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.

Living with Diabetes

It is my first holiday season as a diabetic. As I enter into it I’m still pretty bitter about being mandated to get the covid booster that almost killed me and every time I stick myself I’m reminded of this fact. I’m trying NOT to be bitter and move on but it is difficult as the holidays approach and I’m constantly checking my sugars to make sure I didn’t go overboard with all the fatty, carb filled bits of deliciousness that make the holidays so decadent.

So far I’m managing pretty well. I survived thanksgiving keeping my sugars in range. Tonight I have my first holiday party of the season. Christmas Day will be the biggest challenge for me since we are having guests over and tons of food and desserts…and probably lots of leftovers hanging out in the house to tempt me in the days following.

I still need to get back to the gym. I have not exercised since returning to work a month ago. It’s just so dark and cold in the mornings. I know I’ll be fine once I get going after a couple weeks but sticking my toes out from under the covers at 4:30 AM to fit in a workout before work is not as appealing as keeping them under the covers until 5:30 and getting an extra hour of sleep. For decades getting up early was not a problem for me at all…but I have struggled with getting back to it since the pandemic threw me off my game.

The pandemic may be an excuse. But when everything was closed for 1.5 years I got out of the habit of going. Then things were iffy and opening with limited hours when they did open because there just wasn’t the staff to be open. My gym just opened back to its regular pre-pandemic hours a few months ago. I leave for work at 6:30 AM so their 7AM opening time just didn’t work for me so my membership was on hold until they changed the hours.

Now how do I get my groove back? How do I not only keep my eating habits and blood sugars under control but drag my butt out of bed and work out before work again? How do I manage the insatiable hunger when you first start working out again with managing my sugars? How do I fit in my evening yoga again when the studios have closed? Do I just do videos at home? Where do I practice? Downstairs is out with the dog thinking I want to play. The garage is out because it’s freezing out there in the winter. Maybe rearrange our bedroom to make space?

Recently, my husband brought up the idea of creating me a space in the backyard and putting in a “she-shed”. We have a corner that is surrounded by mature trees and nothing seems to grow in the shade there. Could this possibly be a solution? What would I do with the space? Greenhouse? Not likely since it’s too shady. Art studio? Possibly. Yoga studio? Possibly. Combo of the two? A better possibility. I’d need power out there for a space heater/fan and light. In my mind I’m picturing an adorable “tiny house” structure similar to our current shed.

I guess only time will tell if the she-shed happens or not and what I do with it…but while I wait I better figure out how to get up early and get my butt to the gym.

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!

My weight loss journey-November update

It has been a while since I have updated my progress. Not that it hasn’t been on my mind but life happens…in my case work.

I’m sure I have mentioned my hatred of the insane workloads and all the mandatory overtime with all the 12 hour days and 6 day weeks. Finally September arrived and my coworker took the overtime allowing me a bit of normalcy back in my life.

Then the day from hell happened and I finally cracked. I got to work at 7:30 AM as usual and the alarm was going off. With the engineers on strike there was no one to turn them off. It took until 3:30 in the afternoon to get the alarm shut off. Also the AC was stuck on Arctic blast and our department was 56 degrees…also unable to be fixed. By the time I left work at 4:30 I was in tears. My nerves were shot. My eyelids were twitching and I had a pounding headache.

I go home and still feel like hell. My Blood pressure is high so I go to bed. Surely I’ll feel better in the morning. I wake up the next day (a Saturday) and my husband tells me “happy weekend! You don’t have to go to work today!” I start crying. My pulse starts racing. I can’t get it together. So he gets up and tells me to take my time. He will get the kids up and start breakfast.

I can’t get it under control. I try to get out of the house and take one of my kids to the pumpkin patch and start having chest pain. I think this is it. That place is actually killing me. I turn around, take my son home and go to the ER.

I get a full work up to make sure I am not actually dying and end up with a diagnosis of extreme stress, a chill pill and a follow up with my medical dr who then takes me off work and puts me on anxiety medicine to try to help me get under control.

A few weeks later I’m starting to feel human again. I made some changes at work (including actively looking for another job). I slowed down and I get done what I get done. If people need to wait oh well. Maybe they should hire enough staff to cover the volume of work that needs to be done. I’m fully booked to the end of the year. Today I started the pile of consults that need to be seen but there’s nowhere to put them. I’m not overbooking myself again so people get seen in a timely manner.

I am also waiting on a surgery date in January for carpal tunnel surgery. So I’m not booking anyone in January until I get that date. I’ll book up to that day…when I get it.

Even with all that is going on and Halloween I still managed to loose just shy of 6 lbs in October. I’m hoping I can continue to slowly loose the weight through the holidays because overtime just started up again with today as my first 12 hour day again. I agreed to 1 a week and I choose what day it is and no more Saturdays.

I’m really hoping I get the job I applied for a few days ago. It is my light at the end of the tunnel. 20 min commute vs 1 hour, 1/4 the patient load and higher pay. At first I was thinking I would maybe pick up 1 Saturday a month to help my current coworker…but my husband is right. I’m already detaching from that job in hopes of getting this new one. Once I leave, I will not be back. That mess is their problem, not mine.

Not my monkeys, not my circus.

I just keep focused on the light, think positive and hope like hell that I get that job and can move on.

It came up too fast and now it’s over…

Well, that time is here and gone. I was planning on a slim, sexy body for my brothers wedding and while I failed at that, I am about 35 lbs lighter than when I started and still looked better than if I was 35 lbs heavier. As an added bonus all the running around and dancing left me 4 lbs lighter after the 4 day weekend.

I’m not stopping here. I am still determined to get back into shape. The pandemic may have thrown me a curve ball but I’m slowly working on it. One this this weekend has shown me is that my day job, commute and lack of movement on weekdays is really what is stopping me from being fit and fabulous.

I need to figure out how to add exercise to my weekdays sans-gym. Even moderately active will be an improvement on my 3000 steps a day I get chained to my computer. I need to figure out something to get moving to reach my goal of being fabulously fit at 50. (I have 36 months to make this happen, but I’m aiming for 24 or less so I have it off for a year before my 50th)

It is said that a journey of 1000 miles begins with a first step. Tomorrow I’m taking that first step and going back to my mosquito, wild animal walks around the park and back in the mornings. I have insect repellent and pepper spray. So as long as I don’t spook a skunk or come face to face with the bobcat or mountain lion that occasionally wander our neighborhood I should be good. (I have only seen the bobcat. But my friend a couple streets over has seen the mountain lion ahhh the joys of living close to nature)

36 months to 50…

I got this!