sunflowers are my favorite.

what was waiting for me when i got home today:


and how they look now:


henry's the sweetest. :)

yum.

so one of my hobbies i've spent more time on over the past few weeks is cooking. it definitely has something to do with watching too much food network. it is also probably related to me and henry's attempts at saving money.

here's my latest creation: pico de gallo. i left out the jalapenos, but served it with shredded pepper jack cheese on chicken tacos, so it still had a great kick. oh man, just looking at this picture i can smell the cilantro. also good with $2 santitas chips from the western across the street. nomnomnom.

'we are all on drugs.' -weezer

i've been feeling incredibly energetic recently. i have no doubt that this has all to do with my recently stopping migraine prophylaxis medication. luckily, i have had few migraines this summer and have come off the twice daily regime with my "if i get one" medicine on standby. i can't explain the difference this makes other than to say: i played tennis for an hour and a half with my dad and henry two nights ago, and today i was able to jog 2 miles without tiring too badly. i haven't done either of these activities since before i started the migraine prophylaxis a year and a half ago.

i've been grappling with this whole situation - especially in light of the fact that i'm about to hit the clinic and start prescribing this sort of stuff to people. it's troubling. the migraine prophylaxis that i took wasn't 100%, but it did decrease frequency -- and trust me, decreasing the frequency of migraines is worth millions to those who get them. even so, on this medicine in those migraine-free intervals, i was too exhausted to work out. it's a give-and-take, i guess. prescriptions seem magical to people ("just take this pill, and you'll be better!"), but they don't come without side effects. antibiotics, some of our most "magical" of drugs, can cause GI upset, oral contraceptives to be dysfunctional, and bacteria to become resistant (among other things).

don't get me wrong: drugs rock! they are just entirely more complicated than we all realize. i'm glad (being on this side of it) that i've had some personal experience, and i hope that this will make me a better doctor. maybe i'll be a little less quick to pull out the prescription pad? here's hoping!

food of the gods

one of the best things we discovered in NYC:



pinkberry. i am fairly certain this is the best frozen yogurt EVER. thanks to henry's cousin wendy for introducing us.

caught in a fob mob

in NYC. loving it. it'd be a little hard to get used to all these groups of tourists (i suppose this includes me this week) running around the streets all the time if you lived here, but man, it would be worth it.

my feet are throbbing, and i'm a bit more sunburned than i expected, but my first tastes of the city have been delightful. had delicious, fresh pizza last night at a hole in the wall italian place and explored rockefeller center and 5th ave. went ALL over the place today, include up and down the east and hudson rivers. had an awesome dinner at fusia, before meeting up with some of henry's friends from college for dessert at kyotofu -- both places come highly recommended after eating there.

looking forward to a few more days of city life!

all at once.

a realization about myself this weekend: it's not 'unlovable' people that i have a hard time loving, it's people who act like they are worth more than those 'unlovables' that i have an incredibly hard time loving.

every christian church reminds you through message, song, etc: Jesus was born, died, and rose on the 3rd day. and He did. but in between there - for so much more time than any of those three bookends in His life - Jesus lived. and what did he do? it's probably pretty important for us to look at this when we claim to 'follow Christ' and 'live like Christ.' it's so convenient that we focus so entirely on the things that He did for us that we could never emulate.

i guarantee you Jesus didn't pick out which people were 'safe' to hang out with. he didn't come to tell us which sins were 'less bad' than others. he definitely didn't give us a license to judge our neighbors and treat them according to our judgment of them. i'm pretty sure Jesus came to love everyone and show us how to do this. why do so many Christians agree that this means shielding our children from the world and their neighbors? from keeping 'a meth head' far away from us? why do so many Christians agree that the 'high moral ground' we ascribe to not only sets us apart - but sets us above? it doesn't. as we've found out so many times from leaders, pastors, marriages - we are all filthy sinners at the end of the day. how dare we pretend we're better even in small ways? it's not until we figure this out that we can really, truly love.

i pose these questions because they are important. thinking for ourselves is important. actually following Jesus' example is important. how does this get so lost so often?

and when the darkness comes, i lie awake
playing lost and found
and all at once, i break my silence
all at once, there's no more hiding
and all he wants is to show us how he feels
.pete yorn.