Hey look, my blog’s layout changed! I can almost guarantee now that there will be a layout change especially in the midst of exams. No, really. I literally just did this in a couple days, starting sunday night- when I was supposed to be studying for a pretty big Microbiology midterm exam. I’m pretty sure I did bad…meh. I tend to run away from responsibilities, especially when they are really really really important. Though, I suppose, you can argue that education is a privilege, so to write my micro exam is really… a blessing, and I should have enjoyed every bit of it…right.
So anyways, that’s about all that’s new since the last entry. I have nothing substantial to write and I noticed that the ‘food’ category had only one entry. I’ve decided that to truly reflect me as a person, there must be substantially more. Ergo, here is a post on my favourite type of salad.
I should mention that this is NOT MINE and I’m merely stealing from a lovely couple who were kind enough to offer their house to a friend and me during a weekend in Calgary- and best of all, feed us. (<3<3<3)
There isn’t much to it since it’s literally the type of food you just ‘toss’ together. Here’s what’s in it:
- lettuce, duh.
- feta cheese
- cucumber
- tomatoes
- dried cranberries*
- toasted walnuts*
- with balsamic vinaigrette (as seen on CanadianLiving, my <3 magazine)
*Dried Cranberries: raisins/prunes are NOT sufficient substitutes. It’s not sweet enough (but that might just be because I have a really high threshold for what is actually sweet, developed over the years of snacking on sugar). Sufficient substitutes might be: apples, mandarin oranges and mangoes/dried mangoes.
*Walnuts: must be toasted. I’ve found no other capable substitute, toos. Almonds suck, pencans=barf, macadamia=meh. I have a feeling pistachios will work fine, but I’ve never tried it with this. Regarding the cheese, I also have a feeling that blue cheese will taste fantastic! I’m a fan of blue cheese though, so some might, uh… vomit.
It’s worth mentioning that yesterday, I cried in class. We watched a movie called “Wit” by Mike Nichols. It is a movie adapted from a play about a woman being treated for Stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer. We are currently learning Nursing Values in class and our prof wanted us to watch a movie about a patient and the nurse and physicians looking after her. Kinda like a case study.
Since I associate nursing with being kind, generous people who really like to make people better and give out hugs, rainbows, puppies and all that incredibly optimistic happy bubbles type of people, I was kinda wary that the movie we were going to watch was something sappy and overly sentimental. You know those movies? Where the point really is just to make you cry, not tell a story? But alas, the lead character is Emma Thompson. She does an amazing job- Ahhh-mazing. The script was great, and more so, her timing was great. You respect the character, not just pity her. It’s quite beautifully well done, if I can even say that about a cancer at all.
The movie is done with 4th wall wide open and the speaker (Thompson) often speaks directly to the audience. In one scene, she addresses my initial wariness against The Cheese Factor (sentimental BS). She admits to The Cheese Factor and criticizes the ‘corniness’ of the scene, how sentimental the nurse is being, all that. But then she says, as corny as it is, what else can you do? This is no time for wit, for fancy wordplay…now is a time for kindness, simplicity. I like that that was addressed. I think I’ll refer to this often in the future.
Last thing: I loved that she was a professor on 17th century literature, specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. I just about squeed when I realized she was reciting Holy Sonnet X (Death, thou shalt die…), because I remember studying it in English 111 (=My fav class forever). Oh English class. I miss it. So. Much.
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BTW: I just looked up ‘Wit’ (2001) and it’s got like an 8/10 on IMDB and 80% on RottenTomatoes. It is also, apparently, widely shown in med/nursing schools on how NOT to be a health care professional. Huh. Also, Roger Ebert, world-renowned movie critic and cancer survivor lists this as one of the best films of the year.