Rocky Mountain High

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm kind of a ski bum. More like a ski addict, I think I need to go to support meetings! I have skied every weekend except one this year, which I have to say is quite impressive!!

This past weekend my Dad and I went to Aspen/Snowmass! We have some family friends who live there, so we got to spend quality time with them. For the most part we would get up at the crack of dawn, grab some delicious pastries, then hit the slopes. We skied Ajax (Aspen Mountain), Highlands, and Snowmass. At Ajax you get on the gondola at the base and are treated to an amazing view of the town and surrounding mountains:

Absolutely gorgeous!! Here is what you see looking up the mountain: 

Hi Dad!

When you ride the Gondola you are treated to fun facts... such as "The Ski Bum"

"In the 1960's a new breed of skier infiltrated Aspen. These ski bums had long hair, listened to rock music and subscribed to cold war fatalism. LIFE magazine sent a writer/photographer team to report on 'Aspen's Awful Surfer Problem: Vagabonds from the beaches congregate at a famed ski resort.'  "Drinking and pretty girls" ran one caption, "Rank ahead of good snow to the surfers-turned-skiers in Aspen" '

Unfortunately we didn't see any ski bums this trip, even though it was really hot! It was super sunny and warm the whole trip. By the end of the day I was sweating and peeling layers!

At first we took it easy, warming up on the blues, occasionally diving into the blacks. We liked to tackle the moguls... or as I like to call them... the "bumps".  Here is one of the easier ones we tackled on Ajax:

Then we got brave and decided we'd go off into a bowl. (no, not that kind of bowl!)  These are slopes that dip into the steeps and trees, and usually are blacks and double blacks (as hard as you can get without going backcountry!) We did fairly well, but it was hard work! Here is Dad on the edge of "why not"

The picture really doesn't do it justice! But we our hard work was rewarded by this amazing view:

Pyramid Peak and the Maroon Bells

You may recognize Pyramid Peak - it is the mountain that is used for Paramount Pictures!

We took this road ^ to get out of the bowl. Dad is terribly afraid of heights so he is clinging as close to the mountain as possible!! There is actually a mesh net there to protect you from diving over the side of the cliff (green in the picture)

It was so sunny this weekend, we actually spent several meals outside on the patio! This is at the base of Aspen Highlands. There was hardly anyone on the mountain all day!

Dad and I are planning to do Summit for Life next year. Our friend does this fundraiser every year to raise money for organ donor awareness. It's a race to the top of Ajax... and you hike. in the winter. in the snow. So we decided to see what we are getting ourselves into. We borrowed stabilizers from our friend, (these really cool things that strap to your shoes - they are chains for your feet so you can hike up snow/ice!) and hiked up Buttermilk mountain one morning.  Besides getting terribly lost (we ended up going the super steep, long, and difficult way) I think we did very well!!! I'm really excited about the race next year. "eet's a race!"

View from the top

"download" riding DOWN a lift was a new experience!

We also saw some professional racing while we were at Aspen. It happened to be the weekend of the Pan Am races. These guys were flying! See... he is going so fast he is just an orange blur!! It really made me want to be a racer...hmmm

All in all it was a wonderful weekend full of sunshine, snow, wind in your face, snow at your feet, good friends and good food! I can't wait to hit the slopes again this weekend. This time, Arapahoe Basin with Trisha (a PT friend from one of my rotations during school). I can't wait!!!

"barbie, we may be plastic but our love is real!"

Just call me a shameless quote thief, but it was too wonderful to pass up! http://sverigethroughtheglass.blogspot.com/2011/02/barbie-we-may-be-plastic-but-our-love.html


This is what I've been up to this valentines weekend! Well shoot, sadly I am using my iPhone to post this and it wont let me use my photos! I bet there is an app somewhere.

Anyway I have spent the last 3 days in Aspen with my dad skiing up a storm and visiting with friends. Tomorrow we are borrowing snowshoes and hiking up a mountain before hitting the slopes, then back to Denver for dinner with Katie, and finally home to the springs before work on Wednesday.

I promise lots of photos an updates when I get back, but in the mean time, here's wishing you lots of love on valentines day!!!

"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

Imagine this:

You wake up one day after 60-odd years of life and are exhausted from dealing with chronic back pain. You go to the doctor and he recommends a spinal fusion, your 2nd one at that. You get the surgery done, and wake up the next day and you can no longer walk on your own. You lose coordination, balance, and now are limited to using a walker. They do MRI's and X-rays and can't figure out why. Maybe you threw a clot during surgery? Maybe you suffered a TIA? Or, even worse, maybe the surgeon made a mistake and nicked your spinal cord.  However, nothing shows up on the MRI's, the x-rays, the EMGs. Years of suffering, multiple doctors, research (by you and trained medical professionals) and no one can tell you why you still can't walk, have trouble going up and down the stairs, and continue to have back pain.

You invest in braces for your ankles to prevent your foot from dragging. You invest in bracelets that claim that with their "ionic" energy they can restore your balance. You invest time and money in months and months of therapy. Slowly but surely, you can move without your shoulder jumping up towards your ear and your arm bending. You can pedal a stationary bike without intense clonus. You can pick your feet up to get into bed without using your hands. You can go up the stairs with a handrail without having to stop on each step. You can get up off the floor without crawling to the nearest chair. Milestones and improvements, but you can't see the improvement because the most important thing is still missing, you still can't walk. You have to use a walker if you are going more than 5 feet. You can't turn around to sit down without your feet dragging. You can't go grocery shopping or go to a movie without your walker and 45 minutes of extra time. You are frustrated, and annoyed, and wonder why you can't function like you used to anymore? Why can't anyone figure out what is wrong with you? Why are you like this? You understand about proprioception, you know the lingo, the AFO's, the clonus, the research. You've looked everything up and now have 5 physicians working on your case. You are terrified you will never walk again, and you have no idea why.

Until today. Today your therapist let go of your hand when you were walking to a chair. And you walked without dragging your feet, without holding onto a walker, a cane, or the hand of a therapist. Slowly, shakily, one step after another - 8 feet became 18 feet. You sit down and your therapist looks at you and simply says "let's think about that for a minute".  As tears spring to your eyes, you mutter "wow" and struggle with the emotions. "Now that was something" you say, " there may be hope."

This was my day today. Today a patient's hard work and determination payed off. He walked again, but more than that, he gained hope.

This is why I'm a PT. These are the moments that matter.

Baby Teeth

Today I went to the dentist (groan). On the plus side, it was one of the nicer dentistry experiences I have had. Partly because I knew most of the staff already (from treating them at my work)! It was weird to be the one in the chair... so to speak. They have therapy dogs at their work too, so that was nice!

All dentists should have TV's above the dental chairs. It was great! Instead of looking at a giant face with weird goggles staring at you and sharp metal objects diving in and out towards you, you can watch the home improvement channel (or whatever show features remodeling, or maybe building houses)? That's what I was watching while my teeth were being examined... the only thing I remember is that these people had a bar/countertop that was worth $14,000!!! A COUNTERTOP.  Seriously?

Also.... because my new dentist has a TV above the chair, that means she can use her camera to show you exactly what is going on in your mouth. Which is kind of cool, but also kind of grossly weird. In general I'm ok with all the Dr stuff, the poking, prodding, the good, the bad, and the ugly.... but mouths are weird (even when it's my own)! Treating for TMJ is hard because even in PT you have to glove up and stick your fingers in their mouth and hope and pray they don't bite you or gag. Basically, I didn't enjoy seeing my teeth close up on the TV screen above my head!!!

I have to say I do enjoy dentists who talk to you, but then take their prodding hands and their entire garage full of tools out of your mouth so you can talk to them. I take that opportunity to talk a lot and give my jaw a break!! I think my dentist was doing it purposefully so I wouldn't hurt myself, but probably so that we wouldn't torture her at PT tomorrow ;)

Today my dentist told me that I still have two baby teeth! Let me tell you, that is a very strange realization. You think you are all grown up, with a grown up job, in a grown up apartment, living a grown up life... and then BAM! out of nowhere... Baby Teeth!!! The good news is they are hanging in tight for dear life (and I think this is very good as I don't think there are adult teeth below them)! Why aren't your real teeth (not fake teeth like baby teeth) called adult teeth? Anyways.... i still have two baby teeth, tell the tooth fairy not to quit yet!

To celebrate my baby teeth (ok, not really, but it sounds nice) I made a fancy dinner tonight! As in I spiced up some basic stir fry by making my own orange/hoisin/soy sauce with fresh ginger and garlic. It turned out quite delicious!!

That's about all the excitement of my day... stay tuned this week for more updates on the wit and wisdom of my patients.

The Outrageous Flirtatiousness and also Sexism of Old Men (quotes from the clinic)

"It feels better after a hot shower" - patient
"Have you ever tried ice?" - me
"Well, I have to admit it, I do use ice in my Dr. Pepper" - patient (in all seriousness)


"From 0 - 10, if 0 is no pain and 10 is call 911, how bad is your pain at it's worst?" - me
"My wife is going to get mad at me (wife is sitting next to patient) but you see, I used to be a trucker. And I'm going to try not to offend you ma'am, you are a lady, and my wife is going to get mad at me, but you see, well, it hurts like a SOB(whispered). I'm sorry ma'am, and my wife is going to get mad, but I'm not that good with the english language, and I've always been slow, and being around pretty girls like yourself make me babble even more." - patient (~ 70 years old)

Next Visit:
"Ma'am, you're in trouble today because my wife isn't here. I was ok last visit because she was here, but let me tell you, you have the most soothing voice. And your eyes, they are this nice mahogany and green! You better be careful, because you know I used to be a trucker, and I'll try to not offend you ma'am, but I have a difficult time around pretty girls"

45 minutes later after managing to get him to do exercises:

"OK sir, these are really important to do at home. They will help you get stronger so you won't have as much pain. I'm going to give you a handout. Do you have any questions for me?" - me

Patient grabs my hand and holds it. "Why aren't you engaged yet? I'm sorry ma'am, but I love holding the hand of a pretty girl"

"ummm Thank you? Do you understand the exercises?" - me
patient grinning up at me: "oh.. sure!"

"Is your name Dr. Bullshit?!" - crotchety old man patient

"well no sir, but I do have a BS!" - what I should have said, but unfortunately didn't at the time. 

next visit:

"how are you today?" - me

" Look... i'm 67. and you are 7. I have health problems. I don't sleep well. How do you think I am?" - patient

(Ughhhhh!) 

"Here, hold my hand" - me, helping a patient navigate steps
"I want to hold your hand! You know... that would make a great song" - my adorable patient who is wonderful!


The Life of a new grad PT who apparently looks like she is 7 is never dull!

Preventative Medicine:

(from an awesome blog: http://thisisindexed.com/ )

I'm baaaack!

Surprise!!! you thought I had left you, didn't you? Well my faithful friends, I'm baaaack!

So since I have last left you, I went home to a very Southern Pines Christmas, spent quality time with friends, celebrated a new year, and began new adventures in skiing and independence as a PT! Instead of droning on and on... I will briefly leave you with some highlights and reflections (mostly in photos of course).

Christmas morning bike drive - dropping off old bikes for the neighborhood kids!

My sister made me this awesome painting for my apartment!

Loving the new puppy. Sadly he had to have emergency on Christmas Eve - but is all recovered now and doing wonderfully!

Southern Pines Winter Wonderland!

Sign at the Pinehurst inn. 

I got to spend quality time with friends!! (and isn't the puppy cute?!)

I then returned to the Springs for work... had a very uneventful New Year... there weren't even fireworks! I should clarify. New Years Eve was the balmy temperature of -2 degrees. I put on my shiny gold shirt (read - tank top) and black sweater and drove to downtown CoSprings (5 minutes from my house) for a jam packed night of crazy people, crazy dancing, and absolutely freezing anytime I stepped outside (which sadly was entirely too often). I went to this absolutely absurd club with a friend from work, where we danced all night and watched ridiculous people make fools of themselves. THen I frantically ran outside at midnight (like I said, freeeezing!) looking for the fireworks from the Atamans (guys who hike up PIke's Peak to light fireworks on New Years)... and was sadly disappointed. Apparently it was too cold and windy for them to make it to the top. Oh well! Maybe next year?!

Since then, I worked a week by myself when my bosses went on vacation. It was definitely a learning experience, but mostly I did ok!

I am also so far meeting my New Years Resolution of skiing every weekend the slopes are open. 4 for 4! Going on 5 this weekend hopefully. Here are some cool photos from our Vail weekend. I am lucky enough to work in a profession where your clients (patients) give you amazing things. For example, one of our patients (who I haven't even worked with) offered us her house in Vail whenever we want to go! Needless to say it was amazing!

You can see the CATs grooming the slopes behind the shiny tree. 

It's a little grainy because I took it with my phone, but a very pretty fire/water fountain!

In other news: I have recently purchased a plane ticket to Sweden to visit one of my best friends who is learning to be a glass blower there! I'm not going until June, but I'm so excited I'm already trying to figure out what I should wear. (absurd I know!)

Next up: The Outrageous Flirtatiousness and also Sexism of Old Men. (the life of a new grad)

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching! Bells are ringing, children singing, lights twinkling, and the smell of christmas cookies and pine trees fill the air. I'm very very excited about traveling home to be with the family and seeing my wonderful friends! I may not have a White Christmas this year, but I still love this song! Enjoy.... 

I'm Dreaming of  a White Christmas....

Christmas Bells are Ringing!

Cashier looking at my purchases of gift wrap, tape, and sushi:  "So does this mean you are all done after this purchase?"
Me: "bahahahaha! no."


All the gifts I have bought online, except for one package, are "undeliverable". Which means that a) I have to call USPS and yell b) my stuff is definitely not getting home by Christmas Eve c) the shopping that I did have left has now grown considerably d) I'm going to have to fight to return the stuff that didn't make it home e) these are not things you can buy at your every day mall!

UGH! Have I mentioned that I strongly dislike shopping? I love Christmas. I love wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies on TV (ok certain movies, not of the lifetime variety...more of the Love Actually and The Holiday and Miracle on 24th Street variety).  However I absolutely hate the holiday madness and mall crowds.

Also there is a considerable lack of snow here in Colorado. It's the week of Christmas and no snow on the ground? How is this possible? Even crazier, it is so warm outside that yesterday I went with Katie to go kick a soccer ball around at a park, in shorts and a t-shirt, and I was completely comfortable. Yep, it's 60 degrees today here in Colorado. Which I have to say was awesome for soccer! I haven't touched a soccer ball in forever so it was kind of sad, but Katie and I had a blast goofing off and trying to remember all the silly soccer games you play as a kid.

Despite the present delivery conundrum and the lack of wintery weather, I am still celebrating and revving up for the holiday! This weekend I had people over for the first time! Carolyn and Janna came over Saturday during the day to bake cookies. We made 101 sugar cookies.... which turns out is a TON of cookies (entirely too much for 5 people to consume on a Saturday night). On top of that, Rae (office manager at work) requested more Monster Cookies this week. So I have a ton of those as well. Despite having people over on Saturday night, where massive amounts of cookies were consumed considering there were only 5 of us, I still have cookies all over my kitchen!! Hopefully I can get rid of most of them at work tomorrow!

Sugar Cookies before:

Sugar Cookies After:

Adorable GingerPeople!

What is Christmas without  Holiday Dino's?!

So to sum up: the holiday season is in full blast here. This weekend consisted of christmas cookies, friends, soccer (ok maybe not so holiday-ish), lots of curling up on the couch watching christmas movies: Love Actually, Prancer, Miracle on 24th Street, and then finally gift shopping this afternoon! Tis the season... falalalala.

I'm really excited to be going home to the Pines on Friday! Xmas with the family, playing with the new puppy, catching up with friends, and then SBG brunch!! Maybe I will even have some cookies to bring home to them!

Also I just saw this today and thought it was adorable, not as good as the bears, but still..... Merry Christmas!

"I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat" - H.D. Thoreau on Snowflakes

This weekend my parents were here! We went skiing at Breckenridge. I have been to Breck three times so far this year, and every time I have gone it has been packed!! This weekend wasn't bad because we had so much snow the roads were closed!

I had the fortunate opportunity to take friday off of work (which yes, my friends, that meant a glorious four day weekend)! My parents got here Thursday night, and we left at the crack of dawn on Friday (in true Menendi fashion). It started snowing halfway to the mountain, and didn't stop until Monday morning. We had 24'' of snow, and there was no-one on the mountain until late Saturday. Needless to say it was glorious! Here are the winter wonderland pictures!

View from our room

The lift line for first tracks in the fresh 14'' of powder!

Mom and Dad ready to go

First tracks!

"it's up to your knees out there"

you could easily get lost in powder this deep (the vertically challenged people such as myself)

There is literally no-one here! (besides my parents you see in the distance)

Rockin the helmet.  My face looks tiny.

Then today my dear friend Theresa, who is currently studying glassblowing in Sweden (read her blog here )  sent me my very first Christmas ornament! Sadly I do not have a tree to hang it on, so I bent 3 nails trying to get it above the fireplace, until I gave in and just put it on the wall. It is beautiful and I love it!

Pretty glass ornament made by T!

My wonderful xmas card from T! I have no idea what "God Jul" means in Swedish, but I like to think it means "good yule" what is yule anyway? There are yule-logs and yule-tide.... maybe it is swedish? Thank heavens for internet!

I must now leave you for the night, as there are many holiday cards to write!

God Jul everyone! :)

Your local everyday casino

At the grocery store today...

"Daddy Daddy!!! We won money!!! We won moneyyyyyyy!!!!" - high pitched little girl screaming

....


as the self-check out spits out Daddy's change.


It's the little things in life!

Overheard in PT

"you know yawning is contagious" - hungover patient
"I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm so tired today, I even went to bed early last night!" - me
"You need to party more. It will rejuvenate you" - hungover patient


"My back hurts more today! And I don't think I did anything different."
1 minute later.... "Oh, wait yes I did! I was sitting on a desk attached to a wall... and it broke!"


"if my patient shows up 20 minutes late again, i'm going to scream!" - me to a student
"you know what you need? Tequila!" - student


"Have you been doing your exercises every day?" - me
"oh yes, I'm all about consistency. That's why I have to have my appointment scheduled at the exact same time" - patient (who showed up 20 minutes late... AGAIN)
"how about working on consistency with coming to therapy? You have cancelled or missed half of your scheduled appointments. If you come more often, you will progress more quickly" - me
"Oh, have I really missed that many? wow. Well I'll see what I can do" - chronically late and absent patient

Ten minutes later:

"Well you won't be seeing him again for two weeks." - A (front desk)
"WHAT?! Why not?!!"- me
"we didn't have any openings in for the same time slot. We had some half an hour later though, but he wouldn't come unless it was the same time" - A
Seriously?!?!

Patient quotes

Patient quote of the day:

"I'm tired today. We had our Christmas Party this weekend" - Patient
"Oh, did you have fun?" - me
"Yeah, I danced a lot!" - Patient
"How did your knee feel with that?" - me
"Great! The right combination and I'm fine!" - Pt
"What combination is that?"
"Crown and ice!" - Pt


20 minutes later....

"Do you need some water?" - me
"No, but I'll take a beer!" - Pt


Somehow all my patients think we run a bar... maybe we should open one next door?

"there are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them" - vicki baum

OK, so the quote doesn't really have much to do with anything in this post. Other than the fact I've been dancing around today for exercise, mostly because I'm going crazy with studying... but until we get to that...

Determination, my friends, determination!

About what you may ask? Well let me tell you, about this blog! As you can tell I am a very busy bee and have hardly any time to write! (not entirely true, just sometimes I would rather drink wine and read a good book snuggled under the blankets while watching the snow fall!)  But my friends, I've decided since we are all such busy bees, I will try to stick with this a little bit longer and maybe just have shorter, more frequent blog events!

Today was very very busy (ha). I returned my redbox movie: Letters to Juliet - definitely a cheesy romantic movie, yet wonderful if you like that kind of thing. I may or may not have leaked a few tears, although the ending was absurd! I took my skis to the shop to get tuned. I realized this weekend while I was skiing with my sister that my skis can't handle the late afternoon/early season ice patches, they slide right over and I almost bite the dust! Plus my parents will be here in two weeks and we are going for a 3 day ski vacation, so my skiis need to be in shape! Then I got some groceries, some wine, and spent the rest of the day studying and planning my week.

Studying you ask? Aren't you a doctor already? Well yes I am (still surreal) but I am taking yet another certification test on Saturday. The CSCS - Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist exam. I'm nervous!! I feel like I've hardly studied at all. Hopefully my PT background will help me!

Next Monday, I am in charge of the clinic as my bosses are off to a Titleist certification course (yep that's a PT course specializing in golf training and rehab). I'm really nervous, but also excited. I'm just concerned one of the techs (who is basically my age) wont listen. I'm definitely still transitioning from student to PT, and need to take more initiative/control with the techs. I'm also praying that nobody gets sick, or has exacerbations, or sudden adverse events during the day I am alone! Not that I haven't handled two of those already since working here, but it's awful calling 911 - and worse when you don't have your wonderful mentors telling you how well you handled it and helping calm you down! No, the incidents were not my fault. They both have conditions where these adverse events could happen anywhere, and they just happened to be in my treatment session. Although sadly I think it did scare one of my less mentally sound patients away.

Tonight I had dinner again with Carolyn and Paul. They are so wonderful! They had me over for Thanksgiving last week and I had a blast with Carolyn's family, who I haven't seen in at least ten years. Hoorah for old friends!

Thank you so much my dear readers for sticking with me! You are all very wonderful! I have had readers recently from the UK and New Zealand even! Welcome new friends :)

"No Soup For You!!!" - Seinfeld

Thank you my dearest faithful readers for keeping up with me despite me not keeping up with you! (yes that makes sense, I swear it does!)

I will try not to drone on and on about how much I love this new state of mine, but have I mentioned that I LOVE IT!  Last weekend Katie and I went to Breckenridge for the opening ski weekend.

It was a ton of fun, despite the crowds! Katie borrowed a snowboard from a friend and decided to take lessons. After I left her at her snowboard class I hit the slopes (and by slopes I mean lift line)!  Basically imagine hundreds of people sliding into each other in lines at the bottom of a hill. I immediately jumped into the single line (it always moves faster), however I had to hike up half the bunny hill to even get in the singles line! Then I had to work really hard not to slide down into the person in front of me as the line moved back down the hill. Thankfully it was only 15 minutes (GAH!) in the line. So I get on the lift with these three obnoxious teenagers... you know the type. They were on snowboards and giggling and being absurd, talking about how they switched to snowboarding and how they could be so much better at skiing by now, like their little sister, but no they switched. However they were convinced they would never go back, until their body actually couldn't snowboard anymore. I really wanted to tell them how when they are old and their knee cartilage is gone and they can hear their bones rubbing together, that snowboarding is actually nicer on the knees than skiing... but I kept my mouth shut. Let them find out the hard way! So I am very thankful as we near the top of the lift, and then the girl next to me says "I hope I don't fall this time!" well crap!

Of course she does fall, and takes me with her. I lost both skiis, poles, and had to duck under the chairlift! Very exciting for not doing any skiing yet.

Thankfully the rest of the day went much better. Not much improvement in the lift line, but it started snowing and snowed all day so the conditions were great! I met Katie for lunch and we went to the bar, which was packed with people. So we joined this guy sitting at a table by himself. After we started talking to him a bit, his friends show up, and had to find more chairs since this guy gave us his chairs. They turned out to be nice, and Katie told me later that she had actually met them before (but they hadn't remembered at all)!

Then we split again and I spent the afternoon mastering Moguls! It felt great, and the last hour and a half was wonderful because it only took 2 minutes to get through the line and it was still snowing! You just can't beat the feel of the crisp air in your face, the smell of the snow, the spray of the powder. I love it!

After a wonderful day on the mountain

After skiing we walked to the Breckenridge Brewery for dinner, and through the snowy christmas lights on the way back. It was beautiful!

This weekend I spent a lot of time studying for the CSCS exam with some friends from work. Then Sunday night I saw the new Harry Potter movie! It was wonderful you should see it! I won't give anything away, but I was cracking up because Hermione had a tiny little bag packed with anything and everything (think Mary Poppins), including a small stack of books. Which only reminded me of my friend Jenny, who once took a red purse to a bar. The bag fell off the bar (chair? i dont remember, but she dropped it) and the purse hit the floor with a loud thump! Turns out it was FULL of books! "the library hit the floor!" My friend probably thought i was completely absurd giggling away at those few scenes in the movie, but all I could think of was JD at the bar! There were also a lot of dark scenes, and things jumping out at you. I personally thought that there were far too many small children there (especially one who kept crying and crying), I guess half the parents haven't read the books and don't realize how dark the last book is! Which, by the way, I am now re-reading.

Then today I ran through Garden of the Gods again. It was gorgeous! I had a flashback to right after my interview, which was the last time I ran there. It was kind of surreal to realize how much has happened in the last few months! My next stop was Poor Richard's - a delicious little cafe/bookstore/restaurant/toy store. I had delicious hot cider, and then ordered some soup. I waited 20 minutes and then finally asked the barista how long it should really take soup to come from the restaurant (which was basically two rooms over), and they brought me my soup and said I could get a gift card before I left. I had basically paid $4 for my soup, and they gave me a $10 gift card! I win!! Thank goodness for good business practices and free things.

I'm excited about this week! I only work 3 days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday). I'm having Thanksgiving with Carolyn and her family, including her sister, one of my closest friends from middle school, who I haven't seen in at least 10 years! Then my sister gets here on Friday and I think we're going to go skiing! It's going to be a great week. :)

"The average american will eat 35,000 cookies in a lifetime."

Monster Cookies 101:
(courtesy of Paula Deen and the food network)

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 jar (yes a whole freaking jar!) peanut butter
• 1 stick butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or more if you like... i used half of a bag)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 4 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal (not instant)

"one of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesn't belong"

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl mix up eggs and sugars

3.  Mix in salt, vanilla, PB, and butter, Then add in everything else!

Put heaping spoonfuls (ok technically tablespoons if you are picky) onto the cookie pan

Bake 8 - 10 minutes. Let stand 3 minutes before transferring to cool. 

Eat Sushi (this will keep you from eating ALL the cookies before your party!)

Get a lot of tupperware. This recipe makes A TRUCKFUL of cookies. They are delicious, but nobody needs that many cookies. Put them in some tupperware to bring to other friends, work colleagues, and to hand out in the street.  DO NOT give them to people with peanut allergies... unless you really really hate them and are prepared to call 911 or perform CPR. These cookies are loaded down with Peanut Butter! (I guess you could always substitute with some other form of almond butter or something if you are allergic - sorry T!)

These cookies were a HUGE success! Enjoy!!!