Stressed to the max after my trip - decisions, decisions! - working on my second job this week as well as the first, and feeling exhausted every day. Also, a blessing and a curse - I got to go out to two amazing "donor" type lunches this week. Complete with rich foods and cocktails and wine, I have to say that it is super fun, but it also messes you up for the day!

Anyway, last night my friend J* asked me to come hear some music. It was at Katerina's, it was flamenco (my favorite), and it was totally fabulous. All the musicans were AMAZING. It was a great way to relax for awhile.

Sa-da-tay!

North Carolina was beautiful, but it was also a stressful visit. I realized that I need to do some soul-searching for what I want out of the grad school experience, and also do some more research on faculty and curriculums, etc. Exhausting!

In the meantime, I've been trying to relax and unwind. I watched the awesome, "Pootie Tang" for the first time. Loved it! The characters were hilarious and the spoofiness was really funny.

I also rearranged the furniture in my bedroom, and I'm on a health watch to make sure I'm eating some good fruits and vegetables and exercising a bit. As for my grad school decision:

"I'm going to sine your pitty on the running kine!"
- Pootie Tang

Wrench In My Plans - Whatchoo Tryin' Ta Say?

I picked out all my outfits - professional, tasteful, stylish, but not too stuffy or over the top - packed my bags and headed to the airport yesterday. When I arrived at O'hare, I saw that my 5:40 p.m. flight to Raleigh/Durham had been cancelled. Argh! Waiting in line with about 30 bitchy people, on the cell phone with customer services, etc. etc., I had the possibility to try to fly standby (11 p.m.) or connect through St. Louis and arrive today at 1:20 p.m.. My lovely Polish agent tried hard to find me another spot, but to no avail. So I got back on the train at approximately 6:30 p.m. to head back to my apartment. Within 20 minutes, my flight to St. Louis had been cancelled!

After spending 30 minutes of my bus ride to my apartment on hold with customer service, I got booked on the 5:40 p.m. flight to Raleigh/Durham tonight. So I have to skip my entire day at Duke. Funny enough, I was in the cancelled flight line with a young woman who was going to the same place. Listening to her on the line with customer service, I pegged her as a not very friendly person, and one without a lot of warmth. Harsh it seems, but I introduced myself to her anyway. She was a PhD candidate in Psychology and Neurology and said that Raleigh was "okay."

"That's not really a glowing review," I said.
"Well," she said, "Raleigh is okay. I don't really like the program, so..."

Hmm. I realized that she didn't view me as a friendly soul seeking to chat in the airport, but rather as a competitor for a seat on a flight to Raleigh/Durham. Huh.

I think it would be too flaky to interpret these signs"from the universe" as a "no" towards Duke, but none of that made it seem more appealing. Rather than trying to split the little time I have left in North Carolina between Chapel Hill and Duke, I'm just going to go in depth at Chapel Hill. It may be my number one choice at this point anyway. Also, on the "good people" scale of life, I emailed my student host how my flight had been twice cancelled. She called me immediately and we chatted about it, and we talked about my upcoming visit, etc. She was sweet, flexible, and friendly, and said that she was that way because that was how people were when she visited Chapel Hill. Nice!

Being home this extra day has been a good opportunity to take some time to relax. I've been also able to email some of the professors that I'm interested in at UNC. Does it seem like I'm trying too hard to find a moral or silver lining in all this? Well here it is:

When life hands you cancelled flights and thunderstorms, use that extra time to take a bubble bath.

Or, something like that.

Refreshing Spring Salad - Better Than Airport Food

With all my excitement and stress for my impending trip, I realized I needed to put away the Doritos and eat some real food. I put together this salad today and it was super-satisfying:

- Arugula
- Tomato
- Avocado
- Carrot
- Feta Cheese
- Splash of Balsamic Vinegar

The avocado was perfectly ripe and, along with the Feta cheese, added a great deal of richness to this salad which made for a full and satisfying lunch meal. The arugula added a little fresh spiciness, the carrot, a little earthiness, and the tomato rounded it out. Yum!

All I can say is: wow! I go to visit North Carolina tomorrow and I am feeling a lot of mixed feelings. Coming off of a wonderful birthday celebration, I question this desire I have to move out of Chicago. But looking into these new places is really exciting! And getting a chance to see these schools, meet the faculty, discuss my intelletual interests and desires, and explore new career opportunities is totally thrilling! And, I feel a lot of excitement about the proposed 70 degree temperatures! Haaay!

I've been in Chicago for four years now, and I've certainly had a lot of ups and downs. But the possibility of a big change has really cast a different light on just about everything. Some days, I feel nostalgia - if I move away, I won't be able to go to the Chicago farmer's markets, or cuddle up with Mr. D every day, or step into the spring mud on my way to the neighborhood El stop. Some days, I think of how I want to sell all my stuff and leave all the little annoyances of jobs and the slow-ass brown line and my outrageous gas bills behind me. Yesterday, I had an anger moment at Chicago - hey! you haven't appreciated me enough ya bastard!

One thing I know is that I'll find cool things to do (like farmer's markets or jewelry classes) anywhere I go. And that the people that I really love, and that really love me, will be in my life no matter where I live.

Miz M Telling Her Birthday Story

Nutella Birthday Crepes With Strawberries

I started celebrating my birthday one day early when Mr. D took me out to breakfast this morning. Nutella crepes with fresh strawberries, oodles of whipped creme, coffee, and tea. Oh yeah, and a side of bacon. Mmmmm. It was a perfect, rich, yet light breakfast that both made me feel like a kid, and like a lucky woman who can appreciate good food and good company.

More good eats are on the horizon to celebrate my 28th year - lunch today with some girlfriends (maybe burgers and basketball!), and lunch and the symphony tomorrow with my mom. Tomorrow night's dinner will be tapas and some beers with friends, and this weekend will be a mandatory viewing of the movie, "The Host."

Let the Decision Making Begin!

So now I've heard back from all the graduate schools. As I mentioned, I got accepted to University of Illinois-Chicago, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, and Duke. Whoop! Whoop! I did not get accepted into University of California - Berkeley. Suckers! I'm truly okay with it though, because I just wanted to make sure that I gave myself a chance to apply. And I'm happy to say that the waiting is over, and the decision-making process can begin. I'm going to visit the North Carolina schools in a few weeks. Besides the excitement of moving to a new place and doing something new, I'm currently lusting over the warm weather! It's in the upper 70s there this week. Ahh...

If you have a more adventurous palate for salads, here's a good one that is cheap, tasty, unusual, and if prepared correctly, quite elegant.

The basic formula is celery, green apples, and Parmesan cheese with a little salt, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice. It's a very light Italian salad, but could be varied with say, cider vinegar instead of lemon juice and some red pepper flakes. I suppose you could also make it a mayo salad if you want, but then you are adding calories and heaviness to the salad, which it doesn't really need.

You can chop up the ingredients any which way, but if you can manage to slice everything razor thin, it can look quite elegant!

During the beginning of the month, it always seems that money is tight. The freedom of living in my own place and belonging to a gym among various things, has a price. My new strategy is to stretch money out with my food budget to cut the funds spent on eating out. To attempt to alliviate associated stress, I find clever grocery shopping and cooking skills to be a major blessing, and a must. In the past three months I've discovered skills that I forgot I had. You know, how to make something good with a little this and that in the fridge and some dried pasta. Recently, I thought I didn't have anything in the kitchen, but I boiled some noodles, added some vodka marinara, capers, feta cheese, onions, and salami. Wha-la! Two meals worth of some totally decent pasta dish, and I still haven't had to go to the store.

For my next trick, egg salad on crackers! But, I also want to get a little better and cooking great food from scratch for cheap. A quick google revealed this seemingly awesome website, which I'm going to go read right now. Happy cooking!

Deep Into a Pancake Craze

On my visit to Baltimore, K and I made pancakes one morning and ate them with peanut butter, Nutella, and/or maple syrup. It was totally fun!

Growing up, pancakes were always too much of a "hassle," as neither of my parents were that into making breakfast anyway. My mom bought pancake mix; my dad bought "hotcakes" from McDonald's. But, until two weeks ago, I never realized how easy it is to make the batter from scratch. Now, I'm deep into a pancake craze.

Mr. D and I made pancakes last weekend, with oodles of bacon, coffee, and cheesy eggs. I spiffed up the pancake batter with an extra teaspoon of vanilla and a pinch of both cinnamon and nutmeg. The result? Delicious!

Last night, I was at home and kind of scrounging around for something to eat for dinner. But I was bored of all the regular stuff, and I didn't want to go out and buy any groceries. The solution? Pancakes, of course! It only takes a few ingredients, a few minutes, and there were even leftovers to put into the freezer for another day. Pancakes. Hooray. The only thing I was really missing was some chocolate chips!

Latest Obsession Jams

Beyonce - "Listen"
Justin Timberlake - "Rock Your Body"
Jennifer Lopez - "Love Don't Cost A Thing"
Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You"

Natty Bo Redux

So, this isn't a direct picture that I took in Baltimore, but I thought it important to share the hilariousness of the beer Natty Boh's logo. Apparently he only has one eye because he is winking, but why doesn't he then have a half-moon thing for the other eye? Why is there just blank space there? Who designed this logo? But also: awesome.

In other news, I have started getting news back from graduate schools! Finally! So far I've heard back from two places. North Carolina and Chicago have said "yes" to Miz M. But will Miz M say yes to one of them? Dun. Dun. Dun.