Go Bobcats!

So the Schof's headed to New York to get a preview of what our life would be like there.

This is the before picture.

This is the after picture.
LOL...let's just say, I hope this does NOT foreshadow how we will look and feel after dental school is over and done with.

So the point of this whole trip was to make sure I would feel comfortable in the city...PALEASE...you know I would worship the city. Therefore, it turned more into a "get-to-know-the-neighborhoods", look at apartments, shop a little trip.

This is the view from one of the possible apartment buildings we could live in.

LOL...we thought we would take a picture with the view behind us. Our heads are too big I guess? Oh well, we don't get enough pics together anyway, right?
We were looking at apartments literally ACROSS the street from the Dental School. It was spring break so we couldn't go in and look around (of course Lyle has already had the tour during his interview last year). I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a pic of Lyle in front of the school. I didn't think Lyle would be all about the wifey going with him to his first day of classes and taking a picture of him with his professors, so this pic will have to do.After a FULL day of apartment looking and WALKING everywhere around Murray Hill, Union Square, Lexington Avenue, 5th Avenue, and Central Park, Lyle spotted the ice cream which he said we "HAD" to buy no matter how cold it got or whether we were hungry or not: Mister Softee. I guess it's soft serve ice cream that is the BEST in New York. Lyle did spot it about an hour after we had eaten a light dinner that night and had to get a pretzel with it.

So here we are in gloves, scarfs, and jackets eating ice cream in a corner outside a store to shield ourselves from the cold wind. Ok, it WAS good.

Here we are in the subway. Lyle is trying to figure out what train for us to get on. I can't remember this particular situation...what happened...what didn't happen...where we were...or how many times he had pulled this map out while we were waiting for the train, but guess what? I know we got where we were going, and we are back safe in Louisville, so it worked right? Really though, we only took two trains by mistake and one of them we didn't even look at the letter, we just jumped on because we were running late and we thought it was ours. Our subway experience was very successful. I never felt unsafe. I got pretty good at the end of the trip at figuring out which side of the track we needed to be on and what train to take. LOL...we saw one bum on the subway and he ended up moving because of US! HA...I was having a quiet conversation with Lyle and the bum was trying to sleep and I guess we were annoying him because he up and moved (in a very empty train car) while the subway was still moving.

Sunday evening will always be a painful memory in my life. We were walking around 5th Avenue and Lexington and my stomach began to get worse and worse. I took a few pepto pills and nothing helped. We went to a corner pharmacy and Lyle got me some immodium. THIS DID NOT HELP. We walked into a store that had a couch and I lied down for a good 30 minutes and started feeling MUCH better. We decided I felt good enough to stick it out through dinner and then we would go back to the hotel. I made it through half of dinner. I ordered a salad and it went down ok. Then after dinner, I got to see it in reverse. It was horrible. Lyle barely got me back (after a subway ride and a few blocks of walking) to the hotel. I was in tears and hunched over. I have NEVER felt that bad in my entire life. I was sick for a good few hours. Poor Lyle didn't know what to do. There was nothing he could do. I had already taken medicine, we realized it was food poisoning, so the only thing to do was to wait it out. Once I started dry heaving and nothing was left, Lyle ran down to the corner store and bought me a Gatorade. What a good husband. Then we watched Enchanted (I got it for my birthday - thanks Lorna) and I slowly started feeling better. For a few days after that my stomach had a dull aching pain. By Friday I was back to normal - thank goodness. I hope I never have to experience that EVER again. I swear...pregnancy cannot be that bad. So for those of you in Brooklyn, beware of Tomato & Basil Pizza shop. Make sure your stuff is fresh from the oven!

Here we are in a Cuban restaurant (and yes those are projects in the background) in Murray Hill. We got a referral from this Puerto Rican woman at a Mexican restaurant we went to on Saturday and she said it was a Dominican Restaurant, but she was quite mistaken...or as Lyle has recently picked up from Roger Clemens, she "misremembered". It wasn't Dominican Food like Lyle had been yearning for the entire trip, but I think he liked it.

Uh...YES. He was a happy boy.

I don't even know what this is. We were just walking to our hotel in Manhattan and I HAD to take a picture. There were so many places that I just wanted to stop and look at, walk inside, tour, and ask people about the history. My love for architecture and design will grow and grow until my cup runneth over in NY. I cannot wait!

Monday was drizzling rain all day. We stopped in time square (a few blocks from our hotel) to pick up a Met's hat for Lyle. The Met's are the "Dominican team" which of course Lyle has to represent. It's cool though. I am so down with rooting for the "uncool" team. It was the ONLY day I didn't bring my hat because it was warmer than the rest of the days. GRRR! I tried to use a scarf to cover my head, but it really did not suffice.

GO GUITAR HERO!

Oh my gosh, we have the BEST story. Approximately one or two blocks from this photo, Lyle and I were stopped at a corner waiting for the light to change. I was covered like so, and Lyle was in a black snow/rain jacket with his hood over his head (because of the drizzle rain). We are about to cross the street as the light turned green and this guy is walking toward us, looks up, sees Lyle, and does a double take. He stops right in front of Lyle, takes his arm, and says, "Man, I'm so sorry. I totally voted for you last year." We kept walking, VERY CONFUSED, and the man walked off. This guy was COMPLETELY 100% SERIOUS! What was he talking about? We couldn't figure it out! It must have been some local New York thing because we really have no idea who Lyle would have come across looking like. If you can figure it out, please let us know. It cracked us up though. It was awesome. LOL.

That about sums up our trip. I will post pics of a few of the apartments we visited. It's not very exciting. We will most likely start seriously looking for apartments in a week or two once more things get finalized. The New York trip was an experience that changed my life. I have been waiting for this for a VERY long time. Thank you Lyle for finally letting me check this off my to do list. We didn't do all the AMAZING touristy things. We saw no shows, we did no fine dining, we didn't do any museums or tours, but we lived a pretty realistic weekend of subway rides, walking, meeting people, eating local food, and seeing real apartments that may one day be our home for a few years. I loved every second (ok, minus the sickness seconds). I cannot wait to go back.

GO BOBCATS!