Wendy's trip log

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Another Weekend at the Lodge, April in Paris dinner and Dancing with the Stars; MVP.

April 7-8th 2018
Verona, NY

Mark and I have totally taken advantage of the Prestige Card holder Mark has become. (This is an honor only awarded to BIG casino players, and could be seen as PROBLEMATIC...maybe.)
At any rate....we have been enjoying the benefits over the last several weeks, and took another weekend to ENJOY the rewards. This time, we had a few changes in our plans.
We still stayed at the Lodge. Which is AMAZING!!!! I got another massage at Skana,also AMAZING we enjoyed the pool and hot tub, of course we did some gambling...but we also enjoyed a show and had a dinner from Mark's hostess (Natalie) themed April in Paris.

The views from our balcony of the hotel room. We were on the 4th floor doors down from the Presidential suite. (Maybe we would see one of the performers of tonight's shows.)

Still a little cold her in Central NY,,,,,is spring ever going to arrive?

After my massage and spa time, I met up with Mark and we had a late lunch. We skipped the buffet and had burgers and fries....with chocolate milk shakes. YUMMY

Some more gambling and a nap.(yes I needed one.)

Before long it was time for dinner.
April in Paris.....

Dinner was scrumptious.....

Good music...

and of course pictures set next to the Eiffel Tower.

I had gotten my new camera on Friday, still working the how to get the kinks out of using it. Somehow I had put the setting on auto and ended up with several pictures in one click. This went on the whole evening, by the time we got home on Sunday and I review the pictures I had taken over 650 shots. Several were of the exact same thing over and over. (I have since re-set the setting and can take one shot at a time.) These pictures were taken by the events photographer. She was probably thinking...what is wrong with this camera? Sadly the lighting is low and I wish the picture came out better. Should have just had her use my phone.I'm still trying to decide which one gives the best shot, for now I guess I will have three choices. My Cannon big boy, my Cannon little shot (I nicknamed him Freddy) or the camera in my phone. Oh well. Still nice.

Mark had picked up the tickets while I napped and we went straight from dinner to the 8pm show.
I hadn't even been all that excited about the show.....BUT WOW WOW WOW!!!!
If you have ever watched Dancing with the Stars, then you may recognize the three hosts of this show. I have not been a follower of Dancing with the Stars so I was not sure who was whom, but apparently these guys and one gal are pretty popular.

Maks, Val and Peta. (Here is the link to the PROMO clip.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbm_L2wJ8vA

We had great seats for the show....
As the show started out, I simply used my phone. The pictures looked great in my little viewing box, but now after looking over the ones from the actual camera, I am totally glad I have not decided to simply rely on my phone for pictures moving forwards. Sure its handy, and there are not 1000 settings and buttons to use, but I certainly do not like the pictures as much. Bet you can tell which are which.....

The show had a story line, so it was not just random dancing. It was Confidential after all, so the trio shared their personal stories.

Mark reminded me of our own "dancing with the stars" moment. Well not really...there were no stars, just several left feet. He and I took a ballroom dance class several years back. NOPE....not even close to the dancing we were witnessing right here. Thank you Mark for at least humoring me and taking the class. I'm not Peta and your no Maks....But we can pretend right?

They did a little number with baby strollers. (Peta and Maks have a 1yr old son.)

Peta told her story of ballet and reconstructive surgery of her ankle as well as her fear of never returning to dance. She instead found she had no pain in her foot when she wore the heals needed for the tango, ballroom dance became were calling.

She won competitions and traveled around the world participating in a show called. Burn the Floor. (Which Mark and I saw on our last Cruise.) She met Maks......

...and fell in love.

Val had a different story to tell. He did not verbalize it, but he showed it through the dance. There was conflict in what he wanted to do. Music, dance, writing.....(Perhaps he still does all.)

They all thanked there following and success. (below) Peta pokes fun at an audience member who has yelled out several times his profound love for her,,,,Maks makes a joke about how he is standing right there!

They do a bachelor and bachelorette PARTY...and it gets wild.

They found an audience member to come up and enjoy....

Then the wedding.....

Happily ever after.....

Apparently Maks sings too...(He needs to stick with dancing,)

A series from my 650 shots...I think they look awesome, but I needed to have some control of what I was taking a picture of. While watching the show I simply just let the camera take the shots. It was taking like 10-15 shots at a time depending on how hard I pressed the button. In this series it looks pretty cool.

Then they say the goodbyes and thank you's.....

They invited us all up to dance with them. This was when using my phone would have been the best shots....but my phone decided to inconveniently UPDATE....WTH!!! So taking quick shots up close with my camera on over dive shot did not turn out as well as I would have liked.

Anyways...the SHOW WAS INCREDIBLE!!! I was impressed and what a wonderful day. We ended it back in our amazing room at the lodge with a dream catcher at the end of our turned down bed. Awe....sleep was welcomed.

On Sunday morning I made it up in time to use the facility gym....

And after I had the pool and whirlpool all to myself....(views from my lounge chair.)

Another wonderful weekend.......now back to reality. Two more classes, a paper to write, some work to do.....a house to clean,,, some more work...some packing....some camera perfecting and my next adventure awaits..... A girls ROAD TRIP to Orlando Florida to visit Micky Mouse!!!!!! I can't wait!!!! TTFN!

Monday, April 2, 2018

Goodbyes, Birthdays and Easter!!!!

Easter weekend
Central NY
March 30th-April 1st 2018

Despite feeling hopeful about my new position at work, there has been talk /rumor about people looking for new jobs, people leaving and a general sense of negativity for the work experience. Truth be told, "the powers that be" which would include governing agents such as Federal and State. Make the already difficult position of working with challenging people even more challenging with the continued increase in paperwork demands. Must I remind myself why I had left the clinical world in the first place. (Paperwork).
Now I am not at all insinuating that there should not be some degree of work accountability, as this is what paperwork offers to prove, but I have to ask myself...just where did the HUMAN part of HUMAN service go?
Humans do NOT work like a computer program, agenda changes, people do not always corporate, other things are more important, life does not STOP for real life individuals simply because you need to have them sign some review of goals that change so often it would be a 24 hour monitor to update. Real people do not care that the deadline was weeks ago, or that there is a new program needed to be reviewed, an update on a wellness/crisis plan, or a phone call to the insurance company must be made. I know I do not live like that....
Thank Goodness no one is monitoring my goals on a 6 month rotation. I have had the same "Loose Weight" goal going on 30 years now.
Anyways...the pressure has presented some prompts for movement within the agency and several people are changing positions and leaving. Our friend Dan has taken leave and we had a goodbye celebration at Stella's Diner on Friday afternoon.

Earlier in the week at the staff meeting, saying Goodbye to Dan. Then later on Friday at Stella's for lunch.

Paperwork What???? When you work with such GREAT people, the hard stuff doesn't seem so hard.

Saturday blessed us with a Family Birthday meal at Texas Roadhouse.

It was Nick's 25th on April 1st and as it was also Easter on the first, we celebrated on Saturday.

We had a few missing guests. Mark and his mother were out at Turning Stone, Gavin my youngest was still asleep (teenagers) and Nick's girlfriend was at home prepping for their family Holiday.
We had enough in our party to take up an extended table however.

Happy Birthday to my first born.

He was even (after several prompts) to sit on the Birthday saddle and let the restaurant sing to him.

I gave Alexis' boys their Easter basket as we would not be seeing them tomorrow. They seemed to really enjoy the bunny ears and the birthday blowers.

After our meal. Nick asked if we could get a cocktail at a local pub. The Gathering Place. He and I had one drink to celebrate his 25th year. It was nice to spend some time mom and son. Cheers and Happy Birthday Nick.

Here is my baby 24+ years ago....

There were five Baskets made for this Easter this year.(I will have to send Ben some gift cards.). No more egg hiding happening in my house. Still some children to welcome the Easter celebration.

My elder children received Amazon gift cards.

Originally, I had no plans for Easter, but we made a late decision to have brunch at the buffet. Turning Stone casino, here we come. Our party got smaller and Nick was the only child that made it. We still had a nice meal.