Our Life in the Big Apple

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-03-24T04:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me! Yummy and sweet birthday wishes for me. Michael took me to Serendipity in Manhattan. Very famous for it's frozen hot chocolate.
Frozen hot chocolate big enough for two or three or four!

Forbidden Broadway Sundae. It has a slice of chocolate cake with chocolate chips in it and an amazing rich frosting served with three scoops of ice cream all topped (well more like smothered) in creamy hot fudge!
And this is how I felt after all the suger I consumed!!! Michael and I walked about a mile to a different subway stop, just so we would have a little room in our tummy's to breath.

Oh, New York

2009-03-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Only in New York City, a place where people like to stay out all night and party way to hard, can you find a foley bag full of urine on the sidewalk. And not even near a trash can, just out on the sidewalk. Well, it was too fun/disturbing not to share it with all you guys!!! Boy it sure makes me miss the small, uneventful lifestyle that is Magnolia, AR.

Boston & Harvard

2009-03-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

Stefanie and me with the Longfellow Bridge in the background and Harvard behind that.

So when two nurses have a couple of days, what do they do? Jump on a bus and take off to Boston!! Yep! It took one day to plan (well less actually). There are super cheap buses that run from NYC to Boston all day long. So Stef and me took an early bus trip on Monday up to Boston. Once we got there and checked into our amazing hotel, we walked along the Freedom Trail. It's a famous path through Boston on which Paul Revere rode to warn of the invading British soldiers. There's also really old churches and state house that where the sites of planning the Tea Party, where the Boston Massacre took place.

After a historical first day, it was time to shop and eat. Luckily, it was restaurant week in Boston. We ate at a bistro, the Melting pot, an Irish pub and two steakhouses. Amazingly good food!
This is my sandwich from the Bistro. (grilled chicken with fresh mozzarella and balsamic glaze)

We also visited Harvard University and rubbed the foot of John Harvard for good luck.

So much food, so little time!

2009-02-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, we live in the biggest city in the US but we still couldn't come up with anything exciting to do for Valentine's Day. So we made a day of walking around Manhattan doing some shopping and enjoying some seriously yummy food!!
First, we started the day by sleeping in. Then it was off to the Upper East Side to Alice's Tea Cup Chapter 2. It is this super cute restaurant really close to where I work. Sometimes me and some nursing buddies stop off there after working three nights in a row. Any who, the place is themed after Alice and Wonderland. They have at least 50 different teas and they serve a pot of tea with two scones of your choosing. Michael and I got their buttermilk scone and a raspberry-chocolate chip scone. We shared the cinnamon apple spice tea!, my personal fav!!!
From there, we walked a few blocks over to Bed Bath and Beyond, my favorite store. I treated myself to a new set of kitchen knives by Cuisinart! They are amazing!!!! Now I guess I'll start cooking, just so I can chop things up!!!
Then, it was getting close to sprunch time. We made reservations at Hill Country BBQ in Midtown. It was Michael's little treat. (Thank you Adrienne for the recommendation!) It was this amazing, truly Texas style BBQ. When we were seated, they hand you this little cards and you walk to different "bars" to compose you're own menu. I had a BBQ sandwich with a side of German mashed potatoes and sweet tea straight from a mason jar! Michael had some gigantic ribs and sausage. They had very fancy German chocolate cupcakes that Michael couldn't keep his eyes off!!
Our last stop on this eating feast was a cute little place called Super Sweet Sunshine. It's owned by two band members that got tired of gig thing and started baking in the apartment one day. Michael and I picked up a "Sassy Velvet" and a "Bob". "Bob" is a vanilla cupcake with chocolate almond frosting and "Sassy Velvet" has chocolate cream cheese on top instead of the traditional topping. Neither one of us has any room to eat them, so were saving them for later.
Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! We love you!!

Yep, it's winter time!

2009-01-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

The snow has been falling here since Saturday. The flurries are so big and there's no sleet mixed in, so no yucky slush. We had the day off for the holiday, so after sleeping in really late and catching up on some favorite shows, we bundled up and headed to the park. I got to test out my new snow boots and my warm legging-things Mom got me for Christmas. I was so warm and toasted and we went all through the park. Kids were sledding, some people were building snowmen, Michael and I got into a snowball fight (guess who lost?, yep me!) and then I made a few snow angels. It actually just stopped snowing a few minutes ago, but I'd say there's a good 4 inches on the ground!!
Last night, we went over to Brett and Autumn's for some ice cream and the fun game of Clue. By the way, I really stick at Clue. I kept assuming to much and then getting confused on like the facts and rumors.
A couple of weeks ago, Michael finally won tickets to the SNL rehearsal. He took a tour of the NBC studio and then went with Brett to SNL. That's not really my thing but he really like it. Sorry no pictures though. It's not allowed!!

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has had a happy New Year's celebration. Michael and I rang in the new year in our sleep!! Oh, we had great intentions of watching the ball drop in Manhattan, but when they started predicting snow I said no way!!! I have made the resolution to be a better blogger! We shall see how long it takes to break this one. Sorry there's really no new cool pics, just some recycled ones. For any of you guys out there we missed on the Christmas card list, we used this picture below. Michael and I braved the cold weather one day and went to see "The Tree" in Rockefeller Center. If anybody has seen the movie "Elf" or the second "Home Alone" the tree looks so much bigger on the tv screen. I'll admit that I was a little disappointed. But as you can see we were there during the daytime. I'm sure it looks amazing at night!

This cool picture is the other view of Rockefeller Center.

And finally on our little outing in the city, we spotted this little gem. It is an extremely popular bakery with crazy busy lines anytime of day. The have amazing cupcakes and cakes and some super yummy hot cocoa!!

On a little side note, Mom thanks for the Wii!! We love to play it. But I'm not admitting my Wii age to anyone!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

Well, here's just a couple of pictures from our Thanksgiving festivities this year. Michael and me, along with Brett and Autumn were invited up to Boston to Marta's house for Thanksgiving. Her mom worked super hard to make a super yummy dinner for all of us. I didn't take too many pictures since I was so busy stuffing my face. Luckily, Marta and Brett did and they're going to email them to me soon, so I can post them all!
By the way, including the THREE states we drove through/visited today, I have now been through or visited 28states!!! And I'm only 25 years old! That's pretty cool, huh!!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day!! We love you guys, and miss you too!!!

NFL live

2008-10-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I've blogged! That's mostly because Michael and I have just been doing the same old thing each day. I go off to work and sleep the days away while he spends all day at clinicals. But now I have a cool blog to write!
As you can probably already tell, Michael and I went to a football game!!! An actual NFL game!!! So this is how it all happened. Michael loves looking on Craigslist. For those of you who don't know, it's a website that people use to sell or give things away. It's broken down by states and cities and then by items to sell. It's a lot like classified ads in a newspaper. Well, Michael checks the site every couple of days for anything interesting and found this tickets to the Jets game this past Sunday. A guy had season tickets and was going to be out of town over the weekend and was needing to get rid of the tickets. So we were on like the 25 yard line about 30 rows back on the first level for super cheap. The only unfortunate thing was I had just worked the past three nights and didn't get any sleep before going to the game. But as we were riding the bus up to the stadium, I got so excited!! Neither one of us really care about the Jets or the Bengals, but now we can mark off NFL game on our "Bucket List"!! And as a cool bonus we got to see one of the best quarterbacks of our times, Brett Farve!! Amazingly cool, right!?
And then to finish the day off, our neighbors invited us over for some yummy steak and apple pie with ice cream up top. So good!! Then the next day we invited them over for chicken enchilladas and pound cake with fruit on top!! Good stuff!!

Football, friends, and pizza!

2008-09-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

So, you know how NYC is called "the big apple", well Michael and I found it! Not really. This is up in Manhattan on 5th Ave. This is the Mac store, except it's all underground. Up on the street is this glass building with a "floating" apple symbol. You walk through the glass doors and down a glass staircase into the Apple Store. All the IPhones, laptops and Ipods you could ever play with and tons of people to fight your way through. Of course being with Michael we just had to walk in and see what all the fuss was about.
Anyways, that explains the picture. Yesterday Michael and I made the teak over to New Jersey. We had to take a subway into Penn Station and then the NJ Transit over to our friends apartment for a day full of football and some seriously yummy deep dish pizza, homemade style!! The train system is much harder than the subway to figure out. We bought tickets and when those print off there's no gate information and there are like 21 NJ train gates. Luckily we made our first train and had to transfer only once. We rode through a cute little small town that easily could have been in the South! It was just precious to see. I tried to take pictures, but our camera is not the best at motion pictures. Or maybe it's just the operator!!
Well, Michael started Anesthesiology today at the same hospital. He says it's kinda tough standing in just one spot for most of the day. But he'll get use to it. He hasn't had to work a 12 hour yet so I don't feel sorry for him!! My day has been doing laundry. Lots of laundry, it was a towel and sheets kinda of day. Anyways, Henry's terrorizing the apartment right now. He's finally waking up and "killing" his toy mouse right now.

Spoiled!?

2008-09-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

This is Henry. Michael and I rescued him at CCAPS back home. He's like 2 years old and as you all can see is super lazy. Well, most of the time. He gets little burst of energy especially at night when we're trying to sleep. Other than that, he spends most of his days laying on this pillow on the couch. Serious couch potato!!!
Well, Michael is about to finish his first rotation in his 3rd year of med school! He did his rotation up in Queens in Radiology. It was a nice slow start to a soon to be roller coaster ride. He has Anesthesiology next at the same hospital for two weeks before the heavy 3 month assignment of Internal Medicine.
Things haven't changed much with me. I'm busy working and not blogging! Sorry!! Let's see, the most exciting thing I did today was eat some fries and a coke at this little restaurant called 5 Guys Burger and Fries and then went to try out a new grocery store. We have Key Foods like two blocks from us, which is convenient but pricey. Michael went out exploring one day and found this place called Food Town. It was like stepping into a smaller Brookshire's back at home. Much nicer and spacier!! And the prices are much better on most things.
By the way, I think we are going to be fans of the new Fringe show on Fox!! Alright, time for blueberry pancakes. Yummy!!

Picnic in the Park

2008-09-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

Since yesterday was Labor Day and neither one of us had anything to do, we decided that a picnic in Central Park was the thing to do. So we stopped off at this pizza and sub shop to go and headed into the park. We found a little grassy spot under a tree right by the pond. It was really nice outside and the ducks were swimming around. After we ate and digested a little, we walked around the park for some time. There was a little amusement park for kids to play on and there's even a visitor's center in the park and a softball field. And we didn't even get through half of the park. Okay, I have to go to the grocery store for dinner. Love ya!

This is a shot of the pond we ate by. That's the Plaza in the background.

Up to Chelsea's for some fun and sun

2008-09-01T15:31:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we traveled up to the Chelsea area of Manhattan. We met up with some friends at the Chelsea Pier's and ate at the brewing company. It's this really cool restaurant that's right on the water that looks over into New Jersey. Most of our friends that we were with had the sampler platter of the famous beers there. We stuck to sweet tea and some amazing food. Our friend, Marta, took this picture of us outside the restaurant as we were leaving. So in the background, that's New Jersey. Pretty cool, huh!! Well that was our day. Happy Labor Day to all you folks!

My day in Manhattan

2008-08-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

So on Friday, after I had worked the past four days, Michael decides that I need to experience his fabulous walking tour of Manhattan. We start out at Ground Zero. I took this picture from one of the covered breezeways. In the background, there are two posters showing the complete project in 2012. There's going to be 7 towers at the site in remembrance of that day. It was amazing in a very tragic sense to be standing so close. Seeing the streets around the surrounding buildings brought back images of the news coverage that day when people where running and the clouds of smoke everywhere. It was so surreal! We also saw the FDNY 357, I think, that was right beside the Twin Towers. The station is now a memorial site as well.
Of course, what tour of Manhattan wouldn't be complete without a little shopping. We went into Century 21, which is one giant discount store with all different name brands. It was crazy busy!! We didn't stay too long. We walked up Canal Street, which is full of vendors and lone guys standing on the streets wearing a "Rolex" that you can just walk up to and buy. Then we rode the subway on over to Time Square and ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. Restaurant. Now reenergized we walked up to 5th Avenue past the Rockafellerr Center, The Plaza, Trump Towers and every ritzy store there is. There was a huge crowd outside of Abercrombie and Finch. Probably some model or celeb in there. We ended at Central Park. But it was getting kinda late. So I just took a couple of pictures before we headed home. Gorgeous!!

I walked half of Manhattan

2008-08-21T06:36:00.001-07:00

The above pic is a view of the empire state building. The shot kinda reminds me of a scene out of the movie Independence Day, write before the aliens attack . Since Megan has been working the last few days she told me to write a blog about what I have done. Well the cable people called again and told us it would still be about a week before they could "turn on" our cable for t.v. and internet. So yesterday I decided to do a little exploring in Manhattan. I started at the southern point where Ground Zero is, and made my way north. I stopped off at this street called Canal St. For those of you who do not know, a large majority of it is basically Chinatown. Its were you go to buy cheap souvenirs or a really inexpensive Rolex. After Canal St. I stayed on Broadway still heading north. I passed by NYU, Union SQ, Madison SQ Garden, and Times SQ.
While cutting across to 5th Ave. I saw NBC and the Rockefeller Center. 5th Ave. had all those high priced stores like Tiffany's and Debeers; but also Trump Towers. By the time I ended 5th Ave. I had reached Central Park. I decided to call it a day and head back on the F train to go home. The below pics are some of the other shots I got.

It's Saturday Night Live!!

The Plaza Hotel

I don't see a drive through

My favorite Stop

Bread and butter

2008-08-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is a shot from one of the stops on the F train. This is the train that runs just a block and a half from where we live and it runs all the way into Manhatten. It's the closest train stop to where I work now, which is nice because I get on the train and ride it for about 45 minutes. I don't have to worry with any transfers or other hassles. Life is good!! Today was actually my first day at MSKCC (the hospital I work at). It was a day of computer lectures and hospital policies complete with lots of test. Starting tomorrow, I'll be on the pediatric unit for three days in a row and then switch over to nights for the remainder of my contract. So I'm a working girl again. Or as Michael's mom likes to say and I love this "bread and butter winner"!!!

First week

2008-08-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

So here are the first pictures of New York City and a cool video that Michael shot of our new place. The reason he's showing you all our closet and stuff is that he's kinda proud at the amount of storage we made in this little apartment. So here's the last week. We left Magnolia a week ago this Sunday and drove two long days through TN, VA, WV, MD, PA, and NJ. Finally we arrived in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning and spent three long days unpacking and organizing our lives and building our new furniture. Yes, I said build. For those of you who don't get out much, IKEA is a fabulous furniture store where you pick out the pieces you like and pick them up in the warehouse the same day to check out. We had already been to IKEA and had the delivery all set up before we even arrived in NYC, which was very nice. We had our first dinner in the new place (tacos!!) on Thursday. Yum!! Friday was Michael's birthday so we walked over to the park. There's tons of neat little places to eat. We stopped at this Italian place, mostly because it started to rain and of course we didn't have an umbrella. We shared this platter of different meats like meatballs, stuffed chicken and some kind of sausage all over pasta. It was super good! Then we met up with friends and taxied over to The Chocolate Room for dessert. We had a hot brownie with a scoop of ice cream and hot fudge drizzled all over it. It's gonna be our new spot!!! Then we met up with even more friends and played bachi ball at this cool hall/tavern. That was pretty interesting to watch. So these pictures are actually from last night. We went up to Time's Square to the ESPN Zone for dinner and to watch free football/Olympics/baseball. You see, Michael and I have a TV but the cable people have to come survey our apartment before they can set us up; never mind that the other two apartments in this house have cable. Kinda frustrating! So for now we're stuck to DVDs. Anyways, back to Time's Square. Crazy busy!!!! We had to go through Penn Station to leave because their working on our subway line this weekend. That was an adventure! We nearly got trampled! I should have taken a picture of how packed it was down there. But guess what...there's a KMart down there. How bizzare, right? But life is going to be okay up here. I found an Old Navy and Target beside each other!!!! Well, I start work tomorrow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center! I'm so excited about this! I hope I do a good job at this hospital.

Our Apartment

2008-08-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our humble abode!
This is a tour of our Apartment near Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

A Night Out on the Town

2008-08-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Outside of ESPN Zone in Time Sqare