Monday, July 28, 2014

Little Letters

{This seemed appropriate.}
Dear people who are reading my blog,
First of all, thanks for hanging in there. Are you ready for a healthy dose of snark to kick your week off? (I am currently in Canada…so guess what kind of mood I’m in. Cue eye roll.)

Dear ScriptPro,
Why, dear Lord why, do you keep sending me to Canada? It’s become the trainer joke that I am the unofficial Canadian trainer. Oh, and it’s not really funny, so….please please please spread the Canadian love around the schedule. (I'M BEGGING.)

Dear Babe Walker,
I know you’re not really real, but you sure are funny. Thanks for tremendously improving my flight to Denver on Saturday—your newest tome, Psychos is heeeeliarous. (Oh, and dear whomever I lent my copy of White Girl Probs to—may I have it back, pretty please? I’d like a re-read sesh ASAP.) (Also—don’t click her links if you don’t appreciate offensive, yet entertaining, language and a satirical view on "rich kid" society.)

Dear State Troopers,
I GET IT. I am formally giving up trying very hard to give up speeding and you don’t need to bestow any more tickets on me.  Also, can we maybe talk about enforcing a national speed limit for interstates and highways? I vote for 80 mph. That’s manageable. And bee-tee-dubs, Canadian police force: I don’t think it’s fair or just that you can send me a bill for speeding when you don’t actually catch me in the act. I don’t even know where I was caught. Or how fast I was going. I would go so far to argue that it’s unconstitutional, but I suppose that is a moot point since you know...Canada.

 Dear Adrienne,
I will miss you, friend! I wish you tons of luck and success in your new career. If I ever need architectural supplies, you are my go-to girl. And darling, if we ever have another Book Club night that ends at a hookah bar, you better be there!

Dear metric system,
Why are you so hard to convert? (Note: Canada should use miles.) (On a related note, can someone Canadian tell me how many kilometers over the speed limit are acceptable before you get a ticket? Ten? Twenty?)

Dear Celsius degrees,
YOU DON’T MAKE SENSE TO ME. (Canadaaaaaaaaa. Sigh.)

Dear Sarah and Josh,
Happy birthday week to my besties!! Hashtag birthday buddies! Hashtag battle of the birthdays! Hashtag I’ll see you both this weekend! Xs and Os!

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Yep, Haven't Posted in a Month...So Here's What I've Been Up To


Summer is flying by. (I feel like I start all of my posts lately with an excuse for not posting. So this time, I’m just jumping in.) Before the 4th, I wrapped up my June and kicked off my July with a trip to Maine (for work, of course…let’s not get too excited). I had been to Maine when I was 4 or 5, but it was only a day trip up from Connecticut, so…I could call this my inaugural trip to the northern state. My trip was a little longer than usual, as I had two sites back to back. Both were coastal cities though, so I got to do a little exploring and check out several spots on the water. Also, another bonus on this trip was that two other trainers were in the area—our company is installing at a grocery store pharmacy chain up there, so there were five installs within about a week, and the three of us got to meet up and grab dinner and drinks in Portland. I also got to sneak in a beach visit on the day I traveled from Yarmouth to Damariscotta. It was quick lived, but it felt pretty good to let the freezing waves roll over my tired toes.




Hey, ya know what you do on trips by yourself? You take about 50 thousand pics of scenery and then, oh, you take selfies.


During my leisurely few hours off the clock (and when my feet were sufficiently numb), I decided to see what else the coast was all about and visit a “scenic” lighthouse about an hour outside of Damariscotta. Ummm…the lighthouse was two stories tall. Okay, maybe with the tower it was three. But still. Maybe I've been misinformed, but I was always under the impression that these suckers were big and tall—you know, to guide the ships in over the cliffs and crashing waves and such? ("Land ho!" "Thank God we saw the lighthouse!" and all that.) But nope, this guy was much shorter than I had anticipated. (I even took a pic of the house it was connected to for scale.) I mean...I was a little underwhelmed. But still pretty, Maine!! Still pretty. I'm fairly certain Kansas has no lighthouses, tall or short, so you got us there.


 
 

So, yeah…a whole 10 minutes of picture taking and salty air breathing later, I jumped back in my rental and headed back toward where I was staying, only to discover the home of the world’s best lobster roll (as proven by the three—THREE!—separate people who told me to stop here when I headed north). So, I stood in line at Red’s Eats and bought myself a $21 sandwich (cash only, natch).

It was…good.

Forgive my east coast naivety, but I thought a lobster roll was kind of like a chicken salad sandwich, only featuring crustacean.  You know, lobster with a little mayo (or aioli if you’re fancy), some celery for crunch, etc. NOPE. It’s a whole lot of lukewarm lobster, on a piece of buttery white toast. So. While not what I was expecting, it was still worth the trip. And now, I can say I’ve eaten the world’s best lobster roll, so there’s that.


 
It was a lottttta lobstah.
 
And then, after a solid week of northeastern living, I headed back to the midwest. My 4th of July was low key in the best way—pool with pals, a barbeque complete with a mini-beer pong tourney and then we headed downtown to watch hear the fireworks (who knew that the rooftop of John’s Upper Deck is maybe the worst place to watch the fireworks set off from the River Market?). And July is continuing to roll on by…the month is already half over. Our work sched is finally picking up, and in the next three weeks, I’ll be traveling to Washington state, Saskatchewan (Canada…my FAV. Not.) and back to Maine again.  
 
Annnnd, since I’ve been rambling on about summertime today, I’ll wrap this up with a pic of the cutest (and smartest!) girl in the whole wide world, made a little cuter as she eats a mini-ice cream cone. Xs and Os to my Novy!