Birthday Celebrations

April was a crazy month for birthdays! I have several friends and family members who were born in April, and we all took part in our fair share of birthday festivities. I turned 22 on April 25th, and my sweet friends and family were so creative and generous when it came to celebrating!

Day of birth with Mama and big brother!

My birthday was on a Saturday, so I was able to go home and celebrate with my parents and my brother. We have a tradition in our house of decorating the dining room table for the birthday person, so it was fun to wake up to the birthday hat/ sign/ balloons and gifts. Birthdays are lots of fun at our house!  My mom always buys a Princess cake for my birthday, and this year was no different... except she forgot to take it out of the fridge and I was already back at school by the time she remembered. Too funny!

That Saturday also happened to be the Saturday that one of my best friends was celebrating her daughter's1st birthday. I was so happy to spend time with my friends from home and to celebrate Paityn's 1st!

Leigh and I at Paityn's party

After the party I picked up my roommate in Berkeley and we headed back to school. We met up with Annie for dinner at Hula's Island Grill, a Hawaiian bar and restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz. I had shrimp tacos which were delicious and then they surprised me with a piece of macadamia nut ice cream cake. Linnea and I shared it (poor Annie is allergic to nuts), and we both loved it.

At Hula's (I promise, I'll get a camera at some point!)

We headed back to our apartment afterwards for some champagne, flourless chocolate cake and movie watching. Miss Congeniality is one of my favorite movies, and it was totally appropriate because the perfect date is"...April 25th because it's not too hot and not too cold. All you need is a light jacket!" :)

Pure chocolate heaven. Thank you Linnea!

The following weekend we went out to Rosie's Irish Pub, also downtown, to celebrate with some of our other friends who were out of town the weekend before. We had some tasty appetizers before Annie's boyfriend, Christian, insisted that we take a spin on this crazy bike cab. It was hilarious and we were all dying of laughter when we got off. We felt bad for the poor guy who had to lug us around, but he insisted that it was no big deal because apparently he used to ride it around the hills of San Francisco. Impressive!

I don't think you can tell, but this thing had bubbles streaming out the back.

I am so grateful to have such loving and generous people in my life. I don't know about you but... I'm feeling twenty twoooo! Couldn't end without the obligatory TSwift reference!

Extended Spring Break: 2015 Edition

After the intensity of last quarter, this one feels like an extended vacation. School has been much more manageable and I am truly enjoying my last few weeks in Santa Cruz. Graduation is exactly one month from today! 

As a part of my Winter Quarter finals week delusions,  I spontaneously decided to buy round trip tickets to Las Vegas. I finished my thesis, completed my last GE and was more than ready for a break! I wanted to get the cheapest tickets, which just happened to be for the week after spring break, but luckily it fit around my class schedule. 

My saint of a father drove me to the airport at 4am (thanks Dad!) and I arrived in Las Vegas bright and early. I love going to Vegas because I have quite a few friends who live there, so I am always able to stay with them instead of paying for hotels. I get to spend time with people I love and save money: win win! 

We did some pretty touristy things including a visit to The Linq, a couple trips to The Strip and of course we ate lots of fantastic food.  

View of the Linq during the day!

 We also went to Fat Tuesday's, because what Vegas trip is complete without it?!

Don't worry, this was shared between several people

Drinks with friends! 

We also got to visit the restaurant where our friend works at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. They had some delicious food, and these awesome drinks. There were actual flecks of gold and silver in them!

Drinks at Mozen. 

The Mandarin Oriental is seriously impressive.

Philly cheese"steak" made with mushrooms at Skinny Fats

 Sushi (pardon the dark iPhone photos)

I had my first all-you-can-eat sushi experience which I was a tad nervous about since I'm not a huge fish/ seafood fan. The amount of sushi some of my friends can put down is impressive. Luckily my experience was more about trying new things, and it wound up being delicious!

Elated! 

Last but not least, we had to do the obligatory gambling excursion. I am not big on gambling and I'm a firm believer in the $5 limit. I've never had much luck with gambling, but this time I got lucky. I put $1 in a quarter slot and I was so shocked when the machine started dinging that I thought I broke it... But no! My friend took a Snap of my first "big win" :) 

Shifting Gears

After returning from Vegas, I went and picked up my favorite pups, Tujague and Cricket so they could come spend the week with me in Santa Cruz while their owners were on a work trip. We had a great time exploring the trails and visiting the dog beach. Cricket was such a ham! He kept swimming out and trying to fit multiple tennis balls in his mouth. He could only figure out how to make it work with two at a time. Tujague, who's 11 now, had a good time wandering around too, but he's not much of a runner these days. He's much more content to lay by my feet while I work. 

That nose! 

Unexpected Connections

I know my posts have been few and far between these days, and totally focused on school, but I'm hoping to get into a more regular blogging routine starting in April. Sometimes it's hard to sit down and write, even if it's enjoyable, after reading and writing for school all day. I'd love to start posting more recipes, glimpses at my weekly meal planning and more about transitioning from college life to working life. I'm getting so excited about my post college plans, which I will share more of once they are solidified!

Anyway, this quarter I am taking a European intellectual history class with my favorite professor. It's different from most of the Euro classes I've taken in that we are focused more on great thinkers and the works they produced. It almost feels more like a Lit or Philosophy class. Regardless, I am really enjoying it! Last week, we were talking about John Stuart Mill, an English author and modern thinker. He spent the first 20 years of his life in an environment in which rational thought was obsessively pounded into him by his father. He had a mental break down when he was 20, and it completely changed the way he thought about life. Essentially, he realized that his happiness is derived from a mixture of both rational and emotional thinking, a combination of romantic and enlightenment principles. His cross discipline thinking was what made him unique.

Our professor posed one of Mill's thoughts and it immediately stood out to me because of my own personal experience. He said, "Will doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people truly make me happy?" It has been almost exactly a year since I felt as though I had hit rock bottom. My 2nd and 3rd years in college were incredibly challenging and I struggled with severe depression and disordered eating. I was solely focused on the needs of others and it was detrimental to my own well being. While I did derive a certain sense of gratification from being able to help others through their own difficulties, it took a massive toll. Without getting too deep into it (we'll save that for another time), I had a breakdown where I basically asked myself the same question that Mill did. After a lot of tears, sleepless nights, anxiety and a panicky phone call to my dad at 5am, I decided that I needed to take a step back. I needed to relinquish my constant need to feel in control of everything, and let others take the reigns. It's odd to think about it now because even at that point, I was constantly preaching task delegation, asking for help etc, but it was so hard for me to take my own advice! 

This post got to be a little heavier than I intended, but I couldn't believe how accurately Mill's breakthrough mirrored my own. I am not perfect and I still have moments where I try to take on too much, but overall the past year has been tremendously freeing. School still proves to be one of my greatest challenges. The way in which our education system is structured often makes me feel inadequate, and I am constantly reminding myself that there are immensely valuable lessons that lie beyond the walls of the classroom. I am so grateful for the opportunity to pursue a higher education, but I think the lessons I learned from university education do not fit the mold of a classic academic. Nonetheless, they are extremely valuable to me as I have learned to trust myself and recognize that what everyone else wants for me is not always what I want for myself. 

And that is your Friday Brain Dump! Can you tell that I am more than a little bit ready to be done with college in less than 5 months? :) 

How to Write a Thesis in 60 Days

JUST KIDDING! This is NOT going to be a "how- to" post because quite frankly, I'm terrified that I won't be able to do it (the post, or the project!). You would think, or at least my department thinks, that after a solid three years of taking multiple writing based history classes per quarter, I'd have some idea as to how to write a thesis--> with run on sentences like these, I should be there in no time...

Back to the point: I am taking my senior exit requirement this quarter, in addition to my last GE requirement (Intro to Logic), and an Upper Div on European Intellectual History. The theme of my Seminar revolves around Jewish History in Eastern Europe. In addition to reading a book a week for discussion, we are supposed to be doing our own research on a topic that falls within the confines of the class. Welp... It's week 3 and I have yet to nail down a research project. I wake up everyday thinking, "Man I really need to get started on this. I'll get right to it after I workout, shower, throw in the laundry, finish that one book, turn in that homework assignment, go to class, get home from work... blah, blah, blah... Facebook!" Unfortunately, that's actually how most days go.

From the beginning I kept thinking, if I can just write 5 pages a week, then I'll have plenty of time to edit and revise. But that means I'd be having to do a enough research every week to produce 5 pages of original material, and that seems hard to manage in addition to all the other stuff I've got going on. Every single day feels like one step closer to Dooms Day, yet I still haven't made much progress... Okay, any progress. There is an incessant devil v. angel banter going on in my head ranging from "Yes, I can totally do this, it's only 25 pages, like a short chapter in a book" to "HOLY S*#T, I CAN'T WRITE 25 PAGES, THAT'S LIKE A CHAPTER IN A BOOK!" <-- insert 10x as much profanity.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is this: Tonight I was washing dishes and a thought came to me. What if I approach the writing as if I would approach running a marathon (not that that's happening anytime soon, we're still in Couch to 5K land over here.) Here's the idea: I have 63 days until my (minimum) 25 page paper is due. If I can alternate between researching one day and writing 1 page the next day regarding said research, I could definitely write 25 pages and still have about 2 weeks at the end to revise and edit. Two weeks might not sound like much, but to this "crank-out-a-12-pager-24-hours-before-it's-due" girl, 2 weeks is like a blissful eternity. I'll see you on the other side!

In other news, I've started volunteering at the hospital and it seems like it's going to be an awesome gig. I spend a couple hours in the ER a few times a week, helping to register patients and accommodate visitors. I also deliver specimens to the lab, push wheelchairs and make sure people are comfortable in the waiting room. It can be a little intense at times, especially when it's busy, but the staff seems to really appreciate the extra help.

Life Lately (Christmas 2014)

Happy late Christmas and early New Years! Things have been go, go, go this month and I've barely had a minute to sit down and catch up. I finished my last Fall quarter (scary thought!) with a few festive events and holiday get togethers, in between working on final papers and projects.

CKI Meeting with Monica :) 

Celestial Seasonings Peppermint Tea Cupcakes. SO good! 

Almost done with Fall Quarter! 

Our school mascot in its natural habitat 

There's always lots to do during these short stints away from school (dentist visits, doctors appointments, old friends to see, kids to spend time with etc.) so it's been busy, but very rejuvenating and productive.

Christmas Eve was spent at church, as per usual, and it was so nice to see some old friends from childhood. We have a tradition that's been going on for over a decade, where our youth group friends head to Denny's for "Christmas Breakfast" after the late service on Christmas Eve. Sadly, our "spot" closed down this year, so one of our youth leaders generously bought food and brought it to be enjoyed at church after the service! We got to see lots of familiar faces and catch up with our friends. I'm so grateful to Karl for finding a way to carry on the tradition, we all had a wonderful time.

Random salad, trying to stay on track over break! 

Christmas morning was very relaxed and quite pleasant. The four of us sat around opening gifts, digging through our stockings and chatting. We also talked to some of our family on the East Coast which is always a treat. I got a lot of really sweet and thoughtful gifts this year including some holiday teas from Celestial Seasonings (I have been searching high and low for these!), a new tea infuser plus two new flavors from the Republic of Tea, another favorite tea company. My dad got me a beautiful necklace with a clock face incased in a glass bubble. It reminds me of a time turner from Harry Potter! My brother also gave me a very generous Visa gift card so I could purchase my Blogilates Fit Planner for 2015. I'm super excited to check that out as soon as it gets here!

Dad in his new "driver's hat" from mom

Posing with my twin, and looking like I was the one who spent the entire night delivering presents ;) Ha!

It's really hard to selfie on an iPad (Brother, me and Mama Bear!)

Tujague has been thoroughly enjoying his time at home :)

Despite the craziness of the holidays and all the running around, this break has actually been fairly relaxing. I've been doing lots of hiking with loved ones since I have to take the dogs out for a spin at least once a day. Cricket, the "puppy" has been having the time of his life!

Our hike today, can you even see the trail?!

Thankful and Four Things Blogger Survey!

Hello! It's been awhile, but I've successfully made it through midterms. The past few weeks have been filled with lots of highs and some significant lows. It's been a little exhausting, but I'm soaking up every second of this long weekend. This post is kind of a brain dump/ photo overshare so I apologize in advance for any incoherence!

I went home last weekend to housesit and hangout with my favorite pups. We wound up having a very low key Thanksgiving dinner a week early and I made my first turkey, with a little help from my mama! I also finished up a little early Christmas crafting. Annie, Linnea and I decided to make felt stockings which was really fun and they turned out super cute. I've also watched Love Actually an obscene number of times in the past few weeks... I love that movie!

That's a King size bed they're taking up. 

The sweetest old boy. I love this dog more than words can express. 

This girl needs to work on her embroidered lettering skills... Eek!

My beautifully browned birdie 

Other than that, I've been spending a lot of time volunteering at the Homeless Garden Project Store. The shop is open for 6 weeks (late November until Christmas) and it's beautiful. All of the products are made by local artists and vendors, and many of the products are made using flowers and herbs from the Homeless Garden here in Santa Cruz. The HGP works with people who are experiencing homelessness to teach farming and agriculture skills. It's an amazing nonprofit and it's been so wonderful volunteering in the store. Sometimes I go in just to take in all the aromas.

Wall of dried flower wreathes

I tend to hang out right here, it smells like HEAVEN.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Despite things being difficult at home, there is still so much that I am grateful for. My family, good friends, deep belly laughs, group texts (all those long distance friendships need to be maintained), human relationships, time (to clean my kitchen, not even kidding), my car, community, and so much more. I spent yesterday with the family of two friends (they're brothers). We helped out at a soup kitchen serving food to the community for a good chunk of the day. Then we hung out at their house and had a delicious Hawaiian dinner before heading out for Black Friday shopping at the Great Mall with more friends. I am so thankful for their family's graciousness, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving!

On a completely different note: This survey has been floating around lately and I couldn't pass it up. I love these things!

Four names that people call me other than my real name:

1. Gracie (real name is technically Grace)
2. Graceface  
3. Grizzle (my college girlfriend's all have "street names" LOL) 
4. Facie, Dacie, Gacie and several other r-less versions of my name (I spend time with a lot of kids)  

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Babysitter/nanny: One of my favorite jobs, and the way I support myself in college
2. Assistant Preschool teacher 
3. President/ Lieutenant Governor for Circle K International: Most time consuming positions I've ever held as a volunteer, but also the most rewarding. Wouldn't trade it for the world 
4. Student advisor for a nonprofit benefitting undocumented, first generation and low income students. Also, an amazing job that allowed me to work with a group of incredible high school and college students passionate about education. 
5. Fun Fact: I've held all of these jobs at the same time! 

Four movies I’ve watched more than once:

1. New In Town
2. Elf
3. Love Actually
4. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist  

Four books I’d recommend:

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns
2. Sarah's Key
3. It Starts With Food 
4. After Her--> Takes place in my hometown. Very creepy but so enthralling

Four places I’ve lived

1. San Pablo, CA
2. San Anselmo, CA 
3. Fairfax, CA
4. Santa Cruz, CA 

Four places I’ve visited:

1. England, Ireland and Wales (all one trip)
2. Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Almost all of the U.S. states!

Four places I’d rather be right now:

1. Playing in the rain somewhere
2. Drinking coffee in a cozy cafe
3. In my bed (just kidding... I'm already here!)  
4. Big Basin, by a fire place, listening to JP Cooper. I just discovered him and he is amazing!

Four things I prefer not to eat:

1. Ketchup (holy YUCK) 
2. Fishy fish 
3. Fresh pressed green juice (The last few times they've been awful) 
4.  Cottage cheese 

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Pasta
2. Banana bread 
3. Peach yogurt 
4. Chicken satay with peanut sauce 

Four TV shows I watch:

1. New Girl 
2. Disappeared 
3. Gilmore Girls (relieving middle/ high school) 
4. Grey's Anatomy 

Four things I’m looking forward to this year:

1. Graduating from University  
2. Traveling a little bit
3. Moving somewhere completely new for nursing school?! 
4. Going to see my cousin's band in January when they come to SF from New York (check them out, The Hot Sardines) 

Four things I’m always saying:

1.  I love you! 
2. Linsom, guess what?! 
3. Why am I so easily distracted...?
4. Frick on a stick (don't even know where we came up with that but my roommate and I use it a little too often).

Four people I tag to answer these questions:

1. You
2. You
3. You
4. YOU!

Halloween Recap and Shepherd's Pie

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween weekend and was able to thoroughly enjoy that extra hour of sleep on Sunday!

After class on Friday, I came home and worked on homework for a few hours before realizing that my costume was still a bunch of individual pieces. Linnea has been talking about dressing up as a giraffe since before last Halloween, and she definitely wins the costume contest this year. With the help of the thrift store, and some serious dedication, she came up with this awesome costume. She painted the tights and the shirt herself!

 I was struggling a little in the costume department. I gave the tutu and ears a little test run at a Halloween themed meeting we had earlier in the week and decided to call myself a "party animal." My friend Natalie sent me a text when she saw the pictures and said that my get up totally reminded her of Marty, the zebra from Madagascar. Thus, my new costume was born! You can call me, Marty the Party Animal! #creativity ;)

Recognize those paint samples from a previous post? 

We went to Annie's house for a little while before heading downtown. In Santa Cruz, they close down the main street and everyone parades around in their costumes. We saw awesome group costumes including a Human Beer Pong set up, hoards of Zombies doing the Thriller dance and even some people on stilts. It was pretty crazy, but we wound up back at home before midnight. 

We were all pretty exhausted after an intense week of school 

On Saturday morning I got up bright and early to head to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Watsonville, about 15 miles south of Santa Cruz. Along with a couple other Circle K members and several people from the community, we packed 2,800 bags of non-perishables to be handed out this week. And it only took us a little over 2 hours. It went by way too fast, but it was a great way to start off the day! 

The crates we filled on Saturday morning! 

Sunday was very low key. I slept for nearly 11 hours which I was not expecting to do, but I think my body really needed it.  We went to the grocery store and I picked up some ingredients for Shepherd's Pie along with my usual haul for the week. I glanced at an ingredient list before heading to the store, but when it actually came to preparing the meal, I totally winged it. After an 8 hour stint in the library, I decided I wanted to get to work in the kitchen and I think the recipe turned out really well!

iPhone photos don't do it justice! 

 Shepherd's Pie 
Note: The ingredient amounts are just approximations. I am terrible about following recipes and I tend to just eye ball everything. I need to get better about that, please forgive me!

• 1/2 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 yellow onion (diced)
• 1 cup Frozen Parisian carrots (TJ's)
• 1 cup Frozen Peas
• 1 cup Frozen Green Beans
• Approximately 30 rounds of Frozen Mashed Potato Medallions (TJ's)
• 1/3 cup of Beef broth 
• 1/2 cup loosely grated Cheddar Cheese
• 2tbs Butter (to be used at various steps in the process) 
• Salt and pepper (to taste) 

1. Melt 1/2 tbs butter in large skillet on medium heat

2. Add onion and ground beef, add salt and pepper to taste

3. When the meat is mostly cooked through, add carrots, peas and beans (you can use pretty much any vegetable medley. Next time I might add some corn)

4. Pour in enough beef broth to cover the bottom of the pan, cover and let simmer until vegetables are fully thawed. 

5. While the "filling" is cooking, line your baking dish with biscuit dough (I used the pre-made crescent roll dough from TJ's). This will serve as the crust.

6. Mashed potatoes: You can make your own, or take the easy way out and use the TJ's potato medallions. I just prepped mine in the microwave and mashed them with a fork (and the rest of the butter) when they were done.

6. Fill your baking dish(es) with the beef mixture and spread the mashed potatoes over the top to cover the mixture. Grate cheddar cheese over the top

7. Place in oven at 350 degrees for approximately 35 minutes (or until cheese is very lightly browned) 

The final product. I promise it tastes better than it looks! Very hearty and it totally hit the spot in terms of comfort food! 

The only baking dishes I had were the brown clay roasting dishes (pictured above) I got in Mexico a few years ago. Portion wise, I would say this recipe allowed 4 very generous helpings, though it will probably look more like 6 for me! You could also bake this recipe in muffin tins if you want individual pies, or in a larger casserole dish. Enjoy!