argh

I cannot wait until Strategies class is over. We're in the computer lab right now learning how to use fucking Microsoft Word. It feels like I'm bleeding thousands of dollars in student loans out my eyes.

Luckily, this class doesn't last as long as the others--only 26 days versus 38 or something, so eventually I'll be able to wake up and go straight to the kitchen, and at 9:30. All I want to do is cook. And yes, I want to learn the sanitation and even the math (though I know that already). I mean, I get the significance of "proper time management", but I feel like I'm being taught by Mrs. O'Leary in 5th grade what study skills I will need for the utterly crippling challenge of junior high school. "Mrs. O'Leary would like you to highlight this text now."

I got a 97 on my broccoli beurre noisette practical anyway. I think an important aspect about the kitchen is that you have to work as a team, but at the same time you can't rely on others too much. For example, if I'd gotten my own damn icebath yesterday I could've shocked my product a lot faster if everyone on the damn range hadn't been using the same bain-marie.

Happy Wednesday! As I have received my pictures from CVS today on CD, I will share the ones I have time to upload; I have to leave in a few minutes. Click to make them bigger.









One of Pittsburgh's many bridges.



A reggae band I saw in Katz Plaza.




Cathedral. Episcopalean, I think.




A shot I took at night as an experiment. I plan on getting better at this (and also getting a tripod, as long exposure requires the camera to be kind of still).

bush is my favorite band

Lunch break. I generally go home in the middle of my break to put my heavier equipment away and grab my books for my last two classes, sanitation and math. I have the highest scores of anyone in those classes and I'm pretty damn good at intro to culinary. Fuck you, Klein High School.

I am tired. Getting enough sleep/strong coffee is truly essential for the beautiful drudgery of the kitchen. It's only three hours and anything but intense, but it still takes a lot out of you (especially compared to the blowoff courses like "Strategies for Success"). The ranges spew heat and boiling fat into the air, as do the warming ovens, fryers, broilers, salamanders, steamers, etc. I can feel the callous forming on my right index finger, the one that Bourdain talks about in his books; the rough leather developed to protect against dicing 25 speed racks of shallots or making bags after bags of parsley into powder with a French knife. I realize now what he means when he says a handshake between two cooks carries a lot of meaning.

Back to class!

city bunnies

Yo. Just got back from sitting around the fountain at PPG place (shown at left), reading the paper/writing down recipes for class. The place is gorgeous at night with the water all lit up--if you look up from what you're reading it's like you're surrounded by chandelier skyscrapers. Those buildings encompassing the plaza are like crazy modern Gothic castles or some shit.

I didn't mention it earlier, but a few nights ago I went for a stroll on the Northside, which you have to cross one of the bridges over the Allegheny to get to. Turns out there's this really big park/walking path running along the bank of the river. I must've seen twenty rabbits jumping around. It was a little surreal combining a little nature with the steel jungle of Pittsburgh, but the riverside offers an awesome view of the city at night. I could hear a rock concert going on at an ampitheatre in Station Square. I kind of want to get a fishing pole now, after being at the dock...

Christ it's cold in Penn Commons! I'm wearing the winter coat that I bought. Which is totally sweet. It's this big leather thing with furry stuff all on the inside.

Yeah, that's it. I'll keep posting now that my computer works. I forgot to mention that it broke again; one of the blades on the CPU fan just fell off in the middle of the night so I had to go down to radio shack and buy a new one, splice the wires from the fan onto an old plug and insulate the bare contacts with twist ties, and then, lacking screws, I attached the new fan to the heatsink with fucking paperclips. I just know it's gonna blow up or something, but hopefully I'll be lucky and it won't cost me 300 dollars, because I've missed AIM and my blog.

Pittsburgh -- Steel City

Finally got the damn computer to work up here, and now I've got my own broadband internet. I can download shit at 400 kb/s and it's not behind some godawful router firewall.

I feel like I've lived in this city for years, not two weeks. I've done a lot of stuff already. Yesterday I saw Die Valkure at Byham Theatre. That Lord of the Rings performance that was in Houston is going to be here the 22nd and 23rd at Heinz Hall (about a minute down the street from my dorm instead of a 45-minute commute, ha), except this one has a world premier performance by Billy Boyd (Pippin)--he's gonna sing that song from Return of the King. I've walked east to the Strip District and been in so many strange international grocery stores, weird independent music stores, etc. I've eaten out a few times with Ashley (girlfriend) and her mom, though all they eat is Italian and I'm anxious to find some better restaurants. I eat a lot of bagels. Bruegger's Bagel Bakery has some kickass bagels and French roast coffee. Tuesday is all you can eat night at this sushi joint in Station Square (southside) so I think I'll be hitting that. I've yet to visit a lot of the surrounding areas like Squirrel Hill and Shadyside, but I'm looking forward to more exploration. I went across the Bridge that goes to the ballpark the other night and found this great park in the Northside with a really long walking path that goes right along the Allegheny. I might go to the same place in the daytime soon for some photography--there are a lot of neat things to see.

So I'm doing pretty well. I'll make a post about school later on because that kicks ass too.

~under the bridge downtown

holy crap

I've been in Pittsburgh a few days now. Living downtown in this city is amazing. My dorm is essentially a kitchen with a range, a full-sized fridge, a few cabinets, and a table with some benches that opens up into our three bedrooms. I've got the only double room and my roommate is this guy named Justin. My other two roommates are another Justin and Eric. Nice guys. We get along pretty well although we don't really hang around in the same circles. It took me just a few hours of being here to be drawn to a group of neat people. Incidentally it took me two days to start dating one of them, Ashley, who's a real sweet girl.

I started classes yesterday, and they're getting more interesting as we get more things assigned to us. I've got most of my uniform but I'm waiting for my hilarious checkerboarded pants to be hemmed, and I should get my cutlery and various equipment Monday. My schedule is something like this--Strategies for Success 8:30 to 9:30, my first Skills class 9:30 to 12:30, Sanitation 1:30 to 2:30, and then Hospitality Math 2:30 to 3:30. The instructors are relatively loose on when they let us out. Chef Schmucker, my skills teacher, usually gives us a pretty long break in the middle of class. I use my spare time to wander around this city and do awesome stuff. I took a 45-minute bus ride to Monroeville yesterday with Ashley and hung out at her place, bought some produce, etc. It's nice to not have to eat typical dorm food all the time. The school restaurant that your meal plan allows you is pretty nice and I'm cooking some fettucini alfredo tonight on my dinky electric stove.

I kinda got to get going. I'll be able to write more in detail though Friday or Monday when I have my computer. The cable guy is going to wire up my broadband internet Friday.

signing off for now, kids

Time to take this damn old thing apart and put it in boxes. By this time tomorrow I will be hangin out in Pittsburgh on 525 Penn Avenue.

I'll miss you guys.

holy crap, I am leaving this place in 30 hours

Man, I saw two of my good friends for the last time until Christmas today. It's insane.

Packing for college isn't like packing to go see your grandparents. Especially if you're going far away. I'm not just putting three days of clothing and a Gameboy in a totebag so I can listen to my parents argue for a three-hour drive to DeSoto. I'm stuffing a full set of luggage with a big enamel pot, a tea kettle, a coffee grinder. I'm getting ready to live in my own kitchen and worry about all that shit myself. The fact that it's a little unnerving is overwhelmed by the great feeling I have when I think about grinding my own coffee beans every day and getting the orange juice out of the fridge that I earn through my own job (I hope the other guys don't like pulpy OJ or something so I can be the only one that'll drink it). I've got cups and bowls and utensils and as ironic as it sounds with me attending a culinary institution, I'm packing my own Wusthof cutlery, though I'm going to closely guard it. I kind of hope I can just find a big (or little) wooden slab somewhere so I don't have to use this godawful plastic cutting board for the occasions I cook at home. And despite that I could have my mother ship it to me, my old ratty canvas trench is folded up on top of it all. It's too much of a veritable companion to me for me to just leave it behind in a box. It doesn't even have any of the original buttons on anymore, just the golden ones I've sewn on. To make airport security a little more pleasant I'm taking that tweed jacket whether I need it on the plane or not. I've found that the most convenient thing to do when you step through that crap is to literally put everything metallic you can strip off you into that little box or into your jacket pockets so you can actually walk through without them negatively charging you with a plastic wand.

I'm taking my 35mm Mamiya for some scenic photography, or to just take snapshots of weird urban shit like I did in D.C. I hear Pittsburgh is beautiful and I've seen pictures of the Rivers in winter that look stunning. I hope to get a digital camera one of these days so I can make my blog more visual, because I want to share my new home with everyone from Texas but I don't expect to have time to scan a bunch of glossy photos on a flatbed. I'll try and blog a lot, too, as much as I do now once I establish where I can go for easy internet access, but there'll likely be at least a week of silence from my journal. I'll make another post tomorrow before I disassemble my computer for my mom to bubble-wrap. Thank god a I got a flat panel. I'd hate to have a CRT sent to me via UPS and be looking at a warped parallelogram when I turn on my compy. Those things decalibrate real easily.