I got discovered in Arizona!!

 This past week I made my first trip to Arizona with one of my good friends Callie.  Right when we got off of the plane I immediately had Callie take me to the prettiest site in Arizona... the Mesa Temple!!  No picture or no words could show or explain just how pretty it truly was.  The first picture is for you ST, wish you could have been there with me!!

The following day we went over to the Arizona State Dental Board to find out exactly what we needed to do for our license to transfer to Arizona and we probably should have done this at the end of our trip because it overwhelmed us.  Basically I am looking at about $3000 which includes license transfer, local and nitrous oxide re-licensing, jurisprudence exam and NERB evaluation.  When we walked outside even though it was probably the most beautiful day ever Arizona did not look as appealing as it did before we went in to the dental board.  I guess there is a price for everything, Arizona is worth it.

Later that day we decided to venture out on an hour drive east to go up the Apache Trail.  It is kind of nerve racking driving up the trail considering there are no guard rails and you could look out the window and see nothing but a drop off.  It got even worse when the road turned to one lane and people had to pass each other.  However, the view was completely worth it.  I got to finally see a cactus, not a Utah cactus that Esprit showed me in Utah but a real towering cactus.  I do not know why I am so obsessed with cactus because really they are kind of weird looking, prickly and definitely not the most glamorous plant but I just love them.  The view and the scenic drive up the trail was be-utiful.


We did a great deal of driving around looking at apartments, looking at different towns and pretty much narrowed it down to either Gilbert or Tempe.  I personally favor Gilbert the most, it is just so much greener than the other cities.  We drove up to Scottsdale and what a ritzy area, just there mall alone was big enough to probably fit two of our malls here in Ohio.  Of course all that was really at the mall are really expensive stores that I would never shop at but it was really neat to see along with downtown Scottsdale.  There were all these cute little stores, carriage rides, it was like I was looking for Sheriff Taylor to come walking down the street.  The best part of Scottsdale was trying cupcakes from Sprinkles.  This could be my new dessert fetish, their Lemon Coconut  cupcake made me want to get twenty more, completely delicious!!       

We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens which was probably one of my favorite things we did because they just had so many cool looking plants there like Octopus cacti, flowering cacti, and this glass covered plant which was the coolest.  I got to also see more cacti in one day then I have my whole life so far.    

We drove up to Sedona and spent the whole day up there, it was a great drive partly because we left 90 degree desert weather and traveled two hours north and entered into the forest with slight snow on the ground in Flagstaff.  Sedona though was perfect weather mid 80s.  Sedona was not what I pictured it to be, I did not realize there was a whole town in Sedona I pictured it more secluded like Zion but I rather enjoyed seeing Main street with all the tiny shops and restaurants along with the houses there.  We went over and saw the famous church that is built into the rock called the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  When you walk up to go inside it looks like a mini Catholic church inside with candles and pews.  The Chapel overlooks this mansion that Nicholas Cage just bought.  They were doing some construction on the house but to me it did not look like it needed any construction, it was probably one of the prettiest houses I have ever seen, I think the landscaping added so much to the house with the huge waterfall in the front.

One thing I noticed about Arizona that is weird considering they have the most beautiful weather ever is that there are barely any ice cream places.  They have a great deal of yogurt places but besides Dairy Queen which I am not completely crazy about there were barely any places that served ice cream.  However, in Sedona I nearly stopped dead in my tracts because I was so excited that there was an ice cream place and not just any ice cream place but freshly homemade ice cream.  The place was called the Black Cow Cafe and it was just added to my most favorite ice cream flavors.  My heart still lies with Jeni's forever but since they do not have those in Arizona, I guess I will have to find my new place that I can drop $40 dollars a week at.  I think while away on this trip I was going through Jeni's withdrawal because I have never craved ice cream so bad in my entire life.  I am back in Columbus now and will never take Jeni's for granted again.

Another weird thing happened while in Sedona.  While eating our ice cream outside this man comes up to us and tells us he is this award winning photographer that is going to be publishing a book called, "Best Foot Forward."  He has gathered hundreds of pictures of interesting jewelry and tattoos on people's feet and asked if he could shoot our feet together.  It was completely weird and we didn't know if it was a joke or not.  He showed us is card and an advertisement for his book but the whole thing was weird.  Our feet were completely dirty from hiking in Sedona and mine were not even polished.  Callie was worried because two of her toes are stuck together which he found interesting.  He could have been a total foot freak for all I know but we thought it was fun so we humored ourselves and took the pictures.  We shall see if this book, fake or real ever gets published.  He did email me some of the pictures he took...  In all honesty I think he made our feet look really good.  Sedona was still incredible we did the Devil's Bridge hike.  At the very top is this bridge of rock you can stand on it was so pretty up there it felt like you were on top of the world.  

Arizona was everything I imagined and so much more I can not wait to move out there this fall!!  To make things even better that ended the trip with a bang my mom and her fiance drove out from Ohio and we met up in Arizona.  They are looking at property in Tuscan because they are also moving out to Arizona.  Couldn't be happier!!

                                      

Jeni's

So yesterday I had such a craving for Jeni's again so I went and bought 2 pints.  I was paying for them in a hurry and I did not notice how much it was I just gave my credit card.  I got a pint of cherry crisp and a pint of mango ice cream and I was looking at the receipt later that night when I got home and it cost $20 dollars.  Yes Jeni's is worth it but still that is a great deal of money to spend on ice cream.  I could of bought a t-shirt from Jeni's for that much.

I had a patient this morning and he had to be in his mid 30s and everyone who knows me sees that I look a lot younger than I am.  To make conversation I told him about Jeni's which he never heard of before and how I spent $20 on ice cream.  I thought it was a harmless conversation.  Right?  At the end of the appointment as I was giving him his cashier slip, he asked me if I would like to get ice cream sometime?  I didn't know what to say so I pulled out my fake boyfriend and used him as an excuse.  I felt bad, my mentor told me that what she does when patients used to ask her out is use flattery.  She would tell them how flattered she was for the offer but OSU's policy is that we can't date patients.  At one point a patient offered to stop coming to OSU's dental school for treatment to have a date with her?  I'm sorry I think I like my way better, sometimes people just can't take a hint so now I have to try and not tie this incidence to my favorite place in the world...... Jeni's!!

One Step Further!!

Today in class people started finding out about their board examination scores.  I knew mine had to be coming in the mail today but knew that our mailman in my hometown doesn't come until later around 3:30 or 4:00.  So from 2:00 to 3:26 I had to just wait, I literally just paced around in my apartment until I got the phone call, the one that made me the happiest girl alive!!  I passed my National Board Examination!!  A huge weight has been lifted from me and I feel like I can sort of breathe, well until clinical boards at the end of the month.  Until then I am one pretty happy girl!!

Just want to thank my two best friends for taking me out to dinner and for some Jeni's ice cream tonight to celebrate.  Let me just say, Cherry Crisp, Buttermint and Mango ice cream in a waffle cone completely made my night!!

Sushi!!

I have been very glad to have friends that have kept my mind off of obsessing over whether I passed or failed my boards.  This weekend was just what I needed to rejuvenate and get ready for my last quarter at OSU.  It was General Conference weekend where all our wonderful church leaders and Prophet gave talks to us.  I had the opportunity to go out to Utah last October with my ST and another best friend of mine and although it was not the same watching it at home I was still fortunate enough to spend Saturday watching Conference with three close and wonderful friends of mine.  My sister was so sweet to make the four of us breakfast before the first session.  


Later that day a group of us went down to the Short North where I got to experience Sushi for the first time.  My sister has always been telling me that I needed to try it at least one time so I figured I would give it a whirl.  We went to Haiku and as we were walking to the restaurant there was this terrible stench from the outside near the patio as we were walking in and I asked if that is what it smells like, it smelled like a sewer.  My sister got a great chuckle out of teasing me telling me that was the smell of sushi.  I was glad that I was not the only one there that has never tried sushi, although she does have an allergy to seafood which gives her a legitimate excuse. :)  We were looking at the menu and I had no idea what a sushi roll even meant.  I ordered three of them because I wanted to try a variety of them.  I ordered a teriyaki salmon roll, a california roll, and a dragon ball.  It kind of took our food a long time to come out but one of us got these lettuce rolls and seaweed that was delicious.  It made me excited to taste the food we all ordered.  


In the meantime while waiting, I got to practice using chop sticks which is not as easy as it looks.  I went to pick up some seaweed with them and maybe got two little strings of it.  The rolls finally arrived and I absolutely loved the teriyaki salmon roll, it tasted even better when my sister told me to dip it in some soy sauce.  I did not like the california roll and the dragon ball I could not even keep in my mouth, maybe I just do not have a taste for eel.  I tried one of my friends dragon roll that was surrounded by avocado but needless to say I just liked the avocado around it.  I could eat only about half of it and then put the other half "discretely" back on my sisters plate.  


One thing I noticed about using chopsticks is that you can't really cut with it.  There was absolutely no way I could shove a whole piece of dragon ball in my mouth so I was trying to cut it with the chopstick but found myself stabbing it instead.  Also its hard to pass food across the table using chopsticks.  I was trying to pass over one of my dragon balls to my girlfriend and I had a hard time carrying it over to the other side of the table to give it to her.  Although I was not using the chopsticks the right way, my sister was laughing at me because I had one chopstick in each hand.  However, even though I was using them weirdly, I managed to get an entire piece of sushi roll to the other side of the table perfectly intact while my sister, the chop stick police tried taking one from my plate and it fell apart... hmmm... its all about technique I guess.  I was then told to try the ginger on my plate but I do not like the taste of ginger but due to peer pressure I gave in and tried it and let me say the instant it hit my tongue I had to spit it out.  I did not even dare try the green goop next to it that I heard was really hot.  

To top things another situation happened.  My girlfriend who is allergic to seafood made her allergies clear to the waitress when she ordered her chicken and rice.  After receiving her rice a bunch of us were eating from it since there was probably a pound of rice sitting on the table on this plate.  The waitress came back and informed her that the rice may have been contaminated and asked if she had eaten any of it, luckily she had not.  However, the waitress at first did not clearly define what contaminated meant so all of us that ate from it thought she meant contaminated with E coli or some other bacteria until she said contaminated with seafood.  She brought her an entire new plate of rice, it was like a bottomless pit of rice.  After we were done eating the waitress informed us that it was her first week of work and how sorry she was about the delay of our food arrival especially the one yam roll ordered by another girlfriend which she said the restaurant would cover.  That was really nice of them, but why didn't they offer to pay for the contaminated rice that could have really harmed my friend???  


To make up for it all she brought us ice cream and dough balls.  At first I just thought it was ice cream and I was confused when I stuck the spoon in the bowl and a huge ball stuck to the spoon.  However it was delicious!!!  Not as good as Jeni's though that I was excited to get later.  They made me taste that green goop right after ice cream to make my first sushi experience a complete one.  Once again giving into peer pressure I went against my better judgement and right after I had the sweet refreshing taste of ice cream in my mouth.  I tasted a piece of this goop smaller than pea size and I can't even describe the horrible horrible hotness of it.  My girlfriend had an antidote ready for me the last remaining spoonful of ice cream.  It helped a little but I almost wanted to lick the bowl for the last bit of ice cream to further get rid of the taste.  


I did get to taste Lavender Gum after that a girl got from Mexico, very neat flavor.  


After all of us went over to the Gallery Hop which was packed probably because this was the first really nice weekend they have had for it since last year.  Very interesting things we saw such as plates that when hung side by side created a skeleton, a gold skull, a wall full of this artwork that seemed to be representing various versions of male parts that one of my friends couldn't stop looking at.  I'm telling ya eating a green tea ball, looking at the wall of male parts and wanting to go wine tasting... may have to counsel her ;)  

The one sad thing is we did not get Jeni's... the wait would have been worth it but the line was around the corner.  

Gist of this extremely long post, I would try sushi again it was fun and a change from anything I ever tasted before and I will be getting Jeni's sometime this week to satisfy the craving!!