SarBear

Coming Home

2009-11-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

It feels weird to write a pictureless post but I can't find my camera link. It's too bad too because I have some fun ones to share but I will clean my room soon and it will turn up. Just wanted to let ya'll know that I booked my ticket to come home, December 20th at 11:58 I will arrive...

And for all you Washington people I will be coming in December 27th, just in time for the new year.

My Virginia Family

2009-10-08T18:36:00.001-07:00

Beanie keeps commenting to me that we haven't taken any pictures together so last weekend I finally remembered my camera and took a few. Without further ado, here they are...On the left is Beanie's new "daughter" Jessie who just moved it. The girl in red is beanies actual daughter and her boyfriend. And bean's is the short one in the back. I think you all know my roommate Miranda by now...

Beans!

And again with me!

My Mantel

2009-09-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

I am currently taking a pottery class, or rather I have been for the last seven months. I don't get to go very often, sometimes I make good things, but by the time they go through the drying, firing, glazing, and firing process they usually break or just turns out terrible. If I look at them singularly, I am not too happy with my pieces, but collectively on my mantel, I think they look awesome! Check it out...Some of these lids don't come off...but I am not gonna tell which ones.

But it might be one of these...These are my two favorites.

The end.

New do

2009-09-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Black Sheep Restaurant

2009-08-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

So my friend Megan came to visit this last weekend and her friend James who is from Utah but served his mission in Richmond told us to go to this restaurant. Following me?

We went for Saturday brunch and it was the best place ever. Just sitting in there made me want to open my own restaurant. From the unique/random salt and pepper shakers to the artwork on the walls, everything was just so adorable! I also got a kick out of the chef's who kept walking out of the kitchen. They were young, very bearded looking hippies, with bandanas on their heads. I wanted to go back and check the kitchen out. Maybe next time I will ask, I almost always have a hairnet in my pocket these days.

Unfortunately I am not the best at remembering to take pictures so when I go back, and I will soon, I will snap some more. Here is what I got:

This is the delicious french toast that Megan got. I was told this was the best thing to get but as usual I chose the food with bacon and cheese. Salty vs sweet? Salty for sure! But anywho, this was huge slices of french bread french toast with hazelnut spread and a banana and homemade orange syrup. I ate some of hers, it was delicious.

When I requested my daily diet coke, the waitress offered me their alternative to diet cola, diet Cheerwine. I was pleasantly surprised to discover it came in a bottle, and that it is a product of the south and a local favorite. Here are some random facts about it from the ever trustworthy Wikipedia. "Cheerwine has a very sweet cherry flavor and an unusually high degree of carbonation compared with many other soft drinks. Cheerwine is available in most of the southeastern United States, from West Virginia south to Georgia, but is better known and has been a longtime favorite in the Carolinas and Virginia. The "Retro Cheerwine" variant is sold in glass bottles and is sweetened with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup."

And lastly this is what I got. The sandwich is called "Ms E" I think. It had bacon, avacado, cheese, and some horseradish spread. It was spicey and delicious. It came with a side of corn pudding. I never had corn pudding until I moved to Virginia but I am hooked, it is weird looking and an ineresting combination but it is slightly sweet and gives the appearance of being healthy.

Miss you Megan! Thanks for coming. Anyone else coming to visit?

Sarbear

I can't Resist

2009-08-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

So you know those parents that all they do is talk about their kids all the time. Well I am that parent with but with my kitty cats. Please humor me by looking at yet another kitty picture.
Whenever I got to the bathroom, Fritz comes running in first. Once I flush, Giuseppe is next to follow. They can't get enough of it!

I hate what Virginia does to me...

2009-08-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

This picture does not accurately show the itchy torture I have suffered this week.

Just Some of My Current Favorite Pictures

2009-07-26T16:00:00.001-07:00

I really like this picture because it looks like something from "Saved By The Bell" and that we have all been friends forever. Really most of these people just met, but they are all my friends I got together with when I came home.

Just waiting for me to get home from work

Headed for a night out in DC

Love it!

2009-07-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

I had a kind of rotten past 24 hours and one of the major stresses that was included in this was the kitty cats (cough mine cough) keep going to the bathroom in my room minus the litter box. Part of the reason this keeps happening is because none of the doors in our apartment actually
close for various reasons, mine being that it does not have a knob. So I chipped off the paint that had cemented it on, took out the screws, took off all the hardware, and ran down to Pleasants, the neighborhood hardware store.

After telling the man that I need a door knob, and finding out there is more to it than just the knob, he so politely tells me that I am going to need tools to do it. Duh man! He doesn't know I have a pink tool set. But he also told me it wouldn't be easy and maybe I should ask someone (like a boy) to help me do it. Being the wonderfully pleasant but headstrong person that I am, I told him I was getting the door knob set and would install it and that was that. And 20 minutes later, this is what happened:

The video clip is a little sideways but you get the gist. It even has an old school key hole (shown above) and an old school key to lock and unlock it. Love it!

Thank you hardware store man for that little push. And eat that landlord who doesn't fix anything! I will be sending you the bill including parts and labor.

New Recipe

2009-07-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

I am currently on a new rotation that is very easy and I like to refer to it as "vacation rotation." This means I have a lot of time to sit and ponder things of my liking but still look like I am doing something related to nutrition, so I usually look up recipes. I also am currently working on a project with a farmer's market developing recipes for current produce that needs to sell, so things are working quite nicely. One of the vegetables that I am working on is cabbage. I will admit that I don't eat much cabbage but not because I dislike it, just because I don't know what to do with it.

I have a favorite Rachel Ray recipe that I have made but I don't know what it is called, or exactly what is in it but it has chicken broth, green onions, egg noodles, ground turkey meatballs, and lots of paprika. It is some kind of Scandinavian soup, I think. Anyway the point is I got the brilliant idea to substitute the egg noodles with cabbage shreds and my new recipe was born. It probably has already been done but this was my own little epiphany for today so I came home from work to make it, and I am taking partial credit for it. I don't like to think of cutsie names so I am just going to call it what it is. The recipe was quite simple, and this is how it went:

Sarah's Turkey Meatball Cabbage Soup

Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage (approx 4 links)
Plain Bread Crumbs (approx 1 cup)
1 egg
Fresh Garlic (approx 1 tsp)
Green Onions (approx a small bunch)
Half a Medium Cabbage
Paprika
Pepper
Bay Leaf

1. It's all about the pre-preparation in this recipe. Cut your scallions on a diagonal and set aside. Slice cabbage into thin ribbons and set aside.
2. Remove turkey sausage from casing and mix with fresh garlic, egg, and bread crumbs. I added pepper and paprika at this point but no salt is really needed. Form into meatballs the size of a ping pong ball and set aside.
3. Bring chicken broth to a boil and add bay leaf. Add meatballs and cook for 2 or 3 minutes and then add cabbage and onion. Add some paprika to the broth. This helps add a little flavor and also a great color. Cook until meatballs are cooked through and cabbage is to desired softness.

Notes: It doesn't sound like much but it really is delicious. I added some orzo too because I love my carbohydrates. Some potato cubes could be good too. I also thought about adding yellow squash at the end for color, or maybe purple cabbage too. I also think red pepper flakes would be good to add some more spice.

It may be really hot because it is summer but you should try it sometime. And tell me if you like it...

Diary of a Mad Vegan Girl

2009-07-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

My roommate has to eat like a vegan for a month and then do a gluten free diet for a month as one of her intern projects. I told her I would do vegan for a week with her just casually but now I am kinda getting into it. While we are on the subject, I am not entirely sure how you say vegan in a politically correct way. Is someone a vegan? Do they eat vegan? Is vegan considered a diet or a lifestyle or both? I am not sure. For some reason I feel like it sounds almost like a swear word, not sure why. Anywho...I think you get what I am trying to say...kinda.

So yesterday was the first day of my venture. It started out pretty easy. An apple for breakfast, and veggie salad for lunch. But around 4 o'clock I started to get hungry. I headed over to the neighborhoood natural food market, Ellewood Thompson's, and browsed around for my foods. After half an hour I had a small basket and a 26$ bill. Being vegan is kinda expensive. I ended up with dried soybeans and lentils, roasted pumpkin seeds, vegetable broth, chick peas, tortilla chips, and rice milk. And dinner was born...pumpkin seeds with hummus and tortilla chips, with cherries on the side. I was mildly satisfied.

Later that night at Beanies house she let me know that Miranda can do this diet just fine, but I was going to have some trouble... what the beep?! I guess she does know by now that I can eat like a football player so she wasn't completely unwarranted in saying that But for those of you who know me really well, you know I like a challenge. Now I have extra incentive.

Today at work I browsed the cafeteria looking for something to eat besides raw vegetables. I always assumed being vegan= being healthy, but also a little crazy. Now I am starting to doubt this as I filled my plate with potatoes and bread and ketchup. I am definitely going to be getting my fill of carbs. The chef assured me the bread had no animal products but I did detect a delicious buttery taste. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, but I am going to have to be more careful. Fruits and veggies and seeds, fruits and veggies and seeds. Stay tuned for more vegan adventures, and possibly some recipes.

Preciousness

2009-06-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

I got a kitty cat! Meet Giuseppe...

Duck Beach, North Carolina

2009-06-08T14:19:00.001-07:00

So I started this post a long time ago and never sent it. I am too lazy to finish it now but for those of you who haven't seen my duck beaach pictures... here they are, minus picture captions.

I can't think of a title for this one

2009-06-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight was awesome because I got to spend the whole time cooking for our relay for life event on friday. I made two pasta salads and then tried to turn my perfect cookie recipe into a healthy one...that was a big mistake. I think cookies weren't meant to be that way and I angered the cookie gods. Note: Applesauce ≠ butter, less sugar ≠goodness. So if anyone is out there, please continue to make the cookie recipe as previously recorded a few posts back.

Amanda, here is the pasta salad I was telling you about.

French lentils
couscous
flat leaf parsley
tomatoes
cucumbers
lemon juice
lemon zest
oil
salt n peppa

Directions: I don't measure anything. The lentils I just simmer in water til soft. Once I made it with the big fat couscous but can't remember what they are called. Also, instead of cucumbers sometimes I put pine nuts, and by sometimes I mean one out of the two times I made it.

Good night!

P.S. This is what was occuring as I was cooking my little heart out...

Virginia Beach Weekend

2009-05-21T18:48:00.001-07:00

This last weekend my Mom came to visit so we decided to get out of Richmond for a weekend getaway. Pretty much everyone I have talked to here has told me that Virginia Beach is not the greatest beach to go but it is the closest and most convenient to get to so we chose that to save some time. Compared to San Diego beaches I think Virginia Beach is way nice...but it is also the off season still and not that crowded...oh yea and it rained the whole weekend. Even still I was just happy to be doing anything. Thanks for a fun weekend mom! Here are the pictures:

Walking along the beach...it was very cold water

Getting Henna Tattoos with mamasita!

Sweet!

We ended up getting Henna all over the hotel room somehow...I still haven't received a charge for it yet.

Waiting for her turn to get her butterfly.

My Life Is a (little bit more) Complete

2009-05-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

After many years of putting a little bit of effort into finding the perfect cookie recipe I have finally found it. I discovered all this time that I had been looking for the wrong thing. I mistakenly would tell google that I wanted "soft" cookies when in fact I wanted "chewy" cookies. If anyone knows me very well they would know I am somewhat of a food purist. I don't like when my pizza has anything exotic on it, I am happy with just plain old pepperoni. This is the same with my cookies.
Christmas time brings wonderful foods and feelings but it also comes with some interesting cookies that people make so that it makes the holiday seem extra special. A note to coconut, apricot, and pumpkin...you can just stay out of my cookies! I don't need these thrills and flashiness, I just want my chocolate chip. So without further ado here is the most wonderful chocolate chip cookie recipe ever in the world (slightly modified by me). It looks so simple but just give them a try...

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt, set aside.
2. Cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookie dough 1 heaping tablespoon at a time onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet immediately to cool.

Rant!

2009-05-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

People...please stop getting married in 2009...it is making me feel very sad!

That's all...

House Tour

2009-04-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

Introduction

The beginning

The Middle

The End!

Ps. This took me 2 hours to upload so don't expect many more videos...

Mother's Day

2009-04-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

I stole this text from Wikipedia and thought it was interesting but also kinda sad...this is just a part of the story...

"Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mother's Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors."

"When Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. In 1907, she passed out 500 white carnations at her mother’s church, St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia—one for each mother in the congregation. Anna chose Sunday to be Mother's Day because she intended the day to be commemorated and treated as a Holy Day."

"Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become and spent all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration."

"Later commercial and other exploitations of the use of Mother's Day infuriated Anna and she made her criticisms explicitly known throughout her time. She criticized the practice of purchasing greeting cards, which she saw as a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter. She was arrested in 1948 for disturbing the peace while protesting against the commercialization of Mother's Day, and she finally said that she "wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control ..."."

Now I will think twice about purchasing an already made greeting card

This ones for my ladies...Amanda and Tiffany

2009-04-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

Amanda and Tiffany have sent out strong requests for me to blog something. I kinda feel like I don't have anything interesting to say so I am just going to post pictures for now...
p.s. I already put them on facebook so you might have already seen them.

This is at Tori's engagement party..she is one of the senior interns. It was an unbearably hot day in Richmond so we are all a little shiny faced.

These are the rings they had on the dessert table for decoration so Miranda and I took the opportunity to become engaged...Can you tell which hand is mine?

This was at a party one of our managers had. He had all this delicious food but I had already eaten a hamburger...But I found a way to eat some anyway...Even the big shirt couldn't hide all the cannoli and shrimp cocktail.

I'm Alive

2009-03-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll....sorry its been a while. My stealing of others internet has been not successful recently so I have not had a way to update.

Amanda's Wedding
This was amazing and a big blur considering I was only home for 2 days. I got to see my family, friends, eat at Jasmine, get my hair done, and see Amanda and Jonathan get married which were all my goals for the weekend.
I didn't get to see them actually get married since it was in the Salt Lake Temple but I waited outside for about 2 hours for them to come out...to which I cried a little. Amanda looked beautiful and so happy and I had a lot of fun hanging out with her family.
By the time the reception came I was exhausted and sick of telling people how Virginia was but I got to see a few of my favorite people who I will leave unnamed. I also still had enough energy to do this to Amanda's truck with the help of her brothers and other watchers.

Let's just say Jamandathan was less than happy to see this but you only get married once so I seized the opportunity. They can just make it up to me when I get married. Also the highlight of the night was watching them pull away, not because the truck looked ridiculous, but because the belt squealed all the way down the street.
Here are some more pictures to sum up the night...

Triumph

2009-02-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

I don't want this to sound like bragging but I had an awesome thing happen today. I have been working with a patient for a couple weeks now and is particularly difficult because he has many bad diseases, is very underweight, and is only 23. He also is from another country and doesn't speak english so there have been some cultural and language barriers when it comes to getting him to eat. So I have spent a lot of time using a translator phone trying to figure out what food we have that we can bring him and I wrote it all up and left it at his bedside so he could hand it to the person who gets his meals for him. Yesterday was my last day with this patient so I am not working with him anymore but I did get a call from the attending physician telling me she was impressed with the work I did with him and the idea I came up with to get him eating....and attendings never call a lowely dietetic intern....this is kinda a big deal.

And in other good news. I move onto nutrition support tomorrow which means I will be working with patients who are on tube feedings. The cool part though is I will be working in the surgical trauma intensive care unit so will get to see a lot of interesting cases...I love it.

The Countdown

2009-02-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

I get to go home in 4 days! I am so excited I can't sleep!

I dont know if I mentioned yet that I have a job babysitting at the baptist church down the street. Initially I really didn't love it but I have grown to really like the job. For those of you who know me...I am not the best with kids. And I think this anxiety transferred to them and made them not like me as much. Now that I have relaxed a bit we all get along well, even the new ones that come each week. It's fun going from being a grown up at the hospital each day to channeling my inner child.

Love

2009-02-16T20:00:00.001-08:00

Saturday is probably the best Valentines Day that I have ever had because I got to spend it with my girls! I made us food and lit candles all romantic like and we just sat around and talked for a while and then went out dancing. It was awesome.

But I don't know how to get these pictures so not go all crazy so I am just going to leave them like they are. Top is my roommate Miranda and my intern friend Katie Jo. Middle is the attempt I made at making us delicious food. (Ignore the pretzels...I didn't make those) Fourth down is the precious box of chocolates my mom sent me...and the other two, well you can figure them out.

Page Me

2009-02-08T21:10:00.000-08:00

My pager is a blessed present I got once I started at the hospital. At first it was just cool to have it because I look official with it on my hip and because...well who really has pagers anymore? But now I am starting to see the beauty of it.

The number one job of my pager is to figure out when the other interns are going to lunch. And I believe it holds that importance for them as well.

The second reason is to send random pages to my roommate about how frustrated I am with my job that day. And getting the random response back that makes me laugh and usually makes me feel better for about half an hour until I get a new page.

Occasionally we will use our pagers for the real purpose. Communicating with doctors or dietitians or nurses about important patient stuff...but not often does this happen.

And the last reason I like my pager... because on Valentines Day I can give people candy hearts that say "page me" and almost really mean it...

Oh Happy Day

2009-02-04T16:43:00.001-08:00

Today is the first day that I have taken a jog since I hurt my knee on April 12th 2008. It was amazing. I think I only ran about 3/4 of a mile and I limp-ran but it was still awesome. It has been two hours since then and my knee isn't hurting too much so we will see how it goes in the morning.

Today I did my first diet education to patients in the hospital. One was on a Coumadin diet and the other on diabetic diet. My preceptor thought I did a great job even though I kinda rushed through it. It was kind of fun to do it but frustrating when the patients are too out of it to comprehend or just don't care.

This is the second day in a row that the lunch cashier has made me put something back because I went over my spending limit for lunch. It is a little embarrassing when all the people in line see that, yet I keep trying to see how much food I can take from the hospital since I am working for free. I have no shame...

For Real This Time...

2009-02-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

K I really did fix it so anyone can comment now...

A Sleepless Night

2009-02-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

I have not been able to sleep for the past two nights for an unexplainable reason. This used to be the norm for me but I actually sleep pretty well out here in Virginia. Since I hate laying in bed thinking about how much I wanted to sleep I thought I would just fill ya'll in on my weekend.

Friday night we went to a birthday party at Beanie's house for her niece. It was your typical family party-loud conversation, witty banter, junk food, cake, and some sleeping on the couch. The only weird part about it was it wasn't even my family but it felt like it was. After spending years of trying to come up with crazy things to do on the weekend it is nice to relax. Afterward, Miranda and I played with our neighbors cat named Fats for an hour and turned in early....

Saturday I awoke with the anticipation of finally getting a new old couch! We made a big production of getting Beanie and her husband and her niece over with their truck to pick the couch up, to only get laughed at when they saw the size of our hallway compared to the size of the couch. So that means Miranda and I are spending another week squeezing bums onto our single chair when we try to watch episodes of the office on my computer. This is the part where I would sigh and say, "the life of a college student..." only I don't fit into that category anymore.... so I just sigh.

Sunday I went to the singles ward for the first time here in Richmond. It was kinda far away but had more people than I thought it would. There is one person I know there from Utah State and all the rest are friends that I get to know for the next year. It was nice to talk to people outside the hospital.

Illuminated by the glow of my computer in the dark, a box elder bug just flew at my face which is not helping my insomnia because now my heart is beating furiously and I am searching my bed to find out where it landed....

HIV, Liver Cirrhosis, schizophrenia, and Renal Disease

2009-01-29T19:28:00.000-08:00

I know I was supposed to blog about other things this time around but I have kinda had an unexplainably bad last few days at the hospital. I am not sure why or what but I have been in a little funk there and haven't wanted to go.

Despite this, I have been feeling very grateful for all that I have as I go home each day. I am grateful that I don't have HIV, Liver cirrhosis, schizophrenia, or Renal Disease. I am grateful that I have a home to go to, that I have food to eat, and that I actually have an appetite to eat it, sometimes too much of an appetite. And even though I just moved out to a strange city, I already have a handful of people...no change that to a few handfuls of people out here that I can turn to if I get into trouble or need anything. I truely am blessed in my life.

And thanks to all my friends and family back at home who are still watching out for me!

My New Apartment

2009-01-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

So the plan for this weekend was to clean my room and take pictures of my new apartment so everyone could see it finally but you all probably know me well enough to know that didn't happen. Sleep and other more fun things ranked higher on my list. Instead I will just give you a poetic description and you can pretend like it is in the olden days.

My apartment sits on a street called Park Avenue (sounds like monopoly right?). It is nice to finally have a street name after living on the grid in Utah. The street is quiet and lined with trees, one of the more calm streets in Richmond. Like most houses here it is old, and charming, and quaint...but old. The floors are wood, with arched entrances, and high ceilings. We have two fireplaces that we arent supposed to use, but they are fireplaces nonetheless. We have a neighbor downstairs who is in her late twenties and is very nice to us. Her cat named "Fats" comes to visit often, he looks like a small bear. We live in an area of town called, "the fan" because Richmond streets make a fan formation starting from downtown going out. This makes me get lost a lot... The fan is where most college students live and is supposedly full of youth and energy although I don't experience it much going to bed here at 9:30 usually. Driving down my streets I almost getting in accidents often because all the houses are beautiful and I see a knew interesting one that I had noticed before everytime I drive. It is a place that I am happy to call home for the next year.

And for those who wanted visuals, this is me and my roommate out for a night a couple of weeks ago with our two other intern friends Katie and Anna:

Coming Soon: My experience at "The Byrd" and discovering a beautiful message...

Side Note to Michemily: It's okay you didn't recognize me because I didn't recognize you at first until Amanda reminded me so we will call it even. Keep reading!

Lars and the Real Girl

2009-01-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

This was my first week at the hospital where I wasn't doing orientation and I am glad that it is over! Not that it was bad but it is just information overload all the time. I need to stretch out my brain after all the dying it did working at the restaurants....

Anywho, Miranda and I decided that we were too tired to do anything exciting this weekend so we opted for watching a movie and eating candy instead with two other interns. The first week of internship our director had told us that one of her favorite movies was "Lars and the Real Girl." None of us had seen it so we decided to rent it.

I don't really remember when this movie came out except thinking that is looked kinda silly and dumb. My heart sank to think that Ryan Gosling had resorted to this after such a beautiful performance in The Notebook. But after seeing this movie, I have been put in my place. Just a quick synopsis:

Lars is kinda a socially weird guy living in the garage behind his brother's house. He buy a life size doll online and starts pretending it is his girlfriend. I know you are probably all thinking this sounds very inappropriate but he is very respectful and even has her sleep at his brothers house in the guest room. He is kind and caring towards her, and very sweet. Lars' family takes him to the doctor because they think he is crazy but the doctor recommends they go along with it for a while. Soon the whole town gets in on it and starts treating Lars' "girlfriend" like she is a real person.

This movie was kind of heart warming for me and my friends and at the end we all were saying what a great message it had...except we couldn't think of what the message was! I never really was good at this sort of thing in English class when we read novels and I guess I am still not so great. After a lot of pondering on the matter I decided the overall message was just simple kindness and love. The people in town loved Lars so much that they treated a doll like she was a person, and did it in a big way. They brought her flowers, they invited her to parties, they elected her to the school board, and just made her involved in their lives. I guess sometimes we expect the moral of the story to be something earth shattering or life changing but it doesn't always have to be that way.

Have you shown kindness to someone today?

Why I Don't Go To Walmart...

2009-01-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

So it seems like Virginia has been a series of unfortunate accidents for me since I got here...yet very comical as well. I have broken down and gone to Walmart about 5 times in the past week to get cheap junk for my new apartment...oh wait, I forgot to mention I found an apartment. More on that later. Anywhoooo, I was wandering around Walmart late at night while waiting for Miranda to pick out a rug and I spotted an ironing board which I actually did need so I tried to pull it out of the display. Right as a Walmart employee rounded the corner, I pulled the ironing board off and the whole display of about 20 ironing boards fell on me, and ripped open the package of forty hangers I was carrying and made a big mess everywhere. I really didn't want to help clean it up because it was wayyy past my bedtime (about 9:07 pm) which I didn't have to because all the employees were just so concerned I was hurt they didn't want me to do anything.

That's really the only interesting thing that has happened to me lately but Amanda has requested some more information so I am going to honor it since only her and my mom read this blog probably.

Of course she wanted to know about the inauguration. Well, watch CNN and then drive in really horrible freeway traffic and that is about the experience that I had with it. A lot of people had to stay in Richmond and commute so the roads were a little blocked up. But on a more positive note, now that its over I can go visit DC soon since they will be opening up roads into the city.

The internship is going well but nothing really exciting has been happening. We finished orientation yesterday and I officially started today but really I just followed my dietitian preceptor around and visited one patient with her. I will be with her for five weeks for my medicine rotation. I will just shadow for a few days then will slowly be let on my own to see patients and do a full diet work up. Most of the girls were nervous for today but I wasn't which was good because it is really easy so far and everyone is helpful and nice. I think the Utah State professors scared us a little too much.

More about my new apartment later...

Hey Ya'll!

2009-01-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since I have moved to Richmond...way too much to write in a blog post. So I am going to give you the executive summary as best as I can.

My Current Residence:
I am staying with a family here in the suburbs of Richmond by a way random connection through my new roommate's friend's mom's friend.......... They are probably the nicest people I have ever met. And the craziest. Since I have gotten here it has been pretty much a constant party. There are always people coming to visit, coming to say hi to us, and constant talking and conversation. It is like living in a sorority house, except I don't have to pay dues, and our chapter mom is a real mom and now my new "mom" of Virginia named Beanie. I have searched for an apartment all weekend with my roommate Miranda, but we have had no success. To Be Continued...

My Roommate:
This is my new roommate Miranda. She is from Kentucky.

The Accent
Yes people, I was wrong when I told you I was moving to the east coast. Nope, I moved to the south, okay. It's too bad you can't tell from my blog but I am already picking up a sweet hybrid accent comprised of Utah, Virginia, Kentucky, and a little bit of Australian (thanks to my new GPS "Bruce"...)

An Unfortunate Incident:
One day Beanie's niece wanted to drive me around Richmond and show me different areas of town. Every so often I would see for rent signs and jump out to get the number. After writing down a number I was intently looking at my list while I walked back to the car. As soon as I opened the door I realized it wasn't the right car when the whole inside panel fell off the door. No one was in the car but I couldnt get the panel back on which made it so the door wouldn't shut...so I ran. And yes people were watching.

The Food:
Tonight I ate a dinner at the baptist church. We had black eyed peas, collard greens, stewed tomatoes, and salisbury steak with onions. Furthermore, I have never heard the words chicken wings or chick-fil-a more in my life than I have this week. People like their food here, and I am still getting used to it. Also, Cafe Rio has not made it out here so I am thinking about starting a franchise.

The Internship:
Today was the first day so there really isn't much to say except I passed my drug test (yay!) and we are in the heart of dowtown on the 17th floor so the view is amazing. It is a really old hospital that looks like it should be in a horror movie but a lot of things in Richmond are old...and charming.

First Day of Work:
Good-bye missionary uniform!

Miss you All!