RN, baby!

WOOOOOHOOO I got my NCLEX results today and I passed!  I'm a nurse!  I remember the moment 3 1/2 years ago when I was digging in my garden one late April day in Montana and thought "I want to be a nurse".  And since that day everything in my life has been geared towards making that goal a reality.  Today I got there.  How do you even describe what it feels like to reach a major life goal?  I don't think you really can.  I'm not even going to try.  Just know that today I feel a tremendous sense of achievement.

Ok, now for the road trip portion of the evening.  This episode is titled "Why Utah is awesome".  Here's why:

Do I really have to say more?

After a full day of riding (yay Porcupine!) and a quick dinner, I left Moab around 4pm on Friday, heading for Hurricane, UT.  Hurricane is clear on the other side of the state, by St. George.  It's home to some pretty excellent biking, as well as Zion National Park (see above).  I enjoyed my drive for as long as the light held, stopping at a rest area just as the sun set to catch a picture of the moon rising over the desert.  Then it became a little less fun.  With the help of a little caffeine and some loud music I managed to push through till a little after midnight, when I finally found a camping spot about 15 minutes outside of Zion.  I don't really like getting to my camping spot after dark, but it was well populated and the truck makes me feel safer.  And the upside to getting there after dark is that you get to experience that awesome surprise in the morning of seeing where you are.  This is where I was:

Lovely, isn't it?  

In the morning I took a quick trip over to the entrance to Zion, then went apple picking, then went down into town to Over the Edge Sports to get beta about trails.  My advice?  Don't go in there with your ride already picked out.  Go in there and tell them what kind of riding you like and let them tell you what to ride.  I did it the wrong way.  Thor and I rode Jem trail, which was a mediocre jaunt through a more or less flat, non-technical section of desert.  Granted, I tend to favor seriously technical rides and bomber downhills, so this was pretty much the exact opposite of my style.  Some people might love it.  Not this gal.  On a previous trip I had ridden Gooseberry Mesa, which I would definitely recommend.  But if you like techy rides, just skip Jem.

After Jem, Thor and I were hot and very dirty (having now done 2 rides in the desert with no shower).  Thor didn't care.  I kinda cared.  So we hopped in the lovely Virgin River and took a bath.  I know, looks like it would make you dirtier, right?  Whatever, at least it was refreshing.

After the so-called bath, it was time to drive again.  LA, here I come!

fall road trip, episode 1

Well my NCLEX is done (and I think it went well...), now I'm just waiting for my results.  Apparently me changing my last name freaked them out and they had to review my test.  They swear up and down they'll tell me tomorrow.  Believe it when I see it. 

In my last post I said I'd try to catch up a little bit on what has been going on in my life since September.  And so I shall. 

I spent most of September in Glenwood Springs for my Public Health clinical rotation.  The most memorable part of that month was the living situation - I was couch surfing (as in couchsurfing.org) in an apartment with two other humans, 4 dogs (including Thor), 2 guinea pigs, a tortoise, a few fish, and a miniature potbelly pig.  Controlled chaos is the appropriate descriptive term.


I left Glenwood Springs on a Thursday night at the end of September for two weeks on the road.  The first night took me out of Colorado and down through the desert to what I'd have to say is one of my favorite places on earth: Moab, Utah.  I slept in my truck by the Colorado River in the shadow of the massive canyon walls.  There are no words to describe what it feels like to wake up in a place like that.  The first thing you notice is the cool, clean morning air, then you stick your head out of your tent (or truck, as the case may be) and realize you are 300+ feet deep in a brilliant red streaked sandstone canyon and it's a beautiful day to ride your bike and the whole universe is smiling on you.  I'm not even exaggerating. 

 My friend Nick and his parents were in town, so I met them for breakfast and then the parents shuttled us up to the top of Hazard County Trail for an epic downhill.  The aspens were in full color, blazing neon yellow across the entire mountainside.  It was fantastic.  Poor Nick broke his bike about an hour into the ride and had to bail, but I got to ride the Whole Enchilada for the 4th time in a year.  It's a classic Moab ride for a reason; the challenging flowing turns and kickers of Hazard County give way to the break-neck speed and rolling jumps of Kokopelli, which dumps you out onto pedal-friendly technical Upper- and Lower- Porcupine Singletrack that snakes along the edge of the mesa right onto the Rim itself, where you have to decide whether to watch the trail (a very good idea, because it's pretty tough) or the incredible views of the river 300 feet below you.  It's just an epic ride.

After the ride I grabbed a quick dinner and hit the road, heading for Hurricane, Utah.  And that will be a story for my next post. 

this is how you study for the NCLEX...

Mmmm.... cookies.

It's been about 4 months since my last blog post.  Oops.  A lot has happened since then, mainly a ridiculous amount of traveling.  I'll work on catching up, but it'll probably mostly consist of pictures.

Right now I'm supposed to be studying for the NCLEX, the nursing board exam, which I am taking in 4 days.  Instead, I'm geeking out on food.  Don't worry, I've only invested $200 in the test, and only have two potential job offers riding on my success.  No biggie.

If you know me you know I love food.  Especially chocolate.  And cereal.  And fruit.  And anything yummy.  But I've reached a new level of food obsession, sparked by a combination of living with a foodie, having more time on my hands than I've had in over a year, and being an excellent procrastinator.  So I'm going to dive in and write a blog post about food.

I've been thinking about food intolerances for a while now, but finally got to the end of my rope with the vague and annoying symptoms that have been bugging me.  It got too embarrassing to have my stomach growling loudly in public all the time.  REALLY loudly.  ALL the time.  I decided it was time to take action and try an elimination diet, starting with the most likely culprit: dairy.  Within hours of going dairy-free I had a mini panic attack about my chocolate options and started Googling recipes for dairy-free chocolate treats.  Funny thing, apparently there are other dairy-free chocoholics out there!  My first foray into lactard chocolate 'baking' is an adaptation on a vegan recipe I found on www.sarahcupcake.com (by way of Pinterest, my other favorite procrastination pasttime).

Holy delicious, Batman!  10 minutes, 9 ingredients, and hellooooo yummy cookies! Not even kidding, these are the quickest and easiest cookies I've ever made.  They've been added to my list of "oh crap someone's at my house I need to feed them quick what can I make?!" recipes.

 

 I meant no disrespect to Miss SarahCupcake, but I couldn't resist tampering with the recipe.  It's just how I operate - I can't play by the rules when it comes to things creative.  What's the fun in doing it the way you're told?  Plus, there are just so many delicious things that play well with chocolate. 

Like coconut.

Or toasted almonds.

Or dried cherries.

Or more chocolate....

To be fair, I didn't adapt it much.  Here's the recipe, as I made it:

Vegan No-Bake Cookies
6 dates, pitted
20 unsalted, roasted peanuts (yeah, 20)
1/3 c oats
1/8 c shredded coconut, unsweetened
2 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
splash of vanilla extract
1/8 c chocolate chips
2-4 Tbsp milk alternative (I used vanilla soymilk, SarahCupcake called for almond)
Whatever toppings strike your fancy!

Put the first 7 ingredients in a food processor, process till pretty smooth and crumbly.  Add chocolate chips, process for a few more seconds.  Add milk substitute 1 Tbsp at a time, processing between additions, until a thick dough forms.  Think firm playdough.  If you accidentally add too much liquid you can just add a few more oats.  When the dough is the right consistency it should clump up into a ball while the processor is on.  Roll the dough into balls, flatten each ball, and top with something fun!  You can chill them, but I'm all for immediate gratification and they're delicious at room temp.

As you can see from my pictures I topped mine with shredded coconut, toasted almonds, dried cherries, and dark chocolate chips (make sure to read the ingredients for dairy-free!).  I imagine cinnamon, crystallized ginger, sea salt, a dusting of cayenne, raspberries, fruit preserves, candied orange peel, or any number of other things would be equally delicious and interesting. 

Now to go study off the 6 cookies I just ate...