My So Called Life

Hey Kat! Where have you been? Not working very hard on this whole blog thing I gather? Guilty as charged so I'll try to make up for lost time :)

I believe my last post was about post-test and gosh, wouldn't you know, I have another test next Friday. At least it will be followed by a week of spring break and a short trip to Florida where I can soak up some sunshine. Over the past two weeks I've spent plenty of time not studying and doing fun things instead so here's a recap of my eventful life.

Thursday, February 9th

 

 A few girls in my class and I have started a nutrition based after-school program at a local park district. We go there twice a month to discuss healthy eating with the kids and organize a fun food preparation activity for them to participate in. (So far we've made guacamole and yogurt parfaits, not on the same day, and they loved it.) Last Thursday we worked with the younger group (K-3) and two of the little boys wanted to make me Valentines...it was pretty adorable. They say "Kat queen" and "I hope you don't leave". Too cute :)

Saturday, February 11th

My friend Sarah was celebrating her birthday, and I got to partake in the fun. I brought over some gluten free cupcakes from Sweet Ali's. Their cupcakes are amazing! (Especially the salted caramel.) We hung around her place for a while and played Settlers of Catan, which despite my epic nerdiness, I've never played before. 'Twas a good time.

The main event of the evening was a trip to the Hala Kahiki Lounge, a random tiki bar in the Chicago suburbs. They serve all sorts of tropical drinks (which are delicious, see my Ko Ko Mo above) and the line was out the door! Luckily Sarah was savvy enough to make reservations so we walked right in. It was such a random place but I can't wait to go back. There were about 10 of us in the group (I got to meet some of Sarah's past and current work friends who were lovely & hung out with some old high school buddies) and we spent the night playing Cards Against Humanity. It's like a dirty version of Apples to Apples and it is hilarious/disturbing/wildly addicting. (Maybe my life is just lame?) Either way, I have to get my hands on a box of these babies but they are sold out until March on Amazon...

Tuesday, February 14th

My friend Jackie sent me this beautiful bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day! It was such a great surprise to come home to. She's off in Australia for the last few months of her consulting job (lucky girl) and it was so sweet of her to think of me from all the way across the world! (Love you Jackie!) At school my friends got some chocolates and Twilight Valentine's Day cards in their cubby holes (yes, it is med school and we act like we're in the third grade...). I got my mom a little present & spent the evening eating some delicious buffalo chicken pizza and watching Big Bang Theory. Life was simple but great.

Friday, February 17th

Around noon today Lisa and I headed over to a local high school to talk to a group of girls about nutrition and women's health. Today was just a little intro talk and we'll be back again, but it was a great experience. We covered the idea of healthy eating being eating REAL food versus processed food, and in general, why nutrition is important. The group of about 30 girls (freshmen through seniors) asked us really intelligent and investigative questions, and we are excited to go back. Heart disease and diabetes are really prevalent in this community so we're going to present on those topics and come up with some tasty recipes for the girls to try. All the girls loved my boots and Lisa's cute blazer so it appears that the way to a teenage girl's brain is through her closet...

Thanks for reading...I have another little music post coming up soon, but it will just be a busy week of studying for me. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Post-Test

Hello, hello. I'm not sure what you were up to this weekend, but I spent Friday through Sunday cramming some more medical knowledge into my brain. Yesterday we had a test that covered GI, psychiatry, leukemia & lymphoma, parasites and a little bit of associated pharmacology. So basically I spent the weekend memorizing whether a particular parasite will give you a non-healing ulcerated sore, a brain abscess or intestinal obstruction.

*joy*

To be honest I did spend some time worrying whether I had Chagas since I was in Honduras this summer, so that was a bit stressful, but I did really enjoy learning about cancer, which though depressing, is pretty interesting I think...

Anyway it was all over at 4pm yesterday, and I began my glorious post-test evening by walking out into the 50F Chicago weather. (Yes, it is January. In Chicago. And it almost hit 60 degrees today!) Typical med school post-test festivities tend to include a local bar and some kind of drink special, but first I had some low key plans to attend to. Warning: crappy camera phone pictures are on the way.

First up was a hot date with my friend Lisa - at the local Target. We browsed around the store for an hour and half and stopped each other (for the most part) from making useless purchases. I snagged a few new beauty products (review to come), some tasty gluten-free snacks, and a candle (I'm a candle hoarder, it's a problem). We also picked-up some treats for later in the evening and browsed the Valentine's Day aisle. We laughed at the gifts in the picture below and questioned their suitability for children.

We then headed over to Portillo's for a Chicago-style hotdog, french fries, and chocolate malt. I forgot to take a picture of dinner & only got one of dessert. Lemme tell you, it felt like a Friday instead of a Monday.

This was followed by a decadent girl's night of The Bachelor, cupcakes, and red wine. I watched last season's Bachelorette and found the whole concept quite irresistible. One half of the room was being social and the other half (myself included) was glued to the screen. It's pretty entertaining, let's be honest. There's one particularly crazy girl on this season, and we're all waiting to see what kind of drama she stirs up next.

Me & Karlita :)

Ah, the life of a med student. PS: Cupcake wine from Target is pretty delicious.

beautiful ladies + blueberry pancake cupcakes

The Bachelor: a psychological experiment & damn good time

I made a brief appearance at the not-so-sketchy bar and then was on my way home, to bed, to catch some zzzs...it really was the perfect day filled with friends and one more test under my belt. And now it's time to hit the books, again...

introductions

This blog is about a medical student who enjoys things other than being a medical student. These "things" include literary pursuits, culinary adventures, artistic endeavors and wild animal taming -- or, in other words, reading, cooking, crafting, and playing with my dog. My name is Katarina (but call me Kat) and I've been a resident of the Chicago-land area my entire life. I've been putting off this whole introduction thing because I wanted it to be perfect, and I was afraid of producing less-than-perfect blog material. I've had all these post ideas floating around in my head for months, but I've been a bit too scared to actually put them out there. But here I am now, just please don't judge me too harshly.

Me & my dog Indie

So dear audience, I hope you enjoy my creative musings. I've never been good at keeping a diary. At the very least this blog may preserve some of my hopes and fears, loves and hates, so that when I'm 90 years old and flying around in a rocket ship or something, I'll remember what it was like to be a little young thing with my whole life ahead of me. (Disclaimer: I'm terribly afraid of heights and have no desire to visit space, so I hope the Earth is still around then!)

the mysterious roo

I may be a Kat but I'm also a roo & I promise that I'll be posting (for real) soon.

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