Congratulations to Second Lieutenant Shannon!

Or: The time I went to Colorado for 22 hours and saw my sister meet the President and graduate from the Air Force Academy!

President Obama, Shannon.

As of Wednesday, my sister is a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. She's also a college graduate with crazy studies in Physics and Math headed for her PhD studies after her break.

It was a whirlwind trip - less than 24 hours on the ground in Colorado - but so worth it to see my family and especially my sister Shannon graduate. President Obama was there, the Thunderbirds performed, and I got to see all three of my sisters all in one place. It's too rare.

We got ready all together.

Faces as usual.

Oatmeal w/ peanut butter, honey and banana for breakfast.

And coffee.

Don't forget the coffee.

Now we're awake.

Then it was on our way. 

USAFA Graduation.

And we did hit some traffic, but made it in plenty of time.

It's so impressive the way they all march in. 

And they look so classy compared to those snowman robes the rest of us wear to graduate.

And then the President was there. 

After the speech, which was far more political than graduation-themed for my taste, time for diplomas!

Over 1000 cadets. It took awhile. 

Yeah!

And then after taking their oath, celebration!

We danced in the stands while the Thunderbirds performed.

Parents <3.

Love you Emma. And your face.

Graduate!

And then after a quick trip around the Academy and some packing, it was almost evening and we were all starvingpants. And then I got to take this picture: Proof I'm not the only one in my family that thinks food is important.

Not to worry. Noodles & Company to the rescue. I had the Japanese Pan Noodle with Tofu.

And so hangriness averted, we said our goodbyes and headed to the airport. Of course it was much too short, but I'm so glad I was able to go. Definitely worth it.

Congratulations Shannon!

It's graduation season - who are you celebrating?

Blessings

It's Sabbath morning and I wanted to share some blessings. I've been very wrapped up in errands and overwhelmed with everything I'm trying to get done (we all are I think), so here's some positivity.

1. I'm blogging from my favorite local coffee shop this morning. The coffee is strong and The Civil Wars are excellent music. I feel happy. I'm glad about this because it's been a while since I've felt like I have time to just stop and sit and feel content.

2. John is next to me working hard on a midterm - he graduates in June with his Masters in Structural Engineering. Frankly I have no idea what he does. There's books and notebooks and some computer program and he writes code and it does something that has to do with buildings, but he sure looks handsome.

3. I made a bowl of oatmeal this morning that looked much like this:

And tasted much like awesome.

4. I talked to this woman for like an hour on Thursday. And yesterday too. And she gives me great advice and never gets sick of hearing the most boring stories from my life. My Mom is the best.

5. Next week I get to go to Colorado and see my whole family AND see Obama speak and more importantly see this girl graduate from the Air Force Academy. It's an understatement to say I'm super proud.

6. I'm still on Psychiatry and I get the weekend off (I mean, except for all the studying). I'm going here to Palm Springs for the night! Many thanks to Katie for finding a hotel and making this happen.

Our actual hotel!

7. Yesterday John and I were matching. This was an accident. Okay not so much a blessing as just funny.

8. It's Sabbath and my next stop is Church at the University. It's a blessing to have a service we enjoy so much that also pushes me to think.

Blessings to share?

What I Ate Wednesday: I'm Amanda Bynes?

WIAW!

So my last post was last WIAW. To sum up the in-between: I went to work, I went to work, I had a weekend with my Fiance and I studied, I went to work, I went to work and I went to work again.

I think that's it. 

Psychiatry though, is fascinating work. Yesterday I got to go to court to see a hearing to legally continue holding one of our more difficult-to-balance patients against his will. 

And every morning I ask people if they're thinking about hurting themselves or hearing or seeing anything that might not be real. And often they say yes. 

Today one of my patients told me he sometimes hears my voice when I'm not there, and that his roommate and he agreed that I sound and look like Amanda Bynes. This is not the first time I've heard this. I used to babysit a girl who would get out the video camera and say, "Okay talk. We're doing The Amanda Show." I don't know: 

Actually that 100% looks like me:

Maybe in the She's the Man days. It's more my voice that I think may be kind of similar, but that's hard to hear via the internet. Maybe I'll do a vlog someday.

And so while I channeled my inner Amanda Bynes and told people "I'm brilliant! Shhh!" I also ate things.

Breakfast: Overnight Oats. Last night: 1/3 cup oats, 1/4 cup soy vanilla yogurt, 1/3 cup almond milk, 10 g (1 tbspish) chia seeds. Dash each cinnamon and nutmeg. Seal in container, let set overnight in fridge. This AM: add 1/2 sliced banana and stir until its ugly!

And for the first time in a while I remembered my multivitamin with my breakfast:

Morning Snack: Roast almonds w/ dried apricots.

Lunch: Tofurky Sandwich with Hummus and Bell Pepper. Yeah, just like last week. 

Afternoon Snacks: Dried apricots, Orange and...

 Soft Serve Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream

1 frozen banana broken in pieces

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 oz. almond milk

Blend in magic bullet.

Dinner: Vegan Meatballs with Whole Wheat Spaghetti and Salad. I tried these new vegan meatballs from Trader Joe's and they are way awesome. I microwaved them about 2 minutes to thaw the middle and then took John's suggestion to crisp the sides in a pan, and they were perfect. With Peas & Thank You marinara I made a while ago from the freezer. 

Happy WIAW all!

Do you get compared to any celebrities?

What I Ate Wednesday: Psychiatry

WIAW!

I started my Psychiatry clerkship this week, and I actually love it. It's kind of odd, and it's remarkable the spectrum of people and problems. Medicine is a job where I'm supposed to ask every difficult question I know, about stressors, drugs, relationships, depression etc. Psychiatry takes all of that and makes it the focus. I think it's kind of great.

One of the best parts? Our "Instructions to Students" written by the residents on the ward I'm working on say, "Make sure you eat lunch, we're not surgeons here!"

Music to my ears. And so, I ate.

Breakfast: Overnight Oat Chia Pudding with Strawberries and Bananas. The night before: Combine 1/3 cups oats (26 g) with 5 oz. almond milk and 10 g (about 2/3 tbsp) chia seeds. In the morning, top with fruit.

Morning Snack: Chocolate Coconut-Dipped Luna Bar. My favesies.

Lunch: Hummus, Vegan Turkey, Bell Pepper Sandwich on Trader Joe's Wheat Fiber bread. 

Afternoon Snack: Orange

Afternoon Snack #2: Trader Joe's Soy Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich.  Again, many thanks to my Dad for all my great Trader Joe's food this week.

Dinner: Roast Sweet Potato and Onion with Rosemary. Slice sweet potato in 1/4 thick rounds and slice onion in wedges. Toss with olive oil, dried rosemary and salt. Roast at 425 degrees for 40 minutes, stirring every 15 mins or so. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Any experiences with psychiatry? Any myths you want me to verify or deny?

Dad is the Best

My Dad is the best.

He came to visit me last weekend, just for fun, and showered me with food and love and that feeling you get that things will be okay because your Dad cares about you. I live in Southern California, and my parents live in Oregon. Even though I've been out of the house for 7 years, I still sometimes just really want to visit and I always miss my family.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo. This meal sent me into such a food coma, I napped for like 3 hours. And Dad let me. See? Dad's the best.

He also helped me take my car in for an oil change and bought me Trader Joe's presents. As all of us quasi-independent students know, it's this kind of help that just makes things so much easier.

We also took a trip up to the wedding site, which made me a little startled about the fact that I'm getting married in less than 3 months. And stopped in Sherman Oaks for vegan asian food. I've never been to Sherman Oaks. I can't tell you anything about it except that this place, veSTATION, was pretty good. I saved the other half of both our meals for dinners this week.

We hung out, watched some TV, talked a while.

And then too quickly it was time for Dad to go home, but I was really blessed to have the visit. Thanks Dad!