Surgery is Finished!

Friday was my last day of surgery.  I have got to admit, I was a bit excited.  It wasn't my favorite rotation and I am lucky enough to start the core rotation that I've been looking forward to the most: Pediatrics.  We had our final exam in surgery on Wednesday and I submitted my last paper on Thursday evening.  I started reading my pediatrics text book on Friday.  I was so excited to finally be reading pediatrics!  However, the first few chapters were a bit depressing.  It was a lot of epidemiology and statistics.  There was a lot of data about how babies, children and adolescents die, their illnesses, the rates of assault and rape, abuse and statistics about the foster care system.  Nonetheless, I am still excited about pediatrics.

Saturday, we went to Brooklyn to have brunch with our friend Tam, and her boyfriend.  It was nice to meet him and see some other people from school who we haven't seen since leaving the island.  Then we went to Union Square and did a little shopping before heading home for a few hours.  Later int he evening, we met with up with Farley's good friend Paul.  Of course, we went to Farley's favorite restaurant in New York: The Heartland Brewery.  We had a great time.

Sunday, we went out to Long Island to find the hospital that Farley will be doing his pediatric rotation.  Unfortunately, we are not at the same hospital for this rotation and it is a bit of a commute for Farley.  However, the area is super nice and I think he will have a really great rotation--probably even better than the hospital that I am going to do my rotation at.  We were planning on going down to Rockefeller Center and seeing the tree as well as going to 5th Ave to look at the Christmas windows, but we were both coming down with colds and it was windy and nasty out so we decided to do our looking around Manhattan next weekend.  I stopped and grabbed some Christmas decorations on the way home, but we still do not have a tree.  I found one that I liked, but Farley thought it was too small.  We could easily get a real tree, but I am allergic and they are a lot of clean up so we are trying to find something small (but big enough) and fake.  As of right now, we have some evergreen garland with silver and red beads and lights over the gigantic entertainment center in our living room (I am not kidding you, this thing is the biggest thing in the apartment).  We also have our Christmas stockings hung on the drawers of the gigantic entertainment center.  Maybe I'll take some pictures of it and post them later

Been told and Overheard

Here are a few funny things that I've been told or over heard the last few weeks

• A 6 year old boy on the subway declared that the next stop was "Monster Ave." His dad corrected him and said "Montrose Ave." The little boy replied, "Nope Dad the lady on the train (announcer) said 'Monster Ave' and I am sure it is 'Monster Ave' because that is where school is"
• I asked a 97-year-old patient of mine if she had any children and she replied, "I only had fun, Honey."
• The day my 97-year-old patient was being discharged, I went to say goodbye. It was especially hot in the hospital that day and she had her blankets off. As I was leaving the room, I noticed that her hospital gown was a little high so I came adjusted it. I said something about how I better pull this down a few inches so she doesn't flash the hallway. She said, "Nope, I can't flash people anymore, but it sure used to be fun!"
• During a lecture on antibiotics, a professor said this: "It's like two fat guys trying to get through the same door: it isn't going to happen. You need two doors."
• One of this professor's favorite lines is "You can't kill the gators unless you drain the swamp." I think he enjoyed his time the University of Miami (Hurricanes) trying to beat University of Florida (Gators) too much.
• The best this thing this professor said in all of our surgery lectures: "In Miami in the 1980s, we used ceftriaxone and doxycycline for STDs. Everybody was getting an STD. We still use ceftriaxone and doxycycline to treat STDs--and everyone in Miami is still getting STDs."

Thanksgiving in New York City

Luckily, both Farley and I had Thanksgiving off.  We decided since we couldn't go home to our families, we would have our own full fledged Thanksgiving dinner.  We had one friend over to enjoy the meal with us.  We made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, baking-soda biscuits, cranberries and pumpkin pie.  Here are some pictures:

Farley expertly carving the turkey.

Farley and I finishing up last minute things to get dinner on the table.

Our Thanksgiving feast!  We did a good job!

My yummy plate!

Farley was extra lucky and he didn't have to go to the hospital on Friday, but our friend and I had to.  I was in the Operating Room on Friday and observed three surgeries and got to scrub into one of them.  A little before 11:30, one of the attending physicians dismissed us for the day.  I was so excited to get home early, but on the board was a baby surgery.  One of my friends and I decided to stay and watch the surgery.  The chief resident said that one of us could probably scrub in, but I was afraid to ask the pediatric surgeon.  Besides, during pediatric surgeries the OR is kept at about 85 degrees, and on top of that you have the surgical lights and the baby's incubator.  It must have been well over 90 degrees  where they were performing surgery and on top of all of that, they have to wear the gowns, masks and gloves (which are very warm).  I think I might have passed out with all that heat (which is rather funny since I am always cold in the OR). This baby was pretty little, but thankfully, the surgery wasn't for anything life threatening.  It was interesting to see the differences in the surgical technique for the baby and for adults with the same problem.  The basics were the same, but there were some differences.  It was really amazing to be able to see this surgery.  It wasn't just my friend and I who wanted to see this surgery.  At one point, there were 7 people from anesthesiology (2 attendings, 4 residents, and one technician) 3 people from neonatology (1 neonatologist, 2 nurses), one attending pediatric surgeon, one chief surgical resident, four surgery students, and two surgical nurses.  Yup, that is 18 people for one little baby!  She was in good hands!  I am happy to report, the surgery went well.  I am so excited to start my pediatric rotation--one more week!

Saturday, Farley needed to go into Manhattan.  I took a couple pictures of the Macy's Flagship store in Herald Square.  I suspect it was a madhouse in there, but we just looked at the windows, which were amazing, but the pictures did not turn out well so I decided not to post them.  The theme was Miracle on 34th Street and the windows had moving people from the scenes as well as a window of the Macy's Day Parade.

One of the main entrances with with "Believe" sign above a big Christmas Tree.

The Empire State Building with the "Believe" sign and the big tree from Macy's in the foreground.

After finishing up at Macy's we went to Union Square.  We have heard for a while that there is a Barnes and Nobles with an entire floor of medical text books.  I was under the impression that it was somewhere in Brooklyn, but I found out this week that is is just two blocks form Union Square!  We have go to through (underground) Union Square to get to the hospital daily and we often go there on the weekend because there is so much to do and it is only about 25 minutes from home.  Needless to say, Farley and I were like kids in a candy store with thousands of medical textbooks to peruse!  We both bought books for our pediatrics rotations, which we start December 6th!

November Update

I think this Surgery rotation is slowly killing me, which is why I am glad I am only two weeks away from completing it. The last few weeks have been stressful at the hospital, not because of the workload or the hours, but because some of the students have been behaving badly (not showing up, not checking on their patients, etc.) and so I have been doing everything in my power to show that I am NOT one of those students by my work. That isn't the worst part. The worst part was that I ended up having to report something to hospital administration. I knew it was the right thing to do, but I did not want to be put in this position and I did not want to have to do it. Needless to say, that added level of stress has made me want to be done with this rotation.

Last week, a friend from the rotation and I went to see the Addams Family on Broadway. I wish I would have taken some pictures but I did not! It wasn't the best written play, but I really enjoyed it. When I was 6 and Grandma Ruth was dying from cancer, I remember getting to stay up late to watch Nick and Night with Mom and Grandma. I loved watching the Addams Family. I was so excited to see the play with Nathan Lane as Gomez Addams and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia Addams. I was so star struck when the curtains came up and there were Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth! They were amazing. The play was good, but I could see how it got mixed reviews as the songs weren't that catchy (although performed amazingly---the cast was awesome) and the second act wasn't well written at all. However, it was extremely funny and I enjoyed it tremendousness. If you made a $500.00 donation to an AIDS organization, you could go back stage and get your picture taken with Nathan and Bebe (and autographs!). I would have LOVED to have met them and done that, but I don't have $500.00 and it was only a polaroid. I think for $500.00, they could print you up a digital picture, but I guess it was for charity.

This weekend, one of my best friends in the world came to town: Mary. She has only been to the Big Apple when she was a child, so I wanted to show her around a bit. Her fiance lived in New York for four years while finishing his Master's Degree at Colombia. He had lunch with us, but he had friends to visit and wasn't as interested in doing the touristy things, so I took over. We only had about 5 hours together, which obviously isn't enough! Farley and I met her at Union Square, which was having an outdoor craft fare, and we went to Strand Bookstore, which is a local bookstore that has "18 Miles of Books". Farley and I both bough used books, but Mary had just received a handful of books from her soon to be sister and brother-in-law who own a bookstore in New Jersey. After hitting up the bookstore, we headed to Farley's favorite restaurant, The Heartland Brewery. Basically, he refuses to go anywhere else, but the food is good and the prices are reasonable. Next we divided and Mary's fiancée left with his cousin to do some shopping while Farley and I took Mary to Times Square. Here are some pictures!

Farley and I in Times Square near 43rd Street

Mary and I in Times Square near 43rd Street

Radio City Music Hall decorated for Christmas and the Rockettes!

Mary near the Rainbow Room--She needed a picture as she has been watching lots of 30 Rock.

Technically the tree is up in Rockefeller Center, but it isn't decorated yet.

The tiny ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center, but it looks much bigger on T.V. and in this photo

Some Christmas decorations are amongst the plants at Rockefeller Center. Can you see the giant snow flakes?

Atlas at Rockefeller Center, who faces St. Patrick's Cathedral.

I have never taken a picture of the organ at St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is so beautiful and it is huge. Today was the first time I have gone behind the main alter to see the Lady Chapel, but they ask that no photograph is taken in that area of the Cathedral.

After finishing up at The Cathedral of St Patrick, we headed to the New York Public Library and Bryant Park. I didn't get to take any picture of the library, but it is a sight to be seen. It is a huge marble building that looks more like a museum than a library. Granted, we got there close to closing time and didn't have time to explore, but the first floor didn't have books but rather an exhibit of rare books. It was the Three Faiths exhibition: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. There were Holy books from all three faith traditions that were hundreds, if not thousand, of years old. It was amazing. They had the pages open to parts where all three faith traditions were discussing the same story or topic, for example Abraham. Obviously, we couldn't take pictures, but it was amazing. Click here for the link to the website where you can see pictures of the exhibit. After finishing up in the museum, we headed out back (literally Bryant park is like the New York City Library's back yard). Bryant Park had the ice skating rink up and it also had Holiday Shops (the crafts at Union Square were super cool, but if I had more extra spending money, I could have spend a LOT of cash at the Christmas sale in Bryant Park. It was amazing stuff!).

Ice Skating rink at Bryant Park. It doesn't look that big, but I think it is bigger than the one at Rockefeller Center and it is free unlike Rockefeller center.

A picture of the shops at Bryant Park. I think the shops are up all season and they have some beautiful, creative and really amazing gifts. The white building in the background is the New York Public Library.

The Chrysler Building--Dad's favorite building. He doesn't think it gets the attention it deserves, so I decided to take a picture and post it for him. Here you go Dad!

A Medical Student walks into a room...

One of the girls in my surgical group walked into a patient's room on Saturday to check on him.  She thought that something was odd because he had a sheet over his face while he was sleeping (can you guess what happened?).  She, in a very perky voice I am sure, walked over to the bed and said, "Good Morning Mr. Smith...Mr. Smith, wake up."  Mr. Smith didn't move.  She listened and heard breathing so she shook his shoulder and louder said, "Mr. Smith wake up."  The family visiting the patient in the bed next to Mr. Smith looked at with confused and startled faces as she pulled back the sheet over Mr. Smith's face: He was dead.  She was mortified and quickly covered him back up before leaving the room.  As she turned to leave, she noticed a nurse and a nurse tech in the hall staring at her horrified.

Where to Start?

I just submitted a paper for my surgical rotation and decided to start writing a blog post (Note: I actually started writing this post on September 21st....this surgery rotation is keeping me busy!).  I didn't realize that it has been over a month since I've posted!  I have so much to write about, but I will have to be brief as I am in the  midst of my most dreaded rotation of my third year of medical school: Surgery.

A few weeks ago, it was Farley and my third year anniversary.  The actual anniversary date we had to be in the psychiatry unit, but after work we went to the gym then out to dinner.  There is an Italian resturant in Astoria that gets great reviews and requires a reservation (which I hear is unusual in Astoria).  Anyway, Farley got reservations for us.  They were running about an hour behind so we had a glass of wine in the wine bar, which was great because they had a pianist playing  Our dinner was fabulous!  The next night, we headed into Midtown  to go see "The Lion King" at the Minskoff Theater.  I really wanted to go see a Broadway show while we were in New York City, so we decided to go for our anniversary.  The only real problem we had was deciding which show to go to.  I wanted to go to the Addams Family, Chicago, West Side Story, Wicked or Lion King.  Farley on the other had, wanted to see the Phantom of the Opera, but he didn't really want to see a show at all.   I had seen the Lion King last winter in Spokane and loved it.  I thought it would be a show Farley would enjoy and so we finally agreed to get tickets for it.  Thankfully, I was correct: he enjoyed it.

The weekend after that was Labor Day Weekend.  We got to have a three day weekend!  We decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We spent all day looking around the museum.  It was such a fun day.  Here are some pictures:

Above and Below are pictures of The Great Hall, where you enter.

A sculpture from the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts exhibit

Below: are pictures from the Robert Lehman Wing Atrium.  

Above: They allowed people to go through the storage

Below: They had rooms set up to show what a time period looked like.  I loved those rooms in the American Wing.  Here are some pictures!

Below: They have a lot of Egyptian art work at the Met.  They even have a real life Temple!  Below is a picture of the Temple of Dendur.

They had middle ages weapons.  I can tell you which one of us enjoyed this exhibit more: Farley!

Here is a Chinese Warrior's uniform!

This is from the "Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas" exhibit.

Locked Down

"How can you tell the difference between the psychiatrist and the patients? The psychiatrist has the keys!"

This is my third and final week on the inpatient psychiatry ward. Next week I will be moving to the chemical dependency unit and after that I will be in the consult and liaison unit. Anyway, I have been thinking about things to write about the inpatient psychiatry unit, but haven't had the time to compile my thoughts yet. I am having a lot of fun with the other medical students, maybe too much fun!

The inpatient until that we are working on is a voluntary lock-down ward, which basically means that the patients agree to come into the hospital voluntarily but that they cannot leave until (1) the physician decides they are ready to go or (2) they write a 72-hour letter (which is similar to when a medical patient leaves against medical advice, AMA, except that the psychiatrist has 72-hours to get the paperwork in place to involuntarily commit the patient if the doctor does not think the patient is stable enough to leave--they usually don't involuntarily commit until the patient is still extremely sick). Since this is a locked ward, we are also locked on the unit. Overall, it has been fun and some of the things I've heard on this unit have tested my ability to keep a serious face and not burst out laughing. Here are some examples of being on the locked ward...

Middle Aged Depressed Lady (MAD L): MAD L was telling me how she is so depressed that she feels nothing but hopelessness and emptiness. (This is a sign of severe depression and should be taken seriously.) Then she told me that she has hurt herself so that she can feel the pain rather than feeling nothing (also very serious). I asked her how do you hurt yourself and she replied, "I hit myself with a fly swatter until I bruised."

MAD L also is a bit overweight. She told me that she had hurt her knee at one point in the past she fell and with all of her weight she landed on this knee. Then she looked me straight in the eye and seriously said, "That is a lot of weight for one knee."

There is a younger lady who is going through a manic episode, lets call her Ms. Hyper. Because Ms. Hyper is manic, her thoughts race and she jumps from idea to idea. Some of the things she says are downright funny, but her disease is anything but funny. She is the patient that has bothered me the most because she is the only patient that I haven't seen get better...yet. I know some of the medicines that she is getting take a while to work (psychiatry medications may take up to 12 weeks to work properly--patients don't have to stay in the hospital that long), but I just wish she would start to show signs of getting better soon. Ms. Hyper has said a million interesting things, but I am not sure if they will seem funny outside of the locked unit. Her favorite word is "epic" so anything she likes, is epic. She really wants to get married and have kids "to get it over with already." Whenever, she says, " I want to get it over with, already" at least two staff, medical students, or physicians turn their heads so quickly that they get whip-lash because if you miss the first part about getting married and having kids, it is easy to think she is talking about suicide. It is amusing to see how quickly the heads turn, then realize it is just Ms. Hyper (she is one of the few patients who is not suicidal on the unit and she isn't talking about suicide). Recently, she declared that she had to get home because she has things to do and the energy to do them. She wants to clean out her parents basement to give things to the poor and so that she can have "the most epic house party ever." She told us that if we could help the doctor understand that she has things to do and is ready to go home, we could come to this epic house party.

Ms. Hyper has become friends with Ms. Wilderness. Ms. Wilderness is another young lady who is admitted to the hospital for depression. I call her Ms. Wilderness because she wanted to commit suicide by going to the woods, camping, meditating and not eating until she dies.

Anyway, we were in a group therapy session today. Ms. Wilderness said that she thinks she has four options when she leaves the hospital (1) Continue working full time (at her good job with benefits) and be stressed out working for "The Man" (2) Quit her job and move in with her parents then look for work as a gardener (3) Move to the wilderness, live a quiet, peaceful life and eat at food kitchens or (4) "try to become homeless"

After Ms. Wilderness mentioned the third option, of moving to the wilderness, Ms. Hyper went from sleeping on the table to jumping up and declaring that it was so obvious that Ms. Wilderness had to move to the wilderness because it would be "epic". Then Ms. Hyper fell back asleep on her arm. After Ms. Wilderness spoke more about living in the woods and "trying to become homeless" another patient decided to speak up, we will call him The Voice of Reason. I wish you could hear his voice. He doesn't have the deepest voice, but it is rough like gravel. He is a no-nonsense kind of guy, with a troubled past, who is trying his best to keep on the straight and narrow. I expect him to curse, but he never does; however, he always has a look on his face like he thinks someone in the room is crazy (and technically since they are in a locked psych unit, they are). He looked at Ms. Wilderness, while she was talking, like he wished someone would slap some sense into her and declared her "super crazy" for wanting to move to the streets. Despite the look on his face while she was talking, The Voice of Reason calmly looked her in the eye and told her about life on the streets. I think the look on his face made the situation more humorous in person. He looked like he had just eaten something very sour and was disgusted (in this case disgust with stupidity). Besides the fact, he (and the rest of us for that matter) were not sure what she meant about "trying to become homeless." I don't know how you try to do that....

Another middle aged patient was extremely mad at her family for not calling her for advice about family matters. It was all I could do not to start laughing when she said this in group therapy....this is a lady is a paranoid schizophrenic and she thinks "everyone is out to get" her. I understand that she feels left out of the family (and that isn't right), but I can see why the rest of the family doesn't use her as their primary advise counselor.

Another of my patients is a depressed gentleman. He asked me, "why are you here" and I replied "because I am a medical student." He then said, "But why?" and I told him that I wanted to be a doctor since I was a little girl. He told me, "but you could be a model....or an actress. The guys and I have been trying to figure out why you are here. We all think you could have been a model." I replied thank you (and obviously, I had a new favorite patient). Then he said, "You could have been a supermodel, but you are here. Wow, you must really want to be a doctor." If all of my patients told me I have supermodel potential, I think I would have no choice but to become a psychiatrist--it is great for my ego.

Now, being on the locked ward is okay overall; however, on Tuesday it was horrible. They are doing construction in the hospital and the fire alarms were set off. So, there are flashing lights, terribly loud sirens, and a ward full of psych patients. I don't think the patients knew it, but the door automatically unlocks (so they could escape), but there were three medical students guarding the door (but heck, if they all came at once, the three of us couldn't stop them). Anyway, this fire alarm went off for half an hour. I already had a horrible headache (it was so bad that Farley suggested that I stay home, but I didn't want to have to make up the day) and then this happened. To top it all off, the patients didn't try to leave, but they all started shouting about the noise and they got louder and louder. My headache got worse and worse, but I couldn't leave because I was guarding the door and once it stopped, the door automatically locked. Besides, they have cameras so they know when we come and go. So, I was stuck in my own personal hell...on the locked unit

New York City Tour

Farley and I decided while still in Miami Beach, that we would do a tour of NYC once we arrived.  We decided that if we were going to do a tour, we were going to do it all so we chose an 8.5 hour tour which took us all over Manhattan, included lunch in Little Italy, a boat tour and ended with us at the Top of the Rock.  

This first picture is a building in Manhattan's Midtown.  Apparently it was built right before the Great Depression and it was suppose to be a skyscraper; however, the builder lost everything and stopped at the 5th floor.  Sometime in the last decade someone decided to finish it, except that they did it with a modern glass building.  It looks so interesting:

As we headed north to the Upper West Side of Manhattan we passed things like the Lincoln center and lots of places where the rich live.  This building was build, I believe, in the last 1800s and it was designed to be fireproof--the walls were 1.5 feet wide.  Well, it wasn't fireproof but it is soundproof so it has been a hot spot for musicians and classical composers.  I guess they remodeled it a few years ago so it is now "luxury apartments"

 This is where John Lennon was killed, The Dakota.  Sorry the picture isn't better Mom.  The Strawberry Fields are across the street in Central Park, but I was on the wrong side of the bus and couldn't get any pictures.

Another picture of the Dakota.  I guess Yoko Ono still lives in their apartment.

The Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Just a few blocks from the Apollo is the building that former President Clinton has his offices (on the 14th floor).  It was a huge deal when he decided to move his offices here because this area has was very dangerous and run down, but has cleaned up by the city over the last 15 to 20 years.

We took a quick detour to Central Park's conservatories. We only had 30 minutes!

I believe the building in the background is part of Columbia University.  Their campus was something else, but it should be for $45,000 per year tuition (NOT room and board)

After leaving Central Park, we headed down 5th Avenue through Midtown and Times Square (see my blog on Time Squares for pictures of it).  Then we headed through SoHo and Greenwich Village, but I didn't get any good pictures of the area.  After that we stopped in Little Italy for lunch (included in our tour fee).  

 This is the restaurant we ate at.  It wasn't the most amazing food in the world, but the restaurant was cute.  Apparently, every 10 years buildings must work on the scaffolding to be up to city code, so there are covers up around certain buildings to protect the sidewalks while they work.  This was one of those buildings.

 A building in little Italy.

 A view of the Empire State Building from Little Italy.

Literally a block away from Little Italy starts Chinatown.  I didn't get a good picture of Canal Street, where people go to buy the fake designer bags an such.  

Next we headed to Wall Street.  Here is the Bull.

Then we headed to "Ground Zero."  However, we were told that New Yorkers don't call it Ground Zero anymore because it is cleaned up and they want to move forward, so they just call it the World Trade Center.  The black building is the 7th tower (I might be mistaken, but I think I am remembering correctly).  Apparently, there were eight buildings in total that went down on 9/11--the seven world trade center buildings and a hotel.  The 7th building was the first to be rebuilt and it is 55 stories.  The twin towers were 110 stories---imagine it twice as large!  The tour guide also said the fires could not be put out for 6 months.  If I remember correctly between 2,500 and 3,000 people died, but there were over 55,000 people in the towers.  It is amazing that more people didn't die.  Also, I didn't know that they people who live near there couldn't return to their homes for 6 months because of the asbestos and the horrible smell in the area lasted for years.  They are working on rebuilding the site now, as can be seen below

 I believe the crane on the right is where the first tower was and off to the left is where the second tower was.

This is inside the world financial center, where we took pictures  of the World Trade Center.

Our next stop was South Street Sea Port for a tour of Liberty Harbor.  Here is the Brooklyn Bridge!

 Ships at the dockside that you can tour.

 The Brooklyn Bridge from the water:

The Manhattan Bridge.  There are three bridges connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan Island.  From South to North they are the Brooklyn, Manhattan and George Washington Bridges.

Photos of downtown Manhattan from the boat tour:

The short round glass arches in the photo below was destroyed on 9/11.  They rebuilt it quickly (with the exact same design) and I believe it reopened on 9/11/02--one year after 9/11.

 Midtown Manhattan from the boat--the Empire State Building.

 Ellis Island: I had no idea how beautiful it was.  I can only imagine how it would feel to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island after the long journey to finally reach America.  It was very moving to see.

The Statue of Liberty!

After the boat trip, we headed to the "Top of the Rock" observation deck at Rockefeller Center.  There were great view of New York City and we had a perfect day without clouds.  The first photo is zooming in on the bridges near my house.  If you look very closely, you can see the Robert F. Kennedy and Hell's Gate Bridges that I wrote about when I posted on Astoria Park.

 Central Park!

The Empire State Building, which also has an observation deck that you can go up and see the city from.

After finishing the tour, I wanted to walk down 5th Ave again.  Here is a picture of Cartier.  The building is almost as beautiful as the diamonds.  

Mom and I watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's" after my surgery last winter.  I am not sure if Tiffany & Co. are in the same building, but it sure looked the same to me!

I think I covered most of the tour.  It was a long day and I am not sure that I remembered all of the details correctly, so I hope everything I posted is accurate.  After walking around, we headed to Starbucks to get Farley some much needed coffee.  We decided to watch a move and order delivery.  We had Indian food.  It was such a wonderful day!