Posted on

Only Tuesday

It’s only Tuesday, but it feels like it should be Thursday. Today, in particular, harassingly long. I had a short work week last week after taking Friday off for hockey. Consequently, it appears that this week is going to drag on for ages. Perhaps it’s better that way, given the 5K on Saturday. At any rate, I hate when a day/week drags on wearily.

My parents came into town today, which is exciting for all of us. I’m especially excited that they’ll be able to see the Mayor play with his junior team. It’s a big shift from youth hockey, so I think they’ll enjoy it. We’ll be bringing them with us to the home opener Saturday night. The weekend after, he has another home game, which we’ll also attend. Hopefully, my brother and his wife, along with Richard and Suelen will be able to make that game.

2025 Goal Tracker:

  • Run a 5K: still training, signed up for a 5k on 9/20!
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: finishing 2.0 this week!
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): I made it into September and haven’t buckled!
  • Top performer at work: on it!
  • Travel: went to Vegas, but lots of work to do here. I’m tickled pink that we’ll be going back there in October to see Paul McCartney
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress. I am reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  • Get out of debt: in progress, but still poor
  • Financial independence: in progress, but still opt
  • If you’re not already following me on instagram, give me a follow!
  • ’Check out my newest partner, Zulay Kitchen. You can use the code Welcome43 to get 43% off.

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

As a baker, I’ve had plenty of epic baking and cooking failures. I think it’s part of the process of becoming a baker. Baking is exact. If you’re off at all, you can really muck up your bake. A couple of ways you can self-sabotage your bread are by adding the salt and yeast right on top of each other. The salt can kill the yeast, which will stop your bread from rising as it should. The other is using liquid that is way too hot. If the liquid is too hot, over 130 degrees, it will kill the yeast.

Needless to say, I’ve made bread while forgetting the yeast. I’ve also forgotten to set a timer and then absolutely forget about the cookies in the oven. As it happens, nobody likes crispy fried chocolate chip cookies. I’ve also left my sourdough bread out overnight, which doesn’t work. It’s so hot here, the dough rose like a rocket ship and was overflowing by morning.

Posted on

Is it 6:00

Is it 6:00 yet? I’m just asking for a friend who has a serious case of the Mondays. This friend is longing to be cuddling up on her couch with her sweet puppy while watching Dexter. Sadly, she’s currently stuck in her desk chair as the minutes tick by slowly. I, I mean my friend, was lucky that she wasn’t impacted by a massive VPN outage at work this morning. Nonetheless, she’s ready for the day to be over.

We were supposed to have a department-wide meeting today, but that got moved to tomorrow. Our corporate headquarters is in the Midwest and got walloped over the weekend by a blizzard. Have I mentioned that I’m glad I live in Florida? I’d be happy to never experience a blizzard again. Anyway, I’m hoping the meeting brings some good changes. Although I’m a bit nervous they’ll be changing our comp plan that will negatively impact us agents. Fingers crossed!

My sales assistants have been slacking today

You may have noticed my prognostications, while vague, for the Vikings game came to fruition. Detroit’s quarterback played great and ours saw ghosts. It’s not a dig on Darnold, but as a lifelong fan, I knew my Vikes were going to disappoint on the biggest stage of the year. Fortunately, they’re still in the playoffs, so there’s still a smidgen of a chance they make it all the way. (As I type this, I’m envisioning Lloyd Christmas in Dumb & Dumber saying “so you’re telling me there’s a chance. Yeah!”). By the way, it it 6:00 yet?

2025 Goal Tracker:

  • Run a 5K: in training
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: in progress
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): 6 days in and I haven’t buckled!
  • Top performer at work: it’s been two days, but so far so good
  • Travel: working on it
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress. I’m currently reading Armadale by Wilkie Collins– so good.
  • Get out of debt: in progress
  • Financial independence: in progress

If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

My billboard would say “The world owes you nothing.” I speak to people across the country daily. So many of the folks, I talk to are absolute gems. They make my job enjoyable and worthwhile whether they buy or not. Conversely, some people I talk with think the world owes them everything. I don’t know how this entitlement took hold, but it’s insidious. So while my billboard may be harsh, it’s honest.

Posted on

The Problem

The problem with a four-day weekend is having to return to work afterward. There is something patently unpleasant about returning to work after four days off. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the time off. Yet four days isn’t enough time away to feel refreshed. A full week’s recovery from the shit storm that is work would have been welcomed. The other problem, of course, is that both my teams are choking in their respective conference finals.

I did enjoy the long weekend despite not doing anything. The hubby and I watched the Tom Brady roast on Saturday. Honestly, it was amazing. Nikki Glaser and a few others were hysterical—hats off to Brady for being willing to put himself in that position. You have to have a thick skin to get roasted like that. We also started watching Hacks on HBO, which is also really good.

Of course, the animals at the bird feeder are always putting on a show. They didn’t care much for my four days off. Unfortunately for them, my vacation schedule resulted in a later breakfast than they’d become accustomed to. There’s quite the ballroom dance that occurs daily at the feeder as the different species jockey for food. Also in biology terms, there’s a bit of symbiosis at the feeder. The squirrels spill a bunch of bird seed on the ground, which the pigeons and ducks eat happily. They’re too heavy to get onto the feeders, so this arrangement works nicely.

Do you practice religion?

I practice religion. I grew up attending church and have carried those beliefs into my adult life.

Posted on

Is it 6:00 yet?

Is it 6:00 yet?!?! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to start my weekend. To be clear, I have no plans whatsoever, but that is what makes this weekend grand. After a week of shingles, I will make this weekend all about rest and recovery. My big weekend plans are exclusively Netflix and chill. I definitely don’t want to experience shingles again anytime soon. The rashes are mostly gone, but I still feel them. This whole “ghost” rash shit is for the birds.

I’m usually an optimist, so I was hopeful that my hubby’s volunteer status would move back to a paid employee. It appears, however, that my optimism was misplaced. Now I find myself feeling needing unusually pessimistic about the situation. My hubby’s cavalier approach to the situation is not helping either. Rest assured if I didn’t get paid, there would be hell to pay until the situation was rectified. I tend to be just a little bit more aggressive than the hubby.

The added stress of the volunteer status is the likely trigger of the shingles, which is excellent. The longer this situation goes on, the longer my autoimmune flare will continue. So I’m winning on all fronts here. My hubby volunteers and my son washes shit off his shoes in the kitchen. Life is good. Here’s hoping his volunteer status ends post haste and we can return to our regularly scheduled programming. Anyways, is it 6:00 yet? Because I’m ready for this day to be over.

Posted on

Back To The Grind

It’s back to the grind as the holiday season has come to an end.  The roads were back to their usual busy, over-crowded annoyingness with the snow birds amping up the aggravation level. Even as I headed into the office around noon, due to my annual physical, the turnpike was packed with cars unwilling to go the speed limit.  It actually felt good to be back to normal at work.

I booked my annual physical for today as my doctor is going concierge at the end of March. I’m not super excited about this expensive change, but I absolutely love my primary care doctor.  Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to find a good primary care doctor in South Florida.  At this point, I’m leaning towards staying with her in the concierge model.

My appointment went well and everything looks good (well sort of) I would, however,  suggest not going immediately after the holidays lest you want to get yelled at for your weight…  #lessonlearned. I was super excited when the nursing assistant checked my height announcing it at 64.5 inches.   I’m sorry what?  “64.5 inches.”  I’m here to tell you I’ve been 5 ft. 4 since (64 inches) since I was 18.  In fact, I was just barely under 64 inches in 2016 thanks to a lack of stretching a Zumba and running.

doctors_office

Consequently, when the doctor came into the room, I had to ask her about the gain in height.  She confirmed what I was already thinking that the yoga (particularly the aerial yoga) and stretching had gained me some height.  I mean a 1/2 an inch, can I tell you how stoked I am about it?  I would love to be taller!  Understandably, I made sure to make my reservations for aerial yoga on Thursday and Sunday as soon as I got to the office.

9021594_f520

When I shared this information with my co-worker, she booked herself a class for this coming weekend.  What women doesn’t want to be a built taller? This is especially true for me as I’ve watched my Grandma lose several inches of the last decade or two due to osteoporosis and scoliosis.  You can imagine that both myself and my mom are doing everything in power to avoid that same loss of height.

5844a2_5d4bb0cac29a43549c6ad925419538f1_mv2

Tonight’s yoga class was a mat class, which I love.  Fortunately, Monica teaches both my mat class and aerial classes (Th and Sat.)  I was so excited to share with her that I gained over a half of an inch since my last doctor’s appointment.  She wasn’t surprised by this news since she’s been teaching for awhile, s.  Although, she was quite excited for me.  As a result, I told her our new goal was to get me to 65 inches!   I can’t even tell you how excited I am to have gotten a little taller!

IMG_1337

While the gain in height may seem insignificant, it highlights the importance of staying active and taking care our bodies as we age.  It is easy to get caught up in the cardio mindset and let strength and stretch training fall by the wayside.  However, both strength training and stretching are absolutely crucial to staying happy.  Fortunately, I love yoga, which allows me to work on strength training and stretching at the same time.  I’ve also added weights, TRX and some circuit training to my repertoire to keep me fit.

The bottom line is that I am now 64.5 inches.  Just imagine…. If I gain another inch or two, I won’t have to hem my pants! Now that’s something to get excited about!  Tonight’s song performed by Guns N’ Rose, and in keeping with our South Florida weather tonight, is November Rain.