Trip to the Dentist

I went to the dentist last night after work to have one of my older cavities re-filled. I had no idea it needed to be done until I went for my 6 month cleaning back in August, when my dentist did the "cavity check" with his "scraper". Now, I'm not sure if any of you people have ever had a cavity before, I know that my boyfriend Todd and my brother have never had a cavity, but I will tell you this, when they find a cavity and they test the tooth to make sure it is in fact a cavity, it HURTS! It only hurts for a split second, but nonetheless, it can make you squirm. And last night, squirming was my specialty. My dentist gave me 1 shot of novacaine (also called Procaine) , which is all I or anyone needs for that matter. He left the room to see some other paitents so the novocain could kick in and about 10 minutes later (it felt like an hour!) he came back into the room and started to drill. He tells me everytime even though I already know, but if I ever feel anything, I should raise my hand. So, he started to drill my tooth and almost immediatly, I raised my hand and shrugged my shoulders. I could still feel the drill. I was going to see if I could stick it out for a few seconds longer and try and ignore the pain, but I couldn't do it. So, my dentist gave me another shot of novacaine , let it do it's job and about another 10 minutes or so later, he was back again. He started to drill a second time and it was no different. I thought it was really odd at this point considering I could barely feel the left side of my mouth. So, trying a 3rd time with another 3 shots of novocain in different places. Now I couldn't even feel my tongue! I thought that if I could stil feel it this time, something was wrong. My dentist started to drill and I still shrugged my shoulders and raised my hand! So, the next step was to take some x-rays of that area to see what was going on. ABout 15 minutes later or so, my dentist came back and looked closely at the x-rays. It turned out that the cavity in my tooth was touching the nerve in the root of the tooth. Can we say "ouch"!? So, I asked him what that meant was going to happen. He told me that he was going to fill the tooth with a medicated filling (sort of like putting neosphorine on a cut) and we'll see what happens. If it starts to hurt eventually, I most likely will need a root canal. Just the words "root canal" are just scary. A friend of mine has had a few and she says that they are not as bad as it sounds. I'm not so sure about that though! Basically what happens is they give you novocain just like they do when you have a cavity, they go to the root of your tooth, they take the nerve out (which is in the root and pretty much kills the tooth) and put a "cap" on the tooth. To me, it does not sound like a pleasant visit to the dentist, and hopefully I won't have to have a root canal at all.

For Sale

Ok, so it's been a few days since my last posting, but lately my weeks have been pre-occupied with getting both mine and my boyfriend Todd's condo ready to go on the market. Since this is the first place that I've ever owned, I didn't realize how much there was to do with getting a condo ready to go on the market. We already have a realtor, so that was the easy part. The hard part is making our places look bigger than they really are. The harder part will be trying to sell them. We're probably wasting our time putting them on the market, but it can't hurt to at least try. We're going to give it a few weeks and if nothing happen, we'll move to plan B, which might either be renting our places out and renting a place together, or, something else. Who knows. It's times like this when I wish that we either didn't own our places or that at least one of us owned and the other rented. It would be ideal if a lease up, but that would be too easy. Todd and I are unfortunately, pack rats. We keep things around "in case we'll need them later", which we usually don't in the long run. I have things in my apt that could have been thrown out a week after I bought them and I also have things in my apt that never should have been purchased. Up until yesterday, I had a lot of clutter - which you would never know, but I HATE clutter. I had my mother, who used to be a realtor, come over to my place yesterday and sort of un-clutter things. Since she knows what what people will look at (whih is basically everything) and she knows what a place should look like when you're trying to sell it. It's supposed to look like it does now, which is clutter-free and completely spotless. I do need new blinds, which I plan to purchase this weekend -hopefully on Saturday. My mom also took home most of my summer clothes and some of the clothes she didn't know if I wore or not. The summer clothes that she took home are fine, but when I got home last night, I realized how much more she took home. I'll put it this way, it was a little hard trying to find something to wear for work this morning, but I managed to put something together. It's a good thing I can wear jeans to work, otherwise I'd be in trouble. I think I'll be heading to my parents house on Saturday to take a few things back.

Happy Fall, Happy New Year

Today is not only the first day of Fall, but for all of those Jews out there, it's a brand new year. So, not only will I start this off by wishing my fellow jew a L'Shana Tovah (happy new year), but I will wish everyone a happy "new season". Unfortunately, for those who live in the Boston area, the weather is overcast and a little cool - not exactly a welcoming to the new season, but I guess that's what Fall is... it's cooler, wetter weather. Nonetheless, it means school has started, pumkins are out, and Halloween is only 38 days away. Thanksgiving is only 61 days away, gobble gobble. Every year I say the same thing around this time of year... Fall is an even shorter season than Summer, and since Winter feels like the longest season of all in the Northeast, I am not looking forward to it.

But one thing is for sure, and that is the housing market really stinks. Todd and I are putting our condo's on the market this week and we're hoping that it won't take as long as some of the other condo's that are out there. We're going to give it a few weeks and see what happens, who knows, if we can't sell, maybe the renting market will be better? Well, I'm off to temple for a few hours and then dinner... have a great weekend I'll be back on Monday. Hopefully next week won't be as busy as last week so that I can actually post more than one entry!

My Cape Anniversary Weekend

It's now Tuesday, and I promised that I would post something about my weekend on the cape. Sorry for the delay, but things have been super busy at work and elsewhere!
Friday night, I picked Todd up from work around 5:30 and got to The Cape Codder at around 8. I was absolutely starving, so we checked in to the hotel, brought our things up to our room and went down to the restaurant that was in the hotel. I was too hungry to get back into the car and drive to a restaurant! So, we went to the Hearth & Kettle, which was just OK, but I was so hungry that it didn't really matter where we went! I had a portabella mushroom roll-up... really yummy if you like portabella mushrooms! After dinner, we got into the car and drive around Hyannis. I lived and worked on the cape about 6 or 7 years ago with a friend, so, I sort of knew where I was. We decided to make Friday night, one to relax, since we'd be out all day on Saturday. We woke up Saturday morning, went to IHOP for breakfast and then went down to Provincetown, otherwise known as "P-Town". I had already been, about 10 years ago, but Todd had never been, so we got there in time to walk around for a few hours. They have a lot of really cute shops and restaurants down there and since the weather was beautiful, we stayed down there until around 5. We went to an outdoor restaurant for lunch, and then went to a candy store to buy some salt-water taffy and some fudge. We even got a cape-cod t-shirt! But it was mostly because we needed $2 in change to feed our parking meter! We didn't think it was right to go into a store and ask for change and not buy anything. So, we got 2 "Cape Cod" t-shirts for $20 and $2 worth of quarters. On our way back, since I was the idiot who left my bathing suit at home, we stopped at Filene's Basement down the street from our hotel so that I could buy a bathing suit for $8.38. I could believe they still sold bathing suits - even better that it was so cheap! We went back to our hotel, took a much need nap and then changed into our suits to go to the "wave" pool. It was pretty cool actually! They had a large hot tub, a pool that every few minutes would make waves, and they had 2 slides! Since I am not one for water sports or slides, I held back while Todd went down the slide. After about 10 minutes of watching kids who were 1/2 my size and probably 15-20 years younger than me, go down the slides with no fear at all, I couldn't NOT go down. So, not only did I go down once and realize how laim I was being for being scared, but I went down again!! We went back up to the room, showered, and got ready for dinner. After all, it was already 8 and I was again starving!
We went down the street to a place called Sam Diego's - a Mexican place which was pretty good. Our plan was to have dinner and then go back to the hotel to the Jazz club and have a few drinks. In the middle of dinner, I got a headache that was only getting worse. We went back to the hotel around 9:30 so that I could take some tylenol and about a 20 minute nap just so my headache would go away. We lay down for what I had every intention of being 20 minutes. The next thing I knew, it was 1:30 in the morning and I was still in my clothes! I changed into my pajamas and went back to bed and we woke up around 9:30. I guess we were tired!! We got up in time to check out at 11 and since my aunt and uncle live about 20-25 minutes away from Hyannis, we decided to head into the center is Hyannis to walk around and have some lunch and then head to my aunt and uncles on our way back home. All in all it was a very relaxing weekend with perfect weather!!

T...G...I...F!!

I absolutely LOVE Friday's. It's my favorite day of the week and I think almost everyone else out there enjoys them too. They don't always come too quickly, but when they get here, boy, are they great. I don't know how, but this wek in particular seemed to fly by! Monday night, Todd and I attempted for the second time, to make our own Sushi. The first time we tried, we ruined the rice. We kind of went by our own directions and it came out like paste. It was really gross and ended up throwing it all away. So, we tried again this week and although the rice came out better since we bought a different brand and actually followed directions, it still didn't come out the way it's supposed to. It was a little too sticky and the seaweed wraps were too big. Apparently you're not supposed to use the whole thing, and since we did, there were 2 layers of really sticky rice when there should have been just one. Todd got some fish to put in his, while I got some avocado, asparagus and cucumber. It would have been great if it came out right, but I think from now on, we'll be ordering in or going out for sushi! Tuesday night, Todd had his realtor over since we are in the process of putting our condo's on the market. It's a tough market out there... I know I'm not the only one who thinks this either. I don't even know that our places will sell sooner than later or if they'll even sell at our asking price. When we bought our places, the market was great, but now... not so much. Wednesday, Todd was supposed to go to his guitar lesson, but it was a rescheduled for next week. I met up with my mother, my cousin who is in from Kansas (no, her name is not Dorothy), my grandfather (who will be 95 in May, and doesn't look a day older than 80, and the woman who takes care of him. We went to Bernard's in the Chestnut Hill Mall and had some great Chinese food. Thurday, I met a friend for dinner, we went to Pho Pasteur in the Atrium Mall - that was yummy! I got a Lo Mein dish with vegetable medley, and she got chicken noodle soup. After dinner with my friend, I came home and did a load of laundry. I watched 'Till Death with Brad Garrett and thought it was hilarious - I highly recommend it! I needed clean clothes in order to pack for my trip to the Cape with Todd! He surprised me on our 1-year anniversary with a trip to the cape for this weekend and I cannot wait!
We're staying at a hotel and we don't have any plans all weekend, which I love. We were going to go to the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory, but they are closed on the weekends. That was not only a huge bummer, but it was sort of a disappointment. Cape Code is a huge tourist attraction and that's something I'm sure people want to see, like Todd and I, on the weekend. They are only open M-F, 9-5. Quite silly and inconvenient, if you ask me. Now we're on the hunt for something else to do. I was going to suggest a whale watch, but not only do I not like swimming in the ocean
(I know we wouldn't be doing that...), but being on a boat in the middle of it does not make me feel any better, especially considering we'd be surrounded by whales, possibly. So, maybe we'll just stick to our "wave" pool at our hotel, or not. Either way, I will hapily report back on Monday.

Oh Baby!

Every day, I read Boston.com... it's my homepage at work and at home. I always come across the weirdest article's. They have "Odds & Ends" at the bottom of the page which are always interesting to read and then the regular stories of the day. I read it every day - it's where I get all my daily news stories from. Much cheaper and easier than subscribing to the Boston Globe, which boston.com is a connection to.
I recently read a story about a 36 year old woman who recently gave birth to a 14lb, 13oz baby boy. I only have one word for this one: OUCH! Luckily she had a c-section, but when she was interviewed she said that she had a lot of trouble sleeping at night and had to have help getting in and out of bed. Who wouldn't?? The woman already had 4 children ranging in ages from 3-13. You can read the rest of the story here.

Map Test

Yes, this is my second blog entry in about 5 minutes.. but I had to post this one. Here is a test that will make you think. Someone I work with sent this to me a few days ago and it made me realize how horrible I am at geography. According to the test results, I failed miserably. How did you do??

Being Friends with 90210

My new favorite re-run on the soap channel, is Beverly Hills, 90210. I was a huge fan when it was on the air and now that it's back everyday from 4-5 and 5-6, I have added it onto my season pass on my Tivo. If I don't get the chance to watch it during the week, I will try and watch them on the weekends and I have to say that it makes me realize how much I miss the show! In the episodes that I have seen, Brenda and Dylan are supposedly in England, living together, and Brenda and Brandon's parents, Jim & Cindy have moved to China when Jim's job was relocated. I have to say that I really like Kelly Taylor. Valerie is of course, the one you love to hate. Claire needs to stop nagging Steve and figure out if she loves him or hates him. In the last episode, she broke up with him because she stopped loving him. But I'm sure today's episodes, she'll have fallen back in love with him and will want to get back together. David Silver was the little freshman dork that turned into quite a hottie over the years and was constantly falling in and out of love with Donna. Brandon has always been a favorite, even though I've actually met Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) and Steve Sanders (Ian Zeiring), I do not dare post the picture I have of myself and Luke Perry on this website or any other for that matter. I don't even think a website would alow such a picture to be posted!


My other favorite re-run is Friends. Although it's only been off the year for about 2 years now, I still miss it. I don't think I ever missed an episode either - that's how much I love it! Phoebe is just hilarious, Monica is a competitive clean freak, and Rachel, well, she's a shopoholic who never stopped loving Ross, and wouldn't admit it until the very end of the show. Chandler is also hilarious... Joey is a sort of a female Phoebe ina weird sort of way. He's a little out there, but funny as all heck! And last but not least, there's the paleontologist Ross. Ross is truly a dork, but I think he meant well. I think.

It happened again this morning...

And I'm not quite sure if it's just a coinsidence, but when I got into my car this morning, which was parked on a one-way street, I saw a car coming towards me, in the opposite direction. I just don't understand it... I mean, my neighborhood is full of one-way streets. Most of Boston's side streets are. But there are others ways to get from where this person was coming from, to where she was going, without going down a one-way street. I only say "she" because I got a glimpse of what the driver looked like, and it was a female. The last time this happened, it was an older man driving. I'm not really sure why it bothered me so much, but I guess it's because it's the second time this has happened in about a month. And the last time it happened, it was a Tuesday morning, around the same time! I'm also a little curious as to what might have happened had I gotten in my car a few minutes earlier or someone else was driving at the the same time, towards her. Would she have pulled over? Would there have been an accident? I guess I'll never know. Or at least I hope not.

I scream, You scream, we all scream for FREE Ice Cream!

If you like free ice cream, then click here for a coupon and bring it to Brigham's. Brigham's is offering a small cup or cone of the featured free ice cream scoop of the day until Sunday, September 17th. You can print out a coupon every day until Sunday!

The day we will never forget...

Today is obviously a somber day for most people. It marks the 5th year after the worst terrorist attack in history. Although many people were not personally affected by this horrible tragedy, thousands were and still are. It's almost unimaginable how 5 years has already passed, when it feels like it happened just yesterday. I was watching the Today Show with Matt Lauer this morning while getting ready for work and he was interviewing President Bush. It was a little uneasy listening to the president answering the questions bacause he could quite get the words out, it was almost like he couldn't speak without having something written for him. Whan Matt had asked him if we knew what the president and his office knew, would we be sleeping any less. His answer? "Well, I'm not sure mow much you're sleeping now, but you would probably be sleeping a little less". It just makes you wonder how much we don't know and how close we are to another terrorist attack.
I was not personally affected by September 11th, but a good friend of mine from high school was. I was at work the day it happened, going about my day when a co-worker, who always had her radio on, came running into the main office of where I worked at the time. She told us that one of the world trade center towers had been hit by a plane and was on fire. None of us knew what she was talking about, and since we worked in a house, we all walked into the living room area and turned on the tv. There it was, the tower was on fire. We were staring at the tv, wondering what was going on, when we saw the second plane hit the second tower. I started to get really scared... what was next? Whoever was behind this, what would they attack next? After about an hour of trying to track down my father who was in Indianapolis that day, I finally got a hold of him and I almost didn't want to hang up until I knew he was home safely. He was supposed to be flying out the next day and since he knew that was not going to happen, he and his co-worker who were in Indianapolis on business, rented a car and drove back to Boston. I couldn't wait to see him and hug him and know it was ok. About an hour later, I got a call from a another friend of mine from high school. She had called to say that she had gotten a phone call from our friend Louisa, telling her that Louisa's father was in the second tower of the world trade center. Ann had dropped everything she was doing to go be with her. I had never met Louisa's father and didn't really know what he did wor, but didn't think he worked in the World Trade Center. That was because he didn't. The had gone for a meeting on one of the high floors and was there when the tower was hit. He stayed behind to make sure people were able to get out. That's just the kind of guy that he was... always thinking about everyone else before himself. Her father never made it out alive.
Her mother and brother planned to have a memorial for him in Connecticut, where they are from, but they wanted to wait it out in case they were able to find any of his remains, which they never did. The only things they did eventually find, was his wallet - everything in tact. Some friends and I went down for the memorial a few months later and it was almost more sad and more emotional than a regular funeral. Louisa, her brother, mother and father had gone on a family vacation the week before 9/11, so I guess you could say they got to spend some quality time together before he died.
My father knew someone who was on flight 11. Richard Rossm was someone who my dad knew from workand he called my dad and left a message on his cell phone while waiting to board his flight. He told my dad that he was flying out to California for a few days and would get in touch with him when he got back. My dad got the message later that day and got chills because he knew Richard had been on the flight that crashed into the world trade center. He didn't erase the message for a months after.
I think that even if you weren't persoannly affected by the 9/11 tradgedy, you were in some way affected. Everyone was effected. People are looked at different, people aren't trusted as much, you can't even bring shampoo and/or conditioner with you on the plane, if someone walks away from a bag for 5 minutes, the bomb squad is called and within the past hour, we've already had a breaking news story. "BREAKING NEWS: CNN is reporting that an Atlanta-to-San Francisco flight is being diverted to Dallas this morning as a security precaution. A flight attendant reportedly found an unclaimed Blackberry device onboard United Flight 351 and prior to take-off a bag was removed from the cargo hold for the same reason. --Developing"
Nothing will ever be the same again. Children who were born that day might not have a story to tell of their own, but I'm sure they will have been told stories by their parents. Other children who won't be quite old enough to remember what happened that day will always have a constant reminder. I was only 3 when we were hit by the Blizzard of '78... I don't remember a thing, but my mother still has stories from that day and pictures of my brothers and I playing in the snow that almost reached the roof of our house! It's a day that if if you weren't personally effected, or too young to remember, you were in some way affected and those children will be told a story or will know someone in their classroom who was personally effected by 9/11. Regardless, we will never forget.

Red Sox v.s Kansas City

My dad was able to score some red sox tickets for Todd and I for Saturday night. It was the first game for me in at least 3 years and Todd had gone to one a few months back. We had great seats, although if there is such a thing, a little too close. We were right near 3rd base, 3 rows back, perfect for when the players threw the balls in our general direction. But unfortunately, we did not catch any of the balls. That was fine with me... I never really got into baseball until about the year before we won the world series. I knew who most of the players were and I eventually started to ask questions about the rules of the game and found it quite interesting and easy to learn. Before that, when I went to the game, I could've cared less about what was going on on the field, but this past Saturday, I had a lot of fun and actually knew what was going on! Of course, now I only know a few of the players we lost in the 12th inning, but that's ok... we're used to it by now.

Wedding Crashers

This past weekend was definitely an eventful one. Friday night, my boyfriend Todd and I went to my friend Jodi's wedding. It was a nice wedding, although we ended up missing the ceremony! The wedding took place in Sturbridge at the Public House at 6pm. If you live in Boston, and you're trying to get to Sturbidge mass, which is a good 50 minutes from the city, you need to have left a lot earlier than we did. I left work at 4 and it took me 45 minutes to pick Todd up from work, when it would normally take about 20 minutes without traffic. There was traffic on the mass pike every few miles. We were about 10 minutes away when we nearly ran out of gas, so that took up a little more time. But ieven if we hadn't stopped for gas, we still would have been late. Todd kept on saying, "they're not going to start on time - there's no way. They'll have a 'cocktail hour' for a few minutes to give time for those coming from a distance" I was hoping he'd be right. As soon as we got there, the woman at the from door asked us if we were there for the wedding. Assuming there was only one taking place, I said yes. She then told us where to go but to open the door quietly. It was then that I realized it had already started. When we got to tthe door to the ceremony, not only had it started, but we had missed it completely! At first, I saw the back of the bride and thought there might be a chance that we were just catching her going down the aisle. But after walking in, and seeing the wedding party and guests following her, I realized they were heading back doen the aisle. I have never missed a ceremony before and I have to say it was quite odd, especially when I didn't know anyone but the bride and had only met her now husband once about 2 years ago. I felt like I was crashing a wedding! We waited in line for our place cards and proceeded to the open bar where we got our drinks. It was a while until we were seated since the newlyweds were having their pictures taken. My friend is not one to enjoy being the center of attention, so when they were announced as the new "mr. & mrs", they danced to their song for about 30 seconds and everyone else was asked to join them. Dinner was eventually served and we must have sat out tables for a good hour or so afterwards. They DJ was not doing the best job getting everyone on the dance floor. My friend came over to me and asked what she had to do to get everyone on the dance floor! I told her she had to grab some friends and start dancing, which is what we did. We danced for about an hour and then todd and I decided we had had enough, and it was time to leave. Afterall, we had a 45 minute drive ahead of us!

Pahk the cah in the hahvid yahd

Sometimes I forget just how close I am to Cambridge. In particularly, Harvard Square. It's really only about 15 minutes from where I live, maybe even 10 minutes if you go the back roads. The only bad thing about going to Harvard Square is the parking situation. It can be really tough at night and on the weekends. When you get there, you can drive around for a while looking for a parking space, even if where you are going, you'll only be in that place for 5 minutes. I've actually left and gone back home after driving around looking for a space - it can be really frustrating.

I was just there last week to meet up with my boyfriend Todd and his friend Marty (or Martin, if you will). I was supposed to meet them at 7:45, but by the time I found a parking space, I was about 20 minutes late. Todd and Marty were very understanding and I'm sure they had a chance to catch up while waiting for me to arrive. We were going to have dinner at the Border Cafe, but there was a 45 minute wait and we were hungry! We walked next door to Fire & Ice. For those who have never been there, it's an all-you-can-it restaurant. They have different stations to fill a small bowl. You take a bowl, you can fill it up everything from meat, seafood, veggies, pasta and more - all raw, and then you bring it to the grill that is in the center of the restaurant and watch them cook your meal. For those who are vegetarians, like myself, all ou have to do is bring your bowl filled with whatever you desire and then when it's your turn, you can tell the cook that you're a vegetarian and they will cook it in the back where there is a no-meat grill, just for you.

Todd and Marty had a lot to talk about because they both went to school together. Marty and I had a lot to talk about because we both have blogs. We all had a lot of fun talking about a little bit of everything and joking about when would make it on our blogs. We talked about how when you stop to let someone in while driving, and they don't say thank you, that it reminds us why we don't do it inthe first place. Sometimes people just don't appreciate it. We also talked about Marty's new glasses and how he's still not 100% sure that he'll keep his frame-less glasses. I thought they were pretty cool. So, I guess the places you go or the things you see can definitely give you all sorts of crazy idea's for a blog entry.

What will they think of next?

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An Apple a Day...

Not only is it the beginning of another, brand new month, but it's also back to school month. Although several schools have already been in session since Thursday, it still is hard to believe that another summer has come and gone. It seems like they fly by, probably because they only last 3 months. Our winters seem twice as long! It's time for already cramped and narrow streets to get more cramped and a lot narrower. It's time to add another level of patience and know that this is the big weekend and the busiest weekend.

Another note, today is also my 1-year anniversary with my boyfriend. It's very exciting! The year went by in a flash, and I have JDate to thank for helping me meet my knight in shining armour. He truly is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Our first date, was on a Thursday and I was working late that night. We were supposed to meet up at a place called Angora in Brighton for some smoothies, but we ended up meeting at Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbin for some ice cream. We just walked around for an hour, getting to know eachother. He then walked me back to my building and made plans for another date. A very busy year later, and hopefully many many more to come!