my aching feet

There are some days where I just feel like I don't have a minute to sit down and by the end of the day my feet are screaming 'stop the madness'!  Today is one of those days and I often wonder why I go running for exercise - it seems like a very unkind thing to do to my feet since they are already busy enough all day long.  ouch.

Anyway, Tom had his 2nd surgery yesterday:  the repair of his elbow from cubital tunnel syndrome!  Who has ever heard of such a thing?  Not me, but Tom managed to develop this and the only way to fix it is through surgery.  So back we went to our favorite place where he had his knee surgery and back injections, and we are like family over there now.  They know us by name when we walk in and that is saying a lot for a busy hospital with many nurses doing different shifts all the time.  It went well, but today he is so dizzy and nauseous, it just does not seem right so I finally caved and called the doctor tonight to see if something can be done for him.  So yes, I am finally SITTING and resting my feet while I wait for the callback.  Earlier this evening, in the midst of him being so ill and in pain, Juli had a few friends here to bake for some event tomorrow and then get dressed and done up for a sweet sixteen party they were attending tonight, so you just can picture that scene - kitchen turned upside down, baked goods decorated the area and then poof, they were doing hair and make-up and taking pictures of themselves looking like they were 21 in their dresses and heels and then omg their ride arrived and whoosh off they went!   And deeper in the midst of all this, Tommy was getting ready to head into the city to stay overnight because tomorrow he is taking the CFA test for which he has been studying diligently for the past several MONTHS (and I admit being very impressed by his focused commitment to the task), so of course he wanted to eat something before he left, then in walked his girlfriend to wish him well and join him in the 'eating something' event, then came the cry of 'help where is my passport' and 'ok bye gotta catch the 9:00 pm train'... so then double whooosh off he went!  If you do the math on this whole thing, that leaves me and Jonathan since Tom is basically out for the count trying to stop the room from spinning while I'm waiting to hear from the doctor and the final miracle is that Jonathan decided that he was tired and went to bed so I do not have to hear the far away sound of xbox 360 in action as he chats and battles on line..... sooooo....after doing my tornado move through the kitchen to get things in order, I am finally plopped on the couch at last with my feet up listening to the sound of silence because I never turn the TV on when I am alone.  I usually have music playing, but for tonight I want the quiet of the house with whatever little creaking, buzzing or humming noises it provides, along with the heavy breathing of the dog who is fast asleep and quite frankly too close by - I want to send her semi-snoring-self downstairs, but my feet are too weary to pick myself up to wake her because not only is she blind at the age of 13, but seemingly deaf as well since she does not budge when I call her name.  Now if only the phone would ring so I can hear from the doctor about what to do for Tom because I am really worried, this does not seem right to me that he should be so sick from elbow surgery!  The fact of the matter is that there is a reason I'm a producer for a living and that is because I was not meant to be a nurse, but somewhere down deep my nurturing instincts are telling me something is wrong here.  Tick tock goes the clock, please call me back, doc!

fast fingers

I have often thought about how lucky I was to have taken a typing class back in high school.... at the time, I thought that I would never really need the skill since I don't remember having any intention of becoming a secretary which was why many girls learned to type 'back then', but the class was required so of course I did as I was told to do... fingers on the home row, and everybody say it with me "a-s-d-f-j-k-l-semi" - that was the mantra and yes I learned it good.  Looking back, I realize that I partially owe my rate of productivity in today's world to Mrs. Phillips - the very dry and monotone typing teacher that could be a character on a sitcom - because I can get more done in a shorter time because I type fast!  I watch other people as they hunt and peck around with a few fingers, yes, often pretty fast, but they cannot possibly crank it out at the speed at which I can communicate with my fingers and thank god my fingers can keep up with my high speed brain!  And just when I thought I was the master of the keyboard, along came my first born child.  I don't know exactly when he learned to type, but I guess they gave the kids some limited typing instruction in grammar school and I've often thought that there should be more emphasis on typing now than ever before, but somewhere along the way, he really learned to type fast.  Let me give you some some point of reference - what was considered a fast typist in the days of hiring secretaries was 80 words per minute or so.... I'm proud to say that thanks to the on-line typing tests, I have been able to clock in my skills at 96 words per minute (and the web site DOES take into consideration errors and subtracts for them) so I was pretty excited to confirm the fact that I am indeed speedy on the keys... but look out because here comes Tommy and he has seriously clocked in at 123 words per minute and I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!! I have seen it with my own eyes.  He is incredible.  How on earth does he do it?  I dare you to try it yourself and be amazed!!  He even said that when he types, he does not think about the letters one at a time, but it's as if his fingers are moving on auto-pilot in more of a whole-word fashion.  I actually understand because I have often thought the same thing when I'm writing these blog entries, or just regular emails, etc.  It's as if my fingers take on a life of their own and yet I'm not nearly as good as the king of the keys - aka Tommy the Terrific Typist!  It really brings up the question "are people who can type faster more productive than people who cannot?"  I would imagine that slower typists do not depend upon typing emails and communications in order to be productive, but rather they find other ways to be efficient, but in this day and age with email communication being such a large part of so many industries, it really does make you wonder if more emphasis ought to be put on proper keyboard skills.   And as I think about my speed typing son, I'm sure he types even FASTER when he doesn't have to read and type what he is reading - in other words, if he is just strictly typing his thoughts and removing the 'reading' part from the equation, I'm SURE he would clock in even more than 123 words per minute!!  It's mind blowing!  Of course this all turns to poop as things move to our smartphones because here is where I am 'all thumbs, pun intended LITERALLY.  I am utterly handicapped without all 10 fingers and I resort to Princess Siri to get it done correctly.  And I hate to admit it, but here is where Tommy becomes the ultimate enigma - he is as fast with his thumbs as he is with all 10, I'm sure of it because I have seen the madness.  I'm not sure there is a test for thumb-typing, but maybe there's an app for that?

back in the fast lane

After 2 week of virtual 'nothingness', once the high speed internet went back on, it was like the world went back to regular speed and it has been a whirlwind that would normally require 3 or 4 posts, but I am going to condense it all into one so buckle your seatbelt.  Friday morning started off with Juli getting her 4 wisdom teeth pulled!  Poor baby girl or "puppy dog #5" as we call her (inside joke too long to explain).  After playing nurse all day and trying to work amidst the internet interruption while the FIOS got installed, I was then off to the Justin Bieber concert with Jonathan.  When I purchased the tickets,  I knew the seats were on the floor, but pretty far back.  Despite that, the happy energy at the concert was contagious with the Victoria Secret models sitting near us, Perez Hilton strolling in and then we saw the 'runway' in the middle of the stadium and wow, great news because our 'far back seats' suddenly became FRONT ROW as the bulk of the concert occurred right in front of us!  It was sooo incredible - and per my post back in June, I already have bieber-fever so add that on to the night and what was a bad day for Juli was a "10" night for both myself and Jonathan!  The following morning started off with the annual Halloween set-up which was delayed 2 weeks due to the hurricane, but that did not stop Jonathan and I from setting up the porch with the mannequins, and due to the trick-or-treating being during the daylight hours per the mayor, I opted to wear a gorilla suit and hand out bananas in lieu of my scary night costume, which will be saved for next year.  I managed to  "play dead' pretending to be a stuffed gorilla and then came to life randomly to scare the poop out of the neighborhood kids pretty successfully.  It would also require a separate post to include all the funny and cute things the kids say as they approach the black curtain.  And I cannot forget to mention the most ridiculous thing of all - before the trick-or-treating began, I drove up to Kings and went in to buy bananas WEARING THE GORILLA SUIT!!!!  I thought I was the funniest person on earth and the joke was on me because NOT ONE PERSON SEEMED TO NOTICE!!  I was hysterical laughing inside the costume as the check-out guy actually asked me if I wanted "paper or plastic?" and I almost fell on the floor laughing but simply shrugged and he said "ok, I'll go with plastic" - and I bought 10 bunches of bananas so just take a minute and picture that scene.  I felt like I was on candid camera.  Seriously?  No reaction?  C'mon people of chatham, get a sense of humor!!  hahahahah  I should mention that when Tommy and Juli saw the Halloween episode of Modern Family, they could not stop saying how much I am like the mom on that show (she is also obsessed with making halloween an interactive experience).  So in my opinion, the belated Halloween was a success and then on Sunday, we were off to LBI to finally see the hurricane damage at the beach.  It was very quieting to see the devastation from town to town, and in some cases it looked as thought there was no damage and then a few blocks away looked like a post-war zone.  Tommy was sure that the Chegg would be open for business, but even they couldn't overcome the extent of the damage which was unbelievable.  It was unusual to be there altogether (100% polise attendance, very rare these days) as we drove around, checked out both houses, and fell in love again with the little bay haven in Harvey Cedars which just exudes a vibe of "serenity now".  We are very excited to move forward with it now that the dust, or sand, has settled after the storm.  We met our soon-to-be neighbors - Jack and Jill (haha, actually it's Jim and Jill) and it is all around good karma.  Whew.... that is the whirlwind weekend and back to the city I dashed today to catch up on the work scene after being stranded in NJ due to the lack of gas and trains. I will not go into details about the nightmare commute but to give you some idea, it even made the news tonight - 3 consecutive major accidents in the lincoln tunnel causing massive delays both ways.  So now that I am living at 'normal speed',  I wanted to take a minute to recap some of the things I did during my 2 weeks as a recluse:

- Socialized DURING THE DAYLIGHT HOURS with neighbors and made new friends who came to do laundry (since we had the big ass generator)

- Cooked and baked like a crazy person

- Tried NOT to gain 10 pounds due to above cooking and baking so I went running or walking really far every day (until the snowstorm arrived, oh my!)

- Realized I was unsuccessful at the above because I was eating more than I was running or walking.

- Made Matzo Ball soup for the first time (and I'm not even jewish!)

- Backed up my computer onto drives and organized all the files (major task)

- Slept in........EVERY MORNING (wow)

- Had music playing all day long and discovered that my iPod nano will last the entire day without needing to be charged.

- Used the neighborhood email list to keep everyone up to date with any new information that was released (or more accurately NOT released) regarding the status of the outage and other important information and I have apparently been voted the unofficial new mayor (no thank you very much) - a producer has to produce, it's the nature of the beast.

- Cleaned out closets to donate as much as possible to the relief effort.

- Thought a lot about starting the holiday shopping on-line, but didn't.

I'm sure as the holidays approach, I will regret that I didn't get to the last item on the list, but dear diary I promise that I will not get stressed out this year.  And below is the brief photo recap of this posting.

gorilla in the midst

my very first mannequin

jonathan lovin the bibs

beiber fever selfie

yes, we were THAT CLOSE

and he has perfected the MJ crotch grab

king of the world

tommy enjoying a much bigger beach

the power of the sea lifted this house off its pilings

wishful thinking big T

ouchie

sad chipmunk eating soup

wacky weather

I am barely able to finish the 'happy dance' now that the power is back on as of last night... and whooop here it is... the first snowstorm of the season!  I cannot believe it.  It looks like 6 or more inches have fallen already and it is still snowing hard.  The kids have missed a week of school, and we already got the call for a delayed opening tomorrow, so I dread the 6 am call and pray that school is not cancelled!!!  I am sitting here in my warm house, watching Jerry Maguire (you had me at hello), cozy as can be and I can't help but think about the people who don't have heat or electricity tonight.  I know that people are cold and uncomfortable all around the world all the time, but when a situation hits so close to home, it is truly a wake-up call.  So even though I got a little cranky, ok a little bit more than a little cranky, with the Comcast woman on the phone today about our non-working internet (annoying), and the FIOS installation department who didn't show up to install the replacement internet as scheduled yesterday, I know that deep down, things could be so much worse.  I will kiss my little mifi card and say thank you that I am connected at all.... and I will hope that the weather warms up quickly to melt the snow and warm up the homes that are cold! 

humming

Still no power.... as we all wait day by day for the lights to go on so that we can have power without hearing the post-apocalyptic HUMMMMM of the generator outside the window and all around the neighborhood.  It is so bizarre, "they" (whoever "they" are) don't provide any specific information about when power might be restored.  I guess "they" figure we can process it better one day at a time, rather than hit us with the big ugly truth that it would be an entire week or maybe 2 since that's where we are headed.  But I think it would be less painful if we knew up front what we were facing so we could better prepare and absorb it.  But here we sit, listening to the on-going HUMMMMM and the funny thing is that I'm getting so used to the HUMMMMM that I don't always hear it.  And that fact rather freaks me out because I wonder what else I don't hear on a daily basis?  I think when the HUMMMMM finally stops, I will listen more carefully to the quiet and see what else I have been missing.

frozen in time

It's as if time is standing still until the power goes back on... I'm not sure why, since we have the previously mentioned big ass generator still running and keeping us powered up, but the whole situation with so many people being powerless, combined with the gas crisis and the lack of perishable items in the grocery stores is just causing an eerie sense that time standing still.  I have literally not left the house in a week, except to go for a run, and today I went for a 5 mile walk to CVS and actually ran into several people I knew along the way.  But I have not gotten into a VEHICLE to go anywhere since last Sunday!  With Tom around and always itching to go somewhere, he has done the grocery runs and I am the homebody.  There is something rather calming about it all.  I cannot really tell you where the days are going.  I had thought I would get so much done with so much time around the house, but it's like the days are a blur and nothing gets done other than making meals for everyone and checking my neighbors who are an older couple with no power at all - I've been helping keep the husband's laptop charged so he can play solitaire - a big priority!   Our laundry room is getting some extra activity from the neighbors in need of throwing a load in - it's the least we can do and I wish more of them would take advantage of the offer.  We keep watching the news over and over and it's hard to process the level of devastation.  I know we are so lucky only to have been 'inconvenienced' by the storm and I am trying hard to figure out exactly why I'm actually in a holding pattern, but I guess maybe deep down I just needed a break from the rat race.  Oh and we get an extra hour to do nothing because the clocks go back tonight!