I apologize for taking so long to update, it's been kinda hectic. The last time I wrote, Sean was in a car accident. Well, he had surgery on his thumb, had two pins put in, and after two weeks of being in a splint, he has to go back to the doctor to have it checked. Then he'll be put in a hard cast for another two weeks, and then will go back to the doctor to have the pins taken out. The other driver's insurance has accepted liability, so between them and my mom's lawyer, we're waiting on a settlement. Because of his hand, Sean can't really drive anywhere, so no work or school for him yet. His piano teacher has recommended that he drop the class. We'll see what happens next, but at least he's feeling better.
I almost went home on Feb. 25th, but apparently the weather in MD was pretty bad. It was just cold here. I went to happy hour at the local brewery with some people from work, it's was hilarious. It was a really nice place, not your typical hole-in-the-wall bar so I felt really comfortable there. And their appetizers were delicious. Then I went to Toucan's with Sherri for about an hour, had a cosmopolitan, and Greg picked us up and we went back to Marist. I played poker at Greg's house for a little while, but I kept getting bad cards. And I never buy back in, so it didn't take very long for me to lose all my chips. Joe went to a party at Rich's house so by the time he arrived at Greg's to play poker, I was already out. I hung around and talked to some people at the table, but there were a couple guys there that we just being real jerks. So I was kinda happy when Joe went all in and lost, plus I think it was 1am at that point.
I slept in until 1pm on Saturday and then lounged around on the couch until 5pm, watching TV. Finally I got up, got a shower, and salvaged the evening by getting a bunch of stuff done. One of those things was making blueberry muffins, yum. Sunday morning Joe made homemade waffles for me, with cinnamon and applesauce for flavoring, double yum.
Throughout the week I managed to finish watching season 2 of Sex and the City, I also unpacked a bunch more boxes, hung some more pictures on the wall, as well as hanging some purses and hats too to get them organized and out of the way. I organized all of my girly toiletries and now they're all in one accessible place.
From Monday to Tuesday night, it snowed about 10". Campus was closed until 12 noon on Tuesday, but Bill called and said don't worry about coming in to work. Well, I was going to take his advice, until I remembered that the TV station video tapes the Student Association Senate Meetings on Tuesday nights and that the girl who was taping it still needed to get the equipment from me. And since campus opened at noon, there would probably still be a senate meeting. To make a long story short, I trudged into work, called the SA office, was told that there was still a senate meeting, called the programming director, hooked her up with the equipment, chatted with the radio promotions director about some issues in the radio station, and went home. I found out on Wednesday morning that the chair of the senate cancelled the senate meeting an hour before it was supposed to start. Grrrrrr....
Wednesday night I went to the communion service that the campus Student Christian Center hosts every week. It was a small group but it was still very sacred. It was great! In addition to reading the weekly liturgical reading from the Gospels, we also had a small group discussion about the reading as well. I liked that a lot. So I think I might be implementing this into every week.
Thursday morning was the TV station E-Board meeting and that's where Bill and I dropped the bombshell on them that we needed to make some serious changes to the way the program was being run. Pretty much almost everyone has been slacking, with a few people working their butts off, and we're trying to put some structure in place to either get people motivated by holding them more accountable, or be able to "fire" them because they're not doing their responsibilities and it's more obvious because it's all being documented. And we're using our assessment program as the catalyst behind these changes. And I'm pleased to say that it all seems to be going very well thus far. The E-Board seemed very receptive of these necessary changes. Then Thursday night I went out to dinner with Joe and we were able to "catch up" with each other since Sunday. It was really nice!
Friday morning was the power point presentation to the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs. Now mind you, I've been working on this presentation almost non-stop all week, trying to get it to look right. And finally I got it and apparently it went over really well. I like having an honest, ethical boss that gives credit where credit is due. So he made sure that everyone in the meeting knew that it was me who did the work on it. Go TCMC!!! It was a nice way to start off a Friday, but then we had to deal with a situation with radio that could have exploded in a sexual harassment charge. The Associate Dean of Student Affairs who handles those types of judicial situations is only a couple doors down from our department. We had meetings the rest of the day dealing with that. For right now, the incident has been handled and the "assaulted" student feels comfortable with the ramifications that were brought against the offending student. Needless to say, I was so glad when 5pm came on Friday. Then Joe came over and ended up falling asleep on my couch. He was super tired from staying up late a few nights in a row, and then waking up early to write a paper and go to work. So I did some stuff around the apt. while he slept. Eventually we went over to La Bella's in New Paltz for pizza, yum. Cheese of course.
Saturday morning I woke up early and went for a job interview at a local security company. They had open positions for a Central Station Operator (the person that makes the phone calls to the police and fire departments) and I think the interview went really well. They're going to call me, hopefully sometime this week. Like I've said before, I have some extra time and I would definitely like to have some more money coming in for car and student loan payments. I'm actually looking forward to that extra paycheck more than I dislike giving up some of my nights and weekends.
After the interview, Joe and I drove down to Jersey to his parents house. Tuesday (tomorrow) is his 22nd birthday, so we went to celebrate his birthday with his family. On the way we stopped at Toys R Us to shop for Lego... we didn't find any good deals, but I got a couple new pez dispensers. As soon as we got to Joe's parent's house, the first conversation we had was his mom telling him that poker is bad and that he plays too much! Nice ;) Then we started talking about and planning "the party". I'm sorry, but I must remain secretive about the details. Then we looked through the proofs of Joe's senior pictures, trying to decide which ones we liked the best. Personally, all of them looked fantastic! It was really hard to decide. After having tea and cake and chatting a bit, Joe and I went out to two different Walmarts to look for more Lego deals and pez. Neither of us were successful. Dinner was delicious and then I finally got to meet Jess, one of Joe's really good friends from home. She reminds me a little of Mandy Paternoster, which is a good thing. Anyways, Jess couldn't stay very long because she had out of town family visiting so after she left, Joe and I played Super Master Mind for a little while. Just to let you know, this is a crazy game that really hurts my brain. Joe likes it, I think he's crazy.
Sunday morning we went to mass with Joe's parents and afterwards had coffee and looked through the Sunday paper before Joe and I headed out to the local mall (aka - the Lego Store). Are you seeing a trend here? Another strike out for Lego deals, but then we walked a little, and then went over to Michaels Crafts where I got some more furry yarn for another scarf. I also found the newly released Easter pez dispensers and picked them up too. We went back to the house and Grandma Voltaggio was there. We all talked for a while in the kitchen, eating appetizers, Joe's mom was cooking, and Joe's sister Karen showed up too. Dinner was once again amazing and Joe's mom's sauce was incredible. After dinner, Joe and his dad went downstairs to play pool, leaving the females to sit around the table and jibber jabber. I got to hear stories about when Joe was little (yay!) and we also decided that Karen must be an Irish Jew because clearly she's not Italian! (j/k) Joe opened his birthday gifts over cake and coffee, and Joe's parents also gave me a birthday gift since mine is five days after Joe. It was a beautiful purple leather clutch purse! And I love how Joe's mom coordinates all her gift wrapping. She wrapped the purple purse in purple wrapping paper with purple ribbon, it was great! So it was all around just a really great weekend and a really nice time. We drove back to NY on Sunday night and now I'm back at work today.
Ok, I think I'm caught up! Hopefully I'll write again later this week... ciao!