Scary, Spicy, Sandy Weekend

After a very busy week Jen and I were looking forward to going out Friday night… so we did laundry. We REALLY needed clean clothes and worked up quite the appetite while doing a few weeks worth of wash. The restaurant Spice (originally of the West Village) recently opened another location in our very own LIC. We decided to finally try it. Like Tuk Tuk, one of our favorite places to eat on Vernon, Spice serves Thai food. We thought it was just ok. We shared a duck salad, spare ribs, and a shrimp stir-fry with garlic sauce. It just wasn't very fresh or tasty… needs more spice if you ask us. Although their noodles might be amazing, which we didn't try, I think we’ll be sticking with Tuk Tuk.

We left dinner with plenty of time to make it to Times Square to see a movie, but got a little distracted by filming just outside of Spice. Edie Falco was shooting her show Nurse Jackie and was like five feet from us (obviously didn’t have my Canon with me as illustrated by the awful quality of the pics). They were filming a scene in a cop car which was being towed down Vernon Blvd. We debated skipping our movie because it was fun to watch, but finally waved bye to her and headed to the train. We saw “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” which was pretty good. I originally thought it was a movie for teens but it had some pretty serious and depressing themes. It was aiight.

Saturday night was Bourbon St’s annual Halloween Party. And I can’t believe it’s my third one! Among my crazy coworkers in costume was a cow, a zombie, red riding hood and wolf, Katniss from The Hunger Games, the news team from Anchorman, farmer in the dell (a cowgirl in a Dell computer box), a nurse, and an evil doctor (me!) Jen did an AMAZING job making my face look bloody and gross. No one could believe we did it all ourselves. FYI: Corn syrup, red food coloring, and cocoa powder make very realistic fake blood.  And you can make fake wounds with toilet paper and Elmer's glue.

We both have the day off today and are just hanging out at home, waiting for Hurricane Sandy to pass. So far (as of 4 pm) it’s not bad, although I've seen some video online of flooding down at Gantry Park on the water. I was supposed to observe an orthopedic surgery this morning at the hospital and will not be happy if I don’t get assigned another one. Safety first I guess.

Hot-lanta Video

There's never a dull moment in 45-42, let me tell you. Our neighbors, who were our superintendents before things got crazy, are being evicted. The reasons include physical violence, non-payment of rent, and chronic marijuana use(which they claim has been "decriminalized"). A recent search of their apartment by the NYPD tells me they're incorrect, as they're going to court next month for their nasty little habit. We recently got a new tenant in our building right next door to the pot heads. Lucky for us, he's a smoker too. He enjoys filling his lungs with the smoke of what smells worse than weed- cigarettes.  Almost everyone in the building has spoken to him about smoking in his apartment, which then leaks into the hallway and up into the rest of our apartments. He has apologized multiple times, the landlord has even scolded him about it, and yet he continues to smoke. I mean really, who smokes inside their homes anymore? Oh the luxurious life of NYC apartment living.

We spent the weekend before last in Atlanta for my cousin Kelly's wedding. Congrats Nicols family! It was a beautiful wedding and a great excuse to see family that I hadn't seen since moving to New York. That's too long! As promised I made a video of the weekend (which is why this post took about a week to be published) and I really like how it turned out. Jen's friend who watched Pup while we were gone fell in love with her.They were really sad when we picked her up Monday night and Pup didn't seem too sure she wanted to leave them either. By now Pup's back to her old ways and it's all good. Hope you enjoy my video. 

Oh, make sure you turn it way up at the end while we're having our picture taken. What everyone is saying is hilarious. My favorite is when Papa says,"I gotta get straight, I gotta shuffle one time right here." 


ATLANTA WEDDING from Matt Rexrode on Vimeo.

"There's No Tomorrow, There's Just Today"

How did I let a week go by without writing? Shame shame. The days go by so quickly at my current clinical assignment that I’m not surprised. Just four more weeks left. I haven’t once checked the clock and thought to myself that time was going by slowly. I have, on the other hand, looked down at my watch and thought, “It’s already 11? I have three more patients to treat, a two week progress note to write, and HMO paperwork to complete all before lunch!” There’s always something for me to do which I like. It’s a different kind of busy than the mundane business I was used to at outpatient, sport/orthopedic clinics. The treatment of patients with a past medical history and precautions a mile long is obviously much more involved and interesting. I’m really liking Lutheran Med and hoping they hire me.

The patients are much more entertaining to me in an inpatient setting. I treat an old man for general weakness secondary to surgery that started out so weak and quiet. Now we can’t get him to stop talking or singing random songs from “There’s No Tomorrow” by Dean Martin (his favorite) and “The Star Spangled Banner.” He loves to talk about old movies, many of which I know thanks to my black-and-white-obsessed Mother. I was naming the old movies I like per his request (all the ones I had seen pretty much) during a walk. When I mentioned, “All About Eve” he almost fell over, exclaiming that it was his favorite movie of all time and for the rest of the day wouldn’t stop rattling off every Betty Davis movie. He’s quite the character and he’s not even one of the mental patients. Maybe I’ll talk about my favorite crazy in my next post.

The hospital is just a few blocks from the water among a lot of old warehouses, shipping docks, and a navy yard. As Brooklyn was developed long before the island of Manhattan, many of the old, dilapidated brick buildings along the water have dates laid in them from the early and mid 1800’s. With nice views of downtown, The Statue of Liberty, and Jersey, when the weather is warm (not today!) it’s nice to spend some of my lunch break walking around by the water.

We are going to my cousin Kelly’s wedding this weekend near Atlanta. Tonight Jen dropped Pup off with her friends that are dog-sitting for us until Monday. She said it was hard to say goodbye. Pup always looks longingly at Jen, even when I'm taking her on a walk she knows Jen’s not going on. I Guess we know who Pup loves more... naturally. I’m sure Pup will do just fine and have a great time as a Jersey girl for the weekend.

I've been wanting to try some more new things with my Powerdirector 10 video producer and this weekend should give me some footage to play around with. I'll try to edit and post a video by the end of next week so stay tuned.

Oh Bother

Rainy days in Florida are no big deal. After running to the car the umbrella gets tossed into the back seat, you flip the wipers on, and off you go. In the city, on the other hand, things are a bit wetter. The amount of time you spend walking, exposed to the elements is much greater here. Unless you’re lucky enough to find and empty cab (and then willing to pay for it), there is no car in the picture.

My weekday commute consists of a six block walk to the seven train in LIC and, after an hour commute to Brooklyn, walking three more long blocks to the hospital from the N train. It wasn’t raining yesterday morning so, despite the forecast, I left my umbrella at home. I hate carrying that thing around, leave it everywhere, and have probably lost a hundred. Bad decision though, as it rained continuously and I finally dried off about the time I had to go out in it again. My plan was to just find someone else’s and take it but the hospital lost and found had already been raided. After sloshing my way home to my dry umbrella, it cleared up by the time I took Pup out… figures.

Sure, rain can be unpleasant, but nothing compares to what’s going on in the picture I took at work. SMOKING IN FRONT OF A HOSPITAL! It’s my new pet peeve and makes me more than a little annoyed. These ladies are seriously lounging around the ambulances while lighting a few up. Luckily no one in the physical therapy department smokes, sparing me the responsibility of daily hassling a coworker with smoking cessation pamphlets. There is (no joke) a bench with an enclosure around it (previously a bus stop) that they have converted into an outdoor smoking room about six feet from the front door. The smoke billows out of it throughout the day. I've seen a few nurses smoking (disgusting), but most of the smokers are from administration. Still, how can you take smoke breaks from your work of processing paperwork on patients dying from diagnosis directly linked to cigarettes?