Brianne Blogs?

Last night Meghan and I met Zak for drinks and dinner in Times Square.  One handy thing about NYC is that you don’t really have to make any plans for your evening other than “we’ll hang out” and where you’ll be meeting. The great thing is that you can walk around where you met and find a great place to eat with a great drink special and then find another activity for later in the same neighborhood. It’s handy, but also severely retards your ability to make far away, concrete plans. What can you do?

So, a few weeks ago the three of us got together (again for drinking and dinner-sense a pattern) and I was going to blog about it but we only took one picture and I wasn’t in it. That’s right, on this blog, if I was at an event but not featured in the photos, you’re not going to hear about it. Ha! When I was telling Meghan and Zak this, they thought it was a little funny of me, but it did inspire us to take this group photo and to take more than one picture of our evening together, so I guess it worked.

Anyway, we ended up at this restaurant called Sombrero because they had two-for-one margaritas. Zak and I had two coconut margaritas (good) and Meghan spiced it up with a strawberry (good) followed by a mango that was not so good, so Zak volunteered to chug it. My favorite part was that he threatened Meghan that if she didn’t drink it, he would. What he didn’t count on was that she would say, “okay” and make him drink it. Then he tried to get her to give him a dollar to do it. Tip to you all, if you want to be paid to do something, don’t first volunteer for the job! So, after our margarita fest, I was telling them how I’ve been craving banana pudding for days, so we went back home and made some (yum). Meghan confessed that she had never had the glory that is banana pudding/nilla wafers/whipped cream before?! What?! I mean seriously, I know there are some things that we love that are very south specific: white gravy with biscuits, fried okra, everclear and other high alcohol content grain alcohols, but banana pudding? Is this really a southern thing? I find that I had no idea if that is the case. Anyway, we made the best banana pudding in the world. It kicked ass! The photo to the right is included because I look good and Zak managed to take a photo without closing his eyes and without looking high. It’s a real skill of his to do both of these things in most photos he takes. It’s a good thing he’s a stage actor and not a model. I can’t even imagine how frustrated the photographers would get due to the fact that it sometimes takes 5 or 6 tries to get one that’s semi-usable. So, well done Zak on this one take only photo! Did I mention how crappin’ good nilla wafers are? Zak and I busted them open in the store (mother meghan was not pleased) and remembered just how spectacular they are. I mean, seriously, go out and buy some now. You have been missing out if you have not been eating these wonderful things daily! I also encourage you to make some Banana pudding, STAT! That’s how good it was. Zak said “this is the best thing I ever put in my mouth!”. Although you should also know that Zak tends to get pretty excited about what he eats. He frequently “claps out” a good meal and once told Maren that the Pizza Boat she made us was “life changing”. (no offense to Maren, but it was just regular). So, do what you will with that statement from Zak. Happy banana pudding-ing to you all!

Here in the city, we see a lot of celebrities. Big ones, small ones, they are here and we see them frequently. Except when Maren is here. She has logged a lot of time here since I’ve moved here. And has yet to see a celebrity of any kind. When she was here from January – March she made it her goal to see one celebrity and failed miserably. She was all over the city. The Bronx, Brooklyn, the east side (where Brianne and Meghan try never to go) and still no luck.

It’s actually quite a skill to not see a famous person while being here for so long. David Hyde Pierce, Bernadette Peters, Harry Connick Jr (recenlty moved), Bruce Willis, Tracey Morgan and many others live in our neighborhood alone. But still, no sightings for poor Maren.

Needless to say, this is an area of some bitterness for our friend. So yesterday, I was on the phone with Maren and walking to Ezras and walked by Julianna Marguiles

So, I did what all New Yorkers do, and pretended not to notice and, most importantly, not to care that she’s famous but then when she was far enough away had to tell Maren who I just walked by. Alas, poor Maren was pissed. My tip to any of you who will be visiting this year is to not mention it to Maren when you see a celebrity (which you most likely will as it’s nearly impossibly not to see one while visiting-sorry Maren).

I may have spoken too soon when I declared “beauty thy name is dyson earlier in this blog”. For you see, I now am going to have to bestow that title on my new Iphone.

Those of you who are aware of my technology phobia and the way I go kicking and screaming into any new technology venture may be shocked that I have one now. Especially since everyone knows that I have had camera phones for many years and never, not once, taken a picture with one. So, why did I suddenly feel the need for the mother of all technological phone advances?

1. My pink Razr has been on the fritz for many months. The screen blacks out at will and the phone won’t keep a charge and recently it had taken to only letting me listen to selected voice mails from a given day. Then, a few days later, I’d get a voicemail from earlier in the week. Nice joke to play on me, crazy phone.

2. Then my ipod nano exceeded its storage limit so I was going to finally break down and buy an actual full size ipod and then thought…wait a minute…I need a new cell phone and a new ipod…what if they made those two things in a spectacular two for one deal?! But wait, they do! And thus I give you my new best friend.

Allow me to list the things she does:

1. stores all of the 2000 pictures I have stored on the hard drive of my computer

2. stores all of the 2000 songs I have in my Itunes

3. takes me to the actual internet. I can check my e-mail, order things online and blog from my phone!

4. she takes really high quality pictures.

5. she tells me the time, weather, current stock prices and how to get where i need to go all with the touch of a button.

The best part is that my exising At&t plan which was $59 a month has now gone up only $6 to accomodate my all free all the time interneting on my beautiful new Iphone. Just imagine what $6 does for me. (let’s not talk about how much the actual phone cost just yet)

Now I will make a list of the things she does not do as it’s much smaller than the other list:

1. staple

Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s all she doesn’t do and I’m sure she’d try really hard to do it if I asked her.

Alas, I have yet to come up with a name for her. The general rule (with Brianne, Amber and Maren) has been to name computers after characters from Harry Potter (ie my computer Neville Longbottom) and since the Iphone is a computer that makes calls, I think she might need a Harry Potter name. However, I think this needs to be up to Maren and Amber if we want to extend the HP naming to complicated phone devices. If not, then I’ll have to come up with something else to name her. I’m open to suggestions.

If you open a box to assemble a new shelving unit and the first sentence is “Assemble with two people” know that they are not kidding.

Also know that this is a handy tip, not a personal challenge.

Just thought I’d mention in case this happens to any of you today as it did to me.

More details and photos to follow!

Unrelated…look at my super cute new polka dot sheets from Target! I heart Target!

While I certainly wish everyone a happy passover, I feel that perhaps it doesn’t effect the rest of my not jewish friends the way it effects non jewish Brianne and Meghan.

You see, right behind our apartment (our backyard if we had one) is the Manhattan Day School (jewish private school) playground. Look out our bedroom windows and that is the view. This would be fine and dandy if Meghan and I were not night shift workers. As such, we sleep to the sounds of children on the playground around 9am, noon and 2pm. It’s always a race to get to sleep before they get out to the playground at 9am because it’s harder to fall asleep with them yelling. We can always tell the time of day based on wheter or not we can hear children without having to look at a clock at all. We can also sing you some of the songs they sing on the playground should you ever want to know. Stupid bastard children. (says the pediatric nurse and her pediatric nurse friend) 

The really awesome thing is that they have recently added a whistle to get the kids in when recess is over. AHHH! It’s not that big of a playground. A whistle is completely unnecessary! I have half a mind to go over in the night and break in and take the damn thing. Luckily, it’s passover and school is out for the week! Yeah! No covert op needed this week.

So, while I certainly wish a happy passover to you all, I’m really just saying happy passover to us!

So, in response to the pope coming to new york this weekend, Meghan and I decided to leave the city. Okay, that’s not why we left, but missing the traffic and 24 hour news coverage were definate bonuses to our absence! Above is us at the river after we ate lunch at an outdoor cafe.

We had a lovely train ride up to Meghans parents house and then had a very nice dinner and chat with both of her parents. As with all Skahens, Meghans mom thinks my curly hair is the best thing ever (grrr!). Alas, the grass is always greener on the other side as I would kill for Meghans flat, curl-free hair. You just can’t win.

The next day, we woke up early, ate breakfast on the sun porch and read our books. Then we went to the mall (a real live mall) and did some shopping. And then we hit the motherload-Target! Oh how this girl who used to live next door to a Super Target years for Target in New York. There’s one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx, but it’s not the same and I don’t like to leave the island, so I don’t go very often. Plus, then you have to really be careful how much you buy as you then have to tote it with you on the subway and all the way home. Anyway…

We drove around and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the fact that we were in a car! We then ate lunch at the river and walked around and had a lovely time. Then we came home, ate dinner and watched Daybreak on DVD with Taye Diggs. Good stuff. Even if you don’t think Taye Diggs is the president of Hotville (which he is) you’d enjoy this series. It’s great!

Today we slept in and then went to lunch at Chilis! (sorry to taunt you Maren and Lisa) Then we hit a Michaels and a Pier One. Then headed back home for some more porch reading. There’s nothing like sitting back in an Adirondack chair, listening to some music and reading Jane Austen. Weekends were made for that kind of thing and it was so nice to enjoy out of the city. This is the sunporch where we spent a good deal of time.

 The only downfall of our trip is the concerning fact that Meghan seems to be allergic to fresh air. She got home and very quickly had some serious allergy issues. Odd given that she’s never before had allergies. She had to take some Claritin! What? Who does that? People who are allergic to fresh air. It’s an unfortunate side effect of living in the city. We seem to get a little sick when we leave. I get a cold almost every time I go to Oklahoma and now here we have Meghan doing the same thing. This does not bode well for the future of our lungs if we can’t handle fresh air. Although, if there’s some sort of nuclear attack and the air quality is really poor and all of you fresh air breathers can’t handle it and die, Meghan and I and all New Yorkers will be going strong and will happily repopulate the earth in your absence. See, there is a silver lining. (also, note that meghan and i will repopulate with other people [taye diggs for example] not eachother.)

So, now I’m back in the city and back to breathing my not so fresh air. Thanks to the Skahens for putting me up for my first weekend out of NYC in 9 months. I had a great time!

P.S. Prepared to be wowed by the fact that all of the above pictures were taken on my new Iphone. Will wonders never cease?

Hello all. I am blogging from Meghan’s parents kitchen in Newburgh, New York. And why? Because earlier this week we discovered that Brianne hasn’t left Manhattan since Maren’s wedding. That’s right, nine whole months on the island of Manhattan! AHHH! This is not good and reminds me of the episode of Sex and the City where there is this creepy guy who hasn’t left the city in 10 years. I don’t want to be that guy.

So, we blazed a trail up here to hang out in a place where people drive cars and have yards and more than one window in a room. Yesterday, I had to take three steps to get from the toilet to the sink and three more to get from the sink to the hand towels. My god, the square footage in the bathroom!

Meghan and I are enjoying spending time reading on the sun porch and outside and have already been to Target and the mall! (you, normal things for most of you) It’s funny the things that are exciting to you when you live in New York City.

Anyway, we’re taking lots of pictures (with the new iphone which is pink and lovely and will soon have a post dedicated to its glory) and I will post them when I get back to the city. Enjoy your weekends and try to remember to leave the area you live in at least once a year. I think it’s important!

Has everyone seen the show “House” ? It’s on Fox and I saw it for the first time after the Super Bowl (go Eli!) and it was great! I’ve since then become a little (or a lot) obsessed. Maren got me House Season One for my birthday and as I proceeded to get very sick and alternate from the couch to my bed for about a week, I watched all of season one, season two and season three. Yes, that’s right, I did it. What I’m wondering is what non-medical people think of the show. Is it as interesting if you don’t know what all the words mean or the lab values are and etc? Please let me know. Also, the main character is sort of an ass. I love him a lot. I am also wondering what nicer people of the world think of him. So, basicall, I’m saying that people need to watch this show. You can go online to www.fox.com and watch episodes. I’d choose the one that was aired after the Super Bowl. Mira Sorvino is in it and it’s good. I also find that you didn’t need to know anthing about the characters to enjoy it as it is the middle of season four and it was the first time I saw it. So, think about it and let me know if you see it and what you think. For those of you medical people, it’s kind of fun to see if you can figure out what is wrong with the patients before House does. Seriously, check it out.

I have lived in new york city for nearly three years. In that time, I have been to the Rent (the musical) lottery multiple times. Much like I have been to the lotteries for many other shows all with no success. The only time my name has ever been drawn for these discount front row tickets ($20-$25) was a day when there were three of us, so we had to say no since we couldn’t all go.

Meghan and I have been hitting the Rent lottery once a week-ish lately and have never won. The thing is, we don’t even expect to win anymore. We talk about our evening plans like this “okay, so we’ll put our names in the Rent lottery then get dinner and see a movie.” This is what we’ve been doing for the last two months. It’s just our routine. We don’t even think or talk about what we’d do if we won as we know we never will.

And then came today. I told Meghan before we went that we were going to win. That because today is tax day and I had to give up $15,000 and we were both excited about the movie we were planning to see after we lost, that we would win. The universe would cut us some slack and today would be our day.

So, we get down there and put our names in and then we’re standing there chatting while they start to call names as we’re pretty sure we won’t be hearing ours. And then, strangely, the first name called is “Brianne Genow”. WHAT? Meghan and I were both so shocked that neither of us said anything. Usually when people win, they yell or shout or give some indication that it is them. Meghan and I stood there speechless and then I slowly and very unexcitedly walked into the box office. It was so surreal.

Even now, hours after the show is over, I’m still shocked that we actually won. The best part (or the part where the universe decided to slap us in the face) is that two names after mine was called we hear this “Meghan Skahen”. Uh, excuse us? Today we won four tickets and every other day of our lives for three years, we can’t win a single one? RUDE!

Later I’m going to tell you about the ridiculous conversations going on around us pre-show, but for now, just enjoy the fact that Meghan and I got to see Rent one more time. You just can’t see it enough. For serious. Once is not enough. This is time 8 for me and that’s not enough. All Rent all the time. Please enjoy this clip. It’s the opening sequence from the movie version of Rent. If you haven’t seen it then you must not have spent much time in my company and you should see it soon.

The title of this post, is the sad but true story of my fun times at Ezra’s last night.

Bodily Fluid One: I had just pulled Ezra out of the bath and he was laying on his bed while I dried him off. I turn to get something off of his bedside table and I hear him giggle. It’s at this point that I feel the pee on my arm. Now, at this point, I lost all ability to do anything. I just stood there watching the pee hit the expensive oriental rug and then arc down to the bedcovers and finally Ezra’s leg. Just stood there frozen. I’ve been working for the Ezra’s for well over a year and he has never even come close to peeing on me or anyone else and he chooses today to do this. You will come to see that it was clearly a family conspiracy…

Bodily Fluid Two: It’s about 10:00 last night and I hear Daniela (Ezra’s two year old little sister) making some sick little kid noises (something us pedi nurses just know).  So, I walk into her room and she’s burning up. Then Daniela and I commence a long and loud search (she was screaming) for a thermometer. Ezra was in the hospital last week and whenever that happens, things go missing or get moved and then take forever to relocate. Anyway, fever of 101.7 (under the arm) for miss Daniela. At this point, I call her mom because I am going to give her tylenol but it’s nice to inform the parents of a child you are not technically supposed to be administering drugs to (as she’s not your patient in that house) that you’re going to be doing that anyway. As I’m hanging up the phone with Iriss, Daniela vomits. The great part about said vomit is that before it hits the ground, it hits my left shoulder the trails down my left arm. Nice!

Bodily Fluid Three: Daniela and I then move to the kitchen to get her cleaned up. There we are, taking care of business and washing ourselves and removing offending pieces of clothing when she throws up again, his time hitting my right arm and hand. And while vomit number one was just white and creamy (like the milk she had recently consumed) vomit number two was chunks of chicken and broccoli (sorry to the non nurses for the yucky details). It is at this point that Andy (the dad) arrives home to find a screaming child that he can only get to after dodging the pile of vomit right by the front door and then the giant chunky vomit that we are standing behind in the kitchen. Good times were had by all!

I think the best/worst part of this story is that this is by no means the worst night I have had in terms of bodily fluid on me. I mean, there was no flying blood. Nobody coughed anything up that landed anywhere near me (surprisingly, I think that crap from the lungs is the worst thing to get on you. It’s so gross and makes me want to leave the profession forever. For serious!) and no one got poop on me at all (it’s a nice job I have). It’s also a sad commentary on what I do for a living that last night was not a bad night, nor did I communicate the story to Meghan and Amber in a feel sorry for me cuz this happened kind of way. The sad thing is that I just thought it was all par for the course and pretty funny. You be the judge…