If, Then...

If I can't see you, then you can't see me.

And yes, I am laying on your clothes.

Photo of the day

An imessage conversation between Jo and me the other day.  I think it should be added to the lexicon!

Southern Empire

Since I've been in Atlanta, I've been wanting to try Empire State South, one of Hugh Acheson's restaurants.  My friend, Jo has been raving about their breakfast for about a year now, so we went for Sunday brunch yesterday.  And despite the fact that it's been awhile since I've been to church, it was close to a religious experience....

PS - if anyone knows what this font is, I need it now!  

We started with coffee, since medical school has made me an addict.  I had a plain ol' cup of Joe and Jo got a mocha.  It tasted like hot chocolate, which in my opinion is exactly how a mocha should taste - delicioso!

Jo got pimento cheese with bacon marmalade, plus toast and a biscuit.  Just heaven.  If you haven't had true southern pimento cheese you are missing out.  And despite the fact that I usually don't eat bacon I just couldn't avoid it and it was worth it...

I got a mixed lettuces salad that was interesting and delicious.  It had a pickled egg, radish, pickled cauliflower, housemade goat cheese and a pecan vinaigrette.  Yum!  The purple egg and yellow cauliflower were gorgeous and it all went together perfectly!  Why can't I make fancy salads like this at home?

 

They even have a bocce court - if you want to be totally hipster!  Or you can be hipster my simply taking instagram photos of the bocce court...

They had a great deal for dessert called a Goodie Plate.  3 desserts from their illustrious pastry bar for $5.  So we took them home and devoured them straight away.  Our choices were the Phatty Cake - two soft ginger cookies with vanilla mascarpone cream in the center,

a mini blueberry pie,

and a strawberry cupcake with vanilla cream.

I think if all this med school stuff backfires, I've definitely found my calling as a pastry chef - or maybe a pastry critic!  But then I'd also have to pursue becoming a professional runner so I didn't inflate to 500 lbs.

This is definitely what I love about this cross-country journey.  Finding great little spots and eating my heart out.  Again, I'm also finding great running routes so I can still fit into my white coat...  Off to run 2.5 miles!  And then eat some more...

Home

The best original American Idol song ever....by far. 

Apparently Phillip isn't a huge fan of the song and would have preferred to performed his own original work for the finale, but I think it's the major reason he won.  Somehow Jimmy Iovine always wins in the end...

Day of rest? I don't think so.

So I decided to get a mud bath today.  Not really, but that's how it ended up!  Since I'm in Atlanta this month, I planned on coming home to Charlotte to run the Warrior Dash with my friend Jenn and her friends Heidi and Maggie.  I did one last year, but I don't remember it being this intense.  Above is how we looked afterwards, but look how pristine we were beforehand.

 It's a 5k race with 14 obstacles along the course:  11 of which I can remember... (apparently I've blacked out the other 3 because they were so terrible)
1. Climb over 15' rope wall
2. Mud pit (I kept falling and falling and falling, it was awful)
3. Balance beam
4. Climb over abandoned cars
5. Up and over cargo nets
6. Climb  another 15' rope wall, then slide down a stripper pole (no joke, this was the scariest, by far)
7. Swim through muddy pond
8. Slip 'n slide
9. Climb 15' rock wall
10. Jump over fire
11. Mud pit and crawling under barbed wire.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was barbed wire until I grabbed it with my hand - oops.  Hope there's no flesh eating bacteria in the water.

Yuck.

But all in all it was a really fun day!  I came home and took a long bath and still had to scrub and scrub to get all the dirt off!  And then I took a nap...

What race should I do next?  Preferably one that doesn't include mud.  Or barbed wire.

Mmmmm....

My dad always says, "A day without red sauce is like a day without sunshine."  So what did I do when I couldn't be with my mom on Mother's Day?  I made the simplest, most wonderful marinara sauce.  And then threw in some linguine, shrimp and clams and made a nice seafood dish for my roommate's mom on Mother's Day.

Simple Marinara
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large cans San Marzano tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the garlic in the olive oil
2. Crush the tomatoes in your hands and add it to the garlic.
3. Bring to a bubbly boil and let it simmer til you're ready.
4. Season with salt and pepper, maybe some oregano or basil.

et voila!

And we're off....

My sweet friend Jo flew down to Florida on Thursday and helped me pack up everything I'll need for the next year and drive it back up to Atlanta!  She is absolutely the best friend you could ask for.  We packed my tiny car to the gills, and even had to leave a few things behind for a friend to bring up later, but we managed to squeeze in this little nugget...

She was less than thrilled, but did well in the car.  Now she has to survive 5 days in the house with a dog and two other cats before she goes to live with my parents (and their 4 cats) for the rest of the year.  Poor baby!

I start work tomorrow at a new clinic and can't wait to see what this month has in store for me.