I’m Covid negative and thrilled. I tested negative again this morning, so I was finally able to start the prednisone. I don’t know if it’s the coffee or prednisone, but I am feeling good. There’s no sign of roid rage yet, but Hubby should probably be on guard for that. Since I was Covid negative, I did go for a run on the treadmill and it was awesome. This was my first time running with Sherica, on apple fitness +, and it was an awesome workout. The playlist was straight fire.
So perhaps the negative test is what’s making me so positive today. It didn’t hurt that I had a brief chat, via text, with the Mayor’s billet mom. She’s just the sweetest. She shared that he’s adjusted really well to living away from home and the junior hockey life. Obviously, she wanted to know if we felt it was going well or if the Mayor had said anything. I shared that he’s only reached out when he needs something, which means he’s doing well. Of course, I let her know that all his feedback about the experience thus far has been positive. I’m really glad it’s going well because he can be ridiculous at times (iykyk.)
How are you feeling right now?
I’m feeling pretty good. I think it’s the steroids, but it’s Friday night and I have a long weekend in front of me. My son in Ft Myers is doing well. Jake got the position he wanted, which I’m super excited about. I’ll hold off saying more until I know more. Hopefully, the steroids will give me the energy to knock out a lot of things on my to do list. Tomorrow I’m going to return the bedding we bought the Mayor as he didn’t need it. I think I’ll use my Kohl’s cash to buy some artwork to decorate the soon to be guest rooms.
Today’s run was challenging. Heck all of the runs this week have been challenging. First of all, I can’t remember the last time I ran outside. I think it may have been in time immemorial. Running outside is harder than running on the treadmill, but I also found it way more rewarding. Secondly, I’ve been in an autoimmune flare for over a week. This means everything is angry including my stomach and lungs. To be fair, my lungs have been angry since we were hanging out in the smoke filled Minnesota air in May.
5 day streak! Hit my goal
I’ve got an appointment on Wednesday with my doctor to make sure I’m in the right meds for the allergies and asthma. I do hate taking prednisone though because it keeps me up all night. It should, however, help fuel my workouts. Now I’m sure you’re wondering why the hell I’m working out through a flare. The answer is simply because it helps alleviate it. I cannot express how much better feel mentally and physically after working out. The key is to not over do it. Running on a track this week was the perfect way to get my workout in without being too far from home or the bathroom. I should also mention my Endo and PCP are both on board with my workout routines.
Tomorrow and Sunday will be full rest days, less some restorative yoga and Pilates. Since I ran hard all week, I’m going to enjoy a full 48 hour break from the cardio. I’ll be staying Kayla Itsines HIIT program Monday. I finished her beginner program last week. I started back at he beginning since I had taken quite a bit of time off and I don’t need to hurt myself. Her workouts are great! They will definitely make my muscles quiver. The morning after leg day is usually the worst.
How would you design the city of the future?
If I could design the city of future it would be walkable and full of coffee shops (including my personal favorite Dunkin Donuts) and dogs.
It’s a much cooler day today. Although I didn’t find yesterday to be particularly hot here. If you watched the news here last night, however, you would have thought the place was on fire. Nonetheless, I did enjoy running in much cooler air. There was even a bit of a breeze that felt good at my back, but was killing me when I was running into it. I did manage to add another tenth of a mile to my distance today, which was fabulous. My lungs weren’t really feeling the run at the beginning, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.
4 days in a row!! Let’s go!
I noticed when I got back from lunch that there are a bunch of active areas in the tropical. I swear tits like vermin. One makes landfall or dissipates and another one pops up to replace it. Our hurricane kit is all set, so we’re ready for the season. Hopefully, Florida is spared a major hurricane. Our homeowners insurance market cannot withstand another big storm after Hurricane Ian’s devastation last fall. Ironically, it’s the 32nd anniversary of Hurricane Andrew’s landfall.
Last night we went to visit my paternal Grandmother. It was so nice to see her! The last time I was able to visit her was before Jake went into the Air Force. It’s mind bogglinge to think how fast time has flown by. Also, I can’t believe that I haven’t been able to see her in almost four years. Now that we’re not buried in travel hockey, I’m hoping I’ll be able to go home for more visits. It should be much easier since I won’t have to use all my time off for hockey trips.
Where did your name come from?
My name came from my maternal grandfather’s grandpa. His name was Andreas and he immigrated to the US from Romskog, Norway. When we visited our relatives in 2017, we were able to see the farm where he was born. Additionally, we were able to see the church where he was baptized. Like many Europeans of the time, he ended up in the US due to primogeniture. If you weren’t the oldest son in Norway at the time, you were out of luck.
It’s a hot one out there. The heater turned on here in the Midwest, so today’s run was a good 30 degrees hotter, at least from the “feels like” temperature, than yesterday’s. In spite of the heat, I actually ran further today. Fortunately, it’s still a much cooler run that an outdoor run back home. I’m loving running on the track up at the middle school. It makes it quite simple to keep track of my distance. Plus, there are bathrooms right there, which makes it the perfect place to run after a morning of drinking coffee.
Making progress slowly (emphasis on slowly,) but surely
The Mayor had a great first day of training camp. It sounds like he was a true rink most of the day. He enjoyed both the on ice and off ice portions of training. Today brings more do the same for the Mayor and his teammates. He had tacos for dinner. I’m sure he’s now eating his billet family out of house and home. I can’t imagine how many pounds of meat they had to cook to feed the hockey boys.
I’m heading to Utah next month and am excitedly planning that trip. Jake and I decided to explore the Mighty Five. For the uninitiated the Mighty Five are the national parks found on Southern Utah including Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Canyon Reef and Arches. They’re all pretty remote, so we’ll be happily disappearing from society to explore the wilderness. In addition to the national park, there are several noteworthy national monuments (Grand Staircase Escalante) and state parks (Kodachrome Basin) I’m looking forward to exploring.
The Narrows at Zion
Definitely a distraction technique I use to catch my breath while hiking 😂
I’m hoping that ample preparation now will enhance the trip and remove some stress. To organize the trip more cogently, I’ve started using the Wanderlog travel planning app. This should help Jake and I lay out our trip and hikes in a very coherent manner. This is also make sure I can share with my Hubby/parents exactly where we’re hiking. I’ve also started to make sure we have the right equipment for all of these hikes. A lot of the hikes are pretty straightforward, but some are very long and all are remote.
Greetings from Minny. It’s good to back home with my family for the week. I was actually able to run outside this afternoon during my lunch hour. It wasn’t the best run of of my life, but it went well considering I haven’t run outside for over a year. The middle school by my folks’ house has a nice track, so I went up there for the run. I set timer of 30 minutes and ended up at nearly 2.5 miles. Clearly, they were the prettiest or my fastest miles, but I got them done.
Working from here has its perks. All of my clock are set at the same time zone. I can’t tell you how disorienting it is moving between time zones every day. Unfortunately, the different time zone also makes it entirely too easy to screw up appointment times. This is where my paper planner comes in handy. Far from obsolete, my planner ensure I get to the meeting at the right time in the right time zone. As for work itself, the queue was busy this morning, but it’s been a slow afternoon.
Yesterday, I got my see my Grandma T, my uncle Mark and my brother Justin’s family. Justin and Monisha hosted a bbq at their cabin, which is absolutely beautiful. The breeze off the lake was perfect and the scenery was sublime. It was nice to spend time with all of them while enjoying some amazing burgers and pickle roll ups.
Meanwhile in Ft Myers, the Mayor started his first day of training camp. I’m anxious to hear how it went for him and his roommates. He moved into his billet house yesterday. Thankfully, the billet family seems wonderful. His billet mom Tracey reminds him of his Grandma Dawn, which I’m sure helps smooth the transition. He’ll be living in Estero, which isn’t too far from the rink. It will also give him an opportunity to officiate at Hertz Arena. Lastly, the puppies seem to be behaving for the hubby, but they definitely miss their mama.
What do you enjoy most about writing?
I enjoy telling stories and sharing my thoughts. It’s a soothing exercise in self-expression that helps me manage my stress.
I’m back to running up that hill. And by hill, I simply mean I’m back to running again. I’ve been itching to run for quite a while, so I thought why not give it a try. Originally, I had planned to start running again in June, but I hurt my left knee. Fortunately, it healed pretty well. Unfortunately, the outside of my left knee still likes to lock up while running. Hopefully, I can alleviate that pain by stretching my IT band. I really do enjoy the treadmill workouts on Apple Fitness Plus. It’s much better doing the treadmill workout than a normal run,
This weekend went pretty fast since I worked Saturday. It wasn’t the busiest day from a lead perspective, but I was able to make it a productive day. While I worked, Anakin and Athena kept me company. I’m sure going to miss spending my work days with Athena. She’s been my constant companion since I started working from home. Truly, she’s been one hell of a sales assistant. Since she was small, she had brought nothing but joy to our family. If I could collect dogs like Athena, I absolutely would do it.
We made the appointment with the vet tomorrow afternoon. It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye, but it’s been hard to see her fading away. She’s still eating and drinking, which is good. Those days, however, are numbered. We’re going to give her one hell of a last supper tonight, so she can go out having enjoyed all of her favorite things one last time. I’m going to bring Anakin’s duck with us to the appointment, so she can smell his presence and feel less alone. We’re all going, so she’ll have her favorite humans with her. She loves her brother dearly, so having a piece of him with her should bring her comfort.
Well, I’m taking a night off from the hockey rink since the Mayor will be sitting tonight. Apparently, his shoulder popped out and back in during the second game yesterday. Naturally, he didn’t think anyone needed to know until this morning. He tried to say he was fine but chuckled as he said it. Unfortunately, it was clear he was in pain when testing his range of motion as evidenced by his grimace. Nonetheless, the hubby and I decided he should sit tonight out.
Consequently, I’m home chilling with the dogs after a good day in the office. I’ll probably spend my night off from the hockey rink watching the Florida Panthers. To be fair, I’ll watch the Mayor’s game on Livebarn as well. He’s dressing out to serve penalties, but I want to be sure he doesn’t try to sneak in a shift. Also, their high school team is sometimes more exciting to watch than the Panthers, who are so boring this year.
After a week of intense fatigue, I finally felt up to working out. It stinks that my body is so finicky sometimes, but I got to listen to it. Perhaps if I had listened to it more when I was younger, it wouldn’t be so finicky now. I ran two miles and walked one. The run wasn’t smooth, but after more than a week off, I anticipated it would be hard. Tomorrow, I’ll go back to strength training with the Sweat app.
After a weekend full of hockey, there was more hockey last night. This time it was high school hockey at Ice Den. We had played this team two times previously. The boys tied them the first time and lost the second time. Fortunately, the third time was a charm and they won big defeating the Storm 6-0. It was an entertaining game. Albeit I hate the late weekday start to some of these games and the rink was uncommonly cold. Last night’s tilt went off at 8:30 pm, which is when I’m usually contemplating getting ready for bed.
The best part of high school hockey is seeing all my favorite hockey folks from around the league. I watched some of the MSD game with my dear friend Dawn. It was such a nice surprise to see her there. For some reason, our boys’ high school games haven’t lined up really well. Nonetheless, I spent the first part of my night chilling with her and her niece. Once the clock struck 8:30 pm, I left the stadium rink and headed over to the Mezzanine rink to watch our boys’ game. Our high school team is a composite team of players from Palm Beach County. In reality, it’s a fabulous opportunity for the kids to have fun playing hockey without the seriousness that comes (and should come with) travel hockey. Truly, it strikes a good balance, and who doesn’t love more hockey?
The late-night hockey makes getting to bed early quite difficult. I found myself, again, sleeping through my alarm. Fortunately, I still woke up before 7:00 am, so my morning wasn’t too much of a crunch. Nevertheless, it is nice to have some time in the morning to relax while watching mindless tv before starting work. Typically, I’ll watch the Great British Bake Off after taking the puppies out. I love to sip my coffee as the bakers bake and my puppies play in the background. Truly, it is a very serene way to start the day. The only issue seems to be that I then feel inspired to bake treats I don’t need to be eating.
I had planned to start packing today but got distracted. I’m so excited to pack my new running socks from Brooks. I absolutely love these socks even though they’re not trendy. They’re soft, thick, and supportive. Clearly, they’ll be the perfect sock to keep my feet warm in Chicago. Perhaps instead of fixating on my socks, I should try to find my jacket, hat, and mittens. While it is not going to be super cold while we are there, the rinks will be cold. I don’t, however, think I’ll need my winter boots. Obviously, if I bring the boots, I won’t need them. If I leave the boots at home, it will most definitely snow and I’ll be bootless.
Today’s bloganuary prompt is has a book you read changed your life? Two books came immediately to mind when I saw this prompt. First Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. This brilliant book is all about learning to “live your legend” by following your dreams. Sometimes the treasure that we search for isn’t external at all. The second book isResurrection by Leo Tolstoy. Resurrection is a beautiful story of redemption against the backdrop of the complicated Russian legal, social, and political systems. While I find Tolstoys’ exploration of Russian culture interesting, the story of redemption is what makes this novel special.
Today’s accountability tracker:
Workout: Week six Sweat Beginner HIIT leg workout. Ran one mile, and walked two. Day ten of the Everyday Yoga Shop/Practyce 21-day yoga challenge.
It’s working! I slept so well last night that I barely made it to work on time. Now, this is a feat given that I work a mere five paces from my bed. Fortunately, it appears that I won’t be stuck in this rut of insomnia anymore. Granted it’s only been two days, so I probably shouldn’t get ahead of myself. I’m sure the cooler temperatures last night and this morning helped facilitate a night of restful sleep. Although to be fair, I have been completely exhausting myself, in a good way, between running, Sweat workouts, and the yoga challenge.
The worst part of waking up super late for work is having to start the work day without coffee on board. Thank god for Uber Eats because there was no way I could work without having my Dunkin’s coffee. Fortunately, they were quite fast this morning. They delivered my coffee shortly after I had started my work day. I snuck out to walk the dogs as soon as I got clocked in and set up. The dogs were definitely wondering why I was so late this morning as they are so used to being taken out at the same time every morning. Thankfully, I work from home otherwise this morning would have been an utter hellscape.
So I’m happy it’s working, the schedule changes I made to my day, but I would love to see an uptick at work. Despite it being OEP, it’s been scarily slow. Since tech made some updates to the system last spring, the lead flow from some folks has been light. This change on top of a slowdown in overall volume has been disastrous. I hate being bored! I like to be and need to be busy. I’m really hoping volume picks up soon. Like I mentioned earlier in the week, there’s only so many times you can reach the end of the internet each day.
I just finished my two mile run and it went well. The lungs felt much better today. My lower back is still bothering me off and on, but mostly at night. We did get our spin bike yesterday. The boys are excited to get it setup in the gym upstairs. For whatever reason, it doesn’t bother me while I run. Since I’m doing the yoga challenge, I opted to not do the optional Sweat HIIT workout today. Instead, the two mile run, one mile walk and 30 minute yoga practice will suffice. I previewed today’s yoga practice earlier. Fortunately, it looks like a soothing 30 minute practice, which is exactly what my body needs today. Anway, the new routine, it’s working.
It was a great day at the homestead. I ran a few errands in the morning, took the Mayor to his evening practice, but still managed to be quite productive around the house. It’s always a win when I get my to do list accomplished over the weekend. Especially when it’s still hockey season. I even got my two mile run in!
This evening the Mayor was able to return to his homework for practice. It’s the first time we’ve been back since the fire. Honestly, it was good to be back home. Nonetheless, it also sad to see two of the three rinks still closed. It’s going to take awhile for the rink get back to 100%, but fortunately the Mayor’s team is back to having regular practices. I know, he for one, is stoked and relieved to be back on the ice.
Speaking of a great day, I sure hope I close February out with a big day tomorrow. Friday sucked at work, so I’m definitely in need of a good day. I’m also hoping March is will be a much better month than February ended up being for our team. The week should be a good one as the Mayor has a scrimmage Tuesday, which is always fun.
With everything going on in the world, like the war in Ukraine, it’s hard to believe what’s happening. I think my generation has been a bit spoiled being born at the tail end for her Cold War. For the majority of our lives, we’ve known peace and had a rich childhood experience. Conversely, I feel that our childrens’ generation has had a dramatically different experience, which makes me sad.
