icebrrrg @ 10:26 My friends Michelle and Silvio (and their wee one) are in the New York Times today! There's an article on home birth in NYC (you might need to register, but it's free) today. They had Lulu (Lucienne) 7 months ago, in their apartment here in Brooklyn. Very, very cool. Check it out!

As for me, in 4 hours I go under the laser. I'm getting LASEK, after a few years of dreaming and one year of saving and three weeks of planning. In fact, right now I'm on gabapentin in preparation (with a prescription, of course). Funky. So wish me luck, wish me good vision ... it would suck to become blind. I may not be posting for a few days, or tweeting all that much after the surgery, but check back soon to see if I made it!

 
icebrrrg @ 14:48 Friday night, the Hunter College Pre-Health Post-Baccalaureate Club hosted a penal of alumni. The alums currently attend medical schools such as the NY College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Weill Cornell Medical College, and the SUNY Downstate & Stonybrook Schools of Medicine. We had an excellent turnout, with some really wonderful answers to the questions the students asked. Kudos to Eve and Jenny for setting it up, and thank you so much to the alumni who are way too busy, but came to help out the hopeful regardless. :) Pics are posted up.

 
icebrrrg @ 15:41 Today was the inaugural meeting of the new Brunch Club ... Michelle, Ann and I were supposed to go to Bardolino, but we decided they didn't have enough selection so we went to Vinyl across the street (78th & 2nd Ave). Man, talk about some tasty vittles. Highly recommended. Really excellent coffee, no wait, lightning fast service, and I had a goat cheese / tomato / spinach omelet that was AMAZINGly yum. I would love to go back there. Kitschy decor, too.

So, yeah, a success.

 
icebrrrg @ 16:48 Pictures from the 2008 Park Slope Halloween Parade are up! See PSVAC lead the parade, chased by a Chinese dragon, and giving out candy to hundreds of Brooklyn Kids.

 
icebrrrg @ 09:34 OBAMA.

Just one word, five wee letters, but they've filled America with hope and joy. I was at Zohn & Eve's last night for an election party (Eve made pizzas!), and we didn't dare to hope that what happened would happen. Once CNN called it (per Comedy Central) for Barack Obama, we just sat there, grinning madly. Wild cheers erupted in the streets of the East Village, we could hear them through the window. So we went out on the fire escape to watch ... strangers were hugging on 13th Street, someone was burning a McCain/Palin placard, people were spilling out of bars to hoot and holler and celebrate. Someone set off actual fireworks. And there was impromptu honk-a-thons in the vehicular traffic. New York was ebullient.

Now, let's hope B.O. can deliver on all of those promises ... his speech last night was the best thing I've heard in years. And McCain's concession was gracious, and intelligent, and very well received. Maybe we can actually get past partisanship?

 
icebrrrg @ 13:33 Hey, you've heard it before from a thousand voices ... get out and vote today! I don't care who you vote for, just do it!

 
icebrrrg @ 09:49 Since today is Election Day Eve, this video (sent in by Sonny) is just about perfect:

 
icebrrrg @ 15:12 Great day so far. Slept in (thank you Daylight Savings!), pedaled over to the Slope, and said "hi" to the PSVAC folk who were working the NYC Marathon. And brrr, it was chilly ... at least 20 degrees colder than yesterday, in the AM. I chilled with Will, and we saw Erica Coffin run by, and cheered. Erica is a PSVAC alum, currently a 2nd-year med student, and a very zippy runner. She was dressed all in pink, right up to her hair. :) Then we got to see Genevieve Tung run by, and cheer for her ... also looking mighty fierce! Unfortunately, she had forgotten her iPod this morning, so Will and I found it, hopped on our bikes, and tried to track her down. It took about 20 minutes to find, so she had a big head start. We rolled out of the Slope, up to Prospect Heights ... no dice, she was already through. So we rolled North to Willyburg, then up to Greenpoint, to the bridge into Queens ... and it turns out we missed her by 5 minutes. Ah, well. We tried!

So we got to enjoy a nice ride home. Like I said, chilly, but totally worth it to cheer on some friends, see all of Brooklyn, and enjoy the sunshine. I predict a nice, long Winter of pedaling ahead.

Now back to the secondary apps!

 
icebrrrg @ 16:03 Well, it wouldn't be in keeping with recent times if I didn't have another video-related post for you. Our very own Will Tung, FDNY medic and Chief of Administration for the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps, was an extra in a new movie coming out: Love Simple. Click the link to check out the trailer, towards the end there's a scene in an ambulance. Yep, that's PS-2! Will made us famous! He even got himself in the IMDB. I know so many famous people ...

In other EMT/Bklyn related news, I walked in the Park Slope Halloween Parade last night. PSVAC led the parade with PS-2 and PS-3 (our newest and third bus), and we followed it handing out candy to the kiddies. 200lbs of candy. You would think their parents didn't feed them ... but it was an awesome experience. Everyone was so happy to see us. I took a lot of pics, I'll post them up this weekend (hopefully). So my costume was "Brooklyn EMT", but hey, it worked.

Check out this cool photo album of the kids' events leading up to the parade.

And today, well, I got to thoroughly enjoy the 65 degree sunny day, with a bike ride, a long walk, and a tasty brunch with Mya and Ann at 200 Fifth. Their quality has gone down from my old recollections, but, still tasty.

 
icebrrrg @ 16:22 On November 4th, get out and don't vote. Listen to these famous-type people tell you why:



There's some naughty language in there, but if you have headphones it's SFW.