Wow! Can you believe it is already the end of the first week of classes??
After going to bed super late, or early depending on your view, because I got caught up in my differential diagnosis assignment, I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to a bunch of motorcycles revving their engines and squealing their tires. I was not a happy camper at first. Then I realized that since I was up I should make use of this bright, sunny, 62 degree morning.
To pay homage to the day, I suited up and strolled the 0.7 miles to the Canal where I set out on a 3.2 mile run. Or at least that is what my RunKeeper said. I was going under a lot of bridges and such and while I watched the mileage accrue towards the end of my run, I started to think the application wasn’t keeping very close track because the GPS signal wasn’t the greatest consistently. Oh well. The biggest stat was that I ran for 31 minutes straight and went at least 3.2 miles. I am so happy. This is the first major run since my accident and I was more than pleased.
I walked the 0.7 miles back to my apartment complex and then jumped on the elliptical trainer for a 15 minute jaunt. When I was finished I exchanged two five dollar bills for quarters and made my way back to my room. With such a crazy, active, fantastic morning workout I knew I needed to refuel. To accomplish just that I made a batch of dark chocolate chip vanilla protein pancakes.
I haven’t gotten the hang of how to get the pan to the perfect hotness yet with my electric stove but they turned out super yummy. I topped them with white chocolate peanut butter and maple syrup. I then promptly dug in. Scrumptious.
Also, fun fact, Facebook informed me that a year ago I was also enjoying some stellar protein pancakes. How neat!
I had decided previously that I was going to treat my Friday day off as a work day in order to ensure a nice weekend, not a stressful homework filled one. I stayed true to my word and tackled a huge amount of work. I read something like four chapters, highlighted, did a written exercise, made shadowing arrangements, e-mailed my support/advocacy group to ask permission to attend for my class assignment, called doctors to make follow up and new patient appointments, and finally completed my human genetics homework too. Yes, I was incredibly productive. It felt so good to get so much done.
By the time I finished a majority of this I realized I hadn’t eaten and I was pretty ravenous. To sate myself I grabbed a slice of 10 grain and toasted it then topped it with cherry tuna salad and a bit of goat cheese (it kind of glows in the picture). It was delicious and held me through the latter part of the day and the rest of my work.
As happy hour approached, I set out to make chocolate hazelnut balls from this recipe. I started out by grinding the hazelnuts in Vera.
Then I added the medjool dates and ground that up.
I dumped in the cocoa powder and a bit of water. When that tried to blend Vera gave up and it freaked me out. I got afraid I had broken her but she had just over heated so I took out the material and mixed the rest by hand.
I then portioned out 20 balls and wrapped them in saran wrap. <—They looked like little soldiers all lined up.
To keep them, I put them into the newly empty cocoa container and stuck them in the fridge.
As a treat for later, I used the rest of the dough, just over a standard sized ball, and mashed it down in a bowl.
Can you say super duper base for ice cream???? I can. And I did but more on that later. Dinner, however, was up next on the list. Jack and I decided to have a Skype date over food this evening. He called at 6:30 and we made a similar dinner while video chatting. My bowl ended up looking like this:
It had carrots, onions, mushrooms, artichokes, garlic, ground pepper, fire roasted red pepper chicken sausage, and shell pasta. The pepper made all the difference. I loved this dish.
We both showed each other our bowls and dined “together but separate”. I will say that having nights like this is really important for us. It gives us the impression of closing the long distance gap when we can’t physically be around each other. I really enjoyed it.
Dessert was had kind of early because I could feel myself fading. I do not run on six hours of sleep. That much is true. My delight consisted of the chocolate hazelnut base warmed for 30 seconds, Mackinac fudge ice cream, and chocolate syrup. Sweet and simple.
With that my friends I am going to call it a night and catch back up on some sleep here soon. Before I go though I wanted to share some of my random thoughts/observations after this few week on campus. Some are silly. Some are sarcastic. But, believe you me, all are true.
1. Teenagers work so hard to distinguish themselves as adults during high school, to get away from their parents, and then just revert when they get to college. I cannot tell you how many Hello Kitty and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpacks I have seen on campus. Really?
2. College age kids are the worst pedestrians in the world. Not only do they have the God complex of “nothing can hurt me” they figure that being on a college campus, even if it is right in the middle of a huge city, just means that normal traffic rules do not apply.
3. Smoking bans are great in theory but are terrible in practice. I get stuck walking behind a smoker more often than I care to but there is nothing I can do to make them stop. How do you even enforce such a policy everywhere, all the time?
4. Warm weather outside makes for some cold looking girls on the inside. People think “Oh, I’m going to be walking outside to class from my car in the parking lot. It’s 80 degrees out. Of course I’ll wear a short skirt and a tank top. Perfect.” They fail to remember that the giant lecture hall they are about to sit in for the next hour and a half is bloody air conditioned. So, yes, you looked cute on your way from car to class but you now are cowering in your chair for warmth. You don’t look so great now.
5. As a graduate student, it is easy to forget that there are still undergraduates on campus too. Yes, they look at you funny when you wear your ID badge around on your should because you need it for hospital access. They think you’re just being weird and stare with confused faces. Oh well, you’re just jealous because I’m cooler. You wish you had a reason to wear your ID around…
Hope you enjoyed that little rant. I certainly giggled when I saw some of those “offenses” taking place. G’night all!
Questions: How did your Friday go? What are your plans for the rest of the weekend?
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