Recipes

Turns out that besides made-up soup/stews and tabbouleh, I don't actually have any recipes on hand. So I want you to send me some. A few guidelines:

1. Keep it simple. Something that involves a million ingredients is probably going to get passed over in favor of something with fewer. I'm also easily cowed by ridiculously difficult recipes.
2. Keep it cheap. Please don't make me purchase a $26 bottle of essence of baby squirrel tears if I'm only going to use it for one recipe.
3. Keep it small. I'm only cooking for myself or Ben. I don't need 8 portions. I like leftovers, but I don't want to eat the same thing every night for a week.
4. Keep the prep time short. Let's be real – I'm lazy. I don't want to spend hours braising and basting and boiling and whatnot.
5. Send me your favorites.  Post them in the comments, message me, email me at unruhc816@gmail.com.  Whatever you want to do.  I'm just tired of eating sandwiches.     

Bed. Alpacas.

        It was a long, hard-fought battle, but I have a bed. I found a $10 full-sized frame advertised on Craigslist, borrowed a van from a church family, and brought it to my house. On Friday, I was like “BEN WE ARE ASSEMBLING MY BED.” So we had to go to Home Depot to get some nuts for the frame (somehow, when the lady was taking it apart, she didn't say “Gee, I think I'll save the hardware for this bed!”). I didn't check the size that I needed when I left, so I guestimated it at 1/2”, but bought a set of 7/16” just to be safe. We made it home around 9 and started assembling the bed. Except that the nuts were too big. And I didn't have nuts and bolts to attach the slats to the frame. So that was a no-go.

        The next day, I took a CPR-certification class. I was eating pretzels while the instructor was talking about choking and he told me I was gonna choke on a pretzel and I was like “no way, I'm not George Bush, I'll be fine.” Afterwards, I went to Berkeley Bowl, the most amazing produce store ON THE PLANET and bought a whole bag of produce for like $8. A pound of (hollow, steroid-laced) strawberries for a dollar! A big bunch of asparagus for $2! Best thing ever.

        Once I got back, Ben and I went back to Home Depot to return the nuts from the previous night and get some new ones (I measured this time!). Then we returned back to my house and started putting the frame together. All of the nuts went on to a certain point and then stopped. Every last one. I was like “there's no way these are all rusty at the same point.” So I got out my pliars. No go. Then Ben took a look and was like “do you think it has anything to do with this ring of plastic at the end of the nut?” They were locking nuts. I don't know what that means, except that I couldn't use them to assemble my bed. So we had to go back to a hardware store. Ben was very nice about the whole having-to-drive-me-everywhere thing.

         Once the bed was assembled, we put the box spring and mattress on it. Turns out the frame is a queen size. The box spring and mattress is full sized. It looks totally ridiculous. And it's a fitting end to the whole saga.

After that frustrating mess, we cooked up some tabbouleh and buttered asparagus and cleaned the kitchen before I went to work for the lady with cerebral palsy. I actually gave my two week's notice last week, so I'm almost done staying up late on work nights.

Marla Krell says eat limp asparagus with a fork, stiff asparagus with your fingers.

          On Sunday, we went to church and met a new guy from Kansas. Alyssa and I were chatting after the service and a guy behind us was talking to another girl and he was like “Yeah, I'm from Kansas.” In stereo, we whipped around and were like “KANSAS?!” Turns out he's from Hesston, raised Mennonite, came out here for work, and then woke up this morning and said “Hey, I think I want to sing today.”

          After church, we went to Thai Temple to eat with Ben's co-worker, Drew, and his girlfriend. They were all out of curry, so we had some pho soup, which was delicious and a LOT. Two take-out containers worth. So now I have more leftovers. 

 Afterward, we went to the People's Park in Berkeley, which was having it's 44^th anniversary. It was founded in the 60's by a bunch of hippies who turned it from a vacant lot into a park. So in keeping with it's founding, there were a lot of hippies. And weed. And a blender powered by a bicycle. And protest songs. And alpacas. For reals. Alpacas. Nothing says “Berkeley protest party” like alpacas.

         

 

It was an interesting weekend. Full of really good food. And alpacas.  

Job

        Well, I've been at my job for about 2.5 weeks. Enough for me to tell you a little bit about it, past “I coordinate interpreters at UCSF.” Which is basically what I do.

        UCSF is located at the top of a freakin' mountain in the middle of San Francisco. Parnassus Heights campus, you can Google it. So it takes a little while to get there in the morning. I leave the house at 647am, make it to BART for the 658 train to the city, switch to the Muni Metro 4 stops into the city, around 730, and then ride that train for 10 or 15 minutes to the UCSF front doorstep. Convenient, though lengthy process.

        The bulk of my job consists of answering phones and scheduling medical interpreters for a vast number of patient visits. I'm not even kidding, we schedule interpreters for like 500 patients in one day. FIVE HUNDRED. At least. That's more non-English-speaking patients than students at Bethel. We have three teams of in-house interpreters – Chinese (3), Russian (1), and Spanish (5), all of whom meet in my office along with 2 dispatchers and my supervisor. It's a busy office, and very multicultural. I am the only white non-immigrant employee, I'm pretty sure. The interpreters are very interesting people, and it's fun to talk to them during down times.  One of the staffmembers left this Friday.  Her name was Ilona, and she is super cool.  She was born in Lithuania, attended Russian schools, speaks Polish, Russian Sign, Lithuanian, Russian, French, English, and Yiddish, and is the NICEST person.  She also quilts, and has heard of the Mennonites! Unfortunately, she's gone now, but it was cool to get to know her for a couple of weeks.  The other woman in the photo is Ignacia, one of the other dispatchers.  

         There aren't that many downtimes. The phones ring off the hooks most of the time, jammed with UCSF staff asking where their interpreters are, or wanting to schedule interpreters, or demanding to know where their interpreters are. Everyone has a schedule at the hospital, and if one person is thrown off their schedule, it causes a HUGE ripple effect, with our translators and us at the bottom of the heap. We all get a lot of flak, mostly because a lot of the people at the hospital don't know how to schedule interpreters, and get upset when we don't understand and fix the many and varied ways in which they try to circumvent the system. There are some very angry and unprofessional people out there. It's good office bonding, though.

Since the hospital is located at the top of a mountain, it has GREAT views. I have started eating lunch on the roof of the library, which offers a 180 degree panoramic view from the ocean to Downtown. Here are a few photos, but they don't really do a good job.

So that's my job. I like it. It's busy, sometimes VERY busy, but I needed a challenge after a year out of school, and this was it.  

SARAH UNRUH!!!!!!!!!

          The most exciting thing that happened this week is that SARAH UNRUH VISITED FROM MISSOURI!!!! She's one of my friends from college, and Alyssa's roommate. She came to church with Alyssa and then afterwards, we went to hang out in Duboce Park to watch the dogs. I hiked my skirt up to my knees and sat there for an hour. Turns out that was pretty stupid because my winter-white legs couldn't handle all that UV-action, and now my knees are sunburned.

          Later, we met Alyssa at the VS house, and then headed out to a coffeeshop that I liked on Haight Street. Unfortunately, I somehow forgot where it was and walked straight past it. We reached the top of the Haight Street hill and realized that we had probably missed it. So we ate at Squat 'n' Gobble instead. It's a charmingly-named restaurant, but they have pretty good food. While we ate, Jesse and Anna from church stopped by and shared our table.

          After a late lunch, we walked to the Conservatory of the Flowers, where all the poppies were in full bloom. I love poppies. We had to take pictures. It was a lot of fun.

I had to work that afternoon, unfortunately, so I had to leave early. Bummer. But it was really good to see Sarah again, even for just a few hours. If anyone else wants to visit me, I'd love to have you!!

BEST. WEDDING. EVER

        Ok, for all you people CLAMORING for a blog post (mostly just my family, I know the rest of you have better things to do), here it is. Finally. I have had the most RIDICULOUSLY busy two weeks, which included moving into a new house, starting a new job, flying to Michigan to see Kevin and Naomi and all of my college friends, saying goodbye to one of our church friends, the Fresno MCC sale, touring Chicago, and making sure that I get enough sleep (which totally has not happened for like 10 days. I am a zombie).

         So, first. New job, new house. More on that later, once I've gotten the hang of things at work and once I have my room organized.

         Second, Aaron Clemmer, one of Ben's VS housemates (and one of his middle-school classmates at Christopher Dock [who knew?]) left San Francisco to go back to his hometown for awhile before starting Teach for America in New York City. So of course we all had to say goodbye to him. The VS house hosted a taco night and we hung out and talked for a nice long time. Aaron is a pretty cool guy, and a pretty active part of our young-adult-FMCSF community, and it's sad to see him go. But he'll give us another reason (besides Allison Schrag, of course!) to visit New York City sometime soon-ish!!

          Third, Fresno MCC Sale. A lot smaller than Kansas, a lot more food. I ate so much food. I also had to get up at 2am to get there. I rode in a van containing one of the guys running in the 10K, which started at 7am. It takes 3 hours to get there. So we had to plan ahead a lot. It was kind of miserable, but I could lay down in the backseat and nap. There was a good-sized contingent of young adults in the 10K run, and it was fun to cheer them on. I also saw Lisa Penner, which was exciting! Then there was the pancake feed, New Year's cookies, verenike, sausage, and borscht. DELICIOUS. I found Larry and Susan Dunn and their boys about halfway through the morning, and stuck with them for most of the day. We spent a lot of time in the quilt auction, watching beautifully handstitched and handquilted quilts going for pennies, which was just the saddest thing ever. The next day, I went to church with them, ate at a delicious taco truck (seriously, the food that weekend was unsurpassed), and then hopped in the van for another 3 hour drive home.

           Ok, now for the bulk of the post. NAOMI AND KEVIN'S WEDDING WHICH WAS THE MOST ADORABLE THING ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH AND IT MADE ME JUST WANT TO EXPLODE WITH HAPPINESS. Seriously, they are the best, and I love them. Also it was a good excuse to see Camp Friedenswald again, and of course, all of my good friends from Bethel, which I have missed more than I can say. Ben and I left stupidly early on Friday, sat on a plane for a four hour flight which crossed two time zones and basically took all day, sat on a bus for another 3 hours and a time zone, and then Peter Graber picked us up and drove us the rest of the way to Friedenswald. I also left my wallet in the SFO airport, which was stupid. But they found it and no one used my debit card to purchase large amounts of embarrassing merchandise, so it's all good. Friday was a long day. But thanks to the 3-time-zone-shuffle, everyone else was winding down and I was like BRING ON THE PARTY. Naomi and Kevin were having their respective parties, but at about eleven they all came over to our cabin, and it was like old times again, hanging out in Eric's basement and playing Celebrity. So much yelling!!

           The wedding was actually on Saturday, so we just sort of hung out, walked around, talked, in the morning, then after dinner, helped set up the dining hall for the reception. That was a lot of fun too, mostly because it reminded me of all the weekends I spent at Friedenswald, tearing down, cleaning, and setting up the dining hall after each camp. Then the wedding itself actually happened. Naomi and all of her attendants were barefoot. No one was surprised. Naomi is chronically shoeless. Nate and Nicky played some beautiful hymns on cello/guitar at the beginning, we all sang some hymns together, and Naomi and Kevin did their vows, which they had written themselves and were ADORABLE. I was bouncing up and down the whole time, I was so excited. It must have driven Ben nuts.  (later edit - he thought I had to go to the ladies' room throughout the entire ceremony).  

           The wedding reception afterward was nice too. I sat with some of my camp friends and we had a good time catching up. The couple left to a sparkler shower (my favorite thing) and then we all hung around and talked some more. Brian and I got in some dancing, of course. It's what we do when we're back together again. After most of the party had died down, a bunch of us hiked out to Allen hill and sat by the fire pit and talked about farts for about 20 minutes. It's what we do.

           The next day, Ben and I drove with Chris into Chicago. Chicago wasn't originally on his route, but he is a very generous person who happened to have Chicago on his bucket list, so we killed two birds with one stone. We were also planning to spend the night with Blaire and Meredith, two friends from Bethel, so we needed some way to get into the city. We had Chicago-style pepperoni and spinach pizza, walked around downtown, saw the Bean, made endless Chicago-San Francisco comparisons, rode a Ferris wheel, and saw Lake Michigan up close. It was a really good spur-of-the-moment decision. Once Chris had to leave, Ben and I tried to navigate the El system. We thought “Hey, we're seasoned BART riders, this should be a cinch!” It wasn't. We felt stupid. We eventually made it, Meredith met us at the station, and we went to get some sushi because “that's what Chicagoans do.” The next day, we headed out for Vietnamese food, then to the airport for another four-hour flight. I napped through most of it. Thanks again to the three-time-zone-shuffle, by the time we landed, it was 8pm, and I hadn't eaten in almost nine hours. Talk about your mood-enhancer.

            Moral of the story – sorry I've been so lax about the blog posting, but I literally have had no time. Sorry this was such a long post, but I've been so busy doing AWESOME THINGS THAT I HAD TO SHARE WITH YOU. And Kevin and Naomi are the cutest thing ever, and I'm so glad they got married this weekend. We all decided that someone from our friend group needs to get married about every nine months so that we can see each other on a regular basis.

I was gonna upload a bunch of photos with this, but I'm so sleep-deprived that the thought of editing down 600 photos from the last week is just too much. You can just go look at Facebook in a few days.