Seeing the Doctor for a checkup and Vicki for lunch

 

Today, was a half and half day - seeing the doctor as Mario and Vicki as Marian.  I'm glad that I had the time between these appointments to both change my clothes and to do some more work on updating my cruise related blog.

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But first....

I didn't get much sleep the night before, as I had lost track of time.  So, when I woke up at 8 am, I knew I wasn't going to even to start moving until 9 am.  When I finally got moving, I shaved carefully (it would make things easier later on), and got dressed as Mario for my visit to the doctor.

Arriving at the doctor's office, I was surprised that they were running on time.  He had a new Nurse Practitioner (NP, in training rotation) in the office, and I was the guinea pig for the day.  The doc (as expected) read me the riot act regarding my weight, and I mentioned my headache (financial) in picking up the starter doses of both Mounjaro, then Ozempic at CVS.  (I will not spend $500+ for this drug, when it should be covered for a lot less on Medicare.)  So, they did some research, and found out that I should be paying $50.  Now, they are trying to determine whether my mail order pharmacy covers it, and at what cost.  Sadly, the NP was telling me to fight the insurance company on this, when I tried to get her to understand - I can only deal with so much frustration before anger takes hold.  She needs some real world time to understand deep seated psychological issues that I manage to keep from getting into serious trouble.  But I digress.

After leaving the doc's office, I went home to change into Marian.  It took me 30 minutes to make the change, and I left for the Chinese buffet "on the other side of the world" at 1 pm.  Arriving at 1:45, I sat down in the restaurant, and waited for Vicki.  She surprised me by choosing a buffet instead of a traditional restaurant.  She noted that both the appearance of this place and the quality of its food was very good - and she was right.  I'll go there again soon, when I can afford the calories.

Once we finished lunch, I drove home for the day, and was able to rest.... 

Boy, did I need sleep! But I wouldn't have done too much anyway.

 

Given that my nails were done last week, I plan to stay in Marian Mode as long as my polish holds out.  That means at lease another week in comfortable dresses during this heat wave we're expecting this week. Although I may touch up my nails during the week, I figure that I won't have to remove my nail polish until the week after next when I meet with the sleep doctor.

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This morning, I got to sleep at 2:00 am, woke up at 7:00 am, went back to bed around 9:30 am, and finally got out of bed around 2:30 pm. If you add up all the hours of sleep, I probably got around 10 hours of good sleep.  RQS and I had a text conversation while she was on the train back to NYC, and I found out more details of a drive home that made me want to prevent RQS from ever being a passenger in a car that has that friend as a driver.  (Let's just say that Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder have much more common drivers' sense than this friend has when behind the wheel.

By the time I got out of the house, it was too late for me to stop by the Greek restaurant to find out whether I left a sweater there last week.  So, after a second call from TCL for the day, I decided to go to hell with myself and visit the Chinese Buffet.  This was a mistake for 2 reasons: (1) Temptation to eat too much, and (2) the food has gotten worse since the last time I visited the place.  I should have gone for pizza....

On the way back from the buffet, it was time to call RQS before she went to sleep.  We continued over voice the conversation we were having via text messages.  And then, we started to figure out which restaurant we'll be eating at when we go to NYC Restaurant week.

Did I do much of note today?  No!  But I did catch up a little on my sleep.  So I don't feel guilty.  Maybe I should feel guilty about buying a dress from Target and another exercise dress from Macy's.  Couple this with a pair of culottes from Universal Standard that will arrive tomorrow, and I will need to figure out what I want to prune from my closet and put in a donation bag....

I'm glad I've had a good relationship with my neighbors so far....

 

My original plans for the day were to write about getting my nails done and having dinner with Vicki. Well, things changed, as Vicki was a little under the weather and I got up too late to do much of anything other than going to the buffet for dinner.  And yet, I have something crappy to write about.

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Years ago, water from my apartment caused a problem in the apartment below me.  I'm not sure of whose insurance paid for the repairs, but I know I didn't put in a claim on my insurance.  On New Year's Eve, RQS took a bath, and the water overflow caused damage to the bathroom ceiling occupied by my new neighbors.  Luckily, that problem was caused by pipes within the walls, and the co-op's insurance paid the bill.  Unfortunately, a toilet bowl overflow happened tonight, and I'm not sure of the status of the apartment below me.

When I got home from dinner, I proceeded to the loo to take care of a pressing matter.  (No need to be more graphic here.)  Well, the flush didn't get everything through the pipes, and I tried to plunge the toilet.  Unfortunately, after a second flush, waste water got all over the bathroom floor, and it took several towels to absorb all the liquid.  (You can guess I'll be the first to do laundry in the morning.) And this got me to thinking - did any of the waste water get through to the ceiling below me?  I'd hate to pay for any damages, as well as filing an insurance claim for the damages caused by the overflow.

I figure that I'll tough base with my neighbors in the morning, just to see what's up. Hopefully, they won't be too upset with me if there is a problem. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

A relatively quiet weekend with RQS

This weekend, RQS and I decided to go to the Eastville Comedy Club to see Janeane Garafalo.  RQS had gotten free tickets to the comedy club the week before, and we planned our weekend around meeting in NYC, then proceeding to Westchester for the next few nights.

As usual, I decided to park at Croton-Harmon for two reasons - I was leery of being late for a train, and there would be twice as many trains taking us home than would be if I parked at Cortlandt.  So, I caught a local train into the city, and made it to the restaurant a little bit earlier than expected.  RQS was comfortable with me meeting her in Marian Mode, and we ate out before the show at one of our favorite Indian restaurants, Ghandi Cafe, on Bleecker street. 

Around 6:45, we paid the bill and went to the subway for our trip to Brooklyn.  Luckily, the comedy club was in Downtown Brooklyn, a short distance from where RQS used to work.  We reached the place at 7:30, and sat down to wait for the comedy to begin.  The crowd came in, but the air conditioning didn't come on until the MC started with his gags.  So I wished I could have waited in another area until the room cooled down - which was 20 minutes into the show.  

Going to a comedy club is hit and miss at best for me.  I've found that most comics aren't that funny, and this Friday's performers confirmed my belief.  The MC was funny, but the second comedian lingered too long on a sexual act.  Then Janeane Garafalo came on, and we were bored by her rambling.  At least, she warned the audience about it before she started.  (As an aside, I had a short, pleasant exchange of words with her before I took a bio-break.)  It was a shame that I missed half of the next comedian's set, as he was the funniest of all.  At least the fifth person on stage was relatively funny, and we left for home after she finished her set.

The trip to Croton was uneventful, and we were both glad to go to bed - even if I had a hard time sleeping (as usual).

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Saturday came, and we were both very tired.  This was a day that I had planned to go to the bank, drop off a couple of donation bags, and then pick up some food for dinner at Uncle Giuseppe's.  By the time we got home, we weren't in the mood to do much.  But we cooked dinner and found some something lacking - there was no flavor in the sausage I had bought.  Given that a home cooked meal can be hit or miss, I'd call this meal as not even hitting the target.  Next time, I'll plan better.

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Sunday found us without energy.  However, we finally got all the financial details worked out for our California cruise and booked it.  (I'll bet that the travel agent thought we weren't serious about using his services until we booked with him.  He may have been burnt too many times by too many people comparison shopping, and wasting his time.)  Given that the only reason we are going to LA will be to see my uncle, we feel that using an Uber to get to a restaurant may be the best use of our money.

When the evening came, RQS suggested that I get dressed as Marian, and we went out for ribs.  Although RQS suggested Boston Market, thinking of the last time we wanted ribs and got an order of chicken instead, I suggested a nearby Chinese Buffet - and she loved the idea.  Two or three plates later, we were both sated, and ready for the bill.  She thought we had spent more for this meal than on Boston Market, I corrected her - we only spent $5 more (before tip), and got much more value in return.

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Monday came, and RQS had to go home.  I wasn't in the mood to go out as Marian on a rainy day, so I got dressed as Mario and reluctantly took RQS to the station to go home.  Arriving home, RQS said that her cats wouldn't leave her alone until they were fed - and that they both wanted her attention, as they probably missed her over the weekend....