The great ticket fiasco

I had a little bit of extra time at the end of work today so I decided to tackle those things on my to-do list that have been adding up. I called over to the Shubert because Kev, my parents and I want to go see I love You You're Perfect, Now Change, which I have heard is Seinfeld-esq (I don't know how to spell that, but you know what I mean). I absolutely love Seinfeld and when Fox reran all of the shows in order last year I would plan my night around being back here so that I could tape them and filled up three video tapes before I just missed out on too many to keep taping. The quality was pretty bad, anyway, because that was when we had an antennae.

I have rambled. So anyway, I went onto tickets.com to get my tickets for April 30th but looked on the March calendar and thought it was a Sunday. In very small print the day was actually written (Wednesday). Ok, so I was probably going along and didn't review the small stuff and of course this is my debacle and it was a debacle and before I end up writing a thesis here I'll get to the point - I ended up buying tickets for a 2:00pm showing on Wednesday April 30th! Who goes to the theater in the early afternoon on a workday? As soon as I printed my confirmation I realized my mistake and called to change but got "All Sales Are Final". No use crying over spilt milk, what's done is done. These were of no comfort for my new Discover Card charge.

I raced home and decided to call the theater directly and luckily THEY were able to un-finalize the great ticket fiasco. So the moral of the story is that all sales are not final, you just need to pester everyone to make them come around to your side of the fence.

26 years on the 26th

"The hurrier I go, the behinder I get."

I used to read that every morning when I was living with Diane in Greenwich. It took me over three months to process, which is relatively quick considering the first hour of being awake I seem to be sleepwalking.

Today was such an insane day. I was all about town working up sales and doing town hall research. People were just not respecting the birthday rule of being super nice to the birthday girl. I can do no wrong today so fighting with the city employees is not my vision of the perfect birthday. I hightailed it from town to town and finished my work at exactly 5:00pm, as the city clerk was closing.

The good news - My free lunch from work has been rescheduled to Friday or Monday at the restaurant of my choosing, Trumbull Kitchen. Yum! I have never had the chance to eat there other than some tastey appetizers and those were amazing.

Tick ~ Tock

When I wake up tommorow, I'll be 26 years old.

Magic in the Berkshires

I didn't have the time to mentally prepare myself for going to Kripalu and I was afraid I wouldn't receive the full benefits of relaxation. I was so scatterbrained on Thursday, but by Friday morning I had settled in just fine. It is weird to just cut yourself off from the normalcy of life so abruptly.

I can't decide if I feel as though I was on vacation. It is a different kind of work for the mind and body. We were able to get in a lot of cross-country skiing on Friday and the temps were amazing. I didn't even need a jacket! Saturday it was rainy, though; heavy at times so we were indoors and that kind of sucked. I was hoping for more spring skiing. It was still a great workout. I tried to catnap every chance I got because the yoga and skiing were wiping me out.

Overall, one word sums up the kripalu experience - "magical". The people are so relaxed and it is tough to get or stay stressed there. The simplest pleasures: 1. I brought my slippers and wore them all around the building and 2. they upgraded the menu since we were there last. The meals were 100% better.

For the mind, body and soul

My mom and I are headed to the Kripalu Center in the Berkshires for the weekend for some yoga and some cross country skiing. All the snow we have gotten should make for a beautiful trip. I saw some rain in the forecast but I hope that it doesn't do any damage. We went in August 2001 for a yoga/hiking trip and thought it was fabulous. The place and the teachers are great; so we are looking forward to a weekend of quiet peace and being aware as well as fabulous skiing.

What will I do without my computer?

Tunnel Vision

Every corner has a blind spot when the snow drifts are three feet high.

Congratulations Mike!

My brother completed a quadathalon yesterday in 5:50. How awesome!

Start at Grants, NM - elevation 6600 feet
Bike 15 miles - elevation gain of 1800 feet
Run 5 miles - elevation gain of 1200 feet
Ski 2 miles - elevation gain of 1200 feet
Snoeshoe 0.5 miles - elevation gain of 600 feet
Reach the top of Mt Taylor at 11,300 feet
Then turnaround and do it all in REVERSE
"45 miles of fun"

No joking, though, congratulations!

View his picture from the top

Thought it was all over?

When I was a kid, my mom gave me a photo of some animal on skis and the caption read "Just when you thought it was all over ... SNOW!" That was back when I used to be a ski-aholic (it helps when the rents foot the bills). But the saying is perfect for the weather we have been having here. I cleared my car this morning and it was just coming down so quickly I ended up RE-clearing!

The weather report says "Total storm accumulations 20-30 inches" by tommorrow.

I can't imagine "drought" will be tossed around here in the spring. Too bad we can't spread the snow out to the midwest, where it's really needed.

Valintines Baby

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Hallmark's Monopoly

I am usually on top of getting people birthday and holiday cards. This afternoon, though, I went over to CVS and joined the "last minute folk" to pick up a Valintines Card. The best comment from the people (who were flooding the isle, btw) was "There are hardly any left." That's what we get for waiting till the last minute. I was actually surprised at how many cards there were and I was able to snag a good one.

I hope everyone has a great Valintines Day. Mike and Allie are coming over for cheese fondue and chocolate fondue. It's just a great excuse for stabing food and sticking it in hot, gooey cheese or chocolate!

The oldest rivalry becomes reality

Reality TV, that is. We watched the first episode of Survivor tonight - Girls against Guys! The best comment after the men lost the immunity challange "We were a little too cocky." Ya think? Every word that came out of their mouth was about how the girls were not going to make it and they probably weren't even done setting up camp; proclaiming the girls probably want a cell phone "to call their boyfriends for help". Um, excuse me?

I loved it when the ladies pulled up from behind to kick their asses! Am I hooked on another reality TV show?? Please save me!

Yes, No, Maybe So

I work on a production basis. So I get a percentage of each appraisal I work on. The funny thing about it all is that sometimes you know what you are working on and what is coming next and sometimes it seems like a big mystery. Today was an interesting one.

I currently have four jobs in various stages of completion. One was finished before we were even fully engaged (bad if the client backs out) because of a miscomunication. Another got put on hold - those jobs always fly back into the cue at the wrong time and the client will want it done 'yesterday'. Actually, what am I talking about, all the clients want the jobs done 'yesterday'.

They gave me my fifth job today, but then took it away and gave me a quasi office/industrial instead. Having jobs in the cue is nice (job security) but it doesn't put $$$ in my bank account. Like my boss says "It's not the who, what, where or how. It's the WHEN!"

The best ever

I have been with my friend, Allie, when she proclamed it was the "coldest night ever", Rock 106.9 is the "best radio station ever" and Jones New York makes the "best suits ever" (they do by the way). I can't even name the numerous "ever" comments. She has been wanting to start a website and I suggested she could use it to document all these events. Isn't that the "best idea ever"?

Check her out at thebestever.

New Zealand is top travel destination for 2003

This article in the New Zealand Herald reports that New Zealand is the top travel destination for 2003. Cambodia, China, Turkey and Cuba are in the top five. Awesome!

Some of the fuss was created with the LOTR movies and I recently heard there are other movies filming out there peeking people's curiosity. The landscapes are unbelievable. I have loved all the stuff I've seen.

A beautiful start

I made it to see the sun rise this morning and it was absolutely spectacular. All the fresh snow is sitting on the trees and there were no clouds in the sky. When I left the apartment, the sky was a deep blue, which I love. I took a bunch of pictures of the sky lightening up and the Hartford city skyline getting darker in front. I only could get out of my car a few times because it is just too c-o-l-d but the stillness was great.

I had to take the photos with a disposable camera (another product of yesterdays debacle), but if there are any good ones I scan them in and post them.

Pretendin'

Last night, Jay, Katie, Kev and I went to see the Pretenders at Foxwoods. The stadium was beautiful and it looked more like a movie theatre including plush seating. They even sold popcorn outside. hehehe The place was nice and small too, definatly not a bad seat in the house. The show started about 9:10 and it was so awesome! Chrissie Hynde totally owned the stage. What a voice??? She had such a stage presence and she addressed the crowd numerous times, mostly poking fun at the average "old" age. We were definatly bringing down the average age. They played every song I remembered was theirs and everyone I didn't even know was theirs and they came out for two curtain calls with great tunes then.

You have to laugh, or else you'd just cry

I knew it was going to snow this morning, but somewhere I got the idea it would be done before my commute. I was wrong and as I sit here this afternoon it is still snowing. This morning I woke up extra early to make it to my inspection halfway across the state and also do some work in another town. I went out to a new pub after work so getting up early was a bit tricky but I knew there would be traffic so I managed.

About 10 minutes away, Kev called and informed me that I would have to turn around immediatly and go back home - I had taken HIS KEYS! Our keyrings look near identical so it was a pretty easy mistake but I keep his car keys on a different ring and he was stranded.

After that folly I made my way down to the shore. Took about 2 hours (about 30 mins more than normal, not bad). Got into the town hall and was searching for my subject address for about 20 minutes, when I realized - I was in the WRONG town! Not only was I in the wrong town, I wasn't even in the right county! That is when you just have to sit back and take it all in and laugh, cause if I didn't I would have gotten so frustrated I could've cried.

On a good note - I did get my inspection done so my travels were not in vain and I saw a bunch of accidents but was in none.

Feed Me!

Yesterday and today my total caloric intake has consisted of 5 pieces of toast (nix the butter) and almost a liter of ginger ale. After 29 months of working at I&L, I called in for my third official sick day. Granted my second official sick day was more of a preventive day - preventing me from getting *sick* of my job and going insane.

I logged so many hours of zzz's yesterday it was unbelievable. I only thought about going to get the mail and that required a two hour nap! I am happy to report that today was much better going, although I still have only had more ginger ale and toast. I toasted two pieces and brought them in with me, which is less appetizing that it sounds (is that possible?). Soup for diner anyone?

I love ginger ale, tasty!

Not a lazy Sunday

My original plan was to get up and watch the sunrise this morning, then go over to the reservior for a walk. It is awesome that the sky is still lit up when I leave work but on the flip side the sun is rising earlier and earlier too and I am determined to see it rise over Hartford at this spot by Elizabeth Park. I AM a morning person, so it isn't that crazy a feat.

I checked the weather and they were predicting cloudy skies with a wintery mix and that really isn't good weather for sunrise viewing. So I canned that part of my day. Since I canned it last night, I can still believe I would have made it. I did however make it to the reservoir.

The reservoir is one of those awesome places that I love to go to for thinking and just for the hell of it. There is a loop just a little over a 3.0 miles and off that are numerous bike trails (for the serious mountainbiker). There are great vistas of the reservoir, which have been especially stunning with all the snow.

Today was the first time I did the loop twice (6 miles!). I pretty much just started the second loop and then I realized I actually did it. I always think I might go around twice and then am too tired. Today I think I tricked myself into going, by just not thinking about it. I do that with exercise sometimes. I'll be driving to the gym and just be so surprised I actually got off my ass to go. The idea of going is much more appealing than actually going.