Brianne Blogs?

During our perusal of cheap flight options for our Europe trip, we came across a pretty decent flight to Iceland and pondered going, being huge fans of the power of Iceland in Risk: Game of World Domination. However, we opted for our whirlwind tour of Europe instead.

A few days later the random information on our calendar gave me cause to regret our rejection of Iceland:

The people of Iceland read more books per capita than any other country in the world.

AHHH! These are clearly my people. So much so that when Meghan read it, she called me and told me that if I went there she was pretty sure I wouldn’t be coming back and also that from now on she will be referring to the Icelanders as “my people”. And I must say, if they are all as thrilled by reading as I am, then they might very well be my people and I’m yearning to visit them.

Speaking of my all-consuming love of reading. I’d like to thank those of you who got me books for my birthday. I can’t wait to dive into them all! And thanks to Berta for the Star Wars Trilogy and the soon to be Star Wars Trilogy viewing night I think we’ll be having soon.

Don’t worry, tomorrow I will post pictures and details of my actual birthday and the rest of the birthday stats since I know you can’t wait for those either.

Good day to you all and most importantly, Happy 1st day of the 1st round of March Madness!! Poops-your bracket better be ready! I mean finished and taped to the wall when I wake up for the first game or you will be disqualified from our at home contest where there is no prize-yeah, you heard me!

Erica, the second of three books that got the statement “you are a fabulous reader” was People of the Book by the author of March and Year of Wonders. I just finished this book and it was great. It’s about this really old Jewish book and you get the present day story of its preservation along with the story of it’s 500 year past and all the people who owned it. Really really good. Some good lines:

1. “There, where one burns books, one in the end burns men.”

2. “Me, I’m a complete pessimist. If there’s a sniper somewhere in the country I’m visiting, I fully expect to be the one in his cross-hairs.”

3. “He shouldered an immense rucksack and then proceeded to almost break the nose of the man crowding the aisle behind him. The lethal backpacer ninety-degree turn.”

4.”Sometimes I think if you took all the universities and hospitals out of greater Boston, you’d be able to fit what’s left into about 6 city blocks.”

5. “I’ve always been suspicious of people who advocate a good cry as a remedy for anything.”

I recommend this book to girls and to anyone who won’t get irritated that there are chapters where you only hear about one person and then never hear about them ever again. I know sometimes that is irritating, but in this book I loved it.

Okay, this is the second edition of this post. The first one, if any of you read it between 1 and 4 am was a little forlorn and perahps would have made some of you wonder if I was planning to kill myself on my 27th birthday. So, I decided to edit this and make it a little less melancholy.

As most of you know, I do not like my birthday. I will list below the reasons for those of you that don’t know and those of you who need a refresher:

1. 14th birthday: This was a crappy month of March. We had spent the first week of March in Michigan saying goodbye to Grandma Genow since she was dying of lung cancer. Then we came back to Oklahoma to wait for that to happen. So, it’s Friday, the weekend before my birthday. My friends are throwing me a party that night. I’d like to tell you how that party went but I can’t because round about 1pm at school that day, Mom strolls into the principals office to tell me Grandma is close to dying and we are leaving right then to go back to Michigan. So, we get to Michigan (not the best 18 hours I’ve ever spent in a car) and play the waiting game. And why do we have to wait? Because of my birthday. Everyone keeps saying Grandma is waiting to die until after my birthday. And while they say this like it’s a good thing, it sure didn’t seem that way at the time. And instead of the party with my friends, we had cake and opened presents on my birthday in the dining room of my grandmas house, in full view of the living room where she was lying in her hospice bed. (sorry to re-open this wound, family members, but it’s the biggest part of why I hate this day)

2. 22nd birthday: (another bummer, family) In December before my birthday, I had gotten the flu for the first (and sadly not the last) time and it knocked me on my ass. I still don’t remember most of that week. Unfortunately (as I’ve blogged on before) Aunt Marge died that week and I barely remember that trip to Michigan or her funeral. And while not remembering this really sucky event has it’s upsides, it also had one serious downside that reared its ugly head on my birthday. It was senior year of college and instead of being somewhere awesome for my last spring break, I was in Mexico with my nursing class and my least favorite nursing professor working in a border clinic as part of clinicals for that semester. Ugh. So, on top of that crap cake came the following crap icing: Grandma Sally calls me in the afternoon to wish me happy birthday and she asks me who else I have talked to and I list the people but then say how surprised I am that Aunt Marge hasn’t called yet because she always calls so early on our birthdays to catch us before we go to school. To which my poor Grandma Sally has to reply, after a bit of a pause, “Brianne, Aunt Marge is dead”. Yep, imagine getting that news on your birthday and I’m sad to say that it was news. It’s like the fact of her dying had been eaten by the flu virus and I sat there in my sad little Mexico hotel room, crying.

Now, I know these are only two birthdays in the 27 that I have had, but they were pretty bad ones and I just can’t seem to like my birthday as a result. It’s probably some subconscious fear that someone else will be dying on that day that makes me want to tuck my head into my shell (don’t you wish you had a shell like a turtle sometimes?) and wait out the day and then move on with my life on the 18th.

So, my apologies to those of you who like the birthday pomp and have to de-pomp on this day (Lisa). And my many thanks to those of you who have gone above and beyond the call of understanding and provided me with two of the simplest and best birthdays I’ve ever had:

1. Amber for providing me with my best birthday ever, #23 where just the two of us got wasted at Hudson’s while watching March Madness, took our picture with every person in the bar, then went home for some CSI: The Board Game. (don’t mock it, it’s hard).  

2. And Meghan for birthday #26 where we applied fake tattoos (you know, like you do) and had a yummy dinner with some drinking, went to see Horton Hears a Who and then came home to open presents and have cake. Simple, quite, no hats or streamers and nobody died or tried to die or had to tell me someone had died.

Uh, remember in the opening paragraph where I said this edited version was less melancholy? I bet you’re really wondering what the first version was like.

So, a big thank you to all of you for your calls, cards, gifts, texts, etc this day even though I make it hard to do. You’re all great pals. Here are some birthday stats so far since everything is a competition:

First Birthday Text: Mindy Briggs

First Birthday Phone Call: Amber Turley (who wisely thought to call at 11:53 eastern time to ensure that she was on the phone with me the minute it became my birthday)

Tried to be the First Birthday Phone Call: John (who did not realize that crafty Amber was planning for this scenario)

First Birthday Card: Mom

First Birthday Wish in Person: Ezra’s mom who was the first person to see me this day as I was at work last night.

First Birthday Blog Shout-Out: Still up for grabs.

First Birthday E-Mail: Also still up for grabs.

Now, while you don’t actually get anything for being first in a said category, you do get the satisfaction of winning which is plenty for the Brianne’s, Amber’s and Zak’s of the world.

So, I again apologize (particulary to Dad) for this bummer of a post, but now you all understand where my head is on this particular day and why I often screen all calls and look mad when people mention that it’s my birthday.

So, Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Happy My 27th Birthday to you all! (Um, Dad, how old does this make you feel? My guess is ancient!)

Mark your calendars- Zak and Brianne are going to Europe April 30th. Zak had some friends get some really cheap plane tickets to Paris and so we started looking into it and found a great price on a ticket into Paris and out of Zurich so we booked it and are headed there in about 6 weeks! We could not be more excited. We decided to stay for 10 days to allow for maximum city exposure. We will be in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam at the beginning of our trip and then we are headed to the capital of Switzerland, Bern, where we will be headquartering ourselves for the last 5 days and taking day trips to the many close places such as: Milan, Geneva, Zurich, the Matterhorn and the Alps, Dusseldorf.

As with all Zak and Brianne ventures, I am sure there will be mis-steps and accidents and many other things that would ruin other peoples trips but will just make ours more fun. We are now busy planning for what we are going to do in each city and where we are going to stay. Also, I have to bone up on my French and Zak his Italian. Luckily, when we hub out of Bern, a large percentage of the population speaks english, so we won’t have to learn any other languages.

I’ll keep you updated on our plans and then one can only assume there will be many a blog post when we get back. Perhaps in preparation, we should all watch National Lampoon’s European Vacation.

Here are some of the good ones from our random info calendar as of late:

1. In the 1700’s in London, you could purchase insurance against going to hell.

2. The earliest recorded case of a man giving up smoking was on April 5, 1679, when Johan Katsu, sheriff of Turki, Finland, wrote in his diary, “I quit smoking tobacco.” He died one month later.

3. The phrase “son of a gun” derives from the days when women were allowed to live on naval ships. The son of the gun was one born on the ship, oftern near the midship gun, behind a canvas screen. If the paternity was uncertain, the child was entered in the log as “son of a gun”.

So many things to ponder with this bit on info. For example, while I’m sure most of us wouldn’t buy insurance against hell, would our 1700’s counterpart feel the same way?

Also, I think it’s funny that the first guy to quit smoking died. Hardly an advertisement for the gums and patches of now. Also, while he wrote that he gave up smoking tobacco, he could certainly have still been chewing his tobacco.

The last one is so great. It’s one of those great phrases that we use that we had no idea where it came from. I mean, son of a gun means bastard and I’m afraid that most of us aren’t using it correctly. Nowadays, it seems to mean, that you are frustrated or don’t want to say son of a something else. This is good information to have.

While we were on our trip, Meghan, Maren and I went to this little bookstore where I bought three new books. When we got the cash register and the owner was checking me out, she said “you are a fabulous reader” based on my book choices. A sincere thanks to that lady for calling me a fabulous reader. The Monsters of Templeton is one of those book that elicited that comment. Here are some of the quotes I liked:

 (and, look how great the cover is.)

1. I looked like some little chick, starving, molting, kicked out of the nest for late-discovered freakishness.

2. And then there was the eentsy little promiscuity problem, the months I’d swear off boys, entirely, and then in one night have such a frenzy of flirtation that I would take one into the bathroom at the party and then take another home with me. I was not promiscuous, I think; just sexually bipolar.

3. Returning to books was coming home.

4. I will accept no bourgeios striver, no paycheck whore, no infernal attorney, editor bachelor they’re so intent on introducing me to, I will have an artist, I will be the wife of a genius, or I will be a fierce spinster, dedicated to intellect.

5. Why, I always wonder, do scientists believe that unintelligibility equals intelligence?

I loved this book. I read it in about a day and it was a great combination of things. It was a comedy, a family drama, a geneology search, a sci-fi novel, and there was more than one actual monster and more than one human monster. Good stuff!

March Madness! It’s so close that I can taste it! I’ve been loving every minute of championship week, particularly with OSU beating OU last night in a great great game! And Baylor upsetting Kansas-awesome! Okay, yes I love Kansas, but it’s just the Big 12 tournament and the last seed upsetting the 1 seed is just a great taste of what’s to come in the Big Dance. Even Meghans been asking if it’s time to make our brackets and it’s so close to selection Sunday and then we can print, fill out and post our brackets on the living room wall like we do every year. I can’t wait. I tried to schedule my work around this, but it didn’t work out so well, so I’ve already warned my employer that I’ll be bringing my laptop and waching all the games online. NCAA March Madness on Demand is free online and awesome and you get to pick which games you see and did I mention it’s free? Cuz it is! So, here’s to March Madness and here’s hoping that this year a #16 upsets a #1. Fingers crossed…

You know how in textbooks, the authors like to make really stupid examples and metaphors so that even an infant could understand the point? In case you don’t remember this textbook trait, I am going to give you the example that I had the great pleasure of reading last night in my Psychology: Themes and Variations textbook:

“If you have ever visited an aquarium, you may have encountered one on natures’s more captivating animals: the octopus. Although this jellylike mass of arms and head appears to be a relatively simple creature, it is capable of interesting behaviors. The octopus has highly developed eyes that enable it to respond to stimuli in the darkness of the ocean. When threatenedm, it can release an inky cloud to ward off enemies while it makes its escape by a kind of rocket propulsion. If that doesn’t work, it can camouflage itself by changing color and texture to blend into its surroundings. Furthermore, the animal is surprisingly intelligent. In captivity, an octopus can learn, for example, to twist the lid off a jar with one of its tentacles to get a treat that is inside.” (Keep in mind this is a psychology class with a psychology textbook.)

(Here comes the good part. This is actually the next sentence in my book).

“Despite its talents, there are many things an octopus cannot do. An octopus cannot study psychology, plan a weekend, dream about its future, or discover the Pythagorean theorem.”

Yes, this is the example my textbook chose to tell me about the biology of the brain in this chapter on brain function. And imagine how sad I was to learn that an octopus can’t plan a weekend or dream about its future. And imagine how many tears I shed at the thought that this majestic creature can’t live the ultimate dream of discovering the Pythagorean theorem. I mean, I know I think of my life in terms of what happened before and what happened after that bit of math knowledge came into my world. And the octopus will never know the glory of A squared plus B squared equals C squared. Oh, the horror! Let’s all take a moment of silence in honor of this sad, sad tale truth….

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on any other gems of wisdom that come my way from my classes. And if the first paragraph of chapter 3 is anything like the rest of the book, I think there will be many.

Twice a year when spring forward/fall back hits, I am unable to change the time on my work watch. Erica has been the witness of this difficulty for quite some time and is the one who has to push me to look up the directions on the internet after me struggling to figure it out for days and days on my own. A few months ago I got a new work watch and when I was setting the time originally I thought that perhaps it was easier than work watches of the past and would be easy to set when time change came around again.

And can you believe it? I set it on the first try. No frustration. No being an hour off on my watch for the few days it takes Erica to convince me to google my watch instructions. It was a watch miracle! Thank you makers of the Timex WR50M for making this process so easy for me. I mean, without Erica here to bug me to look things up, I could have held out for months and months. Dodged a bullet on this one!

On our last full day in Windham, New York, Lisa hit the slopes while Meghan, Maren and I hit the town. And by hit the town, I mean we walked the lenght of the entire town and looked into the windows of all the closed shops. Yes, aparently most of the cute little shops are only open on the weekends. This lovely bear Maren is next to was outside a nice little store that we wanted to go into and tried on more than one day with no success.

After our unsuccessful 3 minute tour of our town, we headed down route 296 to Tannersville-where we had eaten Mexican the night before where they actually had an open store or two and had a great place called Last Chance Antiques, Cheese and Restaurant. True story. So, we went to eat here and it was so good. Instead of fries with your entree, they served a potato knish. Yum. We all had a really great meal in this place that is also an antique store. The decor on the walls and everything hanging from the ceiling is for sale. It was a really fun and cool place.  Look around Maren at all the great things (including the Indian) that we could have bought.

On our winding way home, we saw some wild turkeys and some deer. Imagine the excitement of us city girls to see animals other than pigeons and rats!

That night for dinner we went to this great place called the Point Lookout Restaurant which overlooks 5 states in the mountain valley. The view was great and the food was awesome. The consensus was that we had the best house salad ever. Instead of just lettuce and dressing, there were olives, onions, tomatoes, croutons and the best peppercorn parmesian dressing ever. Seriously good. Then we each had a different entree and they were all so so so good. It was one of those small places where the owner is also the bartender and comes to your table more than once during the meal to see how you are liking it and to say “God bless you”.

The only downfall of our great meal was Lisas emergency. When she went to the bathroom, her iphone fell out of her back pocket and into the toilet! Ahhh! She comes running out of the bathroom saying “Emergency!” with her sad iphone in her hand in some papertowels. We tried to shake the water out and when we got home, we tried to blow dry the water out. Sadly, it did not work and our friend had to go get a new one when she got home.

For the following photos, I am not going to tell you the story, I am just going to let you decide on your own what happened and make up a story in your head. Enjoy the next part of our evening.

So, after that, we did some drinking and played some games. About three years ago, Lisa, Zak and I went to Toys R Us to buy some games and one game that was on super sale was Yahtzee Texas Hold ‘Em. We played once and Lisa loved it and Zak and I did not and since then every time we talk about playing a game this is what Lisa suggests and we have, not once, agreed to play it. So, for Lisa’s 30th birthday, we agreed to play one more time. And she was pumped.

We also played a rip-roaring game of pictionary that had many ties and was the closest game we had ever played. Then we headed off to our last sleep in the Catskills.

And don’t worry, we didn’t all have to sleep in the same bed. So, that was our trip. We had a great time and it was sure nice to see Marmen in the year 2009 and Lisa seemed to enjoy her skiing. Good times, girls.