10 Steps: How to Properly Celebrate Post-Test

1. Take test.

2. Go to a convenience store that doesn't look like it would even have a grill in it.

3. Make sure it's a place that looks like even if it did have a grill in it, you definitely shouldn't order food from it, unless you want a one-way ticket straight to foodpoisoningville.

4. Order the Sizzler.
Voted "Best Burger" by Food Network.

Us: So what's on the Sizzler?
Guy: Everything.
Us: What do you mean by everything?
Guy: Everything you could possibly imagine.

Done!

5. Admire the grease.

6. The Sizzler

7. So we think "everything you can possibly imagine" includes:

1/2 pound of burger with tons of montreal steak seasoning
2 types of cheese
bacon
lettuce
tomato
onion
pickle
mustard
mayo
ketchup

He was pretty much right.
And so was the Food Network.
It was a magical concoction that was even more delicious than the sum of its parts.

8. In a food coma, enjoy the awesome hair cuts and hilarious special effects from The Terminator (circa 1984) and play Dr. Mario on a Nintendo (also circa 1984).
(I sincerely hope my actual doctor skills are better than my Dr. Mario skills...)

9. Go home. Pack. Clean.
Then meet your friends for wine & cheese tasting!

10. Get on a plane and fly home for Thanksgiving!
Yay Thanksgiving!

Douchebags are a risk factor.

It's late.
I'm a little slap happy.
I'm still studying.
And this is an actual slide that I am studying.
Which is made all the more hilarious by the following story.
[Note: Pelvic Inflammatory Disease is caused by things such as STI's]


Fellow med student: So, I just found out what douching is.

Me: Really?

Fellow med student: Yeah, I had to wikipedia it after this slide.

Me: Wait, so like 'douchebag'...you didn't know what that meant?

Fellow med student: No, I had no idea where that came from.

Me: Ha, amazing. So what did you think this slide meant?

Fellow med student: Yeah, well I thought it was really crude of them to write that hanging out with douchebags was a risk factor for getting STI's, I mean, valid, but kind of inappropriate.



Ok, back to studying syphilis!

My tree.

Someone came over the weekend and swept away the rest of the leaves from my yard,
and the temperature keeps dipping down to the 20's,
so I guess fall is really over.

This is the maple tree in my yard
throughout September and October
for those of you who don't get a New England fall.

I'll let you know when there's snow on it!

Boston.

I last minute decided to jump in the car with my friend Erica on her trip to Boston on Friday.
She was driving her visiting parents down to see her sister
and then to catch a flight to London with her dad's parents.

Her parents drove.
We sat in the back and told them about our day at school.
Then fell asleep.
It felt so luxurious to have parents around and taking care of us.

I went to an amazing dinner with her family at Ole,
a Mexican place with the fish tacos I've ever had. Ever.

Then went to her sister Grace's and joined the year 2010 by finally watching
MadMen.

I forgot to take pictures of all of these parts.
But let me tell you,
It was super to go to bed at 11pm on a Friday night!

In the morning we went to get sticky buns and lattes at Flour.
And I remembered I had a camera.

Then met up with my friend Hanna for second breakfast, just like the good hobbits we are.
Hanna and I worked together in an architecture firm in NYC.
Hanna is actually an architect.
I am not.
In fact, she is currently getting her Masters in Architecture.
At Harvard.
No biggie.
She is beautiful, hilarious, conscientious, fun, and talented.
And wears pink well.
It was so good to see her!

Beautiful.

There is a train there.
And you best believe we got on it.

And it took us to the house Erica's mother grew up in.
And her grandfather gave me a wonderful tour of what he kept referring to as his "magic house" because it was filled with so many family memories.
I love that.
And then he showed us these amazing scrapbooks his wife had created of their travels.

I don't know if you can read it, but there are inside jokes and parts that say "Lost!!" on this map.
So good.

This is the wonderful Pasciullo-Hubley clan.
Erica's parents, two engaging, caring, brilliant lawyers.
Grace, her beautiful sister (who is a wonderful hostess!).
Her father's parents who, no joke, took a bus traveling 26 hours to go to the Rally for Sanity in DC! I'm not even half as cool or engaged as them.
And her mother's father, the tour guide to the "magic" house, who had golfed in St. Andrews ("Beautiful town") and written 2 books!

I think jumping in that car to Boston was a good idea.


Then, when we got back, these guys had prepared a Mexican feast.
And we ate it.
And made mustache faces!
And then watched Harry Potter VI in preparation for this Friday(!!!!)

Sunday night, we had girls night with...
wine & cheese & roast chicken & roasted root veggies & cookies & flourless chocolate torte.
And some awesomely inspirational women who are going to be doctors.

Some of them are single, gentlemen.
Just sayin'.

-----------------------------------------------------
"Treat your family like friends and your friends like family.
-Proverb

October Highlights!

Prepare for an onslaught of photo happiness!
I realize we're WELL into November, but it took me a while to download so.many.photos!

We kicked off October with a party.
Like a college party.
With a keg.
And flip cup.
And a late-night dance party.
Clearly we do not do this often.
It was fun.

These ladies wore this to the party. So I guess it was a little more chill than a college party.

The boys stepped it up. Matt wore his wolf shirt. Big night.

[Me picking up a new first year friend to drive him to the party.]
P: Oh, is it the theme party??
[pause]
Me: Ha, no. This is just what I wear on a Friday night.
[pause]
Me: Wait, what would the theme be??
P: I don't know...Ke$ha?
Ouch.

Dance party finest.

Best thing to do the day after a party?
Go to a Ciderfest!

Incredible Farmhouse burgers.
Unlimited cider samples.

Hayrides!

Did you see the sky today. Talk about blue!
(Bonus points for naming that movie)

Unlimited pie samples!

It was a gorgeous day, so we hung out in the orchards for a while.

We leapfroged.

Lounged. In apple trees. Don't be jealous.
Ok, you can be jealous.

Dangled.

Pie + overalls + oversized tires. So happy!

To round out an all-star weekend, we went on a sunrise hike!
This entailed waking up at...

3:15am.
Not a typo.

These were the smart ones with functional headlamps.
Those of us without light walked in between these generous light-sharers.

We hiked Hunger Mountain, which was about an hour and half up with an awesome rock scramble up the last part.

And when we got to the top we saw
THIS!!!!

For some reason, I really wasn't prepared for how strikingly beautiful it would be.
Oh, and cold. Very cold. So we huddled.

"...and I thought
how the sun

blazes

for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire."
Mary Oliver

Banzai!
Welcoming the sun.

It was so worth waking up at 3am.

Post-hike. Pre-amazing, post-hike breakfast!

Then this girl had a birthday with the best theme ever:
Glam + Potluck of her favorite foods

Luckily for us her favorite foods include bacon wrapped scallops, fettuccine alfredo, and ribs.

And this was the weekend Matt was in town!
We so glam.

We so glam, at karaoke!

That's right.

The Giant Pumpkin Regatta!

Where people race in Lake Champlain in giant hollowed out pumpkins.
In other words, amazingnessrightbeforeyoureyes.
Can you spot the dragon and viking lady?!?!

Puff the magic dragon takes an early lead.

A battle starts mid-race.

The new objective: tackle other people out of their pumpkins.

Objective accomplished!

So many great party themes in October.
This beauty:
Mix viewing Madonna's Immaculate Collection DVD
+
Dressing up as a Madonna in one of the videos
+
Some fun, hilarious women
=
Awesome.

Erica's Birthday celebration!
We sent her on a scavenger hunt around town to find her present (a guitar!),
Followed by a Southern potluck dinner.

Fried okra via chopsticks!

Sampling aaaaaaamazing jalapeno, goat cheese hush puppies!

Mint iced tea in mason jars.

Pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, creamed corn, cajun fettuccine alfredo, veggie gumbo...delicious.

Imaginary double dutch. Always a crowd pleaser!

Pasciullo sisters know what's up!

Amazing women from all points of the birthday girl's life...sister, high school, college, med school...

After the party, I crawled into bed with my friend Annie and woke up 2 hours later at 4:30am to my alarm.
Annie: Where are you going?
Me: The airport.
Annie: The airport?
Me: Yep.

So that I could fly home for the wedding of my wonderful friend from high school!
Isn't his wife gorgeous?

The high school boys.
Love this picture.
Especially the groom's white man overbite.
Nice work, gentlemen.

Hey-oh!
Dance party!

Sexy Ho!
(Don't worry, it's her nickname...)

I'm pretty sure I stated this after a couple of glasses of champagne, but I wanted to publicly say that I am so glad my guy friends married such amazing women.
Not that I'm surprised.
I'm just glad I get to be friends with them now too.

The stunning couple just before they retired for the night.

Oh but the weekend didn't stop there folks!
Next morning I drove to Athens to watch my sister (this one) play soccer for UGA.
The best part of that drive:
Getting a voicemail from my friend in Burlington who didn't know I was home saying he hoped I was enjoying the cold, rainy Sunday, as I drove with the windows down. 85 and sunny.

Proud big sisters.
(p.s. Check out that crowd! It was packed!)

Family dinner post-game. Mexican food. Obvi.

We called our missing sister, the one who lives in Zambia, from here:

M: Hey! We're heading out to celebrate Independence Day!
Me: Oh, awesome! Independence from who?
M: [pause] England? [pause] I'm not sure...[pause] Let me check. [pause]
Yep, England.

Family picture in our pseudo-matching outfits which we trotted around town in all day. Hilarious.

Sisters at a post-game party.
(We left a seat for you Marissa!)

Back to Burlington,
our friend Mark & Annie got us in the mood for Halloween by hosting a
Butternut Squash soup eating,
Caramel Apple making,
The Shining watching
party.
Yep.
October breeds great theme parties.

I'm proud to say I wasn't the most scared person watching the movie.
Not even the second most scared!
That was definitely a first.

Annie makes studying the kidney pretty.
I just had to share.
And to note that we successfully completed learning the heart, lungs, and kidney during October also.
Not all fun and games, my friends, not all fun and games.

1st years vs. 2nd years Flag Football game!
Undefeated 2 years running!

I played! (And I didn't tear my LCL this year, Mom & Dad. :) )

Touchdown!

Erica is fierce. Don't mess.

I had to include this picture because it sums up happiness for me:
Making Halloween costumes with my friends,
waiting for pizza to arrive,
having just finished a course,
and won a flag football game,
covered in mud,
wearing a PBR headband.
Why? What does happiness look like to you?

For Halloween, we went out celebrating this guy's birthday.
The theme was gangster.
I think they nailed it.

Later we met up with everyone who had gone to the official Halloween party.
These are the costumes we made!
Characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Click here to see how awesomely close their costumes were.

The ladies: Gangster, Toph, Maple Tree, Gangster, and Katara

The rest of the weekend was spend hibernating from the cold and rain.
Drawing.
Watching movies.
Painting nails.
Making pumpkin cookies.
Reading Real Simple and Vogue.
Perfection.

Look, Mom, we used the cookie cutters!

I used this recipe.
They approved.

Yay October! What a month!?!