Not quite sure what happened, or whether i ate something suspect but I can honestly say I don't like being up all and feeling like crap. Trev's view is that it was nature telling me to slow down. That said, it means I've been on email for a few hours catching up. Oh well.... I can't have it all.
It also means my keep fit campaign is on hiatus. One step closer though as I downloaded the gym's class schedule:)
Oh my......we have survived 6 weeks without Tivo or the equivalent. For those of you who aren't familiar with the technology it's basically a 21st century VCR. You program to record all your favourite programs - the difference is that you can tell it to record all episodes. The best thing is there's always stuff to watch and you never have to watch live TV....benefits? scrolling through commercials takes 5 seconds. I love it. Season passes are the best (ie. you get ALL CSI's recorded, or Law and Orders etc).
Before we left St Louis, I had Trev bring up our old Tivo box but had never quite got around to hooking it up. I DID IT THIS MORNING. By tonight.....we'll be back to our old selves. Yippee.
It's the Tribeca Film Festival right now so I'm feeling like we're "supposed" to go and check it out. Just don't feel like it really. We're pining for home cooked food so I suspect we'll go to Macy's and buy some baking tins and then I'll roast a chicken. haven't had yorkshire puddings in 2 months - I'm desperate. That'll make me feel like we're at home.
Can't remember if I said, but we've signed a 2 month lease for June and July to stay in New Jersey. We'll see if we like it (prob not...but at least it's more modern than the dump we're in now).
Yeah! We have absolutely zilch to do this weekend. I think we'll contact a couple of realtors for a few hours, then we'll hang out. It's beautiful here right now - about 70 degrees, not too humid. The Tribeca film festival is on this weekend so we may go there.....not really sure. I think I'm so tired that all I want to do is sleep - and if the bed or sofa was comfortable I think that's what we'd do.
Went to lunch today with my first boss in Reuters. It was good to catch up. I'm glad I'm doing my job and not his... while at lunch though, and it was inside even though it was a nice day, I got about 6 mossie bites.. I'm itching like crazy. Obviously they like me - oh yeah for me!
OK, I'm off for the weekend. Have fun
I know, I know...I hear you say "you've JUST figured that out??!!!?". Well I know.
What I've realized with Trev being in Chicago 3 days a week is that it generally gives me at least 2 nights to work ungodly hours. I do get caught up, and I do feel better because of it but I have zero life. And by the way, I don't count hitting the bar for a quick drink before going home a life. I hope it changes.
I miss my massages, pedicures and favourite restaurants....I know I'll find them all again but I still miss it right now.
OK...so as I write this Trev calls to tell me he's arranged all his flights for May and early June. That's pretty cool - and I'm impressed. Can you feel the "but" coming.... A week ago I created a calendar for us for the next 3 months as we have so many people to see, weekends away, a graduation and a wedding. I have all my flights booked (and have had for a couple of months) and made sure that Trev had a copy. So....tonight, he calls to show he's very organized...and he's totally forgotten a) about the events and b) that I've even bothered to create a calendar for his use. Hmphrfffffff. he's gonna update it so I shouldn't be too worried. I did just send him another one though in case he'd misplaced it.
We don't even get time to do laundry....not even sure when we'll get it done this weekend. Oh well, we move in a month.
OK, so we're getting used to the commuting between NY and Chicago....I have to say though that my husband seems to enjoy getting up at 4am on a Tuesday for a 6am flight and getting home at 11pm on a Thursday night. Personally I think it's ridiculous....primarily because then I end up either working at home or at work by 6am. I'm tired, but I've had enough sleep that I can't get back to sleep - and believe me, I've tried. I'm exhausted.
I've explained to Trev that perhaps he could get an 8am flight on a Tuesday and get back around 7 or 8ish on a Thursday would be awesome...and wouldn't be so tiring on both of us when it came to recovering at the weekend. We'll see.... I hope so as I'm so tired I don't know what to do.
We've managed to get a sub-lease for June and July in Newport, NJ - so we'll figure out how well I'll like commuting. I have to say the longer I'm in Manhattan...the more I want to be here. Well, with the exception being that we can't afford anywhere, and if we can afford it you can't swing a cat in it.
We're off to Connecticut to see friends at the weekend which will be good - and a great break. We'll also see if we can get some apartment viewing in too.
Work is crazy crazy....I've hired about 14 people in 6 weeks with about 4 more vacancies to go. I can't wait until it's done. I have my first full team meeting on Thursday - a few presentations followed by cocktails (of course). I had feedback from HR that some people feel that I'm distant and haven't talked with them yet - I'm still trying to figure out who it/they are because I think I've talked w/everyone. Oh well - I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been here 6 weeks. Oh, what fun:)
Back to the grindstone..........
There are 2 parts to the house hunting gig that we have.....firstly, getting another temporary apartment as this one is awful and then trying to buy somewhere. We hired a car this weekend with the plan to check out New Jersey. We up late as we were so tired so didn't get to Newark airport until 11.30am...hahaha. Anyway, we get the car....only forgot the laptop, we'd left it on the monorail....good job as I ran back 15 mins later for it it was there waiting. Phew! Of course, as it was my PC, Trev was pretty OK about it.....just imagine what would have happened if it was his PC. Eeeeek
We went to a couple of open houses and got some groceries from Target. It felt wonderful not to pay $2 for a yogurt or $4 for milk. We definitely want to be in NJ. So we left there around 4 and drove the car back to Manhattan. Tomorrow's the big day as that's when most of the open houses are on. We also looked at a temporary apartment for a couple of months. It'd give us time to end July which would be fabulous to have breathing time.
Off to dinner tonight - friends Sanya and Jeff are in from Denver so that'll be awesome.
did I say I hated this temporary apartment? ahahah
This is weird....but interesting. My brother, Tim, is coming over for a week in May. The reason for the late notice is that the thing that got him over here was that I told him we'd got tickets to Billy Connolly. For my American readers....he's a Scottish comedian. Very blue....but incredibly funny (well, for us anyway). this is not the weird part. So, Trev and I already had tickets for May 19th. Tim booked his tickets...and then told me to go ahead and buy a single ticket for Billy Connolly. If you're familiar with ticketmaster.com you'll know that it's a pretty random selection of tickets that you get offered...........so imagine when i put in a order for a single ticket 4 weeks after I bought our tickets and the ticket that got returned was next to our seats. HOW FLIPPING WEIRD IS THAT????? Karma man......
Other stuff for work - I've hired so many people I only have 3 vacancies left (for those who remember I started with 15 at the beginning of March). Very excited coz now I feel I can start my job "for real". i've also found out that I'll prob get a pay rise too as they believe managing 60 people is a different level. Yeeeeha! We could really do with the move.
So our temporary apartment sucks! We've decided rather than rush into buying somewhere we're going to look for a temporary rental until August. that'll give us the breathing space to get stuff together and check out the market. All we have to do now is move in the next 4 weeks. Yippee - I can't wait.
Chris (Carrieanne's boyfriend) is back from Iraq. He bought her a car this week so she's pretty happy. I found out that she's in NY in a few weeks at a wedding so we're trying to hook up. that will be awesome!
We have so much to do.........................more later
So, we got here. It took 13 hours of driving on Friday, and a further 3 on Saturday....but we made it! Man....I had roadtrips! At least we're here though. The rest of Saturday we spent driving around Jersey City and Hoboken, both towns in New Jersey that we're considering living. We've both decided that we need a bit of surburban life as well as the city life. We want greenery and the ability to drive a car (especially to Target or Walmart). The one thing I really hate about Manhattan is the fact you shop every day for what you're going to eat......I HATE IT. So.....we found some good places. We're just not used to even considering over half a million for a place so it's taking a bit of getting used to.
Terms we're getting used to:
JUMBO - it's when you're borrowing over $417,000
Deeded parking spot - it means you have a numbered space included in the price of the condo
It's like a whole new life....oh what fun! I'm sure we'll find something - we will investigate again next weekend!
Tornadoes......so we're in the hotel Friday morning and Peter c+alls at 8am (6am his time) and says "have you heard from Rachel?". That's worrying in itself as it's so early. It turns out that the tornadoes that had occurred the previous evening that we were watching on TV were in IOWA CITY. that's where Rach lives. Ouch! Ok, so we then find out that she's fine...although the city is under a state of emergency. Cars are overturned, houses levelled, trees uprooted. Very very scary.
Ok, so back to work etc etc.....
So there I am, sitting on the gross red carpet, hooked to the internet looking for the next place to live and finally around 9.20pm the guy calls me. So, here goes....
The closet door in front of your door, there's a pipe next to it. Follow the pipe to the floor, lift the metal casing and you'll find a key (I did). Take the key and open the closet. At the bottom of the closet is a bag. Look in the bag and find the keys to your apartment (I did). Use the set of keys to open the dead bolt (I did). OK, put it all back how you found it. I said "thank you" and he said "I'll have to find out why you don't have one of those keys". Wooooflippinghoo.
At least I got in, albeit 90 mins later than planned. Oh well....back to work:)
Everything goes great with the movers....it takes a while, and with exception of packing Trev's power cord for his laptop we haven't done too badly. I'm sad to be gone - but excited to start our new life:)
You'd think everything would be fine and dandy....but oh flipping no. I'm soooo peed off. I got off the plane great, my bag arrived, I got in a cab, it only cost $25 (a miracle in itself), I got in the door to the apartment building...............AND NOW I CAN'T GET IN MY FRIGGING APARTMENT. I'm writing this having called up the wazoo to the apartment people....and I quote "can you give me a call in say 45 mins coz i'm just at dinner now".......OMG - can you believe that. I'm so annoyed it's not even funny. Although I'm sure can guess it. Anyhow - my phone should ring any moment - only another 25mins togo before i can call.....yeeeeehaaaaaaa
So, it's been quiet the past week as there's been so much to do. Work is going great, I love my new job and there's loads to do. the week went by so quickly I never got time to write anything here. Oh Man... it's crazy. i did have a couple of days where I pulled 14 hours days - not good and I'm definitely resolving not to do it again. The reason was that we had a 3 day training course for my new team leads and while I was there being a good boss (Blackberry in bag, laptop off) I wasn't doing any work. So....I had to get it done afterwards. Oh yeah, and of course there were team building events on both nights.
One of the events was at a restaurant called Becco. I'd been there before last January - very nice Italian. At the weekend when I was having a saddo day (see previous entry) I'd watched a TV program on PBS called Lydia's Italy. What I didn't realize until this week was that Becco was owned by Lydia! Weird.......
First thing today I picked Trev up from the airport so he's now back from the UK (getting a visa). Then the packers came. I got home late on Thursday night having got delayed in Chicago (it's the last time I think I'm saving the company money by not taking a direct flight). Friday I ended up in the st Louis office for what was supposed to have been an hour and turned into the whole morning. I got home to start packing......and just as I got into the groove Penny, Mark and Rachel turned up. Yeah! Penny had kindly picked up Rachel on the way through as she was without a car - and it meant she could drive back the Grand Prix to Cedar Rapids to prevent us paying a $500+ bill on the Sable. Back on topic....the packers were amazing. they arrived at 8am and had the whole house boxed before 1pm. Incredible! We then spent the afternoon moving all the furniture for Penny. They had hired a Uhaul that they're towing with Mark's truck. It's jam packed full. They took everything.........flipping marvelous.
Went to Tuckers for dinner...our local. they do the best food.....will really really miss it. Met up with friends Pete and Diane too - spent ages talking about Penny's ghosts. We're getting quite a following - I hope the ghosts appreciate it:)
We're so tired....it's now 8.45pm and we're all going to bed. We've been busy all day - Trev's jetlagged and I think the rest of us are shattered. I thought I'd write as I wait for the food to go down - my stomach is bursting:)
This is the first day in weeks where I've done the square root of bugger all.....and it's been fabulous. To be honest, it's not that I've done nothing....but I have been catching up so in turn, my mind feels clearer and more settled.
things I've completed:
- put all my clothes away that I brought up from St Louis on Weds
- cleaned out my 500 emails from my work inbox
- wrote my work to do list
- wrote back to my friend Lorraine (2 weeks late, but at least I got there)
- chatting to Penny on IM (OK, OK, so it wasn't on the original list - but it was like old times)
- given myself a pedicure
- got hold of the landlord to pay the April rent and also complain that internet access isn't working (thankfully with wireless I managed to get periodically access to the hotel across the street)
- wrote the list of stuff I want to put in the Grand Prix ready for our road trip Chicago to NYC.
On the bad side, I've eaten crap all day and I did work....even if I pretend I didn't. I didn't go into the office though so that's a plus. I think I can handle all that crap when I get to work on Monday.
Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a Realtor to go around Brooklyn and also a new development in Long Island City. that'll be fun and I'll get out of the house. I'm also meeting Heather and Bruce for dinner.
Should be fun:)
