St.Louis, Misery

I haven't been blogging much lately because there hasn't been much to blog about. I suppose I could just ramble on about my life right now and bore you all to death. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Summer is going way too fast, as usual. I can't believe it is already the middle of July. THAT is depressing. I don't know about you, but every summer I always make these big plans and have all these things I want to do, but then it goes by so fast and I never seem to get to do any of the things I planned on doing. Like this summer we wanted to go camping. Or at least get out of the city for more than a day and see what the rest of Missouri looks like. We would really like to see the Ozarks also. Jonathan has been working every weekend and my work schedule hasn't really matched up with his. Now Jonathan has all this studying and preparation to do before school so that's where all his free time is going. And trust me there is no way we will be able to go anywhere during the school year. Jonathan is booked 24/7 from August to May. Yes he will be a busy boy. He is teaching Philosophy 101 this semester so that will add a lot to his work load. I am excited for him though. I think he is excited too, albeit nervous. I am going to try to take his class so I can learn something about this whole philosophy thing Jonathan is so enamored with. I won't be able to attend his lectures of course but I can do the readings and read his lecture notes. We will see though... we will see.
WARNING: LONG BORING STUFF AHEAD; PROCEED AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION

This past year has been an interesting one that is for sure. Actually it has been really hard. I will give you this short history so you understand a bit where I am coming from. When we moved here almost two years ago in August (two years- YIKES! that is for another post) I hadn't applied to any schools or anything so had to find a full time job. The first one I got was at Nadoz cafe. I really hated it at first. Then it sort of grew on me. Then I hated it again. Nadoz cafe is only a part of the larger catering business called STEVEN BECKER FINE DINING. However, Nadoz and SBFD share the same location. So back in the kitchen of nadoz cafe is where all the culinary staff works. Anyway, SBFD has a pastry department. There a dear friend of mine worked, Matt. I miss you Matt wherever you are. Matt was a talented young pastry chef. Everyday I passed by Matt and the other pastry cooks doing their thing. Everyday I looked at them longingly, realizing that I have always enjoyed baking and working back there with Matt would be my dream job. Sometimes I lingered, so Matt would teach me a few tricks of the trade, and started to notice my interest. In my mind there was no way I would be able to work in Pastry unless I had some sort of training. So I did some research and found that Forest Park Community College had a culinary program and also a baking and pastry program. My plan was to enroll in the fall and finish the program quickly and then work in the pastry department. Matt, however, discouraged me. He said it was a crappy college and not to waste my money. Said he knew more than the professors there. All the time Matt encouraged me to just talk to our head chef, Patrick, about my interest. But if you knew Patrick you wouldn't blame me for not wanting to talk to him. He is very intimidating, and was even more intimidating to me back then. Turns out that I didn't have to talk to Patrick anyway. He caught on to my interest after I was helping Matt one day, and asked me if I wanted to work back there. I could hardly contain my excitement. This is getting really long and boring. This was the beginning of last summer. We had a manager named Carl. I talked to Carl and he said he would work out the whole department transfer when I got back from my vacation to Idaho. Well, I got back, and guess what? Carl was long gone, and so was any of my courage to talk to Patrick myself. Patrick never brought it up again, so I was stuck at my hated job at Nadoz. Time goes by, unfortunately Matt leaves, but he tells me not to give up hope. November rolls around, and our old sous chef, Ben shows up. He was going to be involved in the department transfer with Carl but he had also quit so he wanted to know what was up- why wasn't I working in Pastry? I explained the situation, and to my embarrassment (and secret joy) asks Patrick straight up what was going on, and easy as pie, I am working in the pastry department the next week. Oh my dream job finally has come true! Patrick at the time, it being the holidays and all, said he needed me to work full time. I, however, could only work four days a week because I had given up all hope of working in pastry so had returned to school to finish my elem. ed degree. I worked a lot during November and December, but we had already gotten our airline tickets to fly home for Christmas for two weeks. When we got back, SBFD was dead as a doornail. Me being a little old part-timer was not guaranteed any hours, so I didn't get hardly any for all of January. It was a sad month. I thought business would pick up again after January so decided to take only nine credits of school so that I wouldn't be too overwhelmed with school and work. Boy was that a mistake. It NEVER picked up. Not enough for me to work very much anyways. Since then it has been so up and down. Two weeks I'll get thirty hours, the next two I'll get twelve. It is soooo frustrating. I finally have a job I enjoy ( and it has taken me awhile to get the hang of this job and actually enjoy it partly due to the fact I couldn't get along with Brandon, the pastry supervisor. It was definitely rocky the first several months, but I think every job is at first. Brandon has been in a perpetually good mood though so that always helps) but no work! No work no money! So all summer I have been back and forth, back and forth- should I get another job or should I just wait it out? So far I have been waiting it out. But I just don't know if I should "wait it out" any longer. We do have one girl leaving in the fall, so I am thinking I will get her hours. I hated working at Nadoz, yes, but I worked a lot, got paid more, so made a lot more money. I love working in pastry but I work very little and get paid less. Today I was thinking though... when I was working at Nadoz I prayed that God would give me a different job. And He did.. my dream job!.. so shouldn't I just trust Him to work it out at this job and wait on Him instead of constantly worrying about it? I don't know... It would have to involve a lot of trust considering we are running low on money... If you have read this far, congratulations! and I am sorry I whined for so long, but what do you think?