Getting To Know You

There is a scene in The King and I that I absolutely love.  The song is about getting to know everyone who is new in your life and of all days, it was certainly applicable tonight.

The second years in the genetic counseling program I am about to start on Monday hosted a cookout tonight for everyone to get together, eat some food, play in the pool, and get a chance to hangout and socialize.  However, before we get to the party, we should really talk about my stellar lunch:

The salmon burgers that my mom and I made the other day were calling me from the top shelf of the fridge.  I indulged them by making a salad, heating and crumbling up the burger, and dressing it with a champagne vinaigrette.  I must say the salmon burgers may actually be better the second time around.  In case I didn’t say this yesterday, I am so making these again, for sure.  A few minutes later, some fresh from the market plantain chips were also had.

After lunch Jack’s mother picked me up to head over to the plastic surgeon’s office for my stitches removal appointment.  This was my first time in a plastics office and man, it was as swanky as I imagined.  Nip/Tuck has nothing on this place.  My doctor was on time and got right to work.  Surprisingly taking out the stitches didn’t hurt one bit.  In fact, they were starting to itch so it actually felt better to have them out.  Apparently my laceration has healed well and he anticipates that, in time, it will just be a little white line on my forehead.  Sounds good to me.

Now, down to business: Julie, a fellow first year, picked me up (because, after all, I no longer have a car) and drove myself and another first year plus her husband down to the party in the south side of the city.  We happened to hit a bunch of traffic because of a concert in the city but finally made it to the party 45 minutes late.  Everyone was sitting in a circle and of course, one of the first things we needed to take care of was informing everyone of what happened to me because someone in a neck brace draws a bit of attention.  After the story and questions were through everyone went around the circle and told where they were from and such and then all of use socialized until the food was ready.

The spread was incredible.  Everyone was told to bring a dish to share and remarkably, without an direction, we managed to get a good variety.  Not everyone brought desserts, for example.

Like I said, the selection was awesome.  I packed my first plate to the gills with a bit of everything.

My first course included (from noon o’clock on the plate): Waldorf salad, ranch mac n’ cheese, cheesy hash brown potatoes, seven layer dip with Fritos, a cheeseburger minus the bun plus the ketchup, grapes, and a green ambrosia salad.

My second plate included some more of two salads and the ranch mac n’ cheese.  To quench my thirst I dug out an orange cup and got some RO water from inside the house.  Everyone else had pink or aqua cups but you know me, I need orange in my life. <3

Later, after some socializing and mosquito biting, I went back for a few dessert tastes.

There was a berry cheesecake bite, a fudge brownie, my deep dish cookie pie, a cherry sour cream pound cake, and peanut butter blossoms.  Everything was nice and the chocolate on basically everything was just perfectly melty because it was 80+ degrees out.  I enjoyed my sweets and spent the rest of the night getting bitten and making friends.

Orientation is tomorrow morning at 9am so I am heading to bed so I can get up and do breakfast before I walk over to the school.  It will be weird to not be working out first thing in the morning but I should get used to it because it’s looking like, with classes and all, that I’m going to need to transition to a pre-dinner workout most days.  We’ll see how tomorrow goes.  Pretty excited.  G’night all.

Question: Do you try a bit of everything at social gatherings/potlucks?