i heart vermont

this one above was actually taken from our back-to-back hike the next day.  

we are hiking more lately to build up for an epic hike we are planning*

we decided to take off our yak tracks and RUN down the mountain

slipping, sliding, giggling

and surprising some un-suspecting snow-shoeing teenagers

*this epic hike may or may not involve us heading to the Himalayas for a month right after match 

well done, vermont. well done. 

those are mint chocolate covered malt balls you're seeing right there. yup, you heard correctly.

most. amazing. chocolate. ever.

Happy Valentines Day!

the manfriend surprised me with a snowy hike up to a wooden cabin with wine and chocolate 

followed by a delicious mac n' cheese dinner

what more could a girl ask for? :)

~~~~~~

"hello black bird/ hello starling 

winter's over/ be my darling!"

- Josh Ritter

Winter Playlist: Fragile

A mix for snowy hikes up mountains and sipping coffee while watching the snow fall.

Fragile

1- Janglin (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros)
2 -Up, Up, Up (Givers)

3 - I Found You (Alabama Shakes)

4 - The Lengths/Howlin for You (The Black Keys)

5 - Minha Galera (Manu Chao)

6 -  Snow is Gone (Josh Ritter)

7 - Don't Let Me Down (Dr. Dog)

8 - Rise to the Sun (Alabama Shakes)

9 - Let It Be Me (Ray Lamontagne)

10 - Stay (Dave Matthews Band)

11 - Sparks Fly (Taylor Swift)

12 - I Will Wait (Mumford and Sons)

13 - A Thousand Years (Christina Perri)
14 - 100 days/100 nights (Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings)
15 - Bridge Over Troubled Water (Johnny Cash)
16 - Afro Blue (Erykah Badu)
17 - Snow Flake - (Katie Bush)
18 - Turn Me On - (Norah Jones)

citizenship

"As Americans, we all share the same proud title: we are citizens."

- Obama, State of the Union 2013

 

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to "be a good citizen".

Particularly when I get really busy, I think I tend to be less of a "good citizen", but it's something I believe very strongly in (thank you parents, grandparents, friends!) and always feel better when I'm more engaged in my citizenship.
 

What does being a good citizen mean to you?

 

I'm still brainstorming, but what it means to me is:

 

(1) be kind.
it's simple but the most important thing

to take care of each other
 

(2)  be curious.

learn about the issues that affect you,
from many (not just both) sides

(3) be the democracy.
do something about it.
write. lobby. discuss. vote.

 

 

Poetry Tuesday:

Bringing back the Poetry Tuesday!

 a good friend lent me one of her favorite poetry books, Wistawa Szymborska, Poems New and Collected.  I just opened it up to a random page today and found this gem for you:

In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself

The buzzard never says it is to blame
the panther wouldn't know what scruples mean.
When the piranha strikes, it feels no shame.
If snakes had hands, they'd claim their hands were clean.

A jackel doesn't understand remorse.
Lions and lice don't waver in their course.
Why should they, when they know they're right?

Though hearts of killer whales may weigh a ton,
in every other way they're light.

On this third planet of the sun
among the signs of bestiality
a clear conscience is Number One.

searching for a stable marriage

Over new years, a bunch of my closest friends came to visit.

And as we do, we caught each other up about the goings on of our lives.

I was telling one of my mathematician friends about interviewing for Residency.

As I took a deep breath before launching into what had become my "elevator talk" of how the Matching process works, she said to me, oh I know how that works.  It's a well-known mathematical theorem for which Gale won the Nobel Prize.  

But in math, it's called "The Stable Marriage Problem"

Curious.

She explained it simply and eloquently to me at the time, but I have since been shown the following video which breaks it down on a chalkboard (!!)

even to the point of explaining how matching as a couple is a little bit "off algorithm".

as someone whose life course will be forever changed by this algorithm, I figured I best at least try to understand it.  If you don't have the luxury of talking with brilliant friends who are mathematicians, check out the video below.  

(it's fascinating even if you are not interested in math or residency)

the central theorems she reviews in this video are:

0. this algorithm terminates (as in, stable marriages are possible for everyone!)

1. the marriages are stable (meaning, no one would rather have someone else who would also rather have them)

2. all men ("applicants") are simultaneously matched to their best mate

3. all women ("programs") are matched to their worst mate (but it's still a match, and that doesn't mean it's not also their first choice)

shake

Last night, my friend Krista and I finally went to a Jivamukti yoga class.  If you've never heard of this kind of yoga, you're not alone. The instructor at our class described it as the "wild child" of yoga - focused on using readings, meditation, chanting, and flow poses to help you let go of your tight grip on yourself.  Apparently there's a theme every month created by the couple who started Jivamukti yoga, and this months theme is SHAKE.  

as in, shake it off and shake it out.  

which actually is pretty much exactly what I need right now.

we chanted, we flowed, and oh man did we shake.  by the end of the class, my body was humming with gentle energy and my mind felt clearer than its felt in a long time.

which brings me to February - usually one of my least favorite months, this year it is the month I've been waiting for because my whole schedule in the hospital calms down, the manfriend and I make some plans - big and small, and my whole crew comes back into town for our last few months in medical school.  So plans for February include:

1. Jivamukti yoga - and letting my inner wild child out

2. Cooking new and delicious things (just cooked delicious Indian food over the weekend, recipe to come soon!) 

3. Rock Climbing (indoors for now, it's WINTER still, people)

4. Increasing my running mileage - goals for now are anywhere between 35-40 miles/week, we'll see how that goes.

5. Making Valentines because even though this month is usually the most gray, making Valentines for my friends and family (and the manfriend) has always been something I love doing.

6. Enjoying being home!

~~~~~~

How're you doing? I said & he said we're undefeated in our appreciation of the game. That's against incredible odds, he added.

- Story People