March Vaca Countdown

There officially are 8 work days separating me from my March stay-cation. Every year, I consider going somewhere warm during the winter but it never happens. Truth is, home is where the heart is. I always just want to stay home with my cat where I'm most comfortable. The time of year never changes that. I make good money so it's much easier to crank the heat up in my house and pretend I'm lying on a beach in the sun somewhere. Plus, nothing compares to solitude in my own bed. It's just the way it is. I've put a few things on my stay-ca to do list (in addition to my longstanding to do list)...we'll see what my motivation level is. Until then, I push through my weekly routine. Today was a home day. I went to Barre this morning and I've been doing Saturday things since. Once I'm done with this, I may bang out my grocery shopping but it seems unlikely at this point.

The rest of my call weekend the beginning of February was uneventful, which allowed me to have a productive Monday before returning to work for the week. I had my quarterly visit with my pest control company and Roger White (handyman recommended to me by John Clark) came by and sprayed a possible mouse inlet and switched some doorbell wires; now my doorbell works...hopefully the fix will last. I ran some errands, made chocolate chip cookies, and went for a run outside.

The second weekend in February, we had a milestone birthday in the family. Puffles turned 40 on the 7th. I decided to order (Eric actually ordered for me while I was scrubbing the Mitraclip) 40 strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from Dazzle cupcakes. I picked them up after Barre Saturday morning and brought them to the Cantina as an after dinner surprise. It didn't actually turn out as I had envisioned because they were slammed due to the adult prom in town but it could have been worse I suppose. I wanted all her coworkers and maybe some other diners to organize and sing with all 40 of them lit but she caught me bringing them in the back door so it really wasn't a surprise. The singing was kind of half-assed and awkward but I think maybe she appreciated the gesture. At least the 48 cupcakes (yup, they made 50 instead of 40...miscommunication somewhere) were yummy and I had a dinner date with Susan and Ray Ray. The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. I cleaned my living room and kitchen on Sunday. Monday, I ran errands and I think I went for a run but I'm not sure.

The following weekend began feeling exhausted. I was on call Thursday night...worked from 7 to 8, then paged back at 9 and worked until 2 am-ish. I ended up powering through Friday from 7 to 430ish so I could keep my overtime pay. By the time I went to bed Friday, I felt like garbage. Saturday, I stayed home doing stuffies including cleaning my bathroom. I felt better but was still tired all day. Almost all nighters take a little longer to recover from these days. Sunday, I went to ctown to hang out with Simone. We had a late breakfast at the Claremont Country Cafe; I had been meaning to go there but I wasn't super impressed, unfortunately. Maybe it was an off day because they were busy? Or maybe I just compare everything to Lou's. Anyways, we got some treats and headed home to play. We spent some time at Moody Park on the playground and watching 2 guys play hockey on the rink. We made a blanket fort and spent a little while at the playground at Maple Ave. school before returning for dinner. I made a quick pit stop at my moms before heading home to grocery shop. That Monday, I got my teeth cleaned and had an appointment in Newbury (officially started getting rid of pit hair permanently). I wanted to snowshoe afterwards but I ran out of daylight so I went home to stare at cement on the elliptical.

Last weekend, I only really ventured out on Saturday. I dropped my bike off for a tune up and turned right around to come home. I hiked on the Boston Lot lake trail on my snowshoes before returning home to get ready for a movie and dinner. I met Dr. Megan, her 2 youngest girls, and Meg B in Hanover to see On the Basis of Sex...a movie about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It was so good. She is my new hero. Dr. Megan had us for dinner at her house so I got to meet her husband and son. A whole spread of snacks was laid out on the table to munch on before the chili main dish. We sat around chatting and playing games before heading home around 10. The evening was a really nice thing for her and her family to do; it also was an effort to support and unite the lab in light of recent events. I wish more people had been able to come. #timeisup. I spent the rest of the weekend hanging around home, doing stuffies...I finally finished going through years of accumulated papers. It's more organized and compact but there's still room for improvement. I get rid of things on my own terms...nobody can tell me otherwise. I think the biggest improvement has been greatly slowing down the accumulation of "stuff."

This concludes yet another entry. No great shifts in my music taste in the past month. Work is work. I noticed this past week that Jen finally unfriended me on social media. I wonder what took so long? Maybe it had to do with Dave addressing the comment she made to Ying in front of me a couple weeks ago. She casually mentioned that HR told her we couldn't be a "family" while we were cleaning a room. Such a twisted, false statement no doubt made to be passive-aggressive towards me. I'd love to tell her what I think of her. Maybe someday. Until then, I'll just keep on keeping on. Other than that, work is pretty decent. Except for Dr. Niles.

Note to self: do not run red lights on the way to work...no matter how late you are.