27 interesting things

Interesting things I did in the last two weeks:
1. Commenced Italian lessons with an elderly Italian lady who lives close to me
2. Found a set of dining chairs in the dumpster and sold them for $100.00
3. Found an exercise bike in the dumpster and brought it into my living room so I can watch traffic and cycle while studying Italian.
4. Made ribs, trifle, baked Salmon, wild rice and various other delicacies.
5. Swam a kilometer in 33 minutes
6. Brought coffee to a man sleeping behind my dumpster.
7. Cut my hair
8. Received flowers for valentine's day from my husband
9. Got kicked by a patient at work.
10. Kicked out a patient at work.
11. Broke my favorite teacup.
12. Turned 27
13. Mailed in paperwork so I can go back to school
14. Ordered a new computer
15. Watched the Oscars
16. Bought combs for a patient who didn't have anything to untangle her rat's nest hair with.
17. Locked myself out of my apartment building.
18. Prayed
19. Met up with an old friend from out of town and went for coffee
20. Saved a patient who was about to have a heart attack with nitrospray
21. Fell asleep watching a movie with my husband
22. Got a seven letter word in scrabble spanning two triple-word-scores
23. Dreamed that a baby pooped on my couch.
24. Bribed my guitar student with gummy bears
25. Received mancala, rummikub and cathedral games from Robin for my birthday, and beat him 12/15 times at all of them.
26. Lost 12/15 wrestling matches against Robin, although 3 of those matches are contested.
27. Realized I am 27 and can only speak 2 languages. Time is running out.

Tom yum soup and other yummy things

As a follow-up from last months blog on resolutions, I feel I should update everyone on how things are going. Some of the resolutions are going very well and some are sucking.
I managed to make it through a month of fruit and veggie smoothies, minus one day when I just couldn't stomach it. It was harder than I thought..... The no desserts for a month was not as hard, but sad to say I only made it 3 weeks. I was at work and a coworker gave me a chocolate danish and told me how much he appreciated my work and was obliged to eat it. The next night at Bob and Marlene's when I was offered chocolate raspberry cream cake, I couldn't say no. I mean, I didn't say no.
As for the other resolutions.... better late than never, I say. I'm five weeks behind on my 52-books-in-one-year resolution, but I have four books on the go and I expect to finish some soon. As for exercising every day.... sigh. I manage about half the time. This morning I finally started my swimming program with Caleb and Mimi. when it was still dark I walked over to the rec center (6:30, people!) and swam for an hour with them.
However, I am making headway with one of my resolutions: learn to cook 10 new things. This is no 'Julie and Julia' blog, folks, but from someone who used to hate cooking I think I'm making progress, and in the process, having fun.
I started with a creamy white bean and broccoli soup (A healthy version of cream-of-broccoli). Creamy, smooth, delicious! Robin and I loved it and I made it twice. the only bad part was when I blended the soup as per the recipe: I poured it into the blender in batches, put the lid on and pressed 'high'. I guess the steam from the hot soup expanded to fill the blender and the pressure caused the lid to pop off and spray green soup all over me and the kitchen. It even sprayed down my spice rack before I could push 'stop'.
Then I made Spanish rice for the first time- rice cooked with chorizo sausage and peppers- what a novel idea! I followed that up with smoky corn chowder with bacon. I don't think I've ever had corn chowder before, and my stomach did a little turn when I saw the creamed corn (thanks, Len); but it turned out delicious, and, well, smoky. That was my first time cooking with leeks and I discovered they are sort of like onions but don't make your eyes sting.
Last Sunday I cooked root vegetables and chicken with braised fennel. I'm still not sure what fennel is, but Sam and I agreed that it's better than celery but still probably best cooked with something else, not by itself. Fennel has a delicate licorice taste but it's not stringy and not quite as boring as celery. If you cook it with enough butter and sugar, I discovered, it's palatable. Maybe next time I'll add it to a soup or a salad.
Then this week I made tiramisu for the first time. I don't really know what tiramisu is, either, but I've figured out that it's extremely fattening. The recipe I made called for 35% cream and mascarpone cheese (very expensive, by the way- about $12 for 454g) but it slides down like silk and leaves you feeling warm inside. I skipped the coffee liqueur in the recipe and added coffee instead so it wouldn't completely put us to sleep.
My seventh new recipe was pink deviled eggs. I've had deviled eggs before, but these ones called for a bit of tomato paste in the egg filling, and I added some relish instead of chopped pickles. The net result tasted like eggs filled with thousand island dressing. Robin and I scooped out the filling and just ate the eggs.
Today's recipe was Tom-Yum soup, whatever that is. It's a delicious looking soup with chicken, shrimp, lime, coconut, fish sauce, tomatoes, mushrooms and chili. I have no idea where Tom yum soup comes from but it has a slightly Asian look to it and I'm anticipating eating it for dinner tonight.
Robin's getting a little bored with soup, I think, so maybe next week I'll try something a little more solid.
I still have made zero progress on improving my Spanish or Italian, and I haven't finished my deadly infection board game, but there are still 10 and a half months to go and I am optimistic that much will be accomplished.
In another week I'm turning 27 and the fact that I will be in my late twenties might compel me to write another set of resolutions for the next three years. Who can tell.

13 resolutions

I am blogging.... it has been far too long. A year ago I was bored out of my mind, but I think now I've settled into the business of life here in Kelowna; made it my home. I work between 15 and 50 hours a week (someday maybe I'll have a regular job), and I'm a full-time wife with many hobbies and friends to keep things just a little bit crazy.
Those of you who have been following my hullaballoo for years know how much I love lists and resolutions. What better time than the beginning of a brand new year to make goals! This year there are 13 of them, and I wrote them down in order of the ones that will most likely happen to the ones that most likely won't happen, but it sure would be nice if they did.
Last year's resolutions were curtailed by a combination of finances, providence, and laziness. I didn't learn Spanish because I was lazy. I didn't travel to another foreign country because I was broke. I didn't go see the Northern lights because fate (or God) prevented it from happening. But oh, the joy of a fresh start!
1.No sweets for the month of January (candies, desserts, etc. This does not include fruit or hot chocolate) So far I've kept this one.
2.Exercise every day (either walk, run, swim, dance, or something!) So far I've missed 2 days, but I'm not giving up. It's hard to exercise when I'm working a night shift, come home and sleep, and then get up to it being dark already. That's my main excuse.
3.Drink a fruit and veggie smoothie every day for a month. This one is killing me. This morning I am sitting watching the snow come down while I choke down a smoothie made of banana, beet, celery, pineapple, coconut milk and pure disgustingness. It's getting harder every day but I'm giving it my best shot.
4.Learn Spanish. I have a plan: study 10 minutes a day by myself, and take a class.
5.Learn Italian. I have a plan for this one too: there is an old Italian lady who lives near me and I'm going to ask her for lessons.
6.Read 52 books. Books in another language count as 2. I've done this before and really enjoyed it. So many books, so little time!
7.Learn to cook 10 new things. I'm taking suggestions... so far I'm going to try to make baby back ribs and baked alaska. Ambition, the mother of success!
8.Take a dance class. There is a dance studio that opened right across the street from my house. They offer break dancing, tap, and some other boring classes.
9.Finish my board game 'Deadly Infection'.This deserves a whole blog by itself. The game is awesome and is going to revolutionize the world of health care education.
10.Memorize 3 chapters of the bible. I'm going to try to find the bible on podcasts so I can listen while I exercise. That would be sweet: combining two goals in one.
11.Get rid of stuff. Lots of it.
12.Finish the book on chemistry I started 5 years ago. Enough said.
13.Pay off ¼ of our debts. Honestly I don't this one's going to happen, with Robin back in school, but miracles do happen. I resolve to receive miracles this year.
So there you have it. There are many people who mock new year's resolutions but for all of them, I'd like to point out that even though I don't usually fulfill ALL of my goals, at least I fulfill some of them. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And the truth is, if I really want to do these things, I'll make them happen! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a smoothie to finish.

Shine

I read a book awhile ago that disturbed me quite a bit. It was called 'eat, pray, love'. It was a well-written and engaging story, but it was basically about a woman who went on a narcissistic quest to find pleasure; in the process leaving her husband to find herself. I thought about the book for months because in my mind, it was a very accurate portrayal of our world's concept of finding happiness. You selfishly seek it at the expense of others.
I am no Mother Teresa. At this moment I am lying on the couch typing and snacking while I could be cleaning the house or visiting a lonely friend or praying or doing something focused on someone else besides myself.
However, I am not doing any of those things; (for my own various reasons), instead I'm attempting to explain to myself and you how true happiness finds us.
A verse in Matthew says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Another verse in Psalms says “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart”.
The point is, that as we focus outside of ourselves and run after God and make him our number one passion, true happiness and joy will find us. I think part of it has to do with a subtle changing of our hearts. I was recently discussing yoga with a colleague at work. I told him that I like the yoga postures and stretches, but I wasn't really interested in getting into the religion of yoga. Well, what is that? He asked. I explained that among other things, yoga was supposed to give the practitioner inner calm, peace and happiness. True peace, I explained to him, is found through a right relationship with Jesus. Anything that claims to be able to give you true peace apart from him, is deceptive. You could do yoga for 6 hours a day or sit on a lamppost for 3 years or only eat raw foods or sleep for 12 hours a night or have a live-in massage therapist or get rid of all your teenagers, but none of that would bring you true inner peace.
Inner peace comes from being right with God, knowing that we're forgiven of the things we've done wrong, and being satisfied in him. God wants us to have true peace, which is why he tells us to seek after him.
I wish I could say that I experience true peace and happiness all the time. I simply don't. I tend to worry a lot about finances and how long our truck is going to keep running, and work, and my weight, and I'm very worried right now about the elk roast I have cooking in the oven.
I injured my tailbone riding 8 kilometers on a crappy bike seat, so it hurts to sit, and I'm taking a bit of time off running until I'm better. I don't have a lot of work so I have quite a bit of free time, and last night I walked to the nearest Starbucks and got a pumpkin spice latte and sat and read a book of italian recipes that I'll never make, and a medical journal of surgical procedures I'll never perform. I sat on one side of my hip and then the other, and looked out the window at the full moon and felt content. On my way home Robin came to meet me and he was excited because we have a fridge full of elk meat. We walked back home together and then Brock came over to play video games with him and I sat at the table with headphones in listening to the soundtrack from 'Shine' and putting together my thrift-store jigsaw puzzle. I drank laxative tea just to keep things moving and ate a mandarin and stayed up til midnight only to discover I was missing two pieces.
My favorite song on the cd is Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, and it is so moving that I wanted to jump up and down and shout 'Hallelujah'! I listened to it on repeat for an hour and felt chills down my spine.
Simple beautiful strains of happiness have been pursuing me; in a delicious soft-boiled egg this morning, in a good book, in laughing so hard with Robin I almost cried, in a night-time walk in the brisk fall air; in watching the sun rise while talking to God about how much I love him. I am not grasping after them. They are finding me as I am seeking the kingdom of God.

Anniversary musings

I've now been married just over a year. Robin and I had our anniversary this weekend and it put me in a strangely contemplative mood. (That and the fact that I just read an excellent and deeply thought provoking book called 'Still Alice').
Before I was married it seemed like this elite club, a sort of social nirvana, and I was eager to join their ranks and find my soulmate; the person who completed me and was the half I'd always been missing. But it isn't quite like that, I've discovered. I don't know quite how to explain it, I tried to tell Robin that I didn't feel married, but that's not quite right- I think a better way to explain it is that I still feel like the same Heather I always have been. I suppose as a child I had this illusion in my mind of what I would be like as an adult- a sort of abstract concept of my future self as an object separate from myself. Then, I was surprised to discover the adult me is the exact same person as the child me. I am and always have been and always will be the same girl.
That being said, I do like being married. But I haven't really changed into a different person now that I have another half- in fact, if anything, I understand Robin less that I thought I did when we were first together.
We went out for dinner on sunday night, to the Keg, which was a vast improvement over my cooking. We had an appetizer of sizzling scallops wrapped in bacon and dipped in red sauce. Then Robin had a huge pink slab of prime rib (I do not understand the attraction of rare meat in the slightest) and I had an entire Atlantic lobster. It came on the plate like it had been plucked out of the ocean and it seemed a shame to break it apart and destroy it's beautiful red shell. I've always wanted to have lobster and I finally did. It was messy, and a lot of work, cracking the shell and dipping the juicy meat in melted butter and lemon juice, but oh, so worth it.
For dessert I had warm creme brulee with the smooth creamy inside and crackly sugar top. Divine.
The lobster was kind of like my visions of me as an adult, or what marriage would be like. It was wonderful, but not at all what I expected. We went home from the Keg and played board games and then lay in bed listening to the sound of a bullfrog outside. It reminded me of being in Antigua, lying in the stifling heat and unable to sleep because of the symphony of frogs and crickets and birds outside my window. It brought back nostalgic memories, which are always either good or neutral because of the healing effect of time.
I was pretty impatient to grow up as a kid. I didn't like being a skinny little girl in a world of tall people that didn't have to follow all the rules and who could say and do whatever they wanted. I wanted to be beautiful and have long dark hair and wear mini skirts and have a tall boyfriend. I wanted to have an exciting career, like Florence Nightengale or Maria von Trapp. I remember asking my mom to come take a picture of me as a six year old, and when she came outside with the camera, I was leaning against the tree in my swimsuit and wide-brimmed straw hat, with a coy smile on my face and one hand on my hip. I was ready to be an adult. I wanted to travel and work and get married and fly in airplanes and eat lobster.
Some things in life have been deep disappointments, like never actually growing tall and my first kiss and tasting champagne and realizing I didn't like it at all even though it sounded so glamorous. Other things have been more delightful than I possibly could've imagined, like having nieces and nephews, and studying chemistry, and having a garden on my porch, and getting married to someone who is extremely intelligent and insightful.
I think Robin probably feels the same as me, that we've lived so long being ourselves that marrying another person doesn't automatically erase who we are. I am trying to learn about him but he is like a book written in another language and some of the chapters don't make sense yet. When it comes to lobster, I may or may not have it again, but I'm glad I had that experience once and now I can cross it off my list of things to do before I die. With marriage, I've only just begun.