Friday, July 12, 2013

Another sandal bites the dust...

I had originally planned on going into NYC today after work, but some severe thunderstorms put a damper on that plan.

Instead, I decided to check out Greenwich Avenue, which is supposed to be a very posh shopping district in Greenwich CT.

I unfortunately was not very impressed.

First of all, upon stepping out of my car, I broke a strap on my sandal. This means I am now down two pairs on this trip! This also made it very difficult walking around the avenue, which is situated on a long hill, until I bought a shoestring at the local CVS and jerry-rigged a strappy solution.

Second of all, it was their annual sidewalk sale, which made it very difficult to walk around. The sidewalk is already not very wide, and the little tents they had set up made me feel a bit claustrophobic. The prices of the few things I stopped to look at were not very good either.

It's also a very pricey district. Part of this is just my problem - I'm on a college girl budget, and I've inherited my mother's thrifty-ness. I'm just never going to be one to spend $500 on a purse. But there were some flagship stores that I've seen before (Lucky Brand, Ralph Lauren, etc), and there was a definite markup.

Everything closed down very early too - most stores were completely shut down by 6 pm on a Friday night. This doesn't exactly make it easy to do some real shopping when you get out of work at 5, but I guess a lot of the women who shop here don't really work a traditional 9-5 job.

I will say it was a very pretty area, and once I got my shoe fixed, it was fun walking around. I spied some fun yarn-bombing on a local statue.


Annnnd there were some really good looking guys walking around with cute dogs. So, I might try coming back here when I have a little more time and there's not as much sidewalk chaos.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Best Worst Fabric ever!!!

Did a little shopping today, and found the most hideously amazing fabric ever.


I'm just trying to imagine the thought process that goes into not only making this, but actually buying it.

"Uh, yes, I would like some cheap cotton with badly drawn half-naked teen werewolves. Bonus points if they have really obvious pawprint tattoos. And throw in some bats for good measure. Wha-Why? I'm making curtains*."

*This is what my friend L always says she's making when fabric sellers ask her about her project.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Fireworks and a Stolen Sandal

Happy (belated) 4th of July!

I've been busy with my internship and spending most of my free time lounging by the pool. I don't off from work until 5, and by then I just want to change out of my work clothes and relax a bit, so I haven't really done much with my evenings.

I have been to some cute little restaurants in Greenwich though, and I'll be doing a write up on each of them. So far I've been very impressed with the people of this area - EXCEEDINGLY polite.

I also went and saw a movie on Wednesday that I had really been wanting to see: Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing". It's currently cycling through a limited release throughout the country, so if it's going to be at a theater near you, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, my 4th of July ended up being a little more eventful than I planned on it being!

I decided to see the Fairfield fireworks. I had originally planned on driving up to New Haven, but it was a much further drive and I was worried about the traffic coming back home. Fairfield, however, ended up being fun. I had kind of an adventure trying to find a place to park, but there was lots of room on the beach for little ol' me to spread down a towel and enjoy the show.

The fireworks were very good - I managed to get a couple of low quality fireworks with my phone.




A few people had brought their own Chinese Lanterns. It was entertaining because one of them had a slight rip in it, so it had some trouble lifting up. It eventually caught a bit of the breeze coming off the ocean, and everyone around me starting cheering. Pretty cool :)



What was NOT so much fun were the idiots who, halfway through the fireworks show, decided they needed to videotape and comment on the entire thing. There were probably 4 or 5 of them and very "Jersey Shore" in their demeanor. The one guy kept taking pictures with flash and the one girl was doing a selfie video (with light) and in general were just very rude.

I also had a bit of a scare on my way out. The beach had a bit of a bottleneck when you tried to leave - there were just a couple of narrow boardwalks to get back to the parking, so thousands of people were crammed together for a while. Being by myself and not towing kids/strollers/huge bags/etc, I was able to get through most of it fairly easily, but at one point I was stuck just like everyone else. I happened to feel a slight tug on my purse, and I whirled around only to find a hand reaching into my purse, and then the person running off through the crowd.

Naturally, I'm a bit pissed off!

However, when I started digging through my purse to see what my pick-pocket has stolen, I find that my wallet, keys, and cell phone are still safely zippered in the bottom of my purse.

However, my flip flop is missing.

I had taken off my sandals when I started walking on the beach, and had stuffed them into my purse. Stupid idiot either grabbed it or knocked it out of bag when he tried to take more important things.

I was glad nothing of import of was taken, but I sure was annoyed I had to walk back to my car barefoot!

Monday, July 1, 2013

1st Day!

Today was my first day of my orthopaedics internship. Overall it was pretty fun - the main doctor is on vacation this week, so no shadowing and I'm not getting assigned my "big" project yet, but I am currently working on two "in progress" articles that need to be cleaned up, re-researched, and rewritten.

I've done a lot of this type of research work before (aka, grunt work), but it's much more fun when I actually know more of what I'm reading/doing. Once again, I'm surprised at how much I actually did learn in medical school this past year.

I'm working with two other interns: another 2nd year medical student, and a pre-medical student, both from the area.

It's been a little weird - I'm the only one not from the area, and everyone knows that I'm staying at Mr. K's house. Like, "This is B. She's the medical student that Mr. K recruited from Michigan - she's staying at his house." Like I'm some big deal. And maybe I am? But it is a bit weird.

Other than work, it was a pretty quiet day. I got lunch in Cos Cob at this cute little deli. The clinic is right near the marina, so I chatted with some fishermen. I took a new way home and saw a statue of Jackie Robinson.

Anyway, off to bed so I can be extra prepared for tomorrow! I'm trying to cut out caffeine (read: soda), so we'll see how it goes.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Norwalk Aquarium

Today I spend some time in South Norwalk.

I originally just drove around, trying to find a little deli or something to get some lunch, but I ended up walking around a good portion of their downtown. I did indeed get some lunch, at Naked Greens, but I also went to the Norwalk Aquarium!













So cool! Anyway, tomorrow is my first day of my internship, so I should probably get some sleep. 'Night!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Road Trip Day 2: I made it!

I'm here! I'm here!

Left Ohio around 8 am this morning and traveled through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and finally arrived at my summer home in Connecticut.

(Quick aside: omg this house is gorgeous. GORGEOUS. Seriously, the guest bedroom is almost bigger than my entire current apartment.)

Traffic was very uneventful, right up until I got NYC and headed north on 95.

Highlights of  the trip? I stopped at a random Wendy's in Pennsylvania to get some lunch, and they were celebrating a worker's 80th birthday. They had cake and wanted everyone to wish her a happy birthday. So I did!



Favorite license plate? "YYY GUY" Get it? Wise Guy?

At any rate, I have officially made it half way across the country in one piece, minus one hubcap for my poor car (seriously, it fell off about 5 miles away from my destination when I was stuck in traffic. Lady pulled up next to me and asked, "Did you you know you lost a hubcap about a half mile back?" Well, no I didn't, and thank you....but what am I supposed to do about it now?!)

I just ordered some sushi, and plan on relaxing out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Toodles!