Before We Go

I had a first draft of this newsletter/blog/journal that I wrote during my last week of work. Upon reading it back it sounded like I was trying to pen the next great American Eat, Pray, Love. So at the end of my little essay I wrote, and I quote “bad bad poopoo stupid” and shut my laptop with the force of a thousand study abroad students trying to impart their wisdom unto ears that are done hearing about how “they don’t give you ice in Europe.”

So here we are again with a new approach. I’m gonna write this like it’s my friggin’ journal. A sloppy place where run on sentences are plentiful, thoughts go unfinished, and most of the time the jokes are only funny to me. So join me why don’t you! While I cannot promise you quality writing, I can promise you words in English (or something of the sort) on a page. The water is warm, and the bar is low.

I first heard about Ballymaloe Cookery School from an old co-worker/friend who wore a lot of linen and made me wish I owned more linen. I had spent 4ish years at a job that was socially very fun and enjoyable but bureaucratically draining. I climbed the ladder and put A LOT of effort into my work, then I was twice, in my opinion, short changed on development opportunities so I stopped putting A LOT of effort into my work and opted for “meeting expectation” instead. While thrilling, it was also emotionally taxing. So cut to this little culinary school my linen clad friend spoke so highly of, I did some investigating. 

Ballymaloe Cookery School has a 12-week intensive program designed to impart their wisdom of cooking on an organic farm to the layperson. Intriguing to me, who has some sizable culinary experience in food-styling but was eager to learn how make the food look pretty AND taste good. So off we go…

…onto a waitlist for the September 2023 session. Everything had been booked out so my decision was this: I will job hunt and I will also have this- whichever comes to me first is the winner. I was offered a job in June and I said “yuck, no, bad” to that job because it was yuck and no and also bad. Luck would have it a few weeks later in mid July I found out I had a spot at Ballymaloe if I wanted it. Smash cut to ~3 existential crisis-fueled nights of me hunched over a calculator wearing a green visor crunching the numbers we said YES.

We then quit my job, and cried, said goodbye for a few months to my friends, family and boyfriend, and cried, and finally felt used and abused by the security of London Heathrow airport (which I guess is par for the course), cried only a little and now I wait at my gate to take me on the final leg of my journey to Cork, Ireland to get this show on the damn road. I’m so tired <3.

So I think that’s all I got right now. Stay tuned for this if you’d like! Thank you for reading. Lots of silly and goofy little updates to come. 

Kisses!

Inspired by friend Grace who writes a fabulous newsletter, I made a playlist that will accrue new songs along with each post. You can find that here: BallymaBlog Playlist