When I was 9, I made an apron out of a dishtowel with colorful fish all over it.

So I'm home, and it's weird. It's green here. And rainy. But really warm.

Today I discovered in my junk mail folder something sent to me about a mandatory federal loan exit counseling session, since I'm not going to be enrolled so my loans start needing payment. And I was like OH SHIT OH SHIT but then it turns out it's an online counseling appointment? So I clicked through this website that told me lots of stuff about my loans. And at the end it had a little calculator so I could figure out how much money I needed to make in order to pay off my loans in 10 years. According to the calculator, I need to make at least $3.61 an hour, $640something a month, and $7500 dollars a year for ten years. I think I can do that. It'll be tough, but I can handle it.

Dinner tonight: Galettes! Actually, it's kind of a clean-out-the-fridge kind of meal, because we don't have an awful lot of food in the house. So I took some broccoli and made a little broccoli-garlic sauté with toasted walnuts and white wine, and soon enough I will put it into pie crust and fold the pie crust around it, then bake it and put cheese on top of it and eat it with great relish. Oh, and a couple of the galettes will have fresh tomato in them too. I chose not to sauté the tomato, because I want the tangy taste of a fresher tomato against the darker flavors of roasted garlic and broccoli. It will probably bake in the oven to be cooked-tasting anyhow, I just don't want it overcooked.

Another weird thing about California: fresh produce? In the winter? Not that I'm complaining...

Tomorrow I look for a job, preferably at a restaurant kitchen. My options:

1) Los Olivos Café. A nice little place with good ambiance and vaguely Italian food. It was featured in the movie Sideways so it's been very popular since then. Also has a wine bar. Has a history of employing younger people on the wait staff.
2) Mattei's Tavern. Built in an old stagecoach station, a pretty nice restaurant. But I haven't been there in years. Apparently the wait staff get really good tips. More popular than its quality warrants, and apparently expanding, so they are liable to be hiring. Yay?
My most vivid memory of Mattei's is being there with family friends, one of whom ordered plain noodles with butter, and being astounded that someone could fathom eating something so bland. The concept of noodles with butter had never even occurred to me.
3) Petros, the local hotel's Greek restaurant. Good but overpriced, apparently. I've never been, but it's less than a year old. Maybe hiring? Maybe not.
4) Patrick's Sidestreet Cafe. A tiny little restaurant-cum-art-gallery with an open kitchen, this is definitely the best restaurant in town. Patrick is a brilliant chef (trained at the Culinary Institute of America) and nothing I've had there has ever been less than superb. However, I've been warned away from applying because people who know Patrick say he's CRAZY bipolar, and liable to be impossible to work with. You know those crazy artists.

And the list of "restaurants I can walk to" ends. If I don't get a kitchen job at any, I'll apply for a table-waiting position. I also have the option of working at a coffee shop or one of two delis in town. Unfortunately, most shops in town are wine tasting rooms, and I'm not 21.

Well, time to get back to dinner. Those galettes won't fill, fold, and bake on their own!