no sleep till brooklyn

Unless you have been there, you can never know the glory of Brooklyn. I'm sure that until you live there you can never know the true glory of Brooklyn. The longer we live in New York, the more we wish we lived in the Borough of Kings. Don't get me wrong--Manhattan is cool, but Brooklyn is Brooklyn. These feelings have been welling up in us for a while, but this afternoon kind of solidified it for us.


Today Mandi ran in the Brooklyn Half Marathon. Since it finished at Coney Island, and I never miss an opportunity to go to Coney Island (except when Jake and Whitney visited a couple months ago), I tagged along as moral support. So in true Warriors form Mandi made her way from Prospect Park down to Coney. It ended up being an amazing early summer day in Brooklyn.

An unfortunate situation occurred. I had the prime location to capture a photograph of Mandi as she finished on the iconic Coney Island boardwalk. I was standing there at the perfect time. I'm pretty sure I incurred some hearing damage from the PA system. But among the 14,000 runners who finished the Brooklyn Half, I somehow didn't see Mandi come through. So, you should pretend that you can see her in this test photograph that I took. Crap.

Coney success!

Please note: try to avoid subway cars that are full of people who just finished a long run. It was seriously stinky.

Brooklyn train transfer.

Changing clothes and rinsing feet on the platform. It was at this point that she became a true New Yorker.

As if Coney Island wasn't good enough, we decided to hit up the Brooklyn Flea Market Smorgasburg in Williamsburg. Today was a special day at the Smorgasburg because it was the semi-annual Brooklyn Record Fair where a bunch of record vendors (some labels, some shops) set up booths to sell goods. Too good to pass up. Here is Mandi enjoying our dessert, an amazing berry donut. I will never truly enjoy a Dunkin' again in my life.

The important thing was that I cleaned up at the record fair. I like used vinyl, but I hate paying $15 for a used record that I can buy new for $20. Unfortunately, this is more of the rule than the exception in Manhattan used record stores. This fair rocked, though. Four used records (in good condition) + one new record: $30. That's the way it should be. Here I am proudly displaying my newly acquired Devo album, which has been on my list for a while. An amazing use of $6.

Brooklyn is amazing. Keep this in mind.

flat top, stares straight ahead, stock parts, blockhead

For now on, I will only blog when we have family visit us in New York. Well, that's not exactly true, but it helps to have something exciting to blog about instead of the day to day. Nobody wants to read about my adventures at the hospital or Mandi's data analysis. Suffice it to say that I just finished my six week rotation on psychiatry and am now starting six weeks of pediatrics while Mandi is volunteering in a lab at the Hospital for Special Surgery and will be working with one of her professors this summer on a project. Good stuff.


The real purpose of this post, however, is to report on Tom and Mary's recent trip to visit us here in New York. Mandi graduated with her (second) master's degree this semester, so her folks came to support/celebrate. Once again, my time to spend with them was limited because I was cooped up in the library for a good part of the weekend. But we (more they) had an enjoyable time regardless. Here are some pictures.

The Lincoln Center, in it's glory. It was a classy event.

Proud parents, who managed to score us some pretty sweet seats. I had nothing to do with the seat selection because I had to round at the hospital before joining up with the crew for the ceremony (the glamorous life of a healthcare professional).

Receiving the master's hood, with grace. Many graduates had their caps knocked off when they were hooded. Mandi did not. I was very proud.

Mandi W. Gibbons, MS MS.

Proud husband.

Family photo in the courtyard of the Lincoln Center. The observant reader will also recognize the temple (minus Moroni) in this photograph.

Hear ye, hear ye! As a visitor to New York City, this is the best $9 that you can spend. Even over a sandwich at Num Pang, and that's saying something.

Cruizin'

Cruizin'

For some reason, the weather always sucks when Tom and Mary come to visit. I do not understand it. Our only real snow storm this year was in October when they were here. This time, however, the weather was absolutely amazing. Perfect day for a ride.

Central Park: 'tis a magical place. Especially as viewed from a bicycle.

Post ride, group photo. We decided to get this after the ride so our hair would show it.

Yankees game. Unfortunately, Mandi did not take enough pictures here to fully document the fact that I was not in attendance but was instead rereading First Aid: Psychiatry. Yay. I'm pretty sure I had more fun, though.

Activities that were not documented included dinner at Public, lunch at Shake Shack, shopping in SoHo, and Mother's Day brunch at Egg. I will assure you, though, that a good time was had by all (except when all were not in attendance).

come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train

Spring break is amazing. If there was a career that would allow me to have spring break for the rest of my life, I would have gone into that. Teachers? Professors? Even they, it seems, have to do some work over the spring break that their students enjoy. Alas, all good things come to an end. This year marks my first of many years without a spring break. That's right--the dream, the beautiful dream, is over. Traditionally medical students only have spring break during their first two years; however, since NYU has a new curriculum, we only get one year of spring break.


Despite me having to grow up entirely too soon, Mandi had a wonderful spring break this year. We were lucky enough to have her spring break coincide with Jake's spring break. Apparently dental students get spring break all the way through dental school... Had this been made known to me before med school, I may have chosen a different career path. Anyway, Jake and Whitney came to visit during the shared spring break.

Mood Designer Fabric. A very interesting shopping experience.

Ess-a-Bagel. Considered by many to be the best bagel joint in NYC, and it's a mere 5 blocks from our apartment. The keen observer can note that I'm dressed to go to work and not to play.

Guggenheim.

Getting stoked for the Guggenheim.

Guggenheim, part III.

Cruising Central Park. Jake and Whitney were lucky to come on a week when we had amazing weather. Also, to all potential NYC visitors who read this blog: renting bikes and riding around the park is a must do activity.

Perhaps our favorite restaurant in NYC: Ippudo. Unfortunately, it is typically a 3 hour wait for a table. We were clever this time, though, and beat the crowds. Dinner at 5:00PM? Worth it for Ippudo.

New believers.

5Pointz. An icon of urban, hiphop culture. See it while you still can.

Apparently they found another group of white, suburban bread tourists to take their picture. Ironic.

Photo credit: Whitney.

Coney Island. This place is great. When they told me they were going to Coney Island, I was extremely tempted to blow off my obligations at the hospital and tag along. Alas...

When you think of New York City, I think the last thing you think about is beach and ocean. Well, think again.

Iconic Coney Island.

Brooklyn Bridge. From the Brooklyn side.

Perfect weather for a stroll across the bridge.

Photo credit: Jake.

Deciding what to order vs. people watching.

In spite of the hype, Serendipity 3 does have pretty good dessert.

Well, I made it in 2/19 pictures. That's not too bad! I am going to keep telling myself that I love school. Maybe that will help to alleviate the sting of missing out on Coney...


-Cole

i don't feel as if i know you

New things on my To Do list.

Undercity

take a cha-cha-cha-chance

We had the annual privilege of celebrating Mandi's birthday last week. Because it was on a school night and we both had exams the next day, we had a quick day-of celebration and an extended weekend celebration. Let's be honest, though, we usually turn it into a weeklong celebration regardless of the logistical circumstances.

Pre opening.

Post opening.

Mandi requested a birthday brunch this year rather than a birthday dinner, so we went to a joint called egg in Williamsburg (a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is just across the river from where we live). Super good food, super fun. And we like to think it was super hip, seeing as how Williamsburg is often touted as the 'hipster capital of the planet.'

Hip.

Questionable.

We took the opportunity to see the sights in Williamsburg. It was weird to realize how close it really is--one metro stop. We should go more often, both to have fun and to work on our hipsterness.

The entrance to egg is where that hip guy in purple chinos is standing in the background. Also, you can see the eggcitement in Mandi's eyes.

Navigating. Thank you, Google.

Williamsburg, in its glory. Its hip glory...

We both had Presidents Day off, so we took the morning to be touristy. We have been talking about venturing to Top of the Rock for the past year-and-a-half. We finally made it happen.

We're getting good at self portraits.

Lower Manhattan, in its glory.

Upper Manhattan, in its glory.

I'm pretty sure she liked the view better when I was standing in front of it.

It was windier and colder on the 67th floor than on the street.

They had this room with motion activated flashing light walls. I think Mandi was the most amused non-French speaking person there...

Compass.

Sketchy.

Sketchy.

Tourists, the East River, Chrysler Building partially obscured by the MetLife Building.

We debated going to the top of the Empire State Building instead, but we decided the Top of the Rock would work better for us. It was nice to actually be able to see the Empire State Building as well. In all of its glory.

Until next year!