My favorite question of late; Now What?

So I've officially graduated college as of 5 days ago without any concrete plans for the future. I'm convinced I had the hardest 2-3 weeks of my life and that I am still reeling from all the stress, drinking, and lack of sleep. So in response to that I've taken a week or so to do as little as possible. This has spawned this stinkin' blog, which many of my old roommates would ridicule me for.

I have no concrete plans for this blog either. Generally, I suppose I've become a big gooey ball of indecision and inaction. I am thoroughly enjoying it as of now. But even the laziest version of me will be motivated to get his ass in gear at some point, so maybe that begins now...

Earlier this school year I worked as a stagiaire, or stage (pronounced in a prissy French way), or bitch at Oceanique, which is a genuinely delicious French-American seafood restaurant in Evanston. The job (more like internship as I was unpaid) was pretty good all things considered. Though I've been around a restaurant my whole life, I actually have depressingly little, hands-on food experience. So it was nice to manhandle some beef tenderloin, mangle my hands shucking oysters, and die of boredom cleaning dandelion greens as opposed to being paraded around the dining room like a show dog to my mom's customers. Would you like to check if my balls are aligned correctly also, Mrs. Ruben? I swear I'm always on display in that place. I know, I know it's because my mom's proud of me or something like that. But sometimes it's like "Wow, look at my giant Asian son/dog. I didn't know they made them so big." I digress...

Anyway, the point I was trying to make before I made American Kennel Club-Chinese restaurant metaphors was that I am again looking for kitchen jobs. I kind of stopped going to Oceanique because school and the Ultimate season got to be too busy. I will most likely return there this summer, but I would like to get an actual kitchen job. Ideally, I would like a stage at a very high-end restaurant where I could learn all the dark arts of haute cuisine (Oceanique could work, but Va Pensiero is very intriguing to me or maybe Chicago? Sky's the limit, RIP BIG) and a paying job at a lower-end, higher-volume restaurant (think ... Celtic Knot?). Even a pub like that where there are lots of customers so as to test my "chops" or ability to make food at ludicrous speeds.

LUDICROUS SPEED! Great movie. Another important development is that I will most likely be staying in Chicago for a while longer. My mom doesn't know this, and she will be kind of sad, but I feel it is important that I get more kitchen experience before I attack The Culinary Institute of America. I feel unprepared, perhaps a symptom of post-college reality, but I am focused on gaining more experience and mad skillz. Don't worry, I'll be back in New York soon enough...

Well, this fucker was long. I hope they aren't always this long but who knows. I guess I'll be talking about food and ultimate when I can. I'll be heading to South Bend, IN for a tournament this weekend which will be my very first Club Open experience. Kind of. It's complicated.

EP #6