Creeper Status, What?

Day two of my last semester down!  No classes today, just eight solid hours of prep, prep, prep.  I did all sorts of catch up work like editing letters, writing letters of medical necessity, doing insurance preauthorizations, and arranging meetings with committee members.  I also did a ton of prenatal prep work.  I wrote three template letters to get me started.  They were for three of the most common reasons for referral in the prenatal clinic: 1) advanced maternal age (by far the majority!), 2) positive quad screen for Down syndrome, and 3) positive quad screen for open neural tube defects.  Glad to have those out of the way, though there will be plenty of revisions I’m sure!  Another super important task I undertook today with my eight hours of dedication: my visual aids binder.  Boy did this thing need an overhaul.  I hadn’t touched most, if not all, of my prenatal visual aids since role plays back in first semester.  There were also things I knew I was missing like cell-free fetal DNA.

And some of the age-related risk charts you can also see in that picture.  Then there was the fun stuff –> infertility aids!!

I’m really not so sure I’ll ever get to use the ART and infertility aids in an actual prenatal session but I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to make them.  After all, I just got back from my internship at RGI and I’m all stock full of reproductive genetic counseling inspiration. All told, my visual aids binder stuffed by the end.  Yes, it was as large as my entire thumb.

I fueled myself appropriately all day.  After a cardio workout this morning, I showered and made myself some PB&J whole wheat waffles with a side of yummy orange by desk lamp light in the early morning.

I admit I tried to front load today’s calories, or at least I thought about it.  And then I ended up with this… Not so front loaded, though tasty.  I really should try to eat more earlier because I always end up under my calorie mark.  Pretty scared that my body thinks I’m starving it most days.  I wish it was easier to eat sometimes.  Anyways, I suppose I’ll keep trying.  For lunch, almost 5.5 hours later, I had some salad with cranberries and light Caesar dressing.  I also had some cheese and an apple that I spaced on taking a photo of.  I was in the visual aid groove.

After lunch, I achieved total nerd creeper status.  I saw an old acquaintance from undergrad announce her unplanned pregnancy.  The first thing I did was look at the rest of her page, past all the congrats and such, and saw a status in December that seemed a bit out of the ordinary: “Life surprises you sometimes.”  Oh really?  So, yea, I busted out the pregnancy wheel.

Turns out that comment was likely posted around the time she would have noticed a missed period and taken a pregnancy test.  Yes, I’m almost ashamed of how creeper-ish that was.  Ridiculous.  Haha.  So, after that little nerd break, I went back to visual aids and letters.  I had planned, and even packed, a fairly caloric snack for the afternoon to tide me over to dinner but ended up not being hungry at all.  By the time I rolled around to my home couch, though, I was getting a bit rumbly in the tummy.  I made myself some brown rice mixed with Trader Joe’s edamame hummus and lima beans with teriyaki tempeh on the top.

Drink of the night: cream soda.

Treat of the night: a truffle or two from my stocking loot.

And still, despite all of this yummy wholesome food, I was under calorie for the day.  Please body, don’t think I’m starving you, okay?  I’ll try to use more peanut butter, more avocado, more dense things to hit my number.  I’ll try and front load so I don’t end up with a thousand for dinner that I know I can’t bring myself to eat.  I’ll try, every single day.  Now I’m off to do some stretches to help me achieve the splits.  I’m trying to get a bit more flexible for when I tackle aerial silks.  I mean, let’s be honest, how awesome would this be to do?

Yea, that’s what I thought.  You can pick your chin up now, hehe.  =D  Have a good night group.  I leave you with a tune since it’s Tuesday!

Questions: Can you do the splits?
What are the best stretches to do?

Comfortable In Class

Welcome to the last first day of class I will ever have.  I can’t even believe it.  My whole life I have been a student.  I don’t know any different.  Needless to say, the idea that gives this post its name is this: I’m incredibly comfortable in class.  Regardless of how much I dreaded this day (I was more than a little doomsday-ish about this particular Monday given that it was on the end of my last ever holiday break) when I got back into that classroom and started taking notes again, it dawned on me just how easy and simple and completely un-taxing it was.  I’m comfortable there.  It’s familiar, it’s normal, it’s something I’m really good at.  So, yes, there are days I don’t want to be there, I don’t want to take the tests, whatever.  But the underlying theme remains: this is what I know, all the rest is a tad bit scary/unpredictable/foreign/new.  However, I admit, new is exciting.  So while I’m comfortable here in class, I’m totally ready in a lot of ways to get myself up and out and into a real career position.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Breakfast came in the form of an almond butter and strawberry jelly version of my protein breakfast cake.

This was great refueling food after a Stage 4 NROLFW morning paired with a quick 10 minute interval workout at the end.  Being honest, I didn’t stop sweating even after my shower.  Haha, yea after burn, I guess.  On a more somber note, I did something I had never done before today: I ate breakfast at my dining room table with a single candle lit.

I spent the entire time staring at the candle, kind of setting my intention for this whole semester.  I know this is going to be a doozy of a 15 week rotation and, on top of that, I have two classes, my thesis seminar presentation, and a cumulative exam.  Yes, you read that right.  I have to take an exam on the entirety of my two years in this genetic counseling program.  Ahhhh, scary!!!  Anyways, this was a remarkable way to spend the morning, really.  I think I might make it a Monday morning tradition.

Molecular Genetics and Population Genetics, my two classes this time around, took up my entire morning.  These days were the easy ones filled with housekeeping, syllabi, and some introduction material.  When those lectures wrapped up, we moved on back to the student room where I devoured my lunch quickly.  I had a mashed avocado sandwich (made with chipotle mayo and grape tomatoes) and some crackers on the side.  I also had the apple a little later in the car on the way to my prenatal rotation site.

It was a nice lunch.  I had to use up the other half of my avocado after last night’s creamy past masterpiece.

Both were super fantastic and filling.  Speaking of filling, my afternoon was taken up with prenatal genetic counseling session observation and orientation work.  I came home finally at 6p with all these grand intentions of doing prenatal rotation prep work.  Sadly, I didn’t get as much done as I wanted too though I did some of it.  I’m planning on spending the entire day tomorrow working on everything.  I need to haul booty to get things done but hopefully I will be much more prepared tomorrow night.  I observe again on Wednesday after classes.

Dinner was a salad with all the usual suspects.  I topped it with a broken up Trader Joe’s vegetable masala burger.  Oh my yum.  It was perfect.  I kind of want another one, but this time whole, on a bun, with some sour cream.

I used spicy brown mustard as a “dressing” for my salad.  Some say it’s a weird habit but I think it’s a nice break from the regular creamy goodness that normally graces my greens.  After dinner I was craving something sweet so I dug into an orange first.

Possibly one of the sweetest, yummiest oranges ever.  I think had a few bars of the giant KitKat I found in my mailbox at school today.

Thanks to the supervising genetic counselors in the department.  Technically this has been in my mailbox since before holiday break (get it? KitKat give me a break?) but I just got it now.  No reason not to enjoy it responsibly.  I only had a few bars, not the whole thing.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m off to bed.  I woke up to terribly loud music this morning, thanks to a brand new alarm clock that I obviously didn’t know how to work.  I plan to rectify that this time around.  What song shall I wake up to in the morning?  Always a good question.  Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to let you all know I have an exciting thing coming up (though the precise date is undetermined as of yet) –> I’m going to learn how to do aerial silks.  I have put up the appropriate inspirational picture on my phone’s lock screen and I have bought my Groupon.  I can’t wait.

Questions: What’s your secret to enjoying dessert responsibly?
What new thing are you going to do this month/year?

2013–The Year of Change

First off, I’m so sorry I haven’t been around.  The last weeks of the holiday season were incredibly packed with traveling, family time, cooking, gift exchanging, and much needed relaxation.  As such I was less than inclined to blog but I’m back, at least for a bit.  I do warn you that this upcoming semester, my LAST!, is going to be my hardest yet and as such, I’m might be a bit sparse on the blogging front.  I think it really depends on how under control I feel while learning the ropes of each new clinic site.  I have three this semester and I’ve heard they’re all pretty different from one another.  Should be challenging.

Anyways, I figured I’d do a quick recap of some of the Christmas season and New Years time before starting work on some more academic things like my thesis/project presentation.  My holiday break started with a brunch visit with my 6-months-pregnant cousin.  It was so great to see her and catch up before she moves to Germany because her husband is being stationed overseas.

Next up, Jack and I were at my parents’ home from Christmas.  We spent a bunch of time opening presents on Xmas morning after a wonderful brunch of potato waffles and bacon.  My favorite gift of the day: a college quilt made for me by my mother.

Tasha decided she liked it too and decided to photobomb all attempts to capture the gorgeousness of my quilt.  Oh well, she’s pretty cute too.  Another favorite: my Christmas bling from Jack.  Beautiful.

A bunch more presents later, including clothes, tablets, and some interesting family art, we wrapped things up only to go downstairs and realize the sump pump had failed.  Our basement was soaked.  Oi, what a lovely morning.

Most the entire day was spent recovering from the water leakage but thankfully things slowed enough that we could actually sit down for dinner.  The night previous I had made some homemade noodles which we cooked in veggie broth when the time came.

Let’s just say they were entirely awesome.  We ate them with some mustard rubbed ham and a carrot, pineapple, apple, and cranberry honey salad.  Delicious night.  We also put away a fair number of bottles of wine.  Dessert came in the form of raspberry and apple pies with creamy vanilla ice cream.  The family had gotten some cute gelato dishes as a present so we playfully tipped one over and sent a picture to the people we got them from stating “This is how you’re supposed to use them right?”  It was pretty funny.

The rest of break was less eventful, which if that means no flooding…I’ll take it, and we finished off the week with my parents at their favorite restaurant.  I had the shrimp and lobster mac and cheese and it was incredible.

Most interesting part: those little spikes you see are actually deep fried raw pasta that are then tossed in parmesan.  Very interesting touch.  I ate one and left the other though, sometimes raw pasta is just a bit awkward.  Seriously though, terribly good meal.  The next day Jack and I headed out early so we could make it to our friends’ wedding.  Two of our swing friends tied the knot and, as the groom so bluntly put it, “we wouldn’t be here without you [meaning me]”.  Let’s just say that I played matchmaker for these two.

It was incredible to watch them grow.  They also had some yummy angel food cake available.  You know how I love my cake!

Super personal touch: the tea, coffee, and hot chocolate bar complete with adorable personalized guards for the cups.  We thought this was just adorable.

All in all, it was a beautiful day and we had a great time.  We even got to teach a swing dance lesson while the bride and groom were taking their pictures.  Honored to say the least.

The day after the wedding, Jack and I played host to some of our good friends, Tom and Liz (who wed a bit over a year ago).  I decided on a make-your-own-calzone bar after manchego-stuffed-bacon-wrapped-date appetizers.

We were up past midnight playing games and chatting.  We haven’t seen them in a while so the conversations were long overdue.  Next up, New Years Eve arrived and Jack and I decided to stick close to home and attend a Black, White, and Red party at one of my classmate’s apartments. 

We had a stellar time.  We brought food to share as well as some sparkling wine.  Pretty sure the whole party when through a ridiculous amount of wine bottles by the end of the night.  There was even some intoxicated MarioKarting by one in the morning.  Admittedly, the most incredible moment happened embarrassingly late in the night, or rather early in the morning.  I was creeping on Facebook and there it was, Jack’s brother proposed to his long time girlfriend on NYE in Paris!!!  We were so excited.  We immediately cheers to them and posted congrats on their profiles.

This was a long time and coming and we couldn’t be happier.  I can’t wait to watch the whole event take shape.  It’s going to be awesome.  So, as you can see, it was eventful and crazy and happy all the same.  Now is the time where I thought I would discuss NYE resolutions and plans for this upcoming year of great change.  After dropping my NYE resolutions of last year around the six month mark, darn it, I decided perhaps this year wouldn’t start off with resolutions per say.  I still want to establish a healthy relationship with food and, as cliché as it is, I would really love to lose my 2012 weight by the time graduation rolls around in May.

Speaking of which, can you believe it?? I’m graduating for the final time in just four and a half short months.  Oh my gosh!  I think that’s hands-down the biggest change coming up.  Graduation = finding a job = maybe moving (something which makes me kind of nervous).  I have been applying to positions around the country but I would really love to stick around Jack if at all possible.  The bottom line remains though: I need to be employed after graduation.  I have loans that need to be paid.  I will try and keep you updated about the job process as much as I can over the coming months.  I have a feeling its going to ramp up any day now.

Well, this post became about five times the size I thought it would.  However, it felt nice to write after a while of being gone.  In the spirit of regular food photos fairly typical of this blog, I’ll leave you with some pictures from yesterday’s Noodles & Company lunch and homemade dinner (actually eaten at the dining room table without the TV going…how odd, haha).

Questions: How was your holiday season?
Have you made NYE resolutions?