Wow. Hello, world. It's nice to see you again.
I really couldn't describe what I've been doing for the past two weeks... it's been a major blur of MTV, MCAT, working and sleeping. A couple of things in particular stand out, though.
1. I. Love. Jersey. Shore. I seriously never understood everyone's infatuation with the shore, and had even tried to watch an episode here and there with no interest. About two weeks ago, my world changed. MTV aired the entire season, and I figured if I was ever going to understand the fuss, I should start with the beginning. I ingeniously DVRed the entire thing. Excellent decision #1. Then I watched all 10 or 12 or however many episodes in two days. Excellent decision #2. Words cannot describe the amazingness. Meet me at the shore. (Not a joke. SB '12?)
2. My beautiful big sissy came last Saturday night!! She is settling in quite nicely and tells me that Austin is a great city if you don't have a job. She walks to Central Market every other day, makes tasty salad dressings, and scopes out fun things for us to do. Which would be great except that...
3. My life has been consumed by working. Seriously. I started teaching my own swim classes on Monday of this week. The combination of getting up at 7:15 am (oh, McKee, I now understand your pain), teaching seven classes straight without a break, losing my voice (like, completely, no sound coming out) from yelling in a noisy indoor pool, and blisters on the bottom of my feet from the pool surface has meant that by the time I get home every day, I am completely unable to do anything but take a nap. But... I LOVE it. It is soooooo fun and rewarding. My shifts fly by as I get to play in the water and be a kid again. Today four(!) of my beginners took their very first independent swims, and I swear I have never been more excited. I'm loving every minute of it. (Aside from the fact that I sound like Minnie Mouse.)
4. This whole MCAT prep thing is starting to get serious. I started my class four weeks ago, and the workload is really starting to build up. I guess I never took this test all that seriously, but it's starting to feel like I'll never be ready for it. There is so much material to cover, and I can hardly keep my eyes open at night to study it. Is it really possible that I'm looking forward to school starting up again, so that I don't have to study for this? Strange.
5. After a tiring week, Fran and I did have time to enjoy a lovely afternoon and evening. Eager to see some real-live-people, oogle some soccer players, and watch some Texas Baseball, we headed over to Cuatro's this afternoon to watch the Uraguay vs. France game of the World Cup. The patio was insane - it was completely packed, and they had taken over an adjacent parking lot to build a temporary tent with huge TVs for game-watching. It was a perfect atmosphere to enjoy the soccer (futbol) in - every big play had some people cheering wildly and some dejectedly moaning. We also had the pleasure of meeting a middle-aged, self-titled "Local Drunk," who made sure to check on us every so often. Pleasantly surprising, he turned out to be a nice guy who did not try to hit on girls twenty years younger than him. Just a generally friendly local drunk. After the game, most people cleared out and we watched the sad end of the Texas vs. TCU Super Regional College World Series game. Beautiful afternoon, disappointing result. After the game, we stopped at Central Market to pick up some sausages (shout out to JackAttack and her sausage fetish), peppers and onions to grill for dinner. We had us a lovely little barbecue down at the A pool. Generally good way to end a long week.
6. One last note: I am quite disturbed by our apparently eminent move to the Pac-10. I have no desire to be associated with the weakness that is the west coast. A word of warning to our potential future conference: You had best think twice before inviting the greatest division in college football, aka the Big-12 south, to join your conference. An another word of warning, to our own beloved football team: I expect nothing less than total, complete domination.
Miss you all!! Like a LOT. Let's set up skype dates soon. I mean it this time, I'm ready to stop being a weird hermit. And... tell me when you'll be back!! HDunn and Jack - mid June, yes? Come play with meeeeeeeeee!!! Peace and blessings, peace and blessings.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Gym 1 Irene 0
Well, I made it out of my cozy tiger bed.
Unfortunately, my destination of choice was the gym, which then preceded to thoroughly dominate me. Towards the end of the school year, I was getting serious about running and training for a 10k. Life was good. I could run 5.5 miles, even if a bear wasn't chasing me. (Unlike Kara, I do not regularly BYOBear.) Then I started having severe, persistent pain in the arch of my left foot, which left me limping around, definitely not running. A visit to the UHS suggested that it was an overuse injury, either plantar fasciitis (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/plantar-fasciitis/ds00508) or a stress fracture. Treatment: no running for 4-6 weeks, and then we would reevaluate.
Much to Jacklyn's amusement, I spent 5 weeks pedaling away on the stationary bike (exercise purgatory) and occasionally testing my foot on the elliptical. Quite honestly, I didn't get much exercise the last two weeks of rest - between finals and traveling, I let it slide.
Big mistake. Last Wednesday, officially 5 weeks of rest, I decided it was time to start running again. I was expecting it to be tough, to have lost some distance and maybe a little speed. I was not expecting 2 miles flat to feel like I was scaling Everest for 50 miles or so. I was literally so sweaty that my shirt was a solid (wet) color and you couldn't really tell I'd been sweating. Upon further examination, it was also revealed that any upper body strength I once had was simply gone. Tonight was my third run since starting back up again, and it hadn't gotten any easier. Push ups had gotten slightly easier, although they brought back fond memories of CJ screaming at us in the Rec. Ok, another goal for the summer: get back in shape!
Side note - any fathers out there that happen to be reading this:
I do not recommend bringing your small children to the gym and setting them loose to swing on the weight machines and/or harass other patrons by bouncing the exercise balls in their personal space while you run obliviously on the treadmill. I swear I almost had to call 911 for any number of potential accidents.
Earlier this afternoon, I made some homemade ranch dressing and hard boiled eggs, planning to make a Cobb salad for dinner. When I returned from my session at the gym, however, I wasn't in the mood for bacon (shocking!) and creamy dressing. Instead, I made a sweet rice wine vinaigrette, reminiscent of Cafe Intermezzo's (one of my FAVORITE places to eat in Berkeley) to top this chopped salad of romaine, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, beets and hard boiled egg. (Today I learned on True Life: I Want the Perfect Body II that eggs are an excellent source of protein.)
Salad was delicious, as was the New York Super Fudge Chunk I ate out of the carton after. I think I'm finally starting to tire of the hermit lifestyle and seriously missing my girls. Some Skype in the very near future, please? Miss you all! XOXO
Unfortunately, my destination of choice was the gym, which then preceded to thoroughly dominate me. Towards the end of the school year, I was getting serious about running and training for a 10k. Life was good. I could run 5.5 miles, even if a bear wasn't chasing me. (Unlike Kara, I do not regularly BYOBear.) Then I started having severe, persistent pain in the arch of my left foot, which left me limping around, definitely not running. A visit to the UHS suggested that it was an overuse injury, either plantar fasciitis (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/plantar-fasciitis/ds00508) or a stress fracture. Treatment: no running for 4-6 weeks, and then we would reevaluate.
Much to Jacklyn's amusement, I spent 5 weeks pedaling away on the stationary bike (exercise purgatory) and occasionally testing my foot on the elliptical. Quite honestly, I didn't get much exercise the last two weeks of rest - between finals and traveling, I let it slide.
Big mistake. Last Wednesday, officially 5 weeks of rest, I decided it was time to start running again. I was expecting it to be tough, to have lost some distance and maybe a little speed. I was not expecting 2 miles flat to feel like I was scaling Everest for 50 miles or so. I was literally so sweaty that my shirt was a solid (wet) color and you couldn't really tell I'd been sweating. Upon further examination, it was also revealed that any upper body strength I once had was simply gone. Tonight was my third run since starting back up again, and it hadn't gotten any easier. Push ups had gotten slightly easier, although they brought back fond memories of CJ screaming at us in the Rec. Ok, another goal for the summer: get back in shape!
Side note - any fathers out there that happen to be reading this:
I do not recommend bringing your small children to the gym and setting them loose to swing on the weight machines and/or harass other patrons by bouncing the exercise balls in their personal space while you run obliviously on the treadmill. I swear I almost had to call 911 for any number of potential accidents.
Earlier this afternoon, I made some homemade ranch dressing and hard boiled eggs, planning to make a Cobb salad for dinner. When I returned from my session at the gym, however, I wasn't in the mood for bacon (shocking!) and creamy dressing. Instead, I made a sweet rice wine vinaigrette, reminiscent of Cafe Intermezzo's (one of my FAVORITE places to eat in Berkeley) to top this chopped salad of romaine, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, beets and hard boiled egg. (Today I learned on True Life: I Want the Perfect Body II that eggs are an excellent source of protein.)
Salad was delicious, as was the New York Super Fudge Chunk I ate out of the carton after. I think I'm finally starting to tire of the hermit lifestyle and seriously missing my girls. Some Skype in the very near future, please? Miss you all! XOXO
Stuck in my cozy tiger bed.
I have become a hermit.
No seriously. It's been days since I left the house to go anywhere other than Kaplan or work. Most of my time is spent giving in to the gravitational force of the futon/True Life marathon combination. Occasionally, I venture to the gym or the pool.
I'm loving every minute of it.
Friday night was the first official culinary experiment of the summer. On Wednesday, I wandered down to the Farmer's Market in Triangle Park. The market is in full swing - tons of vendors offer their fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads and meats while kids and dogs play in the fountains. Following the suggestion of Alice Waters, I didn't go with anything specific in mind - just to select what looked fresh, interesting and delicious.
Lots of things fit this description. I picked up a basket of small, juicy peaches that smelled too good to pass up. I also bought a whole grain baguette from Texas French Bread (http://www.texasfrenchbread.com/). This bread has proven to be the best French bread I've found in Texas, so far.
At the end of the market was a man selling, among other vegetables, beets. I love beets but have never tried to cook them before. I decided this was the perfect opportunity. Not being a big fan of cooked greens, I initially selected beets that did not have their leafy tops attached. The farmer, however, convinced me that I was missing out - he said that the greens were the best part of the beets and that their flavor was better than any other greens. I took his word for it.
Cooking the beets was easy. I wrapped them in foil and roasted in the oven for a little over an hour. After letting them cool, I peeled and sliced them. I chose to use them in a composed salad with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese, topped with oregano, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Success? Definitely.
Now it was time to cook the greens. Still a little bit apprehensive, I found a recipe for beet greens that involved my favorite vegetable of all: bacon. After sauteing some bacon (mmmm!), chopped onions and garlic, I added some water, crushed red pepper and a little bit of sugar, then braised the greens in the cooking liquid. After they were tender, I finished them off with a little bit of cider vinegar.
Ok, I know they don't look that appetizing (I swear they looked better in person), but they tasted DELICIOUS. They were sweet, smoky, tangy and flavorful. Definitely worth repeating. The only thing that would have made them taste better would been if Jack had been here to nervously watch, laugh when I forgot to hold down the top of the Brita down and spilled water everywhere, and pause Degrassi to come over and try them.
Here's the recipe if anyone's interested in trying it :)
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_greens/
Next up: tonight I'm going to attempt Cobb salad with homemade ranch dressing. (Shout out to Jonathon...) That is, if I can tear myself away from Jersey Shore.
No seriously. It's been days since I left the house to go anywhere other than Kaplan or work. Most of my time is spent giving in to the gravitational force of the futon/True Life marathon combination. Occasionally, I venture to the gym or the pool.
I'm loving every minute of it.
Friday night was the first official culinary experiment of the summer. On Wednesday, I wandered down to the Farmer's Market in Triangle Park. The market is in full swing - tons of vendors offer their fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads and meats while kids and dogs play in the fountains. Following the suggestion of Alice Waters, I didn't go with anything specific in mind - just to select what looked fresh, interesting and delicious.
Lots of things fit this description. I picked up a basket of small, juicy peaches that smelled too good to pass up. I also bought a whole grain baguette from Texas French Bread (http://www.texasfrenchbread.com/). This bread has proven to be the best French bread I've found in Texas, so far.
At the end of the market was a man selling, among other vegetables, beets. I love beets but have never tried to cook them before. I decided this was the perfect opportunity. Not being a big fan of cooked greens, I initially selected beets that did not have their leafy tops attached. The farmer, however, convinced me that I was missing out - he said that the greens were the best part of the beets and that their flavor was better than any other greens. I took his word for it.
Cooking the beets was easy. I wrapped them in foil and roasted in the oven for a little over an hour. After letting them cool, I peeled and sliced them. I chose to use them in a composed salad with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese, topped with oregano, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Success? Definitely.
Now it was time to cook the greens. Still a little bit apprehensive, I found a recipe for beet greens that involved my favorite vegetable of all: bacon. After sauteing some bacon (mmmm!), chopped onions and garlic, I added some water, crushed red pepper and a little bit of sugar, then braised the greens in the cooking liquid. After they were tender, I finished them off with a little bit of cider vinegar.
Ok, I know they don't look that appetizing (I swear they looked better in person), but they tasted DELICIOUS. They were sweet, smoky, tangy and flavorful. Definitely worth repeating. The only thing that would have made them taste better would been if Jack had been here to nervously watch, laugh when I forgot to hold down the top of the Brita down and spilled water everywhere, and pause Degrassi to come over and try them.Here's the recipe if anyone's interested in trying it :)
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_greens/
Next up: tonight I'm going to attempt Cobb salad with homemade ranch dressing. (Shout out to Jonathon...) That is, if I can tear myself away from Jersey Shore.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent
It's been a crazy couple of days, filled with MCAT prep and traffic on Mopac, but I've finally found some time to update the blog for the last week or so.
Last Wednesday, I returned home to northern California for my beautiful sister's graduation from UC Berkeley. I was looking forward to some sunny May weather, and packed lots of shorts, tank tops and sundresses, accordingly. I threw a fleece into my bag as an afterthought, just in case it happened to get chilly one night. Mistake number one. When Mark Twain said "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," he wasn't kidding. I stepped off the plane to fifty degree temperatures and some light rain. No sunshine in sight. Oh yeah. That's why I don't live here anymore.
We went straight from the airport to the Oakland A's game. Wednesday nights at the Coliseum, fondly referred to as "White Trash Wednesdays," feature $2 tickets and $1 hot dogs. Attending the games brings back major memories from high school and earlier - I've been going to A's games since before I could walk. We met the Piganellis at the game. Always eager to cause some sort of a scene, Kara insisted we get our picture taken with Stomper, the A's large, furry elephant mascot. Stomper, also known as Hairy Elephante, was extremely... excited to have his picture taken with some adult women. I'm pretty sure Kara got the scene she was looking for.
(notice the creeper in the Cal jacket on the left... he was highly interested in the Texas Lonestars featured on my fleece/hat)
Thursday morning started at 7am with some Irish Breakfast tea and Scottish oatmeal. After breakfast, we headed down to the Greek Theatre (http://facilities.calperfs.berkeley.edu/greek/) on the Cal campus for Fran's graduation. Once there, my dad and uncle shared "memories" (or lack there of...) of when they saw Bob Marley perform there during law school. It was still freezing, so I wrapped up in a fleece blanket while we waited for the ceremony to start. There were two notable things about the Department of Cell Biology's graduation ceremony:
1) UC Berkeley is The Best Public University on the Planet. This fact was mentioned at least once per minute. (I guess you have to count the little things when your football team sucks.)
2) Frances doesn't know how to pronounce her own last name. According to the pronunciation guide she wrote for the speaker, we are the "fair-EE-mond" family.
All jokes aside, the ceremony was surprisingly painless and we could not be more proud of Frances for graduating from The Best Public University on the Planet.
After the ceremony, all our family members disbursed for a couple of hours and Fran and I found some grass to take a nap on. We spent a wonderful sixty minutes laying in the grass, planning which cookbooks we would bring to Austin and which Mariah Carey songs we'd sing when we got there.
Refreshed from our nap, we headed up to our dad's house to prepare for Fran's graduation party. Frances had selected a fantastic menu of Berkeley delicacies to celebrate. We had tamales from Cancun (the Mexican restaurant that practically raised us), goat cheese and roasted pepper pizza from Cheeseboard (my favorite California food: http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/Pizza%20Collective/PizzaPage.html), bread and cheese (mmmm goats milk gouda), and grilled vegetables.
Fran had selected an incredible variety of vegetables from the Berkeley Bowl (http://www.berkeleybowl.com/) for us to grill. She and I spent the afternoon slicing, peeling, blanching and marinating them in preparation for the party. While we worked, we dreamed about the restaurant we would one day run from our farm. Always practical, Frances decided that while she'd love to have a real restaurant, it would be fine with her if it were "just open once a week for close friends and family." You know, like a dinner party.
How gorgeous are these vegetables? I know I'm slightly more food obsessed than the average person, but I really can't think of anything prettier than a huge selection of vegetables.
The party was wonderful, filled with family, old friends and new faces.
Friday we mostly hung around the house, but my mom and I did make a trip out to Walnut Creek for Nordstrom and a pedicure. I got a fabulous new pair of shoes to show off my pedicure.
Saturday brought coffee at Peet's, a walk around the Lafayette Reservoir and a massive salad from Cafe Intermezzo. To celebrate Fran's graduation and 22nd birthday, for dinner we went to Greens in San Francisco. Greens is an all vegetarian restaurant in a old building of Fort Mason, which is right on the water. We could see sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge from our table.
Frances, Rondi and I all had "Sweet pea ravioli with spring peas, fava beans, spring onions, green garlic, pine nuts, meyer lemon butter, chive blossoms and grana padano." It was spectacularly delicious. I'm now inspired to learn how to make my own pasta.
This brings me to the mission for the summer. Frances and I have decided to try to cook our way through Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food. I have no idea if this will actually be possible. However, my real goal for this summer is go from being someone who's pretty good at following a recipe to a genuinely good cook.
Get excited, future roommates. I'll keep you updated on my progress. :)
Last Wednesday, I returned home to northern California for my beautiful sister's graduation from UC Berkeley. I was looking forward to some sunny May weather, and packed lots of shorts, tank tops and sundresses, accordingly. I threw a fleece into my bag as an afterthought, just in case it happened to get chilly one night. Mistake number one. When Mark Twain said "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," he wasn't kidding. I stepped off the plane to fifty degree temperatures and some light rain. No sunshine in sight. Oh yeah. That's why I don't live here anymore.
We went straight from the airport to the Oakland A's game. Wednesday nights at the Coliseum, fondly referred to as "White Trash Wednesdays," feature $2 tickets and $1 hot dogs. Attending the games brings back major memories from high school and earlier - I've been going to A's games since before I could walk. We met the Piganellis at the game. Always eager to cause some sort of a scene, Kara insisted we get our picture taken with Stomper, the A's large, furry elephant mascot. Stomper, also known as Hairy Elephante, was extremely... excited to have his picture taken with some adult women. I'm pretty sure Kara got the scene she was looking for.
(notice the creeper in the Cal jacket on the left... he was highly interested in the Texas Lonestars featured on my fleece/hat)Thursday morning started at 7am with some Irish Breakfast tea and Scottish oatmeal. After breakfast, we headed down to the Greek Theatre (http://facilities.calperfs.berkeley.edu/greek/) on the Cal campus for Fran's graduation. Once there, my dad and uncle shared "memories" (or lack there of...) of when they saw Bob Marley perform there during law school. It was still freezing, so I wrapped up in a fleece blanket while we waited for the ceremony to start. There were two notable things about the Department of Cell Biology's graduation ceremony:
1) UC Berkeley is The Best Public University on the Planet. This fact was mentioned at least once per minute. (I guess you have to count the little things when your football team sucks.)
2) Frances doesn't know how to pronounce her own last name. According to the pronunciation guide she wrote for the speaker, we are the "fair-EE-mond" family.
All jokes aside, the ceremony was surprisingly painless and we could not be more proud of Frances for graduating from The Best Public University on the Planet.
After the ceremony, all our family members disbursed for a couple of hours and Fran and I found some grass to take a nap on. We spent a wonderful sixty minutes laying in the grass, planning which cookbooks we would bring to Austin and which Mariah Carey songs we'd sing when we got there.
Refreshed from our nap, we headed up to our dad's house to prepare for Fran's graduation party. Frances had selected a fantastic menu of Berkeley delicacies to celebrate. We had tamales from Cancun (the Mexican restaurant that practically raised us), goat cheese and roasted pepper pizza from Cheeseboard (my favorite California food: http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/Pizza%20Collective/PizzaPage.html), bread and cheese (mmmm goats milk gouda), and grilled vegetables.
Fran had selected an incredible variety of vegetables from the Berkeley Bowl (http://www.berkeleybowl.com/) for us to grill. She and I spent the afternoon slicing, peeling, blanching and marinating them in preparation for the party. While we worked, we dreamed about the restaurant we would one day run from our farm. Always practical, Frances decided that while she'd love to have a real restaurant, it would be fine with her if it were "just open once a week for close friends and family." You know, like a dinner party.
How gorgeous are these vegetables? I know I'm slightly more food obsessed than the average person, but I really can't think of anything prettier than a huge selection of vegetables.
The party was wonderful, filled with family, old friends and new faces.
Friday we mostly hung around the house, but my mom and I did make a trip out to Walnut Creek for Nordstrom and a pedicure. I got a fabulous new pair of shoes to show off my pedicure.
Saturday brought coffee at Peet's, a walk around the Lafayette Reservoir and a massive salad from Cafe Intermezzo. To celebrate Fran's graduation and 22nd birthday, for dinner we went to Greens in San Francisco. Greens is an all vegetarian restaurant in a old building of Fort Mason, which is right on the water. We could see sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge from our table.
Frances, Rondi and I all had "Sweet pea ravioli with spring peas, fava beans, spring onions, green garlic, pine nuts, meyer lemon butter, chive blossoms and grana padano." It was spectacularly delicious. I'm now inspired to learn how to make my own pasta.
This brings me to the mission for the summer. Frances and I have decided to try to cook our way through Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food. I have no idea if this will actually be possible. However, my real goal for this summer is go from being someone who's pretty good at following a recipe to a genuinely good cook.
Get excited, future roommates. I'll keep you updated on my progress. :)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The Beginning
Dearest Ladyfriends (and any non-lady friends who happen to be reading this),
I have made a blog. I expect you all to read it regularly, as well as faithfully update your own. Deal?
I already miss you all terribly! Four days in California have been fun, but I'm ready go to back to Austin tomorrow. We've done lots of cooking and really good eating. (Pictures to come!) Lots of (non-boxed) wine drinking, too. We tried to make strawberry margaritas for Fran's graduation party, but they didn't come out near as well as ours have, probably because we used fresh lime juice instead of frozen limeade. We've taken some hikes, done some yoga and complained about the fact that May in Berkeley is as warm as Austin in February. Fran's hipster friends tried to correct my usage of the word y'all. Child, please. I have lots of pictures, but I left my camera cord in Austin, so y'all will just have to wait a few days for me to post them.
More later!!
Miss you all thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!
I have made a blog. I expect you all to read it regularly, as well as faithfully update your own. Deal?
I already miss you all terribly! Four days in California have been fun, but I'm ready go to back to Austin tomorrow. We've done lots of cooking and really good eating. (Pictures to come!) Lots of (non-boxed) wine drinking, too. We tried to make strawberry margaritas for Fran's graduation party, but they didn't come out near as well as ours have, probably because we used fresh lime juice instead of frozen limeade. We've taken some hikes, done some yoga and complained about the fact that May in Berkeley is as warm as Austin in February. Fran's hipster friends tried to correct my usage of the word y'all. Child, please. I have lots of pictures, but I left my camera cord in Austin, so y'all will just have to wait a few days for me to post them.
More later!!
Miss you all thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!
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