Brooke's Blog

Alright, kids. It’s time to acknowledge the elephant in the room: I haven’t been...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:09:12 -0500

Alright, kids. It’s time to acknowledge the elephant in the room: I haven’t been blogging. I count myself as one of the thousands of ghosts of bloggers past. Second-year craziness has been, well, crazy, and the thunder cloud that is Step 1 is looming ever closer…and this blog just doesn’t make the cut right now. I know you’re heartbroken.

I WILL let you in on a little secret, and I’m only going to say it once: I’m attending the Making Things Happen intensive in Chapel Hill over Spring Break. Google it. It’s awesome, and it’s going to fire me up. I can’t wait.

I do enjoy blogging, and maybe once I get to grad school and my days/life are structured a little differently, I’ll have time do it.

Until then…

More progress! My coffee table/ottoman arrived the other day,...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:52:03 -0500

More progress! My coffee table/ottoman arrived the other day, and it makes my sofa and TV situation infinitely more comfortable. Unfortunately, tax season is approaching, so this may be the last addition for a little while.

It’s that time again. Girl Scout cookie season - or should...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:21:10 -0500

It’s that time again. Girl Scout cookie season - or should I say Girl Scout ICE CREAM season. Thin Mint ice cream is literally my favorite ice cream in the world, so I was so excited to see it in Target the other day.

However, you may notice that this ice cream is called “Mint Cookie.” I’m convinced Edy’s and the Girl Scouts had a falling out, but as long as they keep making it, I don’t care. I went through my first carton in 3 days, I think. I cannot stop eating it. I literally think I could eat the entire thing in one sitting.

Clearly having one carton in the freezer at a time isn’t enough, so I stocked up with a couple half gallons the other day when I was in the Target neighborhood. We’ll see how long it lasts.

What can’t you stop eating these days?

Look! My kitchen table isn’t on a moving pad anymore!...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:42:08 -0500

Look! My kitchen table isn’t on a moving pad anymore! I’m so excited. I’ve got a couple of other things that I’m planning on ordering this week - progress! I’m feeling productive in 2013…well, in one area.

Thunder snowstorm Iago in all its glory. All I wanted was a 2...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:01:21 -0500

Thunder snowstorm Iago in all its glory. All I wanted was a 2 hour delay. Did I get it? Nope.

Black Squid Ink Pasta

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:54:30 -0500

I don’t think I came home from Italy with a single souvenir for myself, but I did come home with a few consumable items. One was black squid ink pasta, which I had never heard of before our trip. Apparently it’s a Venetian specialty! Who knew?

Matt prepared this awesome sauce with butter, olive oil, and garlic, and we sauteed shrimp and threw those in there, too. It was DELICIOUS.

Anybody ever tried black squid ink pasta?

Italy Day 5: Rome Day 4

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:16:49 -0500

Well, I guess it’s time to finish up my Italy recap with our last day in Rome. We started our morning with the tour guide who gave us a van tour of the city a few days before. We started by exploring Roman ruins - it’s hard to believe how old they are!

We then went to Basilica San Clemente, which was beautiful in itself, of course, but there are THREE STORIES of ruins BENEATH the church. This was amazing and unexpected. If you’re ever in Rome, I’d highly recommend it!

We drove on the Apian Way for a little while to the Church of Domine Quo Vadis, which is roughly translated as “Lord, where are you going?”

According to legend, St. Peter was fleeing Rome and encountered Jesus on the Apian Way very close to where this church stands. It is said that St. Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, where are you going?,” hence the Church of Domine Quo Vadis. In the middle of the church, there is a copy of a set of footprints that were said to be Jesus’s footprints on the Apian Way when he spoke to St. Peter.

The Apian Way outside the church:

The original “copy” of these footprints are kept in a church down the road that we also visited - Basilica San Sebastiano fuori le mura:

We also visited St. Paul’s, one of the four papal churches in Rome:

We finished up with the Coliseum:

After visiting the Coliseum, we headed back to the airport and caught our flight to Venice, where we ended the trip by having a family movie night in the hotel by the Venice airport. What did we watch? Gladiator, of course. Appropriate, no?

Well, that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this little series of recaps. It was an awesome trip, and I can’t wait to go back!

We interrupt our scheduled programming to bring you the latest...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:13:56 -0500

We interrupt our scheduled programming to bring you the latest addition to my living room - a TV stand. Finally! I can actually start spending time downstairs! I picked up this TV stand during a spontaneous trip to Ikea on my way home from northern Virginia one day over break. I put it together all on my lonesome yesterday and today and even brought the new TV downstairs and hooked the cable up. And to think that I was going to wait until Matt got here this weekend to even take it out of the car - ha! Now, for the rest of the living room…

P.S. Do you have any idea how difficult navigating an Ikea purchase is by yourself? I do.

Italy Day 4: Rome Day 3

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:08:00 -0500

We started Sunday by going back to the Vatican for the Pope’s Sunday morning blessing. That’s him! That tiny man in the window! He said so many things in so many different languages that I actually missed when he spoke English.

We waited in line again to get into St. Peter’s. There is a dress code to get in! It wasn’t an issue in the winter, though.

We climbed to the top of the dome and had amazing views of St. Peter’s, the Vatican and the entire city of Rome! I think this was my very favorite thing we did on our entire trip. The Vatican:

Up close and personal with the dome:

The top of the dome from the inside:

Looking down in St. Peter’s from the dome:

I love this picture because it gives you an idea of the scale of the place. Each letter is 6 feet tall! (Compare these letters to the letters in the above picture.)

I think it’s amazing that all of the images in St. Peter’s are mosaics, not frescos!

View of Rome from the top of the dome:

After spending the first half of the day in the Vatican, we wandered into a square that always has a big carnival/fair/market going on - there were so many delicious-looking treats! We all shared a huge donut covered in Nutella!

Before dinner, we stopped at the Pantheon. I think this is what my dad was most excited about!

Hole in the roof of the Pantheon:

We then took a glass elevator to the top of the Monument to the Kings (below) to watch the sunset! Again, amazing views of the city!

View of the Coliseum from the top of the Monument to the Kings:

The big dome is St. Peter’s!

We got gelato not once, but twice after dinner! One of the places we stopped at has been called the best gelato in Rome - I think it was the best we had all trip! Hard to say what the best gelato in Rome is, though!

One more day in Rome to go!

Italy Day 3: Rome Day 2

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 22:44:20 -0500

On our second day in Rome, we had a tour of the Vatican planned for 1:00 pm, so we mozied (sp?) on over there in the morning, hitting the Spanish Steps on the way. The picture was taken at the top of the steps.

And this one at the bottom…duh.

Some of the streets were decorated for Christmas. At the bottom of the Spanish Steps, we walked down this one, which had tons of extremely high-end fashion stores, which were fun to look at.

Walk into a random church off the street in Rome, and you’re likely to find something like this. Nbd.

The Tiber River on our way to the Vatican:

We approach my favorite thing in all of Rome.

We met our tour guide and did a just-long-enough tour of the Vatican Museums.

The Raphael Rooms are extremely famous. Perhaps the most famous Raphael painting in the Vatican Museums is the School of Athens:

The highlight of the tour was the Sistine Chapel, which was amazing. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but here’s a picture of the outside:

We parted ways with our tour guide and waited in line for a little bit to get into St. Peter’s.

Once we got in, we saw Michelangelo’s La Pieta.

More detail on St. Peter’s tomorrow. But it’s amazing.

After touring St. Peter’s, we walked a ways to eat dinner at a restaurant that our first tour guide had recommended. Only problem was that it didn’t open for dinner until 7 pm, which, if you know me, could’ve proven a challenge for my demanding stomach. But, we killed some time sketchily sitting on a curb, and there we were, basically knocking on the door of this restaurant at 7 pm sharp.

We started by ordering what we believed to be an appetizer “sampler” - enough for two people, we said. Our waiter didn’t speak great English, and obviously we didn’t speak any Italian, so we crossed our fingers and hoped he understood. We got a little worried when he started bringing out plate after plate…after plate. We had bruschetta, two different kinds of fried artichoke, mozzarella…it just kept coming! Is this what we ordered? Is he going to charge us for all this? He kept bringing plates out and calling them “house treats.” But were they really on the house? The waiter seemed like a nice guy, but the thought definitely crossed all of our minds that we may be getting taken advantage of…

But all’s well that ends well. We were stuffed by the time we finished our appetizers, but we “suffered” through our delicious entrees and were even gifted some “house treats” for dessert. The bill ended up being a steal, considering the amount of food we all ate! We were STUFFED, but we all enjoyed have an extremely authentic Italian dinner!

Back to the Vatican tomorrow!

Italy Day 2: Rome Day 1

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:43:37 -0500

We flew to Rome on Friday morning, and we were picked up at our hotel by our tour guide. He took us on a Rome-in-an-afternoon van tour to give us a feel for the city before we explored it further. This picture was taken at the top of one of the 7 hills (I can’t remember which.) - we had an awesome view of the entire city!

We made a few stops along the way, including one at the Hippodrome, where chariot races were run in ancient times. Today, it’s a public park.

Later that night, we walked to the Trevi Fountain, which wasn’t far from our hotel.

Of course we all took turns throwing coins in the fountain. Apparently you’re supposed to throw three in over your shoulder and make three wishes!

Because we traveled in the morning, and because I was in bed falling asleep shortly after 9 pm (still jet-lagged from my travel the day before), this day was fairly brief. Don’t worry, I promise we fit a lot more in the other days we were in Rome!

2012: Year in Review

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:42:00 -0500

As of a few days ago, this lil’ blog has been alive ~~and kickin’~~ for an entire year - what? I started the blog at the end of December 2011 to encourage myself to take more pictures, and I think it achieved that goal, even though I did a poor job of compiling posts at the end of year. This blog also serves as a digital scrapbook of sorts, and I’ve actually had a lot of fun looking back at previous posts.

So, I think I’m going to keep blogging for the time being, and even if I don’t have a single reader, that’s entirely ok with me!

Enough chatting. Highlights from 2012:

January: Matt took the flying lesson I gave him for Christmas. We were all thankful to be back on the ground at the end of the hour.

February: Med school prom was followed by a 24 hour trip to Pittsburgh to celebrate Matt’s grandfather’s 80th birthday.

March: Springtime in Chapel Hill = basketball season!

April: I went home for the Monument Avenue 10k and was able to get together with good friends Sarah M., Tim, and Sarah C.!

Christian hosted Austin for a weekend in Norlina, and we were able to meet them for lunch in Durham one Saturday.

May: We celebrated my cousin Caitlin’s graduation and the wedding of Matt’s family friend Jenna. (And I caught the bouquet!)

June: We had a wonderful mini-vacation at Sarah’s lake house, and Matt and I both learned to water ski.

I moved from my apartment in a still-empty townhouse. But we’re working on that…

July: Austin and Christian visited Chapel Hill - we had a blast!

August brought Anna and Drew down to Charleston for a wedding, which meant I got to meet them for a quick lunch off 95. : ) I couldn’t believe we hadn’t seen each other in an entire year!

August also brought our 2nd MSTP Retreat as well as our fluorescent yellow team tshirts. (We didn’t actually win the relay race.)

September: I had an AWESOME time catching up with friends at the alumni oyster roast and our 5th class reunion.

October: I had a wonderful Fall Break with Matt and his mom, who were in Chapel Hill for the UNC vs. VT football game. Guess who was cheering for who?

November: My parents and I visited Amy in Venice and spent a long weekend in Rome - AMAZING!

December: A few of my very best K-12 friends and I got together at Glory Days to watch our classmate Russell Wilson lead the Seahawks to victory. All five of us were able to get together last year at Christmas, and I’m so glad we could do the same this Christmas!

I spent New Year’s Eve catching up with some of my best college friends. It was the first time we’ve all been together since graduation, and we had the best time!

In 2013, I am looking forward to putting Step 1 behind me forever (hopefully), starting grad school, and the weddings of Kelsey and Christian and Anna and Drew. It’s going to be a good year!

What was your highlight of 2012? What are you most looking forward to in 2013?

Christmastime

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 22:38:35 -0500

I owe y’all a big, long post on Italy, but because it’s Christmas Eve, I figured I’d show you what few Christmasty things I’ve been up to the past couple of weeks!

Matt’s been in charge of Toys for Tots at his work the past couple of years, so we made our 3rd annual Toys for Tots shopping trip at Walmart a couple of weeks ago. We usually spend about $20 each; I buy for the girls, and Matt buys for the boys! Here’s Matt with his favorite toy he picked out:

Can you guess whose pile is whose?

I’ve you haven’t guessed, my DIY-self is very into wreath-making now that I have a front door to decorate. (Remember my summer umbrella wreath and fall wreath?) My fall wreath was still up in the early days of December, so I had to take that wreath down REAL fast and replace it with something festive.

I found this idea on Pinterest (of course): Simply unwind a wire hanger and thread Dollar Store ornaments on it. Could it be any easier? I was a little late on the Dollar Store ornament train, so I just about bought out the store. The entire wreath cost less than $10, which makes this wreath a winner in my book.

Once I put it on the door, though, it looked a little small. So, I’m thinking I’ll consider this year a practice round and make a bigger and better wreath next year!

This is the extent of my Christmas decorations in the house. I’ve had that little artificial tree since I can remember. I’m hoping to buy an artificial tree this year and have it ready to go for Christmas 2013!

I was looking for a little candy dish and just loved this little tree I found at Walmart for $3.

Anddd that’s about it. Next year…bigger wreath, big tree, maybe some mantle decorations??? Watch out, it’s going to get crazy.

Merry Christmas Eve!

This Is How My Life Goes: From Raleigh to Venice

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:01:27 -0500

I’m getting the sense that a couple of you are interested in our Thanksgiving trip to Italy. I came back almost two weeks ago, but school has been CRAZY since I got back. Maybe missing two days of school had something to do with it. I don’t know. Anyway, let’s start at the beginning…

I should’ve known my travel plans were doomed when I got an email from Delta a while ago informing me that my itinerary had changed. Hm. I checked it out, and apparently Delta added a stop between JFK and Venice. Can airlines even do that?! Now, I was supposed to fly from JFK to Paris and then from Paris to Venice. Um, what? Did we not already pay for a nonstop flight? Oh, yes, I think we did.

Delta allowed me an oh-so-generous one hour and 15 minute layover in Paris between my flights. A little too close for comfort when it comes to international travel, if you ask me. But what could I do? I didn’t choose these flights; Delta did.

It’s Thanksgiving morning, and we land in Paris on time and proceed to taxi to the gate for at least 15 minutes. (I timed it.) One hour to go until my flight leaves. I get through immigration, which spits me out by baggage claim (completely outside any and all security), and then begin the trek to terminal F, which had to have been on the exact opposite side of the airport. I’m starting to get nervous, but eventually I get to the beginning of the security line, where one of the security guys asks me to fit my suitcase in the wire basket. No problem. Except - did you know those wire baskets are smaller in Europe than they are in the US? Me neither. So the suitcase that I always carry on any domestic flight without question is suddenly too big to carry on this flight from Paris to Venice.

I have to check it, he says. Fine. I walk 50 yards to the baggage check desk, where the lady informs me that it’s too late to check the bag; the plane leaves too soon. I tell her that Security Man says my bag is too big; what am I supposed to?! She looks at it and says go tell him it’s fine. Great. I walk briskly back to Security Man, tell him that Baggage Check Lady says it’s good to go, to which he replies that I have to bring her with me. What?!

I RUN - literally - back to Baggage Check Lady, but by this point, she’s already helping another customer. There’s a little wire basket there, too, and I desperately start trying to fit it in there so I can show Security Man what’s up and that I should be able to carry my bag on. At this point, I’m starting to panic. My bag is too big to carry on, but it’s too late to check it. What am I supposed to do?! It’s Thanksgiving Day, this is my one HALF day in Venice, and we had plans, ya’ll!

DELTA, I WILL HATE YOU FOREVER IF YOU MAKE ME MISS THIS FLIGHT.

If I do, is there another flight to Venice? How will I tell my family? They’re going to FREAK when I don’t get off the plane I’m supposed to be on.

Apparently I looked desperate enough shoving my bag in the wire basket, because another baggage check man calls me down to his desk to ask what’s up. I tell him what’s going on…and then The Best Thing in the World happens. He practically takes me by the hand and bypasses the entire security line. While I’m going through what I tell myself is the VIP security line, I tell the xray man that today is Thanksgiving in America, and this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for THIS MAN who is getting me on my plane to Venice. He then walks me to the gate, where they’re announcing last call for Venice.

I am so thankful for this man that I want to kiss him. Without him, I would’ve missed this flight, and I don’t even know what would’ve happened. We say goodbye, and the gate ladies chuckle at me as I tell them in French that that man just saved my life. Hopefully they were laughing at me in a nice way, not in a “You’re a stupid American who thinks you can speak French” kind of way. At least I tried.

I am one blink from weeping as I walk down the jetway. This is THE closest I have EVER come to missing a flight and not actually missing it. I don’t think you can get any closer. I step on the plane, and the man in the fluorescent vest who closes the door steps on right behind me. I’m worried that there won’t be a place for my bag, so I put it in the first overhead bin that I can find - which I realize later is in first class, but whatever. It is Thanksgiving. I am going to Venice. I will see my family. And one man at Charles de Gaulle airport saved my life.

Delta, you’re not off the hook yet…

TWO Fun Weekends

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:11:43 -0500

The best part about being the worst blogger ever is that you get TWO weekends of fun in ONE post. Aren’t you glad I held out on you for a couple of weeks? Last weekend was very exciting because 1) it was the first weekend in 4 weeks that I didn’t have a test the following Monday, and 2) Matt and my parents were visiting. Everybody arrived Friday night, and we kicked off the weekend with dinner at Foster’s Market. (Not Matt’s favorite. Sorry, Matt. I promise I won’t make you go there again.)

We had a very typical Chapel Hill Saturday morning - an early morning walk to the Carrboro Farmer’s Market and delicious BLTs at Merritts’s on the way to an afternoon football game. Saturday night, we had tickets to Jersey Boys at the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC). Fun facts: DPAC was built in 2008 and is currently #1 in the country in its size in “attendance ranking” and #4 in the country of ALL THEATERS in “attendance ranking.” I’d been dying to go to a show at DPAC, and Jersey Boys and parents in town were the perfect combination. : )

We finished the weekend with church on Sunday and brunch at Breadman’s. Delicious!

This past weekend was a TOTALLY free weekend, which was…amazing. On Friday night, Matt and I went to dinner with Ryan and Kelly (above) at Gugelhupf in Durham. After dinner, Ryan informed Matt that I had to come up with a way to convince Kelly that Habitat for Humanity was cancelled the next morning because he was going to PROPOSE to her! (Kelly and I are on the same MD/PhD “team” and had our community service event with Habitat on Saturday morning.) I came up with a story that Habitat accidentally double-booked us with another group and gave us the morning off. In her first-thing-in-the-morning delirium, Kelly believed me. Thank goodness. I was so nervous that she wouldn’t believe me that I barely slept Friday night. But everything went well, and Ryan and Kelly are engaged! Congrats!

Other highlights of the weekend included a churro at Costo, dinner at the Q Shack, and Argo. Have you SEEN Argo? AWESOME. LOVED it.

This is probably my last post before Thanksgiving, so I hope everyone has a great break! Safe travels, and happy Thanksgiving!

Studied in a different library earlier this week. Nothing like...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:57:53 -0500

Studied in a different library earlier this week. Nothing like being surrounded by undergrads to make you feel old! (This tells you how exciting my life is right now.)

I think it’s safe to say that the highlight of the last...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:20:51 -0500

I think it’s safe to say that the highlight of the last two weeks was being able to see family two weeks in a row! The other weekend, my cousin had a lacrosse tournament at Duke, so I spent the other Saturday morning with my aunt and uncle watching her play! She is so cute (and perpetually tan). I’m crossing my fingers that she gets a job in Chapel Hill next year and comes to live with me!

After my morning test on Monday, my aunt came down for the day just to spend the day with me! She is so sweet, and we had a fun day eating, walking around campus, and hanging out. And my parents and Matt are coming this weekend - I’m so excited! : )

Matt loves penguins and says this commercial “melts his...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:14:10 -0400

Matt loves penguins and says this commercial “melts his heart.” I tend to agree.

Happy Halloween!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:24:02 -0400

Happy Halloween, everybody! Halloween celebrations kicked off with a pumpkin carving potluck at Annie and Brenda’s house last night. I bought my pumpkin a few weeks ago at the farmer’s market, and I was a little torn whether to carve it or not. It was a pretty pumpkin and looked nice on my porch with my yellow mums and white pumpkin, and it would be fun to carve it and light it up for Halloween, but I knew the pumpkin wouldn’t last very long once I carved it…but I figured I should live a little and decided to go ahead and carve it.

Annie came over to help me pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters tonight. I was very concerned because my front porch light burned out earlier this week - perfect timing. My step ladder isn’t tall enough to reach the light fixture, and I was so worried that the house would look uninviting to trick-or-treaters if I couldn’t replace the bulb! Fortunately, there were some painters working next door, and they kindly let me use one of their ladders. I’m sure I was a sight to behold on top of this ladder trying to unscrew the light fixture and replace the bulb, but it got the job done! I ended up only having about 10 trick-or-treaters tonight, but it was so fun, and the kids were so cute.

And it finally feels like fall, y’all! I absolutely refuse to turn my heat on until I absolutely can’t stand the cold, but we’re getting a little closer to that point earlier than I expected to. It was 56 in the house this morning! It’s so hard to drag yourself out of bed when it’s pitch black outside, you’re under 5 layers of covers (the top one is a double-layered fleece blanket), and the air around you is 56 degrees. I’m actually excited to switch the clocks back this weekend.

Any good Halloween costumes this year? Please share!