I’ve just returned from a business trip to Manhattan. I had to wake at 3:45 am on Sunday to catch my 5 am flight, which was fairly miserable. Even worse – upon arrival, I learned that my firm travel service had failed to arrange for early check-in, so while I was permitted to dump my bags at the desk, I had no room to go to for about five hours. I had flown on the same flight as another brand new associate, so we made the best of it and strolled through Manhattan a while, then had a long leisurely lunch at a diner (shocking Mike Pence, I’m sure). My colleague got married a couple of months ago, a couple of weeks after he took the bar, so I asked for every detail and got to know all about him and his lovely wife. After brunch, it started to rain, and so we squelched back to the hotel and waited in the lobby until our rooms were available.
That evening, I went to a fantastic Indian meal with friends in town, and billed some time in the hotel that evening. The next three days were workdays, but I did manage to squeeze in an early morning visit to see friends and their new baby in their 28th floor apartment just off Park Ave, which was wonderful. I also did a quick shopping trip through Times Square one evening – it was frigid and raining, which made it less-than-fun, but I got some birthday and Christmas gifts, and tried to enjoy it despite the miserable weather. After that, the firm sent us to a large, 5 course meal at a great little Italian place, and I had some good conversation and got to know the group well. The flight home was extremely turbulent, but I managed to bill several hours, and got home midnight-ish. The next day was a full one at work, but I did manage to go to the ortho and get my back looked at. He was very impressed with my flexibility (“I can tell you do yoga!”), and after some x-rays and manipulation, he prescribed physical therapy for now. I also bought a standing desk, and after using it a couple of days it’s made a huge difference. It’s convertible, so I can spend time sitting and standing – hopefully it helps. I’d given up running for one month to see if that helped my back. It did not, but I gained (NO JOKE) 9 pounds. Bad idea to give up running around Halloween. So hopefully the PT, standing desk, and continued yoga will get me up and running (literally) again. It took me almost a year to lose 10 pounds, and one month to gain it all back. Grrrrr thyroid grrrrr.
Just generally, between travel, work projects, and going to aaaaaall the doctors before our deductible re-sets in January, October through early November was a wildly busy month. This weekend half the clan went on a Boy Scout campout, leaving me behind with a very stressed out Craig, who has Ireland trip PTSD and always worries that Daddy and Brudders have gone for weeks on end, instead of just one night. However, campout aside, the weekend was much more tame – they were only gone one night – and so of course I have used that time to rearrange all of the kitchen cabinets and pantry. Now there is a place for everything and, for the time being, everything is in its place. I’ve also managed to bill about five hours, pre-make some chicken fajita soup, and go to church for the first time in weeks. It’s good to be back in a routine – though we’re traveling for Thanksgiving, and then comes the madness of December. At least I enter the holiday season with a pantry that’s organized as all heck.
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve got to run to Costco, so I’ll wind up this little update with our meal plan. I’ve eaten out a lot lately due to travel, so it’s nice to be home and cooking again!
- Chicken fajita soup. Made this yesterday, except instead of cream of chicken soup I used cream of mushroom, and instead of salsa I used Rotel (this is because I had the latter items, but not the former items, on hand). We’ll eat it later this week and see if it’s terrible or what!
- Pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans.
- Balsamic chicken salad with lemon quinoa
- Jambalaya
- Meatball subs – I’ve got some delicious frozen meatballs and pasta sauce – add bread and provolone and you’ve got yourself a good sammie.
Now that I can stand more at work, I should be more inclined to write here more often. (When you sit at a computer all day, you don’t want to sit a computer ANY MORE once you get home, believe me.) We shall see – I intended to do NaBloPoMo this November (stands for National Blog Posting Month), but didn’t remember until November 7th, so there went that plan. Maybe I’ll have my own personal NaBloPoMo in January . . .