My day | Peaches Prattlings

{March 15, 2015} I am adrift…bereft…

Everything’s ok, I just realized I didn’t talk to my dad yesterday!

I talk to my dad just about every day, we are great friends and it’s a relationship that I treasure, so when I don’t talk to him every day, it’s weird!

Some days we talk for five minutes, ten, sometimes an hour. Some days there is substance, other days, I couldn’t tell you what we talked about, I have a feeling it’s the same for him!

Bottom line, we talk just about every day and this morning, I realized I didn’t talk to him and I felt lost…adrift…bereft…then I called, we chatted and all was right with the world.

Yay!

{March 14, 2015} Skiing with my family! FUN!

This weekend we are all up in New Hampshire skiing and it’s been great!

I landed last night in Boston, PSM picked me up, we headed to New Hampshire where GES, ACS, EJS and MGS were meeting us to spend the weekend. I haven’t seen them in two weeks since I went to NYC to visit dad last week, so seeing them was great!

MGS saw me when I got out of the car and she was fit to be tied, what a greeting, EJS was still waking up from the drive, not as enthusiastic! MGS asked if I could sleep with them last night, I loved that!

This morning, we all got up, some earlier than others, EJS…had breakfast and hung out. There is also another family here to ski, friends of PSM, with two kids one year younger than both the girls, so there is playing, running, screaming, let’s just say fun!

The other family needed to rent skis, so we headed to the mountain. EJS was excited to ski with me again and MGS couldn’t wait to get on a chair lift with Auntie J! I was tickled. We got to the top of one of the lifts and away we went. What a great skier both girls are! EJS is getting better with her form and parallels, but…she just wants to go fast, which I totally get and she wants to beat everyone to the bottom, you go girl!

MGS is so stinking cute! She really got into her own this year and has made great strides, she is also fearless! There were many times where the girls would ski ahead and we would catch up or someone would ski first, then the girls, then someone taking up the caboose.

One of the times I was with MGS it was great because…I believe I told you she is a wee tot, well, those kids are so cute when you see them on the slopes and as we were skiing under the lift, people were looking at her and smiling and saying things like “you go!” “woo hoo!” It was a lot of fun.

It really was a treat to ski with both of them, to see and feel their enthusiasm and they are such troopers “one more, one more, I’m going to beat you to the bottom, one more”. It was neat to be able to ski with my sister again after all these years. I don’t think we’ve skied together since college, so this was fun. I loved watching her, she has great form and is a very smooth skier.

We skied from about 10:30am to 3:15pm, with a short break for lunch in between, really great!

After skiing, back to the house to relax, snack, have dinner and then eventually pass out on the couch in front of the fire. That sounds pretty good to me, I wonder what’s in store tomorrow!

Happy Happy to my friend TS!

{March 13, 2015} Where does the energy come from?

Being a teacher/trainer/instructor is like being on stage.

I’m sure you probably know what I mean, but…for those of you that don’t…when you are in the profession to be in front of a classroom, you are basically an entertainer, for however many hours the class is going on for.

I was talking about it with someone the other day. I am normally a person who has a lot of energy, I have been referred to as the Energizer Bunny, I don’t seem to sit still. I have done theater, so I have been on in front of people for hours at a time.

Now, for each class, I am front of the class, I am on, for the entire time, and sometimes prior to the class and after, if people are still there or show up early. I can tell you that getting up at 5:30am every day and then teaching until 4pm is taking it’s toll on me here and there.

When I get to the first class, I’m good, I am on, then between classes, especially between class two and three and three and four, I could probably close my eyes and be out cold, but then the students show up and I am on and then I have the energy of a few cups of coffee!

I have no idea how that happens, it comes from somewhere and I am on…for the entire time. I have to be, I am there to teach and entertain, the classes on this project are one to three hours, so, like I said, I have to be on and keep the class motivated. I am happy to say I find the energy somewhere, I think I just really, really like what I am doing and I can’t help it!

And the fact that the students tell me they had a good time and learned something, that makes it all worth it.

{March 12, 2015} Isn’t decaf and caffeine free the same thing?

Things that make me go…huh?

I went to get a cup of tea at a coffee establishment that was in one of the hospitals I was teaching at yesterday, do I tell you the name of the establishment? It’s a famous place, nah, not going to do it, I don’t want to sully their reputation.

So…I get to the counter and ask if they have decaf [hot] tea. Yes. Great, what flavor? The decaf tea is black. Ok, well, just curious, what other flavors do you have?

This is what made me scratch my head…

The response “Well, the decaf tea is black, the caffeine free we have is chamomile, apple cinnamon, peppermint, lemon…” Huh? Well, alrighty then…without missing a beat, I ordered apple cinnamon and kept my mouth shut as I paid, took the tea and went back to teach my next class.

I got nothing…

{March 11, 2015} What a day!

The day started like all the others since I started training…early.

The alarm went off at 5:15am, snooze until 5:30, I also have a second alarm set up so that I won’t be able to oversleep, it worked. I showered, got dressed, finished packing and headed out about 5:50am, on the road, after check out and headed to my first hospital.

Got to the hospital about 6:30, parked, headed in and got my class ready to go. The classes I was teaching today were 1.5 hours each and there were 4classes that I taught today. After the first two I headed to the next hospital to teach two more classes. In between, there were some technical difficulties and I didn’t have an instructor’s pc, but no worries, I’ve got this! I kept them on track and entertained.

Four classes later, at 4pm, one debriefing call at 4:30pm and then to one of the offices to get some paperwork. Next, I headed to meet MY TWIN NB!!! For dinner! I’m in Buffalo and he’s in Rochester, so…we got to see each other, he came my way to an Irish Pub not far from my hotel, so awesome of him to do that!

What a great night, we talked and laughed and realized how much we adore each other and look out for each other and reinforce why he’s one of my closest and best friends, he has to be, we’ve known each other for…wait for it! TWENTY SIX years! OMG! Freshmen year of college!

Now to the next hotel, check in and get a little work done, then sleep. Sleep. Sleep..Perchance to dream, is it coming? Please say yes!

{March 10, 2015} Niagara Falls at night

Tonight, an exciting and fun experience.

I’ve told you how I get to do cool stuff while I’m onsite for some projects, tonight was no different. We went to Niagara after dinner, how cool is that?!

Since we are in Buffalo for this project, we knew we would have to go to The Falls at some point, so JO found a deal for the Sheraton, we got the room, vouchers for food and drinks, a bottle of wine and a voucher for the casino across the way, great! So tonight, after work, we met downstairs and had dinner then walked less than a mile to Niagara Falls!

It’s night time, so it wasn’t easy to see very far, but it was still cool and beautiful. From about two blocks away you could hear the rushing water, then as we got closer, it got a little chillier and when we were there, we could feel the spray on our faces.

It was a fun experience and one I hope to do again, in daylight hours, but I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them!

{March 9, 2015} I underpacked…

Yes folks, you heard me say it, I JJ…underpacked.

My under things that is. Clothing is never an issue, I always have more than I need and even for these two weeks, I have enough clothes for work, as I am teaching different people every day, I could, actually, wear the same thing over and over, as long as it’s the same class and who would be the wiser? Nobody! But I’m not doing that!

I usually have downtime clothes, which I did this trip, my first week here, the only thing I did have that wasn’t professional were workout gear and jammies, other than that, if we decided to go out, work clothes.

Normally, I pack enough sox and britches to get me through 2x the days on the trip, this time, I do not know where my head was…I knew I would do laundry at dad’s [if I was going somewhere else for the weekend, laundry there] but..even so, I always have enough underthings to get me through a few extra days.

This trip…not so. I got to dad’s and before I could do laundry, I was down to the socks from the day before and a pair of bathing suit bottoms. Don’t tell me you have never done this before! I know everyone who went to college has done this at least once! Not saying that anyone who did not go to college did not do this, but…I know how many of my friends in college did this!

Get this, I even packed my bag for this coming weekend, it’s packed and ready to go at home, enough underthings to get through more than the weekend, but not here! Go figure!

Happy Happy Happy birthday to three of my favorite people, all of them call me Auntie! Fabulous 4 year old twins S&E and COF from across the street! XOXO

{March 6, 2015} JFK [the airport] Fail? You be the judge.

Tonight I flew to NYC to spend the weekend with my dad, go me!

My dad is a very busy guy and now that I’m on a project again and able to fly places on the weekends, we put our calendars together and this is the weekend that worked, wahoo!

Now, the closest airport to the house I grew up in is Newark Airport, about 13 miles from the house. My last class finished at 4pm, I couldn’t take a flight earlier than 6pm, you know, to give me time to get to the airport, check in, return the car, etc. Ok, so…the only flight I could get that got me in before 10pm was a 6:30 to JFK Airport, which is about 45 minutes from home.

6:30pm coming in to JFK it is. The flight boarded on time, I was in first class, go me, go Delta! The flight left on time, actually a few minutes late, to accommodate some passengers from another flight getting re-routed/re-booked on this one, not too bad.

We land, precisely when expected, 8pm. We did not, however, get off the plane until about 8:55, excuse me? A full hour, well just shy of an hour. Why? you ask? Well, let me tell you. First, there was a jam up at the airport and we had to sit on the runway for quite a while, then we start moving, along with everyone else, as the pilot put it, “We are in the conga line with everyone else’ and he told us they were looking for available gates!

It felt like we were going to “drive” all over the airport. They finally found an available gate on the other side of the airport, then we sat there for a while. I was fine, kind of curled up with my giant white down jacket over me like a blanket and a pillow, I was ready to sack out if needed.

Bottom line, we sat on the tarmac for almost an hour while they look for a gate! Fail? You tell me!

{March 4, 2015} Please…Not another late night meal!

Every project is different, structure, hours, etc.

As I may have mentioned I am on a new project in Buffalo, NY [I threw the NY in there because you never know who is reading and know to which Buffalo I refer.

On previous projects, depending on the schedule or workload, we would get out at reasonable or early hours and go to dinner between 6 and 7, this project we start between 8:30 and 9am are working until between 7 and 9pm and then go to dinner. I am so not complaining about the hours, I promise, I am loving what I am doing, getting ready to teach classes, starting tomorrow, oh my!

I am really loving having a group to go out to eat with as well! The last two projects, it was me and one of my co-workers, PMc, who I had been on two previous projects with, it was nice, but I really like when there are a few more people, at least once or twice.

The thing I am not loving is that when we work until anywhere between 7:30 and 9pm, we are going to dinner after that and no matter how healthy we might eat, it is still eating less than 2-3 hours before going to sleep! And that is not the best thing in the world! Tonight, we worked until 9pm, came back to the hotel and had dinner, and here I am at 12:30am, not quite ready to go to sleep and I have to be up at 5:30 so I can be in the classroom by 6:30am. Last night, even though we ate late, I went to the gym about 10:30 and did my time on the treadmill and that helped, that did not happen tonight and I feel it, even though I walked this morning, I was hoping to go tonight.

The one saving grace, I laughed about it with my co-workers tonight, is that tomorrow, they are gone and I am on my own, I can either eat at a reasonable hour or not eat at all! Go me!

So…in conclusion…loving the project, loving where we are eating dinner, loathing the late night eating! I think I need a detox!

{March 3, 2015} Would I get Worker’s Comp for that?

First…nothing happened, but this is a what if, because something almost happened.

Second…I thought Mother Nature had something against Boston, with all the snow they have been getting and I’ve been there pretty much for all of it, fun. There is so much white…everywhere. Now, while I thought Mother Nature had something against Boston, I think she hates Buffalo!

I’ve been here since last Monday and there were not a lot of sunny days, but forget that. There is snow, snow, snow everywhere, and it does not seem like there is an end in site. Today, it snowed, then rained and the rain must have helped melt some of the snow, I don’t know if there was some sun over the weekend, but there is slush, slush and more slush. And ice, ice and more ice.

Which, brings me back to my post. We were heading into one of the offices for the afternoon and pulled up to the curb, well, what used to be the curb, it’s covered by a high mountain of snow and a river of slush and water at the street. The sidewalk, when we finally got to it, was almost a sheet of ice, we made it in and to safety, wet feet and all.

Coming out of the building…this is where we get to the thinking behind my post…we came out of the building and walked very cautiously, because the sidewalk was almost a sheet of ice and then all of a sudden, there was a crash as chunks of snow and ice came crashing down off the roof! No one was hurt, we were all just a little spooked and not looking forward to walking the rest of the way on the sidewalk, but to get to the street…walk through a river.

I joked, would we get Worker’s Compensation for this? The answer, yes! Good to know!

Good night

PS. Happy Happy Birthday to my fabulous granddaughter, LB! She turned four today! Oh my!!!

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