It's about time I updated...

On Sunday morning, at a bright and early (and probably highly unpleasant) 5 am, I'll be hitting the road and making the trek back to Searcy. According to Google Maps, it's 962 miles, taking about 15 hours and 33 minutes...we'll see how accurate that time is when I get there.

Despite not actually having enough money for gas at the moment (hopefully serving tomorrow morning at Stone Soup will grant me some good tips), I'm really looking forward to the trip. It's been a long few months, with work seemingly taking up every free moment of my time. Granted, it could be a lot worse if I were sitting behind a desk in a cubicle working M-F at a 9-5 job, but sometimes it does get monotonous, even in the restaurant world.

There's not a whole lot new going on in my life. I did a brief stint as a line cook at Stone Soup, and although I was really enjoying it, cooking 55-85 meals to order by myself during a shift was a bit on the stressful/exhausting side, so I'm back to full-time as a server. I do feel as if I learned a lot of really valuable information while I was cooking, so now I'm pretty confident when it comes to maneuvering around a kitchen and whipping up a semi-gourmet meal with a scantly stocked pantry.

Tonight I learned the secrets of opening a bottle of champagne (I had a table purchase one and as we're a "fine dining" establishment, I had to do a proper wine presentation at the table); hold the cork and push down while turning the bottle slowly. Miraculously, my first time opening a bottle of champagne didn't leave me covered with the fizzy drink or a black eye (which I was fully expecting). It's amazing the things you can learn in the restaurant industry.

Stone Soup also serves as a regularly changing art gallery. When we have no artists to display work, we collaborate and choose a theme and all the workers and any of our artist friends produce work to hang on the wall. This past month's theme was trees and I painted four tiny wood blocks with simple white birch trees on a green/blue gradient background and detailed them with pen and ink. I had a lady comment to me how much she loved them and when I told her I'd painted them, she asked if she could buy them. I of course said yes, and we agreed on a price of $75. I'm still a bit flabbergasted that I sold four tiny pieces of wood for that much, but hey, it's art, right? A few weeks later I had another table comment on them and after they found out I'd painted and already sold them, they inquired about having me do a similar commissioned piece for the same price. Makes me wonder why I haven't quit work and become a full-time artist...haha....although, Shepherdstown is kind of a rich yuppie town full of older people who have nothing better to do with their money.

Alright folks...there's your update...someday I will be better at keeping up this poor excuse for a blog!