June 11, 2006: The Day to Relax

I was allowed to sleep in until after eight this morning which means that I actually got an entire night’s sleep last night which was very much needed. I was totally exhausted last night from the week of working overnights and never getting a full night’s sleep and from spending the entire day yesterday traveling and walking and doing stuff in Manhattan. I really needed a chance to do some catching up.

I was the last one awake this morning and boy did I appreciate it. Oreo even decided to sleep right beside me even with everyone packing and getting ready to leave in the living room. I don’t think that he wants to be apart from me after his long, lonely day yesterday. It was a little after nine when the Tocco clan was packed up into Francesca’s car and they were all ready to leave. Min took her own car and I took Oreo in mine and the nine of us drove over to the Omega Diner for some breakfast.

We were quite the crows for breakfast at the diner. We had so many people that they shuffled us off to the back room that Min and I have never seen before. It took a while for everyone to order and eat. It was probaby 10:30 when we finally left the restaurant. I said goodbye to everyone and took Oreo back to the apartment. He needs some time to relax but not to be left alone. Everyone else packed into either Francesca’s truck or Min’s Mazda and they all headed for a tour of the Crayola factory in Easton, Pennsylvania. I have always wanted to tour the factory ever since they did a short documentary on it on the kids’ show “3-2-1 Contact” when I was young. But I have some work that I have to do at a specific time in the middle of the afternoon today and I can’t be away. It is probably best, though, because I can spend the day with Oreo. He would be very upset if he was left home alone again today. He is a very social dog.

It is a beautiful, sunny day today and I took Oreo on a short walk exploring the back side of the apartment complex. There is a tree and grass buffer against the houses to the back and it is the perfect place to take Oreo on a walk. He had a really good time. I didn’t need to do any extra walking today though. I got my fill of it yesterday.

I had some work to do this afternoon so I had to start working at 1:30. I didn’t have a lot of work to do but I had some and that was enough to keep be from being able to go out to the Crayola factory today. Dominica got home from the factory around 4:00. She had a good time but was disappointed that it was much less of a factory tour and more of a hands-on Crayola learning center for kids. They had a really good time, she was just hoping for a real factory tour. She said that it wouldn’t be a good place to go unless you are bringing kids but that it was really good for kids. She brought be back some projects that she had done and also some souvenirs from the factory. Her parents bought me heat sensitive silly putty which is pretty cool. And I got an orange Crayola golf ball and a carabineer and Dominica drew me a bunch of pictures too.

We were both starving by the time that Min got back from the factory so we went out to get some dinner. We had planned on getting Indian but they were closed. So we tried the noodle place. They were closed. So we got Italian from Bertucci’s in the same plaza. The food was really good. Dominica has never eaten at a Bertucci’s before.

It was 6:00 by the time that we got back to the apartment. We were both stuffed from our huge dinners and we were really tired so we decided to take a nap. Oreo liked that idea and came right in and lay between us being super snuggly boy.

We didn’t get up until 10:00. Then we came out to the living room to do some work. Dominica started working on her database class which has her using Microsoft Access to learn how to work with databases and I set to work on some miscellaneous tasks. Oreo set to work sucking on his new hedgehog. That must be his favourite toy ever. Good thing because it was $13.00!

My schedule was kind of in flux over the weekend as we waited to find out what I was going to be working this week. So far we still don’t know but we do know that I am working the overnight again tonight from midnight to eight in the morning. I don’t think that I am going to be doing any additional overnights during the week but that is just a guess. I could easily end up working overnights all week.

This coming weekend Dominica and I are planning on going down to Wildwood, New Jersey which is supposedly one of those super, massively touristy locations that is completely yuppy to go to in the summer. It is a little village of 5,400 people (smaller than Geneseo and just a smidgen bigger than Dansville) that sweels to over a quarter million tourists during the summer (similar to Disney World!) That is just crazy. And, as far as I can tell, there isn’t anything to do there. Just a beach, a boardwalk (that should be neat but only so neat) and cheesy carnival rides like you get in Mt. Morris or Nunda during the summer that no one really wants to ride on but when you like in Mt. Morris or Nunda you take what you can get. We have no idea what our travel plans are going to be like right now. It is about two and a half hours to Wilwood from North Brunswick if we don’t have to contend with vacation traffic. I don’t know when the roads will be bad so it is really hard to guess what the driving will be like. And we aren’t sure exactly when we will be there so we are waiting to find out the nitty gritty details from Josh. Josh’s marching and field band the Empire Statesmen from Rochester are in a show down there and we are going to see them.

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