The Moments and The Adventures
Me in Central Park.
It has been a whirlwind of a month! I had another trip scheduled to New York City just a week after hurricane Sandy hit. They managed to get the conference center ready in time and the conference wasn’t cancelled so we opted to go ahead and go on the trip (also hopefully helping the NYC economy). What is funny is that I always seem to have travel mishaps when I go to NYC, but this time they just didn’t phase me, I sort of expected things to be a bit of an adventure!
It took 3 hours to get from the Newark airport into Manhattan. We were going to take the Lincoln Tunnel, but our driver opted to take the Washington Bridge to avoid the hour plus wait for the tunnel. Once we got to the bridge we found that a light pole had fallen across the bridge and we had to go all of the way back to the Lincoln Tunnel. We then had to wait the hour wait (after the two hour detour). The poor driver felt so awful he refused the tip, but finally took it after some coaxing (luckily it was a flat rate fare, so no meter ticking in the background).
The day after we arrived snow started to fall. The city was hit with a Nor’easter. Many people on the islands, New Jersey and lower Manhattan were still without power. I watched the snow fall and hoped that many were able to get somewhere warm.
When we flew back Utah was having a record snowstorm and the plane couldn’t get clearance to land. We ended taking an exciting detour to Boise to get gas. We then turned around and came back to Salt Lake City to land at about 3 AM. Needless to say, I had the adventure that I expected! I did manage to check off two items on my “list” (I don’t call it a bucket list, just “THE list”). I went to my first Broadway Show (Jersey Boys) and I made a little shopping stop on 5th Avenue for another item on THE list.
I find these days that I am a little less responsible with money than I used to be (but not horribly irresponsible, I don’t believe in spending money we don’t have). I live a wee bit more in the now, rather than focusing on saving everything for tomorrow. It is definitely a shift for me as I was always more into saving and planning. I was always holding off because I could do or buy something later. I do have to be careful though, it is pretty easy to get caught up in “nowness.” We have gone back and forth on buying a new home, for now we are holding off. We like being able to afford experiences and fun things over having more house right now. Money is going into savings until we feel more comfortable about making a big purchase.
Cherry pie from my grandma. With hearts <3.
I had my quarterly checkup on the 16th of November. My oncologist felt like none of my little ailments were breast cancer related (you really feel like a hypochondriac when you go in and list every twinge). I am never sure how to update people on how my appointments go since there are no scans involved. I just figure that I continue to be NED (no evidence of disease) when we don’t have any concerns to pursue. Year 2-3 are the years that recurrence tends to be the most predominant. I am moving into that time period now. I will continue to have quarterly checkups for the next bit until they decide to switch me to every 6 months and eventually yearly and then who knows!
Within a week of flying to New York my little brother Dereck and I packed our bags and drove up to Oregon to visit my grandma and my grandpa. There have been some concerns about my grandpa’s health and they asked my little brother to drag me up there to see them (sad that I have to be dragged, but I have been a busy busy bee). It was good to spend some time relaxing (which means eating nonstop, grandma sure knows how to keep us well fed) and playing card games (that is what we do in my family, play games, and I kept winning, muahahahahahaha). It was really nice to spend some quality time with my grandparents (and my little brother of course).
We headed home so we can do our family turkey dinners. I took Thanksgiving week off of work, so I have been relaxing and playing catch up on errands and things that need to be done around the house along with spoiling Mike rotten for his birthday. My energy was still not quite back up to normal last year for his birthday so I tried to make it extra special this year.
This time of year there are always many things to be thankful for. It is a time to reflect on how important family is and that life is about the experiences and enjoying the moments with those that we love.
I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night. 🙂.
