This Weekend: Sickness and Health and Sister

Friday afternoon Matt called me at school to tell me he had a bad headache and was losing portions of his vision and thus going to the ER. Because nothing around here is simple, I ran to the subway, took a train, and then caught a cab to (finally!) arrive where he was lying in a dark room with IV fluids running. (They had also given him a combination of morphine and Compazine which helped his headache, but made him feel strung-out and jittery for the next 24 hours.) Diagnosis? Migraines, probably retinal migraines, which we have since found out afflict a number of people in his immediate family. That’s somewhat reassuring, since it makes it probable that the diagnosis is correct, as opposed to something more serious; but, as with atopy or IBS or anything else, it’s never welcome news to be diagnosed with a chronic condition. For right now, though, we’re just infinitely thankful that it wasn’t anything more dangerous than that, and we’re happy that he’s feeling better.

Despite the fact that Matt was essentially post-dromal until Friday night or Saturday morning, we had a wonderful time with Rebecca here; as she put it, when we were all untidily inhaling massive plates of pasta one of her first nights here, “I like it that nobody’s trying to show off for each other here.” And that was pretty much the tone of the weekend. Since Matt still wasn’t feeling very well, we laid pretty low for the most part, but Rebecca and I were able to take in the National Archives (having whetted our appetite by watching National Treasure the night before), the Smithsonian Art Museum, and the Natural History Museum (or “the dead animal zoo,” as Matt called it), which we loved. It rained impossibly hard all day Thursday and Friday and into Saturday morning, making for some very wet feet and lots of soggy standing in line, but Saturday it finally cleared up just before noon and so we all went down and walked around the monuments–Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and all the usual suspects. Then we went to Georgetown, where we had a tasty lunch and then walked it off shopping.

In short, we walked ourselves sleepy every day and came home and hit the hay about 9:30 every night. We also consumed lots of good food (what else would you expect? If there’s anybody who loves to eat more than the two of us put together, and I don’t think there are many, it would be Rebecca). This includes making Hootenanny for breakfast one day, which is something Matt introduced me to last year that his mom used to make, and which I love. It goes like this:

Hootenanny (Or however you’d like to spell it!)

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons butter

In blender or large bowl mix 6 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour and salt. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt 6 Tablespoons of butter or margarine in 9 x 13 inch pan. Pour in egg mixture. Bake about 20 minutes or until puffy and golden. Serve immediately. It is like a souffle and will slowly fall. Serve with syrup, jam or fruit.

We eat it with syrup and we also broke down and had sausage on the side. It was great, and CHEAP. (And, you know, full of butter, but that’s beside the point.) I, for one, am hoping it shows up on the breakfast (or dinner) stage more often as the weather turns cold.

Today, we took Rebecca to the airport, had lunch at Thai Place and then hit Filene’s Basement because they were having a suit sale and Matt, distinguished businessman that he is, goes through those things like water these days! 🙂

Tonight, we made a second batch of potato soup (a double batch, in fact) with croutons for dinner, and then used the onion butts, celery ends and leaves, and potato peels to make vegetable stock! We filled a pot with water, added the above vegetable matter along with a carrot and a few pinches of rosemary and savory and about a tablespoon of salt, and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Then we strained it and put it in yogurt containers (just because that’s what we have on hand) and plan to freeze it. We’re hoping to spend this winter experimenting with that perfect conjunction of healthy/frugal/comfort food that is SOUP. This will be an excellent start. We ended up with about 70 ounces of stock, and it turned out great! Made from nothing but essentially vegetable garbage, water, and spices! Chalk up another point for “made from scratch.”

And now, because this post was the last procrastination I was going to allow myself, I have to go finish my paper that’s due tomorrow.

Updated, with pictures

We were lucky enough to get to spend Saturday, which was one of the most beautiful days we’ve had in awhile, on a sailboat on the Chesapeake listening to live blues music and grazing on snacks and wine. The leaves are finally changing, the weather was warm but breezy, and while blues isn’t exactly either of our favorite cup of tea, the performer was very good and there’s something about being in the midst of live music that makes you enjoy something you might not otherwise choose. It was a great day. We were invited along by a colleague of Matt’s, whom I very much enjoyed getting to know.

Sunday we couldn’t go to yoga because I worked all day, which went fine. I came home and made potato soup–I’d been wanting to make it for awhile and couldn’t find any recipes that did what I wanted, so, in the confidence born of a lot of experimenting in the kitchen lately, I just made one up. And I don’t think I’m overstating anything here to say that it turned out GREAT. I would do it just the same way again. Here’s what I did:

Potato Soup

2 T butter
2 T flour
1 onion, chopped
1-2 T dried rosemary
4-6 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cups water, or enough to cover potatoes in the pan
Splash of milk, cream, or half-and-half
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Lightly saute onion, celery, rosemary, and flour in the butter.
2. Add water. I used water but most recipes called for stock. We didn’t have any so water worked fine, but it does necessitate adding probably a good tablespoon of salt at the end. I’m not giving firm amounts here because my reputation with such things is not good.
3. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer until potatoes are soft.
4. Using a ladle or big spoon, scoop out most large potato chunks and cooking liquid and coarsely puree in blender. Add milk or cream if using, just enough to lube things up.
5. Pour back into the pan and salt and pepper to taste.

The texture ended up something like mashed potatoes, which I liked, but you could always add more water or broth if you like it runnier.

And I even refrained from the temptation to add a bunch of cheese or cream or something and just let the mild, earthy flavor of potatoes and rosemary shine through on their own. We also had a heel of bread that Matt baked a week or so ago and so I chopped that up, tossed it with some oil and parmesan and baked them until crunchy–three cheers for croutons!

On the career-change front, not much has changed in the past couple of days but I’ll share a thought I found interesting. I’ve been getting more into personal finance blogs lately and one called The Simple Dollar has been reviewing a book I’m meaning to read called Your Money or Your Life. Apparently therein is discussed the concept of “right livelihood,” which “is an ideal [which] basically means that you spend every moment of your life in accordance with your internal sense of values.” Obviously that’s rather, well, idealistic for daily life, but I will say that the idea of being a midwife–serving people on a practical but highly spiritual and meaningful level, every day–rings a whole lot closer to it than the idea of being a lawyer. One of the wonderful things about marriage, I think, is that you learn so much about yourself (along with each other) than you would if you were just existing in your own one-dimensional plane without the constant feedback of living in such close proximity with someone who knows you so well. And so when Matt tells me, “You know, I can envision you as a midwife a lot more easily than I can see you dressed up in a suit on Capitol Hill as a lawyer”–well, I’m inclined to listen to that.

But then again, a year is such a long time.

Which is why, barring any unforeseen changes, I’m going to give this semester of law school my very best shot, and then I’m pretty sure I’m going to call it quits.

I’ll attempt to address why. First, I’ve realized that for the past few months I’ve been waiting for my classmates to break down and admit that they are as bored and frustrated as I am. (By bored, I don’t mean a “this is easy and I’ve mastered it” kind of bored; I mean a “how can I work so incredibly hard at something difficult without finding it interesting,” out-of-my-element kind of bored.) And I’ve realized that for the most part, they aren’t going to: regardless of the fact that first-year classes (and, let’s be honest, second-year and probably most of third-year classes) are somewhat dry and lackluster–hey, we’re studying law here! It’s bound to be that way! And most people aren’t going to bellyache about it because this is what they expected, and being a lawyer is actually what they want. Whereas I’m finding about both law school and law in general that the proportion of what I thought I would like about it is a lot lower than what I expected, and the proportion of what I don’t like at all about it is a whole lot higher.

Looking back at the site history on my Firefox browser, I realized for that about the past month I’ve been cheating on law school by fantasizing about nursing. Right in front of law school’s face: while I’m supposed to be studying, writing a paper, during classes, etc. Oh, it starts out innocently enough, trying to look up law internships with women’s health organizations or rape crisis centers, but before I know it I’ve told myself I’ll just sneak a quick look at what all they have available and before you know it I’m bookmarking OB fellowships and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner trainings. And that just doesn’t make sense. When I realize that those experiences are what have made me feel joyful and useful and alive, it doesn’t make sense to wave goodbye to that part of my life and my education.

Any of you who have known me for very long will recognize how much I enjoy helping people in a hands-on, meaningful way. Something I don’t like? Getting dressed up, being schmoozy, feeling like I don’t fit in. Well, here was a newsflash for me: law school is all about fitting in as hard as you can. The more seamlessly your face blends into the corporate machinery, the better; the more formulaic and canned your writing, the more they like it. Everything, from the colors you wear in an interview to the font you choose for a brief, is geared at conformity.

I want to say up front that I’m in no way trying to imply that there is something inherently worse or better about that type of career, or the people who succeed at it. I’m not trying to say that I’m too good or too honest to be a lawyer, because I don’t believe that characterization of me OR the law. By the same token, though, I also don’t think I’m just rejecting law because I’m afraid it’s going to reject me first. I’m just saying that I came, I saw, I briefed; and I think I’ve realized that it’s not me, and I can only be who I am. Outspoken, off the beaten path, desperately unfashionable, most at home with a greasy ponytail and up to my elbows in birth funk…and it really only makes sense to choose a career where that is an asset, instead of something to fight to keep under wraps. Lousy with number two at the nursing home? I’m comfortable there. Dressed to the nines and making chitchat around a law firm water cooler? The very idea makes me start to squirm. And it has for awhile.

Since school started I’ve been trying to quell the rising sense of dread that I feel anytime somebody brings up working for a law firm, whether for the summer or for good; every time it comes up, I just desperately want them to drop it. But you know what? They aren’t going to. And you know why? Because it’s law school and they want to be lawyers! And I thought I did too, and so I would diligently keep looking for a firm or an internship that would help me achieve the things I came to law school to do. And what did I keep coming back to? The fact that the real experts in any field, the people who ultimately shape the way things are done on the ground level, are the people who work in it, not the people who make the legislation. That means that if I want to be an expert in women’s health, I’m making myself an outsider if I’m practicing law. There’s nothing that frustrates me more than well-meaning people who are outsiders to the organizations they purport to serve. (Nurse managers, this means you.) While I had dreams of being the “nurses’ lawyer,” the “patients’ lawyer,” the “rape victims’ lawyer,” I’ve come to realize that the effect an individual lawyer can actually have on the day to day details of people’s lives is attenuated at best. And I’m realizing that that isn’t enough.

What I used to view as small consolations for the stress of nursing–the fact that I was never bored, and the knowledge that the work I was doing was meaningful in the bigger scope of things–now loom larger as absolutely critical elements of how I plan to spend my days. I think that’s something I had to come to law school to realize. Something else I’ve learned here? I think that I was envisioning a role for myself that being a lawyer doesn’t really fit.

What now, then? I don’t feel like law school was a waste; I feel like I’ve learned a lot. In case I’m wrong about this whole thing and change my mind, and also to honor what I’ve started, I’m planning to study this semester as if I weren’t planning to leave at the end of it. (Well, almost. Perhaps with a little more of the serenity that comes with being a few feet closer to the door.) And I still feel like we came to DC for a number of reasons; just maybe not the ones I’d originally thought. Specifically? I am absolutely on fire about the idea of this program, one which combines midwifery training with specialized education in lobbying, legislation, and policy as it relates to women’s health care disparities. Could that be more perfect? No more turning over every stone in law school to see if something I might be interested in is under there–here would be a group of people who seem to have just the same things in mind. What some of you may know and others don’t is that the very first reason I looked into law school was because I thought it would be handy to have that background and then become a nurse-midwife. Birth is something I’ve always been wild about and I think I let my apprehension about being a new nurse convince me that delivering babies was something that was beyond what I was capable of. (Yes, I’ll say it–law school seemed like it would be easier.) Now, at a point where I feel much more solid in my nursing skills, I feel confident about the idea that after sixteen months or more of intensive training, I could be not only qualified to deliver babies and provide well-woman care, but also be rubbing shoulders with the people within women’s and children’s healthcare who really truly care about and influence those systems. Because you know what? The people that do aren’t practicing the law. I’ve already looked for them there.

Lazy Thursday

Though Blogger insists on labeling it Wednesday…

For some reason, none of the four of us has been sleeping well at all this week. It’s hard to tell why or who’s starting it, but Matt and I have both been tossing and turning all night and the cats (who finally spent the night in the BATHROOM last night as a result, thank you very much) have been yowling and thundering around and fighting, despite our best efforts to maintain a reasonable diet and exercise regime, wind down before bed, and be in bed between 10 and 10:30 at night–all the things they call good “sleep hygiene.” It’s kind of frustrating. This morning I should be working on my paper but instead I’m just fighting to keep my eyes open; plus, I have a dermatologist appointment at 10:30 and then an assignment to attend a civil proceeding and write a 1-page summary of it. Some vacation! And it’s almost over.

Otherwise, there’s not that much going on these days. We narrowly missed seeing Garrison Keillor the other night– he was at GW promoting his new book and we didn’t realize until too late that we could get in for $15 (thank you, student discount) instead of the $30 which we considered to be just a little bit too steep. Oh, well…we’re putting him at the top of the list with the Counting Crows now. Kind of a bummer, though, because he’s one of the few people in the world I think I’d actually line up and pay to see. But we’ve still got Bill Bryson yet this month, and we’re looking forward to seeing Sam Bush on the cheap when he comes to GW in November. Plus a coworker of Matt’s has invited us to a surprisingly affordable afternoon of live music on a sailboat this weekend. And in a week my sister will be here! So I suppose you shouldn’t feel too sorry for us just yet.

Other than that, I worked at the hospital all day yesterday, which is always sort of a grounding experience. Law school makes me more and more appreciative of going somewhere that I know at least some of the answers, and it helps me keep my perspective on “real life,” real people, and their problems, as opposed to what’s just book learnin’. Regarding the books, though, I did have a surprisingly fruitful session with the Writing Center afterward regarding my next assignment, which I’m hoping to do better on than I did on the last one (not that I’d exactly have to knock it out of the park to outdo a C+, but hey.) Tuesday I had my first law school test–a torts midterm–and, while I won’t know how I actually did until Thanksgiving, I feel like it went pretty well. Here’s hoping.

I still struggle with the seeming rigidity and and overall dryness of the first-year curriculum, and the urge to get back to grass roots and go to midwifery school or something instead–really get my hands dirty, both figuratively and literally–but I’m hoping to get involved with something this summer that will help me bring together all of my seeming disparate interests. The passion is there; the question is where to aim it. I’m trying to focus a little by getting more more involved with the Health Law Society and planning to work toward a graduate certificate in the same, which if anything I think will help tie things together for me AND my potential employers. There are a number of great organizations around, but in particular the Indian Health Service seems to present some interesting challenges dealing with obstetrics as well as sexual assault services, which would be right up my alley.

It’s also intriguing to think that maybe someday we might end up in someplace like Alaska or the Southwest or somewhere else that goes deeper to the heart of our hippie longings than, you know, Washington, DC. Obviously this is all in the very, very speculative stage, but I like to feel like our options are still pretty open at this point. I’m still grappling with my relationship with this place, and I think Matt is too; although I think he’s finding meaning in his work, and that takes some of the onus off of the location itself. I think our roles were reversed back in Iowa City, when I was working and he was in school, and I’m sure at least some of my nostalgic feelings about that place have to do with feeling like I was a working grown-up with some direction ahead of me.

At the bottom of all this, I think, is the question of whether I can have the kind of hands-on experience I find so exciting and gratifying in nursing, but have some measure of authority and power to move things in a forward direction. There are days I wonder whether I jumped ship on nursing too soon; if the answer is yes, do I go back and pursue the avenues, like sexual assault nurse examiner and nurse-midwife, that compel me now that I feel more solid in my nursing skills than I once did–or would I be just repeating the same mistake if I ditched law to go back into healthcare? It’s hard to know which matters more–the actual field I’m in, or just sticking with SOMETHING long enough to build up some influence. All issues for thought within the next few years.

On a related note, I’ve been reading the book Nursing Against the Odds, which I received when I joined the union in Iowa (which was an awesomely motivating experience!) but never actually had time to read as a nurse. You know it’s sad when statistics about the poor relationships between nurses and doctors make you feel all nostalgic for the good old days… But on the plus side, union work was one of the few things that made me feel like I might actually have the ability to strike the balance articulated above. In the union I had contact with veteran nurses who had the power to make hospital administrators piss their pants and hand over the money, and it was a beautiful thing.

But anyway…I’ve promised myself I’ll stick it out for at least a year before I make any big decisions. And of course, I’ll keep you posted.

What We Did (and Ate) Today

First we got up and went to yoga for the first time in awhile, which was nice. Our butts are sore from hiking, so it was good to have something force us to move them a little. Having worked up an appetite by the time we got home, Matt decided to try his hand at making biscuits from scratch, which turned out great. Cheap, fast, easy, and GOOD. So we scrambled up some eggs with the rest of our summer sausage and Meunster from yesterday and went to town. Eat your heart out, McDonald’s…and I’m not the kind of girl (as many of you know) who says that lightly!
As you can see, now we’ve got plenty for the freezer. This is a picture of them pre-cooked, but they came out nicely golden. Matt cut them with a drinking glass but we thought we might even use a small bowl next time to have more room for the eggy sausage-y goodness. We don’t eat meat very often, but as I told Matt yesterday, I think that if I had to pick, sausage would definitely be my favorite. (Yes, I realize sausage isn’t technically its own meat. This is coming from the person who was a vegetarian for 9 years and never craved a steak or a pork chop or a filet mignon…only cheese hot dogs and canned corned beef hash. It’s probably for the best that I stay away from it for the most part.)

Then I spent a considerable amount of time on my paper (that’s time, not necessarily headway, mind you, although in a way it feels good to be engaged with something a little more active than just the endless reading) while Matt busied himself around the house. What a guy. Courtesy of a rebate offer that makes our first bag free (though through the beginning or the end of October, I can’t tell from the rebate form), as well as our awareness that clumping clay cat litter may be pretty close to the worst thing in the world for the environment and our cats’ lungs and digestive tracts (and just perhaps, those of us who have been recently diagnosed with sensitive, allergic personalities), we’re currently trialing Feline Pine Scoop Cat Litter at our house. (To paraphrase the Bible: If thou wipest thine counters with thine old underwear, and re-useth the same plastic bread bag for lunch every day, but filleth thy litter box with clumping strip-mined cat litter therein, thou hast done very little good for the environment at all.) Feline Pine is basically made of sawdust with additional (optional–there is a plain version) clumping properties compliments of the guar bean. As my dad would snort, “Yeah, you give that a try and then you tell me how it works.” Well, that’s what we’re doing.

So far, it’s been in the litterbox for about six hours, and all appears to be well. There seems to have been some “activity” in there already, nobody is complaining, it smells like we’ve been running the table saw, and so far we haven’t found any unpleasant surprises anywhere else. We didn’t bother mixing it with clay litter to wean them off of the old stuff; we didn’t want to waste it and it seemed kind of pointless, knock on wood, since we have been VERY blessed thus far with two cats that are not at all fussy about the medium in which they do their business. Many of you may know Scratches’ propensity for making his displeasure known when we leave town for more than a day or two, but it has always been in the exact same place (the bath mat) for the exact same reason (we’re gone), and, thank goodness, has never extended beyond that or, heaven forbid, included urine. I did a fair amount of reading reviews ahead of time (because that’s kind of what I do) on brands like Swheat and Yesterday’s News and World’s Best Cat Litter, but the most unanimous reviews have so far come to Feline Pine. Of course, that means nothing until it works for our cats, so we’ll let you know what we think.

Later in the evening we headed out to the mall (twice in two days, who do we think we are?) where Matt picked up a new MacBook. We were going to wait until the insurance finished going through, as well as for the launch of Leopard (which, like the second coming, they say is coming any day now), but we’ve been borrowing a laptop from an extremely kind neighbor who gets back from India tonight, and all signs just sort of pointed to the fact that we’d waited long enough. The insurance should go through this week, and luckily, as a student I should have access to a reasonable price for the new operating system in case it doesn’t get launched within two weeks (in which case they usually offer a free or reduced-price upgrade). Matt was being very good and patient about waiting, but because my sharp clinical judgment had picked up on a marked increase in Mac-related ideation and wistful verbalizations within the past twenty-four hours or so, we decided to just go for it. Judging from his happy silence for the past hour or so, I think he’s glad we did.

While Matt got up close and personal with his new machine, I used up some vegetables we had languishing in the fridge and made stir-fry, this time with Lemon Herb Sauce. [Note: I ended up thickening the sauce with about a half teaspoon of cornstarch, which oddly enough the recipe doesn’t mention. It worked perfectly and was a nice, quick, light sauce, luckily made all of ingredients we already had on hand.] Every time we make stir-fry it’s so good, so easy, so quick and even healthy, I wonder why we don’t do it more often. We really should. It’s also pretty cheap. Even Matt–the loyal Wisconsite, the dairy farmer’s son, the quintessential cheese head, the eater of all things cheesy and dipped in ranch dressing–said as we ate, “You know, it’s kind of nice to have something without cheese on it once in awhile.”

Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?

Shenandoah

Rather than hitting the road early like we’d originally planned, we ended up sleeping in this morning to make up for other, shorter nights endured this week. We finally rolled out of bed about nine and decided it was too late to whip up anything for breakfast. Plus, we were out of eggs; plus, it had been a long time since we’d gone out for crepes. So we took care of that, were glad we did, and set out to drive to Shenandoah.

When we tried to get reservations a couple of weeks ago, camping in the park was already full. We decided that was okay and we’d just make a day trip out of it. On the way down, we stopped at a grocery store for some driving food –Triscuits, summer sausage, cheese and grapes–and enjoyed some finger food along with the scenery.

We also enjoyed listening to Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, an old favorite I’ve listened to many times but which was new to Matt. If you’ve never heard it, read by the author, it’s an experience I would highly, highly recommend. Keillor takes turns being raunchy, hilarious, poignant, and soothing, and his speaking voice and writing style are both amazing. The Cedar Rapids Public Library (still the best I’ve come across) always had it available, but this time we had to download it from Audible.com. It cost $7.49, downloaded quickly and loaded onto the iPod without any problems.
Once we got to Shenandoah (which took about 2 hours) there wasn’t as much fall color as we had hoped for, but the views were still nice, and we ended up parking and going for a 3-hour hike in the woods. It was really nice to be out away from the city, and the weather was great. We had a nice time getting a little exercise and chatting without any kind of deadlines for a change. I think we’re definitely going to make it a goal to try to keep getting out of the city on a regular basis– it’s really refreshing to us both.
On the way home from the park, we ended up coming across a vineyard and having a free mini wine tasting. The day just kept getting better!
By around 8:30 we were fantasizing about dinner, so we stopped to get some tomatoes and basil while we were out. Once we got home, Matt whipped up a quick batch of pizza crust and we made a pizza with crushed tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and basil (and, of course, lots of cheese).
And now we’re just happy to be back home. Tomorrow we’re going to go to yoga, I’m going to work on homework, and then I’m excited to have the week (mostly) off of school.

Nightus Interruptus

Not by a comet, actually, but by the earsplitting and unrelenting shriek of our fire alarm. We waited about five minutes for it to stop, but it didn’t, so we joined the rest of our apartment-mates, cold and disgruntled, out on the lawn at 3:00 in the morning. It continued for about twenty minutes, until Matt went down to the utility room and shut it off (way to utilize that fire-sprinkler background!). Somebody else called the management, who didn’t seem concerned, and then another person called the fire department (something we assumed would happen automatically, but which apparently doesn’t) and they finally came about 20 minutes later. We had barely settled back in between our warm flannel sheets (thanks, Mom!) and finished wondering WHY this had to happen on the first 40-degree night after months of being in the 90’s, before the hospital called around 5 to ask if I could come in earlier than the 3pm I’d planned. I ended up agreeing to go in at 11 because my classes had been canceled today (placing me OFFICIALLY ON FALL BREAK–well, sort of a break, being as it’s bisected by a midterm on Tuesday). I stayed from 11am until, unfortunately, 7:45pm, against my will–thereby stomping on our plans to go see the Imani Winds at the Library of Congress at 8. Matt took this, and the fact that he had to wait for me for half an hour in the parking lot (AGAIN), in characteristically kind and patient humor, for which I was grateful. Instead, we went to CVS and managed to walk out with two 12-packs of Diet Mountain Dew and a month’s worth of antibiotics, all for $5–and got a coupon for $5.50 along with our receipt. You have to love 24 free cans of pop, a month of free drugs, and a 50 cent profit to boot! We love that place!

Then we came home and made up for missing the concert by having a truly hot date: demolishing a pound of pasta with pesto.

Antibiotic, you may ask? Well, time for the long story about my face. A month and a half after first trying to get an appointment, I finally got in to see a dermatologist about the disfiguring/terribly painful/maddeningly itchy rash I’ve had FOR OUR ENTIRE MARRIAGE (going on over four months now, for those of you who are counting!). He was a charming old man from New York who showed me his banjo (literally) on the first date; when I asked him whether he could fix what was wrong with my face, his response was “Can I fix it, she asks? C’mon, getouttaheah!” His diagnosis? Atopy, aka an inherited tendency to be allergic and sensitive and itchy. It’s not rocket science but it does sound like it fits. The prescription? Steroids (prednisone, for a week) and antibiotics (Soldyne, for a month). So far I’ve only started the prednisone but I must say I think it already looks better. Maybe we’re finally turning the corner? Wouldn’t that be nice. Matt says he loves me and thinks I look beautiful either way, but I’d rather not have to worry that it makes him want to throw up in his mouth every time he kisses me goodnight and just treasure the sentiment instead. We’ll see.

But, without further ado, the moment I know you’ve all been waiting for…

Lasagna Pizza

Disclosure: Prep time is probably about 2 hours and cooking time is about an hour. So this is a make-ahead type dish, or in our case, one where you want to have a good amount of fresh bread and dipping oil and wine to tide you over till it’s ready. I think you could make it ahead and either refrigerate it or maybe even freeze it until you are ready to bake it.

Crust:
Olive oil
1.2 lb flour
1.5 cups tepid water
1/2 T yeast
Pinch of sugar
1/2 T salt
1-1/2 T Italian seasoning mix
Cornmeal

1. Combine water and yeast and sugar. Let sit until yeast is foamy.
2. Combine flour, salt, and seasoning until well mixed. Add to yeast mixture slowly. Adjust by adding more flour till the dough is tacky but pulls away from the side of the bowl easily.
3. Oil a large bowl. Put dough into bowl and roll around to cover with oil. Cover with a towel in a warm place to rise for at least an hour.

While waiting, make filling:
2 T olive oil
1-1/2 cups chopped onions
1 T chopped garlic
1-1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
4-6 cups washed chopped fresh spinach (approx. 1 lb)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper (SEE THAT, ONE-QUARTER, NOT FOURTEEN, TEASPOONS)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 T dried oregano
1-1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

You’ll also need for later: 3 cups canned tomato sauce

4. In a large skillet, heat oil and saute onions and garlic 3-5 min until translucent.
5. Add mushrooms and saute for 5 min. Add spinach, salt, black pepper, and saute for 3-5 min until spinach wilts.
6. Turn off heat and stir in eggs, ricotta, oregano, and mozzarella. Set aside.

Getting back to the crust…
7. Punch down dough, then roll it into a log. Cover the top side with a sprinkling of cornmeal.
8. Turn it over, press it down, sprinkle the other side with cornmeal, then roll into a rectangle slightly bigger than the pan you’re headed for.

9. Grease a 9×13 or even slightly larger casserole dish and drape the pizza inside it, working it into the corners and making sure it hangs over the edges. This is one deep-dish pizza, I’m warning you.
10. Then start alternating layers of tomato sauce, cheese mixture, and noodles, being sure to end with tomato sauce and fully cover all the layers of pasta (especially if you’re using no-boil).
11. Top with plenty of mozzarella, and Parmesan if you like.
12. If you’re using no-boil, cover tightly with foil and bake for about 55 minutes, taking the foil off and then letting the cheese brown for another 5 minutes. If not, just bake for 35-45 minutes or until bubbly.

We found it had a tendency to be kind of moist (little puddles on top) when we took it out of the oven, but it seemed to firm up a little after letting it sit for a few minutes. It’s tricky to get the first piece out without causing a landslide, but hey, it all tastes the same anyway. Serve with dipping oil/sauce/pesto for the crust, and a salad if you wanted to round it out and make it marginally healthier.
Plus, as we mentioned earlier, the flavor and texture both seem to improve as days go by.

And if you haven’t yet, you really should check out this site. They post prolifically every day and it’s just plain hilarious.

Perspective (and, of course, a recipe)

I took a little break from blogging because, to make a long story short, I was upset about a bad grade I got on a paper. Not so much upset about the grade as upset about the fact that I felt like I didn’t any feedback to help me do better next time. After about a day of feeling very morose and contemplative and irritated with law school in general, during which I pondered blowing off some steam with a blog post about it, I decided instead (OK, with a little help and encouragement from Matt) to figure out what I could do about the situation, made an appointment to discuss it with my professor, and did my best to move on. Part of what added insult to injury as far as the grade went (in the interest of full disclosure, I got a C+; the class average was a B-; though the only person I have any real amount of meaningful contact with got an A-, which skews my perception a little bit) for all of us was that the professor told us afterward that our citation skills needed to get a lot better if we were ever going to get onto law review (basically a kind of journal for the law school, which you can get onto by being within a certain percentage of the top students in the class OR by placing well in a writing competition that takes place in the spring). “And, I’ll be honest with you,” she said, “my classmates who weren’t on law review had a really tough time when they tried to find jobs.” Oh, way to kick us when we’re down.

Thinking about it, though, and taking a brief hiatus from studying to see what was up in the real world, I came across this article–which made me feel not only VERY motivated to count my blessings, but also made me feel very strongly that there’s still a lot of good left to be done in the world, and not just by people who make it onto law review. Considering her statement, I wonder if it wasn’t a kind of shorthand for “My classmates who weren’t on law review had a really tough time when they tried to find [the kind of] jobs [that the typical GWU law student is interested in, which involves either high levels of government or getting paid $160,000 a year].” To me, that read seems closer to accurate. So I’m trying to hang in there and keep a perspective on the whole thing, which is that I think anything I decide to do or any arena I decide to work in–whether healthcare, nonprofit, whatever–will be better-informed with a law degree. And thanks to the generousness of GW’s financial aid and a husband who brings home the bacon, it really won’t have cost that much to get it. So, I think, no matter which way I slice it, if I work hard and make it through to the end, I’ll be better off–or at worst, really no worse off–for it.

I’ve received a couple of requests for the lasagna pizza recipe, which is a hybrid of Matt’s beloved pizza crusts and a spinach-cheese lasagna recipe from The Kripalu Cookbook. I don’t have the exact proportions on hand here at school, but rest assured that I will post it soon. And as a bonus side note, we’ve agreed that it is definitely one of those foods that is even better as a leftover.

I can’t remember if I’ve ever posted the recipe we like for Brown Rice Mushroom Risotto, which I got out of Oprah magazine about a year ago (perhaps stating the obvious: while her taste in $1000 pashminas and other expensive frivolities aren’t of much interest to me, that woman knows her food). We love it because it’s so simple, easy, and really really good. This is how we make it:

Brown Rice and Mushroom Risotto
1 box (4 cups) Pacific Organic Mushroom Broth (you can also use chicken broth, but we love it with mushroom)
1 cup water (you can also just use 5 cups of broth; since the mushroom broth comes in 4-cup boxes, we just find this the easiest)
1 package (or about 2 cups) mushrooms, washed and sliced
2 cups long-grain brown rice
2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
2 T butter, divided

1. Bring the broth/water to a boil. Add 1 T butter. When melted, add rice.
2. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, saute mushrooms in remaining butter about 5 min or until they release their juices.
4. Add mushrooms/juices to rice mixture, add Parmesan, and combine well.
5. Serve immediately.

Serves probably 4-6, depending on how hearty an eater you are.

YUM. They also have an asparagus version, which I’d like to try in the spring, and a seafood version (shrimp, scallops, lobster tail), which doesn’t fit in well with our current seafood aversion, something I’ll let Matt tell you about sometime.

Otherwise, tonight we’re thinking about going to an open house at Women for Women International, a great organization through which we’ve sponsored various women in Iraq, Afghanistan, and several African countries. You pay $25 to pay for vocational training and other services for one woman, your “sponsored sister,” so that women in war-torn countries can become self-sufficient. It’s very cool because you also get to exchange letters with them. I participated in the program before I ever had any idea I’d move to DC and now it’s very cool to have the opportunity to actually interact with the organization.

Otherwise, I think that’s all for now.

Weekend Over

Friday night was our (biweekly? semiweekly? I can never remember which way that works) shopping trip, which went well. We spent a total of $74 at Aldi, mainly on staples (flour, eggs, carrots, potatoes) and dairy, with the idea of supplementing that with some fresh local produce from the Eastern Market. Our goal is less than $50 a week for groceries, which works better some weeks than others, but on the whole we’re doing pretty well. We’ve found that the more we can pare down to ingredients vs prepared foods, the more bang we get for our proverbial buck. I also found a new website this week that’s right up my alley, The Frugal Law Student, which seems to be the gateway to a community of people who think like I do, at least on certain topics.

Saturday we spent the day in Virginia. After a quick trip to the Eastern Market, we headed out to a barbecue being held by one of my law school professors for the 100+ members of my section, plus significant others. We actually had a really good time (imagine that!), and it reminded me of some of the more positive aspects of law school that I need to be thankful for. It’s not all professors who would take on hosting 150 hungry people in their homes and thus burn up a Saturday afternoon. We talked with several people and got our bellies full.

After that, we drove further west to an area we’re strongly considering moving to next year. It would be exponentially closer to where Matt works, about the same distance from my school, a little bit cheaper, quite a bit bigger, and quite likely lots safer. All tempting factors, given that we are fed up with the crime, choking on the bills, tired of commuting, and according to Matt, too big to live in our current apartment. While I/we initially suffered some angst about the idea of being part of the “white flight” out of the city, and leaving behind all the glorious diversity and opportunity and culture we were heralding so excitedly just two short months ago, I’ve realized that we also have to be realistic. If I ask myself what have been the two biggest detractors to our happiness in the past two months (which are admittedly slight–on the whole, we couldn’t be better), it would have to be the crime and the commute. By all accounts, just about anywhere in Virginia is safer than the southeast side of DC, and Matt’s 1.5 hour commute would turn into more like 20 minutes. That means more sleeping in, more cooking in the evenings, more time to do the things that matter to us–including head back into DC for events we’re really interested in–as opposed to time spent jostling with other people on a train. And, insanely enough, buried somewhere in the midst of our desire to move someplace a little bit safer and more stable is the bizarre, absurd, and totally unforeseen notion that all of a sudden we can *ahem* maybe kind of sort of consider the possibility that we might not NOT have kids someday. OK, I’ve said it… moving on…

Today I worked from 8-3:30, which was really kind of nice. I’d offered to work evenings but they asked if I could come in for first shift, which starts at 7am…which is really kind of prohibitively early when we’re coming from so far away. (The hospital is yet another thing we’d be closer to if we moved to Virginny.) So I hedged a little bit and they said “Well, what about 8?” SOLD. So I’m actually picking up a few more such shifts later in the month. It’s nice because I get to come home when it’s still light and have dinner with Matt and wind down a little bit, as opposed to when we get home after midnight if I work 2nd shift. While I get a lot of incredulous comments about working while going to law school, and I’ll admit it eats into my ability to flop on the couch for hours before I do my homework, which would admittedly be nice, the financial benefits and the ability to feel like I almost know what I’m doing at something are a huge motivator for me.

Work today was busy but good, and then it was home to make our long-awaited lasagna pizza–which came out really good, but holy crap, that is one filling meal. We are stuffed like sausages. OK, we may or may not have filled up while it was cooking on homemade bruschetta (Matt adapted his famous pizza crust recipe into an amazing herby bread which we then dipped into a concoction of diced tomatoes, olive oil, freshly ground pepper and basil) and our first bottle of wine in a good long time. After that and a thick, doughy, tasty slice of lasagna pizza each, we were practically comatose on the couch, and each of us with a fair amount of homework to get through yet. We managed to slog through it, but it’s about 9:30 and boy, I’m ready for bed any minute.

TGIF

‘Nuff said.