2012

Winter break from nursing school means that I can read blogs and update my blog.  I've been reading all these 2011 year in review and new resolutions for 2012.  It seems like 2011 was not a great year for a lot of people.  In thinking back on 2011, it was a year of change for me.  I moved in with a partner for a first time, we moved to New York, my first time in apartment living (as opposed to living in a group house), living with a dog for the first time as an adult, starting nursing school, taking out loans, paying tuition, not having a job for the first time in years, leaving Philly and living in Brooklyn, not really riding my bike for the first time in years, feeling less connected to good friends, not being very social, going to 6 weddings in one year, living in the same city as Molly again.  So many things have changed. 

I have never really liked making New Year Resolutions.  I am pretty sure it is because I am constantly in a state of examining my self and trying to do better.  I have never liked the "my diet starts on Monday approach to things."  If you want to start eating differently or better, start now.  Don't live the life that you don't want now, so you can start fresh in 2012.  But maybe this is hypocritical because until Jan 23rd I have a lot of time to myself and I made a big list of stuff that I want to and need to do until school starts, so I have been able to do some stuff that I have been putting off and it feels like a fresh start.  Since school ended, I've been reading lots of books, watching tons of tv, and doing some fun cooking.  Yesterday I was trying to use all the odds and ends of stuff that we had in the refrigerator.  For breakfast we had crescent rolls, fried tempeh with liquid smoke and agave, sauteed spinach and garlic, and sliced cucumber with garlic salt.  It was so yummy.  For dinner we had yellow split peas, frozen green beans, corn and cranberry sauce from a can.  I love cranberry sauce and corn from a can.  I am still not sure what to do with yellow split peas.  I put garlic salt, pepper, nutritional yeast on them, but I still feel like I am missing something, maybe curry?  I also started doing these crunch workouts that are on netflix.  Yesterday I did a dance one and I felt so stupid and self conscious, even though I was alone.  I stopped half way through.  Today I did the boot camp one.  It definitely kicked my butt.  I felt sooo out of shape.  I want to try to keep up with it.  Maybe I will pull out my old yoga sculpt dvd.    Since it is cold I don't want to do anything outside. 

Ryan and I started watching Twin Peaks over Christmas break and I love rewatching it.  I like thinking about psychoanalysis and catching all the stuff I missed last time around.  I'm reading Jay-Z's book Decoded.  I love reading what informs artist's art.  Jay-Z does a really good job of breaking down how his life has lead him to where he is.  I also like reading about Brooklyn in the 80s and 90s.  I love the trend of artist's describing where they came from.  I remember in college having a debate with a dude about whether you should take a writer's identity into consideration when reading their work.  Of course I was a women's studies major so my whole academic experience was shaped by looking at the intersections of race, class, and sex and how that influences everything.  I took classes in sociology, political science, English, as well as in other departements, but always looked at the subject through the lens of gender or sex.  If I had to teach a class about life influencing art, I would put Decoded, Andrea Dworkin's Heartbreak, Adrienne Kennedy's People Who Led Me to My Plays, and bell hooks's Bone Black on the syllabus. 

So far, I haven't really liked nursing school very much, but I don't think that means that I am going to hate nursing.  It makes me feel sad, since I love college so much the first time around and this will probably be the last time I'll be in college for awhile.  It was dream to go to NYU in high school, however a student teacher told me Rutgers was better and cost a lot less money, so I didn't apply.  I'm so glad I went to Rutgers, I had a great time there and learned so much.


Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom and listened to this american life podcasts.  Today I would like to clean the living room, but I really hate cleaning the living room.  Give me a bathroom or kitchen any day.