Introducing Brisa

In a world full of TomKats and Brangelinas, it really is too much to say "Brian and Isa." And since we are constantly together, we decided that we need to shorten it. So now, we're "Brisa."

It also made tagging my posts easier. Speaking of, I went back and tagged all of my posts and put up a tag cloud over there on the left. It's fun. So if you want to find posts about random stuff we've done together, click "Adventures."

And there's another one for all our travel blogs.

And I put a search up on the top right so you can find anything you want (if you want).

New York Update

It's been three months since I last updated this blog. Crazy. But I'm back now and I promise to post a little more frequently now that things have fallen into a little more routine.

What? Routine? Brian? What? Yeah.

I'm working 9 to 5, baby! Yeah, commuting (all the way from the Bronx, but whatever) into New York City to work as a medical accounts billing specialist. At least I think that's my official title. I'm at my dad's company (he's the comptroller, or head financial guy for the company) - CancerCare. It's a great job in a great company - really chill atmosphere and great coworkers. It's not completely permanent (as in I won't be here in New York forever) but I hope to keep the job for at least a year or so. Here's a picture of me working. :)

Yeah, I have an office on the 22nd floor with a SWEET view of midtown:

That's Bank of America Tower in the middle, and the Empire State building to the right.

Isa is back in school and she's doing very well. She's so studious and creative and everything she makes and designs for her classes just astounds me. I know I'm easy to entertain and I'm a little biased at everything she does, but seriously. She's really good. You can check out some of her creations here. (She also created and coded that website from scratch. Yeah, I know. She's awesome.)

And since we've decided that we'll be staying here in New York for a while (for at least another year and a half until she finishes school), we've decided to make our apartment a little cozier.

We bought couches!! And they're so comfortable. And I have to plug Cort Furniture, because we got both the couch and the chair for $299. Yeah, how ridiculous is that? It's used, because normally they rent them out, but they get reupholstered and fixed up and stuff before they sell them. Awesome deal!

Ok, that's it for now. Hope you have a great day!

Caribbealia

Two things really quick here:

1. I'm flying back to the Caribbean on Monday. Just like always, I'm not telling you where yet because my YouTube subscribers read this and I'm not giving any hints yet. (For those of you who don't know, I hold a contest every time I get to a new place and my subscribers get to guess where I'm at and if they win, I send them a free t-shirt). I'm going for work for a month. I'll fly home on March 12th. And then I leave for Italy on the 14th. Fun, huh?

2. I made an application video for Australia's "Best Job in the World." I would be taking care of an island in the Great Barrier Reef for 6 months if I win, which I REALLY want to do, so I would really appreciate you clicking this link and rating 5 stars:

Watch my 60 second application video here.

Thank you so much!! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

NYC Update!

Hey Everybody,

I'm just sitting here in my apartment trying to stay out of the slush and it occurred to me that I never told you about the final decisions regarding our Greece/Turkey trip in March. Well, you know how the news does the New York Minute? Well here's a New York Update in under a minute (as long as you can read faster than me).

We couldn't make Turkey and Greece work. Sad, huh? :*(

So we're going to Italy instead. :) I'm so excited. It will be 7 of us all together. Five from the original Europe trip (five years ago - oh my gosh has it really been that long?) and then two husbands. They're cool too, and we're all really tight, so it'll be a great trip. We'll be spending two weeks there, starting March 15 and going through to the 31st. We start in Milan and go up to Lake Como, then down through Cinque Terre to the Amalfi Coast (Positano, yay!) all the way down to Sicily and back up to Rome. I am so excited to get back to Italy I can't even tell you.

Also, there are several store openings in the works. I'll let you know about them as soon as I know for sure.

And that's all the time we have for today folks, tune in next week for more exciting adventures! :P

Juneau and then some

So remember back in April, I made a list of things that I was planning on? They all came true. I went to Utah, I had dinner with my aunt, I went to Sitka and made it ridiculously successful. Just thought I'd update you on that.

I'm probably not going to run the marathon though.

Last week they moved me up to Juneau to help run the store there. It's bigger and faster paced, with anywhere up to 6 big cruise ships in at any given time. I love it! The added ships, coupled with my trying to catch up on two months of sales, means I'm working about 14 to 18 hours a day. So if you're coming from YouTube and you're wondering why I haven't uploaded a video until now, there you go.

I still go back to Sitka every few weeks to check in and to see friends. Sitka still feels like home, much more than Juneau does, at least.

The season ends here at the end of September. I'll probably be back in Utah for a day or two, and then fly back to NYC. I plan to be in the City before October 5th.

Plans are in the works for Turkey and Greece in March/April next year. I'm stoked. :) That'll give me about 4 months (minus the christmas season) to get my book published (it's all done, I just have to mail it to my friend Savannah out in London for her review).

Life is very good. I'm extremely happy with how everything is playing out.

Leave a comment if you have any questions that weren't answered.