Before my current career as supernerd I had another. In my former life I was a superwaitress. I don't mean to brag, but I was an f'ing ROCK STAR. Almost right out of highschool, fresh faced and wet behind the ears I moved to San Jose, Ca. I was dying to be anywhere near California, and also I was trying to get away from the first in a string of losers that I have dated over the years. TGI Fridays was my first job when I got there. I started as a hostess, then moved to busser, and finally to waitress. Since then I have worked restaurant jobs almost non stop, and I currently have a very part time catering job at one of the nicer hotels in Portland. It's sparse work, but it fulfills my need for the food biz. I stopped doing it full time in '02 when I got fired from Widmer, my longest job at that time at 4 years (It really wasn't my fault, but that's not really important to the story). I got my financial aid paperwork in the mail days later and I hadn't even remembered filling it out. I started school a few weeks after that and the rest is Bachelors Degree history (if you're counting it took me a little more than 4 years).
Anyway, at some point this aspect of my life turned me into a foodie. I love restaurants, food, cooking, anything related to it. Not surprisingly, I have a thing for cooks, too. For a good 5 years I didn't date anything but. In fact, that was one of the big things that brought Mike and I together when we first started dating. I remember when he made me a shrimp frittata for breakfast and it looked like it was supposed to! Space or no, food is one of my major passions and it always will be. So if you understand all that about me, you start to get why I love Tony Bourdain so much. But it's not just that.
He wrote a book that is considered required reading for anyone in the business, and a lot of civilians have read it too. One of my favorite parts is a story he told about working in a beach resort town on the East Coast when he was just starting out. It was a seafood place, and the cooks were pirate/biker/convict types; your general ne'er do wells. I think that there is a misconception that chefs are fru fru, frenchy, femme types. They're not, at least not in Portland. Cooks are some of the burliest dudes going, and working in a kitchen can be gnarly, no mercy shit. In fact, Bourdain came to Portland recently specifically calling for tattooed chefs to come be on his show.
Anyway, the story goes he was working some wedding at the carving station, serving the wedding party, only to go out to the back dock later (the general area where deliveries are done and garbage is stored) to find the bride getting it from behind by one of the pirate/biker/convict saute guys, dress still on, flipped up over her back. Anyway, the book is pretty fucking good and Bourdain is just as gnarly and hard core as his peers. He has stories of working for the mafia, and he is a raging alcoholic and chain smoker. He also makes fun of vegetarians. But he says "sure, if you want me to serve you a bunch of vegetables and charge $38 for it, I can do that". So there's that.
I finally got extra turned on by him with his latest venture: "No Reservations". Its essentially a cross between a cooking and travel show, and it makes me creamy. Sometimes I have trouble watching it, though. It breaks my heart a little. The only other show that does the same thing is "Globe Trekker" on PBS. I think I have what's called a 'wanderlust'. It is much, much more intense than just a yen to see the world, though. I have always known that would not have a normal, suburban, 9-5, church wedding, 2.5 kids and a dog, volvo, PTA life. The stay-at-home mom life is my fucking nightmare (sorry Melissa). Seriously, it's my idea of hell. In fact, if I do manage to have a kid or two (or adopt them), I think it is much more likely that I will either have a full time live in nanny from a very young age (if I do it alone) or a stay at home dad (if I do it with someone). It's not just the kid thing, though. Settling into the american dream, nuclear family life just seems like accepting, even welcoming, the sweet release of death. The older I get, the greater my aversion to it all grows. Even if I do end up in a lifelong monogomous relationship, I really don't see myself getting married (unless it's in Vegas by and Elvis).
What I'm getting at is I have always seen my destiny, my future as a life much more like the vagabond explorers Jane Goodall and Jacque Coustaeau (I had to include some scientists in there). Seriously, have you seen Jane Goodall lately?
That's the fountain of youth: an occupationally fulfilling life, I don't care what anyone says.
I think that's even the reason why I love Sex and the City so much. All of those women have careers, are successful, and essentially write their own schedules. Carrie writes whenever she feels the urge, and the rest of her time is hers and hers alone.
Needless to say, this life is not quite what I currently have. I'm getting closer: this is the first time I've worked at the hotel in months and I have basically spent my summer working on computers, doing physics, reading books, and learning only the stuff I want to learn. I've also done a fair amount of partying. I haven't done near as much traveling in my life though. The New York thing was a big step, and it has at least satisfied my fear that I'll never do it, but it can only hold me over for so long. Even lately I could be travelling as a lot of my friends are, but I don't get my act together, and I haven't had the money. I am going to Vegas in August.
I know by the time I am a full fledged PhD scientist it will all fall in to place. A big part of the life of a researcher is travelling to conferences, and they often hold them in exotic locales. I can only imagine they have the same deep yearning.
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