forced break life wrap-up

Life is a bit crazy. Mainly work life, actually. For those of you who don't know, I am an event planner at a school, and we are just jam-packed with events right now. At least one event a week for the next month, and three this week alone. Today, amidst an event, I am forcing myself a break to write a short, little blog post to clear my head.

Other than work, I haven't been doing all that much as of late. We had a crazy snow storm Sunday night into Monday, and I was lucky enough to have a snow day! I was very happy going back to sleep after my 6:15 a.m. alert that work was canceled, drinking hot tea and doing things around the house. I also helped my mom shovel a bit, which was absolutely exhausting and left us both sore for days. And I managed to get myself outside for a little fun with my golden retriever, who had a blast rolling around in 10+ inches of fluffy, white snow.

This Saturday I'm meeting Vic in the city for brunch, and possibly a broadway show. We haven't seen each other in a while, and with her moving to Puerto Rico in two weeks, it might be a while before we can see each other again. (Although I'm hoping to be able to take a trip or two to visit her down there at some point. Yay warm, sunny vacation!) And Sunday I have to work. Boo.

And that is all. Time to get back to work.

three-day weekend

I've been having such a nice, relaxing three-day weekend. Sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered - relaxation. Not that I don't do a fair share of relaxing on a normal basis, but I like to get a lot done on the weekends. I like to make plans. I like to take trips. And those kinds of weekends are great, too, but sometimes a few days of doing nothing does a body (and mind) good.

I saw the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic with my mom, which was just so cute, even if it seemed to be loosely based on the first two books in the series by Sophie Kinsella. Putting comparisons with the books aside, the movie was funny and cute and quite enjoyable. We also watched Nights in Rodanthe, which was definitely more similar to the book. Movie adaptations of books never really match up, do they? But still I think it's possible to enjoy, if you can sort of forget about all the little differences. I knew Nights in Rodanthe would be sad (the movie couldn't have been that different than the book), but I guess I sort of forgot just how sad it was. Such a tragic romantic story, but such a good one.

The remainder of the weekend was spent counting calories, doing a little shopping, cooking, sleeping, jdating and lounging around the house. And that's about it. Sounds like a pretty successful weekend of relaxation to me.

a weekend in albany

Last weekend was pretty close to perfect. I finally went up to Albany to visit Brian at school. Being that this marks his fifth year up there (he's getting his Masters and PhD and a million degrees that take a million years), and I've never visited before, I felt I had been a bad friend for not visiting sooner. I think this weekend made up for so many years without a trip there though.

I have to first mention how much I love taking Amtrak. I might have talked about this before - it seems to be a topic I bring up a lot - but to me, it is forced relaxation, and it's something I need every now and then. This train ride was beautiful, cruising along the Hudson River with snow covering the ground and sprinkled on the trees. I read, I listened to music and simply loved the two and a half hours completely to myself.

I took a few days off of work, so I was able to go up on Friday morning, and not leave until Monday afternoon. Brian and I mainly ate and cooked, and ate what we cooked. We watched movies, played with his two black kittens (appropriately named Judas and Jesus, seen in the photo to the right) and I got to meet some of his Albany friends, as I like to call them. Until now, I really imagined that life stopped for Brian when he left Long Island to go up to Albany. He talked about friends, and going to class, and writing papers, and going out, but in my mind, he did nothing. I can't really explain why I had this vision, but I did. And now that idea has been busted since I've met his roommate and friends (who I loved, by the way), walked around the University of Albany's campus and spent time doing regular everyday things in his town. Brian actually has a life outside of me and Long Island - who knew? On Sunday we made tons of food, and went over to his friends' apartment to watch the Superbowl, which was a lot of fun, even though none of us really cared about either team. Overall, it was a fun, relaxing and perfect weekend, minus the fact that my toes were numb pretty much the entire four days.

Monday I headed back home on my beloved Amtrak. The ride home was even more serene than the way up. I read, I reflected, I relaxed. I really love spending time with Brian, and this weekend made me remember why he's one of my favorite people. I think I'll be visiting Albany again soon, but maybe I'll wait until the summer so it's slightly warmer, and I won't risk losing my toes to frostbite.

cruel and unusual exhaustion

I am so tired I could actually fall asleep right now...and it's 8 p.m. When did I become such an old lady? My own mother even laughs at me when I tell her I' m getting into bed at 9:30. Last night I struggled to keep my tired little eyes open through The Hills, and I immediately shut off the TV at 10:30 p.m. on the dot. To be fair, I'm not usually this tired this early in the week. Typically, the overwhelming exhaustion begins on Thursday. But not this week. This week the heavy eyes and pounding heart were there right from the start.

I did have a house guest this weekend, so maybe that contributed to my tiredness. If so, it was completely worth it. It was great to have Vic stay the weekend with me on Long Island, even if we did have an unwanted visit by Tropical Storm Hanna. Our plan to test our friendship despite battling baseball rivalries at the Mets/Phillies game on Saturday was rained out, and so were our plans to do anything else at all. So, Saturday was spent doing a little shopping while we experienced the calm before the storm, and then an evening of movie-watching, pizza-making, J-dating and TV-viewing. What can I say? We're wild and crazy kids. Sunday morning we woke up to an absolutely beautiful day, and we made our way to Shea Stadium for the rescheduled game. It was certainly a hot one out there when we arrived and found our seats were right in the bright sun. After about an hour, though, the sun moved and we were hidden and cooled by the shade. And even though the Mets lost pretty badly, it was still a great day, and Vic and I had a great time together. (And my boys pulled through to win the night game that evening!)

My next weekend trip is to Lehigh for Young Alumni Weekend Oct. 3-5, which I'm definitely looking forward do. I like having plans for mini-vacations and visits. Now that I'm not in school and don't have semesters or endings to count down to, it helps me to plan things to look forward to. If not, I sort of feel like I'm losing my mind with no end, no special things in sight. After that weekend, though, I have nothing planned. So who wants me to come visit?