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.