long overdue update
I've been putting off posting for weeks now. What I've been up to:
(there are many more pictures in my gallery, these are a sample. Sorry about lack of rotation on some, I built my gallery and haven't gotten rotate working for large (2 Meg) files yet :P)
My dad came to visit for the weekend of the 4th of July
Friday he drove to New Haven, CT from his place in NH and took Metro North into the city. I met him at Grand Central and we went to lunch at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was surprisingly good for a big American tourist trap! We also went to the NY Aquarium at Coney Island. I took a ton of pictures and movie with my new camera. I feel like I haven't done anything with my life since my old camera died because I can't look at the pictures! I have to re-learn what to take pictures of, and remember I have a camera sometimes :P Finally we went to see the fireworks. I didn't really know the best place/time to go, so we just took the F train up to Green Point, walked a couple blocks toward the river and found a good view and small crowd. We got there like 15 min before the show, stood to watch and left. It was so easy, compared to the all-day deal of going to Boston!
Us
Bubba Gump
Coney Island
Sharks
Fireworks
Saturday we went to the NYC Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. We got an interesting tour of a bunch of old subway cars, but I was frustrated that they didn't have a good overview anywhere of the history of the subway. I pretty much ignored the bus and street car stuff. Much of the rest of the day we spent getting my air conditioner installed. We also saw Get Smart, which was entertaining (I like Steve Carrell), but it was weird because he was actually pretty competent as a spy most of the time, with goofy humor like the show sprinkled in.
Sunday was just the departure day, so we just went into Manhattan by way of Bryant Park and the NY Public Library (which was closed :( ), had tons of artery-clogging food at Junior's in Grand Central, and Dad took off.
Subway Car
Turnstile
Subway Car
Bryant Park
NY Public Library
Grand Central
The next weekend, Gillian from work had a BBQ at her place in Park Slope which was awesome. There was so much tasty food, including deviled eggs and potato salad I made. It was really fun to cook and have people eat and appreciate my food. It had been so long! There were two different, spicy grilled chicken options and two potato salad options and like three desserts. mmmm. Having fun in her backyard inspired me to actually use my backyard (remember the sweet new apartment?). A few weeks later, I hit Lowe's to get a small, cheap table-top gas grill to encourage use of the yard. Now I just need to schedule my own cookout :)
People
Gillian!
Work had an Open House on the 17th which was fun. I couldn't eat the tasty food or drink the wine though, because I had surgery scheduled for the next day :( I enjoyed seeing all the interest in the company though, and getting to pitch the program I'm in to some interested people. The surgery the next day at Mt Sinai was the most minor thing imaginable and went fine. I was pretty with it soon after waking up and was actually feeling better, Crohn's-wise so I got to have lunch with my friend Emily, who was picking me up from the hospital, and our mutual friend, Deirdre who's studying at Mt Sinai.
Saturday the 19th, I got to see a play written by Elisa, a long-lost high school friend I just found on facebook who lives in NYC. A mutual friend of ours (also from high school), Bridget came down to see it too. The play was interesting, weird and good! Afterwards, we had dinner with Elisa's parents, went and hung out at Elisa's place (had a drink on her roof), then went out to a nice bar for drinks and appetizers. Much fun! I hadn't been out for months and months since I've been sick. It was great :) We spent a large amount of our conversation talking about facebook and how weird it is to see what people from way back when are up to.
Adam, Bridget, Elisa
Adam, GW Bridge
Sunday Emily and I went to IKEA. She had a few things she wanted so we went while I still have a car (the new store in Red Hook, Brooklyn is nice and close, but actually getting stuff and getting it home would be a pain). She'd never been before, so we did the full experience: have the super-cheap and tasty cinnamon roll and coffee, spend like 3-4 hours in the store, with lunch in their cafeteria in the middle (mmm, swedish meatballs...), and loading the car with tons of those lovely flat-packed boxes. She got a small dresser and a bookcase and I got a small desk, a DVD bookcase and a chair. We both got assorted small stuff too. Afterwards, Emily let me build her furniture (I love building IKEA!), then that evening, we went out to a Mexican restaurant with a friend of hers, Sam for many margaritas and nachos. Sunday = awesome day :)
Finally, this past Friday, I had my first Remicade infusion. I had to go up to Mt Sinai and sit there for 2 hours for the IV, but they have comfy chairs and free wifi, so I was able to just eat my breakfast and work, then take the train down to the office after. I have to go back in 2 weeks for the 2nd, then it goes to a month and then to 2 months between infusions, so the time investment isn't bad and it means I don't have to inject myself like the other medication options require. Yuck. That day, I printed the 740 address change postcards we're sending from work for our move downtown (so customers update our address in their records), then spent 2 hours after work watching Fifth Element on hulu while I put postage on them. It's really satisfying to have that project done. I got some new, small coding tasks to do next which will give me a chance to get familiar with a portion of our codebase. I'll have to find myself some programming books to read, which is fun.
Sorry that was such a massive post. I'll be posting more regularly again for more bite-size chunks. I know I don't have the attention-span for something this long!
(there are many more pictures in my gallery, these are a sample. Sorry about lack of rotation on some, I built my gallery and haven't gotten rotate working for large (2 Meg) files yet :P)
My dad came to visit for the weekend of the 4th of July
Friday he drove to New Haven, CT from his place in NH and took Metro North into the city. I met him at Grand Central and we went to lunch at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was surprisingly good for a big American tourist trap! We also went to the NY Aquarium at Coney Island. I took a ton of pictures and movie with my new camera. I feel like I haven't done anything with my life since my old camera died because I can't look at the pictures! I have to re-learn what to take pictures of, and remember I have a camera sometimes :P Finally we went to see the fireworks. I didn't really know the best place/time to go, so we just took the F train up to Green Point, walked a couple blocks toward the river and found a good view and small crowd. We got there like 15 min before the show, stood to watch and left. It was so easy, compared to the all-day deal of going to Boston!
Us
Bubba Gump
Coney Island
Sharks
Fireworks
Saturday we went to the NYC Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. We got an interesting tour of a bunch of old subway cars, but I was frustrated that they didn't have a good overview anywhere of the history of the subway. I pretty much ignored the bus and street car stuff. Much of the rest of the day we spent getting my air conditioner installed. We also saw Get Smart, which was entertaining (I like Steve Carrell), but it was weird because he was actually pretty competent as a spy most of the time, with goofy humor like the show sprinkled in.
Sunday was just the departure day, so we just went into Manhattan by way of Bryant Park and the NY Public Library (which was closed :( ), had tons of artery-clogging food at Junior's in Grand Central, and Dad took off.
Subway Car
Turnstile
Subway Car
Bryant Park
NY Public Library
Grand Central
The next weekend, Gillian from work had a BBQ at her place in Park Slope which was awesome. There was so much tasty food, including deviled eggs and potato salad I made. It was really fun to cook and have people eat and appreciate my food. It had been so long! There were two different, spicy grilled chicken options and two potato salad options and like three desserts. mmmm. Having fun in her backyard inspired me to actually use my backyard (remember the sweet new apartment?). A few weeks later, I hit Lowe's to get a small, cheap table-top gas grill to encourage use of the yard. Now I just need to schedule my own cookout :)
People
Gillian!
Work had an Open House on the 17th which was fun. I couldn't eat the tasty food or drink the wine though, because I had surgery scheduled for the next day :( I enjoyed seeing all the interest in the company though, and getting to pitch the program I'm in to some interested people. The surgery the next day at Mt Sinai was the most minor thing imaginable and went fine. I was pretty with it soon after waking up and was actually feeling better, Crohn's-wise so I got to have lunch with my friend Emily, who was picking me up from the hospital, and our mutual friend, Deirdre who's studying at Mt Sinai.
Saturday the 19th, I got to see a play written by Elisa, a long-lost high school friend I just found on facebook who lives in NYC. A mutual friend of ours (also from high school), Bridget came down to see it too. The play was interesting, weird and good! Afterwards, we had dinner with Elisa's parents, went and hung out at Elisa's place (had a drink on her roof), then went out to a nice bar for drinks and appetizers. Much fun! I hadn't been out for months and months since I've been sick. It was great :) We spent a large amount of our conversation talking about facebook and how weird it is to see what people from way back when are up to.
Adam, Bridget, Elisa
Adam, GW Bridge
Sunday Emily and I went to IKEA. She had a few things she wanted so we went while I still have a car (the new store in Red Hook, Brooklyn is nice and close, but actually getting stuff and getting it home would be a pain). She'd never been before, so we did the full experience: have the super-cheap and tasty cinnamon roll and coffee, spend like 3-4 hours in the store, with lunch in their cafeteria in the middle (mmm, swedish meatballs...), and loading the car with tons of those lovely flat-packed boxes. She got a small dresser and a bookcase and I got a small desk, a DVD bookcase and a chair. We both got assorted small stuff too. Afterwards, Emily let me build her furniture (I love building IKEA!), then that evening, we went out to a Mexican restaurant with a friend of hers, Sam for many margaritas and nachos. Sunday = awesome day :)
Finally, this past Friday, I had my first Remicade infusion. I had to go up to Mt Sinai and sit there for 2 hours for the IV, but they have comfy chairs and free wifi, so I was able to just eat my breakfast and work, then take the train down to the office after. I have to go back in 2 weeks for the 2nd, then it goes to a month and then to 2 months between infusions, so the time investment isn't bad and it means I don't have to inject myself like the other medication options require. Yuck. That day, I printed the 740 address change postcards we're sending from work for our move downtown (so customers update our address in their records), then spent 2 hours after work watching Fifth Element on hulu while I put postage on them. It's really satisfying to have that project done. I got some new, small coding tasks to do next which will give me a chance to get familiar with a portion of our codebase. I'll have to find myself some programming books to read, which is fun.
Sorry that was such a massive post. I'll be posting more regularly again for more bite-size chunks. I know I don't have the attention-span for something this long!