While In Boston

Monday morning in Boston I woke up, got ready for the day, ate some breakfast and headed out the door. My co-worker Andy and I drove the one mile or so up the road to our customer site to begin our work day. It was raining outside and Andy was kind enough to pick me up under the portico at the hotel and drop me off at the front door of our customer site.

We spent the day working and having meetings with various people who we work with on a daily basis but from a distance. It was refreshing to meet all the people we talk to on the phone so often. I think it makes a huge difference to put a face with a name and I was so glad to meet people who I've talked to for years but had no idea what they looked like in person.

Our customer took us out to lunch at a local spot and Andy and I both had the Lobster Roll, or should I say Lobstah Roll, which was really good. We enjoyed visiting with our customers on a casual environment and getting to know them a little better. After lunch we had more meetings and Andy did some more work on his project and around 4:30 p.m. we called it a day. We were planning to leave at 5:00 p.m., but we had plans to go to the Red Sox game and our customer told us we should probably hit the road.

So, we went back to the hotel and changed clothes and then went to the train station so we could catch the train/subway into the city. It was Andy's first time on a train or subway and he was really excited. What can I say? He's young. It took us a good hour or longer to get to our subway stop because of the vast number of people trying to get to the game. The trains were running slow and we were often stopped on the tracks not moving at all which was supremely annoying considering there were hundreds of people on each car and I was starting to feel claustrophobic.

We finally made it to Fenway Park, bought some tickets on the first base line under the upper deck (it was raining and we wanted to stay dry) and walked around outside the park for while before going in. We finally went in and I was planning to get a hot dog and soda, but Andy decided to buy a whole pizza for us to split and so I just went with it because at this point I was ready to sit down and start watching the game. We made our way to our seats and practically needed a third seat for our gigantic pizza.

The game was fun, the atmosphere was more fun. The weather was cold. I had on a coat and a beanie and by the time the game was over, I was freezing. The Sox played the Braves and despite a rally in the bottom of the ninth, the Sox lost (their seventh loss in a row). We still had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to catch a game while in town.

After the game, we made our way to the train station which was backed up to the street to get in. They apparently haven't caught on to the DC method of just let everyone in on game night. After waiting in line to get into the station, we finally made it onto a train and began the long journey back to our car. We made it back to the hotel around midnight where I promptly went to sleep. It was a productive day and a fun night!

​A Trip To Boston

I spent the last couple of days in Boston, one of my favorite cities in the good ole United States of America. I've been quite a few times before, but this time around I went for work rather than pleasure. As long as I've worked for my current employer, I've never traveled for my job; so, this was an unexpected surprise. Since the week ahead is jam packed for work, I had to fly out on Sunday so that I could be back in town for a big meeting and audit on Wednesday. 

My flight was scheduled to leave Huntsville a little after 11:00 a.m. on Sunday and so, I got up at 5:00 a.m., did a bit of laundry ​and then went to the 6:00 a.m. worship service at church where I'm pretty sure I was the only visitor that day. I was completely surprised when most of the people there were talking amongst themselves and you could tell they were regulars at the early service. I had no idea the 6:00 a.m. service had regulars. After church I went home and finished up some cleaning and changing of the sheets and actually packed a bag for my trip. 

I left for the airport around 10:00 a.m., parked in long term parking, grabbed a bite to eat, ate, and got on the plane. A co-worker, Andy, went on the trip as well, but we were not sitting beside each other on the flight. We were a few rows apart. I sat between two men who I assume were also both headed out of town on business. One was going to Baltimore, the other was just grumpy. We had pretty much no layover in Atlanta, which was great. I had time to buy a bottle of water and get on the plane. On the flight from Atlanta to Boston, I had an exit row seat and there wasn't a seat in front of me so my legs were able to stretch out the whole flight and it was absolutely delightful! I watched a movie I had downloaded to my Kindle and just generally enjoyed the whole flight. I have exit row seats on the return flights home too, or at least I'm supposed to; so, I'm pretty pumped about that.


When we arrived in Boston, it was a little after 4:00 p.m. and we took the bus to the rental car location. Poor Andy, he's so young and innocent. The rental car was in his name because he s staying a day longer than I. He said he couldn't find on his reservation who the rental was with, but that he thought it was Hertz. So, into the Hertz line we go. Andy, bless him, keeps looking at his reservation and doesn't understand why he can't find which company the car is with. I ask to see it and it says Budget and I point that out and say we need to be in another (longer) line on the other end of the room. He thought that Budget meant that it was a budget, or cheap, car, not that it was the name of the company. He's young, people, he's young.


We went to dinner at Legal Sea Foods and had a great spread of delicious seafood items, including Lobster Bisque and stuffed shrimp. My only request was that we be back at the hotel by 9:00 p.m. which is when the season finale of Game of Thrones was coming on. We made it back with about 10 minutes to spare and would have gotten back sooner if not for the terrible waitress we had. She hardly ever checked on our table, we were often without drinks, and it took her three tries to get our checks split up correctly. If you ever go to the Legal Sea Foods in Braintree, be sure that Amanda is not your server.


I watched the Game of Thrones finale and then attempted to go to sleep. I did not sleep well at all - for the second night in a row. It was either the ginormous bed, the lack of Pippa, the fact I was distraught over the Game of Thrones finale or a combination of the three. Who knows? Whatever the case, it made for a very tired Monday which is when the actual work portion of the trip began.

We finally made it to the rental car around 6:00 p.m. and headed out on the road. At first Andy told me he wanted me to drive, but then decided to drive himself. I think he was a little nervous, but he did great. He wasn't as aggressive as I would have been, but he still did a good job. We made it to the hotel and got checked in, dropped our things off in our respective rooms and then left to get some dinner. 

I Just Keep Going and Going and Going

Y'all, I'm so tired. I think my constant going and going has caught up with me and I'm ready for my 40-year nap, but I don't really have time to nap for 40-years so I'll just keep on trucking and hope for the best. 

 

Last Friday I had a few invites for Movies in the Park, but I responsibly stayed home and didn't go. My original plan was to meet some friends there around 6:00 p.m. and eat and head home but when I was still a work a few minutes after 5:00 and needed to pick up some prescriptions and run another errand or two, I decided it would probably be best if I kept myself at home and took care of things around the house because my Saturday was going to be busy and Sunday I was leaving for Boston. So, I stayed home and actually got a lot accomplished. I cleaned the bathroom and did a lot of laundry and did some dusting and went to bed at a decent hour and was quite pleased with my productivity for the evening.

 

Saturday morning I was up before 6:00 a.m. and finished up a good majority of the inside the house chores before I had to leave to go to my granddad's house. We had a "garage sale", really it should probably be called a moving sale which started at 10:00 a.m. and was supposed to last until 2:00 p.m. I wanted to start earlier for a couple of reasons. One, most people who go to garage sales go in the wee hours of the morning and two, I wanted to be finished by noon and back home to finish my chores and get packed for Boston. The first people who came were people we knew and they actually bought quite a few things. A few others trickled in from time to time, but overall it was a slow go. I don't think we had anyone show up after noon. A little before 2:00 p.m. the movers showed up which was a complete surprise to me because I had no idea they were coming that day. I thought they were coming later in the week. There was some miscommunication between us and the movers through because the guys that came thought they were moving only and we thought they were packing up the rest of the stuff and then moving. Long story, short, the movers moved the furniture to the place where my granddad is going to be staying and we made other arrangements for the packing up of the rest of the stuff. 

 

After the adventures at my granddad's house, I finally made it home close to 4:00 p.m. I was going to lie down and rest for a minute, but then remembered that Pippa's nails were more like talons and I needed to take her to have them trimmed. So, I loaded her up and we headed to the pet store in Five Points for a nail trim. She was not on her best behavior that particular day, but at least she isn't going to claw anyone to death. When we got home from that adventure, I started on the yard work. It was miserable hot and I feel like I probably sweat off about five pounds. There was some out of control brush along the fence line that I cleared and that probably needs to be cleared some more, but for now it looks better than it did. I finally finished up with everything a little after 6:00 p.m. and got a shower to wash all the filth from mowing off before crashing on the couch to watch hockey. Sadly, I did not sleep well that night, undoubtedly because I was leaving the next morning. This seems to be my pattern the night before a trip. 

 

So, that was my weekend, or my half-weekend as I've been calling it since I left on a business trip Sunday. I guess it's the time of year when things don't seem to slow down and all I want to do is rest. I guess I can do that in January when there's nothing going on. 

Garage Sale Number One

We had our first garage sale of the year this past weekend at my grandmother's house. My cousin Jessica posted an ad on Craig's List and facebook and also made some signs so that we could get the word out. She did a great job of advertising, but the turnout wasn't as great as we expected.

I got there a little after 6:00 a.m. and Jessica wasn't up yet. So, I called the house phone and she came out and we soon started pulling things out of the garage. It wasn't long before we had our first customers. We had a few people trickle in throughout the morning and sold a hand full of things. We had more moments of no customers at all than we did customers. We had a few people that we knew stop by, but mostly strangers.

My grandmother had a riding mower to sell and Jessica had listed it on the ads as well. One man seemed very interested in it and pulled it out of the garage and probably spent an hour or so looking over it and tinkering with it. He had a pick up truck but no way of getting the mower into the bed and so he finally told us he wanted to buy the mower and that he was going to run to Lowe's and pick up some planks so he could load the mower onto the truck. After a couple of hours, I told Jessica I didn't think he was coming back. His wife was with him and I'm pretty sure she talked him out of buying it. So, we took the sold sign off it, but unfortunately didn't have any more offers. I think she sold it this week though, thank goodness.

Around lunch time we sent Nathan (Jessica's husband) off to Chick-fil-A to get us some lunch and after we ate we decided to start packing up for the day. We still had so many items we had not sold and earlier in the day made the decision that we would have another sale at my house at the end of the month. My house gets more traffic and we hated to just give everything away when we might could make a few dollars. So, Nathan and I started loading up our vehicles and two or three trips later, most everything was in my guest bedroom ready for a sale in Five Points at the end of the month.

At the end of the day I made about $60 and my grandmother made about $130. So, we are hoping for some better results at the end of the month. I'll be sure and let you know how it goes.

Home on a Monday

I doubt anyone has ever used the term, "suffered through the weekend," but that's exactly the term I would use to describe my weekend thanks to my stomach which started giving me problems on Friday.

Friday morning I woke up with some stomach pain which I thought was just hunger; but, throughout the day the pain continued to get worse, I had so much to do at work that I didn't want to leave early, but I finally decided to leave a little before 3:00 p.m. I had a car full of stuff to take to my grandmother's for our garage sale. By the time I got there it was pouring down rain and I was about to go to the bathroom on myself. So, I ran inside barely speaking with anyone making a dash for the toilet. My cousin Jessica and I managed to get the car unloaded and I then darted home and immediately took a Phenergan and slept for the next 13 hours.

Saturday morning I got up and still did not feel great. I took a shower and laid back down for a while to wait and see if I felt like going to the garage sale. I mustered up the strength to get out of bed. I made a stop by Starbucks for a Frappucino and then went to my grandmother's. I managed to make it through the day at the sale though how I will never know. I'll write more about the actual sale in a separate post.

After the sale was over and I finally made it home for the day, I was feeling worse than I had that morning. The yard, however, absolutely had to be mowed because I had now mowed the week before and it was too high for my taste. So, I spent the next two and a half hours mowing and working in the yard and coming in to cool off periodically. I was so miserable and was ready to vomit at any moment but thankfully never did. By the time I went to bed that night, I woke up an hour or so later and needed to take another Phenrgan because of how bad I felt.

Sunday was a big day with lots of planned activities. I got up and went to church and felt a little better. I even managed to eat some tacos for lunch and thought everything was going to be okay. I went to see a play that afternoon and then to my cousin's engagement party that evening. After about two hours at the party, I thought I might get sick all over the place and as much as I didn't want to leave, I was in intense pain and had to say my farewells.  By the time I got home I thought I would spend the rest of the evening beside the toilet. I took more medicine and went to bed and woke up every couple of hours with acute pain in my stomach.

I stayed home from work today (Monday) and , or course, feel guilty about taking a sick day - that's the American way, I suppose. After waking up every couple of hours doubled over in pain, I just didn't think I could stand to be at work and try to concentrate on my work while dealing with the pain. This morning I had pretty intense pain every hour on the hour, but this afternoon seems to be better. I have no idea what's causing it, but I'm ready for it to pass because I've been pretty miserable for four days now.

I don't think it's s virus of any sort and am leaning towards and ulcer or something along those lines. If it doesn't improve soon I'll be headed to the doctor, but I'm hoping it will be much better soon because I'm ready to return to normal, or as normal as I can be anyway.

Another Iron in the Fire

Y'all, I really don't know when I've been so busy as I am right now at work. I have so much going on that some days it's hard to even know where to start. To say it's a wee bit stressful is an understatement. I'm pretty sure my whole head is going to be gray before too long. I just keep telling myself that this will soon pass and I'll be back to a normal pace soon... fingers crossed. 

As if I don't already have enough going on between work and serving on the board of directors at Agape and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, I also recently applied to graduate school. I've wanted to get a MBA for a long time but just haven't done it. For whatever reason, a flame burned inside me recently and I finally pulled all the required documents together and applied and this past Friday I got my acceptance letter! I applied to the program at the University of North Alabama for a couple of reasons - one, it has a good reputation and two, it's affordable, or as affordable as an advanced degree can be I suppose. It's not Harvard, but it will do and all the classes are online which fits my schedule and doesn't require me to have to drive to Florence which is an added bonus. 

The program is designed to take one to two years (depending on if you go full or part time); but, I fully intend on taking two to three years. I know myself, people and I know that I love TV and concerts and hanging out with my friends and heaven forbid schoolwork get in the way of any of that. Priorities, my friends, priorities. I'm really excited about going back to school and also a little nervous. It's been 15 years since I've been in school and I'm sure a lot has changed, including the fact that these classes will be online as opposed to a classroom. So, I'm going to have to stay disciplined and stay the course and pray that I'm able to handle it all. Here's to hoping it all goes well.

More Garage Sale Prep

Apparently garage sales and cleaning out houses is the way of life for my family these days and this past weekend was no exception. Saturday some friends from my Bible school class and I met my mother and dad over at my granddad's house to do some packing for an upcoming move. It was not nearly as organized as I hoped it would be and we got off to a late start but other than that I suppose it went as well as could be expected. 

I arrived at 8:00 a.m. and sat in the driveway for about 30 minutes until my granddad decided to get up and open the garage door. My granddad is an avid gun-lover and I didn't want to risk getting shot that morning so I stayed put until I saw some movement from within. I taped up some boxes in anticipation of everyone getting there at the projected start time of 9:00 a.m. A couple of friends showed up about 9:30 and another about 9:45 and finally our boss for the day, my mother, arrived a little after 10:00 a.m. We got to work packing when mother started telling us what needed to be packed, only it didn't really go like I thought because my dad said pack up everything and it was rather obvious that the majority of the stuff we packed up needs to be put in the upcoming garage sale.

We worked for a couple of hours and then the girls left and Erika came by. We decided we would price some things for the garage sale when Erika got there only we were tired of being there and didn't get much pricing done. We basically made the executive decision that when we have the sale, we will have someone stationed in each room so that nothing gets stolen and we will just tell people what the price of things are. I've decided I'll have a little notebook for everyone and they can give the person a receipt for each room and then they can cash out before leaving. At least this is how I've got it worked out in my head. I'm quite sure I'll have to go by and do some organizing before the sale which is currently slated for June 13.

When I got home from my granddad's I took a nap and then was apparently moved by the moment of the day and began cleaning out even more things from my own house to put in my grandmother's garage sale which is this coming Saturday, June 6. My house looked like total chaos before the night was over and I basically left it like that when going to bed and dealt with the aftermath on Sunday. Y'all, I seriously cannot believe how much stuff I have purged to put in this upcoming garage sale. You would think with all the stuff I've priced that I would have nothing left, but of course, I have plenty because that's the way we do it here in America. My original goal was to make $100 at this sale, I'm upping that to $200 now based on all the stuff I've got a price on. It's crazy how much stuff I'm getting rid of and could probably get rid of more if only I would. The sad thing is there's not that much extra room in the closets even with this stuff gone - the joys of an old house. 

So, my extra bedroom is full of stuff to take over to my grandmother's which I hope to do Friday after work and then the big sale will be this Saturday. It looks like the next project will be purging at my parent's house for a garage sale for them. Mother asked Erika and I if we could purge her house. I'm quite sure we can. I figure we (or just me) can take the whole summer and do a little bit at a time and price as we go and then have a sale in the fall. In other words, by the time 2015 is over, I'm taking a year or so off from organizing yard sales.