My Story (by Lauren)

This is me one year ago:

This is me last weekend:

Perhaps a little different. And perhaps you may be asking yourself why a happily suburban Minnesota girl like myself would move to the biggest baddest city in the country. The reason? See photo below:

Yes friends, this overly-sensitive, fairly intelligent, self-motivated overachieving girl moved to New York, New York for a boy. Silly me. This is my boyfriend of almost 4 years, Scott. Pretty darn cute isn't he? We have been living together for almost a year now on W 105th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue (and yes, we're broke because of it.) However, as Scott is a MFA candidate in Columbia University's acting program, we wanted to be near the school so he could walk home late at night after rehersal and not be worried about getting mugged. It turns out I quite enjoy the upper west side, despite its priciness, but living in NY, how can you avoid that?

Scott and I began dating long distance in the Fall of 2003 after performing in a play together (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolo Dream Coat at Minnetonka Community Theater to be specific). We knew each other for 3 months before we became involved and what a waste of time! When we started to get to know each other better, Scott had 2 weeks before he went back to Philadelphia where he was attending Temple University of his bachelors in theater. At the time, I was at school at the University of Minnesota, double majoring in psychology and English. I told myself I wouldn't move for a boy until I finished school. So I graduated on May 13th 2006, and on May 30th I hopped on a plane to NYC. I must have been nuts.

I'm mostly kidding when I say that. However, while I greatly enjoy the city now, it wasn't always that way (as you can see if you check out my other blog:http://blog.myspace.com/laurenb8183). There were some definite love-hate moments throughout the last year. Like this winter when in the middle of the night we found ourselves throwing all of our dishes out of our cabinets because of a cockroach infestation. We were convinced we would die of Raid poisoning. But crisis averted....haven't seen one of those suckers (alive) since March (knock on wood!). There have been lots of great times too, like going to Rice-to-Riches (an amazing Rice Pudding place) w/ Scott, or pretending we have a lot of money (which we don't) and eating at nice resturants, enjoying the tastes of New York cooking (though I notoriously order the wrong thing).

After attempting to work at Mount Sinai Medical Center from July through September, I got a job at the Bronx VA Medical Center in October as a research coordinator for the Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC, check it out: http://www.visn3.mirecc.va.gov/). I did neurocognitive testing and clinical interviewing with veterens with schizophrenia. 6 months later, I was moving up the ropes to a position as a Research/Staff Assistant in the same department. Now I do anything from drawing blood and processing urine to taking minutes for phone conferences on suicide prevention and treatment plans. But it's diverse and thats something I need. I also have some great friends who work here with me who will be discussed some other time.

So here I am. I left the nest that is Minnesota almost a year ago and I am still in one piece. I am living with my wonderful boyfriend and starting my prereqs for nursing school at Lehman College (a City University of New York school) on June 4th. Anatomy and physiology 1 is my first conquest. I look forward to it (I heart blood and guts. And I think I need a shirt that says that.)

Celebrity Siting: I must also note that the night that the picture was taken of me with the martini in hand (which doesn't happen very often. So its lucky it was caught on film so people believe me) I saw Masi Oka from the show "Heroes" who was with Scott Porter of "Friday Night Lights" (the TV show) and the movie "Music and Lyrics". One of them actually went out to lunch with a stage manager that Scott is friends with from Columbia but thats where the story stops. I can only devulge a little gossip. I feel the need to give celebrities some respect in terms of their private lives (though I do frequent Perezhilton.com almost everyday...But that doesn't mean I need to draw dirty things all over celebrity pictures. Just divulge a little and keep people coming back). Anyways, if you don't know who these people are check them out on IMDB by clicking the following links:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1199811/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2187603/

Have a lovely weekend everyone and hopefully I will have some fun NY stories to share with you before the weekend is through. Much love. ~LB

P.S. Mer is right, I am nicer than her (sometimes) but she is probably more entertaining with her snarkiness so I look forward to hearing more about her crazy LA life.

Hello! This is Meredith, the Left Coast half of this blog.

As Lauren has already shared, she and I go back many a moon. We've gone from riding bikes around the block and attending each other's childhood birthday parties to looking forward to cross-country trips so we have a chance to catch up and discussing the possibility of future w-e-d-d-i-n-g-s (don't scary things sound less scary when they're spelled out?) of childhood classmates and (gulp) of our very own.

I think it's quite appropriate that it's taken me, the West Coast representative, a bit longer than Lauren to put up a post. As anyone who has spent time on states bordering the Pacific can tell you, time moves differently out here than it does in other parts of the world. A business meeting at 1:00 actually means "Show up any time between 1:15 and 1:30." Maybe it's the constant traffic problem. Or maybe it's a certain, er, sense of entitlement. Regardless, it is how things work in these parts.

As Lauren mentioned in her post, I am indeed an opera singer. I finished by Bachelor of Music degree about a year ago at a fancy-schmancy music school. At the moment I'm earning my keep by working various office-type jobs. Occasionally I find myself in interesting work enviroments. To paraphrase the author A.M. Homes, Los Angeles tolerates and encourages eccentricity. The Los Angeles workplace is no exception to this statement.

I'm planning on going back to school to pursue a Master of Music (doesn't that sound like some really awful movie title?) degree within the next year and a half. Who knows, though? Not I... Lauren is starting the next chapter of her formal education soon, so I'm looking forward to her testing those waters in the near future.

So here we are, two lifelong midwesterners transplanted to the cultural capitols of the US of A. The glamorous hustle and bustle of The Big Apple and LAlaland we ain't. Unless of course you consider trips to such hot spots as Ikea, the California DMV, my local grocery store, that really great Indian restaurant down the street to be the very height of Angeleno glamour. Look forward to observations, some amusing anecdotes, and maybe the odd snarky comment. Okay, Lauren's a lot nicer than I am...so expect the odd snarky comment to come from me :)

So hello, welcome, and hope we can amuse and possibly even edify a lovely reader of our blog today!

Our Story (by Lauren)

Welcome to our blog! This is a blog written by Meredith C-N and Lauren B who resided on the same street in Minnetonka, Minnesota for 15 years before going their seperate ways after high school. Now 20 years into their friendship (oy vey! Thats a long time!), they have ended up in the 2 biggest cities in the country, Lauren (myself) in NYC and Meredith in LA. We went from playing pretend on Ann Lane to playing reality (not as much fun) in the craziest metropolises in the US. Not too shabby.

Bicostal Bosom Buddies was created for multiple reasons.
#1 Out of spite toward a former high school classmate who created his own NY blog and is semi-famous because of it. However, he is highly pompous and ridiculous so we thought we'd take matters into our own hands and tell everyone how non-pompous and non-ridiculous Hopkins High School grads see the world
#2 From our first days together, up to our 20-somethings, we have been creative. Mer is a fabulous singer who has a role in her first professional Opera this month. I am a singer in a (semi-)professional choir and a supposedly talented yet half-assed writer who finds it easier to write amusing blogs and emails than stories. We also both did our share of acting back in the day. This blog is a way for us to express out creativity together in an amusing way.
#3 Because the world should know how NY and LA are seen through the eyes of 2 midwestern girls just starting out on their own. The funny, the scary, the sad, it can all be shared here for other people's enjoyment.

Please continue to check back for blogs from both Meredith (who writes in blue) and me (who writes...in...green...obviously). We hope you find a loyalty to this blog and share it with anyone who you think will enjoy it. Much love everyone! MWA MWA (NY kisses). ~LB