Phil says early Spring...

And just like that, the worst month of the year is over. Temperatures ran last month from below zero to 54 degrees in the morning earlier this week. I left to go to work and it felt like a blast of energy and happiness in my face. It's Groundhog Day (and Gracie's 4th birthday) and apparently, we're going to have an early Spring. Sweet.

The rest of December was uneventful. Worked both the day before and after Christmas (although I did get out super early at 1100 on Christmas Eve) so celebrating the holiday was rather limited. I went to Claremont after work and had chinese food in Henniker with everyone. Stayed with Heather and Dave so I got to enjoy Simone's first Christmas morning with them. Christmas dinner was in Newport and felt slightly more crowded than usual in her apartment with the addition of Ray and Cora. Next year should be different as she is now in a new little house (Lisa's old house) in Claremont with most of her belongings overtaking the basement. You really don't realize how much stuff you have until you move...is an understatement in her case. Good lord. Anyways. I worked all day New Year's Eve so I decided to pick up chinese food and go home. I'm over the whole going out on new year's thing. All I need is my couch, my cat, and my own bed. Oh and I had a nice facetime chat with Ross and got to see the rest of the Arizona Durfeys.

January is my least favorite month but it went by fairly quickly this year. Maybe time just seems to go by quickly the older I get until I'm 80 all of a sudden wondering what the hell happened to my life. We had out work holiday party on the 11th and it was fun although not nearly as memorable as last year at this post-holiday time ha. A couple days later, I went to Brattleboro for Colton's first birthday party and ended the day with a few carload trips between Newport and the new casa de Susan. The following weekend I had to work Saturday, missing Emilee's 30th birthday dinner, but able to meet them at Time Out for a few drinks. She had a lot to drink and ended up being the most drunk I've ever seen haha. I, however, more than made up for that the following Saturday at her surprise party at the Bodreau/Minckler residence. I had entirely way too much to drink and suffered the consequences that night and the entire next day. Such a fool. Needless to say, I am abstaining from alcohol until further notice. It was, despite my lack of judgement, fun; we played beirut, games, and ate and it, to some small degree, made me miss the good ole' partying days. Got some good pictures too.

Work is work. Vacation time is pretty limited this year. I submitted my summer vacation request yesterday, fingers crossed. I let my CPR certification run out...oops. It expired Thursday and luckily I'm getting recertified before I'm scheduled to work again. I've never done that before. Maybe, subconsciously, I allowed it to happen so I could get time off lol. No such luck. I'm slipping, I'm usually not that irresponsible. Speaking of negative characteristics, my motivation to go to the gym has remained poor. I was invited to do the pigskin 5k in Claremont tomorrow and under normal circumstances I would but I'm afraid I've fallen out of shape. I plan on going the next 3 days but we'll see if that actually happens.

So, on the 24th, I went to Keene to use a living social voucher I had bought last July for a wellness consultation and massage. It was so hard to get out of bed and get in my car on time because it was below zero and subsequently was late. They abbreviated things a bit but turns out this guy is a doctor who treats patients from a nonmedical perspective. No surgery, no medications. Under his treatment, he can transition you from a poor to rich energy state. At one point, he had my lie face down on one of his treatment tables and he was touching my back. He asked me if something significant happened 15 years ago...I told him my dad died 20 years ago. Weird. The massage was nice...a guy named Bruce who was a little different as he talked to my back as he worked out areas of tension. I kind of wanted to laugh. A follow-up is included in the voucher to evaluate the pictures they took of me and to discuss if I can be treated. Interesting. Afterwards, I spent some time with Becca. We had lunch at Panera and caught up on our lives. Some things never change. I hope her first week at her new job went well.

Until next time...