Feelings Pass

So I thought I’d update ya’ll on my life a little bit.

Last Sunday I left Oberlin. I spent a week at home with family and friends before returning to Oberlin for commencement. Honestly, the past week I spent at home was great, but a little challenging at the same time. I had a really great time with my family, but I had a lot of free time to myself. As I’ve written about previously, being alone with nothing to do puts me in a weird/anxious/sad mood. I need to continue working with this feeling and just allowing it to pass. All feelings, no matter how unbearable they are in the moment, pass with time. Nothing is permanent.

Here’s what I’ve been up to in the past week:

I apologize for the pixel-y photos from my phone. I really do plan on getting a new digital camera sometime soon. Or maybe my sister will let me have her D40 again now that she has her spiffy, new D800? Pretty please sister?

Shopping with the sisters. We are kind of good at spending money.

Random photo shoots with Allie. This is about picture number 14, and the only good one we got.

Something was clearly hilarious.

Breaking in my new running shoes with a lovely 4 mile road run in the country. My new shoes are Brooks Launches, and I’m already in love with them. They are super lightweight and lack a bulky heel, so they promote a mid-foot strike. They really force me to run with proper form which is exactly what I need since I tend to get lazy and fall back onto my heels.

Ice cream and a walk with my best friends from high school (and junior high and elementary school). It was so great to catch up with these girls! Whenever we get together, I feel like I’m in high school again. That is a pretty carefree and wonderful feeling.

Many of you have noticed that a few months ago I pretty much just stopped talking about Darren on the blog. He used to appear very frequently on my blog because he was a huge part of my life. We broke up, and now is the first time I’m acknowledging it on the blog. It’s something very personal, and I didn’t think it was fair for me to publicly announce our break-up. I’m mentioning it now because I think enough time has passed, and also because there is a new boy in my life. I spent this weekend in Oberlin with him, and have had/am continuing to have a really great time.

He took me to a pig roast yesterday. Yes, I ate pork from that pig. It was damn good too!

XOXO,

Jamie

 

Bittersweet

First of all, I want to say super big sorry for slacking on the blog front. I’ve been completely immersed in my finals and just life in general (which is great by the way!), and I haven’t been making time for my blog.

Well, now exams are over, and things are about to change! On the plus side I will have a lot more time for blogging, and I’m really looking forward to my research assistant-ship this summer. I don’t think I told ya’ll about it, but I’ll be working with professors at Boston University on a research project examining attitudes and perceptions of eating disorders on college campuses. This summer I’ll also be applying for medical school, and continuing training for the half marathon I’m running August 19th! Needless to say, I’m looking forward to a fun-filled and rewarding summer.

On the flip side, summer brings change and change makes me anxious. I love the routine that school gives me. I have an entire week left at home, and frankly, I don’t know what I am going to do with myself. It drives me crazy to not have a million things to do and deadlines to worry about. I’m already getting anxious about how I’ll spend the entire month of August at home!

I have some serious thinking, relaxing, meditating, and planning to do. I should value my free time as a blessing instead of seeing it as a burden. There are plenty of things I would love to do with my free time. I could spend an entire day baking and decorating a five tier wedding cake. But then what would I do with a five tier wedding cake? Hmm…I wonder if I could talk my dad into storing it in his walk in freezer. A frozen cake can last for years…

okay now I’m just rambling.

Look at the pretty cupcakes I made!

Nothing fancy. Just boxed funfetti cake mix with store-bought frosting. I really just wanted to decorate them.

XOXO,

Jamie

Brinner

I love breakfast, but I especially love breakfast for dinner.

Enter, brinner:

Tonight’s dinner was three pieces of cinnamon french toast topped with vanilla yogurt and syrup! For me and probably the rest of the world, dinner is usually a more savory meal. However, today my sweet tooth was raging, so I went with it! The warm syrup made the yogurt all melty and yummy.

Okay, now this picture just cracks me up. I am the kind of person who continually adds more syrup to my french toast/pancakes/waffles as I eat them. So of course, when I got to my last piece of french toast, I needed more syrup. I poured the syrup in one spot, and accidentally made my yogurt/syrup look like a fried egg! Don’t you think so?! I love food that looks like other food. Meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting anyone?

So that was my most exciting eat of the day. Now onto other things…

Today was a super happy day. I took a scary exam this morning that I’m so thankful to have behind me. The last week or so has been really stressful and busy. Today I finally felt the return of normalcy (which will be short-lived thanks to my approaching final exams). The weather was beautiful! I was able to just lay out in the sun, relax, and clear my mind for a little while.

But even on beautiful, relaxing days, I still have to make time for academics.

This is my friend and I in bio-organic chemistry lecture today. We should probably pay better attention so that we don’t have to repeat the labs five times each before getting them right….

Nah.

This is a page from today’s bio-organic chemistry notes. After I took this picture, I was thinking to myself, “When did I become such a bad student? I was so studious in high school…” Then I realized…no, I was exactly the same in high school. I just had all the teachers fooled into thinking I was studious! I admit it, I fell asleep in Spanish 4 every day. Also, I may have skipped VHS on occasion for coffee.

Oh who am I kidding…I’m hardly a slacker.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I might be setting a new personal distance record on Saturday, so I will let you all know how that goes!

XOXO,

Jamie

For the Love of Brussel Sprouts

Normally I write my posts at night, but this post is coming to you right after breakfast! I have 15 minutes before I have to run off to class, dissect a tadpole/frog and then hopefully rock my chemistry exam!

15 minutes is totally enough time for a quick post.

Yesterday’s lunch: A turkey and blue cheese wrap with a side of roasted brussel sprouts. I should really try to eat more veggies. I naturally gravitate towards fruit or dairy for snacks and sides. I have a feeling that I will be on a brussel sprout kick for a while though because these hit the spot. I just tossed them with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder and baked them at 425 for about 25 minutes. The burnt parts are my favorite!

I just noticed that just about every sentence in that last paragraph starts with the word “I”…When I’m in a hurry, varied sentence structure is not a priority.

The purplest smoothie ever! My roommate thought I added food coloring to it because it was so purple. Nope. Just blueberries. In the mix is blueberries, cottage cheese, soy milk, and stevia. This was totally delicious, but my mouth was blue even after brushing my teeth. You’ve been warned.

My chapstick also makes an appearance in the above photo. Right now I am loving strawberry Carmex. My junior high/high school best friend, Megan, got me addicted to chapstick. She put it on like every 20 minutes, and the habit wore off on me.

And with that, I’m off to class. Have a good day friends! And may the chemistry gods be with me!

XOXO,

Jamie