Clearly the Lord doesn’t want me to work, ragazzi, because my first day of Official Unemployment has been so gorgeous. Blue sky, a loooooong day, cherry blossoms blowing in the wind, lunch outside on the steps, wonderful. So glad not to be in an office today. I don’t think it’s quite hit me that I actually don’t have a job anymore, because I’ll be getting my last paycheck in two weeks, and right now it just seems like a jolly holiday, you know?
I had a nice weekend, thanks for asking. The Title Nine sale was only okay…I think I should have got there the second it opened on Thursday. Sorry, Anna and Duschenka, I wasn’t able to get any sports bras for you…after trying on about five which were all the same size yet fit so, so differently, I came to the informed and educated decision that sports bras are a very personal purchase and should not be done by proxy. But that’s okay. Carl had a good time being one of two men there, I think, and he actually got a nice pair of gloves for himself, which was good, seeing as how glove season is about over.
Saturday…aka Truffle Day…was pretty nuts. Carl was, again, the only man in the class, aside from the teacher, and he quickly became the darling of the group. We started the class with a lecture about chocolate and a chocolate tasting, after which I pretty much was sick of chocolate altogether. We made about eighty-gajillion ganaches in many many flavors and then we tempered chocolate and did some hand dipping, and then we dipped fruit, which was my favorite part, and then we got to box up our wares and go home. During lunch we watched a highly edifying video about the proper crystal structure for tempering chocolate. It’s the beta structure, for those of you taking notes.
Bill The Chocolate Man was something of a scene…he’s an oceanograpaher (with Carl’s dad!) by day, and a chocolatier by night. No, really. He was all busting out the ten pound slab of couverture chocolate and passing around raw cacao pods and was talking smack about various chocolate-industry scams. He was insane. He had every kitchen gadget you could ever hope to see, including a spackling knife he uses to seal molded chocolates AND this great point-and-shoot thermometer. That was a lot of fun. The label-maker is still a contender for the Chiara Awards Best Gadget, but this point-and-shoot thermometer is not far behind. Not far behind at all.
After the class, we went to have dinner at Our Friend Mark’s parents’ house…and let me just say this about that, that Saturday was a fine day for beautiful kitchen gadgets in general. Mark is something of a foodie, and he’d really gone all out on this dinner. It was great…except, if I may be completely honest, the…the, uh…the FIN that was FLAPPING on the mostly-whole FISH when it came out of the OVEN. Flapping fin. Flapping at me. I began to rethink my possible conversion to vegetarianism at that moment. I’m one of those wimpy sorts who likes her fish (or really, any meat product) as unrecognizable as possible; sushi is ideal. I certainly want no fins flapping at me from beyond the fishy grave. Anyway, Mark was very gracious, as always, when I mentioned that there was a FIN, and he filleted my fish right there in ther kitchen with a special knife. He also did wonders with some asparagus, some fingerling potatoes, a vegetable terrine, and panna cotta for dessert. I checked to see if I’d already asked him to marry me, and he said he didn’t think so, but if I plan to, he’d prefer a diamond stickpin or diamond cufflinks as opposed to a ring. Mark is so classy. Also, he waltzes like you can’t believe.
Uh, okay, let’s see, where was I? My mouth was watering, I think. OKay, Sunday, right? Yes. Sunday was Spring Cleaning, and I think it’s a testimony to the absolute filthitude of my modest flat that I have been cleaning for two days and it’s still messy. I even aired out the futon. I haven’t touched the bathroom yet, and I admit that as I was going through the magazine pile I stopped to look up a recipe for grapefruit custard, otherwise known as yum, and that I did spend some time petting the cats and going for a swim today, so not all of it was spent cleaning. But still.
And that’s right, I said I went for a swim. At an indoor pool, which I still, as a former Floridian, find somewhat odd. I have a feeling I’m not quite versed in pool etiquette, either. Like, do you just swim in your own lane, or do you swim on the right, or what? Also, I got a swim cap and goggles, which paired with my sensible black lap suit, made me look like…um, like something really funny, I guess. The best part of swimming today was that since it was mostly older folks, they had the radio on the Older Folks Station, so they were playing stuff like Sinatra and Singing In The Rain. It was great.
So that brings us up to today, I believe. You will all be happy to know, I’m sure, that I have an interview on Wednesday. I’m hoping this will start a new trend of more interviews for me, one or two of which will lead to job offers that are lucrative, interesting, staffed by friendly people, provide me with licensure hours, and a lot of time off. But I don’t mind waiting a little bit. I mean, a day like today, being unemployed wasn’t so bad, you know?