Merry Christmas!

We've spent today cooking and cleaning. Ry made homemade potato rolls and red lentil sloppy joe's which we intend to take over to my aunt's house to nosh on while every one else enjoys ham. I have to say that even though we've been vegetarian and about half vegan for eight months now, my desire for meat on a holiday intensifies because we can't partake in the same special meal as the rest of the family. Although, today I sampled the sloppy joes and I am looking forward to them, so props Ry!

I didn't do as much cooking as Ry, but I did some raw vegan baking. I used a recipe from a vegan blog called Chocolate Covered Katie to make snickerdoodle balls.

Snickerdoodle balls mixed with the famous Knudson vegan truffles (with due credit given to my former RA Nick Roberts who initially shared the recipe).

Here are just a few pics to showcase the holiday cheer around our house:


Mantel and tree shot from the couch.

Christmas cards on the fridge.

Pinecones from our wedding in a basket.

Kissing ball brought all the way back from Medford.

Music box, a gift from my babysitter on my first Christmas.

Ice lantern made by my Mom.

Piggy with a candy cane in its mouth snow globe.

Mantel detail with cloth garland that I inherited from my family and art in the background. Again, repurposed wedding decorations!

Winterberry bouquet to spruce up the living room.

A New Knudson Family Member

And not the baby kind, for those of you that may have just gotten ahead of yourselves. Today we welcomed Ry's old cat Silvio back into the family. Silvio lived with Ry for five years until we had to give him because no cats were allowed in our residence hall apartment. Apparently he was in need of a new home again and we got the call asking whether or not we'd be in a position to take him.

Since giving up Silvio Ry had been very vocally basking in cat-free life, saying that he was so glad that he didn't have to clean up any cat hair and that it was gross how they climbed all over everything. He said he never, ever wanted a cat again. I still held out hope that someday maybe we could get one, or at least some kind of pet but had mostly come to the conclusion that our house is too small for a dog. The night before we got the call I was looking at little grey cats on the Humane Society website, hoping to very passively entice Ry into a new one.

We took a few days to deliberate and to weigh the pros and cons. Silvio was always extremely active, sometimes very aggressive (I have a big bite scar on my leg to prove it) and very vocal. We thought about the house and how we'd keep it in order, whether he'd break our things, whether he'd eventually be compatible with a baby. In spite of all of the questions, I still wanted him and Ry essentially left the choice up to me.

Last night we went out for dinner at a restaurant with a patio called Senor Luna that we saw along a bike path in New Berlin. On the drive there we got a big chuckle thanks to a middle aged man driving a bright yellow Miata with a license plate that read "MENTOR". He was jamming out thoughtfully to Steve Nicks singing "Landslide" and then pulled out a rag to buff finger prints off the door while he was waiting at the stop light. This scene was just too much for each of us. Senor Luna was nothing spectacular, but we enjoyed sitting outside and drinking margaritas. We kept laughing because I was wearing my sunglasses with mirrored fronts and Ry could not stop looking at himself and making goofy faces into them. Afterwards we stopped at the pet store to by supplies like food, litter box, toys, etc.

We spent this morning cleaning up the house and put away a few valuables that we were worried Silvio might break, such as the clay candeleria from Mexico that sits on our mantel. He was dropped off at around 1:30 and we've been watching him check things out. He was very timid and quiet at first roaming from room to room. Overall he seems a little mellower, a few more years might have just done him some good. He's still vocal, meowing every time he enters a room to announce his presence. He loves our big windows and has found a few perches that will probably be permanent.

In other news, Ry has been experimenting with a new whole wheat sour dough starter he created from the original starter my friend Kathleen gave him in Durango, CO on our summer road trip. We've been rich with bread and it's starting to taste more sour with the new recipes Ry is trying. Not sure whether I mentioned the starter before, but it was a pretty spectacular gift. It's been alive and well in Kathleen's family since 1963 when a customer who needed dental work couldn't pay for it and traded Kathleen's father the starter in exchange for the work.

I've been mostly going to bed early without doing much else after getting home from work this past week. This afternoon I tried out a new recipe from Vegetarian Times that I had been excitedly waiting to make. It was a kasha black bean soup. When I initially identified the recipe as something I want to try, I had bought all of the ingredients. However, by the time I got ready to make it I had already used them. So, I subbed out red bell pepper for hot fresh banana peppers and black-eyed peas for black beans. It only took about a half hour to make and was a spectacular lunch for a cool afternoon. We paired it with Ry's crusty homemade bread creation from this morning and voila!

Since I've been getting questions about the vegan pledge, here's where we're at...we've still been eating mostly vegan, but have integrated dairy items (mostly cheese) just a few times a week. It's simply too hard when you're not always in control of where you are and what they will have available. Sometimes it's just a nice treat. I'm trying to look at it in a less rigid when than when we initially committed. We are totally meat free, we feel much better, have lost weight and are still mostly vegan, most days. We've made good progress and that good progress is not negated by dairy every now and then (mostly weekends).

The other thing I started working on is a new hand sewn baby quilt for my old boss Michael. He and his wife are set to have a baby this fall and I haven't been able to work on one since little Chloe Hetzel was born in February. It will take me some time to complete, but I've posted pictures of the preparation and pinning process.

Finally, my drive to and from Whitewater has been just lovely over the past week. It's starting to look a little bit like fall with a red or yellow tree popping up every now and then. Also, I've been some great wildlife including sand hills cranes in flight, hawks, a woodchuck and a lovely cream colored horse mottled with red spots. I can't wait for fall colors to hit in earnest. This is by far my favorite season of the year.


Ironing the fabric after I washed it and pre-shrunk the organic cotton/bamboo batting. All supplies from Drawstring Studio, which has an Etsy shop and a local brick and mortar store in Bayview. A friend Danielle owns this, so...go buy local and support her great fabric store!


Cutting off a little excess batting after I sandwiched it smoothly between the two layers of fabric.


Pinned with the edges folded over.


Silvio, our new/old addition.


We are so crazy for fresh food it's a little ridiculous. Fresh goodies from last week's West Allis Farmer's Market.


The Kasha Black Bean Soup turned Kasha Black Eyed-Pea Soup.


A slice of Ry's homemade bread with natural peanut butter and Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry, my favorite delicious brand of French jams. The variety I love most is Four Fruits, if you are going to give it a shot.

A Strange Thing Happened On The Way To The Internet

We've been in the house over a week now and we are barely settled. Boxes are sitting in random rooms still packed, black garbage bags are still hanging up with our clothes in them in various closets and we are missing a bunch of stuff. I only hope that as we unpack, box by box, we will recover our treasures (e.g. my work calendar and pictures from my European travels). I took the first two days after we moved off of work and was able to get the kitchen situated. This may sound like an easy task but I discovered we own a gagillion-million kitchen items - I think more than your average family. The upside of this is that I was able to wash them all in our dishwasher! You can't hear it but I'm exclaiming with glee :) And put them all away with cabinets and drawers to spare. We've been able to cook and sleep in our own bed, even if everything else is a mess. I already made a bean & barley vegetable soup, Ry's baked his first loaf of bread today and we've been feasting on fresh cut found wild asparagus. The chaos makes me anxious but so does the thought of unpacking it. So, I'm trying to tell myself we've got lots more time. Way more than the two days we had to pack up our apartment.

We went a total of about five days without Internet access and we're still without a TV. It was the most amazing thing, I felt pretty quiet in my head and enjoyed the lack of ever present contact. Ry and I sat out on our porch talking for hours, went to bed early and didn't worry about the fact that we weren't hyper-connected. So as you can see, we are back to the Internet. But I think we're soon making the move to a Mac desktop, which means we won't be able to take our computers to bed with us or have to compete for each other's attention because we're looking at some stupid thing or another.

There's a lot I could say about the baby bunny that lives in our yard, the wisteria and honeysuckle blooming, our mini drain backup after the big rainstorm Sunday, all of the wonderful visitors we've had (who remind me every day that living in a residence hall is a huge social barrier, even if I wanted to believe it wasn't), drinking "augmaritas" (thanks Jon) on our back patio, the man who sits under a bush on his lawn with his Shelty dog across the street, our other police officer neighbor who comes home for lunch in the paddy wagon, trying to buy our washer and dryer but forgetting our wallets at home, or the old dog across the street who sounds like a horse when he barks, but that's about all I'm going to say. It's been nice so far.

The other thing I want to say is a big thank you to everyone that helped us move. I was humbled that nine people came to help us and worked so hard. I owe you one - to everyone! Thank you Dad, Mom & Greta (awesome food!), Jon, Angel, Chris, Kelley, Greg, Renee, Colin, and Nate. I was especially humbled that so many of my co-workers came to help. It reminds me that we have a bond greater than your average work relationships create (a.k.a. smarter than the average bear! Ry doesn't get the reference). We are like a little res life family :) So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone that contributed something. We would not have been able to finish packing or move without your help.

Photos to come. My laptop is on the fritz and I can't find our card reader. But don't worry, I'm still taking them.

Rounding A Bend

At work I've been experiencing "chicken dinner month". That's what one of my supervisors has named the multitude of banquets we are required to attend that provide recognition and closure for students at the end of the academic year. All jest aside, they are nice events and overall it's good to spend time with students. However, instead of chicken, I've been exploring various special vegan meal preparations. They have been pretty good, so at one of my most recent banquets I made sure to pull the Dining Manager aside and thank him for the special accomodation.

Last night was our Office of Residece Life yearly banquet, where all RAs, other student employees and professionals gather to celebrate the end of the year. Of all of the banquets and brunches, this one is my favorite because it is for the hall staff that I work with on a daily basis. We share an hor d'oeuvre reception up in the President's private suite and then work our way down to the main ballroom in our Union. We share a lovely meal with about two hundred and fifty of our closest friends, there are several awards given away and recognition is given for those who are leaving their positions.

After having gone the two previous years, I knew this would mean a bit of recognition for my term of service and that I would have to come up on stage. Usually there are several Hall Directors who are leaving, but this year it's just me. Which is a nice book end to the fact that I was the only one who came in during my first year, '07-'08. This part of the banquet seemed to come much earlier than I expected and when I heard my supervisor start saying the words that I knew would call me up there, I got teary. It's very emotional to leave a position that has been good to me and has helped define my identity, especially without knowing where I'm going next. Mary looked down to my table and saw that I was teary. She said, "oh no, she's already crying". By the time I got up on stage I'd stopped and Mary turned back to the table to ask Ryan if he had a hankie. He held up a napkin from the table and all the guests in close proximity to him laughed. Mary thanked me for my service and presented me with a plaque commemorating my time in the Marquette Office of Residence Life.

She shared reflections about my character and work with students. She also talked about how I have deep insight, an uncanny way of expressing myself and a sense of humor that I often showcase in our work group. She started sharing some examples of things that sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember whether I'd shared them with her directly. Then she shared a few more, which elicited big laughs from the entire room and I quickly realized they were anecdotes from my blog, which I was fairly sure she'd never read. I was, of course, extremely nervous being in front of so many people but this pushed me over the edge. I was a little embarassed and a little shocked, but of course it was all in good fun. The tone was loving and I appreciated the kind sentiment of her words. She presented me with a wooden flower box with lovely blue and gold perennials and I made my way off the stage. It was over as quickly as it started, which is sort of how I feel about all of it. I cannot believe how fast this entire year has flown, though at times it felt like molasses.

Before we left, I took pictures with my staff and we took pictures with our Hall Director group. After the banquet some of our co-workers decided to get cocktails at Blu, the bar at the top of the Pfister. It was a nice evening full of laughs and some reflection. I made sure to send my old boss from graduate school a little text letting him know that my time in Residence Life was coming to an end. I thanked him for the ways that he helped shape me into a professional though I'd never worked in this field before. And of course, I reflected on just how far I've come since that time. I have built strong skills and made some amazing connections with people over the past five years in Student Affairs. I'm trying to think of it as rounding a bend, rathering than coming to the end of something. I'm hopeful that the next job will come. I'm trying to be patient and open myself up to whatever comes.

Lastly, I learned two important lessons last night:
1. I am a near-thirty year old woman who does not know how to use a curling iron. So, I'll need to work on that but an hour prior to a celebration banquet is not the time to try.

2. If you write something on the Internet, people will read it and use it in ways you do not intend. I'm thankful that I've generally tried to remain positive and appropriate here, so something does not happen that I regret. However, it was, in this instance, the perfect way for my co-workers to find and share some Megan's original gems.

My Res Life Photo History:


Reilly Hall '05-'06, Northern Arizona University


Reilly Hall '06-'07, Northern Arizona University


With Tara, my grad assistant in McCormick Hall '07-'08, now an RHD at MU


McCormick Hall, '07-'08, Marquette University


Cobeen Hall '08-'09, Marquette University


Cobeen Hall '09-'10, Marquette University


ORL RHD & Prostaff '09-'10, Marquette University

Valentine's Day

The last few weeks have been an overwhelming time with work responsibilities and stress about what the future holds.

My staff meeting ended at about 10:30pm on Wednesday and I crawled into bed with Ry. He'd already been dozing on and off for a while and was a bit out of it. I said something about my litany of responsibilties that day and he responded, "just think, in addition to all this craziness we need to find you a job and buy a house." After saying this he nodded off for the night and I was stricken with a surge of panic. I got out of bed and decided to watch a video cassette of the previous night's Lost episode. Since I have nightly meetings on Tuesday I cannot watch Lost and we tape it on a give-away VCR with stickers all over it that I got from a friend in grad school. Channel 12 comes in worst of them all and nothing makes me feel out of the technology loop quite like fast-fowarding a tape. I watched the episode, felt better and went to sleep.

Most of what I've been working on is reading RA candidate files (to choose six new staff members for next year), preparing for the Cobeen 4th Annual Swing-A-Thon (a 36.5 hour swing marathon to support an eating disorders clinic) and advising a three day, campus-wide diversity awarenesss program. If you are interested in supporting the Swing-A-Thon we are collecting donations for Rogers Memorial Hospital. Just contact me and I will clue you in about the event. We've raised over $13,000 in the last three years.

By the time I reached Thursday was thankful and felt accomplished! If I can make it to Thursday night, the end is in sight.

Ryan and I celebrated Valentine's Day early. After I came home from several hours of candidate file reading Saturday morning, Ryan surprised me with a bouquet of a dozen fair trade roses. They are just lovely:



Though we were both feeling a bit under the weather we decided to go out for a love-filled sea food fest at the River Lane Inn on the far north side of Milwaukee, near Brown Deer and River Hills. We drove up I-43 in the dark and made our 7:30pm reservation. The restaurant has been there for thirty years. And though updated and welcoming, it had a distinct old fashioned feeling. We each had a cocktail at the bar and moved to our table in the red dining room decorated with Valentine's colored balloons. I am just a sucker for balloons. There must be something in me that secretly rejoices in prom decor. Here's a run down on what we shared:

Wine - Bottle of the house Pinot Grigo

Appetizer - Rare sesame encrusted ahi tuna and salads

Main Course - Garlic Shrimp with lemon butter, argula and sundried tomatoes over linguine (Megan) & Cajun scallops with andouille sausage and potatoes (Ryan)

Dessert - Raspberry chocolate mousse & creme brulee

We were by far the youngest people there, but we rejoiced in the delicious food, company and the salacious senior conversation happening around us. Some of my friends and family know that I am an expert eaves-dropper and I can't stop it. We decided that we are very spoiled in the culinary realm, but as long as we keep cooking magical things at home we have to up the ante for special meals out.

This morning my Ryan woke up with a full blown sickness. So we took it easy, lounging on the couch, enjoying coffee and watching CBS Sunday Morning. They had some great Valentine's themed segments with the best by far being one where Mo Rocca served as a male escort for some old rich lady. We exchanged cards and Ry surprised me with a bar of black currant dark chocolate. Mmmm, mmm, do I love currants. I went to mass at Gesu, while Ryan stayed at home. There was a lovely blond haired Polish boy in the pew behind me who kept driving his cars along the cathedral floor making a ton of noises. Distracting but endearing.

Next we are off to visit the newest addition to the Hetzel family: Chloe Renee, born Friday February 12th, 2010. We put together a little mommy and daddy gift bag consisting of some high end liquor and soothing post-pardum mommy products. Ryan baked a delicious loaf of wheat bread for the family as well. We're off for our visit but will keep our distance, so as not to infect the little one.

After that we are going to see two more house showings today. I'm slowly learning that realtor photos can make any old, crappy little thing look nice on a computer screen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more luck today than yesterday. We've at least agreed that if we are going to stay in Milwaukee we want to move into something that is reasonably priced and ready to roll. No labors of love for us in the city.

Here are a few other choice pics from last week:

Cecina tacos with avocado, green onions, cilantro and red salsa from El Rey. A quick Wednesday night meal for us:



A ridiculously large churro that happened to make my poor stomach ill:



My blooming spider plant:



I obtained this spider plant by stealing a baby spider off of a plant in the carillon ringer's office while I was taking a tour of the Marquette bell tower. I secretly snipped the baby off, took it home and rooted it in some water. After I planted it, it's grown like crazy. I wasn't even aware these plants did flower, but discovered a couple of months later that they sprout out these delicate white flowers that last for only about a day. I haven't seen any on my plant in a while, but low and behold, some arrived this week. Hooray for small blessings.

Phenomenal Woman

I just finished eleven staff evaluations over the last ten days. I generally torture myself over writing them, but after days (read: weeks) of worrying I kicked my a*s into gear and spent many early mornings at the computer with a big cup of coffee (Thanks Al & Beckie - ever since you gave us those new cups I have drastically increased my caffeine intake). I spent several weeks time writing the evaluations and then hours of time (probably 15 total) meeting with my supervisees to discuss them. I really enjoyed this sit down time with each woman to talk openly about her performance and where she fits in our overall staff team.

I had them do self-evaluations before the meeting, so when they came that was the first thing we did together. Strangely, these self-evaluations took the bulk of each meeting. I sat and listened to them share their insights into the work they do, how they interact with others, how they see themselves, how they balance the many demands on their time and what they hoped to accomplish by taking on the Resident Assistant (RA) role. I was struck by how wise and self-aware most of them were in their assessments. I was also reminded just how lucky I am to interact with them daily and watch them slowly grow into new people affected by their time in a pivotal peer-leadership role.

Lately, I have felt such strong emotions for my students, especially the women in my residence hall. All of them. The ones who work for me. The ones who have worked for me. The 347 who live with me currently. Even every young person who's ever caused me worry or angst related to their stupid behavior. I'm aware I now have less time left here than I've ever had before. I know that I am leaving soon and it makes me sad. For those of you that have heard me talk (ad nauseum) or even complain (I never do that, right?) about my job, this probably comes as a shock to you. But I have been rocked by perspective about the experiences and relationships I've been blessed with here at Marquette.

I'm sad to leave these students behind and nervous to move out of the halls into real life. I know things are going to change for me in big ways, ways that I can't even begin to anticipate yet. I actually got teary at the end of an evaluation today because I knew I wouldn't be here to see what that phenomenal woman would have to offer in the future.