That Bird Stole My Corn Dog

So I got a ticket to go to California for Thanksgiving to see my sister and brother-in-law and her new baby bump!! That's right!! I'm going to be an auntie! So I packed up, had everything ready and took my suit case to work. I was going to walk to the metro and get to work that way but then I realized I only had one charger for my cell phone and had to abruptly turn around and get the second one! Can't fly across the US without the plug in charger for your phone you know.......So I took a cab to work. 

I was so excited to get off work! I rolled my suit case up to the punch clock, punched out, and sat. And sat. Turns out that of course when you allow plenty of time for something you don't need it and when you don't have plenty of time you need it. But I'm not complaining! This shuttle driver actually drove reasonably well. It was a beautiful Thanksgiving morning! We drove by the monument and capitol on the way to the airport. I love seeing those sites, doesn't matter when.

So I get to the airport, have a wonderful breakfast and get on the plane. Let me clarify I'm going from DC to Sacramento. My first layover wasn't for 5 hours. I thought I had gotten a window seat so I sat in the window seat in my row. Turns out I did not have the window seat. I was pleasantly reminded by the ticket holder of the window seat that it was not in fact my seat. So I sat in the isle seat with a crooked neck and tried to sleep. My layover in Phoenix was fairly anti-climactic. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving burrito while waiting for my next flight.

I got to Sacramento and waited for my sister to come pick me up. I was soooo excited! It was so good to see her and Panda (that's what I'm calling the baby). We went to Bob and Wendy's house and had Thanksgiving dinner. It was so good to see them! I haven't seen them in like 2 years!

So one of the not-perks to working nights is switching to days immediately when you want to go see people. I was so exhausted from so little sleep on the plane that I was out by like 10:30 that night. However...I woke up at 1 and then at 3 and couldn't fall back asleep. So I finally got up and went downstairs to watch a tv show on my phone. I was catching up on Private Practice when Wendy came downstairs. I should preface this by saying I love being in the dark so I was watching my show in the dark. When I saw Wendy I said "Don't be alarmed, I'm awake and here." Well it didn't work. I still alarmed her even with my calm demeanor. She wasn't exactly expecting someone to be awake and downstairs that early. So we had some coffee, I finished my show and went upstairs around 6 am thinking maybe I would be able to fall asleep. Well that thought ended when Danielle said "What the heck are you doing?" as I snuck back into the bedroom. So I fessed up that I'd been up half the night and we decided to just go shop.

I won't drone on about Black Friday shopping. But we did have fun, went back home and took a nap. That night Danielle, Lisa and I went to see the new Twilight movie. I had already seen it and if you've already seen it....let me tell you it's fantastic to watch someone else watch it for the first time!!

I'll skip ahead to getting back to San Fran. We got back into town Saturday night, Sunday was church, lunch and some shopping. Monday I rented a car and went back to Sacramento and got my walk through nursing license. And the best part of that was getting to go see my friend Priscilla who was a fellow traveler I met at Yale! We had a wonderful afternoon catching up.

Tuesday I rode into the city with Danielle early in the morning. Catching BART with the morning crew is always a joy. Danielle and I went to Starbucks and started the day right. So we order and I ask the guy if I can have a "green stick thing" and I'm quickly told (in good humor of course) that it's a light saber. I told the barista that I was more of a Trekkie (and of course I made the Spock hand sign) and he smiled and said "Okay, okay....it's your life long and prosper." So I chuckled back and politely asked for a "live long and prosper" for my coffee.

I walked Danielle to work and continued on my way to Pier 1 to see the Bay Bridge and the water. I got plenty of pictures along the way of course. So then I made my way down to Fisherman's Wharf. There was a big tree there that was beautiful. It was so early that a lot of the shops weren't even open yet. I was starting to get kind of hungry so I walked by a place that was selling corn dogs. What a perfect mid-morning snack! So I get my corn dog and headed down to see Alcatraz from afar. I sat my corn dog down to take some pictures and then these 2 Aussies offered me to look through their viewfinder that still had some time  on it. How nice of them! So I walk away from my corn dog to look in the viewfinder and the Aussie yells "He stole your corn dog!!" I turn around to see my entire (minus the one bite I took) corn dog in that stupid birds mouth. He took it to the water and gulped it away. So I pull out my camera, barely get a picture of the stick still in its mouth and go back to the viewfinder that now has no time left in it. The Aussies felt terrible! The mom said "Oh no! We ruined someones day!" In the midst of my laughing at the fact that my corn dog had just been stolen I assured her it was fine and that it would make a fantastic facebook status.

I think my other proud moment that day was finding a tea store that I had always wanted to go to in NYC and charging my phone outside of Macy's while looking at the huge tree in front of Macy's.

The rest of my visit was great, I won't even go into the fact that my sister wanted to make a pregnancy banner with letters cut out of white lace fabric that I cut out while she was sleeping through ELF. Not even going to bring that up.

So I was supposed to fly out that Wednesday. I woke up early and took Danielle to BART and then went back to sleep some more since I had a long day ahead of me. So I woke up, got ready, and couldn't open the trunk. So after fiddling with that I put the suit case in the back seat and got ready to leave. Only the car wouldn't turn over....or on....or whatever. So I had called dad and finally after about 10 minutes got the car to start. I was afraid I drained the battery....not that I've done that before.....

So I get to BART and there's NO WHERE to park! Of course there's not! Oh well. So after driving around for 15 minutes I finally find a parking spot. Granted I had to go around the front of the car because there wasn't enough room to walk around the side. SO I took a picture of where I parked so Danielle could find the car.

I got to BART just in time, I actually carried my suit case up a couple of escalator steps to make it. So I ride BART to Embarcadero to drop the car key off to Mike. The only problem is that I didn't realize my Embarcadero stop was coming up so I jumped up, grabbed my carry on, suit case, and phone and was on my way up the escalator and it hits me....I LEFT MY COAT ON BART!!! I was so disappointed. I hope my coat is clothing someone who needed it. So I drop the key off with Mike and ride to the airport.

I get to the airport to find out that I couldn't check in because my flight had been delayed a couple times. So long story short, I made some calls and ended up getting a flight the next day. So I got back on BART, went and dropped my luggage off at Mike's Hyatt and walked around the city for a while. It was nice to have another night with Danielle and Mike. We posted their announcement to facebook that night and just relaxed. What a great trip!!

The trip back was uneventful thankfully, though the morning did start at 0430. More to follow on the Panda and upcoming adventures!!

Where Are My Keys!?!!?!?!

So today was just supposed to be another fly back from San Fran day. It was SO not another fly back from San Fran day. I started out the day at 5:42...that's right. AM! So we get ready, get on BART and take the hour plus ride out there, say goodbye to Danielle en route (her stop was clearly before ours was) and make our way to SFO. It was a bit chilly at SFO and mom and I stood there freezing, I'm pretty sure I made a bit more of a scene about it than she did. Dad just looked at us like we were insane. As we made our way from BART to the airport tram and into the airport we looked at the clock and had about an hour to go. When you come down the escalator you see the security line and it was short! Our spirits were soaring! Then we walked around the corner....BAM! There was the line from Hades. Once we got closer and the man from outside made an announcement we discovered that there were more than hour long delays. So we stood in line probably for a good hour. Finally it was our turn. I ended up still going through Chicago only leaving at 11:35 instead of 10 am. Then that got delayed until 12:20. And my Chicago flight got delayed or moved from 4:30 to 7:30. So I was all set to go. Mom, dad, and I had brunch in the place where they always have breakfast and then we walked around for a while. It was finally time for me to go after being delayed again. So I got on my plane and fell asleep before we even taxied off.

I woke up in Chicago, turned out that my once 2.5 hour layover was now less than an hour. Oh well! So I look at the monitor and what does it say? "Delayed." So I walked around for a little bit, made my pit stop, and got this amazing Mexican food. Then I sauntered (yes, I did not hasten) to my gate. Oh, I forgot to mention the magazine I got to enteratain myself the first little bit on the plane taking off. Turns out it was a good idea because I couldn't sleep on the second flight.

So I finally land in Dulles, late of course. I make my little pit stop, take the tram to go get my luggage and my luggage was already there! I think that's the first time that's ever happened! I figured that since I was already late I might as well grab a sandwich for the road. Turns out it was a good thing I did because I ended up checking in for my shuttle....waiting for them to call my number....walking to the bus where I waited 20 minutes for someone to come and then waiting about another 15 minutes before we left. It was a bit ridiculous really. So we dropped off the people in front of me and off to my apartment we were headed. I decided to get my tip money out before we got to the apartment and I thought that since I was already digging in my purse I would get my keys out.

So that was my big mistake. We finally arrive at the apartment and I get out, remember my water bottle that I was afraid I would forget. So I get out of the van, walk to the back and get my luggage, pull out my tip money and thank the man. He gets in the car and starts to drive off. And then it happens. WHERE ARE MY KEYS!?!?!!?!?!!?! :O So the panic starts to settle in......oh, and did I forget to mention that I have 3% battery left on my phone at this point? So I start to call the shuttle company and then knock on the front door so I can at least plug in my phone until they answer their stoopid phone. (I waited on hold for over 10 minutes and called back again). So the conscierge comes and opens the door for me (there are two doors to get in, the first you don't have to have a thing to open, the second you do). It is upon trying to open the second door that we realize that she forgot to grab her keys while coming to let me in! EPIC FAIL!!! But luckily there was an outlet for me to plug my phone into. I finally got ahold of someone with the shuttle company and talked with her at length about getting my keys back. It was sounding to my like I wasn't going to get my keys tonight and I really needed to get into my apartment. So I was polite but persistent and said I would call back in half an hour and not in the suggested hour. But thankfully in within 20 minutes of the initial phone call (after being in the first part of the apartment walkway for 40 minutes) the blue shuttle showed up!!!! And he had my keys!!!! He said it would be $20 (which is MUCH cheaper than a round trip cost for them and way way cheaper than calling the locksmith) so I payed the man $40 as a tip. I was SOOO thankful. And the girl at the conscierge desk was very thankful to have my keys so we could get in the building!

So alas, I write to you from inside my apartment, that I am so thankful to be in!! And now I say goodnight!!

Backpacking Through Boston Day One

The “problem” with working nights is that your sleep schedule is all….shall we say amiss. On Wednesday morning I didn’t go to bed until 2:30 am because I simply wasn’t tired. I had worked the night before and slept a good portion of the day so I was bright eyed and ready to go! I slept until about 6, showered, tried to pack everything I thought I would need for a night and set out.

 I needed to stop and pick up a backpack as I didn’t bring one with me to carry the couple of things I would need for staying overnight in Boston. And believe me; I actually did go VERY minimalistic on this trip! Naturally, in stopping at Target prior to going to the train station I ended up missing my train by mere minutes. I have never booked it through Target so fast in my life! The backpacks were all the way in the back of the store, I walk up to this vast array of backpacks and I knew the Swiss Army backpacks would be expensive but I saw some for $24.99 as opposed to $55.99 so I grabbed it and went on my way right to the price scanner and of course it scanned for $55.99. Great! Back to the vast array I went. Many backpacks now do not have just one big open area, they have many small compartments. I finally found one for $20 and I had a $5 gift card so it all ended up working out. I booked it out of Target (walked right past Starbucks – feel free to let your jaw drop now) and zoomed out of the parking lot. GPS took me on a round about way to the interstate and I think I missed like the first three turns I was so flustered about making the train on time. I got to the parking lot with about 3 minutes to spare.
There was a sign at the parking lot that said “Maximum of 24 hours parking” so I asked the lady at the window and she said “Oh no, you can park for more than 24 hours.” Really? Then why does your sign say that? So stupid and now you’ve wasted 30 seconds of my time! I could see the train waiting and sitting on the Amtrak. I knew I wasn’t going to make it. So I parked, got all of my belongings, started walking away and realized I was going to get a water bottle, what the heck, might as well turn around and get one from the trunk, not going to make the train anyways!
So I walk into Union Station in New Haven, and find the window to finally go get my ticket. I felt so excited to be ordering my first train ticket! “One ticket to Boston please,” I say. “You’re at the wrong window…” Fail! So I walked down a couple more windows, my bubble now burst and order my ticket. I had an hour and fifteen minutes so I walked to Dunkin Donuts and got some coffee. I was starting to get a sore throat, that I was confident would soothe it.


I sat down with my coffee and all of my belongings close at hand, pulled out the iPod and watched the newest episode of Downton Abbey. I wasn’t really sure how the whole Amtrak thing worked and how I would know which “track” to choose but I was confident I would figure it out, so back to my episode I went. I of course allowed enough time for a bathroom stop before trying to figure out where I needed to go.


I walked down to where the tracks were and expected to find direction on which track to take and there was no direction. So I backtracked and found the board on the top level that said where to go. So I found where I needed to be and went to Track number 2! On top of Track number 2 I met a really nice older couple and their granddaughter. We all started talking and continued talking the next 2 ½ hours on the way to Boston! Their names were Happy, Helen and Nicole. Helen and Nicole were riding with Happy to Boston to help him catch a bus to spend 10 days with his brother. Happy has some memory problems sometimes so they didn’t want him to miss his bus or get on the wrong one.


Once in Boston I said my farewells to Happy, Helen and Nicole and set out to find the bathroom! That was mission number one to get the trip started off right. Then I decided to just ask someone how the best/easiest way to get to Boston Common was. They said to walk straight up Summer Street and I would run into it.


So that’s what I did! I walked out into the daylight that was Boston and off to Summer Street I went! Summer Street turned into Winter Street and there I was. The Boston Commons! I knew that the trolley station I had gotten a ticket for was at one of the corners but I didn’t know which one so I set off straight ahead (which of course ended up being the wrong way). I walked around the Common, took some pictures, it was overcast but still a beautiful day. I then looked up to see where the trolley store was and found my way there. I arrived to see a not saying “Back at 1:30.” Naturally it was 1:05 so I walked through the Public Garden and took some pictures in the mean time.


Towards 1:30 I made my way back to the trolley and finally got on! It only ran until 4 pm so I’m very thankful that they had a special that if you bought a ticket it was good for 7 consecutive days. I listened to the tour commentary and took some pictures but I also had to figure out where I was going to stay for the night. When mom and I were coming to CT we stayed in rooms for about $110 a night so the night before when my brother-in-law said he could get me a room for about $159 I thought to myself – oh, I’ll just wait and see what I can get cheaper. Well, in downtown Boston you can’t get cheaper. So I ended up booking myself at the Holiday Inn Express off of stop number 4 on my tour.

When I got off at stop number 4 I looked up on my phone to see how far I would need to walk to the hotel. Apparently I was practically standing in front of it. All I had to do was cross the street and walk down a couple stores. This Holiday Inn Express was located in a brick set of buildings and only identified by a banner hanging far above the building. I walked into the lobby and checked in (the lobby was only as wide as a local store), went up to my room (the hotel was mostly just tall) and dropped off my backpack. The hallway was very narrow.


I went to the lobby and asked the easiest way to get to Quincy Market; I was told that it was within walking distance so off I set! And it was pretty easy to get to on foot. I shopped Quincy Market. They had many, many, many places to eat and shop. I shopped for a while and then when I got hungry went to the Hard Rock Café. I don’t know why I always go there, I’ve only had one thing there that I really liked. I should just go and get my cup, it would be cheaper. The dinner wasn’t bad though. I was famished. I hadn’t stopped to eat that day because I only had the trolley until 4 and I only had daylight until about 4:30 so I wanted to optimize my time. After dinner I went to Starbucks and got some coffee and headed back to the room.


Once safe in my room I laid down on the bed and I was exhausted! I had been up since 6 am and had been going full speed all day long. I attempted to read some of The Hunger Games and I don’t’ think I even got a full page read before falling asleep at 6:30. What a good first day in Boston though!

Beaches, Beaches, Beaches…..

This morning I got to sleep in until 8:30! I was so happy! No more of this 6 am crap! I wanted to find a beach to take mom to since she loves the water so I woke up and started google-ing places to go. Found a couple on a list and printed them off. We got ready and off we went to Wal-Mart to exchange my GPS. This is not the month for me and GPS’s. My last GPS died on me and I’ve only had this GPS a little over a month and the touch screen on the keypad went to pots already. Thank goodness it has a one year warrantee and I bought the second year for cheap. Whew! So we went into Wal-Mart and I thought for sure they were going to give us some junk about how we needed to send it in since there was a one year warrantee on it and the one we had needed to be the one to be fixed and I was all prepared with my “You don’t but a GPS because you know where you’re going! I need the GPS now to get around!” Oh I was prepared to be heated and passionate for my need to keep the GPS on me. I would have none of this sending it in to the manufacturer because it went faulty after one week. Oy! So we went in, and it went smooth as a baby’s lotioned backside. We walked up to the returns line, they told us to go to the back and they brought the new one up front for us, they exchanged it and we walked out the door with a new GPS to program. It was absolutely glorious!

After the GPS expedition coffee was a must. So we went through Starbucks. They have a small parking lot in their Starbucks and some guy parked dumb so I could park next to him and there was a lot of backing out going on and this one guy wanted out so I moved my car around and mom was freaking out afraid everyone was going to crash. It was a bit dramatic for just wanting to go in and get a cup of coffee. Alas, all the cars cleared, we parked safely and went in to get the coffee. Mom was going to stay in the car to calm her pending heart attack but I convinced her to get out of the car and get some fresh air, I can’t walk well with one coffee nonetheless two coffees!

NOW we were ready to start the day. With our new GPS and Starbucks coffee on board we typed in Lighthouse beach and off we went. We arrived at the beach after many redundant turns in the parking lot and parked. It was a bit brisk by the water, and windy. And naturally I forgot my gloves in the car. We started taking pictures and exploring the area. I was beginning to wonder where the lighthouse was because you couldn’t’ see it when you arrived there but after going up a small hill it was in sight. There was a Coast Guard near by and there was some ship out, no idea if it was related or not. The pier was fenced off, not sure if it was decaying or just too windy and cold for it. The seagulls were enjoying the serenity of it though.

We continued walking towards the lighthouse and taking pictures and freezing our butts off! Naturally all the things that happen when you’re cold started happening to me, my ears were freezing, my nose was running, and me dumb left eye started watering. What a wreck! Apparently I was moved by the beauty of it all. It became very overcast on our drive over so the pictures made it look as though it was almost sunset but it was about 11-11:30 in the morning actually. It was still beautiful. Mom decided at some point after my million comments of freezing that she should put on the gloves she had with her and I said “Oh that’s a good idea, use the warmth that you have on you!” (Not with a sarcastic tone of course). She was wearing a brown shirt, vest, coat, gloves, shoes, and her hair is brown. I said “Everything you’re wearing is brown! You look like a poop!” Thankfully she caught the humor I intended when I said it and laughed. I soon realized that I too had another source of warmth on me (a hood that I forgot I had) and utilized it but not before my mother repeated what I said to her in the same sarcastic tone. Touché…..

After the lighthouse we decided to explore the Tanger Outlet sign we had seen on the interstate and set out in search of it. Because it’s not like we haven’t hit any outlet malls in the last week and a half. It turns out the second outlet mall out here is about 5 miles past the one we went to almost a week ago. How crazy is that!!?!  So we looked around at the outlet mall for a little while and decided that we were very hungry. We must find food!

Our search for food of course took us to the brand new sparkling GPS. There wasn’t anything “commercial” in the town we were in so we decided to try a local place called “The Whole Enchilada.” It ended up being a to-go Healthy Mexican Food place with all locally grown food. It was really good! They had a couple chairs in there that you could sit down to eat at. I ordered a BBQ chicken quesadilla that was marvelous! Mom got a burrito that was loaded. We were stuffed with our healthiness!

After that we went in search of a couple more local beaches, we only went to two of them because both of them took us to dead ends and to places where you couldn’t park. They were private beaches I suppose. It was still really beautiful to see though. We then set out in search of some more shopping. We found a mall that was about 20 more miles away so we thought hey why not! So we went to the Crystal Mall. On our way to the Crystal Mall we saw a couple exits for beaches and mom had been marveling at the beauty of the water and I offered to get off on the exits to go to the beaches and she would say “No we don’t have time.” Really mom? We can shop anytime. Let’s go find you a beach now! So I got off on an exit for the Niantic Bay Boardwalk. I thought a Boardwalk sounded fun! So we went on a little bit of a drive, but a really pretty one in search of the Boardwalk. We finally found it and it was really beautiful. It was still pretty chilly out but the sun was finally shining brightly and we got some good pictures. There were bird prints all in the sand that looked really cool. There was a man doing something in the water, I’m not sure what. People were walking their dogs; the seagulls were hanging out on the rocks. What a beautiful afternoon!

After our little side trip we set back out for the Crystal Mall. Upon our arrival to the mall I did find out that it was in fact not made up of Crystal but there were some good deals to be found. We shopped, found a Super Wal-Mart to go get a couple of needed groceries at and started heading back to Hamden. On our way back I got confused when the interstate forked and mom was like “Go this way!” To which I replied “Robert Frost talked about the two paths but he never said which one to pick!” To which we both started laughing. Well it’s true…..Frost in all his wisdom never flat out said which one to choose so I have to follow the sometimes not so direct GPS. Just saying…..

We found our way back to the beloved Target area, stopped into Big Lots to make a return, went to Best Buy to purchase a new hard case for the snazzy new GPS that way it wouldn’t get destroyed while in my purse and went back to Big Lots for popcorn where I discovered the LARGEST box of pop tarts I have ever seen in my life! They were huge! There were 48 pop tarts in this box! So naturally I had to take a picture with them. (It’s on face book)

We then made the trek back home, unloaded and mom started packing. We had to go find the old GPS, ate a late dinner of leftovers, uploaded the day’s photos, and played cards. I would say that is a darn full day! I’m pretty pooped to say the least but what a fun day!

Catching Up

SUNDAY – HAPPY NEW YEAR

Oh where to begin! New Years Day….New Years morning we woke up and got ready to go to church. So in we plugged to the GPS “Ward Street Church of Christ.” We go to this small quaint little town and pull up to a church building and walk in. We were welcomed into this little church with such welcome arms I can’t even tell you how much. We were met by the preacher’s wife and another woman who was just as friendly and outgoing as they come. We were told that they were having a New Years breakfast instead of class. Perfect! We church goers love potlucks!! So we met several of the members, all of whom were so nice and welcoming and ate breakfast with them! Worship was great, though the heat was not regulated so I froze most of the time (shocker right?).

We weren’t very hungry for lunch after eating a breakfast feast so we went (bet you can’t guess where!) to Target and the shops that surrounded Target just to run some more errands and pick up the remaining items on our ever changing list. Our first stop was Home Depot to look for a door stopper for the patio door. That was unsuccessful to a degree, but we did meet a guy that told us to get a piece of some kind of molding or something (very savvy with the lingo obviously) and saw it off just to fit in the bottom of the sliding door to block it off so no one could open it. Genius right!?!?!

We finally ended up at Chili’s that afternoon for lunch once we got hungry. Oh the greatness that is Chili’s….love that place!! Then we went back to the room after a couple more errands and waited until 6:30 to go see War Horse. It was SUCH a great movie!! The story, cinematography, music…it was all beautiful! I loved it. I’m sure we came back to the room and played a game of Canasta or rummy and went to bed. We were pretty tired.

MONDAY

Monday we slept in, or I should say I slept in. I tried on my new scrub bottoms Sunday night to find out that they were (shockingly) about 6 inches too long and encased almost my entire foot. So I started calling places to hem pants in a fury. I was under the impression at that point that I would need the pants for orientation on Wednesday. It turned out that I wore business-casual clothing all week. So I  called all down the list, one place couldn’t have pants hemmed for 2 weeks, several places weren’t open on Monday’s at all, so the last number on my list was my saving grace! She said that if I could get the pants to her in the next half hour she could have them done for me by the next day. Thank you! So I threw on different bottoms (didn’t think the jingle jammies would make a good impression) and took my pants and the GPS and ran out the door. I came across the address the GPS took me to and it was a home….I was kind of expecting a business. So I called the number back and asked if she was located in a home, turned out she was! I decided that it would be safe enough and went into this home I didn’t know to take off my pants and get them hemmed. The lady was so incredibly nice. She had my pants ready the next day.

After that Mom and I ventured out to find where I would need to go for orientation. Not that I’m directionally challenged or anything (yeah right!) but we thought it would be a good idea if I had any idea where I was going. So we found the building that orientation would be in then we drove around and found where the Emergency Room was located. Yay! So then I told mom that I wanted her to see Yale while she was here. She didn’t want to get out and walk around because it was too cold so all the pictures are taken from the car and half of them have the car in them! But she got to see Yale, we also saw Occupy New Haven, lots of blue tents pitched in a park. Freaking cold here people!

After that it was off to Sam’s for the purpose of fish and chicken. Turns out I got a Sam’s card which I think will be a great gift and we around to some of the surrounding shops by Sam’s to just explore the area. I wanted some black flat boots so we went into DSW and guess who didn’t walk out with black flat boots but black snake skin heels instead? THIS GIRL! Oy, since when have I been able to walk in heels? They were pretty comfortable for heels though and far more practical for the things I needed unfortunately.

Dinner for the evening was Texas Roadhouse. Always a good choice! We walked in just in time because by the time we were leaving they were absolutely packed!! When we were waiting for our table this guy walked in and I saw that he was wearing an “MLB” hat and I figured it was for a local team. Later when I saw him I saw that he was wearing a “SF” Giants hat! I was so overcome with joy it was almost to the point of ridiculous. Turned out he was our waiter. I decided not to embarrass myself by complimenting his choice of team.

TUESDAY

Okay, so I’m a person that likes to know what’s going on and I had absolutely NO idea what to expect for orientation on Tuesday. I was a bundle of nerves. I left an hour and a half early to get what I knew would only take approximately 20 minutes, but you never know about early morning traffic, and where you’ll have to park so I decided to ere on the side of serious precaution.

I got to the orientation facility at about 7:35, it didn’t start until 8:30 but they got us started on some paperwork (that you didn’t need to fill out if you were a traveler – fail). Got my decaf coffee, made a couple trips to the bathroom, the usual you know? As orientation got started I was feeling much more at ease, there was a schedule for the day, and it was nice to hear about the facility. They made us do a “meet and greet” and I met a girl from the area who was really nice and told me if I needed anything to let her know. How kind! Then we were set into groups and I met two other travelers. After our group time I talked with those two girls and mentioned that I really want to go to NYC sometime and they said “yeah definitely! Let’s go sometime!” How awesome! What a blessing to already be making friends to go do things with! I met several more travelers that day, one that is working in the ER with me. There are 7 of us here in the same complex so we carpooled the second day. How blessed am I!!?!?! I feel so blessed to have already made friends and kind of have a little support group here. Not only do I have the people at the church who have already invited me to things and into their homes but I have people in the complex that I share a lot of things in common with who have been really amazing.

Tuesday night I got a package in the mail that was great, for dinner mom and I tried this local Mexican Restaurant that was amazing! We were so incredibly stuffed that I said I needed to be rolled out of there.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning four of us carpooled to the hospital since we couldn’t all fit in one car and sat through another day of talks. The second day was a little harder to sit through, I think because my adrenaline and nerves weren’t quite as high. It was kind of funny because as we’re sitting through orientation so much of the stuff they went through “this doesn’t apply to travelers…” Really? Ummmm, then why are we listening to this? Oh well! Getting paid anyways I suppose!

I came back from orientation, called maintenance on the way home about the patio door and the outlet that was sticking out and the draft through the front door and picked up two more packages in addition to the three that had been delivered to the door. Oh my! So many packages! Then we went to Panera and in search of an iron. Mom was adamant about me getting a Rowenta iron. Apparently they’re the best, and as she told me today “It irons like a dream.” I wish I could say I would just take her word for it but I’m afraid I’ll be finding out far too soon for my taste just how much of a dream it irons like.

We went to church at 6:30 and wow, what an uplifting singing service they had. There weren’t a ton of people (their Sunday mornings are about 117 people) but what an amazing group of people to be with. I’m really excited to spend the time with them that I can when I’m not working. We got Starbucks on the way home and the GPS pronounced it “Starbocks”. FAIL!

THURSDAY

Today started out (early again of course) with carpooling and getting to computer orientation at 8:30. The only problem was that they had us down for orientation tomorrow! That was no bueno! So finally after a couple go-arounds we found a computer room, someone to teach us, and got done what we needed to. Then it was off to scheduling. One of the clinical leads came and got the two of us that are going to be in the ED after we got our packets and everything and she took us down to the ED, showed us around a bit, and explained how things work briefly. It was overwhelming. I’m not going to lie. It’s hard to see the layout really well and how things flow but I’m sure once I’m with someone and see how they do things it’ll obviously make sense.

We got our schedules and we’re off until next Thursday! We get 36 hours of orientation which is WONDERFUL! It’s a level one trauma center, we won’t get to go into any of the trauma most likely but it’s a big ER and they’ve had to move some of it to a different floor even. So we’ll definitely have our work cut out for us. Then we went and got a few more codes, and off we went to find our other travelers. By this point it was almost 1 pm and we were starving.

I came home this afternoon and crashed on my blow up bed. These early mornings are catching up to me! I’m not use to early mornings! Whew! So I think I’m caught up on blogging. I’m sure I forgot the quirky funny day-to-day stuff that happens but that’s the overview. I’m looking forward to the six days off coming up. Mom has to go back home on Saturday. It’s been such a blessing having her here while I go through the unknown craziness of this week. Glad this week is done, I like knowing at least what’s going on and what I’m doing and what’s expected. So until tomorrow!

Knock Knock!!

Today was move in day! I actually got to sleep in! I slept until 8:26. Then I did the usual check of the phone…seeing what I missed while I was sleeping because you know so much goes on. Continental breakfast was only being served until 9am so I jumped in the shower, scrunched the hair and down we went to breakfast (yes I did dress before leaving the room). For breakfast I attempted some cantaloupe but it tasted like all the other fruit it was mixed with so that was a no-go and the oatmeal was lacking a little but it was food in the tummy!

It was such a beautiful morning out! The sun was shining and it was in the high 50s. Perfect! However by the time we got to the apartments the sun was hiding behind the clouds and it was a bit nippy out. I got the walk through the paperwork and all the keys and amounts of fines which is expected and then I was set free to go forth and find my room!

In searching for my room I started on the bottom floor. Nope! That wasn’t it! So I went up a floor and the numbers got higher, I was looking for 4103 and I wasn’t getting closer so apparently there was a downstairs….how intriguing! So my apartment is on the “basement” floor which I think is nice and cozy. I’m hoping that during the days it won’t be so loud and I’ll be able to sleep better. So we started the unloading of the car. In all reality it didn’t take that long it just got a bit tedious.

We unloaded a bit and decided we had worked up an appetite so in search of food we went. And we ended at Panera. Oh how scrumptious! Then we started running errands. We started at Bed Bath and Beyond to look at a couple things to compare prices. I’m not going to lie, I bought a shroud for my bed there. The thought of sleeping on someone else’s bed (that I don’t know) for the next 3 months is a bit disgusting; especially when I have no idea who the previous inhabitants of that bed were. So the bed is now zipped up in what (to me) looks like a shroud. I also bought, at Kohl’s, a cover for the sofa. The sofa looks like it was teleported out of the 70s in a very very scary kind of way. I wouldn’t even sit on it before the sofa cover was on it.

After Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohls, Walmart, and 2 grocery stores we were on our way back to the apartment to unload the next car load full of stuff. After much unpacking and minimal decorating I’ve realized that I have NO IDEA how everything fit in my car! My dad is a fantastic packer!! My kitchen is stuffed full, my closet is reasonably full and my bathroom is decorated and the bedroom is fair as far as decoration goes. And now I sit here completely exhausted but satisfied with the day’s work watching Midnight in Paris. (Great movie by the way).

Oh! How could I forget! Though I do love my apartment on the basement floor I do not like that I don’t have hardly any reception in this complex. Thankfully I can send and receive text messages but I can barely find a spot to have a phone conversation so that’s going to be a bit of a pain but anything can be dealt with for three months right??

Life is NEVER Uneventful

This morning we "slept in." Okay so for as early as we've been getting up for the last week it was definitely sleeping in. HOWEVER, for me, sleeping in is running into the double digits. This was definitely not the double digits. We decided to "sleep in" until 7am and then get ready and get on the road. Reasoning? In case it had snowed and the roads were crap, someone else could test them out before us. Nice huh? However the first thing to dawn on me as I arose this morning out of bed was that we were an hour ahead so it was still 6am for us, we've only been on this whole one hour ahead thing for not even 24 hours! Doh! Oh well, "sleeping in" still sounded good in my head. Breakfast was warm and cozy at the Holiday Inn Express. I got to use (yes, once again!) the Express Pancake Maker! I was ridiculously excited. I even took a picture and video of it's greatness of creating and plopping out a pancake. It was magic, once again. Great way to start the day!

We emerged on the roads, that were pretty well dry at 8:30. We quickly determined that a Starbucks would be a good addition to the morning and to our well being. That was not going to be an easy quest it turned out. No Starbucks logos were magically appearing on the exit signs like they have the last two days...much to our dismay. So to the Garmin we went! We found a Starbucks in Bloomsberg, PA. Oy. We knew we would have to go off of the I-80 visual for this one but we could taste the warm coffee already so in search we went! It was only a mile or two, what could it hurt to explore a new community a little. Well it turns out a lot. This Starbucks located in Bloomsberg, PA was located in a University Library and was closed because school is not in session right now. WHAT.ARE.THE.ODDS. I mean really? The one Starbucks we choose in the US and it's in a University Library? You've got to be kidding me! They weren't even open to use the bathroom! So we had to go to some grungy gas station that had one bathroom (you know, the kind that men AND women use) and the sink didn't even work! You had to go in the back room to use the sink. The level of hygenity I felt in that place was overwhelming.

Back on the road we went. No coffee to keep us awake, but alas we would survive. Lunch rolled around and shockingly there was not a large selection of fine fast food restaurants to choose from. We ended up having lunch at Wendy's. It wasn't too bad really. The tea was slightly disappointing but it's bound to happen. The afternoon for me was one full of anticipation. It held the anticipation of knowing that there was only about 2 1/2 hours left of the drive, knowing that we would FINALLY be there, and knowing that tomorrow I finally get to unload this car and see out of the back end!

The drive was pretty, I was glad I was driving the parts that I was, the hills were curvy and windy. I was reminded of the roads in the Ozarks that make me sick when I'm a passenger. And I was told once or twice through the drive (ahem) it sure would be a beautiful drive in the summer or fall! And it would be. It was pretty even in the winter slightly salted with snow.

We finally arrived in Connecticut. We saw water, old towns that started running together, and just followed where the GPS told us to go. We finally ended up in Hamden. Such a relief to be there! There is an entire strip of shopping all together close to where I live that will be ever so convenient. We found the apartment complex and drove around it. I'm very pleased with it. It's up around some other neighborhoods and apartment complexes and it looks nice. It's not a dump which is a great relief! Whew!

After that we decided we'd better venture out on our way to find a hotel. If I had known then that this would be such an undertaking I might have just brought a tent and a heater, I think it would've been easier. LONG story short we drove to 5 hotels and finally stayed at the fifth one. The third one (per Garmin) ended up not even being a hotel, it took us to someones house! So after driving around for an hour and a half we finally ended up at the Hyatt Place Hotel and it's very nice. The room is relaxing and luxurious which is perfect for the end of a 3 day trip.

Next came the task of going somewhere for dinner. Of course we went left when we should've gone right and had to make a couple of turn arounds to find a restaurant but Chili's sounded amazing tonight, specifically a salad from Chili's and their raspberry tea. So we get to Chili's, we order and I get a tea, we split their queso and I order my Quesadilla Explosion Salad. For those of you who don't know, I HATE beans. So I read everything very carefully (especially things that sound like they'll have beans in them) to make sure I order "no beans." My salad said nothing about beans, so I just asked them to leave the cheese and cilantro off the salad. My salad arrives just as ordered, only they've added BEANS! :o Oh the shock and horror that swept over me. I was so anticipating my perfect delectable salad and now it was tainted with bean juice. Not only were there beans everywhere, they were those stupid little rabbit turd beans. So I had to pick through my salad and get all those darn beans out so I could eat my salad in a bean-free environment.

I know it sounds extreme and dumb but I really do hate the taste and even smell of beans. So I must have had my head looking down so long picking out those stupid beans my nose starts to run. My nose did not stop running (and I started sneezing) for 2 hours! How ridiculous is that! If they only knew all the trouble those beans caused........

After the beanful dinner we went to the local mall and walked around, scowered for sales (found few) and came back to the hotel room to rest. I have a feeling we'll be turning in early again tonight, but we've had a full day.

I can't say thank you enough to everyone though for all the prayers and well wishes for getting here safely. So blessed to have so many people thinking about us and praying for us! Mwah!