Day 81 - March 22, 2012 - It's that awkward weather time of year for me

I don't know about anyone else but for me Spring is an awkward weather kind of a phase. If we are lucky here in NY it's beautiful out (like it has been for the past few days) but I still call the weather awkward. I call it awkward because it's still slightly chilly so you feel like you need to take a sweater or jacket with you outside, then you get hot outside and you want to take the jacket or sweater off. So it's too hot with the sweater or jacket on but too cold with the sweater or jacket off. This is the sweater I've been toting around with me lately, the sweater that I've been taking on and off again depending on how I feel.

Day 80 - March 21, 2012 - Old School Diner

I test drove a great car at Westbury Jeep. Shawn wanted to close a deal with them and purchase the car. But when he went there today (3/22/12) the deal fell through. The dealership wouldn't agree to give us new tires with the car purchase. This car we found was going to be quite a bit of money, not a crazy amount, but to us it was a good amount. It was a dodge caliber from 2009. I'm sorry for what we were going to finance new tires would have been a drop in the bucket for them but they wouldn't do it. So we didn't get the car. I'm actually kind of glad, because I know a car that's pretty new is going to be safer and probably easier on our insurance, but I just want a car that's going to be reliable, that will last me a long time as long as I'm not in another accident. But I don't think I'm ready for a car that's anywhere under 5 years old yet, I think I would like to have a couple of years of driving under my belt before I buy a fairly recent car. So because the dealership wouldn't negotiate it probably worked out for the best. After we test drove the car we ended up at the empress diner for some dinner. I was fascinated with the old school floor. Shawn actually helped me with setting up this photo, without him I wouldn't have taken the picture of the booth. 

Day 79 - March 20, 2012 - When will this long commute be over? When will I have a better car and a closer job?

Was on the train again, coming home. I usually am on the train at least 5 nights a week. I'm wondering when I will find a better more reliable car to drive to work with again, so these daily train rides can stop. I'm wondering how long it will take for me to get my score from Nassau County Civil Service so that I can hopefully get into a Nassau County library that's closer to Babylon. Wondering when things regarding work will finally be a little easier. I'm sure I could handle the public library thing much better if I got into a closer library with a more friendlier, down to earth community and hopefully some nicer co-librarians. We'll see.

Day 78 - March 19, 2012 - Now carrying a third bag during my daily commute

Reluctantly I started carrying a lunch bag to work with me again. I can't wait to get a good car that I can drive to work with so I can put my three bags in my car and leave them there until I get to work. For anyone who doesn't know the car we picked up has an extremely rusty undercarriage. Mechanically it's a great car, but because of the rust if a mechanic tries to repair anything certain parts that are very rusty could fall apart which will cause more damage then the initial repair. The car definitely needs breaks, I'm driving on borrowed time every time I take the car somewhere. So even though I'm definitely ready to drive to work again I still can't. I have to drive the car to the train station in the morning, park, pull out my three bags, and then travel on the train and two buses, or one bus when I go to work on Thursday, Saturday or Sunday. I could not carry this bag, but then it limits my lunch time options. My sandwiches that I do bring could be squished in my regular work tote that I lug around, forget bringing fruit without this bag that would be squished in no time. In the afternoon when my food items are eaten I can throw this bag into my tote bag to minimize the carrying on the commute home. Currently we are trying to trade in the subaru for something more reliable that I can start taking to work again. I've had my license for a little over three months and I'm currently looking to find a third car. This is not cool, I hope this third car is a charm, that I don't have an accident with it, and that it will last me a long ass time without any problems. 

Day 77 - March 18, 2012 - Outdoor coffee on the bar and book season has begun...sort of

One of the things that I love most at the house is this bar in the backyard that Shawn's mom bought. It's main purpose is to serve drinks on the occasions that we throw a party in the back yard. But mostly since I started going out with Shawn I've been using the bar when the weather is nice. When I have time off and I'm at home, I grab a cup of coffee, some books and then I go outside and sit in the sun by this bar. There's other chairs that I could relax on besides the outdoor bar stools that accompany this bar but I love this spot in the backyard the best because it seems to get the most sun. Today was the first time in the pre-Spring/Spring/Summer season that I went to the backyard. I didn't really stay out long though, it was sunny but a bit chilly.

Day 76 - March 17, 2012 - Found green items all day

It was St. Patrick's day. St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays, it used to be my favorite when my favorite color used to be green. Although I didn't run around with my camera the whole day like I wanted to, I whipped it out a little. We were at Yosef's house, he had the family over for St. Patrick's day, after dinner I went with Shawn and Uncle Mike to take a walk. We found this crazy house with a collection of odd, antiqueish, gardening and outdoor decor. I snapped some photos while their dog was going nuts barking inside the house. Last minute as we were walking away from the house I noticed this bathtub that they had kind of turned into a planter. I say kind of because noticing it now, the plants inside look liked they could be discarded weeds thrown haphazardly inside this outdoor tub. 

Day 75 - March 16, 2012 - Apple Cravings!

I don't know why but for some reason I seemed to have been craving some apples. When I had my mini candy shopping spree I bought Extra's Dessert Delights gum in Apple Pie flavor, then I went grocery shopping and bought three honey crisp apples because Larry at work said they were really good. Been doing well this past week in regards to fruit and veggie intake. Before you make any assumptions the apple craving is not due to pregnancy, I know for a fact that I'm not pregnant right now. 

Day 74 - March 15, 2012 - A perfect combination even though it isn't warm, and it makes me look raggedy...I do look artsy though

I wore my favorite but not so warm former winter jacket today. I love the new winter coat Shawn's mom made me buy but sometimes I pine for this very thin coat that I managed to wear two winters in a row. I figured today would be cold, but I wasn't sure if it would be cold enough for my heavy jacket since it was nice the past few days. I was wrong, it's definitely cold enough for the heavy jacket (or maybe the heavy jacket has me too pampered). So I traipsed around Hewlett before work looking like a poor artist and semi-alarming the zombie crows because potential "riff-raff" is in the neighborhood. I might venture out again for dinner at Ay! Caramba! even though it's a little cold and I probably should just save some money and eat my $2 Trader Joe's noodle meals...we'll see....

Day 73 - March 14, 2012 - A curious view

Sat down while I was waiting for the bus. I had to stay at work late because I got in late, for the first time in a long time I waited and waited, my bus came late. Despite the fact that I stayed late I still had minor hope to catch the 6 PM train home anyway. Didn't happen, I was a block away from the train station and the train came in, so I had to wait. I took this photo while at the N4 bus stop in Lynbrook.

Day 72 - March 13, 2012 - Lunchtime Candy

Today was a crappy lunch day. I ran two errands at lunch (got my eyebrows waxed and went to the post office by my job). I was insanely tired. I've been in a bad habit of staying up too late during the week, and then when I need to wake up early to go to work by 9 AM I am exhausted, but most of the time I go to work even though I can't take the exhaustion because I don't want to lose my job. I had a craving for a sour sugary combo so I went into a nearby convenience store and loaded up. Got a bottle of sprite, 3 sour candy packages and a nice supply of peppermints and gum for the future. $13 later I was on my way, sat down in the warm weather and ate some candy, went back to work and ate some candy. By the end of the day after my sugar rush high I was exhausted and as I have been doing for the past few days promptly passed out like a drunken bum on the train ride home. 

Day 71 - March 12, 2012 - Today Starbucks you were a shadow of your former self

I went to Starbucks after work on my way to the train station. My drink was terrible. The barista must have not known what she was doing, she could have been new, or she could have just sucked as a barista. They tend to whip up your drinks fast at Starbucks and sometimes you have to go a little bit slow to conjure up a good coffee drink. The Babylon Bean knows that. My caramel machiatto tasted like a crappy powdered machine cappuccino. Word to the wise, be a little leary of your barista if you happen to visit the Starbucks in Rockville Centre any time in the near future. 

Day 70 - March 11, 2012 - Last Hot Chocolate of the Season?

We've had a pretty easy winter, luckily. I have a feeling Spring is going to hit kind of early (hopefully) and that we will have a good hot summer (with lots of outside tanning time in the sun - hopefully). I felt like hot chocolate so I made some for Shawn and I, we barely drank any this winter since it was pretty much warm weather and barely any snow. 

Day 69 - March 10, 2012 - The death of caramel syrup

This photo actually came out pretty dark. I was making some coffee drinks and my caramel syrup ran out, I'm going to have to find some more or order some more on amazon - everyone loves the caramel flavor.

Day 68 - March 9, 2012 - Slowly but surely this is coming together...

I'm trying to get everything in place for our wedding. This is hard because we have time and money constraints. Also even though I've read a ton of wedding books, I don't really have a proper list of what we need to do still. So I'm trying to get the basics in order, maybe I should arrange a proper list. Today I went with Shawn's mom and Jocelyn to Francine's boutique in Sayville. We were on a hunt for my bridal headpiece. I found one and ordered it, with my order I'm getting my bridal shoes for free. I paid more money then I wanted to for the headpiece I picked but the quality of the headpiece is good so it is worth it and you can't argue with the bonus of a pair of wedding shoes that cost $0. 

Day 67 - March 8, 2012 - I will visit you to take photos sometime very soon I hope

So on my short almost daily drives to the train station and back I have been parking in the lot next to the rail road station and aggravating the hell out of myself and the parking lot attendant. The attendant is very mean, you pay him $3 to park your car for the day, you also pay $3 to park in a tight ass parking spot and in my case and I'm sure the case of a few other drivers I also paid $3 to be yelled at and intimidated by this attendant. It got so bad that on Tuesday morning he actually had to finish parking my car. I don't know what the hell my problem is but in addition to becoming a wreck when I drive at night I also seem to not be able to park so well. I find myself constantly getting out of the car and having to get back in again to fix my parking. At least I attempt to fix it, I've seen many people just leave their cars parked badly. So Shawn gave me some advice so I could bypass the attendant plus bypass paying the $3. He told me to drive underneath the train tressel , I will come to a traffic light make a left at the light then the first right after that. BAM! There's a few local streets I can park my car on and then I can take a short walk to the train station. It's a win/win/win for me. Parking isn't so tight, I get a little bit of a minor walk in after I park (I love walking), and I found this really cool cemetery it's right there before I get to the street to park on. I actually like cemeteries even though some people would consider it weird. I like to take photos of some of the headstones, it's actually a place that I can go to and be pretty much completely alone except for the dead and they don't really bother you. For some reason I feel a little peaceful in the cemetery it's not a bad escape for me. So to find one close to where I live is pretty cool. I could have walked to it had I known about it. So one plus about pursuing this driving thing even though I am still getting scared of doing it is the finding of this cemetery. Now I just need to find out where the official entrance is so I don't have to climb a fence to get in, relax and take some photographs. Maybe tomorrow if I have time I'll come here. In the morning I plan to go to Pathmark, I'm a little busy in the afternoon but maybe I'll come here and chill out a little before I head to Sayville with Shawn's mother and Jocelyn. I actually want to try to drive to Sayville tomorrow, I'll see if Shawn's mom is okay with it, hopefully my eyes will be okay to handle the drive so she or Jocey won't have to take over the wheel if I try to do it. It also depends on how the roads are, I'm going to have to learn to deal with this but I absolutely can't take traffic and I hate when other cars are near me on the road, this is something I have to get over though.

Day 66 - March 7, 2012 - Honors

I had Farmingdale's board meeting tonight. Usually I end up with back to back nightly meetings for the school district beat Carolyn put me on. I was actually kind of upset when I got to this meeting, I tried to drive again and it went very badly. I was going to attempt to drive myself there but I'm glad Shawn came with me in the car because my eyes were bugging out again with the double vision during the meeting and I was very tired and definitely not doing things completely correct when I was driving to the meeting. So even though it was an irritating time for both of us, Shawn was able to take over for me again and pick me up later. Before the meeting started the school district held a recognition service honoring some students. I started taking photos but was very far away, so I edged myself up front, recorded the speaking and started snapping away. I got some good photos, some bad ones. This was one of the good ones.

Day 65 - March 6, 2012 - I'm a mess!

Covered a school district meeting tonight. This month my publisher wants budget pieces for Farmingdale and Plainedge school distrticts, she said I can write about the meetings but she really wants budget pieces. I came late for this meeting and I missed a lot of it so I don't know if I'm going to write about the meeting unless I get information from the person I contacted today. I felt like such a mess when I got into the meeting, I tried to drive to the meeting and only managed to drive halfway then Shawn had to take over. I sometimes get spells of double vision which is very dangerous if I'm trying to drive. If I'm driving a short distance I can shut one eye and make it home (usually if I shut one eye the double vision gets better and I see clear again), but it's not good if I'm trying to drive any sort of distance. I'm finally getting my eyes checked out on March 23 so hopefully I'll get corrective prismatic lens glasses while I strengthen my eye muscles (because I am pretty sure this double vision is an eye muscle problem). 

Everything that could go wrong for this meeting did, I got there late (a half hour late - yikes!), I missed what I felt was the most important part of the meeting. My digital recorder batteries were running low so I might have even missed recording some pieces from when I did get to the meeting, my purse was a mess, I didn't do so well driving there so I felt very messy. I took this photo in the bathroom after the meeting was over while I was waiting for Shawn to get me. Hopefully in April I can actually drive myself to these meetings, well see what happens with my eyes, and my confidence. Right now sometimes when I drive (more specifically when I drive at night) I'm a f#@king wreck! 

Day 64 - March 5, 2012 - Dr. Who on the LIRR

Dr. Who must be pretty trendy among nerds...or even average folk. The LIRR has plastered Dr. Who ads on some of the trains. I took a quick photo when I ended up on a train with Dr. Who ads. I have one more photo, have to show both of them to Greg.

Day 63 - March 4, 2012 - Joanna was here!

Even though it's not even officially spring yet I hit the Long Beach Boardwalk. Shawn and I went to Yosef's house and took a quick walk before dinner. One bench had a wreath on it and I think a Christmas bell or ornament on the rail. My sister loves Christmas so I made a joke that she had to have sat on that bench and left the Christmas decorations, either that or a homeless person decorated their bench for the holidays.

Day 62 - March 3, 2012 - Cooking for my parents

I had my parents over for my mom's birthday. I was supposed to take her out but for some reason she agreed to have me cook for her instead. The meal was actually a little bit expensive but still cheaper then a night out a restaurant. This was the stuff I was dragging out for prep, cooked eggplant and chicken parm, made a salad and heated up some garlic bread.

Day 61 - March 2, 2012 - Chewy

Shawn and I went over to Derek and Jocelyn's house. I was trying to get a good photograph of their cat Chewy, but Chewy was more interested in playing with my purse and camera case then posing for a photo. So I had to do with this shot.

Day 60-March 1, 2012 - Oh Tummy!

My tummy was hurting. I have IBS and it's not as severe as it was in the past for me but it still acts up occasionally. My recent cure for a slight flare up or attack, ginger ale. Currently it works wonders. This morning I made the mistake of eating leftover onion rings for Breakfast. It was a bad move and didn't mix well with my before work coffee drink from Starbucks. I had tums that were at work, felt mildly better, but then fucked myself because I had a piece of pie that someone bought to work for everyone on my break. So my tummy was back to where it was this morning pre tums. When I took my afternoon hour break (that's supposed to be a dinner break but at 4 PM - so it's an old people's dinner break and it's very very weird) I got a can of ginger ale from the vending machine at work, went into the fun office to hide out, drank my ginger ale, read a little and tooled around on the computer. Didn't even have a cup of coffee and now I'm in dire need of a little bit of caffeine, my stomach is better though.

Day 59 - February 29, 2012 - I'm going to kill you NCLA

Okay so I'm really not going to murder the NCLA, but they made a mistake that I'm really mad at them over. Apparently it's going to be corrected but we'll see. I went to a workshop at NLS (nassau library association) presented by NCLA (Nassau County Library Association). When I went to sign in I realized they spelled my name as Diane, but I figured it was a typo. Well they spelled it as Diane on my CEU certificate as well. My old boss from Baldwin was there I think she's president of the reference and adult services division, she made a note of the mistake on the attendance sheet and promised to have a corrected CEU certificate sent to me. It really irks me for many reasons when people spell my name as Diane or call me Diane and not Diana. It actually makes me wish my mom didn't chose Diana as my name. The main reason I really hate this is because I don't get along well with my mother, not at all. I am fine if I don't see her regularly but if I see her on a regular basis things get very tough and we constantly argue. I also don't approve of the things my mother does. If you haven't figured already my mother's name is Diane. So because of my mostly negative association with my mother it absolutely annoys the fuck out of me if my name is mispelled as Diane or if someone calls me Diane. It's almost an instant war.

Day 58 - February 28, 2012 - Sad Sunset split in two

I was really sad on my commute home from work. I don't want to talk about why I was sad on my blog (although I do talk about mostly anything, there are some things I don't chose to talk about). Even though I was very sad the sunset was beautiful. So I took a photo while waiting at Rockville Centre LIRR station for the 6 PM train home.

Day 57 - February 27, 2012 - Pretty food!

Shawn and I went out to dinner at the Altantis diner. There was something we did before that but I seem to have forgotten what it was. Oh I remember now! We saw Sandra. Sandra was originally Shawn's friend, but now she is more like a mutual friend. She had a hip replacement last year - even though she's pretty young for a hip replacement she did need one. Just as she was healing she got into a car accident and broke her leg pretty badly. So we went to visit her at home bearing a pillow and some books for her to read while her leg is healing up. Shawn ordered chicken marsala and when it came to the table it was a colorful work of art that I had to snap a photo of.

Day 56 - February 26, 2012 - You could be perfect, but you are so expensive

Shawn's mom and I spent the day in Bridal stores. We were looking at some dresses that we might want to show my sister and Janell when they shop for their maid of honor dresses in April. I have no bride's maids but two maids of honor. We stopped at a lovely dress shop named Renate's in Lindenhurst. We found a lot of dresses that could be possibilities. Before we left we saw this dress. It's beautiful, but it was also $418. Definitely beyond our dress budget. Joanna and Janell can't afford a very expensive dress. If you factor in alterations after the dress is made the cost of the dress could balloon up to $600 or $700 hundred dollars.

Day 55 - February 25, 2012 - Teddy is an interesting dog

We went to Peggy and Dave's tonight. After we were going to go out with Emily and Andy but cancelled, we were tired, they were tired, we also got to Peggy and Dave's later then planned. It was Peggy's birthday. Peggy has this adorable cocker spaniel named Teddy. Teddy is a very calm dog and he tolerates anything. Peggy's son Paul sat Teddy on the couch so I took some photos of him sitting there. I joked with Shawn that Teddy is my new fiancee because he's so adorable. In reality I like the men, and although animals are cute I'm not interesting in doing anything but talking to them or petting them. So Teddy could never be my fiancee.

Day 54 - February 24, 2012 - Hanging with a musician

So February....there's many birthdays this month for some reason. Tonight Shawn and I went out for Janell's 27th birthday. Janell loves TGIFriday's so she usually gets together a tiny group of friends and asks them to come out for her birthday. I also learned Janell likes photographs in Black and White, so I set my camera to a black and white filter when I took some pictures. This shot is of Janell, her friend Mike and Shawn. I'm actually really happy Shawn got to meet Mike. I met Mike a long time ago and he's a cool cat, I thought him and Shawn might get along and they do. Mike has a band, he actually has gone on tour with his band. We were supposed to get the website for the band but we forgot. I took this photo so when Mike becomes really famous I can sell it to the tabloids or something. Just kidding!

Day 54 - February 23, 2012 - Will I take you home?

Unshelved is a popular comic book known to librarians. I used to get their daily e-mails, but I don't anymore. I met the creators at book expo twice when I visited their booth and both times couldn't resist buying a t-shirt. Rick got this lunch box sent to him from Gale. He posted a sign in the fun office offering the lunch box to anyone who wanted to take it home. I seriously thought about taking this home, but I had no idea what I would do with it. Now it appears the lunch box has been claimed so I will not have it.

Day 53 - February 22, 2012 - Finally a little fun!

 

Shawn and I went to Dave and Buster's with his friend Billy Murphy and my brother. We were taking my brother out for his birthday. Since my stupid sister has decided to be such a ninny and my mom apparently won't do anything about it, Shawn and I are not going to any events where my sister will be there. Really she should be the one to stay home if she's going to act how she is but my mom won't discipline her stupid ass. It kind of works out better because I really hate the family restaurant meals anyway and half the time I'm always worried about how much money eating at the restaurant is going to cost.So it does work out better to see my family on a more individual basis on my terms....except for the ninny. The evening at Dave and Buster's with my brother, Shawn and Billy was a lot of fun. Shawn and I kind of needed some fun, we barely go out anymore most of the time we are too busy or too tired and we just need to chill out. I had better pictures of this evening but some of them were taken after midnight so they couldn't be the photo entry for this blog. Look for them on google + if you have it.