The days are getting shorter, but my semester is coming to a close soon (10 days left not that anyone is counting). I want to take a few minutes to reflect on and take record of the month.

The Celebrations

The first Om-Nom Acres event was a huge success! You can read the details over here.

I had a wonderful catch-up dinner with two friends and former coworkers of mine, Catherine and Riley. We ate great food from Seva in Ann Arbor, talked academics and politics, and laughed for a good portion of two hours.

There was the whole election business. Yay democracy!

My 26th Birthday rocked. I had a laid back day where I didn’t have to wake up early. I stood in line with stranger-friends for hours while waiting for my pastured turkey; the weather was warm and the smell of supporting local farms was in the air – beautiful! Devin and I raided the salad bar at the grocery store toppings and enjoyed delicious individual homemade pizzas with some of my dearest friends, Yolanda and Lisa. After dinner we decorated mini-cakes (and ate them) then snuggled in on the couch to watch two great films, the 8-time award winning “Waking Ned Divine” and the viral internet sensation “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.”

While I had some really amazing birthday presents (like Yolanda’s fantastic tea-spoon, Lisa’s nostalgic pie-bite treats from the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market, and Sammit’s surprise-you-thought-I-had-to-work-a-24-hour-shift-on-your-birthday-but-really-I-swapped-with-a-fellow-employee-so-I-could-come-home-early-and-spend-the-night-with-you homecoming and complimentary extra thin-slicing food processor blade and edible arrangement) my absolute favorite was from my sister, Devin. She spent time contacting people I’ve worked with, gone to school with, and grown up with to solicit wonderful memories from them. She decorated these memories, put them in envelopes, and wrapped them in string with a plain brown tag. I opened 26 heart-warming memories, pictures, and letters from the people in my life. It was such a gift.

: My psychedelic cake

: Monica couldn’t sing to me this year.

: My collection of memories

I started my new internship this month and it has been a great experience already. I’m working in my and neighboring communities doing communications and organizing work for TimeBanking.

I spent a great afternoon with Devin and Sammit at our aunt and uncle’s house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We had all the fixin’s and enjoyed my aunt’s legendary cheesecake while watching the dog show and the Detroit Lion’s lose (wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it). My unit of three moved to my father and stepmother’s house for a second dinner in the evening. I blessed my mother for understanding a blended family and forgoing dinner at her house as well. On Saturday everyone trucked there way over to my house to enjoy yet another great Thanksgiving. Devin and I made almost everything the day before and cooked the rolls, turkey, and green bean/kale dish the day of – it was all pretty relaxed.

Our 2012 Menu:

Brined and High-Temp Roasted Turkey (the previously mentioned one from the farm)
Bacon & Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes
Oven-Roasted Root Vegetables (squash, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, parsnips, beets, carrots, onions, etc. – 400F for an hour)
Rolls (I won’t share the recipe because I’m going to try for a better one)
Pumpkin Pie with homemade crust
Green Beans & Kale
Wine, Water, Milk, & Sparkling Cider

: The Turkey (south end, leg removed)

: Green Beans & Kale

: My mom made me a centerpiece

: Pumpkin Pies (those are squirrels and a hedgehog)

: Scratch pull-apart rolls

: Beautiful Root Vegetables!

: Bacon/Onion Mashed Potatoes

The Sad-Faces

I’m dealing with some serious end-of-the-semester burnout. I’ve been trying to keep on the self-care wagon but I’m waning. 10 days.

When I sit down to read:

When I try to write papers:

When I try to compartmentalize:

When I try to take my mind of school by doing anything else:

The Celebrations

Fountain Street Church – 10/2/10

Here’s a picture of Sammit and me during our wedding ceremony. This is only one of so many pictures that I absolutely adore from our wedding days. That’s right plural! We had two wedding ceremonies and three receptions. Whew. But that’s another post. For our first anniversary we had a mini-vow renewal at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. This year, our second anniversary, Sammit had to work but he surprised me with a very nice dinner where he made a Lasagna and chocolate covered strawberries from scratch! This is huge because up until this night Sammit barely knew how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. His cooking lesson was a gift from my sister, Devin. Now he’s going to make Lasagna once a month!

Then there was my trip to Chicago with Monica, but you’ve already read about all that fun.

Cabin Picture 2012

The fall is also a time for another annual tradition and celebration: FTRWW: F–k The Real World Weekend. Each fall a group of friends makes the 6 hour trek up north to the U.P. to a cabin in the woods where there is delicious food and general debauchery. FTRWW started off as a friend’s male bonding event called, “Meat Fest” but as they matured so did the weekend. Now it is a time where 20 or so people who are vaguely related by blood and common bonds eat, drink, shoot guns (safely and while sober), play guitar, soak in the fire, and play a heck of a lot of Euchre. Oh and this year including watching the Michigan Wolverines beat the MSU Spartans. Something Sammit and I, two UM alumni in a sea of green, appreciate.

The Sad-Faces

There are only two sad-faces for this month. The first is that my field internship for school was terminated after they were unable to provide me with a licensed social worker to supervise my work. I’m waiting in limbo right now for another placement while paperwork gets shuffled back and forth. I’m excited to see where I might end up, but I’m sad to see my time with this last internship come to an end.

The second is my life-disrupting cold. I woke up with a cold, literally woke up with it because the night before I felt great, the day before Sammit and I were scheduled to leave for FTRWW and before we had packed anything. I was miserable and Sammit was a total champ about it and packed all the food, camping supplies, bedding, and dogs into the car with almost no help from me. I was also miserable while at the cabin but tried to enjoy myself anyway. It didn’t occur to me to take any sort of cold medicine until the morning we were leaving. I’m 12 days into my cold now and just starting to feel better. I believe it turned into a dual sinus and ear infection and I went on antibiotics on Sunday in hopes of finally kicking it. I will be trying to catch up with school work for the rest of the semester. The rest of this post will be dedicated to describe how I feel when I’m sick; I appologize in advance for previous blog readers, you’ve already seen this and can probably just move on now.