Today, I love...

Wandering aimlessly, Darjeeling tea, eating my lunch in a sliver of sunlight, organic whole wheat linguine, Pottery Barn catalogs, insight by Ira Progroff, and "Let Go" by Frou Frou.

The Graduation Heisst

I wasn't kidding about the kimonos!

I highly recommend Friday evenings with kimonos, mint tea, and sticky rice with mangoes.


I also highly recommend having a Mum like mine. (Mom and Uncle Dennis)

Jen and Henry. Ich liebe mein schwester.

So I like to eat and blog about it...does that make me weird?

In case you wondered, I really do eat and go to church :)


I do think I have the most stellar roommate.

Hey, hey! Look at us cooking eggrolls in our kitchen of hobbit-sized proportions! That's definitely CHIP-unapproved. Please, don't turn me in to the WWC Health Department.

Our little favorite patisserie. My coffee was so pretty, that it inspired me to paint a cappucino postcard. Hurray for Sunday mornings with a little French flair.

"Homespun" evenings

I delight in Friday evenings and always look for an excuse for some shape or form of a dinner party. Lucky me, I had one this week. My good friend, Ryan Parlin, had his adorable Czech girlfriend fly out here to the States from Prague this week. I was overjoyed that I was going to be among an authentic Czech soul again and so they came over to our apartment for an evening of Pink Martini music, reminiscing magical Prague, Italian cuisine with a dash of German (I can't cook Czech food very well), and good conversation. Someone better stop me, because I just love doting on Barbora and vicariously relive last year as a teacher through her. She made my evening by showing me how to burn the frantisek (Czech incense) that a former student sent me for Christmas this year. Highlight of the evening :) Oh, and in case you were wondering because you are totally a detail person like me...we had stuffed shells with ricotta and spinach, a pear, avocado, spinach and pecan salad lightly tossed with feta and bleu cheese dressing, bread with olive oil and balsamic, Italian white bean dip, German potato salad, lime spritzer and miniature cherry cheesecakes.

Tonight for more European reminiscing, Bekah, Lauralen, and I went out for pretty coffee and dessert at the local patisserie and then to a movie. I insisted that we had to see "Last Holiday" with Queen Latifah because she spas it up at Karlovy Vary, a luxury spa town in the Czech Republic that is run by the Russian mafia, strangely enough. Matt, Lucas, and I made a trip out there during spring break and just had a hay day with numerous spa treatments for a mere $30. We followed up our intense luxuriating with enormous ice cream sundaes and spa wafers. We had no problem donning the rich life for a day.

Tomorrow I get up at the crack of dawn (seriously) to do my first health screening for the CHIP program. I'm quite excited about this first. Kari and I have joked that we would love to shock everyone by showing up and promoting the CHUP (Coronary Health Unimprovement Program) lifestyle instead. This would entail us flaunting our large-order onion rings while reviewing the participants' paperwork with greasy fingers. We've also considered running a CHIP-unapproved concession stand right outside the door and of course offer Big Macs and the like. Health Promotion---here we come!

Sleepless

When I can't sleep, I read Pablo Neruda's calming poetry. It's absolutely critical that the man I will someday marry knows that I sleep with about five books on the other side of the bed amongst many pillows.

I'm loving these winter days that are full of kimonos and sticky rice with mangoes on Friday nights with good friends, tennis afternoons, abundant gym time, planning Portland and snowboarding trips all over, graphic design projects, and baking cookies to accompany lively card games with Sarah, my mentoree.

Contemplative Silence

Today has been an absolute case of the song "Manic Monday". How can the second week of the quarter already be so hectic when I'm taking classes like Stress Management and Devotional Writing? It's truly a paradox. Stress Management happens to be one of my most stressful classes due to its enormous amount of continual busywork and I'm putting my vote in for a change of course title. "Stress Induction" is much more fitting in my opinion.

As far as Devotional Writing, I absolutely love the course from the get-go. We had our first meeting today and I'm the only health major of the four of us. The other three are English majors. The instructor exclaimed, "Oh well then! We are so well-rounded and diversified!" Glad I could help with the diversity. They should offer scholarships for that.

Our professor is introducing us to new ways of meditation and contemplative silence that we will then use in our writing. Anyone who knows me knows that I love this sort of stuff. After taking Early Church History last quarter I was completely fascinated with the idea of monasticism. Thomas Merton who wrote "New Seeds of Contemplation" lived a monastic life and wrote beautifully about it. Now, given that I'm truly an extrovert at heart I don't consider myself the best candidate for the monk-ish and completely solitary lifestyle. However, Merton is a proponent for the idea of solitude in the midst of community. Catchy, I might say.

Now here is the amusing part of my evening. The professor just had shoulder surgery and hasn't been able to drive herself for the last couple of weeks and so she needed a ride home. She is the sweetest woman but also the classic example of the ultimate introvert. Then there's me, the extrovert, fighting to volley a flat conversation with every lame conversation starter I can muster. So after a class discussing contemplation and meditation, I am amused to say that the car ride to her house was a complete rendition of "contemplative silence."

And in closing, I've just gotta say that yesterday on the mountain was an epic day of snowboarding. We got 3 inches of fresh powder with some fabulous sunshine and met up with some good friends by pure chance for an incredible day of riding. My favorite moment of the day was the ultimate crash and burn. Coming off of one of the black diamonds, Lauralen hit a mini-mogul offbalance in front of me and biffed as I tried to come to a screeching halt and biffed it as well. James and Jillany, right behind us, nearly miss us as we are trying to stop our tuck and roll, and plow into the trees. It was almost a 4 rider pile up amongst ourselves. Oh we looked so cool.

Oh and I woke up to miraculous sunshine at 8 am Sunday morning and beated out the house to go for a run before it disappeared. It was the first time I had run since winter started and what an incredible morning it was. Life is really good.

Some days I feel like this...

like I need a big fat, whoppin' hug and...





more time to be still and just kick it, y'know?