My day | Peaches Prattlings

{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!!!

{March 2, 2015} Packing…Challenge: Accepted…Attempted…Success…Almost

I must be out of practice!

When I first got back on the road last year, just like with every new job, there is a challenge mine is packing.

Now, when I get into the groove, no problem, I know exactly what I am taking each week, it’s pretty much the same. When I was in Michigan, it was easy, I left stuff there over the weekends when I would go home. Sometimes I would either bring just my dirty laundry with me or nothing, since I could do laundry there.

Now, with weekly trips, if I am at the same hotel week after week, no problem, either take the stuff home or leave it over the weekend and take dirty laundry home. The problem arises when you are going to be gone for two weeks, with a weekend trip somewhere other than home, now you have to think about clothes for the weekend and will you be able to do laundry. Normally you pack for the week, but when you’re gone for two weeks, you need to bring a few extra things so you’re not wearing the exact same things two weeks in a row, you can mix and match, but that only goes so far.

So, I hope you have gathered that I am going to be gone for two weeks, next weekend I’m so excited about, I’ll tell you about it next weekend! Now that we cleared that up, you have deduced that I have more stuff to take with me and I was hoping to put it all in my one bag, I got that sucker stuffed to the gills, everything went in, even the bulky sweater I like…zipped shut, good to go.

And then…I turn around and there are the boots I was going to change into when I get to the office…drat! So close….

Down to the basement for a bigger bag and now it all fits, go me! So…challenge accepted, attempted and quasi success. But still…only one bag.

Happy travels!

{March 1, 2015} Writer’s block

Having a little bit of writer’s block at the moment.

I have a lot to say, I just can’t remember what it is at the moment! There are some days I don’t think about one blog post idea, I think of multiple ideas and then other days, like tonight, I can’t think of anything I want to talk about…I really need to write these down.

I had a great weekend, but I’ve told you about that, I’ve told you about the snow, snow and more snow. The countries where they were wonderful and the countries where, not so much.

Tonight is just one of those nights…I have been staring at the same screen for over 30 minutes now and this is the best I could do.

Thank you for indulging me here tonight, tomorrow will be better, promise!

{February 28, 2015} Challenge issued…accepted…accomplished

Today I faced a new challenge, accepted it and accomplished it…with lots of help and encouragement.

I don’t know if you remember me telling about not having skied for almost 20 years before I moved to Colorado. GES and I skied as kids, for me all the way through college and the year after while I was still living at home and then I moved to Georgia and no skiing for me, the wasband wasn’t a skier and I never really thought about going to North Carolina to ski, so it didn’t happen, while GES continued skiing and eventually had time in a ski house in Killington, VT, where she met ACS, so perfection there!

One of the reasons I was so excited to move to Colorado almost two years ago was the opportunity to go skiing again. I know I’ve told you some of the stories. The first time I went to ski, the entire way up in the gondola at Keystone, I kept thinking, “Please let me like it again, please let me like it again”. I didn’t want to have wasted the money on skis and the pass. As soon as I put my skis on and started down the mountain I thought “Please let me get good enough to ski black diamonds again!” So awesome!

For those of you not in the know, there are symbols for each run, which is a path down the mountain and the symbols tell you the level of difficulty for each run. Keep in mind that the symbols are pretty much universal wherever you go, it makes it a lot easier to know those symbols even if you don’t speak the language. Beginners start with green circles, as you can imagine and then you move on to blue squares, more difficult, black diamond, which is the most difficult and double black diamond, really, really most difficult!

When I was skiing regularly. black diamonds were the way to go for me, since I started skiing again last year, I pretty much stay to the green circle and blue square, which, on some mountains are perfectly challenging. I skied black diamonds at Nashoba with EJS a few weeks ago and they weren’t very difficult, but for that particular mountain, they were the most difficult, which got EJS excited, because she’s skiing black diamonds. Someone needs to tell her the black diamonds are not the same everywhere!

Well, a few weeks ago, I went skiing with PM at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, NH. It was the first time we skied together and it was great, he’s a “real” skier, and by that I mean, he has been skiing for years and is incredibly graceful and enjoyable to watch as he skis or more appropriately, swishes down the mountain. He is a double black diamond skier, so I feel bad that he has to hold back because of me, taking my time and not doing double black diamonds, we did go down a black diamond a few weeks ago and it wasn’t horrible.

That was on one side of the mountain, today we were on the other side of the mountain with some more difficult runs. I also need to interject that we are here with two other families, friends of PM’s that he has known for years, and they all ski, including the kids. Collectively, they have a lot more experience than I do and ski more often, all incredibly nice, we’ve been having a great time!

Today, one family went to another mountain and the other family and the two of us went to Loon, as I said. We had a great time, all of us skiing together, run after run. The two girls got tired after a few hours and decided they were going to hang out inside while the grownups skied.

After a few runs, PM and I went down a diamond that didn’t seem too bad until I hit some ice, that was fun. But I made it to the bottom, in one piece, both key points to be made. We took the next run blue square and S and B went double black diamond. S said I was about her ski level and thought I could do that one, there was a steeper drop in the beginning, but once you get past that, no problem. Just like the black diamond earlier, it was a challenge and if I want to get better, I have to practice and take a change on a black diamond every once in a while, right?

I am always up for a challenge, S said she challenges herself with new things she wants to improve on each time she skies. Ok, I can do this, right? Double black diamond, how bad could it be? Let’s just say I fell on my personality more than once and I felt really bad that PM had to slow down and help me so much, but he is incredibly sweet and wanted to ensure that I was alright.

Let’s just say there was a lot more powder and ice than I would have liked and it was a bit steeper than I was prepared for. I fell a few times, slid a few times, it was frustrating, on top of feeling bad that PM had to wait on me, but he was a great help trying to help me up. The whole tongue sticking out of the corner of my mouth wasn’t cutting it!

S was great and hung around waiting for me and B went to go and get the girls, I appreciate that. It probably took us twenty full minutes to get down the mountain. The one thing I was really frustrated about was that I used to be able to do all that, diamonds, double diamonds and I know, in my head, realistically, I have a ways to go, I get that, I just want to be able to do things and keep up.

So…The challenge: Black Diamond and Double Diamonds. Challenge: accepted, what girl doesn’t like diamonds, wink, wink. Challenge: Accomplished, with a little help from my friends!

Now, it is time to crash! Tomorrow is another ski day!

{February 26, 2015} I didn’t start a fire! Wahoo!

No, this has nothing to do with actual fire, just bear with me…

You know I am a run/walker…I run, I walk, I run/walk. Well, I am also one with not quite thunder thighs, to coin that oh so charming phrase, I have thighs that like to hang out together and touch, if they were people, they’d be dating, how’s that, get the picture?

I’ve had this situation, let’s call it, since I was in college, high school even, most likely, so when I wore skirts, I usually wore bike shorts underneath. When I split from the wasband, I think I told you, I stopped eating, not advisable, and lost 30 pounds, not the best method, but hey, I looked fabulous! And for the first time, I could go out in a skirt and no bike shorts underneath! Wahoo!

Over the last seven years, I have put some of that weight back on and as you know I’m working on making it go away, it’s a process, but I’m willing to work at it, but I still wear shorts, running shorts now, when I wear my running dress to walk/run. I have forgotten them in the past and regretted it greatly while I was walking or running.

This week, I was back on the road, new project and in hotels, which, I actually like, for many reasons, but one reason is that I love to be able to get on the treadmill and walk/run, as it has been ffffrrreeezing here in Boston, not into running or walking outside, so hotel gym it is, happy me. When I got up at 6am on Tuesday to go to the gym, what did I realize I forgot? You got it, my running shorts, so what did I do? Go back to bed? It was so very tempting! But no, I put on my running dress and said, let’s take a chance!

I did, however, to see if it would work, put deodorant betwixt my thighs, where they touch, maybe it would work like glide, which I have used on my heels to prevent chafing, who knows. It worked alright, then I didn’t remember to do it Wednesday, no injury and again today, no issues, how cool is that?

Now, I’m not planning on going out and doing a full 5k or 10k or more running the entire thing with no protection, I am afraid of what would happen! but 3.5 miles walking at a good clip on an incline, no running shorts and no fire, let me just say…wa…hoo!!!

Happy 13th Birthday to my beautiful niece JK! When did that happen???

{February 23, 2015} My day…travel, a new location, new project

Today started a new venture.

I had been looking for a new project since I left Chicago and a few weeks ago I found one! I interviewed and a few days later, ta da! Awesome! I found out one day short of my one year anniversary with my company, how cool is that?

The project is in, wait for it…BUFFALO! What? I left Boston this morning and it was 15 degrees out, snow everywhere, I land and it was 0 in Buffalo and now… NEGATIVE 7, it’s cold!

So, let’s talk about the day…Uber, as much as I love you, no love today, could not get a car to save my life, as the saying goes, so I decided to drive myself, craped some paint off the wheel well of my car scraping against something, it happens. Annie was adjusting, she hasn’t been out of the garage in almost a month! Oh my! The traffic was bearable, but people didn’t want to let me in, not nice! Oh well, I still made it to the airport within an hour. The funny thing with the toll roads, almost everyone has a transponder to pay, so the cash lanes, which I was in, were empty, but I still had to merge with everyone.

I got to the airport, then drove around, in what seemed like circles for quite a while before I found the open parking lot, all levels but the top were full. The guy sitting next to me on the flight said it took him almost an hour to get into the parking deck! Oh my! I found parking and then headed towards American Airlines, where I booked my flight, but oh no, you can’t check in there, or get my boarding pass online, grrr, I had to go outside and across the airport to US Airways check in and drop my bag, really? I know the two airlines are merging, but it’s been a while and it would be nice if some of the merging was done. Oh well. I made it through security, love my TSA pre-check, headed to the gate, stopped for a breakfast sandwich, I asked for no cheese, guess what I got…

Then it was time to board, already started before I got there, which was nice, didn’t have to wait long. I did stare at the woman two in front of me wearing FLIP FLOPS! Going from Boston to Buffalo in flip flops, what? We walked out of the gate, out of the airport, down the steps, across the tarmac a bit, up the stairs, onto the little baby “planelet”. The guy sitting next to me was very nice, a lot nicer than the flight attendant, not sure if was a bad day, not my fault.

There ended the so-so part of my day.

I arrived in Buffalo to the oh so balmy 0, eventually met up with my new co-workers and we shivered our way to the car, headed to one of the locations for the project for the start of Train the Trainer, T3, for those of you not in the know. I met the team I would be working with, had some lunch and started the training and orientation, including schedules.

After orientation, we continued working on the documentation and then about 7:00 we went to dinner at a place called The Lodge. The food was good, company enjoyable, service was s l o w…

Got to the hotel about 9:30, checked in, unpacked my frozen luggage, I actually used the hair dryer to warm the clothes up! I was not getting into frozen jammies!

Here I sit, talking to you, the alarm is set to wake up and walk on the treadmill and get started learning the new application tomorrow!

{February 20, 2015} Mother Nature, did we make you mad?

As I have been in Boston for a while now, I have experienced snow.

I know I talked about this already, but I wanted to talk about it again, so there.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I grew up in NYC, it snowed. I went to college in Western NY, it snowed and I mean…a lot. It would snow in October and might not melt until May sometimes, crazy, I know.

Yesterday it was about 26, oh my, a heat wave! And some flurries, but there has been snow almost every day, some days more than others.

I just wanted to share what it was like, the streets are built up, there are pathways down the sidewalks, some people can’t see out of the end of their driveways, the snow is so high, same at the end of the street, getting out onto the main roads, tricky.

People have made the best of a bad situation, clearing the paths, making snow forts and even skiing to work, it’s been entertaining,

The icicles are amazing! Some are out of control, taking over the houses, but oh some of them do look so dreamy!

There was a swing set in the backyard, I promise! And the thing on the right, a hammock! Oh well, Spring will be here eventually!

Stay warm my friends!

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