It took moving out of the bay area, buying a house, multiple insistent friends and a pandemic for me to finally offer my baked goods for sale. Followed by creating a platform for which to do this on, and share my stories, experiences, and travels. It was recently brought to my attention that it has been 14 years…..14 years since I finished a 6 month pastry program back in San Francisco! And so then 15 years since I completed a 3 month program in Maryland. It’s not like I stopped baking during that time, I still baked, but for friends and family. For me, for fun. Back then I was working a full time and then some job, spending my afternoons on the water on a dragon boat or at the gym taking or teaching a class. In between I’d make some stuff and then share it with everyone around me. All along I would keep up with new trends, try new bakes and share my experiences at random on Facebook. Every once in a while I thought how helpful it may be to pick up some hours at a local bakery, but with all my other activities and work, I never really found a place where I could make it work. So I just continued to bake for the mere love of creating something that someone would love.
Jump forward a few years, and I have decided to make the move and come back to the East coast and leave my beloved San Francisco! Three years later, and I still miss it, but I am closer to family here, closer to family in Greece. We all move on and that most certainly means a trip or two a year to the Bay Area per year will be in my plan book. Even after this crazy year, I feel so much closer to some of my friends; we speak more than once a week whether by text or phone or facetime. I’ve built lasting friendships for which no amount of distance will change how we interact the next time we see each other. And so sharing what I do, sending a random surprise package to someone I haven’t seen in awhile, and writing random blog stories is my way of continuing the friendship. Just a few thousand miles away.
Truth be told, I am no writer, so the blogging part of my website is just somewhere for me to share my thoughts. Ask anyone I have worked with or work with now, I have a tendency to talk to myself. Well I also have a tendency to have long drawn out stories in my head too! (I swear I am not crazy!) So finally rather than continue to have these going through my mind, I tried writing them out, and from there I decided to share them. Because after all, what I was thinking was really something I wanted to share. So when you are reading some of my stories, these are really random thoughts that were floating in my head and the only way to stop thinking about them was for me to just write it down. I’m definitely not out to become the next top blogger, and whether you take the time to read what I’m writing or choose not too, it’s ok. Like I said, most of these are just stories in my head, and by writing them somewhere, I make room for more random thoughts.
Longest story short, last week I returned to work. It’s not full time, but it’s time away from my house where I have spent the last 14months hanging out on my deck, in my living room, out in my back lot, or in my kitchen. There are so many people that are still waiting to get that call back to return and some that got the call that regretfully they are not returning. So rather than share a NEWS FLASH, I just put one foot forward, get in my office and start to relearn what I was doing for 10+ years prior to this circumstance. I am hopeful that slowly we will get back to a new normal, that one day I will be complaining about how crazy work is and how I need a vacation. The hospitality industry that was hit very hard, will have a tremendous bounce back. Families that previously put off travel because of work, will travel, they will spend more time together. Companies will begin to have conferences again. People will leave their homes and see the world and we will be busy once again. And I know, this may take a year before we see or feel the effect of it, but it will happen. But just because I am back working, does not mean that my kitchen has closed. All the time I have spent in the kitchen and sharing my bakes is just another skill I will add to my repertoire. My availability will be more limited, but definitely not non existent!!
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