Chuckoween

Chuck and I headed to Boston this past weekend to celebrate his 26th birthday (October 28th), to see the BC Eagles take on the Clemson tigers and to celebrate Halloween at the Cantab Lounge. Chuckoween is an annual celebration that started in college so Chuck felt that it was only appropriate that it be resurrected this weekend with his old college roommates. We got in town Friday night and met up with Jason and Dani for some cocktails. Saturday morning we were up and tailgating and then had the good luck to see Boston College upset Clemson 16-10 in their best game of the season, you will also note that Chuck is looking very team spirited in the BC pants I got him for his birthday... After the game we played a few rounds of beruit (aka beer pong for everyone that did not go to BC) for old times sake and then disbanded so that everyone could get into their Halloween costumes. I went as a member of the Tea Party (very scary), Chuck and Jason were pirates and Dani was a gypsy/pirate wench. We danced the night away at the Cantab (which Katherine and mom will remember visiting) and then finished up the weekend visiting Chuck's sister Liz (who is a senior at Boston University) and driving back home. It was quite a weekend!

Toil and Trouble...

Sheldon somehow talked me into waking up at o'dark hundred on a SATURDAY to do volunteer work all day at an elementary school in Brooklyn through a program called New York Cares . We were put on mural duty - this is now the wall of the play ground at PS 199 (aka Shakespeare Elementary on Shakespeare Ave.)

We were in charge of Macbeth.

Of course, we were very serious about it the whole time...

Go Lions!

Columbia had their homecoming football game this weekend. Apparently we are hurting for fans, because the school puts on a free tailgate for anyone with a ticket or student ID (before all home games, not just the homecoming game) where they serve complimentary beer, burgers, hotdogs and pizza! Who can resist free beer? Not us!

some fellow SRNAs: Geoff, Paige, Kim, Emily

Don't Give

Our local NPR station, WNYC, is having its pledge drive this week and it sucks just as much as pledge drives suck in other towns so I was groggily tuning out their requests for pledges when my bedside radio went off this morning and then I heard this:

This one is pretty good too:

Chuck's New Apartment

Chuck came into the city last week and we went to see Fela (a play) which was my awesome birthday present from him. Then we drove back to CT and I spent the remainder of the week up there studying. I did take a quick break however to make a little video of Chuck's new apartment, I know I haven't even gotten around to posting a video of my apartment yet but it will happen eventually!

No Autographs Please

Back when I was getting ready to apply to anesthesia programs I worked as a research assistant for the head CRNA at UCLA's Department of Anesthesiology. He knew I was applying to school and knew that I was looking to beef up my resume (I had, after all, sought him out for that exact purpose) so he encouraged me to write an article that incorporated some aspect of my specialty but that could also be published in the California Association of Nurse Anesthetists journal. I had a hard time believing that this would ever come to fruition but, not wanting to disappoint my new mentor, I agreed and put together an article on "The Importance of Effective Analgesia in the Post-Operative Cardiac Surgery Patient". It is every bit as dry as the title makes it sound (remember: I wasn't expecting this to get past his inbox) but I am going to make you read it (scan it) anyway because it actually got published! Dr. Griffis (the guy I did the research for) emailed this evening to get permission to use the article for an educational website he is constructing (he is one of the CRNA instructors at USC). Now I need to figure out how to reference the dang thing on my resume.

Canoeing As A Contact Sport

Cristina, Susan, Elizabeth, Leslee, Janna, Dada, Marilyn

One of the advantages of having your children go off and figure out how to be grown ups is the opportunity for us grown ups to occasionally go off and remember how to be children. Florida temperatures have finally stopped rivaling the surface of the sun and the open road was calling SO off we went to Mount Dora – a funky little town about 2 hours northeast of Tampa. We landed at The Historic Lakeside Inn, (established in 1883 and it is entirely possible neither the carpet or plumbing has been updated since) on Friday night, enjoyed poolside cocktails and hors dourves (thank you Marilyn!) and arrived at Juniper Springs late Saturday morning to embark on a healthy 7-mile river run. Inga, park ranger/canoe gatekeeper/sister of Eva Braun, tried her best to discourage the group….
“Ladies, you are aware that this is a very difficult run, yes?”
We laugh at difficult.
“You know there are two places where you must portage your canoe, yes?”
We show her our Body Pump biceps.
“You are aware there is a $5,000 fine if you are discovered with alcohol or disposables allowed on the river, yes?”
OK, now we might be a teensy discouraged but decide wine decants into nicely into water bottles (which Inga sells for $1) and make a note that next time we bring sangria… er... “fruit punch”.
Turns out Inga wasn’t lying.
The current was fast, the run pretty tortuous and it seems Janna and I have an uncanny ability to find EVERY LAST obstacle in the river. It was embarrassing, really… but the real “special” moment came when we actually managed to flip the freaking canoe. Yep… that was mighty special all right. Almost as special as the world class bruises we both earned.
Somewhere, I know Inga is laughing.