I admit it, I do love a good pizza. And I am lucky to live within the boundaries of one the best pizza towns in the world. My own borough of Staten Island has some of the best pizza around.
I am partial to the classic pizza at "Nunzio's" on Hylan Blvd. in Grant City. When I lived in that community I often ordered their pies "half mushroom, half sausage." I ate the mushrooms, Bob ate the sausage. Unfortunately, once I moved to St. George I could not get home delivery. Last night I was at a meeting in Richmondtown, and I admit, I stopped at "Nunzio's" and got three slices of "regular" to take home and enjoy on my own.
You can always tell a good pie by how it tastes at room temperature. If it holds its flavor, it is a good pie. "Nunzio's" uses only fresh mozzarella, crushed tomatoes, basil off the bushes and has a classic Neapolitan crust: thin and crispy.
Many people on the North Shore of Staten Island will only eat a pie from "Denino's". My own daughter and son-in-law prefer "Denino's"...its pretty good. You have to buy a whole pie. They don't do slices, and they don't deliver. This means their pies are super fresh; a boast to a good taste. It is also a thin crust place.
Now that I am living closer to the ferry, I have tried both "Crispy Pizza" and "Pier 76". The former is fine, the later is superior, in my humble opinion.
Manhattan and Brooklyn have good pizza joints. "V & T Pizza" in Morningside Heights does a good classic pie. But if you want really great pie, head to "Grimaldi's" under the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO...and bring cash...they don't take credit or debit cards. There is usually a line, but it is worth it.
Chicago's deep dish pie is a treat if you ever go there. I know Chicago is a good town for eating steaks, but try to get to a local "Mom and Pop" pizza place to enjoy a good deep dish pie. And New Yorkers, keep an open mind about this. They can be wonderful.
I have had pizza in Europe. I had a surprisingly good slice in France...in San Malo, Brittany to be exact. A wood fired oven is a must for a good pie This little café had one, and their chef knew how to use it.
I had a great piece of pizza in Herculaneum outside of Naples...no surprise there; Naples is the home of the pizza. They had better do it well.
My recent trip to Rome was fraught with pizza disappointment, as the local place near our hotel served up a rather disappointing pie of less than stellar quality. Fortunately, we had a superior pie in a little pizza place near the Spanish Steps. Perhaps the fact that we finished off a half pitcher of the local red with it did not hurt.
So, don't be afraid to experiment with your pizza choices as you travel. Just, please, don't go to a "Pizza Hut" or "Domino's"!
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Ships and boats
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| Staten Island Ferry boat |
Just to to let you know, there is a difference between ships and boats. I know this because my late husband, a former navy guy, would point out the differences to me. He served on a ship...an aircraft carrier; his cousin was on a frigate, a boat, he insisted.
A ship is a vessel of considerable size for deep-water navigation. It is a sailing ship if it has three or more square-rigged masts. Ships ply oceans; boats do not. The word "boat" has two different meanings: it is a relatively small, usually open craft of a size that might be carried aboard a ship; it can also be an inland vessel of any size. During the workweek the harbor is dominated by freighters, tankers, barges and a fleet of hard working tug boats.
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| Ship and sail boat on the harbor |
Other ships are tankers. Tankers are ships designed for bulk shipment of liquids or gases. Most tankers that enter the Harbor are carrying crude oil heading for the refineries of nearby New Jersey. The closest one is in Linden, NJ.
Barges also show up several times a week. They, of course, don't really move on their own. They rely on external forces too push, pry, and navigate them to wherever they are bound. Not all of them are garbage barges, though there are some of those. I have seen cranes and other construction equipment shipped by barge; there have been over-sized art installations, tractor trailers and pieces of pre-built houses shipped by barge to Miller's Launch near my condo in the last month. Of course, they would not get here without their ever present escorts: the tug boats.
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| Moran tug boat |
There are at least four tug boat companies that work the harbor. They are not only busy during the week, but on the weekends they often escort ocean liners and cruise ships out to Sandy Hook. So these boats are ever present on the water, even at night you can see their white and red blinking lights and hear their deep horns blow.
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| Cruise ship leaving on a Sunday |
The weekends, however are dominated by the boats. The ferries shuttle natives and tourists alike in twenty-five minute intervals day and night.(We just got 24 hour half hour service approved by the city council) On Saturdays and Sundays sail boats and motor boats show up from the early spring to late fall. There is an occasional jet skier, but they are few and far between. I think one would have to be extremely skilled or overly cocky to take one of these out in the Harbor. I did see one actually cut off a ferry one Sunday morning.
Sometimes I wish I had a more "beachy" view, but there is always something to look at here. Now I am going to make a nice cup of tea and sit outside and see what sails by. I'll keep you posted.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Seen and Not Heard
Having spent the majority of my working life in the field of education, I have been surrounded by children for most of my adult life. Actually, I have been surrounded by preadolescents for most of the time, and they are a species unto themselves.
Now that I am retired and doing a fair amount of travelling, I often spend some time observing the behaviors of the children I see on my travels. I started doing this in earnest after hearing about a book written by an American mother living in France who noted how differently French children behaved in social situations as compared to her own American children. The French children, she noted, were decidedly better behaved and less complaining.
So on a recent trip to Italy, I quietly noted the behavior of the children and teens I saw around me. These are solely my anecdotal observations:
1. Teen agers all dress alike. Jeans, hoodies, sneakers and backpacks are the universal adolescent uniform. Rome, London, Stockholm, Budapest, New York City...no matter what city you are in, they all dress the same.
2. Extreme droopy drawers are an American phenom. The Italians just seem to have too much style to let their pants hang low. The British are just too hip to look so sloppy.
3. American kids tend to misbehave on the way to and from school. In Rome, we stayed at a tourist hotel near a transportation hub with lots of kids on their way to and from school. They travelled in groups, but I saw no bad behavior on the streets or on the buses during our stay. The only questionable behavior I ever noticed was in Athens when a group of Spanish teens made an offensive remark about our Greek guide, a pretty young woman. Unfortunately for them, many of us understood Spanish; one of the gentleman on our trip, a retired gym teacher from New York, basically told them to shut up and behave themselves. Which they quickly did.
4. Teen aged girls on class trips travel in groups of three or four and pout a lot. Teen aged boys travel in packs and laugh a lot...everywhere.
5. Children in Europe eating at restaurants with their parents stay seated, do not swing their chairs, roll on the floor, bang on pianos, nor run around the place willy-nilly. Unfortunately, I have observed all of those behaviors, and many more, in American restaurants, church dinners, stores, malls and cruise ships.
My over all impression is that European children are, on the whole, better behaved than American children.
Now, how do we fix that?
Now that I am retired and doing a fair amount of travelling, I often spend some time observing the behaviors of the children I see on my travels. I started doing this in earnest after hearing about a book written by an American mother living in France who noted how differently French children behaved in social situations as compared to her own American children. The French children, she noted, were decidedly better behaved and less complaining.
So on a recent trip to Italy, I quietly noted the behavior of the children and teens I saw around me. These are solely my anecdotal observations:
1. Teen agers all dress alike. Jeans, hoodies, sneakers and backpacks are the universal adolescent uniform. Rome, London, Stockholm, Budapest, New York City...no matter what city you are in, they all dress the same.
2. Extreme droopy drawers are an American phenom. The Italians just seem to have too much style to let their pants hang low. The British are just too hip to look so sloppy.
3. American kids tend to misbehave on the way to and from school. In Rome, we stayed at a tourist hotel near a transportation hub with lots of kids on their way to and from school. They travelled in groups, but I saw no bad behavior on the streets or on the buses during our stay. The only questionable behavior I ever noticed was in Athens when a group of Spanish teens made an offensive remark about our Greek guide, a pretty young woman. Unfortunately for them, many of us understood Spanish; one of the gentleman on our trip, a retired gym teacher from New York, basically told them to shut up and behave themselves. Which they quickly did.
4. Teen aged girls on class trips travel in groups of three or four and pout a lot. Teen aged boys travel in packs and laugh a lot...everywhere.
5. Children in Europe eating at restaurants with their parents stay seated, do not swing their chairs, roll on the floor, bang on pianos, nor run around the place willy-nilly. Unfortunately, I have observed all of those behaviors, and many more, in American restaurants, church dinners, stores, malls and cruise ships.
My over all impression is that European children are, on the whole, better behaved than American children.
Now, how do we fix that?
Monday, October 7, 2013
Living on the water
As a young urban kid, I looked forward to our summer vacations. My parents would rent a house in a lake community in Connecticut. We would swim everyday unless it was raining. I loved sitting by the lake and watching the changing face of the water as the day moved along and the light gave way to various shades and shadows. I remember the last of the summer nights in late August when the community got together for a big clambake that usually ended with a bonfire on the beach. We would look up at the Milky Way as orange sparks flew up from the crackling wood fed fire.
When I was old enough to go to high school, I attended a school that was a stone's throw from the boardwalk that faced the Atlantic Ocean in Rockaway Beach. I remember my entire Latin class gazing out the windows at the ocean as it roared and crashed onto the winter beach. Soon after I graduated the good sisters had the good sense to turn that particular room into a meditation chapel. In the early days of summer we would often just go onto the sand after dismissal, some of the more daring among us, having worn bathing suits under our Catholic girls' uniforms, would quickly ditch the plaid skirts and jump into the briny water. I learned to bodysurf on that beach.
Moving to Staten Island in the seventies meant that I commuted to my then bank job in Manhattan every day by train and ferry. It was, and still is, a wonderful way to start and end a work day. The ferry technically has no right of way in the harbor and must slow down or stop for the larger freighters and tankers that crisscross the harbor on the workdays. On the weekends, they navigate around departing cruise ships and liners while private motorboats and sailboats loopily circle around them.
Come to think of it, I have spent the vast majority of my life on islands. Even though I was born the Bronx, the only borough of New York City that is technically on the mainland of North America, I have spent most of my adulthood living either in Brooklyn...a part of Long Island or Staten Island. I like the smell of salt air. It reminds me of home.
So it came as no surprise, at least to me, that when I sold my big old house a mile from the ocean, I bought a condo that faces water. I overlook the New York Harbor, the middle bay area. I can see from Jersey City to the Atlantic Highlands on fogless days. I can see the trucks, buses and cars stream along the Belt parkway and watch them zip across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge...well, sometimes they kind of drag across the bridge, if truth be told.
And it is wonderful waking up in the morning and gazing out my bedroom window at the sun rising over Brooklyn. In the evening it is the moon that glows over Fort Hamilton High School. I get to see the intricate commercial comings and goings of this wonderful harbor town. It changes from hour to hour, sometimes minute to minute. Its waters are blue and green and grey and brown all at once and then it changes again and again and again. And then there are the birds: gulls and terns, pigeons, falcons, hawks, ducks, egrets, barn swallows, sparrows and starlings. They swirl and swoop in an aerial ballet that never ceases to amuse me.
I think I really like it here.
When I was old enough to go to high school, I attended a school that was a stone's throw from the boardwalk that faced the Atlantic Ocean in Rockaway Beach. I remember my entire Latin class gazing out the windows at the ocean as it roared and crashed onto the winter beach. Soon after I graduated the good sisters had the good sense to turn that particular room into a meditation chapel. In the early days of summer we would often just go onto the sand after dismissal, some of the more daring among us, having worn bathing suits under our Catholic girls' uniforms, would quickly ditch the plaid skirts and jump into the briny water. I learned to bodysurf on that beach.
Moving to Staten Island in the seventies meant that I commuted to my then bank job in Manhattan every day by train and ferry. It was, and still is, a wonderful way to start and end a work day. The ferry technically has no right of way in the harbor and must slow down or stop for the larger freighters and tankers that crisscross the harbor on the workdays. On the weekends, they navigate around departing cruise ships and liners while private motorboats and sailboats loopily circle around them.
Come to think of it, I have spent the vast majority of my life on islands. Even though I was born the Bronx, the only borough of New York City that is technically on the mainland of North America, I have spent most of my adulthood living either in Brooklyn...a part of Long Island or Staten Island. I like the smell of salt air. It reminds me of home.
So it came as no surprise, at least to me, that when I sold my big old house a mile from the ocean, I bought a condo that faces water. I overlook the New York Harbor, the middle bay area. I can see from Jersey City to the Atlantic Highlands on fogless days. I can see the trucks, buses and cars stream along the Belt parkway and watch them zip across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge...well, sometimes they kind of drag across the bridge, if truth be told.
And it is wonderful waking up in the morning and gazing out my bedroom window at the sun rising over Brooklyn. In the evening it is the moon that glows over Fort Hamilton High School. I get to see the intricate commercial comings and goings of this wonderful harbor town. It changes from hour to hour, sometimes minute to minute. Its waters are blue and green and grey and brown all at once and then it changes again and again and again. And then there are the birds: gulls and terns, pigeons, falcons, hawks, ducks, egrets, barn swallows, sparrows and starlings. They swirl and swoop in an aerial ballet that never ceases to amuse me.
I think I really like it here.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Cruising down the river..or on the ocean?
I wasn't sure that I would like cruising. The first ocean cruise I went on was to Alaska on the old Norwegian Majesty, which has since been sold off to some other cruise line. We flew from Newark at 6am to Minneapolis, then took a connecting flight to Anchorage. From there we took a bus on a two hour drive to Seward arriving at the ship thirteen hours later. We cruised in a southern direction for seven days stopping at Skagway, Juneau, Cordoba and Vancouver. It was a great experience, and I was hooked on cruising.
In the ensuing years I have cruised from NY to the Bahamas, Bermuda and Canada. I have sailed out of New Orleans in the middle of Mardi Gras week to Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica. Flying to the west coast I have travelled through the Panama Canal stopping in Costa Rica, Columbia and Aruba. From Florida I have sailed to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands; another time it was to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Tortola.
One of the best ocean cruises was actually not in the ocean but in the Mediterranean Sea. We flew to Barcelona and sailed to Malta, Naples, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Nice and back to Barcelona where we stayed for an additional two days. At one port we spent the day at a Tuscan olive farm and vineyard taking a cooking class, eating lunch and drinking local wine and lemoncello.
In May I ended by trip to England with a Trans-Atlantic cruise from Southampton to New York on the maiden voyage of the NCL Breakaway. It was relaxing, and the two best things about it were: no jet lag and clean laundry! Also, I hopped on the subway when I got off the ship and took the ferry home. There are good things about sailing out of NYC.
In 2010 we took our first river cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest. It was different from ocean cruising in several ways. First, the ship is smaller. Secondly, it pulls up right into the heart of town, which is nice for getting around. The clientele is older than on an ocean cruise ship, and there is no casino...which makes no difference to me, but others might not like that. There is always a morning walking tour included with your fare, and there are guides/travel consultants assigned to your group who help you navigate each city you visit. The afternoon usually has an optional tour scheduled...or, you can explore on your own. And the optional tours are reasonably priced.
I will be taking my third river cruise in November/December to the Christmas Markets along the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel with a stop over in Munich. I am looking forward to it, will be sure to share my thoughts when I return.
In the ensuing years I have cruised from NY to the Bahamas, Bermuda and Canada. I have sailed out of New Orleans in the middle of Mardi Gras week to Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica. Flying to the west coast I have travelled through the Panama Canal stopping in Costa Rica, Columbia and Aruba. From Florida I have sailed to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands; another time it was to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Tortola.
One of the best ocean cruises was actually not in the ocean but in the Mediterranean Sea. We flew to Barcelona and sailed to Malta, Naples, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Nice and back to Barcelona where we stayed for an additional two days. At one port we spent the day at a Tuscan olive farm and vineyard taking a cooking class, eating lunch and drinking local wine and lemoncello.
In May I ended by trip to England with a Trans-Atlantic cruise from Southampton to New York on the maiden voyage of the NCL Breakaway. It was relaxing, and the two best things about it were: no jet lag and clean laundry! Also, I hopped on the subway when I got off the ship and took the ferry home. There are good things about sailing out of NYC.
In 2010 we took our first river cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest. It was different from ocean cruising in several ways. First, the ship is smaller. Secondly, it pulls up right into the heart of town, which is nice for getting around. The clientele is older than on an ocean cruise ship, and there is no casino...which makes no difference to me, but others might not like that. There is always a morning walking tour included with your fare, and there are guides/travel consultants assigned to your group who help you navigate each city you visit. The afternoon usually has an optional tour scheduled...or, you can explore on your own. And the optional tours are reasonably priced.
I will be taking my third river cruise in November/December to the Christmas Markets along the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel with a stop over in Munich. I am looking forward to it, will be sure to share my thoughts when I return.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
A few good steaks...
I have often considered becoming a vegetarian especially in the summer months when the bountiful and wonderful harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables are raining down upon us. There is nothing like eating a simple salad made of local tomatoes or biting into a juicy peach to start my inner food clock ticking about how being a vegetarian could be a wonderful thing.
And then it happens, I smell a sirloin bar-b-que-ing somewhere, and this omnivore is snapped back to reality.
Not that I eat all that much red meat. I really don't. I eat quite a lot of poultry and fish. As a child growing up an Irish Catholic household, I actually looked forward to Fridays when meat was eschewed, and we would feast on flounder, cod, clams, shellfish, smelts (I recently discovered that one of my siblings detests smelts, I on the other hand, thoroughly enjoy them) and the occasional freshly caught bluefish. My mother and aunts made cod fish cakes long before you could buy them frozen from Groton's Fisherman. But when I go out to a nice restaurant, I often order a steak.
I have had steaks in Chicago at Gibson's and Eli's, and they were great. You really can't have a bad steak in Chicago. It is definitely a "beef-eaters" town. Also, I've had steak in Minneapolis, I can't remember the name of the place, but it was also a good steak. I think you really can't go wrong in the Midwest eating beef. Its grazing country after all.
New York, my hometown, also has some really great steak joints. I am not talking about Out Back
Steakhouse or Charlie Brown's. They are chains and the steaks are okay, but not top notch. For that you'll have to go to other more specialized joints.
In Manhattan you have your choice of many different places Gallagher's, Landmark, Ruth Chris (a chain, but pretty good) or my Manhattan go-to steak place, the Old Homestead Steakhouse in Chelsea. I have been there for lunch, and their steaks and Kobi burgers are wonderful. It is a real old-time New York Steakhouse, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to have a uniquely New York "beef experience".
If you are more adventurous, mosey on out to Brooklyn crossing the Williamsburg Bridge to Peter Luger's Steakhouse. The décor is Spartan; the seating communal, but the steaks are the best! They serve their steaks with a "salad" of sliced tomatoes and onions slathered in their own steak sauce...tangy and sweet at the same time.
On Staten Island near the ferry in St. George is Ruddy and Dean's Steakhouse. Its interior is classic "steakhouse" with dark leather banquettes and bar stools. The menu is decidedly designed for the carnivores among us, but it also serves a good Caesar Salad. It is across the street from the SI Yankee stadium, a short walk from the Ferry Terminal, and if they ever build the Observation Wheel, this restaurant will have a good view of it, as well as the harbor.
My last recommendation is not on land. It is a floating restaurant on NCL cruise ships. Each one has specialty restaurants, and my favorite one is Cagney's Steakhouse. I always budget into my cruising schedule one evening at Cagney's to have a filet mingon and creamed spinach with a good bottle of Merlot and crème brule.
Do you have any recommendations?
And then it happens, I smell a sirloin bar-b-que-ing somewhere, and this omnivore is snapped back to reality.
Not that I eat all that much red meat. I really don't. I eat quite a lot of poultry and fish. As a child growing up an Irish Catholic household, I actually looked forward to Fridays when meat was eschewed, and we would feast on flounder, cod, clams, shellfish, smelts (I recently discovered that one of my siblings detests smelts, I on the other hand, thoroughly enjoy them) and the occasional freshly caught bluefish. My mother and aunts made cod fish cakes long before you could buy them frozen from Groton's Fisherman. But when I go out to a nice restaurant, I often order a steak.
I have had steaks in Chicago at Gibson's and Eli's, and they were great. You really can't have a bad steak in Chicago. It is definitely a "beef-eaters" town. Also, I've had steak in Minneapolis, I can't remember the name of the place, but it was also a good steak. I think you really can't go wrong in the Midwest eating beef. Its grazing country after all.
New York, my hometown, also has some really great steak joints. I am not talking about Out Back
Steakhouse or Charlie Brown's. They are chains and the steaks are okay, but not top notch. For that you'll have to go to other more specialized joints.
In Manhattan you have your choice of many different places Gallagher's, Landmark, Ruth Chris (a chain, but pretty good) or my Manhattan go-to steak place, the Old Homestead Steakhouse in Chelsea. I have been there for lunch, and their steaks and Kobi burgers are wonderful. It is a real old-time New York Steakhouse, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to have a uniquely New York "beef experience".
If you are more adventurous, mosey on out to Brooklyn crossing the Williamsburg Bridge to Peter Luger's Steakhouse. The décor is Spartan; the seating communal, but the steaks are the best! They serve their steaks with a "salad" of sliced tomatoes and onions slathered in their own steak sauce...tangy and sweet at the same time.
On Staten Island near the ferry in St. George is Ruddy and Dean's Steakhouse. Its interior is classic "steakhouse" with dark leather banquettes and bar stools. The menu is decidedly designed for the carnivores among us, but it also serves a good Caesar Salad. It is across the street from the SI Yankee stadium, a short walk from the Ferry Terminal, and if they ever build the Observation Wheel, this restaurant will have a good view of it, as well as the harbor.
My last recommendation is not on land. It is a floating restaurant on NCL cruise ships. Each one has specialty restaurants, and my favorite one is Cagney's Steakhouse. I always budget into my cruising schedule one evening at Cagney's to have a filet mingon and creamed spinach with a good bottle of Merlot and crème brule.
Do you have any recommendations?
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Sleep deprivation
I spent one God-awful night's sleep last night getting fitted for a C-PAP machine at Richmond University Hospital.
Guess what, I snore. I know that. That is one reason I don't like to sleep on planes for fear I will make enough noise to keep both the Economy section and at least Business Class up all night. When I was traveling with my late husband, he also snored and we kind of balanced each other out. I know that on several road trips with our children, they found it difficult to sleep in the same room as the both of us, and on at least one occasion, one slept in the bath tub to get some peace and quiet.
When I travel now, I prefer to have a single room since I don't want to keep my room mate awake all night. Often I have travelled to other cities and places as a delegate of the AFT and NYSUT, my travelling companion on those trips has a spouse who snores, and she bring heavy duty ear plugs with her when we room together.
Last year I finally decided to do something about my snoring. I went to a local specialist who looked in my nose and down my throat and said, "Yep, you have sleep apnea." But I still needed an official diagnosis. So he sent me off to a local hospital for a sleep test. Needless to say, I failed. I then made an appointment to have the breathing machine fitted, but I also failed that test, too. I started to hyperventilate and just decided to leave. The "helpful" technician said, "You just have to get used to it. You will be back."
Well, I returned last night. A different technician wired me up with about a dozen electronic "leads" that were attached to a sort of "central hub" which was in turn connected to a computer that would monitor my progress. I shut my eyes at about 10:30 and slept a total of one hour and twenty minutes. I spent most of the night tossing and turning on a very narrow bed at an unusually high elevation off the floor. I kept thinking if I turned around again, I would be rolling off and tumbling onto the floor. I did not, but got no comfortable sleep.
At 4:00am the technician entered my room and asked if I was comfortable because she noticed I really did not sleep much...( Duh, do you think??? Did you check the monitor?) and told me I could leave at 5am. I slept for another 15 minutes, woke up 5:15 was unplugged and drove home and promptly climbed into bed and slept for another four hours.
When I work up I had a lovely reddened outline of the mask around my nostrils and across the bridge of my nose. I am glad I don't have to be out among many people today.
So, what is the next steps??? I have been told my doctor will prescribe a machine for me. I can't wait to see how that works out.
Guess what, I snore. I know that. That is one reason I don't like to sleep on planes for fear I will make enough noise to keep both the Economy section and at least Business Class up all night. When I was traveling with my late husband, he also snored and we kind of balanced each other out. I know that on several road trips with our children, they found it difficult to sleep in the same room as the both of us, and on at least one occasion, one slept in the bath tub to get some peace and quiet.
When I travel now, I prefer to have a single room since I don't want to keep my room mate awake all night. Often I have travelled to other cities and places as a delegate of the AFT and NYSUT, my travelling companion on those trips has a spouse who snores, and she bring heavy duty ear plugs with her when we room together.
Last year I finally decided to do something about my snoring. I went to a local specialist who looked in my nose and down my throat and said, "Yep, you have sleep apnea." But I still needed an official diagnosis. So he sent me off to a local hospital for a sleep test. Needless to say, I failed. I then made an appointment to have the breathing machine fitted, but I also failed that test, too. I started to hyperventilate and just decided to leave. The "helpful" technician said, "You just have to get used to it. You will be back."
Well, I returned last night. A different technician wired me up with about a dozen electronic "leads" that were attached to a sort of "central hub" which was in turn connected to a computer that would monitor my progress. I shut my eyes at about 10:30 and slept a total of one hour and twenty minutes. I spent most of the night tossing and turning on a very narrow bed at an unusually high elevation off the floor. I kept thinking if I turned around again, I would be rolling off and tumbling onto the floor. I did not, but got no comfortable sleep.
At 4:00am the technician entered my room and asked if I was comfortable because she noticed I really did not sleep much...( Duh, do you think??? Did you check the monitor?) and told me I could leave at 5am. I slept for another 15 minutes, woke up 5:15 was unplugged and drove home and promptly climbed into bed and slept for another four hours.
When I work up I had a lovely reddened outline of the mask around my nostrils and across the bridge of my nose. I am glad I don't have to be out among many people today.
So, what is the next steps??? I have been told my doctor will prescribe a machine for me. I can't wait to see how that works out.
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