It has been weird seeing all the tryout bulletins for hockey clubs around the state. Since the state championships ended the season Sunday, organizations could send out their tryout schedules Monday. For the last decade or so, we’ve planned our spring around those tryouts. The anxiety tryout season induced is something I will never forget or miss. You never really knew where your kid stood down here because the politics of the game were overarching.
I had hoped the Mayor would opt to play at least a year of u18 because a part of me isn’t ready to move on. Also, I think playing u18 hockey gives players a good path to play hockey while finishing and focusing on high school. Needless to say, the Mayor wanted no part of that idea. So now it’s looking at the myriad of junior options that are out there. It’s like sailing the high seas without military protection during the heyday of pirates. No matter which way you turn someone is going to take all your money. Fortunately, we have plenty of time to figure out where he’ll play next year.
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
Speaking of weird, I found the grossest meme on Twitter. It actually belongs on Reddit’s horrible Facebook meme forum. I mean what in the fresh hell is this nonsense? As if a woman wanting to have equality and their own opportunities are what has destroyed our “country.” As if I go to work to serve my boss. Bitch, I go to work to get paid. Unfortunately, the weird incel that gave provenance to this meme’s belief is rooted in deep-seeded and misguided misogyny. Thankfully, social media has given the town idiot the loudest voice. Additionally, why is it impossible for women to work and love their families? Do you know what the opening sentence of my autobiography would say? It would say, “I chose a path that allowed me to raise a family while carving out a successful professional career.”
Today’s accountability tracker:
Workout: 45-minute spin class, plus 15-minute cooldown courtesy of Apple Fitness+
We had lots of hockey yesterday and didn’t get home until dinner time, so I took the night off from blogging. Initially, we thought all three games were at Skatezone, which would still make for a tight transition between games two and three. Unfortunately, the league changed our second travel game from Skatezone to ice works when an updated schedule was sent out. Consequently, this made the transition from game two to game three quite interesting.
The first game of the day was a Hawks vs. Hawks affair. Luckily, the Mayor’s team came out on top, however, I thought the other team outplayed them. Nonetheless, the Mayor played well and it was an entertaining game to watch. I mean, it’s super easy to cheer when both teams are from the same organization. The fear with an inter-organization game is that they can sometimes get nasty. Both teams played a clean game of hockey and were good sports, which was great to see.
The second game was at Ice Works against the best team in the league. Lyssa and her sister made the hockey moms great shirts, which I forgot to wear yesterday. Nevertheless, we took a photo of the moms present in their shirts. Since I had forgotten mine, I hid in the back with my sunglasses trying to avoid the blindingglare of the sun. As for the game, we expected a complete thrashing. You can imagine our surprise when the boys came out of the first period with a 3-2 lead. It ended with 8-3 bad guys with two of our players injured on dirty plays.
Once the game ended, the boys on our high school hockey team piled into Christy’s van to ride to the high school game at Skate Zone. The high school game started at 5:00 pm, so shortly before the travel game ended. They ended up making it to the high school game at the end of the second period. Neither team had a full bench at that point, but our team was already winning 7-0 when the kids got there. By the end of the day, we had lots of hockey and I was completely exhausted.
It’s a working Saturday in our house today. Well, at least I’m working. I don’t think you’d count the Mayor watching the junior game or the hubby scrolling endlessly through Twitter working. A skin is keeping me company, while Athena and Arrow hold down the fort in the family room. Fortunately, it’s been a productive working Saturday so far. It’s not bursting with leads, but it’s not slow either. The puppies, with Athena now joining Anakin, are doing a great job of keeping me company while I work.
I decided to work to add to my production, but there are plenty of things I could be doing around the house. Our loft upstairs looks like a bomb went off in it. To be fair, a bomb named Goalielocks did go off in it. We just added a spin bike, so it would be nice to have it organized and look good. Additionally, the upstairs hallway looks like a donation room for Goodwill. I definitely need to go through everything upstairs. There’s a lot of stuff that we can donate, throw away or put away. I’d also like to get all my shopping and errands done this weekend, but the hubby’s prodigious volunteer status is really cramping my style. Hopefully, his boss will pay him before the month is out.
And now for your shingles update because I’m apparently eighty-five. Fortunately, the rash hasn’t spread any further. It is, however, mighty uncomfortable. In fact, it is both itchy and painful despite looking like it’s healing. The shoulder patch feels like it’s still there in its full glory, but looks like it’s almost gone. Truly, it is an odd and uncomfortable feeling. Moreover, my stomach is not loving all the medicines I’m having to take to eradicate the rash. I can’t wait until I can stop taking the anti-virals and antibiotics. The steroid cream, however, is doing its job nicely without killing my tummy.
Well, there hasn’t been much change from yesterday. Well, except I’m now taking eight pills plus using a steroid cream to keep this thing at bay. Naturally, I’m still miserable with my patches of itchiness/hell and my husband is still an unpaid volunteer. Hopefully, I’ll start to see a change in the skin irritation rather soon. I’d really like to go back to my regular workouts and wear shirts. I’ve resorted to wearing a loose hoodie over my sports bra to stay comfortable. Or at least, try to stay comfortable.
I can’t say that I’m feeling great either. I’m not sleeping well, so I’m super fatigued. Unfortunately, I think the fatigue is magnifying my discomfort. The patches are quite painful and itchy today, which sucks. I feel better today than yesterday. Truthfully, the Mayor saved the day yesterday when he reminded my hubby to pick up my script. My hubby forgot to pick it up on his way home but forgot. Since we’re down to one vehicle at the moment that would have meant I would have had to wait to get my script filled until this evening. As it happened, the rink canceled the Mayor’s practice, so we would have been able to pick it up yesterday evening. Since he had no practice, the Mayor also made dinner. He really saved my evening.
Actually, I lied there has been one change since yesterday. I haven’t received a call from Herz’s vehicle recovery department. Yay for the small victories in life. This may be a byproduct of the flurry of tweets and Facebook messages I sent them yesterday. Unfortunately, I still have not received my closed contract or receipt for the rental. Nor have I heard back from Hertz about either item. Hopefully, the lack of a call this morning forebodes the resolution of my rental car debacle. At this point, I don’t know what’s more painful the shingles or the Hertz rental experience. Either way, stay tuned for an update.
Bumfuzzled, what a word! Am I right? Webster’s dictionary defines bumfuzzled as being in a state of bewilderment. This great word and prompt from my fellow blogger fits my current state. For the past months, I’ve been trying to make a correction to my vehicle’s title. Per the lienholder, I made an appointment with the DMV. After visiting the seven layers of hell that is the Florida DMV, the DMV told my hubby that only the lienholder could file for a correction. Well, isn’t that special? Consequently, I returned it to my lienholder, who told me that the dealer must update it. Tell me your incompetent without telling me your incompetent perfectly describes my lienholder’s response. Anyway, stay tuned.
Outside of the bullshit mentioned above, I’ve been trying to get ready for our Chicago trip. In fact, I’ve made such a large effort that the suitcase is now out of the closet. The most difficult task, I fear, will be locating our winter jackets. I believe they’re upstairs in the Mayor’s closet, but that belief is probably on par with the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. Naturally, the next task will be to locate my mittens. Unfortunately, I keep getting distracted by work, so my packing is moving forward at a snail’s pace. In fact, I’ll probably enlist the Mayor’s help to locate our winter jackets. After all, I’m relatively sure they’re in the vicinity of his room.
As you can tell, I’ve spent my Wednesday bumfuzzled, distracted, and boggled. Nonetheless, I’ve already got my run done for the day. Each run has gotten progressively easier as I’ve gotten over my cold. Later, I’m going to take a walk on my break to get my mileage up to four. I decided I’m going to walk the same mileage that I run. My goal is to cover at least 3.1 miles per day by some combination of walking/jogging and running. After work, I’m going to finish Day 11 of the yoga challenge. I’ve really enjoyed the yoga challenge thus far. The challenge brings a nice variety to my personal practice. I love getting back into yoga. Today’s bloganuary prompt is what makes you feel successful. Sticking to the goals I’ve set for life, including my fitness goals, is what makes me feel successful.
Insomnia has been the bane of my existence these last few weeks. Speaking of treasures that have been lost. Mine has been sleeping. Ordinarily, I have no problem falling and staying asleep. Well, that’s not true. Thanks to childbirth, I have to get up to pee several times a night. Nevertheless, the bio breaks, as one of my former VPs called them, don’t normally disrupt my sleep either. At any rate, the inability to fall asleep immediately is beyond annoying. I’ve tried using melatonin as a stop-gap measure to help me fall asleep, but it has been ineffective. My sleep hygiene is good, so this irks me to no end, but I think I found a solution.
Instead of blogging in the evening, I’m blogging in the afternoon. I’m sure you’re thinking the connection between blogging and insomnia is a bit of a reach. I, however, think it may be the reason I can’t sleep. When I blog later in the evening, it gets my mind and creative juices flowing. Unfortunately, I can’t sleep because I can’t turn off my mind. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, work is slow enough that I can write the blog between phone calls and continuing education. Stay tuned to see if that solves my insomnia problem.
Speaking of sleep, we had some great sleeping weather over the holidays. I love going to sleep in cool weather. Honestly, it’s so much more comfortable than trying to sleep in the sticky south Florida heat. Unfortunately, the cooler nighttime temperatures were short-lived. We’re back to our normal sunny and warm weather. Our daytime weather is absolutely perfect. To be fair, I can’t really complain about the evenings either only that I like it a bit cooler at night. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of our beautiful sunny skies.
On the other hand, my folks returned to a winter wonderland of misery. Granted it is much warmer in Minny now than it was over the holidays, but the weather has been grotesque. It has snowed quite a bit since they returned to Minny on Saturday. While the snow is a pain in the ass to drive in, it’s incredibly beautiful. Thankfully, my parents are able to enjoy the snow without having to needlessly drive through it. The roads were so bad that even our old school closed down for the day. When we were in school, our school system was rarely closed due to the weather.
Good news, I found the cure for my insomnia in my work inbox. Our training department sent me my continuing education information today. I’ve started the first course. The content is quite dry. To make matters worse, the voiceover guy’s voice is a less interesting version of Ben Stein’s. There is plenty of repetition in the material to make it boring even without the terrible voiceover. This will definitely put me to sleep! I have twenty hours of continuing education to complete, so that will cover plenty of formerly sleepless nights.
Today’s accountability tracker:
Workout: Week four Sweat Beginner HIIT full body workout. Ran one mile, and walked one. Day Four of the Everyday Yoga Shop/Practyce 21-day yoga challenge.
It’s day two of following the path I’m carving out for 2023. My sinuses are still bothering me, so I called my run to a mile. Obviously, it wasn’t the best run I’ve ever done, but I still got it done. Afterward, I killed Sweat’s HIIT beginner week four leg week. Tonight, I’ll round out the workouts with day two of the Everyday Yoga 21-day yoga challenge. So far, my I’m off to a stellar start in maintaining my salubrious habits.
In keeping with my 2023 path, I finally got my closet cleaned. I still have two tubs to go through, but that can be done during the work week at my desk. While going through a couple of other tubs, I found all our relocation stuff with Progressive. Additionally, I found a bunch of Progressive paperwork, which I clearly don’t need. After all, I haven’t worked at Progressive since 2009. There were also some great books in there including mad libs and a would you rather book.
When we were at IKEA last week, I bought myself two shoe cabinets for the closet. It gives the closet a much cleaner look. Moreover, it was the perfect opportunity to go through my shoes and practice the art of letting go. Incredibly, I found a boot and a sneaker without a mate. My best guess is that I had already donated their mates. Fortunately, the hubby built both shoe cabinets yesterday. Consequently, once the closet was ready, I moved both cabinets into their respective places.
Don’t mind the excessive number of leggings in the background….
The question asked on the bloganuary challenge today was how are you brave. So how am I brave? I willingly ride in a car with stinky teenage hockey players that just finished playing their game after a Chipotle burrito lunch. Seriously though over the past year, I haven’t shrunk from the responsibility of protecting my children. I’ve faced tremendous adversity quietly while maintaining appearances for the betterment of my family. I don’t know what 2023 will bring, but no matter what it throws at me I’m ready.
Today’s accountability tracker:
Workout: Week four Sweat Beginner HIIT leg day. Ran one mile, and walked one. Day Two of the Everyday Yoga Shop/Practyce 21-day yoga challenge.
It was not an early rise for me this morning. I’ve gotten into a good rhythm of going to bed and waking up at the same time everyday since last spring. It’s actually an important part of the Calibrate program. Sleep hygiene is an integral part of living a healthy and balanced life. I’m hopeful that I can return into my normal program tomorrow. Truthfully, the late nights that started last Friday have got me off my routine.
One part of my routine that I’ve managed to maintain, despite the late nights and burgeoning cold, is my workout routine. I had such a long hiatus from working out due to my thyroid running hot. Now that I’m able to workout again and gotten back into the routine, I don’t want anything to knock me off my game. Originally I had planned to run a mile, but I was feeling good so I ended up running 1.5 miles and walking a mile. While I was working out, the boys and grandma made cookies.
Before I got to my workout, my mom, Jake and the Mayor and I ran to Target to pick up some goodies. We got lots of supplies for making cookies and pickle roll-ups. Clearly, there will be no shortage of goodies in our house over the next few weeks. I wanted to buy Arrow a cute wooly sweater, but they didn’t have his size. Consequently, I ended up getting him a cute pair of thermal pajamas. Tonight we took the grandparents down to Melly’s house to. meet the great grand birds. And now I’m headed to bed, so I can be ready for an early rise.
Today’s accountability tracker:
Workout: Sweat HIIT beginner week 2 full body workout and a 1.5 mile run
Deployment diaries – PTSD: It was just over a year ago that we said our final goodbyes to Jake in the parking lot of his local In-N-Out Burger. I can, however, feel the emotions as if it was yesterday. Understandably, I cried as we drove out of the parking lot. While saying goodbye, I tried not to cry. After all, I didn’t want my soon-to-be-deployed son worrying about his mom. He already had enough to worry about.
I can’t say that it’s ever easy to leave him, but last year it was a million times harder. There was a finality to it that comes with the great unknown of what his deployment would bring. We’ve all watched the news, and read the stories and one can’t help but worry that something similar will befall their loved one. When we left him, we left not knowing when he’d be leaving. All of those details had to remain unknown until the very last minute.
Now that he’s home and safe, the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. Nevertheless, I can’t help but reflect upon the stress of his extended deployment and the weight comes back. Suddenly world events became an insurmountable source of stress. I found myself worrying to the extreme or angry that the press ignored missiles that were launched his way. It’s an odd feeling to be both angry and worried. Moreover, it’s not an existence that one can sustain without losing their kind. I found myself having to unplug.
As we settle into the post-deployment space, I worry about him and his colleagues assimilating back into regular life. After living with a heightened sense of alarm for greater than 10 months, I can’t imagine how going back to normal must feel. In their post-deployment meetings, they did two through the stages of assimilation, which is good. Nevertheless, the specter of PTSD for anyone deployed is always present. Jake and I have talked about working through the stages and burying one’s mental and emotional health during these transitions. Fortunately, my boy has the best commanders and shop in the business. They have taken care of him better than I could have ever hoped for; for which I’m forever grateful. For now, I’ll relish having him stateside. I love it!
Our Utah trip this past summer was awesome. Of course, the highlight was being reunited with Jake, but we also had some great adventures together. One of my favorite things to do in Utah is hiking in the mountains. Unfortunately, I was not in great shape this time because I had just started running again. Consequently, the first hike in Utah’s heat and at a much higher elevation didn’t end well for me. I definitely lost my cookies going up the mountain. Fortunately, Jake and the Mayor took great care of me and we got down the mountain safely and intact.
The medicine I’m on with Calibrate is great, but nausea can be pretty bad, especially with exertion. Hence, I lost the cookies on the first hike. Our second hike was an easier trail with more shade, but the elevation and heat still kicked my arse. This time I was careful it take more breaks and keep my heart rate lower. I didn’t lose my lunch that time, but the hike kicked my butt. We did see a beautiful snake slither across the trail. Thankfully, it was not poisonous. Unfortunately, it was too quick for us, so nobody for a picture.
One of the most unique hikes we did was at the Golden Spike National Historical Park. This park is about an hour northwest of Ogaden on the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake. Rather than a hike up a mountainside, we hiked down to the shores of Salt Lake. Due to the drought, the American West has experienced, the lake is at its lowest level. Consequently, we hiked across the dried-up lake bed for more than a mile to reach the shore of the lake.
It was striking how dead birds or insects would lay preserved from the salt on the lake’s bed. As we approached the shore where the waves were breaking, there was a wide crust of salt running parallel to the waterline. As you looked out over the lake, it was a beautiful blue with haze coming off the water. It was gorgeous! Meanwhile, the waves of the lake had a bright reddish hue that made the lake look otherworldly. I was not tempted to go in the red water, but Jake and the Mayor did. They both said it felt like an Epsom salt bath. When they walked out of the lake, a layer of salt was left behind on their legs. Naturally, they collected some salt to use at home.
Beyond the beautiful hike on the bed of the Great Salt Lake, Golden Spike National Historical Park is a pretty neat place. They still have Victorian-era locomotives that travel the tracks, so visitors can see what they looked like. There is now a plaque where the golden spike used to be commemorating the coming together on the intercontinental railroad. As for the actual spike, it’s now on display at Stanford University.
There are several other hikes you can do at the park. We opted, however, to drive up to the Chinese Arch. It was a terrifying drive with a drop off of thousands feet to the right side. Meanwhile, the gravel road up to the arch was super narrow. While the arch was worth the drive, I’d probably go for the hike the next time around. I wouldn’t want to do that drive again.
My favorite hike this trip, however, was to Gloria Falls in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I love hiking the Cottonwood Canyons because it’s significantly cooler than hiking in and around Ogden. Our elevation at the start of the hike was over 7800 feet. By the time we hit the waterfall, our altitude was almost 9,000 feet. Thankfully, this particular hike is not arduous because if it was I really would have struggled. Once we got to the falls, the air temperature was in the low 60s. The rushing water coming off the mountains certainly had a chilling effect.
Gloria Falls, it’s absolutely stunning and worth the hike. There is plenty of space to take a good rest or eat a picnic lunch, which is awesome. If I had planned better, I would have brought lunch. The hike itself provides stunning vistas out over the forests of the canyon, the mountains, and the distant valley. It’s a popular hike, so you’ll want to head out early to find parking. Also, the last part of the trail is unmarked. Consequently, be sure to download the map from the AllTrails app, so you don’t get lost. Albeit, you’ll likely run into plenty of people on your way up to the falls. Nonetheless, this is a trail I’d hike again anytime I found myself in Utah.
One of the solo hikes I did on our last Utah trip was right next to the Weber Ice Sheet. It is a simple half-mile paved loop around a pond. While the boys enjoyed open skating, I enjoyed walking around the pond and picking blackberries. I was shocked when a beautiful doe crossed in front of me as she went near the pond to eat. When I looped around again, she was standing in the middle of the path just taking it all in. After seeing all the videos of bison goring stupid tourists at Yellowstone, I decided to give her a wide berth. Unfortunately, she was not there when I came back to run the next day.
All in all, we had some great hikes during this last Utah trip. Ones that I’ll certainly explore again. I’d love to spend more time hiking and exploring both Little Cottonwood and Big Cottonwood Canyons. Also, if my parents travel with us again, I think they’d really enjoy Golden Spike National Historical Park. Now back in Florida, I can tell you that I miss waking up in the mountains every morning. I love being up on the mountain exploring everything and every view it has to offer. There’s something almost spiritual about it! Anyway, I love Utah and I love hiking in Utah!
