WorkingMomTravelDreams

Aging and New Beginnings

Recently I seem to be having a lot of conversations with my friends about the future. It seems as if many people are unsure about what to do with the rest of their lives and are rethinking things post-pandemic. Some are looking at changing their jobs, moving somewhere new, going back to school, and starting or ending relationships. We are not talking about small changes, but large ones. Has the pandemic shown us life is too short to not be happy? Are we under more pressure than usual? Or are people just more open to other options and more willing to make changes?

Honestly, it is hard to know. People have always made changes, but it seems like there are more people making big changes than there was pre-pandemic. I get it. Looking at my own life I would love to just uproot and move somewhere else. Living in California, I am so tired of the homeless encampments everywhere, the fires, the horrible road conditions, the poor schools, high cost of living and so many other things that a move to somewhere else sounds like a dream. I also know that I have less than a decade to my house being paid off. I love the beaches, mountains and beauty of the nature areas of this state. I love the availability and variety of fresh produce and the cultural diversity of the area. My job is also here…Although if I get a good enough offer I will be out of that door so fast… So I get the job changes too.

The long term staffing shortages have gotten REALLY old and there is no end in site either. People are now refusing to volunteer for overtime anymore. Management is just accepting it right now…But, I can see the mandatory overtime coming soon again, probably by April. I am not looking forward to that day. The last few times the mandatory period lasted at least 6 months but it seems to run for about 9 months with the holidays free of mandatory overtime in November, December and January. In a dream world, If I can find a job with similar pay and benefits I would leave. If I get offered a job where I can have flexible hours and work remotely I would even be willing to take less money and less time off.

I can see why people are wondering “Where do I go from here?” I can see why they are looking at all areas of their lives and making changes. I have had time to think about my life in the closures and the time after and there are changes I want to make as well even though I am happy overall. Even I can see where there is room for improvement.

To all those pondering a change… I wish you luck and happiness.

Public Artwork

In the beginning of the pandemic my Mom was starting to loose her mind with the endless lockdown we had here in California. She started to make a list of things she can do that do not involve anything being open. One of those things was a series of public art exhibits in the Napa Valley area. recently we made the drive.

For starters, the articles online were not that good. We got lost looking for the 2nd piece of art and by lost, I mean really lost. But in a time when people act like everyone has the plague we met some very nice people starting with the park ranger at the entrance to the park…That we drove past twice lost and asking for directions. He let us go into an area we were not suppose to go into as long as we promised not to go farther the 3rd time we stopped to talk to him. (We were SOOOO close). As it turned out we were not very far from where he parks his car and he never noticed the artwork. After a bit he ventured up to us and we talked to him for about 30 min. Lots of laughter. It was refreshing to talk to another human and not only that but a kind one.

After leaving the ranger we moved on, only getting slightly lost this time and met another group of ladies checking out the art trail. They had a MUCH better map than us and pointed us to the visitor center where they got the map. We all took group photos of eachother and talked about where we were from and our plan for the day. After the photos we went to the visitor center that they pointed out to us to get a better map.

What we thought would be a quick in and out turned into a much longer visit. The woman working inside was a wonderful, friendly and knowledgeable lady. She was a wealth of knowledge and we left there with more information than we ever thought possible.

Our stops along the way took us longer than expected but we met some great people along the way. We took a quick break for lunch then went on down the road to the next place on our trail only to meet another nice person who volunteers keeping up the field for people to enjoy the artwork. As with the lady in the visitor center we spoke to this man for at least 30 minutes and found out about a few other hidden gems in the area that we didn’t know about.

All together we only made it halfway though our planned route but we found several nice people along the way to talk to. It was so nice to see faces and smiles out in the open air with only about half the people out still wearing masks. You don’t realize just how much you miss seeing the kind smile of a stranger until it is taken away for a few years. Even three years later roughly half of Californians are still wearing masks outside their homes or at least that seems to be the case where I live. The more rural you go, the less masking you see.

Even though my Mom took a couple spills, we had a great time and will plan another day to finish the second half of the art trail soon. Our day was made much brighter by the smiles and friendly conversations with the strangers we met along the way. This shows not only are there still kind people in the world but that kindness is contagious. I challenge all of you to take a minute and smile at a stranger. Say “Hello”, take the time to give someone directions or hold open a door. Try a random act of kindness. Make a difference one act of kindness at a time.

My wellness journey – back to the grind

I feel as if I am starting a grand adventure with no idea of what challenges I will encounter along the way. On this journey I have some friends this time. I have hedged my bets for success and set up a few different support systems to hopefully make this time a roaring success.

To be successful I felt like I needed to put some supports in place with those that I am around the most so at least that way they are less likely to tempt be by being embarrassed if they fall off the health wagon. I always have an accomplice with one of my oldest friends who lives on the other side of the planet from me. She gets me. Even though I live just outside San Francisco and she lives just outside Melbourne. We are always sharing our workouts and meal ideas and out successes and failures. This has gone on for years as we have seen each other through ups and downs we are always there to support each other. But we only see each other every few years even though we message each other constantly and even talk via facetime when we have a lot to say and it isn’t the middle of the might for one of us. But I needed to get those on board that I see daily.

My next accomplice is a friend of mine that has just as much weight to loose as I do who also has some similar challenges like a special needs child at home and a few health challenges of her own. We are both motivated to get in shape and have healthy outings where we make healthy choices and go for walks and even find time to chill out at the float spa and oxygen bar as we sip our tea. We are both in it and will be for a while. Neither of us are going to win any speed races but I can lend her a steady hand for steps to help her stay stable and she doesn’t go so fast that I need my inhalers.

Up next I needed my co worker to be on board. We share an office and I can’t have her eating unhealthy snacks while I munch on carrots and celery. Well, a few days ago she made a pact with one of my other co workers to start going to the 5 AM class at a local gym starting on Jan 7th for their 3 month challenge. If you make your weight goal and check in for a certain number of workouts in that period of time your gym dues get refunded to you. It is not cheap so they are motivated. This is awesome for me because we should all be up and going to the gym at the same time and will have a group text between the 3 of us to keep us motivated. It double works for me because the person who is budding up with the one I share an office with is the other person who starts an hour before everyone else with me. We are literally the only people working in the building that early.

That leaves me to my home. I had to get my husband on board or all that work with my friends can be ruined with one binging weekend with him. I put my foot down just before New Years and told him no more takeout. We either go out for a date night or out with friends for a sit down meal or we make food at home. Take out is dead to us. I them socked up our freezer with individual frozen meals of all kinds so if we are hungry but too tired to cook we just pop one of those in the microwave for 5 min and call it a night. But NO TAKEOUT. I am also in a fitbit step challenge with him to always get more steps average per week than he does but I am not telling him we are in a challenge until I average at least a few thousand more than him consistently. He is a stay at home dad and has time that I just do not have to workout. If I tell him we are in a challenge then he will get off his butt and I will never have a chance of catching him. I need my habits in place first before I throw the challenge out to him. Sneaky? Maybe a little bit. But I got the idea from him who secretly was in a challenge with a friend of mine who was running a 5K every day before work.

So now I have Home, Work and my social life taken care of so hopefully this will set me up for success. But I still wanted something to challenge myself to stay on target so I started a dietbet. You may not have heard of dietbet. What does is let you bet against yourself in a weight loss challenge. I did the short one that lasts 4 weeks where you loose 4% of your starting weight. You weigh in with a photo with the secret password that is sent to the judges who then approve your weigh in or have you re-do it if something seems fishy. You then start your challenge. You weigh in weekly to get a chance at various raffle prizes to track your progress in the same way as your initial weigh in. Then you weigh out at the end of your challenge. If you make your goal not only do you get your money back but you split the pot of money from everyone who did not make their goal. I have done the challenges before. Sometimes I win, sometimes I loose. I really don;t mind if I fall short of my goal and loose because I have still made progress toward my ultimate goal of loosing the weight and getting healthier…but is is nice to win.

I started logging my foods and drinking more water a few weeks ago so I would already be in the habit by New years. That leaves my skincare goal. Most of the time I fall short because I am so tired in the morning I forget my moisturizer. So I solved this problem by just bringing another set of my morning skincare into work and leaving it in my desk drawer. I have no idea why I didn’t think of this a long time ago. With that problem solved I am down to my stress management…always a challenge for me.. So I purchased a membership for a monthly massage. I don’t like to be wasteful so this way I am forced to take an hour out for myself every month and chill out. Add this to the quarterly float theorthern Light spas with my friend and I am off to a good start. Leaving my last challenge to fit in 15 min of stretching/meditation in the evening. I decided to do this when I got upstairs to get Pjs for my kids in our quiet time before they go to bed.

Overall, it is not a perfect plan, but it is a plan. I started parts of it back in December and I am sure I will modify it more as time goes on and I see what works/does not work. I have a basic plan and I will modify it a little every month either fixing things that are not working or increasing my workouts or changing them up as needed. This is not a quick 10 or 20 lbs. I have over 100 lbs to loose to my goal weight. This is definitely a long journey and one that will probably take me a few years to complete but I am hoping to have lost at least 100 lbs by New Years 2024.

This is my Journey. I will take it one day at a time.

Standing on top of the world

I woke up today after having an amazing dream. For some reason most of my dreams play out like movie previews. I’m not sure why that is, but anyway… in this dream I had accomplished my goal of making it to Everest base camp before my 50th birthday. It was amazing! I looked great. So happy and healthy and everything I could imagine in a perfect world. I even had a bit of a tan. It looked cold there since I was wearing my red coat and hat with the ear flaps. It was set to the song “Standing on top of the World” by Van Halen. and I was spinning in a circle taking in the Himalayas. It was beautiful.

Why mention this? After all, it was just a dream. Well, I believe that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. I know travel has been on my mind since I just put in for my annual leave at work that morning and was working out my budget for 2024 to make sure I have enough left at the end to put in for my trip to the UK with my husband (his first time there and I think my 5th) as well as my 50th birthday trip to Nepal to make the trek to Everest base camp… something that has been on my bucket list for an eternity. I am not getting any younger and I wanted to do something epic for my 50th so Everest it is!

Let me start by saying I am by no means in shape to make the trek now. I have just over 100 lbs to loose and my current average of 4000-5000 steps a day is far less than the fitness level I will need to make this dream a reality. But I have a plan. I am goal oriented and now after my dream I have seen that it is even better than I imagined. But I have 20 months to get where I need to be. I can totally do this!

No matter what your dreams are you can achieve them with a plan.

#EVEREST2024

The Road (less traveled) to Lake Tahoe

In an effort to make the most of my time on Earth I decided to take a little road trip with one of my best friends. Just one night in Tahoe, CA but we were going to take the road less traveled to get there and hit Apple Hill on the way home. Awesome ideas right? Yeah, it was mostly an awesome plan. Her sister has a condo in Tahoe we can stay at for free so it really seemed like a win-win situation.

Our trip started out awesome. I have fallen in love with the Roadtrippers website and app for planning journeys. We had this down. So we start out and get a bit lost looking for the covered bridge. We ended at a dead end road with no bridge in site. So we backtrack to an area where groups of people were gathering to go white water rafting that we passed on the way in and ask them if they know where the bridge is. They point behind an giant abandoned building. Yeah, it never occurred to us to search behind a giant abandoned obvious horror movie in making building in the forest with no one around to hear our screams. Yeah, it sounds like a horrible idea. So we head off in our capris and flip flops to the giant abandoned building…because why not?

As we get closer to the building we see a small ranger station off to the side (a good sign) but they are closed and do not open for a while but without any fencing to keep us out we head off down the path to the spooky building and the bridge that lays beyond. We instantly decide that the building is the PERFECT set for pretty much and B horror movie, post-apocalyptical movie or a gangster or crime movie where they either hide bodies or kill people. But, we are determined to find this bridge so we continue on.

As we round the far end of what is left of the massive structure we finally see the bridge and what appears to be the old dirt road that use to cross it that looks as if it meets up with the dead end road the GPS took us to around a familiar looking hill. bushes, trees and tall grass have since grown over the parts of the road farther from the bridge explaining why there was no sign of it or the river below from the dead end. We have arrived! We wander around the area exploring, cross the bridge for a look from the other side and find a nice picnic ground that you can access from another road that would have made a much easier route than the one my GPS took us on.

As we are leaving other people start to show up and we stop at the ranger station on the way out and look at the cute museum about the gold rush, mining, logging and the wildlife in the area. There is even a photographer taking portraits of a couple models outside the abandoned building. We continue along our journey stopping at anything that looks interesting and eventually stop for lunch.

After lunch the small towns thin out and we start to see more signs for camping and little to no signs of civilization. then all of a sudden we round a bend in the road and the road thins out to one wide lane and a truck is coming straight for us. We scream and pull over. But we can still read the street signs so we figure this was just an idiot that didn’t realize or didn’t care that this is obviously only one way and he was going the wrong way.

About 30 min later we are desperately looking for the end to this road from hell. It is indeed 2 way, with apparently no rules and a massive cliff on both sides one going up and one going way down (on our side) there are no shoulders or guard rails just a fall to your obvious death on the lush green carpet that is actually giant trees that are so far down they look like shag carpet. We are obviously going to die.

We stop at every area that allows us to stop and catch our breath getting out of the car to see all we can of this area we are NEVER coming back to again. We also understand why the road is closed in high winds, rain, fog and snow. Totally makes sense. It is a death trap with no cell service. We finally make it out and almost cry with relief after several close brushes with death over the last few hours. We scrap the rest of our stops on our trip and just go straight to the safety of the condo in Tahoe.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we decide to go back to Tahoe (staying on 50 and not taking the “road less traveled” ever again) to explore more of the area. It is beautiful and the condo was perfect for us. I am currently pondering a gag gift for my friend for Christmas to do with this road trip. I am not sure what exactly I will come up with. Perhaps a travel mug with “I survived Ebbetts Pass” or something. We were kinda hoping for a gift shop at the end with such items and were sad when there wasn’t one. I now feel the need to create an item of some kind for her with that sentiment. I had to take a LIVE A GREAT STORY photo at one of our stops along the way. Because we absolutely got a story out of it! We even have video of some of our 360 degree turns with death defying drops just inches away from the edge of the small, steep road. It was obviously made for horses and not cars. But, hey…If you are feeling adventurous in good weather give it a go. Make sure you have a full tank of gas, an empty bladder and steady nerves before you go.

This is HALLOWEEN

Halloween is different now than when I was a kid, but some parts are still the same. We had costumes and went trick-or-treating with our friends but many other things have changed. When I was growing up we had one, maybe two Halloween events. The first was wearing your costume to school. The second was going trick-or-treating and maybe going to a haunted house or two. That was it.

Now Halloween events span the last two weeks of October with multiple events sometimes on the same day. It is exhausting. Now every group does a Trunk-or-treat. Literally every school or group does one. Most churches do one as well. Are your kids in a sport, theater or scouts…yep, they are probably doing one too. Then don’t forget the mall… Yep, you trick or treat there too. Oh and if you live in a small city like we do there is probably a community one put on by the local government and businesses as well. In our case, we are members of two special needs groups for the kids. Yep, they both do Halloween events… Although, I have to admit… The special needs trick-or-treat in the small court is actually pretty cool. The local police, firefighters, a classic car club, the Jelly Belly Factory and other community groups come out as well as the residents to make a nice, safe event for the kids. I am candied out by the time Halloween night actually arrives. We only go to a few of our neighbors homes and the grandparents homes to trick-or-treat pretty much just so they can see the kids in costume.

I know a lot of groups have put together the smaller trunk-or-treats and parties so the kids can have a safe time in an age where people are making fentanyl look like Halloween candy. I get it. I’m a Mom, and I can’t imagine how twisted people are to drug or poison kids… Well, I can’t fathom harming them in any way. Kids should be able to play worry free. The world will become a real and frightful place soon enough. So for now, I will dress my kids up ten times if I have to and go to ten different Halloween events to make sure they can enjoy the holiday…Evn if it has changes so much since I was a kid.

The Nirvana Experience

To start it actually does not smell like teen spirit… It is an Ayurvedic treatment.

Per the website: What can be better than experiencing Nirvana? Nirvana is a deluxe package that includes the Bindi Herbal Body Treatment (This treatment is the heart of our Ayurvedic Rituals. This detoxification and rejuvenation therapy treatment includes a botanical mask, exfoliation, use of dry brushing techniques, aromatherapy application, “Marma Points” facial treatment, and a hot towel body wrap. It combines the most popular spa treatments into one divine experience that includes deep cleansing and leaving the skin soft, smooth, and nourished by warm herbal infused body oils. The Bindi Herbal Body Rejuvenation strengthens the immune system and helps eliminate stress and anxiety.), Shirodhara (The Shirodhara is an ancient therapy used for centuries to restore inner calm and balance to the emotions, and to rejuvenate hair and scalp. The Shirodhara begins with a thin, gentle stream of warm herbal oil to the center of the forehead to quiet the mind and soothe the senses. The nourishing and conditioning oil is massaged into hair and scalp. Dosha specific herbal infused oil is used to perform “Marma Point” massages on the face, hands and feet to stimulate the organs of the body. ), Ayurvedic herbal “Marma Point” facial face treatment and Ayurvedic herbal wrap. This treatment is for purification and rejuvenation. The ultimate experience surpasses all.

Yeah it was weird. But I figured out how it detoxifies you…They sweat it out. The bliss you feel is actually being light-headed from dehydration. You are on a heated table. Wrapped in blankets and hot towels for almost 2 hours with only the areas that are being treated outside of the blankets. I don’t think I have ever sweat so much in my life. I drank 6 glasses of ice water before I felt like myself again and it took 5 or 6 washings to get all the oil out of my hair. But I have to admit…My skin was super soft and I was relaxed.

My view on the Nirvana treatment… Yeah, whatever…Nevermind. I’ll stick with regular massages, facials and scrubs in the future. 😉

Reno

I recently turned 48. I am trying hard to believe that I am no longer young and I am staring down 50 that is approaching faster and faster every day. I have had a rough relationship with celebrating birthdays because for the most part it depends on others and I prefer to be selfish on my birthday and just relax or go somewhere amazing and have a one in a lifetime experience. No one ever actually listens. That changed this year.

Several months ago my husband said “lets get away for your birthday this year” Now I am picturing lounging on a beach somewhere with a tropical drink with a little umbrella in it. He says he will plan everything. It will be amazing. I am a bit worried about this because I am the traveler. I am the planner. It is my thing. He is so excited that I agree to leave it all to him. Then he tells me we are going to Reno, NV.

Reno.

Dirty old Reno.

I hate Reno. I’m a beach person not a desert person and I don’t like the smell of cigarette smoke or gambling. What is he thinking? He is so excited (like a kid on Christmas morning) so I plaster a smile on my face and ask him if he is sure and what he has in mind. Then he tells me that he was watching YouTube videos about the best day spas in the united states and the Peppermill in Reno has one of the top 10 so we should check it out.

Ok, Reno is sounding better now. But, when I was last there in the 1990’s it was not exactly a nice place to go. It lacked the dazzle of Vegas or the natural splendor of Tahoe. I ask him how old this video was that he watched. So he pulls it up. It is recent. Then he pulls up a video of the Peppermill and it is reminiscent of the Belagio or the Venician resorts in Vegas. I am intrigued, but still not excited because, well… it’s still Reno.

A few months go by and he has made all the arrangements. We have childcare covered for the time we are out of town. He made reservations at an Italian restaurant and a steakhouse for our two nights there. We are spending all day in the spa relaxing on my actual birthday getting pampered and relaxing. I’m still skeptical and he is still super excited.

The day finally arrives for us to depart. We load up the car and head out…to Reno. I’m expecting to see beautiful fall color, but no one told the trees. We get to the peppermill and it is busier than I expected to see on a weekday. They are hosting an educational conference for veterinarians. It actually was nice inside. It was super clean. The staff was friendly. Our room was amazing. The food was great. If they were short staffed, it sure didn’t show at all. That was something we have not seen here in California for years. The weather was even perfect. He did an amazing job.

I guess it is time for me to let go, stop being such a control freak and trust that the man I have been married to for 11 years actually knows me pretty well and is capable of planning a trip for us that I will enjoy. Maybe I don’t always have to “do it all”. Maybe I can let go a little and relax and know that everything will be ok.

I know that sounds a little odd. But, I have spent most of my adult life only being able to rely on myself through my first marriage to an alcoholic who cared more about his TV programs and his next drink than me and in my single years. Relying on anyone else almost always led to me being let down and me scrambling at the last minute trying to do it all myself. I forgot what it was like to be able to just let go and know things will be ok. I’m slowly learning to let go and accept that others are capable of doing things too. I do not have to always carry the burden. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Live A Great Story

Let me just start by saying I am an old dog. I am not very good with learning new tricks. I can learn them…only it takes me a minute and possibly a couple google searches and some YouTube videos to work it out. I start with that because a few years ago I hit influencer status with my Instagram. I did not know it. I just post a “photo of the day” and let it go. I have a “super fan” aka…stalker on there. But living in the San Francisco Bay Area weirdos are kinda common so as long as they didn’t get too psycho, It doesn’t phase me.

Then one day out of the blue I get an email asking me if I am interested in doing promotion for influencers. I laugh it off because…well, I’m just a Mom. I’m not famous. I barely know how to run my social media. So (since I have no idea what they are talking about) my co worker asks me how many followers I have. I look (and it takes me a minute because I have never used the app) and I have over 10,000. She is shocked. I ask her if that is a lot and she…well she says things I shouldn’t type out here. So I google influencers and find out I actually meet the criteria. I agree to it and they send me miniature leggings. Apparently there people didn’t look too hard into me because I have not been a size that could fit into those pants in probably…well 30 years…maybe longer. We all got a good laugh from that and life moved on.

Recently I got an email from LIVE A GREAT STORY talking about their brand ambassador program and asking if I would be interested in a collaboration… Ummm… ABSOLUTELY! I love the concept and have written about my love of both LIVE A GREAT STORY and MOM, I’M FINE on here before. This is a collaboration I can really get into!

So I agree. They send me my login information and I literally spend roughly 4 hours trying to figure it all out (old dog and all). But I am all set up now and I am happy to announce that I am now a Live a Great Story ambassador! My first box of swag just came today. I’m pretty excited. Two sweatshirts and a bunch of stickers and buttons to get started. It is so much better to work with a brand I actually like and believe in than one that I have never heard of.

LIVE A GREAT STORY means something different for everyone. For some people it is a reminder of the travels they have taken. For others it is the live they are living after overcoming a grave illness or injury. Others are starting over after a tragic loss or life changing event. We all have a story. We write another page every day we wake up. Sometimes we just need a little reminder to make it great.

If you are interested in picking up a reminder to LIVE A GREAT STORY yourselYou can check out the whole LIVE A GREAT STORY line here and save 10% with free shipping over $50. liveagreatstory.com/sunshinejodi13 or use coupon code sunshinejodi13.

New Year – New you – 2023

I have not made any secrets that 2021 was rough on me, particularly all the overtime. Everything kinda fell apart as I struggled with 60+ hour weeks. That ended up with me off work on stress leave and struggling to get my life under control.

The year ended with packed schedules triple booked to try to get patients seen before I’m off work for a couple months for carpal tunnel surgery. We knew it was going to be hard on my co worker and myself but it was best to do what we could…then she got covid. I then had a completely unrealistic schedule and now I have to cover her as well. Let’s just say it was tough.

In light of the hideous work schedules, stress and my overall health I decided to make 2022 the year of me! No more putting myself last. I started off my year by finally having my carpal tunnel taken care of. Then planned on using my time off to reset my life and get back on track. Well, it kinda went off track pretty quickly. Now There were some great times, but there was a lot of really bad too.

2022 was a mixed bag, good with the bad. One of my best friends died suddenly in February. It was awful and heartbreaking to take her off life support but I was thankful that I was off work recovering from my carpal tunnel surgery so I was able to be there her last days and as she passed. I was also able to help sort through her things with her brother and boyfriend and be there when we laid her ashes to rest in one of her favorite places in the world. Should I have been at work getting off work for that would have been difficult with how short handed we are.

That was followed by me having a severe reaction to my mandatory covid booster. I am a big believer in vaccines and they do save lives. but I am against mandatory vaccinations. I believe that health decisions should be up to an individual and their MD. This was my view since before the first mandates. I voluntarily got my first 2 covid vaccines and I reacted to the first one and worse to the second one. I had no intentions of getting a booster due to how bad i felt after the 2nd shot. But I work in healthcare and our governor feels that everyone who works in healthcare must get a mandatory booster too or loose their jobs. No one else in the state needs to even be vaccinated and it is even optional for state employees but if you work in healthcare it is mandatory, not by our employers (who just recommended it, but it was not mandatory) but by the state that mandated it. Well, I reacted and even worse than my first two shots. To the point that I am lucky to be alive now. Near death or death is the only way to qualify for an exemption (my reaction to shot 2 was bad, but not bad enough to qualify for the exemption under the mandate) so I now am exempt for any further mandatory vaccine because if I get one again it will probably kill me. So yippie for not dying.

To take the good with the bad, It was actually fortunate that I was off work with my carpal tunnel surgery so I had time to get my health under control for the most part before returning to work. Was not at 100% but at least I was at probably 80% by the time I went back to work. Without that time off it would have been near impossible to fir in all the testing and appointments I had at the beginning to figure out just how extensive the problems were and get them under control. I had appointments almost every day for a few weeks, sometimes I had multiple appointments in a day. By the time I got back to work I only had appointments about once a week. Now I am doing much better and only have appointments every couple months and lab work. No one knows if I have to worry about future flare ups or other complications or anything because the vaccine is so new. But hey, I am still here.

Now 2022 was not all doom and gloom. I did have some good points. I had a couple road trips with some friends. I reconnected with an old friend that moved away a few years ago. I also checked off a bucket list item that has sat on that list for 26 years. It was just as amazing as I dreamed it would be.

So where does that leave me for 2023?

In 2023 I am again trying to focus on my health…again. I will be working on getting in shape and managing my stress. I will also be checking another item off my bucket list and finally seeing the Northern Lights in February. I was suppose to go in February of 2021, but it got bumped to 2022 then 2023 because of Covid. I was starting to feel like it may never actually happen. But I am very excited that it looks like it is actually going to happen in 2023!

My husband and I had a talk just before New Years about our goals and wishes for the upcoming years. I am excited for the plans we have made. We are both looking forward to a healthy, rewarding 2023 and an even better 2024.

From our home to yours… Happy new year everyone! May 2023 be the best one yet!