Weekend with the family and new baby!

My little sister had a baby girl on Thursday, just in time for mother's day! Riley Noelle is her name... perfectly healthy and adorably cute! Pictures will be coming...

I went down this past weekend to meet Riley and see my family. Its always such a breath of fresh air to see them. I had a glorious weekend - tromping through the woods around my parents house, playing yoga games with my older niece, cuddling the younger one, cooking for Momma and Poppa, and generally just relaxing. I'm so lucky to have not only great parents, but ones that I am friends with too.

Catch & Release

What a difficult movie to watch.... it legitimately is my nightmare.

May is the best month ever

True story.
A few examples for you:

1. Boston has beaten the Yanks every game so far.
2. My 2nd niece is due to be born this weekend. This means I have a new (and valid) reason to shop!
3. I get to go to Albuquerque for a weekend. This means I get some much-desired sopapillas, spicy food, green chile chicken soup, and other tasty, true-mexican food. It also means I get to meet my college roommate's daughter, see my college roommate, along with a number of other wonderful friends too.
4. Memorial Day weekend = 3 day weekend! How could one argue with that kind of goodness?!
5. I get to cook in my Momma's kitchen. As mine rivals the size of a shoebox, its always wonderful to cook where there's room. AND where the groceries are purchased by someone else. Heehee!
6. No more crutches! I spent all of April on crutches and being free of them is lovely!

Fortunate accidents

I love the word "serendipity" and its meaning, a fortunate accident. It defines how I experience life. Not that you aren't in control of and responsible for the decisions you make, but in my case, things tend to work out best when I accept the serendipitous events and go along with them. Maybe you can argue that this is being easy-going, and that in and of itself creates a less stressful environment. I can't believe that though... I really think things happen for a reason.
For instance, that 90 degree weekend 2 weeks ago.... definitely nature's way of avoiding a cold-weather melt down by me (and probably 90% of all New Yorkers), even if we had to go back to Spring for a while after the two 90 degree days. It was fortunate for all those around me that we had some warm weather to keep me sane for a bit longer until summer comes. :)

Older than the Docs

I had to start physical therapy a few weeks ago after tearing up my knee playing dodgeball (of all things)! Its been an interesting thrice weekly event for me... First of all, the docs (can you call them that?) are really pretty cool. They laugh with me, and on one occasion even drew everyone in the office into a debate with me on which celebrities had nose jobs... while massaging my leg, of course. I'm getting better slowly too, so the overall experience has been positive, despite the pain.

The one thing I haven't yet been able to get over has been the fact that the two physical therapists that I see are younger than me. Both of them. This is the first time I've gone to see someone to 'fix' me and they've not even been my age. I understand this is inevitable. I'm getting older, and students are continually graduating with fancy degrees allowing them to work in these professions. This is the first time this has happened though, and I find the it extremely discomforting. Maybe the second time this happens will be easier. Or maybe the feeling never goes away. I find myself thinking "I could have been a doctor by now"... if only I'd enjoyed chemistry. I'm successful and happy where I'm at, but the positive stigma of being a doctor still sticks with me. Knowing I could have done that already in my life irks me. I suppose I just have to take a deep breath, realize I'll be dealing with this the rest of my life now, or start a mission to find old doctors. Haha!

Thankfully I have good and amusing doctors.

Its been a while...

So it has... I think I've had too much going on to focus on writing. I'm working on grad school applications (scary!), the associated personal statements, taking care of my cats, traveling for work, breaking myself playing dodgeball, etc. And now I should have the time to write since I'm down and out with a bum knee, but I find I'm just exhausted and frustrated continually since I really can't jump up and run around the block or walk down the street to the park or simply get out easily.

The thing is, life is good right now. Yeah, there are bumps and twists, but overall, the past 2 years have been the most enjoyable two straight years I've had in memory. I feel like I'm complaining unnecessarily because all the bumps and twists are temporary and even still, good things are happening.

I went to my sister's baby shower last weekend - she's having a girl in 3 weeks! I'm so baffled by the different paths our lives have taken, though Em does seem happy, which is a good thing. Her boyfriend is a darling too, which is fabulous! I'm convinced the child will be born with a southern accent... I'll just have to take up for NYC visits to cure it. ;)

Kitties!

I (finally!) got my new kitties a week ago! They arrived by delivery (of course… I live in NYC… everything is delivery here). They are the cutest little kitties possible. Before they came to live with me, they were named Bitz and Sadie. Then it was found that Sadie was a boy. I was going to name them Bits and Pieces at the urging of a few people around me, but when they arrived at my house, Pieces was simply a Tucker.

So my kitties, Bitsy and Tuck, are now the huge focus of my attention. When they’re not being cute and cuddly, they’re chasing anything that moves across the TV, dumping their food to play with the bowl, climbing up my shower curtain, and stealing rolls of toilet paper. Who knew that taking care of 2 kitties required this much attention!? Certainly not me, but I am enjoying it. Bitsy was the runt of the litter, so she is the smaller of the two. The funny thing about her is her squeak. She can’t quite meow, though she definitely has mouthing it down. What ends up coming out is only ever a high pitched squeak though! Tuck has a little belly, on top of being about double Bitsy’s size (they’re the same age!), and looks more cat-like now than his kitten-like sister. But they’re both still super-adorable. Here they are: