The [May] Month of Great Change

So not only did I graduate this past month with my final, most awesome degree but I have since moved to a new place and am about to start a brand new job.  It was quite the crazy last few weeks.  So let’s start close to the beginning, shall we?

First off, I had to say good bye to everyone amid packing up the entire apartment.  I don’t know about you all but packing up everything in your life is incredibly displacing and uncomfortable.  Not to mention busy, chaotic, and just downright messy as all else.  It is definitely one of my least favorite things, ever. 

Saying goodbye, or see you later as the case may be, to people you love and have spent so long around, is difficult.  I think it almost made it worse too because I didn’t just have one party where I said “so long” to everyone in the same night.  I took the draw-it-out path and had individual dinners and things with those important people.  While this gave me a chance to hang out with everyone individually, it meant that I had to suck up the tears multiple times before leaving behind my life there.

Never-the-less, these people were worth it, and I’ll miss them terribly!  They’ve all been such an integral part of my life these last seven years.  But, I’m sure there will be new friends and new things waiting for me here in my new city.  Never to replace the old, just to add on the new.

By the end of the month, the 24th, it was time to actually move.  We had a rocky start to the 23rd, the pack-the-truck day.  Budget Truck Rentals called me to tell me that they simply didn’t have a truck for my reservation.  I’m sorry, what?  What the heck is a reservation for?!?!  The only silver lining to this was that they called me a half hour before the pick-up time, rather than having us go all the way there to find out there wasn’t a truck waiting for us.  We managed to find another truck, thanks to the lovely people at Penske. 

We packed things up in the truck, with many thanks due to Jack and a new friend Eric.  I treated them to lunch in exchange.  Jack and I then returned to clean our way through the apartment before handing in the keys.  Sadly this took even longer than it took to pack the whole place up!  How crazy is that.  Thankfully, Jack’s mom came to help us out.  Couldn’t have done it without her.  After that, we were more than hungry so we met up with another friend and indulged in some great Greek food as my last meal before leaving.

I had some delicious vegetarian sampler plate, some of the flaming cheese, and a piece of the best baklava ever.  And with this food baby in my belly, we slept it off and woke up bright and early for the move day.  Jack and I made the entire move in one day and by the time we got here and unloaded everything, we were completely wiped.

The mess was just unbearable so we left and got food.  We went to a recommended pizza place and immediately sat down to order waters and a cream cheese pesto dip.

Then we had some drinks and a bacon cheeseburger pizza.  And yes, it was as incredible as it sounded.  Seriously delicious.

When we returned thankfully we had already made the bed so we could crash immediately.  No joke, if you do one thing the day you move, make your bed.  You will be ever grateful to yourself and your forethought.

The rest of the weekend was spent unpacking and getting things that I had determined to simply buy new on the other end.  I managed to get the entire apartment unpacked in a single day.  Sunday was a full 8 hours of work but it was nice to finally have everything done.  This cause for celebration meant another night out.  We headed to a local stellar burger joint and ordered a bunch of yummies.

I had the andouille chicken sausage burger with watercress, blue cheese, and onions.  Jack had a burger with a parmesan crisp and a fried green tomato.  On the side was a trio of sweet potato fries (with herbs and brown sugar….amazing!), truffle tater tots, and ridiculous onion rings.  The whole meal was insanely good but we decided shakes would make it better.

And my peanut butter marshmallow one certainly did.  And again, nursing food babies, we went back home and crashed again.  We were so tired from all the unpacking and stuff.  Moving just takes it out of you!  Also, Jack was kind of getting over a sickness (which he eventually gave to me and I haven’t stopped sniffling since) so that didn’t help either.

But, in the end, we were finished.  And I am moved.  And the rest of the adventure was (and is still) just getting started.  In other news, Memorial Day also turned out to be a pretty stellar day.  More on that in another post though, probably tomorrow.  Believe me, it’s a sparkly surprise.  =D

Questions: How do you get through moving?
Where do you get your recommendations for places to eat in a new city?

Master’s Graduation: Take Two!

Welcome to the real world, Jillian.

Today I walked in my second, and final, Master’s graduation.  I now have my second master’s degree, after my graduation in 2011, and can finally practice, can finally do what I want to do.  My class and I are now genetic counselors!!!

Pretty awesome right?  Yea, we think so too.  In attendance: Joshua, Jack, my parents, and my paternal grandfather.  What a support system, right?  I am so blessed.

Also, while we’re talking about commencement and the start of the rest of my life, I have a huge announcement!  I have accepted a prenatal/reproductive genetic counseling position.  I am officially employed.  It made graduating that much more sweet given that I knew where I would be going, what I would be doing.  Not only is the position exactly what I wanted, but my apartment is pretty awesome too.  Major selling point: the awesome spacious kitchen.

I can’t wait to move in and start the next chapter of my life.  I can’t even believe we’re here at this point.  It has been an incredibly long time and coming.  But hey, bring it on.  What’s that saying?  The world is my oyster.  Or how about, my future is so bring I need shades.  Sure, all that.  Great day.  =D

Last but not least, to all the readers, on this day of all days, thanks for hanging in there with me as I disappeared for a while.  I know it’s been rough and spotty and such but I look forward to sharing this new transition with you all (much like my last move) and chronicling my first foray into the real genetic counseling world.  I hope you’re on board, because this train is leaving the station!

Question: What is your favorite part of graduation?

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!

Love Week In Review

Hey group.  We have a lot to talk about!  I’m sorry I’ve been MIA but this was my first week at a new rotation clinic site and it was a bit hectic.  I really didn’t get home until after six almost every day.

Also, we have a midterm coming up on Wednesday so I’ve been studying, studying, studying.

Anyways, let’s review the week of love (aka Valentine’s Day week) shall we?  And GO!

Last weekend Jack came to visit and we have our Valentine’s Day stuff early.  We were low-key this year honestly, and that was okay, especially since we have our three year anniversary coming up in less than a month.  We had a packed weekend together though, filled with social things.  This was both good and bad we decided later.  By the time Sunday night rolled around we both were exhausted from the weekend and didn’t feel ready to tackle the week.  Saturday consisted of seeing a woman I haven’t hugged in person for almost three or four years.  We went to college together but she got married, had two babies, and moved around the country since we left.  She and her family are on the way to Las Vegas due to her husband’s military job.  They were having a going away party and it was the perfect time to get back in touch.

Joshua was there too.  We used to be quite the freshman threesome back in the day.  Nice reunion though short.  Jack, Joshua, and I headed out and went for dinner in the city because Joshua had driven in and we figured we should milk the time for as long as we could.  We picked out a new place to try and ended up being the only people around.  That was okay though.  They brought the bread basket in no time and we dug into these awesomely seedy rolls.

I had mine with some of the whipped butter they dropped off tableside too.

It was so great.  There is just something to be said about hearty carbs.  Oh man.  Speaking of, our appetizer was pretty carbtastic and epic as well.  Gravy fries anyone?  Thick cut fries topped with gravy, pot roast, and melted cheese curds.

Holy yum.

I mean just look at that cheese landslide!  They were incredible.  I honestly could have had the whole plate to myself and been a very happy camper.  Though it was probably good that we split it three ways because we had dinner coming.  Joshua got the cedar planked salmon with fingerling potatoes and Jack got the mushroom ravioli.

I ended up choosing the mahi mahi sandwich with grilled pineapple and a chili aioli.  This thing was massive.  Like taller than my iPhone massive.

It tasted alright after I cut it into quarters.  I think it would have been better, really, if they had taken out the thick middle piece of toast.  The bread kind of dominated all the other tastes.  I liked the pineapple though.  A bit later we decided on dessert for the three of us: German chocolate cake and cappuccino crème brulee. 

Both offerings were delicious.  I loved the icing on the cake and the sugar crust on the crème brulee.  Great way to end the night…but it actually wasn’t the end.  We stayed at the table for close to three hours afterwards.  We talked about all sorts of things from genetics to bioinformatics to physics and such.  Finally around 11p we all headed home.  The following day was filled with another social engagement: ice skating!  We met up with a bunch of friends from swing dancing for a few hours on the ice.

I used to ice skate competitively before high school and I still fit into my custom made skates.  Jack rented his.  He is actually pretty good on the ice.  Makes it nice to skate around together because we don’t have to hug the boards the whole time.  It ended up being a nice two hours though my legs have certainly forgotten all the muscles it takes to properly skate.  My ankles aren’t quite as strong as they used to be.

We decided that after we left the rink, we weren’t ready to be done with the day.  Instead of going home we headed to Starbucks for drinks and went across the street to a toy store to poke around.

Some gems we found included an awesome genetics & DNA experiment kit…

…a puzzle game…

…crazy mirrors…

…and a cute magnetic “easel” of sorts.

After coming back home we cooked up the dinner we bought at the corner grocery store.  Chinese anyone?

With some red wine too, for good measure.

We played some two player games like trivia challenge and air hockey after dinner.  It was a cute experience. Made me think about what people did before smart phones with games on demand!

Then the week began.  With a loving mood in mind, one of our professors bought us all Girl Scout cookies.  He distributed them all as fairly as possible.  We each drew a letter and got the box that matched.

I ended up with one that I had never tried before: Savannah Smiles. They have a nice lemon kick and a great crunch. Yum!  A few girls didn’t want to take their temptations home so they opened them up in the student room.  I’m fairly sure we had close to seven different boxes open at one time.  I snagged a peanut butter pattie (or tag-a-long depending on which Girl Scout generation you’re from) after lunch one day.

Just as yummy as I remember but smaller…or maybe I just grew up.  Other baked goods showed up on Thursday for Valentine’s Day.  I made cookies and one of the first years made mini chocolate chip cheesecakes.

Then there was puppy chow.  I made myself some based on a lower calorie version I found somewhere on the internet or Pinterest.  I can’t remember now.

This followed my solo Valentine’s Day dinner of a strawberry and blue cheese salad with red wine.

Other eats of the week included perfectly hard-baked eggs with curry spice blend sprinkles, spinach salads dressed with extra virgin olive oil, spinach dip-sundried tomato dip-blue cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs with salsa and sour cream, and sweet potatoes with sunbutter (aka the “crack snack”).

The week ended with a small social date with two of my first years on Friday night.  We were the last people out of the student room around 7p and our tummies weren’t lettting us get far.  Noodles & Company was just around the corner so we drove there quickly for food.  I ordered the Japanese pan noodles with shrimp and a side of tomato-cucumber salad.

It was nice to not have to cook or reheat anything plus I was seriously craving some social time.  I feel like I’ve been a super shut up recently.  I hope that doesn’t last forever!  However it didn’t get better this weekend… I stayed in my apartment and studied though my eats were great.  For lunch I had a spinach, blue cheese, olive oil, and lemon pepper salad with apples and lettuce wraps with egg salad.  Dinner was had just after the cable guy left.  I nuked a sweet potato and topped it with some sloppy joes made with TVP.  Sour cream too!  I made some tweaks to this recipe so mine didn’t come out as saucy but still yummy.  I didn’t have tomato paste so I used ketchup and some BBQ sauce.  I also used a bunch of onion, green pepper, and carrots instead of just TVP.  Nomnom.

Then I did my population genetic practice test to see how I would fair on Wednesday’s midterm.  I didn’t do as great as I wanted but the more I looked over my work, the more I realize I made some silly mistakes.  The way I see it, I made them all now in practice and won’t make them on the test.  We used to say in ice skating that if you had a bad practice ice you were going to have a stellar competition ice.  Here’s to hoping that same logic works with class!!

And to finish everything off, I treated myself to some great chocolate frozen yogurt topped with chocolate syrup, marshmallows, puppy chow, and dark chocolate chips.  Perfect way to end the week of love and start the first week of actual counseling at my new rotation site.  Tomorrow I have a baking appointment followed by more population studying.  Bring on the week!

Questions: How was your Valentine’s Day week?
How much do you love puppy chow?