a state of panic?

I'm not sure I've reached it yet... I definitely have insomnia now though...

I graduate from my Pastry & Baking program on Monday. Can you believe it went that fast? No? Me neither! On Friday we had the written part of our final exam, 1 hour... on Monday we have the practical part of our final exam - making molded chocolates... I'm not so concerned about that. I love chocolate. Chocolate and I have a deep spiritual connection and I've been trying to hone that connection while working with chocolate over the last week and a half making chocolates. I love tempering chocolate (what makes a beautifully made chocolate shiny and have that lovely crack when you bite into it). You send the love out to the product and it returns it by behaving. I had the same feeling with puff pastry, which in fact I just made a "quick version" of in a recreational class on Friday night. It is incredibly relaxing when you have that feeling with something you are making!

But what I am concerned about is completing my chocolate showpiece... every person in class will complete a showpiece that must be at least 50% chocolate to display at our graduation reception and be a variation on the theme "Saturday afternoon." I've chosen to spend my afternoon at the premiere modern art museum in NYC - MoMA. Unfortunately we aren't permitted to work on any part of the showpiece outside of class, so that has forced me to plan as well as possible. But honestly, the time in class flies by so quickly... and on Monday we have even less of it than usual, after completeing our practical, hopefully we will have at least 2 hours to finish up... wish me luck... I will post pics of my piece as soon as I can next week.

And also my business plan for Culinary Management is also a severe cause for concern... lots of work so do on this thing... in fact, I need to finish this post so I can maybe (but probably not) do a little work before I close my eyes for the evening...