Sunday, April 22, 2007

A New Chapter

Monday, April 23 I start a new chapter in my life ...

Friday, April 20 was my last day at work ... wow! The company I have worked for during the past 11 years is going through some major restructuring (the news has been quite prominent on Wall Street). As a result, I have been layed off. But as many of you who know me, this was not terrible news for me. I am so looking forward to taking some time off and with my severance package, it makes it that much nicer! I am not going to miss the drive but am going to miss the friends and wonderful people I have had the opportunity to work with over the years!

But now, I will be focusing on the many projects I have in mind to complete around the house, traveling to visit family, hanging with my homies during the day, catching up on my reading, training for my triathalon in June (and maybe another half-marathon that I WILL complete), working on my tan (ha, ha, ha - yeah, more like burn), oh, and learning to cook (ugh, I forgot I made that promise to Mike, shoot). Or maybe I'll just take up tap dancing again ...Many have asked how Michael is handling this ... he has said 'Congratulations on your retirement'! But I think he's afraid of the honey-do lists I'll start creating!

Girl's Weekend to NYC!

We had another Girl's weekend to NYC and had a fantastic time ... as usual.

This trip, Maren was kind enough to drive us up in her Sequioa (very nice) which was a step up from our previous years in the 1970's conversion van. But hey, I cannot complain, we had alot of fun driving up in that van and were so greatful that Jana's in-laws let us borrow it!!!

Maren also got us a wonderful room at the Marriott Marquis ... so very nice!

Friday night we took the opportunity to go to the Manhattan Temple, which was just beautiful. When you are inside, you forget that you are in the middle of NYC and all the hustle and bustle. It was wonderful!

Saturday we had the pleasure of going to Jana's cousin's home from brunch in Queens. As Maren says, 'to see how the locals live' ... Jana cousin was a great hostess and served a wonderful brunch.

We then made our way to Canal Street ... for those of you who are not familiar with NYC, this is bargain central ... let's just say, they find things that fall off the back of delivery trucks ... but mostly filled with knock-offs. We had fun bargaining with the MANY street vendors.

Our goal was to also get a chance to see a show, but Maren, Jana and I did not purchase any tickets prior to arriving in NY, so we stood in line at the TKTS for discount tickets to see the Drowsy Chaperone. It was great because it was playing at the Marriott right down stairs. The show was hilarious! We had a great time. Lenore and Judith went to see Madam Butterfly and said it was wonderful as well.

So yes, another fun and successful trip to NYC with good friends, a lot of laughs, and very little sleep!
(Our next girl's trip will be to Germany where Brooke is moving this summer, watch out Brooke, here we come!)

Monday, April 09, 2007

Half Marathon Results (St. Patrick's Day)

OK, so I am a bit behind in my blogging ... like a month ... but I am finally updating you on my half marathon.

It turned out to be quite an interesting weekend ... Dave ended up having a business trip to Ireland the week of the run and no matter how hard he tried, he could not find a flight that would get him back in time to drive down from Boston with Bethany and the kids. Nor could he find a flight to MD to meet Beth and see us run.

Then, the entire week the weather was in the 70's. What beautiful weather for a run. But that Friday we had a full on blizzard of 6+ inches that went all the way up the East coast. Regardless, Bethany still decided to take the trip down. In full preparation, she left Boston at 12:30PM. She had the bags packed, picked up Ben straight from school and headed out, prepared for the trip to take a little longer.

At 3:00AM, Bethany rolled into our driveway (we had to leave at 8:00AM for our run).

With the bad weather, we continued to check on the status of run through out the night. They continued to ensure us the run was still on. So at 8:00AM, we picked up our friend Jim and headed on our 1 hour drive to Pennsylvania for our 13.1 mile run. It was very cold, a bit icy, but we were perpared. We pulled in to the parking lot, it was full of dedicated runners. As we parked, the person next to us announced that the run had just been cancelled due to an accident while setting up the course. No one was hurt, but they were concerned about any danger to the runners. ARGH! So we picked up our shirts and packets and headed back home.
But with all the preparation and determination to do this run, we decided to run it at home. It was in the 30's, windy and icy ... yes, we are insane! We put on our numbers and began our run. I was not very nice though, I made us run some very difficult hills (not such a good idea for myself). As a result, Jim and Bethany completed a 13.1 mile run. My body gave out at 12.5 miles. All in all, not too shabby!

Great job Jim and Beth!!!