Update from Culinary World

Greetings from the culinary world.

I hope this finds you well and enjoying the beginnings of spring. This past week was finals for me and I probably did the best with the least amount of stress since I started school again. I still bombed one of the practicals, neither my raspberry terrine nor my chicken liver pate gelled to the right consistency, but I am pretty sure I passed so you just move on and learn.

Work has been interesting as I have started to invest a little more into the lives of some of the people I encounter. I have changed the name just because I thought it would be cool to make up some names.

Rose is a recovering alcoholic who works with me. She is spry and tells it like it is. Her hair shows her age which is around 50, and her face shows her troubles. She does not like being still and has recently started watching how much she swears in front of me, though I have not asked her to. I have offered to take her grocery shopping because she has to rely on her daughter to take her, and her daughter travels a lot. Of all the people I have met in Nashville, I have given her the most hugs. I am so excited when she is working because she makes me laugh and also strokes my ego a little. She is having some test run because she is not feeling well. I find that I pray for her more than normal.

Gerald is a dirty old man who is a frequent customer to the store. He was born in South America but moved to southern Florida when he was a kid. He has worked in construction most of his life with a brief stint in the military. Recently he has had some money problems. He also seems to want to borrow money from me and I give him $5 and the next day he pays me back. He has yet not to pay me back. The other day he bought me lunch. I asked him why, he said because you are so nice to me. This is something I have found fastly different in a bigger city. People are surprised that you are nice to them. In the Bible it talks about about lending money with out expectation of return. It is interesting, that in my life, I expect money to be returned to me more from friends who borrow money than from strangers. I must work on that for I have seen the effects of it through another co-worker, Cindy. Cindy is a tried and true Baptist girl. Grew up with a big family, goes to church every Sunday, works with the church when they feed the homeless, yet is extremely bitter when she does stuff for people and does not get it returned. While I have lent money to some of the same people she has, I have seen how bitter she has become that she did not get her money back. Parables in person are a great learning tool.

I work in a world full of haves and have nots. I have been reminded time and time again that though they are different in many ways, they are all God's people. God does not separate with money or if they have a roof over their head. I find it a constant struggle to keep that as my focus because it is so easy to veer towards one group or the other. I understand the negatives of the homeless. They smell, they steal and some are dangerous. But they are more real than some of the people who live in luxury condos. At work more customers are calling me by name but yet I barely know them. I know what groceries they typically buy, whether they like Bud Light or a foreign import beer. But I don't know them and to me that is new.

In other news, my apartment complex has decided not to renew my lease, so this spring break i will begin my search for another apartment. I have already started packing because I will have to move during school. I hope I can find one closer to church and friends as well as cheaper. My wish is that I can save enough money to put a deposit down for a place in May so i can gradually move in during the month. God will provide as he always does.