My great-grandmother, Mamaw, was an awesome woman. She was strong, and wise, and intelligent, and clever. When I was little, she'd pick me up from school, and we'd hang out. Mmm, Chick-Fil-A and Braums. She took me to the pet store, and the mall, and to the movies whenever a Disney came out.
She was a woman who survived the Depression. She lived on a farm. She went to college. She married a businessman, and raised two children. She was an icon in her local church. And she and her husband were key supporters in the formation of the Oklahoma Christian Women's Association.
Mamaw passed away almost 15 years ago, in her 80s, from a series of strokes. Her legacy is a myriad of wisdom, anecdotes, patience, paintings, turquoise jewelry, and cookbooks. The OCWA compiled recipes from their members and sold the books as a fundraiser. I grew up with two editions of Stepping Stones to Good Eating. I have memories of my mother and I flipping through the pages, looking for tasty things to make. Southern banana cake, Dina Shore brownies, jello with applesauce and red hots... We would write comments in the margins, and I remember drawing little cookies on the face page of the "cookie" section, salad on the face page of the "salad" page, etc... But when I got married and moved away, I missed having them on my shelf.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Who are you, anyway?
When I was little, I had trouble deciding what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a professional ice skater, a veterinarian, an Egyptologist, and a marine biologist. I wanted to be a journalist, or write fiction. Eventually, I zeroed in on the biological sciences, especially medicine. A virologist, a pathologist... I wanted to be a psychiatrist for a while, until my father's mocking shamed me away from it. That, and a few surgery videos made me realize that I didn't have the stomach to get through medical school.
During my first year in college, I was listed as pre-med, even though I doubted I would follow that path. (My father wanted me to get an MD/PhD and do research. Ha ha.) After my first semester, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Genetics. I'd loved it in high school, and I loved it even more in college. Loved it enough to stay awake at 8am in a lecture hall of 100+ students, with a monotone professor who still used an overhead projector and slides.
But a few trips to the lab, and I realized it may be a dream half-realized. I HATED the lab. So tedious, so monotonous... I could become a medical geneticist, but that would require not only and MD, but more study beyond that. And then, that darling, monotone professor suggested genetic counseling. He wrote it on my exam when he graded it - yes, he did essay style exams, hand written. He wrote, "Great way of explaining things! Have you considered genetic counseling as a career?" And that was it. I was hooked.
During my first year in college, I was listed as pre-med, even though I doubted I would follow that path. (My father wanted me to get an MD/PhD and do research. Ha ha.) After my first semester, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Genetics. I'd loved it in high school, and I loved it even more in college. Loved it enough to stay awake at 8am in a lecture hall of 100+ students, with a monotone professor who still used an overhead projector and slides.
But a few trips to the lab, and I realized it may be a dream half-realized. I HATED the lab. So tedious, so monotonous... I could become a medical geneticist, but that would require not only and MD, but more study beyond that. And then, that darling, monotone professor suggested genetic counseling. He wrote it on my exam when he graded it - yes, he did essay style exams, hand written. He wrote, "Great way of explaining things! Have you considered genetic counseling as a career?" And that was it. I was hooked.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
What to do?
My schedule was recently shuffled, and I now work all day on Monday and Thursday, mornings on Tuesday and Friday, and have all of Wednesday off. And I ad no patients to see today, so am already caught up with yesterday's reports. This means that I can study this afternoon, and have a precious evening to spend with the one I love. (And the dogs.) And, not surprisingly, I'm thinking about what to cook for dinner...
When I looked through the fridge this morning, I realized we now had TWO entire packages of bacon. I attribute our recent bacon binge on the discovery of grilled bacon and onion pizza. But I don't really want pizza tonight, so I'm thinking breakfast. Bacon, eggs, toast with raspberry jam... good ol' breakfast.
But I really need a vegetable. We generally only get one vegetable cooked for any given meal, but you really need at least one. My standard go-to veggies are broccoli and zucchini. Sometimes corn, but I'm conflicted over if it's actually a vegetable. Sweet potatoes in the winter, but I find I don't want to eat them in the summer. Occasionally, I'll go on a wild tear and buy pickled beets, and eat an entire, liberally salted jar over a bowl of cottage cheese.
When I looked through the fridge this morning, I realized we now had TWO entire packages of bacon. I attribute our recent bacon binge on the discovery of grilled bacon and onion pizza. But I don't really want pizza tonight, so I'm thinking breakfast. Bacon, eggs, toast with raspberry jam... good ol' breakfast.
But I really need a vegetable. We generally only get one vegetable cooked for any given meal, but you really need at least one. My standard go-to veggies are broccoli and zucchini. Sometimes corn, but I'm conflicted over if it's actually a vegetable. Sweet potatoes in the winter, but I find I don't want to eat them in the summer. Occasionally, I'll go on a wild tear and buy pickled beets, and eat an entire, liberally salted jar over a bowl of cottage cheese.
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