Earrings - Day 2

Day 2

This pair is funky and almost perfectly matches the cardigan I'm wearing today.  I had to tweak them with pliers at my desk this morning though, so that I had ear lobes left at the end of the day.  They are very comfortable now!

Vintage Earrings. How Many Days?

Recently my brother-in-law lost his last grandparent, Grandma Brink.  She was a fantastic lady and will be quite missed.  My sister, brother-in-law and family helped with the obligatory sorting though of her possessions and apparently thought of me, because I received a visit from Scott on Tuesday with a bag full.  I received in my bag, a huge amount of vintage clip on or screw back earrings.  There were so many I didn't even count.  This all sounds rather morbid, but I think of it as a celebration of someone with great style.  So, I'm not sure how long these posts will continue, but I intend to wear each pair and post them in honor of Grandma Brink.

Day 1

Sassy Blue set that I loved immediately!

Duathlon!

Representing MSU Wrestling at CMU.

Mike and I completed our first duathlon over the weekend.  It was a fundraiser for the Red Cross held in Mt. Pleasant at CMU, the Out for Blood Duathlon & 5k.  We completed a 5k run and then a 20k bike.  I'm super proud to say that we both had respectable times.  We really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to the next challenge! 

I was very surprised by many things that day.  First, was the weather.  40 degrees, windy and rainy... not particularly fun.  The rain let up during the 5k which was nice for the bike, but it still sucked and the road was wet.  Secondly, I found out Saturday morning when I was getting around to head to the race, that I had over-indulged in alcohol the day before.  I was pretty rough around the edges and my 5k certainly showed it.  Running a 5k hungover was a bad idea.  I need to amend that for the next race.  Lastly, I had forgotten just how nervous my husband gets before competition.  I understand that this was his first ever race of any sort... but I was taken off-guard.  I mean, I get nervous, but he took it to a whole new level that morning.  He was just fine until we were in the car on the the way to the race and then he started asking questions.  That lead to a horrible puss on his face and anxiety about being ready in time.  Once we had gotten squared away he lightened a bit, but not really smiling until after we were done.  Thank goodness, for my sake, that he was smiling after!  We waited around for the results, but they were having difficulty, so we took off, grabbed some wings and a drink before heading home to watch some rugby.  It was a very nice day that we rounded off going out to watch the Squids live with some friends before collapsing in bed.  Triathlon here I come!

Muddy, wet ride.

Perspective

Sometimes you really have to stop and reflect on the past just to realize how far you've come.  Anyone who's ate with me or even had an extended conversation with me would know one thing about me.  I don't eat everything.  Most would remember varying degrees of gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, or food allergies.  None would be completely correct, but close enough for me.  I don't usually relate my entire long boring story of illness and treatment to many people for a couple of reasons, 1. it's gross and 2. I don't really like to dwell on it.  When I tell people I don't eat this or that, they always react or over-react as the case may be with some sort of comment like, "How do you live!?!"  This has never bothered me though.  I usually just say, "I'd rather not eat those things and be healthy."  Maybe this is rude, but I figure if they can't imagine a diet without, say, strawberries, they certainly aren't going to understand the 5 + years of illness I went through (or sympathize with me).

Yesterday a friend remembered some mention of illness and gluten/food allergies in our past conversation and asked me about it as one of her friends is very ill.  She obviously is a terrific friend to seek out a random conversation from many years ago that we had.  It was a simple enough request and when I started writing her I realized just how much I had pushed the actual experience out of my life.  My life now is about living with these parameters I know I have and trying to enjoy everything that comes my way.  I gained so much wisdom from that experience that most people will never be able to.  Not that I wish my experiences on anyone but you learn so much about yourself, your body and what matters most when you have to struggle to make it through a day without knowing if you are ever going to feel alive again.  Very few people were let into my world at that time of my life.  Did I have many friends? Yes.  But only a handful knew how very sick I was.  I didn't then and still don't like to show any weakness, period.  So my family, my boyfriend, now husband, (lord only knows why he stuck around with me being as icky as I was) and a few friends saw me as sick as I really was.

As I was writing it dawned on me how everything in my life now is the antithesis of what it was then besides my family, my husband and my closest friends.  Then I was too trapped by being ill to try anything new, now I huger for it.  I was too blinded to really access my feelings and push for what I wanted or to push away what I didn't want.  I was floating in a sea of mediocrity.  The biggest factor in me getting well wasn't the food, although the diet change made it possible... It was me taking control of my life.  The day I cleaned the over 40 different tried prescriptions out my medicine cabinet was the day I started getting better.  And at that point I still didn't even know what was wrong with me.  I just knew that I wasn't going to sit around and be sick anymore.  So anyone who wants to know... ask me about my former illness.  I'll tell you about how I healed my body and my mind.  Perspective is a huge bonus in my life and I realized yesterday how much I value it.

Freddy's Birthday

Freddy was officially 18 on March 25, which is oddly enough only one day different from our first exchange son, Felipe's, whose is on the 24th.  Eighteen for a Finnish kid, doesn't mean a whole lot here in the US, but when he gets back to Finland he will be able to drink alcohol.... legally.  It was a busy weekend but we squeezed in lots of birthday activities.  The morning of his birthday we had American breakfast, pancakes & sausage, before school.

That night Freddy had a birthday party with friends.  Saturday we went to Birch Run for some birthday shopping and a birthday lunch.  We finally went to Tony's.  It's famous for HUGE portions.  Freddy got the BLT (bacon lettuce tomato sandwich) with 1 full pound of bacon!  He ate much of it but could not finish it.

That night we had a family birthday dinner.  Freddy chose and we had steaks, frites and salad.  Huge sirloin steaks of which Freddy ate the entirety of.  Mike and I split one.  The frites were sweet potato and I made a smoked paprika butter for the steaks. Very delicious meal.

Sunday we had birthday cake.  When we asked Freddy what kind he wanted, he stated that he wanted an American cake.  Isn't cake American period??  No?  Oh okay.  Epicurious was a big helper and I found a decidely American cake, Devils Food Cake.  We topped the three layers with a caramel frosting and it was mouth watering.

 The final part of the celebration was the following Wednesday.  We bought Red Wings tickets for Freddy's birthday present.  We had a great time even though the Wings got slaughtered.  Not a bad replacement for the drinking birthday that he would have had in Finland.

Sushi!

Mom & I with our hard work.

Many, many years ago I took my first trip to NYC with my now Mother-in-law to pick up my now sister-in-law, Patricia, from college and do a bit of sight seeing.  We ventured to Rockefeller Plaza and ended up getting lunch.  Patricia wanted to get sushi.  She got a harmless California Roll.  I, after just having discovered a slight liking of fish, was obviously curious but very frightened.  "Isn't it raw fish?" I asked.  Of course, I tried it after many "Fear Factor" faces and was not pleased to find that it was very very fishy tasting.  "It's too fishy for me," was all I could muster to say but in my head I was saying "Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!"  I came to learn after giving it a try again and again once back at MSU that it actually was the seaweed not the fish that had put me off that first meeting with sushi.  Though I couldn't have predicted in NYC, seaweed and I are now friends and sushi and I have become the closest of friends.

However much I love cooking, sushi is a bit intimidating.  It takes a lot of skill to do what chefs do at the best of sushi restaurants and I do not think I have the education to be able to achieve the artistry that is on my plate at those restaurants.  That however will not stop me from trying to learn more about this yummy food.  Not too long ago my Mom called to tell me that a local chef was doing a sushi class and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her.  Without a doubt I was going.

We had a great time and I earned a ton of confidence making three rolls all by my lonesome.  Our teacher was good and took much of the intimidation factor out of play.  The scariest was flipping the rice covered nori to make a roll with the rice on the outside.  If a drum roll could have been conjured it would have been quite appropriate as I stared down at my soon-to-be spicy tuna roll trying to work up the courage to flip it over.  Of, course my rolls were not restaurant caliber, but they were tasty!!  I cannot wait to get some sushi rice and start practicing on the boys at home.