This morning I enjoyed:

a post-final exam iced coffee.

lovely spring weather (66 degrees).

cool grass.

Rainbow flip flips.

Maxi dress from Target.

Lalalalalla Lifeeee

What did you enjoy this morning?

I have 1 take home final due tomorrow at midnight, 1 lab final in the morning and a paper due on Sunday.

I am so excited for this summer, which is the only thing making finals bearable and I can’t wait to share all the cool things I am so lucky to be able to do:

taking a few trips to the beach

getting certified to teach a dance fitness class

finishing up with PT

starting classes for a degree in exercise physiology

teaching and taking boot camp

teaching a summer reading program

getting back into running

working on some fun recipe projects

I am so pumped for summer 2012!!!

What are you soooo excited for?

The Qdoba in Columbia, MD has 1/2 price student days every Tuesday. It must be great for business because the place was PACKED with high school kids.

I got veggie nachos with mango salsa which cost extra but it’s sooo worth it! Soo much food for only $4!

Can I stay in school forever?

Chipotle vs Qdoba? Which one is your favorite?

I think I am starting to like both, I used to be Chipotle all the way. But Qdoba has queso, mango salsa and half price days.

I am just glad, I can hit up both Chipotle and Qdoba for a vegetarian meal whenever I want fast food.

Only 3 more days of college left!!

It’s officially my last finals week at UMBC! Yay!

I usually don’t have crazy dreams, however last night was one for the record books.

So picture this, I was in the lecture hall taking my final exam and I could not get any of the answers right! Time was running out and I was freaking out about not being able to finish. Five minutes before time was up, the fire alarm went off!

I was excited to have an excuse to leave the exam and I raced out the door the evacuate the hippopotamus that I was responsible for.

Yes, in my crazy dream my campus job was to evacuate the hippopotamuses that lived on campus.

How crazy!

Anyways, my exam this morning did not have any hippos to rescue, and I did not need a fire alarm to save me.

I did however end up taking my exam on a desk next to the professor, talk about uncomfortable.

This is what happens when you have to take one last trip to the restroom before an exam.

3 more tests to go!

What is the craziest dream you have ever had?

My mom and I eating cupcakes in Central Park.

My mom and I getting ready ready to go to a party.

My mom telling me to fix my clothes…

My mom adjusting my clothes…

I am convinced that my mom and I look nothing alike, what do you think?

I am actually nothing like my mom, by the time she was my age (23) she was about to be married and could run an entire household.

I can barely dress myself.

When I was little, I chucked a wooden toy at my mom and gave her a black eye. Don’t worry she got back at me that winter when she was zipping up my coat and managed to catch a bit of my chubby neck.

I am sure the black eye hurt more.

Sorry Mom!

When I was little, I was so happy to have my own mom that when my baby brother was born, I asked my mom where his mother was and when she was going to come pick him up.

Twenty years later she has still not shown up, I guess I will share.

Even today my mom and I are scaring the crap out of each other from staying up late at night taking about ghosts and witches, to jumping out from behind closed doors as the other one is walking by.

Maybe one day I will be able to dress myself and make fabulous meals like my Mom does

Thanks Mom for being a dedicated blog reader, Happy Mother’s Day!

But really, what are we having for dinner?

So I went “running” for the first time in a year! I say “running” because my walking class jogged .25 miles in 30 sec intervals.

And I felt sooo good and speedy. Just kidding, but the bottom line is that it was pain free and that I could talk, because I was the one keeping track of our thirty second intervals.

After my mini-jogging session I had my final PT session for the next 2 weeks. I spent the 1.5 hours of my PT session working on planks and being poked by my PT.

The point is for me to be able to hold a solid plank while my PT pokes and pushes me around and I try not to fall over.

It really is so much fun.

But, over the past 6-7 weeks I have increased my core strength so much that I really can hold my own!

I am surprised I was able to accomplish so much physically, because I felt pretty awful. I had a migraine. But I napped and took 2 Advils and finally felt better.

I quickly showered and got myself together before we had some of our family over for dinner.

I had a blast playing and talking to my little cousins! Now that they are a bit older, I really enjoy their quirky personalities and sense humor.

I also had fun talking to my mom’s cousins they had soo many fun stories to share.

I also wanted to know what it was like growing up without cell phones, it seems so strange to not be connected to a phone 24/7.

Gah technology!

My mom also cooked a lot of delicious food, thanks mom!

Typical Sana mode, being bossy and leading the kiddos in a game of tag-hide-and-go-seek.

I loved seeing my little cousins playing in the park behind my house, it reminded me of my childhood and how we would run around for hours playing games in the grass.

Did you grow up in a time without cellphones? What was it like?

My sister and I had a lovely dinner date at Great Sage with our friends. We had a fun evening of delicious eats, live music and fantastic company!

Yesterday we had a party at work to celebrate graduation!

We had pizza,a cake and brownies!

My lovely co-workers gave us a gift-card and a UMBC mug, I was so excited to drink my coffee in it this morning.

Don’t I have the best co-workers?

I also spent the evening in my favorite chair at the library.

Guess who figured out how to do fancy stuff with Instagram?

So after I long night of studying, I got into bed, closed the lights and tired to sleep.

After 5 minutes, I knew that my mind would be racing all night if I just laid in bed, so I flipped on the light to find my Nook.

As soon as I opened the light, I found a spider staring right at me next to my bed.

I froze.

I tweeted for help:

Thank you all for coming to my aid.

I panicked and grabbed the nearest thing to me and tried to get rid of the spider.

Yes, I am the dummy who tried to kill a spider with hairspray. Don’t judge me because it was 2 am and I was terrified to leave the room.

Just picture this, me standing on my bed trying to kill a spider with hairspray. The spider attempts to commit suicide and jumps on my bed, I tumble backwards off the bed and the spider scurries away.

Sana: 0 Spider: 1

Needless to say, I did not get much sleep last night.

Studying hard for finals.

Good Luck to everyone else who is studying as well.

I don’t often have moments of clarity. My life is usually a scrambled mess of rushing out the door and shoving down food in between work and class. But I had my moment around 7:00pm yesterday.

This was my view as I walked to where I was parked. The weather was nice and breezy and the sun was just starting to set and I was lost in my own thoughts. In my mind I solidified my post graduation plans. I rationalized and munched on  MISS VICKIE’S® Jalapeno Flavored Potato Chips, which are sooo finger licking good!

In my mind I envisioned my future, it felt right and I was at peace with it.

I realized that despite spending 5 years in school and learning so many useful things, I still have so much more to learn.

My life defining moments don’t need to take place between the ages of 18-22, and if they did I already missed them. Oops.

I stopped at an intersection to cross the street, a nice gentlemen let me by as he waited in his car. As soon as I got the the other side I realized I was heading the wrong direction. I promptly turned around and headed back the other way.

The gentlemen who was waiting for me to cross both ways must have assumed that I was confused.

But I was anything but confused, I was eating delicious chips after all!

Sometimes I feel like I have been wasting my time and my parent’s money figuring out what I want to be/do. But I am sure my future children will do the same with my hard earned money, such is life.

As of 7pm yesterday, my future is bright and clear, this is certainly a first. I have never had my heart set on any particular dream, not to say that I am not passionate about life, I just have too many passions and I don’t particularly excel at many of them. (which is ok!)

My goal for this summer is to transfer to a community college and work on degree #2. I want to combine, my interest in science with my passion for exercise in a clinical setting.

Coming back today, I had an assignment due in lab (it was actually due yesterday, but I misunderstood the directions), but the way I see it 10% off is much better than getting a 0. Anyways, I was up till 2am confusing myself on the assignment directions, so I frantically sent my lab partner an e-mail and went to bed. He responded back to me at 8am referencing me back to a particular e-mail where we had gone over the concept in confusion. I understood it perfectly well on April 10th.

Sigh, I confused myself for no reason at all!

We also had a practical exam in lab today. 6 of us went in groups, and at each station a TA or my professor watched us as we completed basic laboratory skills.

Aka things I have been doing for the past 5 years. Needless to say my heart was pounding, and I was shaking. The worst part was the we could not ask any questions. We just got a CHECK or a X as we submitted our final answer.

Did I mentioned that we were being timed?

On my 2nd to last station, I had all check marks. On this particular station we had to transfer a specific amount of liquid on to a spread plate. Of course I picked up the dirty and discarded tip from the pervious person who had been tested, totally ignoring the bag of sterile tips right next to me.

My professor snatched the tip away from me and threw it on the table, yikes.

Being sterile is only the most important part of laboratory research. Opps.

It’s no surprise that I received an X. However, that was my only X and I walked out, relatively pleased.

Don’t worry, I still have my moment of clarity even if I can’t practice sterile laboratory techniques. My future looks awesome.

No really it does.

Do you also get nervous with timed tests/ exercises?

I know I have mentioned it on the blog before, but my body can’t deal with uncooked vegetables, sooo I eat them cooked!

I just decided that I am allergic to uncooked vegetables, yes I self-diagnose myself, I hear it’s quite common these days.

This Vegetable Biryani Recipe, is my favorite way to eat vegetables!

• 1 small onion
• 4 small to mid. size potatoes 
• 1/2 cup  peas
• 1 cup tomatoes paste (make in advance)
• 2 tbs  biryani masala (can find in any Indian grocery store)
• food color
• cilantro
• 1 lemon
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1tsp ginger garlic paste 
• 1tsp salt
• 5 cups of water
• 3 cups  Basmati Rice 

1. Chop and fry onion in olive oil until it is golden brown.
2. Add ginger-garlic paste,  tomato paste , biryani masala  and potatoes (chop in advance)
3. Cook for about 45 minutes until the potatoes are done.
4. 35 minutes into cooking the potatoes, add in the peas.
5. While the peas are cooking add in some lemon juice.
6. In a separate pot, bring to boil water and allow the rice to cook 1/2 way.
7. Add the 1/2 way cooked rice to the peas and potato mixture with a dash of food coloring and cilantro
8. Tightly cover the pot and allow the rice to cook on a medium heat for 20 minutes.
9. Mix and serve with greek yogurt dip.

If you like this recipe, checkout my recipe for chicken biryani!

What is your favorite way to eat vegetables?

Last week before finals! Let’s do this!