-behind-our-economic-platform). Even with the best intentions, we people are not perfect and cannot predict the future.
Which is part of why I find it a bit ridiculous that my dad so steadfastly supports Paul Ryan's financial plan.( More About ThatCollapse )
But this economics crazy was not even what I mentioned Paul Ryan for. A lot of the details of his policies I learned today when I took my dad's advice and looked into Paul Ryan's plan. So, a little more on that later.
What I did mention was Personhood, Forced Ultrasound, "Legitimate" Rape, access to birth control, Pro-Choice, the Let Women Die bill, and cuts to Family Planning Programs. What I didn't mention was the Lily Ledbetter veto, or the health care discrimination he would re-institute.( More on ThisCollapse )
When I brought these subjects up with my dad, he brushed it off. He thinks that Paul Ryan's opinions on social issues make no difference and they won't matter even if he becomes vice president. In a time where we are seeing a record amount of anti-women's rights legislature being passed into law, I don't believe this for a second. He spent the next hour on the phone with me trying to convince me that a man who voted down the Lily Ledbetter act and numerous other equal pay bills has the best ideas for my economic future. He brushed off the fact that Paul Ryan thinks that he has better ideas for personal decisions regarding my body and life than I do based on his assertion that "the guy is brilliant". I can feel the love. It's just clearly more for some mysoginistic politician than his own two daughters.
On a slightly different note, Ryan also idolizes Ayn Rand.(Who incidentally supported abortion passionately, although I feel like that may have more to do with her eugenics-feuled ideologies than anything else). ( Ayn Rand is Really Not AwesomeCollapse )
The other point of all of this, though I got rather caught up in things, was initially to share a comment I have regarding this article, however: http://www.salon.com/2012/08/12/paul_ryan_randian_poseur/
I take some issue with this one. The main point is, though: Social Security benefits played a big role in Paul Ryan's education and therefore, it is assumed, his success in his career. Not only is he not acknowledging the role that the gove
TL;DR: Paul Ryan has some scary (and at times slightly hypocritical) ideas about our economy and about women's bodies. Remember when I said I was disillusioned about politics,
aggiebell90? Well, now I'm just angry.- Current Location:land of the worst forced ultrasound laws in the world
- Current Mood:cynical
- Current Music:my own indignation ringing in my ears as I type this 3500 + word monstrosity
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