A New Favorite Restaurant

Hey everyone,

I hope you had a fabulous weekend! I definitely did :) Even though my mom was only here for 2 days, we got so much done!

I made breakfast for both of us this morning. We joked that we'd have a perfect system--I'd make breakfast and she'd make a delicious dinner ;) This time, the apple spice oats had LOTS of cinnamon in them:



She agreed that it definitely made a difference! A little while after breakfast, we went out to Kiwanis park to walk around. There were some pretty flowers:






A James Bond duck who looks like he's wearing a tux:



And a heron:



Look at its long neck:



We came back in time for me to register for classes when my slot opened at 12pm. I got all the classes I wanted, and my schedule looks awesome! The classes are right in a row so I don't have to stay there all day. On monday and friday, I'm there 9-12. Tuesday and thursday I'm there 8-12. Wednesday is my only long day where lab keeps me there from 9-3:30. I don't know if I'm going to do harp studio. I think I'm going to have time to join the pre-PT club and try and get some volunteer experience in. I'm taking the same number of credits (16), but my schedule is much more condensed.

After that, my mom and I checked out this restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes on a tip. Um, this place was AWESOME! It was an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar with a gazillion toppings! They also had bakery items, froyo, and pizza/pasta. But the salad bar was the shining star. I got these two plates:



All of this was just $8.50! At Whole Foods, this amount of food would have been like, $20. In my salad I have iceberg, romaine, and spinach, bell peppers, mushrooms, cabbage, cucumbers, pickles, kidney beans, beets, butternut squash (the thing that looks like cheddar cheese), peas, corn, pickles, and lowfat honey mustard dressing. I also got a little bit of this bartlett pear and walnut salad--it was amazing! The walnuts were carmelized and delicious.

The website for Sweet Tomatoes is here. I'd definitely check it out if there's one near you! My mom and I have added this to our list of favorite AZ restaurants, along with Green and Pita Jungle :)

After lunch, we went shopping! Michaels has some really fun christmas stuff, and we found a little 4 ft tree with multicolor lights on sale for $14! Since I'll be in AZ through December 16, it'll be nice to have my own little tree at my apartment.

After shopping, my mom and I had massages at Massage Envy. They were lovely! My mom also bought me a rosemary and hibiscus plant. She seems to have faith I can keep em alive--I killed a cactus by overwatering it, though! Haha, I'll do my best but I definitely don't have my mom's green thumb.

I drove my mom to the airport around 5. It was so much fun having her here, and I'll be going home for Thanksgiving pretty soon. This weekend definitely boosted my spirits and got me ready for the week :)

I had a chocolate yogurt for part of my dinner.



I had my mom try some of the frozen chocolate yogurt when she was here, and she loved it! I hope she'll make it at home now. It's so easy-- plain yogurt with cocoa powder, cinnamon, stevia, and optional chocolate protein powder. Mix to taste, then freeze :)

I wanted some peas, corn, and carrots on my salad since it was so good at the restaurant. So, I set out to heat up the veggies. My freezer takes freezing very seriously:



I couldn't break off a piece with any amount of smashing the bag on the corner of the stove. So I microwaved the whole contents of the bag til I could break off what I wanted, then put the rest of the veggies back to be super-freezed again. My salad:



With Annie's honey mustard dressing. And some leftover brown rice, too:



I was productive tonight and I did my laundry, too! I've gotta start studying for my bio test on thursday, though. I'm definitely thankful there's no school wednesday!

Q: What's your favorite restaurant?

In Michigan, my favorite restaurant is Seva, a local vegetarian restaurant. In Arizona, I love Pita Jungle and Green for a quick vegetarian meal. But this new Sweet Tomatoes place is high on the list! What about you?

Don't Sell Yourself Short

Hey guys!

I hope your weekend is going well. Mine is great! My mom's out here and we've been having a really good time. I picked her up at the airport last night and this morning I made us breakfast. My fridge was pretty dang bare since didn't manage to make it to the grocery store yesterday. Get this--I was out of cinnamon!!! That's a huge deal for me cause I use a ton of cinnamon on everything.

So apple oats this morning were high on the cocoa powder and sans cinnamon. They were still good, but they weren't stellar. It's a good reminder how important cinnamon is! Haha



After breakfast, we went shopping at Target and then the grocery store. We hit up the restaurant Green for lunch, since it's one of my mom's faves out here.

I had the Jerk Tofu Salad:



It was delicious! I love how they cook their tofu. I do wish that their "big" size salad was bigger, though ;)

My mom had the Thai Peanut bowl with noodles:



She loved it and I had a taste, too. Again, their tofu is deliciously chewy and the glaze was really flavorful.

Then we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens. I took a lot of pictures:











My Mom next to this freaking huge cactus:



My favorite:



It looks like some kind of alien thing!

I saw a bunny:






They also had a cool butterfly exhibit:







But one of the best things of having my mom here was that I got an amazing home-cooked meal! My mom made tuna steaks with a soy sauce and sesame oil glaze, roasted half a squash, and a ginger tangerine brown rice. I made us salads ;)




I filled the squash with some of the rice mixture, and then I put half the tuna over my salad :) It was a delicious meal! Thanks, mom :D

At first I didn't want my mom to come out cause of the plane ticket money. But it's actually a lot easier this year since she can stay with me (no roommate issues) and doesn't need to book a hotel. And I also have a car this year, so we don't need a rental car. It's been really refreshing to have her out here, and I'm super glad she came :)

Oh, I also have major news!! So, for my Kinesiology degree I need to take pre-calculus. I had taken general math when I was a music major, because that was all that was required for the Arts degree. But Kin actually has a lot of math in it. I've never been awesome at math. I had a huge science AND math roadblock in middle through high school--I didn't think I could do it. And since I wanted to be a harpist, I used that as my excuse. I said I just wasn't cut out to do science or math.

It took falling in love with exercise science to overcome those self-imposed limits. And I learned I really could be good at science--my old nemesis chemistry included! I sucked at chem in high school but I took Chem 101 last year in college, loved it, and got an A. Go figure.

So I had confidence that I could do well in pre-calc, but there was a problem. I had to take a timed unified math placement test and get a pretty high score in order to qualify for the class. I only had 2 chances, or else I had to take Alegebra at a community college--and receive no credit--before I could take the class. Um, hell to the no.

My adviser was pretty adamant that I needed to take pre-calc next semester, but I hadn't taken the placement test. I took it Senior year in high school for my freshman math, but I scored relatively low on it--too low for pre-calc, at least.

So Thursday night, I decided to just get it taken care of. I spent 3.5 hours going over the online refresher workshop, and working through the practice test. I have pages and pages of problems and formulas written out to prove it! ;) I managed to get 87/132 on the practice test, and I needed 75+ to get into pre-calc. I decided to take a leap and take the real online test, since it was fresh in my head (even though it was 10 pm, haha). I got 93/132! Way over the 75 cutoff. I haven't been that proud of myself in a long time! Math has always been a huge mental roadblock for me, and it felt great to finally get through those barriers.

So that was super long, but I wanted to share. And I also wanted to say that you should never let roadblocks like that get in the way of your dreams. You're capable of a lot more than you know! A lot of the "limits" we put on ourselves aren't our actual limits. It's easy to say "oh, I can't do ____." And if you really want something, you'll find a way to get through the barriers. Even though I was scared of math, I wasn't going to let it stop me from being a kinesiology major. And I know that sometimes we do have actual physical (and mental) limitations--if you've had multiple knee surgeries and a subsequent loss of mobility, you probably won't ever be able to do an Ironman. But don't sell yourself short. If you've always wanted to play the violin but you just aren't "musical," just give it a shot and don't hold back! I bet you'd surprise yourself.

Ok, sorry for the random pep talk ;) But I feel that a lot of the time we place all these false limits on ourselves and our abilities. I went into music because I did think I wanted to be a harpist, but I also thought that music was the only thing I could do. Seriously. I thought I was only good at music and would only ever be good at music, so I had no choice. Obviously things turned out a little differently ;)

So for the QOTD:

Q: Is there anything you've wanted to do, but felt like something was holding you back? What was it?

Like I said, at first I thought I couldn't be any kind of science major cause I just wasn't good at math. Not true! I was also afraid of going to new exercise classes, cause I thought I wouldn't be good at the skill--like kickboxing, step, and bosu. They've been challenging, but even when I mess up a bit, it was never the catastrophe I feared in my head ;) And I know that for many things, the limits are valid--I want to eventually horseback ride again, but the whole time, money, and location thing is kinda stopping me ;) I'll do it eventually, though! What about you?

Fun With Google Search: Round Two

So I think it's definitely time for a light-hearted post--which calls for another round of Google Q+A! All of these search phrases were entered by a bright individual, and somehow led to my blog.

"muffin mania pumpkin muffins recipe"

I don't know what they're talking about, but I'd just like to say I read that as "muffin mafia." Wouldn't that be a good indie band name?

"asu lab practical muscles"

holy crap that's kind of scary! Haha, hi ASU lab person. Hope you did well on that practical. I did alright--much better than the bones one ;)


"candy corn lessons"

Wait, what kind of lessons now? Ok, so Michiganders might know what I'm talking about here. When I read this, it reminded me of the Greenfield Village activities where you learn how to make candles and soap and other historic fun activities. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Greenfield Village is a hisotrical museum that has a lot of fun activities for kids, and they'd have these awesome workshops. So probably cause I'm sleep-deprived, I pictured a bunch of Pioneers teaching people how to stack together the orange, yellow, and white pieces of the candy corn. The order is important, you know ;) Seriously though, wtf are "candy corn lessons?"

"nastiest harry potter candy"

Oh, I remember those Harry Potter jelly bellys from a while ago! They had some pretty gross flavors! "Earwax" and "Barf" stick out in my mind.

"Can I create a pumpkin with flowers"

Um, I don't think so? Maybe some sort of backwards Cinderella fairy god-mother could help you out. Instead of a carriage from a pumpkin, maybe she could work flowers into a pumpkin? Other than that, you're out of luck.

"teacher tanlines"

Creep alert!!!

"my moms tan line"

HIGHER CREEP ALERT!!

"what is the tallest halloween costume for 6/11 tall man"

I don't know, but I'd probably go with The Jolly Green Giant.

"what hurts more a broken wrist or rib"

Looks like someone's in a fight with their hospital buddy...

"WHERE TO FIND JUSTIN'S NUT BUTTER IN SAN DIEGO"

I totally understand your urgency! I love the maple almond butter myself.

"wet ninja love"

Ok, I think this one tops the "teacher tanlines" on the creepy scale. But not the "mom tanlines!" I promise you won't find what you're looking for here. Thank goodness!

"popcorn is good for bones"

Um, not so much. You might be better off with a calcium supplement or some yogurt ;)

"www.armpits.com"

Wait, why did you even search that?

We have two different types of people showcased here:
A normal person: "why is there a shortage of libby's pumpkin"
Someone like me: "WHY IS THERE A SHORTAGE OF PUMPKIN"

And it's cause of a bad crop. But don't freak cause it's still possible to find it!

"megalazy"

Ouch! They found my blog searching that? ;)

"why is it good to have strong bones?"

Okay children, time to put on your thinking caps. Hmm, maybe cause the human body doesn't work too well when your bones shatter?

"candy corn salad"

Ok, as much as I love candy corn, I gotta say it-- Eew!

"as nervous as a pickle at a picnic"

Oh my gosh, this is my new favorite expression. I have no idea what it means or what it's from, but I love it!

"things to make with flowers"

Is this the same person who wanted to make a pumpkin out of flowers? Why do they have so many flowers??

"eat live run tuna steak"

Haha, love the lifestyle philosophy ;) That sounds like a blog name gone wrong.

"google giggles"

The ONE person who actually may have found what they were looking for.

And cause this is also a food blog, here ya go:

Apple Oatmeal:

Packed snacks:

You can see I took this pic at 6:55 in the morning! That's my coffeemaker's clock in the corner

Salads:



Dr. Praeger's veggie burger



Morningstar Grilled chick'n patty

I did get some cut n' ready green beans at the grocery store. Even though it costs a bit more for convenience, it can definitely be worth it if you're strapped for time or exhausted after a long day.

With spray butter, salt n' pepper, minced onion and minced garlic

Pumpkin tea:

I really like this! Especially with a touch of stevia. I'm not a big tea person-- I kinda have to force myself to make it. It usually doesn't sound all that appealing, but when I actually start drinking it, I love it! So weird.

I've gotta go clean up my apartment, since my mom comes to visit tomorrow! Her flight gets in at night. This weekend should be fun! :)

Q: Are you a tea person? If so, what's your favorite kind?

Like I said above, I like the pumpkin tea. But I also really like the Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea. It's so yummy!

Things Have to Look Up Soon

Hey guys,

Oh my gosh, I had a terrible time these past few days. I think everything's gonna be better now, but wow. Lonnnng story short(er), I had a hip pain relapse. It got pretty bad, which was frustrating. But here's the main story-- and please, be my guest and skim this. And I thought my cadaver story was icky!

So last night, I'm getting ready for bed in the other room, and I hear my toilet start bubbling. Weird, huh? So, I flush it to try and make it stop bubbling.

Bad. Idea.

Toilet overflows and the water gets EVERYWHERE. The water looked clean and everything, so it was lower on the gross factor. But that doesn't change the fact there's water all over my floor. So I grab towels and then a bucket to scoop the overflowing water into the shower. Remember, it's all clean water. So then I try unclogging the toilet, which obviously didn't work cause it wasn't clogged. Toilet almost floods again. So I scoop more water into the shower.

Then I realize the water in the shower isn't draining. Weird. So what do I do? Call my parents and freak out, of course.

Ok, skipping ahead... I live in a small apartment complex so we don't have 24-hour emergency hotline, just one nice landlady. So I decide to call her in the morning. But I notice that throughout the night, there got to be more water in the shower. And it was turning a nasty murky color, and it smelled.

So at 6 am I get up, dressed, and drive to McDonalds to use their bathroom. Like I said, we're a small apartment complex. There's no public bathroom anywhere on the grounds. Since I'm not familiar with the McDonalds around here, I happen to pick the one McDonalds that locks their freaking bathroom and you have to buy something and ask for the code to use it. So I buy a small coffee and get the code. It's 687, fyi. I wonder how often they change it... At McDonalds, are you a customer for a day or a customer for life?

So I get my coffee which I don't even drink cause I don't want to have to pee. Then I drive back home and call the landlady. Apparently the neighbors backed up the main pipe and she and her plumber there couldn't fix it. So then this plumber guy came and saved my life at 7:20 in the morning. I wanted to marry him, but he was in his 60's. But I seriously felt like Christmas came early this year. I disinfected that shower so much, but I'm still scared to use it now!!

So after ALL that, I had to rush off to PT. I was dead tired cause I didn't sleep all that well (gee, wonder why). The one highlight was that my PT asked how I did on my anatomy test, and I guess he was impressed. He said that if I needed volunteer hours at a PT for school (which I totally do), I should come hang out there. Score!!!!! That made my day!

So after that I went to class, then the grocery store, and then my harp lesson. Now I'm finally back at 8:00 pm. It was a looong day.

Ok, so I definitely don't blame you if I killed your appetite with that story. Sorry--I wasn't exactly in a foodie mood, either. Here are some eats from the past few days, though.

Quick breakfast today:



Toast with dark chocolate peanut butter and sliced apple. What, you thought I got a McGriddle while I was at McDonalds? ;) I think this tasted better.

Cereal mix + pretzels with vanilla protein powder + almond milk:



Dr. Praeger's texas veggie burger salad:

With honey mustard dressing:



And ketchup + BBQ sauce:



Popcorn:



With all my recent phone breakdowns, I managed to freak out my mom enough that she booked a flight to visit this weekend. I told her a thousand times she didn't need to come, but it will be nice to see her. I'd love to come home, but I don't have the time to travel. Plus, Thanksgiving is soon. And I'm thankful for plumbers!!!!

I hope you're having a much better week than I am! But now I'm gonna be positive cause things have to start looking up, right?

Q: What's your favorite crayon color?

My absolute favorite is cerulean blue. It's the prettiest color ever!

Where's My Extra Hour?

Hey guys,

I hope you had a fun Halloween. Mine wasn't all that great. In the morning I found out this morning that my grandpa is in the hospital with broken vertebrae in his neck. He's having surgery this morning. I really wish I could go out there and see him, but it's a 4 hour plane ride on short notice. It's horrible being so far away, and I feel guilty and worried.

I was also bummed I can't run in this fun Halloween race I did last year. I'm sick of my stupid hip injury. It's getting better, but SO slowly.

On the one bright side, I did get a fun Halloween card from my girl K.



I can't wait to go back to Michigan and do a bloggie meet-up. Thanks for the card, girl!

I did end up going to the Y and walking on the treadmill, which made me feel better. I did a few little slloooowww jogging spurts (5.0 speed) but stopped when my hip started to get tired. The whole left side was tired, like I said, and and the end it got a little tight, but there was never any hard and fast pain. So that's good! I ended up doing 45 min and 2.5 miles. Not quite the sub-22 minute 5k I wanted that morning, but whatever.

I also went to WF yesterday and got some neat stuff--and more importantly, restocked my barren fridge.

I wasn't in the mood for anything that night, so I went to bed early. Good thing is, I got 14 hours of sleep and I'm feeling more optimistic. I know-- 14 hours! Told ya I went to bed early, as it's 11:30 here right now. Oh, and we didn't get an extra hour like all you other lucky people. For some reason, Arizona doesn't do Daylight Savings Time. I still could have used it!

So I'm about to go off for some retail therapy at Kohls. Actually, I just need the clothes, haha! Don't worry Dad, I'll be a smart shopper ;)

Food time now:

I'm out of PB & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams pb, and I couldn't find it at any of my regular stores. I spotted this at WF yesterday, and picked it up as a replacement:



The verdict? Well, it tastes delicious! Like chocolate frosting. It's a little bit smoother and more liquidy than Dark Chocolate Dreams, so it didn't stick to my spoon as well in the oats. But it's certainly a fine replacement! I'd get it if you see it. They also have a chocolate almond butter one.

Here it is on my apple oats:



I had to hold up the spoon because it sunk and disappeared into my syrupy oats!

This here is my new favorite Cocoa/Cacao powder:



Again, I couldn't find my Ghiredelli cocoa powder, but they had this one at Whole Foods. It has a really rich and pure chocolate taste, perfect for chocolate oats and choc. yogurt.

Since it was Halloween, it would have been almost sacrilegious for me to forgo pumpkin. So I made a faux-yo (thanks K for the term!) meets pumpkin pie creation.

First step: mix yogurt, canned pumpkin, stevia, cinnamon, and cocoa powder:



Second step: Mix it all together:



3rd step: Freeze it. and Fourth step:



Enjoy!

Important note: Make sure when you're mixing it together, you make it taste a little TOO sweet. This is key! Some of the sweetness gets lost when you freeze it, so when you make it a touch too sweet, it'll be perfect once it's frozen.


Dr. Praeger's salad:



Pumpkin oats with pretzels on top:



And coffee with Coffeehouse Classics vanilla foam and cinnamon:




Sooo, welcome to November, guys! This means the neighbors are gonna have to start enduring all the christmas music I'll be playing on the harp. Silver Bells is my fave! ;) And to K and all my Michigan readers--it's almost time for nonstop christmas music on 100.3 WNIC! Your home for the holidays! ;) Haha

Q: How do you feel about how early Christmas "starts"?

I admit, seeing the full tree display October 25 in Target was a little weird. Course, it probably seems more out of place cause I'll never get used to Christmas in the desert! But I looooove Christmas, and I think anytime after Nov. 1 is game. What about you?

[Insert Clever Title Here]

Hey guys,

I'm pretty exhausted and way ready to go to bed! Definitely too tired to think of a cute title--believe me, I tried. I hope your week has been going well--Friday's just about here! I know I'm excited :D

I got a 44/50 on my muscle lab practical, which is an 88% and pretty good for that kind of test! It's super scary cause you walk around the room with a clipboard and piece of paper with 50 lines on it. You only have 1 minute at each station, where you have to answer 2 questions. They're either identification questions with a plastic model/computer image/real cadaver, origin/action/insertion questions or problems. You don't get any sort of answer bank, except for a handful of multiple choice questions for word problems. So it's pretty nerve-wracking!

I knew all the cadaver images, but there were a lot of plastic models that didn't look like the real thing and tripped me up a bit. Funny story, though--so we had some identification questions using an actual cadaver. They were pretty tricky muscles--one was in the arm, and there are a bazillion arm muscles. Same with the neck! We went around the room once, and then the instructor said we could put on gloves if we wanted to touch the cadaver. Well, I certainly didn't want to touch it! But I couldn't really be sure which muscle was which just by looking.

***WARNING: I just remembered this is technically a food blog, even though I just treat it as a "life" blog. Um, if you're eating, have a weak stomach, get grossed out easily, or don't want to read about a cadaver-- skip this part! Haha***

Soooo, I sucked it up and put on the gloves. There was this muscle in the leg that was tripping me up, so I was trying to identify the surrounding muscles like the gracilis. It was totally gross, and smelled so bad, but I wanted to do the best I could to figure it out. So then I take my hand away to write down an answer, but I see that there's cadaver juice on the fingers my gloves!! Eeeewwww!! I realllllly didn't want to get it all over the clipboard and pencil. So I'm looking at my clipboard and pencil, and looking at my gloves, and looking at my pencil, and looking at my gloves. The instructor noticed and started laughing. He was like, "you can get it on the clipboard, I don't care." Haha

You can bet that right I turned in my sheet and took the gloves off, the pencil went in the trash with 'em! No amount of soap and water could make that pencil "clean" in my mind ;)

***Alright guys, the gross part is over! You can read now ;)***

I also had that harp masterclass today. I ended up deciding not to play. I was going back and forth if I wanted to play or not, and I just didn't feel all that ready. Plus, a lot of other people did want to play, and who am I to deny them their chance? ;) The class was longgggg, and someone had the bright idea to bring 10 elementary school kids to that 3 hour class. Um, bad idea. I was getting restless, so you can just imagine how they were! I'm glad I didn't play. I thought I might regret it, but I totally don't :)

Now for the food!

Honeycrisp Apple Oats:



The little white specks in there are from using a little bit of vanilla protein powder. It was good!

Fall Cereal mix:



Kashi puffed cereal, Kix, pretzels, unsweetened vanilla almond breeze, vanilla protein powder, stevia, cinnamon, and candy corn. As you can tell, I like things simple. Or not ;) Yogurt mix with this cappuccino protein powder, cinnamon, and stevia:



Two ways. Slightly frozen:



And unfrozen:



I love freezing it because it's like froyo, only I feel better about eating a lot of it ;)

Ready to be packed for school:



I sometimes buy salads at school when my backpack is just too heavy or full to add a ton more food. I don't like the dressing choices they have there (Kraft ranch, italian, thousand island) so I bring my own in a little condiment container I got from amazon.com:



Then I put the container in a plastic bag to be safe. It's worked pretty well so far! But I do like the salads I make at home better:



Dr. Praeger's tex mex veggie burger this time. It's slightly spicier than the california one, and I really like it!

And my fave popcorn combo:



Remember how I don't do simple combos? Yea, this has popcorn air-popped in my microwave, kashi puffed rice cereal, a crumbled kamut puff cake (like a rice cake but better!), and pretzels. Made sweet n' salty by adding stevia, salt, cinnamon, and a dash of pumpkin pie spice. Perfect!

Oh, I also found out that I aced my psychology exam I took Monday. Like, total ace: 40/40. I was pretty surprised! There were about 3 questions I wasn't sure on. I really like that class though, and the teacher is hilarious. I guess the information has been sinking in-- this morning when I was talking to my mom about whether or not to play in the masterclass, I told her I had a total approach-avoidance conflict and I was vacillating ;)

Q: Do you prefer simple food combos or those with more ingredients?


As you can see, I tend to lean towards the more ingredient combos. With that said, simple combos can be great, too! For example, a simple banana + nut butter is way high on the tasty meter. What about you?

Return of the Pumpkin Oats

Hi everyone,

Whew, what a day! I actually made it through today a lot better than I thought I would, though. It was a looooong and busy day.

I woke up at 6 and had pumpkin oats for the first time in a while this morning:



1/3 cup oats
1 cup pumpkin
Cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice
Stevia (Nunaturals brand)
A little vanilla protein powder
Justin's Naturals Maple Almond Butter

It was definitely good, but weird that I didn't have those crunchy apple pieces in them. Haha

I had a PT appointment at 8, which went well. But they worked my quads a ton, so now my legs are really sore! The hip is getting much better, though.

I had a pumpkin yogurt snack before I went to class:



With cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla protein powder and pretzels.

After I got back, I went to my History of Science and Biology lecture. A pretty awesome thing happened in Bio. So, the professor announced that there was this textbook company making a new anatomy & physiology book, and they gave her 15 copies of this chapter on muscle physiology. They wanted people to read it and fill out a questionnaire with their thoughts--in return for a $25 amazon gift card! Um, ca-ching!! Problem was, there were only 15 copies... for a 450 person class! Only about 350 were there, but I was still in the middle of the lecture hall. But right after class ended, I bounded up there to try and get a copy. There were a ton of people crowding around, but I managed to stick my hand through the crowd and grab one of the last copies! That definitely brightened my day. Plus, maybe it'll help me learn muscle phys. better. You know, I think this should happen more often ;)

I brought an apple, yogurt, and got a fruit cup while I was at school. When I got back I had a big salad with a Dr. Praeger's california veggie burger and Annie's honey mustard dressing:



I know there was also more unpictured stuff I had today, but I can't even remember. It's been a long day, haha.
I grabbed my music and harp clothes (we have to dress up for lessons) before I went back to campus to meet with my old friend from music school. We went to Starbucks and I got a decaf Americano, cause apparently they don't brew decaf after a certain time. It was really good to see him--I've definitely been out of the music school loop :)

Then I had my harp lesson. It went relatively well this time. She wants me to play in this masterclass on Thursday, which I'm not too thrilled about. But it's also not a huge deal. I'm mainly concerned that the class is 3 hours long. That's a whole 2 hours too long! ;)

I got back at 7:30 and now I'm all about making sure I've got the muscles (with origin, insertion, and action) down! It's been a really long day, and I hope I do well on the lab practical tomorrow. I've got a delicious Zevia to help me study:



Wish me luck!


Q: Are you a cat person or a dog person? Both? Neither?

I like cats as long as they're not psycho. But of course, psycho-anything isn't fun! My family has never had a dog, but I think having the right one would be fun. I always wanted a husky or a samoyed, but that'd be cruel in Arizona! What about you?