Monday Matters

1. I bring you this week's Monday Matters from Morris Plaines, NJ.  I honestly haven't seen much of the area, as I took the train in yesterday afternoon, and the most glimpse I got was the drive from Newark Airport to the hotel. It was dark by the time I got off the train, so other than the highway and the TGI Fridays right next to my hotel, I didn't see a thing (except for the last 3 minutes of the Patriots win in OT)...I'm here for work (I detest travelling for work on a Sunday, but sometimes you have to suck it up - 8am Monday meetings require Sunday travel), and I'll be taking the train back up to Providence on Thursday evening.  I am planning, however, on meeting up with my sister and brother-in-law for dinner on Tuesday, so that's something to look forward to!


2. When I got to the hotel last night, the first thing I did was unpack my suitcase and IRON MY CLOTHES.  This is a point that needs to be shared because of two reasons.  1)  I never iron.  Like, never.  and 2)  My husband fondly calls me the Queen of Wrinkles.  But, I'm aiming to impress this week, so everything is ironed, hanging, and ready to go.  :o)


3. Bonuses of travelling on the train for work?  When booking through corporate travel, it automatically booked my ticket in "Business Class."  When I got on the train yesterday afternoon, I assumed that Business Class was just regular, but to my pleasant surprise, it's a whole separate car, that seemed quieter than the Quiet Car AND by showing my ticket in the Dining Car, I got free non-alcoholic beverages.  Yup, so those two mini cans of Diet Pepsi and the mini bottle of water were absolutely free.  I wouldn't call it the highlight of my day, but it's definitely fun.


4. So what's a gal to do with a shortened weekend?  My husband took me Pumpkin Picking on Sunday afternoon before I hauled off to the train station.  That was exciting.  We picked out a 25 pound pumpkin at Pippin Orchards Nurseries, got Donuts from Dunkin Donuts (not as exciting as getting caramel apples from the Sugar Shack, but as we didn't have enough cash, we opted for donuts instead), and took my picture with a cardboard cutout of Gronk for an entry to eat lunch with him.  The plan is to carve the pumpkin next weekend and roast the seeds.  Delicious.





5. I didn't do much in the way of cooking last week.  I did make some Potato Leek Soup for dinner one night, which was delicious....I couldn't find the chicken stock in the pantry (I found it after) so I improvised and used beef stock, which tasted just as good.  I do feel like I used too many potatoes, even though I used 2 pounds, which is what I used last time.  I'll have to make it again and try with some adjustments.


6. My cousin Carolyn starts a new job tomorrow at MOO.COM and I'm super excited for her.  I've actually ordered business cards from that website before, so I knew a little bit about what the company was when I found out she would be working there.  


7. I have been fiercely reading through the "A Song of Ice and Fire" books.  I found everything through Book 4 really good but I was really annoyed with Book 5 (A Dance with Dragons).  As I read through Book 4, I didn't realize that all of the characters that annoy me hadn't really been POV chapters, until the end, when the author mentioned that Book 5 would be filled with their stories (running concurrently with the stories of Book 4) until everything was at the same time period.  I must admit that I found myself skipping over entire chapters due to my dislike of the characters.  Who did I skip over?  Jon Snow, Tyrion, Stannis/Melisandre/Davos, Daenerys, all of the chapters about the Iron Islands (I read Reek/Theon's chapters), and chapters about the Dornish.  I know that they're all integral to the story, but I found myself hating their stories.  I would rather read the synopsis online to make sure that I follow what's going on, and then at some other point re-read the entire series.  


8. I posted during the week that I got new sneakers (that I love) and I got to wear them during a Personal Training Session.  They were awesome.  The next day (Thursday), I wore them during a Zumba Class and I almost threw them in the trash afterwards.  They hurt my feet SO much.  I think I'm going to have to use those shoes only for weight training, whereas I'll use my other runners for other classes.  I think part of the problem was that it was the worst Zumba Class I've ever taken.  The instructor had a TON of new dances, and she doesn't go through the moves at all before the song starts, she just dances and expect the people in class to follow along.  She also faces the class, which makes it super difficult to follow along because you're always trying to put everything on the other side.  At one point, she was facing us through a ridiculously complex foot dance, and we all just stood there and watched her until she took the hint and turned around.  Ahh well, I still burned 525 calories.


9. On Saturday, we went up to my aunt's house because she's moving at the end of November and I had a few boxes of stuff in her basement from when my parent's moved about 8 years ago.  We went through my stuff and took the stuff I was planning to keep up to our house and stored it in the garage. It was a little upsetting, because some of the boxes were moved throughout the year and got ruined when the basement flooded.  I found a Portfolio that I made in my Italian Classes in highschool (it has about 4 years worth of work), and most of the stuff in the portfolio is ruined.  It was in a box with a bunch of books, and just about everything needed to be thrown away.  I saved the Portfolio, because it had a lot of projects that were a lot of fun to work on.  I even wrote a book about When I was Young, "Quando Ero Giovane" and included a book that I made in Kindergarten entitled, "We all Like Food"....From a quick glance, it looks like even that book is completely covered in black mold, but we put everything aside.  I'm hoping that it can somehow be salvaged.