Done #9: Have my first post-graduate, degree required, job

Well it is now official: I have a job!

After 7 years of school (8 years if you count my year off, 20 if you count since kindergarden) and 3.5 months of looking I have finally entered the working world.  For me this is pretty exciting, and such a big step.  To finally leave the world of academia and be thrust into the career world, it is such a different world, but I was so ready for it.

With work comes a consistent schedule.  No more studying at night or on weekends.  I now feel like my life has such a good balance, which is so refreshing!

But enough ramblings, more about the job:

I am working for Travelers Insurance in the California Sports Workers Compensation Division.  Here I will not only become trained as an insurance adjuster in both CA and TX, but I will get the opportunity to negotiate settlements for our claims.  This is the main reason I wanted this job; it has my favorite part of lawyering (negotiation) with 9-5 hours.  It also has a lot of upward mobility potential (which for someone who wants to be a career woman, is really important).  They offered me an awesome salary + a great benefits package (why hello 20 days paid vacation, where have you been all my life?!?).  All of this added up to perfect job for me.  Challenging + work-life balance = exactly what I was looking for.

It may not be the traditional lawyer job, but I think it is just what I wanted.

I am currently three weeks in and it seems like it is going to be awesome.  Plus Chris and I are thoroughly enjoying everything that comes along with our newfound DINK (double income no kids) status.  We eat out, we plan fun vacations, and we have time to actually hang out with one another!  It turns out living on one salary for almost four years makes having that second salary so much sweeter.

So #9 done.  I have my first post-graduate, degree required, big-girl job.  Yay!

Book #6

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller:

Stepping away from my typical young adult fiction I decided to read this non-fiction religious book.  This book was sitting on our bookshelf (Chris got it during his year in Oakland) and I heard there was a movie coming out.  I always like to read books before I see the movie, so I grabbed it off of the shelf.  I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  Well, at least the first twelve chapters.  After that it got a bit redundant and I got bored.  

The book basically tells the author's spiritual story.  The subtitle of the book is: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality.  I think that sums it up pretty nicely.  The author is a pretty liberal christian and it was so refreshing to read his thoughts.  As a person who grew up in a pretty fundamental religious church I had always struggled with how my religious beliefs and political beliefs didn't seem to line up.  Reading this book helped me realize that I wasn't alone in my thinking, and gave me some newfound enthusiasm for my faith because it helped me realize that what I believe (both politically and spiritually) do line up.  It can all work together.  

It's hard to explain how this book made me feel, but maybe some quotes will help sum it up.  The book was a wealth of awesome quotes, here are just a few of my favorites:

" The thing I loved about Nadine was that I never felt like she was selling anything.  She would talk about God as if she knew Him, as if she talked to Him on the phone that day.  She was never ashamed, which is the thing with some Christians I had encountered.  They felt like they had to sell God, as if He were soap or a vacuum cleaner, and it's like they really weren't listening to me; they didn't care, they just wanted me to buy their product." page 46

"Here are the things I didn't like about the churches I went to. . . . (second): They seemed to be parrots for the Republican Party.  Do we really have to tow the party line on every single issue? Are the Republicans that perfect? I felt like, in order to be a part of the family, I had to think George W. Bush was Jesus.  And I didn't.  I didn't think that Jesus really agreed with a lot of the politics of the Republican party or for that matter the Democratic Party.  I felt like Jesus was a religious figure, not a political figure. . . . They left us thinking that our war was against liberals and homosexuals.  Their teachings would have me believe I was the good person in the world and the liberals were the bad people in the world. . . . The truth is we are supposed to love the hippies, the liberals, and even the Democrats, and that God wants us to think of them as more important than ourselves." page 131-32

"I had to tell my head to tell my heart to love the people at the churches I used to go to, the people who were different than me.  This was entirely freeing because when I told my heart to do this, my heart did it, and now I think very fondly of those wacko Republican fundamentalists,  . . . and I know that we will eat together, we will break bread together in heaven, and we will love each other so purely that it will hurt because we are family in Christ."  page 137-38

I can't really put into words how excellent this book was (until the boring end).  Whether you are a liberal or conservative christian, or someone who has other spiritual beliefs, this book is an excellent read.  If for no other reason, then to understand the thinking of your liberal christian friends :)

6 down, 24 to go.

Book #4 and #5

Well it's been a while since I've updated, which means that I have done a lot of reading.  Next up on my mental list was Inheritance by Christopher Paolini.  But, it's the fourth book in a series that I last read at least 3 years ago.  Because it had been so long, I really felt like I needed to reread the first three so I could really enjoy and understand the last one.  While the first three don't count for the list (I have already read them) I thoroughly enjoyed reading through them again.  After that I read Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.  I really enjoyed them both.  Blue Like Jazz will get it's own post (to keep this from getting painfully long) but here is an individual breakdown of the other two:

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini:

This series is the younger crowd's version of Lord of the Rings.  Action, adventure and general teenager-turned-hero growing up antics (including an interesting background love story.) The author wrote the first one when he was 15, which is quite impressive.  While his age and lack of experience sometimes shows in the writing and storyline, the books are still really well written and the story is so compelling.

After getting through the first three (Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr) I was so excited to finally find out how it all was going to end.  There was so much going on in the first three books I wondered how he was going to wrap it up.  I think he did a pretty awesome job of it.  The only thing I was disappointed in was how the love story ended.  He ended it like a guy and I thought it was a bit unrealistic based on how he had painted the characters.  But alas, it is his story, so he can end it however he wants.  I am secretly hoping he was setting it up for another book (I love the characters, so I would be excited to continue following their story!)


Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery:

I grew up watching these movies (or shows?) but, GASP, had never read the books.  So when I came across them at the library I thought they would make an excellent summer read.  I really enjoyed this one (the first of six.  I think.)  It brought back all of the memories of watching the shows as a kid (they were pretty true to the book.)  I now want to add these to my collection because I they will make great read aloud books when I have kids one day!

If you have never heard of the series (which is a tragedy in and of itself), it is about an orphan girl who goes to live in a small town with an older brother and sister who never had their own children.  She is full of life and is always getting into crazy situations.  This makes the book funny and charming (although the beginning was a little too full of her imaginative ramblings, but it definitely got better).  I am excited to read the rest of the series!

Book #3: The Five Love Languages

The 5th book I read for the list was The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman:

This book was given to us as a wedding present by my uncle and his wife (Thanks Ben and Karen!), and since I heard so many great things about it, I was really excited to read it.  Unfortunately life and law school got in the way and it sat on my shelf for a couple of years.  Once we moved to Texas (and I had mass amounts of free time) I was able to finally pick it up.

It was a really excellent book and I highly recommend it to anyone that is in a relationship or has kids (I think they also have a single person's version).  In fact, I may now make it a staple gift when I go to weddings!

It was a really easy read and the insight into your relationship that it gives you is amazing.  It is written by a marriage counselor who has great stories of couples he has helped throughout the years.  The premise of the book is one that seems lost on our society now a days . . . love is a choice.  Once all of those lovey-dovey, passionate feelings die down in your relationship love becomes a choice and this book helps you see how you can choose to love your partner.

The author talks about how the ways we show love can be more or less broken down into five love languages: (1) words of affirmation (2) acts of service (3) giving and receiving gifts (4) physical touch and (5) quality time.  Each person speaks and receives love differently, and these five love languages help partners learn how their partner receives love, and how they can express that love to them.  I am equally an "acts of service" and "words of affirmation" (although, unlike some, none of them were super high, they were all floating around equal, with these two being the highest).  You can take the test to find out what you are here.  

It was so funny to read the chapter on my "languages,"  so much of it described me to a T.  The author also discusses how there are different "dialects" to each language.  For example, the words of affirmation that I appreciate are encouraging words.  While other people may desire kind words.  It is very interesting the way he breaks it down.

Okay, all of that to say, this was an excellent book to read and I highly recommend it!

Done #8: Pass the Texas Bar

Well folks, the results are in, and luckily for me (and my summer plans) they are good!

See that???  That is my name on the pass list :)  The little asterisk means that I haven't graduated yet.  What's that, I passed the bar before graduating?!?  Oh yes I did *pats self on back*

Once I graduate my school will send a certificate to the Board of Law Examiners and then I will be able to go to any judge or justice of the peace to be sworn in.  Then I will be officially licensed.

What does this mean for me, besides the fact that it fulfills something on the list?  Well, it means that I can officially rest easy knowing I will never have to study like that again.  The intensity and time that studying for law school and the bar took was enough to run me ragged and I feel grateful that that period in my life is over . . . forever.

Whether I decide to take on a legal job or not, I can rest easy knowing that I not only completed law school, but I completed the licensing requirements as well.

And just for fun . . .

Only 58.60% of out-of-staters passed.  That tells you how hard it was!

allergy elimination diet fail . . . sort of

Well this week (Jan. 15-21 2012) I added chicken, which was awesome! I cooked some up in a crock pot and ate it like it was going out of style. Symptoms were . . . still the same. At this point I was getting really frustrated. How was I supposed to figure out what foods affected me if I never had symptom relief??

But, I continued on. Adding sugar and soy. I was able to eat a modified meal at noodles and co. (they have rice noodles!) and it was super yummy! I also got a bubble tea (the bobas have sugar) and it was super yummy (I got two in one trip to the MOA). Symptoms were . . . still the same.

I went to a party on Saturday night were I was tortured with BBQ wings and cupcakes. But I stayed strong and ordered some plain chicken and a plain salad. On our way home, I expressed my frustration with the diet to Jill.  I was hoping that surely by now I would be feeling great and that the feeling great would be my motivation to stick with the diet. However, I wasn't feeling great. In fact, my body was reacting the same as it was before the diet (albeit better than the first week with caffeine withdrawal and massive legume overload). But I also expressed my concern with not finishing the diet to completion. I didn't want to fail.

Jill, being the awesome best friend that she is, reminded me that I was doing the list for myself. Once the elimination diet was no longer helpful to me, stopping wouldn't be failing, because the goal was to help me. I pondered this after I dropped her off. When I got home I did some research. I tried to stick to good medical sites (you know how the internet can be) and I found some really helpful information.

I had previously been casually diagnosed with a condition when the doctors could no longer explain my symptoms. I took this with a grain of salt, because it is a syndrome (aka not a lot of science to back it up). While not life threatening, the syndrome explained my symptoms perfectly, but so did a lot of other things (for example, food allergies or sensitivities). Well, low and behold, one of the reasons why symptoms don't subside on an allergy elimination diet is if the person has that syndrome. With that I knew that I was on to something.

After more research I found that the syndrome is not at all caused by food or inflammation from food, and has more to do with the chemical reactions in your body. It can be caused by stress, hormones, etc. But it has more to do with your nerves than food. Now, certain foods can make symptoms worse, such as legumes and caffeine (aha, now I knew I was on to something). Also, one medication that is used to help symptoms is my previous tension headache medication (because it relieves stress). The time I went off of my medication lined up with the time when I started noticing my symptoms had worsened.

So my casual diagnosis turned legitimate in my mind (and my husband gloated because he always thought my symptoms were caused by stress). And with that, I felt justified in quitting the allergy elimination diet. The next day I grabbed some pizza at target and ate some chocolate and greek yogurt (yum!). My quitting was justified when my symptoms remained the same after I started eating everything again.

So, if completing the allergy elimination diet was how my success was measured than I failed. If figuring out why I have my symptoms is the measure of success (which I think it is!) then I succeeded. Now I know how to better manage my symptoms (less caffeine, NO legumes, no artificial sugar, and stress management, which I am constantly working on), which I think is a win.

#1 on the list complete!

*disclaimer: I don't want to share the actual syndrome for the world wide web to know, but for enquiring minds, it is (as I said earlier) NOT life threatening or harmful to my body, just inconvenient to me*

allergy elimination diet week 2

Well this week was similar to last. Same foods are allowed. I didn't have any trouble eating the required foods (or more importantly, not eating the forbidden foods), but the trouble was, my symptoms stayed the same.

I didn't have the caffeine withdrawal problems, but the symptoms that I am trying to decipher were still present, and this was a little bit frustrating to me. I decided to continue to stick with it, hoping that by the end of the week the symptoms would get better. However, they did not. I am a bit perplexed, but I think I will start adding in neutral foods next week. (for reference, most people see relief in symptoms within 3-5 days, 8 days at the most.)

The break down of this week:

What I learned: Nothing new compared to last week. Symptoms are better now that I am off legumes, but still not at 100%, or even 75%.

What I craved: Bubble tea! For some reason I just really wanted some. Good thing I can add sugar next week and then I can go and get some herbal bubble tea!

Best Food: Cashew pancakes are still my favorite and a daily staple. However I am also loving the smoothie concoctions I have been coming up with. The best so far: frozen strawberries, frozen mango, fresh spinach, pomegranate juice, and almond butter. YUM!

Next week comes chicken, sugar, and soy!