weekend wrap-up

i don't understand how people in the real-world who work all week find the energy to go out on friday night. or saturday night. or sunday night. after working 35 or 40 hours a week, i want nothing more than to lay in bed, read, bake, and catch-up on life. i managed to check all those off the list this weekend.

my big achievement this weekend was FINALLY cleaning my room. and it was a feat. after months of having every corner stacked with kitchen stuff or baylor apartment stuff, it is kind of amazing to see empty corners. glad that only took me 9 months. i think it was more of a mental thing though - i expected to have moved out by this point, so cleaning kind of resigned me to the fact that i'll be living here another year. which also brings up the fact that TOMORROW was supposed to be my first day of medical school. i'm starting to wonder if saving myself 60k (+ interest) by taking a year off is worth my sanity. probably not. too late though. p.s: look how pretty this building on UTMB's campus is!

in other news, hana and i went to HEB today, and i picked up the ingredients to make the wedding cake recipe abby recommended! mmm :) - winner for sure. hana insisted on the pink icing...

well, looks like it is back to work tomorrow. i REALLY hope that i love being a doctor, and that i LOVE going to work every day. don't get me wrong, i'm sure i won't love waking up at 3am to deliver a baby, but as long as i am fulfilled by what i do and get a sense of accomplishment out of it, i think i'll be happy.

twenty-two... and a half

i'm officially 22.5 today - i don't generally observe half-birthdays, but this year i actually remembered. and i can't say that i celebrated, but i did make a cake because really, i'll use any excuse to bake. i wanted to try out a wedding cake recipe from my new blogfriend abby, but i was too lazy to go to the store (typical) and decided to make something with things already in the pantry. i went with pioneer woman's sheet cake recipe. have i mentioned that i want to be her child? because i do.

once again, pioneer woman delivered excellent results. then again, how can you go wrong shoving 2 sticks of butter into an 8x8 pan. i'm thinking i should probably dust off my sneakers and reacquaint myself with the Y this week...

in other news, today is my first day off work in TWELVE DAYS. having to work last weekend was just NOT okay. i cherish my veg time way too much to go without it for so long. had a major "working mom" moment this week whenever i used REFRIGERATED SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH. granted, i made homemade icing, but still, i felt guilty. sidenote: has anyone noticed that the refrigerated sugar cookie dough is 1000x yummier than homemade sugar cookie dough (pre-baking)? i wasn't introduced to the wonder of eating store-bought cookie dough until freshman year at baylor when leigh anne & emily kept it stocked in their fridge... main cause of the freshman 15? i think so.

death to the copy machine

remember this amazing scene from "Office Space" ?? -- well, i found it funny when i first watched it, but i never truly understood their emotions until dealing with my own finicky copier at work. and by finicky, i really mean something else, but i'm keeping it PG (unlike the video clip itself - just be forewarned). anyway, i absolutely LOATHE the copier at work and would love nothing more than to inflict a slow, agonizing death on it. yes, i realize it is an inanimate object, but in the past two days, our copier has jammed more than it has printed, produced speckled copies, and destroyed countless expensive brochures. okay, rant over. thanks for listening!

best (or worst) analogy ever:

now that a lot of people i know are starting med school, it has been interesting reading their status updates/blogs/twitters because it is a good idea of what i'll be doing next year. my favorite thing so far: med school is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. awesome, can't wait.

top10 reasons i'm ready for fall:

10. i'm tired of heat advisories & 100+ degree weather
9. changing of the leaves - oh wait, i live in texas
8. sweatshirts! - though this might not happen until winter
7. being able to get a hot beverage at starbucks & not feel crazy for doing so
6. snuggling up with a blanket and a book
5. season premieres of my favorite tv shows
4. fall marks the beginning of the holiday season
3. back to the routine. summer is fun, but i'm such a scheduled person.
2. fall = HOMECOMING! first one as a baylor alum = super exciting.
1. pumpkin!!! - one of my favorite & most versatile ingredients: pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pie squares, pumpkin log, pumpkin pie, etc

top10 random thoughts

10. i came home this weekend to a jar of nutella: dangerous. never appreciated the goodness and versatility of "hazelnoot paste" until i studied abroad - nutella popsicles, nutella crepes, nutella gelato, etc - nom nom nom
9. my co-worker told me she put all 3 of her kids in cloth diapers because regular diapers have absorbency chemicals in them that can be bad for baby. i think that is a risk i'll have to take.
8. it is pouring in houston. i'm so going to wear cheetah rainboots to my babysitting job.
7. i'm currently obsessed with wheat english muffins + honey-roasted peanutbutter from heb (the stuff you grind yourself)
6. i'm starting to appreciate my daily commute. nice time to myself where i'm forced to do nothing but think. and not wreck. well, there's always the occasional text, but...
5. i opened a savings account today! 0.05% interest - lame. but 1.3% once i hit $2500. whoo- big bucks.
4. my little sister signed up for fall premiere at baylor next month. i went to the same premiere event 5 years ago. super cute. i've so got her brainwashed to sic 'em in her sleep.
3. being able to say i have 2 jobs makes me feel hardcore. even if i don't work full-time between the two. it still sounds like a challenge.
2. having a new job that requires dressing business casual has been a great excuse to buy clothes. it also coincided with good sales at ann taylor loft. can't tell you how many $10 - $15 dresses i've bought :)
1. need to stop blogging and go to work. i'm NEVER on-time to the childcare job even though that's the one i have to clock-in for. i'm ALWAYS on-time for the receptionist job that doesn't require clocking-in. and i can't seem to understand that.

top10 fatty fest foods

in my brain, eating on vacay is always calorie-free. completely illogical, yet totally irreversible. the following are the top10 indulgences of my latest trip:

10. pizza
9. (multiple) iced coffees
8. gummies
7. chips & queso
6. cake
5. baked ziti
4. java chip light frap
3. sweet potato fries
2. rolls & butter
1. dark chocolate covered coffee beans

wow - that was actually worse than i thought. i'm thinking healthfest this week to detox. good thing no more vacay for awhile. i'm sorry, digestive system.

top10 qualms with living at home:

10. half my laundry never makes it back. our washer = a vortex.
9. i have to park my car in the street.
8. food, or lack thereof. i shop; it disappears instantly.
7. sharing a bathroom.
6. my mom creeps on my FB & reads me my comments/wallposts.
5. no privacy. not even a bedroom door lock.
4. dramarama 24/7.
3. still being told i should be home before the sun goes down.
2. our alarm system: it beeps everytime you open the door.
1. being told to clean my room. when im 22.

then again, the trade-off is free room & board. and 100% of my paycheck going in my pocket. guess i shouldn't complain :) -- no bills in my name = traveling, starbucks, books, clothes, etc... oh and i guess i'm supposed to be saving for med school? about that...

top20 things laying on my floor

so my bedroom has been a wreck ever since i graduated. it was in the awkward transitional state of moving from baylor, taking a few months off, and then moving to galvy, so every corner in my room is piled with boxes. except for my 8 month vacay recently turned into 20 months, and now i just have no excuse... anyway, this is my attempt to shame myself into cleaning - doubt it'll work, but it is worth a try... so without further ado, i present to you, the top20 things laying on my bedroom floor (because 10 really wouldn't have even scratched the surface):

20. textbooks from last, last semester
19. old laptop
18. loads of coupons
17. voter registration card
16. cec's chili recipe
15. student organization flyers from utmb
14. half-unpacked duffle bag from gruene trip
13. random outfits for work i tried on & ditched
12. coffeemaker
11. at least 5 pairs of shoes
10. empty shopping bags
9. clean/not sure/dirty pieces of laundry
8. gum wrappers x a million
7. blue fabric from freshman dorm
6. empty water bottles
5. papertowels (from previous cleaning attempt)
4. post-it notes... in every color
3. black trashbag full of clothes to donate
2. bobbypins. bobbypins. bobbypins.
1. empty glass&spoon from afternoon froyo

okay, so i think that was counter-productive. now i'm overwhelmed and unmotivated. and the only cure for that is avoiding the problem and reading harry potter instead.

schrader valves

on saturday morning, my mom, hana, and i said goodbye to houston & took off for a girls' weekend. somehow i've been to san antonio 184903 times, but i had never been to gruene. we arrived around noon, and it was definitely 100 degrees outside. our first stop was the gristmill for lunch - certainly lived up to the hype & was a very neat location, nestled in the woods by the river! after a quick little walk around the town, we decided we weren't texan enough (hello, okie by birth!) to brave the heat, so we jumped in the car and headed to our hotel in san antonio

after appreciating the wonders of a/c for an hour, we ventured out to the quarry market - super nice outdoor shopping complex ... as if that wasn't enough, we hit the mall too... and walmart, twice... within 2 hours - typical mustafa behavior

the next morning, my mom insisted we go to the UT Co-op store to shop for my brother... ohmygosh: i was drowning in burnt orange and cream. and while i don't hate UT as much as A&M (hello, UTMB next year), my allegiance to my alma mater prevails... and with no sight of green or gold, and nothing but bevos for miles, it just wasn't pleasant...

we finally made it to the river though, rented our tubes, and set out for our first float. it was amazing - cold water + 100 degrees outside = perfection - unfortunately, we weren't the only ones that thought this made for a wonderful combo - everyone within 100 miles was floating with us - fun for people-watching, not so fun when you are actually bumping into the creepers' tubes... eeek - awesome overall though!!!

sidenote: per my usual graceful behavior, i found it necessary to jump onto my tube from the side of the river. note this now - it will be important later...

fast-forward to this afternoon... hana and i went shopping in the galleria, and i was trying on a dress. my back had been hurting since this morning, and i went to zip the dress and noticed a red splotch on my back. when i looked closer, i saw this (and yes, i made my sister hold up a pen so that you could tell the size of it):

my first thought - OHMYGOSH: some kind of parasite must have burrowed into my back while in the river - wouldn't surprise me with all the people and nastiness that comes with them... i was already imagining a trip to the doctor & feeling the pain of this worm being dug out of my back. just for kicks, here is what a parasite under the skin looks like:

as you can see, my theory was not far off. both pictures exhibit curved patterns and appear red and inflamed. lucky for me, in the middle of my panic attack in the urban outfitter's dressing room, my brains of a sister points out that it is bruised and probably resulted from blunt injury...

and then i remembered how i jumped and landed straight on the schrader valve, aka that pointy thing you inflate the tube with (i only learned the proper name after this recent incident) - in my defense, on my tube it was sticking straight out of the top & was 6 inches long. perfect for nearly impaling me.

imagine the relief of realizing you aren't harboring a parasite inside you: fantastic. we celebrated by buying the dress i was trying on, going out for meditteranean food, hitting up the biggest williams-sonoma store i've ever seen, and topping it off with my first ever trip to sprinkles. hooray for being parasite-free!

top10

was chatting with my friend who just started a blog, and she suggested doing top10 lists for entries! loved the idea and decided to try out that format. so here goes nothing...

TOP 10 WAYS TO WASTE TIME (i'm skilled at this after 8 months of vacay):
10. finally unpacking the trunk of my car from when i moved out of my baylor apt.
9. re-reading the hp series. actually, that's the most productive thing i've done.
8. researching awesome vacation packages and deals that you'll never go on.
7. reading random blogs. nothing says fun like following people you don't know.
6. online tv. watching anything and everything.
5. baking for no reason. and then finding ppl to drop it off to!
4. napping. being sleepy isn't required. just close your eyes and you'll doze off.
3. watching the TODAY show. nothing kills time & brain cells like kathy & hoda.
2. cleaning your closet & discovering boxes from when you moved in 8 yrs ago.
1. working jobs that will in no way prepare you for your future career.

hp therapy

after waking up at 6:50 am, getting to the Y at 7:45 am, watching crying babies for 4 hours, shoving down lunch while making the 30 min drive to my second job (what would i do if i couldn't multi-task?!), working 4 hours at the second job, driving 30 minutes home, and eating dinner... i can't think of a better way to decompress:

typical tuesday

officially survived the 2nd day of my new job! - i like the people and the office and all, but i HATE new things ... aka the process of learning how to be a receptionist. i have an issue with NOT being really good at what i do, so it is hard for me to try and accept that this is something that i have to learn, and that i will make mistakes. i'm way too much of a Type A personality for my own good.

my duties so far include: answering the phone/taking messages, filing, making labels for files, inputing massive amts of patient/insurance data into the computer, scheduling, putting together new patient files, calling insurance, etc etc etc... anywayyyyy - eventually i'll learn & life will be good.

in other news, i got to skype with Leigh Anne today - i love skype! it is way more personal than a phonecall (which i'm terrible about randomly calling people to catch-up) - i just love seeing people face-to-face... if we both had a cup of coffee, we could have pretended we were at starbucks!... here we are, silly freshmen at baylor! can't believe it has been 4 years!

after dinner today, i was feeling a little bit of a void in my baking life... i had a carton of blueberries from walmart sitting in the fridge that were getting soft, so i whipped up my homemade blueberry muffins - complete with a blueberry jelly filling & orange peel/sugar topping - gloriousness. one day i really will post step-by-step pics... no lie, i was pretty impressed with my camera for taking these pics though