Halloweenie!!

It doesn't take much to get me to dress up, so when a holiday comes along whose main purpose is to put one's self in costume you better believe I'm gonna go all out.

Check out Marie Antoinette herself:

It took way too long to make my dress (and I must say that my test grade tomorrow will probably suffer because of it), but the end result made it all worth it.

Blue was into the spirit as well and we came up with what I think is his best costume to date.

Meet Mr. Rogers:

To see all the party pics head on over to Miss Elizabeth's blog. Hooray for Halloween!

Daylight Savings Time, Where Arrrrre Yooooou?

• I'm finding it increasingly hard to wake up in the mornings while it is still dark outside. Shouldn't we have had daylight savings time by know? I think I remember something about them making it later this year...why, I don't know. Just give me my extra hour and sunshiney mornings already!
• Work was a zoo last night. The hospital's census is at an all time low right now (that's the current number of patients present), so that means the pharmacy bosses have issued mandatory staffing cutbacks, which is good and bad: good because I get to leave an hour early for the next couple shifts I work; bad because the pharmacy still seems to be as busy as usual even with fewer patients in the hospital so it makes for a hectic work environment when you don't have as many employees present(they're cutting back on staffing numbers to try and stay within budget--less money coming in from patients means less money needs to go out to employees). Blahh. It's annoying sometimes how everything revolves around money.
• My classes are boring. And a waste of my time. I do not equate learning with having powerpoint slides read to me when I have copies of them that I can just read to myself at home. When do I graduate again? Wait! Don't tell me. Must. Not. Think. About. That. Right. Now.
• Okay. Enough complaining cause in one day it's Halloween party time! I better go eat some grits and then get to work on my costume. (Yes, I eat grits. Wipe that grin off your face. I also eat lefse, smoked oysters, and pickled herring to stay true to my northern roots, so there.)

Relaxation at the Cost of My Education.

After last week I decided that I wasn't gonna study this weekend no matter what, and I'm happy to report that I succeeded. It was very nice and relaxing not to have to pound info. into my brain and instead do all the cleaning and projects that I've been pushing to the side over the past two weeks and otherwise be lazy around the house and completely veg. The weather was gorgeous which made for two fantastic afternoons of yard work. I love the task of getting your yard all spruced up before winter rolls in. I also managed to make some progress with the H-ween costume. There's still a lot of work to go though, so I've got to buckle down this week and make it happen. Hooray for October!!

P.S. Was Grey's not fantastic this week?? "You traitorous b!tch."

P.P.S. I get to make our third soup of the season tonight: Wild rice soup. I can't wait. Last week we made white bean chicken chili and it was very good. Double hooray for Fall!

P.P.P.S. OMG!!! In one month it will be time to decorate for christmas! Right now that seems crazy to me. Maybe its due to the mild weather thus far this year. That also means the time is slowly nearing for the second annual El Fantastico Christmas Party. Oh, what an exciting time of year this is!

Aaaaahhhhhh!

Giant test on Friday. Haven't been studying much up to this point because I was studying for the test I had to take yesterday. That equals no time for blogs this week. See you in six days.

Butternut Squash don't mess around.

• I decided to make some butternut squash soup last night for dinner since fall is officially here and it turned out to be a major aerobic workout. Butternut squash is some serious $#%*!! First of all its really hard (even the inside) and then you have to take the really hard peel off of the really hard flesh with out stabbing or slicing yourself. Not an easy task even for someone familiar with a chef's knife. It all worked out in the end though. I didn't sustain any cuts and the soup was delicious.


• I wish dogs had a better sense of reason. I woke up this morning to find not just one but two puddles of dog barf. Did I find them on any of the hard floors we have throughout our house? No, I found them smack dab in the middle of the lovely wool rug in our living room, the only real rug we have in the entire house. Good going mozart. I just hope we can find a way to get the spots out. No luck so far.


• Woohoo!! I've decided on a halloween costume! I'm breaking out the sewing machine this year and it's gonna be a big undertaking, so wish me luck cause I don't have a lot of free time as it is already. If I can pull it off, it has the potential to be spectacular. Here's my inspiration:

Have I told you how excited I am about this propect?!! Well just to reiterate: I'm tremendously excited! And, no, Blue will not be dressing up as King Louis. We do have a pretty good idea for him though, but for now I'll keep that under wraps. Oh, I can't wait till halloween!

Embarrassed!

Blue and I have started jogging lately and we did this little hill in Alsopp park the other day and it made my calf muscles quite sore. I was walking to my car yesterday after class which involves stepping over this chain barrier (picture single links of chain strung between wooden posts) and I guess because of the pain in my leg my body decided not to lift my foot up high enough and my toe caught on the chain and down I went into the dirt. Luckily, there was no one in my direct vacinity to see it up close, but I'm sure the groups of people walking about 40 yards behind me witnessed my grace none the less. It's laughable now, but at the time I was pretty mortified. It's funny how our brains react to embarrassment. There's this moment of shock at what just happened and then it's like "get up, get up!! just keep walking, don't look behind you, just go, escape, run! and then your conscience has to step in and say "it's not the end of the world, just remain calm and go on about your business. No one will remember this tomorrow...we hope." Oh embarrassment, what would we do without you?

Oh Happy Day

Finally, my introspectivity from last week has come to an end. No more being stuck inside my brain. I've done some decent studying over the weekend and am starting to feel mildly prepared for my first test of "Exams: round 2" that I have tomorrow. I'm focusing on the fact that when these four test are through, I'll be half way done with the semester (instead of getting crazy stressed). Yaaaaaaay!

Good things from this past weekend:

• I got to hang out with some friends for a change, which was nice. I didn't get to see everybody, but, hey, there's always next weekend.
• I helped my sis, Katie, move into her new apartment, which included getting to play with Bruno the wonder pomeranian. He's getting fiestier by the minute!
• I spent an evening being silly with Katie and Jill.
• Woohoo! My bulbs that I ordered last summer have finally arrived from the Netherlands. Blue started building the new flower bed in the backyard that we are going to fill up with them.

It looks like fall is on its way back this week, which will make working in the yard enjoyable once again. (I did not have fun mowing the yard yesterday=sweat city.) Pretty soon it will be Halloween and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I love this time of year!

Have a good week!

Where'd the reckless abandon go?

I don't exactly know why, but lately I've been thinking a lot about my years spent as an undergrad and I've realized that there is a lot I miss about those good ole days. Our biggest worries were whether or not the person we were into was interested in us too and who was gonna by the beer for us for the coming weekend. We did things like go get coffee at 11:30 at night 'cause we weren't tired yet, stay up for two days straight just to see if we could do it, explore a cave during a weekend of camping that involved swimming through 50 degree water in total darkness to get to the interior which ended with us being accosted by a park ranger for breaking the law (luckily we weren't ticketed), making hilarious videotapes of all our debauchery that took place during parties, getting my tongue pierced on a whim(no I don't have it anymore), loading up friends into my car and driving to the giant parking lot behind Ryan's restaurant following an ice storm and practicing evasive driving manuevers on the ice coated pavement, and one of my favorites: when Brooke and I lived together in the dorm the fire alarm went off one night around 3AM. Did we get out of bed and go outside? Nope. We didn't care if the building was actually on fire. We just wanted our beauty rest. (Subsequently some fire men ended up breaking into our room to make sure we were alive.)

I love looking back on this stuff, but at the same time I feel a little saddened that it's over. It's not that I'm not happy with my life right now. I have many blessings, excellent friends and a supportive family. It just seems that we've transistioned into a phase of life that is less wild and carefree than it used to be. I'm not saying those years didn't have there trying moments. I certainly made some mistakes and have a few regrets (not so much that I wish I hadn't done some things I did, just wishes that I had handled a few things a little differently). Maybe this is just a touch of Peter Pan syndrome. Maybe the mental brutality of p-school's got me down. Ah well, they say life is cyclical. Better to look to the future than dwell on the past.

Must Stress Less

I seem to be experiencing minor anxiety issues, and I don't know how to get it to stop. Yeah, school is stressful, but for me to have random bouts of twisty stomach, shallow breathing and rapid heartbeat during the day(w/o known provocation) just seems a little over the top. I'm just not the kind of person who typically freaks out/loses it, so this is way bizaare to me. It just started yesterday, so I'm hoping it is a short term thing. I'm gonna try and find ways to burn up more energy during the day and hope that that helps. Is it funny that I'm not at all interested in pursuing pharmaceutical therapy for this issue (e.g., drugs=what will one day be my job)? My current stance is that a large amount of people out there are over medicated and have been trained to look for a quick fix in the form of a pill for many of their problems. That folks, is another topic for another day, though, so let's look at some happy pictures and make the poopy feelings go away.

This picture is funny on so many levels.

I love snow!

Spring break, you can't get here soon enough.

If there were only more dogs out there like this one...

This is where I want to be today. Too bad I have to go to class.

(Myrtle Falls, Mt. Ranier national park, Washington.)

Have you seen my spare time?

Yeah, me either.

School has been brutal these past two weeks...not life threatening, just all-consuming. I went through my first round of tests without any major injuries and have already started preparing for the next round that starts next week. I also had to intern every morning last week in the UAMS outpatient pharmacy. It was an enlightening experience. I had not had much one-on-one interaction with patients up until that point. I learned two main things: There are huge...HUGE problems with the current entity that is health insurance in America (bad huge), and that a lot of people don't understand their own health. Regarding the second one, I've decided that it should be a mandatory part of secondary and post-secondary education to have to take a basic anatomy and physiology course. I'm mean, heck, they make us take algebra twice (once in high school and once in college) and I certainly don't use that on a regular basis. Why not also require people to learn about something that's going to impact the amount of time they get to be alive? Just a thought.

On a more fun note concerning the past two weeks, I got to make Jaime and Ryan's wedding cake for their wedding last weekend! You've probably already seen the photos from the event on Elizabeth's blog, so I'll just give you one during construction:

(Fun fact: It took about six pounds of icing to do the whole cake.)

In other fun news, my sister Katie got a new puppy that is one of the cutest I've ever seen in my life. His name is Bruno and he is a pomeranian. He is afraid of Mozart's tail, but has a very loud bark for such a little guy. He's also camera shy, so these are the best shots I could get:

(Side note: That's Jill, not Katie.)

They came over on Thur. to watch the Grey's season premier. I just don't know anymore. I was very disappointed and let down with the finale as a whole last season, and questioned whether I would continue watching the show this time around, and I must say, things were not looking good during this new episode. It did pick up during the last three minutes of the show, but still....at the end I just felt like "of course George was gonna tell Izzy he loved her and Meredith was going to continue to act like a bipolar emotional whacko with Derek." Anyone else feeling this way or is it just me?