The End of an Era

Last week one of my favorite TV personalities said good bye to her day time show. I was two when the Oprah show first started. I remember watching it with my mother with my grandmother and then in college with my best girlfriends. I have laughed with Oprah, cried with Oprah and have grown up with the Oprah show being a constant. There have been long stretches when I couldn't watch due to work or classes etc. but the show was like an old friend no matter how long I had gone without watching all it took was one episode to get me right back in the swing of things. During her last episode Oprah shared what she called a love letter to her viewers. It was a summary of all the lessons she has learned during her 25 years. Although there where many valuable lessons she shared one really resonated with me.

"I've talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common -- they all wanted validation. ... They want to know, do you hear me? Do you see me? Does what I say mean anything to you?" -Oprah Winfrey


This is such a simple concept; yet, one I find so applicable to my life, especially my life as a physician. I have written before how one benefit to my career choice is interacting on a daily basis with people of all walks of life and nothing seems more valid to me than Oprah's statement. Everyone wants to be validated, wants to be heard and a big part of my job is making sure they are heard. 

I will miss the Oprah show but I am sure she will be on to bigger and better things at OWN. 

Kerri's Corn and Bean Salsa

Our friends were amazing helping out with the big graduation. Kerri brought an enormous bowl of her corn and bean salsa and it was the biggest hit of the party! I have been thinking about it ever since and yesterday I finally made up a batch of my own. She sent me the recipe to share and here it is. It is a great summer staple and I am sure I will be bringing it to many a BBQ.

Kerri's Corn and Bean Salsa

1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1 can corn rinsed and drained (I used frozen because I had it on hand)
1/2 red onion diced
1 big bunch of cilantro chopped
3 scallions minced
1-2 jars of your favorite salsa (Kerri recommended Chi-Chi's medium)
The juice of 2 limes squeezed

Toss it all in a bowl and mix until it becomes thick and soupy. This is great as a topping for tacos, quesidillas, chips etc.

Happy Summer!!!

First Blooms from the Garden

To my delight we inherited a hydrangea bush. I love love love hydrangeas almost as much as I love lilacs and they are just starting to bloom along with the rose bush I received as a graduation gift. I hope to have beautiful blooms all summer long! I love that we have a garden at our new house. The backyard is my favorite spot.

Chop't

I have a new take out obsession, Chop't. Basically it is a salad making dream. They have everything you could ever want in a salad and some stuff you never even thought could be good in a salad. You pick your choppings, pile them high and then they chop the daylights out of it and toss it in some dressing. The key thing about a Chop't salad is that each bite contains all the magic ingredients you selected, so every bite is perfect. I especially love a little goat cheese and some avocado as these creamy ingredients coat the rest of the salad and really pull it all together. My favorites are the Southwestern Chicken and the Vegetarian Power House which is especially good if you add some chicken or some goat cheese. My only problem is that there is not a Chop't right down the street. I have to travel a whole seven miles to get there and while not overly expensive if you were to eat it every day it would add up. So, yesterday I made my own homemade version of a Chop't salad and it turned out pretty darn good. Here is what I threw in to the bowl:

I started with some mixed herb salad
1/4 avocado
1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles
2 tbs diced walnuts
1/2 cup peas
1 carrot diced
1 mackintosh apple
1 tbs balsamic vinegar

First I put all the ingredients except the vinegar on the cutting board and I went at it. I chopped until I didn't think the salad could take any more and then I tossed it all into my bowl and added my vinegar. It was delicious and will now be a weekly addition to lunch on E. Mason.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Memorial Day in DC means Rolling Thunder is in town and if you have never experienced hundreds maybe even thousands of motorcycles flying by you, let me tell you it is quite an experience! Rolling Thunder is an annual rally to support prisoners of war and those missing in action. It started in response to the Vietnam War. It is an incredible event to watch. DC is taken over by bikers a dramatic change from the typical political stiffs. Capitol Hill is covered in leather and metal studs instead of the navy three button suit. I'll be out watching on Monday as they cruise their way around DC and Arlington honoring those who have served. 

DC Summer

I love living in DC for many reasons mostly because of the people here. It is nice that the winters are not so cold that spring sometimes comes in February and that we are within driving distance of many great East coast cities. Plus there are about a million things to do in DC and most of it is free. One thing I HATE about DC other than the traffic, metro riders who have no idea what they are doing and tourists is the summer. Summer used to be my favorite season. I used to wake up put on a bathing suit and spend all day at the lake. Michigan has beautiful lakes and perfect summers with cool mornings and evenings and toasty hot afternoons. DC lacks this key element of an enjoyable summer day - some relief from the heat. It is still MAY and it is in the 90s here in DC. By 9:30 AM it was too hot to sit in the sun and it never cools down. There is no choice but to run the air conditioning all the time and we never have much of a spring. We have maybe a few days at most where you can leave the windows open. I miss the spring. I miss lovely 70 degree mornings and evenings where you need a sweat shirt for a walk. It is possible to sweat from the second you wake up to the second you fall asleep in DC.

Yesterday I had Richard for the day while his parents moved to their new house. We spent a solid eight hours together and took a lovely trip to the park. I was worried the whole time if I put enough sun screen on him and where I could find a hat that might cover his sweet bald head. He looked so cute in the swing in just his onesie. But seriously if it is 90 degrees in May what will it be like in August? This Northern girl was never meant for Southern summers.

Well Hello Handsome!

Wedding fun!

Kevin and I spent this past weekend in Hawley, PA at the wedding of Rosy and Bennett. It was a true college reunion and all eight of my best friends from Bates were there in full force. It was amazing to be reunited with friends that always seem to know you best and no matter how long it has been since you last saw them you pick right back up as if no time has passed. It was a beautiful wedding and the whole experience made me so much more excited to get married myself. There is nothing better than having all the people you really care about and love in once place at the same time celebrating your decision to spend your life with the person you love most on earth. Beautiful!

Good Morning Baltimore

I just got word that Dana will be joining Molly and myself as a trifecta of best high school friends in the greater Washington, DC area! I could not be happier to have her so much closer even if it is for a short time. I am looking forward to dinners and coffee breaks when we have days off. Baltimore never sounded so good!

Del Ray Garden

One of the adventures I took in my week between buying a house, moving in and hosting everyone for graduation was to the Alexandria compost. We are lucky to live in a city which provides compost of gathered leaves and Christmas trees. I dug a little patch and transplanted the seedlings I started at our apartment. Here is our little garden. I cannot wait for the veggies to come in. And I hope we will have plenty of pumpkins for Richard to pick for his first Halloween.

Our lovely backyard

The Sprouts!

Pumpkins

My pear tree! A gift from Will, Marantha and Richard

My rose bush! A gift from Kerri and Scott and Kristi

My favorite work spot!

The Up Dated Kitchen

Here it is... long over due but below are some pictures of our new kitchen. We used the Cabinet Transformations kit in Winter Fog and I am very happy with the results. Our kitchen is now a calm and lovely place. Kevin even outfitted us with a new faucet, new sink, new garbage disposal and new dishwasher. I will be spending years cooking and cleaning in this kitchen and now it at least feels like my kitchen.

Long Over Due

Friends, I am very sorry for the very delayed post. In the time since the last post with the help of Kevin, I refinished a kitchen, painted a bedroom, cleaned a house, painted every closet. We put in a new faucet which led to a new sink which led to a new garbage disposal and then a new dishwasher. I graduated from medical school, had all of my closet friends from high school for a weekend, hosted a big party to celebrate and finally just now caught my breath. It has been an amazing couple of weeks and our house is finally starting to feel like our home. I could not have been luckier to have such great friends and family here to help celebrate. And I cannot believe that so many years of hard work are behind me. I knew I wanted to go to medical school from age 14. Here I am 15 years later and I am a DOCTOR.

There are so many people who contributed to this accomplishment, some in ways I cannot even articulate. But, I could not be happier with my life choice and cannot wait to get in there and get working. Although, I am trying to savor every one of these days off because they will be few and far between come June 15. Here are some favorite pics from the weekend. The house pics will come as soon as I can muster the energy to clean again and take some pictures.

Thank you friends for all of your love and support!

Before

Here is the OLD kitchen. Sear theses images in your mind because within 24 hours there will be an after update.

Good Bye RED!

Paint Colors

I don't know who has the job to come up with paint color names but it must be pretty fun. I am currently covered in shades of gray - "porpoise" and "winter fog" and have some white primer mixed in. The guest room is now a lovely shade of green called "southern breeze". All I could think of was a nice big porch with a tall glass of cool lemonade and the perfect oversized swing. I hope our guests are just as relaxed in our guest room. The inside of our cabinets are "ginsing root" a perfect yellow that is not too sunny.  In my quest for the perfect kitchen wall color I brought home mini pints of "gentle rain," "twilight gray" and "skyline steel" I even contemplated "gray timber wolf" in honor of my sister's recently completed masters project on wolves. I was drawn to colors with soothing names. When I picked out the color for my room where I lived for three years of medical school I remember wanting a shade that would bring serenity in an other wise chaotic life. I ultimately ended up with "green tea" which for me is both comforting and energizing.

Kevin and I have put in a few long days of manual labor and still have a few more before the big move on Saturday. I just hope that I can finish enough final coats of paint tomorrow to have the last few days to pack our apartment and get organized for the movers. This process has not been without headaches but I keep telling myself and Kevin that this trial of labor is part of the bonding process with our new house. We will know every inch of this house, have scrubbed every corner, every nook and crevice and in the end it will feel more like OUR house. I just hope that in the end it looks good. It was so hard to visualize the final product through the blinding fire engine red which initially engulfed us. The red is no longer there and the neutral and soft gray is so much less blinding but it is hard to see through the mess the final outcome. We will have to wait until the dust settles to know for sure if the shades we picked and then painstakingly applied are the right ones for our new house. It takes so many coats to cover red walls.

My new best friend:

The Edger P.S. you still have to tape but it is super helpful

Our New Digs!

It is official. Kevin and I are home owners. We got our keys on Friday and spent all of yesterday elbow deep in buckets of hot soapy water and paint. I swear no matter where I move I am always having to do a deep clean of the place. This new house of ours is no exception and the amount of mouse poop, dust and plain old grime and dirt is insane! It is going to take some serious elbow grease to get this place ship shape and up to my standards but at least this time each brush stroke we make, each corner we scrub is for our home not some random place we are renting. I am up bright and early making my game plan for the day and waiting for the Home Depot to open so I can get todays supplies. I promise to post some before and after photos soon. Wish me luck and speedy painting.