Tender Thoughts

I had to participate in a school project for my 6 year old nephew Kendall. His first grade class is reading the book Flat Stanley and Flat Stanley was sent to me in the mail so that I could show him around my city. Washington, DC. Flat Stanley and I had a very busy day yesterday. He listened in on a work conference call with me and then we walked around viewing the monuments. We took pictures together near the Tidal Basin, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and then made our way over to the Capitol and the White House. Flat Stanley wanted to play with Malia and Sasha, but I told him they were in school and weren't available. We had lunch at a great deli downtown that I will be frequenting again. That chicken salad sandwich was some kind of good!

Flat Stanley didn't want to be sent back to Mississippi, but he had to go. He didn't even mind the cold considering he had no jacket on. Just a shirt and tie. Sorry, Stan. I had a good time with Flat Stanley and I can't wait for Kendall's class to hear about Stanley's adventures in the nation's capital! I even printed out digital photos to send to Kendall. Something I hardly ever do. Only for the babies in my life.

Glad I read this Delta Sky magazine. It had a promotion code for free WiFi for first time users. Go me!

I'm excited about my first trip to Vegas! The veterans are going to show me the ropes.

Glad to help my girl T ring in her 40th! You look good!

Initially, I didn't like Chicago's infamous Garrett's popcorn. I got the wrong mix. Butter and cheese. Ugh. Now I know the Chicago mix is where it's at. Caramel and cheese. Won't make that mistake again.

I LOVE Chicago! I almost moved there after graduate school.

My Luther playlist on my iPod is the bizness!

No person in the middle seat on this flight is pure bliss. I can't put my laptop on the tray table in front of me because the person in the seat is 'leaned back'. Hmph. So I'm using the tray table for the middle seat.

The lady in the window seat is fidgety. She doesn't do long haul flights well.

I had to check two bags and I didn't want to. The agent could have let me slide with being 2 lbs over the limit. I asked her how much was the over limit fee. $90. Arruuuu?? Excuse me? What happened to $50? I immedietely removed my toiletry bag from my big suitcase and checked it for an additional $30. Sigh..... $50 total for checked luggage. On my dime.

Plane ticket and lodging for Vegas. $38. $28 for lodging at the timeshare and $10 for the plane ticket. Yep.

I hate I forgot my Netflix movies. I need to finish watching Season 5 of The Wire.

I'm going to read Push while in LV. I hate the movie didn't open in DC this weekend. Wish it was showing in Vegas. No dice.

Peace!

The other night I was talking with my mother and I told her that I was going to make a roast that evening. I haven't had roast since earlier this year and I was craving it big time. I love the aroma a pot roast gives off while cooking. Perfect for this fall weather. I explained to her how I learned about "stuffing" a roast from her. When you sliced into my mama's roast, the smell of garlic cloves and parsley wafted through the air. Mmmmm....I can smell it now. The way she stuffed her roast was by cutting small slits throughout the roast and literally stuffing the slits with a small clove of garlic and some fresh curly or flat leaf parsley. She said if she didn't have fresh parsley, she would use the dried variety. I cook my roast like this as well, but I also stuff some sliced onions in there, too (unfortunately, I didn't have any parsley - fresh or dried). In addition, I'll flour the roast and then sear it for a few minutes on each side in olive oil. This helps to make a nice thick gravy in the pot the roast is cooking in. I used my crock pot this time around. Usually I cook it in the oven with potatoes and carrots. Didn't add veggies since I already had some frozen vegetables that I was going to steam. I do season the outside of the roast with sea salt, ground black pepper, basil, cayenne pepper, and Creole seasoning. I also added some Adobo as well. It turned out GREAT! This time I used beef, but I'll cook a pork roast, too.

My mom has schooled me on how to make red beans, cornbread (none of that Jiffy stuff!), dressing, meatloaf (NO KETCHUP...tomatoe paste and stewed tomatoes are your friends), and greens. I didn't really COOK until I went away to Iowa for grad school. Hamburger Helper, anyone? There were hits and misses, but I would always call home and ask my mom "Why doesn't my _____ taste like yours???" and she would have pity on me and give me a cooking lesson over the phone. The one thing I just can't get right is potatoe salad. I've tried and tried and tried. I have given up that mine will never taste like Daff's (my mom) and I simply don't fix it anymore. When she came for Thanksgiving two years ago, I cooked everything but that. She was on potatoe salad duty.

My mom was my teacher in the kitchen and like most people we think our moms' cooking is the BEST! Do you discuss cooking techniques/recipes with your mommy?

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with my internist. I go to her every three months or so to monitor my high blood pressure. Oops...I need to go pick up my prescription tomorrow. I called it in last week and I keep forgetting to go get it. My BP was in a good range yesterday and my doc said that the exercising along with the diuretic must be producing postive results. My goal is to get off of the pill a day. I will do it!

During my visit, my doctor asked me if I had ever had a body composition analysis done. I asked her did she mean like a BMI check with that instrument that pinches your skin. Noooo...a full body composition of how much of your weight is muscle and how much is fat in addition to where the fat and muscle is distributed throughout your body. Nope..never done that. "Do you want to?" "Yes!"

I stepped on this machine and after a few bleeps and colorful displays, a page was printed and all my innards were analyzed in living color! In short, half my body is muscle and half is fat. NOT GOOD. I need to lose the fat and maintain the muscle. In essence, I do not need to gain any more muscle. I'm well hydrated (yay!) and my lean muscle mass is on point. However, I do need to lose MORE weight. Upping the cardio and paying more attention to what goes in my mouth!

Tonight when I was working out with my trainer, I gave him my results from the body composition analysis and he said "We can do this, but YOU have to commit to doing it. Working out and then eating bad is not going to get the weight off you." I know...I know. I have been gaining and losing the same 10 lbs for several months. One thing that made me smile tonight while I was sweating my hair out was that my trainer noticed that I'm getting a six pack! Ha! He could see it through my t-shirt. He hates paying me compliments because he knows my head SWELLS! I need to whittle my waist some more and blast that lower ab fat and PA-DOW! Y'all ain't ready. But give me a few more months, ok.

I suggest you get your body composition analysis done. It's good to know and will help you develop a better body.

Friday after work while I was waiting to begin my facial at this new spa for Spa Week, I was reading this article in the November issue of Marie Claire magazine. I've heard of the sex slave industry in Third World countries before, but I think my heart broke while reading this article because I'm currently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and the treatment of women in this book is akin to how these young girls were treated as sex slaves in Cambodia in the Marie Claire article. Just sickening.... The mother of the young girl in the article sold her daughter to a brothel! I cannot even fathom! And to think, this is STILL going on. Girls as young as 5 years old are made to have sex with grown ass men! This makes me ill. One part of the article mentions how if the girls didn't comply with having sex with the johns, that the pimp would crush up hot chili peppers and shove them in the little girls' vaginas. Y'all...Y'ALL! How horrid is that???

Please go read the article if you haven't and let's discuss.

P.S. - Are you glad I'm back? I wasn't gone that long...was I?

This month's issue of Real Simple magazine is featuring a month's worth of week day meals. They have even provided a grocery list for each week so that the recipes for that particular week utilize all the ingredients you've bought and perishable items are incorporated into the meals that are earlier in the week. How noble of them, huh? It is, but I'm not following the plan. I'm picking and choosing which recipes I want to make. I cook for one and eat lots of leftovers. No need to cook EVERY night for 4.

On Monday, I made the tilapia with peppers and olives. Quite tasty! I also had an additional side of red cabbage. I ate this for dinner on Monday night and then for lunch yesterday. It's a winner! Especially if you like green olives like me!

Recipe:

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 6-ounce tilapia fillets
kosher salt and black pepper
2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup pitted green olives
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions

1.Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Season the fish with 1⁄4 teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook until opaque throughout, 4 to 5 minutes per side.

2.Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a second large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the peppers and onion, stirring often, until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the olives, parsley, lime juice, and 1⁄4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Serve with the fish.

In a former life, I was a medical school student. Yes, I was going to save the world and provide free health care to all. Or more affordable health care, that is. I did my time studying microbiology, biochemistry, dissecting dead bodies, and making honors in my neuroanatomy class (the brain is my favorite organ in the human body). I ain't no dumb chick, but suffice it to say my divine calling was not to be an M.D. after all.

While I was donating my A+ type blood to the Red Cross on Friday at work, the movie playing was Sister Act 2. Y'all remember Lauryn Hill (come back, Lauryn, come back!) was in that joint, right? She was Rita and did the intro to the Joyful, Joyful song which was my favorite part of the movie.

I know you are asking how does this relate to you having been in medical school, giving blood, and the title of this post? Each year in the spring, the medical school I attended put on what was called Med School Follies. Each class (M1, M2, M3, and M4...1st year med students, 2nd year med students, etc) prepared a skit to present at Follies. My M1 class decided that we would recreate the song and dance for Joyful, Joyful. I wish I had a video of us to show you all. We were doing it! Rehearsals were a hoot! We had so much fun! And we won! With it being medical school, we had to change all the words in the song to medicinal terms and all that jazz. Not hard at all and the lyrics were banging! I was in the main group of dancers and at one point in the song, two of my classmates and I were front and center doing the dance where you put your hands up like you're pointing guns and then snake back like you're going to touch the floor. We thought we were on Soul Train! Couldn't nobody touch our smart asses! LOL!

Since I don't have a video of the M1 class from 93-94, I'll let Lauryn and the gang do their thang for you. Enjoy!

I'm sick and have to get on a plane back to Maryland. I knew I was coming down with something when I woke up on Sunday with a scratchy throat. I just fixed some tea and lay back down til it was time to go to the movies. Monday morning I still had the scratchy throat. Last night in the hotel, I got the sniffles. I woke up this morning planning to go do at least 30 minutes of cardio in the hotel gym, but no dice. My head was pounding and I was/am congested. It was 8am and my appointment wasn't until around 10:30 so my head hit the pillow and I went back to sleep for an hour. My flight leaves at 2:10 and I can't wait to get in MY cool bed. I hate traveling when I'm under the weather. A-CHOOOO! Ugh.......

By the way, Springhill Suites by Marriott are the BOMB DIGGITY!

Hey folks! I know it's been a minute and I promised you all that I would post more often. Let's see...what's been going on in my world since the last post.

Labor Day was simply relaxing. My friend Tawanna and I rented a car and drove to Charlotte to meet her sis and her family and then head to MYRTLE BEACH! We had a wonderful time and stayed at a fantastic resort - Ocean Creek. The balcony of our condo overlooked the beach and the views were AMAZING! I was a little scared that the summer was going to get away from me without me seeing some sand and surf. While in Myrtle Beach, I also was able to reconnect with a friend from my days in Iowa. She and her husband have been living in MB for about 8 years and every year I would promise that I would come visit. I FINALLY did! Myrtle Beach is looking to be the spot of next year's Labor Day getaway. Fun!

I've been on the road a lot in the past several weeks for work. I love it! I'm racking up a few airline miles since I have all my hotel points converted to miles. However, with Hilton, I get both. Double Dipping!

I broke my streak of not going to the movies this summer (actually since Mother's Day weekend) by going to go see the new Tyler Perry movie. I think I'm going to start treating myself to a movie a week. Sundays may be movie day with myself. I like that.

My heart aches for that Yale student that was killed. So terrible. She never made it to her wedding.

Cincinnati seems like a nice place. Has a Riverfront. Too bad I'm only here for a day.

My sister's birthday is tomorrow...well in an hour. Happy Birthday, Mary!

People always think they KNOW me and they don't. However, their perception is their reality, right?

I can't wait to celebrate a friend's birthday in Vegas on the cheap! You hear me..on the CHEAP. As in $28/pp for SEVEN days. One word. Timeshare. Yeah, baby!

I'm evolving.

I love my job.

I love my life. Even when I'm not where I want to be in it at times. I'm where I am for a reason. God knows best.

Thanksgiving is around the corner. My favorite holiday.

I'm looking forward to seeing a friend for the first time in October for her birthday. She's a true ANGEL.

I'm looking forward to a friend coming back in town. She's been gone too long.

Holla!