(near) end of the year check-in

Not sure if anyone still follows my posts, but for those that do I'M STILL HERE!!!! Just missing (If you find me, please let me know).

I suppose since it's so close to Thanksgiving, I HAVE to post the stuff I'm thankful about: I'm thankful for the friends and family I have and how supportive they've been of me living here in California. It's really hard not being able to see you guys very often, and I wish I could change that around. I'm also thankful that I have a job that I can rely on with benefits that are just about perfect and plenty of opportunities for advancing.

So I believe my last post had the title "the more things change, the more things stay the same". I considered making this title the exact opposite "the more things stay the same, the more things change." Things are definitely a lot different than they were last time I wrote.

I think I'll start with running through the things that are still the same:

• I'm still working at Disneyland
• I still hate the weather down here
• I still spend virtually all my days off either in the parks or cooking
• Electronics still hate me
• I still miss Washington

That might about sum up the list of things that are still the same.

Okay. Time for the things that are different. Not sure that this will work to put in bullet form like the similar stuff, so I'll have to do paragraphs.

Biggest change: I no longer work in Fantasyland (or rarely do anymore). I am now a certified Starbucks barista! (NEVER thought I'd say those words). at the end of June, beginning of July, I went through a 40 hour Starbucks training to become a barista. In August, I worked one day a week at the Starbucks location in Disney's California Adventure. Disneyland opened their own Starbucks on September 25th, 2013, and I was part of the opening team. I now work at Market House (the Starbucks in Disneyland) full time, unless they desperately need me in Fantasyland. It's a big change, but I love it. Sadly, it has nothing to do with food, but it still feels like a lot of experimenting, and it's a lot more hands on. It's also a much busier location (makes sense since it's right in the middle of Main Street). I also feel like there's much more opportunity for advancement. We'll see if that feeling proves correct though after they start posting applications for leads and trainers. So summary on this change: I have gone from knowing hardly anything about coffee drinks (what's the difference between a cappuccino and a latte? What's a Frappucino? What's a mocha?) to knowing what everything is, and variations of each of those items.

Another change was to where I live. In August, I moved from Fullerton to the beautiful city of Orange. While the distance was roughly the same, it feels so much further away. I can no longer take just one bus in to work now, I have to take 2. And one of those buses has more limited hours. More on that in a bit. I really like the location I live now. It's quieter (unless the neighbor's dog is barking like crazy), and a lot more stores around. There's even an area in the older downtown part that reminds me of streets back home with the older buildings that are multiple stories with apartments on the higher floors. I miss home sometimes. Everything feels to new and high tech down here sometimes. It's nice to have that older, more mom and pop store feeling.

Because of the buses being more limiting, I decided it was time to find a new form of transportation. Because 4 miles is a bit far to walk, especially in the mornings (especially with a 6:30 am shift. Did I mention I now get earlier shifts too?), I asked my cousin Steve for a recommendation on an inexpensive, but good road bike. (for those that never heard, my old bike was stolen in January from my apartment porch) He recommended a specific bike if I could find it used, but I noticed that it was currently on sale as well, so I decided to break my budget and just buy it new. Couldn't be happier. At first, I was only riding it on days where the bus either started after I had to leave or ended before I got off work. At the beginning of October, I decided to start riding to work every day. It takes me 20 minutes on average to ride to Disneyland on my bike. With waiting for the bus, and transferring buses, it would take a minimum of 40 minutes to get to work. I have to say, I missed riding my bike.

The last big change that I can think of, and one that I'm the most excited about (now that I've been working at Market House for a while, that is) is that Peter and I HAVE FINALLY SET A DATE FOR OUR WEDDING!!! And thank you Disney World for counting down the days for that (294 according to their countdown). With every post that I've done since the college program ended, I've been trying to figure out what to do with this blog, if anything. I think I've finally found an idea: This blog was meant for my adventures with Disney. It was at the end of the college program that Peter proposed, and since we both work for Disney, and have various levels of obsessions with Disney, I'd say that when one adventure ended, another began. For the next year, I'll dedicate at least a portion of each post to updating where we're at with the plans (our current Disney Adventure). For those that have absolutely no interest in this, I'll put it at the end of the posts so you can just stop reading before.

Up until now, all we've been able to do is determine roughly what we want to do: Where we want the wedding, what time of year, what we want to do for the honeymoon, who to have in the wedding, colors, details like that. During that time, we've decided on a wedding up in Washington with purple and blue as the colors. The goal is to try and do the wedding at little cost as possible without cutting out anything important or dropping below what we want. We will not be hiring a caterer, and at this point have decided against a photographer, since most of my family lives with cameras anyway. I also found a great deal on my wedding dress and have that on hand already (sorry, no pictures of it until after the wedding) We have also completed Engaged Encounter (a highly beneficial retreat required by the Catholic Church). We loved the retreat and felt like we learned a lot. Now it's just a matter of remembering to apply everything we've learned.... learning process, right? We've just about finished all the required prerequisites, and have been able to pencil in the date. We have also booked the hotel room for Disney World for the first week of our honeymoon (I didn't want to miss out on the 50% discount. This is also how Disney World is able to keep track of the days remaining. TECHNICALLY, the website says 295 days until our vacation starts). Now it's just a matter of finalizing everything.

Similar to last year, I will be going back to Washington for a couple of days. Unlike last year though, this is not a surprise visit, is not a 2 week long visit, is not just for pleasure, and is not by myself. I'll be bringing a couple of people with me (Peter being one) and my primary focus of the 4 day trip is to work on wedding stuff. By the end of the trip, I hope to have rough ideas for the cake finished, as well as an idea of the invitations (which my mom and I will be creating). It'll also be time to look into the hotels around the area for those out of town people. Hopefully I can also find a flower shop that doesn't break the bank. If anyone knows of any vendors in the area for anything PLEASE let me know.

Planning this wedding has definitely pointed out how much I hate last minute planning. I have a countdown calendar of things to do month by month until the wedding, and I've now looked at it 3 times since setting the date on Tuesday. It is now November, meaning 10 months before the wedding. I feel like I'm super behind on everything right now. I think, just for kicks and giggles, I'll post the countdown calendar up to the current month. I'll do it in bullets so you can easily skip if you'd like:

12 months before (September 2013):

• Announce your engagement: done
• Choose a wedding theme and style: Theme: Disney, style: casual? I'm a little confused on what this means, but at least I don't think people need to be super dressed up. Just Sunday best
• Work out a basic budget; research reception venues: done and done. Budget: the cheaper the better, reception venues down to 3 possible with one ideal
• Determine number of guests: aiming for 200 at most, but have to get numbers from each family still. Hope to have that by end of the month
• Look through magazines for attire ideas: check
• Meet potential wedding consultants; obtain bids: uhh... is this an auction now? Decided against consultant
• Research wedding pros. Set up appointments, and review portfolios, reels and recordings: Wow, I did not realize how hard this is to do from a distance. Fortunately, we've decided to go without a lot of the pros. Decided we didn't have the budget to pay $1000+ for each pro.

11 Months (October, 2013)

• Select a wedding consultant and meet to discuss details: Nope
• Determine theme/decorations for your reception: do I have to? not done. Any volunteers?
• meet with several caters; arrange for tastings: Nope, no caterer
• Select and book a caterer: couldn't this be combined with the last step?
• Reserve musicians/DJ for reception: next!
• Determine ceremony musicians and make musical selections: Mom, can you reserve my ceremony musician for me? As for music, I'm supposed to choose this now? I don't even know what music to choose!
• Book wedding videographer and photograph: Done (as in skip)
• research and interview florist: uhhhh.... mom? anybody? help!!
• Select and reserve your ceremony venue and schedule a rehearsal time: Done the first part, but haven't done the second part.....
• Choose reception venue; leave a deposit: Okay, mom can you look into details for the church please?
• Secure parking and/or transportation at the reception location: is this guaranteed since it's at the church?
• Visit local bridal stores to browse their selection of gowns: way past
• Choose your wedding-party members and ask them to participate in your celebration: done. Peter?
• Meet with your officiant to discuss the ceremony: not exactly done
• Determine your honeymoon budget: done
• Mail save-the-date notices for a destination wedding: Washington wouldn't be considered destination for out of state people, would it? (if I'm wrong, please let me know, I'm behind on this step)

10 months (November, 2013)

• Select and order your wedding gown: again, done
• Discuss attendants' duties with your maid of honor and bridesmaids: I thought that was an obvious one? Be there and have fun

So the overachieving part of me is panicking about the stuff that's currently out of control while I'm way ahead on other parts. I guess we'll see how the next 294 days go. All I know is that it will be filled with fun days at work and playing in the park, as well as a couple not so fun days of work (NOT playing though). And now, time for RANDOM DISNEY SONG!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and we'll see how long it is until I write again :)

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

So things have definitely fallen into more of a pattern now. I THOUGHT my schedule would become consistent, but it hasn't. I'm still never scheduled in the same place, or the same hours. The only expected thing that's changed is that my days off are more consistent. If I asked for Mondays and Tuesdays off, I get Mondays and Tuesdays off, unless they schedule me for 6 days.

Despite the variations in my schedule, everything is still less stressful. I don't have to worry anymore if I'll have the hours each week in order to pay for everything. I don't have to worry about missing a phone call from scheduling that will give me more hours. If I miss that phone call, oh well, I already know that I have the hours I absolutely need. I know my days off will remain my days off, unless I get bored and decide to pick up a shift. It's like a 50 pound weight was taken away! Or maybe that's just the trying to work out more.....

As I said at the start of this post, things have fallen into more of a pattern. Sunday: go to whichever mass time and location fits my schedule best. Monday: shopping and other errands. Tuesday: kick back and relax. Wednesday-Saturday, work. Any day that I get off before sunset, I walk home (4 miles). Saturday, either before work or after work (depending on the hours I work), I set up the menu for the following week. After creating the menu, I write the shopping list for the week. Each day I plan on cooking, I go to the store and pick up the non-perishable ingredients I can find as well as all the ingredients for the specific recipe I plan on making. While I plan a different recipe for each day, I don't cook each day, since I have to finish all or most of my leftovers before I'll make another dish, just so I can keep overall costs down (it's expensive to throw food away). After the meal is finished cooking, if I remember, I take a picture of the dish (I promise, I'm not one of those people that put's pictures of whatever they eat on instagram! In fact, I've never posted any of these pictures online. My intent is to use some of the pictures in a portfolio if I ever end up needing one.

I think I've addressed the big "changes" regarding work. Let's see...... anything different on the home front? I haven't had much time outside of work to do much else. The time that I do end up having seems to be taken away trying to finish up "mini-projects." Some of these include actually updating this blog, reading, creating new organization systems, going through the various e-newsletters I seem to have and never remember about, and cooking (speaking of which, maybe I should make dinner....)

I still hate the weather down here, but it's possible I'm getting slightly used to it. Even in April, I've been bringing a sweatshirt to work for sitting at the bus stop. By this time last year, I was wearing shorts and t-shirt waiting for the bus at the same time of day. Still too early to say if that's me getting used to the weather or not.

Peter came down a couple weeks ago to work during his spring break. During the times that we were both off, we spent time playing in the parks. Since they were so crowded, most of this "playing" was looking for hidden mickeys. After the week was up, we decided to start a "Disney challenge of the year" This means, we have some aspect relating to Disney to accomplish by the end of the year. For example, we might decide to find all the hidden mickey's by the end of this year. Next year, we may decide to watch all the Disney movies.

I can't think of anything else to add in this update. If there's any questions you have, clarifications, or just simply want to bug me (I think those people know who they are), feel free to send an email or leave a comment Especially send any "challenge of the year" ideas you may have for us to add to the list. I feel like this blog is going to become very repetitive if I don't find something else to add. Maybe I'll just add a "Q&A Section".... Or maybe I've just spent too much time staring at my computer screen and should look into making that dinner I talked about.....

Long Time..... But Not Forgotten.... Entirely

Peter and I at College Program graduation

So I guess I've finally gotten tired of people telling me "you need to write on your blog." "You need to finish your blog!" Or maybe I've finally had the time to get around to it. Things have definitely been BUSY since I last wrote in, when was it? MAY?!?!?!

Okay, now that I've recovered from that shock, I guess I should start with "summarizing" everything. Let's see..... what's happened since then.... anything important? I guess I can just go month by month and see what I come up with.

May: As was written in my last blog, I finally finished with probation. This meant that I could "cross-train" into other positions, which I immediately put in an application to do. Also in May was my birthday! Okay, nothing TOO special about it, other than going out to a buffet restaurant that I would recommend to anyone visiting Disneyland: Storyteller's Cafe. First time eating there. YUM! I don't remember if I've ever mentioned anything about the cookbooks that I seem to be collecting (and definitely using, A LOT). If I haven't, well, I seem to be picking up more and more cookbooks. Last count was 27 I think. Nope, I definitely can't have too many cookbooks. After all, as I said, I use them all! A couple of those cookbooks are Disney cookbooks. At some point, I had made the recipe for corn chowder from one of these cookbooks. It's the same corn chowder they serve at Storyteller's. I don't mean to brag, but when I had the chowder at the restaurant, I couldn't tell much difference between the two, and they were both amazing!

June and July can be combined into one, and I blame this "unit" as the reason I haven't gotten another blog out. I've been told that summers in Disneyland are busy, but little did I know how busy that was. I was putting in 40 hours a week throughout the summer, partly because of the 3 year seniority that the college program gave me, but also because of the higher need of workers. On top of those 40+ hour weeks, I was still cooking most meals at home, and occasionally participating in college program activities, as well as playing in the park just about every day I was off. For those of you who know what hidden mickey's are, I think we found just about every single one in the course of one summer. I guess I'm just making up excuses (somewhat) I could've updated this instead of playing in the parks, but let's be honest: which is more fun: playing with a mouse, or writing? At least I didn't decide that ALL the time, or else this won't be posted.

The cross-training requests that I had put in during May finally paid off during this time. In July, I learned how to be a cashier at Village Haus. You'd think it would be really easy just entering that cheeseburger that the guest wants and telling them how much the total cost is and then giving them their receipt and change. Nope. You'd  be VERY wrong. Guest: "can I get a cheeseburger?" Me: "would you like fries or fruit cup on the side with that?" Guest: "how much extra does that cost?" M: "it's included with the price" G: "can I get the fruit cup? And since that's a combo, I'll have a Dr. Pepper" M: "The drink would be separate, would you still like to add a drink?" G: "but it says combo on the board, that's what I wanted" M: "our COMBO is only side and the burger." G: "you did add cheese, right?" M: in my head thinking, well, you ordered a CHEESEburger "of course, cheese, lettuce, tomato and burger sauce" guest seems satisfied so I tell them the total. At this point, there's no turning back on the order, and it's already been sent to the kitchen, meaning they may have already started working on it. And it seems to be examples like this where the guest seems to struggle with figuring out if they want to use cash, and, if so, how far from exact to get, or credit card. After giving them their receipt, telling them which window to go to, I move on to the next guest. THEN they come back, "can I add pickles?" or "I didn't want tomato" or "can I change that to fries?" I understand that some people haven't completely decided what they want even while they're ordering, I've been guilty of that on numerous occasions, but really? At least those are the easy to change orders, I just inform the person at window, who informs the kitchen. Sometimes they want to change a cheeseburger to a different item, such as that BLT pizza they just saw a guest walk off with. Then I have to cancel the entire order and start over.

August: This was definitely a BIG month, with LOTS of changes. I almost need to go week by week for this month, although all the changes have all been within one week.

The first week was completely normal, still 40+ hours a week at work since it's still the summer busy season. Still way too hot for me. Since the College Program ended on August 18th, we had a "graduation" celebration near the end, on August 7th. In order to attend this celebration, we were all given the day off of work. What did I do with my day off? Spent it in the park of course! I decided to get ready for the celebration before leaving for the park, that way I didn't have to a) spend all day doing nothing in the apartment before and b) didn't have to come back to the apartment to get ready after playing in the park. Fortunately, that plan didn't end too disastrously, otherwise I'd be looking for a different picture to post above. The day started out normal, Peter and I looking for hidden mickey's, riding rides, and eating sugary foods, but it definitely did NOT end like a normal day.

Even though the celebration was at 7, Peter decided that we had to leave the parks at 4. Apparently, unlike me, he brought his clothes with him, but decided to get ready for the celebration AFTER playing in the park. After getting ready, and since there was still plenty of time to kill, we walked around a bit. He then decided to take a long tour around the Disneyland Hotel grounds (why the long tour, I still don't know) to the Rose Court Gardens where...... HE PROPOSED!!! Well, that explains the going out of the way part a bit. Apparently he got a bit nervous though, because our photographer hadn't arrived when he finished. Pictures ended up being staged, which is still okay, right? It was only a 5 or 10 minute delay.... After that, we walked around a bit more. Apparently the photographer, who happened to be one of my college program roommates, knew that  Disneyland still had "just engaged" buttons somewhere, so we went looking around for them. Turns out the only place that has them on a regular basis is Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. I'd definitely say that the graduation celebration paled in comparison to how excited I was at that point.

After all the walking around, we eventually made it to the graduation celebration, where we received a poster, graduation ears and button, and a keepsake box, as well as MANY congratulations from people. The celebration included a full meal, prominent speakers, including the Disneyland Ambassadors, pictures with Mickey and Goofy, and dancing, pictures, and lots of fun times.

After the celebration, and just days before the college program ended, many of my dad's family came to visit. My Uncle Mike, Uncle Herb, Uncle Dave and Aunt Rose came down to visit Southern California and me. This was the first visitor's I'd had since end of May, and I was excited :)

The end of the college program was definitely a bittersweet moment. For those that may not be aware, I decided to stay on after the program ended, which meant that I had to find another place to live, and that I'd be facing less hours. It was nice having a place that was a bit on the cheaper side, but I was worried about if I'd be able to afford even that. On top of that, it was sad saying goodbye to the friends that I had made. I even had to say goodbye to Peter, who went back to the Bay Area to finish school and only stayed with Disneyland seasonally (meaning he comes back for Christmas, spring break, and summer).

Also during August, I got trained in other cashing areas, including Toontown as well as Toontown food prep, and Troubadour Tavern food prep (before they closed for a lengthy remodeling).

September: Things were definitely slowing down. My weekly schedule only had anywhere between 16 and 24 hours. Fortunately, I could call in and ask for more hours. As a result, for the rest of the year, I only had at most 2 weeks that I worked less than 30 hours a week. It's definitely more stressful trying to pick up hours to reach a goal of 30 hours a week vs. being scheduled 30 hours a week. I thought I was busy during the college program! I guess I was busier during that time, but I just felt plain stressed this time because I couldn't PLAN anything. I may decide to hang out with a friend, or do errands, but if scheduling called me with a shift, I felt the need to take it, just because I needed the hours, and, even if I was already at 5 days, or 30+ hours, I couldn't guarantee the next week would be like that. During September, I also got trained at the Fantasyland Kitchens as food prep.

October - December: To say that the few hours I was being scheduled and everything else was so new would be a bit of a discredit. EVERYTHING this year has been new! I'd NEVER lived outside of Washington. I hadn't been to Disneyland more than twice before and now, not only have I been way more than that (almost 90 times by the end of the college program alone), and now I work here. With the exception of the busy times (Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season), I was still getting scheduled little hours. Fortunately, just like in September, my schedule changed every single day. Almost each day, I would wake up to a call from scheduling, asking me if I could move work positions (from my scheduled food prep shift to cashier, or cashier at Toontown to cashier at Village Haus, etc.), or times and therefore have more hours. From mid-October on, I would get a call on all but one of my days off each week, asking me to come in for a shift. This was great, because I often was only given 3 or 4 days of work. Of course, this also meant that from October on, I was working 6 day work weeks just about every week. No wonder everyone though I was full-time (in simplest explanation, full time in Disneyland means being scheduled a minimum of 30 hours a week). I'd applied for full-time before, but had been denied twice.

During October, I had family friends visit from home, which was very exciting. I can definitely say that I love showing people around Disneyland. That being said, if you're the type of person that doesn't want random facts given to you along with recommendations of where to go DON'T ask me to give you a tour. I WILL give you more facts than you know what to do with. I'll also do my best to work around the crowds and make beelines for things that you've told me you prefer doing. You'll be worn out by the end of my tours, and you'll probably be complaining of your feet hurting.

From this visit on, I seemed to have no breaks. Between trying to reach at least 30 hours a week, working 6 days a week most days, and visits from various people, it seemed like I had no time for just relaxing. As far as visits go, I had my grandma (dad's mom), dad and Uncle Mike drive down for a visit the week before Thanksgiving. Of course, with Disneyland being open 7 days a week, and being only part time, with less than a year seniority, I had to work on Thanksgiving. As I told guests, since I couldn't go home even if I wasn't working due to costs, there was no place I'd rather be than working. December 19th - 22nd my other grandma, mom and sister came down for a visit. This was also their first stay in a Disneyland hotel, which they absolutely loved.

During November and December I also cross-trained to Village Haus food prep AND order cook. I had also applied for trainer back in August, and the managers decided to make me a trainer. I haven't trained anyone yet, but maybe one of these days I can. Christmas week was much like Thanksgiving. I worked 56 hours and worked on Christmas day. I didn't think Christmas would be anything special, but it was. Not only was Peter there, since he was working during his school break, but I was able to watch my entire family open presents due to the wonderful technology of Skype. Of course, at that point and many times before and after,  they kept asking when I was coming home again. If only I could've told them the surprise my mom and I had been planning since just before Thanksgiving....

January: I'd learned very quickly that January and February were the SLOWEST times for Disney. During these months, the part time workers hardly get any hours (my roommates were only getting 10-16 hours for the second week of January). I had been talking to my managers and found out that this was probably the easiest time to get time off, so I submitted a request for time off. Unfortunately, since I'm not full-time, I don't find out if I get the requested time off until the schedule comes out. This meant that, while I purchased plane tickets to go home January 10th - January 24th AND put in the request for those days off, I could have found out on December 28th that I didn't get any of the time off. Then I'd either have to trade shifts with people who were off those days, give away the shifts, or call in personal (which puts points on my record). Either that or ignore the plane tickets and stay in California, which was an option I wasn't going to consider since I hadn't been home for over a year. Fortunately, my over-worrying was for nothing. I got all the time off I needed for the entire trip. Not only was I able to surprise my family (seeing the look of surprise on their faces was so much fun), but I was able to come home for both my sister and my dad's birthdays! Yay! Just before leaving, I had submitted two applications: one application at the beginning of December was my third attempt at applying for a full-time position. The second application was to become lead. A lead is similar to a shift manager (for those that don't know what a lead is, but do know what a shift manager is). Leads are responsible for the workers in their area as well as addressing concerns that may arise.

My trip home has so far been very fun, and surprisingly busy. Little did I know that I'd be spending just about every day going through boxes of my stuff, packing more stuff away, and getting rid of even more. I think I've gotten rid of half of my stuff this trip alone. My mom's comment "you definitely don't have a problem getting rid of things." Last Wednesday (January 16th) I woke up to a call from Disneyland. I had finally been accepted for full time! I guess now I should go into more detail about what it means to be full time in Disneyland. Disneyland has something called lines, which simply means that this is the weekly hours you'll be working (anywhere between 32 and 40 hours a week), which days off you'll have, and where you'll be working. This means that I'll have consistent days off, and I'll know exactly where I'm working and not be changing location day to day like I have been as part time. Now I no longer have to worry about remembering where I'll be working, or what time I start. I also don't have to stress over getting that 30 hours I need to support my "extravagant lifestyle" (okay, so maybe $50 a week on groceries at MOST isn't extremely extravagant, especially since I don't always hit this mark). On top of that, I'll also be getting insurance (at what cost, I don't know). Since lines are for certain length of time, I don't actually start full time until March 10th. This means another month and a half of part-time schedules. I can live with that, right? I've done a year already.

If you've paid attention to the dates that I was gone for, you'll realize that I'm not in California currently, but that I'm home. Home in this case is Chehalis with my parents. While I haven't fully adjusted to California weather (80s are still too hot), the weather here is definitely cold. But I'll still take this cold weather any day. I prefer having to wrap up in more layers and blankets to having to take cold showers to cool down.

I guess, as horrible as I feel for putting this post off (all excuses aside, when I did have time to update, I either felt guilty about not updating more or didn't know how to update. Sometimes both), I feel like writing from here has made this blog come full circle. I started out writing from Washington, wrote about my year in Disneyland, and now am writing again from Washington. I will spend a few more days here in Washington before going back to California again.

Because this blog is "Disney Adventures", I now have many options of what I can do with this. I started this blog for the purpose of documenting my time with the Disney College Program. I could leave it at that and call this blog finished or I could continue talking about the adventures at Disneyland, although it wouldn't be as work oriented as it has been. These adventures can be things I discover in the park (sorta similar to disneyland park blogs from my understanding of them), how I've been doing overall (like a personal journal), or I can start heading into talking about food (like Julie and Julia, talking about this or that recipe that I made, experiments, and other stuff relating to my exploring the wonderful world of cooking [sung to the tune of "wonderful world of color"]). I could also do a combination, retire this blog and create another one for those other ideas. At this point, I'm really not sure which the best course would be. I guess if I have anyone that still reads this, your advice would be EXTREMELY helpful, I'm stumped.

I'm sorry about the length (I had a lot of catching up to do), and I'm even more sorry about the lack of posts.