The Rest of the Weekend (including the TV stand from Hell)

I was planning on updating last night, but I ended up watching It Happened One Night, an old black and white movie that I got at the library.  I've always wanted to watch the movies that were listed by the American Film Institute as the top 100 and figured that this would be a great place to start.  It's really unique movie because it was the first (and one of three total) to win all five major Academy Awards - Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay.  After the movie, I was exhausted and headed to straight to bed.  


OK, back to the update - Saturday evening, Andrew and I headed to Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh's Southside Works.  The food was pretty good - the pretzels and bier cheese were the best.  Even though we enjoyed it, I would say it placed third out of our the four places we went over the whole weekend.  It probably would have ranked a lot higher if either of us enjoyed beer more.

Following dinner, we went to see Toy Story 3.  It was SO good.  I'd recommend it to anyone, but based on Rotten Tomatoes reviews (rottentomatoes.com) it doesn't seem like 3D would be worth the extra money.

Sunday started out really well.  We walked to another Pittsburgh institution, Pamela's in Shadyside.  This place was awesome.  They had amazing hotcakes that were really thin, almost like crepes.  I ordered three of them and couldn't believe how delicious they were.  As a girl who also enjoys breakfast meats, the sausage was also great!  A friend of mine had said that Pamela's gets super busy later in the morning, so we went around 9:00 AM and got done eating by 10:00 or so.  We had planned to go to mass at Pittsburgh's cathedral, which is right between my house and the university, but the next mass didn't begin until noon.  This left us a lot of time to kill, and we decided to spend it back at my apartment putting together my TV stand.  Andrew's graduation present to me was a new TV for my living room.  Because I already had enough stuff to move from Columbus, we decided that it made more sense to wait and buy the TV in Pittsburgh while he visited.  With no TV,  I hadn't yet put together the stand (it was one of the many IKEA purchases from my parent's trip).

Andrew and I got to work.  It was definitely slow because I own one screw driver, so we couldn't really work simultaneously.  We got a system going; one of us would use the screw driver and the other person would look ahead to next step and get things ready for it.  It took over and hour, but finally we had almost all of it together.  At that point, we flipped it over and realized that two of the pieces on the front of the stand were flipped around and their unfinished sides were exposed to the outside (it looked SO stupid).  What's worse was that the two pieces were some of the first to go on, meaning there was NO easy way to fix it.  Essentially, we took the entire stand apart and then put it all back together.  Andrew told me that it was his nightmare - I was just glad that were able to fix it!

After dealing with the stand, we went to mass at the cathedral and lunch at Mineo's.  I think Andrew would agree with me in saying that this was the best meal of the weekend.  Mineo's is a famous, award-winning, over 50 years old pizza place in Squirrel Hill, about 2 miles from my place.  I found it on multiple websites that listed the best pizza in Pittsburgh.  I will definitely be making return trips there!

The rest of the afternoon was spent TV shopping and movie watching - (As Good as It Gets, again free from the public library!)

Brittany

The Strip, a somewhat disappointing meal, and a very disappointing game

Following the Ukranian party on Friday night, Andrew rolled into town a little before 11:00 PM.  That didn't leave much time for exploring the city, so we postponed until the morning.

We started with a trip to the Strip, best described as a market meets ethic grocery stores meets interesting boutiques meets food-on-a-stick.  We didn't have anything in particular we really wanted to do or buy, it was more about taking in the sights and smells.  Our Strip visit started with a visit to the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, a local staple.  It hits close to my heart because it's an Italian grocer that has almost everything imported.  One of the best things about Penn Mac is the cheese room.  Literally, it is a room with a giant cheese counter.  People grab numbers and wait patiently for longggg periods of time to buy fairly exotic cheeses.  I wanted to take a picture of the whole thing to post on the blog, thinking that a picture would be easier to understand than my explanation.  So, I whipped out my camera, snapped a few shots, and Andrew and I started to head to the next room.  Andrew then stopped, and said "Um, Britt, I'm pretty sure he's trying to get your attention." I looked over, and there was an older, incredibly intimidating Italian deli-man who was flagging me down.  We made eye contact, and he said, "Did you take a picture in here?"  My stomach dropped.  I knew that I probably just broke some unwritten century-old rule about photographing their cheese.  Now, I was in deep trouble.  He just stared at me, and I slowly nodded.  Then, he got this goofy smile on his face and laughed, "Did you get my good side?" *WHEW* Scary run in with potentially angry italiano averted.

As it was nearing lunch, Andrew and I decided to grab food.  There were so many stands selling everything from gyros to calamari to ribs, but we ultimately settled on giving Primanti's, an actual restaurant, a try.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, Primanti's is a Pittsburgh institution that is famous for sandwiches that have the slaw and french fries right on them.  I'd see it on the Food Network and heard about it dozens of times, but I hadn't yet tried it.  Andrew and I each ordered one of the sandwiches -  he got the cheesesteak, and I got the turkey and cheese.  People around us really seemed to be digging their food, so we started to get excited about our meal.  Unfortunately, (and I know native Pittsburghers may hate me for saying this!) I just wasn't that impressed.  There was very little meat and the fries were mushy and unseasoned.  On the bright side, the bread was great, and the meal definitely filled me up.  Leaving Primanti's, Andrew and I said almost the exact same thing: "I'm glad we tried it, but I don't really feel the need to go back."  The good news is that we did end up eating some excellent food later in the day and the next day - more on that tomorrow!

From the Strip, we met up with some of my med school friends to watch the US-Ghana game.  Man, was that a toughie.  I read on someone's facebook (I wish I could remember who!) that the theme song for this World Cup should have been "Quit Playing Games with my Heart."  It's so true.  

Well, that's was the first half of Saturday - the rest of the weekend will be detailed tomorrow!  

(Quick side story from today - I went for a run, and it started pouring after the first few minutes.  I decided to ignore the rain and finish.  When I got home, I immediately took off my wet shoes and socks.  Apparently, during the run, a scab on my foot had come open.  In my efforts to get dried off, I didn't realize this at all.  I then proceeded to walk around my apartment in an effort to find my cell phone.  It turned into a multi-room search.  At some point, I stopped to think about where I saw before I left for the run.  While I was thinking, I noticed something on the floor.  Looking down, I then thought "Hm, what is that red mark on the floor?"  It was blood.  Coming from my foot.  And it was everywhere.  Literally, 15 blood footprints were in random spots around my apartment.  It was both disgusting and a little creepy.  I disinfected everything and couldn't help but think that maybe this was a higher power's way of telling me that I'm better off not exercising.)

Oh!  Almost forgot - pictures!

Cheese room!

Andrew preparing for his first (and likely only) Primanti's experience

Excited Brittany! 

Until tomorrow,

Britt

"We make Ukranian party"

I have SO many updates from this weekend.  Let's start with Friday night, a night that will go down in infamy.  One of the girls that I work with had a party at her house, partly to celebrate her birthday.  She's from the Ukraine, and the email that she sent out said "On Friday, we make Ukrainian party."  I could tell that I was in for a treat!

We showed up at 6:00, and she had quite a spread!  There were potato pancakes, kabobs, and fresh mozzarella cheese.  Our host told us that were two requirements to meeting Ukrainian standards of hospitality. 1) Your guests must leave full.  2) Your guests must leave drunk.  She was especially emphatic about point number 2 and described the two ways that Ukranians drink vodka as "quickly and very quickly."  (Don't worry, as a driver, I was very responsible!)  There were also "Ukranian contests" at this party.  Two of them to be exact.

Contest number 1: One person is the "guesser."  A number of ping pong balls are placed in one of those flimsy produce bags they have at the grocery store.  The guesser doesn't know the number, but everyone else does.  The guesser has to figure out how many ping pong balls are in the bag by sitting on the bag and using his or her hiney.  I wish, deeply, that I was kidding.

Good news: I was one of three people to guess the number right.  Though, I'm not sure if that is something to brag about.

Contest number 2: A pen is attached to fishing line.  The fishing line is tied around the contestant's waist so that the pen hangs down from the contestant's backside.  The contestant tries to lower the pen into an empty bottle.  This one made for some fantastic laughs!

The jury is still out on whether or not either of these games are authentically Ukranian.  I'm convinced she just googled "How to make your party guests look and feel ridiculous."

Overall though, the party was an absolute blast!  More updates from the weekend (including details of Andrew's visit!) will be coming soon.

Until tomorrow,
Britt

I'm a survivor!

It only took a reclining chair, two boxes of cranberry juice, and an extremely nice phlebotomist - my blood is draw and my TB test is complete!

A good night and a rough morning

Last night was a blast.  I went out with a friend I met at Second Look Weekend, a weekend in May when all of the admitted students are invited to help make their final decisions.  She's also a starting first year working in a lab for the summer.  We got dinner at Harris Grill, a restaurant on my street.  The onion rings were to die for!

This morning will not be so great.  I have to get a TB test.  Apparently, starting medical school involves lots of immunizations.  It makes sense, after all I will be around a lot of sick people in the next few years.  This TB test is such a big deal because I have an irrational fear of needles.  I know what you might be thinking, "How can you be afraid of needles and become a doctor?"  Let me clarify, I'm NOT afraid of sticking a needle in someone else - I could stick a needle in someone right now.  I AM afraid of having a needle stuck in me.  I'm trying to tell myself that it will be quick and painless, but I'm not sure that fear has subsided.  Honestly, my main goal is "do not pass out." Updates will be provided following the shot.

Some exciting news: Andrew (my boyfriend) will be here this weekend!

Britt

Um, Earthquake?

Here are the top three stories from my life on June 23rd, 2010:

1. Natural Disasters.  Today, a little before 2:00 PM, there was significant seismic activity near Ottawa, Canada.  The aftershock reached both Pittsburgh and Columbus.  This is the only earthquake of note that I have had the opportunity to experience, and I didn't feel anything! Seriously, nothing!  Obviously, earthquakes can be extremely serious and dangerous.  Today's earthquake, as it was felt in Pittsburgh was no such thing.  Some people said their cubicles shook, or their coffee table moved and inch or so - definitely nothing life-threatening.  I just wish I could say that I felt a quake, and this might have been my one chance.

There was also a terrible thunderstorm today.  It started while I was taking a shower which made me instantly nervous.  I have always thought that if you're in the shower when a thunderstorm is going on, there is a risk that lightning could strike your building and travel through the shower water to kill.  This could just be one of those stories that your parents tell you for no good reason (like the way my parents told me that the teeth at the top of the escalator would bite you if you didn't jump over them).  Good news: I ended my shower alive.

2. Soccer.  I spent my morning over at my lab director's house for the World Cup.  If you didn't see the game, find someone who DVR'ed it and watch it.  Seriously, it was that good.

3. I used my microwave.  OK, I know this sounds really insignificant, but it was actually a big moment.  One of the first things I thought upon seeing my kitchen for the first time was "Man, that is one old microwave!"  Ever since, I've been putting off microwaving at home for fear that it will fall apart or explode or something worse.  Today, though, I took a leap of faith, and it actually worked!  Granted, my microwave's "high" setting is like a normal microwave's "super low" setting (if such thing existed).  Even though it took a lot longer to cook my food, it tasted fabulous when it was all done.

Later after dinner, I was feeling curious about my microwave, and did some googling.  I determined that my microwave model was made in 1980!  Yes, that's right, 1980!  Thirty years ago/eight years before I was born/when Jimmy Carter was President.

Today's lesson : Kitchen appliances apparently can live as long as people.

Until tomorrow,
B

"I promise my apartment is in Pittsburgh, can I please just have a library card?"

As promised in my last post, today was library day!  The Main Carnegie Library is almost exactly halfway between my apartment and school, so I made a plan to go visit today.  I love reading/libraries/getting new cards for my wallet, so it seemed like a perfect outing.

Let me start by saying that even though I pass the library almost daily, I completely missed the bus stop and ended up getting off about a half mile away and walking.  Luckily, this walk did not involve any hills or multiple bags of groceries as my other walks have seemed to lately.

When I arrived at the library, my first thought was "I need a card!"  I went to the card desk and discovered that I needed two different things to get a card. 1) a photo ID (check!) and 2) proof of an Allegheny county, Pennsylvania address (um, what?).  Apparently, if your ID is not Pennsylvania-issued, you have to prove that you have an address in the area.  Having only obtained library cards in central Ohio, I've never dealt with this whole "your driver's license doesn't match our state and so you need to show you actually live here" thing.  Not preparing for this, I didn't have any accepted forms of proof, like a bill or lease copy on me.  However, I certainly did not walk .5 mile and get sweaty and take an extra bus to be told that I couldn't have a card.  Taking a chance, I walked up to the circulation desk, explained my issue, and asked if I could use the internet.  The helpful librarian got me logged into a guest account so that I could print off a copy of my lease that I had stored in my inbox.  Feeling triumphant, I headed for the customer service desk with both required items.  There, a helpful man-brarian (a librarian that's male) informed me that my lease did not actually have my apartment's building address on it.  UM, WTF?  It's an apartment lease, how can it not list the apartment's address?  Sure enough though, the man-brarian was right, and my triumph at demonstrating resourcefulness was starting to wear off.  The man-brarian must have sensed my anxiety, and he came up with a brilliant idea. My lease did state which building I would be living in, so he used the name to look it up on my landlord's website.  Finally! I got my card!  I profusely thanked the man-brarian and proceded to check-out four movies and seven books.

Unfortunately, there is no picture of the day today.  I had plans to photograph the library, but I left my memory card in the computer last night.  A camera sans memory card doesn't do much of anything.

Tomorrow morning my whole lab group is meeting to watch the World Cup again - should be a great game!

Until then,
B

I'm a pancake-flat girl in a mountain-filled world

There are a LOT of hills in Pittsburgh.  I come from Columbus, it's only 3 hours away and it is flat.  Therefore, I did not mentally prepare for the hills.  I had to walk up a hill to get to one of the hospital buildings and legitimately needed a break halfway up.  This is something that I will need to get used to I suppose.  I just keep telling myself that my calves will look amazing.  I also keep thanking goodness that I can ride city buses for free and don't need to worry about driving on slippery, icy hills.  If that was the case, I would likely become a shut-in.

Bonus of the day: work got exciting!  I spent every day last week waiting for cells to grow, which is essentially like watching a pot of water boil, except it does not take a pot of water 72 hours to boil.  Today, though, I got to actually do things with cells.  I'll save some of the boring details for another day.

Here are two pictures of the day:

This is my new living room.  Take special note of the picture above the cream-colored chair.  That is the painting from Venice that I finally was able to frame.  Almost everything (with the exception of the coffee and side tables) is newly purchased and assembled by the father-mother-daughter O'Neill team.

This picture is my dining room.  This frame was too small for my painting originally, but now holds my awesome new artwork! (Sans glass of course, but you win some and lose some...)

More stories to come.  Tomorrow, I plan to get myself a Carnegie Library card!  

Until then,

Brittany

Every girl's dream

My apologies for my brief hiatus from the blogging world! I spent this weekend away from my apartment and computer while at my roommate Sam's sister's wedding. (I realize that "roommate" might be confusing because I'm currently living alone in Pittsburgh, but I really mean "roommate from Ohio State." ) Sam and her family live in Pittsburgh, which has been awesome for a number of reasons. 1) I got to go over to her house for dinner last week. 2) Her mom can keep a spare key in case I get locked out. 3) The wedding was close! In fact, my other roommates Darci and Amanda came out for the wedding and got to make a pit stop to see my new place. Luckily, I got their stamp of approval; them seemed to like both the place and the neighborhood.

Additionally, the wedding itself was great - the food (especially the crab cakes and bruschetta) was incredible. At one point, Darci called me out for stalking the lady with the hor dourves tray.

On Friday before I left to go to wedding, I went to work which actually meant I went to the restaurant Claddagh with my co-workers to watch the USA-Slovenia soccer game and celebrate a co-worker's birthday. Of the World Cup games that I have seen so far this year, this one qualifies both as most exciting and most frustrating. For those who missed the game, the USA had come back from a 0-2 deficit to tie it 2-2. Then, they scored another goal on a free kick only to have it wrongfully called back as offsides. Regardless, it was fun to go out with my co-workers. The restaurant is in a cool area called South Side Works (similar to Columbus's Easton or Cleveland's Legacy Village) that is directly across the Monongahela River from work. I'll definitely be visiting it throughout the summer!

You might be curious about where the title of this blog post fits in - here it is, the picture of the day:

This is my closet! More specifically, this is one of my five closets! Even I, who arguably has too many clothes and accessories, do not come close to filling them all. In fact, my dad dubbed one closet the "space heater closet" because my space heater is the only thing in it!

Until tomorrow,

Brittany

Frame-tastrophe averted

So it seems as soon as I solve one crisis, another one arises. First, I'll start with the solved issue: my too-small picture frame and broken glass. Well, the broken glass aspect issue of my problem was an easy fix; I took it out to the dumpster this morning. Then, I got out of work early again today (early as in 1:45 or so) and decided to head back to IKEA. My mission was two-fold. Part 1 - get a proper-sized frame. Part 2 - get something cheap to put in the reject frame. Well, luckily, both aspects of my mission were a giant success. I found the correct frame and a really cool picture (for $9!) to put in my previously unusable because I-need-to-learn-to-measure-before-purchasing frame. Pictures of my pictures (does that even make sense?) will be posted soon!

In the realm of newly generated catastrophes, the stupid plastic ID holder that I got for free with my ID broke, and I subsequently lost said ID. This is especially frustrating because as I was sitting there getting my picture taken for the ID, thinking "Crap! I wore my hair in a bun!" I did notice a sign for those cool ID gadgets that are best described as retractable lanyards. I thought about getting one to proudly display my new IDs, but decided it wasn't worth the $3. Well, now after having the cheap-o model fail on me, I regret my decision.

There are two semi-upsides to this story. Number 1 - I get a new picture on my ID. Number 2 - It's not going to be difficult to get it replaced.

To add more positivity to this post, I had a FANTASTIC dinner with a group of second year med students, including a girl I stayed with during the application process. We went to a delicious Thai restaurant and sat in an outdoor area that looked like the Asian version of the secret garden!

OK - bedtime!

B

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

I always struggled with this question. Obviously there are two choices: good news first or bad news first. When you get the good news first, you get to experience a moment of pure happiness; you're carefree, and everything seems great. But, proceed with caution because that feeling is quickly interrupted by the bad news. And what is worst, you end on a low. In fact it's almost impossible to remember the good. When you get the bad news first, it's just the opposite. You have a moment of time where everything seems wrong, but that is rectified and you're left with some satisfaction.

Why does any of this matter? Well, because I have good news and I have bad news. I'm going to take the bad-news-first approach and just rip off the band-aid.

Today, I made a return trip to Ikea (I say return because I spent about 2 hours there with my parents on Monday). I had a few decorative items that I wanted to pick up, in particular a frame. Last summer, I bought a painting in Venice that has just sat in a tube for almost a year. Now that I have a legitimate apartment, I wanted to change that and actually put the darn thing up on the wall. Not really preparing well for my purchase, I did not actually write down measurements and take them to the store. Let me tell you, that was obviously mistake number one. I stood in the frames area for FOREVER looking at these two frames that were nearly identical but a few inches different. Ultimately, after much consideration, I went with the smaller of the two. When I got home tonight, I immediately opened the frame and took the back off. Though it might not seem like it, this was mistake number 2. What a smarter Brittany might have done was to take a look at the painting compared to frame before opening the packaging and taking it apart. But no, that is not what happened. Instead, I next ran to get the painting and realized almost immediately that the frame was about an inch and a half too small. At this point I was not a happy camper, but I thought to myself (as you may be now), "I can just return it and get the bigger one." Then, literally seconds after this thought occurred, I hear a *crunch*. The frame's glass, settled oddly as I was placing the back on and cracked. Now, as a result, I do not have a frame for my painting, I do not have the ability to return the too-small frame, AND I had to clean up broken glass.

There, we got the bad news out of the way - now onto the good.

I have a social life in Pittsburgh!!! (excuse the excessive use of !s, but after my terrible frame incident, I deserve to be happy about something) I got to spent tonight with Sam and her family, and I have dinner planes with two different medical school friends from Second Look Weekend. Even better, my lab group is going out to an Irish pub on Friday morning to watch the world cup together! While I realize that these things hardly amount to a chock-full social calendar, I am genuinely excited to get to know people in this city and squash any fear of spending every summer weeknight alone, in my apartment, watching one of the three channels I currently get, and crying over broken glass (no, I didn't actually cry).

The picture of the day today is actually kind of a cheat because I took back in May, but it is a great view of the city from the south side!



It's actually extremely picturesque, especially for a city who's name still makes me think of armpits - that probably will never change, no matter how long I live here!

Until tomorrow,
B

I have gone green!

In fact, I have gone so green that "going green" should be re-termed "going Brittany." How did I undergo this transformation? Not only did I use public transportation to get from work to class and back, but I did something even more impressive. I walked to the grocery store. I used canvas bags instead of the throwaway plastic ones. I then carried my groceries home. Seriously, I feel like my carbon footprint is now about the size of a toddler's foot. It can only get so small though; after all, a girl has got cool down her apartment.

In other news, today was my first day of work and class. Yes, two days after graduating, I had class and work. The worst part of the straight from OSU to Pitt transition was that my one day off was full of moving, unpacking, and assembling furniture (OK - confession: watching my dad assemble furniture). Moving was hard. When I say hard, I don't me emotionally; I mean physically. Carrying a mattress up four ramps is my hell.

OK, back to my discussion on work. I'm spending the summer in a research rotation. The lab I'll be with studies HPV (the cervical cancer virus) and the way in which it changes gene expression to cause cancer. Pretty cool, huh? After getting acclimated to the lab, I was sent on a two hour journey to get my IDs. Four of them to be exact: a Pitt ID, a Medical Center ID, a medical student ID, and a student lounge ID. I look ridiculous with them all clipped to my shirt. They're so heavy that one side of my shirt is weighed down and looks lopsided. Plus, I planned for the humidity of the day NOT the picture-taking, and wore my hair up in a twisty bun. As a result, it looks like have a brown tumor growing on the side of my head in ALL FOUR PICTURES.

Speaking of pictures, I have decided that each of my journal articles will be accompanied by a picture of my life in the 'burgh. Here's the first one:



This is the exterior of my apartment. Interior photos are coming soon!

Until tomorrow,
B