Happy New Year!!

Okay, I realize that I am nine days late on this new year resolutions thing but it took me a while to formulate my goals for 2011 and pare them down into something realistic (at least I hope it is realistic).

In an effort to build healthy, lasting habits that don't get thrown out the window by President's Day I like to pick one general health focus a year. As an incentive, the past two years I have picked things that involve me splurging on new products to help motivate me to maintain my goal.

2009 was the year of dental hygiene. I bought a new sonicare electric toothbrush, new dental floss and anti-cavity mouthwash. I vowed to brush my teeth twice daily (which I was already doing but with a far inferior toothbrush,) floss every night and rinse daily with anti-cavity mouthwash.

2010 was the year of skin care. Let's been real, I don't want (nor could I ever afford to have) plastic surgery so I figured if I wanted to look young forever I should stop tanning and start noticing my skin. I invested in Clinque facewash, toner, lotion and sunscreen.

This has worked well for me. The thing about my resolutions is that they are intended to be cumulative. You see, just because 2010 was about skin doesn't mean I was allowed to stop flossing or brushing my teeth. And that's the whole idea, self-improvement achieved by building good habits incrementally overtime.

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This year I was having trouble selecting a focus. I think it was mostly because 2011 is going to bring so many changes to my life. One of which being that for the first time in as long as I can remember I won't be a student anymore. I will have my nights and weekends all to myself and I will experience my first whole summer season sans coursework since 2006. In September, people will pay me (!?!?!?!?!?) to provide speech-language therapy. No more indentured servitude, they will pay me with money.

On the cusp of so many changes can you see how I couldn't possibly rein my ambitions into just one objective? So, even though I devised my previous resolution system with good reason (i.e. smaller more focused goals are easier to be accountable for, achieve and maintain) I am thinking bigger this year.

In 2011....

I am going to be Kristi 2.0*
[photo courtesy of Tish]

*Note: if you are not familiar with this reference you should read this post for clarification

Or at least I will be by the time 2012 rolls around. You see in this year of many changes I am speeding up the time frame in which I improve myself. Remember, the overall effect is cumulative (and in this case, works forward and backward, to a certain degree.)

Stage 1: Look better. [Initiated on the first day of Winter Quarter]
You may recall one of the original premises for Kristi 2.0 was to be better groomed. This may sound ridiculous but if I am going to be out applying for jobs (or even just being responsible for the ongoing treatment of people's loved ones in the university clinic) I need to look like someone who has their s!@t together. For me this means getting over my fear of spending money, buying some new clothes (and throwing away my khakis from junior year of high school) and waking up early enough to blow dry my hair and slap on some eye make-up. Shoot, I might even start accessorizing.
Note: I already started this one and people are noticing. The other day my supervisor told me I looked "very Russian-spy." I took that as a compliment.

Stage 2: Eat better. [To be initiated in April]
Once I am no longer a student (internships don't count) I will have no excuse for sticking three plain tortillas in the oven and calling it dinner. I will make myself real person food and I will invite people over to share it with me.

Stage 3: Live better. [To be initiated in June]
This is where things are going to get really crazy with the dancing, the speaking of foreign languages, the instrument playing, the blogging and the socializing. As of now the plan is to take the whole summer off just to re-establish myself as who I want to be and erase any vestiges of reclusive-student-me.

Stage 4: Exercise better. [To be initiated in September]
Unfortunately, you only get one shell to live in. Here is where I am going to take a hard look at how I am caring for mine and start filling in the gaps in my exercise routine.

Alright guys this post is getting lengthy. Since I can only hope to hold your attention for so long I am going to wait to tell you about how I am trying to incorporate a piece of all of these stages into the first segment for later. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, what are your hopes for 2011?

Falling: Variations On A Theme

In my life, I like doing things I am good at and generally avoid things I am the opposite-of-good at. I also enjoy feeling like I am in control of the direction of and the speed in which my body is moving. Turns out this is hard to accomplish when one is hurling down the side of a mountain with sticks strapped to one's feet. But let's move backward for a minute.

When I was in elementary school, a big chunk of my extended family used to go cross-country skiing every MLK Jr. weekend. I loved getting together with all my cousins, driving to bend, making big dinners in the hotel kitchenette, watching Back to the Future marathons on TV and playing poker for matchsticks.

I hated skiing.

People (mostly Peter but let's just say people) have been trying to convince me that downhill skiing is different. I was told it was less work and that you have way more control because the bindings on the skiis are different. After eight years of convincing, Peter finally got me to hit the slopes of Mt. Baker last week right before the new year.

It was a humbling experience. Luckily for me, I checked my dignity along with my snow boots at the ski rental desk.

This is the only only picture I could snap before my camera died. Not as impressive as the actual slopes, but pretty. Can’t you just feel the optimism in the air?

My goal for the day= Not to hate every second of it.

There were a few indicators that downhill skiing may not have been a good fit for my safety-conscious-self.

First red flag, signing the liability release form. It went a little something like this.

Desk Man: I just need you to sign this before you can get started.

Me: Okay no problem.

[Reads most of release form stating that skiing is inherently dangerous and may result in injury or death and that skier is held personally responsible for any injury or death caused by running into a fellow skier]

Me: I am not sure reading this is a good idea.

Desk Man: No, no, you’re just reading it wrong. Basically it says skiing is tons of fun and that you will have loads of fun and leave remembering how fun it all was. Fun, fun, fun.

Me: Uh, okay.

The second red flag, the rental guy almost forgot to get me the helmet I rented (not included with the ski rental). Apparently not very many downhill-skier-type-people past elementary school wear helmets when careening down the sides of mountains. I told him my brain was my best feature and there was no way I was flying down the slopes with a naked cranium. I think that pegged me as the not-a-downhill-skier-type.

Onward to the skiing. After a brief tutorial by Peter, I took a 1.5 hour lesson, in which I learned a little and fell a lot. But the real falling came later, when I tried to show off my skills to Peter. Turns out I lost my bravery somewhere after lunch. At that point I learned that holding yourself perfectly still on a slope takes an excessive amount of muscular energy, and that I fall a lot when frustrated.

In the days leading up to the ski trip, friends told me repeatedly “if you get going too fast or in the wrong direction, just fall. Falling doesn’t hurt.” I guess those people don’t fall the same way as I do, because coming down hard on one hip with your legs tangled up, sliding across the snow and hitting yourself in the face with your ski pole definitely hurts.

Overall, my success was limited and fleeting, but existent. My biggest success was at the very bottom of the very last run, where I had 5 or 6 really great turns in a row (meaning, without crashing into snow banks in-between).

People keep asking me if I had fun. I decided that what I had resembled fun intermittently, especially the times when I felt I was truly deciding where my body went. Perhaps what I had was a close relative to fun? Maybe something that was also distantly related to panic/fear? However, I will say that the sun was shining, the mountains were beautiful, the snow looked incredible on the trees, riding the ski lift was really nice (until I was required to dismount) and I was with my favorite person in the whole world. Those parts were definitely fun.

That night when we got home Peter said "I figure if I can get you to go skiing once every eight years and we live to be 100, we can go together eight times! That is pretty good, right?"

Honestly, I think eight times might be optimistic, and I am by no means ready to try again tomorrow, but I didn't hate it.

P.S. Between the trying to stay motionless on hills, the falling and the schlumping around the lodge in ski boots my body was trashed. It was almost comical to try to walk the next day. Who am I kidding. It was hilarious.

Bithday Queen 1991: A lookback

I looked through a lot of old pictures when I was working on the doppelganger post. Among the gems, I found this one.

Yep that is me on my 5th b-day, queen of the little green apple preschool in my daisy kingdom dress (made by my mother) and wearing my 5 crown. Honestly, I don't remember that birthday, but I hope that I got to stand on that box barking commands all day like a real queen (or at least what I am sure I thought a real queen would do). However, I suspect the pedestal was just for the photo (disappointing, I know).

Today is my 24th birthday. That picture was taken 19 years ago. Let's take a look back at the highlights from the last year.

• December 2009: I left for Korea 2 days after my 23rd b-day to spend the holidays with Peter.

• February 2010: The Olympics in Vancouver B.C., twice :)
  

• March 2010: I flew back to Korea to spend spring break with Peter.

• April 2010: Tulip festival in Mt. Vernon

• July 2010: Nicole's Party
• August-September 2010: Peter and I went to Hawaii and visited friends/family in Oregon, Washington and Canada while Peter was on month-long leave.

• October 2010: Peter and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary

• December: I finished my fifth quarter of grad school and spent the following week and a half pretending I don't even know what a speech-language pathologist does.
  

You may have noticed most the main events co-starred a certain someone. He is my favorite. But the year had quite a few of my other favorites in it. I am blessed by all the great people in my life.
I could work on this post all day trying to get them all in, but I want to get out and enjoy my birthday. On the agenda for today: bowling, dinner and cake/ice cream with friends and family.

love,
Birthday Queen 2010

Celebrity Tween Doppelganger Week

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I received the following text message from my brother.

I didn't know you were in a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie in the 90's! Check out the first 5 minutes of "switching goals" on the netflix ;-)

Needless to say, I was intrigued. Immediately, two questions came to mind:
1) Was it a person who looks like 2010-me (possible time travel element) or 1990's-me?
2) Why was Dan watching Switching Goals?

I later learned that my mystery twin matched 1990's me, but I never figured out why he was watching a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie on his day off.

The next day when I went over to his house, he cued up the movie and paused it on this frame.

I nearly died laughing.

In case you didn't know me in the late 90's, this is what I looked like...


Sure her glasses are a little smaller, as mine should have been (cringe), and you have to picture me scowling a little to get the effect, but I would venture to say the likeness is striking. Let's take a closer look.

Man I was a looker. Those sunflower short-alls my mom made me definitely secured my reputation as a fashionista.

I digress.

But seriously, this is the first convincing me-doppelganger (celebrity or otherwise) I have seen. Now if some enthusiastic facebooker invents a "celebrity tween doppelganger week" I am all set.

On a related note, I left the movie running while I worked on this post. Guess who else I spotted...

That's right, the awkward and adorable late-90's-Michael Cera of Juno, Paper Heart and Arrested Development fame.

Hang on a second, did anyone else notice the irony in that my late-90's doppelganger appeared in a movie about twins?!?!?

*Note: I wrote this post over two weeks ago but I held off on posting it until I could find the exemplary photo at my parents house. I am relieved to finally share it!

Kicking it old-world

Lets talk heritage.

My dad's people are swiss. I grew up in the same predominantly swiss community that my dad did. In fact, saying that my dad's people are swiss is probably an understatement, they are very swiss. If you google "swiss cowboy" my dad's picture is one of the top image hits (see image provided by google on the right).

Swiss culture has been woven into my life since day one. The annual swiss parade/picnic, bi-annual swiss singing concerts, alphorns, polka music, yodeling, swiss kids camp and one of my personal favorites, brazelis.

In case you have never had the pleasure of eating one, brazelis are thin, waffle-like cookies that are traditionally flavored with lemon or anise. They are made in special irons that press the dough flat and stamp designs on them. My grandma makes them on holidays, but not exclusively. They taste amazing any time of the year.


As a wedding present, a few of my relatives pitched in and bought me and Peter our very own brazeli iron. Given that there are no remaining suppliers who will make the traditional irons with US plug-ins and the fact that the irons are expensive (even when you look at the figure in euros) this was no easy feat and Peter and I were very thankful. Over Thanksgiving weekend we decided to fire it up and take it for a test-drive.


There are two tricky things about having a brazeli iron with european plugs. First and most obvious, european plugs do not fit in US electrical outlets. Second, brazeli irons run off the kind of electricity ovens and clothing dryers use, not the paltry amount your average wall outlet puts out. Part of the gift included a converter, which solved both problems (hypothetically) but the plug-in situation was designed for US to Euro plugs, not the other way around.

After much debate, a good deal of which involved me talking my dad out of whacking elements off the iron's electrical cable, we settled on this solution.


It takes the one 16-pound converter (the big black box in the picture) plus three adapters to make it work. But it works :) Mom made the dough using an old family recipe and between Willow, Peter and I, we cooked up a whole batch.

And the old-world tradition lives on to another generation.

False Economy

A few days ago I got a coupon in the mail from Haggen. They just re-vamped the store (they did some great work with the wine section,) and wanted to show off by offering the locals $5 off any $25 purchase and a free gallon of apple juice. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Anyway, this morning I decided to take a break from my AAC final by trudging through the snow (yes, snow!?!?!) to redeem my prize. I had a whole list of items, but as I wandered through the store I decided I didn't need most of them since I will be gone for five days starting Wednesday. By the time I made it to the front I have two packages of butter, english muffins, bananas, apple juice, caramels, delicious nougat candies with green christmas trees in the middle, and hummus. I thought about buying a wedge of brie since I had puff pastry in my freezer (baked brie is delicious) but the least expensive wedge was seven dollars and I was feeling particularly cheap, so I didn't.

However, when I moseyed up to the nine-items-or-less lane with my purchases they totaled a disappointing $20.73. Painfully aware of the two people waiting behind me but determined to redeem my coupon, I cursed myself for passing on the brie. Since there was no time to go back I quickly snagged a copy of People magazine (the Sexiest-Man-Alive edition, conveniently.) When that wasn't enough, I had the clerk grab me a butterfinger and when that wasn't enough I had her grab me two more. So in order to get $5 off my groceries, I spent an impulsive $5 on a People magazine and not one, but three butterfinger bars. I guess that made them free?

Anyway, it was all nonsense and I laughed my way out of the store.

On a side note, the glorious and burly Ryan Reynolds was crowned this years sexiest man alive. He is a special favorite of my friend Kylie so I gifted my virtually free copy of People to her (after I read it of course.)

Kristi 2.0

In general I am not very festive. I like Halloween because I can use it as an excuse to eat copious amounts of sugar, but I usually opt out of the costuming and revelry that goes with the holiday.

But this year was different.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the person I have become since beginning graduate school. Juggling academics and clinical work has taken a significant toll on me. I have always been a serious student and taken a heavy class load, but my life used to have balance.

In undergrad I worked really hard to excel in my classes, but I found time to hike, dance, rock climb, host game nights, read (fiction!), bake, go to the gym, and practice speaking Italian. When I started grad school I stopped doing almost all of those things. As of now, I haven't taken a dance class in a year and a half. That is the longest break in dancing I have had since I was six. I spent four years learning and perfecting my knowledge of the Italian language, but it has been over 6 months since I have spoken a word of it. And worst of all, as a self-proclaimed book enthusiast, I haven't finished a new piece of fiction in the last 6 weeks.

This year for Halloween I dressed up as Kristi 2.o. At first it was intended to be a joke about how I went as myself but better-groomed (which was true, I even wore make-up and straightened my hair) but it was more than that. Really, Kristi 2.0 is the person I want to be when I don't have to be a graduate student anymore.

When all this madness is over I want to learn how to be myself again.

I am tired of being lame. Nights and weekend should be spent recreating and socializing, like all the gainfully employed people do. They should not be spent practicing my left-handed penmanship or watching trashy television while writing Aphasia midterms, clinic reports or AAC device reviews.

When I graduate and get a job (glory, hallelujah) I am going to spend nights and weekends doing all the things I love that I don't have time for currently, starting with dance, leisure reading and Italian. And when I start to feel like my old self again, I am going to up the ante.

I am going to collect hobbies like some people collect bottlecaps or hotel key-cards.

First, I am going to embrace my Swiss heritage and learn how to play the accordion. That's right, the accordion. I already have a teacher lined up. And once I have progressed to the point where I can play my favorite polka (or at least a decent approximation,) I am going to tackle the cello.

Next, languages. First I am going to learn Spanish (because it is so darn useful I don't think I can avoid it anymore) but then I am going to get crazy with the languages and try my hand at Russian.

In the last week, I have seen two separate individuals reference this particular quote from the book Looking for Alaska by John Green, "If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."

I think the universe is trying to speak to me.

Right now I am drizzle, but I swear to you, Kristi 2.0 will be a hurricane.



1/9/11 Update: Read more about my quest for self reinvention here.