What's next?

That is the question....

Astha told me to write this blog entry, so here it is.

What's next? Astha is finally done with her residency at the end of October... and so we're figuring out what our next steps are going to be. It's an exciting time, but also an anxiety-causing time. I think the anxiety is caused more by the fact that right now our life is stressful and not always fulfilling.

So, we sat yesterday and busted out the whiteboard (as you see).... listing the different 'ideas' we have of what to do next.... and what things we want to accomplish - 'priorities' - not listed in any order. After talking for a while... it was definitely nice to organize our thoughts... and to see that we have so many possibilities in front of us... but we still are figuring out what to do. We want to make the decision soon so we can start planning... looking for jobs... planning for India... whatever it is.

So, friends and family... what do you think? Obviously, the blog isn't the best medium to talk about this, but we thought if we'd put it out there... maybe that can lead to some convos.... and we can take in different perspectives.... so.. shoot us an email is you have some thoughts!

Inspire Reunion

This past weekend, Raj and I went to DC to meet a few folks from Inspire for our annual reunion. Well this is the 2nd one. There is so much to say about Inspire and the connections that have come from it. The biggest probably being I met my husband. And that it changed my life in so many ways. This retreat was so great seeing everyone. A bunch of people from my year were there - Anusha, Sneha. I love you two and it was SO GOOD catching up. Getting to spend time with Raj outside of our craziness was a blessing. And then to the rest of everyone that was there and that we got to visit - Aparna, Karthik, Bhavana, Rachit, Binny, Manks. It was a blur but so fun. And we got to talk with west coast people, Chaiti, Shane and others. We basically had a group therapy session on our current states in life. I will always be thankful to Inspire for connecting me to so many people that are willing to question their lives and ask what they want from it.

I've included a word cloud created from a post retreat email thread we had started to express gratitude for each other's company. Kind of cool. :)

What do you want from life? What makes you happy? What motivates you? All questions I think about a lot and get to explore as I go. Would love to hear from you as well.

Life Lesson: Accept the current situation without being compliant. Don't beat yourself up and it is all part of the journey. :)

Knitting Class 4

The blog is going to go under hiatus soon because I am going to be starting a month of HIV at Cook County. My life will generally be busier and all the fun things that I've gotten to do over these past two months are going to stop unfortunately. I need to prepare myself that hospital will be my main activity in life. It is always so hard to do because I look to these other things to feel somewhat of a decent/productive human being. But regardless, I think right now I just have the first day jitters of working in a new environment. I am looking forward to learning a lot this month so that is a plus.

Thought I would add a picture of my progress so far in knitting. I had missed a class last week because of the Inspire reunion so I went in and made it up on a Monday. Learned how to close in the hat, use some different needles and probably a bunch of other things. Met a bunch of cool people working on some really fun projects. Sweaters, mittens, socks..all sorts of things! :) Its only going to be one picture this time. The scarf is just longer. I started another project all by myself!! But that is a secret and can't show it until the time is right.

Life Lesson: Learn to accept small mistakes; they are insignificant in the bigger picture. (Or it could be a mistake that unravels your whole project...but that is besides the point!)

Knitting Class 3!

Will keep it mostly to pictures today. Class 3 was starting a hat!!! We learned how to use a circular needles, learned how to fix some mistakes, and learned how to read a pattern. All great skills for future projects...if I'm brave enough to venture out on my own. I bought a crochet needle this week too. My knitting supplies are increasing in number. :)

Life Lesson:
When you think you know how to do something, there's always more to learn!

Our Menu this Week!

Raj and I LOVE eating out. It is a bit of a problem. We have our favorite restaurants in each type of food specialty - thai, mexican, ethiopian, etc and basically rotate through those restaurants. Occasionally we will try some new places but for the most part we stick with what we like. BUT in all this eating out, I know I can't control myself and totally end up overeating and being unhealthy. Then I feel gross and so on. The week of Thanksgiving, I swear we ate out almost everyday. I told Raj that if he wants to continue eating out he can, but I need to stop. Sometimes with both our crazy lives, it is so much easier at the end of the day to just go out and grab some food. But, I know I like cooking and feel better when I do it...it just takes so much more effort.

When I told Raj he would have to eat out alone, he suggested we make a menu for the week so we stick to only eating out 1-2 times rather than 4-5. So we did and for the most part we've stuck to it!! Not sure if cooking the Mexican food is going to happen cause we still have a lot of leftovers and I'm tired. It felt really good to cook and eat yummy food. Having some of my mom's food helped with the quantity as well. And raj did this mega grocery run that was so helpful because it meant I had everything prior to cooking.

The menu included some leftovers from Thanksgiving (chole - a chickpea dish and daal makhni, a lentil dish). The stuff I made was some of my famous tortilla soup,(this dish is my specialty made just right everytime) a bean salad that Ekta has given me the recipe for and some of Astha's pasta. If anyone wants recipes, let me know. And if anyone has more recipes to share...please do because I feel like I want to try something new for next week. One more thought..we have been trying to reduce our use of processed, canned goods over time. It comes from many reasons...the extra garbage created, the extra additives and preservatives, the amount it travels to get made, etc. This week's experiment was I made my own black beans and didn't use the can! I soaked them and used the pressure cooker and it was perfect. You could argue the bagged black beans are still traveling and a whole bunch of other things. We know its not perfect but constant baby steps! :) The tortilla soup used to use so many canned ingredients but now the only remaining are crushed tomatoes, a can of corn and the vegetarian stock used for the base of the soup. If anyone has any ideas to replace these, it would be much appreciated!

Life Lesson: Appreciate your incredible mothers and fathers who cook, because this daily cooking stuff is hard work!