Tag Archives: school

Fun and festive study breaks

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Management, evaluation and environment - I guess flashcards aren't a very advanced studying technique, but until someone gets me and iPad, these are the best way for me to study while waiting in line at the post office or doing cardio at the gym.

Management, evaluation and environment - I guess flashcards aren't a very advanced studying technique, but until someone gets me and iPad, these are the best way for me to study while waiting in line at the post office or doing cardio at the gym.

This may sound crazy, but studying for exams has been surprisingly relaxing. Not the actual studying or exam taking, since ya know.. grad school ain’t cheap and I’d like to graduate sometime this decade, but being able to clear my calendar for designated “Study Time” and “Break Time.”

I’ve also had the opportunity to spend a lot more quality time with my friends and family in the last two weeks, and that really means a lot. I guess it is the season of gatherings, out of town visitors and commiserating study groups.

This week, my semester exams are done and now I’m reviewing for my OMG-Big Mama-Comprehensive Exam. Tomorrow, I’ll sit in an icy computer lab for hours, cranking out essays about public health program planning, theory and evaluation. And then? I’ll wait to see if I get to graduate in May. I’m happy to report that I’m almost finished wrapping up the loose ends for my field placement next semester. I can’t say much about it, but I’m excited to do something new and to work on a program addressing health disparities, which is one of my main areas of interest.

But, Ok, enough about school…

Last week I baked my mom's oatmeal-coconut Christmas cookie recipe for Kat's cookie swap. It is hard to explain why these are so good, but really they are so. good.

Last week I baked my mom's oatmeal-coconut Christmas cookie recipe for Kat's cookie swap. It is hard to explain why these are so good, but really they are so. good.

It isn't the holiday season without cookies and festive booze.

It isn't the holiday season without cookies and festive booze.

Yesterday, my friend from my FloMo days, Michael came to visit. We went to the Body Worlds Vital Exhibit at the SC State Museum. I know this is going to sound either nerdy or disturbing depending on how well you know me, but..It was really interesting to see what disease looks like inside the body.

Photography wasn't allowed in the exhibit, but lucky for you, we have these other charming photos of our day.

Photography wasn't allowed in the exhibit, but lucky for you, we have these other charming photos of our day.

I’ve also being trying to get in the holiday spirit as much as possible by surrounding myself with glittery things lit by twinkle lights. It helps!

Sparkly trees fight SAD!

Sparkly trees fight S.A.D.! Try it.

And I’m really excited to announce that I was chosen as a grand prize winner for the “Lee Brother Your Holiday Recipe” contest from the Lee Brothers and the SC Department of Agriculture. They wanted recipes that used local ingredients, so I submitted my vegetarian collard recipe and won my category! My family is amused by this because growing up I hated collards, and now I’m spreading my love for greens all across the state.

And now.. I’m off to get in some movement and relaxation (cardio and yoga!) before I have to go back to studying!

Being Stuck and Getting Unstuck: A work in progress

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I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. And not a lot of picture taking. Let me allow my spirit animal to illustrate this post.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. And not a lot of picture taking. Let me allow my spirit animal to illustrate this post.

Last week I tweeted: “Is it possible to have ‘life block’ instead of just writers block?” after waking up from another accidentally long nap and crying at the thought of having to get out of bed and do my homework. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m 26 years old, with no major problems in life, and I laid in bed and I cried. About homework. And though I find it deeply embarrassing, I share this because it helps to illustrate my point.

Everyone has had writer’s block, and so it is an easy to understand analogy. You want to write. You need to write. But you can’t. You change your settings. You talk to people about it. You drink a lot of coffee, but when you sit down… nothing happens. And that’s how my whole life feels lately. Like I keep trying, but there is this huge wall in between me and getting things done. And I am the wall.

One of the more frustrating parts of all this, is that I can’t even seem to get self care right, even though I know that’s really the key for me when times get tough. For me, self care at the most basic level is working out and eating food that doesn’t make me feel terrible.

Sometimes it is guilt over the time it takes to do those things, although I’m sure if you combined the time I waste online it would be more than enough to cook food and work out. Sometimes I forget to eat when I’m “in the zone,” and end up making terrible choices later. But honestly, (and believe me the water works really let loose when I had this thought) lately it just feels like eating and sleeping are the only “fun” parts of my day, and so when I do them, I might as well just do them big.

Which is stupid. Really, really dumb.

Because, in the end, eating terrible food and taking long naps never makes me feel better. Skipping the gym to nap never makes me feel better. And I would like to objectively call bullshit on the voice in my brain that says there are no other good parts in my day. Sure, 85% of the things on my “To-Do” list are difficult, but those aren’t the only things that happen in a day.  It is just easy for me to kind of wallow, especially when I get “stuck” and consequently behind, overwhelmed and momentarily hopeless.

I’m not depressed. I find joy in a lot of things, and if it was possible to give me a “free day” without this ugly, overdue “To Do” list looming, then I would have fun.

Always applicable.

Always applicable, but not necessarily the issue today. Or maybe not 100% of the issue.

I remember having these same frustrations at the same point last semester. The time between midterms and finals, when the days get shorter and the work gets harder, and my student loan money starts to run out, and I get sick all the time and baking cookies at midnight really does seem like the best way to solve a complicated biostatistics problem. This year there is the added stress of my comprehensive exam in December, securing a practicum and convincing someone that they would love to help turn me into an employable public health professional, and figuring out where I’m going to be a year from now.

I say all that just to come back to the truth that none of those are good excuses not to take care of myself on a basic level. Life will always be happening, and there will always be some part of my day that I’m not thrilled to do. But in two months when everything is finished, this body that I’m walking around with is still going to be here, and it is not going to respond well to a diet of couch sitting and french fry dinner.

I’m tempted to apologize to anyone who is reading this thinking “OK BUT WHERE ARE THE RECIPES?”. But the truth is that, my lack of posting isn’t because I’ve lost interest, it is just because I have all this other stuff filling my brain right now, and it is relevant because the food and exercise parts of life don’t exist in a vacuum, at least not for me.

And now.. I’m off to do things! (Seriously! Hopefully!)

“Of course there is no formula for success except, perhaps, an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.” –Arthur Rubinstein

The trouble/importance of building habits

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This is a dramatic re-enactment of what I look like watching my online class lectures.

This is a dramatic re-enactment of what I look like watching my online class lectures at night.

I feel like the end of September is rapidly approaching, and I’m not sure I can successfully check off my good habits I had been working on. Before last week, things were going great, like beyond my wildest dreams great. I’d been avoiding night time snacking, getting my work done, going to the gym, planning meals. And then life happened, and I had to go back home for a week. I know that nobody would hold that against me, but life is always going to happen and I can’t just let things totally fall apart every single time.

The lesson this reinforces for me is that building habits, especially at the beginning, is like a house of cards. One wrong move and everything can fall apart. My habits were being built around the structure of my school life, not my home life. So, without a stronger foundation and more success under my belt, the habits didn’t stick. Things are better now that I’m back, if only because I don’t keep a lot of fun snacks at home, but I’m disappointed that I fell off such a huge winning streak for me.

And, as far as the organization goal… You know that nightmare everyone has, where they realize that they have a big exam for a class they forgot they were enrolled in? Well that’s actually my life, except I knew I was enrolled, I just put off watching the online lectures because.. I hate them, and I guess I was just waiting for a day that I might hate them a little bit less to start watching them. So this week, on top of everything, I will be sitting in front of my computer for 12 hours watching class. Boo.

But, in better news… after nearly two months without ANY running, this weekend I set out for a no expectations, getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things run, and ended up jogging for 60 minutes! I was really pleased, and I think that shows the power of cooler weather and cross training, which I’ve been doing all along. I have no goals for running right now, other than to keep doing it.

So, in lieu of a really pertinent question about habits or lifestyle changes.. I would like for you to leave me a link of your favorite procrastination site that I can refer to while taking study breaks. I love Dlisted and tracking the Ryan Gosling tag on Tumblr.

End of the semester small victories

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So, I just spent six hours working on an eight page paper that is due tomorrow and guess how many pages I’ve actually written so far… 0! Woohoo! There was other stuff (research, a spreadsheet, etc.) that got done, but I just don’t have a lot to show. However, I need a brain break. And I’m proud of myself for making real food yesterday after a couple of weeks of pre-made salads and vegetable grocery store sushi.

Ok, I know it doesn't look like much. But a fresh vegetable + turkey meatloaf + almond rice pilaf = major cooking while studying success.

Ok, I know it doesn't look like much. But a fresh vegetable + turkey meatloaf + almond rice pilaf = major cooking while studying success.

I made the turkey meatloaf with greek yogurt and Ezekiel bread earlier this week, and the asparagus was lazy girl style..

This is my lazy-girl method of cooking asparagus. Asparagus + 1 Tbs water + 1 tsp olive oil + basil + garlic salt in the oven for about 12 minutes at 350* = perfect!

This is my lazy-girl method of cooking asparagus. Asparagus + 1 Tbs water + 1 tsp olive oil + basil + garlic salt in the oven for about 12 minutes at 350* = perfect!

My roommate broke out her German holiday decorations.

My roommate broke out her German holiday decorations.

Including this guy who "smokes" incense. I'm not sure how it works, but I'm not making it up.

Including this guy who "smokes" incense. I'm not sure how it works, but I'm not making it up.

She's also gotten a couple care packages from her family, including these cute handmade decorations. And cookies.

She's also gotten a couple of care packages from her family, including these cute handmade decorations. And cookies.

und Schokolade! ... Little known fact about me.. I took German in high school but I only remember the names for foods and animals.

und Schokolade! ... Little known fact about me.. I took German in high school but I only remember the names for foods and animals.

So tomorrow is my last class of the semester! And then I can go back to whining about my normal stuff for the next month.

Piecing together more elements of good days

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Sullen cowgirl Moneen is the official mascot for all my October blogs.

Sullen Cowgirl Moneen is the official mascot for all my October blogs.

I know everyone in my life and reading my blog is sick of hearing about how hard life is right now, so I promise to keep this part very short. Even after a few days off last week for fall break, I still started fuh-reaking out yesterday, and maybe I should clarify that most of my freak outs involve me feeling like I am insane rather than actually doing insane things.  My anxiety is more likely to cause me to not do anything rather than to do something idiotic. Yesterday, it was a combination of finishing a huge-ass paper, being a hypochondriac, not much sleep and lots and lots of caffeine. Buzz buzz buzzing through life, yet again.

After school, I came home and flung myself into bed very dramatically, called Carlton to whine but then still couldn’t nap it off.  So I got up, put my big girl pants on, and did the most normal thing I could think of: watching Glee with my roommate. Neither of us are Glee fans, but it was on and it was so normal.

Carlton called to tell me he was getting off work and to check up on me, and then he started babbling about google maps. Huh? He told me I should look outside to see the shape my lawn makes from above or something. Yeah, ok. Sorry I can’t think about your crazy conspiracy theories right now because I’m busy moping. But honestly, this type of conversation is not really out of character, because he is a secret nerd.

I looked out my window to check on this “mysterious shape” and saw some dude on the lawn. I told C I couldn’t just stand in my window staring out at people or else they would think I was looking at them. Seriously, my neighbors already think I’m a freak show for the way I pop up in the window every time they happen to be outside. It is a coincidence, I swear.

“Lizzie, that’s me.” He had come to surprise me and get me out of my GrimLizzie funk! For those of you who don’t know, our time together is sometimes  infrequent since he lives an hour away and works a different schedule than me.

But,  it is sad when your significant other believes without questioning that you would have figured out some conspiracy theory about your apartment based on google maps. And sad that I didn’t recognize him and Charlotte standing on my lawn. But AWESOME that I had someone to help me get my mind off me for a while. We went to Mellow Mushroom to get my favorite pizza of all time, the Cosmic Karma. No pictures because my mind just wasn’t there, but imagine feta + pesto + tomatoes + sun dried tomatoes + spinach. I may need to replicate this at home.

And today was good even though I had to actually do things. School, work and homework ,and I still managed to peel my ass off the couch and go for a quick work out and relaxation yoga class. This was probably the first yoga class I’ve really enjoyed, and it makes me want to find time to add more to my gym schedule.  I didn’t even have any food-related freak outs, so I think this goes down as a good day.

I don’t have stats today because I’m still trying to figure out where numbers and counting fit into my life. I’ll have an update on how (kind of) not food logging worked last week soon. I really appreciate all the support I’ve gotten from my real life people and my blogger world people.

In an effort to thank you all, I present ANOTHER cat photo. …

Sullen Cowgirl Moneen says, "Sometimes you just have to find an escape route."

Sullen Cowgirl Moneen says, "Sometimes you just have to find an escape route."

Today’s food is sponsored by the color Yellow!

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Tumeric quinoa with broccoli, yellow peppers and zucchini.

Turmeric quinoa with broccoli, yellow peppers and zucchini.

I’ve been on a turmeric kick since I ate Karenni food at Sai Meh’s house. My food is different from hers (I haven’t been brave enough to make the egg-tomato-turmeric dish yet), but I still love the spice. Plus, it turns everything this sunshiney yellow. I think of all the spices that go into curries, turmeric is probably one of the mildest and easiest to experiment with.

In school news… Yesterday, I went to my second orientation, this time for my graduate assistantship. I realized about halfway through the day that I had doubled booked myself and missed part of another orientation for my graduate school program. After some panic and some “Oh, I am such a dummy”-type thoughts, I made it to the second half of my third orientation and got caught up. Today was my fourth and final orientation, which lasted all day but ended with finally getting to register for classes!

I am even more excited about my program after hearing many of the faculty members talk about their work. A lot of my classmates and professors are focused on nutrition and obesity studies, so hopefully some of it will sink in and I can share it with my readers.

Although I don’t have to determine my area of concentration just yet, I don’t think I will go that route, even though it is obviously a personal interest and an important field of public health.  I am most interested in international health issues, as well as reproductive and sexual health. Classes start Thursday, and I am so happy. Tired, but happy.

And back to food… I haven’t been great at planning. Yesterday, I didn’t get to eat lunch until 5 p.m. because I was running around so much, and today I ended up with a “meh” veggie sub from campus because we had a free meal ticket with our orientation. I need to go to the grocery store and prepare some real, easy food that I can take with me on days when I’ll be away from home.

Tonight when I got home, I made another turmeric vegetable dish, this time with rice and lentils instead of quinoa. I sautéed spinach, a tomato, broccoli, squash and onion with a little olive oil and some turmeric and cumin. It would have been great if I had some greek yogurt to go with it.

But then... I didn't feel like eating it. So I put it away for some other day.

But then... I didn't feel like eating it. So I put it away for some other day. Sad bowl. Stupid picture.

And so, instead of eating my healthy, well-rounded vegetable dish that I spent too long preparing, I made Bob’s Red Mill Corn Grits instead. I cooked two eggs in them and added a little bit of Cabot Habanero Cheese on top. I only reference the brands because I really like these specific ones.

Comfort yellow food. I know that picture isn't very good, I was just ready to eat by the time I made my second dinner. I only used a quarter cup of dry grits, but with the two eggs they got super fluffy.

Comfort yellow food. I know that picture isn't very good, I was just ready to eat by the time I made my second dinner. I only used a quarter cup of dry grits, but with the two eggs they got super fluffy.

I’m using today as a rest day since I was too exhausted after not enough sleep and a full day of sitting in lectures and walking around to go to the gym when I got home. Tomorrow I’m weighing in, although I’m not very optimistic after last week’s tour du cake.

Life update.. with 50% more ranting!!

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I realized the other day that I haven’t done a life update in a while. One reason is that I’m trying to make a real recipes section, and actually writing out recipes takes more time than just throwing an ingredients list at you. Another reason is that I’m kind of frustrated with how life-things are going lately. I didn’t get the graduate assistantship that I interviewed for, which is OK because it wasn’t even something that I knew I wanted until they called and asked me to come interview. (I hadn’t applied.)

Also, school is my #1 thing that I’m looking forward to, but I can’t get really excited because my financial aid application hasn’t been processed. After lots of calls and emails, it is still stuck in the system because someone is “busy.” (not from the public health school–they have been AWESOME.) She didn’t tell me that, because she never actually answers her phone or responds to voicemails or emails. Whoever answered the phone told me that. I don’t mean to turn this into a rant, but “busy” isn’t a good enough excuse when you`re effecting someone else’s education and finances.

And now for randomness…

Carlton and I went to Casper & Jordy's memorial day cook out last week. For some reason, Casper has a million legos, so that entertained Carlton and Cecelia, Lisa's 2-year old. :)

Carlton and I went to Casper & Jordy's Memorial Day cook out last week. For some reason, Casper has a million legos, so that entertained Carlton and Cecelia, Lisa's 2-year old. :)

Carlton and I saved three kittens from the awful Florence County Animal Control lady. This one, Judy, was the sickest, but after some medicine and some formula, Judy was back on her feet.

Carlton and I saved three kittens from the awful Florence City Animal Control lady. This one, Judy, was the sickest, but after some medicine and some formula, Judy was back on her feet.

The apartment complex that Carlton moved into in Florence had a cat/kitten problem. I realize that as much as I loveee kittens, it isn’t “safe” or “healthy” to have 15 kittens and their moms unvaccinated and unfixed outside the apartment complex. The Humane Society is over crowded and the animal rescues weren’t taking more cats. We have a cat-hating neighbor who called animal control a while back, but when they set traps, they left the animals in the traps IN THE RAIN, cramped with no food or water for more than 15 hours.

Somehow, those cats got out, or else they would have been in those traps for more than 24 hours before the animal control woman came back. There were more traps out last week, and Carlton called to see if they were official traps or if they had been put out by the cat hater. The animal control woman, who identified herself as the person who set the traps, started threatening Carlton with tickets for feeding the cats, although she was accusing him of living in apartment we don’t live in. (ahem, w-a-c-k-a-d-o-o.) She also said she checked the traps every three hours, unless she was off or it was after hours, and then they would just have to wait. Apparently, she also cackled, which makes sense. Mean, crazy people are usually cacklers.

I don’t know what he said to her, but this is my blog, and I can call B.S. on that one. I know that is a lie because I saw those cats in the traps outside my apartment all day. Why is the city hiring animal hating, lying workers to do this job? I realize that animal control is a necessary, if sometimes heartbreakingly cruel, service. However, this whole situation has made me think a lot more about the way that animals are treated. I hate the fact that animals who have owners are worth more than animals who don’t. I hate that it is law to round up and kill animals who don’t have anyone that loves them, but it is illegal to hurt or kill animals with homes.

Even if leaving them in traps that long is legal or protocol, would you treat your pet that way?

I know it doesn’t make sense to everyone, but it has reminded me why I wanted to stop eating meat in the first place, and so I am renewing that vow.

Kitty #2!

Kitty #2!

Carlton feeding kitten #3!

Carlton feeding kitten #3!

I am happy/sad to report that Carlton found good homes for all three kittens. He says the traps got most of the others at the complex. I guess this should be a reminder to pet owners to get your animals fixed, adopt from shelters and rescues and support no-kill shelters.

And, on to a happier topic, this weekend was really busy because my friend Tiffany from Chicago is back in town.

Jordy, Sarah and Tiffany... we've all been so inspired by everyone's engagement pictures that we decided to take some of our own.

Jordy, Sarah and Tiffany... we've all been so inspired by everyone's engagement pictures that we decided to take some of our own.

And Patrick was back home, briefly, from Chicago too!

And Patrick was back home, briefly, from Chicago too!

After a weekend of events and going out, it reminds me that I’m too old for fun! jk, but I did feel crappy yesterday.

And alsooo … For the short term, I’m looking forward to visiting Jubilee at the end of the month. My friend Ina is back from Germany, and I am excited to see the long-term families that are still there.