New Year's Day in Food

The New Year transition in food:

New Year's Day was kind of weird. As I mentioned, our friends had to leave early. After a quick dog walk and goodbyes, I made some Buttermilk Pancakes for John and I. This is the 500 Vegan Recipes version with flaxseed for the egg replacer.

We pretty much hung out, cleaned a bit, watched TV. I did some yoga/calisthenics and before I knew it the middle of the day had arrived. 

For New Year's Eve dinner I had made this Penne Vodka from Veganomicon - Shannon you would love this and it's really easy. I use cashews instead of almonds because I think the creaminess is nicer. Also, I don't have an immersion blender so I just blend the nuts with a splash of water in the magic bullet until it's a cream and then add it in. The nice part about that is that then the tomatoes don't get as blended up and there's a little more chunkiness to it which I prefer. 

I made a double batch so we would have a lot of leftovers and we had it for lunch with some steamed broccoli.

For snack a little later was an apple.

I was still pretty hungry at 3ish, so we broke out some chips and salsa. This is the Sabra prepared guacamole, which is actually pretty ok for packaged dip, and the salsa is Monroe's, a local New Mexican restaurant. It's my favorite. 

After a fair few of those, I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I suddenly could not keep my eyes open anymore.

So at 4 PM I fell asleep. At 11 PM I woke up and moved to the bed, and then slept until 4 this morning. 12 hours, no big deal.

It makes perfect sense actually. I'd been sleeping about 3-5 hours a night for the past several days because I was having such a hard time switching my body back over to days from my night shifts last week. Usually it's a little easier to get back to days because I have to go to work and I just end up exhausted and it only takes me a couple days. I think because of vacation days I just wasn't feeling pressured to be well-rested and didn't want to miss anything, so I was sleeping very little.

So I feel much better. I definitely needed it. 

That said, I woke up starving of course because I slept through dinner, so I started my day this morning with a banana at 4 AM. 

John has to work today so he's about to leave and I'm going to head out for a run with Luna. 

Not sure what else I'll do today, but I'm just really trying to appreciate it because tomorrow it's back to work for the next straight 15 days. I'm so grateful for these 5 days I had for New Year's, but it is that much harder to go back. 

Happy New Year!

To celebrate the New Year our friends Evan and Chris came to visit from Colorado. It was so great to have them here, and they brought their darling cats and dog. We weren't sure how the animals would get along, but it all went well.

Flying Star New Year's Eve Breakfast

This is the Tofu-ritto but I asked for quinoa instead of a tortilla.

We rang in the New Year at home but went out earlier in the evening.

Luna did surprisingly with cats in the house.

Jokers!

Dog walking through campus.

For Christmas we gave them Powergrid. It is so fun.

More dogwalking.

Obligate midnight selfie. Happy 2014!

Happy New Year!

They had to leave early on New Year's Day to continue their road trip, so we spent the day relaxing.

We miss you already, safe trip!

The New Year's Resolutions that Weren't

I used to be very dependent on the calendar indicating to me that it was the start of a New Year and time for some resolutions and a fresh start. It's been a few years though.

I can think of one successful New Year's resolution in my whole life:
The year I turned 17 I used one of those Bible in a Year programs and read the whole Bible. That's not to say I didn't have months where I skipped a few days, but I always caught up and at the end of the year I actually finished it. That was awesome, but it was also my only resolution for the year and the plan was broken down day by day.

In order to set myself up for success, I just have to have manageable steps, and not too many things to work on.

At the beginning of 2012 I wrote this post of things to look forward to, which is frankly a lot more fun than listing a bunch of goals that have potential for failure.

I think instinctively there's still that feeling that the New Year is more than just another day, but how quickly we have to go back to our lives and the transition is over.

I wasn't willing to commit myself to any resolutions this year. It felt like too large a commitment, so I just picked 2 goals for January:

1. Study time 6 days a week, even just a few minutes on a patient from that day. 

2. Exercise 4x/week. 10 mins is fine if that's all I have.

And that's it. While I have an enormous list of goals and things that I think would make my life better and I'm very clear on the lifestyle disparities between right now and my ideal life, I'm going to tackle just a couple things per month. 

Do you have resolutions or goals for the New Year?

2013 in Review

I was reviewing some old blog posts tonight and found this one from the end of 2011 where I reviewed significant moments from that year and I realized that despite the fact that my posting this year was quite infrequent, there was a lot of 2013 that was important.

As the year draws to a close, I feel surprised by how quickly it passed and excited about what's to come.

So here it is:

10 Significant Moments and Trials of 2013

(In no particular order. Okay it's sort of chronologic.)

1. I started my year with holidays in Oregon, and had my first married Christmas. Okay technically the Christmas part was in 2012. I didn't make a list for 2012, so I've tacked it in on here. If you're a calendar crazy and that bothers you...well this might the wrong blog for you.

Baking with Emma

The family Christmas Tree

2. I finished up my interview travels for residency and got a chance to travel all over the country to see different programs.

The Charles in Boston. Miss you Tiffany!

The view from the workroom here in New Mexico over a year ago on my interview day. Weird that now I live here.

3. I graduated from medical school. After 4 long years (or 8 if you want to include college and be all dramatic) I earned my M.D. and it was a great day.

I REALLY miss my medical school friends, but we've all gone on to work on being great doctors in places all across the country, so I can't be anything but happy when I think about it.

4. I went to Las Vegas, Nevada (first time!). In this post I reviewed the fun, talked about Match Day and what was coming next.

5. I ran my fourth half-marathon. For some who race often, a particular half-marathon in the course of the year might not mean anything, but this particular one was a race through my local community, literally right past my apartment on all the same roads I trained on, and it was so much fun to see it that way. Also, my training was significantly less than previous races and it was sort of a mental triumph to be able to run. 

6. I moved to New Mexico. This is related of course to starting Residency, but it was a big life change on it's own. We left a lot of friends and familiarity to come here in June and we've been making it our home. Sometimes it feels like we've been here ages and sometimes I still feel like a foreigner.

7. In July, we adopted Luna. After arriving in Albuquerque, we agreed it was time for us to get a dog, and it may be the best decision we've ever made. We found her at the shelter here, and took a chance on her without any background, but she's been a wonderful part of our lives.

8. I started work as a Pediatric Resident. I wrote about what it's like to be an intern in this post. And I've also mentioned work in a few other posts. The bottom line is, it's a privilege to being doing what I always dreamed of, and it's also exhausting and unbelievably emotionally trying.

Woo scrubs. Also Luna is the same color as the floor.

9. I went home to the Northwest for vacation and had the most amazing time with friends. There's a beautiful video they made that makes me so friend-sick every time I watch it:

Time with Friends in Portland from Eric & Arisa Conwell on Vimeo.

Miss you all :(

10. I worked through Christmas for the first time. However, John's family and mine both came to visit earlier for holidays and this was really nice. Still, it was totally weird to be in the hospital just admitting kids, ordering meds, etc. while it felt like most of the world was gathered with family.

And that brings us to today!

The great thing about working Christmas though, is that I get a holiday vacation now - when I got done with work this morning at 7 AM, I started vacation until Friday. I'm sure it will fly by, but I'm so excited. Friends are coming for New Years and it feels like I've really earned the days off with this past week of night shifts.

When I review the year like this, it's hard for me to believe it's only been a year because so much has happened, but at the same time it still feels like it went fast.

I hope everyone's having a great weekend, and final few days of 2013.

As always, thanks for reading.

What are your most significant moments of the year?

Christmas Eve Eve

How are we doing?

Since last post we've had quite the series of adventures.

John's family came for Thanksgiving:

Vegan thanksgiving plate: Stuffing, green beans, potatoes, cranberry sauce.

John was in charge of the Turkey and we have to say a huge thanks to his Mom because I certainly had no idea how to cook a Turkey.

Hi Kellie!

Out to dinner. Turns out the day after Thanksgiving is not a great time to go out - waits were absolutely crazy, but in the end the food was good and we all had a good time once the hangry went away.

After my in-laws visited for Thanksgiving, my parents came for a visit at the beginning of December. They made great friends with Luna and we had a few fun adventures. 

There was one ill-fated trip up to Sandia peak: it was far snowier and crazier up there than we anticipated and we had to just drive back down, still, a pretty drive.

It was snowy most of the time they were here. We took a trip up to Santa Fe, went shopping and went to the galleries, and also just had a few calm nights at home. 

It was so nice to have both families here this past month, but it is that much harder to go back to real life after they left.

The day after my parents went home, I switched from clinic back to regular inpatient wards. It's not so bad, but the hours are longer and that's always a tough switch.

I also got pretty sick with a cold that I'm sure I caught from a child coughing in my face. I didn't miss any work, mostly because if you can pull yourself together you kind of need to: otherwise someone else has to come in off elective or on their day off to cover for you, and I wasn't dying, just requiring some heavy medication.

I'm mostly better now - 2 weeks later - just sometimes I'm surprised how gross my cough sounds. 

I switched to nights as of yesterday, and I'm working all this week and off for New Year's starting Saturday morning when my shift ends at 6:30. 

So in honor of having to work Christmas nights, here's a picture of Luna in a reindeer costume:

And because my family are all home together right now while I'm busy far away being married and working and crazy pretend-adult things like that, here's a picture I found from last Christmas when we were in Oregon:

Miss you all!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve everyone, and whether you're stuck somewhere or home with family or friends I hope you're having a great season!

Fall and Balloon Fiesta

...And Becky!

Oct 5-13 was the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque.

It's the biggest international balloon fiesta in the world.

And more importantly Becky came to visit me. I know it was ages ago but I'm writing it now. Oh well.

We found Derek!

The government shutdown meant no charge for parking when we went on our hike to the Sandia Moutains. Also no bathrooms.

It was pretty cold.

It was Fall up there and really pretty.

The above photo credits all go to Becky - thanks!

I only had Friday off and had to work the weekend, so I participated in the opening balloon launch vicariously through John and Becky. Unfortunately I don't have those pictures.

The rest of the weekend was great too even though I was working, I got done pretty early and we had plenty of time for Albuquerque adventures.