Friday, July 31, 2009

July Recap

I've neglected this blog for over a month, but I am happy to report that I have just emerged from the other side of organic chemistry alive and kicking! I took the final yesterday morning at 9am - that means I'm done with the o-chem sequence, and done with all of my pre-med coursework! I still have lots of pre-med WORK to do, but it feels really good to have the coursework behind me - that was a big barrier for me for many years.

A recap of the past month.
1st weekend in July: Potlatch, a big huge fun tournament outside of Seattle. I got to play with Paul & Amy and a bunch of other friends from DC, and with Scott and Kristen (a Davis teammate). I was injured so didn't play much until Sunday, but I did get to dress up in a banana costume and dance around as the official team mascot! (We were Team Chiquita.)
(More pictures here.)

2nd weekend in July: Our friend Nathan from DC was in town, so we got to hang out with him. We also played in a 1-day tournament in Sacramento. The team was put together in celebration of 4 people's birthdays (including Kristen), and the requested that we all wear pink, and that the men wear dresses or skirts. Lots of silliness ensued, as well as some well-played ultimate - we won the tournament!


3rd weekend in July: A sad one. My maternal grandmother died somewhat unexpectedly, so I went home to Minnesota for her funeral. A very teary weekend, but it was wonderful to be among such a big, strong family (Grandma had 6 children, 18 grandchildren and many many nieces and nephews) and to see the outpouring of support from the community - tables piled with food, the church decked out with flowers. Lots more to say... but this isn't the space for it.

4th weekend in July: Kristen threw me a surprise bachelorette party! Scott purported to take me on a date to Bistro 33, but in fact delivered me into the hands of my ultimate teammates - all gussied up and ready for a night on the town. After dinner and girly cocktails, they gave me a list of tasks I had to complete before the night was over. A daunting list, not suitable for publication here, but I'm happy to report that I finished it. One of the items was to beat a man in a push-up contest, which I did by resorting to clapping push-ups. Cheating? All's fair when you're wearing a 5'-long pink sparkly veil, I say. Another item was to find a guy to do push-ups with me on top of him, but I decided it would be better to reverse things.
I had a great time.

And speaking of bachelorettes...
1. Nia is marrying Mark tomorrow in San Francisco! I'm really excited to go celebrate with them.
2. My sister is now engaged to Ugur! A very unexpected and wonderful announcement. I'll see the two of them in just over a month (when we're all in Minnesota for my wedding), and I'm pretty impatient!

Speaking of my wedding...
All the planning is going really well. Still plenty of odds and ends to do, but I rest assured that everything will be wonderful. Scott and I have the first draft of our vows written, and a good idea of the shape of the rest of the ceremony. RSVPs are trickling in. Menus are mostly set.

Speaking of menus...
We've had some good cooking adventures lately! We bought a big chunk of skate (sort of like a stingray) at the farmer's market last weekend. Scott cooked it up, but it turns out that it doesn't taste very good on its own. It sort of tastes like something that eats dirt (which it might, I'm not sure.) We finished our portions but were not looking forward to downing the leftovers. Happily, Scott transformed them into a tasty "thai coconut skate bisque" with enough curry & vegetable flavors to mask the skatiness of the skate. The texture became stringy, very much like crab. Fun!
Also, we've been going on lots of picnics lately. My cousins gave Scott and I a picnic basket as a wedding shower gift, and picnicing has become my new favorite date-night activity. The most beautiful picnic food I've made so far is marbled hard-boiled eggs.


Speaking of eggs...
Just because I'm done with o-chem, doesn't mean I'm done being an egghead for the summer. I'm taking the MCAT on August 21, so I'll be cramming for that for the next 3 weeks. Uf da. Not particularly excited about the studying or the test taking, but I really can't complain - I'm having a darn good summer so far.