Jersey Shore, Memorial Day Edition

Recently I was sitting at a client hospital chatting with some of the staff before a meeting got started. We ended up discussing New Jersey. Through the course of the conversation I realized the majority of the folks in the room really didn't know anything about my home state except what they saw on TV. And unfortunately, TV isn't very kind to New Jersey...

I spent Memorial Day home in the small, beach community I grew up in. This is the New Jersey I wish folks saw (in theory through the lens of better photography but what can you do...)!

Every Memorial Day the town holds a nice ceremony and parade.

A nice parade, not a big one!

This is the Elementary School band with a few extra high schoolers and friends thrown in.

There might have been more puppies than people at the ceremony. Fortunately ours were no worse than the others.

After the ceremony there are games, races and fire truck rides at the park.

We ended up at the beach though, as per usual.

Have I mentioned I hate driving?

Because that's definitely still true. And, in fact, I should probably expand it to, I hate navigating. I just got back from Toledo where I was meeting with a new client. I don't think we traveled to/from the hospital in the same way twice. Definitely a case of GPS hurting more than helping. It sent out down closed roads not once but twice. Apparently the GPS was just as confused and my colleague and me as each our GPSs sent us in different direction.

We had just as much trouble in the hospital...but hospitals are notoriously confusing (especially when you're in a different one every day).

I'm headed home to New Jersey today and at least I know how to get there! Unfortunately it will probably take twice as long as it should because of the holiday traffic.

Acceptable or a New Low?

I'm exhausted and just finishing up my work for the day. The last thing I had to do was get copies of a document printed for tomorrow. I contemplated putting my jeans back on but instead walked out to the Hampton Inn lobby in light blue (pajama) flannel pants, a navy blue tshirt and boat shoes. Acceptable for a Hampton Inn? Or a new low? If nothing else, I sort of matched?

I don't think the schedule above accurately portrays how much I need to get done this week and the limited time I have to get it accomplished within!

Week in Review

It's been a long week! This time last week I was moving into my new apartment and flew to California the next morning.

Fortunately I had window seat. I'm very curious about the circle...anyone know what they are?

I much preferred the mountains though.

The Fresno airport featured large Sequoia "trees". Visalia is close to Sequoia National Park and I'm hoping I can get myself there at some point during this engagement.

The week went by well. I spent most of the work day in a classroom in the hospital's Family Birthing Center. All week I watched these women come into the center or walk in circles pushing their monitors. Occasionally I would see someone come back with balloons. But never once did I see a baby!!

After work I didn't have a ton of time to do much. We generally went out to dinner around 5 since for the most part we were keeping to EST. We ate at two Mexican restaurants and if it was up to me, I'd eat my way through every Mexican restaurant in California!

It was a long week. By Friday I was so happy to get going. I was already supposed to get into Dulles at 12am and didn't expect to be home before 1am. Meanwhile Paige was coming to visit and would arrive about 8 hours before me. Unfortunately my flight was delayed in San Francisco and then delayed again. I was happy when I landed at 1am since initially they estimated 1:30am. Unfortunately I still didn't get home until after 2am. Fortunately my colleagues and I all agreed...no more Friday meetings! So hopefully I won't be repeating this trip every month!

Not what I expected Calfornia

I was looking forward to coming to California for 2 reasons.

1. Sun! Warmth! maybe even a tan?
2. No reason to spend $$

Well, turns out

1. It's cold here! I could see my breathe this morning. I also only brought one 3/4 length sweater.
2. There is a pretty nice outlet mall here. I'm a sucker for outlet prices...

Pick a time zone, any time zone

I'm in Visalia, CA this week and I'm still undecided about what timezone I'm going to live in. With everything I have to do this week I might end up trying to in EST in the morning but PST in the evening. Right now I'm going to shoot for going to sleep at 8pm and waking up at 4am. We'll see what happens...

You mean you don't spray your ceiling with bleach??

So for my sister's birthday I had a large group of people for dinner...which unfortunately included an exploded bottle of red wine.  Fortunately my bleach cleaner took the polka dots out of the ceiling.

That is not the point of this post...

My point is...look at my hair!  It's now quite a few inches shorter!

This is picture from this past weekend (for Gold Cup, annual steeplechase races in VA, hats and sundresses are mandatory) . See the difference?

Believe it or not, losing a few inches of hair has made my work life much more comfortable! I routinely throw my (very heavy) bag up on shoulder where it lands on my hair, pulling more than a few strands out when I tried to release it from the strap. Now I no longer face that problem. When I throw my bag up on my shoulder...I'm only causing likely permanent damage to my back and shoulders!!

Well May just got more complicated...

I wasn't, initially, supposed to travel too much in the month of May. This was fine by me as I'm moving and that can be a process! However I was staffed to a new client. This one out in Visalia, CA. It looks like I could be spending at least a week, if not 2 weeks in California every month! This month I'm going out for the week of May 16th. I have movers coming the 17th! Fortunately I have some great friends. Jenny has graciously volunteer to supervise moving my furniture. That means I have to have everything else done on the Sunday prior, which is the first day the space will be available. My sister was also supposed to come out and visit me the 21st/22nd but arrive on the 20th. Now we're not sure what is going to happen because I likely will not get back until late the 20th or on a red eye arriving the 21st.  So many logistics still to figure out!

Well that's not a pot of gold...

After a brief rain shower yesterday we were treated to a beautiful (double?) rainbow!  I don't think I've ever actually seen the end of a rainbow before! And imagine my surprise when it ended, not on a pot of gold, but another flight!

It fun to see all the other business and casual travels get equally excited about the rainbow. You might have thought we had never seen one before!

Rookie Mistake - Part 2

Seriously - what is wrong with me! I didn't travel for one week and all of sudden it's like I'm a novice business traveler all over again!

It was raining pretty hard in DC this morning and I got drenched on my way to work, even with an umbrella. This would have been fine, if it wasn't for the gross dirty water that was splashed all of my legs. Typically this wouldn't be problem as I had brought my suitcase into work with me. Unfortunately I packed in a fog this morning and don't have the jeans or black work out pants I usually pack.

I'm going to get some strange looks in First Class tonight...

Rookie Mistake

I had every intention of getting up at 6am this morning. Unfortunately I set one of my two alarm clocks to 5am instead. That was a rude awakening for sure. The hotel alarm clock was set five minutes fast and I had intended to set it for 6:05 and I guess I got overexcited when I saw a 5 and just stopped?

Side note - I really hate when alarm clocks are set fast. If I wanted to get up at 5:55, I would set my alarm at 5:55. I don't need Hilton deciding I should get up five minutes early.

Clearly I have been paying for my lost hour of sleep all day...

I can't think of anything creative to say about May

Maybe because I'm overwhelmed by it! When I think about the month, I have a lot going on. Although when I was just going through my schedule I realized I have almost 2 weeks without travel! Unfortunately when I am traveling, it's going to be marathon travel. I'm particularly (not) looking forward to the last week in May where I go from NH to Detroit (through Philadelphia), drive to Toledo, have a 7am meeting the next day, spend 2 days in OH, fly back to DC and have to move the next day. Thankfully I have coerced my sister into coming down the weekend prior to help me pack and organize my closets.

So this is where I'll be the month of May...at least as it stands now. It can definitely change suddenly. And of course this is hardly the extent of my activities in May. There are dinners, birthdays and parties scattered throughout the month I don't have the space (or time) to detail.

This week is a busy one with trips New Hampshire and Des Moines. I can only hope spring has finally sprung in both of those cities!