And She Said…YES!

Today is going to be a special guest post. Rather than being written by your regular, beautiful hostess Jill, I'll be writing it. To help things make a little more sense as to why I'm here instead of her, I have some exciting news to share:

We're engaged! I asked her to marry me on Memorial Day, and she said yes. And, as she's been getting back into blogging, she wanted to share the story with everyone, and came up with the idea of seeing it from my perspective.

The plan was pretty simple. I had already made reservations for dinner that night, with a special note that we wanted to celebrate our recent engagement. Of course, this presented the obvious problem: we weren't yet engaged. So I needed to do it today. I was going to ask her in the morning, shortly after we got back from working out. She always thinks she's too sweaty to even kiss after she's finished a long run, but it's always worth getting a little sweat on my lips in order to kiss her.

I wanted it to be a surprise for her, which is a little harder to accomplish when we are spending so much time so close together in her new one-bedroom apartment. I wanted to catch her while she was looking absolutely gorgeous, even if she didn't normally think it of herself. So asking her after she's spent an hour putting on her make-up and getting her hair done up while in a pretty dress wasn't going to work.

Unfortunately for my simple plan, the day broke with a rain storm moments after we got out of bed. We're talking cats and dogs coming down in sheets. Alright, no big deal. We'll just wait a little bit longer to go to the fitness center to work out so we don't get there sopping wet, and I'll just wait a little longer to pop the question.

It just KEPT raining. Hours of it. Which is normally fine, I can go ahead and spend a day inside with my beloved girlfriend, but the dinner reservations at 5 pm were creeping closer and closer, and I didn't want to need to pull her aside as we were walking out the door and basically shove the ring onto her finger as an afterthought, and I certainly didn't want the people at the restaurant spoiling the surprise by asking about the "recent engagement" we were celebrating. I might've been able to spin that into a "oh yeah, engagement is British for being hired" or some such, but it'd've been a stretch, and awkward, and I'm sure Jill would have seen right through the obvious cover story.

So, maybe we could go even though it was raining a bit? I kept asking her when she wanted to go, even though it was, of course, still raining. She kept picking up that I was antsy for some reason, though didn't have any idea about why, just that I was apparently really really eager to go working out. I think I asked a total of three times over the course of the day, spaced out to try to not draw too much attention and arouse her suspicion, but I was really worried about her figuring things out.

Finally, the rain broke, and we went to work out. It was a strength-training day for both of us. I explored some of the machines and free weights in her fitness center, trying to find how to most closely replicate the workout routine I do at the gym at school. The co-rec there has squat racks, barbell benches, deadlift platforms, and more, which lets me easily do the classic heavy lifts. Jill did a bunch of bodyweight exercises with extra weight from dumbbells to increase the difficulty. I'm not sure what her routine was, specifically; she's always been better about planning what to do at a gym than I am, I usually just walk in and do what seems interesting at the moment until I'm sore and tired.

After we got back, we were figuring out where we needed to go that night for dinner and to the hotel afterwards, and making sure we would have everything we needed for our upcoming celebratory vacation. She had her back turned to me, checking out things on her phone as it charged on the iHome in the kitchen. Perfect. I slipped the ring box out of it's hiding place in my backpack and came up beside her, the ring in my far hand. Of course, now that I was next to her, she was looking at me as we talked, so I asked a question to turn her focus back to the screen of her phone, and then went down on one knee. In my mind, that's the only way to do a proposal.

She was shocked into silence, and her eyes went a little wide. She said later that it felt like so long had passed before she could finally get her voice back to say "of course!". This was followed by plenty of laughing and smiling and hugging and kissing, and tears of joy on her end. She cries pretty easily at things like this, so it was nice to see it happen.

We had dinner plans for 5 pm, since we were planning on having a nice leisurely dinner. We sat down in the mostly empty restaurant, and immediately started having a fantastic time with our server. Turns out, he was recently engaged as well. Small world. We started the meal with an appetizer of bacon-and-cheese-wrapped shrimp, and a walnut and cranberry vinaigrette salad that we split.

At the waiter's recommendation, we opened a bottle of blended white wine, which was incredibly sweet. I had the stuffed salmon with sautéed green beans over mashed potatoes with sausage. It was fantastic, and I had to slow down my pace dramatically to make the meal last a little longer.

She had... some other fantastically delicious dish. I'll admit, she's much better at remembering meals than I am. Fortunately, she's also very good at taking pictures. [From Jill: Cashew crusted tilapia with Jamaican rum butter sauce (holy crap, awesome) and sweet potato couscous with sautéed green beans.]

For dessert, we were gifted two glasses of champagne and a "chocolate box". The box was formed of milk chocolate, and filled with white chocolate mousse and raspberries, blueberries, and bits of strawberries. It, like everything else, was delicious.

After dinner, we took a walk, enjoying the warm night and chance to be downtown where we normally aren't. We ended up drifting several blocks over and finding ourselves by a Cheesecake Factory, so we stopped in for a second dessert to truly celebrate the wonderful occasion, as well as some drinks. I had a Long Island, she had a martini, and we split the Oreo and Kahlua cheesecakes.

A fantastic way to end the night. Of course, we still had to get to our hotel, so after some fancy navigating to get on the highway out into the boondocks, and quite a few missed turns, we were finally on our way there, and arrived near midnight. We checked in without any trouble, but when we got up to our room, we discovered the bed was all disheveled and immediately turned around. If the room was occupied, we didn't want to stick around when whoever was occupying it came out of the bathroom. The ladies at the front desk were very helpful and very apologetic, however, and immediately found another room for us to take. We were upgraded to a suite (awesome) and given two vouchers for free breakfast at the hotel's restaurant (also awesome).  Quite the day! And the start of a fantastic forever with my new fiancée.

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Jill here, again.  So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.  We’re engaged and very happy.  The wedding won’t be for a while, think three or four years given that Jack needs to finish his PhD, but we figure that just means we have a ton of time to get it perfect.  =D

Day In The Life + WIAW

This post could also be titled “If I Blogged Every Minute Of The Day” and I figured it would be a funny alternative type of post.  So here we go.  This is my WIAW post combined with a detailed look at a day in the life of busy genetic counseling student.

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5:40am - alarm goes off

5:41am - out of bed

5:48am - out the door, to the gym

5:57am - in the gym, on the elliptical, practicing my prenatal presentation

6:43am - back to the apartment

6:50am - shower time

7:00am - dry off, get dressed (realize my new tailored pants fit great), makeup and hair

7:20am - make breakfast (peanut butter honey yogurt with strawberries and chia)

7:32am - done with breakfast, eaten while watching last night’s Hell’s Kitchen

7:35am - out the door, to campus I go

7:45am - park the car

7:53am - arrive at the student room after a very long, very cold walk from the parking lot to our building

7:55am - log onto a classmate's computer because mine was taken by my first year deskmate

7:56am - begin the day by looking at recipes online...waste.of.time
(looks yummy –> http://www.ragu.com/recipes/detail/25121/1/1-2-3-cheddar-broccoli-casserole)

8:00am - switch to Facebook

8:05am - work on an outline for one of tomorrow's morning patients

8:30am - go to class

8:45am - be real tired in class

9:07am - get midterm

9:10am - realize everything is going to be fine

9:20am - bathroom break while people argued for points

9:30am - class resumes and continues to be not the most exciting thing in the world

10:00am - switch classes from molecular to population

11:15am - technology breakdown in class and we continue class from handouts rather than a projected presentation on the board

11:38am - back to the student room

11:40am - applied for a job in Arizona

12:00 noon - heat up lunch (pumpkin and black bean chili with tempeh and an unpictured apple on the side)

12:30pm - MFM presentation time

12:43pm - actually start my presentation

12:50pm - the majority of people noisily arrive

1:08pm - finished

2:30pm - set up for my thesis seminar practice presentation

2:32pm - find out some promising job news (hopefully more on that by the end of the week!)

2:50pm - finally give my thesis seminar practice presentation

3:30pm - finish my PowerPoint five minutes too early, dang it!

3:50pm - head to my old place of work for fried goodies made my an old co-worker

3:53pm - significantly improved mood

4:15pm - begin prep of Thursday patients

5:12pm - still working...

6:10pm - give up the ghost and go home

6:20pm - get home and change into more comfortable clothes

6:30pm - make dinner with veggies for a "fried food detox"

6:50pm - actually eat dinner (salad beast topped with bleu cheese and steak seasoned TVP and jalapeno hummus dressing) while watching How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days

7:30pm - get angry at my iPhone for being broken somehow and unable to be backed up or synced (grumble, grumble)

7:43pm - dessert in the form of Peeps as it is that time of year

8:01pm - finish this post and decide I really should be doing something academically productive

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Questions: What would your life look like if you blogged every moment?
Are you a fan of Peeps?

A Quick Hello

Once again, I apologize for being so absent.  This rotation is just kicking my behind!  I hope to be back in action a little more once I switch to my final rotation in a little over two weeks.  We’ll see.  Until then I really appreciate you all sticking around.  I ‘m going to try and post shortly about a great night I had out with the Yelp squad and my friend/first year Jessica tasting some great wine.  But for now, let’s do the What I Ate Wednesday thing.

Breakfast was a big jar of chocolate protein oats with cottage cheese mixed in.  I love how the hot oatmeal steams the peanut butter and makes it melty.

That was followed up by lunch eaten in a hurry in front of a packet about ethnicity based carrier screening.  I was learning all about sickle beta thal disease.  I had a bowl full of TVP coconut curry chili made from this recipe.  Honestly it was a great recipe.  I loved how simple it was (bag of this, can of that, one whole onion, etc.) and it tasted delicious.  I used TVP to replace the ground turkey and it worked like a charm.  Protein packed!

I also had an early afternoon snack of celery and carrots with TJ’s chipotle pepper hummus.  This was eaten in the middle of a maternal fetal medicine specialist meeting so no picture of those eats… I wasn’t hungry again until much later in the day.  I was thankful for this because it allowed me to focus and make incredible progress on my to-do list through the afternoon.  I was also the only one in the student room.  People bolted real quick today.  We just finished our midterms…

…so I can see why the ladies were itching for time away from school.  Spring break is coming up soon and we’re all counting down the days. Only two left!  When I finally did get home, dinner happened shortly after.  I had half a baked sweet potato with some marshmallow fluff on top (hello guilty pleasure) alongside steamed broccoli with mustard and a TJ’s veggie masala burger with sour cream.  Needless to say, it was a stellar meal and didn’t last long.

I indulged in dessert a bit later in the form of a loaded caramel rice cake with peanut butter marshmallow fluff and butterscotch/dark chocolate chips.

This was good but honestly wasn’t quite as great as last night’s last ditch effort to eat much needed calories.  I woefully underate all yesterday so when it came to be 7:45 and I realized I had only eaten something like 700 on the day, I made myself chocolate almond milk protein pudding with some marshmallows, butterscotch chips and sauce.  It was divine.  I also stirred in some melted peanut butter.  Awesomeness!

So there you have it.  My quick stop-in to the blog on my way to bed because I’m worn out.  I hope you all sleep well tonight and I’ll see everyone soon for a recap of the super-fun Yelp event from last week.  Also, before I head out, I wanted to mention that upon finishing New Rules of Lifting For Women I have started a new lifting program that I’ll be calling Simply Shredded after the website it’s from.  My first day was yesterday and it was upper body.  Lordie, when I woke up this morning I was just so sore I didn’t want to move.  I guess that means it is working!  Also, in addition to lifting sessions they have a cardio program they call “stubborn fat cardio” that you do on off days.  I tried it out this morning and it had me sweating like whoa!  Going be a good three month program I think.

Questions: What is your favorite lifting program?
Do you have a go to meal when you realize you haven’t eaten much during the day?

Bright and Bad

Last week was one of transition.  It was the first week I had counseled in my new prenatal rotation clinic site and it was a very big change.  The expectations were different, the counseling styles were new, and the critique fresh.  Needless to say, it was a hard couple of days.  Bright spots included cookies and chocolate chip waffles while studying for the population genetics midterm (which I rocked by the way)…

…lots of great eats…

…several dates with my love, Jack…

…great HIIT workouts…

…red velvet lattes to even out all the critique I’ve been hearing, pick me up, pick me up…

…and good times with friends…

Like I said, good and bad.  Bright times and bad times.  I will get better.  I will learn from this.  I will make it through.  8 weeks and counting, ladies and gentlemen.  And with that, I have to go and continue my studying for the molecular genetic midterm next week.  One tune (an interesting cover) before I go:

Questions: How do you balance the good and the bad?
Any plans for spring break? It is coming FAST!

Curls

All this moisture in the air is making my hair curl!  It would be nice if frizz didn’t come along with the curliness though. Oh well.

Today’s eats included a last minute breakfast thanks to my complete absentmindedness and morning rush.

I made a smoothie at home and then walked right out of the apartment without it.  I realized this well on my way to class so I swung through a Starbucks and picked up a protein box.

I really needed to eat something because I had already taken all my vitamins for the day.  When I do that on an empty stomach I get real sick.  Now why would you have taken them this morning without eating you say?  I honestly thought I’d be having my smoothie in all of three minutes when I got to my car.  Then I forgot it, and my stomach turned.  It was all I could do to keep from hurling before I managed to shove an apple slice into my mouth.

I enjoyed the hard boiled egg with some provided salt and pepper and squeezed the peanut butter all over the biscuit thing.  Finished just in time for class.  I made it through 3/4 of our first class today then had to skip out and make my way to my clinic site to give my presentation to the medical residents.  All in all, it went well.  I was pleased.  Probably even more so pleased that it was done!  Lunch came after.

I made a huge loaded salad and had it with a honeyed greek yogurt dressing with lemon pepper seasoning.  This kept me full for a bit but after seeing my first patient I needed an afternoon pick me up.  Protein to the rescue.

After all I had lifted for close to forty minutes today and burned some calories while building muscle this morning.  My body was probably entirely too thankful for the protein kick in the four o’clock hour.

Even did way better on my body weight matrix this time around.  By like a minute or more!

By the time I got home around six I applied for great looking prenatal/reproductive job that was literally just posted.  I was so excited.  I couldn’t even take the time to eat dinner just yet. I held myself over with pickles as I finished up my cover letter.

Only after I had submitted my CV and such did I have dinner.  Leftover sweet potato cauliflower bisque with a sandwich on the side of edamame hummus and sundried tomato spread.  Really good food.

A perfect night I’d say.  Well, that is until I started writing my patient letter.  Or should I say bumbling through my patient letter.  I should probably go and focus on that huh?  Yea, off I go.  One more patient tomorrow!

Questions: Ever tried sundried tomato spread?
What is your favorite kind of pickle?