Pictures of my NYC trip

ok, so here are a few pictures of my New York City trip. I finally figured out the picture part of this. Aren't you proud of me? :) During the day, we took a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and walked around Manhattan, and through Little Italy and Chinatown. We had an evening out down on Broadway, with a fancy dinner at Serafina's, and second row seats for the Broadway show, Chicago. One of the actresses tossed me the rose I'm holding in one of the pics.

Spring has sprung!!!

Wow, what a wonderful week, at least weather-wise! It's been gorgeous! Up to the 80's for several days now, and 90's today! Shorts and tank tops are out, and everyone is enjoying getting out in the sun. I've had to work every day, but I've started pulling my camping chair out and sitting outside reading between customers. A little bit of sun is a good thing. Just wish I tanned more than burned. Ugh. Oh well, it's well worth it.
My insur. company decided not to pay for some of my medical bills. Unfortunately, they've decided to stop covering the massages. Bummer! :) But the worst thing is they aren't covering chiropractor either, and those were both things helping me tolerate the pain, and therefore avoid going to the ER more often. I've looked into getting a lawyer, but it's overwhelming, and from the looks of it, not going to help me much. Hmmm. Gotta keep working on that end of things, I guess.
I am sooo excited to have some friends coming to visit this year. So I'm looking forward to June, July, and October. I'm also trying to get to Alaska, maybe in August, so there is potential for a busy summer and fall.
Work has slowed down even more, and it is rather boring now. I'm hoping that with the good weather, people will start to get out more. I took the afternoon off today, and have to get my car in to the garage now. The front brakes and rotors need changed. Ouch. I think I'll have him change the oil while he's at it, since it's been almost 11,000 miles since the last one. Oops.

Ben, Sarah, and Caleb's visit, and the week in general

After a week of doing all sorts of things, Ben, Sarah, and Caleb left on the 16th to head home to Spokane, WA. Caleb is adorable! I was able to hold him on a couple occasions, and he is the sweetest little guy! He has huge eyes, and doesn't miss much.

We were able to enjoy a Seder meal at the church with many others, which was really neat. A lot of people participated, and it was meaningful for all.
We took a day to tour Howe Caverns with the Phippens and many of our family. So much fun, and I was able to get some really good pictures. Caleb was content the whole time, and our crew thoroughly enjoyed it all. We drove our tour guide insane with questions he couldn't answer and comments to his monologue that he couldn't counter. Poor guy, but it was pretty funny. The stalactites and stalagmites kept even the youngest enthralled the whole time.
Afterwards, we went on to see the college mom went to years ago. The trip back became an adventure when mom got us lost and the hour trip took almost 3 hours. We teased her to no end, but unfortunately, after sitting so long in one position, my pain level increased rapidly, and by the time we made it home I could barely walk.
After 2 hours of every muscle seizing up and spasming almost continuously, we decided my medications weren't going to work, so mom took me to the Bennington ER. They got me into a room quickly, but it took awhile till the doctor came in. He did x-rays and drew blood for tests. While the gal had the needle in my arm, another episode of spasms hit hard. The nurse was on top of things and jumped right in, jabbing my other arm to get the dilaudid in quickly. Thankfully, that worked to start bringing it down, and after another dose shortly after, the pain was back to tolerable. And of course, I was feeling loopy. When the tests came back and he was convinced that I'd be ok, the nurse discharged me, and we headed home. It was the shortest trip so far, only there for 5 hrs. Talk about an exhausting evening!
Easter morning was beautiful, though a little chilly. My aunt, uncle and cousin came over for Easter dinner, and we shared the afternoon. One of the few days the Coffee Connection is closed each year, so I was able to enjoy the whole day without thinking about work!

NYC Aug 2008

Last August I took off after work one Friday and drove down to New York City for the weekend. An older couple who are customers at the coffee shop had invited me down to stay with them, so I decided I needed a day or two off and wanted to see the city. They have a gorgeous house in Mount Kisco, and Richard knows pretty much everything about the city. One of the reasons they wanted me to come was to meet their son, so he came over Fri night to barbecue and hang out. We got along great, and had a great evening. He made the best filet mignon I've ever tasted! On Sat, Richard and Susan took me to the city, and we played tourist. I'm still amazed at all we did and saw through the course of the day. Everything from a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty to walking down Wall Street, Times Square, and Broadway to 2nd row seats to see Chicago on Broadway. Meals were fancier than I've ever imagined, with 3 or 4 courses. It was an experience I'll never forget! The weather was perfect, and I got some amazing pictures! We didn't get home till after 1am. Sunday I got the grand tour of the area, and then Richard took me down to his office, which is when I began to understand how they could afford to treat me like a queen the whole weekend. His business is doing extremely well, and their clients are all rich and/or famous. Pretty neat to see how he puts everything together. I drove home that afternoon, and was back to work the next morning. The trip was well worth the drive.

Washington, Idaho, and Alaska vacation

Last January I took a 3 week vacation made possible by a customer who is a pilot, and offered me a couple tickets. So I flew, standby, to Spokane, and spent a week and a half visiting friends all over WA and ID. It was great to see everyone, and I was kept extremely busy meeting up with all my favorite people in the area. Lots of coffee shops, walks, and hanging out with friends. I was stranded for a couple extra days (the joys of flying standby) but finally flew to AK for the last week of my vacation. I flew into Homer and had a relaxing and wonderful time with the Early's who are like family to me. We played tourist some, but mostly hung out, watched movies, and slept. Tracy was off work, because of her pregnancy, so even though Matt had to work most days, I was able to spend a lot of quality time with both of them, which I desperately needed. We even went to Matt's parents' house for dinner and to make kettle corn. That was definitely a highlight for me, and I loved them! No wonder Matt turned out so well! :) Matt and Tracy drove me up to Anchorage for my flight out. It was a 6hr drive, and the scenery was amazing! The snow covered mountains were gorgeous, and it was a sunny, perfect day for the drive. After stopping for donuts at the best bakery ever, we had time to go shopping for quite awhile and eat out at a Chinese restaurant in Anchorage before they dropped me off at the airport. All in all, it was a great trip, and I was refreshed and ready to work again when I got back.

Summary of my life here the first year or two

Ok, so we'll see how this works. I've been here for almost 4 yrs now, and just realized that this might be a good way to keep people up to date (a little slow, I know). Ben and Sarah had a good idea.
Ok, so I arrived in NY on August 1, 2005, and we spent the first 5 months working as fast as possible to get the coffee shop up and running. A lot of backbreaking work to get the lot ready, but very rewarding, since we could see the progress as we did it. Frustrating too, but that was mostly the paperwork side and dealing with the planning and zoning boards in order to get approval. My dad, Ben, and I were the ones working full time on it, but the rest of the family jumped right in to help as well. I bought a car in September, which helped a lot. Mid-december we started training our first employees. A couple of them didn't make it, but 3 did, and stayed with us a long time.
We moved into my grandparents farmhouse, which is 10 min from the coffee shop. As most of you can imagine, I spent a lot of my time lost, trying to find one thing or another. After the first 3 months or so, I could get to the coffee shop and back. To this day I still get lost regularly, but not nearly as much.
On Dec 28 at 11am we got the final approval to open, so I opened at 1pm. We were thrilled! The next year was spent learning our customer base, trying to advertise effectively and inexpensively, and figuring out the ins and outs of running a coffee shop. No complaints, and most of the customers who tried us out continued and became regulars. Word spread fast in NYC and NJ, since 90% of our weekend customers were skiers and travelers from down there that have second homes in VT, and therefore have money and travel back and forth every weekend. The families quickly became attached to us, and I have had many bring me pictures of the kids, bake me goodies, and give Christmas and birthday presents. Each weekend I hear the update of how the kids did in school, sports, etc. Pretty neat. These past years I've had a lot of opportunities to make a difference around here. A lot of people come for advice, counseling (basically), prayer, encouragement, or just to say hi (with or without getting coffee as well). It's neat to see how even a smile can make someone's day.
There are up and downs in starting any business, and there are slow times and busy times, but overall, things are going well at the coffee shop, and people still love the coffee and the baristas.
In June 2006, I started delivering coffee to the local sheriff's department and police departments in the area, as well as to the National Guard recruiters. That has continued, and I have come to consider many of the officers and Guard guys good friends. I often work out or do my computer work at the armory, and we go out to lunch occasionally as well.
2007 was a trying year. Over the course of 2007 I was in a couple no-fault accidents (I'm pretty sure the deer hit me, rather than the other way around). I injured my shoulder a little in one of them, and so I started treatment for that. Unfortunately the doctors I went to misdiagnosed it repeatedly, and the treatment they had me doing was making it worse. Over the course of 2008 I saw a lot of doctors, chiropractors, pain management doctors, therapists, orthopedic surgeons, etc, and every month or so I was informed that they had misdiagnosed it again, and my treatment was changed - again. In August I was switched to yet another doctor, who immediately guessed that it was a nerve, rather than a muscle, as all the other doctors thought. So my treatment was changed again. In December we finally were able to do an EMG test, which proved his theory. I had stretched the spinal accessory nerve, and there is nothing that can be done to fix it. Supposedly it will heal on its own over the course of 10-15 yrs. In the meantime, all that can be done is pain management. So far my insurance has covered 100%. Since he is the only doctor who seems to know what he's doing, I've stayed with him, which unfortunately requires at least 1 trip a week to Amsterdam NY (over an hour away) for injections. I also have 2 chiropractor appts and 2 massages each week. And no, the massages do not feel good! So basically my life recently consists of work, and doctor appts during my breaks.