You Think You Are Well Traveled

And then your roommate tells you about a site like this:

Nine percent? Nine percent?! That's it?! Now if you include my travel plans through 2008 that gets me up to eleven percent.

I guess I'll have to live with that . . . for now.

Vegetable and Chickpea Curry

Generally I am not drawn to recipes with too many ingredients. However, I found that I had the majority of the ingredients for this Indian spice inspired vegetarian dish already in my cupboard. Pretty much everything except for the coconut milk. So I decided to give it a try. Simple to put together it's meant to be cooked in a slow cooker but I did it on the stove top in a 6 qt. pot and the results were fabulous!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil


• 1 medium onion, chopped


• 2 medium carrots, sliced 1/4 in thick


• 1 tbsp curry powder


• 1 tsp brown sugar


• 1 tsp grated peeld fresh ginger


• 1 tsp minced garlic


• 2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed


• 1 1/2 cups cubed peeled baking potato


• 1 green bell pepper, diced


• 1 cup cut green beans (fresh or frozen)


• black pepper


• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained


• 2 cups vegetable broth


• 3 cups fresh spinach


• 1 cup coconut milk

1. Heat oil in 6 qt. pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot, cover and cooke 5 minutes or until tender. Add curry powder, sugar, ginger, garlic; cooke 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Add garbanzo beans and next 6 ingredients (through broth). Cover and simmer over medium/medium-low heat until vegetables are tender. Add spinach and coconut milk; stir until spinach wilts. Serve over couscous or as is.

Yields: 6 (1 1/3 cup servings)

Professional Development

I figure since it's getting close to graduation I should probably start thinking about my career. Especially since I am beginning the job search. So here are a few of the more recent highlights in my professional development.

I have been asked to be one of the editors for the website SBA Nutrition. Although I am not listed on the editors page yet, I will be as soon as I get my bio sent in to the editor-in-chief. I would also like to point out that I now have four articles published on this site. Here they are in the order they were published:

• Controlling Portions for You and Your Family


• Fitness Tips for Your Family


• How Grocery Stores Speak to Our Children


• Snack Attack

I also found out today that should I ever need a part time job in nutrition research in LA, my most recent preceptor would be more than happy to have me back in a paid position.

Tomorrow I am volunteering for a kids fitness run, the second time I have helped out with this event. After the first run the director offered me a part time job. Which I had to decline due to my already overbooked schedule.

I have to say it's nice to know that I have some part time opportunities in the LA area should I need them. I just hope that the full time opportunities start rolling in.

Goodbye Nutrition Research

So today was a sad day. It was my last day of my nutrition research internship. Although I won't be sad to be leaving the quality control, data entry and other mundane tasks I will be sad to leave this field of nutrition and the amazing people that are working on these studies. Last days are always bittersweet for me. When I arrive at work I want to give my all knowing that it is my last day to actually do something productive but then I find myself watching the clock waiting for the minutes to tick by so I can walk out the door for the last time.

 

The interesting part of a last day is saying goodbye to people. You get the hugs, the thank yous for your hard work, the let's keep in touch and then THE QUESTION. You know the question I am talking about. It's phrased in many ways but it's the one everyone always asks. The one we usually dread. The one that either shows you know what you are doing with life or makes you question what you are doing with your life. . . 

 

So, where do you go from here? What's next? Where do you see youreslf working?

 

I realized today that, unlike my usual fear of this question, I was looking forward to being able to voice my direction. The rotation I just completed was the first time I actually found myself in a position that I could see myself making a career out of. Yeah I did a lot of the background work, the unglamorous work, but I actually appreciated every moment because it taught me more about the research process. So today, I looked my soon-to-be-ex coworkers in the eyes and said, "Actually, I want to get involved in clinical research."

Trying to Make the Turn

In an attempt to remain positive my motto for this week has been "A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn."

After not getting my master's project and corrections back on Monday I tried my best to track down my advisor. Turns out she is at a conference until the end of the week and apparently she isn't checking her email while she is there. That means I will not be getting corrections back this week. Instead, I will have to sit around and wait until next Monday (assuming she has actually looked at my project). Forget the fact that I set aside this weekend, my only free weekend before graduation, to get this thing done and out of the way so that I could enjoy the rest of the quarter.

Knowing that I woudln't be getting corrections back from my advisor, I decided to check in with the other two professors who make up my master's project committee. Two weeks ago when I gave my advisor my master's project, I also gave her a copy for each of my committee members. Apparently not. After emailing both of them and actually getting a response from both, I found out that they NEVER received a copy of my project. Where did these copies go? The copies I worked my behind off to get done in a week, printed (and paid for) two extra copies of, and gave to my advisor so that I could get corrections from three members of the faculty . . . apparently they have dissapeared along with my advisor.

So in my last feeble attempt to stay positive, I am still going to dedicate this weekend to my thesis. The only guidelines I have for making corrections are those provided by the library's thesis guideline handout (all the formatting stuff) and the thoughts in my head. Hopefully my standards of excellence are good enough to get this project approved by my committee, the library and the school.

I Am Not Normal

So today I was supposed to get my thesis back, torn apart with needed corrections from my advisor. Problem #1 My advisor was not at school today. Problem #2 She's at a conference until who knows when.

 

First I was angry. This is the second time she has blown off a deadline that she created. I worked my behind off to get it to her on time so I could get this whole process over and done with as soon as possible, and now I must sit and wait. I even kept this weekend completely clear knowing that my roommate would be away, I would have a chance to sit down and just crank it out.

 

After getting angry, my next move was to talk to my coach, well I guess you could call her my unofficial coach (if you're reading this you know who you are). With a few simple questions she got rid of the anger and helped me move into humor. And we all know what comes after humor . . .

 

Splurging! (Is that even a word? Apparently so, because spellcheck didn't find any errors.) This is where the "I'm not normal" part comes in. I went to the grocery store and splurged. But unlike most 25 year old women, I didn't buy ice cream, nor chocolate. No, I splurged on fruits and vegetables. I wanted to buy papaya but I didn't know what to look for so instead I settled for my favorite type of orange (tangelos, even though they weren't on sale), mushrooms, strawberries, gala apples, red bell peppers, broccoli, bananas, carrots and spinach. Had I felt like stopping by the frozen food aisle I probably would have gotten blueberries as well. The icing on the cake was that my total at the checkout was exactly $17, does that ever happen?! So now I must go cook myself a feast, a delicious feast.

Weekend Recap - Monterey

This weekend was a girls getaway weekend in Monterey. Of the girls who were on the trip four of them are friends I met five years ago when I studied abroad in England. It's pretty amazing that after five years we're still in contact with each other, let alone still travelling together. If you had asked me five years ago where our friendship would be today, I would have probably told you sending emails back and forth occasionally. I would have never guessed that one of these girls would have been my roommate for 3 1/2 years, I would be living in the city that four of them live in, and that we would still be travelling together. It's crazy!

 

And that's also a good way of describing the weekend. We all met up in Monterey on Thursday night, well I guess technically it was very early Friday morning. After a short night of rest we hit the city for a wonderful breakfast followed by a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I absolutely love this aquarium and it was awesome to share it with my friends. Strangely enough on our way home we found ourselves at A Taste of Monterey ( http://www.tastemonterey.com/), a tasting room which represents over 70 regional wineries. Here we quickly made friends with the wine server and sampled quite a few delicious wines. I think it was supposed to be a 6 wine tasting, but after 10 we lost track which made the walk home very enjoyable.

 

On Saturday, we decided to continue our love of wines by visiting some tasting rooms in the gorgeous Carmel Wine Valley. We drove into the heart of the valley to visit two tasting rooms and then headed back towards the coast for a tour and tasting at a third winery. I've been on a few brewery tours before but I believe this was my first winery tour. Let me just say, if you are ever in Carmel Valley, make reservations with Chateau Julien for their wine tour, it's well worth it. Afterwards it was finally time to return my lovely birds to my parents and then make a surprise guest appearance at A's Birthday BBQ. I don't think there are words to describe the amount of shock, happiness and disbelief when I appeared in her garage door. It was awesome!

 

Sadly, most of today was spent in the car driving home. It was strange walking through the front door and not having the birds chirp out their hello, but I have to admit it was nice to know that I was going to have the whole evening to myself to unpack and get things settled for the week. The last couple of weeks have been super busy between getting my Master's project turned in on time for corrections from my committee and taking care of the birds. I definitely wouldn't have survived without the weekend breaks I have treated myself too.

 

This week is a short week, I am only home for three days before I fly to Northern California to attend the California Dietetic Association's Annual Conference. I want to put everything on hold until after I return from that, but unfortunately I will be receiving the corrections to my Master's project once I return. With only a week to make the corrections and then turn in the final project, I have no choice but to work as hard as I can this week so next week I can solely focus on my project.

 

In other words the next 15 days can be broken down like this:

• 3 days of catching up from the last two weeks while sorting out school, work, and my rotation
• 3 days of networking and professional development
• 1 day off for fun
• 5 days of balancing school, work and my rotation while finishing my Master's project
• 1 day off for volunteering
• 1 final day of Master's project fun
• Freedom!

Country Music

I was listening to the CMT country countdown this morning on the radio and found a new song that really resonates with me. It's called, "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" by Tracey Lawrence. Here are the lyrics:

 

Run your car off the side of the road
Get stuck in a ditch way out in the middle of nowhere
Or get yourself in a bind,
Lose the shirt off your back,
Need a floor, need a couch, need a bus fare…

This is where the rubber meets the road
This is where the cream is gonna rise
This is where this is what you really didn't know
This is where the truth don't lie
 

Chorus

Find out who your friends are
Somebody's gonna drop everything
Run out and crank up their car
Hit the gas, get there fast
Never stop to think "what's in it for me?"
Or "it's way too far"
They just show on up
With their big ol' heart
Yeah find out who your friends are.

Everybody wants to slap your back
Wants to shake your hand
When you're up on top of that mountain
Then one of those rocks will get wet
And you slide back down
Look up and see who's around then

This is where the road comes to an end
This is where the band wagon stops
This is just one of those times when
A lotta folks jump off.

Chorus

When the water's high
When the weather's not so fair
When the well runs dry
Who's gonna be there?

Chorus

Run your car off the side of the road
Get stuck in a ditch way out in the middle of nowhere
Man I been there
Or get yourself in a bind
Lose the shirt off your back
Need a floor, need a couch
Need a bus fare…
Man I been there
Man I been there…

 

 

So I guess I haven't ever run my car off the side of the road and into a ditch, but I have been stuck at Union station trying to get to the airport, been stranded at the airport without a way to get home, missed class and a lot of notes, and lots more. Luckily I can say I KNOW who my friends are.

 

Master's Project

This past Monday I found out that my Master's project is due the second week of the quarter you are graduating. Unfortunately, this is the second week.

Public Transportation

So there I was, sitting on the bus making my way from my current rotation to my apartment. As I was driving through the heart of my city, I received a text. I dug through my bag, pulled out my phone and read the funny text. Chuckle-ing, I loooked up from the text and realized that I had no clue where I was. Apparently, while I was reading this text, I had missed my bus stop. I immeadiately pulled the cord to stop the bus, only to find out that the next stop was 3/4 of a mile down the road from where I was supposed to get off. Oops! Luckily, I am not opposed to walking and the subject of the text and missing my stop was able to keep me smiling all the way home.

When I arrived home I relayed this story to my roommate, to which she responded, "Maybe you shouldn't be taking public transportation". I quickly reassured her that this was a fluke incident and I could handle the LA bus system. Skip to the next day.

With the memory of missing my bus stop fresh in my head I decided that instead of reading my book, I would listen to music on my way home. That way I could keep my eye out the window so I could see all the stops passing by. Imagine my surprise when the bus, that normally drives straight through the center of my city and makes no turns, merged into the left turn lane. What the heck?! Apparently, after telling my roommate I could handle public transportation, I had somehow managed to catch the bus whose end of the line was in the downtown portion of my city. Not a big problem, it just meant that once again I was faced with a walk home, however this time it was just over a mile. The worst part was having to relay this story to my roommate. She laughed with a knowing smile. But I'd just like to point out, at least I don't have mistakes on my way to my rotation, only on my way home when being late doesn't really matter.

Victorian Quartet

On the fourth day of the fourth month, four people gather to share a four course meal. . .

. . . and what a success it was! My roommate and I invited over two of our best gal pals and we had quite the mediterranean feast. To start we enjoyed spinach fatayer (or at least that's what I think it was called), dough triangles filled with a tangy/spicy spinach mixture. For the entree we had falafel and tomatoes drizzled with tzatziki and stuffed inside fresh pitas. On the side, was a delicious grape, walnut and yogurt salad. Then for dessert we had specialties from Porto's Bakery (THE known bakery of Glendale) including mango cheescake, chocolate raspberry mousse, italian style cheesecake, and a chocolate pyramid. This was all washed down with some excellent New Zealand Wines from Kim Crawford. If you haven't tried the Pinot Noir, you should, because it's delicious!

My roommate and I decided to have this dinner after I was telling her about my dad's famous dinner parties when he was our age. He used to have Victorian Octet dinners that included 8 people and 8 courses. We figured since we won't be living together in August, this was our chance. That and it's always nice to have people over. But I guess the best part of the evening was learning just how easy it is to make falafel. Here's the recipe I used:


Waiting for the egg and garbanzo beans

• 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs


• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro


• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon minced garlic


• 1 large egg


• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed


• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Simply place all the ingredients in a food processor, process until smooth. Heat some oil in a frying pan and cook until browned or alternately deep fry in a pan of oil. Either way they'll come out brown and crispy and delicious!

The Other One

This is the beginning of week two with "the birds". Even though they require quite a lot of attention and care, I have to admit that I am actually quite enjoying having them around. After seven days here we have quite the morning and evening routine set-up. And they are quite the characters! Here are some pictures of the second bird that I have residing in my house at the moment, the lovely Wally.


Minding my own business, looking out the window and pondering life.


Did you have to take that picture? At least let me prepare.


This is my good side!

I think it's safe to say the birds are loving their vacation. Heck! They might not even want to return to my parent's house when they get back from their vacation to the Galapagos.