Before and After

Before: I had a blog header shoddily designed in Paint.
After: I have set a really bland one until I have time to make a new one pay someone else to make me a decent-looking one.

Before: I didn't know what to do if I'm ever consulted about how to treat a chemical burn.
After: I've studied for my surgery test this morning, and I can tell you to wash it. Wash it well. Get the hose and irrigate that wound until you've used up all the water in southern California (or for 30 minutes). Then go to the ER.

Before: I had no idea how my sister Emma was doing in her first week of college.

After: I had an awesome skype convo with her and now I get to be jealous of her enormous dorm room and interesting classes.

Before: I had pretty serious roots growing out and general hair maintenance hot mess troubles.

Making my parents proud one crazy-eyed picture at a time.

After: Katie has restored me to presentable. All ready to start my new rotation on Monday (Pediatrics!) It's been over a year since I dyed my hair any color but dark red. I haven't decided if I like it better or not.

I felt soups awk (that's a Katie expression - for super awkward) standing on my front porch trying to take these pictures. Especially while trying to angle my face to minimize the break-out visibility.

Before anything else today I have to take that surgery test. After I'm going to Santa Barbara. Happy almost-weekend!

WIAW: A Work Day

If you're here because my lovely sister Shannon's been showing her love on facebook, she's referencing this post where I wrote about being on call (I love you Shannon!) 

Hey friends, it's What I Ate Wednesday!

Breakfast: Something we haven't seen for a little while. I brought back the Strawberry Colada Oats. Seriously my favorite bowl ever. Make it right now. Do not stop. Do not pass Go. I guess you can collect $200 if you want - but you have to split it with me.

Lunch: Since my last WIAW post, I've started clinical rotations, so lunch is eaten while running through the hospital or at a noon meeting. The veganism of the food at meetings is usually a little questionable, but I just do my best. If there's something that's usually made without animal products, I just hope they've done it that way. Today it was rice, beans, salsa and tortillas at the M&M conference - for Morbidity and Mortality - we discuss complications of cases.

Snack: I love my apples.

Dinner: I browned up some Cedar Lake Pecan and Grain cutlets with roast veggies. It looks small but there's 11 g of protein in each of those little guys and they're SO filling. 

Dessert: I might have some yogurt and frozen blueberries a little later. We'll see. It's hot (90+ every day now) and my appetite has been small. 

________________

Workout: 4 mile run in my new shoes. I didn't realize how worn my other ones were, but I was getting bad blisters and these are like walking on pillows. Asics GT series. 

and for a final note...

WIWW: What I Wore Wednesday. 

Mostly I wore scrubs and my ugly comfy zebra shoes - like every day on the surgery rotation, but look at these new ones I bought at DSW this weekend: Grasshopper's Shellie III Fabric Wedge.

Can you see how much pillow is sewn into this shoe? It's like those craaaazy comfortable memory gel Nike flip-flops - but way cuter and could even be worn to work. I'm always on the lookout for something that doesn't make me look 60 and blind to wear on the wards when I'm not in scrubs, so I'm pretty excited about these. 

Happy WIAW. What did you eat? Or wear?

Some Things to Love Lately.

And: The best salad ever - a recipe from my Mom.

First things first, look what came in the mail last week!

This is the "I Wear My Heart in my Hair" Headband from miss Emily Elizabeth over at Say Lovely. She had a promotion a little while back and sent me this free...how awesome it that? She has some awesome crochet skills and I can't even believe how comfortable this was to keep my hair off my face for a study day. I may order like 4 more. Check her out. 

_____________________________________

Okay, just a little food loving:

Banana Berry Granola Yogurt bowls.

This oatmeal is actually Boyfriend's, and this is before the addition of the usual amounts of brown sugar. In his words, I "hijacked it" while he was still adding toppings. But I wanted you to be able to see the bananas, not just a brown sugar coating. 

Mine - Maple Almond Butter Banana Oats.

More leftover Cheezy Veggie Potato Mash, and vegan grillers.

And finally, this (last night's dinner): 

Mom's Asian Coleslaw AKA The Best Salad Ever 

230 Calories. 320 with tofu. 

134 g cabbage, red and green (I just used green)

7 g salad almonds                    

21 g ramen noodles uncooked    

1 tsp. sugar                                   

1/2 T good quality rice vinegar     

1 tsp. oil                                          

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

(1/4 package stovetop tofu, made earlier, then refrigerated to cool.)

Just mix it all together. It's about 1/4 ramen package and a little less than a 1/4 head of cabbage, 1.5 cups. 

My dad's response when mom made this at home was, "Wow, you really feel like you've eaten something." It's super crunchy. And awesome.

Thanks mom! Happy Sabbath to all.

Does Stiletto Walking Count as a Workout?

...because that's all I fit in today. Walking up and down across the medical campus. In 83 degree heat, that counts right? Apparently summer has come to us here in Southern California.

I really wish I actually needed a new pair of heels...I always look at lovely ones and think, "Someday when I have far fewer loans and an actual income."

[source]

Sometimes it feels like that day will never come. 

It's been a busy few days and it doesn't really feel like Wednesday.

Yesterday in clinic I actually heard a heart murmur that sounded exactly like the recordings we learned from in lecture - it was awesome. As second years, we only go to clinic about 8 afternoons over the whole year, and I always sort of dread it before I get there because it's an afternoon I lose and can't study, but I have to remember - clinic is the best studying possible. Actual patients - that's the goal isn't it? Sometimes the imminence of Boards really tries to beat that out of me, but it's true, it's what I'm working towards. 

It's Spring Quarter now, and as we're second years and taking Boards in a couple months, there's a major perk of Spring - no class on Fridays.

Technically, this just gives us more time to study, which I appreciate, but it also makes my weekends a little more flexible, since they're all 3 days long from here on out...

So that means that to me, it's basically Thursday, and my school week's almost done. This weekend I'm driving up the coast with Boyfriend for a wedding, so there are things to look forward to. 

Food this week has been basically leftovers all around, but that means I've been a very productive student, and I love leftovers, so that's all right. 

Yogurt bowls. 

Leftover enchiladas.

Leftover peanut butter tofu spinach salads. 

Leftover cashew carrot ginger soup. 

Forgive all these dark dark pictures.

Tomorrow's already the last day of March. Know what that means? It's almost April. And it's going to keep getting hotter...the forecast says 93 tomorrow. This is insane. I'm not ready for summer. 

At least maybe I can marry rich?

The second day of tests is usually the worst, in terms of how difficult it feels. If I can't make it through, my back-up plan is to become a trophy wife. I'd be awesome at managing a mansion and keeping a tiny pet in my purse.

After a 40 min yoga workout, I started the day with these, trying to set the tone for some fabulousness:

I bought them about a year ago to study for Christmas finals - I like to wear heels while I study. 

After putting on my heels, breakfast time. Guess what was on sale at the grocery store this week? 

Yes, strawberries!! So of course I had to have some Strawberry Banana Oatmeal with agave. They're definitely not in-season juicy deliciousness, but they still brought some fresh berry life to my morning. And $2 for the pound, that's med student budgeting right there.

Then: THE TEST. Whatever. Mr. Test, we are NOT friends. Give me back my friendship bracelet. 

Then home to a little bit of this. And I mean a little bit. Studying at all after the second day of tests is considered a triumph in my mind:

Boards review. We'll be seeing a lot of this in the future. 

EDIT: I forgot to say, I'm caught up in my study plan!! Yes!

Some wonderful friends/classmates came over to watch this week's Bachelor and not talk about the test. That was great. Do you watch? Are you afraid of crazy-eyes Michelle?

And then lunch:

Spinach-Walnut Salad and Roasted Sweet Potato rounds. (22 mins at 450 degrees, flipped once).

After some relaxation, I went to tutoring. The university helps run a program for kids in the next town to come get homework help, and I've been working with an awesome girl on math for the past 2 years. Last year was pre-calc, this year is calculus. She's really bright and I fully believe she'll end up in med school if that continues to be her goal. It's kind of great getting out of the med school bubble for a bit and doing something I feel like I'm good at. Today was integrals with variable substitutions. 

And then dinner. I couldn't decide what I wanted, but just ended up grabbing a few things a it turned out to be a very satisfying snack-dinner.

Carrots, celery and tomato-basil hummus. Rice noodles with teriyaki and lime, eaten with chopsticks, like I think I'm cool or something. Side of TJ's mineral water - LOVE that stuff. 

And now I'm about to go switch my laundry and fall asleep. 

Tomorrow: 

5 am: Run/Breakfast/Cram some info in my head

8:30 am: Test

10:15 am (or whenever I finish): Drive away, go up the coast and have a wonderful Valentine's Weekend Adventure!

Have a wonderful Friday everyone. We made it.