law and order: svu

hi hi! i just wanted to take a little break to talk a little bit about why i xoxo law and order svu. 

1. there are like a million episodes on netflix to have on as background noise.

2. you learn something new in every episode.

3. the science is usually pretty good. sometimes.

4. it features women in many prominent roles - high powered detectives, lawyers, judges, medical examiners, etc.

5. they don't shy away from ethical hot topics, and usually present logic from both sides of the issue before ultimately making the best decision [probably? who really actually knows . . .].

6. i love the gold necklace that mariska hargitay wears. i don't know how to get my paws on one. 

7. everything i know about the legal system i learned from svu.

happy memorial day!

it's a real scorcher today, folks. 94 degrees and rising (the weather channel says it feels like 99F . . . and they are correct). simply standing on the patio and taking some cute pics of the pooch in her 'merica clothes made beads of sweat cascade from every pore. therefore, i'm not too sad about staying indoors and studying. it does get old hauling my teeny fan from room to room (well, from bedroom to living room and vice versa . . . those are technically the only two rooms i have. haha) though. i'll invest in another [fan] probably, because i hear it only gets hotter from here on out in the lovely district. there's always something to look forward to.

anyway, i wanted to be sure to mention my gratitude to those who have served the the united states in military capacities, especially those who have been and are in combat zones. your sacrifice does not go unrecognized and i thank you so much for combating malevolence in this world. however, i can only keep hoping and praying that someday peaceful discourse will become the order of the day. if we make thoughtful progress toward combating hate with love and showing the world that we can be a respectful and caring nation, then i am convinced that a more peaceful future can be ours. i think we owe that to every man or women who has dedicated their lives to this country.  


if everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace. -john lennon

another, yay

as requested, another vlog. what was i thinking? i always start out with such high hopes for vlogs, but then i always just end up talking about a lot of nothing. i meant to talk more about how i got to go sailing on saturday, and how awesome the conference was, and how interesting and confusing the brain is. OH WELL. goes to show i can't think on my toes. (think on my feet? what is that expression?) i think the take home message from this post is that i appreciate everyone who reads my blog. even the people i don't know personally. thank you for listing to me blabber on and on in an often lame fashion!

xoxo,

k and e

***clarification: i just listened to my vlog and it sounds like i call strangers who read my blog lame, but i don't. i actually meant lame in relationship to my blog posts and my vlogs [because let's be honest, those are typically lame]. i greatly value all of the strangers that read my blog and you are absolutely not lame! in fact you're the opposite of lame. you're aweeeesome.***

it is our choices

that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities 
-jk rowling

i've been thinking about that idea the last couple of days. one of the speakers at the doctors for america conference mentioned that our choices speak volumes to those around us, telling them what we value and what we are willing to sacrifice. it is so true. our decisions are the lens though which our peers see us, and every day represents a new set of choices to be made. how do i want to be portrayed to the world? do i want to be a compassionate and kind person, or a lazy and apathetic one? do i want to be healthy and wise, or chubby and ignorant? do i treat my friends and family as i should, or do i take them for granted? it is good to be reminded of this, because it's so easy to get wrapped up in the everyday-ness of life and forget about things that matter. so give it a thought - what do those around you learn about you from your choices? do your choices reflect your values, or do you need to work on being truer to yourself and your convictions?

just something to think about.

one's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. in stopping to think through the meaning of what i have learned, there is much that i believe intensely, much i am unsure of. in the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. the process never ends until we die. and, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. -eleanor roosevelt 

[aaaannnnd some uber-cuteness for your viewing pleasure]

hello there circle of friends

hi i'm so happy to say hello to you! it's been a certifiably crazy week. went sailing and saw my beautiful friend jess and smashed my cell phone on saturday, felt a little sick on sunday, went to a doctors for america conference on monday, tried to keep my cool on tuesday, and had an exam in evidence based medicine today [that's basically just biostatistics, :( ]. i've been sitting down a lot lately with studying and class and all so my a$$ injury has been flaring up and aching a lot - i'm pretty sure it was actually a broken coccyx judging from the residual ouch.

anyway that was just a quick update. i'll try to elaborate on all the above as i get the time! maybe another [super embarrassing] vlog is in order.

this post is dedicated to my little brother benjamin on the occasion of his 17th birthday! it seems like yesterday that we were rolling him down the stairs in suitcases and dressing him up like a girl. he's turned out alright :) happy birthday, dear brother!

then

now

until next time,

kate and ellie

L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.

and it does . . .

i'm loving noah and the whale right now.

thanks to my dear friends michelle and abby for such a lovely evening. i'm a lucky girl.

the only devils

in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought. -ghandi

it was a good night

[it's going to be a good life - yes]

what a difference a day makes!

today was much better. on my way to ambulatory care i walked about 6 blocks through very nw dc . . . for a few blocks i felt like i was plucked up and transported to johnson county ks with the quaint clapboard houses, manicured lawns, starbucks and crate and barrel lining the streets. i allowed my mind to escape back to the midwest and imagined what i'd be up to this weekend if i was there. perhaps there would be dinner in liberty with family, and maybe some westport fun with friends. we'd drink boulevard on the patio and listen to the crickets and chat about life. tomorrow morning i'd probably go to target and take the princess to agility class and read a book. it would be so lovely. but here i am in my little apartment-hole-in-the-ground facing a nasty mess and pages of papers to write and lectures upon lectures to study. but that's ok because i'm finally where i ought to be. life is good.

in other news, last weekend was babber's masters graduation from public policy school! michelle and i got to go and cheer her on. we are so proud of our mistress! [feminine form of master? ok you're right i didn't think so]

happy weekend, friends! i hope it is full of fun and happiness.

we love you all!

-kate and ellie

it's been a bad day

soooo whats up? today was one of those days were i just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, you know the kind. the kind where when the toothpaste has an option of splatting on the floor or not, it always chooses the former [and so on]. i woke up to a messy apartment [how does it get so messy so fast? i had it almost tidy just a couple of days ago] and no clean underwear [i left the underwear drawer open and somehow the princess' milkbone box fell into it and got milkbone dust all over everything] and then was late to my ambulatory care session [this is where i follow around a pediatrician and see lots of ear infections, colds, and sports physicals] partially due to my ridiculous ordeal with public transportation. we'll just leave it at late buses, buses that eat my money and i have to get borderline b#$%*y to get it put back on my smartrip card, and buses that don't actually go where i thought they would go so i have to hop out and hail a cab and am 20 minutes late [a lot of these things were my fault, as per ush]. anyway, the reason i'm saying this is because the thing that made the day bad was not so much all that happened, but my bad attitude. it's all about perspective and i'm working on adjusting mine.

goodnight dear friends, i hope your day was lovely!

-k and e

ha ha ha

i always have some laughs when this happens. hopefully you too. this is michelle + me at babber's public policy school graduation last weekend. more pictures to come :)

so dreamy . . .

[

sweet rain

i love sitting cozy in my basement nook while a cajillion raindrops pour down and the air vibrates with the force of the thunder. the thunder here isn't the same as in the midwest - it's less uproarious [perhaps a little less sure of itself?] but that's ok. it's a taste of home. sometimes i just want to put on my bikini and lay on my patio and take a shower in the pure rain. except that it's not pure, probably. it's probably full of chemicals that are bad for humans to put on their skin. oh well. it's just the price we pay for being industrialized. worth it? maybe the verdict's still out on that one.

later, alligators. i must write a paper on the role of community health centers in reducing the cost of healthcare. i'm going to tell you all about my thoughts on the health care system as it is and how i think it should be - another time.

xoxo

kate and ellie [the princess who won't step a toe out into the rain]

i love this time of year the most

except that it's hard to focus on the beautiful weather with all of the indoor studying to be done. but occasionally we get out in the clean air [except that i use the term clean loosely because i always see the ribbons of pollution streaming from the low flying planes that constantly crisscross my portion of the sky].

this week is going to be especially nuts, with [probably] three days of getting dressed up to go to clinical stuff, one day with an "evidence based medicine" [statistics, barf] class and then the longest two hours of my life during a health care reform small group [i love the topic, but this particular group session feels like it lasts for 10 years each time] as well as brain lab. not to mention studying. which is important too.

well i'm glad to be back, and we'll chat more later for sure. now i need to go do my piles of homework, horray!

kate and lil pup

a promised dose of cute

[i hope that ellie's cuteness overrides my laziness in not weeding in between the patio tiles . . .]

i'm apologizing in advance

for the upcoming blog post drought.

it turns out that the brain is confusing. and there are a lot of things to learn. we have an exam in exactly one week and i'm going to have to buckle down right now in order to have a basic (just basic) knowledge of all 30 (thirty!) lectures. i'm accepting good thoughts and prayers if you want to send them my way :)

maybe i'll talk to you soon! i'll obtain some cute pictures of little ellie's mug, ok?

play time in the big city

hi there friends! this'll be a quick post with mostly pictures, i'm sipping on a nightcap (magic hat #9, not quite pale ale . . . it is so tasty. a shout out to bre for introducing it to me!!) and about to head to bed because i'm going to really try to make it to lecture tomorrow . . .

this past saturday was one of the most fun ones i've had in quite some time. it started with a dinner picnic on the potomac with friends:

then michelle and i acted like fools at the dupont fountain while waiting on andy:
then we did some bar hopping like little twenty-somethings!

we had such a nice time, but i should say that i might be getting a little too old for these shenanigans. the older you get, the harder it is to bounce back the next morning!

thanks for the fun times, pb + j!

xoxo

kate and ellie

(i promise there will be some unbelievably cute pictures of the pup up soon. or maybe even some video of her being super cute. if you want some flipping cuteness to tide you over check out the puppy cam . . . brilliant)

an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind   

-gandhi