The month of December in brief

Heavens to Betsy! A 31 day lag. I tried to write approximately 12 Christmas posts which all sounded trite. The gist of them: give back to others during the holiday season (and all throughout the year, really). I have a lot to be grateful for, when many others are struggling and that is never more noticeable than during the holidays.

Since my last post, my sister turned 29 + 1 and that brought me back to the east coast for the first time since I left. Now, I have never lived in NYC, but lots of friends (and one sister) have, and I have been there many times. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had chosen NYC like all the other VC grads, instead of Boston after college, but we will never know... So I have really been enjoying Cincinnati and not been too east-coast-homesick, but when I flew into NYC, it pulled at my heartstrings and I felt a pang of jealousy for all those people who got to stay on the coast. We toured NBC Studios and the page told us some tales about Dr. Oz and his talk show, including the swab he did of the bottom of a lady's purse that was germier than a NYC toilet and had 2 different strains of Hepatitis on it. Later that night/early the next morning I was strolling down the sidewalk and slipped on a laminated menu on the sidewalk. All I thought as my bum hit the sidewalk was, eww, I wonder if I am as a germy as the purse now. And then I was kind of ready to leave the big city and head back to my Midwestern semi-suburban life...

Christmas came and went, my brother and I sustained a well-deserved loss in the annual gingerbread house decorating contest. The Christmas craft project was successful, and the sweatshop was much more productive and efficient than in years prior. Keep an eye out for the link to the Etsy shop! We saw the house where The Christmas Story was filmed, on a street full of houses with leg lamps in the window. We had a snowball fight, and made a snow lady, and went for a lovely, if not freezing cold walk in the Metroparks.

And then I tore myself away from my home (the DSM-V is rumored to have adult separation anxiety as a diagnosis and I will proudly be first in line for that one), made the drive back to Cincinnati, slept for 3 hours, and made a 6 am flight to Albuquerque (which I have practiced spelling) to see a friend from grad school and celebrate the New Year.

I love green chiles. I have always loved green chiles. I should move to New Mexico because they have a lot of them there. We had breakfast at Frontier, famous for many things including their green chile hash browns. I literally could have eaten a bucket full of them but was trying not to appear to be a huge fatty, and because I knew I would eat well over the next few days. My friend and her boyfriend have an impeccably well stocked kitchen. She has traded out her Kitchen Aid mixer (over which we bonded when I stayed with her during grad school interviews) for a Cuisinart stand mixer, which I will forgive, but what I cannot forgive is the assertion that Thomas Keller's chocolate chip cookies are better than my Rolo Chocolate Chip Cookies. Thomas Keller should stick to French Bistro cooking and leave the lowly chocolate chip cookie to me. We had a spa day, visited the Albuquerque Costco, ate grilled pizza, went to Sante Fe, ate blue corn enchiladas at Maria's, stopped in the heroin capital of the US for a bathroom break, and arrived in Taos at twilight on New Year's Eve. My friend made me sleep in the garage. We woke up at 7.30 am to go skiing at Angel Fire. I had not been skiing since my very early 20s. I am not sporty. I worry about injury on a daily basis. I asked the ski technicians if they had a padded suit I could wear. I jokingly complained about skiing and head injuries and broken legs. One guy, who looked like he hadn't showered or slept in days, said, "Are you familiar with the power of the mind?" I said, "I am," and wondered what piece of stoner wisdom was coming my way, and he said, "It's really powerful." Why yes, sir, yes it is. I donned my helmet and rode the chair lift up, got off the lift, stood on the precipice, and skied down the mountain. And loved it.

And so, with the mountains of New Mexico as my inspiration, 2012 will be a year without complaints and fear. I will do the things I think I cannot do, I will learn from them, and I will confront the voice in my head that tells me it will be okay to put it off til tomorrow. The irony of the fact that I was supposed to take a Pure Barre class at 12 and it is 12.31 and I am typing this does not escape my notice. I will totally go to a class tomorrow.

Not BW's waffles

I have five or six drafts of posts I've written over the past few weeks that I haven't posted because they haven't made me laugh. That is how I decide what posts to post- they have to make me giggle a little bit, whether because they're actually funny or because they border on absurd. One was about how I house/dogsat for my parents last weekend, had a great dinner with two of my oldest friends (fun because it's them and funny because I spilled margarita mix all over the kitchen floor), almost got my fingers snapped in a mousetrap in the liquor cabinet (funny, but also kind of sad), and got a huge speeding ticket on the way home (so far away from things that make me laugh). I finished my first full week of work, and spent an inordinate amount of time putting tabs on my brand spanking new DSM-IV-TR and arranging books on my bookcases. I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books. You may have heard I live in Cincinnati now and I'm doing a lot of exploring. I went to Findlay Market this morning; it's a lot like West Side Market if you're a NE Ohioer, Reading Terminal Market if you're a Phillyian, etc. etc. I like markets like this because they have a local feel, they're more locally sourced, and it seems like there is one less step between the food and the customer in terms of processing. I wandered by Taste of Belgium, which offered waffles and crepes. They'd been mentioned on Twitter by the coffee shop I like here, Coffee Emporium. I'm totally a secret Twitter stalker- I do not do my fair share of tweeting to balance out the number of tweets I read. There I said it. Anyway, I had coffee in one hand, it was crowded, and I determined I was not going to be able to handle a crepe, but people seemed to be holding the waffles in one hand. Since I'm klutzy and don't balance well, I ordered a waffle. They were made out of dough, not batter! With big chunks of sugar in them. Delicious. I wonder if this is what I was supposed to be getting all these years when Belgian waffles were advertised in hotels at their free continental breakfasts. I demand a refund!

I might be a grown up

I totally thought I was going to have tons of time for blogging. I don't know what I've been doing that I haven't been updating. Perhaps doing things, instead of sitting in front of a computer. First, in answer to the ice cream question: I like United Dairy Farmers mint chocolate chip better. But I wouldn't kick Graeter's out of bed. In other news, I went to Kentucky to see an old friend. Our mutual friend, who we called from the bar in my friend's condo (hello!) said, "I can't believe you two are hanging out together in Kentucky." True story. Three cheers for the tri-state area (SW Ohio, N Kentucky, SE Indiana)! We found a totally cute restaurant in Lexington, called Table Three Ten, which I recommend if you ever find yourself in that area. I came back on Sunday, and made my grandfather's spaghetti sauce and meatballs and a batch of Rolo cookies, ready to be baked as needed. Monday brought the first day of work. More specifically, Monday brought the first day of work orientation, which included among other informative activities, putting out a virtual fire with a laser-tag-like-fire extinguisher. It was hard to hold the fire extinguisher. I kind of bobbled it. I would not be good in a real fire situation. I finally passed all the things that needed to be passed, and I found my office. It's fancy. It has a window, and a cabinet full of toys. It is totally delicious to finally have a real office and be a real psychologist. It makes all the drudgery learning and growth experiences worth it. I think I'll celebrate with some ice cream.

I am moved

I drove on Thursday. It's a boring drive. Lots of cornfields. It rained a lot.

The movers arrived on Friday morning. I have never seen such a flagrant waste of paper in my life.

My parents arrived on Friday afternoon. I have been kept busy all weekend with shopping, cleaning, decorating, eating lobster, and trips to Costco, Ikea, and Jungle Jim's.

My parents just left and now as I sit in the absolute quiet with only the tapping of my keyboard on stolen wireless (because the cable installation specialist hasn't arrived yet), all of the FEELINGS that have been kept at bay since March or last week or some time in between are finding their way out. There's most definitely excitement. But there's also a hefty dash of oh-my-god-what-did-i-just-do causing flip flops in my stomach. Although I suppose that could also be easily attributable to the Skyline chili for lunch. It's an interesting thing to start a life somewhere. There's a lot of activity involved. All those foundational things like finding a place to live and moving into it, and then the next layer of stocking it and decorating it and making it feel like a home, and then the next layer of finding your favorite grocery and local coffeeshop and take out sushi. Incidentally, there are three sushi restaurants within spitting distance which makes me think I did an excellent job of choosing this condo/apartment. I found a book club to join, which I'm excited about. The first meeting is in about 2 weeks or so and the organizer welcomed me even if I didn't finish the book in time. I refrained from telling her my dance card was not quite full yet and I had plenty of time to read. I shouldn't say that - I have some exciting plans this week so far: lunch with my friend who lives here, a pre-employment meeting, and hold onto your hats... a trip to the DMV! There's a rumor I have to re-take the Ohio driving exam. Let's hope I can pass it on the first try this time.

Tria-thalon

A few months ago, my friends and I were sipping wine and/or beer and eating cheese at Biba (which is now Tria Wine Room). It was relatively soon after I'd gotten my job and I was pondering over what I wanted to do as my last weekend in Philly celebration. I thought it would be cool to go to each Tria for one (or two) drinks and make my way across the city. An idea was born... and a name was bestowed: The Tria-thalon. Joel (husband of Erica, who discovered Tria in the first place) came up with the name and deserves all the credit, but I'm doing a lot of the advertising, so maybe we can share the glory. The Tria-thalon occurred last night, and I tweeted about it. I have tweeted about five times in two years, and last night was 50% of that. Tria retweeted, and Foobooz replied. Foobooz. My favoritest Philly food blog. (Look to the right). Nothing could have made my last weekend in Philly better after spending a great evening with friends at my favorite places. And getting some Twitter action. The rest of the weekend plans are a total wash due to Hurricane Irene, but I'm okay with that. Let it be known, if you ever go to Tria, and they're having any sort of event or special with the name Tria-thalon that you heard about it here first.

It's hot in these rhinos

I love food. I love the food truck revolution that I don't really get to take part in because they don't have them during lunchtime in Wilmington (that I know of). There are, however, tons in University City. I don't head over there often for lunch because it would be a long commute but I dream of the day when I work at a place surrounded by gourmet food trucks. So you can imagine my excitement when Philly Night Market time came 'round again. It's a roving urban ethnic food festival. The last time I went it was in the uber-trendy Passyunk area of South Philly. It was in a space the size of an anthill, parking was a nightmare, and it was cash only. We arrived late to the crush of people, couldn't find parking (felt judged for not riding our bikes), had no cash, could find no cash, and were tired and grouchy. So I had big plans for this Night Market, this time located in University City. I blocked off my afternoon schedule, left work at 4.30, drove home, parked my car, changed into comfortable shoes, got cash, and headed over on the bus. As I was waiting for the bus, I thought it seemed a little warm. As I got off the bus and walked up 39th Street, the true swelteringness of the summer draped over my shoulders like a bear skin rug. It was so hot I couldn't breathe. We stuck around this time, waiting in line for a beer (three cheers for Ithaca Apricot Wheat!), Guapos Tacos, Tyson Bees Korean inspired tacos, Jimmies Cupcakes (who unfortunately had a Lebron James cupcake which the guy explained was only because he was running out of "James" names for cupcakes), and Capogiro Gelato. There were many other dining options, those are just the ones to which I can personally attest. I had a delightful time in spite of the stifling heat about which I complained almost constantly. As my Freud post-it notes say, if it's not one thing, it's your mother.

update: ...and Renaissance/Revolutionary Sausage...thanks to Kari for the reminder!

A few of my favorite Philly foods

I like visiting new restaurants. And ordering different things off of the menu so I can try everything. Due to their deliciousness, I have re-ordered all of these dishes multiple times. In fact, in some cases, it is the only dish I have ever had at the restaurant. They are that good.

good dog burger at good dog
It's a burger stuffed with Roquefort cheese, served with sweet potato fries. Sublime.

La Tur cheese at Tria
A combo of goat cheese and stinky cheese.

Pappardelle Tartufate at Melograno
This dish. Oh my goodness. I will miss it more than anything in Philly. From the restaurant menu: Wild mushroom sauce infused with truffle oil, sprinkled with Tuscan pecorino cheese & walnuts.

Garrotxa with Garlic Dulce de Leche at Amada
The cheese is good, but the garlic dulce de leche it is served with is divine. Surprising combination but so perfect.

Pimientos de Padron at Amada
Fried peppers with lots of salt. Simple but compulsively eatable.

Pommes frites at Monk's Cafe
They're magical fries. With a really good dipping sauce.

Huevos Rancheros at Honey's Sit and Eat
I almost don't even know how to do justice to this dish. It's literally brunch perfection.

Sea Salt, Thai Coconut Milk, Chocolate, Burnt Sugar, and/or Dulce de Leche Gelato at Capogiro
Fancy gelato. They love giving tastes of the flavors. I always order the same thing but I always try lots of flavors first.

Chicken Tikka Masala and Saag Paneer at Ekta
Best.Indian.Food.Ever.

Bliss

It is perfectly quiet in my apartment, other than the whining of a siren going down those city streets that I love. There's no studying for the EPPP to be done (taken and passed, thank you very much). There's no interview preparation to be done or planes to catch. There are no forms to fill out or get notarized for licensure (sent off last week). There's always work to be done but I cannot bring myself to do it. I'm having a totally zen moment of peace that I cannot disrupt by doing work. I think the most work I might do today is a crossword puzzle. I have had a totally delicious weekend so far and it was so needed after the last three months. There was a spa day, many thanks to my sister, with one of my college friends (I kidnapped her from her children for the day) topped off by a little French bistro lunch at Parc. I've also eaten a lot of Asian food this weekend, including some suspicious looking but completely delightful dim sum at Dim Sum Garden and a little excursion to Vietnam. And later today, in what I imagine will be a welcome break from the quiet of my apartment, my VERY OLD (in friendship, not age) friend and her son are coming to visit. And to complete my culinary tour of the world this weekend, we're heading to Dahlak for "Eritrean bar cuisine" which I am hoping is the same as Ethiopian food. If the adorable Sam crashes and doesn't make it to evening time, everyone is getting peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner because I did not go to the grocery store. I was busy this weekend!