Noodles Are Busy

So here's a quick update on why I've been so busy these last couple of weeks:

When I got back from Buffalo, I worked like a madwoman for a couple of days... then I was off. The first chance I got, I went to Boston to see the boy, but I came home just in time to celebrate father's day with my parents and one of my brothers in NYC. First a tour of the Office of Foreign Affairs where Robby works, then a nice family dinner. Then we went home, I worked like a madwoman again for (as you've most likely read) six out of seven days. And on the final day, Susan and Lynn came for a late-night birthday celebration. The next morning (so this would be Tuesday morning) the three of us went out for brunch, then Susan and I said goodbye to Lynn and headed for the travel agent where we worked hard and ultimately booked a trip to Ireland for this coming October (yay!). Then on Wednesday I headed back up to Boston to see the boy again... possibly for the last time until the end of July, but I hope not.

And now it's Friday night. I'm home, falling apart, and desperately trying to get excited about working the next two days. I'm off again Monday through Wednesday though, and I've got big plans to go to the gym and maybe the pool for some laps if the weather's nice, and to throw away all the crap in my room, donate all the old clothes, and clean up as much as possible up there. It's honestly a real shit heap and I'm finally ready to change it.

Ok, so I gotta run down to the laundry room. All my scrubs are clean but none have been dried and they're all a pile of wrinkles, so I have to get a couple pairs of those ready for tomorrow and Sunday. Sigh. I wish I were still in Boston.

Preparing For Exhaustion

I don't know who made my schedule, but it really sucks. Ok... that's a lie. I do know who made my schedule-- me. But my boss changed it around. And I never requested to change it back until it was too late. So now I'm stuck working three days in a row followed by one day off followed by another three days in a row.

Phew! 80 hours in six out of seven days is a lot!!

Today I was off, and I realize it's the first time I've blogged in a thousand years. Or, like, over a week, so I thought I'd let all of my fans know why. Maybe when I'm done with this stint on Monday night I'll have more to say about what's been going on in my life.

Until then, enjoy!

Back For More

I worked yesterday and had a student nurse intern with me, but that didn't make it any easier to come back after having had over ten days off from being in the Hospital. The day wasn't bad, but it was difficult, and certainly nothing like being off and hanging out with my friends in Buffalo.

So The last three days of my trip were fun but uneventful. Friday after arriving back in Buffalo, Kate went to work and I hung out with Brian at his place for awhile. Then Saturday while Kate was at work, I went with Randy, Blair and her boyfriend Tom to an arts festival in downtown Buffalo where the city had cordoned off a huge portion in the heart of the city and set up for blocks and blocks and blocks of vendors, concessions and performers. It was really cool! It was also Tom's birthday, so when we got back from the festival, we all ate dinner and then the cake I made for him, complete with singing and lighted candles. It was really cute and really nice, and Tom appreciated it and told me so a bunch of times. Awwww.

After that, I went off with Melissa and her boyfriend, Brian, and hung out with them for a couple of hours at a coffee shop. We had a blast, and when everyone got tired, they dropped me back off at Kate's apartment where I fell asleep waiting up for her. We had plans to go out that night, but by the time she got home from the veterinary clinic, I was exhausted and wasn't up to it. She decided she'd try to go out, but ended up coming back a half hour later because she couldn't find her friends and it was going to be too much of a hassle. So we stayed up together chatting until 4:30am, which was really nice.

When we woke up the next afternoon, we went together for lunch, spent my last couple of hours upstate reminiscing about the past week and made plans for our next visit with each other. Then, she drove me to the airport and I was on my way home on a 5pm flight.

Sigh. I miss my friend... I think I've kind of decided that I really love it upstate. Between visiting Matt's hometown near Skaneateles, being in Rochester and spending time with friends in Buffalo, I have almost fallen in love. I absolutely adore that it's still New York, but I like the feeling in those places that are just a bit distanced from New York City. I sense a whole different vibe, and while it's nothing like being near the metro area, it's just as awesome, but in a different way. Who knows... maybe one day I'll end up living somewhere up there. But for now, I'm still in Westchester and still living with my folks (vomit), commuting to visit my friends and for any kind of social stimulation. But hey, it's not so bad!

I Niagara Falls Buffalo

Wednesday was definitely better than Tuesday! Me, Kate and Taylor decided we'd head to the falls since I'd never seen them before or been across the border. When we got sort of close, we parked the car near an aerospace museum and casino (not the same structure) and walked over the Rainbow Bridge into Canada (even though the sign said not to. Heh.).

When we got to the customs booth where the Canadian officers worked, and it was my turn, the guy called me up and asked me for my identification. I handed over my drivers license and he scrutinized it for what seemed like a million years. Then he asked where I was born, was I bringing anything into the country for anyone else, how long I was staying and where I was going. All of the questions were a snap for me to answer except for the where was I going one... for some reason, I couldn't remember. I was like, "ummm... I don't know." Then I looked over at Kate and Taylor and shrugged. I started to panic... and it was like I could hear the clock ticking and the fan blowing and nothing else with the amount of tension there seemed to be in the office. The officer sat up straight in his chair, gave me a really dirty look, and I was finally able to muster up an "I guess just around the falls" which apparently satisfied him because with another frown and nasty glance, he instructed me to move along. Phew!

So we all continued on our way, marveling at the falls while walking around. We then ambled on towards the Maid of the Mist boat tour place, purchased tickets and went down to the dock. The next half hour was amazing! The boat took us around the river right at the base of both the American and the Canadian falls, gave us some history, and got us really wet from all of the spray. We saw a bunch of full rainbows and some really beautiful nature stuff. It was great!

When the tour was over, we walked around a little bit more, but feeling exhausted, decided to not explore any more of Canada, headed back towards the Rainbow Bridge and went back to Kate's apartment.

It was a great afternoon!

After a small rest, Kate and I went to a coffee shop to meet up with Brian and some of his friends for a little while. Kate had to leave about nine o'clock to go to work, but I stuck around and when we were all ready for bed, Brian and I said goodbye and headed back to his apartment to go to sleep.

The next day (Thursday), Brian left early to study for the bar exam at the law library, and I watched about thirteen thousand DVD's, started cooking for the big dinner I was making everyone later on, and napped a little. When he got back at 5pm, we headed over to Kate's where I finished cooking and where me, Kate, Taylor, Brian, Blair, Tom, Randy, Melissa, Melissa's Brian, and Aaron sat down to eat. I made lots of steamed broccoli, two loaves of garlic bread, three pounds of pasta, chunky vegetable redsauce, sauteed chickpeas and fried polenta. Mmmmm.

When we were all finished and the dishes were washed, Kate, Taylor and I headed down to Rochester to stay at Taylor and Blair's parents' house. Kate had an early morning appointment with the insurance adjustor down there, so we decided to drive down the night before to make things easy. I called Matt's friend Ryan on the way down to see if he was interested in going out for a drink, but the jerk bailed on me at the last minute because he had to work early the next day. The nerve! I had gotten so excited about hanging out with Matt's buddies without him again that hearing from Ryan was, like, the topper to my evening. But it didn't work out... so I'll just have to wait for my next trip upstate to go for a drink with him. Oh well.

So now I'm back in Buffalo... going for the mini-roadtrip was fun, and going to the insurance adjustor went smoothly, and Kate and I sang Rattlin' Bog at the top of our lungs while fording the rapidly flooding streets of downtown Rochester during a wild lightning storm. And lemme tell you, it was great! Can't wait to see what else my trip to Buffalo has in store for me for the next couple of days.

Buffalo Is Dangerous

Oh man, this place is so much fun... if you consider driving around getting lost and being in car accidents fun. What a blast!

I got here Tuesday night and Brian picked me up from the airport. We went back to his place and hung out for a little while, then to Wegs (thank God) to get me some sustenance. At 9:02pm Kate called me from work saying she was going out on her lunch break and that she couldn't wait to see me later that night... but right in the middle of the conversation, she screamed out "Oh shit!" or something, and I immediately heard the screech of brakes and a crash. Kate's always calling me while driving and she doesn't have a headset for her cell phone, and she always hangs up on me when something is happening like if a cop is passing by or if there's a ton of traffic or she's near an accident... so when she hung up on me then, I didn't think anything of it. It was about thirty minutes later by the time she called me back, but this time she was crying. It hadn't been somebody else-- she'd been rear ended "by a big honking white pickup who just slammed right into the back of the car." She was crying, and Brian and I were very concerned, and I offered to come pick her up and she could drive with Brian and I'd drive her car home. She accepted the offer and the two of us were on our way. When we got there, I was surprised that the car didn't look terrible... I think it was just the shock of what had happened that had shaken Kate up so much. So, she collected her stuff from the veterinary clinic, we collected her, and in caravan the three of us went back to Brian's house to settle down.

I then proceeded to eat an entire pint of soy ice cream along with a ton of pita bread and hummus and some giant organic carrots. Mmmm. We looked at funny videos online, Kate showed me a funny email she'd gotten, and we all just kind of hung out until Kate was calmer and feeling a little better. We went to Denny's and flirted with the gay waiter and after a little while, Brian and the two of us parted, she and I went to her apartment, talked for a little while, and went to bed. I slept fine but she told me that every time she closed her eyes, visions of being rear-ended filled her mind. Sigh. That's hard.

Hopefully the rest of this week will be a little better for everyone.

Diets Suck

Oh man, I'm starving. I've been doing mostly well, I think. And while I'm not completely following the rules of my new Weight Watchers plan, I'm doing better with it than I thought I would. I mean, don't get me wrong-- I have an open can of chocolate fudge ready-made frosting with a big spoon in it sitting right in front of me right now. But I also have been much more mindful of what I'm eating, and I've been trying hard to drink more water and eat more produce instead of as many carbohydrates.

I'm ready not to be as fat anymore, and I'd really like not to become a diabetic with high blood pressure and cholesterol taking handfulls of pills every day. I already take a bunch of vitamins and supplements, I'd prefer not to be supporting Pfizer and Merck as well.

So that's it basically. I'm leaving later today to go up to the Adirondacks with my parents to do a little work on the house. I think painting both bathrooms and redoing the floor in the larger bathroom are on the agenda along with moving in some furniture and other little getting-the-place-ready-for-inhabitants stuff. I'm happy to have a chance to go swimming in the lake, too. I haven't been in it in almost a year, and probably won't have another chance to swim in it until my next week off when I'll be up there with Brian and Kate (and whoever else can get some time off) in August.

Until next week, Noodle fans. Cheerio!

Vacation Mentality

Yesterday was my last day of work for awhile... actually, for the next 11 days to be exact. I am SO excited. I said goodbye to a couple of my coworkers and they told me not to forget to come back to work eventually. Heh.

And though I'm not doing anything huge, I am really excited not to have to wake up at 5am for the next week and a half. What do I have planned exactly, you are wondering? A lot of nothing, I hope. I'm going to do a little gardening, a little cleaning, finally finish painting my bathroom, doing some work at the summer home, taking a trip up to Buffalo to hang out with some friends, and sleeping a lot. I can't wait!

Today I have to go to the DMV (for the third time) to try to work out some stuff with my car, pick up some medications from the pharmacy, and I think I'll go to the gym for a really long workout.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but don't let that fool you, Noodle fans-- I am so excited!