The Diagnosis

So a funny thing happens when you go to law school…it takes over your life. Not in the "I'm so busy with all my fun extracurriculars and meeting my friends to hangout" sort of way that college takes over your life. I have literally caught myself considering not showering because it would take away from study time (I admit at times in college showering took a back seat to things like sleep…but studying, NEVER). This sort of life makes developing friendships kind of difficult, and not just because I smell from not showering (note: I shower at least every other day and I do not actually smell). It sucks when you start weighing the benefit of getting to know someone over coffee with the amount of time it will take from your study schedule.

So, once you get past the fact that 1 hour less of studying will not kill you (and realize that you spend more than an hour doing other pointless things that kept you from studying but you aren't trying to cut that stuff out), you start hanging out with law students. All law students talk about is law school. I think that most law students would agree that this is horribly annoying and yet we cannot stop ourselves!

While having a conversation with a bunch of law students about law school someone made a really funny joke. Now, the only reason the joke was funny is because we're law students. Then someone made the comment that over winter break they realized that "real people" don't think law school jokes are funny. For example:

Hypo: Friend trips on a crack as you're walking down the street everyone laughs.

Law Student 1: haha, you totally have a tort against the city.

Everyone else: ignores comment

Law Student 2 (if you're lucky enough to have 2 law student friends): A reasonable person would have been watching where they were going.

Law Student 1 and 2: laughing

Everyone else: having a different conversation

Get it? Yeah, not funny right (and there was a joke within the joke if you caught it…no…okay), but your average law student would totally respond this way to this situation. Then one of the other guys I was with told us what was wrong with us: law school tourette's. So, now that I have a diagnosis, please forgive me (and any of your other law student friends) for saying things that are not relevant and not funny. I'm working on finding a cure.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth

He will not let your foot slip
He who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you
The LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night

The LORD will keep you from all harm
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going,
both now and forevermore.

I'm having one of those days where I feel defeated. I feel like all the things competing for attention in my life are weighing me down. I think the hardest thing I'm dealing with is realizing that I see my time with God... my relationship with God, as one of those competing things. Psalm 121 has been one of my favorite chapters in the Bible for I don't know how long. It assures me that God is not there to weigh me down, but to protect and provide for me in light of the things that are actually tearing me down. However, turning this head knowledge into heart knowledge is not an easy task (and perhaps the fact that I see it as a task speaks to my struggle). I'm dealing with things I don't want to deal with and wrestling with things I don't want to wrestle with. Prayer is much appreciated :)

Caucussing

As anyone with a pulse knows, last Tuesday was Super Duper Tuesday. While I find this whole amped up primary race to be kind of ridiculous, I was encouraged to participate because I thought it might make me feel like a responsible citizen.

Minnesota has a caucus instead of a primary. I thought it would be interesting to experience the political process from a different vantage point. It was a CIRCUS, literally...okay, not literally, but it was almost as crowded as the state fair and not nearly as organized (side note: everyone in MN shows up for the state fair...because it's awesome).

They shoved three small suburbs worth of precincts into the basement/cafeteria of a local high school and expected each precinct to be able to sit around a small lunch table. I think they thought there would be 5-10 people per precinct and it ended up being about 20-30. Madness. What I thought would be a 15 minute detour on my way to Bible study, ended up taking an hour and a half. Most of that time was just spent asking people to gather around the unmarked table of their precinct.

While I'm glad I had the experience, I was sorely disappointed by the lack of common sense most of the people who were there exhibited (which was further shown by the fact that Romney won the Republican straw poll in MN...jk). I'm not sure this whole caucus thing did our democratic system justice. I guess since the primary is all party run it doesn't really matter though. The two highlights of the night: the crowd spontaneously breaking into "God Bless America" while the mayhem of finding each precinct table broke out (thank you Republican party for living up to stereo types) and the many "Got Milk" posters which included a really awesome High School Musical ad.

A SUPER Super Bowl

One of the things I miss terribly about Berkeley and undergrad is cooking and eating with large groups of people. I don't think it's the action itself that I miss, but rather the community that is experienced in the midst of the action. I believe that eating together is one of the ways we get to live out what the church in Acts looked like. Eating together stimulates conversation and if you're lucky intimacy. As we experience love in communities and within relationships God shows us how much He loves us.

I was reminded of this over winter break while spending time in Sacramento with a few of the people I love to eat with most. We spent several of our evenings in. Different people took turns serving the rest of us and heading up the bulk of the cooking duties. Then we sat around the table for an hour or so and just ate, drank, and talked. Then of course we'd move to another area of the house and talk some more.

When I think back on it, sharing meals was probably the impetus for most of my close relationships. I know that I really got to know the members of my freshman community group because of forced lunch buddies. The women that I was closest to in ADX used to make me dinner, which I happily accepted to avoid the DC. Another way that I avoided the DC was by mooching off of Emily and Ashley when they moved out of the dorms Spring semester. I came to love my discipleship group after a good deal of cafe discussions, both about why meeting at Milano just was not acceptable and about what God was doing in our lives.

I've struggled in the last several months with the lack of connection I feel with the people around me in MN. So, with these thoughts in mind and a desire to seek out closer relationships, I suggested to my roommate that we have a Super Bowl gathering and cook some good food. I totally saw God answer prayer. My roommate picked the menu and for the most part I cooked it, but an awesome thing happened in between, we went shopping. Part of me cringed as I watched the time go by on Saturday and realized I was not going to get my reading for Monday (or any other day of the week) done, but time like this with my roommate is pretty rare and so I made a decision to stop worrying and be grateful. I had fun cooking, and enjoyed eating and watching the game with my roommate and guests.

Okay, hold onto your seats, I'm about to get fancy! Here are some pictures of what we made!


This is a White Chicken Chili that has both corn and cilantro in it. I don't know if it really looks all that appetizing, but I promise it was delish!


This is Pots de Creme (I think that was what it was called anyway). Someone from my roommate's work made it for their Christmas party and was nice enough to pass the recipe along. You can't really tell, but there's a chocolate mousse/pudding under the whipped cream that had just a touch of brandy in it. I just bought these glasses at IKEA and was supper excited when they ended up being perfect for this recipe. The other highlight was the grated chocolate on top. My roommate bought a grater from the dollar store and was disappointed when she found out it wasn't a shredder. She didn't think she'd be able to use it for much, so this creative idea redeemed its value. (Not pictured: guac (10 for $10 avocados in MN in the winter!!!); salsa; sugar cookies shaped and decorated like footballs; sangria; and raspberry chipotle sauce (store bought) over cream cheese with crackers.)

P.S. This blog will not always be about food. If you want to read an awesome blog about food written by two people I love see: www.loveiscooking.blogspot.com

New Blog

Okay, it's been a while. I think the last time I updated my old xanga was last spring. I've intended to start a new blog for quite sometime now, but I couldn't come up with a good title (Stephie, fudgepuppy was already taken?!?). This is not to say that I have come up with a good title, but I think it gets the point across.

Writing out my thoughts has always been a good way for me to process things and lately I feel like my life has given me a lot to process, but little time in which to do it. Perhaps now that I've set this up I'll make more time.

So yeah, check back for life updates, random thoughts, and maybe if I get fancy, some pictures.