Hi, I'm Eli! I've been working on my degree for some time now. Until
this year, I've felt like a perpetual transfer student; I was always
accumulating credits but never graduating. In the meantime, I've managed
to change my major a few times, get married, and have a kid who is now
11 years old. I've also bought and sold my first house so I could move
my whole family back in with my mom to afford this college thing again.
I'm finally a senior not only by hours but also in the Social Work
program. It has been a long road but the end is in sight. Assuming nothing crazy happens with this pandemic thing, I should graduate in May!
As I mentioned, my major
is Social Work. All of my classes last spring & fall were actually directly
related to my major. Still, I think the best one was our Motivational
Interviewing class, and I wish it was open to non-majors. Even with the
sudden switch to online courses after Spring Break, we still managed to
have all our simulations and interviewing practice. Applying the content
within fields of social work practice this year in our practicums
should be challenging!
I
have too many favorite books to name - I spend almost all of my free
time reading. According to my Kindle app, I have read at least one day
out of the last 131 weeks and last year completed 352 titles. That is down a bit from 2019 but I know I played a lot of hours of video games over the summer because we didn't go anywhere! My favorite TV show or movies are often
whatever I find that looks interesting on Netflix or another streaming
service. Although I do make it a point to keep up with the new seasons
of Call the Midwife and Doctor Who.
We are currently a one-dog
household, which is exactly the way Bernard likes it. He is a Chihuahua
mix that has been so happy most of his people have been home since
March. Heated blankets and any of our pillows are his favorite things.
Some
of my favorite foods I have to make from scratch because I have Celiac
disease. This means I cannot eat gluten - wheat, barley, rye, and a few
other grains like triticale. So delicious things I used to enjoy, like
soft pretzels or deep dish pizza are always homemade! It also means I am
very creative with how I make things, and I'm always experimenting with
different flour blends. (P.S. If you enjoy making chicken at home and
aren't allergic, mix coconut flour into your breading! It's delicious.
Also, chickpea flour makes excellent gravy.)
I did list Santa Fe,
NM as one of my favorite places. Santa Fe has excellent gluten-free
food, and the high desert scenery is beautiful. A favorite place I
haven't been to yet because of travel plans cancelled by the pandemic is
Italy. Despite being the land of pasta and pizza, or maybe because it
is, Italy has many people with Celiac. Because of this, they also have a
high number of restaurants where you can easily get Celiac safe
gluten-free food.
I do have some hobbies besides making
allergy-safe food and reading. I also like to sew, which makes my kid
happy. Between my sewing and my spouse's metal and woodworking skills,
we're basically a fabrication shop. This comes in handy for all the
crazy ideas our child has come Halloween or any other time.
