Promotions, Finals, and Feeling at home

Well, I finished another term/semester/mod at school and am happy to say that I still have an A. The last few weeks of school have been a real test. I had to work with a partner that I cannot stand and have come to the realization that I am an absolute control freak. It's not a very flattering quality so I'm going to work on it. I had my final on Sunday and for the final we had a written portion and then we had to decorate a cake. We made the lemon-scented cake again, but this time we got to choose the flavors and determine how we wanted to decorate it. I chose to do raspberry jam with a framboise (raspberry liquer) flavored buttercream. We practiced our piping skills on Saturday and by Sunday my rosettes looked a lot better. When we finished our cakes we had to sit down with the chef one-on-one and discuss our thoughts on what our grade should be. I kind of hate having to self evaluate and tell someone what grade I think I deserve. I had a class in college where the professor didn't believe in grades, so we each had to meet with him and tell him what grade to give us. I was having flashbacks to that when I went to sit down with the chef. I finished my cake first and volunteered to go get graded first. There were different criteria like how the sides of the cake looked, the top of the cake, finishing details, the layers on the inside, etc. The sides of my cake looked kind of crappy because I had a little trouble with them, so he asked me what I thought I deserved out of 18. I said 13 because I was not very happy with the work and knew I could have done better. He told me that I am too hard on myself and gave me a 16. I ended up with an A (although a low A like a 93) so I was pretty satisfied. Plus the chef said some really nice things to me, which made me feel pretty good. Next weekend begins the chocolate mod along with more cake decorating. So stay tuned. (Oh - side note, I tried my cake before I got rid of it and it was delicious!)

On another front, I got promoted to shift supervisor at Starbucks today. I'll be making about two dollars more an hour which is really nice. I've come to the realization that I love it here. I've made some really great friends and I get to live in quite possibly the craziest place on the planet. I still am surprised sometimes to think that I actually did this; that I actually moved out here on my own without knowing anyone. I feel really proud of myself to be honest, hopefully I can say that without sounding boastful. On a side note: I'm re-reading "The Great Gatsby" and was reminded by one particular passage as to why I loved F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing. So, I'll leave you with that. Hope everyone has a good week. I'll see you soon!

"He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself."