Christmas

The whole Christmas experience was pretty good up until mid-afternoon on Christmas Day. Ross's parents and Meredith visited last weekend and most of this week (they were supposed to leave on Wednesday morning but -- surprise! -- bad weather in late December makes it a bad idea to make a 20-hour drive and they didn't leave until Friday). We ate a lot of delicious food, went skiing, exchanged gifts, and spent some quality family time together.

Ross and I enjoyed our first Christmas morning together. We made pancakes and bacon (as well as pot roast for dinner), opened our presents, and played Super Mario Brothers Wii which he gave me, and somehow we managed to spend about 5 hours doing those things. It was a lovely morning/early afternoon.

I always get bored on Christmas afternoon. I wanted to go ice skating, but it turns out that there are hardly any skating rinks less than half an hour away from us, and none of those were open. It worked out that we didn't go skating, though, because I developed a killer sore throat and fever and spent the late afternoon and evening in bed feeling like crap. After sleeping for about 11 hours, I woke up this morning to a much less sore throat but the added bonus of inner ear pain.

Menu Plan

I didn't do my 5-kilometer run yesterday. But I did make a meal plan! Here's what we're having this week:

MONDAY: brats (we were going to have sweet potato fries and salad too, but we didn't make it to the grocery store until today)
TUESDAY: two-bean tamale pie
WEDNESDAY: curried potatoes
THURSDAY: teriyaki salmon over pasta
FRIDAY: pizza
WEEKEND: leftovers

And as usual, we always eat spinach salad with supper.

Menu Plan Monday is sponsored by the blog I'm An Organizing Junkie:

Holidays!

For the fourth year, I spent Thanksgiving here:

It's the Schug House Inn, a bed and breakfast in the tiny little Swiss-themed town of Berne, IN. Ross's extended family spends their Thanksgiving weekend there, chatting, playing, doing puzzles, and of course eating lots of wonderful food. As a new member of their family, this tradition has been such a blessing -- it's provided a chance to get to know Ross's aunts, uncles, and cousins in a way I wouldn't otherwise.

These are some of Ross's cousins. Have I mentioned that I love my in-laws?








And now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time for Christmas:

Monday 5K

I didn't run 5K last Monday, or anything at all last week. I think I was making preparations for Thanksgiving on Monday.

Today's numbers:
Time: 37:36 (-2:21 from two weeks ago)
Distance Run: 3.60k (+0.20 k)
Running Speed: 6.0 mph (+0.5mph)
Distance Walked: 1.40 km (-0.20k)
Walking Speed: 3.5 mph (same)

Monday 5K

I have decided to be able to run a 5K by New Year's Day. Well, actually by Monday, December 28. I have done a couple of 5Ks, but I haven't run the whole thing, and for a long time I have wanted to actually run five kilometers.

Plus, I need to get in better shape. If you know me, you know that I function on goals and deadlines. I live for goals. I love deadlines. And unfortunately, the nebulous goal of not getting diabetes and heart disease sometime in the future despite the fact that they run rampant in my family has not been cutting it as far as fitness goals and deadlines go. I need short-term things to work toward.

My "get hott for wedding" fitness calendar was an excellent motivational tool. June 13, 2009 was the day I had to look awesome in wedding pictures, and I exercised to meet that deadline. Unfortunately, that fitness deadline passed (and it was a very happy occasion at which I married an awesome guy and threw a rockin' party to celebrate). Ever since, I have not really cared about exercising.

But like I said, the killer combination of diabetes and heart disease runs in my family, and despite a reasonably healthy diet, my cholesterol numbers are already inching their way toward a heart attack, and I could stand to lose a few pounds. So I need to exercise.

So here's the plan: I have six weeks to get from where I am now to able to run five kilometers on a treadmill without stopping. I don't care how much weight I lose (though hopefully some). I don't care what the time is. I just want to be able to run that far. Every Monday I will post some stats to keep you, and myself, informed about how awesome I am getting.

Today's Monday 5K by the numbers
Time: 39:57
Distance Run: 3.40 km
Running Speed: 5.5 mph
Distance Walked: 1.60 km
Walking Speed: 3.5 mph

Candied pecans

These are delicious and really easy to make.












Ingredients
1 egg white
1 tbsp water
1 lb. pecans
1 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions
0. Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9x13 pan with butter or cover in foil.
1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine egg white and water. Whip until fluffy.
2. Add pecans to liquids. Toss until covered.
3. In another medium or large sized mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.
4. Transfer liquid-coated pecans to the other bowl. Toss until evenly coated with sugar mixture.
5. Spread pecans evenly in the pan. They need not be one thin layer.
6. Bake for 1 hour at 250, stirring pecans with a wooden spoon every 15 minutes.

This recipe is slightly modified from one I found at allrecipes.com. We buy nuts at Costco. They sell 2 lb bags of pecans and walnuts for somewhere between $8-10 (I no longer have the receipt) which is half the price of pecans at the ridiculously-named Kroger store down the street.

Just an update

This is what the menu plan looks like. We went to Costco this afternoon because we were pretty much out of food (except for frozen meat from the last time we were at Costco and spinach). We have to go through six bell peppers this week because that's the smallest package of peppers you can buy at Costco.

This week in Denver, we've had gorgeous fall weather -- cool enough for sweaters but warm enough to keep the heat off. Unfortunately, the two feet of snow from a couple of weeks ago expedited the process of leaves falling from trees, so we had an abbreviated colorful season.

We are settled into life here in Denver. Ross has started working at the Wizard's Chest, which he affectionately refers to as a "nerd supply store." He and Jess (our roommate) got jobs there together. It is retail, which I think I would hate, but they both like it. I am enjoying my job at the doctor's office. This past week I got to spend more time in the back of the office -- taking vitals, giving shots, and assisting with procedures. It was a good week for gynecology; I got to assist with a pap and an IUD insertion. It was awesome, although I still have no interest in being an ob/gyn. Family practice, though, appeals more and more as a specialty. There really is a lot of variety. There are also a lot of people with diabetes, hypertension, and the flu though.

This has been on my mind

Give thanks for life, the measure of our days
Mortal, we pass through beauty that decays
Yet sing to God our hope, our love, our praise:
Alleluia, alleluia
- Shirley Erena Murray

It's really just that second line I like so much.

I wish I had a photo of bright red trees covered in snow from this week, but I can't find my camera battery charger.

Swine Flu

I'm over swine flu. No, I don't mean I've recovered from it. (Despite being exposed to that and all sorts of other illnesses rather frequently, my immune system is still truckin' along without assault). I mean I'm done dealing with it. Or more specifically, I'm done dealing with people freaking out about it.

I've been working at the doctor's office since the beginning of September -- right when the H1N1/swine flu epidemic hit Colorado full force. As someone who answers phones at a family practice office, I am privileged with hearing the general public freak out about swine flu every day.

Seriously. Every day. Plenty of them ask reasonable questions, but so many of them have common-sense answers. And then there are a few questions that are just dumb. And the worst ones are the questions that start out, "I heard on TV that..."

Oh, I just shudder when I hear somebody start out with that.

Here is my Swine Flu FAQ, including questions both reasonable and unreasonable.

Q: I have a fever, sore throat, fatigue, chills, body aches, and diarrhea. Do I have the swine flu?
A: Probably. According to the medical practitioners here, the health department, and the CDC, you can assume so.

Q: I have the flu. Can I come in and find out if I have swine flu or regular flu?
A: No. The health department won't even test any more samples, and P.S. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHICH FLU YOU HAVE. They both make you feel like crap. They both resolve in about a week. You can get secondary infections on top of either one. They both in rare cases can cause severe complications including death. Knowing which virus you're infected with won't change any of that, and you don't need to know which virus you have to take care of yourself and watch out for complications.

Q: I have a sore throat, fatigue, and body aches, but I don't have a fever or diarrhea. Do you think I have swine flu?
A: You could. You could also have another virus. But let me just use my special fiberoptic-cable-transcending swine flu detector to find out so you can freak out appropriately if the virus you have is H1N1.

Q: I think I have a mild case of the flu. Can I schedule an appointment to come see the doctor?
A: Sure, if you want to give us some money, sap all your energy getting to the doctor's office, expose some people to whatever you do have, and have the doctor tell you to go home and get lots of rest and fluids.

Q: My cousin's stepdaughter has the flu and they think it's swine flu and I am perfectly healthy and don't have any symptoms and I can't come in for an office visit. Will you prescribe me some Tamiflu?
A: Seriously? There's a Tamiflu shortage. Hell no you can't have it if you feel fine and won't even come in for an office visit.

Q: I think I have the flu. Will you prescribe me some antibiotics?
A: Antibiotics won't help with your virus. Dumbass. Do you want your grandchildren to have antibiotics that work?

Q: I feel like I'm getting the flu. Do you have the swine flu vaccine yet?
A: No we don't, and even if we did it wouldn't do you any good because you already have the virus in your system. Don't you understand how vaccinations work?

Q: On TV they said that swine flu is going to kill me and my children, incite riots, and drain all the joy from the world. Should I be stocking up on canned goods? Can I have some Tamiflu?
A: Only if you fill the bottle with explosives and throw it at your television.

Homecomings

I've been experiencing homecomings lately.

Last weekend was Bethel's Fall Fest -- homecoming weekend. And homecoming in another sense, as Ross and I went our separate ways and I stayed in my old mod, with my old modmates (who are all a year younger than me and so were all there, with the exception of one who is studying in Ecuador). I slept my old futon mattress which I've long-term loaned to Meredith. I had coffee with a favorite professor -- really a mentor and friend -- whose office I used to stop by frequently for good conversation. As before, I stood around a bonfire in the woods, had a couple of beers, and talked to the people I already knew. It felt like home.

This weekend, I went to Kansas City. The impetus came from a good friend informing me a few weeks ago that she was planning to go wedding dress shopping and another friend (also in the wedding party) was flying in to visit too. Affordable plane tickets and the desire to see my family convinced me. I stayed at my parents' house, slept in my comfortable bed in my ice-cold room. I visited with my grandpa for a few hours and helped him move plants inside, anticipating a freeze. The house, and the family, has changed since it was really my home. I am comfortable there, but it is not my space any longer.

I went out for drinks with Laura and Lauren and talked about our jobs and long-term relationships, which felt good but reminded us that we're at least two life stages beyond sleepovers in Lauren's basement, which happened almost literally half our lifetimes ago (granted, our lifetimes are not that long yet). I'm grateful for these friendships, for relating despite living in three different cities, having spent four years mostly apart, and not really knowing each other's significant others.

And now I've come home -- really home -- to my apartment in Denver. Ross is here, and Jess and other friends, and all my stuff, and a shower and toilet that I am used to. It is freezing cold like my parents' house and with friends like Bethel, but this is my space.

Last weekend we drove up Mt. Evans

Photos progress as we went up the mountain and down about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

8 years later

Yesterday the 9/11 anniversary hit me a little differently than it had in past years. I think because as I drove to work, I listened to NPR coverage of President Obama giving his memorial speech, and September 11, 2001 seemed like so much longer ago than when Bush was still president. Listening to coverage of a different president memorializing in his own way, in his own tone, struck me somehow.

On September 11, 2001, I was a 14-year-old high school freshman. I heard the news over the intercom while taking a test in my second-hour theatre class. I was reasonably politically aware at the time, having followed the 2000 election. As I watched TV and listened to radio that day and that week, I was deeply troubled not only by the tragedy of senseless deaths but also by the rampant patriotism that followed immediately. I watched President Bush speak that week and I knew that the violence, the tragedy America had experienced would only be forced onto others.

I reacted very strongly against that. As America became cohesive in a way I'd never experienced, I ran from the cohesion. I hated President Bush. I hated Americans for their flag-waving and racism and war-drum-beating. I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance and turned my back on flag when the National Anthem was sung. I even stopped wearing red shirts with jeans lest my outfit be confused for patriotism.

I remember hearing when the attacks on Afghanistan began. I didn't cry on 9/11, although I was shocked and upset. I cried on March 19, 2003, when the US invaded Iraq. I was in the car on the way home from church when the news came onto the radio.

I grew up, and remain, Mennonite. My religious background is deeply rooted in pacifism and is opposed to nationalism, giving allegiance only to God. I didn't have a reason to own those beliefs until 9/11 and the aftermath. For the first time, the values of peace and peacemaking meant something, and my church's rejection of nationalism made sense. The US was the victim of a senseless act of violence, and it perpetuated that violence. I knew it was laughably unrealistic to expect the government to undertake a peacemaking process in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, but I wished.

9/11 opened my eyes in a lot of ways. I radicalized in response, and while the radicalization has been tempered, the critical thinking and the willingness to hold an unpopular opinion because I believe it's right remain intact.

8 years later, my faith means a lot more to me. So does my country. I still won't pledge my allegiance to the flag or to the republic for which it stands, because even if my allegiance isn't entirely with God, I sure want it to be. But out of respect I'll stand and silently face the flag, hands by my sides, when the National Anthem is sung. I can silently face that flag knowing that it is the flag of a country that does a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, but I can respect it. I can't reject everything about the US, because want it or not, it is my home and my culture, and there are good things about it. I can criticize, and reject, what I do not respect. I can make that distinction now.

When that 2 a.m. phone call comes...

Last night at 2:01 a.m., my phone rang. It was Aimee, the new Collegian editor-in-chief, calling to ask how to send the finished file of the first issue of the year to the printer. It was 3 a.m. for her. I happily took her call; on my first night in her role, I left the journalism lab sometime after 4 a.m., having shed many tears of frustration (tears of any sort being a rarity for me) and made a 3 a.m. trip to Walmart for data discs.

But since time's passage has glazed over the misery of that night (and maybe I had a little bit of seasoned satisfaction with a twinge of schadenfreude at taking that call from my removed position and going right back to sleep), today I've been fondly remembering my two years as the Collegian's editor-in-chief.

When I graduated, I felt more or less satisfied to leave the Collegian behind me. Two years was an appropriate tenure as EIC. It took me at least a semester to get the hang of things and it wasn't until the final semester than I got weary, which gave me a solid year of competent, solid, enthusiastic leadership. I wish Aimee had two years to do the job, because quite frankly I think she has better drive behind her vision for the organization.

In that first year I developed what I believe are some kickass organizational management skills, but I am not a visionary--I am an innovator. My contribution to the betterment of the Collegian was more in the organization than the product. I improved and streamlined processes -- and in turn produced a more consistent quality of newspaper. Management was more interesting and fulfilling for me than journalism from the beginning, and while being editor gave me a sharper eye for good journalism, I didn't push the staff to do that; I pushed them to change patterns, be organized, be creative, develop their newswriting skills, turn things in on time, have lots of eyes see articles. And that's what I saw that they needed, especially the mostly freshman/sophomore '08-'09 staff. I turned over that staff to Aimee with few losses, and now she can push them to be better journalists and do the redesign that she's excited about, which has been a long time coming and which she can provide the appropriate guidance for (and I could not).

Joining the Collegian was one of the best choices I've made. Ever. I wanted to be on newspaper staff in high school but never did because I didn't think I'd have time. I was fortunate enough to choose a tiny little college where everyone gets the chance to be involved in anything, which for me meant ending up in charge of the student newspaper despite having no major or minor in Communication Arts or English. The Collegian made me more competent, more self-confident, more organized, more adept at using Mac OS, gave me an appreciation for print journalism, and taught me managerial skills.

I'd say the late nights were worth it.

First Impressions

I started my new job a week ago, and I have some impressions and observations.

Overall, I feel fairly neutral about my job. I don't dislike it, but I don't love it either. I don't have to think very much during the day, which is why I think I feel a bit unfulfilled by it. I am learning, but I'm learning by repetition to complete tasks properly. I spend most of the day sitting at a desk either on the phone, checking patients in, or sorting documents into their proper places. I am still very much learning how to answer questions and where to sort things.

This means that the highlights of my days are when I do get to think. My favorite thing to do so far? Call patients with lab results. I can only call after a practitioner has looked at the results and made a note telling me what the results mean, but I make a point of understanding the information I'm telling a patient and how it relates to them. I usually look over the lab, take quick looks at Wikipedia and the patient's chart, and then look at the lab again. This way I'm able to anticipate questions and have answers ready. By doing this, I'm learning how to interpret lab results on my own -- although in this job I won't be able to do that officially.

Some observations about my job...
- Drug reps provide lunch almost every day. I'm not sure free catered lunch is worth having non-employees there at lunchtime though. They have to do their spiel, obviously, and while I do pay attention to what they say and what the doctor/NP/PA asks them, having them there keeps me from getting to know my colleagues. I am able to talk to the other receptionist, the HR/accounting guy, and the medical assistants during the day some, but I would really like to be able to have conversations at lunchtime.

- Everybody in the office has a few patients they like and don't like, and it really shows. It makes sense, I guess, as the patient and doctor's office have a long-standing relationship and so people know if the patient is friendly, punctual, reliable, follows medical advice, etc. I think most patients don't stand out to the people who work in the clinic, but there are a few that are either just really nice or really, really difficult to deal with. The nice ones are so much more likely to receive service that goes above and beyond what's expected. The rude ones get the same medical treatment as everyone else, I assume, but the minimal level of appropriate customer service.

- So many people don't seem to know what a PA (Physician Assistant) is! There are two who work at the office. There's also a Nurse Practitioner. Sometimes I talk to patients on the phone who get really indignant about coming in to see a PA, and I find it really annoying even though I know they just don't know what the profession is. The practical clinical differences between the MD, the NP, and the PAs are negligible. I think people don't realize that PAs are professional medical practitioners.

Menu plan

Yesterday Ross was sick and I was exhausted, so it was, as my mom likes to call it, "Fend for yourself night."

Tuesday: chicken salad sandwiches (Marilyn Rempel's Five Ingredient Chicken Salad, which is: shredded chicken, halved grapes, sliced almonds, light mayo, and salt in whatever proportion seems right) and spinach salad

Wednesday: roasted red pepper and avocado bites with sweet potato fries (both from the Healthy College Cookbook, which I got at my favorite indie book and coffee shop and really like) and spinach salad

Thursday: mango sausages, corn on the cob, and either roasted zucchini or spinach salad

Friday: pizza night!

Saturday: dhal ...and probably spinach salad.

In case you wonder how we manage to eat so much spinach salad, the answer is that we put crushed walnuts and delicious dressings on it. Ross and I like low-fat or fat-free raspberry dressings, and Jess eats his with honey mustard spritz dressing.

I have secured employment!

The short story:
Today I was offered, and accepted, a job as a clinic assistant at a family practice doctor's office. My job duties will primarily be receptionist work and paperwork, but I'll be trained to cover for medical assistants (CMAs) also -- which means things like taking vitals, giving shots, and drawing blood. I think it'll be a great opportunity to learn how a doctor's office runs and to gain some clinical skills. Also, I interviewed with four different staff members at the office on Friday and they all seemed like they will be good people to work with.

I guess I need to find some business casual clothing.

The long story, which is actually kind of interesting:
A few weeks ago, a single dad interviewed me to nanny for his three sons. We scheduled a time for me to babysit the boys to see how it would go. They seemed like a nice family, but I realized that the schedule they needed didn't really fit what I was looking for -- short-term employment until I could find a job in the health care or biomedical research field. Then I got my nannying job for the twins, so I called the dad back last Tuesday to tell him it wasn't going to work.

He wasn't that worried about it. He asked me again what field I was looking into. I told him, and then asked if he was in one of those fields. Yes, he was a physician, and his office had just started looking to add another clinic assistant, and would that be something I'm interested in and I should send my resume over. I did. On Wednesday, I was invited for an interview on Friday.

The interview went wonderfully. I left at 1 p.m., and two hours later the HR rep called me to say that the staff (I interviewed with four people) all really liked me and they would offer me the job as long as my references came through and I passed a drug test.

This morning I got a call from the HR rep. My references had both said positive things about me and he assumed I would pass the drug test (I did; not a surprise) and so they were formally offering me the job. Obviously I accepted.

This week's meal plan

It's Thursday, not Monday. I didn't even come up with a meal plan until Tuesday. We were overwhelmed by leftovers on Monday and so we ate those.

This is what we're eating this week:

Tuesday: Southwestern chowder with chips and homemade guacamole (that's a great recipe, by the way). 'Tis the season for fresh avocados. Mmm. A delicious season.
Wednesday: Caribbean rice and beans; wanted to do fried plantains but there weren't any at the grocery store so we did salad instead.
Thursday: Chicken curry with salad.
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Potato-black bean cakes; spinach salad with homemade tropical dressing.
Sunday: Leftovers.

Nannying

This week I started nannying part-time, short-term (to fill the employment gap a little). My charges are two-year-old twins. I will call them Ian and Phoebe. (To protect their privacy, I won't use their real names, but I find it confusing when bloggers protect identities with just initials, so I chose names I think fit their personalities. What can I say? I'm a name nerd.)

Let me start by saying I love two-year-olds. They're one of my favorite ages to take care of. Yes, they can be obstinate. Yes, they throw tantrums. Yes, it is uncanny how frequently they are drawn to things they should not be touching/eating/throwing/coloring. But in high school I worked at a daycare in the two-year-old classroom for two years, and I grew quite fond of that age of child. They retain their babyish adorableness, but they are so much more expressive than babies. They can verbally explain what they want or what they are thinking about. They have imaginations. They can be reasoned with (sometimes). They also sometimes say hilarious things.

At the park on Tuesday, I was pushing Ian and Phoebe on the swings, and out of the blue, Phoebe says, "Michael Jackson died."

What?

This child is two years old. Her parents do not allow her to watch TV. I have no idea how she knows that. I asked if her parents are Michael Jackson fans. She said they listen to Michael Jackson in the car. Then the conversation moved on...

Until this morning. I was reading a children's book to Ian and sort of to Phoebe, but she wasn't paying that much attention. So she says,
"Michael Jackson lives in Arizona."
Me: "I think he lived in California."
Phoebe: "Michael Jackson died."
Me: "I know."
Phoebe then points to a picture of a white woman with shoulder-length black hair on the cover of a book. "That's Michael Jackson."
I can hardly contain my laughter.
Me: "That's not Michael Jackson, but that woman does look a lot like Michael Jackson, doesn't she?"
Phoebe sings and dances: "Beat it! Beat it! Beat it! Beat it!"

This Michael Jackson thing is hilarious. I think Phoebe might know more about Michael Jackson than I do.

Menu Plan Monday

For about a month now, Ross and I have been doing weekly meal plans. Once a week, we sit down and decide what we want for dinner for the coming week or so. It has several benefits -- fewer trips to the grocery store, less food that goes to waste, and my favorite benefit: not having to make a decision every day about what to have for dinner. My friend Kristin has been doing this for a while (and inspired me to) and I thought I might as well post what we're having for dinner this week.

This blog post is "hosted" by OrgJunkie.com, where lots of other people post their weekly meal plans.






So here's what's for dinner this week!

Monday: Peanut butter noodles with stir-fried veggies
Tuesday: BBQ beef cups and spinach salad
Wednesday: Pakistani Kima with rice
Thursday: Shrimp scampi with spinach salad
Friday: Homemade pizza

The peanut butter noodles, BBQ beef cups, and shrimp scampi are all recipes that come from a cookbook that friends Cilla and Nance gave us as a wedding gift. Cilla is a wonderful cook, and she and Nance put together a cookbook of their favorite recipes for us. We've made several already and love it. Pakistani Kima is from the More With Less cookbook. We also have continued my family's tradition of pizza on Friday nights, but we're making our own instead of buying or baking a frozen pizza. We also eat a lot of spinach salad -- we buy big packages of spinach (on manager's special if possible) and eat it at least 3 times a week to finish it off.

Sounds

Ross and I live in a second-floor apartment in downtown Denver, just off a very busy street. We also don't use our air conditioning. We're saving energy and therefore money. We keep our window and sliding door open all the time, and it is LOUD! But the noise has become part of daily life, and there's a pattern to it.

In the mornings, I am often awakened around 6 by the scream of an ambulance. There is a hospital two blocks away, and so ambulances are by far the most common emergency siren we hear. If that 6 a.m. ambulance does pass by, though, I notice how quiet it is as I fall back to sleep. Daily traffic hasn't started coming down Speer Boulevard by then.

If the siren doesn't wake me up, the mid-morning maintenance noises do. There's the crashing and clanking and glass shattering and diesel engine-rumble of dumpsters being emptied in the parking garages two floors down. And I think there can be no possible way the grass grows fast enough in this dry climate to necessitate mowing -- right below my window -- two or three times a week. But oh, the industrial lawn mower is persistent! Sometimes he comes at 8 and again at 10!

The traffic noise settles to a hum around eleven. Sometimes there's the ambulance again, or a car that needs a muffler.

Afternoon showers are relatively common here, which I am not used to. Rain usually hits central/eastern Kansas overnight, or in the morning, and I firmly believe that it's better that way. But my opinion be damned, many a mid-afternoon I hear thunder rumbling, or maybe the traffic lulls and the soft sound of raindrops hitting the leaves on trees outside is audible.

Then there's rush hour, which means the traffic hum gets louder and police sirens rise and fall as they go by and the whirrrrrrrr-clank of the garage gates opening and closing gets frequent and the voices of people talking loudly in the parking garages drift up through the windows.

After our fellow apartment-dwellers return from work, the traffic is a backdrop to people-noises. The man and woman on the balcony above us have cell phone conversations in Spanish (or is it Portuguese or Italian? I can't understand anything they say, but it's a Romance language), or sometimes adoring a small child (or dog?) in accented English. Dog owners in the courtyard whistle and call for their large dogs whom they have finally let out of the containment of small apartments and who cannot help but run free when they get the chance.

As the evening wears on, the emergency vehicles pass by with more urgency, and together -- the ambulances and police cars are joined by firetrucks bellowing, and the chorus makes it difficult to hear what someone is saying in another room. And speed demons on their motorcycles and hot-rods find nightfall the appropriate time to race down the street out of nowhere as loudly as possible, which causes me to jump.

And once we go to bed, especially on weekend nights but Wednesday and Thursday too (are these ladies' nights?), the traffic dies down and former frat boys and sorority girls relive their glory days in the parking garages and at the pool a few buildings away (but when it's quiet you can hear the beats and bass of some nameless rapper), and their drunken overly-loud voices saying stupid things and sometimes fightin' words echo through the garages and out through their open sides up through my window and keep me from falling asleep, and Ross and I comment to ourselves about the wasting of society.

What to do with all this time?

Being unemployed is boring. I keep applying for jobs, but I'm letting the application flurry slow down a little bit while I hope to hear back from the jobs I've applied for. (But if you hear of anything...)

So what to do?

Answer: MAKE THINGS.

Here's an up-close shot on a blanket I made last week for my friend's new baby girl. They're doing a bird theme for her nursery and I was really excited to find this adorable flannel print (it's upside down, but it's still clear that those are cute little blue birds). The back is that fuzzy red raised-dot fabric, and you can't see it here, but I put a pink fleece flower detail on the back.















I hadn't sewn anything in a while, so I made this potholder to practice for the blanket (and get my sewing machine's tension right). The fabric is up-cycled from a skirt I got in Mexico as a child, and the lining is a fleece scrap I got a long time ago. When I was going through my stuff, I couldn't bear to get rid of the skirt, so I cut it up and made this:















The materials were essentially free, I got to make the awesome fabric into something useful, and now we have a big potholder. Everybody wins.


Now to shift gears into a different medium -- food. We had Ross's cousins over for dinner last night. One of them is vegan, and I wanted to make a dessert everyone could enjoy. Last summer when I worked at KU Med, Sara over at The Innocent Primate Vegan Blog brought her delicious creations into work a lot, so I know she knows her stuff when it comes to vegan baking. I made these raspberry jam thumbprints from her recipe for Blueberry Jam Thumbprints. They were a hit, and I'm definitely going to make more of them.

Another quick job update

Ross has a temporary job working construction for our landlord's company. Starting next Friday, he'll be operating a drill press for about 6 weeks. Hooray for income!

Edit to update: When it rains, it pours! Ross got a call back from Starbucks this morning and is meeting with a manager on Monday to discuss employment.

Update on the Job Search

People want to know where Ross and I are on the job hunt. Here we go:

Ross had a lead from church about a possibility of his dream job -- tutoring high school math nerds in college-level math. He hasn't heard anything back yet. He applied to 5 Starbucks locations and is waiting to hear back. Finally, we just got a call today from our landlord who might have about 6 weeks of construction work or something for Ross to do -- he'll find out more tomorrow.

I have now applied to (I think) 11 jobs. I interviewed for one at the beginning of June that I didn't get, and one place called me back the other day to tell me the posting I applied for was a formality for one specific person. So that leaves 9. In summary, they are:
- Laboratory research jobs similar to the one I had during college.
- Administrative jobs at clinics.

And the one with the most hope so far is pretty unique. It's "educational coordinator" at a private medical education facility -- from what I understand, I'd mostly be coordinating groups (of surgeons, mostly) who come in and use the facility and then in the summers running science camps for kids. I interviewed for it on Friday and should hear back soon.

We will, of course, let you know when we secure jobs.

Friends

When Ross and I first began discussing marriage, he wanted to get married before I graduated from college. He thought it would make the transition from dorm life to living together easier. I think he was right.

Not to say it's hard to live with Ross. I like it fine, and we are not sick of each other or anything. But it IS hard to have moved to a new city where we know very few people. Very different from living with my dear mod. Ross, being an introvert, is taking it better than I am, though he's bored too. I find myself on social networking sites constantly, trying to fulfill the yearning I have for a good in-person conversation or even a mod Dawson's Creek marathon. The highlight of the past week was spending an afternoon with a Bethel modmate, Elizabeth, who is working in the mountains this summer. I can't wait for church tomorrow purely because it allows for social interaction.

I'm also becoming aware that I don't exactly know how to make friends in a non-school setting. It's so nice to just be plunked into a giant group of peers and sort through them to find some you like to spend time with. How do adults make friends? Work, I guess? Church?

Life at the Apartment

Ross and I are busy looking for jobs, but as you might guess, that leaves plenty of time to sit around doing other things. I have 3 applications in for research tech positions at the CU medical center and am working on others. Ross is working on making connections with people in the Mennonite agency world to see what that might offer.

So here is what a typical day looks like for us these days:
Morning, starting anytime from 7 to 10 a.m. - wake up, drink coffee, check the Internet to see what's happening in the world, figure out what we're doing today.
Noon-1 p.m. Lunch.
Afternoon - work on job searches/run errands/make meal plans/start cooking dinner/exercise
Evening - eat dinner, then watch TV on DVD. It's been The Office, Weeds, and Battlestar Galactica.
Around 11 - Go to sleep.

I was going to wait to post photos of the apartment until Jess moves in, as he will bring plenty of decor and we'll decide then how to decorate our barren walls, but I've had enough requests for pictures that I decided to go ahead and share them. We've pretty well settled in by now.

This view captures most of the common area of the apartment. I'm sitting in the far corner of the couch that you'll see in the next picture. On the right is the kitchen, and just out of the frame on the right is the door to Ross's and my room. In the upper left, near the lamp, you see a closet next to an open door. The open door is Jess's bathroom and across from it is the door to his room.














The living room seen from the entryway (L) and the bar stools in the kitchen (R).



















Here's the kitchen. Over on the left there is our little "coffee station," which contains a coffee maker, French press, and espresso machine (thanks, Grandpa Leo, Aaron & Caitlin, and Aunt Sallie & Uncle Kenn!). It's a veritable coffee shop, although the espresso isn't as good as the professional stuff.














Finally, these two pictures are of Ross's and my room, which you can see is right off the kitchen. We like that it has a little hallway with a walk-in closet and bathroom all in the same suite.

Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was short -- just three days in Keystone, CO. We moved into our apartment in Denver and then promptly left for another new and exciting place where all we had to do was hang out with each other, so both of us felt a little underwhelmed. But hey, we like the mountains, so it was nice to be there. We spent a fair amount of time on the internet, since our apartment was without internet. Apparently June is the offest of the off season for ski resorts, which meant a great deal on the condo and also not much officially-sponsored stuff to do. We wanted to go mountain biking on Keystone's ski trails, but that wasn't open yet. So we found places to go hiking. The Arapaho National Forest a few miles down the road made for an easy and picturesque hike. Not much else to say, so here are photos.

Obligatory posed photo with mountains in the background.














Ross was excited to find snow and promptly threw some at me.



















It was nice to be in the mountains as water was flowing. The rivers and creeks were all flowing, as were lots of little impromptu springs like the ones in the road that produced this image:



















Another sign of early summer in the mountains:














And finally, this was the view from our vacation condo's window in an early-evening storm. The light was amazing, and the photo didn't quite capture it but approximates it as well as can be expected from an untrained photographer with a point-and-shoot camera.

Our First Real Meal

Pretend that I posted this about three weeks ago. Our internet hasn't been working until last night, so it's time to play catch-up.

Since Ross and I don't have jobs yet, we have been cooking much more "real food" than I anticipate will be part of our lives in the near future. Case in point: Indian food. This was the first meal we cooked, so I documented. Cilla and Nance gave us the wonderfully thoughtful gift of a homemade cookbook of their favorite recipes, so we used the chicken tikka masala recipe from there.

Here's Ross checking the rice, only to discover that I had stirred it. Little did I know you aren't supposed to stir rice. But the slow cooker works very well as a rice cooker!












Here's the chicken tikka skewers. These things were spicy! We have a silly little electric grill on our balcony that came with the place.









Here I am cooking the masala sauce... mmm....












And here is the finished product! It was a little too spicy for us (especially me).

House-hunting is exhausting

Ross and I are in Denver for the week, staying with his wonderful cousins Anna and Brian, who were kind enough to put us up (put up with us?) at their apartment. We're looking for a place to live.

We've checked out five places. Two were definite "no"s. One was two floors of a house that were hard to access and smelled weird. One was a house which had about three square feet of floor space in the kitchen and, though fairly clean, had decades of built-up living in it that just made it a little gross. The bathroom and kitchen really could use some remodeling.

We just came back from a row house that would be perfect for the two of us, but since we'll be living with Jess, it just wasn't big enough.

We did look at a house yesterday that we liked quite a bit. It was adorable, nice kitchen, had a great yard, and was decently located. The only drawback was really that it had only one bathroom.

BUT today we found the perfect place. It's a condo (yes, for rent) that's a 5-minute walk from the church we'll be attending, which is also where Anna and Brian live (yes, in the church -- they're the caretakers). It has two bathrooms and a nice kitchen and sufficient space for three people. It's in an AWESOME part of Denver -- easy access to an arts district and a park, across the street from a grocery store, and biking distance to downtown. And since it's a condo, it has free access to a fitness center and a pool.

The best part? It comes furnished for NO EXTRA CHARGE. We wouldn't have to rent a moving truck! Or buy furniture!

Let's hope we get it.

Heart

I got to see my heart yesterday. It was awesome.

I've been having some weird pressure and tightness and occasionally pain in my chest for a couple of weeks, and after a couple of pretty bad episodes on Saturday and Monday I decided I needed to go to the doctor about it. I think it's probably stress-related, and so does my doctor, but still, you don't mess around with chest pain. And if it's stress, the anxiety caused by having chest pain is certainly not helping it go away.

So yesterday I went to the doctor. They did an EKG and a cardiac ultrasound and gave me a 24-hour heart monitor (which was uncomfortable; I'm glad to have it off!). The ultrasound was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I'm a huge medical dork, but I'm a pretty healthy one and I haven't had an x-ray or CT scan since I was a baby, so I've never actually seen the inside of my body. So it was pretty fascinating to be looking at basically a cross-section of my heart.

This is not my heart, but it is an image I found on the internet from an adult cardiac ultrasound and looks pretty similar to what I was seeing:

I could see my heart beating, the mitral valve opening and closing really clearly and the tricuspid valve not quite so well. Whenever I took a deep breath, I could see my lungs come in from the sides and obscure the view. So cool!

I won't hear back if there's anything wrong with my heart for about a week. Like I said, there probably isn't, but you don't want to risk it when you're having symptoms that might indicate a problem. Also, I am not looking forward to the medical bills for this. The deductible is so high on my insurance that I'm sure I'll be paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket. ::sigh::

So close, yet so far

When all is said and done, I'm ready to graduate. I am ready to get married and to have my own space that isn't ugly cinder blocks, corporate carpet, and metal bathroom stalls and food that isn't so questionable (except I'm not really that interested in cooking, so I've come to appreciate the caf in its own mediocre way... at least there's a salad bar). I am out of motivation to study. My seminar is almost done and I can't bring myself to sit down and finish it because it doesn't have a deadline.

But I am sad about losing two things:

(One) the people. I have some close friends and a giant circle of acquaintances here, and I like that. I will not keep in touch with most of those people because I am terrible at keeping in touch in the first place, and I don't have truly significant relationships with most of them to maintain anyway. But I like the people here and I will miss the capability to strike up a conversation with an acquaintance on the way to class or at a meal, or to stop by someone's mod or office just to say hi. I foresee life beyond college being lonely in that way.

(Two) Liberal arts. As I've been applying to medical school and then looking for jobs, it is plainly and painfully obvious to me that I will not have electives in my life. I am a huge nerd and love classes. I am pretty much the poster child for general education requirements -- I adored them. I minored in Bible & Religion because of Intro to Biblical Studies. I loved Gender in American History and Media Analysis even though they were lots of work and not required for my major or minor. I even liked P.E. activity classes. It is killing me that pre-med coursework took so much time and I didn't get to take all the electives I wanted to. And I took at least 16 credit hours every semester except this year (I was at 14.5 and 15.5 and didn't want to overload.)

Not getting accepted to medical school this year is already turning out to be a blessing. I'm glad I get (at least) a year off from school. College has been exhausting. So rewarding, but so exhausting. For the first time in my life, I've actually had to study, and at times I've been average or worse. I've stretched myself thin with too many activities and not enough sleep. I've forced my brain into overdrive for four straight years.

I have sharpened my ability to think, to question, to analyze, to manage, to consider, to listen. But I feel acutely this semester how draining the past four years have been. I find myself grasping for words all the time. I can't commit entire botany lectures to memory like I could zoology lectures. I don't remember the content in texts I read earlier in the day, and I am slow to produce answers, even when I know them. I feel like I have lost intelligence, but I think I'm just tired.

What's in a name?

If onomaphile is a word, I am one. Thinking about names is part of my everyday life. But the thinking about names that I've been doing for a while is much less fun than considering what despicable or lovely names people give their children.

I have pretty much decided that when I get married I'll change my name to Allison Margaret Boehm Lehman, with Boehm as a second middle name. I'll introduce myself socially as Allison Boehm Lehman and professionally as Allison Lehman. It will be fine with me if people continue to call me Allison Boehm. But I know that people will drop the Boehm because it will not be attached by hyphen to the Lehman, and I am trying to come to terms with being Allison Lehman because of that.

The problem is that, ideally, I would be Allison Boehm-Lehman. I prefer when women hyphenate their names. The shared last name is practical because it indicates a familial connection to a spouse and children if there are any, but the birth surname being part of a woman's married name also means she rejected the idea that she should give up her established identity and be absorbed by her husband's. (I am happy when couples reject the traditional naming system, too, but most don't--but I do feel that children should be given only one last name or it can turn into a nightmare later). So hyphenation is a feminist issue to me, and I feel like I am a bad feminist for not hyphenating since that is what I actually want to do.

So why don't I hyphenate? For one, Boehm-Lehman is really singsongy and I don't like the sound of it, and I want the option of not having to use it (although I plan to use Boehm Lehman anyway). As a physician, new patients will be more likely to choose me out of a directory if they can pronounce my name, and Boehm is impossible for people to pronounce or spell while Lehman is not difficult.

Also, I do like Lehman. Boehm does not indicate that I am culturally Mennonite to those who find that significant; Lehman does. The mispronunciations of Boehm are boundless; there are limits on the ways you can screw up Lehman. I am not close to the Boehm side of my family, and I adore the Lehman family, am excited to be marrying into it, and feel a part of it already.

But I am Allison Boehm. Many of my friends prefer to call me by my last name only. I like the way it looks in print and in my signature. I have been feeling a sense of loss when I type or sign my name, knowing that in less than five months it will no longer be the same. I get upset when friends change their Facebook pages to a new name when they get married--even though that has nothing to do with me! It is just really hard for me to come to terms with this change. I am okay with being known as Allison Boehm Lehman, but Boehm will inevitably be dropped, and I really don't want to be known socially as just Allison Lehman. It is like 22 years of my identity--all the things I did under the name Allison Boehm--will just be gone.

Interterm

It's January, and here that means one thing: Interterm. Interterm is a beautiful time. Last year I spent it in Mexico, which was especially awesome because it meant I got to skip 1/3 of Kansas winter. But here on campus, it means lots of free time. Sure, the homework load is a little heavier than an average normal-semester day, but having afternoons and evenings pretty much free of scheduled activity creates so much time. I don't have to deal with the Collegian, or evening classes, or tutoring, or those useless 1-hour-between-classes periods during the day. Awesome.

Knowing that, I decided I would finish my seminar over Interterm. Poor choices. I have avoided classes with real workloads in past years (Critical Writing and Public Speaking aren't exactly demanding), but this year I'm taking Media Analysis, which involves plenty of reading and writing each night. So once I expend my academic energy on that, it's hard to work on my seminar, which is also difficult to write because I actually have no idea what I'm doing writing a scientific paper. They should really train you to do that when you are a science major, but I digress. And I can't skimp on the Media Analysis because I love both the subject and the professor, so I am not interested in letting Christine down or losing out on the knowledge. I'm scheduled to present my 'nar on February 5, though, so let's hope I get in gear on that front.