I'm feeling a little better today. I talked to an admissions representative at L'Ecole Culinaire and might go tomorrow afternoon to see a chef demonstration there. I'm dying to see their campus! He can't do anything financial aid-wise until I officially withdraw from Le Cordon Bleu. I talked to a financial aid representative at LCB about the financial consequences if I withdraw from there now. She couldn't tell me. I will have to talk to the financial aid director about that. She did say that she has an email out to all of the chef instructors about my carpool problems and doesn't want me to quit yet. I've missed more than a week but she says I can catch up. It would be hard but I know I can. I can learn the recipes. I have them. I won't see Chef's demos and I won't know exactly how he wants them to turn out. He has his own funny little things that he does to recipes that aren't in our books--like whole grain mustard in the Sauce Robert and a wine/shallot reduction for hollandaise. I love details like those and they do make them better. The end texture and consistency is important and what I think is good isn't always what he wants. because, of course, cooking for public is different from cooking for family. If I don't have a carpool by the end of this week I am going to withdraw from LCB. I really don't see how I have a choice. If I can work out financial aid I am going to LEC starting in November but I'm going to go for 90 weeks and get an associates degree instead of the certificate. Julianne & I would graduate at the same time! The certificate takes 36 weeks at LCB and 60 at LEC and the classes at LEC are two hours longer each day. I hate to say it, but it sounds like it might be a better education anyway and I should have examined that possibility before I made a commitment at LCB. Even for the certificate the baking & pastry class is 15 weeks as opposed to 6 at LCB. If I work at a restaurant or hotel I want to be a pastry chef. I think it suits my temperament better for several reasons--one of which is that you don't bake a cake to order at a restuarant! I want the general culinary knowledge, too, but I plan to take as many extra baking classes as I can wherever I can find them. I want to start a personal chef business. I was planning to do that in November when I finished up with the cooking technique classes at LCB but in time for the holiday busy time but I have to have a dependable car for that. I can't haul that many groceries and a knife kit and recipes and whatever equipment I need around on the bus! That's assuming that everyone who hires me even lives on the bus line.

I just got a promise from Julianne that I can make her wedding cake someday if I'm any good at it. YAY!!! I'll make my own, too, if the nursing home will let me use the kitchen.

Julianne got a refill for her henna kit tonight and she gave me another tattoo--a chef's toque on top of my foot--only I smeared it so the other foot looks like I stepped in something in the yard. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow.