"Newness" Is In The Air

So I've been terrible about updating this thing, which I say every single time I post. I really need to be more diligent about it. I've never had a blog before, and I am impressed by those who remember to update theirs once a week, or at least on a regular basis...

I'll talk about my Puerto Rico trip first (from way back in June). I had such an amazing time! Definitely a new experience for me, as my friend Michelle and I really didn't plan much of anything. Most of our time was spent here:

Or here:

It was the first time in a long time I'd felt completely relaxed. Granted, I did get sunburned (as most of my friends will tell you it's usually a given) but not as bad as I thought I might, and I stuck it out and STILL went to the beach :).

We also explored Old San Juan, which is a really pretty town. All the buildings are painted in different colors, and it looks like it was transplanted from Spain (which in a way it was, since the early explorers who came to the island were Spanish). Michelle and I spent a couple of days walking around the town, looking in all the shops, and we went to one of the old forts, El Muro. There are a lot of nooks and crannies to explore there, and there are great views of the ocean and of the coastline.

One of the days we were there, it so happened that a couple of work friends of mine were docked from a cruise ship in San Juan, so we were able to meet up with them for lunch and drinks and Senior Frogs. I know, very touristy, but also very fun, their drinks come in these really tall colorful glasses that are awesome!

The other experience I got to have was going to the Ritz Carlton! On Saturday night, our hotel was kind of crazy with lots of kids running around. So Michelle and I  wanted to get out and go somewhere special for dinner. We had been pretty frugal up until then with spending on meals, and decided to splurge. A friend of her's had told her how the Ritz was amazing (they have the restaurant Il Mulino there), and we decided to dress up and have a very posh evening. We started with drinks in the lounge, and I have to say they we had the BEST mojitos ever! I could have had those all night.

Dinner was even more amazing. All the waiters are dressed in tuxes, and as soon as you sit down it's a whirlwind of food. They brought us a wedge of aged Parmesan, than garlic bread, then a tray with about 4 different kinds of other bread, a small plate with hard salami, eggplant, and a mussel. All before we saw a menu. What???

The meal we did order was incredibly good. We split a seafood appetizer, and then each had a pasta dish (I wish I could remember the name) that had a light cream sauce and lots of yummy veggies. Then  for desert we split a bowl of strawberries with mascarpone cheese.

It was so hard to leave! When Michelle and I left Puerto Rico it was sunny and warm. As we got closer to New York, we could see it getting darker and cloudier, and then when we touched down it was raining. Sort of depressing. But it was still and amazing trip!

Next post will be about a new experience that will stretch out over the next year...

Two Tickets to Paradise!

Yes, I know, bad me. I said that I was going to update this the next day...and that was about a month ago. It's scary how life gets in your way sometimes ;).

So, my way more fun 'first' news is...I get to go on a tropical vacation!!! In less than two weeks, I will be in Puerto Rico with one of my best friends from college, Michelle. I have never done a vacation like this, so I am extremely excited to get to go. For this vacation, we are going to relax. No planning, no tight schedules. Our biggest decisions will be if we want to spend the day by the beach or by the pool, and if we decide the pool, what kind of drink we want at the poolside bar (the poolside bar apparently has a drink called the Michelle, so she was definitely excited that there is literally a drink with her name on it waiting for her in Puerto Rico).

So this is how we decided to do this trip...originally, I was planning on doing the summer Birthright trip to Israel. My best childhood friend did the trip last year, and she absolutely loved it. I was really excited to go. Then the news reports started coming in. Bad reports about tension between Israel and Syria, Israelis and the Palestinians (not that that's old news), and I started to get cold feet.

Now, Michelle had been thinking about flying out to Israel to meet me after the Birthright trip was over, and we'd spend an extra week going around Israel on our own. However, once all the reports started coming in, we decided to put a hold on the Israel idea and to think of something new. We knew we wanted to go someplace with a beach and that was tropical. Michelle had been to Puerto Rico the year before, but only for a few days, and she never left the resort she was on (partially because she was staying 40 miles outside of the city). So we're going for a week and staying at a resort only 7 miles from Old San Juan and two blocks from the beach...the best of both worlds!

Usually when I've gone on vacations, every day would be planned, it would be go go go from beginning to end, and I would be so tired at the end that all I would want to do is sleep for two days once getting back. This time, I'm hoping to come back fully rested, energetic, and ready to go back to work!

I plan on posting my adventures with Michelle while we're there, though not until we come back (bringing a computer to Puerto Rico is not in the cards). There'll be lots of pretty pictures I'm sure!

Back to the Living...

So it's been more than two months since I updated this thing. Sorry about that, I've had so many firsts thrown at me, both big and small, that I felt I should wait until things calmed down a bit before posting about them. For this post, let's start with the big...

For most of my life, I've had these episodes where I get sort of light-headed, dizzy, and nauseous. I always have to sit down, but I'm usually able to go about my business after 20 minutes or so. For the past couple of years, however, the episodes have become more frequent. Doctors have mostly said it was probably low blood pressure, and that things like increasing my sodium intake could help out a bit (finally, a legitimate excuse to eat a bag of potato chips every day!). Unfortunately that didn't seem to help, so my cardiologist decided it was time to explore another possibility: an accessory pathway. In short, my heart might have an extra electrical point that's not supposed to be there, causing my heart to beat irregularly sometimes. This can be a big uh oh. I wore a heart monitor for about a month, which unfortunately didn't show anything...

So about three weeks ago I had a procedure done called an E.P. Study. Basically, they threaded a couple of wires up to my heart through veins in my legs to monitor it and to see if I had this accessory pathway. If I did, they'd ablate it. If I didn't, well, we'd figure out what to do next.

I hate hospitals. I know most people do, I've never heard someone say "I love to go to the hospital," but this was just not a great experience for me. The whole not being able to eat starting from midnight the night before just makes me start off cranky. Then there was the nurses trying to get the IV in my arm. OY! Took them three tries, and it can HURT if they don't get it in the first time.  So then we (meaning me and my mom, who had flown in from California to be with me through all this) had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Finally in the late afternoon I had the procedure, which takes about 3 hours, and by the time I got out, I'd gone more than 15 hours without eating or drinking. Not good. I ended up having a bad episode in the recovery room, most likely due to low blood pressure from lack of eating/drinking. Which bought me a one night's stay in the hospital so they could monitor me. I know, it was for my own good, but having to lie flat all night and not turn over or on your side, on a very narrow bed, not my idea of a good time. Blech.

Luckily, I got to leave the next morning. My wonderful mom had me stay with her at a hotel, and my wonderful roommate came to visit me and brought me the cutest stuffed monster ever! I love it!

This gives you an idea of what mine looks like. Mine is yellow with green horns and with a pocket on the front. They're called Lyla Tov (which means good night in Hebrew) dolls. The best part is the monsters are designed by a kid! Who's like 5. It's awesome! If you want one either go the The Jewish Museum shop website or go here: http://www.lylatov.com/

And to top it all off, my amazing best friend from college sent me an edible arrangements with chocolate and peanut butter covered apples. Yummy!

Final results: not an accessory pathway. So I'll go back to the doctor soon and see what my options are from this point on. But so far I haven't had any episodes since my hospital stay. One of the things that's so annoying is that I can never predict when they'll happen.

So being in the hospital and having to go through all that was one of my big firsts. Tomorrow I will update with another one (that is definitely WAY more fun!!!)

Like Mom Used to Make...

Well, sort of anyway. Last night I set out to make buttery lemon squares using a recipe she's used since I was little. I've never tried one of my mom's recipes before, always thinking they'd never be as good. But this weekend is a special occasion: my roommate Emmy and I are having a housewarming party! And since this blog is all about new experiences, I wanted to post the recipe.

So I called my mom to ask if it was all right (for all I know this is some secret family recipe that no one else can know). Turns out it's not a family recipe, at least not ours. My mom got the recipe from a friend of hers in her UCLA graduate school program about 20 years ago named Emma Hipolito, who in turn got it from her mom. In fact, my mom tracked down Emma to make sure it was alright for me to post the recipe. I got the ok from all parties, so I will share it with you below.

As for how the lemon squares came out, they actually taste pretty good! I may have needed a bigger pan because I think the dough was a little thick (for the record I used a 9x13 dish thinking that the size dish the recipe called for was too big) and needed to be spread thinner, and also the meringue part came out a little gooey, but Emmy and I both tried them and gave them a thumbs up. Next time I may leave them in the over a little longer, maybe five minutes.

If anyone else tries the recipe let me know how it turns out!

Buttery Lemon Squares

Crust:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour

Meringue:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp lemon peel
8 tbls lemon juice
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup flour

For the crust: cream the butter and sugar together, then blend in the flour. Spread the dough evenly over a well greased 13x19 pan, and bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

For the meringue: beat the eggs with an electric mixer until they're light. Add the sugar slowly, and when it's completely blended add the rest of the ingredients. Pour the mixture over the baked crust and bake about about 20-30 minutes or until golden.

Southern California Girl, Meet Winter Sports

I’ve never been good at winter sports. I grew up in Los Angeles, the land of sun. Ergo snow was not exactly in plentiful supply unless you got in your car and drove to Big Bear or somewhere like that. The one time I tried a winter sport was when I was about 10 or 11. My parents, my aunt, and my uncle took my brother and I skiing on slopes close to my grandparents’ house in the Berkshires. I went a few times down the bunny slopes, and then decided to try a slightly bigger hill. I was being pulled up the hill on a rope like pulley with polls every few feet, and I wasn’t really paying attention. I ran smack into a poll and nearly knocked myself out, so needless to say I spent the rest of the afternoon in the lodge nursing a goose egg on my head.

Fast-forward 15 years. Over this past MLK weekend I went to visit my grandfather, my uncle, and my cousin in Keene, New Hampshire. They live close to a bunch of different slopes, so for a few hours on what turned out to be the coldest day of the weekend, we decided to try them out. I’ve wanted to try snowboarding for a while, despite my not so great experience as a child, but I’ve never really taken to the time to learn. Lucky for me, my 16-year-old cousin Annika was willing to be my teacher for the day! So after being equipped with a rental board, Annika very patiently spent the next two hours teaching me the basics of snowboarding:

I'm on the left, Annika is on the right. She has no idea what she's getting herself into...

 

I fell. A lot. My behind felt like a very sore ice cube (if there is such a thing). BUT, by the end of the day I was able to stand up by myself and I had a couple of good runs (down one of the easier hills but I’m not about to be picky):

Getting ready to stand myself up

One of my good runs! Made it more than two feet without falling!

The one thing I never did master was stopping, hence more falling. But I did have a great time trying. It would definitely be something I’d want to try again. Next time though, I think butt pads would definitely be a good investment.

                                       

Wednesday, January 30, 2012

Now I can't say that I am extremely wise, but I do agree with the above quote when it comes to experiences. The first month of a new year is drawing to a close, and I've realized that I have been letting the time pass me by the same way it has for the past four years I've been living in New York City. While I've had plenty of experiences during my time here, I haven't really reflected on them. So this year I thought it would be nice to start writing about all the new things I do, see, hear, smell, etc., so I don't forget and let them go by the wayside.

I expressed this desire to my very social media savy uncle, who suggested using a blog as an outlet. That way I could share these experiences with all of my fabulous friends! I've never blogged before, but I always enjoy reading them, so I thought why not! And here I am. And here I will stay as long as you tolerate me.