My tongue does the dance of many flavors

My teacher for observational drawing has been teaching students how to draw for over 30 years, so I feel pretty good about this class. I need to learn how to draw. At first I kept thinking, "Am I the only one who has never taken an art class before?" Another student said she never had and she didn't feel confident about her drawing abilities, so that made me feel better to know I'm not alone.
"We'll be drawing from life," my gray-haired teacher said. "not from a two-dimensional photo. The light will be different. You'll see." She talked about our final project and how we will use our own items and stage them to draw that composition. I'm excited about this and I want to give it some thought. Who would the drawing be for and what should it include? Mom and Dad naturally come to mind first, but we'll see. Any thoughts?
Our first class assignment today was to sketch something she set up so she could evaluate us and gage our skills so far. We took about an hour to pencil out one of the objects she put out. I picked an exploded-flower-starfish-hybrid looking brass thing and everyone else picked the genie-looking bottle or the copper spittoon looking can. We put our 18x24 drawing pads up on the huge easels, which I've never used before. I had a small one when I was about 12, but I don't remember much about it. Anyway, I had a difficult time trying to adjust to drawing upright: how do I hold my pencil, where do I put my hand? The teacher walked around a few times and I finally told her "I don't know what I'm doing." She said, "You're doing well, you picked a hard one, but you have good perception." Then she explained again to the class that this was just an exercise to see where we are in our skills and that we will learn about depth and value and shading and a whole bunch of other things. She promised and I believe her smiling face.
Here is what I drew today:

Since class got out early today, I decided to try a beer at Park Tavern which is just up the fountain stairs from school. I popped in and a baseball game was on, but I sat at the bar anyway. I'm not afraid of these Rangers fans, I just wanted a snack. The menu is a short selection of gourmet delights. Between roasted red pepper hummus and the pulled pork sandwich with cheese curds, I went with something called "the little jar of jam". It's bacon jam (yes, you read that right) with a  side of pickled cherries, sliced brie and garlic toast from Italian bread. The pickled cherries taste like cherries, just a tad sour. The jam had the consistency of butter with finely crumbled bacon and had a delicate sweet barbecue flavor, which was enhanced with the pickled cherries on top. When I read bacon jam on the menu, I knew that was the snack I had to try! So, let me just say that if you are ever in the shops at Park Lane, stop in for a beer or glass of wine and a snack. I went at happy hour and paid ten bucks for a beer, eats and a tip. http://parktaverndallas.com/north-dallas-restaurant-wine-sports-bar-microbrewery-menu

After that delightful tidbit, I went back to school to partake in the Game Night that was set up. I met Jarred and he invited me to play a game called "Apples to Apples" at his table. This is a great fun game! I had never played it before, but I had seen it played at my beloved 806 in Amarillo. I knew I should have crashed in on those college kids playing when I had the chance. A few students popped in and out - you need at least four people to play - and we kept the game going for a while. Later, I meandered over to the food trucks parked along Greenville (road? boulevard?) and tasted Korean tacos. Yes, Korean tacos. The sauce was spicy like the kimchee red peppers and I had mine with beef, Jarred had his with pork. I thought of my friend Jeff and I think he would have liked it, too.