Back to New York City...

We finally made it back to New York City! After getting engaged in Central Park on December 18, 2005, we had been longing to go back and visit. On a bit of a whim we decided to book a hotel room in NYC on July 31st. We also decided that this would be a great way to celebrate our 4th anniversary. On Saturday morning we hopped in the car and drove down to New Haven, CT (a roughly 40 min. drive). New Haven has a fairly large rail station with connections to both Boston and NYC. Once on the train, it is only about 1 hour and 45 minutes to NYC. We were on the train around 10:30am and on our way. We spent our time reading, sleeping and checking out the views from the train. We arrived at Grand Central station and spent most of our day Uptown and Midtown at Rockefeller, walking down Fifth Avenue, and spending time in Central Park.

Fortunately, there was a rare reprieve from the heat over the weekend and it was sunny and in the high 70s. In Central Park we went back to the bench where we got engaged. We were really happy to see it was still there, right by Cape Cot.


At this point it was late in the afternoon and we had been walking with all of the stuff we had brought to stay overnight. It was time to get to the hotel room. After a detour to Brooklyn, (we didn't know that in the Summer there is heavy construction on the subway lines) we dropped our stuff, changed and went in search of dinner. Our hotel was Downtown (right by Wall St in the Financial District). While on our way to dinner, we got sidetracked and went and sat down by the East River. We watched the boats and had a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge and South Street Seaport. Eventually, we made our way to dinner. We found a bar/restaurant that had blocked off the street they were located on and had set up picnic tables throughout the street. We decided to eat there and then finished the night off with drinks at Madam Geneva, which lies along Noho/Soho border. Madam Geneva was featured on the cooking channel, so we decided we had to go! It was worth the $50.00 bar bill and $30.00 cab ride. I felt like we went to great lengths for some gin and juice, but we weren't disappointed.


I promise we didn't go to NY and eat/drink for 48hrs straight - although, very tempting. I would like to bet and I hope we burned off everything by walking everywhere.

We couldn't help but to keep thinking about this shake that Brian & Christi told us about when they were in NYC. Before we made our last stop, we decided we should bring them back a little love from NY too. We pit stopped at Crumbs, for some goodies. Note the MEGA-cakes next to a big cupcake already. These 'normal' cakes are definitely meant to be shared, but not until we got to CT. These megas, just made me laugh. I can picture these being a hit at a bday party!

Our last stop was Stand4, which is known for their killer toasted marshmallow shake (which was to die for). We did get a his & her's burger so we shared a shake, but next time... I am getting my own. It is not meant to be shared. After that bad boy, aka heart attack on a plate, we walked the remained 2.5 miles to Grand central to head back home.
Ah, summer.
Now time for some fall football!!
Cheers!

Read MORE books & drink MORE Sangria

Last night was my first book club gathering! Those that know me best know that I don't like to leisure read, but I do LOVE to socialize. Being new to the area, this book club is a great opportunity to wine, dine and socialize - the things I love best. Last weekend, on our way to NYC, as soon as I got situated in my chair on the train, I started this month's book Half the Sky. As happy as I was to be making an effort to have 'leisure reading' become a routine, I started to get restless and needed to people-watch. Just as I began looking around the train, I noticed (as if it was a slap on my wrist for taking a break from reading) the message "READ MORE BOOKS" written on the back of the chair in front of me. Suddenly an "Oh yeah, where was I?" reaction happened and I got back to business.

Although this book was interesting and worth reading, it's not a good beach book or a book to read on an anniversary trip. The book consists of true stories from women around the world covering issues: sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence (including honor killings), mass rape and maternal mortality. With that said, the truth is... I read only 1/2 the book. It was so down and depressing that I didn't want to read too much at any one time. Plus, a lot of the hot topics in this book were discussed, read and studied in my undergrad classes. Although the concepts weren't shocking, the statistics were.

All of the book club members gathered at Anne's house. The important thing to know about Anne is that she is a pastry chef and outdoes herself every opportunity she gets! Her house was amazing! I should have had pictures of the set table and the food she served. It was a great summer night and we all sat out on her deck to discuss the book, food, sangria and each other. The club consists of women that work at ESPN or are affiliated with the company because their husband works there. The group is a lot of fun because we all live in CT, but none of us are from CT. Erin has lived in New Hampshire & Seattle, but is originally from IL. Christa is from MN. Anne is from Ohio. I could go on and on.

The sangria was the BEST thing I have ever tasted (in the spectrum of sangria's). It wasn't too sweet or too tart. Anne made the recipe up by just throwing a little of this and a little of that in, of course, but this is the closest thing I could find online that would resemble what she served Blackberry Sangria . I'm a little nervous for when it comes time for me to host! Please send ideas/suggestions my way: pmartens11@gmail.com

Unfortunately the night was kept short, and I am writing this during the Tues I was suppose to be in NJ, because I am sick. And no, I didn't have too much Sangria! I just feel rotten. Hope this finds you better than I - and have good rest of the week!

Everybody's working for the weekend.

Ben & I have yet to blog about what it is we have actually been up to, other than the occasional weekend outing. We would rather not talk about work in our spare time, but this week has been a pretty good work-week!

Ben found a job about 3 wks ago and he's really enjoying it. It is a start-up power company where EVERYONE is working their tail off. He works through lunch, but to compensate for his loss of 'down time' during lunch the company provides him lunch everyday. It's a pretty fair trade, I suppose. It is also nice to see what all sweat and energy goes into starting a company. Needless to say, this experience has made the idea of purchasing an existing practice or just buying into one with other dentists seem like a LOT better deal. Ben has been learning a lot and he's definitely been so busy so the week flies by and before he knows it, it's Friday!

As for me, today was a good day! All my patients showed up to their scheduled appointments and some were even early (if you can believe that). 1 particular thing about today was I did my first full mouth extraction all by my 5'3'' self (well, I had an assistant of course). I can't believe how hard (physically) you have to work sometimes to extract teeth. My patient (although severely medically compromised) was very laid back and really great...or that could have been the nitrous talking. Either way, he thanked me after I extracted all of his badly broken down teeth and I thanked him (mainly for not having a medical emergency in the mist of the appt). The patient, assistant and I were joking around the pt told me I don't have to work out all week now, b/c I already had done enough for the week. And believe me, I don't think I have to lift weights for the rest of the month! My favorite part today was suturing. I can't sew - or at least I don't know how to sew - but I know how to suture mucosa (aka stitch up your gums)! I love getting the chance to do oral surgery, and I even did a continuous interlocking suture today - which is something new as well! I was taught this in dental school and did about a year ago by practicing sewing towels together around a glove box (which sounds like a hay day) but it was fun to do it on a REAL live patient! Days like today make me happy I didn't specialize, b/c if I had I wouldn't have the variety in my day that I do now.

Something my co-residents and I are looking forward to: on Tues we are going to New Jersey to check out Nobel biocare implants production and training center. On Friday we are going to Lake Compunce (an amusement park) to learn about 3i implants. We have a day of continuing education and finish the day by riding the rides. The whole park if for us residents and the 3i staff. Sounds pretty fun! There is another implant company that is in Boston (Strauman, I think??), that we'll visit in Sept or Oct. It's exciting to see all these places and have a year to test them all out. Thus far, I couldn't be happier that I made the decision to do a residency.

Anyway, it's work... an occupation... a profession... whatever... and it was a good day, today. We don't have great days everyday, but we might as well share the ones that qualify.

Cheers to almost Friday!!