What A Week!

It was a long week, but I made it. I had to work four ten hour shifts in a row for the third week in a row. I went to two hockey games, the Preds played the Sharks and the Devils. Both teams had the best record in there perspective conferences, but the Preds didn't back down. They manhandled the Sharks on Tuesday and beat the Devils in a shootout on Thursday. A good week for hockey.

On a down note, I finally broke all contact with the ex. It's not like I've talked to her on the phone and I haven't seen her at all since August except for the one day at work, but she would text me once a week or so. It was usually small talk, which I had no interest in hearing or something backhanded. Last week she sent me a text for always making her birthdays special. I texted her back and told her that she was welcome, but my heart was ripped apart by that statement. I made her birthdays so special that she broke up with me for somebody else. I thought I might be overly sensitive about it, but I talked to a few other people about it and one of them responded with "geeze....twisting that knife. Sorry." so I knew I wasn't the only one to see it that way. I decided that I couldn't keep letting her make me feel that way, so when she texted me on Wednesday to say thanks for calling an old co-worker and reassuring her about a procedure she was having, I told her Happy Birthday and said that I needed to talk to her. She asked if I was at work. I replied yes, but I would be home at five-thirty. She texted back and said she didn't know if she would be able to call then, but would soon. Here is where things get ugly for me. My definition of soon apparently differs from hers. I put soon at somewhere in the next twenty-four hours or so. I didn't hear from her that night. Fine. Everybody is busy with work and such. In the meantime, I talked to a somebody that is friends with both of us about it. I wanted to find a nice way to tell the ex that it was hurting me too much to talk to her. Long story short (too late huh?) I'm told there is no rush, the ex would be out of town for the weekend and has said she would talk to me when she got back. News to me. Count 'em. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, then Sunday. So for some people soon means in the next five or six days.

This bothered be for a couple of reasons. First, it meant I would get to spend the whole weekend stewing over it. Not fun. Second, when somebody tells me that they need to talk to me, I don't put them off for almost a week. I assume that it's important enough to spare ten minutes or so in my busy schedule. So I sent her an email. I hate doing that sort of thing by email. It smacks of cowardice, but I wasn't going to let what I needed to say bang around in my head all weekend. So after I let Jiminy peruse the email to make sure that I wasn't being psycho, I sent it. I asked her to not text me, call me, or try to see me. I told her to leave me alone. I will still miss her, but I don't really know her anymore anyway so I'm no worse off. Maybe now, the wounds can heal.

Good Weekend

I'll start in the middle with how this weekend went. I went to the Predators game with a girl from work and her family on Saturday. Her husband was pleasant and the two little girls were well behaved (a huge compliment from me as far as kids go) and the hockey game was great! The Preds played their first complete game of the season, driving hard to the net and protecting their own goal for all three periods. A great win and a very good night.

Friday, I took a date to Macke's using the gift card mentioned in the previous post. The gumbo was great, but other than that I was not overly impressed. Still, it was nice to get dressed up and get out of the house. Thanks to the patient that gave me the gift card.

Sunday, I made black bean soup and watched 28 Days Later again. A pretty decent zombie movie, but not as good as I remembered it.

All and all, a pretty good weekend with minimal drama and plenty of relaxation.

Upcoming Fun!

A patient that I had taken care of about a month ago came back through the unit yesterday. He gave me a thank you card with a gift certificate in it for a restaurant called "Macke's". (Yes, I checked with my manager, he said it was ok if I kept it.) So tomorrow, that's where I'm going for dinner. It looks very good and hopefully it will meet my expectations.

Last week, a girl I work with asked if I could get her tickets for her and her husband to the Montreal game this week. I took care of it, but then she came back to me this week and said her kids were throwing a fit because they weren't getting to go and could I get her two more tickets near the first two. I took care of that. So today, we were working in the same room and she was talking about how excited she was about the game and she asked me if I was going to be there. I told her "No, I didn't get those tickets in the split, which is a shame." She gives me a look and says "You're funny like my husband, why don't you see if you can get a ticket near ours and go with us?" I'm not sure what she meant by "funny" but I called the account rep, again, and asked her for another ticket, again. So now I have something to do Saturday night too. It's shaping up to be a pretty good weekend.

Oh.

I just realized that it was the tenth of the month. Wonder if that's why I can't sleep.

Adventures In Travel

Normally, this time of year, I would be planning some surprise getaway for the ex. It will be her birthday soon and I always tried to make it special. One year was Vegas and Zumanity. The next was Denver with skiing and Monday Night Football. Last year was New York and Mamma Mia on Broadway.

So, with no need to make plans this November, I found myself with a bit of wanderlust and a significant amount of extra cash.

I have never minded travelling by myself, but I'm not much for just sitting on a beach somewhere without a purpose. As I looked over the schedule for the Nashville Predators, I noticed that in February, they played the New York Islanders on a Wednesday night and the Rangers the next day. Perfect. I'll blow into the city and catch two hockey games, one at Madison Square Garden! I did some preliminary checking with Southwest and discovered a sale! OOOOHHHHH. Two hundred bucks round trip? Too cheap. I had plenty of time and plenty of scratch, so what else could I do?

California? Cindy had put a bug in my ear a while back about coming out so she and her husband could buy me a beer or two. Why not? I had never been to Southern California and the prospect of friendly faces showing me around was pretty attractive. Airfare to Cali? Also two Benjamins. But wait. Why fly back to Nashville? So, after getting in touch with Cindy and inviting myself to crash at her place, I settled on flying from Nashville to L.A., from L.A. to New York, then back to Nashville. Total cost? About three hundred and forty smackaroos. I'm quite the jet setter!

I have my airfare, now I have to find a place to stay in New York for a couple of nights. Those two nights of hotels threaten to double the cost of my little trip. Expedia advertises hostels for twenty-five bucks. I'm thinking about throwing everything in the back pack and going on the cheap. No reason to spend money if I don't have to, right? The kennel for my dogs could also take a big chunk of change. Gotta figure that out. All and all, I'm pretty juiced about the whole shebang.

Happy Halloween!

For the first time in forever I put on a costume last Saturday and went out for Halloween. I went as a cow. Teats and all. Why do people feel the need to grab teats that aren't covered? Several of us went out to eat in costume, there was a cow, a Tigger, an Indian princess, and an evil jester. Then we went to the hockey game and watched the Preds smack down the Stars. The fellas played with some heart!

Afterwards, we went to the big bang and had a blast. Some dude dressed as Queen Elizabeth kept grabbing my teats! Luckily I was too trashed to care. How trashed? The next morning when I walked the dogs, I found my wallet in the front yard.

India

A co-worker invited me to a party tonight. She lived in California for a length of time and to me is the the stereotypical Californian. It was an eclectic party to say the least, with yogis, musicians, and an Indian cooking the food. I pushed my boundaries a bit and tried some edibles that I wouldn't normally think of eating. It was good, but nothing I'd crave. Memorable personalities? 5 second Bob (not his real name). He'd start telling you a story or showing you something on his cell phone and suddenly he would go "wait a second" and then he'd wonder off to start a conversation with somebody else. Thirty minutes later he would show back up and start a brand new conversation. I finally turned to the girl next to me (a yoga instructor) and said "Is he a little distracted?" She agreed. I had a good time, but when the drums and gourds and sitars came out, I excused myself and went home. It was good to meet different people, but it makes me think that I'm not ready for some things.