The Sunday Monday Double Play

What a weekend it was my friends!!

Sunday was a day of dancing and more dancing.  We woke up at 9:30 and I immediately got into the kitchen to make single serving protein muffins for lunch.  When Jack got out of the shower, we switched off in the kitchen and he took over making oatmeal for breakfast.  We made a big batch of plain oats with chia seeds and Stevia and then individualized them.  He added chocolate protein powder and I added a simple dollop of peanut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup.

I ate mine on the way to the convention center and Jack waited until we got there.  He had four bites, I devoured my whole thing.

I took two back to back morning classes to learn The Big Apple swing routine. Check it out:

The routines are all the same so check out the first one until about 2:40 in the video.

When lunch rolled around I was really hungry because I’d been jumping around for two solid hours.  I dug into my maple vanilla protein muffin, grapes, apple, and hummus.

I used a new fat, butter instead of applesauce, in the muffin and it gave it a flaky texture.  Not necessarily bad, just different.  More experimenting is needed.

The afternoon classes (3 of them) were a little more disappointing than the first part of the day.  The first was a solo blues class where we learned a choreographed routine.  The second was a musicality lesson which turned into a music theory class in my opinion.  Finally, the last one was classic lindy figures, the best of the three by far.  When we finished the day, we headed home (we walked both ways again) to make some dinner.  Snackage during cooking: Turkish apricot w/ sunbutter.

I had been eyeing a great vegetarian meatloaf recipe for a while so I decided to make it.  Lentils were the main ingredient and the whole thing turned out awesome.

For sides, we had French style green beans and sliced new potatoes.  I sprinkled the starch with some Old Bay seasoning and cracked pepper on the greens.  And of course, you can’t have meatloaf without a bunch of ketchup on top.  Awesome.

I was blown away by this dish.  I think there are some things like sloppy joes or meatloaf where there is a distinct flavor profile that you really remember and you look for every time you have a bite.  I was nervous that this would fall short because it didn’t have meat in it but it delivered on every level.  So happy.  Best part: leftovers!!!!

Jack and I got ready for the dance and snacked on some Mr. Goodbar s’mores before heading back out to walk over.

They were stellar, as always.

The dance was well populated but it wasn’t as full as Saturday night’s dance.  The room was absolutely freezing so I spent a lot of time in my sweater.  I danced to the songs I liked and socialized during the others.

People really have a blast and it was fun to watch everyone dance.  I always pick up moves that way, or at least general ideas.  Sometimes I can’t figure out how they did things but it doesn’t make it any less cool.

Jack and I walked home after the dance ended at midnight and he bowed out for the night while I continued on to the car to head to the late nite dance from 12:30-3:30am.  The dance studio was actually super close to where I live but I’m not a fan of the idea of walking home alone at 3 in the morning through a new city.  Plus, with having a new car, I liked taking the time to get to know how it drives.

At the dance, I snacked on some Gardetto’s as well as crackers with peanut butter and nutella.  Fruit snacks were consumed too.  Not going to lie: nutella and pb combined is definitely my kryptonite.  I had way too much but it was so good and I was dancing so I really didn’t care too much.

All in all, the night was a success and I had some great dances.

I got home and to bed around 4am only to be woken up by Jack’s accidental alarm at 8:50.  After shutting it off and fighting to get back to sleep, we woke up later at 11:30.  Don’t you just love days off?!?!  Since it was basically lunchtime we broke our fast with the last of the lasagna.

He then took a shower and I spent some time looking up things for school.  We settled our schedules for the next two months so we know when we’ll be seeing each other since we are an hour and a fifteen minutes away from each other on a daily basis.  We have some pretty exciting stuff going on soon so I’m excited for that.  Because we needed to individually reset for heading to class tomorrow, he left around 1p and I headed to the fitness center.

I got on the treadmill first and did 10 minutes at 6.5, 7, and 7.5mph. The majority of the time was spent at the highest speed with a 30 second 8mph sprint thrown in at the end.  Next, I did the reclined stationary bike for 35 minutes while I went over my syndrome data sheet for the role play happening in Communications class on Wednesday.  When I finished my cardio session I headed to the weight room for some free weights:

• Tricep Dips: 3x10 reps under my own body weight
• Exercise Ball Crunches: 3x20 reps
• Bicep Curls: 3x10 reps with 10lb dumbbells each hand
• Standing Oblique Crunches: 3x10 reps w/ 10lb dumbbell on each side
• Squats with Overhead Press: 3x10 reps w/ 10lb dumbbells each hand

Finished and feeling awesome, yet challenged, I went back to the apartment and showered.  I then refueled with a piece of 10 grain toast slathered in peanut butter and topped with two tomato slices and cracked black pepper.

It may sound weird or silly or gross but honestly, don’t knock it until you have tried it. It was awesome.  I can’t wait to have it again!

Because Marsh was having a super duper sale with regards to Blue Bell Ice Cream I got my behind over to the store and found a brand new shipment of flavors.  I brought home Kentucky Delight and Birthday Cake.  I had been wanting to try the Kentucky Delight flavor for a while so I was so pumped for this great sale.  Normally these half gallons are $7.19 but with the sale they were only $2.99.  Plus I had a $1 off coupon.  Yay!!

The rest of the day consisted of laundry and schoolwork.  I finally figured out that I need to use the highest heat setting on the dryers in the basement in order to make sure everything gets dried during a single 60 minute cycle.  Yay for dry clothes!!!

For dinner I whipped up a scrumptious omelette.  The players: shrimp, bacon, sundried tomatoes rehydrated in water and balsamic vinegar, and goat cheese.

The creaminess of the cheese, the crispiness of the bacon, the slight chew on the shrimp, and the pop of the sundried tomatoes just made this fantastic.  It could have used a sauce but I was at a loss as to what kind so I left it “dry” and used some pepper instead.  Yum.

Happiness in several bites!

More schoolwork followed dinner and finally I got to the part of the day I was really looking forward to: dessert!  After all, I had just bought some new ice cream.  So can you guess what I had?

Both kinds!!

I had never had Birthday Cake ice cream with chunks of chocolate cake and let me tell you: I LOVE IT!  I am a chocolate person so this was great.  The Kentucky Delight has a brown sugar ice cream base and wow, it tasted incredible.  I also really dug the dark chocolate chips.

Now I am going to continue to keep going over my Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome facts in the hopes that I get everything ingrained in my head and perhaps check out a DVRed show before an early bedtime.  Tomorrow is fixin’ to be a long day because we have a poster session from 4-6p, five hours after our only class of the day finishes.

Happy Labor Day everyone and g’night to all.  I hope this weekend was restful!

Question: What did you do with your extra day off?

Dance Like No One Is Watching

Today was a dancing day!!

I woke up at 7:45 and Jack followed at 8.  While he made us breakfast, I put together lunches and snacks for the day ahead.

He pan fried some bacon and eggs and I reheated the remaining whole wheat pancakes.  I used some sunbutter, maple syrup, and chia seeds on mine.  Just a bit of pepper on the egg.  The yolk was nice and syrup and great with the pancake to sop it up.  Best bite: pancake drenched in yolk with a piece of bacon on top.  Yum.

We hiked the 1.2 miles down to the convention center where the classes for the swing dancing workshop were being held.  We got there early to audition for the Intermediate/Advanced track of instruction.  Basically the test consisted of social dancing to a few songs and if the instructors liked you, you were given a band designating which level you were allowed into.  I made it into the Int/Adv track and got an ORANGE band.

Needless to say I am happy to be sporting my favorite color around all weekend.  The first class was on the basic swingout 8 count.  The instructors completely changed how I do things and it really required an inordinate amount of work and thought on my part not to revert to the normal swingout I was used to.  The second class worked on rhythm and different ways to stylize your dance by emphasizing various beats.  I didn’t like the first half, where we were manipulating the triple step, but the latter half of the class, which revolved around calling attention to beat 7 and then later beats 2, 4, 6, and 8 was much more fun.

By the time lunch break came I was starved!  It was already one o’clock and I hadn’t eaten since 8am.  As a result I only thought to snap a picture as I was almost finished inhaling my nourishment.

I had a garlic hummus and turkey sandwich with Old Bay seasoning sprinkled on the inside along with a side of plantain crunchers, multigrain crackers, pretzels, and peanut butter filled pretzels.  It was nice and filling and gave me fuel to power through the second part of the day.

The first class after lunch, third in all, was more of a demonstration class where two instructors who had put together a solo jazz routine taught it to all those interested.  I tried it out, made it through the whole class, just to realize that a lot of the solo moves were really hard on my back which is still messed up from the accident.  Oh well.

The fourth class in all included some really interesting Charleston moves.  It was hands-down my favorite 60 minutes of the dancing day.  I loved the whole thing.  The final class in the Int/Adv track was a class on competitive dancing, whether that be individual, social, partner, choreographed or otherwise.  I considered bowing out of the class because I really am not interested in competing as I feel it puts too much pressure on something that I like to enjoy just for the heck of it.  However, I stayed put and listened to the Q&A and finally at the end we got the chance to try some partner and group choreography for fun.  That part was the nicest.

After classes were over for the day Jack and I headed home so that we could run a super important errand.  In case you didn’t know, and how could you because I haven’t told you, I GOT A NEW CAR!!!!!!  A trusted neighbor drove it down to my old college town, just 75ish minutes from where I live now, so that I could pick it up.  I was incredibly excited and I ran across the parking lot when I first spotted it.

This baby is sleek and sexy.  I love the car.  It’s a 2006 Honda Civic EX Coupe in Galaxy Gray Metallic.  I have the best parents in the world for sure.

With car in hand we met up with my best friend for Chinese.  There were so many great tastes but some of the highlights: sesame balls (they didn’t have these last time and I was so sad), thai chicken, seafood salad, and lemon box cake.  Nomnom.

Don’t you worry: we shared that massive dessert plate.  We’re samplers.

When we finished Jack drove straight home to my downtown apartment and I stopped by Joshua’s in order to pick up some homemade sun-dried tomatoes (can’t wait to try them) along with a plate that I left at his house.  He also got me some sun-dried tomato infused oil.  I think a pasta dish is calling me for that one or a pizza!

I drove back 100% without a GPS and actually never got lost.  I made it back perfectly.  I was pretty pumped.  I will admit though that I am fairly nervous at intersections now and I’m hoping that mellows out the more I get back to driving.

Now I am going to wake up Jack (who is taking a “nap” at 11p…oh what swing dancing weekends do to you…) so that we can head over to the “late nite” dance that starts at 1a.  It goes until 3a and then we have classes tomorrow as well.  Thankfully, the start later than today.  We don’t have to be there until 11a.  Can anyone say sleep in?

P.S. We finally did try the chocolate peanut butter cupcake from Scout’s Treats food truck.  We ate it after I finished blogging last night.

This cupcake was more moist than the other one but the best part was the thick peanut butter frosting.  I could eat it by the spoonful.  No question.

Question: What sort of dancing do you like best?

Can’t Stop Moving

This morning I woke up at 9a and got my run on.  First I snacked on a dried Turkish apricot with some homemade sunbutter.

When I got to the fitness center, I claimed a treadmill and decided to go for a long run.  I set the incline to 1.5, speed to 6.5mph, and ran for 30 minutes.  At the end of the run portion I had gone 3.23 miles.  Awesome.  Then I did a cool down of five minutes at 4.3mph and an incline of 4-6 varied by minute.  Overall, I went 3.56 miles and burned 372 calories.  It felt amazing.

In addition to cardio I went to the weight room for the first time in the accident.  I took it slow and backed off on most of the weight I had been doing before my forced vacation.  Today I did the following:

• Lat Pulls – 3 sets of 10 with 30lbs
• Rows – 3 sets of 10 with 30lbs
• Chest Press – 3 sets of 10 with 30lbs? (this machine doesn’t have actual weights marked on it which is annoying so  just put the pin under three of the weight blocks)
• Standing Oblique Side Crunch – 3 sets of 10 each side with 10lb dumbbells
• Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 10 with 10lb dumbbells
• Tricep Dips – 3 sets of 10 under my own body weight

Back at the apartment I busted out a new whole wheat pancake recipe.  I normally don’t use eggs in my pancakes but this time I obeyed the ingredient list and they turned out stellar, fluffy, and light.  I made a half recipe but that still made 6.5 pancakes so I had three and kept the rest for leftovers.

On top I used the last of my coconut white chocolate peanut butter, a drizzle of maple syrup, and some chia seeds to give them some oomph.  Delicious indeed.

I spent the early afternoon doing chores around the apartment.  I vacuumed the whole place and then mopped the kitchen and bathroom.  I also cleaned the counters.  Aside from chores, I visited the business center to print off some syndrome fact sheets to facilitate both of my presentations this semester.

By the time three rolled around I was getting a bit hungry so I made a single lady vanilla protein white chocolate chip muffin and let it cool.  While it was on the counter I read a chapter for class about family histories.

A half hour later I mixed some plain fat free yogurt with green grapes and crumbled the muffin over top.  It may not look the prettiest but the flavor was spot on.

The homework continued after my snack, along with a bit of a nap, and I finished drawing my family’s pedigree all pretty and in proportion.  It took me about half an hour.  In a session you don’t have that kind of time.  I need more practice.  I need to be faster.

While I was waiting on Jack I got hungry and munched on a pickle…

…only to have him walk in not three seconds later.  He put down his stuff and we headed over to the food truck festival.

We scored free tickets at the last food truck event, Taste of the Trucks, we went to so we got to skip the $5 entrance fee per person.  We scoped out a few trucks and I stopped dead when I saw the Fat Sammie’s truck menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes please.  We got one to share.  I went over to stand in line at a pizza truck and Jack stayed to collect the goods only to find that the lady had forgotten to take our name for the order so he had to prompt them and it took longer than it should have.  However, I must say it was worth the wait.  This baby was great.

The next sampling we did was from Bryne’s Grilled Pizza.  There was another pizza truck there as well but they only had normal pizzas that we felt you could get anywhere, like pepperoni, sausage, etc.  Bryne’s on the other hand had a super sounding special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crust was beyond crispy perfect and the toppings were great.  Four kinds of cheese and artichoke hearts?  I’m there.

While I ordered and collected the slice, Jack stood in line at Some of This, Some of That for some cajun fare.  We got he cajun burger and the shrimp po’ boy but it took over an hour and a half, almost TWO, to get through the line and actually get the food. 

This happened to be the last truck of the night so we took the food back to the apartment and split the two dishes.  The cajun burger was nothing special but the shrimp po’ boy was good.  The bread somehow managed to be chewy and crispy all at the same time.  Love.

While he was in line to order, I ran to Scout’s Treats and grabbed two to share: Jack’s Chocolate Peanut Butter and Claire’s Sweet Caramel (this one was topped with a large scoop of vanilla bean ice cream).

I have to say, while we haven’t had the chocolate peanut butter loveliness yet, the vanilla bean caramel creation was wonderful.  Some of the best ice cream I have ever had and the cupcake had a permeating caramel flavor that was perfect.  Another please!

After finishing with the food trucks we headed over to the Friday Night Dance.  The place was super crowded, awfully warm, and ridiculously stuffy.  We danced three or four songs and I spent most of the time figuring out how to dance and not give myself dizzy spells.  My vertigo is not going to be an easy thing to deal with this weekend.  My back muscles that got wrenched in the accident are also going to be tough to deal with.  Here’s hoping it’s not insurmountable.

With all that said, we need sleep.  To bed we go for tomorrow we have Intermediate/Advanced tryouts at 9:30a.  Talk to you all later!

Question: How long have you waited in line for a food truck?

Hot Enough For Ya?

What a Thursday!

First of all, welcome to September.  Obviously Mother Nature decided to celebrate by bringing on a heat wave.

Things started off with breakfast in the form of oatmeal.  I mixed in some 5 fruit protein powder, chia seeds, and stevia and then topped it with a heaping dollop of sunbutter.

In my rush to finish eating, make sure I had everything for class today, and take out the trash before my walk to school I completely forgot my cell phone at home.  I hate that.  I feel disconnected and unreachable.  What if something were to happen?  How would I know?  Anyways, regardless, I was a trooper and dealt with it just fine by using Google chat in between school obligations today.

After learning all about how to draw pedigrees and all the information to include and to ask, the first years headed back to the student room and I got going on refining my support group/lay literature assignment.  I also read some articles for Dysmorphology class.  Just before Preclinic Conference, I ate the lunch that I brought to pick up my blood sugar.  The amped up mac and cheese leftovers did the trick.

Still amazing after a few days of all the flavors meshing.  Yum.  In the afternoon, we had Syndrome Review class orientation which consisted of “here’s the syllabus, here’s the schedule” and took no more than 10 minutes.  I am the only first year who has to present a syndrome before Christmas break so I’m nervous about that but I have been assignment Osteogenesis Imperfecta (the first link is much less medically oriented than the second one so pick the best one to satisfy your curiosity) and I actually read Handle with Care, a book written about a young girl with this disorder, just this summer.  So, needless to say, I’m feeling optimistic about it.  The presentation is on December 8th. This is good.  It means I have time.

When our brief orientation was over, we had two hours to kill before Dysmorph.  I spent my two hours building my visual aid portfolio (also coincidentally due on December 8th) and boy was I productive.  There are 30 slides we need to have and I found/made/perfected 27 of them!  Awesome.  I feel so good about it.  Despite it being due so much later in the semester, having it all but off my plate now is a great feeling.  During the end of my two hours of hard work I snacked on a fuji apple with homemade hummus and a chocolate hazelnut ball.  It was a nice pick me up before our next class.

This was our first class session for Dysmorphology.  It’s basically going to be a vocab class and that’s a bit scary simply because there are a lot of words and I know basically none of them.  Today’s lecture about the history of dysmorphology was not bad but then we got into embryology and my head came close to exploding.  This is going to be a challenge class, for sure.  I walked home after school was done for the day and when I got home I changed and hit up the fitness center.  18 minutes on the elliptical followed by 18 minutes on the reclined stationary bike got me all sweaty and ready for dinner.  Now let me tell you this, I had been looking forward to this meal all day long.  I wanted some Old Bay potatoes!  I wanted cheese!

I made this incredible salad with all sorts of veggies: romaine lettuce, celery, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, onion, Italian cheese, and warm-from-the-skillet Old Bay potatoes.  I topped it all with ranch and shook it up.

I have come to the conclusion that warm potatoes are my FAVORITE addition to a salad.  They warm the dressing and make it super aromatic and they have a great chew.  I was a happy, happy girl.  After dinner I worked on my family’s pedigree as well as chatting with my best friend and practicing by taking his family’s history.  I can’t believe how much information has to be on one sheet of paper.  It’s incredible.  I also read an article and then called it a night.  I haven’t had a night that I’ve been done with homework before ten so it felt really nice.  To reward myself I got my dessert on.  I couldn’t get last night’s s’more out of my head so I made another one!

Love the Mr. Goodbar chocolate because every now and then you get that peanutty flavor that just blows you away.  Stellar!  I then moved on to a bowl of moose tracks ice cream over top a caramel TimTam.

I think from here I’m going to collapse on the couch in a totally blissed out state and be extremely pleased that I don’t have to wake up at any certain time tomorrow and that I don’t have class.  Also good news: this weekend is all about swing dancing (we’re talking for hours and hours in a row and until 3am in the morning) and Jack will be here. Sounds like a plan to me!

P.S. One month exactly until I run my first 5K!! Here’s to you Wine At The Line!

Question: What are your plans for the weekend?