If you are, I have friends in TX that I visit a few times a year, in the DFW area, mostly.
We have a lot in common. I'd like to share "M" war-stories and beers, next time I'm down there.
In the mean time....
That is awesome on taking cooking classes!! In one of my careers I was a sous-chef, and I'm teaching my sons. A very useful, and tasty, and enjoyable skill to acquire, I find the focus calms me...plus I have yet to discover a woman who DOES NOT find a man who knows his way around a kitchen sexy...just sayin'.
Regardless of the outcome of the sitch, know this:
You're going to make it, you're coming home.
Why?
Because F*** That.
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. - Albert Camus
Uncertainty is the very condition which impels people to unfold their powers.-Eric Fromm