The First Steps

**Gulp**  Well, I did it...

I officially signed up for the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association's ServSafe class.  A class like this is mandatory in the state of PA for any restaurant that wants to open.  It teaches me all sorts of health codes, how to keep my kitchen clean, and how to serve customers in a sanitary environment.  If I want to open a bakery this is a must complete.  I have an 8 hour course and then 3 hour written exam.  I must pass with a 75% to receive my certification.  Go ahead and start praying now.

The whole event cost me $175.  That's a lot of money for a girl who is still trying to recover from her $100,000 dollar investment at Geneva College.  I'm trying not to think about all the things I "could've bought" with that money, and instead focusing on the blessing's I have received this far in my short journey to be able to afford that class.  Hopefully I will pass the test on my first time so I don't have to pay the extra fee to sit for the exam again.

I'm so going to be a fish out of water, though.  I studied history in college.  HISTORY!  Just today I was lecturing a co-worker on 10th Amendment rights, and what that means to us as U.S. citizens. (To be fair, he kind of deserved the lecture.)  You want to talk about the communist fall of the U.S.S.R. in the early 90s, I'm your gal!  Want to debate whether Andrew Jackson did in fact promote genocide on U.S. soil with his treatment of Native Americans, I'll be up all night hashing it out with you.  I'm a nerdy history lover!

...and I just paid $175 to the PARLA to sit for my ServSafe exam.  Yikes!  I'm going to be like that new kid in school who they put in advanced math by accident when she really didn't make it out of Algebra I yet, watching all these people around me sound very dignified and important while I struggle to remember how to FOIL (first, outer, inner, last).  Oh geez, is this going to be difficult.

Crapazola!  I just realized this test is on a Monday!  As in, I have to take a day off work to do this!  **Checks calendar**  Do I even have vacation days left?  I think I do.  And if not, well, guess I'll be using one of my holiday days to sit for the exam.  Yay!!

Now to start studying.  It's like college all over again, except without the random dance parties and ice cream runs. :-(

Lis