More Summer Projects

Did I mention that I'm one of the AMSA community/environmental health grassroots coordinators this year? I am!! It sounds like an important title, and in some sense it is, I suppose, but not as titles go. I'm just happy to have some kind of support and example and community learning to be the kind of doctor I want to be. To that end, I've been kicking around ideas that I might want to head up for my personal project this year, trying to find synergy between things I've done, read, known, like, believe in.

I also need to get off my sorry ass and start volunteering again, and find some docs to shadow. To THAT end, I filled out an application at a network of community clinics here in western Washington (I wish they were east of the Cascades, but oh well) thinking that even if I was doing shitwork in the front office at least I would be getting to see how such a clinic works, how care is delivered, etc. I might even be able to sweet-talk some shadowing. I lagged on getting my PPD test sent off though, and by the time I did all the local positions were filled. However, whatever passes for Providence these days smiled on me--the first suggestion of the volunteer coordinator turns out to be the most awesome. Turns out the Marysville clinic has a small garden behind the building that has fallen into some disrepair, and the new chronic care coordinator and health educator think it would be a peachy idea to revamp it and make it into the community-building, health teaching tool powerhouse it was meant to be, and I quite agree. So that's what I get to do, can you believe it? I get to spend my summer working in a garden for an enormous amount of good, AND I get to make friends with a lot of people who can help me implement a similar sort of project in Ellensburg next year after I move.

Also, I get to serve on the National Primary Care Week planning committee this summer. Shut up, I'm not bragging! I'm just stoked is all.

If you had told me even 2 years ago that this is what my life would look like and this is the kind of potential future I was looking at, I'd have sighed and said if only. Sometimes I really can't believe how lucky I am, to have this chance to become what I might have been.

Friday Summer Freedom Edition

You guys! Finals are finally over. W00t!! I still can't believe that I just took a full year of o-chem, and not only that it was fantastic and I'm in love with it and I CAN'T WAIT for biochem. Also, calculus--so fun! I learned this week that I am only 2 classes plus linear algebra short of a math minor, so there's that. I am, however, a little burned out, so a break from nerd studies is good.

No time for cooking this week, subsisting on salads and toast and oatmeal. And coffee. Lots and lots and lots of coffee! So I'll start the CSA stuff for realz this week, and maybe I'll even have pictures. The weather continues to be cold and mostly kind of crappy, considering it's the middle of June even for out here. We're hopeful but not super optimistic for the garden, although it looks good so far...

I am also finally getting off my ass and learning how to brew. Sunday will be my first foray. We are using James' recipe for a Mutant Blonde--hefeweizen malt, ale yeast and Cascade hops. There will definitely be a post about that. Also, my fantastic calculus prof is also an avid brewer, and started the local club here in B'ham. There are meetings and tastings all the time, so I'm excited to cram as many in as I can before I head east in September. I hear Yakima and Leavenworth both have clubs, so we'll see what happens. The best part of all is that my new bio dept offers a certificate program in craft brewing--my genetics prof is teaching one of the classes. I'm at least 7 different kind of excited about that, as this is something I've wanted to learn how to do for about 20 years now.

OMG CSA!!

Finally! I thought this time of year would never get here. CSA blogging posts forthcoming! CSA's are awesome, you guys. They are an amazing bargain AND you get to support local agriculture, and trying to figure out ways to use what you get every/other week is a super fun and sometimes challenging game--WAY more fun than just shopping for what you want at the farmer's market, which is ok too I guess. Every bin is a surprise, and you may have weird stuff you have no idea how to cook or you may have a ton of something that requires some creativity to come up with different ways to use it all up before it spoils. Last year I discovered gratins, refrigerator pickles, kale/collard/beet chips, veggie burgers and ways to use winter squash so that even I can stand it (not a huge winter squash fan! I wish I were, because it is so beautiful and bright when the weather really starts sucking around here).

So far, the low-hanging "fruit": a gigantic salad with beet greens from the bin, and mustard/collards from the garden, and lettuce and bell peppers from the store and half the cucumber got made into a mint raita that will probably go over some lentil patties or dress some bean/grain salad.

What are you guys doing for food this summer?

Becoming a Mol Bio Nerd For Realz

It's true. I'm off to CWU in September--w00t!