The last six months…

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Kansas City for almost six months. Here is a picture overview of things I’ve done since leaving Norman.

First I moved in and started unpacking.

I moved in on a Friday and attended a cousin’s wedding on Saturday.

Mom, Grandma, and I all dressed up.

On Tuesday I started work. My Mom came up and visited a few times. During one of the trips I purchased a new lamp and chair.

I also got some chairs for the deck.

In September I went to another wedding.

Mom, Dad, and I.

Then in November, I got to do something I’ve always wanted to do…host Thanksgiving!

Uncle Steve, cousin Lauren, Aunt Linda, and my sister Kristin

Dad's carving the turkey

Christmas Day was spent in Bartlesville.

I'm pretty excited about my All-Clad skillets. I think my brother Pat got some tools.

I made Christmas dinner. It was delicious!

I had another Christmas gathering at my house over New Years.

Cousin Whitney, Pat, Kristin, and Dad.

Cousin Lauren, Aunt Linda, Uncle Mike, and me.

Now the holidays are over and the new year has began. All in all, I think the move to Kansas City has been a positive experience. I’m still settling in and it doesn’t feel like home yet, at least not in the way that Norman did, but these things take time. I’ve been told that it takes, on average, two to three years before you feel truly settled and connected in a new place.  I think that’s probably true and I’m okay with that. In the mean time, I’m thankful to have family close by and a job and home that I like.

I’m moving…again.

For those of you who don’t know, I have been offered a position with Jackson County Children’s Division in Kansas City Missouri. I am in the process of packing up my apartment (boo) so that I can move into a bigger and nicer duplex in Kansas City (yay!). My friend Heather and I spent about four hours packing today and managed to pack up roughly 1/3-1/2 of the apartment. Unfortunately, I still have the kitchen to go and if you’ve ever seen my kitchen, you know that I have an incredible amount of kitchen stuff.

I leave Norman July 28th and begin work on August 1st. It all feels very sudden but I’m attempting to take it in stride. There is a song by Katy Perry called “Firework” and in it there is a line that says “Maybe the reason why all the doors are closed, so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.” It is a bit funny that I spent over a year applying for and interviewing for jobs in Oklahoma and the first time I interview for anything in Missouri (over the phone, no less) I am offered the job.

Overall I feel good about all these changes but I am NOT looking forward to moving with Penny. If you’ve never had the pleasure of moving with a cat, let me tell you it is about 1000 times harder than moving either alone or with a dog. However, you could be as lucky as my Aunt Linda and be moving with four cats. Makes me glad I just have one.

An adventure in gardening…

My neighbor (Stephanie) and I have decided to garden this year. I attempted a bit of gardening last year but it wasn’t very successful. But this year will be better! We have two garden beds. One will be all vegetables (most of the plants have come from my Dad in Bartlesville) and the other will be flowers and herbs. Below are some photos of us getting the beds ready for planting.

Stephanie is starting to shovel the vegetable bed.

 

Heather (our friend and neighbor across the street) and Stephanie.

The flower bed had some root systems left over from some vines that used to grow on the side of the building. They were a fair amount of work to remove.

Stephanie and Heather are working on removing one of the big roots.

The flower bed is done!

I have planted all of the flowers and am waiting for them to come up. The chives and basil have been planted; I still need to get some more herbs. The vegetable garden still needs a little more work (we bought some new dirt to mix in with what’s already there) and we need to plant it. I’ll post some photos of things when they come up. Let’s hope for productive gardens this year!

Dinner Party

I had some friends over for a dinner party last week. My intention was to take pictures of the dishes so that I could post the photos on this blog. However, I forgot about taking pictures until after we had already eaten dinner. Oops. Luckily, we still had dessert. I made orange creme brulee. I used the classic creme brulee recipe from America’s Test Kitchen and then added the orange flavoring from Julia Child’s orange souffle. It tasted delicious. The dinner party was Friday night and Saturday morning I woke up wanting to eat more creme brulee. So last night I made myself some more. All five portions are currently sitting in my refrigerator.

The wonderful thing about creme brulee is, not only does it taste delicious, but it’s interactive.

Here I am putting raw sugar on mine. I need to make it look like...

...this.

Trisha is firing hers while Matt watches.

Ta-da! It's done.

The guests included Matt and Trisha (above) and…

Daniel and Amyie.

Daniel and Amyie are the proud parents of Emmy, who was featured in my last post. She did attend the dinner party but spent most of the evening resting in her carrier. Being social is such hard work. However,  I am honored to be able to say that mine was the first dinner party she had ever attended.

One year later…

It’s been a little over a year since I’ve updated. The reason for that is mostly that I haven’t felt like I had anything interesting enough to write about. Not much has changed in my life. I’m a year older (28 now, in case you’re interested) and I’m still looking for a full time job in my field. So with that in mind, I’ve been thinking of changing this blog a bit. I think I’m going to start posting pictures of things that I cook and things that I make. And by make I mean knit. Knitting is fantastic. It’s something crafty that people with little to no crafting ability can do. And I have no crafting ability. I’m not that creative and I can’t draw. I had to make a flag for Spanish class in high school. I forget what country it was supposed to be for but the flag ended up looking a bit like Mr. Potatohead. My teacher made comments about it for the rest of the school year.  Anyway here are some pictures of things I’ve made recently.

Julia Child's spinach and cheese souffle

Gluten free olive oil bread from "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day"

This bread is absolutely delicious. I’m so happy to have finally found a gluten free bread to munch on. Sandwich bread is great (and for that I’d recommend Udi’s bread) but I missed having a bread that went well with meals.

Isn't this baby adorable? She belongs to some friends of mine. See that blue thing she's wrapped up in? I made that. I call it "the baby burrito."

Turning 27

I’ve officially entered my “late twenties.” 27 doesn’t feel much older than 26, but I think it sounds older. When I was younger, I figured that by 27 I’d have it all together; I’d be working at some amazing job, have a mortgage, and be married. But things rarely turn out as we planned. Instead, I’m a full time graduate student living in an apartment (albeit, a very cute apartment), and single. Not that I’m complaining. The fact that I (especially with being a woman) have the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree puts me far ahead of many people in the world (and for that matter, in this country).

Last night I went out with friends and had a birthday dinner. That was a lot of fun. I remember last year I did the same thing in Brooklyn. We went to The General Greene, which is one of my favorite resturants in New York. This year we went to Victoria’s which is a italian restuarant on Campus Corner. I brought my own precooked pasta (due to being gluten free) and they added the sauce. It was quite good. We also ordered stuffed mushroom caps. They were stuffed with pesto and garlic and topped with cheese. So good!!!

I don’t have any big plans today. I went to work this morning and have to go back for a meeting tonight which means that I’m going to have to miss class. I think I’m going to go to The Library with a friend after my meeting. (This Library is filled with food and drinks, not books.) This morning I did get to Skype with my friend Julianna who is in Cape Town South Africa (branandjuli.com). It is amazing to me that I can (at no cost)  talk with and see someone who is across the ocean via computer.

I think the biggest lesson I learned during my 26th year is that I always need to be flexible and that it is important to keep things in perspective. Living in New York (a.k.a. “the big dream”) didn’t work out. I moved back to Oklahoma thinking I was going to return to my previous job. Due to State budget cuts, that didn’t work out. Then I applied for other jobs and was never hired. So then I decided to go back to school, which in the end, I think will benefit me more than returning to work would have. However, during that time I had a place to live, I had food to eat. I was never in danger of homelessness or starvation. I am incredibly lucky and I think when life gets unpredictable, it’s important to put things in perspective and think about what you do have.

I hope my 27th year will be a little less tumultuous but I also hope that I continue to learn and grow as a person.

Sorry it’s been awhile

I realize that it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. However, my life since May hasn’t really been too exciting. I moved back in with my parents (thanks Mom and Dad for housing me for seven months!) and took a class at the University of Oklahoma last fall. Some very kind friends allowed me to sleep on a cot in their living room every Monday night. I moved back to Norman at the beginning of January and things have definitely picked-up. I’m a full-time graduate student now. My plan is to get a dual Masters in Social Work and Public Administration. I’ve applied to the School of Social Work and am waiting to hear if I’ve been accepted or not. This semester I am taking the public administration classes. They’re all at night which isn’t my preference, but that’s just the way this program is set up. I also have a 10 hour a week job at a local daycare. Since I have to be at work at 8:00, it gets me up and going in the morning. Then I spend two hours with three and four-year olds and let me tell you, that is enough to wear me out! I’m amazed by the full-time teachers; 15-18 three and four-year olds is a handful!

Last night I had some ladies over for a little dinner party. It was a lot of fun. I made Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons (Chicken Breats with Mushrooms and Cream), Gratin Dauphinois (Scalloped Potatoes with Milk, Cheese, and a Pinch of Garlic), and Souffle Au Chocolat (Chocolate Souffle), and not to toot my own horn too much, but it was pretty delicious. However, I think the true credit belongs to Julia Child. She spent eight (ten?) years on Mastering the Art of French Cooking, testing each recipe in an attempt to make it fool-proof. I have yet to make anything out of her cookbook that comes out badly or tastes awful. However, I have not attempted any of her aspics, nor do I intend to. Jellied beef, veal, chicken, or fish stock just does not say “yum” to me. Anyway, back to dinner. I also served canned pickled beets (kudos to my Dad for his gardening skills and to my Mom for her canning skills) and they were a huge hit. To accompany dinner was a bottle of Bordeaux-medoc. It was good but a little too intense for the chicken, I should have gone with Cotes du Rhone. There’s always next time. And, as my Grandma says, if it’s good we’ll drink it, if it’s bad we’ll drink it. (Not that the wine itself was bad, just not the best pairing.)

I wish I had pictures of dinner to upload, I intended to take some but forgot until after we had eaten. Oh yes, and I also managed to burn my finger on the oven rack when I was putting the souflee in. So I ate dinner with my finger either wrapped up in a wet paper towel or dipped in a glass of cold water. All in all, a great evening.

New Chapter

I apologize for the nearly three months of silence. I just haven’t been inspired to write. Partly because nothing exciting (or unexciting, for that matter) was happening in my life. I was attending class, perpetually doing the dishes (I miss having a dishwasher), watching up to two hours of Home Improvement reruns daily, getting rejected by potential employers, and calling my Mom everyday. But now something is happening in my life. I’m moving  back to Oklahoma. The first time I entertained this idea as a serious possibility was on the drive from Jackson to Bartlesville after my Grandpa’s funeral. It made me feel sad and depressed – like I had somehow failed to realize a life-long dream. But I’ve had several weeks to get used to the idea and now I’m excited about it. I get to go back to place where I already have deep and meaningful relationships (the past year has been a bit lonely  - as illustrated by the fact that I call my Mom daily), I’ll have a job (I miss working), and I’m going to buy a house (another life-long dream of mine which I would have NEVER been able to achieve in New York).

So now I just have to get through the move. I hate moving. Penny (my cat) hates moving. It’s just so much work. I’m leaving New York at the end of May. Heather is coming to visit me in a few days and we’re going to have an incredibly busy six days. It will be a nice change of pace. Then I’m flying back to Oklahoma to attend a wedding, visit with my sister who will be in town, finalize job stuff, and go house hunting. Wish me luck on the house hunt. There isn’t a whole lot on the market right now that I like. Let’s hope that changes in the next month. I’m also bringing Penny with me when I fly. This will spare us from having to drive back to Oklahoma with her. Which wouldn’t be fun for anyone. 

I’m still not sure if I’m closing the New York chapter of my life, or simply putting a bookmark in it. I’ve begun to realize that planning the future is somewhat futile. It seems that when I  make plans, they never turn out the way I intended. But sometimes the unexpected thing is so much better than the thing that I planned and thought that I wanted.

My trip to the United Nations.

On Thursday I went to a panel discussion of human trafficking at the United Nations. It was rather thrilling. I loved being at the UN. The panel discussion was interesting, but really, I just liked being at the UN. To me the UN represents the hope of peace. The idea that communication is better than bombs. I understand that not all countries are willing to talk, some just want to start wars. But I think that a lot of conflict can be avoided with communication. I know that on a individual level, issues are resolved more quickly and less painfully if it is talked about early on, instead of being allowed to fester. Once resentment and anger are built up, it is difficult to tear them down. Unfortunately, our global conflicts are not over simple issues. Most of the time they are the result of a lot of history and a lot of wrong doing (on both sides). 

Below is a list of some interesting facts I learned on Thursday.

79% of human trafficking is sexual exploitation. The rest is forced labor and domestic servitude.

1/3 of countries belonging to the UN have no legislation against human trafficking.

A high percentage of perpetrators of human trafficking are women. A high percentage of those women used to be victims.

Minors (under 18 ) compose 20% of the victims of human trafficking.

A high number of those enslaved are enslaved in their country of birth. Some are exported, but many are not.

The 13 million (or 24 million, the numbers vary)  people being trafficked are the smallest percentage of the global population to be enslaved in history. So this is actually a ray of hope. The numbers are reducing. 

The average cost of rehabilitating a victim is between 400 and 600 dollars. Most are enslaved in poor countries where the cost is low. In India it costs 150 dollars to rehabilitate a victim. In America, it costs 30,000 dollars. 

America is responsible for 50% of the world’s child pornography. 

17,000 trafficked people enter America each year. 

I will leave you with a quote used by one of the speakers. “If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.”  Abraham Lincoln.

This feels a little too relevant.