Today is my first...

...snow day!! A snowday where my parents do not decide whether or not I should do school, but a bunch of scary board members (suspiciously dubbed "they"),who apparently never close the close, decided to close the school.

Don't get me wrong. I love school. However, I was never this excited for a snow day when I was homeschooled.

Anyway, it is 16 degrees out right now, and there is a lovely 12+ inches of snow outside.

But there is another thing that I've been excited about. Is it that I've already started wrapping gifts? Is it that I have 4 packages in the mail with more gifts to wrap? Is it that I only have 5 more days of school left?

Yes...but no.

It's the moment I've been waiting for since mid-August. The moment of what happens next in my novel. On winter break, I am going to complete the first draft of my novel. I now know what happens next.

Isn't that a strange thing to pray for? "Please, God, tell me what happens in the next scene of my novel."

I might have to do a little reworking, but I have plans to buy a massive whiteboard. And do my plotting there. With a squeaky marker. At 2 am in the morning. When it's snowing outside. And there's Christmas cookie crumbs on my keyboard, hot air washing through the vents, and snow-covered, icy brances scratching against the window pane.

Until then: food math final, food science final, math final, and writing final. I am done with: sanitation final, and diversity final.

That is 19 credits total. Next semester I am taking 18 credits.

If a dream comes true, by next fall I hope to be taking a few Criminal Justice classes. I know this sounds weird, and I don't want to start gossip (especially since I know a few classmates visit my blog), but sometimes--in the middle of a culinary class--I'll think to myself, "Why the heck do I care?"

My chefs constantly remind me, "When you're a chef...When you have your own restaurant..."

I didn't go to culinary school to learn how to be a chef or to own my own version of French Laundry. I came there to learn how to cook. I also came there to help me to grow up a little.

I mean, a year ago, if someone came up to my dish and said, "This is crap. I don't want to see this again." I would have been depressed for a week. Now, I say, "Yes it does, which is why you see it every week. If I can't get it perfect, I'm going to challenge myself and try again...Which is what I'm told I should do. Challenge myself. Correct?"

However. However, I still copy and analyze the notes from criminal justice classes leftover on the whiteboard.

I was also reading an article on how to select a college degree/program. One of the questions was, "What do you do on your free time?" Hmm...well...I watch Castle, Psych and COPS (still unsure about Bones). I work on my novel, which sometimes includes researching police stuff. I still (almost religiously) follow Lee Lofland's blog. Oh, and I also did a research paper on women in law enforcement. (I called it Pink Bullets)

It just gets me thinking...However, between Christmas, finals, and a novel, I have plenty of other things to think about ;)