Happy Birthday, to me!!

I have had a stressful couple weeks. I made my February schedule like the first week of work, when I was all gung ho about working extra and being super involved. I have since learned that days off are ESSENTIAL to survival. I worked 8 straight days leading up to my parents visit, including the day they arrived, and have worked 8 straight since their departure including the day they left. So I have been a little crabby, and VERY tired. I did have a funny little adventure though. Another lesson I have learned this week is always check the weather report before you leave the house. I had heard there may be some snow, not a big deal up here there is always some snow. I left for work Sunday morning and it was definitely snowing, and as the day progressed it kept snowing and snowing and snowing. When I commented on it someone said duh! it's supposed to snow for like three days. I made the drive home, and it wasn't too terribly bad, I really have gotten used to driving in the snow, and then that same damn hill that beat me last time got me again. Instead of returning to work this time, I simply parked my car in town and walked home. It's a little over a mile up a country road, and quite honestly, I loved every second of my walk. It had already snowed like 8 inches so everything was covered and there were fat, slow snowflakes falling from the sky. It reminded me a lot of the snow walks we used to take with our mom as a kid. She would bundle us all up and we would wander around the streets of Finneytown, just enjoying the snow. A very nice man and his daughter picked me up partway home and gave me a ride, I almost told them no, but it was getting dark so I took the ride. Yesterday morning I walked back to my car and it was almost like therapy, I kind of felt rejuvenated. I didn't even mind cleaning the 10 inches of snow we had gotten overnight off my car. So today, with my staff meeting already out of the way, I am going to enjoy my birthday. I have never really celebrated my birthday all on my own, it will be a new experience, but I think it will be a good one!

Adventure with the parents

My parents came to visit this weekend and we have been busy, busy, busy. We went into the town of Waterbury for dinner Friday night and ate at a local pub where there was live music provided by a guy and his guitar who was actually very good. We struggled to stay up but after early mornings for all of us we finally gave up and headed to bed around 9:30. So on saturday we were up bright and early and after a leisurely morning spent drinking coffee and bellies full of fresh quiche we headed out to explore Vermont a little. We ended up in the town of Waitsfield about 15 miles south of me. We saw the state's oldest covered bridge, and stopped into multiple little stores. Most of them featured local artists, tons of photography and artwork, some amazing blown glass, ceramics and of course book stores. It's really amazing how little towns just embrace you and try to make sure you are having a wonderful experience in their town as well as urging you to see all that it has to offer. After Waitsfield we headed to Granview Winery which is about 2 miles from my apartment, and directly next to the apple cider mill. We did a wine tasting for 1$ that included 5 different locally made wines. We had some favorites (surprisingly including the cranberry wine made of all cranberries no grapes) and some we didn't like so much (cherry wine, no thanks). We took a couple bottles home for our happy hour that followed shortly after. I made a valentine's dinner for my parents and my aunt erin, and we relaxed, talked and watched movies it was a great evening that lasted much later then the previous one :)

View from the bridge

Mom and I in front of the bridge

Our happy hour, including the local wine

A picture my dad took from my deck of as the sun was setting behind camel's hump mountain.

Happy Valentine's Day....

This is a poem for the holiday, a little morbid but I love it...

Lisa
Last night I traced with my finger
the long scar on my love's stomach
as f I was following a road on a map.
I heard the scream of tires, saw the flash

of chrome, her six-year-old body
a rag doll bleeding at the seams.
It is foolish of me to wish
I was there before it happened, to reach

back thirty years, clasp her small hand
and pull her away from that speeding car
that turned her organs into bruised fruit.
How easily she could have missed

her seventh birthday, the lit candles waiting
for her to blow out their tiny flames.
How easily I could've spent last night
in a crowded bar instead,

my shoulders brushing against strangers,
a man on the jukebox
singing his heart out to a woman
with the prettiest eyes he's ever seen.
-David Hernandez

Squeeze your loved ones tight and appreciate all you have, remember how lucky you are to know them.

#1 posession

I don't have many things that fall under the category "prized posessions" but this pretty much immediately topped the list. At least for this week, haha!!!!

Big Day

Yesterday I had a very busy day. I spent the day in Burlington on Church St. which is like their shopping district. It's a long street running paralell to Lake Champlain that is lined with shops, resturaunts and other businesses on both sides. At one end is a very big church, hence the name Church St. It's a very cool place, people wander around shopping, sightseeing and sometimes just hanging out. You have also never seen so many dogs, lots of people brought their dogs with them, which seems to be the custom in Vermont dogs welcome everywhere. Yesterday was also the day of Burlington's winter festival. So up and down Church St. were people working on ice sculptures, I was there early on in the day so I mostly saw the beginning of the projects but there were a few that were finished. Part of the festival was also the penguin plunge, for a charity that is currently escaping my mind. Mind you, Champlain isn't frozen over because it's too big, but there is definitely ice all around the sides and people are JUMPING INTO IT! Crazy, that's what that is. I am all about a good adventure, but that is insane. From what I understand, everyone survived, thank goodness.
The church at the end of Church St.

Looking the other way down Church St.

One of the ice sculptures, this one of the Eiffel Tower!
After my trip to Burlington, I went out on the town for the first time last night with one of the girls from work. It was a lesson in cultural differences. I saw some hippy dancing, which is my favorite kind, that included a Chris "supertramp" McCandless look alike. I also saw Ernst (you know, from the milk commercials) and actually played pool against him, he was not so great at pool but awesome entertainment value. All in all it was a good night, if a little different then what I'm used to, but hey that's what I'm here for.

Superbowl Sunday

For the superbowl I headed back to Maine to watch with my family. I left after work Saturday night and got to my Uncle Mike's around 11:30 at night. After watching some disastrous base jumping attempts on TV we went to bed. I got up first thing the next morning and went to meet my cousin Corey at his brother Nick's where he was knee deep in kids. He had his son Bryce over there watching Nick's youngest two Christian and Hannah. I had so much fun. Usually when I get to see the kids there are twenty adults and bunches of kids hanging around at family gatherings, but when it's just me I got so many hugs and kisses. We read stories and played with toys. Christian, or toot as he is also known, was up for a little bit while the other two went down for a nap and he was cracking me up, he's a total ham. Bryce is a total lovebug, likes to be snuggled up as often as possible, and Hannah was just taking it all in. I really feel like she is paying attention at all times to everything going on around her. I reluctantly said good bye to the crew after a few hours and headed back to my Uncle's. That afternoon, my two cousins Brian and Derik and their kids came over to watch the game. The kids were really good, but had a great time together running around. It made me reminiscent of the many times we ran around with our cousins growing up thinking that this was the time of our lives, we may have been right, haha!! The adults watched with dismay as the stupid Steelers took the superbowl, ugh! Hopefully Bill Cowher is right and bengals go to the playoffs next year. Anyway, all in all it was a REALLY great weekend and I loved seeing everyone. Below are some pictures.

Christian with his bear and thumb!

Bryce and,

Hannah, poor girl had a runny nose going on that day. Below is Madi, Gavin, Kelcie and Dominic getting ready for the 3-D commercial at halftime, one of the few moments they were still all night