"Miss Jane"

Man is it dark at 6 in the morning (the picture was taken after class). As previously stated, I was super excited about school today. So, needless to say, I did not sleep very well last night. 5:30am came quick. I forced myself out of my comfy bed, brushed my teeth, got dressed, and headed out. After being pointed in the direction of Classroom D (my home for the next 6 weeks), I grabbed a seat, and felt the butterflies. Who knew you could still get nervous about the first day of school at the age of 28?

The scheduling is going to be a little bizarre for the first block. I'll go to Sanitation from 6:30-9:00am Mon Tues Wed, then to Basic Cookery (CA 100 - where no actual cooking takes place) from 9:30-11:30am on Thu Fri...the first week. (Thanks to the fine folks at The University of Texas at Austin, I won't be taking Math, English, Speech, Psych, or Computer Skills.) Then NEXT week it's Sanitation Mon Tue and CA 100 Wed Thu Fri and so on and so forth for 6 weeks.

Sanitation. After we had all stumbled in and grabbed a seat next to some stranger, we were warmly greeted by "Miss Jane". After she had asked us all why in the name of all things holy we had selected the 6:30am group, she gave us a brief bio. She has a Masters in International Business and Accounting from UC Berkley. She'd been in the hospitality industry for 30 years (mostly as the Southwest Regional Wine and Beverage Director for Holiday Inn) before taking over the Wine program at Le Cordon Bleu for the last 14 years. She is a sommelier. She is a chef. She is hilarious. Maybe it's because we're all sleep deprived, but I found her to be quite humorous. She even shared with us her "Plan B" - not THAT Plan B.

She was always prepared if one of her restaurants got accused of a foodborne-illness outbreak (two or more people getting sick from the same dish on the same day). She had $1000 in unmarked, non-sequential $1 bills in a safe with a one-way, non-refundable ticket to Costa Rica, and a good pair of running shoes. She would take off for seven or eight years because the embarrassment (and legal ramifications) of serving Chicken Picatta that causes several people to hug a toilet, would be unbearable.

So you'd think, "Day one. Introductions, class schedule, grading practices, and done." You'd be wrong. Chapter One is done. Our first quiz is Wednesday. Yea. Six weeks, with only two and three days per week. This is going to go by fast! Oh, and that little joke about "The Wonders of Bacteria"? That's tomorrow's blog. Seriously. See ya then!