The happiest place on earth...

So here we are, a year and a half after I started culinary school. I had the best intentions with this blog, but some things just get the best of me. I'm sitting in my three bedroom apartment in Orlando with four of my five roommates milling around the living room and kitchen on our one week anniversary of being here.

Maybe calling Disney World the happiest place on earth is an exaggeration, but after being here and going to all the orientations I can handle and being schooled on everything Disney....I'm not sure that it is. I think I can speak for most of the women in my house when I say that we are so thrilled to be here. There is a reason families and people of all ages have been coming here for 40 years to escape and jump feet first into a world of fantasy. Even behind the scenes, it truly is magical. There's just something about this place that makes your heart skip a beat and your stomach do flips. The fact that I'm actually going to be a part of making that magic happen for other people almost brings me to tears at times.

Culinary school was an experience like no other. It wasn't always good, or pretty, or easy....but I learned a lot about myself, I became a much better cook and I met some of the most amazing people that I've ever known in my life. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to finish this. I wouldn't have had the drive or the desire to do something so well. I am proud of myself, but almost more so because I realize that this is just the beginning. Even though my 'school' journey is just about finished, the rest of this little trip is just starting.

When Christina and I first arrived in Orlando, we decided to explore some local places that we don't have back home. Within three days we had some of the best English (fish & chips and Cornish Pasties), Thai (mmm, Pad Thai and Red Curry Chicken) and Greek (Gyros) that I've ever had. I'm talking mouth watering, smack your momma (though I would never smack mine), fall on the floor and cry good food. I know we can't go out to eat every night, but holy wow there are some amazing little hole in the wall joints down here in Florida. I can't wait to go back to Stage Door on a Sunday and have the English Sunday dinner. And the Vietnamese coffee we had at Viet Thai....I could have finished off a whole pot. There's definitely nothing like living in a house of culinary people who don't mind going into a place that looks a little seedy.

I am going to pick back up here. I think I'll start with posting a recipe tomorrow and pouring myself back into writing. Not having a TV in the apartment will leave me with little excuses.

I think I can thank my friend Jamie for this sudden desire to do all the things I've been wanting to do for so long. I met her when I was twenty-one, she was just half a year older than me. Over the last few years, we haven't been as close, but she was always my J-money and we had a very close bond. I found out after I got out of work today that she committed suicide last night. It breaks my heart in a way that words can't describe, but as I've gotten older I've really realized that you can't internalize things like this. Other people's behavior doesn't always make sense and it's pretty sure that most of us will never understand why people take their own lives. I love her and will miss her terribly, but losing her will only push me forward and remind me every day that this life is too short to take for granted and if I don't reach out and take everything that I want and work for it...I may never get it at all.

So here I am, starting a brand new career at thirty. I am surrounded by friends and family (and roommates) who love me and support me at every turn and I really couldn't be more grateful. Losing someone only makes me realize that more and makes me want to strive to be the very best I could possibly be.

The most wonderful part about all of this, to me, is a conversation Dina and I had when we were vacationing at Disney in 2007. We schemed and plotted and giggled about how we were going to quit our jobs and move to Florida so we could work at Disney World and never leave. What I thought was a silly pipe dream is here, and even if it only turns out to be four months....I can already imagine they will be four of the best months that I have ever had.

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." -Volta

Eat happy,
Lauren