Beverly, Manchester by the Sea, Rockport

So it's time to post some pictures! Sorry for the lull. My first weekend here was settling in, my second I had to work both days at the hospital, and my third weekend was focused on Easter. I did manage to drive around a little that weekend, but I managed to actually stop and explore a bit this weekend.

It was a little cold on the beaches. Didn't realize it was icicle cold until the end of the day. Aw, frostbite.



This is Rockport, MA. Nice little spot of cute shops with some amazing views. I ate a lobster at Roy Moore's-- he boiled it 12 minutes in seawater and sent me out on the frozen deck to eat it. The butter was solid before the end of the lobster, but I wasn't using butter anyway. I've been ruined- it was the best bug I've ever eaten and it's only 25 minutes away!!!



Pretty rocks. I followed a ramp for divers to get this picture. People DIVE near these rocks??? Maybe DIE, but not DIVE! The waves were huge.



This is Singing Beach- a dog beach in Manchester by the Sea. There were lots of cute puppy dogs running around, but I chose the picture of the rock. I'm really into the rugged rock pictures right now.



And this is Manchester by the Sea. There were seagulls carrying shells high into the air, then dropping the shells to the rocks below to open them. Seagulls are larger than I would expect them to be-- they're about the size of a chicken. Wonder if they taste like chicken? heheheh.



Look, a seashell.



This is a beach in Beverly, MA. Small and rocky, it's still a nice place to go and think.



BTW, got a call from one of my very good friends today who is trying to get a ticket for me to see Spring Awakenings in NYC next weekend. Hi Lisa! Now you are mentioned on the Blog. I will blog the heck out of next weekend if you get me a ticket!!! :-) Lisa is one of my Baltimore friends who came to explore Boston last fall with me. I failed to blog the visit- maybe I was blocking out the miserable cold wet rainy nasty weather we trudged through. Or the chocolate covered pear that had the live maggot inside. Or the married guy that hit on me all night before introducing me to his wife (I still throw up a little in my mouth when I think about that). Could be a combination of all that! But now it's blogged and I'll have a reminder of that crazy weekend afterall. Thanks Lisa! Geesh, what I'll do for a friend. :-)

ANYWAYS.

Here's my favorite two pictures.

This is a picture I snapped out of my car window of the Twin Lighthouses on Thacher Island, Rockport, MA. They are the only surviving twin lights on the US coastline and were built in 1789. I never got another view of them, but the car shot didn't look that bad! Turned out to be one of my favs.



I spent about an hour and a half sitting in the cold on this beach near Rockport, MA. I found it by driving down every small road towards the sea until I found one that had public access. I never saw another person anywhere near the beach, and I just sat and pulled things together for awhile. I've been thinking over some life issues, as is apt to happen as one approaches a birthday. I've been dwelling my choice of traveling, my religion, my plans for the future- always a good time to look at yourself and take stock of what you see. I think the only thing that was decided when I left the beach is that I was going to have to head back to the car to avoid irreparable frostbite, and I will own a place on the coast sometime in my life.

Weird day

Today was weird.

Grandma had surgery on her squamous cell carcinoma. They think they got it all. She's home and complaining about having to eat soup for a few days. I stressed about her all morning- 89 year old diabetic going under general anesthesia. Not cool. But she's okay right now.

This morning when I left home, it was sprinkling. When I came out at 1pm to drive to the other hospital, it was snowing-sideways- so hard you could barely see. When I walked over to the hospital from my outpatient appointment, it was icing (not sleet- just driplets of ice). When I walked to the car this evening, it was sunny and maybe a touch too warm for the winter coat.

Strange weather day.

It's time to head to bed. Gym is cool. I did cardiokick on Monday night and something called Zumba tonight. Zumba involves lots of salsa-type dance moves to a really fast beat so you sweat. Looking around, I realized the only person stiffer than me was the little 60 + lady in the corner desperately trying to keep up. At least I got out and moved-- I pretended they must have had YEARS of professional dance training and I was doing just fine as an amateur. You know, instead of admitting that I've got dad's bad rhythm and mom's stiff hips. Maybe the practice will help me wiggle better. ??? Maybe.

First Impressions

I have cable, internet, I'm trying out the gym tomorrow on a guest pass (I'll probably like it), and I found a church. I've found a favorite grocery store, a Trader Joes, and a Target. The basics have been met!

My current job is split between two hospitals. I've already pissed off the boss at one by not being aware of an appointment and throwing the entire afternoon schedule off. I've resurrected my palm pilot and plan to pop in all the appointments starting tomorrow.

I've oriented to 2 separate hospitals in their outpatient, inpatient, and radiology areas. I picked up my caseload on the second day (pretty average for me) and I've asked relative questions. My co-workers are nice, but assume that I remember all my outpatient medicare/medicaid guidelines and I feel a little lousy reminding them that it's been 2 years since I had to keep up with all that. In Macon I had 3 outpatients to follow, and no outpatient evals due to the idea that they didn't want to build a caseload for a temporary person. I've eval'd and picked up 4 people this week alone and I'm not sure what they will do with the caseload I'm building- when I suggested limiting the evals I was told that that's what I'm there for. I'm not sure they've thought this out, but they are paying good money for me so I hear and obey. I'll do right by the patients I pick up and set 3 month goals so that there's measurable progress.

Beverly is a smallish town. I did find the water (finally) and have a great little walkway by a beach to explore. I drove by today- it was very windy and I did not dress appropriately for "blustery" weather. I'll be working for the next 12 days (1/2 day for both fridays and the weekend-- stupid paycheck cut off stuff prevents me from just taking a full day off). I plan on hitting the gym, doing some town exploring, and planning my roadtrip for March 22 (my next free weekend).

First impression? It's going to be a long 13 weeks. There's not a "group" at work. One girl is only there 2 days and we'll only overlap one half a day. The other girl is young, but nice, but has her own group I'm sure. We'll see what gym provides, but it's usually hard to find friends there too. There's some small colleges in the area, so the population of young folk runs about early 20s- and I'm a decade older. The neighbors are old and retired or young with kids. I think this will be my last trip to the north-- I think it's time to head west next. Baltimore was something special with such good friends-- and my friends down south from school are something special as well. How lucky I am to have found two such good groups of friends in one life. How lucky I am that they put up with my homesick phone calls! :-) I'll find friends here too- or strain a muscle trying!

Pictures will come. There's a graveyard across the way that is begging for some pictures to be take (though I was rather hoping for a nice dusting of snow before going for that one). There's the water. I'll find other stuff. Wish me luck!

Goodbye Macon

I start at my new job tomorrow morning, so I'll go ahead and say goodbye to Macon. My trip from Macon to Beverly took me past my brother's house to hang with nephews, bro and sister-in-law. I had a great, but way to short, visit with them. Friday I stopped over in Baltimore to celebrate a friend's birthday. The late night left me with 4 hours of sleep and 8 hours of driving the next day to Beverly. The new apartment is quite depressing and brown- a 2 story townhouse with brown floors, brown couch, brown and blue bedspread, brown EVERYTHING. I bought a red rug and 2 red pillows just to "pop" my apartment a little and today was spent hanging pictures and scattering stuff to fill the space. It's quite a large apartment and the furniture doesn't begin to fill it-- I'll also have to get used to walking upstairs to go to bed (as if it wasn't hard enough to pry myself off the couch!!!) Here's a few last pictures from macon.


A picture from the riverwalk in Macon,GA. Very pretty walk with strange dookie-like sculptures. Very nice playground for kids. I went here with a visiting friend (Adrienne) and decided that while I could go alone during busy times (weekend afternoons) it was a bit too isolated for afterwork or early morning.



Could not resist. Only in the south would the sign say "ya'll".


Ocmulgee indian burial mounds. Big weird hills with flat tops. I was on the tallest one, but couldn't manage to get it in a picture so here's a small one.


View of Macon from the tallest of the Ocmulgee burial mounds.

In closing, I was pleasantly surprised by the shear friendliness of the people in Macon and Gray Georgia. I enjoyed attending the women's exercise group with Melissa and crew, and Curves of Gray was absolutely wonderful (the owner, Kris, is wonderful to talk to and everyone was extremely friendly around the circle). The togo option at the Old Country Buffet was a great way to eat out. The Cox theater was a great source of good movies in comfortable chairs. And of course, the staff at Coliseum (especially the speech staff) were super friendly and awesome. My only regret is that while I met wonderful people, we didn't spend time outside of work and exercise- it's hard to keep track of people you "barely knew". There's not a lot of stuff to do in Macon, but the people there are quite friendly.

Here's hoping Beverly offers both a source of entertainment and friendly people. The hospital looks tiny from the outside but the job should be varied.