Hi all!

Can’t believe it’s September already! I’ll give everyone a round up of the last few months so I can catch everyone up on what’s happened and then I’ll follow up with a post on our week long, West Coast trip!

My brother moved out to San Francisco (hence the week long trip out there, as mentioned above) at the beginning of March. He got a promotion with MLB to head up the replay office out there…so, off he went!
I got 2 new tattoos. Back when I was in the hospital, my cousin (Annie) and her daughters (Amanda and Morgan) had discussed all of us getting a tattoo – same tattoo for all of us…something that symbolized/recognized my journey since the accident. 3+ years later, I finally decided on something to get. I already have 2 tattoos and was done with tattoos, but those ladies kept asking me when I was going to decide on a tattoo for all of us to get. So, I finally gave in and I decided on a tattoo for all 4 of us to get. The one that we all got is a symbol that loosely translate to…where there’s a will, there’s a way.

And then I got an additional one for myself. This symbol is the Swedish symbol for Malin and the loose translation is…you have to face setbacks, in order to go forward. I got this one on my neck, in white ink.
If you come across a different meaning for these symbols…don’t tell me! Mmm..maybe tell me…? I don’t want to end up like one of these people that walk around with a tattoo of a Chinese symbol/character and think it means one thing when it means something completely different! Luckily, the one on my finger is small and the other one is on my neck and in white ink…so, hidden…for the most part. =)
Ben had surgery on his nose. He finally got his deviated septum fixed. He’s snoring much less and when he does, it’s much quieter! It didn’t make the snoring go away 100%..but a vast improvement. Thanks Harrison!
Ben and I went to an NYPD fundraiser with some of my NYPD ESU buddies and while we were there, Ben bought a bunch of raffle tickets. He threw a few into each of the prizes…and what do you know?!?…one of our raffle #s was called! We won something! A pretty good something…Round trip airfare on JetBlue and a hotel package in Vegas! Since we had just been to Vegas last November, we gave our Vegas hotel package to Ben’s parents and we saved the RT airfare for ourselves. Pretty sweet! I, we, never win anything! Thanks for inviting and taking us with you, Bobby! XOXO
In May, we went down to Asheville, North Carolina. We flew down for Amanda’s college graduation from Mars Hill University. Asheville was nice. Graduation was nice. We did a lot of eating while down there. Fattys. =) CONGRATS again, Amander. Proud of you!
July is a month of events for us…Ben’s birthday, my birthday, and our anniversary. This year we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. 10! Ben made a reservation for us at the River Cafe, down by…the river…in Brooklyn. It was our fancy, adult dinner. =)
My dad celebrated his 70th birthday on August 24th! The big 7-0! We celebrated with dinner at Bowery Meat Company down in the Lower East Side. Here’s a pic of him after dinner, with his birthday dessert!
Did everyone see the lunar eclipse? We didn’t really, either…haha. We tried. We went to Fort Totten, which is about 5 minutes for our apartment, and attempted to catch a glimpse of the eclipse. Fort Totten is next to the Cross Island Expressway. It’s a former, active, military base that’s now a park that surrounds the preserved, Civil War fortress. We arrived with snacks and were ready to see the eclipse. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the proper glasses and didn’t realize that you needed the glasses in order to see anything eclipse related. I thought all the hubbub was that you shouldn’t stare at the eclipse if you didn’t have the glasses, but not that you wouldn’t actually be able to see it. D’oh! So we were standing around like a bunch of a**holes waiting and waiting and waiting…I was like, I have the timeline of the eclipse and it should be happening now…but nothing. And it didn’t help that it wasn’t getting darker. Luckily, there were people at the park with the glasses who were nice enough to let us borrow them and take a peep. The second we put those glasses on….Woah! What a bunch of idiots. Haha! Good thing we asked to borrow their glasses…otherwise, it would’ve been really anti-climactic and pretty disappointing. But, we had snacks! Can’t have a proper viewing party without some snacks!
End of August, beginning of September means it’s US Open time again! I signed up this year to volunteer again and was chosen. Due to the ongoing construction over at that tennis center, which led to the repositioning of many of volunteer booths, many of the booths were smaller this year. I didn’t volunteer at the USTA Membership booth this year, like I did last year, but but still had a lot of fun at my Subscriber Central booth. Hung out with some really nice, fellow volunteers, met some really nice USTA/US Open employees, and met some nice fans…except for one tool. Let me explain. Quick backstory first. Most of my and my fellow volunteers’ role at the subscriber central booth consisted of helping season ticket holders scan their subscriber card at the little scanner stanchion that was located in front of our booth.
So…I’m sitting in a chair next to the scanner stanchion and these two guys come up to our booth, who are season ticket holders (Season ticket holders have their ticket in a clear holder that’s attached to a lanyard that they wear around their neck.) and they start talking to one of the US Open workers in our booth. The two of them were probably in their early 20s, probably under 25, but at least 21, since they were drinking alcohol. As the two of them are chatting with the US Open worker, my fellow volunteer asks if they’ve tried to win today’s prize. He asks what prize? I tell him that subscribers/season ticket holders could scan their card once a day for a chance to win the $50 gift card. I ask if he has a card. He replies yes. Here’s where it gets good. He’s holding his drink in one hand and then reaches for his wallet from his back pocket with his other. Well, now both hands are full. One hand needs to hold the wallet and the other needs to get the card out of the wallet, but that second hand is still holding his drink. What does he do? He just hands the drink to me and waits for me to take it out of his hand…uh..excuse me? What the F***ck?!? No words, just hands his drink over to me. No – Can you hold this for me? Do you mind holding this for a sec? Or how about…just give your drink to your friend to hold OR just put it down at the counter that’s a foot in front of you?!? Since I’m “working”, I take the cup and then place it onto the counter. And then like 2 seconds later, his friends picks up the drink, takes a sip of it, and places it back on the counter. So oblivious. Back to the original douche…he’s scanning his card but it’s not working. So I ask him, “Have you registered your card yet? If you haven’t registered it, that may be the reason it’s not scanning.” To which he pulls yet another classy move…following my words, he just holds his card in front of me. Again, no words…just puts it in front of me and expects me to take it from him and take care of his problem. What is wrong with people? Learn some manners…you rude, oblivious mofo! Other than that, the Open was great! =)
I didn’t get to hang out and watch as much tennis as I would’ve liked, but that’s because we left for San Fran a few days after the start of the Open. Here’s a pic of my friend Wade and I…Team Orange! Thanks for helping me get food and walking me to and from my car! XOXO Thank you to Mary for getting me coffee from the lounge and brining it to me at our booth! And big thanks to Jaime and Hakim for helping me get to and from the parking lot to the gate!

And that concludes my recap of the last few months.
Stay tuned for my post about our trip out to the West Coast…complete with pictures! Post should be up by the weekend!
That will be followed up by a post that I’ve had in my drafts for a bit now. Spoiler alert – it’s going to be about how people suck…not all…but there are some special people out there (said with tone of sarcasm, a bit of side eye, and a smirk…) =)

Thanks for following, reading, and sticking with me!