Upcoming Adventures

It's hard to believe that we're already about a 1/3 of the way into February.  2023 has felt like a bit of a mixed bag for Eliot and me so far.  We've had the highs of a Disney trip and all of the fun and magic that entails, to the deepest of lows with losing Nana, to the normal things that life throws at you like having problems with our water system as well as our snow blower- in the middle of three storms in one week.

Thankfully, this week seems to be going more in our favor so far.  In fact, yesterday I was pretty giddy with excitement about everything that we have coming up on our calendar.  It's been a while since I sat down and looked at it... I'm usually popping in long enough to add something or to make a quick adjustment.  But sitting down and actually looking at it... it's shaping up to be an exciting few months ahead of us!

Just within the past week or so, Eliot and I finalized our plans for our upcoming trip out to San Jose.  We've had Patrick Marleau's Jersey Retirement ceremony marked on our calendar ever since we found out the date: February 25th, before the Shark's home game against Chicago.  We leave Thursday, February 23rd and fly from Boston to San Francisco.  Then, we're not flying home from San Francisco until late Monday night and we land in Boston on Tuesday the 28th at 7:30 in the morning.

Both Eliot and I are so excited to spend an extended weekend out there.  Not only will we be going to the retirement ceremony and the game, but there's also going to be a Sharks Legends Game on Friday.  We're pumped to see that as well as the new Tech CU arena, where the San Jose Barracuda now play.  There are rumblings about a Teal Carpet event before the ceremony and game... so we'll see what happens.  Eliot and I are also hoping to go to a few Shark's practices while out there.  

We're also excited to see his family!  All six of us haven't been together since last March during our trip to Disneyland.  So it will be good to visit with everyone!

This morning, my mother called to talk about her and Dad potentially coming down over the first weekend of March.  We've been talking about Dad and Jeremy going to a Celtics game that weekend ever since Christmas.  Of course, we didn't know that we'd lose Nana before then.  But as of right now, the plan still remains that they'll go to the game- while Mom, Eliot and I will hang out in Portland until they get back.  Then, we will probably all have breakfast together before everyone heads back home.  It isn't much, but it will be a nice break for Mom and Dad.  Plus, it would be nice to spend the weekend with them.  We don't usually see them much during tax season!

Looking even further ahead on the calendar, I've blocked off Thursday, April 6th through the Sunday the 9th.  Back when we lost Nana, Eliot and I were already on vacation, so he didn't take a day off from work for bereavement.  All along, I've been planning to have him take Nana's birthday on April 6th off to be with me instead.  We aren't having a memorial service or anything for her since it was against her wishes... so instead, I wanted to do something special on her birthday in her memory.

I've been tossing ideas around, but the perfect thing fell in my lap the other day.  I've been wanting to go see traveling Broadway show, and I checked the schedule the other day to see when it was in Boston.  I didn't love the seats still available at the Boston show, so I happened to check where else is was going in New England.  It's coming to Nashua.  And it's going to be there on Nana's birthday!

The entire thing could not have worked out any better.  Eliot always gets Good Friday off from work, and Good Friday is that Friday the 7th.  So now, I've got a weekend getaway in Boston and Nashua loosely planned out.  The Disney Animation Immersive Experience that I told you about is going to be in Boston then too... so we'll be going to that at some point over the weekend.  I'm planning to get Eliot, Jeremy and me tickets to the show in Nashua.  I'm not 100% sure what else Eliot and I will be doing and on what day, but we're going to get that scheduled soon.  Then, on Sunday the 9th- which is Easter- the Maine Mariners have an afternoon home game that Eliot and I are planning to attend.  So it will be a great weekend- we'll get to spend time with Jeremy over Easter weekend, and we'll get to honor Nana on her birthday.

And that's not all... yesterday, Eliot emailed me mid-afternoon to let me know when his EASTEC conference was going to be this spring... May 16th-18th.  I immediately blocked it off on my calendar.  He's planning to have me go down with him like he did last time.  I'm tickled pink because he wants to go with me instead of his co-workers, but I also get it.  He feels like he can be at the Expo as long or as short as he wants to be, since he knows that I'm perfectly fine hanging out at the hotel.  We also had a great time together having dinner and swimming in the pool at the hotel after his work day was over.  I'm really looking forward to it, because it also means that we'll be able to go to a few of our favorite places in Western MA... including the Yankee Candle Village!

As you can see, Eliot and I have got a lot of fun things to look forward to.  It's just working out perfectly that each event is in a different month.  We've got February, March, April and May all covered with something exciting to look forward to.  These upcoming adventures will certainly be a bright shiny spot on the horizon during some of these long winter days that feel never-ending.  °o°