Funny Friday

Today at lunch, I went to the local café with my coworker. I walked up to the register to order my veggie burrito (meat-free Fridays during Lent!), and the cashier asked if lunch was "for here" or "to go." 

My coworker had been right behind me, so I turned around and said "Do you want to eat here or go back to my office?"

And that's when I realized it was not my coworker behind me, but a young college-age gentleman who simply raised his eyebrows at me.

Surprised, I responded "Oh! You're not with me." 

And he responded, "Well, I mean... If you want!" 

I then blushed 100 shades of red and giggled uncontrollably, as did the cashier who now thinks I'm a complete nutcase.

Happy Weekend!

Recipe for a Tolerable Monday

1 helping of morning sunshine 

1 cup of hot Dunkin Donuts Decaf (French Vanilla of course)

1 empty work calendar (no meetings!)

A pair of leggings that pass as work pants when paired with a long sweater and boots

A bunch of tulips on your desk

A pinch of The Boss Is Traveling in Florida 

And a warm home that you can't wait to get back to at the end of the day 

I fall down a lot...

"I fall down a lot" is my tag-line on Twitter and today, I proved it to be true.

Many friends remember my Great Club Cafe Injury of 2013, when I danced right off the stage after bee-bopping to Whitney's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." That resulted in a severely sprained ankle (which could have been a fracture if not for my super tight leather boots I was wearing!). Today was a similarly awesome incident. 

Late for the train this morning, I literally ran into the bedroom to hug Crisp goodbye, and my stocking feet skidded across the slippery floor. I ended up head-first, sprawled out, at the bottom of the bedroom closet, tangled amongst clothes and shoes. Searing pain in my knee caused me to rock back and forth, clutching my leg and repeating "Eeeessssshhhhh, owwwww." Crisp, having just woken up to my clattering fall, peered over the edge of the bed wondering what on earth I was up to. 

I scraped myself up, gave sleepyhead a hasty hug and kiss adieu, and scurried off to the train station, giggling at my own gracelessness the whole way.  After the giddiness and adrenaline wore off, I dang near thought my leg needed to be amputated from the pain. 

Crisp has been taking care of me since I got home, and I think some ice cream might help with the healing. I'm off to recuperate. I will post pictures later of what is sure to be a remarkable bruise!

2015: First Quarter Report

I can't believe that it's already March! We are almost one quarter through the year. Daylight savings begins tomorrow, which hopefully will be sunshine, spring and WARMTH very soon!

I thought that I would report back on the last couple of months, since there was a lot of excitement to start 2015. 

First and foremost was mine and Crisp's Holiday 2015 Roadtrip. I had never been to Florida before, but we had some family from California visiting the Sunshine State, so the day after Christmas, we hopped in the car and headed south. We didn't research or prepare for the trip too much; we just packed our bags and had some loose plans and anticipated timelines for the trip. It took about two and a half days to get there, and what an experience!  I had never traveled further south than North Carolina, and I thought that South Carolina, Georgia and Florida were beautiful and so different than anything I was used to!

Impressive bridge over the Delaware River!

 

Funny texts with Mom from Virginia

 

We needed a place to stop for lunch on Day Two.
Fayetteville looked like a big city on the map.

This sign was literally the most exciting thing downtown.

 

I'm the World's Worst Roadtrip Photographer,
but this sign says "We're Glad Georgia's On Your Mind"

 

Again, stellar photography, but we made it to FL!

Views from where we stayed, featuring a little resident gator!

 

 

After a couple of days in the sun, we had to say goodbye to Florida, but we were enjoying being on the road so much that we changed up plans for the trip back. There had been SO much traffic all along Interstate-95 during our trip south, that we looked at an alternate route a little further west... so we added a pit-stop in NASHVILLE for New Year's Eve and convinced our familia to come along!

 

Crisp drove the entire way from Sarasota to Nashville in one day, and the trip through western Georgia and southern Tennessee was VERY interesting...

 

I'd never seen confederate flags before!

Nor had I seen signs welcoming concealed-carry permit holders...

... at a pizza restaurant/gas station/convenience store.

 

 

But boy, oh boy, was Music City an experience! We spent about two days in Nashville and got to celebrate New Years Eve on Broadway with a live, free Gavin DeGraw and Lady Antebellum concert. There was a gigantic music note that dropped at midnight, and so many great restaurants and bars with more live music.  I absolutely loved it! It's truly a city where dreams come true.

 

 The entrance to Broadway NYE festivities



Music note before midnight and with about 10,000 people!

 

 

On New Years Day, our family got their plane back to California, and Crisp and I had the most peaceful and scenic drive up through Tennessee, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. There were so many mountain views and wide open fields, and we literally saw thousands of cows. My camera couldn't capture the actual beauty of the surroundings, but it is a great memory. 

 

We stayed in Maryland for our last night on the road, and then rolled home on January 2nd.  The last day of the trip yielded the funniest sign:

Yikes!

 

All in all, it was so great to explore new places and to enjoy some warm sunshine in January... which made it all the more painful when Boston began getting hit by blizzard after blizzard mid-month and into February. 

 

Here are a few views of the city during the storms. 

About 8 hours into the first blizzard...

...and 12 hours later, the streets were impassable.

As the blizzards continued, cars became buried.

Snow mountains covered the sidewalks.

Finn was the only creature in Boston who loved the snow!

After the last storm, the snow in our back patio was waist-high!

 

 

Of course a barrage of blizzards won't stop millions of New Englanders from celebrating a Patriots' Superbowl victory. The rolling rally ran right down Boylston Street, just a short walk from home.

Tom Brady!

 

 Now that the thrills of snow storms and sports success has past, I think most of us are excited for the mountains to melt and the temperatures to climb. My coworkers were giddy over 40-degree weather this week. Imagine the euphoria next week when the temperatures might reach 50-degrees...

 

Come on, springtime! We're ready!



 









 

"Poison Unto Your Home!!"

Crisp is away and I have been texting his mom periodically to check on Finn, as she and Crisp's brothers are dog-sitting for us while my work schedule is nuts.

She had invited me to visit her house this weekend, but I had to go back to my hometown to see my mom. It was my intention to text her and let her know this. Since she's a bit more comfortable speaking Spanish, I thought it would be nice to text her in Spanish... Since I'm BASICALLY fluent (haha no, not at all), I thought it would be no big deal.

Just to be safe, I double checked my text with an online translator. Glad I did... The end of my message cursed her home with poison. 

Love is...

Coming home to a dog who is so happy that his whole body wiggles

Homemade risotto, made with love

Meaningful conversation and efforts toward a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle in between bites

A handsome man who packages up leftover risotto for tomorrow's lunch

Walking down Boston's brick sidewalks on a cool night with the scent of spring flowers in the air

Strawberry milk with a straw

The living room lights turned dim enough to relax but bright enough to read

A good book

When the dog jumps up on the couch, and you hug him so hard he burps

Hearing your fella, who's sick with the cold you gave him, snoring from the other couch

Turning the TV off and enjoying the peacefulness of a warm home 

Feeling grateful 

<3

Life Fail

7:06am: Woke up briefly, feeling terrible. Worked 60+ stressful hours in the past four days. Fell back asleep.

9:12am: Woke up again, panicked that I would miss 11:00am appointment in Brookline.

9:20am: Decided to take shower. Looked in mirror and realized I slept with all my makeup on. Delightful. (Now anticipating outbreak of adult acne.)

9:35am: Cried actual tears at the thought of having to get dressed, leave apartment, and be functional human being. Am like an exhausted toddler.

10:15am: Left apartment with half-wet hair, no makeup, wearing a shirt that was too small for me. However, was grateful that I managed to leave apartment at all.

10:32am: Arrived at T station slightly rejuvenated by sunshine and lovely spring weather

10:35am: Spiraled back into exhausted crankiness at the realization that there were 1,743,854 people on the T today. Thanks a lot Red Sox and Bruins for being so stupid and awesome.

10:54am: Stopped to get an iced coffee even though I knew it would make me late for 11:00am appointment. Clearly I have priorities.

11:05am: Therapist/Life Coach told me I look like I've lost weight. Then offered me a scone. I told him I haven't lost any weight; possibly have gained weight due to stress.  I took and ate a scone anyway, and launched into discussion on how I'm cranky because of work, stress, anxiety, and hormonal issues.  He questioned my hormonal comment by asking if I'm "pre-menstrual." Awkward.

12:37pm: Arrived back in Boston and went to the Boston Public Library to use computers, since laptop at home is busted. Enjoyed company of the many homeless people who use the BPL computers to play online solitaire and watch YouTube.

1:15pm: Stopped at CVS and purchased toilet paper, a bottle of ginger ale, a bag of pepperoni pizza flavored Combos, pre-moistened face wash wipes (to hopefully promote makeup removal on sleepy nights) and $6 worth of designer hand soap (which Crisp hates for me to spend money on, but I knew he would be out with friends today so I bought it anyway. What a rebel.)

2:07pm: Ate Combos while watching Grey's Anatomy reruns and then fell asleep on the couch.

7:24pm: Woke up to Finn staring at me.

7:33pm: Let Finn outside for a while while I microwaved leftover chili that Crisp made. Then ate bowl of chili while standing in kitchen. 

8:05pm: Fed Finn dinner and remembered that there was ice cream in the freezer.

8:12pm: After debating whether to eat ice cream, I decided that I already had ruined any nutritional hopes for the day by eating pepperoni pizza flavored Combos.

8:17pm: Put ice cream back into freezer after eating 5 spoonfuls right out of the container.  

11:41pm: Realized that I had just wasted three hours of looking at mindless nothingness on the internet.  Reflected on my day and decided that it would be a great idea to document this failure of a day on my blog. 

12:13am: Finished blogging. Exhausted again. Can't decide if today was funny or sad. Hopefully more funny than sad. Days like this remind me that it's a very good thing that I am not a parent.

Will be more human/productive tomorrow!