Over the summer, I had a post about food that I had cooked with pictures of said food items. Since I moved to DC about 6 months ago, I've been cooking up a storm, but never took any pictures and haven't posted about it! Therefore, a list will have to do, but I wanted to share with you some of the dishes that I've been making for my lunches and dinners now that I don't depend on the Wellesley dining system (hush, you whiners, I thought it was great):

chick pea salad

chick peas, diced red bell pepper, diced red onion, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a dash of balsamic vinegar

kale chips

kale leaves, cut into pototo chip-sized pieces, rubbed with olive oil, rice vinegar, and tossed in salt, pepper, and chili powder, then baked in the oven until light and crispy

swiss chard salad

swiss chard (chopped stems and small leafy pieces), avocado, feta cheese, chick peas, and diced beets, sprinkled with red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.

curried kale and chick peas

kale and chick peas sautéed with chopped garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper, then heated with sour cream and lots of curry powder and a little bit of crushed red pepper; mixed well and then put over brown rice.

soy-marinated tofu

tofu pan-fried in a marinade made of olive oil, soy sauce, sugar, pepper, a dash of curry powder, and a little garlic powder; serve with brown rice.

egg and cheese on a bagel

1 beaten egg mixed with a little salt, pepper, and curry powder, cooked over low heat in a small circular-ish shape; put on a bagel with grated cheddar cheese and some ketchup.

spinach feta pasta

sautéed spinach, tomato, and chopped garlic with a little lemon juice and salt and pepper; put over linguine or penne with feta cheese.

sweet fruit salad

diced and cored apples, halved strawberries, clementine sections, and blueberries, drizzled with honey and cinnamon powder and mixed well.

time machine

Women's health initiatives and resources have been put on the line, and I'm sure for those who were around for the 1940s-1970s, it must feel like they've been forced into a time machine and sent back in time. I mean, we've even gone back to the fitted jeans for men and platform heels for women. All the anti-choice talk, the ridiculous fear and animosity surrounding immigrants and immigration, the anti-socialist rants and impassioned and insane opposition to public programs and safety net policies...

I guess this is what it feels like when an entire society decides to brake, speed into reverse, and repeat all the idiocy of its past.

"ideal worker"

I've spent the past couple months doing research on paid sick days, why they're important to provide to all workers, why it's important to use them, and how beneficial it is to society as a whole to have them and use them.

So why is it that the one time I'm sick and have to stay home, I feel guilty the whole time?

So guilty that I still got myself out of bed at 9:00 am to sign into my remote desktop connection and work for 5 hours today before finally realizing that this defeats the purpose of taking a sick day?

I've heard references to the "ideal worker," that worker who works tons of overtime without recording the extra hours, who offers to do all of the extra tasks that no one else wants to do, who is constantly busy and overloaded but somehow manages to get most of it done, and never takes any vacation time. While I don't think I am quite in that extreme, I most certainly feel pressure to be that way:

- I felt bad asking for overtime pay when I stayed for 6 hours extra one week to help the president of IWPR with her power point presentations;

- I was uncomfortable asking my boss to sign off on my leave forms when I wanted to take an extra day off to spend with my family during the holidays;

- I habitually stay about a half hour past the end of my scheduled work day;

- When co-workers send out requests for help on projects, etc., I find myself jumping to help them even though I am already working on something else.

Now, some of this is admittedly just me being a giant nerd. I know that. And I'm not saying that I'm actually the ideal worker. I sit on Gchat, I'll take the occasional longer lunch, I chat with my co-worker throughout the day about things unrelated to work.

But some of it must also be the work culture that exists in this country. At competitive universities, students often find themselves in conversations about how much time they've spent studying for this class and that midterm. My co-workers are constantly in the office well past 6:30 pm although most of us are scheduled to work until 5:30 pm. Coming in to work on the weekends is common. Many of us eat lunch at our desks and work while eating.

With all the work I do surrounding work-life balance and work-family policies, I'm beginning to wonder whether all of this will help anyone, if it will mean anything at all if this workaholic culture stays put. A while ago, I listened in on a Department of Labor discussion about how to enforce the breastfeeding protections in the Affordable Care Act, and a number of the people on the call spoke about how it'll be an issue of enforcement, yes, but that changing workplace culture would be the more difficult, and perhaps more important, part.

Just some food for thought.

happy new year!

Goodbye, 2010, and hello, 2011!

I cannot believe that a year has gone by. So much has changed, so much has happened in the past 12 months in my life and the lives of those around me. Degrees earned, new homes, hearts broken, new lessons, friends lost, hearts healed, new jobs, new friends, new experiences.

For the first time...

...I signed a lease

...I sprained my ankle

...I started a full-time job

...I went to a friend's funeral

...I went to a zoo at night

...I paid a rent check

...I co-authored a publication

...I earned a post-secondary degree

...I went to a friend's wedding (among many other things)

There have been many things to be profoundly sad about and many things to be profoundly happy about, but all in the end, it was a year. Oh, and what a year!

This year, I rang in the new year with friends from the DC area. Several of us got together, left DC at around 6:45 am on New Year's Eve and drove out to a state park in rural Maryland to go cross-country skiing! It was absolutely amazing. For just $20 a pop, we rented skis, poles, and shoes, and set out into the woods along some beautiful trails for 3 or 4 hours of ridiculous amounts of fun! I would say that it was tranquil, but our explosions of laughter and the silly screaming as we went "speeding" out of control on downhill slopes and around turns kind of ruined the quiet that would have otherwise settled into the woods that we explored that day. Take a look!

A new fun experience with awesome new friends...what could be a better way to spend New Year's Eve?

Here's to a wonderful 2010 full of growth and change, new and old dear friends, a beautiful loving family, and here's to an exciting 2011 to come! Happy New Year!

happy holidays!

I can't believe that 2010 is already coming to a close...what an eventful year it's been, both personally and generally speaking! This marks about 4 months of me being in DC (and kind of a grown-up), about 7 months since I left Wellesley, and 3 months until I turn 23, just to throw a few numbers out there. I am currently writing from the comforts of home in Princeton, NJ where I am spending Christmas with my beloved family, which reconvenes in its entirety far too rarely now that we're all off in different places doing our own thing: Jin's in Ithaca (yes, still) very successfully pursuing a Master's degree in Architecture, John and Jenn are in the middle of the junior year of college at Yale and Swarthmore, and Mom and Dad are insanely busy commuting between here and Seoul.

A number of exciting things have happened this month, including my being published as a co-author of an IWPR report on the impact of the healthcare reform act on U.S. rates of breast-feeding, a nighttime trip to the zoo, hosting my first party at my new home (finally), a trip to the White House, and my first karaoke outing!

The zoo trip was fabulous! I haven't been to a zoo since I was in 8th grade, so this was kind of a big deal for me. Some of my friends decided to humor me and joined me for an evening trip to see the ZooLights at the National Zoo. They put all sorts of beautiful (and ecofriendly!) light displays around the zoo and opened up some of their animal houses to the public! I'll have to take a trip during the day sometime so that I can see more of the little buggers, particularly since most of them were asleep when we went :)

A few of my friends and I went to karaoke on U Street in downtown DC, where my friend Scott and I performed a duet from "Grease". My voice may or may not have cracked a few times...but it was lots of fun and I hope to go back and do it again. The fun thing was that it was "costume" karaoke, requiring anyone who is going to perform to wear some silly article of clothing, resulting in the following:

December 18 was quite a wonderful day for me as I got to spend the morning getting ready for my party, and spent the afternoon in line for and inside the White House! Every year, the White House gets ridiculously decorated for the holiday season, and they open it up for self-guided tours. IWPR got something like 10 tickets, I believe, for staff to go and see it, and I got lucky and got a ticket! My friends/co-workers,Mallory, Elisa, and I went together and stood in the cold for about 45 minutes and finally got inside, and it was lovely and, in my opinion, worth the wait. Each room was impeccably adorned with all sorts of colorful, shiny trinkets, and there was a singing group from Tennessee in the lobby providing us with lovely Christmas-y tunes. Here are some highlights:

Unfortunately, I took very few pictures DURING my party but had fun with my housemates, Alex and Lisa, before the event as we got ready and awaited the arrival of our friends. I also invited my close friends from IWPR, Mallory and Annamaria over early, and they were kind enough to help us set up! Getting to work with them is definitely part of the reason that it's been relatively easy to get up in the morning and get to work on time! The party was fun, and I was particularly proud of the caponata and white bean dip that I had prepared as hors d'oeuvres. The caponata in particular was a big hit!

I have so much to be thankful for this year, and though I know that technically Thanksgiving Day is the day to write this, I think that any occasion to reflect on one's life is wonderful :)

Beautiful friends, wonderful family, an interesting and empowering job, good health, and so much more are a reason to be quite happy this Christmas Day! Happy Holidays to all!

MUT reunion!

When I was back at Wellesley, I had a network of friends through the ultimate frisbee community. I was particularly close with a group of very athletic, hilarious, wonderful people who were also all friends with each other and attended Dartmouth, Cornell, and Wellesley. One of them created a team called "M.U.T." which stands for "Mike's Ultimate Team" and used it as a way for us to see each other every once in a while and get together to play some ridiculously fun but high-quality ultimate. The last time we played together was the Summer of 2008, when we met up in upstate New York for a tournament called "Ow My Knee". We hadn't seen each other in months, we never practiced together, and we didn't care if we won or not. But we ended up beating all the other club teams to win the tournament!

However, we hadn't played all together in 2 years, and many of us hadn't seen each other in months. One of us lives in Colorado, one of us works in Wisconsin, a few of us are in Boston, a few of us in DC, one of us in Philadelphia...and it was about time for another reunion. So, this past weekend, we all got together at Mike's house and played in the local PADA Mosh tournament!

We didn't win the tournament like we did last time, but we sure had a wonderful time. It always feels like home when I see old friends again :)

novemBRRR

Happy November!

The new month has certainly brought autumn along with it (finally), and I find myself bringing out the heavy knit sweaters, colorful scarves and thick tights that I would have been wearing already if I still lived up in Wellesley, MA!

On Halloween weekend, some of my closest friends came to visit the house in time for the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally, and to celebrate Halloween! Here we are on the steps of my house:

After a breakfast of coffee, OJ, eggs and toast with jam and butter prepared by yours truly, we joined something like 200,000 other people on the National Mall in downtown DC to attend the rally. IT WAS SO CROWDED. IT WAS INSANE. But it was exhilarating! People brought hilarious, cynical signs, and there were thousands and thousands of people who held political beliefs similar to my own. To be honest, it was quite empowering and reassuring.

After the rally, we got a delicious lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then headed home to rest, watch a movie, and then prepare to head out on the town to celebrate Halloween. I haven't really celebrated Halloween in years so this was a change of pace, but it was hilarious. We ordered plastic Viking hats and wore them as a group costume, which resulted in the following:

It was SO nice to see everyone in one place (though Colette was missing...I sincerely wish she could have made it), and to hang out all together like we were back at Wellesley.