Vegan? Vegan!

About a month and a half ago, Ethan asked if I would try a vegan, low-fat diet with him. I responded with a loving, but skeptical, "I guess we could try it". I am so not a hippie. I feel no moral obligations to cows that prevents me from eating them or their milk. But I do have a very strong family history of heart disease, and there is pretty good evidence that a plant-based, low fat diet is the healthiest possible for prevention of heart disease and multiple kinds of cancer.

And the surprise? I actually like it. The first couple of weeks were tough. I was craving fat, salt, and cheese. I am fine with eating almost no meat, but cheese was a BIG deal for me. and Ice Cream. I have a major sweet tooth. But after a couple of weeks, the fat cravings went away. We have been trying out new recipes, and trying foods that I had never eaten before in my entire life (Kale,mustard greens, turnips, parsnips, nutritional yeast, new kinds of peppers). We have explored Indian and Chinese grocery stores and found new kinds of seasonings, and different kinds of lentils and beans. We have tried out grains that I haven't ever had before.

The best part? I can eat as much food as I want. I can eat until I am completely full and I don't feel bad about a single bite of food that goes in my mouth. I don't count calories, but I have lost about 4-5 pounds since changing my diet, and my body feels like I have lost more (Ethan's looking pretty good too, added bonus!). Meals take a bit more planning. I can't just decide I'm tired and I want to go out for a burger and a beer. But I don't feel deprived at all. We both have more energy and we've both noticed our skin clearing up.

You may wonder, "what on earth do they eat?"

Here are a few of the things we've made:

Texas Caviar

 

Asian Slaw with rice vinegar, tamari, and a tiny bit of tahini, over radishes, carrots, parsnips, and cabbage.

 

Home made corn tortillas- SO much better than store-bought if you have the time!

 

Vegetable Fajitas. I'm not sure exactly what Ethan put on them for a marinade but they were the best veggie fajitas I've ever had in my life.

 

We both started taking a vitamin with B12 to keep our bases covered, but we're converts.

Here are the resources that helped us to change our minds:

Forks Over Knives (also on Netflix)

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (Also on Netflix)

The China Study

Sweet Potato Experiment

I previously mentioned that we had some sweet potatoes that were so old they were starting to grow a tiny vine inside our pantry... So I stuck two in the ground and left one out as a science experiment. Here is my science experiment 2 weeks in.



At some point I may cut the vines back and dig up the roots to see if I have more sweet potatoes I could eat! yum.

Hot Stuff

This summer we have been eating a lot of grilled stuff because I hate sweating over a stove when it's 90 out... So Ethan will grill while I stay cool inside and make the salad/ side dishes. Then I come outside to join him and we drink some cold tasty beverages in the shade
I know that most people nowadays prefer cooking with a gas grill because it is more convenient. But when you have your first piece of meat grilled over hickory lump charcoal after years of gas-grilled meats, you will realize that convenience is definitely NOT everything. Using lump charcoal made from real wood adds a smoky richness to food that is really unique and special.
Also, a basic Weber grill costs only about $80 and will last almost forever because it has no movable (breakable) parts. The downside to the basic Weber is that there is no place to put your grilling utensils, and without lighter fluid it can take potentially FOREVER to get the thing hot enough to use:

This is a picture of the first night we got our Grill. It was taken at about 11 PM because it was the first time that Ethan had ever tried to light a charcoal fire without lighter fluid. I think we ended up eating our hamburgers around midnight.

In order to have faster and more efficient grilling, Ethan and I (but mostly Ethan) had to pimp our grill. No, we didn't add a flat screen TV and 20" rims.


We DID add some simple S-hooks to the grill handle, in order to have a place from which to hang the grilling utensils. S hooks cost like a dollar.

Second, Ethan stuck a small metal organizing basket into the bottom part of the grill where the charcoal goes. This keeps the charcoal more organized, so you can use smaller pieces (which light faster) and you can use less charcoal. He then uses strips of twisted paper grocery bags as wicks, which he inserts and lights through the vent holes at the bottom of the grill. This way when the paper begins to burn, the heat rises, in turn lighting the charcoal.

With this advanced grilling technique, Ethan has made such wonderful things as:

hot-dog shaped hamburgers for when you have the wrong kind of bun!


Aussie-style hamburgers

He's also made really awesome steaks, brats, hot dogs, salmon steaks, salmon patties, turkey burgers, chicken, fajitas, and pork chops, but I don't take pictures of everything we eat (I don't think a picture of a grilled chicken breast is super exciting).

Harvest time.

I had to start my orientation this week. The first two days were not that terrible as we were learning Advanced Trauma Life Support (And I start my rotations in the ER, so what we learned is going to be pretty immediately applicable). But today was kind of terrible. I had orientation at the VA and the BEST part of today was a woman dressed up as a giant hand giving us a power-point presentation about how and when to use alcohol-based hand cleaner. I didn't get a picture, unfortunately.
Spending a half a day listening to presentations about billing, compliance, patient safety, hand-washing, coding, fire safety, parking, computer safety, etc is just not my cup of tea. Actually I really spent my time tuning the presentations out while playing on the internet, and I started looking at seed catalogs online. Which brings me around to the topic of our garden!

Today I harvested several jalapenos and a red bell pepper! We are going to roast the red pepper and put it on a pesto and goat's cheese pizza tonight. I'm not sure yet what to do with the jalapenos but they may be pickled.
Our tomato plants started flowering again when the temps got under 100 last week. I tried to pollinate them with my fingers, but I'm not sure if it worked. only time will tell!

The squash that I planted really late in the season (like end of May) have started to flower.

The mammoth sunflowers are almost as tall as our chain-link fence. In the past two weeks they have grown about 2 feet in height.


The top of the sunflower is looking really cool... I'm not a gardening genius but I'm pretty sure this means that it is about to make a flower.


And here is the full view of our garden!


As a reminder, this is what it looked like about a month and a half ago.

Minestrone

One of the favorite things I remember about my dad was his cooking. He may not have cooked every day, and he had a strange habit of combining all of the leftovers in the fridge, tossing them onto a bed of lettuce and dousing it with vinaigrette to make an everything salad... but when he wanted to, he could COOK. His two specialties were Minestrone soup and pasta sauce. Both have a lot of fresh ingredients, and both take pretty much all day simmering on the stove to reach their full deliciousness.
On Sunday, I decided that the time had come for his minestrone to be made again. My decision was heavily influenced by the recent acquisition of a food processor as a wedding gift from Ethan's parents, which made the large amounts of chopped fresh veggies slightly less scary.
We had Ethan's parents over for dinner and ate the soup with crusty, buttered warm french bread and a salad. It was just as delicious as I remembered it, and cooking, smelling, and tasting was such a wonderful reminder of my dad.

Minestrone Soup
(this is a LARGE portion! it was very nearly too much for my 8 quart pot. It makes about 16 meal-sized servings.)

10 cups water + 10 beef bouillon cubes
1 lb beef ribs
Olive oil/butter
2T minced garlic
3/4 head chopped cabbage
1 bunch chopped carrots
1 stalk chopped celery
2 large chopped onions
2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
2 peeled, cubed baking potatoes
4 sliced zucchinis
9 oz frozen green beans
2T Parsley flakes
0.5 T oregano
1T Basil
Pepper to taste

1. Boil beef ribs in water with bouillon cubes for 30 minutes.
2. While beef ribs are boiling, sautee garlic in butter/olive oil 2-3 minutes.
3. Add cabbage, carrots, celery, onions. Sautee 10 minutes or until onions are tender.
4. Add 2 cans tomatoes and simmer 10-15 minutes.
5. Add beef mixture and let simmer 5 mins.(I took ribs out at this point because of pot space; If you have a larger pot, you can leave the ribs in until the very end)
6. Add potatoes, zucchinis, green beans, seasoning. Bring mixture to a boil and then bring down to a simmer for 20 minutes.
I left this on the stove on low for a good 30 minutes to an hour more until we were ready to eat. I think it just made it better.

This soup made me realize how tired I am of the summer. I want cool weather! I want to wear sweaters and eat chili. And pumpkin pie milkshakes from Wild about Harry's. Yum.

pineapple, fried egg, and beet root? oh my!

The other day while researching the best way to season hamburger meat for our Memorial Day cookout (ended up doing 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp onion powder 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper for each lb of meat) I stumbled across a recipe for an Australian-style hamburger. And I was captivated. In my food-eating experience, I have noticed that sometimes things that initially sound like they would be absolutely disgusting actually end up being pretty tasty. (e.g. balsamic-vinegar-flavored ice cream... it was awesome). The Australian burger was one of those things that was simultaneously kind of repulsive but I knew that I would have to try it to find out. I also figured that it couldn't be that bad if a whole bunch of Australians have all collectively decided that this is the best way to top a burger. The ingredients:
hamburger patty
toasted Bun
slice of cheddar cheese
fried onions
pickled beet slices (from a can)
pineapple ring, grilled or fried
hard-fried egg
bacon
sliced tomato
lettuce
barbecue sauce

The resultant burger was colorful, if somewhat unwieldy.


Ethan and I both agreed that the burgers were actually very nice; the flavors combined to create a comfortably exciting taste. And Reagan appreciated being fed the scraps that we weren't able to finish because the burgers were so freaking ginormous. We won't make burgers this way every time (it's more labor intensive because of frying the onion, pineapple, bacon, and egg) but it definitely be kept in our burger-making rotation. I'm really happy that E is as adventurous an eater as I am; one of our favorite things to do is stay home with a bottle of beer or a glass of wine and and try cooking and eating new kinds of foods. Also, he doesn't make fun of me if I tear up during a tv show (watched the Grey's season finale last night online... it was a little too heavy)

Ethan and the dingo:


Now we're going to go out and sing karaoke and drink Shiner in honor of me finishing family medicine. I have succeeded in getting Ethan hooked on karaoke, which is pretty much perfect.

Do you Fondue?

If you have a random fondue pot sitting around gathering dust, you should stop that and use it. We did with marvelous results.
Recipe for Chocolate Fondue (as made by E, because he's awesome):
2 Cups Milk Chocolate chips (we used ghiradelli)
3 Tbsp Heavy Cream
2 Tbsp liqueur (or red wine if you have none)
Dash of Cinnamon

Heat up the chocolate chips on moderate heat in the microwave, stirring them to melt them. Then add the heavy cream, stirring the entire time. Then add the liqueur and stir again, then add cinnamon. Then dip anything and everything you can find into the fondue. We used strawberries, Mandarin Oranges, apple slices, and marshmallows. It makes way more than enough for two people.

For the record, My favorite dipping item was the orange slices, but E liked the marshmallows. I found them a bit too rich.
The fondue is enough food to make a meal if you don't get hung up on the whole finish your vegetables before you get any dessert thing.
in other news, my job/school situation is a joke. and if you don't like med students then definitely go to a private hospital because we're not allowed to touch ANYTHING. the residents hardly are.

what's up.

I spent last weekend in Austin with my family. My sister Shannon had a surprise 30th birthday party for her husband and it was awesome. Family, friends, and unlimited barbecue. I ate a beef rib that made me feel like a Flintstone.

 

Here's the wonderful decorations:

 

Shannon, Ben and Anna:

 

 

then I helped Anna climb a tree outside. Her mommy didn't see this... I'm not sure she would have approved (I was holding on really tight Shannon!)

Finally, Anna helped Shannon to clean out her purse.


I love going to Austin but I'm always tired afterward. This time was worse because I came right back to a call day (32 hour shift). I still like the VA though. All my patients sound like movie cowboys... probably because they're all from podunk TX towns and have been smoking three packs a day for forty years.

Here's a list of what I meant to do today when I finished with work (at 2 pm):
1. call grandma, wish her happy birthday
2. take nap
3. do laundry
4. call Brittany
5. get mail
6. work out
7. study
8. groceries
9. pay rent
10. catch up in bible study reading of Heresies and How to Avoid Them (about orthodoxy and heresy in the church. Brings up a lot of things that I never thought to think about before)

Here's what I actually got done:
1. take a nap
2. eat four macaroons bought on sale at Simon David last week because there aren't many Jews in the Park Cities and they had a whole bunch of kosher food on sale. (I also got some matzo bread. It makes a nice alternative to water crackers)
3. re-read Agatha Christie crime novel (I think I've read everything she wrote at least once. don't believe me? I started reading her books when I was in the seventh grade. I am now in the 19th grade, and I can read two a day if I don't have anything else going on. My favorites are The Big Four and What Happened in Baghdad?. I haven't been able to find any new ones that I haven't read in the past year or year and a half, so I think I've come pretty close to reading them all.)

Yeah so my day was less productive than planned. And I have a pimple on my earlobe, which I have no idea why and how you even get one there, but I'm pretty weirded out by it.

good night.

investigation- wild birds unlimited

how the hell does the store Wild Birds Unlimited stay open and thriving with multiple stores in the same city? I pass by one like five times a week and never once have I been tempted to enter it. I think they sell exclusively bird feeders and bird seed.

from the website:
"At Wild Birds Unlimited, we aren’t just a birdfood store. We are Your Backyard Birdfeeding Specialist®, here to help bring you, your family and nature together."

so really, they only do sell birdseed and bird feeders. how many bird feeders do they have to sell to be able to keep a store open on Lovers Lane in UP in what I imagine to be a very expensive area to lease? I may enter the store today to do a little investigating. My guess is that it's really a respectable-looking front for a nationwide suburban drug ring. Honestly, can you think of any store name that is more boring or wholesome sounding? I may just go in there to take a nap on a little pile of birdseed.

fat salad

Today for lunch I went to this place in Richardson that I had been advised had good salads. I got a three-salad sampler for something like $7.00... and it came with like THREE POUNDS of salad. For serious. I think there was like a whole chicken's worth of chicken salad. I had to bend and lift with my knees (not with my back) to pick up the tray. Needless to say I did not finish that mammoth salad because I'm not in the habit of eating three pounds of food at one sitting (not since college, at least) and becoming obese is not a current goal of mine. But all around me were bigger people chowing down and finishing the whole darn thing. And it made me think about how much restaurants try to trick you with the salad, into thinking that it's usually a health option. Like at Taco Bell, where you basically get a little bit of shredded lettuce and then like a cup of ground beef and a half a cup of sour cream and a little bit of tomato and a heap of cheese in a big fried shell. You would probably do less damage eating about six bean burritos. And of course there's the worst (and also best) of all the salad places Souper Salad, Because you get unlimited refills of salad, and the salad bar has basically the equivalent of a cold tuna noodle casserole, and all the big people who go there serve themselves an equal ratio of lettuce to bleu cheese with some diced ham on top. Plus you can get pizza and that awesome gingerbread on the side. The only one I knew of in Dallas recently closed down because they're putting in a high rise or something, but it's probably better that they did because that place was dangerous. For me. It put me back in the state of mind I had in college, where you just keep eating because there's a ton of low quality food and you have to keep eating it because it's not that great tasting and so you never get satisfied, you just all of a sudden realize that you're really uncomfortably full and need a post-gorging nap. And then you decide that you should have dessert because they have a soft serve machine with sundae toppings. And then you forget how miserable the SS made you and go back the next month.

PS: anyplace I used the word "you" in the above ramblings, I really meant "I".

dorky confession

I had to go to the Dr the other day to get a bunch of prednisone (a hardcore anti-inflammatory drug) to stop the neuropathies and tendonitis that I sustained as a result of using my hand too much to study. I haven't been able to pick up a pen for a week. In fact, I used a wrist brace for three days before my test to prevent it from hurting any worse. so... yeah. dorkiest athletic injury ever. I wish I could call myself a mathlete because it sounds fun but really I'm a random-scientific-factslete. in other news, I split a pitcher of margaritas (aka misbehavior popsicles for adults) with my sister and my mom after helping my sister and her husband to move and unpack all day. If anyone is ever on the East side in Austin, I reccomend going to El Azteca and ordering chicken chalupas ( which my sister felt the need point out to me aren't that amazing as they are just flattened tacos). But really, they were amazing. And the restaurant has pictures of scantily clad Aztec boys and girls all over the walls. And you can get delicious pralines after dinner, although I think the Pralines available at Ojedas in Dallas are even better, but the food itself may not be as good. Ramble ramble ramble. I'm going to bed.

a bacon follow-up

I know that I've already talked about bacon at length, but I just found a few bacon products (available online of course) that I feel the need to share with the world. Bacon Chocolate bars, Maple-Bacon lollipops, and bacon brittle.

If you think I'm crazy, just remember that I'm not as crazy as this lady:
That's SUCIO.
I am almost finished with my second read-through of First Aid and my practice question scores are slowly rising, which is encouraging and the also the highlight of my entire week. Except of course for looking up fun bacon facts which has also been fun.

I hop, you hop, we all hop for IHOP!!

last night I went with my study group (we don't study together, just next to one another) to IHOP to get breakfast for dinner. I haven't been to one since college. Actually, that's not true I ate at IHOP a little over two weeks ago... but still, it's been a long time. I got the corncake pancakes that came with eggs, bacon, and hash browns. I think I may make corncake pancakes my new standard--although when it comes to IHOP, anything is possible. I think my next meal will be the Swedish international passport breakfast (same thing as a rooty tooty fresh and fruity but has crepes instead of pancakes and the crepes are covered in lingonberries).
I'm becoming like a knowledge meth head from all this studying. When I came home last night I was confused by my light switch. My actual thought was something along the lines of "I don't have time to deal with that right now". I then walked around in the dark for five minutes before realizing that light made living easier. I woke up this morning with my mind racing with different random science facts thinking "I FEEL AWESOME!!! I AM THE SMARTEST PERSON ALIVE!!!" and then proceeded to talk back--out loud--to the tapes of lectures that I've been listening to during my downtime. As if Dr. Goljan could hear me and would appreciate my input.
Also, I think I've gained 10 lbs in the last 2 weeks from stress eating. Food is the bright point in my life right now, and I am eating as much as I possibly can. I've worn sweatpants for the last two days because I don't want to try on my jeans and find they don't fit anymore. This is not a healthy practice. I only have 11 more days until I'm done with this insanity, then I get my wonderful and glorious 6 day summer break and go back to school on June 30.

bacon

I spent an hour and a half online last night at cooking for engineers reading about the different ways to cook bacon and the different kinds of bacon that exist. To summarize: the best way to cook crisp bacon is in a 300 degree oven for several hours, on a cooling rack set over a jelly-roll pan. The best way to cook chewy bacon is on a grill; however, the downside is that you can't save the bacon grease to cook with later (which I am intrigued by but have never done). Cooking bacon in a microwave yeilds an inferior product, but will suffice if there is not time to grill your bacon.
There was an intense debate about the quality of American/Canadian/British/Australian bacons, and also of bacon cured with sugar vs smoked and salted. One southern gentleman suggested bacon with a rind on it (the skin!) which you could then save to chew on all day long to get the bacon taste and to assuage hunger pains. I don't think I'm ready for that quite yet.
Oh, and I don't even really eat regular bacon. The only bacon I ever make for myself is of the turkey variety--but I did enjoy perusing the discussions about bacon theory. I challenge you to read the articles and not immediately want a BLT!

silly donuts

When Shannon and Ben were here we went to a place called "yummy donuts" on Lovers. I was hesitant to try the donuts because the inside of the store didn't smell like grease (which to me means that the donuts can't be that fresh). Then I saw the selection and was FLABBERGASTED. They had donuts with fruity pebbles on top, donuts with pop-tarts on top(!), with Oreos on top, and donuts dressed up as moon-pies, s'mores, éclairs, and other such nonsense. What on earth is the point of having a donut that is trying to be a moonpie?
First of all, moonpies are officially the most random thing that anyone can ever eat. I've only seen one person eat a moonpie ever. I got one for my birthday as a joke because I think they're so weird... it's still in my pantry unopened. It's a banana-flavored moonpie and I'm saving it for some occasion when I feel self-destructive.
Anyways, about the donut experience. I was overwhelmed by the choices and decided to go with a simple apple cider donut. This type of donut is supposed to be sweet (but not sickeningly so) and dense, with a good amount of chewiness. The donut I ate was fluffy like a birthday cake-not the proper texture for a good apple cider donut at all. My sister got a thing that was like the lovechild of a long john and a cream-filled donut which they were calling a donut éclair. She said it was good, but I still think that they're serving too much flash and not enough substance. I'm going to stick with June at Maple Donuts from now on. Besided the fact that it's less expensive, I have actually seen donuts go from the dough phase to the in my mouth phase while waiting for a large order to be filled. Super Fresh. Plus she always gives me extra donuts as a perk. Their simple glazed variety is solid, but the standout donuts are the blueberry cake and the old-fashioned buttermilk. I really don't think you can go wrong with anything from Maple Donuts because they put love in the batter.
Another place I like for sweet breakfasts is Aston's bakery on Lovers Lane near the tollway. I had the cinnamon roll and Erin had a cherry danish when she came and both were excellent. They also had a good-looking supply of cookies and petit fours (however, their muffin selection was limited).

things I love and hate.

I'm not creative today but I am feeling contemplative in a very self-centered and simple kind of way. Ergo, here's a simple love/hate list from me. Because of course you were dying to know. Only shallow things are included because you already know I love God/My Family/the USA and hate cancer/terrorism.

Things I love:

• Half Price Books
• reading cookbooks for fun
• Alfred Hitchcock movies (newly discovered love)
• English Muffins
• Goljan audio files (yay passive learning)
• Mondays. I'm not even kidding, they're my favorite
• getting up before sunrise
• big trees
• salsa bars (not to dance, like they have at taco cabana where you can mix and match salsas for your taco)
  

Things I hate:

• being less than 0.5 points away from the next grade up in Clinical Medicine AND Microbiology this year (Micro was less than 0.1)
• Lactose intolerance
• the egrets (or whatever) on our campus that poo all over the place and make it smell awful outside for 5 solid months out of the year
  
• picky eaters
• the speed limit signs that start to blink at you when you go 31 mph in a 30.
• the continued coverage of gas prices in the news. We don't need interviews with some random person complaining about gas prices. That isn't news. I see like ten gas stations on my way to school every day. I know that the rise in prices is annoying--there is no need to assign a reporter to cover the "gas crisis" unless there is actually something new to say.
• when I go running and get really sweaty and then I take a shower but I'm still sweating after the shower even though I used cold water so it's almost like I never showered at all.
  

apartment pictures (mostly for Shannon)

Here's what my apartment currently looks like. I still have a few things to do but it's mostly put together.

from top of stairs: I think it's required for every Texan to have either a giant metal star, a state flag, or a pair of longhorns somewhere inside their house. At the very least, they should have a large collection of Mexican crosses (I have 5). The coffee table is from Ikea and I put it together myself! the wall unit is older than I am--It's built for VHS storage. And yes, I do love books.

looking from dining area into living room. I got the architectural poster from the Uffizi in Florence--It's a plan of the duomo. I got the Uzbek Suzani in Selcuk, Turkey from the man who owned our hotel. To hang it up I had to stand on some molding that decorates my staircase. My mother refused to watch and told me that if I even ATTEMPTED to hang the tapestry that way, I would DIE and then my dream of a career in surgery would be OVER!!! (Seriously)

Here's my bedroom-- this is the other Uzbek Suzani I brought back from Turkey (this one is silk... ooh la la!) the bedspread is from Pottery Barn a few years ago, and the "vanity" is composed of a desk that I had to screw a leg back onto and a mirror that my mom didn't want anymore. I'm thinking of getting a headboard from World Market that's dark wood with a subtle floral motif painted onto it.

The kitchen.. I couldn't get it all in in one shot.

I love my cow-shaped butter dish. It's from Target. I was tempted to buy the matching cow-shaped creamer, but I already have one creamer that I don't use and I don't need two of them.


My next step is to get some black and white photos of friends, family, and pretty places I've traveled to and hang them up like an album next to my kitchen table. After that I think I'll really be finished.

let's see if I go crazier

my mom was here last weekend because I moved to my new apartment in UP and she was helping me to figure out where to hang things and what I needed to purchase in order to make my little back house into a back home. She also financed a trip to Costco, which means that I don't have to buy groceries for like two months. Which is good because today was the start of my hardcore buckle-down Step 1 studying. My general plan is to read from 7-4 or so, work out, eat dinner, and then do questions in the evening for a few hours. I'm also listening to Goljan when I drive to/from school because he's the bomb.com and I have fun imagining the images he's talking about.
I went for a run directly from my residence for the first time in several years. It was amazing, but maybe would have been better if the weather hadn't decided to shoot up to 98 practically overnight. But I still love being able to walk out my door and not worry about getting yelled at by drunk/homeless/otherwise unsavory types. Also, the streets here are actually LEVEL, free of the enormous potholes of my former neighborhood that made driving down the street in a car uncomfortable, and riding down the street on a bike impossible. I may try and go for a bike ride in my neighborhood later this week! today I passed a really pretty park (I think it's called University Park. It's at the intersection of University and Park. In University Park. are we sensing a theme?)
In other adventures, I don't have a microwave. I'm actually having to turn on my stove in order to heat things. I feel like I'm in the seventies.
I take the USMLE on 6/23. After that, a 6-day summer and I start with Pediatrics on 6/30. I hope I get off July 4 weekend.

Crustacean Sensacean!

that kind of sounds like the name of a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor. It would probably be the worst flavor ever created. Unless they did one of their creative things where they just made chocolate bits in the shape of crustaceans...but if they made, say, vanilla ice cream with a crawfish-flavored swirl and cajun seasoning sprinkles, that would be sick.
we had an all-medschool crawfist boil on Saturday. It was a great way to end the school year and I got to meet some people and catch up with friends from the other years. I accidentally made one friend by hugging a stranger after I had mistaken him for someone in my class. he was very polite and acted as if this were a completely normal thing for me to be doing. I may do this on purpose in the future as a way to meet strangers in awkward social situations--just pretend that I already know them, give them a big hug, and enter into the middle of a conversation. Here's a picture of the banquet table.

This was my first crawfish boil, but I was told that it was ABSOLUTELY necessary to suck the juice out of the crawfish's head. tasty!

Here's a picture of the mudbugs dying. But they gave their lives for a noble cause.

My friend Jeff with a crawfish that may actually be half lobster. look at that thing! Also, please note his handlebar moustache.
It is my dream to have a party themed "Mustachio Bashio" and I will require that every man who attends grow a mustache. If they can't grow one, then they have to have one drawn on at the door with sharpie.
I am now finished with second year. I don't have much planned for the summer, mostly 10+ hour days of studying for my USMLE. Here's hoping I don't get any more insane than I currently am. wheeee!

I'm 24 years old... and I'm still not married.

My birthday was super duper fun. I was a little late to my own party, due to circumstances beyond my control (I took a long time getting ready and then forgot my tiara at home and had to go get it). We went to the Maple Point, which is pretty awesome. They loved us because I brought in ten times as much business as they probably have on an average Friday night. I love them because they gave us free soft pretzels, everyone got in to sing who wanted to, and the beverages are extremely reasonably priced. I think that heaven will look something like the Maple Point.

Never gonna give you up: you just got Rick Rolled!Me, singing Baby One More Time.
The lady who owns the Maple Point told me that I should try out for the Karaoke Talent competition. apparently she thinks I have what it takes to make it to State, or even National Karaoke contests. I told her not to tempt me.
Group song: Livin' on a prayer

Me with Erin. The awesome earrings are hers and she wouldn't give them to me as a birthday present. I don't blame her, because I wouldn't either.

I'm starting to realize why my minister decided NOT to put a link from her blog onto my blog:
Pitchers with Cluster . After the bar closed, Amit took Erin and I to Taco Cabana. While I was in the ladies' room (actually I was in the men's room because someone was in the ladies' room for like ten minutes and the men's was empty and reasonably clean) Erin decided to order 12 tortillas and "The Biggest Queso you have". In case you were wondering, Taco Cabana's largest queso is 16 oz. That's a lb of queso. In addition to the taco I actually wanted her to order for me. We made a valiant effort but we ran out of dippable things (ie; quesadilla, taco, or tortillas) far before we ran out of queso. What a waste. let's have a moment of silence.