Goings-On:

• Last night we snuck out of tutoring early. Mentors are supposed to be there from 6-8 pm, but the tutoring session is really only from 6:30-7:30, with ancillary activities on either end. By 7:30 I usually: (1) have had a poor tutoring session and am annoyed, (2) am hungry, (3) miss my home (and cat) after 12 hours* away. So I left. Jason feels more guilt about these things than I do, but luckily he followed. That extra half hour is really key to re-heating my leftovers and watching Gilmore Girls IN PEACE.

• I think I bruised or cracked a rib??? From residual flu-coughing?? For about three days now, I have had a sharp pain in the upper part of my left rib cage every time I take a deep breath, cough, sneeze, or twist. This seems consistent with online symptoms of bruised or cracked ribs...but I'm not sure what to do with this information. Apparently you just have to wait until it heals itself. But can I run? Do yoga? Get my massage? I don't want to puncture my lungs! Also, if I really did crack a rib from coughing (admittedly a lot of heavy coughing over a month long period) does that mean I have very weak bones????

• One of the highlights of my day is checking the Afternoon Animal Fix on Popville. Look at those little guys. This past Saturday, a local pet supply shop was hosting a kitten adoption event and we stopped by on our way to the wines of Argentina tasting...They were SO CUTE omg. I wonder how Sal would feel about a feisty little sibling in his life. It was so hard not to take one home! At least I got a bottle of wine...

• I made this chicken and sweet potato curry tonight:

I thought this was delicious, but Jason said there were too many peas...and even though he didn't like it very much, he liked it better than the mushroom marsala pasta I made on Monday! This is part of the challenge of trying new recipes...

I was inspired by the pad thai to use crushed peanuts as a garnish.

I have never made this recipe, so it counts as new, but honestly this is similar to the types of meals I used to make for myself when I first moved to DC and would really only cook once, maybe twice per week. A big vat of protein and veggies in a sauce spiked with curry powder and served over rice. Then I would eat it for lunch the rest of the week. I don't really remember what I ate for dinner...happy hour foods? lean cuisine frozen pizzas**? Anyway, I like to think I am a better cook now, (although I got distracted while chopping and burnt the sweet potatoes) and this is a better recipe, so eating leftovers for the next several days won't give me flashbacks.

• I'm still unsure about this Little Serow menu. Do I want to eat a snakehead fish??

Exercise:

Jillian Michaels video + short stretchy yoga video. I was planning to run but I wanted to be in my living room in case I punctured my lung and collapsed.


*Really, would it kill me to watch middle school kids sing and make announcements for an extra 30 minutes of my life? Not so very long ago, I had 15 hour days, three days a week (I left for work at 7:30 am and came back from class after 10 pm). I would have been THRILLED to be home by 8:30 pm, eating home-cooked food on my couch, and watching TV. I need to try harder to remember this.

**Omg, I just cringe thinking about how many of those terrible frozen meals I used to eat. And all that Easy Mac I ate in college.