Friday the 13th

It's Monday. I'm exhausted. Thank you, Mr. Lincoln, for having a birthday today, because I can't imagine having to go into work right now.
So, for fun, let's recap the trip John and I took last week through the Greater New York (State) and New Jersey area.
We left Thursday. Dropped Giuliana off with my parents, because of course, we couldn't take her, so we had to spend two days away from my Cupcake. More on that later. We headed to Albany to see a neurologist. It was Crappy Driving Weather. Rain, Sleet, WIND!, and some Snow, too. But despite nature's best efforts, we arrived in Albany on time, without getting lost, etc. Good start, right?
So all in all, this appointment, while uneventful, was, at least, an event. It happened, in other words. We showed up, on time, on the day they told us to be there, the doctor was also there, John got nekked (well, ok, gowned), the doctor came in, talked to us, John got dressed, we paid, set up additional tests, left. Easy.
Nothing of note happened at that appointment, really. The guy said that he doesn't think that John is having Focal Seizures, but, since we came all that way, and since he has already had every other test under the sun, we might as well follow up to officially rule seizures out. Basically what we expected. John is to have an EEG and an MRI of his spine to check for seizure activity or nerve damage. We have to go back to Albany for those.
We left Albany (without finding somewhere easy for lunch...where do these people eat?) got on 84 and headed for NYC, via NJ (I hate f*ing NJ). We were still hungry, and also needed to pick up some wine for John's family in Brooklyn (who we were staying with). I was hoping for an actual meal, with a printed menu, silverware, a table cloth, you know the kind. So, we passed up the thruway service area and looked for a promising exit. We got off at Catskill, NY. The tollbooth guy, so helpful like, said "yeah, on the right" when I asked him if there might be a restaurant nearby. There was no restaurant on the right. Well, I should say, there were 2, but they were both closed for the season. So, we turned around and went to the left, and drove a ways into Catskill proper. Cute. Not so big on restaurants either, though. We did find a little liquor store, which carried Upstate NY wines (even ones that I have had and approve of), so check! one item off the list. But the only restaurant that was open had $10 appetizers, to START with. So, we found our way back to 84 and ended up eating greasy, cold service area food after all.
Anyway. I shouldn't be complaining about that, because our trip was about to get much more...adventurous.
On to f*ing NJ (as I lovingly like to call it). Crazy, crazy drivers in NJ. Did I mention previously that I did ALL the driving on this trip, as John was, and is, very heavily medicated and still in unbelievable pain? Well, we survived the traffic. Here are some scenes of NYC "whizzing" by (at 2 miles an hour) while we waited, and waited to get into the Lincoln Tunnel.



The Lincoln Tunnel? Is NEVER easy to get into. You literally take your life in your hands trying to merge from 4 lanes down to ONE, but then once you are in the tunnel, you better fly because no one wants to stay in there any longer than necessary.
Did you know that the Lincoln Tunnel spits you out in Mid-town Manhattan? I think I did know this, but had blocked it out in a psychologically protective move. And while we're on the subject...Mapquest can go to hell.
We got royally lost in Manhattan. We inadvertantly visited Times Square. We ended up going the wrong way on the West Side Highway. We drove casually through Up-, Mid-, and Down-town in an effort to find the freaking Brooklyn/Battery Tunnel only to drive PAST it because the flippin sign? Is right on top of the tunnel exit, all the way in the LEFT lane, while we were all the way in the RIGHT lane. So, we took the Brooklyn Bridge, which we didn't have directions for. Oh, and we drove past the WTC site. Here was our view.


Once we made it to Brooklyn, and John called his cousin for directions, we found their building pretty easily. Things started looking up, too, because we found a parking space directly in front of their building, which is unheard of in that part of the city. It was 8pm by the time we arrived (we exited the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan at 6:30pm, so that gives you an idea.) I was graciously given two glasses of wine. Thank you! We spent some time chatting with John's Aunt Stacey, who I had not previously met (she's divorced from his uncle) and his cousins Tommy, Jeanine and Michelle. Soon, we fell, exhausted, into Jeanine's comfy bed. This was the first night in weeks that John and I have slept in the same bed (due to his pain issues, not anger) so that was nice. I woke up around 7am out of habit. I had the place to myself, as Stacey had already left for work, Tommy had gone home the night before, and Jeanine and Michelle slept in. I took time to enjoy a cup of coffee and bask in a sunny, warm Brooklyn morning.


(Kristina, this one's for you, I knew you would fall in love with this old, awesome oven in this sunny, cool kitchen!)


Also, (I swear I was NOT snooping in the medicine cabnit, I was looking for toothpaste!) I saw a medicine bottle with Stacey's full name on it and fell in love. Anastasia Giglio. I am soooo adding that one to the baby name list for future little Giglios. (No, I am NOT pregnant.) I ran it past John, he didn't know that was Stacey's full name, and he loved it too. Moving on.
I enjoyed the morning to myself. But when John woke up he was in a lot of pain. The day before had really worn him out. We had been planning on leaving for his doctor's appointment early enough to park at the hospital and take the subway back downtown to Little Italy to get some food and maybe do a little Valentine shopping. Jeanine and Michelle planned on coming with us to prevent another Lost episode. But, John was in so much pain that he could barely make it off the couch. So, we just hung out in that incredibly sunny, beautiful living room for most of the morning. I printed new, Jeanine approved driving directions to get out of Manhattan (and back into f*ing NJ) without anymore nightmarish tours of the island. At 1pm it was decided that we really needed to get moving to be able to grab some lunch and still make it to John's doctor's appointment at 3pm (for the record, milage from the Brooklyn apartment to the doctor's office...5 miles. We left 2 hours early. How do people live like this?) Jeanine and Michelle assured us that we could, in fact, get better Italian food in Brooklyn since we were in an italian neighborhood. We drove around the corner and two blocks up and stopped at a random pizza place. This was the spread they had out for lunch.



You are looking at (a small sampling): chicken piccata, calamari, shrimp scampi, roasted vegetables, breaded artichokes, ziti, bruschetta. Oh, and pizza. Lots of pizza.
This is John's idea of HEAVEN. And I had to talk him into eating a slice of pizza. He didn't think he could eat ANYTHING because he felt so crappy. We ended up only having some pizza (which was so thin you could practically see through it, except for all the yummy sauce and CHEESE!) and the BEST bruschetta I have ever had (I really should have taken a picture of this beautiful bruschetta.) YUM!!
We left for The City. And hit standing traffic trying to get out of Brooklyn. Sigh. Skip ahead an hour, and we made it to Presbyterian Hospital with 15 mins. to spare. Perfect. Jeanine offered to just drive my car around while we went up to the appointment to avoid either a): spending $50 on a parking garage, or b): driving around for an hour looking for metered parking. Very nice of her. So, we got out and went up to see this GI that John has been looking forward to seeing with equal parts of hope and apprehension. We both feel that if an answer is to be had, it will probably come from either her, or whoever she refers John to. So, needless to say, we were both nervous and invested in this appointment. Only, as the receptionist assured us, we would need to hold that thought for another month, because our appointment is not Friday, February 13th. It is Friday, March 13th. Now, I promise you, when I made that appointment a few weeks ago, I was told FEBRUARY 13th. Because I double checked with the woman on the phone. And she said yes, FEBRUARY. But, you really don't have much choice when you are standing at the reception desk on 2/13/09 at 3pm and the surly receptionist points out that you are, according to her computer, a fool who is a month early for your appointment, and how stupid are you anyway? You know, I have never invested much energy into the whole Friday the 13th drama. But now, with TWO Friday the 13ths in a row...I am nervous for next month. I am not even going to go into all the bad juju that might happen when we venture back down next month for our actual (it damn well better be!) appointment.
Needless to say, both John and I were royally pissed off and depressed leaving the office. Double Sigh. But what else could we do but come back?
So, Jeanine and Michelle got out, after giving us much needed hugs, and headed for the train back to Brooklyn. And John and I headed out of NYC. Oh traffic. I hate you. Yeah, we weren't the only ones heading out of NYC on a Friday afternoon. But, as I am getting way to experienced at driving in crazy ass traffic, we didn't get lost, or hit, and did actually make it out of the city (via the GW Bridge this time, not, thank God, the Tunnel) and back into f*ing NJ in one piece.
As we merged onto 17W in Paramus, f*ing NJ, there was a holy light...and this:


and John said since I had been such a good girl all week, and since he had eaten a few handfuls of pills, that we could stop. YIPEE!!
An hour and a half later (and $150):



IKEA. I love you so. And my husband, who was an IKEA virgin, and who HATES to shop, even said that he could see the draw, the love that is IKEA. And he said we can go back some day for a kitchen :) Double YIPEE!
We picked up a little red rocking chair for G's valentine. She loves it.


So, we also had to stop at John's Uncle Jimmy's restaurant in Rock Hill, NY to pick up a pan of eggplant parmasean for John's dad. Yes, I'm serious. Then we went to their house to eat our dinner and chat. You cannot drive past Uncle Jimmy's without stopping to eat and chat. It is not done. Even at 8pm when you haven't seen your daughter in 2 days, have had a horrible trip, are tired, and still have 2 more hours to drive.
We arrived at my parents' house at 10:30pm to pick up our sleeping little girl. She woke up and was mildly (ha) unhappy about it. We took her home. She fell asleep in the car. And so I woke her up again getting her out of the car and into bed. Which would have been ok as she really wanted to go back to sleep. But when I was rocking her, her diaper leaked. Which NEVER happens. She soaked through her onesy, her jammies, her blankie, and me. At 11:30pm. Sigh. So, I changed her, and had to take away her blankie. All of which woke her waaaaaaaaaaay up. And so then we rocked, and rocked, and had a bottle, and rocked, and finally I just took her to bed with me because my husband was going to sleep on the couch anyway. And of course she didn't fall easily asleep there either. So, I (did not) got a LOT of sleep after such a crappy, long, stressful, muscle knotting trip.
Friday the 13th. Yep, that's about right.