It's been a long weekend, and I'm almost glad it's over

 

I'll bet that RQS was feeling like this on her way home today.  On Friday, she had lost her cell phone, and we drove to Queens on Saturday to retrieve it.  Most of the remaining weekend was spent resting, recharging ourselves for the week ahead.

But why do I mention this?

My brother had a busier weekend than I did.  My nephew lives on the west coast, and my brother went out there for a competition my nephew participated in.  As expected, my nephew did well, and is preparing for the next step in his competitive career.  This meant that my brother didn't have the time to take care of paperwork I needed, nor did he have the time to recharge his batteries after an over-full week at work.  There was no way I was going to pester my brother for paperwork with the stuff he has going on in his life.  Instead, I made sure to talk about my nephew for 20 minutes before asking any questions such as: Did my brother have the chance to find my grandmother's death certificate? Of course, he also had an answer for my unasked question.  And we then proceeded to talk about priorities for the rental property we jointly own.

- - - - - -

When RQS finally made it home, she found something in her mailbox - jury duty pay.  Someone had pilfered the original check sent to her, so she had to file a claim for the money owed to her.  Now, she can afford to treat me to a fine dinner at l'Arca del Oro. (That's Mickey D's, for those who don't get the reference.)  She's in a better place than she was a week ago.  And now, I gave her a much more pleasant task than the doctors did last week - choosing a restaurant to go to for Hudson Valley Restaurant Week (HVRW).

Running to Queens for a phone

 

RQS has been discombobulated this past week, all because of a medical issue.  And that has resulted in a sort of mental fog which has caused both forgetfulness and clumsiness which have been frustrating at least.  Yesterday was the culmination of a week where the brain fog cost us both time and money.... 

- - - - - -

Our plans for the day were to wake up at 6 am, so that we could get to RQS's neighborhood by 10 am.  This is where we were to pick up her phone at the store of a fellow who found it.  So, when the alarm woke me at 6, I fiddled around a little, and then prepared to go out for the day as Marian.  RQS followed suit, and by 8:15, we were out the door and headed for Queens.  Both of us were relatively silent, as we weren't fully awake yet.

Arriving in Queens, we had a minor disagreement (do not stress that word, it was a light difference of opinion) as to where we had to go.  Thankfully, we had Google Maps to guide us - the store we had to go to was on the other side of the subway station.  If we didn't follow directions, we'd have wasted a few minutes getting back to where we needed to go.  So I parked the car in front of the store, and RQS came back with her phone and all of her cards.

We had time to kill before lunch with friends.  So it was off to the bookstore to have some coffee and to buy a book or two.  On the way, we had to stop at an ATM and get some money.  Luckily, both the bank we needed and the bookstore were in the same neighborhood, and we didn't have to drive too far before being able to settle down with a cup of Joe.

Next, it was off to White Plains. We were lucky to get there when we did, as they were starting to reroute traffic for a St. Patty's Day celebration.  (Why they didn't wait until the next weekend befuddles me, as it would have been March 15th, and not March 8th.)  This eliminated the cheap 2-hour metered parking that we wanted, and forced us to use the "expensive" parking lot under the building the restaurant was housed in.  Once parked, we met our friends and had a great lunch.  I won't say too much about this couple, save that they are as ethnically mixed as RQS and I, and that we have similar feelings about the world.   

Finally, we were on our way home around 3:30.  After a quick drugstore visit, we were home for the night.  And even here, the fog still affected RQS, as she lost some stuff she'll need to replace tomorrow. Let's hope that the fog has completely lifted when she wakes up in the morning.

This is how my car puts on mileage

 

Lately, RQS has been dealing with a few health issues.  Several days ago, a specialist told her that she had to go to the emergency room as one of her tests came in at ridiculously high levels. She was discharged the same evening, with new scripts for new medicines.  Given this visit to the emergency room, she has not been her normal self - the feelings of helplessness and feeling ignored by the medical professionals came back and hit her hard.  

While in the ER, the doctors rescheduled an appointment to get her to another specialist 3 months earlier than originally scheduled.  During this visit, the doctor gave her advice on what she should be eating (for example, kill the carbs) and how much exercise she should be getting.  As an aside, the 2nd specialist suggested that she should find a replacement for specialist #1, as s/he didn't pay attention to her when she wanted to discuss how treatments for her first issue would interfere/intersect with treatments for the second issue.

As you can guess, RQS was not "all there" for the second half of the week.  So, when she came up to see me, she had a "comedy" of misfortunes occur.  First, her scarf got tangled in the wheel of her suitcase.  Thankfully, her Uber driver got it untangled and tossed everything in the trunk of the car.  As she was dropped off at the subway station, her cell phone fell out of her pocket.  Luckily, she had her ID, some money, and everything needed to come to Croton with her.  But she was totally out of sync with her normal self.  While RQS was on her way up, my ex-GF Patty told me that her sister's wake would be tonight.  If I were to have gone, I'd be dressing as Mario and driving to Fishkill to pay my respects.  This would have been an awkward introduction of Patty and RQS.  Luckily, I wasn't expected to pay my respects, as they were keeping everything small.  So, I dressed as Marian, and picked RQS up at the station.

There was no way I would take RQS straight to my place, as she was ravenously hungry.  So, it was off to the diner in Peekskill for dinner.  While there, she contacted Uber and sent in a request for help. Uber didn't respond quickly, so I thought of something after dinner - calling her phone to see if anyone had found it.  Someone did!  So we are meeting him at 10 am to pick the phone up and say thanks.  But this means that we have to get up at the crack of dawn to get showered and dressed, so that we could be in RQS's neighborhood around 9:30 am, and then mosey back to Westchester to see friends (with me in Marian mode) at 1 pm.

It took until 11 pm for RQS to fully relax (or, as much as she could under the circumstances).  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, and I'm not looking forward to the drive....