I was flipping through all the links on my blog after the redesign to make sure everything uploaded the way I wanted it to, and realized that on my "Things that make me happy" page, there is NOTHING under the "things that make other people happy" heading.  You can see for yourself, but don't look until you're don't reading this!

So, this being the second day of December and all, I would like to send out an plea for things that make YOU happy!  Remember, these are supposed to be the "mundane" things of life.  Not exciting things that SHOULD make you happy, but random things that you get exceptional joy out of. 

I know people read this thing... I watch the counter go up every day.  Don't pretend otherwise.  And anyone can leave a comment, even if you don't have a blog or gmail account.  So leave a comment about what makes YOU happy!  Better yet, if you have a blog, write a whole post about it, and them leave the link in a comment! 

I think that I will declare 12/2/10 as National Declaration Of Something That Makes You  Exceptionally Happy But Other People Think Is Not Exceptional Day.  In case you're wondering, I DO have the authority to declare a national day of something. 

So participate!  And then I can put them on my "things that make me happy" page under the currently empty heading, and THAT will make me happy.

Ready.....
GO!

I took this opportunity, it being the first day of December and all, to do my seasonal blog face lift.  I think I have blog design ADD... good thing there are ENDLESS possibilities!  This new design clearly has a winter/snow/Christmas theme.  That's because winter is the best, snow is the bestest, and a white Christmas would be bester than the bestest. 

I hope you understand how much emphasis is implied by my betrayal of all rules of grammar. 

My favorite thing, in the WHOLE world (maybe...), is being outside at night in the dark while its snowing... and it's not really dark because of all the light reflecting, and it never seems late and you never get tired and can play in the snow all night.  It's just splendid.  I hope that happens to me soon.  Now that it's December, it's a realistic possibility.

December will bring all sorts of fun things...

I finish my student health rotation on Friday, and it's been great.  There has been lots of excellent learning to be had, and I feel like I've reentered the world of family medicine.  The folks at student health are great fun (and they eat a lot, which clearly I appreciate).  I'll be sad to leave.  But not TOO sad, because...

I have off from Saturday until the middle of January!  I use the term "off" lightly because the next two weeks, and at least 4 other days of the rest of it, will be spend traveling for interviews.  But don't feel TOO badly for me because...

A lot of that interview travel time will be spent in the northwest and midwest... not interviewing.  I will, however, be rehashing my supreme navigation skills, spontenaity skills, and car-snacking skills.   

I will go home at some point... before Christmas!  I don't know when yet.  I feel bad leaving the feline munchkin right after getting home from spending two weeks away.  He's a people cat, and needs some loving, not time in a kennell. 

I will be riding my bike and running... Probably a lot once I'me done traveling.  Nationals, people, nationals.  I need miles.  And those little toe warmers that go inside your socks.  My feet get so frigid.

I think I will also go to NYC to visit my friend who just moved there.  She doesn't know it yet, but if she's a good friend, she reads my blog and just found out!  If not, I plan on showing up on her door with a map of Manhatten and my walking shoes.

I think that's it for the plans right now.  It's enough, I promise.

For now, I am just basking in the smells of my kitchen, and reading a good book.  I made peppermint patty brownies, Good Morning muffins, and chex mix tonight.  It was a very productive night.   

And now I must go to bed.

Happy December!

That's really all I have to say tonight...

I'm rehydrating after drinking coffee all day and spending an hour on the trainer.  And for whatever reason, water just tastes better out of a big plastic cup than a real glass.  The same is NOT true for milk or juice.  They are most certainly better out of glass.  But with water, it's all about the plastic.

I'm sure it has something to do with the added taste of BPA.  I'm willing to take the risk of developing cancer. 

For the sake of hydration, of course.

PS.  My computer consistently tells me that rehydrating is not a word.  But rehydrate is...?  That makes no sense.  If you can rehydrate, how can you not be rehydrating?  Are there any grammar gurus out there who can clarify for the computer that rehydrating is, in fact, a real word?

I have a presentation I need to finish tonight.  But when I look at PowerPoint for too long, my eyes start to bleed.  So I am taking a break to tell you about how I roll...

On my cyclocross bike, that is.

I spent a lot of time looking for an affordable set of wheels to replace the stock ones my cyclocross bike came with.  It was necessary to replace at least the front wheel because, well, it had a little run in with my rear bumper and the underside of my car...  Let's just say it was slightly beyond truing by the time I pulled it out.  So I spent time scouting out a few brands that would be affordable (and by that, I mean affordable on a medical student's budget... it's a different kind of affordable).  When all was said and done, I had narrowed it down to two companies: Neuvation Cycling and Revolution Wheel Works.  In the end, I really only chose Neuvation because of the price point.  Revolution Wheel Works is an INCREDIBLY good deal for the quality of the product you get, I just didn't have quite enough cash.  Neuvation turned out to be an excellent second choice, and for the money it's hard to beat!

I've moved out of my parent's house.

I pay rent for my own apartment.

I've got a lot of kitchen appliances... and I know how to cook with them.

I have a pet.

I have a Christmas tree.

I occasionally clip coupons.

But until now, something was missing.  Luckily, thanks to Shutterfly, I can officially become a REAL adult.

For the first time ever, I'm going to send out my own Christmas cards!  Okay, so maybe there really isn't that much about my life that people want to hear about.  When you're part of a family of five, it's pretty easy to fill a sheet of paper with news from the year.  But I am just one person, and don't really have THAT much news to share.  Thanks to photo cards, I don't really need to say anything, though!

Ahhh, the traditional American past time of having breakfast for dinner.  It's a pretty much fail-proof way to satisfy all hungry parties (ie: me) with little thought... and somehow even if there is no food in the house, you can always manage to scrounge up stuff to make pancakes or eggs. 

That was my plan, anyway.  I whipped up some pumpkin pancake batter and a couple scrambled eggs with cheese.  It looked delicious. 

Unfortunately, while my pans were sitting in the sink after I washed them, the hand soap fell into the sink and apparently spilled all over... everything.  I didn't notice.  Until after I'd cooked all my food, put it on the plate, and started eating.  And ate soap.  Seriously disappointing. 

I tried, very hard, to eat around the soap.  But the effort was futile.  It was destroyed.  And I threw it away and ate tuna. 

The tuna was not as good as brinner :(

Let's be honest.  The page of "things that make me happy" was made for a post about coffee.  Because, quite simply, it makes me incredibly happy.  Coffee is probably the strongest comfort food I have.  Lucky for me, as comfort foods go, it's pretty heart healthy (as compared to, say, ice cream, macaroni and cheese, and Doritos), and relatively benign, with the exception of the whole caffeine thing. 

I like my coffee black.  Rarely do I add anything to it.  Coffee is best in it's pure form.

I drink coffee at night.  In fact, I'm drinking some right now.  The caffeine rarely keeps me up, but just having it in my hand increases my productivity exponentially.  On some nights, that still leaves my productivity pretty close to zero.  But at least I still have the coffee.

I am not addicted.  I don't like the idea of being addicted to anything.  Once every one or two weeks, I make sure to go a day without any caffeine to make sure I don't get a headache.  It's not about the caffeine!  It's about the coffee.

I want to visit Sweden.  I just read the book, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", which, PS, I recommend reading.  It was excellent.  But, aside from the fact that it was a good book, it takes place in Sweden, and they drink a lot of coffee.  When you visit someone, the first thing they do it put a pot of coffee on.  When you wake up, coffee goes on.  When you make dinner, coffee.  I guarantee the word "coffee" appeared in the book at least 17 times more often than "dragon" and "tattoo" combined.  I can't say with certainty that this represents Swedish culture accurately, but I'm going to assume it does.  Also, because I'm part Swedish, it just seems natural. 

I love coffee.  And just for fun, I thought I'd do a brief blog picture recap of all the places it has inconspicuously appeared before...