Thinking Out Loud #88

Happy Thinking Out Loud Thursday! How’s your week going? Mine is crazy. So much for not being busy – I got slammed suddenly this week. It’ll all be over tomorrow, but I’ve been running around everywhere. But, hey, I’ll take it. I show up to the busy stuff, just as to the self-care stuff – and sometimes that’s even easier. So, before I head back to being busy, let’s talk about what’s going on in my life and mind this week.

1.) My weekend adventures included going to the Lincoln Park Zoo and walking to True Food Kitchen.

Notice the back giraffe sticking his tongue out at the other one. I love them.

I was going to also go shopping and eat somewhere new, but I was tired. P.S. Lincoln Park Zoo is free and kinda lame, but I got to see some cute animals, which was really all I wanted.

2.) When I started to get pain in my ankle, I had my parents send me my walking boot from December. The address label had my name wrong. Still made it here, fortunately. 😉

And then I was silly and decided to wear my boot around on Saturday because I thought it would protect the ankle. It actually made walking harder and pretty painful. Not my best decision. It did make several people stop and talk to me, though. (“Your boots don’t match.” “That doesn’t look fun.”)

3.) And then on Sunday I vide0-called a bunch of my high school friends for a couple hours.

Perfect procrastination from my work.

4.) Monday, I was ALL over the place. I went to morning yoga, baked some s’mores brownies for Susie, turned in some study abroad stuff, went downtown to get fingerprinted for my summer internship, went to the library to meet a friend and go over our problem set, finished Tuesday’s blog post, and then went to dinner with Susie.

5.) We went to Roti and caught up and it was amazing and everything I needed. And they truly have the best pita I’ve had. If you know of better, please send me some. I’m always accepting bread donations. 😉

6.) My headspace on Tuesday was not good. It was a day of chocolate and copious amounts of sugar and frustration because I was desperately trying to edit an essay that I disagree with (my own) and it was bad. It was badly written and a bad argument and just all kinds of bad. 

The full story is that the base of my sports econ teacher’s work is that you should pay college athletes. A very high-level overview of that argument:

• They put in a ton of time (so they can’t work through school).
• Many of them come from disadvantaged backgrounds and it’s taking advantage of them to put them to work and not pay them.
• Coaches are paid so much and facilities are so fancy and updated so often that some of that could reasonably go to the players.

The assignment is to argue that they should not be paid, and it’s hard to know what on Earth he wants given that he disagrees with the thesis. Also, I can no longer spell the word “athlete” properly on the first try because I’ve typed it so many times.

7.) Said paper is getting better. I also might be lowering my standards. We will never know. That’s a lie; we’ll know when I get a grade for it.

8.) Yesterday, I had a very annoying meeting with the study abroad director. She said she was confused about my health issues (because we have to fill out health history forms before going abroad). Aren’t we all? So, I agreed to meet with her and instead of wanting to know anything about my health history, she wanted to:

• Remind me to bring my medication with me.
• Suggest that I not do anything to exacerbate my problems while abroad.
• Tell me that there are doctors in Paris if I need to see them.
• Imply that maybe I should rethink the study abroad thing. 

The meeting lasted maybe 5 minutes and I think I spent at least an hour ranting about it to various people throughout the day.

It probably seems harmless if you don’t have health issues. However, if you have chronic conditions, you know that they can affect everything and you don’t want them to get worse or interfere with regular life if you can help it. So, you don’t forget your meds because that could ruin everything. You’re careful with pretty much everything you do… just in case. You research doctors (already did that). And you question a lot of your decisions because they might be the wrong ones. I’ve thought it through, and it might be hard, but I’m good with my choice.

9.) I came home and seared a steak with sautéed kale and mushrooms for lunch. It made me feel a little bit better.

10.) And now I want to leave you with some of my favorite recipes + reads from the week.

• For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. –> Asparagus Frittata with Spicy Sausage and Leeks
• Banana pancakes in a blender. –> Cottage Cheese Oatmeal Banana Pancakes
• Happening this summer for sure. –> Green Goddess Salmon Burgers
• Slow down to see results. –> Beginners: Are You Working Out Too Much?
• Stop the food shaming. –> I Drank Unicorn Frappucinos for a Week and Here’s What Happened

Your turn:

What’s your go-to lunch?

Anything else I should know?