My Heart Beats To The Bass

These past two days have been so awesome.  I have finished my first year of genetic counseling school and had some great end-of-the-semester experiences.  Thursday was the day of my last final.  I started the day with some brain food in the form of a whole wheat bagel topped with peanut butter cream cheese and flax seed.  Side of iced coffee too.

This must have been super fuel because I felt great after my final.  Sadly the more people talked about it in the student room the more I realized there was a lot more I could or should have put down in my essays.  I think I put enough down to get credit but I can see how the professor could take off points if she really wanted too.  I think we’re all banking that because she has so little time to grade, our prof won’t be to harsh.  We’ll see how that goes.  After the final I was hungry again.  I warmed up some Hawaiian chicken and put it on top of a salad.

This was the perfect lunch before preclinic.  It was our last conference as a first years group so it was mildly bittersweet.  We all presented our cases and then I hit the road to start my end-of-the-semester celebration.  Not before I had a piece of dark chocolate maple fudge.  Iris, our jack-of-all-trades in the department, thought that a piece of chocolate would heal my stuffy nose.  How cute.

Jack and I watched TV for the majority of the afternoon (what a luxury!) and then got busy making dinner.  I whipped up a big batch of pizza dough and we used a third of it to make individual calzones.

I filled mine with orange pepper, onion, tomato, mushrooms, spinach, Italian blend cheese, and feta.  Jack stuffed his with the same veggies and pepperoni.  His was a bit large and he had to really work to fold it over and seal it.  He eventually got it shut though.

We popped these babies in the oven and they came out perfectly golden brown.  We made these Italian style (meaning no sauce in the middle) so we had a little bowl of sautéed onion and garlic tomato sauce to dip in.  Basically these were awesome.  The dough needed a bit more seasoning but otherwise it was stellar.

After dinner we walked to a church a few blocks south of where I live for a Green River Ordinance concert.  It was sunny, and beautiful, and plenty wonderful out.

We got there an hour early because I was anticipating a line but we actually were some of the first people there.  We found seats near the stage along the wall and then killed time by playing Life on Jack’s phone.  I do love iPhones…

Finally the starting act came on.  Ernie Halter played a few songs.  My favorite was probably one called Pretty Girl though Better gave it a run for its money.

A bit later GRO came onstage and they rocked it.  I mean you could feel the bass in your chest and the music rang in your ears in the best way.  I loved every second and relished the chance to hear them live and so up close.  It was a small venue which meant that I was probably thirty feet away from them.

Then they did their last song “campfire style” and I was about five feet away.  I thought GRO displayed some great musician-ship.  They sounded as nice unplugged as they did with all the technology.  I had a fantastic time.  Jack and I walked home and made the great decision to cheers the night and cheers the summer not with drinks but with glasses of homemade ice cream!

Then we went to bed because as much as it felt like a Friday, it was only a Thursday and I had to see a patient this morning.  Jack drove me to class and clinic in the am on his way out of town.  I had strawberry banana cottage cheese for breakfast on the way.

8am class was long and drawn out as we talked about more recurrence risk calculations than I ever really wanted to know.  My patient was much more interesting thankfully.  However, probably the best part of clinic was the food today though.  Among the choices were soft chocolate chip cookies, a seven layer taco dip with chips and pretzel crisps, and then these happened…

Better-Than-Crack brownies, be damned.  You were too cool for school clinic and I way too many pieces.  I couldn’t help myself.  How delicious!  I spent the afternoon going through patient records and writing up medical reports and I made great progress.  By the time I left, I was all caught up.  Felt nice.  As soon as I got home I changed and headed to the gym.  I did an abdominal workout and then some intense interval cardio on the elliptical.  Because I was sweaty I came back quickly and showered.  Then, all dressed and dolled up, I met up with friends for some food truck feasting!

Remember last time that Jack and I tried out this festival?  There were probably no more than eight trucks.  This time around there were something like thirty!  It was incredible!  There was so much to try.  My friend Pam, whom I met recently at a Supper Club, is big on sharing so we just walked around the whole parking lot and then decided to try the pretzel wagon first up.

This little horseradish cheese and ham slider was good.  I could eat pretzel bread every day of my life.  So tasty.  We added some oomph too by spreading some pale ale honey mustard and it was perfect.  While we were chowing down we moved to the Indian food truck for some shrimp curry.

I couldn’t believe how amazingly these shrimpies were cooked.  They burst in your mouth and the curry was smooth, sweet, and spicy all at the same time.  It had an awesome slow burn.  While we chowed on that we went to the fry truck.  I really wanted the sweet potato fries with cinnamon cream but they sadly were out of them so we got pizza fries instead.

They weren’t bad but they were just what they sounded like.  The fries could have had a bit more seasoning on them.  We ate these in line for the mac n’ cheese truck.  This was the longest line, we’re talking a good twenty minutes.

See that flowly blue shirt?  It was strategically chosen to hide the food baby I was brewing underneath.  =D  When we got up the window, buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese it was.  Holy smokes it was probably my favorite thing up to that point.  The buffalo cream on top was perfection.

I loved the bread crumbs on top too.  How crunchy!  I swear texture makes such a difference when it comes to food.  Finally we finished everything off with something sweet.  It was starting to rain and the event organizers were shutting things down to make sure that no one got caught in a lightening storm.  We went to an Italian truck for dessert and ordered some cannolis and Italian oreos.  I had been at the truck earlier in the festival and they had been out of the two things I wanted.  So when we came back for sweets the owner gave us half the order for free.  It was really sweet.

I must say that these cannolis with the pistachio bits were probably some of the best I have ever had.  Sadly, they were so great that the “oreo” after was a bit of letdown.  Nutella is hard to mess up but when you sandwich it between dense lemon-laced pound cake it can be a bit heavy and sticky.  Oh well, still good but that cannoli really took the cake!  The whole entire night was a success.  I loved the whole thing.  It rained a bit so I was covered in flip flop splatter when I got back but it was worth it.

Now I’m off to paint my nails and head to bed so I can get up in time to attend the graduation of two of my favorite young men in the world.  I have made a note to myself to wear waterproof mascara.  I’m sure I’ll cry once or twice.  I can’t wait.  I’m so proud of them.  Later loves.  I hope you were sufficiently mouth watered while reading this.  You know I was!

Friday French –>

NEW ONEPhrase: Puis-je avoir une morsure?Translation: Can I have a bite?
Story: I am a firm fan of sharing menu items.  I mean just look at the entire rest of this post right?  I used to not ask but then Jack almost forked me one time when I tried to eat off his plate with making a respectful overture first.  So now I ask people though I admit I have some standing invitations with select loved ones and friends.  =D

Questions: What is on your plate for the weekend?
How do you celebrate the end of finals?