Living the Florida Life

I love living in Florida.  3 years ago when I accepted a job down here for the winter, I was convinced that I would hate it, but there's just something about this place.  I love the palm trees, and I love the sunshine.  I love the water, the wildlife, and the salty breezes.  Just yesterday Simon and I went out paddle boarding for a couple hours, and while we were out there we saw a dolphin, two manatees, a spotted sting-ray, and tons and tons of birds.  When we got back to where we were parked, I wandered out into the water to cool off for a bit.  I noticed that there was an osprey circling around me, and I couldn't help but feel creeped out with each pass that he made above my head (and no, I'm not talking about the Osprey helicopter/plane).  I could have sworn he was looking at me.  There were a few times that he swooped down low, and I thought for sure he was going to impale me with his sharp talons.  I turned to Simon to see if he had a read on what was going on, and he said, "There's a probably a fish in the water and he wants to get it, but he's not coming down while you're standing there."  So I got out of the water and stood on the beach.  No sooner was I a few feet from where the waves were crashing did that little bird dive in the water and come up with a big fish.  It was insane.  I've never been that close to a bird while it was hunting prey.  He was so close to me that I could see all his markings, both of his big yellow eyes.  I could even see the scales on the fish as it struggled to free itself.  Unfortunately the bird was far more prepared for the hunt than the fish was, and off they went, probably back to the nest.  It was so neat.

After we were done boarding we went to have lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger, a burger place on Sanibel Island that is absolutely fantastic.  I can't believe we've never eaten there before.  I got a burger topped with onion rings, chopped garlic, BBQ sauce, bleu cheese, bacon, and mushrooms...it was one of the best burgers I've ever had...definitely top 5.  And I've noticed something...three of my top 5 burgers all have onion rings, bacon, and BBQ sauce on them.  :)  To compliment my fantastic burger we ordered a basket of fries and onion rings along with two dipping sauces, one was creamy jalapeno and the other was zesty horseradish.  We had homemade Dr. Pepper and also had an Oreo cookie shake, and both were very good.  One of our coworkers at the hospital works part-time at Cheeburger, so we went there while she was working and she explained how all their food is prepared fresh on site, and that very little is frozen...you can definitely taste the freshness in everything.  I know that Cheeburger Cheeburger is a chain of sorts, so if there's one in your area, go to it.  You'll love it.

I continue to struggle with my job at the hospital.  I took on the role of charge nurse of our unit this year, and it's been a challenge.  Like most areas of healthcare, our hospital is faced with the task of making the most out of as little possible, while being completely overwhelmed by legions of sick people.  I don't necessarily regret my decision to be a charge nurse, because I feel like I contribute positively to our unit in that role, but I do get very frustrated with some of the choices the management has been making in regard to our unit and to the hospital as a whole.  It's not possible to provide good patient care when we don't have the staff to do so.  Period, bottom line, end of story.  Unfortunately this problem isn't unique to our hospital, it's everywhere...although some hospitals have it worse than others.  To say I've been making a stink down here is probably an understatement...I've been making such a stink that I feel I'm walking the fine line between having a job and being fired.  I don't know that I'm actually going to get fired, but that's probably the only way they're going to get me to be quiet if they don't start making some changes.  Making a stink wasn't a decision that came easily to me, and it's taken weeks of soul-searching and brain-storming to get to this point.  In the end I took some random advice that I'd heard somewhere along the line: If something is bothering you, either do something about it or quit complaining about it.  And that's kind of been my thing lately.  Decide which things are worth fighting for, and which are not.  If it's not worth fighting for, get over it and move on.  I decided the patients and my coworkers were worth fighting for, so a stink was made.  We'll see if anything comes of it.  I hope things change.  If not, maybe this place just isn't for me.  All I know is that things don't change if you don't set about to make them change.  Sitting around wallowing in self-pity and negativity doesn't accomplish anything.  Someone has to get the ball rolling, and maybe that person right now is me.  I guess we'll see.

And that my friends is it!  A short little blog.  :)

What's My Age Again?

This “getting older” stuff is the pits.  I’ve reached the age where when I see someone take a tumble on TV, I immediately think of how much that would hurt before I realize how funny it is to see someone fall.  And I should clarify that seeing actors fall is funny because it’s staged and it’s fake...seeing people in real life fall is not...real people actually do get hurt.  Chris Farley falling through a table used to have me in stitches, but I see it now and I think to myself, “he could have gotten a chunk of wood right in his eye!  Or his liver!!”  But then the sense of humor kicks in and it’s funny and I’m no longer thinking about chunks of wood in his eye...or his liver.  I notice aches and pains more and my first response is that there’s something wrong.  I never used to have aches or pains so it must mean I need to go to the doctor to be checked out.  I asked Simon the other day if he ever has random, unexplained aches and pain, and he looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Yeah...all the time.”  So it’s not just me.  It’s normal to have aches and pains because I’m getting older.  I get that part.  But then of course my mind just can’t let it go and I have to obsess over what is a “normal” ache and pain and what is an “abnormal” ache and pain.  And there’s really no answer to that because everyone is different.  So I sit here with my aches and my pains, trying to trace them back to a specific injury or incident.  Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t.  Sometimes I’ll ache for a few days and then it’ll be gone all together...sometimes replaced by a new one, sometimes not.  Frequently I don’t even realize that the first ache has disappeared until the new one shows up.  And part of this whole obsession with aches and pains is my irrational fear of cancer.  I guess this day and age it’s not really an irrational fear, but thinking that every ache and pain is somehow connected to some underlying cancer is somewhat irrational.  I just don’t want to be one of those people that ignores the signs, you know?  Like the person who had the stomach pain for three months and never went to the doctor, or the person who finds a lump or a bump and just thinks it’s a mosquito bite, or the mole that wasn’t there before.  I try not to think about those things too much because it’ll drive me crazy, but I also want to be proactive.  If there’s something big and ugly going on, I want to catch it when it’s little.  But...I can’t spend my life trying to prevent something that might not even happen in the first place.  

It doesn’t help that all this breast cancer awareness stuff has got me constantly thinking about how awful it would be to get it.  Every time I see one of those pink ribbons on something I try to remember the last time I did an exam, and did I actually take the time to do it right.  It makes me paranoid.  Maybe I should just have an elective bilateral mastectomy and be done with it.  But then I would be paranoid about something else so it’s best just to keep them around for time being.  When I was younger, I remember hearing that my grandma had had breast cancer and that she had to have one of her breasts removed.  I found that to be really confusing because Grandma always had two boobs.  There must have been some mistake.  This was of course when I was too young to know about implants or prosthetics. Then came the day when I stopped in to visit her unannounced and she was still in her nightgown, and the missing boob on her frail little frame was so very evident of her struggle with cancer that it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it.  To think about getting the diagnosis in the first place, to weighing her options for treatment, to knowing that she was losing part of what it is to be a woman.  Thinking about how she always wore that little prosthesis makes me sad.  Did she wear it for herself or did she wear it for everyone else?  Maybe it was a little of both.  When I start spiraling out of control with all this cancer stuff, I try to take a step back and think about something else.  Like shopping...or how much I hate picking up dog poop...or how I would love to eat chocolate chip cookies every day (oh wait, I already do that)...or how badly I’m going to beat Ellen in our next bike race...or getting another tattoo...or being in my best friend’s wedding.  There are so many things to think about that I shouldn’t waste my time with cancer.      

Back in the day, November 2nd, to be exact, I was born with a bum hip.  It was remedied and I remember going to see an orthopedic doctor here and there when I was a kid.  I honestly don’t even remember which hip is the bad one because I don’t remember having issues with either one.  My last orthopedic visit was when I was around 9 years old, and about the only thing I remember from the visit was the doctor saying that there was a good possibility that I would need to have my hip replaced by the time I turned 40 because the joint was going to be more vulnerable to arthritis.  I remember that 40 wasn’t even a real age to me at that point.  My parents weren’t even 40 then.  40 was so OLD.  40 is 8 years away for me.  40 is not old.  To this day I still don’t know which hip is the bad one.  My parents don’t even remember.  I like to think that it’s the right one because if either hip ever gives me any trouble, it’s usually that one.  But it’s so infrequent and so minor that I don’t really think about it.  I don’t like taking care of hip surgery patients in the hospital because it makes me think about how that’s going to be me someday (well, that and you move them the wrong way and the new hip joint pops out and they have to go back to surgery to get it put back in).  Well, it’s going to be a lot of people someday, but I know that it’ll for sure be me.  But then I think about my Grandpa and how well he motored around after having both of his hips replaced...he was like a new man.  When I think about him and what he went through with his hips, it makes me hopeful that I’ll be able to have the same positive result.  

I’m also sad to report that the dietary changes with age are starting to catch up to me.  I used to be able to pound 2 pint glasses of milk back-to-back with no issues.  I love milk.  My family loves milk.  When my brothers and I were still living at home, our family easily went through 6 gallons of milk a week.  We were a milk drinking family.  Simon has always been disturbed by the amount of milk I can drink, and you can about imagine his reaction when my whole family sits down together with our giant glasses of milk in front of us.  He would sit there and watch me with a look of disgust on his face as I would drink two full glasses of milk in a row.  And it’s not that he doesn’t like milk, but the thought of drinking that much milk makes him ill.  His sister is probably gagging right now as she reads this...she doesn’t like milk at all.  Simon’s mom is lactose intolerant, so when I hang out with the Webers, I usually have to bring my own milk along...hahaha!  And then I gross them out as I drink glass after glass of it.  But lately things have started to change.  I can’t drink 2 glasses back to back anymore.  Believe me, I’ve tried.  I get about halfway through that second glass and I start feeling really sick to my stomach.  I know it’s not a volume issue, it’s a milk issue, and that makes me sad (side note: the reason you can’t drink a gallon of milk in an hour is not because of the volume, it’s because the lactose makes you sick).  There have been a few times when I’ve made an error in judgement and have gone back for a refill, Simon calmly watching me and saying softly, “you’re going to get sick.”  And I defiantly fill that glass almost to the top with that wonderful white goodness, just to show him.  The last time it happened I didn’t want him to know I was getting sick, and since we were both eating chocolate cake, I offered to share my (second) glass of milk with him because I know that he likes to drink milk when he’s eating chocolately baked goods.  He was on me like white on rice (or milk, I guess you could say).  “You’re sick from the milk, aren’t you?”  Dammit.  So now I only drink one glass.  Bummer.  

I’ve also noticed that I’ve lost my tolerance for alcohol, and have almost completely lost my taste for beer.  It’s sad, really.  I used to love nothing more than a nice cold beer to enjoy out in the sun, out on the water, or with a good burger.  I don’t even know when I last had a beer.  It just doesn’t taste good anymore.  I’m disappointed in me.  And alcohol in almost any form just plain makes me sick.  I can usually have one to two glasses of wine, but it has to be red and it can’t be dry.  White wine tears me up.  Margaritas and mojitos thus far are safe as well.  Everything else...well, that’s a recipe for gastric disaster.  Unfortunately my decreased tolerance for alcohol has also decreased my tolerance for drunk people, not that I had much of a tolerance for them to begin with.  I now try to avoid places and situations that will put me in the company of large quantities of drunk people.  I feel like such an old fuddy duddy.        

I’ve had boobs on the brain lately.  That’s a weird thing to say, isn’t it?  But I have.  Boobs are weird.  My boobs and I have a love/hate relationship that is currently hovering somewhere around indifference.  I could take them or leave them, to be honest.  My boobs came in late, they came in fast, and they came in big...I was completely unprepared.  For years I struggled with my hatred of them while my smaller chested friends all told me how lucky I was.  Had there been such a thing as a breast transplant from one person to another, I would have gladly been a donor.  And really, boobs are such a hassle.  Try finding the perfect sports bra.  It doesn’t exist.  Sleeping on one’s stomach doesn’t occur until all the appropriate adjustments have been made.  Men suddenly forget that your eyes on your face and not hovering somewhere on your chest.  Most women’s clothes aren’t made for small women with big chests, and too frequently the clothes that are aren’t very tasteful.  Or maybe it’s just that the clothes aren’t tasteful to me...in the past I’d had negative feelings towards my boobs so I tried to cover them up. They were such an embarrassment, and I hated catching guys looking at them...I still don’t like that, but am sometimes able to find the humor in it.  They’re just boobs for crying out loud, get over it.  Maybe what’s coming out of my mouth is so unpleasant that the boobs become the only positive part of associating with me?  Truth be told, I buy all my t-shirts in the men’s section at Express.  And I love them.  They might not be the most feminine shirts in the world, but they’re comfortable and they cover up what needs to be covered.  It’s a shame men don’t routinely like wearing more girly colors.  :)  They do shrink in the wash though, which is kind of a bummer...wish the boobs would shrink in the wash...hahaha!  Ask around though, and you’ll find all sorts of dismay with boobs.  Little boobs, big boobs, saggy boobs, perky boobs, lopsided boobs, boobs that have been made bigger, boobs that have been made smaller.  Are any of us truly happy with our boobs?  And what is the root cause of the unhappiness?  Have our boobs become (or have they always been) a measure of our self-worth?  Are there types of boobs that are more preferable than others?  Who’s the defining judge of that?  Maybe I’m thinking about it too much.  Maybe it’s as simple as preferring one hairstyle to another, one type of car to another, apples to oranges.  Things make us happy and things make us unhappy, and boobs are no exception.  Aside from the dismay associated with boobs in general, there’s also the aging bit (even better!).  The ol’ fun bags are very slowly attempting to personally say hello to my belly button.  They remind me a little bit of glaciers...on this slow quest to move southward.  When does it stop?  At the waistline?  Sign me up.  Really, please do.  I’d love nothing more than to be like my 80+ year-old patients whose boobs hang so low they are in real danger of catching them in the zipper of their pants.  A few coworkers and I were talking about that the other day.  I have no idea how the topic of boobs came up, but there it was anyway.  I was lamenting the inevitable gravitational pull when one of the women said, “I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about that.”  I looked at her and wondered why.  She pointed at her chest and lo and behold, no boobs.  I had never noticed, and I had been in her company many times before.  She said that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer years ago and that she elected to have both boobs removed to decrease the chance of reoccurrence.  So now she doesn’t have to be afraid of the dangers the zipper on her pants may someday pose to her boobs.  I found myself feeling jealous of her lack of boobs.  I was going on about how a few of my old lady patients throughout the years had wished that they could just have their boobs removed since they were no longer of use for feeding children or attracting men.  When you really think about it from an evolutionary standpoint, that’s all boobs are really for, right?  I don’t plan on ever having kids so my boobs are a waste of a nutritional supplement, but I suppose I ought to keep them around in the off-chance that Simon leaves me and I need their help to lure in another unsuspecting victim.  That and I have a lot of bras that would go to waste.  I suppose I could make beanies out of them or something...complete with chin straps.   

As you may or may not know, I recently started exercising regularly.  Yes, the girl who hates exercise is exercising.  It was all very surprising, especially to me.  And now that I exercise regularly, I find myself actually enjoying it.  How weird is that?  I go to the gym about 3-4 days a week, and then paddle board or go for long walks in between.  It’s working out pretty well and I hope that I continue to keep it up.  I haven’t actually lost any weight yet, but that wasn’t really my goal anyway.  I look different and my clothes fit different, and I feel like that’s a better indicator of what I’m trying to accomplish.  In truth though, I’m really not trying to accomplish anything specific, I’m just trying to be healthy.  I guess I figured that I’m not getting any younger, and it’s about time that I start getting into the habit of being more physically fit, because the longer I wait, the harder it’s going to get.  Obviously I’ve known all this for years, but just never had the motivation to do anything about it.  Living in Florida where it’s nice everyday leaves me no excuse to not exercise (and really, it shouldn’t matter where one lives...there’s always time to devote to exercising).  That and living with Simon and Ellen has really helped.  Simon has always been into exercising, but I’m kind of intimidated exercising with him because he’s so much more fit than I am and I feel like I’m holding him back when we exercise together.  He exercises a lot because he gets stiff and sore if he doesn’t...I unfortunately don’t have that problem.  I could probably lay on the couch for a week and not have any problems at all.  Ellen is more on my level, even though she’s already competed in a triathlon and runs competitively a couple times each year...so I guess maybe you could say that I’m really not at her level...but she’s closer to me than Simon.  I feel like Ellen and I exercise more because we want to, not because we have to.  We take mutual lazy days together, but then we’ll go to spin class and race to see who gets the farthest.  It’s usually me, but I know she’s going to catch me one of these days.  That and she usually has more resistance on her bike than I do...I’m kind of a wimp.  Simon likes to make fun of the fact that we race on stationary bikes.  Ellen and I have decided that we’re going to up the ante and get bike jerseys to wear to class.  We also thought it would be funny to wear helmets, but that might be going a bit far.

Unfortunately exercising may or may not have brought about its own new set of aches of pains.  About a month after really starting my exercise regimen, I was diagnosed with a Ganglion cyst in my left wrist.  They’re not usually a big deal, and there’s really no evidence that it was brought about by the exercising, but I didn’t have it when I started exercising.  So I’m blaming the exercise.  It doesn’t bother me too much, it’s about the size of a pea, and as long as I don’t hyperextend my wrist (which I do all the time...my joints are kinda bendy) or put too much weight on it, it hasn’t been a big deal.  I do have to sleep with a wrist brace on though because I bend my wrists pretty weird when I sleep.  So now I clunk around in the bed with that thing on.  Ganglion cysts were more commonly known as “bible cysts,” and treatment for them included banging on and rupturing the offending cyst with a large book...a bible, if you will, since most households contained large bibles.  Maybe in my house it should be called a “Stephen King cyst,” since his books are the biggest books I own.  Fortunately my nurse practitioner has been much more passive in her treatment.  In fact, there’s really no treatment at the moment.  I can have the cyst drained if it starts affecting my feeling or mobility, but eventually the cyst would come back.  Otherwise if it’s too bothersome I can have surgery to remove it all together.  I’m not a fan of elective surgery, so until I reach the point of being an almost-cripple, I guess I get to have a little bump on my wrist.  Yay me.

On to more positive things.  I’ve had the pleasure recently of being in the company of some really inspirational women who have really made an impact on me.  The first woman moved here from China over 30 years ago when she was just 10 years old.  She told me a little bit about what it was like growing up in America, learning English, and adjusting to living in a country full of free will while still having to adhere to a strict Chinese way of life at home.  She told me the story of how her father passed away at 59 years old, and he told her that he was dying with his own worst enemy at his side, meaning himself.  What he meant by that was that he didn’t take good care of himself when he had the chance, he didn’t put himself first, and he didn’t listen to his body when it was trying to tell him to slow down, to stop, to take a moment to rest.  He told her that when she dies someday, he hopes she’s her own best friend.  And what she took from it was this: take care of yourself, because at the end of the day, you can’t count on someone else to do it for you.  Friends, spouses, parents, siblings...you can’t count on them to pick up your pieces.  Listen to yourself, take time for yourself.  That really struck a chord with me.  How often do we put others first, do we put work first, do we put laundry first?  How often do we endure that low-back pain and go to the grocery store rather than the massage parlor?  How often do we not eat the cookie?  How often do we bounce from one thing to next without really thinking about why we’re doing it in the first place?

The second woman is one whose husband recently passed away and who is considering a big career change.  She’s nervous about her options but she’s also really excited to start a new chapter in her life.  I told her that she should go for it, and if it doesn’t work out, she can always come back.  She just looked at me and smiled and said, “I won’t come back.  I’ve always believed that life is about moving forward, never back.”  It was interesting to hear that perspective, mostly because since starting this whole traveling job, I’ve been operating under the mantra of “If it doesn’t work out, I can always go back home.”  It’s comforting for me to think that I can always go back home if the going gets tough.  But someday my parents won’t be there anymore, and then where will home be?  Maybe when you reach a certain age, home is wherever you are.  I think that’s where this woman is.  It takes a really strong person to say that they always move forward and never back.  To really go for it.  It’s daunting, really, but it’s also very inspirational.  It’s making the most of where you go and what you do, and putting yourself out there to go after what you want.  It’s about not giving up, and approaching the next chapter with an open mind.  I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to visit with these two women.  I feel like too often I get stuck in my own little rut and just keep plugging along, following it wherever it might lead, never considering pulling myself up to see what else is out there.  Of course, that’s all relative coming from someone who moves across the country a few times a year...but you know what I mean.

So that’s me.  Definitely getting older, hopefully getting wiser.  :)                                  

The Great Bread Debacle

It's no secret that bread and I are not friends.  I've been wanting to make my own bread for quite some time now, but I find the task incredibly daunting. Bread is difficult.  When you hear people casually say, "oh, I'll just throw together a loaf of bread real quick," they're full of crap.  There's no "just throwing together," and neither is there anything "real quick."  Bread takes forever.  Even when the bread is made from a mix, it still somehow takes forever.

Throughout the years I've dabbled in random acts of bread making.  I've made that Amish Friendship Bread that was all the rage about 15 years ago.  I wonder if anyone still makes that?  You know the stuff...you get a baggie of wet stuff and you set it on your counter, and throughout the week you have a task to perform every day...mash it one day, add sugar another day, let it sit the next day...on and on until the end when you finally get to add the flour and whatnot and make your bread.  It was good.  It was sweet.  It seems like a bit much to go through for one loaf of bread, but there was no kneading/punching/rising, so it was easy. I remember mom and I cranking out loaf after loaf of the stuff and freezing it for later.  We went a little nuts, truth be told.  I haven't had Amish Friendship Bread since.  I'm somehow able to make a mean banana bread, courtesy of my mom's recipe.  It's sweet and dense and has just the right amount of sugary sweetness to the crust.  Again, no kneading/punching/rising involved.  I'll post that recipe on here one of these days.  And then there's the Tastefully Simple beer bread that just about everyone in America has had the opportunity to try.  I remember about 10 years ago when people would have Tastefully Simple parties in their homes and the beer bread was everyone's favorite.  Easy stuff.

Easy or not though, I wanted to try to make my own bread, partly because I'll know what's going in it, and most importantly, what isn't.  And there's just something about the way your house smells when a fresh loaf of bread is baking.

Bread Attempt #1

Not wanting to delve headfirst into the extreme world of bread making, I decided that I would use a mix to try to make things easier on myself.  This particular mix was Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain.  Packed full of fiber, destined to bring about that wonderful fresh-baked bread smell to my kitchen and a satisfying BM sometime later, I thought this mix would be a slam dunk.  It wasn't.  After waiting hours and hours for this dense lump of dough to rise, after numerous rounds of kneading (really?  8 whole minutes??), punching it down (what is that anyway?) and "rising," I figured enough was enough and threw the dang thing in the oven.  What went into the oven was a nice little mound of dough in the pan.  What came out was a brick of grains that would have been better suited for paperweight duty than for eating.  Seriously, I probably could have been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon had I beat an intruder (or Simon...haha) with it.  I should have known that it was a failure when the baked loaf had not changed in size from the unbaked loaf.  I decided to humor myself and slice it up, give it a little taste.  So it was crispy on the outside, and not done on the inside.  Not only that, but it was the worst tasting bread I have ever had in my life.  I don't know if that was the fault of the mix or the fault of the prep, but it was terrible.

Bread Attempt #2

Being a fan of the Tastefully Simple Beer Bread mix, I thought maybe I was better off just ordering a few boxes and calling my bread making excursion quits.  All you need for Tastefully Simple bread is the mix, a bottle of beer, a loaf pan, and an oven.  That's it.  Hard to mess that up, right?  So I was on the Tastefully Simple website, looking at the ingredients in the beer bread, and the list seemed rather long to me.  Lots of preservatives.  So I thought to myself, how hard could this possibly be from scratch?  Keep in mind, this was mere minutes after the Bob's Red Mill loaf had taken a satisfyingly dense leap into the trash can.  So I went online and came across a recipe for beer bread that had exactly 6 ingredients: flour, sugar, beer, baking powder, salt and butter.  That's it.  So I got to work.  I added the dry ingredients to the bowl, added the bottle of beer, popped the whole mess into a loaf pan, melted some butter over the top, and threw it in the oven.  The whole time I was thinking to myself that the entire process was much too easy...there's no way that I could get a viable loaf of bread out of this, especially since I had been working ALL day to get the Bob's Red Mill to turn out.  I did think for a minute that maybe the bottle of beer would have been put to better use had I just drunk it myself.  But lo and behold, a fantastic loaf of bread was pulled from oven a mere hour from the time I started making the dough.  No kneading, no rising, no punching...and I had warm, crusty, buttery bread.  I'll leave that kneading/punching/rising to those gluttons looking for punishment.

Wheat Beer Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 12oz bottle of beer (I had Yeungling on hand, so that's what I used.  It's kind of a heavy, amberish beer and definitely lent a stronger beer flavor to the bread.  I think next time I'll try something a little lighter)
1/4 cup butter, melted

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease one loaf pan.
-Combine all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
-Stir in the beer until a stiff batter forms (arm workout!).  I didn't have to use my hands to mix the dough, but go ahead if you feel it needs it.
-Scrape the dough into the prepared loaf pan, pour the melted butter over the top, and pop it in the oven for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  I believe I left my loaf in there for 55 minutes total.

And you're done!

Tips and Tidbits:

If wheat bread isn't your thing, you can use 3 cups of all-purpose flour.  I've also heard of people substituting honey for the brown sugar, but I haven't tried that yet.  A recipe that I've found for honey beer bread can be found here.

This bread makes excellent toast.  I keep a set of chopsticks on hand though to dig it out of the toaster when it's done.  The beer bread doesn't rise a whole lot and therefore makes it a little short for the standard toaster.  Those of you with toaster ovens can skip the chopsticks step.  :)

This dough is incredibly versatile, and I think any number of add-ins could get you a very different, yet still tasty, loaf of bread.  In the future I'm going to try adding some fresh chopped garlic, parsley, and maybe some parmesan cheese.  I also think this bread would be really good with some cinnamon mixed into the dough (maybe some raisins?), omit the butter on top and sprinkle generously with a cinnamon/sugar mix to form a sweet little crust on top.  You could also try experimenting with different types of beer.  I've heard of people using everything from pumpkin beer to Guiness, so the possibilities are endless.  For those you that prefer to not use beer at all, I've heard that ginger ale or Sprite is a good substitute.  Your bread will probably be quite a bit sweeter though.    

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. Ever.

I know that chocolate chip cookies are hard to mess up.  It seems that it doesn't matter which recipe you follow, when those tasty little cookies come out of the oven all warm and melty the last thing you think about is, "maybe I should have used a different recipe."  Of course that's not what you think.  If you're anything like me, you think, "damn...these are good."  And then you proceed to eat them for breakfast, as a late night snack, or just because.  I can come up with a good reason for eating cookies at any time of the day.

So I came across this recipe while perusing Pinterest, which has become a recipe obsession of mine.  The recipe proclaims itself to be the New York Times #1 chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Whether or not that claim is true is irrelevant.  This recipe is the bomb.  Given that I can't follow a recipe from start to finish, the original recipe can be found here.  I took the liberty of disregarding the author's advice on what not to do and made this recipe my very own.  My modified recipe is for those of us who don't want to take the time to chop up 2 pounds of chocolate by hand and would rather just open a few bags of chocolate chips.  It's also for those of us who don't know where in the heck a person goes about finding pastry flour.  It's for people who find the idea of refrigerating the dough for 24 hours before baking absolutely preposterous.  This is the recipe for those of us raised on Tollhouse who probably happen to have all the ingredients for this recipe in the cupboard.  This is the recipe for those of us who are afraid to change things too much because if it turns out awful then precious time and resources were wasted trying something new.  This recipe is for someone like me.

Let's begin, shall we?  Before we start, I should warn you that this is kind of a big recipe.  I haven't actually counted how many dozen it makes, but it's more than the Tollhouse recipe...probably almost double that.  You can cut it in half if you like, otherwise you can freeze the extra dough to use for later (I put instructions for that after the recipe).

What you will need:

1 lb butter, room temperature (I use salted butter because I love salt)
1 3/4 cups sugar (lately I prefer the taste of organic sugar so I use that, but it's not necessary)
2 1/4 cups dark brown sugar.  (I LOVE dark brown sugar.  There is no love for light brown sugar in my kitchen...but you can use it if you like it)
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon salt (yes, in addition to the salted butter)
2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

6 cups flour (I use 3 cups all-purpose and 3 cups white whole-wheat...use any combination you like, but don't use more wheat than white, you'll end up with hockey pucks)

3 12 oz bags semi-sweet chocolate chips (the original recipe called for dark chocolate...I made a batch with dark chocolate once and found it to be really gross.  The sweetness of the cookie wasn't able to balance the bitter of the chocolate)
1 bag Heath Bits 'O Brickle (optional)

Let's mix:

-You'll need to have the oven preheated to 350 at some point.  It takes me forever to make cookie dough so I wait to turn the oven on until I'm ready to put the dough on the pan.  I like to save energy when I can, and I appreciate a low electricity bill.
-Cream together the butter and both sugars.  I mix by hand because I'm too cheap to buy a mixer (and I count mixing cookie dough as an arm workout!).  If you use a mixer, I'm told you should use the paddle attachment.
-Once the butter and the sugars are well mixed, add the eggs one at time, stirring between each egg.  I know, redundant, but the original recipe calls for it so I do it.  I don't know that you have to, but I do (it adds to the stirring which in turn adds to the "arm workout").
-After the eggs are well mixed, add the vanilla and mix again.  Make sure all liquid is mixed in before adding the baking powder and baking soda or you will have a chemical reaction in your bowl and it'll change the taste of the cookies!
-Mix in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt
-Start adding the flour.  I usually add it a cup at a time because it's easier for me to stir it that way.  And the less flour I have in the bowl at one time, the less flour spray I get all over the kitchen, myself, and the dogs who linger constantly at my feet hoping I'll drop something.
-Lastly, it's time for the chocolate chips (and the Heath Bits, if you're using them).  It's usually at this time that the rings come off, the wooden spoon is cast aside, and I start mixing the dough with my hands.  For me, it's just easier and faster that way.  Those of you using a mixer should have no problem getting those chips mixed in at this point (cheaters).
-Time to put the dough to the pan.  I have one of those nifty little Pampered Chef scoops to dole out the perfect sized little ball of dough.  Seriously, I love that thing and for making cookies, it was well worth the $15 I spent on it.  If you don't happen to have a scoop (purchase one immediately), just put the dough on the pan the way you normally would, either by rolling dough into smallish balls or dropping dough onto the pan with a tablespoon...it's entirely up to you.
-Place the pan in the 350 degree oven for about 11-14 minutes.  My cookies from the scoop take exactly 11 minutes.  Let the cookies rest for a minute or two on the pan before moving them to a cooling rack, brown paper bag, etc.

And you're done!

Tips and Tidbits:

Seeing as this is such a big recipe and that it's normally just Simon and I in the house, we don't need a million cookies in the house at the ready.  Our waistlines would greatly suffer for that.  So I put a bunch of dough balls on a cookie sheet and pop them in the freezer while the first batch of cookies are in the oven.  By the time the 11 minutes of baking time has passed, the dough balls will be frozen enough to dump into a freezer bag to save for later.  I make about one of pan of cookies a week (or a day...sometimes we have days like that).  I usually put the frozen dough balls on the cookie sheet and THEN preheat the oven.  That gives the balls a little time to thaw out.  Add about a minute to the cooking time for the frozen balls.  Nothing beats a freshly baked cookie.

I know I made a comment about not wanting to refrigerate the dough for 24 hours as the original recipe states, but over the course of several batches I find that I prefer the cookies made from the frozen dough balls to the cookies made from the fresh dough.  Don't ask me why, because I have no idea why this would be so.  The cookies made from the frozen dough balls seem to be more dense and have a better texture.

And one thing about using wheat flour in your recipe.  After a few days post-baking, the cookies made with wheat flour seemed more dry and less soft than those that were made with only all-purpose flour.  That's where the freezing and baking one batch at a time comes in...the cookies are always fresh, and you never have more than you need.  If you're using wheat flour, my advice would be to make only as many as you're going to eat in the next couple days and freeze the rest.

Gator State Randoms

So Simon and I have moved back to Florida for the winter.  We’re going to be working at Cape Coral Hospital for our third winter in a row.  We’re excited to be back.  Florida is nice in the winter, although since Minnesota seems to be in some sort of freak heat-wave this winter, it’s really not much warmer here than up there...yet.  I have faith that Old Man Winter will remember Minnesota one of these days, although for the sake of my friends and family living there, I can only hope that you can go an entire winter without snow.  Well, maybe some snow for the fields...they need that.  

Simon and I are once again living with Ellen for the winter, our roommate from last year.  Instead of renting a townhouse, we’ve rented an entire house that sits on a boat canal in Cape Coral.  It’s a pretty sweet arrangement, if I do say so myself.  Our house has a pool and hot tub, but since we’re paying the electric bill this time around, we have yet to heat either of them.  We’ve heard that heating a pool/hot tub can run the electric bill upwards of $350, and we’re just too cheap for that...hahaha!  For those of you coming to visit, we can make an exception and heat them while you’re here.  The house itself is all right...it’s not as new or as nice as the townhouse that we rented last year, but that’s okay.  I’m pretty sure the owners of this place are elderly.  If the lightly garish wallpaper didn’t give that one way, the shower chair, commode, and walker certainly did.  Not that a person has to be elderly to use any of those items, but more often than not, being elderly is the case.  And how weird is that?  Were I an elderly/disabled person vacationing in Florida, I wouldn’t feel comfortable using someone else’s shower chair or commode.  That’s kinda gross.  Were I in dire straights and my only two options were to either soil myself or use someone else’s commode, I guess I would use the commode...maybe.  I’m glad that I don’t actually have to make that choice at the moment.  The house also had an elderly smell to it when we moved in...kinda like grandma’s house.  Not necessarily unpleasant, but just old smelling.  Unfortunately now the place just smells like dog.  My little ones are in need of a bath and here I sit, typing about how they stink up the place.  I’m such a responsible pet owner, yes?

Living on a canal in Florida definitely has its benefits.  Just last week we had a manatee and her baby hanging out just off of our dock.  So cool.  It’s amazing how mesmerized a person can get by watching a big, blubbery, moss covered, puggish-looking mammal come up for air.  And then go back down again.  The mom and the baby were taking turns surfacing, and we would squeal with delight every time they surfaced.  We’re pretty sure at point one of them let loose with about a minute-long fart.  As far as I know, there are no oxygen vents in the canal to cause that sort of bubbling.  No stink though, so that was good.  We also see fish, birds, and are hoping to see some dolphins.  Ellen’s boyfriend Fred lives on a canal just south of us, and he sees dolphins every now and then in his canal.  We’ve also heard that alligators, bull sharks, and the occasional salt water crocodile make their way into the canals, but we haven’t seen either of those yet...thank goodness!  Of course now I’m all paranoid about a chance encounter with one of those three scary beasts.  

Being an avid Yelp.com user, I’ve been a little disappointed to see that Yelp hasn’t quite caught on down here in Florida yet.  I don’t know if it’s because there isn’t much of a tech culture here, if the popularity of Yelp hasn’t made it down this way yet, or if it’s true that Yelp is more frequently used by younger people and this part of Florida is populated with mostly old people.  I guess it could be any number of reasons.  So I’ve taken it upon myself to leave reviews on Yelp for all the places that I visit.  Frequently my review is the first.

I’ve decided that there’s something about living in a warm, sunny place that makes a person want to sit out in the sun with a cold alcoholic beverage.  I guess that would explain why we see scores of retirees at the liquor store with carts full of alcohol.  Yes, you read that right...carts.  These people don’t mess around.  The other day Simon and I went to the Total Wine store which has the largest selection of beer, wine, and hard alcohol that I’ve ever seen, and we had to leave without buying anything because the place was so crammed with the AARP crowd stocking up on liquor.  It was absolutely insane.

You know what I find insanely annoying?  When people make a heart symbol with their hands.  I know you’ve seen it, because everyone from 3 years old to 90 years old is doing it these days.  I hate it.  I want to punch the TV, the computer screen, and the magazine when I see people doing it.  I have no idea why...it’s just one of those temper triggers.  First of all, if it’s not done correctly, it doesn’t even look like a heart, thereby making the offending finger puppet person look like an idiot (of course, I think they look like an idiot anyway just for attempting).  I get even more irate about when I see adults doing it.  It’s childish.  I about threw a Victoria’s Secret catalogue across the room the other day because a bunch of the models were doing it.  Again, I have no explanation for why it bothers me...it’s not hurting anyone, and it’s a purely innocent gesture.  I just don’t like it.  

Back in November Simon and I finally made the upgrade to iphones.  I know I had said that I was going to wait until Ol‘ Pink died before I got a new phone, but dangit that phone just would not die.  It still works, and it probably feels abandoned and neglected all sealed up in a ziplock bag, cast into a junk drawer in Minnesota.  Sorry Ol‘ Pink, I know that’s no way to treat something that’s actually worked longer than anyone ever thought.  So the iphone.  Part of our motivation for getting new phones before our old ones had died was for convenience.  Kind of like how we held off on getting a GPS for so long and were completely reliant on Mapquest, getting lost, and asking for directions.  Who knew a GPS could have made life easier (although our current GPS is borderline retarded).  Since we move around all the time, we frequently find ourselves in strange cities without the faintest clue where the nearest grocery store, gas station, Trader Joe’s, or LuluLemon happen to be (these are important).  Now we don’t get lost as much anymore...wish I could say we never get lost anymore, but that would be wishful thinking.  It’s nice to have an address book at my fingertips all the time...makes going to the post office a little less stressful.  That’s a lie, the post office is always stressful and it has nothing to do with an address book or a smartphone.  I think part of the reason I was holding off on getting a smart phone for so long is because I honestly didn’t think I needed one.  That and I have this thing about being self-reliant, and feel as though giving myself over to the iphone puts me in a vulnerable position.  It really doesn’t since I’m the one running the thing, and I have control over how much I rely on it.  And let’s be honest, I’m not getting any younger and my memory’s not getting any sharper...in fact, it’s quite the opposite.  It’s kind of nice to not have to try to remember every little thing.  I just have to remember to make the iphone remember.  Hmmm.  There’s been a little bit of a learning curve with it also.  Owning a Mac has helped with the transition, but every now and again I catch myself going into PC mode, which usually ends in frustration.  With the addition of the Mac, the iphone, and the ipad, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve made a full Apple transition.  I have joined the flock, I have drunk the kool-aid, I’m wearing the white sneakers, etc and so on.  

I spent the better part of an hour last night watching videos of parrots swearing on youtube.  I want a bird.  I want to teach it swear words.  Simon says that I’m not allowed to get a bird, even after all my dogs die.  He would rather I have a pug than a bird.  He would actually prefer that I have no pets at all, but I don’t see that happening.  I have decided though that if Simon ever lets me get a bird, it will either be an African Grey or an Indian Ringneck.  :)

Within the last few years I feel like it’s impossible to go anywhere without seeing red velvet cake.  And you know, I got sucked into the red velvet cake thing for a bit there too.  Until I actually sat down and ate the cake independently of the cream cheese frosting and realized that it has about as much taste as plain yellow cake.  How disappointing.  Here I thought I was getting some kind of decadent dessert, and it turns out I was just paying extra for red food coloring.  It was almost like finding out that Santa isn’t real.  Terrible.

Don’t call it a New Year’s resolution, but I’ve been going to the gym.  I know, it’s hard to believe that with all my disdain for exercising that I would even set foot in a gym, but I have.  And you know all that stuff that people are always saying about how exercise makes you feel good, gives you more energy, helps you sleep better, etc?  It’s true.  Part of me wishes that it wasn’t so I could tell all those exercising people that they were full of crap, and thereby give me an excuse not to exercise, but unfortunately, they were right.  So I continue to exercise.  And I’m actually starting to like it.  And it’s not like I hate all forms of exercise, just most forms of exercise...running, in particular.  I like to paddle board, I like to kayak, I like to play volleyball, I like to bike (but only on bike paths...I don’t like dealing with cars, and I don’t like lots of hills), and I like to go on long walks.  Unfortunately, I can’t have paddle boarding as my main source of exercising because I have to be near a calmish body of water, and it has to be somewhat warm.  The same thing goes for kayaking, although it doesn’t have to be quite as warm, and doesn’t have to be as calm.  Walking I can do anywhere (but I don’t), and volleyball...well...I’ve never had much of a competitive spirit, and that doesn’t really bode well for competitive sports.  That and I’m really not all that good at it.  And you can’t play volleyball without at least 4-6 other people.  Of course, those are all excuses.  If I really want to be serious about exercising for my overall well-being, I need to suck it up, join a gym, and get to it.  So I did.  With the encouragement of Ellen, Simon and I joined the Wellness Center that is affiliated with our hospital.  I go to spinning classes about 3 times a week, and go to the gym at least one other day to do machines and lift weights.  I think that from here on out, I’m going to have to join a gym in whatever city I end up in, because it’s been really nice and I’m really happy with my accomplishments thus far.  And our gym is really nice.  It’s kind of new, and it seems to cater to the AARP sect (there’s lots of those down here...and at least half of them at the gym are in better shape at 60 than I am at 32).  The trainers and instructors know almost everyone by name, and if not by name then by face.  What’s also nice about it is that there’s no competitive air to the place...there’s no dudes strutting around like the cock on the walk and there’s no women putting make-up on before hitting the machines (at least not that I’ve seen).  Not that I should care since what they’re doing has no effect on what I’m doing, I just don’t care to see it.  I had a membership to Lifetime Fitness back when I lived in St. Paul, and it felt like speed dating with treadmills...it was uncomfortable.  Again, being intimidated by women in make-up and men flexing their muscles shouldn’t be reason enough for me to not exercise.  So when I find myself in a different city with a membership to a different gym, I’ll just need to get over it.  I hope I’m able to maintain the motivation to continue to exercise.  We’ll see where I am in a month.

A few weeks ago I bought my first pair of leggings.  Yes, I told everyone that I would never do it, but then I went ahead and did it anyway.  And I like them.  They’re comfortable and they’re actually more flattering than I would have thought.  I’m still coming to grips with having so much of me exposed though...it’s weird.  It almost feels like I’m not wearing any pants, even though I am wearing pants...if you can call them that.  What is going on?  I’m exercising, I’m wearing leggings, what’s next?  This is all so bizarre.

For those of you who like to read memoirs, I recommend Adam Carolla’s.  Hear me out now, I know he’s kind of a douche, but his book was really good.  It’s interesting to read about how he grew up, where he came from, and how his career became what it is today.  Well, I think he’s still doing stuff today, I guess I don’t really follow him and haven’t kept tabs on him since the Man Show.  I was a the library and grabbed his book on a whim, and I honestly really enjoyed it.  He seems unexpectedly intelligent, and seems to have a good head on his shoulders.  Who knew the man who showed clips of Juggies jumping on trampolines had it in him?  I certainly didn’t.

There was one day a while back that Simon and I were riding along in silence in the car, and I was thinking about the way people talk.  Having lived in so many different places in the country, I’ve found that people have very different ways for saying essentially the same thing.  At first I used to think that everyone else said things wrong, and that I was saying everything right.  But then I got to thinking, just because I learned it one way, and they learned it another way, is either of us wrong?  Are we both right?  For example, in the South I notice that people generally say “I’ve not been...” instead of “I haven’t been.”  I used to assume that they were using improper grammar.  But then I broke down the phrases without the contractions.  Both phrases are essentially the same: I have not been.  The contraction is just different.  So which one is right?  Are they both right?  I have no idea.  Maybe those of you with some English education backgrounds could help me out on that one.  And then there’s the soda vs. pop argument.  Granted, everyone knows what pop is, and everyone knows what soda is.  Doesn’t matter where you’re from, they’re both shortened versions of soda pop.  Why some areas of the country use one instead of the other is a mystery.  I used to be a pop girl.  I hated hearing the word soda and scowled every time I heard someone use it.  However, after moving all over the country, I have to admit that soda is more widespread than pop.  In fact, saying pop gets me more weird looks than saying soda does.  So over the years I’ve adopted soda.  It still sounds weird to me, but I avoid confusing people.  I think that’s a big reason why people pick up accents and local dialects when they move from one part of the country to another.  If you say things the way the locals say things, you avoid confusion.  After a while it just becomes second nature.  See what happens when Simon and I don’t have anything to talk about in car?  I start thinking about things, and nothing good can come from that!  ;)

I’m also kind of a grammar and spelling nitpicker.  People who incorrectly use their/they’re/there or you’re/your incorrectly drive me up the wall.  And I see intelligent people making these same mistakes all the time.  How does that happen?  Seriously!  So I was ranting away one day about people and their errors, and Simon sheepishly pointed out that I use the phrase “Me and Simon” all the time.  Unfortunately, I’m aware that I do this, and in fact, I do it on purpose.  I don’t know why, but the phrase “Simon and I” sounds so stuffy and formal, even though I know it’s correct.  “Me and Simon” sounds cute and laid back, if not a little juvenile...it’s also a little closer to how I sound when I talk, and I like the feeling of bringing my speaking personality to my written word...even if makes me sound kind of stupid, which I’m sure it does.  I know I should switch to referring to myself as “I” instead of “Me,” but I just don’t like how it sounds.  So for those of you grammar nitpickers such as myself who have noticed my indiscretions, I’m doing it on purpose.  Sorry for that.  And Adam, I have to apologize to you specifically because I’m double spacing between all my sentences.  I’m trying really, really hard to quit doing that, but almost 20 years of double spacing is a hard habit to break.  I’m working on it.

And finally (yes, finally), for those of you wondering about my choice to switch from Facebook to Blogspot for my blogs (if you were, in fact, wondering at all).  I’m not all that thrilled with Facebook as of late.  They’ve made a lot of changes that I don’t really like, and when Simon and I compare News Feeds, we see very different things, despite having a lot of the same friends.  I feel like a lot is getting missed, and I don’t like the idea of Facebook deciding which friends to show more updates from, and which to show less.  They should let me decide that, since after all, these people are my friends and I have my reasons for wanting to see more from one person and less from another.  I know they have those filters and you can label people as acquaintances, top friends, etc., but I didn’t really find those to be all that useful.  I do like what they’ve done with Timeline...that looks really nice, but it’s just not enough.  Part of me also wanted a blog with which I had more control over customization.

So there’s that.  I’m hoping that with the new blog site I’ll be more likely to blog more often so the entries will be shorter!  Yay!  Everyone wins!  :)                          

California Recap

Okay, so I’m REALLY behind.  I don’t even remember the last time I actually sat down and wrote something so I’ve got a lot to catch up on.  And to deviate from my regular format, I’m going to TRY to keep things short.  We’ll see how that goes.  ;)

When Simon and I were living out in California, it’s safe to say that we were living near some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.  Now I’m not getting up on a high horse and saying that California is more beautiful than other places in the country...I didn’t turn into one of those people who thinks that there’s California, and then there’s everywhere else.  In fact, as I was leaving Minnesota for the California assignment, my mom said to me, “Don’t turn into one of those California girls.”  She could have meant a number of things, but I think what she meant was “Don’t forget where you came from.”  And I’ll be honest, my opinion of California, prior to actually living there, was very poor.  I thought California was nothing but a materialistic cesspool filled with nothing but plastic surgery, fast cars, designer handbags, bumper to bumper traffic, and celebrities thinking their poo doesn’t stink.  That is still my opinion of LA.  Again, having never spent more time than a few hours in LA, I’m probably way off base, but maybe not as far as I think.  As I’ve put in other posts, the San Francisco Bay area is chill, unassuming, and humble.  I loved it.  *Getting off the soapbox*  Okay, so back to the scenery.  So while we were in California, we had the pleasure of visiting Yosemite National Park, which was hands-down one of the coolest places I’ve ever been.  In my entire life.  I could have spent a whole week there rather than just an overnight.  From the giant sequoias to the waterfalls, there was just so much to see.  We also went to the Big Sur area, which I learned is not actually a national or state park, but is an area of the coastline.  The hiking trails here were harder to find because they‘re not marked very well.  Basically you just drive along the Pacific Coast Highway until you see a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the road.  Usually you’ll find yourself a trail-head.  The water along the coast is so beautiful.  I used to think that the color seafoam green was something made up in a color lab, but I saw that exact color in the water along the California coast.  As the waves were breaking along the rocky shore, the water color ranged from deep deep blue to caribbean blue to seafoam green.  Gorgeous.  And mesmerizing.  To the north of where we were living was Muir Woods, home to some of the giant coastal redwoods.  Trees just don’t grow like that back home.  Tall and straight and multiple feet in diameter.  It’s easy to see why these trees were practically logged into extinction...the amount of lumber you could get from one tree has to be multitudes to what you get from your average oak or pine in Minnesota.  So those were a few of the places we visited while we were out in California.  

Going that direction, we had a coworker at Stanford who was picking our brains one night while we were at work.  At that point, we had only been to Muir Woods and San Francisco.  He sat there expectantly as I told him those places, and then waited a beat before he realized I was done.  “That’s it?  Those places aren’t even an hour away.  You haven’t been to LA or Yosemite or or or...” The list of places we apparently should have visited by then went on and on.  And it got me to thinking.  Simon and I travel across the country multiple times a year for work, and usually we end up living in some pretty cool places.  But when it comes to taking a trip for the sake of taking a trip...we don’t really do that.  Our trips consist of visiting places that usually fall within a 100 mile radius of where we live.  The last “trip” we took for the sake of taking a trip was our shortie cruise to the Bahamas...we were gone all of four days, and only had to drive 2 hours from where we lived to catch the boat.  And I don’t even really count that.  Had we not been living in Florida at the time, we would never have taken that cruise.  With us, it all seems to be about proximity.  And I’m okay with that, I just had never thought about it before.

I was once told by a friend in Minnesota that if a person ever lives in California, it would be irresponsible for them not to learn about wine (he was born and raised in California).  And prior to going out to California, my palate for wine was very small.  I knew that I liked reds better than whites, but the reds vary so much from bottle to bottle that I frequently was left with a ‘take it or leave it‘ opinion on it.  So, since we were out in California, where they grow tons of grapes for wine, I figured we should probably learn a little bit about wine.  And that learning mostly consisted of trying different glasses of wine at the restaurants that we frequented.  It was there that I found the red wine for me.  It is called Pinot Noir, and some might recognize it as the wine that Paul Giatmatti’s character was obsessed with in the movie Sideways.  Pinot Noir (sometimes just referred to as Pinot, which can be confusing because there’s also Pino Griggio, which is a sweet white wine) is a smooth red with very little dryness, making it perfect for me because I hate dry wines.  I don’t understand the palates that do like dry wines...it’s like purposely giving yourself cotton-mouth.  Anyway, so I’ve decided that Pinot Noir is my go-to wine from here on out.  Enter Sonoma Valley.  Sonoma Valley was about an hour and a half drive from where we were living in California.  Sonoma Valley is the lesser known cousin to the famous Napa Valley, and being that these two places are known as producing some of the best American wines, I figured we should probably pay them a visit since we were out there (it would have been irresponsible not to, right?).  Some people argue that wines are better in Sonoma.  I don’t get involved because either I like a wine, or I don’t.  Location (at that point) didn’t seem to play much of a part into whether or not I like a wine.  So Simon and I went to Sonoma to visit the Benziger winery, an estate that I had been to in the past and had really liked.  They do this type of farming called Bio-dynamic, which I understood to mean that they take their farming one step further than organic.  They don’t use pesticides or commercial fertilizers, and any waste products from their harvests are put back out in the vineyards as fertilizers.  They also have little ‘bug gardens‘ where they grow specific flowers to bring in “good” bugs who then fly out into the vineyards to eat the “bad” bugs.  It actually seems pretty cool.  So we went there and took the tour and got to have a private tasting in the wine cave.  Everyone there was very nice and friendly.  We made a few other stops at some other vineyards, tasting all the while.  We happened upon another winery called Ty Caton, and I had had one of his wines previously and had really enjoyed it.  So we swung in there and had some tastings there.  We even got to meet Ty, which was pretty cool.  It was there that one of the guys behind the counter told me that we needed to “work on my palate” since Pinot Noir was just unacceptable to him.  He didn’t come right out and say it, but I got the impression that he regards Pinot Noir about the same way one would regard Arbor Mist...wine for beer drinkers, not wine drinkers.  And what does he care what I like anyway?  I’m obviously not the only person that likes to drink Pinot Noir or they wouldn’t make it.  I had heard about wine snobs loitering about in California, but I hadn’t actually encountered one until that day in Sonoma.  It was then and there that I decided that a $10 bottle of wine is just as good as a $100 bottle of wine.  And here’s the thing I learned about wine...it does make a difference where the grapes are grown.  I might like one Pinot from California, and not like another grown in Oregon (for reference, the Pinot Noir that I seem to like the best is grown in the Santa Lucia Highlands in California...how's that for specific?).  Location matters, and the only way to find out what region you like your wine from, is by trial and error.  I’d rather make errors with $10 bottles than $100 bottles.  Just because a wine is expensive, doesn’t mean it’s going to taste good. 

When living in California, I noticed a little habit I had developed somewhere along the line in this traveling life of mine.  Whenever Simon and I were going on a day trip, I would always post a little status update on Facebook saying where we were going.  I figure that if something bad were to happen to us while we’re out and about, knowing where we were going is a good place to start to try to put the pieces together.  I know, it’s weird, and it’s only a facet of this “fear of death” thing that I’ve got going on.  So, if you see status updates detailing where I’m going for whatever reason, it’s a clue to where to start looking should I disappear off the face of the earth. 

I know I’ve talked about the dogs in California before, but I just have to mention how weird they were.  They’re incredibly aloof.  All of them.  I’ve never encountered dogs before who didn’t want to meet strangers.  If not for a little pat on the head, then for a swift nose to the crotch.  I didn’t get crotched by a single dog in California...not that I minded, of course, but I thought it was odd that these dogs had so much self control.  Maybe people in California do a better job of training their dogs to be good canine citizens, and that it’s impolite to shove one’s face in someone else’s crotch.  I have no idea.  All I know is that there were a ton of dogs living in our neighborhood in California, yet I had little to no interaction with any of them because they ignored me.  It wasn’t that they were well aware of my presence and held back to watch, they ignored me as if I wasn’t even there.  Some of the dogs even ignored my dogs, and how they managed to do that while my dogs were practically hanging themselves at the end of their leashes is still a mystery to me.

While living out in California, I noticed that my pants had gotten tight.  Yes, I probably gained weight while I was out there because the food was so good and the physical activity was uninspiring, at best.  I found it weird that when I was living in Florida, I went for 3-6 mile walks at 3-4 times a week, sometimes more.  Then I get out to California and all I want to do is sit around, go out to eat, and...yeah, I have no idea what else I did.  A lot of the roads in Palo Alto were very straight, and they all went through neighborhoods, and maybe I just got bored with walking by them.  Although, I really like looking at houses, so I don’t think that was it.  Maybe it’s because it was so flat, although Florida is really flat too.  I loved wandering around San Francisco when Simon and I would go there for the day.  The hills there are so steep, it’s a good work-out.  Maybe if we had lived in San Francisco I would have gone out and walked around more.  It’s weird how in some places I’m really inspired to get out and exercise, and other places I’m just not.  It shouldn’t matter, really.  I wish I liked to exercise, that would make this whole thing a lot easier.  And my pants would fit better.  :)

Simon and I were watching and episode of How I Met Your Mother, and the characters were talking about the phenomenon known as “graduation goggles,” the feeling of nostalgia you get when you’re leaving something familiar, even if that something familiar wasn’t all that pleasant.  For example, the name graduation goggles comes from that wistful feeling you might have had when graduating high school...even if high school really wasn’t all that pleasant, it was still familiar and something you had gotten used to.  The fear of the unknown causes graduation goggles to appear, and make it seem as though high school really wasn’t that bad after all.  I feel like graduation goggles are most frequently applied when in a relationship with someone you really don’t want to be in a relationship with.  Suddenly memories of all the good times come flooding back in, and you think to yourself that maybe staying with that person won’t be so bad after all.  Months later the relationship is on the skids, and even the graduation goggles can’t save the train wreck that is your relationship/job/family member/etc.  Simon and I had graduation goggles as our last days of Stanford drew close.  I remember one day, one of my last days, Simon and I were in the staff lounge at the end of our shift, and one of us (I don’t remember who) made the comment, “I’m actually going to miss it here.”  It was then that we realized we had graduation goggles on.  There’s no way I was going to miss working there, and in fact, would have to think long and hard about ever going back.  Being aware of the goggles is the half the battle.  

One funny thing I noticed about people in California is footwear.  Well, I notice footwear everywhere, but I was frequently perplexed by some of the footwear I saw in California, particularly by what people were wearing in Big Sur, Yosemite, and Muir Woods.  Keep in mind that there is hiking, sometimes strenuous hiking, to be done in all of these places.  We saw all manner of flip flops, Converse, Uggs, and even one man in loafers on the hiking trails.  How does one hike in those kinds of shoes?  I would have had to turn back after the first half hour...maybe even sooner than that...especially in the flip flops...or the loafers.  But I don’t own any loafers, so I guess I wouldn’t have been out there in loafers in the first place.  Maybe other people don’t have feet issues.  Maybe people like hiking in flip flops.  There were a lot of people in California that wear those barefoot shoes, both with the individual toes and without.  Those are weird too.  I want to try on a pair but so far I haven’t.  I believe those shoes are designed for running, and since I abhor running, there seems to be little point to even bothering with them.  

I guess that’s it for my California recap.  I do miss it out there, and lucky for me, I have a job that’ll most likely take me back there again someday.  :)