One of my favorite windows...

Oh violin

Every time I sit in an orchestra audience, every time I hear an irish fiddle, it inspires me to pick up my violin again. Oh for the days in highschool when I spent 2 hours practicing every night. Why didn't I appreciate that more?

foodie: a person devoted to enjoyment of food.

I love food. And I love taking pictures of food. Amidst organizing a few years of pictures, I came across these photos of some of my favorite foods. It's crazy, this taking-pictures-of-food business. But for some reason, when I look at each picture I remember the moment, the environment, the food...

Our last night and last meal in in China. We were all seated around a large round table. This dish was amazing, and you had to delicately avoid the beautiful peppers if you ever wanted to taste again.
Venetians. Yes, the are as hard to make as they look. I will never lie about that. But they are always completely worth it. One of the many christmas cookie recipes passed down through generations, some year I will actually photodocument the ridiculous process that it takes to produce them. Again, completely worth it.
Toffee cracks. Oh toffee cracks. These were always some of the first christmas cookies we would make each year because they froze so well. Jessica was making these when our house burned down November 16th in 1995 [Correction. Jessica's baking of toffee cracks did not burn our house down. Perhaps the smell of baking numbed our senses to the initial smell of smoke, but the fire started on the opposite, addition side of our house]. Although they aren't all that difficult to make, they do require some sense of candy-making and the elaborate use of a cold glass of water. This year I took the picture when I made them very quickly to take to a last minute Christmas party. Stat toffee cracks. They turned out great.
Mocha-rum truffles. I love these truffles. For years my mom made these truffles, setting them up quickly in a bowl of ice so we could hurry the process a bit. It was perhaps one of the messiest cookies to make, as we rolled the sticky mocha truffles in cocoa and crushed walnuts. Since then I have learned to be a bit more patient and learned that it is always worth the wait. I have also started dipping them in chocolate and drizzling them with white chocolate, because it extends their plate life at parties and dinners.
Cranberry bark. How many pounds shall I make? I have given this away for the past few years because it is ridiculously easy to make and everyone loves it. I made it with toasted pistachios this year, but always go back to the toasted almonds and craisins taste. There is something so simple and addictive about them.
Pavlova. Chocolate pavlova. With raspberries and whip cream. Easily one of my favorite desserts ever. I had vanilla pavlova for the first time in New Zealand and absolutely loved it with kiwis and strawberries. Jessica made chocolate pavlova for me for the first time for my 24th birthday when I had first moved to Chicago. We were at a Gypsy Kings concert at Ravinia, and had folded up pavlova in tin foil and carried the raspberries and whip cream along with it. It looks so difficult to make and is really so easy, as long as you don't slam the oven door, and bake it at the right temperature. This particular picture was at my friend Lauren's apartment in the south loop. We had a housewarming party for her, and wondered why we don't all have dinner parties more often.

It's just a cup of hot chocolate. But it was amazing. Lijiang, China. In a little hidden restaurant called Nordic Delight (no, not turkish delight, that is from chronicles of narnia), a bunch of wonderful people from the Netherlands serve up non-chinese food with free internet access all day long. Call it a haven for travelers, call it a break for the stomach from spicy Chinese foods, but it was absolutely amazing. They have a piano that anyone can play, pile of books and games...it was reminiscent of a bed and breakfast. We had dinner there one evening by the fire inside from exploring all day, and never really wanted to leave.

When we set out on our hike on the Great Wall, we never really anticipated that it would take us about 6 hours. We had water, almonds, craisins, and granola bars. But by the time we got to the end of the wall, acrossed the bridge, up a tall set of stairs and down to the bottom by zip line, we were so ready for this meal. It was interesting sweet and sour assortment of vegetables, peanuts, and chicken. And it was amazing. It could possibly be one of my favorite meals in china.

Wisdom teeth weekend

It has been months since my last post. The last 6 months have been somewhat a blur of school and work that consume hours of days and days of weeks and weeks of months... I start to become annoyed with the phrase "I'm too busy to..." and wonder what happened to all of the hobbies that I once loved. It is easy to get into a pity party and forget why I started this big endeavor to begin with. Which is why it is always nice to have a break from school and work.

Last weekend I went to Indiana for a long weekend to spend some time with my brother and his wife and three of my seven total nieces. It was a much needed mini vacation and I got caught up on my current disney movies, highschool musical 3 karaoke, and 1st grade reading material.

To celebrate Labor Day, I had my wisdom teeth taken out on Friday. I would probably be a perfectly happy clam if it was just the top two which were easily pulled out and don't hurt much at all. But the bottom two were taken out surgically, around some nerves. And I'm still feeling the nerves on both sides. I'm not sure what to think of it. If i hear a door slam or something drop or a noise too loud, the pain gets worse and I want to scream. Ouch. It's strange. I'd rather not be around anything or anyone that makes noise.

That said, in the last two days I have watched 3 stupid movies and 2 good ones, organized and bought books for fall quarter, read the Time Traveler's Wife in two sittings, caught up with some friends while talking as little as possible, reorganized a lot of digital pics, eaten a lot of ice cream, and tried in the end, not to do or say anything too important or stupid while taking vicodin and motrin atc.

Photo editing is one favorite luxury that time doesn't often allow for. So vala, here I was feeling somewhat other-worldly, and I decided to edit a big pile of pictures I took last weekend at my brother's house. I love these girls. Not only because they are my nieces and also ridiculously photogenic. But because they have such big hearts and big personalities to go with. They ask inquisitive questions and love little things that I loved when I was little, like reading in bed with a nightlamp. It has been so much fun to watch three babies grow up into girls with hopes and dreams and personalities, and to be part of their family who can be there for them as they grow. I wish there was a way to bottle their innocence.

Adventures in China

I just returned home from my 2 week trip to China, Dec 26-Jan 13 with stops in NY and NJ and have a minute to breathe before heading back to work for the weekend! China was never top on my list of places to visit in my life, but with my friend Sarah living there and another friend Erin willing to make the trek with me, it was a no-brainer. Although I'm kind of feeling like I skipped Christmas and NYE all together this year, it was totally worth it. I flew to NY the day after Christmas and although my plane was a bit delayed, I was able to spend a nice afternoon/evening with Mom, Dad & Grandpa...and Dave & Bev :) Ragy, Erin's boyfriend, volunteered to drive us to NJ early in the am for our afternoon flight. 14 hours in the air, a few hours of sleep, and we were in Beijing!

It was amazing. Quality time with good friends and adventuring around China made this experience probably my best vacation to date. Somehow Erin and Sarah and I have stayed close friends since childhood despite cross-country and time-zone phone tag. So with an ornithologist, a nurse, and a teacher on board we had a lot of different perspectives to share! We split our time among the cities of Beijing, Lijiang, and Kunming. We started out in Beijing at the Olympic Village, and visited the Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, Tian'anmen Square, and The Great Wall during our time there. Beijing was north enough to be equivalent temperatures to Chicago, so I was glad that I packed my warm stuff!! The Great Wall was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was cold enough (20s) to keep away most tourists, and because it is not a national holiday vacation there we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Fortunately we had a beautiful sunny day and a 4.5 hour hike to keep us warm! We hiked mainly on unrestored parts of the wall and took a zip line off at the end. None of what we did would meet any sort of safety codes in the U.S. but it was an adventure and it doesn't get much better than that. :)

The Summer Palace was beautiful! Set on the edge of a lake, it is a series of beautiful architecture where the emperor used to spend summers... Looking out over the Forbidden City from a Pagoda in a nearby park

Lijiang was another favorite part of our trip, an old town filled with canals set in a valley below the famous "Snow Mountain". We braved a local night bus 6 hours from Kunming to Lijiang to spend a weekend in the town. The scenery was beautiful and we ventured out of the city to do some hiking in a village further out.



The town of Lijiang was absolutely stunning at night, and one of my favorite parts of our stay was watching these candles float through the canals during the evening.
Kunming is where Sarah lives, and is a much bigger city than I had ever imagined. I'm not sure what the population is, but it's a rolling city with many areas similar to Chicago. So this is where Erin and I learned to master the art of bartering in the market and other places in the area. Sarah had to restart teaching during our week there, so Erin and I learned the bus system, how to ride a bike the Chinese way, how successfully catch a cab, a boat, a cable car, and how to tell the shady unmarked taxis from the safe ones. We relied on our sign language skills to get ourselves around a with the help of the lonely planet guide and Sarah's cell phone. What ensued was a lot of fun adventuring in the city and the surrounding Western Hills!! We also spent a day helping out around the international school where Sarah teaches 4th grade, and helping with an English class at a local private Chinese school created specifically for the "2nd children" in the area who are ineligible to attend the government run schools.


I liked some Chinese meals better than others, but breakfast was always a big hit. :) Most of the time it was some kind of egg pancake, but this was a sweet rice tortilla with peanutbutter sauce inside. Trips to the market were always an adventure! We learned a few words to shop with, and how to barter and buy "safe" food, and started making meals for Sarah and her roommate on the days that they had to teach.
We took a bunch of little daytrips from Kunming, and one of our favorites was to Green Lake Park... in the afternoon everyone danced and played music through around the lake. It was beautiful, and fun to watch all of the different groups of people playing violin/cello or singing (it was always kind of freaky singing) or playing some version of a Christmas song.
Learning a crazy circle dance at Green Lake Park. They all seemed to find it hilarious that a foreigner was trying to dance their dance, but it wasn't really that hard.
We did a lot of hiking...but, Sarah also knows all the places to get the best pedicures and massages. A full body massage costs about $3/hour, and a foot massage cost about $2/hr. I have been told that this nail polish might never come off :) But at least it's pretty! The Saturday before we left, we took a bus to a hot springs spa, where for $10US, we could sit in rose petal and other random hot springs all day... we also decided to go for the mini flesh eating "exfoliating" fish pool :) It was QUITE the experience, one of those "We're in China, we have to do this" things. I realllly wish we had pictures, but we weren't allowed to take cameras in, so this will have to do.
Erin and I went hiking in the Western Hills a lot. It MIGHT have had something to do with all the birds there, but we had a lot of fun and there was a lot to explore and a lot of beautiful scenery to take pictures of.

Looking out over Kunming from the top of a hill...the smog was amazing.
The last day that we were on our own, Erin and I decided to venture to an adjacent city to see a temple called "Dragon Gate" carved out of a very steep cliff. It was amazing! Unfortunately it was also the coldest day that we were there...which made the taxi to bus to boat to cable car to long walk to cliff to see the temple a bit long and freezing cold. Fortunately it was worth it! There were little tunnels running through the cliff and around it to various parts of the temple... it's hard to describe, but amazing. Besides, on one of the long walk parts of the trip, Erin saw a bird that, in her words "I've been waiting to see my whole life!!!" ...I guess for an ornithologist, that's pretty exciting, haha.
I could probably make an entire photo album of all the food we ate while in China. Fortunately we didn't (surprisingly) get sick from all of the new types of food and spices that we tried :) This was our last night in Kunming at a huge restaurant up the street from where Sarah lives. It is designed to look like a boat and is run by Arabs... it was quite the experience especially because there was a wedding reception happening there at the same time, but the food was great!

To fall...

Lydia. I love this little girl. She calls me "Dar" and gives the best hugs and kisses a person could ever hope for. She has the makings of a comedian, and can melt your heart with her eyes.


I love fall. The crunch in the leaves and apples, the bite in the cold air, the smell of woodsmoke that reminds me of home, remembering my sweaters and scarfs like old friends, and leaving the oven open when I finish making cookies. All of these things are my favorite.

But when I close my eyes and feel the wind blow, I really can't believe that it's almost November. I feel like I lost September, and while I have enjoyed October, it too seems to be slipping through my fingers as the streets and stores slowly fill with Christmas. Forgetting Thanksgiving has always been a huge issue to me. It seems like our culture these days forgets all about what it means to be thankful and to set aside to remember that... and skips right to giving and receiving. Maybe if we hung out on Thanksgiving more....

My trip to China is finally coming into shape, as we finish up our itinerary and get our visas... I'm getting so excited not only to visit a foreign country that I have never been to, but to have the opportunity to spend some quality time with two of my closest friends. Two people that I play cross-country and time-zone phone tag with to stay in touch, and yet never seem to lose contact all together. It's going to be great.

The past few weeks have been challenging at work. Challenging perhaps, an understatement. Taxing to the point of complete frustration and breaking point burn out would be to put it better. Sick sick patients, difficult family situations, technology problems, overwhelming staffing issues... and yet, somehow, our staff in the end always seems to pull it together and make it work. We stay late, come early, and burn ourselves out. Its great and horrible. A picture of unity and stupidity at best. So I remind myself that there is a light at the end of my tunnel at least. I rounded with palliative care yesterday in my student role in the FNP program. I ended up in mediation between an upset staff nurse and the rounding attending... I'm not quite sure how it happened, but at that moment in that position, for once I could see myself in this type of role and think I could actually be good at it... it's exciting, or at least I think so.

For now I'm looking forward to the rest of my life.

Again?

Yesterday I had another student for 12 hours.
This time she was an archeologist that spent most of her year in egypt digging up pyramids each summer. She decided to move to chicago, go to college again and become a nurse instead.
I only hope that I can display that kind of passion for what I'm doing with my life.