A Sampling of Meals and Emotions

I’ve had a busy 6 months.  I move from upstate New York to near San Diego, CA.  Then moved in with Mex here in Los Angeles, CA.  Shortly after moving here I found out that I didn’t pass the bar exam.  It was a huge blow, as you might imagine.  It raised a lot of questions about what is next in my life plan, and it didn’t give me many answers.  Ultimately, I decided to bite the bullet, and sign up to take the exam again.

Spicy Vegetarian Lentil Soup with rice and hot sauce

I finished the 3 day marathon exam of doom yesterday.  That means that since the day after Christmas, I’ve been studying full time.  That means that I’ve been eating lots of frozen meals, burritos, pizza, and fried egg sandwiches.  I lost the urge to cook somewhere around the 3rd week of studying.

Kidney Bean Curry and Naan

I’m not sure anyone walks out of the test center after 18 hours of testing and instantly feels relief.  I know from past experience that it’s going to take some time to get back to my normal self.  I know I really need to get on with life now, no matter the results of the exam this time around. I miss cooking.

Trader Joe's Garlic Naan. Swoon.

I haven’t been feeling so great about myself lately, if I’m honest.  It’s hard to feel excited about every day when you feel like you’re behind.  It’s hard not to feel like I haven’t lost the past six months.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m ultimately a pretty happy person.  Most aspects of my life are pretty ideal, in fact.  I have an incredibly supportive family, great friends, and a boyfriend who has seen me through all of my recent ups and downs and somehow still likes me.  The one area of my life that I’m not satisfied with is my professional life.  Mostly because I don’t have one right now.

My usual salad: baby spinach, carrots, bleu cheese, balsamic, honey

But I know that everything is going to work out in the end.  In a couple of years I’ll look back at this post and laugh.  I’m just ready to be done with this phase and get to work on something I really care about.  I don’t need any more character building road blocks.  I’m all stocked up, thankyouverymuch.

Zucchini Boats: stuffed with bulgur, rice, tomatoes, sweet red peppers, and topped with feta. My very omnivorous step dad deemed this meal "filling" which I'm taking as compliment.

I’m really looking forward to getting back to blogging.  I’ve really missed the community of food bloggers I’ve come to know both on and off line.  And I’ve even missed editing photos and dealing with uploading them (only a little bit).

Eggs scrambled with spinach, sweet red peppers, tomatoes, and rice. So good! Inspired by Julia's post here: http://bit.ly/gmySjM

I think the focus of my blog is going to change a bit.  Normally I post about what what I’ve made or eaten recently,  perhaps with a little anecdote or personal story about the food.

I’m going to start expanding a bit more on what’s going on in my life, since I know that there are lots of other post-college or post-grad school twenty-somethings out there who are going through what I am and who may benefit from knowing someone else is in their shoes. I know I feel comforted in knowing that I’m not alone.

The main focus will still be on food, though.

Obviously.