may your days be merry and bright

Mom is giving me crap about not keeping up with this. So here it goes, Mama. [Who turned 53 yesterday, by the way!]

My previous post was somewhat depressing, talking about the bad few weeks I had in October and all. This one shall be quite the opposite :)

I'm not exactly sure what happened, but after a few weeks, things just got better.  [1] Classes got a bit more challenging. [2] I think I finally accepted that I'm in grad school, at a different university, and things are going to be run a little different than CSB/SJU.  [3] I was only halfway through my first semester of grad school. I can't base my judgement on just a couple months.

Like I said before, that little meal planning service project helped, too, as well as a conversation I had with the program director about some possibilities for a thesis project.  She unintentionally reminded me of the conversations I had with my nutrition professors at CSB/SJU when I was trying to decide where to go to school -- grad school is what I make of it. I could be at the best program in the country on paper, yet it may be the worst place for me if I don't do what I can to make the most of it.  So, long story short: Overall, my first semester of graduate school went well!

A [fairly] quick run-down of the last couple months in SLC.

napoleon in the mountains

-  My cousin [and one of my bestest friends], Chelsey, has been visiting a lot!! She's a flight attendant for Mesaba, a connecting carrier for Delta, and one of their main hubs is in Salt Lake City.  She joked this past summer that we would see each other more when I moved 1400 miles away than when I was an hour away in St. Cloud. Guess who was right? It's been so nice having a familiar [almost 24 years familiar!] face around every week or two.  And we've been exploring the amazing "diners, drive-ins and dives" of SLC.

-  The family [minus Bud + Dusty & Gramma Dar] came out for Thanksgiving! And I successfully cooked a full Thanksgiving meal by myself! You'd think that with the crazy love I have for cooking and all the time I do spend cooking, it wouldn't be a problem at all. And, it all went perfectly, but I was still nervous. They were only out for a couple short days, but it was so nice. My parents never do anything like that, and my sister has not traveled much at all, so I'm hoping it was worth me whining like a baby to get them to drive out...I think everyone [especially Mom and Gramma] feel a lot better about where I'm living now, too.

And, I'm HOME now. I have been for just over a week. What a crazy experience it was getting home, though. Geez. First of all, I had a final from 9 to a little after 10 on the morning I flew out [Wednesday, December 14]. Rushed out to catch the train back to my apartment only to have it come and leave about three minutes early. So, I missed it. [Not really a big deal since they run every 15 minutes, but still, just annoying]. Got back to my apartment, then ran around SLC picking up some last minute gifts for a couple people. Cleaned my room, bathroom, and the rest of the apartment. Kellie [my amazing roommate] came home from work to bring me to the airport. Got through security and everything just fine; or, until I realized I had lost my ID somewhere between security and the gate. And no one had turned it in in the hour that I was sitting at the gate. Ugh. Just my luck, huh?

Oh, but it got better. Our plane was supposed to leave at 5:00 PM.  However, after a late arrival to the gate, refueling, and deicing, we finally took off at 6:20ish.  My layover in Phoenix was only supposed to be just over an hour. So, 62 minute layover - 80 minutes late taking off = i'm going to miss my connecting flight to MSP = that plane better hurry the heck up.  We got into Phoenix at 7:41. My plane to MSP was scheduled to take off at 7:56. The flight attendants basically told everyone on our plane that we were just outta luck if we missed our flights. Nice, huh? Especially since the next flight to Minneapolis wasn't until 9:45 the next morning. AND I didn't have my ID to get back through security in the morning. What the heck was I going to do?

Well, after a sprint across the airport [because, of course, why would my departing gate be right next to my arrival gate?], I made it on to my plane to MSP.  And so did my bag! Woohoo!

Now I'm home. Relaxing. Or trying to. Spending lots of money on Christmas presents ;-)

Tonight with the college best friends and the associated man friends. Sometime SOON with the high school best friends [why, oh, why does the real world have to make things so hard to plan?!].  Christmas Eve with the Gates family. Christmas Day with the Goodells. Next Friday with Karla/Jack/Megan/Peter/Dusty,  New Years with the Clintsmans [WEDDING!].  It should be a good break.

Oh, and pray for snow, please. SLC has NONE, so I was incredibly excited to come home to below zero weather and a winter wonderland. but no. Minnesota's Mother Nature, you disappoint me.

sunset over the great salt lake

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 

It's been almost two months since the last post. Yes, I suck at this.

A quick overall update on life.  Lots of excitement has been had.

I will be completely honest and admit I was having a pretty tough time back in October. Poor Dusty had to deal with the brunt of it. I was just missing Minnesota in general -- the familiar surroundings, my family, my friends, everything.  Graduate school is definitely different than undergrad.  Both academically and socially. CSB/SJU was definitely a close-knit community; like living in our own little world -- physically and emotionally. As freshmen, we went in not knowing anyone. Everyone made friends, found his or her own "family" away from home.  Our classes were in buildings just a two minute walk away and our friends just across campus or even next door.  I can't imagine being a freshman here, though. Hardly anyone lives on campus, intro classes of 200+ students, etc.

my wonderful birthday flowers :)

Many things contributed to the bad few weeks awhile back.  I think the most difficult thing so far has just been dealing with the loneliness. First of all, I spent my birthday alone for the first time in what seems like forever -- even though I tend to not like the attention, it was fairly depressing to be alone pretty much all day (I had one class in the morning) with nothing to look forward to in the evening.  My amazing roommate and her boyfriend, though, brought me four gigantic slices of cake from a local bakery, and a gift card to Target and a cooking magazine to exacerbate my addictions. Definitely made up for the lonely day.  Then, we got a week off for fall break back at the beginning of October, just two weekends after Dusty came to visit for the first time.  I drove to Denver on the Friday before break and Dusty flew there that night to ride the rest of the way home with me.  The week was great -- got to see most of my favorite people (and animals!!). A bit more hectic and stressful than I wanted, but I learned I just need to go with the flow instead of trying to cram too many things into so few days.  A big step for me (or maybe more so my Mama, Grandmas, aunts, and Dusty) was that I drove the entire way back by myself! Split the drive into two -- stopped in Rapid City, SD to spend the night -- and it went a whole lot better than I had anticipated.  No issues at all, thank goodness.

School had also not been going as well as I had anticipated. I was in as far as considering a transfer to the University of Vermont or U of M.  However, that is an entire issue I won't go into, ha.  My classmates are awesome. We just seem to mesh and get along so well.  We don't have a purely (near) evil girl like we had at CSB, which is incredibly nice. We also aren't insanely competitive with each other and actually seem to want each other to do well, which is, again, a nice change from much of my class at St. Ben's. However, most, if not all of my class, already has connections to SLC and/or Utah.  They grew up here, they went to the U for undergrad, they have family here, or they moved here with someone else.  Even though there are quite a few students from out-of-state, I sometimes feel like I'm the only one.  Much of that is my own fault, too, I realize. I hate moving outside of my comfort zone, so I tend to prefer spending my weekend nights watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix and having game night dates on Skype with Dusty.  Instead of going out with people I barely know yet.  Such a change from the last five years when I've always had my best friends to hang out with basically whenever.


Anyway, enough of that. The last few weeks have been great.  Much of that has had to do with the visitors I've gotten, but school has also been going a lot better.  I suddenly feel like I'm a graduate student and I'm being challenged.  I got involved in a couple projects that I really enjoyed and actually had a passion for, including planning and serving a healthy meal for underprivileged families of young elementary students.

This post is getting long. I shall continue with the GOOD post in a couple days.

baby, you're my sunshine

Ahh, the end of a fantastic weekend.

Dusty came to visit :)  We made it a whole five weeks without seeing each other.  Unbelievable, I know ;-)

A rundown of the weekend:
Picked him up from the airport around 11:30 Thursday night.

Friday was pretty relaxed -- we got up fairly early. Dusty had to put in about six to eight hours of work and I was (somewhat) productive with homework.  After a couple hours of work, we drove up into the mountains, an area called Emigration Canyon.  There's a diner up there that I've been wanting to go to forever.  It was on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives awhile back:

It definitely lived up to the hype. I just had to try the biscuits and gravy.  Wow.  Definitely a bit different than what my mom makes.  No sausage in the gravy, but it was flavored with Italian seasoning, I believe.  It had a slight sweetness to it, too.  All over the fluffiest, tallest biscuits I've ever had.


Dust had their fresh asparagus omelet -- oh my, it may have been the best omelet I've ever had.  Asparagus and tomatoes with smoked Gouda cheese, then topped with hollandaise sauce.

Bear Lake, UT/ID

Went out to eat Friday night -- we were going to go to P.F. Chang's, but didn't exactly want to wait the 40 - 50 minutes they said it would take to get a table. And at about 7:30 at night! We ended up going to the Macaroni Grill just down the block.  Delicious, but nothing too exciting since we have those at home, ha.  After dinner, got a bottle of wine and a movie (No Strings Attached = HILARIOUS) and went to bed fairly early.

First Utah liquor store experience was a bit crazy.  First of all, contrary to popular belief, you CAN buy alcohol in Utah -- no need to smuggle it across state lines! However, alcohol laws are somewhat stricter than elsewhere, especially Minnesota.  The big differences: 1. The beer you buy at the bars is 3.2% alcohol. Some bars have full-strength beer, I believe, but you have to ask for it specifically, and it costs a bit more.  2. Grocery stores and places like Target have a fairly good selection of alcohol (as in an entire aisle or even two), but it is only 3.2 beer and similar-strength wine-coolers.  3. The only place you can buy off-sale wine and liquor is at state-run liquor stores.  You can also get full-strength beer there, I think.  There are no privately-owned liquor stores.

When we got to the liquor store, it was crazy busy.  They had three or four cashiers open and probably four or five people waiting in each line.  There were signs all over the door that warned about no minors being in the store.  However, when we got up to the counter to pay for our bottle of wine, the cashier just took a fairly quick glance at my ID and hardly looked at Dusty's.  I don't think he even would have asked for his if he hadn't had it out and handed it to him.  Weird.  At home, especially in St. Cloud, everyone in a group has to show IDs.  Chels, April, Edwina, and I had an interesting experience senior year -- one of the cashiers at a liquor store in St. Cloud wasn't going to let any of us get anything because Edwina's ID was foreign.  I guess I just expected them to be even more strict here.

Saturday...

We took a drive up a canyon in northeast Utah.  The Logan Canyon Scenic Byway.  It ended at this gorgeous lake, Bear Lake, very near the Utah/Idaho border.  The water was an incredible turquoise color and SO clear.  Had a picnic at a beach in the Bear Lake State Park, waded in the water (didn't even think to bring swimsuits), took some pictures, and then headed back to SLC.  Just spent the evening relaxing -- got dinner, ate it at a huge park about four blocks from my apartment and talked about Dusty's experiences with ducks at the golf course he used to work at, ha.

He left early this afternoon.  Definitely a weird feeling -- the weekend went by so fast. Doesn't even feel like he was here.

Now I can officially start my next countdown: 13 days 'til I'm home for fall break!

It's definitely going to be a long two weeks though. So much to do.

A couple randoms for the day:

• Incidences like these are subtle hints that I may actually be an adult now: I got really excited last Tuesday when the box that was outside my apartment door contained a water-proof mattress topper for my new bed. Thank you, Dusty.
• It drives me absolutely crazy when people write reviews for recipes they've never even tried.  Hmm, I'm going to give this stir fry sauce recipe four stars and then comment "HAVEN'T MADE IT YET, BUT IT  SOUNDS AND LOOKS DELICIOUS!" Seriously? Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
• I also don't quite understand when someone takes up two seats on a full TRAX train in the middle of a university class day.  No, I don't think your backpack needs to have its own seat. ESPECIALLY when there is an older woman standing up right next to you. GEEZ.

And, an update from the last week or so:
- School is getting much busier.  And my desk and floor under and around it is definitely an indication.  It's mostly "busy work" than anything, really -- doing modules for HIPPA and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) so we can do research, completing necessary forms for a "mock" research proposal, grading tests and assignments for the classes I TA for, etc.  I actually get somewhat frustrated at times.  After the third or fourth module on ethics in research and in health care, I definitely feel like my time could be better spent on something else.  Oh well.

- Dusty drove up to my parents' house yesterday and brought them a webcam! So, I got to talk to them on Skype yesterday for the first time since I've been out here.  It's going to make things a whole lot easier.  I know I definitely wouldn't be doing so well if I didn't get to "see" and talk to Dusty every other night. Got to "see" my "babies," too - aka, MamaCat, Arby Cat and Lucy Dog.  Lucy was so funny -- she actually recognized my voice and knew it was coming out of the speakers and then kept looking at me on the screen.  Oh, I miss her.  She was quite the handful when we first got her, but she has matured into an awesome little girl.

the best raspberries i've ever had.
they were gone within two days.

- Volunteered at the Murray Farmers Market yesterday with Utahns Against Hunger.  Great experience -- we gave out about $100 worth of tokens for clients to use at the market.  LOVE that farmers' markets are now accepting the EBT benefits. So much better than buying $100 worth of frozen pizzas, right??

It was an interesting morning for other reasons though:

cucumbers!

...There is definitely not enough parking for the number of people that come to the market.  Witnessed a couple parking disputes. I just don't understand why it is so dang important for people to get a parking spot right up front. Even better is when people see someone walking, possibly toward a car, and then wait for what seems like five minutes for them to pull out, just so they can have that parking spot. Seriously, just park a bit further away and spend an extra 30 seconds of your life walking.  Is it really that bad? I love when it all turns into a honking war.

...I witnessed an argument between an older lady and one of the farmers.  The lady asked whether or not the  20+ boxes of peaches he had at his stand were "fresh-picked."  He responds, saying that they picked them the previous evening.  She then says something about not buying them because they're not fresh-picked.  He then tells her "Well, lady, you better plant your own tree then."  And that proceeded into an argument about how he should have picked the fruit before he had to drive an hour to get there by 7:30.

edamame!

...then. The guy that was working with me left for literally three minutes to go hang a banner and about thirty seconds after he left, a couple guys came over to the booth and wanted to trade in their tokens for cash.  Well, we can't do that.  Once they buy tokens with their EBT card, they cannot get cash back -- that'd just be cheating the system.  Well, when they finally understood that they could SPEND those tokens at the market, they were okay with it.  Not happy they didn't get the cash, but they left me alone. Ha, what can you do except laugh?

tart cherry jam...SO, SO, SO GOOD!

Finally, a quote from one of the assignments I'm grading.  These students have an online "grocery store" that they need to shop at every week and meet certain nutrient goals.  At the "checkout", it gives them a breakdown of all of the nutrients from the foods in their "cart."  They are then supposed to go to the actual grocery store, buy those foods, and work them into their diet for the week.

There have been some interesting responses.  

This one definitely caught my eye though.

"I noticed that my poop was really weird, I believe it's just my body getting used to the healthy food that's coming into it, which is great!"

Really looking forward to responding to that one...

I'm not sure I'll be going hiking today.  I am not feeling too great -- a headache among other things, and the ibuprofen doesn't seem to be helping much.  I'll just leave it at that.  I'm going to go try to take a nap -- hopefully that helps.  I was really looking forward to it, too, because 1) I need to start doing things with my classmates so I don't spend every weekend like last weekend, haha. 2) I need the exercise, and 3) hiking in the MOUNTAINS?! I should be taking advantage of every opportunity to do that.

Just wanted to share a quick recipe! I found this on EatingWell awhile back, I think, and may have modified the original recipe a bit.   Grilled Turkey & Tomato!

grilled turkey & tomato

I successfully figured out the library! Well, the printing part of it anyway.  It was surprisingly simple.  Find a computer, sign in, send your documents to the printer, swipe your student ID, and there you got it!  There seems to be quite a few quiet places to study, too, which I really need to start taking advantage of.  Getting back into the rhythm of school again is going to be a bit challenging.  Especially right now because we don't have much for concrete assignments due, just reading.  I have the best intentions, as always -- get ahead while I can.  However, this past weekend was not productive in the slightest.  Unless you count getting through a whole season of Brothers & Sisters on Netflix (excellent show, by the way.  Mom, you'd love it).  Or the six hours of shopping I did on Saturday.  I should be enjoying this free time now, though, right?

It has given me lots of time to cook! And, of course, look for more recipes to try.  The problem? I have so many leftovers! I'm forcing myself to eat them and not waste food.  Or money.

I have another "blog" that is mostly just for my own personal recipe storage. I think I started it when I was taking my food production class at St. Ben's -- loooooved that class. I am going to post a couple of the new recipes I just tried this week on there.  The link: http://eat-love-laugh.blogspot.com/

Oh, and the second year students are taking the first years on a hike up in Big Cottonwood Canyon tomorrow evening. So excited. I neeeeed to do something other than go to class, come home, do homework, and be lame.

I made it safely through the first week of classes.  Didn't even get lost! (knock on wood!) Or have heat stroke.  Wow, it's been hot.  I don't think the daytime high has dropped below 90 in the (almost) two weeks that I've been here. Yuck.  I have definitely inherited my mom's genes when it comes to handling the heat.  At least it's not 95* with a heat index of 120* though, right?

Classes all went well -- The nerd in me is excited about it, ha.  I actually feel like I'm finally going to be doing what I want to do.  The major problem I had working at the hospital was feeling like I was going absolutely nowhere.  The only chance for advancement in that job required me to be an RD.

My classes: Medical Nutrition Therapy, Nutritional Biochemistry, Nutrition Communications & Graduate Seminar, and Nutrition Assessment.  I can tell much of the first few weeks are going to be review of what I went through in undergrad.  This was a major concern of mine when I was applying for and deciding between schools/programs.  I knew that I would have to take a couple classes incredibly similar in content to what I had at St. Ben's, so I was a bit worried that I would feel like I was almost "cheating", that I wouldn't be challenged enough to feel like I was truly earning a higher degree.  I've had three of my most admired professors tell me the same thing, though -- "Grad school is going to be what YOU make it.  You need to take advantage of the opportunities you are given. Build on your experience and use your knowledge to your advantage."  However, if this past week was any indication, I don't think I have to worry too much about being challenged.

Definitely going to be busy -- I actually don't have classes on Fridays this semester, but I'm not sure how many of those I'll have free.  We're required to put in 40+ hours of community service in all things nutrition-related.  The opportunities are already flooding in -- I'm putting in a few hours working at a farmers' market a couple weekends over the next couple months!  They recently started accepting food stamp benefits, and an alumni of the program works for the non-profit, Utahns Against Hunger, that runs the booth that uses a POS machine to trade their benefits for tokens to spend at the market.  I think the part of this that I'm most excited about is getting the experience in and making the connections with an organization that does precisely what I think I am most interested in as far as a career goes -- community nutrition & health promotion.  I can go more in-depth on this later, but I just want to work with food. Sometimes, I think, there is too much focus on specific nutrients in the diet -- leave that up to the researchers.  I want to show people that eating better is not such a daunting task after all.  The average person, in my opinion, does not need to count calories or nutrients, but rather focus on a whole food "diet" (if you want to call it that).  Starting with one small change -- such as replacing sugary, refined cereals with a whole grain cereal -- is going to make a difference.  I don't want to just tell people what to do -- I want to show them.  Cooking, gardening, grocery shopping!  Anyway, I digress.

[A little side note in relation: If anyone wants some really awesome recipes, check out eatingwell.com.  It's the website for my favorite magazine, EatingWell (duh), and they have fantastic recipe collections as well as well-supported food and nutrition articles. I have a sooo many recipes bookmarked to try.]

As much as I was thankful for the short and sweet orientation, there's a whole lot that I wish they would have gone over with us -- like printing.  I've got a few journal articles to print off for classes and am slightly confused.  I'm a big girl though and will just have to go exploring.  Or take the easy way out and buy myself a printer, since I didn't freakin' bring my one of my own from home.  Blahhhhh, it wasn't like we didn't have room for it either...

The first weekend here is almost over.  I didn't do a whole lot.  Got some shopping done yesterday that Dusty and I didn't have time for last week.  Or were just too exhausted for, is more like it.  Actually spent about six hours shopping -- definitely not what I had expected.  My room and bathroom are almost all fixed up, now.  Just need to put something on my walls! There's nothing up right now.  I bought a couple picture frames and the supplies to make another "apparatus" for hanging pictures.  I was going to buy a couple shelves to put up but I was all shopped out and didn't really feel like putting them up anyway, haha.  I promise I'll get pictures up of the apartment sometime this week.

Oh, and I was also thinking I may want some sort of bookends to put on my desk.  Anyone have an idea of where I could get some??