Exam death.

So, studying for my first exam has been and will continue be consuming my life. Bottom line: I just temporarily deactivated my Facebook account until after the test. **** just got real, right now.

Think happy, passing-grade-type thoughts.

XO,
Ash

I bet you all thought I died.

Yeah...so.....school started and caught me off guard a bit. I weighed my options (of studying/prepping for the first week and going to San Francisco/Vegas) and picked the obvious choice. I don't know why I assumed they'd just teach it to me in class like they did in nursing school when I was naughty and didn't prep for things. Which happened frequently. Well....SURPRISE! I "showed up" to my first two hour lecture online and we blew through the materials and the teacher was like, "Okay then, great, anyone have any questions about anything???" and I was all, "........"

Bottom line: I got behind. Which apparently is a no no in grad school (or at least this program), so I have be working feverishly to catch up (hence my absence). Progress report? Well, I'm getting there. I have an exam in a week and a half, so I have no choice but to get there. Positive thinking! :D (We'll see if I'm still smiling a week from Thursday). 

Blog-worthy things that have happened since I last saw you.....hmmmmm......okay. I know there are more than two, but I have to get back to studying sometime today.

(1) Cooking. I've been cooking more delicious from-scratch foods. This little baby is my answer to a serious spanakopita craving (minus the phyllo): spanakopita lasagna! It wasn't half bad (and fed us for a week and a half). Recipe found here (I subbed whole wheat pasta noodles)!

(2) The unlucky (yet fun) weekend. Christian is the president of the Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG) and his club is really stepping it up and providing a ton of cool activities/opportunities for the students. First biggie of the semester was the EMIG-Palooza campout! They planned a really great trip to Fossil Creek and planned to have EM residents from Maricopa Medical Center join us to talk about EM residencies/EM in general. Cool right?! Ahem. Well, wouldn't you know (after a DEATH summer of 110 degree temperatures, NO rain, and dust storm after dust storm) that as we were headed up I-17 North, the rain started. And continued. It looked pretty ominous and we found out after a 10 mile trek down a dirt road (way to go, little Civic) the road was a little uncrossable (at least by our little Civ). [Camping photos are a combo of mine and Cori Breslauer's]

Beginning to look ominous....

And then comes the rain...

And there went the road...

A large group of medical students trying to figure out what to do.

So naturally we went ahead and tried to cross it......SYKE! No, the damage to our car would come later. So naturally we decided to pick another campsite. One of the residents said he knew of something in the area, so we decided to head elsewhere. On our way there, the sudden rain decided to cause some falling-boulder-situations on the freeway. One of which fell from the mountain, rolled into the road in front of med student/rock star Kaya who hit it head on in her Jeep, we swerved and hit the driver side. In the words of Liz Lemmon, "BLERG!" Chris and I (and Jeff and Viesa) waited with Kaya while she got towed to the nearest city, ours was still drive-able so we hopped in and headed to camp.

Poor little Civic. 

The boys were exploring while we waited for the tow truck. I told them to pose
and apparently I got their album cover.

Eventually, we made it to camp which was already under way. Everyone had a really nice time!

Next day: Since we were ripped off at Fossil Creek, we were on the hunt for water. So naturally, a 2 mile death hike was the activity of the day. Super steep but totally beautiful hike down and eventually we find water! Viesa was a champion hiker/climber. We decided that she's part mountain goat.

Basking her royal-self in the sun.

Next step: "Cliff jumping". I'm a safety freak (no one likes to have me around during fun activities), so I tried to avert my eyes and tell myself that if emergency room doctors were doing it, it was okay (not sound logic, I know).

It looks shallow because it WAS shallow. Sheesh.

Christian, ignoring his paranoid wife. I salute you, sir.

One of the residents, setting a good example.

Then, as we were hiking towards some deeper water, we were walking over some loose rocks and I sprained my dang ankle. Like pop, oops, that didn't sound right. Again, blerg. I have very loose ligaments (my elbows and thumbs do abnormal things) and I've always been prone to a good ankle sprain. Haven't really had one since I was playing soccer in high school, but alas. Luckily, despite being 2 miles down an extremely steep canyon, I was hiking with (you guessed it) Emergency Department docs. Frankly, there is no better crowd to injure yourself around. I was assessed (Nothing broken! Yay!) and taped up in a jiffy. Horrified at the thought of some wilderness rescue folks having to hike down and take me out on a gurney, I decided to hike back up with Christian and Jeff. Slowly. We had someone else take Vies up and eventually we all made it out alive. 

One of Vies' new hiking buddies who took her back up for us.

All of us. :)

Despite the numerous disasters, we actually had a really fantastic time. The company was great and I'm proud of Christian for having a hand in organizing such a cool event for his fellow students. 

All of this past week has involved trying to catch up in school (which seems like a game I just can't win) and this:

Hopefully after the first exam I can catch my breath. The next two weeks I'll be in Tucson off and on to stay at my parents' house with my brother while they're on their 25th Anniversary cruise to Alaska! Christian and I have cruised Alaska with his family and it is SO MUCH FUN. I'm really excited for them; they totally deserve it. In said two weeks, I'll be studying my pants off, as well as attending the FIRST COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME OF THE SEASON! Yes, that deserved all caps. We. Love. College. Football. And we love that my parents have season tickets! Ahhh...it's that time of year again. :)

Also, a certain handsome husband has a birthday coming up in a few weeks, so stay tuned for those shenanigans as well. 

I hope this finds all of you well and less stressed than I am. :)

Love and doggy kisses,

Ash & Vies

adventures in cooking.

Most anyone who reads this blog knows that cooking isn't my thing. I don't have a particular issue with it (in fact, it's fun if you do a good job), but I'm not generally very good at it. I blame this partially on the fact that my sister loves to cook and is very good at it, so she took over cooking with my mom and learned a bunch of stuff. Also partially on the fact that my husband is an amazing cook and frankly, why would I cook my mediocre food when he's always cooking great stuff?!

Regardless, as part of an effort for us to become healthier people, we decided to start eating more whole foods (less processed/canned/boxed/frozen/etc.) and up the ante on our exercise (or lack thereof at the moment). This means, more stuff from scratch. ::Sigh:: I decided it meant it was time for me to take the reins and try to split the kitchen 50/50 with my dude. I had serious doubts.

Bottom line: success! I thought, at first, that I my have bitten off a little more than I could chew. I decided to go with chicken and spinach (whole wheat) linguini Alfredo with bacon. That's right folks. You read it right. I made Alfredo sauce from scratch. That's a big deal for this girl. True story (and I mean true), I definitely set three different items on fire (not big fires) while cooking, part of the hazards of a gas range and doing ninety things at once (a paper towel on the bacon plate, the actual box of matches we use to light the pilot on our stove, and a linguini noodle that escaped the pot when I poured them in and slipped into the burner). After putting all the fires out and managing three pans at once, I tasted with my eyes closed because I was definitely scared. And it was good! Here's a crappy photo after I ate half:

I have to say though, I was so damn tired from making it (and slightly stressed) that it was hard to enjoy it a ton. Really good, but now I'm just pooped.

Hopefully the next attempt is just as good with less fire involved.

School starts tomorrow! I'm scared/stressed/stoked. More later.

XXXOOO,
Ash

P.S. My mama's having surgery tomorrow to remove her pesky gall bladder. I've seen it done a bunch of times during school/work (easy peasy!), but it's a little different when it's your own mom. Say a little prayer for her quick recovery. THANKS!

we're H O M E.

I'm really too exhausted to say much else. Christian was gone 40 days and I was gone 11. Being home feels good. Chris swears I changed a ton of things in the house and I could hear him shouting from the back this morning, "What did you do while I was gone??!" Umm...nothing, silly. The kitchen has curtains and the tub has a shower mat. I think he's losing it (although I'm so tired, I may be the one losing it at this point).

I'll sum up the trip later when I'm a little more lucid,  but I wanted to post the second of a four post series - First day of school!

Post 1 - July 2010
First day of medical school. MS1.

Post 2 - August 2011 (This morning!)
First day of school. MS2!

Holy smokes. I can't believe I'm halfway done with taking first day of school pictures (what the heck?!). It's been a crazy first year and we're both really looking forward to the next. I start school on Wednesday and the best thing about my school is that I can wear pajamas (at least on the bottom). So much to do today to get ready for that and there are so many things to get sorted out after us both being gone for so long, not to mention picking up our VIESA BABY up from Tucson! We miss that girl something fierce. However, I don't think I can do anything without a nap.

Peace out, peeps.
Ash

Google.

Today, I was invited to have lunch at work with one of the roommates, Julie. Julie works at Google. Google's main facility is about 45 minutes away in Mountain View, CA (which I've heard is a sight to behold itself), but the San Francisco office is equally cool and full of smart/awesome people. Google feeds its employees delicious meals (umm...a fantastic idea for productive and happy employees) including dessert (homemade ice cream?!) and drinks and delicious snacks. All provided gratis. And did I mention it was delish? Plus, everyone I met there was really nice.

They also allow dogs in the office (3 per floor at a time), have a massage therapist on staff for the employees, and they have a slide. Yep. A slide. 

I didn't want to be creepy and take photos during my visit, but here are some I pulled from the web. Yes this is real life. I saw it with my own two eyes. :)

Who even needs those stupid stairs anyway?

Doggie in the office!

Uh, free sushi? Every day for lunch?

Pizza! (I ate this.)

Patio

Did I mention there was a slide?

Pretty cool stuff. After our delicious lunch, my hostess decided to take a day-long break from work (she's a hard working lady...deserves a break sometimes!) and took me around the east bay for the afternoon. We saw Berkley and walked around the campus. Julie is not only an amazing hostess/roommate, but an incredible tour guide and fantastic company. Amazing. Day. I know I keep using that word a lot, but it's true. 

Tomorrow we're off to Vegas. More then.

Bedtime!

Love,

Ash