Catching Up...Back in the Workforce

So the past week has been a little busy. I've been on hiatus since May...and that was a beautiful time in my life. So beautiful...alas, I eventually had to get back to work, and so I am. Now I work in Jersey City. I've been there a week, and so far, so good. I like all my co-workers, and my boss is a really good, patient, reasonable one. He's so far carried out on everything we talked about during my negotiations with him, and he's a really good teacher. Maybe this time I'll be lucky. I'm still trying to juggle meeting with my trainer and working out, too. So I'm in the midst of figuring that all out. I recently went to my friend Liz' art show. Marcus and I really like one particular painting she did, so hopefully we can find a spot for it in our apartment. Not sure if we have the space, but I think it could work. I also have been making a big effort to be healthy. For real, say no to corn syrup! And I'm cutting down on white rice, pasta, potatoes, and...sadly, chocolate. Marcus is back from Sweden. He had a great time there, so that's good. My little brother in law just graduated from high school and we got a photo from his yearbook (see photo). Yes, the captain's hat is part of the "official" photo for the school. Not really into the whole earring thing, but you know how these young kids are. And who knows what the trends are in Europe! He's grown up...I remember when he was just a little guy!

Jack and the Usual Suspects...Oh Ya!

Yesterday Terry-a, Seren (her daughter), and I headed off to see Lauren and her newborn Jack. We first stopped at Terry'a's parents' house so Seren could frolic and take a nap. We were in the back yard and this beautiful butterfly was all over the flowers and seemed pretty comfortable with us around. We drove up to Lauren's place and got to meet Jack. Beautiful blue eyes and a pretty chill personality. Which makes sense, since Lauren and her hubbie Nick are pretty chill themselves! He's a pretty happy guy. And we got to hang with Frank the Tank, their cute cat (and cousin to Gustaf...? Cuz he's a black cat). He was purring up a storm when I pet him. So yesterday was fun. And I haven't seen Lauren in forever. So today my sisters and I headed up to Brimfield, Massachusetts to check out the big antiques show. We went last year, too. It's a bit of a haul for one day, and it gets painful, but it's fun, and there is usually a fair share of mid century stuff, which is what I like the most. This year there seemed to be less people and less vendors...don't know if the economy took its toll? But we'll be back next year. Although at some point I don't know if my waking up at five in the morning to meet my sisters in Westchester did it, or the extreme heat did (I didn't have a hat on), but I became slightly delirious and thought I was going to pass out. I don't think I was making sense when I spoke (well, let's be honest...I rarely do), and my sisters kept asking me if I wanted to leave. But then Jennifer spotted this great late 1800's framed study of this middle aged man with a mustache posing in his skivvies. It sounds really bad, but it's honestly a really beautiful sketch. So she snatched that, and it woke me up from my stooper. But then I passed out in the car on the way back to Westchester. I caught the train back to NYC, but stopped by the house to see my parents first; in classic style we were greeted by my father who had just finished gardening. He was rocking an all white outfit with a green bandana to keep the sweat out of his eyes. He then drank a beer from the veranda to marvel in his works. Good for him. I've been meaning to share this glorious quote I read in one of those free AM papers they hand out by the subway stations. I love this, in all its ignorance...and Marcus loves it because someone took the time to remember it and print it: "The smartest people I know love on Staten Island. (Pointing to Brooklyn) That's Jersey. The dumbest people I know live there" -Guy on State Island Ferry taking to visitors. Oh, I forgot to mention the preview of the Matisse exhibit at MoMa was great. A lot of stuff I didn't expect to see from Matisse. Highly recommended!

Glee!

So today Marcus headed off to Sweden to visit his family and friends. Since I'm starting a new job soon (augh), I couldn't go this time. And every time he goes away, my food situation becomes a frantic point of stressing. Because he's the cook in our house...it's so interesting how dependent you can become...I mean, shoot, I'm a grown woman who lived on my own and was capable of feeding myself! But I am not a cook, have never feigned to be one. So whenever he leaves, I end up pseudo starving, or running to the store and figuring out some ghetto solution. So my latest thing to do is to go to Whole Foods and to buy one of those whole roasted chickens...and then I eat that for the next 3 days and then figure something else out. Marcus has been making himself these health smoothies lately; they have non fat yogurt, fruits, and skim milk in them. I hopped on board, and they're great! I sometimes add honey to make them sweeter. So my new thing is to have one of those and cereal (without corn syrup, of course) in the mornings. Although it's nice to have time to myself (Gustaf and I are holding down the fort), I do miss him a lot when he's gone, and I'm going to be starting a new job and it would be great to have him physically here when that happens. Anyway, I am watching that Fox show "Glee". Gotta love it. As crazy and over the top as it is, it's great, I must admit. I mean, damn, if there was a glee club at my high school and it was like that when I was a senior (...I had gained some confidence by then...I was a late bloomer), I would have loved to wear semi too-risque-for-teens costumes, all while belting out cheesy tunes! P.S.: I secretly wished I would have been a cheerleader because of the uniforms and the pom poms...haha. This afternoon I watched Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July". I really like that movie; it's beautifully shot (Robert Richardson), and it's such a painful journey to watch. Tom Cruise was pretty good...and I really don't like him because I feel like I can't separate his performance from his real life persona usually.

No To Corn Syrup

I went to the doctor today for an annual checkup. It went fine, although there was a mini fiasco when I tried to get blood work done to check my rabies titers. Since I'm a veterinarian, I had to be vaccinated against rabies. Well, no one, including the doctor, was familiar with the test that had to be run, and it became a problem. I ended up talking to the lab myself to try to sort it out. Anyway, the doctor and I were discussing diet and he reminded me that I should be avoiding corn syrup---an evil that is an ingredient in almost all foods in the US! Why is it evil? It's a simple carbohydrate, it has been linked to multiple conditions, and when you read food labels, if there's an ingredient that you have never heard of, it's probably made from corn syrup. So that's my new kick---to really try to avoid corn syrup. And to try to eat more quinoa, which contains the highest amount of protein of all grains, when cooked. Martha Stewart has a recipe for breakfast that seems pretty good. I have also been meaning to mention the Plastiki. It's a boat that has been constructed entirely of recycled plastic bottles and sustainable materials (glue made of cashews!). David de Rothschild, the heir to the de Rothschild banking fortune, is in charge of this project and apparently he's a big time environmentalist (I didn't know that). I was also enlightened that there's this disgusting, enormous island of used plastic bottles and chemical waste floating in the Pacific Ocean. It's estimated to be twice the size of Texas...disgusting. There's a pretty interesting video about the mission of Plastiki and exactly how the boat was built (when you click on the link, scroll down to see the video).

Lemons, South Beach, and Yummy Beach Time

As I sit here in front of our TV watching Judge Mathis, I am sipping on my delectable lemonade, homemade, of course (nothing less!). And I recall that I recently discovered that lemons are not created equal. I bought lemons from Food Emporium and made my lemonade, and it was sub par. So I am back to my Whole Foods lemons. Anyway, Marcus and I just returned from a weekend excursion to South Beach. My sisters held down the fort and watched our beloved cat Gustaf. we stayed at the Grand Beach Hotel, on the "doorstep" of South Beach. This place was nice; it has its own beach. The room was pretty pimped out: two flatscreen TV's, white and cream colored furniture, balcony, two bathrooms with showers...the food in the hotel's restaurant was decent. I did love their crab salad. It was REAL crab meat over a bed of mixed greens, grapefruit, watermelon, and orange, with a citrus dressing. We did spot a silverfish (aka carpet shark, apparently) in our bathroom, which was really NOT cool considering our history with vermin in our former apartment. I had never dealt with silverfish before, so we googled it and found out more. So just in case, we kept our stuff on lockdown. Speaking of the bathroom, I was so intrigued by the petite sink we had in one of the bathrooms (see photo). I loved it, although there wasn't much room in the sink. We spent most of our time there on the beach. Marcus was doing laps in the ocean, while I floated around aimlessly in a blow up inner tube (the best!). We also bummed around in the water, and the water was clear and warm. While we were at the beach we watched a bunch of pelicans patrolling the area and dive-bombing into the water for a meal. All so, so wonderful. I wouldn't mind having a vacation apartment down there, but beachfront of course! Next time I need to invest in the proper floating raft. I saw an old guy with a really nice one. Marcus saw a grandmother aged woman in a cut-out monokini---and said it wasn't pretty. I can imagine. We also strolled down Ocean Drive, that strip on South Beach with all the Art Deco buildings. I did miss out on real Cuban food, since we weren't in the right part of town. AND we watched the last game of the World Cup. Before it went into overtime we were watching it in the hotel restaurant, but since we had to get to the airport, once it unfortunately went into overtime, we hopped in a cab and watched the rest on a dinky screen in an airport hallway, along with thirty other people. We were really routing for the Netherlands. It's too bad, but Spain was a hard one to beat throughout the entire tournament. I did disagree with the decision to give Casillas, the Spaniard goalie, the goalie of the tournament award...I didn't think he was the overall best. PS: the next time you travel and you are staying at a hotel, check out the Bed Bug Registry...although not every single hotel and not every single bed bug sighting would be listed, it's still a good resource. And it checks on apartments, too.

It's All About Sustainable Energy!

Well I'm returning to work...augh, ya, work...sooner than later. And I was reflecting on how I can be healthier, and not eat bad things at work. I also want to avoid major sugar highs, then horrible energy crashes. Conveniently I saw a segment on the Today Show about certain snacks for maintaining energy without crashing, and snacks to curb your appetite without the horrible sugar crashes. One is called Flavor & Fiber, by Gnu. It's one of those energy type bars. I'm really not into these things, but I did try it and it seemed to curb my appetite without making me have a sugar rush. But I am skeptical. Let's see if I can pull this off at work. The other thing I was interested in was E Boost. It's one of those powders you add to water. It provides energy via vitamins, minerals, and green tea extract, aka caffeine. Even though there's caffeine, the energy you get from E Boost will supposedly not cause a bad crash after. So we'll see. Because with my coffee at work, I find that I don't get that much of a boost and I'm exhausted later. Speaking of all these energy drinks, Stephen enlightened me when we were walking around the other day and we were talking about how we get heat/dehydration headaches...he said that the one thing that works for him is drinking Vitamin Water, in "Energy" flavor...so that's my go-to now!

Pies N' Thighs, Baby, Pies N' Thighs

The other day Koh-chan and I ventured into Williamsburg to eat lunch at Pies N' Thighs. Good old Southern food! Jennifer decided to make a funny when I told here where we were eating...she said "I hope that's a chicken wings place"...ha ha. Well the food was pretty good. Then we chilled at this park on the water just a few blocks away. Later that day I went out with Stephen. We ate at a Japanese joint on St. Mark's Place, then bummed around the East Village. We ended up walking all the way to Chambers Street, where we parted ways. Well, this week has been the week of World Cup upsets! First Italy last week, then Brazil, now Argentina! Well, first of all, the Netherlands played really, really well against Brazil...and when things fell apart, oh did it get ugly. The own goal by a Brazilian, then later in frustration he picked up a red card for kicking a Dutch player with the spikes on his cleats. Not a way to go out---like a sore loser. And today---Argentina...with all the crap Maradona, their coach talks, there was nothing to show for because Germany shut them down. Oh and yesterday's painful game: Ghana vs. Uruguay. It ended in painful penalty kicks, and Ghana was out. It was crazy when in the very last minute (before the game went to penalty kicks) Ghana had a kick that could have given them the game, and the ball hit the cross bar on the goal! Augh. So crazy. Now we're waiting for the next game on in a couple of hours. This past week I've really jacked up my knees somehow. I went on a spinning class rampage and as a result, my knees haven't had time to recover. So I decided not to work out today, which sucks. Oh and the other day I went to work with my good friend, and fellow veterinarian, Christina. I like it because I kinda get to hang out with her and see how things are done at her hospital. I got to do some surgery, which was cool, too. Well, let's see how the game goes this afternoon...and I recently found Redline Princess in CVS. As my fellow intern-mates know, my last weeks as an intern were spent on overnights. That year was so exhausting, I ended up drinking this nasty energy drink, Redline, to get me (hyper) through those last few horrible weeks. Apparently, now they have the girly version: Redline "Princess".