Mostly Sports, But Some Other Things Too

So a lot of my life has been sporting events lately. I feel pretty good about it, but I'm also thinking maybe we should diversify our outings. 

Aaron and I went to the Red Wings game. I was like 95% sure he wasn't going to go if Zack and I didn't go, so I decided I'd be nice and go with him. They don't come to DC often, so you gotta see them while you can. Also, the tickets were only $20! And you can buy tickets up to an hour after the game starts, which seems a little crazy. But anyway, that means tickets go down to like $7 if you're willing to miss the first few minutes. So that's useful if you guys ever find yourself in downtown DC with time to kill.

The game was super close and the Wings came from behind to win! But, I noticed the guys in front of us took a snapchat of me and Aaron, which seemed kinda rude. But then, I'm pretty sure they thought we were on a super bad date. Like no touching; not that much talking; a lot of texting--all the signs of a bad date. Jokes on them though! We'll never date!

We we were Kris Kross for Halloween. We looked like this and I had a lot of vodka gummy worms:

The next weekend we went to the DC United playoff game, which Zack was pretty excited about. The sad news was that DC didn't end up advancing to the next round. It's a weird play off system that doesn't make a ton of sense to me. The sad news is that I was pretty sick at this game and Zack also lost his voice.

After standing in the cold for like 5 hours, we had to go home and then come back out for Samantha's birthday! You guys remember her, right? She just turned 23 because she's a baby. It was really fun! We played cards against humanity, which is apparently a game I can get into, despite not usually liking games, especially card games.

We had to leave the party pretty early because the next day we needed to go to Baltimore for the Raven's game! My boss gave us the tickets because he has seasons tickets, but wasn't able to go. I was a little surprised he gave the tickets to me, Stephanie and Zack, because he sort of has a reputation for being part of the boys club. But I definitely think it helps that Zack and I went to an NFL game by ourselves earlier in the season and that I talk Michigan Football with him.

I'd never been to Baltimore before, and I don't really feel like this trip counted because we just went to like Camden Yards and the football field--no sightseeing or anything. But, I guess I didn't realize how close Baltimore is to DC! I think we're going to try to make another trip out--but probably not until 2015, which is a little crazy to say.

The game was really fun! The Ravens won, we had a really good view, it wasn't that cold, there were a bunch of drunk guys behind us, and even though one of them threw up on himself, none of it got on us! (I'm counting it as a victory, because it was a close call.) But, the drunk men did manage to spill beer on us. So that sort of sucked, but not like I was wearing anything important anyway.

The sad news is, this was not good my health and I spent a lot of last week sick. Even Veterans' Day, which was supposed to be a fun day off.  Instead, I just spent a lot of time sleeping and coughing. Turns out it's an upper respiratory infection! Woooooooooo. It's mostly better now though--yay modern medicine.

#blackoutsparty

Which is good because yesterday I went to the Maryland-MSU game with Mattan and his girlfriend (who actually went to UMD)! It was a great time! So the Big House is amazing and I love it. Let's get that straight. But the thing is, this was so much more convenient than if I had tried to get three non students into the Michigan student section. We just bought the tickets, no validation required. We were able to sneak in two beers to the stadium. I got a free tshirt that says "FEAR THE TURTLE," which I think is an amazing slogan. We sat in the third row at the 10 yard line and had plenty of room to dance. Also, a freshman in front of me bought me hot chocolate for no reason? Maybe she was hitting on me. Maybe she was just super nice? Either way, it was only $4.25 so...I only feel a little bad.
I don't know what my rooting interests should have been, but both teams looked a little ridiculous. So I feel pretty good about us winning next weekend. One weird thing was that Maryland students didn't seem to get that MSU is not the same as Michigan. I guess they'll figure it out next week though. Jeez, get better at Big Ten, Maryland. Everyone else knows the difference. 

Some random things I want you guys to see:. I made fancy brownies and my flowers are doing excellent:

 Also, I have 4/15 law school applications in, so maybe I will actually go to law school. Who knows.

EDIT (11/16/14 8:48 PM): 5/15 law school applications in. Woo.

The Alumni-Student Paradox

(I feel like this could be the title of an episode of the Big Bang Theory.)



I still love you, Brady

I finally got to watch some Michigan football this weekend now that my moonlighting job has died down with the wedding season. I have a 2-0 record, so using science I can say that I am the singular reason we won yesterday, and against App. State. I also left both of these games at half-time, because it turns out I am a much worse fan now than I was two years ago. Also I was afraid my toes were falling off, don't judge me for being a wimp.


It's weird being a student and an alum at the same time right now, because half the people I see around Ann Arbor are old friends and half are new. When I'm in class, most of the people I talk to are from out of state or out of country, and it's all pretty focused on getting that degree. But then I see old friends and I feel like I'm still in undergrad. As much as I love Ann Arbor, this has shown me that I should not live here as a non-student, I would just be too confused.



So cold

Blaine was in town this weekend for the Indiana game, and just because she sometimes gets a week off at a time with her wacky nurse schedule. This was great, because I like Blaine! I went to the game with her and Kathleen and then dinner and then to this bar called Bab's that I have never been to before because it isn't on South U. and charges 8$ for a drink. But it was way classy and worth the 8$.
Lately I've been super busy, which isn't a thing I'm really used to since my job last year was a joke and I spent most of college watching The Bachelor. I feel like I'm always in class or at work, and most days I'm gone from 8AM to 10PM. This isn't that impressive, though, because Kirstin is awake and at work before me and also usually gets home super late, so we are just both absent roommates. Now that midterms are over I will get a little break from proctoring, so I can finally catch up on episodes of The Voice. Even though Shakira is gone and she was my favorite.

Today I had a meeting for what I am calling "Uganda Club," which is actually a group of students working with Progressive Health Partnership, doing grant writing and fundraising for their work in maternal and infant health care. I'm hoping that I can put together a research project and do my internship with PHP this summer, too, which will hopefully be more exciting than writing grant proposals, because that is turning out to be kind of a bummer. But I'm pretty into moms, so at least the topics are a fun time.


I just did a countdown, and there's only 3 weeks till CARTSgiving! I'm really excited for all the mystery train and Mexican food and to be all together again! 

What doesn't kill you...

What doesn't kill you could still make you very red, itchy, nauseous and put you in the ER.

So after work i had to rush to Old Town Alexandria--Taylor and Ashley might remember it as that place we got ice cream the last day they were here. Aaron's parents are in town and wanted to take us out to dinner at this nice restaurant, which always nice.

We were a little late, and when we got there Aaron and his family had already ordered an appetizer. I was going to take a bite, but Aaron's mom let me know there was shrimp in them and so I told her "Oh no thanks, shrimp makes my lips tingle." And then she glared at Aaron and asked "Why are we here then?!" and I assured her I could eat things on the menu, just not shrimp. Some awesome foreshadowing....

All of the food was super good! I had a bit of Zack's crab soup; I had a lot of bread; I ate pecan crusted chicken with crab on top and then had a chocolate hazelnut creme brulee (so many things I like!) Then we decided we'd walk the mile back to the metro to walk off dessert. That was fine. Then, since I was short on my step count, I paced around the metro for a while. I noticed my armpits were like crazy itchy. But, I figured that it was just because I'd been out of the house for like 14 hours at this point and I just needed to take a shower and change.

What I imagine I looked like

I went to sit with Zack and Aaron and Zack tried to wipe what he thought was a bead of sweat off my face. Nope. Not a bead of sweat. It was a hive. My warning hive was already HUGE and my whole neck and chest were already covered in hives. But, the train was coming and there's a Rite Aid right by the metro so we figured that was the fastest means to get relief. I wasn't super worried at this point, but got kind of nervous when the train just stopped moving in between stops--I knew it was gonna get worse before it got better.

We went to Rite Aid to get Benadryl, and Aaron knew exactly the right aisle and type I needed, which was super helpful. And I popped two pills while in line and we started to walk home. Benadryl is some pretty good stuff! In the 10 minutes it took to walk home, I was already feeling better and my hives were leaving! My plan was to lay down and just chill and watch some Dexter while I recovered. BUT, I was super itchy and literally could not stop scratching myself, so I decided to take a bath.

I don't know if it was because of the bath, or that the timing just lined up, but I started to feel really sick. Then I threw up all of my dinner. It was super gross. And Zack seems to have spidey senses about when I'm at my worst and came into the bathroom. So then I tried to rinse off, but couldn't really stand and was super miserable. So then Zack came in and saw me hunched over in the shower unable to stand and called Aaron's (she used to be a peds nurse) and asked if they thought it was time to go to the hospital. She said yes, definitely.

So then I had to get clothes back on, try not to puke, walk to the car, and go to the GW Emergency room. I had to remind myself that it was important not to faint. And I'm super glad I didn't, because Aaron and Zack seemed really nervous already. Luckily it's really close to us--like 10 minutes driving. and it was nice to have Aaron to navigate and walk me into the ER while Zack parked the car. Also I had Zack call my mom and let her know my allergy is for real. She had been joking earlier in the night that all I needed was a shower, some water and rest. Typical my mom--she's pretty sure most things will fix themselves. Usually I am too, but this felt different! I'll never understand how people in super rural areas can get by living 30 minutes from anything, let alone a hospital.

The coolest Friday night hang out

It was also super lucky that they saw me very quickly. I mean I still got to see the homeless man try to scam the hospital out of pain killers--he refused to give his id, and just wanted the intake people to give him drugs for his back. I also got to see a very well dressed French lady declare she was having a heart attack, lay down in several places on the waiting room floor and yell at the intake people that even though her vitals were all fine, she was most definitely dying. It was an adventure.

When they took us back the nurse told me he thought I was right on the cusp of needing an iv or taking some medicine orally, which seemed like a good sign. They also said they weren't sure how much of the Benadryl was actually absorbed because I threw up so soon after taking it. In the end, they decided I needed an iv. My first one! The nurse apologized to me after he put it in and said he was kinda messy doing it, but I don't think it seemed that bad. The nurse was really nice. He got me blankets when I got cold and shaky and explained a lot of stuff to me, which I know they don't have to do when they treat you.

Then Zack and I waited. And waited. They said they'd let us go around 1:30 after my hour of observation was over. Right around 1:30 they came to take my registration information. At 1:45 the doctor came back and explained what he was going to prescribe me and said he'd be right back and I could get going. At 2:00, two gunshot victims came in. At 2:15 a girl that got caught drunk driving and then fled from the cops came in and was making a real big scene about being cold, not speaking English (though she clearly did) and not wanting to be deported back to Brazil.  Also, that's about the time all the way too drunk people show up too. So, I fell way down on the priority list.

I was really sure they'd just forgotten about us. We were in this huge private room with the door closed. I KNEW there were people who needed my room more than me. Especially because at this point all of the redness was gone and I felt a lot better. I wanted to use my call button and ask for water and maybe remind them we were ready to go, but Zack told me I wasn't allowed to.

Eventually at 3:00 my nice nurse came back, gave me the prescriptions and took out my iv. Taking it out hurts so much more than putting it! Then we walked to the car, came home and passed out until 11:00. Then I went to CVS, filled my prescriptions and came home to load up on pills and take a nap. I feel pretty good...but so hungry! Also, my joints feel awful. No one warned me about that! Hopefully Michigan wins and I can count on that to cheer me up!

So now Zack and I are an epi pen couple. Except that he let his expire, so it's really just me. I'm not really looking forward to having to tell all my waiters to extra for real make sure none of my food touches shellfish. But, I don't think I can super handle another reaction like that! 

Sundays are for cooking

I bet you've been wondering what we eat on a regular basis here. Or maybe you haven't.  But either way, you're about to know!

I spent all day today cooking so I wouldn't have to during the week. If I don't make my lunch for the whole week on Sunday, I end up not doing it and having to eat out. So here are some of my cooking adventures!

When we visited Bobby in Cincinnati, he mentioned that sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night, it's because your blood sugar is out of whack. He said he eats a banana to fix it and it helps him go right back to sleep. So, since Zack like NEVER sleeps, we decided we'd get some bananas in case he wakes up and can't get back to sleep. But...he didn't have the problem before the bananas went bad. The only thing left to do was make banana bread. And probably buy more bananas, because eventually he'll wake up and be crabby about not being able to sleep.

And since everything is better with chocolate, I cut up some of the many Hershey kisses my mom sent me for my birthday and threw them in there. I should have used the dark chocolate ones and not the regular ones, but I wanted to save those for myself.

From what I hear, it's pretty good banana bread. I haven't actually had any yet, but I don't know how it could be bad.

While it baked, I decided to make something new! I'm doing this thing where I track my calories with My Fitness Pal. I wouldn't call it a diet, but it just kind of makes you eat less because you have to be honest with it and say what you ate. Anyway, I'd been reading about steel cut oats and how they're so good for you and whatever.  The only catch is, it's not like instant oatmeal--it takes like half an hour to make.

Usually I don't make it a point to buy organic food, since it's more expensive. But, I couldn't find the nonorganic version at Harris Teeter, so I guess I'll just be extra healthy. Basically all you do is measure 4 cups of water or milk, and then 1 cup oats and boil it til its not water anymore. I felt like it'd be weird with boiled milk? So I used water.

It took a while, but eventually became just mushy and not watery.  I like it! I usually like mushy things. I added some sugar and walnuts so it'd be less boring though. So my plan is to eat this for breakfast for four days and see if I still like it. Sometimes the texture of yogurt makes me want to gag, but hopefully this doesn't have that effect.

Then I need to make lunch for the week! I have a lot of extra vegetables that need to get used so I decided to do stir fry! I cut up onions, zucchini, and broccoli and set it aside. I needed to go work out, so I didn't want to get too deep into the cooking process. This also gave me time to soak the rice before I made it! That's something my grandmother always does, but I never really have time to because rice takes so long to begin with.

ThenI went and ran. I wanted to watch football while I ran since that's the only tolerable to distract myself from the fact that I'm running. BUT, only 2 of 4 treadmills had working TVs and the 2 good ones were taken. So I just had to listen music and struggle through the three miles. I've definitely had a better half hour.  When I came back, I was too hot and my feet hurt. So I had to take a shower before Zack and I embarked on a shared culinary adventure.

We'd read online about Shooter sandwiches. We thought they looked kind of cool so we decided to make some for ourselves! Some people do crazy things with them but we decided to keep it simple! Ours was just steak, onions, mushrooms for Zack, and bacon in a hollowed out sourdough bread loaf. I'll just post pictures of the process instead of explaining the entire thing.

Our loaves of bread!

Steaks! We originally thought we could fit two in each, but the loaves were too small!

These are the mushrooms Zack made. I still think mushrooms are gross.

Bacon! We eventually cooked six strips. We did not share this since strip between us.

Sauteed onions! way better than mushrooms!

Me hollowing out the bread loaves.

All the bread that came out of the two loaves.

Adding stuff into them!

Right before putting the lid on.

Them in the process of being smushed!

These were supposed to be bread crumbs, but I dropped them all over the floor so we couldn't eat them. It was kind of a bummer, but since everything else turned out well, I'll count them as a sacrifice to the cooking gods.

After we smushed the sandwiches, I went back to the stir fry! It's pretty easy. I basically just cooked all the vegetables and chicken in soy sauce and siracha and put it over rice. Our kitchen was just super hot from all the cooking and our super loud fan ended up turning on. Every time it turns on, I feel like it's judging me and calling me a bad cook.

At 5 we had to go to this Michigan in Washington dinner and meet all the interns for this semester. The last two times I've just stayed home by myself while Aaron and Zack go, but this time they put that you could bring a "life partner" or spouse with you if you wanted. So Zack put me down as a life partner, which I feel like is a big step in our relationship! Or maybe it just makes us sound like a gay couple from the early 90s. Who uses the term life partner anymore?

Very smushed. Very good.

The dinner was fun! I mean there's no real point. You're just supposed to mingle with the new interns and talk yourself up. I don't have a lot of talking up to do, and interns are only so interesting, but the other people sitting at our table were for real adults and were super nice. Also, I mean, you can't really be upset about free dinner from a program you didn't even participate in.

When we got back we cut open our sandwiches to see if they were sufficiently smushed! They looked pretty good! I'm excited to eat it for lunch tomorrow!

Also, you probably all got the snapchats, but for our work party on Friday my coworker Stephanie and I decided we'd try to extra celebrate the baby shower aspect of it and make a watermelon baby carriage!  I didn't get many pictures of the process because my hands were mostly covered in fruit guts all the time, but it wasn't so bad making it! Stephanie did the carving of the baby's head, but I hollowed out the watermelon and made room for the pacifier in its face.

It was definitely one of those projects were the longer you look at it, the worse you feel like it looks (much like at Painting With a Twist). We were worried it looked like  a severed baby head. Then we were worried it looked like dog/bear and not a baby.  I was also worried that Steph would have a really hard time getting it to work. I guess it was easy enough because she showed up at work with it on time!

At the party everyone was really impressed with our skills! A lot of people didn't get that we made and thought that we bought it! I mean, it ended up kind of cute, but I wouldn't definitely not pay money for this quality of work. We have another baby shower coming up in November, and obviously need to celebrate it in a similar fashion so it doesn't look like we're playing favorites. I'm not sure how to up our game though? I guess we have some time to brainstorm.

Anyway, sorry this isn't about actually interesting things, but this is all I've been doing this weekend.

Miss

So I guess I am going to bow to peer pressure and write a blog post.

Like the Teeners, I started school this week. However, unlike Teeners, I did not start school as a student, but as a teacher! That's because I am way smarter than her, and people like her need help from intelligent people like me. (JK Teenie you're smart.)

Anyway, I really started last week because I had new teacher orientation and three professional development days (although one of them was a work day, and I don't really think I developed much on that day.)

In addition to professional development, I had to go get fingerprinted for the seven bazillionth time. I have basically admitted defeat when it comes to this process. It is always expensive and time consuming and somehow way more complicated than it seems like it could possibly be, and I have had to get it done far more than make sense. But whatever. This time was a unique and interesting experience because the police officer who took my fingerprints was extremely admiring of my fingerprints. The first indication of this came when he told me, "You know, your fingerprints are really nice and clear." I asked him if this meant I should never commit a crime and kind of laughing because that's sort of a weird thing to say and I wasn't sure how else to respond. A few minutes later, he said, "Your prints really are nice." And then later, "It's really a pleasure printing you." And then later, "Don't you dare ever let anyone else print you." It was confusing because it felt like he was hitting on me but also it's hard to be flattered when the only compliment you get is about your fingerprints. I was somewhat tempted to shout "I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!" and make him feel as awkward as I felt, but I didn't because he had a gun.

Not nearly as nice as mine.

 Anyway, my seductive fingerprints passed the "Don't be a criminal" test and I have now been a teacher for two days. I'm not going to describe my days in full because we just did basic first couple of days stuff--syllabus, icebreakers, book inventory, etc. However, I will include a short list of some things that have happened, and you can feel free to just imagine the rest.

One funny thing is that everyone thinks that Evan is my boyfriend because in a distinct effort not to share my love life with them, I included no mention of my actual boyfriend--but I did put a picture of Evan on my "important people" slide and EVERY class asked if we were dating, and then acted very suspicious when I said no. Whoops. Guess in the future I will only have female friends.

From now on, nothing but CART. Except maybe then they'll think I'm a lesbian.

Also, I have realized that middle schoolers get excited about really weird things. Today, one of my 7th graders said to me, "Miss, I saw you in the hallway today!" (Also, sometimes some of them legit just call me Miss. What?) This set off a chain reaction of everyone in the entire class saying places that they had seen me. "I saw you walking in from the parking lot!" "I saw you in the 7th grade hallway!" "Hey, I saw her there too!" "I saw you talking to another teacher!" "I saw you looking in the supply closet!" and so on and so forth until finally I had to be like, "Guys, I work here, and sometimes they let me leave my classroom, so you're going to see me around. It's not that exciting and we don't need to talk about it for 5 minutes while you're supposed to be writing in your journals."

A recreation of Miss talking to Mr. Teacher from across the hall. Especially accurate because Miss's face says "I have no idea what's really going on."

I learned we have a school iguana that lives in the lobby.

Not our specific iguana but you get the idea.

Anyway, even though I have only had two real days of school this week and both of them were good, I am happy tomorrow is Friday! I think that once this week is over things will feel more normal, and less like I am an imposter teacher who is going to be thrown out at any moment.

Epidemiwhat?

I started school this week!!

So did Patrick. Isn't he cute??

I feel like I sort of started last week because that is when we had orientation and I had to make friends all over again. Normally I'm all: 

But lately I've been pretty friendly. It helps that everyone in my program seems pretty cool, and they all like public and health so we have that in common. So far I've gone on running dates, played kickball, and biked in the rain all in my effort to be social. And I even remember the names of some of the people I've met. Success!

My classes this semester seem pretty much like and undergrad course load (5 classes, 16 credits, mostly in class from 8am-1pm). But I'm sure they'll be harder, so I'm bracing myself for lots of studying. My favorite so far is public health genetics, which I have Mondays/Wednesdays. I learned already that it's been recently discovered that 75% of our DNA is transcribed into RNA, which is not what I learned 3 years ago in undergrad genetics. Also we are going to talk some about GMO food, which is a thing I've recently become more interested in as I dabble in being a vegetarian hippie. 

I also have intro to epidemiology (which is good because I'm still not entirely sure what I'm training for a career in), biostatistics, biological basis of disease, and a programming class in SAS. 

So far I'm loving being in school again, maybe I'll stay a student forever?

From 0 to 60

Alright people.  I know I'm probably the worst contributor to this blog, but it's 12:50 am and I have to stay up for another 7 hours, so I figure why not humor you.  I have a cute little snuggle buddy on my lap, so he's going to help me write.

Basically what my baby friend looks like...same blankets and
 pacifier even! But NOT ACTUALLY because that would be
 breaking HIPAA and would be a bad start to my nursing career.

So, in the past two weeks I've made a lot of life changes!  It all started on August 18 when I woke up to a call coming from the 3-1-3.  I was super excited because this was the call I'd been waiting for for weeks.  It was the HR rep at the DMC calling to offer me an RN position in the NICU!!!!  I was so happy I even told the lady that she was my favorite person ever (which maybe is unprofessional?).

My approximate reaction to "the call"

A little more info about my new job.  Orientation starts September 15, and I get to go to a bunch of boring seminars that week.  Then, I'll start really being a nurse and will be working three 12 hour shifts a week.  Some really awesome things about my job are that a) I get to work day shift so no more nocturnalism for me! and b) I already got a pay raise and haven't even started yet!!  So far I'm really liking this job.  But most of all, I'm excited to take care of babiessss and help them get better so they can go home :)  Also, last night I ordered this super cool badge clip that I'm kind of obsessed with.  

Mine won't say Wendy.  Snapchat of the real
thing comin' at ya in a few days

I'm official!

After I heard the good news about my new job, lots of things happened really fast.  The next big change in my life was that Taylor and I signed the lease for our new apartment.  We moved in last week and are so in love with it!  We each have our own bathroom and walk-in closet, there's an enormous balcony overlooking the pool, and it's 800 million times better than Blakely Court CART house (minus the fact we're missing half of us :/ ).  

This is an actual conversation we
had this afternoon

My room.  Taylor will have
to show you a pic of hers
so you can see how
coordinated we are!

Bathroom...obviously

View of the pool from our balcony.
The sad news is it closes in 4 days :(

Giant balcony where we  sometimes
dine and watch netflix

Super modern couch aka your bed
when you visit us


The next exciting thing that happened was that I bought a car!  Actually, the process of finding a car to buy isn't that fun.  Howie and I probably put about 20 hours into searching that week.  We went to tons of dealerships and had them price out different options, test drove the same three cars about four times each, and finally I made a decision.  On August 25, I bought a brand new Chrysler 200!! It's awesome and I can't wait to take all of you for a ride in it!

To top it all off, my dad
surprised me with this
sweet license plate holder =)

Well that's my life.  Hope you enjoyed!  Excited to hear about yours :)