Page 6 of 25

Posted on

Crushed It

I crushed it today at work, which was fabulous. Yesterday started quite slow, but turned out fantastically. Here’s hoping the rest of the week goes just as well. Perhaps I was inspired by the raise I was given. I had no idea I was getting it until I saw my paycheck. Color me surprised. Surprise or not, I’ll take it.

Back to excuses, my hubby reminded me that Goalielocks used to use homework to get out of doing chores. I probably excluded it because it was so far fetched. Truly, he’s never known for doing his homework without being pushed or at all for that matter. The Mayor came up with a ridiculous excuse in Utah, but I can’t remember it at the moment. I’m hoping Jake will remember it because it brought back the memory for him of the socks and shower episode in Orlando.

I also crushed my workout this morning. Mercifully, it was the ab and arm workout, which is by far the easiest of the three Dayan. I’m not looking forward to Friday’s workout as it looks like a real ass kicker. I’m now in week 4 of BBG 1.0 (now known as Kayla Itsines High Intensity 1.0.). This is the second time I’ve done 1.0 although it’s much different this time around. I look forward to seeing what the next eight weeks hold.

Prayer request: tonight the Hubby is cooking for a friend. His friend’s young baby was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis last week and was given a dire prognosis. Thankfully, he is proving the doctors wrong. Nevertheless, the family is need of support, prayers and meal. If there’s a financial need, I will share it here. Please keep them in your prayers.

Posted on

Frustrating

Technology, specifically my internet, has been frustrating since Friday. I don’t know if the copious amounts of rain and flooding near the cable box screwed something up, but it hasn’t worked well since. In fact, my system hung up on five people today because my internet dropped service. Naturally, I switched over to my AT&T, but that service didn’t perform any better.

I spend a fortune every month for high speed internet, so when it doesn’t work it’s beyond frustrating. What am I paying for?! Frustration, mad clients and shitty customer service?! Unfortunately, it’s Monday, so I didn’t have the emotional or mental energy to call support for either internet provider. Instinctively, I knew calling them would only make me angrier.

Despite the tech glitches all afternoon, I still had a great sales day. Obviously, it would have been a better day if I hadn’t lost so much time on the phones this afternoon. For a Monday, it was relatively boring which was nice. What I mean by boring is that I didn’t have any dumpster fire or mean customers. This is always a win. I love days like this because their filled with great conversation and lots of sales.

The biggest challenge on the week days is the meals. I’m way too tired to cook by the time I finish work. The Hubby is at hockey practice three out of five days, so him cooking is a no go. Sadly, and I’m embarrassed to admit it, but frozen pizzas have been our go to dinner since AEP started. I’m sure the kids and hubby will by thrilled when AEP is over and I can go back to cooking.

Posted on

No Surprise

No surprise here, but Coach Q resigned his role as head coach of the Florida Panthers. The Panthers are off to their best start in years and could be a serious contender for the cup. Fortunately, for all that is wrong with the Panthers, the team made the right decision on Coach Q. To keep him behind the bench would have been a mistake of disastrous proportions. The Panthers, along with the league, would have lost all credibility.

I, like many hockey fans, are still reeling from what happened in Chicago. How many other cases has hockey covered up over the years? How many other recommendation letters have they written for monsters allowing to continue their predation on vulnerable athletes. To be clear, this isn’t just a hockey problem. It’s a sports problem from the lowest level of the game to the highest level of the game.

For years USA Hockey has required participating coaches, managers, officials and hockey directors to complete Safesport training. Moreover, USA hockey built a reporting system by which Safesport violations could be reported without fear of reprisal. Or at least that’s what they say. But here’s the deal. When you report a Safesport violation, USA Hockey assigns it back to the USA Hockey affiliate for investigation and disposition.

The setup is problematic for many reasons. Perhaps the biggest problem is the close relationships between those on the affiliate board making it impossible for impartiality and discretion. If you report a SafeSport violation report, your identity is supposed to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, the victim’s identity too often becomes public inowledge or worse they’re persecuted for reporting a violation.

This is a problem that we have to solve. The days off sweeping Safesport violations and sexual abuse under the wrong have got to be over. We can no longer tolerate winning at all costs, including ignoring serious allegations like Beach’s. Kyle Beach has bravely stepped forward to tell his story. However, there are probably thousands of athletes that continue to suffer in silence. Until something changes, it can come as no surprise that the abuse of athletes will continue. I love hockey and my Florida Panthers, but I want to watch them play with a clean conscious.

As for work, I had a long but productive week. Nonetheless, I am ready to go to bed early and catch up on some rest. The morning workouts continue to go well, but its tough to get out of bed. Tomorrow Goalielocks and I are heading to see Luke Combs in concert. Its going to be epic.

Posted on

Buzz Kill

Growing up in Minnesota, there was no bigger buzz kill on Halloween than your mother making you wear a jacket over your cool costume. The vast majority of Halloweens growing up were bitter cold and filled with snow. In fact the last Halloween I was allowed to trick-or-treat, my night out and candy haul were cut short by a historic blizzard. We made it less than two blocks before having to call it a night.

My kids, particularly the younger two, will never understand the pain of having to layer below and on top of your costumer. Admittedly, Halloween in Florida is much more enjoyable. Our neighborhood does it well with several houses having bars for the adults and great candy for the kids. Honestly, I missed all the Halloween fun that Covid cancelled last year.

Speaking of buzz kill, there’s nothing worse than someone who is unwilling to compromise at all. I’m fortunate that I’m no longer faced with this bull headedness at work. I wish I could say the same thing for the rest of my life. Even my dog is stubborn! Anyway, stubbornness without a willingness to compromise does nobody any favors and can destroy relationships. Fortunately, I can coax Athena into a compromise with a nice treat.

This week’s been long, so has this month for that matter. I love working from home, but it can be quite isolating. Not to be a total buzz kill, because my job is amazing and so is my life, but it can get pretty lonely. I know what you’re thinking. My loneliness is killing me (if you didn’t sing Britney Spears right then, we can’t be friends.). Anyway, I’m looking forward to the Luke Combs concert this weekend and getting out of the house. It will be nice to not be all myself.

Posted on

Writer’s Block

The hardest thing about writing a blog is overcoming writer’s block. I had a working title and topic, but I’m not sure Google and SEO gods like words like fuckery. To be honest, the use is of the word is completely appropriate when discussing Facebook’s sheer and utter incompetence.

Since our oldest joined the service, I’ve had friend requests from countless fake accounts spoofing military leaders. I’ve reported each one and Facebook in all it’s awesomeness has done nothing. Rather they knowingly allow the spoof accounts to pray on service members and their families. Meanwhile the real accounts have been verified by the same entity that refuses to shut down the obviously fake accounts. Great job Facebook.

I shared the post from the hockey parent dumb ass on my blog last night. Unsurprisingly, his account is also fake. Apparently, this keyboard hero, who makes fun of officials for being afraid to take the ice, is afraid to make these comments from his real account. What a loser. Naturally, Facebook or the moderators of the forum should shutdown this fake troll account. Yet neither have decided to act on this despite the fact the troll acknowledged he setup a fake account. Anyway, Facebook has jumped the shark Reddit is significantly more interesting.

Anyway, the writer’s block has cleared. My two mile run was arduous this morning. I don’t know why it’s not getting any easier, but it’s super frustrating. Tomorrow morning I will be doing the BBG arms and ab workout. I’m planning to do yoga in the evening to help my muscles recover. I need to get back into the rhythm of practicing yoga daily. By the end of AEP, my yoga schedule will be back on track.

Posted on

Blah

Well today was blah.. Mondays just suck in general. Work was crazy busy, but the leads were less than stellar. Honestly, I love being hung up on by elderly a-holes -said nobody ever. Nonetheless, I still pulled out a respectable day. It was just less than I expected from myself. Oh well, I’ll just have to make it up tomorrow.

My BBG workout went well this morning. It’s still quite a change getting a heavy workout in that early in the morning. Immediately afterwards I feel like I want to puke, but that doesn’t last too long. Once that wears off, I feel amazing. I love getting the workout done before work, so I have some freedom to myself after work.

In the hockey world, our state governing body sent out a letter to all parents and coaches. With the asinine rule changes implemented this year, the abuse of the officials has been exacerbated. Prior to the rule changes, the situation for many officials across the US, not just in South Florida, had become untenable. Now it’s exponentially worse.

Perhaps the most entertaining forum on Facebook is the Florida Youth Hockey Forum. It’s infamous for it’s highly uneducated keyboard warriors. They have big opinions and nothing to back them up. Nevertheless, it’s pure entertainment. It’s alway fun to read the comments after a tournament especially in the spring. It’s a complete gong show.

Today a gentlemen posted that the maltreatment of officials was unique to Florida because of the lack of quality officials in the state. Now he knows this because his kids have travelled all over the country playing hockey. Obviously, he missed the news reports out of Massachusetts about their official shortage, which is due to the misbehavior of parents and coaches.

There’s more than a couple holes in his argument, but the biggest is the simplest. He blames the quality of officials for the parents and coaches poor behavior. Except for those individuals have full control of their reaction. There are plenty of parents and coaches that react to what they feel is a bad call with civility and not barbarism. If these folks are unable to control their reactions and keep them within the realms of decency, perhaps they no longer have a place at the rink or the sports field.

My younger two are refs. Are they perfect refs, probably not. I guarantee you, however, that like their fellow officials they go out and do their best every game. I guarantee they know the game and it’s rules infinitely better than the asshole parent and coach. My boys have thick skin, so this stuff rolls off their back. However, everyone has a breaking point. The one time it did bother my son was because of how the parents’ behavior would negatively impact their child. Nobody wants to see a kid miss out on a game they love because their parents are tools.

Anyway, thanks my soapbox on the blah Monday. I’d also like to point out that today a Florida born official is making his NHL debut as a linesmen tonight. Congrats Killian! I guess Florida does have some quality refs after all.

Posted on

Cleared to Play

The Mayor was cleared to play today. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to not be fighting that battle anymore. He’s been absolutely insufferable about going to hockey practice. I guess the upshot is that he’s totally committed to his team. Fortunately, he can get back to practice with a healthy shoulder next week. Thanks to John for making this possible.

Work has been busy, which is great. The days are absolutely flying by and the customers have been wonderful. Sure there’s been a couple of assholes in the mix, but the majority are wonderful people. I’ve had a productive week and looking forward to continuing that level of productivity throughout the remainder of AEP.

My morning workouts, well, they’re going. I’d like to say they’re going well, but I find the runs exponentially more difficult in the early morning. Strangely, the HIIT workouts don’t seem to be as challenging as the run. Fortunately, I will be doing a strength workout tomorrow. It feels so good to be back in a balanced routine. I was a cardio queen for too long, but now I’ve got a nice balanced routine.

One thing I’ve noticed since our trip to Utah is a lack of pain in my foot. In fact, this is the first time since 2018 that I’ve not had pain in my tendon. I guess it finally healed three years later. Aren’t tendon injuries fun? Needless to say, I’m still wearing the orthotics and brace (as needed) to keep the tendon healthy. Anyway, it’s nice to not have pain all the time. I guess I’m finally cleared to play too.

Posted on

Frequent Flyer

If urgent care had a frequent flyer program like airlines, we would be a Diamond member after these last six weeks. To be fair, the first part of 2021 was pretty quiet on the illness and injury front. Consequently, we have over compensated during the last quarter of the year.

It started off with Covid tests and a broken toe. a couple weeks ago it elevated from a school physical to EKGs and a kid under the care if an amazing cardiologist. In fact, we visited three urgent care centers before we found one that was open and could do an ekg. We literally drove all over trying to find one that could see Goalielocks because we didn’t want to head to the ER.

Finding a decent urgent care center that can see you urgently has become absolutely impossible here. I mean isn’t that why you go to an urgent care. One had no more appointments available the same day. In fact, they couldn’t get me in for three days for my broken toe. I’m pretty sure that defeats the purpose of an urgent care. Another one is only open six days a week from 9:00-6:00 pm. This is less hours than my normal doctor’s office.

Last week, the hubby upped the ante with his injury. The Mayor, however, did not want to be left out. Apparently, he fell during the early Saturday game (damn blue line trips me everytime too) and landed awkwardly on his shoulder. He was in a ton of pain yesterday, which was worrying. This is a kid who has an incredible tolerance for pain and never complains about it.

Alas, it triggered nightmare visions of yet another trip to urgent care. Fortunately, we have a good friend who is in the business. He was able to examine his shoulder tonight. Thankfully, it’s a mild sprain of the rotator cuff. He gave the Mayor some stretches to do every night before bed. We’ll also be taking him over there for ultrasound therapy, which will help the healing process. Thank God we’re not adding to our frequent flyer status with this injury.

Posted on

Busy Bee

I’ve been a busy bee since AEP started Friday. I was so excited to get it started off with a bang, but Friday was completely terrible sales wise as was Saturday. This weekend we all worked both Saturday and Sunday, which is exhausting. Our hours yesterday were 8 to 6:00 pm, which made for a long day.

As soon as I finished working, the Mayor and I headed to the rink for his second game of the day. He played one earlier in the afternoon that I totally missed since the rink’s LiveBarn feed was down. Obviously, that was a total buzz kill. Nonetheless, I was happy that I would be able to make it to at least one of his games this weekend.

Last night they played the Lightning, who they played last week and beat handily. Unfortunately, the small mistakes cost us the game. To be fair, the Lightning goalie stole the game. He played absolutely incredible. The boys, of course, did make him look good. There more than a few times they had the goalie and defense beat, but they couldn’t finish. In the end, a shitty turnover late in the third cost them the tie. It was definitely a disappointing outcome given how well I know the boys can play.

Post game we headed to Brass Monkey. The Brass Monkey is an absolute dive bar that happens to have pretty good food at a really nice price. Goalielocks’ game got over first, so the Hubby and him headed to the restaurant to get a table for our massive group. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait one second for our group of twenty to be seated. The food and the company, as always, was fantastic. Yesterday I was definitely a busy bee.

Today I was up early again and back to work. I slept in, so I didn’t get my run in before starting my work day. Yesterday was abysmal and depressing on the phones, so I needed to mix it up. Since it was slow, I started watching Metallica music videos on YouTube. Once I finished S&M 2, I decided to watch Queen’s live performance at Live Aid in 1985. Freddie Mercury was an absolute beast, I would have loved to see him perform live. The music work and I had a much better day on the phones. Hopefully today’s success will carry over to tomorrow!

Posted on

Better Day

Today was a much better day on all fronts. From a productivity standpoint, I had the best sales day of the month today. The headache and stiff muscles that were a source of aggravation earlier in the week have completely abated. And thank god with AEP starting tomorrow, I need to be in tip top shape. After reviewing last year’s AEP results, I’m stoked to see what the next seven weeks will bring.

Of course, nothing makes for a better day than a phone call from Jake. He looked great, but sounded absolutely exhausted. We’re super grateful for technology that allows us to always stay connected. I am definitely missing my boy and would love to be back in Utah spending time with him. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get back out there until next summer. Oh well, it’s something to look forward to.

I ran this evening and it was fabulous. Naturally, I had hoped it would get easier today. Alas, it did not. I was sucking wind after a half of a mile. Nonetheless, I persevered and ran the whole mile and a half. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be running in the morning before work. My AEP schedule has me working too late to realistically run after work. Monday I’ll be restarting Kayla Itsines HIIT program again. It’s the best exercise program I’ve found to date.