Thank you so much for your patience! Here we are on Wednesday, I'm back in the office from a quick long weekend visiting my family in New England. Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Did you know that the first Saint Patrick's Day celebration in the United States happened in Boston way back in 1737? I'm a walking encyclopedia with annoying Saint Patrick Fun Facts today. I also put a "Mc," or "O'" in front of everyone's name. Again we are likely asking, just how lucky is Awesome Girlfriend McMegan? ;)
This past week has been like no other. I came down with an awful sinus infection that really kicked my @$$. For several days I couldn't eat any food at all, then trying to keep down what I attempted to eat was another interesting event. I put in a call to my Dr. Amy in Vernon. I told her all of my symptoms from what I believe to be a terrible sinus infection. I told her how I had been doing nasal rinse attempts for hours over the past several days. She asked if I suspected it was Covid-19. I told her I had no fever, and could still taste and smell food, just couldn't eat it. She informed me that there have been some cases where folks thought they had a terrible sinus infection, when in fact it turned out to be Covid. She ordered me to get tested immediately.
When I went to Sparta Health & Wellness to get my test, they were very helpful and well organized. Jen the technician recognized me immediately after I said Hello to her, and she asked where was Awesome Girlfriend Megan.
I had to be on the bench working from home the next day, and it was not so much fun. I love working in radio stations, both mentally and physically.
24 hours later, Dr. Amy called me with the wonderful news that I tested Negative. I told friends I had never been so happy to be merely sick as a freakin dog, but at least didn't have Covid.
With the Negative test, I was cleared to take Awesome Girlfriend Megan to New England and see my family for our first time since Christmas.
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Thursday afternoon, poor Awesome Girlfriend Megan's car overheated. This meant I now had to go to Hackettstown Friday morning and pick her up, then making our way to Boston. Ironically even though Meg lives 54 minutes southwest from me, often we can make it from Hackettstown to Boston just as quick because of the highways being so close to where she lives. We will take the wins where we can get them, that's for sure.
Friday morning we started our journey. Waze and Google Maps were not our friend on this day. I figured we would have a straight shot from 80, 287, to 95. Both Waze and Google Maps did everything they could to keep us off 95 due to traffic concerns. We went every single which way but the way I was expecting. At one point, I ended up taking a left at a light. I ended up on a sidewalk in a New York City neighborhood. Meg and I were both stressed. Everywhere we went we had terrible traffic. It was an eventful nightmare.
At one point Meg and I were on a road that must have been rather parallel to 95. I looked at Meg and said "I've been doing this drive for 7 years, but right now I literally have no idea where we are right now."
When we arrived to my parents place in Mansfield, Massachusetts Meg and I were both relieved and burnt out.
This was an exciting afternoon. Meg and I were taken by Padre and Suzanne to see my sister's new condo. We love seeing all of the progress they have made these past several months. This was Meg's first ever time seeing Zannie's place, so it was great to see her experience this.
Friday later afternoon, time to join Padre for a beer at Bog Iron Brewery in Norton, Ma. We were able to see Bog Iron regulars for sure, which was great. They currently had a bracket going for who had the best pizza around. I explained to Meg, in New England, we are passionate about our pizza. We love to debate who has the best pizza.
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Saturday morning Meg and I did retail therapy at TJ Maxx. Meg knew the best practice by far was for us to split up and do our own shopping separately. We both got great bargains at the same time. Success!
Saturday afternoon time to party. My family every year goes all out for our annual Saint Patrick's Day party. Some years we get anywhere from 25-75 people. We of course didn't want that this year. We kept it to just family this year, and it went terrific. Padre got Guinness and Smithwick's so we could enjoy yummy Blacksmiths, which is half Guinness half Smithwick's. They drink that in Ireland. What they don't drink in Ireland is green dyed Bud Lights. Steve Andrews got a kick out of me when I declared war on green beer this morning. I have some weird pet peeves that drive me insane LOL.
Sunday, we had our goodbye lunch and began our journey back. It was a challenging ride home because of the intense wind gusts. Driving over the Tappan Zee Bridge during high winds is NO joke. Wow. It was a white knuckle, hands at 10 to 2 the whole time, while keeping a death grip on my steering wheel. We were very relieved once we got to Hackettstown. Meg and I took the kids out for a drink at Bea McNally's in Hackettstown so I could enjoy an ice cold beer, and stretch out my legs before driving from Hackettstown to Vernon. Lots of driving that day, but well worth it.
One of my biggest victories was being able to sneak away from Meg long enough to call up her local auto shop and pay for her car to be fixed. Success. Then Sunday night I enjoyed watching The Grammy Awards. I thought all of the performers were absolutely terrific.
Overall we had a great weekend. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend, where we will be doing our annual big spring food drive: Backpack Snacks For Kids!