Woe is Me

I am so lazy, it's disgusting. Since getting back from Raleigh I have actually tried to do as little as possible. I always do this and I don't know why - it's as though I feel I need to reward myself for doing a lot with doing nothing for as long as I can. I didn't even unpack until Saturday. And the thought of going back to work tomorrow makes me want to cry. That's how lazy I am: I love my job and I still don't want to go to it. This week isn't quite a normal work week, though. Tomorrow is a regular day, but Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday are all going to spent focusing on the same computer program we were learning in North Carolina. I think the only reason I am not looking forward to being back in the hospital is because I have spent an entire week away from it. I'll feel so behind, even though there were other people to do the work I wasn't doing. Whatever, we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

In other news, I need a damn couch. Nick and I are moving soon and we are going from this stupid efficiency apartment to a real apartment with an actual living room. That means that, not only will the rent be more, but I'm stuck buying new furniture because 1) our current furniture is hideous, and 2) we don't have enough of it. I wanted to put my tax return money into my savings account but I'm coming to terms with the fact that most of it will likely go toward things for the new place, and a couch is definitely the most expensive piece we'd need to buy. I can settle for Ikea for everything else, but the couch is driving me insane because I am too cheap for my own good. I really like this one from Value City Furniture 

...but it's $400.00 and we have already addressed that I'm cheap as hell. I'm so strange: when it comes to buying necessities, like furniture, I am so wary to spend more like $5.00 on it even though I always want bigger and better. Yet I am fine with spending $75.00 on a sweater. 

The point is: I need a couch and I want it to be cute without spending a lot of money. To me, $400.00 is a lot of money. My mom offered me the couch in her living room, which I would definitely take because it's comfortable and cute without looking all dowdy and sat-on, but getting it over here will prove problematic. The thought of having to rent a U-Haul, which tops out at 55 mph, and drive it up and down the highway all day, makes me cringe. It sounds like the most unfun way to spend a weekend ever. Cross your fingers my mom's couch fits into the back of Nick's car, would you? But if I had it my way I'd have the yellow one (lies: if I had it my way I'd win some sort of sweepstakes that would afford me a real house of my own decked from floor to ceiling in Pottery Barn... but life isn't fair).

Also, Nick is sick - who knows what with. It started as a sore throat that has since gone north and south into his head and lungs. He is super congested and his cough is gross and I'm praying I don't catch it. I feel like it is easier for him to be sick because he is only in class 2 days a week and he can spend the rest of his time laying in bed or doing whatever it is that makes him comfortable. I, on the other hand, need to grin and bear it at work despite whatever is making me feel like crap. I was sick with something similar to this several months ago and luckily it didn't last too long. Nick has only felt bad for a few days now so hopefully it goes away soon. Here's hoping the daily vitamins I pop have boosted my immune system! I have kissed him, slept next to him, and shared this horribly cramped space with him everyday that he hasn't felt well so if I don't catch this, it'll be a miracle.

Anyway, this blog has been nothing but one big gripe. I should probably try to do something with myself. The dishes need to be washed and a shower needs to be taken so I am going to go do both of those things. The Oscars are on tonight and I definitely want to watch both the pre-show AND the award ceremony so I need to get these things gone before evening comes around.

Raleigh: Day Four

Our last day is Raleigh wasn't even a full day. We had to pack the night before and three of us had to put our luggage into the fourth person's room because the front desk would only allow one person a late check-out time. Ordinarily it would be noon, but because our class was a half-day and ended at noon, we needed to push it back a little bit. So after breakfast we moved our belongings into one of the other women's room, and headed off to class. Bob was busy doing something else this morning so the hotel arranged for us to take a cab over there, which was nice. Bob was a cute little guy but I was starting to dislike him, due to his complete lack of consideration for our safety in the back of his van.

We had three sections to discuss in class this day, and she spent 8:00-10:30 talking about one of them. I didn't see how she was going to shove the next two sections into the remaining hour and a half with the Vegas people talking as much as they were. Luckily for me, they left early. As soon as she was done with the first section, they peaced out because they had a flight to catch. Lo and behold, we got the next two sections done in the time remaining. We grabbed a bite to eat in their cafeteria before Bob picked us up to head back. Today was, by far, Bob's worst day behind the wheel. There was a minivan in front of us the entire way back, and I'm pretty sure Bob was a foot from her bumper the whole time. At one point he was flashing his high beams into her back window to try to get her to hurry up. I don't think that's legal. She was going 45 in a residential neighborhood, I don't know what else he expected from her. By the time I exited the shuttle for the last time I had decided Bob was clinically insane and he was likely driving this van for the hotel on some sort of work release program.

We grabbed our stuff from the hotel room and packed up the car to head home. I was less than enthused about another long drive, but the ride home always seems to go faster than the ride there. I suppose it has something to do with the anticipation of arriving at your destination, and then you really don't give a damn when you're going back to where you came from. The quesadilla I had for lunch, combined with the fact that it was grey and rainy, made me fall asleep within 20 minutes of settling into the car. I was knocked out for a whole hour, which is pretty sweet. We had gotten on the road around 1:15 and when I awoke and checked the clock it was 2:30. The GPS told us we would be home around 6:30 and I was praying that we wouldn't get stuck in traffic in Richmond. Luckily for us, we drove through Richmond about an hour before rush hour, so we only had to slow down a little bit before continuing on as usual. 

We finally arrived back at the hospital, where Nick was waiting for my boss and I. He helped to unload the car, we took my boss home, and then we arrived back at our apartment. It was actually kind of nice to be home. Granted, I was really comfortable in that hotel room, and the bed in North Carolina was much more comfortable than my real bed, but there's something about being home that is just less stressful than being in a strange place. Even though I was having a very good time in Raleigh, it was nice to know that it was all over and I didn't need to plan my day around classes and 'who-is-driving-where,' and 'when-do-I-need-to-go-down-to-breakfast.' I had arranged to take Friday off of work so knowing I didn't have much to do the next day was nice.

And as I write this, it is Friday, and it's rainy and gross outside. I miss the nicer weather down south because it is weird coming back to snow on the ground. My only plans for today include buying stamps, paying bills, returning something to Staples, and picking up the book I ordered from the bookstore in town. I haven't even unpacked yet. And I gotta say, I am really wishing I had saved a cupcake.

Raleigh: Day Three

Wednesday started as Tuesday started: up early, down to breakfast, feared for our lives on the shuttle to class. Bob must have had a good night's sleep because he was weaving in and out of traffic with that van in a way I've never seen before. The creepy electronic turnstile blasted its objections as we walked to our classroom, and then the Vegas people showed up. They talked about the "crazy night" they had the night before and I was already rolling my eyes before the class started.

Our instructor kept coming up with catchy little ways to get us to remember all the icons in the program. Things like, "Don't click on the little door icon in the upper corner of the screen. That'll log you out of the program completely. Think of it like the door to a party. If you click on it, you'll leave the party! And you don't want to do that!" In truth, I very much wanted to leave this party, but I got where she was going with the analogy, as patronizing as it was. Then she came up with this little diddy, "Select the task from the drop-down menu and click the 'Go' button. It's like that old show, Inspector Gadget. Whenever he wanted to do something he had to say, 'Go, go, Gadget!' So this is our go-go-Gadget button!" Ugh. Fine, it's a go-go-Gadget button. It may be hard to believe, but we are all adults who don't need Inspector Gadget analogies to help us to understand how to click a button.

I spoke too soon. The group from Vegas just absolutely loved these analogies the instructor had come up with. Every chance they got they proclaimed, "Whoa, I almost clicked the party door!" Whenever our instructor told us to click the 'Go' button, a Vegas-er would say, "Go, Go, Gadget!!!" God, are you kidding me? You don't need to repeat the damn party door/Gadget analogies every time there's a beat of silence in the room. On top of that, the one that was particularly computer-challenged would constantly hum the Jeopardy song whenever her page took a while to load. My boss and I would just exchange glances at one another and read each other's minds throughout the length of class. At least the food was good. We got lunch vouchers in addition to the morning coffee/water vouchers, so in theory, we could pile our trays with $50 worth of cafeteria food and they couldn't say anything about it because the voucher had no maximum. None of us did this, and I wound up eating the same sandwich I had eaten on Tuesday, but I was glad knowing that we could essentially clean out every bag of chips in the building and there was nothing they could do about it because they had given us the vouchers. After lunch, our instructor announced that we were all invited to dinner at Dos Taquitos that night, a mile away from the hotel, with all expenses paid. The Vegas group jumped on the offer. Our group was kind of put on the spot because the Vegas drunks all turned to us at the same time and screamed, "YOU GUYS SHOULD TOTALLY COME!! WILL YOU GUYS COME??!" I just stared at my computer screen. Don't make eye contact, that's important. My boss answered with, "We have plans, sorry." Thank God I had her there to say everything I was thinking. What was bizarre was that the two women we had traveled with actually wanted to go!  They spent yesterday afternoon at the mall across from the hotel window-shopping at stores featured in every other mall in the country and, on their last night in Raleigh, they wanted to go a mile down the street to a Mexican restaurant that serves microwaved chimichangas? Do you know how many Dos Taquitos equivalents there are where we live? That's like eating at McDonald's when you're vacationing in Europe. I know they are there and you conceivably could eat there... but you don't eat there. What was even more dumbfounding was the fact that they were willing to put up with the Vegas group for an entire evening. I took a deep breath and was just glad that my boss and I could venture downtown again to see some new sights and have a good time.

Luckily for us, it was warmer this day than Tuesday had been and we got out of class around 3:30 which was about an hour and a half earlier than Tuesday. That meant we had more time to walk around before it got dark and our chances of staying warmer, longer, were greatly improved. As soon as the manic shuttle driver docked at the hotel, we hopped in a cab and off we went. This time we started at the capitol building.

 

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the roof was green and there was a really pretty dome at the tippy top. Across the street there was a church that matched and I just appreciated the fact that they were the same colors, so I took a picture of that, too.

 

We then ventured down Fayettville Street, which gave off more of a "city" feel than the street we had explored the previous day. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking this was due to the very tall buildings.

 

See that building wayyy off in the distance? That is the Center for Performing Arts.  We walked to it because, dammit, we were exploring.

 

I gotta say, I was peeved the fountain out front wasn't turned on when we got there. I guess they turn it off once they lock the doors for the evening. It would have made for a much better picture, so I'm holding a grudge. After peeking in the windows, we walked all the way back up Fayettville Street, plus five or so more blocks to the Executive Mansion.

 

Neither of us knew what this building was for - was it someone's home? Was it an office building that used to be someone's home? We didn't particularly care because it was gorgeous and gigantic and that's really all that mattered to us. There were humongous wrought-iron gates on all sides of it, with security cameras and little buzzers so they could open the gates for you from inside. We debated pressing the button to see if we would make the cut but decided we were too hungry for any of that. 

We walked four blocks back the way we had come to a place called Sitti, a Lebanese restaurant. It was absolutely delicious, and it had just gotten dark by the time we were done eating. Luckily for us, our cab driver was Middle Eastern and knew exactly where this place was located. He arrived within 15 minutes and brought us back to the hotel. It felt good knowing we had gotten more accomplished downtown. We ventured to a lot of little places that I just didn't take pictures of, as well as to some places I did take pictures of but they just weren't blog-worthy (including a church that was built in 1804. I found that cool simply because it's so freaking old). I easily could spend a week in Raleigh and not run out of things to do. They have museums, concerts, awesome food, historic tours, the works. And the whole place is so CLEAN! You can tell there has been a lot of money put toward the upkeep of that place. Makes coming home extra disappointing.

Raleigh: Day Two

Tuesday morning came very quickly. I woke up around my usual time (6:15am), got dressed, and headed downstairs for breakfast around 7:00. We had a shuttle to catch at 7:55 that would take us to our class, so we figured an hour was plenty of time to eat. Every waiter in the place was preoccupied with the Kioti people that were eating breakfast the same time we were, so we were almost late catching the shuttle (...come to think of it, we were the only people the shuttle had to take to the class, so I don't know why we were all stressing about it. It's not like it would have left without its only passengers).

The driver of the shuttle was a little old man named Bob. He had bright blue eyes and a little hearing aide, he opened the door for us, and then he drove us to the class LIKE A FRIGGIN MANIAC. We all started laughing because we were so shocked that this little dude was straight out of Grand Theft Auto. I'm not exaggerating: this guy was squealing wheels on his way out of the parking lot. He was taking turns at 40 mph and damn near running people off the road. I'm surprised the doors to the van didn't fly open and we all topple out into the street. I'm dead serious. When red lights turned green it was pedal to the metal and God help the drivers in front of him. Needless to say, we got to the building where class was held 25 minutes early. 


You know those little turnstiles they have at the metro that allow only one person to pass at a time? This building had those, only they were electronic and didn't require metro passes to get through them. Instead, employees needed to scan their badge, wait for the light to turn green, and pass through individually. If they A) failed to scan their badge, B) scanned their badge but didn't wait for the light to turn green, or C) scanned their badge but waited too long after the light had turned green to walk forward, an excruciatingly loud siren blasted through the lobby and then the poor slob had to try it all over again. The alarm went off for all of us since we didn't have badges to scan. Well, actually, the alarm went off every single time anyone attempted to pass through because they were malfunctioning that morning. We ignored this and made our way to the classroom and got situated. Our very enthusiastic instructor gave us vouchers for a free coffee and bottled water in the morning, which was a plus. Then the other half of the class showed up... they were from Las Vegas. I don't have a vocabulary extensive enough to accurately depict how annoying this group of people was, but I feel as though saying that, right there, gets the point across pretty well. All these people did was talk. They joked with each other, they joked with the teacher, they poked fun at the one idiot who was completely computer illiterate, the idiot poked fun at herself for being completely computer illiterate, etc. etc. They wasted time in every way they could without being aware they were even doing it. And our instructor, God bless her, bought into every bit of it. They would go off on tangents about their pets, or their loan officers, or their ex-husbands, and my boss and I would sit there watching it all with straight faces, praying to just GET ON WITH IT. I'm sure they were just trying to liven up a potentially boring experience, but I don't see the logic in prolonging the boring experience in an attempt to make it tolerable. If something is verging on boring, why not just get through it as quickly as possible so we don't all hate ourselves by the end of the day, hmm?

Speaking of verging on boring, I'll let the above paragraph suffice as an introduction to the first day of class. We learned a lot about the new computer program we'll be introducing into the hospital, but by the end of the day it was information overload and we were all ready to get some dinner and focus on something other than a computer screen. We took the shuttle back to the hotel, driven by a young kid who also drove like a bat out of Hell, and discussed our plans for the rest of the evening. My boss and I wanted to try to get to downtown Raleigh a little bit, considering we were in a place neither of us have been before and we had heard downtown was awesome. The two women from the other hospital told us that they wanted to check out the mall right across from the hotel. I have to admit, I was slightly beyond horrified by this. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that they were in a new city with many sights to be seen and they wanted to tour the Old Navy less than 500 yards from the Marriott. We almost got suckered into going with them until my boss got up the courage to tell them that we were going downtown and we'd see them in the morning at breakfast. The two of us split a cab and our first stop was The CupCake Shoppe.

I was so excited I could barely contain myself. I am such a sucker for stores that house pretty little pastries. Not only was the exterior and interior of this place pink, but they had a good selection of flavors. I bought myself two of them because I couldn't decide between them... went w/ the coconut and the strawberry. My boss got an entire dozen because she has more money than me. 

By the time we broke away from the cupcake wonderland, it was really cold outside. Of course I was in flip flops and a windbreaker because it had been sixty earlier in the day (and because I had forgotten my winter coat at home. Told you I always forget something important). We realized we should have bought cupcakes after we walked around, because now we had to lug these things all over town in search of a good restaurant. The cold, combined with the fact it was already getting dark, prevented us from straying from this one street. Granted, it was a rather impressive street filled with lots of trendy little shops and eateries, but I was still disappointed we didn't get to take more in. We ate dinner at 518 West, a cute little Italian place, and then we called the cab driver to come get us. I have always believed, based on previous experience and just general knowledge, that cab drivers know every street in the city. Apparently, in Raleigh, this isn't true. I did my best to describe where we were to the cab driver over the phone and I just prayed that he understood me and knew where to find us. We waited outside on the corner in case he wound up driving aimlessly up and down the street, but this was a huge pain considering the temperature had dropped even further while we were eating and we both knew damn well it would be about 20 minutes before he showed up. While we were waiting, a guy drove up and asked me for directions. I gave them to him. I had only been within city limits for 24 hours and I was giving other tourists directions.

Cabbie finally showed up and took us back to the hotel. Safely tucked away in my cloud bed, I ate half of each cupcake because I didn't want to try one and not the other. Then I got depressed knowing the other halves of these cupcakes would be hard as rocks and completely inedible come the morning. I probably should have just eaten one and saved the other for the next day, but I just couldn't help myself. The coconut was amazing and the strawberry had real strawberries in the frosting. I don't regret a damn thing! I would have gotten my money's worth had I eaten them both in their entirety but they were too pretty to ignore. Plus, I feel less fat knowing I ate the equivalent of one cupcake while getting at both flavors.

Raleigh: Day One

The drive down to Raleigh was a long one. Nick and I drove to my boss' house and picked her up, then he dropped the two of us off at the hospital we were all going to leave from. The woman who drove had a gigantic Toyota Sequoia... she told us when we piled in that the back seats reclined, which excited me, until I attempted it and failed due to the back of the car being packed too the brim with luggage. I tried to go to sleep but the most I could achieve was that awkward half-asleep/half-awake state because my neck started to hurt whenever I would drift off... and it was only for about 20 minutes at that. I was alert and oriented for every painful minute otherwise. I know 5.5 hours isn't that long when you are thinking in terms of trips... some people drive to destinations halfway across the country and all I had to do was sit tight while we made it down the length of Virginia. But I get all antsy when I am stuffed in the back of a car :-( I worry that if I drink too much water I'll need to pee at a gas station, and that is something I most certainly never want to do (...I did). Then I got scared I would start to get sick in the back of the SUV, because one of my dirty little secrets is that I tend to blow chunks whenever I'm in a moving vehicle. I nibbled on some Wheat Thins and pretzels, took some Advil for the pre-carsick headache I felt coming on, and the drive got much more tolerable once we hit Richmond.

We had hit the road around 12:30 and we pulled into the hotel around 5:45. I perked up knowing I had made it without vomiting. There was a huge crowd in the hotel... apparently there was a big event in the ballroom hosted by Kioti tractors (made obvious by the display of orange tractors in front of the hotel doors). There was quite the assortment of guests at this soiree, but it was mostly comprised of men in suits, farmers, Mennonites, and sluts. I assumed the men in suits were the dealers, and the farmers and the Mennonites were the ones who owned Kiotis. I haven't yet figured out why there were sluts at a tractor convention, but there are some things that should be left alone, I guess.

We bypassed the tractor shindig and checked in at the front desk. We each had a separate room, my boss and I on the 5th floor and the two women from the other hospital on the 3rd floor. King beds, a large flat-screen tv, a big desk for my laptop... it was comfortable! Not to mention the bed had a million pillows and a down comforter so it felt like a giant cloud.

Cloud.

I had a decent amount of energy left in me and was willing to start exploring Raleigh right away, but everyone agreed that the evening would be best spent unpacking, eating some dinner, and relaxing for the early morning we were expecting. The hotel had two restaurants in it but the nicer of the two was closed so we settled for the sports bar. The food was actually really good, and it was made even better by the fact that our company paid for it! After we stuffed ourselves to the brim, we all retired to our rooms and relaxed until Tuesday.

Packing

Raleigh, here I come. It's kind of nice knowing I get to go on a mini-vacay all week and get paid for it without doing any real work. It makes me feel like I have a job that actually requires travel. I just hate packing - everything about it. It's such a process and it pretty much follows the same steps every time I have to go through it:

• Decide what to wear
• Try on all possibilities, decide against the items that are too small at the moment because of how bloated I am 
• Wonder why I am so fat tonight
• Stuff anything that fits me into my suitcase
• Shoo the cat away from my suitcase
• Panic that the suitcase is filling up extremely quickly; fear I may have to bring out the duffel bag
• Meticulously count all items in the suitcase and mentally match them with the other items in the suitcase to insure I have outfits packed (all too often I remember the shirt and not the pants...)
• Pick out pajamas that match and aren't hideous because other people will likely see me in them (this is harder than it sounds)
• Get duffel bag
• Shoo the cat away again
• Shooing the cat reminds me to pick out shoes
• Make a mental note for the morning to pack makeup, hair brushes, shampoo/conditioner, moisturizer, etc.
• Random thought: Does the hotel provide DVD players in each room? Should I bring workout tapes? Should I bring a laptop? My Italian notes?  

See what a pain in the ass this is? Granted, packing is always a fiasco for me, but if this training we were going to wasn't "business casual" I would have had an easier time picking out clothing. I have tons of great stuff but somehow I've out-fatted a few pieces so I had to resort to stuff I don't like as much. A pair of jeans and a nice top would make things so much easier (I did pack jeans... but the shoes, shirt, and jacket they'll be paired with will bump it up to "business casual," I think). I know I'll get down there and will realize I forgot something important, because that always happens. I suppose as long as I have my makeup and a straightening iron it won't be the end of the world.

To recap the weekend, I gotta say it was pretty productive. I got some work done on my drawing:

baked and decorated 2 dozen cookies for my friend Jessica's daughter's birthday party (snowflakes... very cute. It's a winter wonderland theme. Get it? W"one"derland? Because she is turning one?), and brushed up on my my Italiano. How is it possible that I had such a productive weekend while sitting down the whole time? The fact I didn't do much moving this entire weekend doesn't make me feel like I really did anything at all. I suppose I could benefit from some exercise... especially considering how bloated I feel. It's just a fat day. We all have them. 

I'll be sure to try to snap as many photos as I can while in North Carolina. I am really bad about remembering to use the camera that I usually stuff in my purse last-minute... speaking of purses, should I bring more than one?

Here We Are Again

I've said it before, I'm saying it now: I want to start a blog! I have seriously had 4 of these already. My first one was mysteriously deleted, then I purposely deleted my second two. Now here we are on blog #4, and we'll just have to see how it plays out. 

Previously, my blogs were nothing more than nasty little rants about the day-to-day idiocy that surrounded me in school. Albeit they were mean, awful little blog entries... but they were hysterically funny and most people thoroughly enjoyed reading them! Now that I'm at a different stage of life and I have the blog itch once again, I figure I'll give it another shot. As much as I'd love to write about the idiocy that surrounds me at work, there's a little thing called HIPAA that prevents me from doing so. Therefore, I'm going to write about the daily goings-on in my life, maybe add some photographs, and turn it into a little online scrapbook of my life. I don't particularly care if anyone reads it, because it'll be nice to know it's out there just for me to look back on.

With the preface out of the way, I'd like to announce how excited I am to be mentally preparing for my upcoming trip to Raleigh, North Carolina. My boss asked me to accompany her down there for a 2.5-day training on a new computer program the hospital will be adopting. While that part of it sounds no fun at all, I'm really looking forward to the trip. My boss and I get along really well, I've heard Raleigh is beautiful (not to mention I've already been online and scouted out the cutest little cupcake bakery 10 minutes from the hotel), and I have an excuse to break in my new suitcase. It's black and white houndstooth, hello. So hopefully the trip will be fun. With the hospital comping the bill for our dining and individual hotel rooms with king-sized beds, there shouldn't be much to complain about by the end of the week :-) I'll take pictures!