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