i may need to change my blog name...

...to "Becoming Dr. Brightside"

(doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it?)


BIG NEWS yall...Yesterday morning I got a call from the prog. coordinator at the University of Miami offering me a spot in their Counseling Psych PhD program!!!! I had been on the waitlist for several weeks and was considering just taking the Master's offer and calling it a day. I'm so glad I waited!!

I AM SO HYPE :-D

I'll finish up at my current job at the end of May and head back to the VI shortly thereafter to spend the summer at home before moving to Miami to start school this Fall. This is going to be a huge transition for me. I've spent the majority of the last 6 years living in DC. Most of my friends are here now! I know the city well and I've really loved living here. It's going to be weird to leave....

Well, that's life for ya! Time to turn a new page and start a new chapter. I'll be in Miami for at least 4 years - 5 if I do my internship there as well. In the meantime I gotta start scrambling to do the DC things I've shamefully neglected to do over the past 6 years. First up, going to see the Cherry Blossoms this weekend. Other than that, I'm planning to do a once-over of the museums, Arlington Cemetery and the other tourist highlights. There are lots of other things I'm blanking on, but you get the point.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Ok moving on. This past weekend Nix and I stayed up til (no lie) 3:30am baking LOL. I literally left a bar to go home and bake...weird huh? Anywho, I made an old favorite recipe that my Mom used to make all the time. It's quite appropriately called Anna's Swedish Butter Cake and it is YUM YUM YUM! (you can find it with a simple google search). I made the chocolate variation and topped it with the pecan/coconut German chocolate cake frosting. Quite delicious!!! I plan to tweak the recipe a smidge next time to up the moisture factor in the cake, but overall it was bomb. We also made hazelnut thumbprint cookies with jam filling with were delicious even though we (Nix lol) over-roasted the hazelnuts...and hazelnute chocolate (Nutella) cookies that were scrumptious...and are sitting in our freezer waiting for us to give out bodies a break and then use them to make ice cream sandwiches....mmmmmmm!

Monday night I whipped up another batch of the chili I made a few weeks ago. I basically made the same bulgur wheat and bean version but added ground beef. Honestly, I thought my last batch was better, but Nix and Roomie thoroughly enjoyed this one too. I also made (from scratch) cornbread muffins. I made muffins for built-in portion control...there's something easier about cutting another slice versus taking an entire second (or thurd!) muffin. These are also great spread with jelly for a snack!

Last night Nix and I had the second free salmon fillet (if you remember, she got them free when she filled a prescription at Giant lol). We sauteed it in the pan first with canola and sesame oil, then baked it for about 5 minutes with a soy-ginger marinade from Trader Joe's. Quite delicious but I think it could have been more tender....Nix thinks I'm to critical of my cooking...she's right lol.

K, that's it for today!

Today's *big chunes* are from Lyfe Jennings...two versions to his song "Brand New"
"original" feat TI:


remix feat lil wayne:


:-D