I was hoping we’d also learn some self defense skills, but no.

April 4th, 2008

Yes, I know it’s April.*

I know it’s April, and I have 4 problems finished, and that averages one per month, I know this.

Not on track for success, you might be thinking, but I disagree. Do you know how cold and horrible and snowy it’s been in Chicago? I’m not trying to make excuses for myself here, I’m just sayin’ all I want to do is stay in and watch movies. I do not feel like going out and taking the world by storm when it’s 37 degrees outside. I feel like taking my couch by storm, or the refrigerator by storm.

But rest assured, once it’s above 50 degrees for more than 1 day in row, I’ll be doing so much you won’t know what hit you! Just wait, just you wait!

Moving on, look! Another problem solved. I took a Knife Skillz class at The Chopping Block with Amy and Chris.

I rode my bike there from work, and completely underestimated how long it would take - I thought 35 min, but in reality it was almost an hour, then I took a wrong turn, so needless to say, I was about 5-10 min late.

I barged in on the pie-making class, all sweaty and a big mess, and you know how when you ride your bike a long way you get a runny nose? I had that too.

They had to pause the class to register me, and I said to the woman “I.. *breath, breath, breath* just rode my bike…*breath, breath, breath*… So far.. Sorry…*breath, breath, breath*..I’m all flustered…”

She gave me that smile people give you when they are silently judging and thinking about how they managed to come to in to the class freshly showered, what a shame that you didn’t.

She led me upstairs where I then interrupted the class I was signed up for. I’m full of good manners.

The class itself went fairly smoothly. We were given a knife lecture, and all I remember from it is that knives are expensive and come from Germany or Japan. Then our teacher had us chop different vegetables, teaching us the importance of… DUH DUH DUNNNNNN….THE CLAW!

Amy demonstrates the claw. Nice job girl.

The claw is a technique wherein you curl your pinky and ring finger back so they don’t get chopped off, and then hold the object down with your first and middle finger curled under kinda funky. It’s very uncomfortable and felt weird, but you know, safety first.

We also learned how to chop properly, and what was amusing about this part of the class was that our teacher had an assistant who didn’t always agree with what she said. She would show how to chop Vegetable A, and he would go around and mumble something like “well, SHE does it THIS way, but I do it THIS way…” then she would be hot on his heels correcting us back to HER way. Move on to vegetable B, and repeat.

You could tell that they secretly hated each other, and I sort of got a kick out of it. She even sent him off to get her more onions at one point. SNAP!

That’s like $30,000 in knives right there. Daaaaang.

In the end, I left the class with the desire to own a fancy knife, the realization that I really don’t know anything about cooking, the smell of onions on my hands, and most importantly with a problem solved.
*Rant based completely on one comment.. simon.

Entry Filed under: Problem Solved