October Recap

The view from someplace near Shediac, NB.

Yes I know this is long overdue but life got away from me.

The whole trip was filled with early mornings, which with the time change was not ideal. Having said that those early wakeups did not stick. The trip to the East Coast was not what I was expecting. Turns out it was more of a work trip than a leisure trip as my friend’s sister needed a lot of help to stage the Air BnB she owns. There was minimal sightseeing except for when we went to the coast to get lobster.

I did not eat my way around Moncton or eat locally as often I would have liked. The location was ideal, walking distance from downtown but we were too busy with getting the place ready for a photoshoot. It is a big beautiful home that has been renovated to my friend’s sister high end tastes. There was a lot of cleaning and moving and cleaning and rearranging. Did I mention the cleaning? Meeting with contractors and day dreaming about other properties was also done. But I did not really see New Brunswick, so a return trip will be made.

I did come back with a rug which my Dad has offered to use his carpet cleaner on, saving me some coin. The trip home was straight 16 hours which was not as bad as I thought it would be. Mostly because I was in the back seat and might have taken a couple of naps. LOL

Can you tell what city I am in based on the two images above? Toronto on the left, when I started my trip and Vancouver on the right when I landed.

I went to Vancouver for 7 days. It rained every day except 1 while my friends were there and they apparently took the rain with them when they left on day 5. We toured all over BC and it was beautiful, except for the rain. Actually broke my heart to see Abbotsford under water a couple weeks after we were there. While we did not go on the Capilano bridge or on a gondola like we planned, it was still a great trip.

The mountains are beautiful. Will definitely need to return when there is less rain.

I had a great month travelling to both coasts. Absolutely need to see more of Canada.

I read a lot as the driving was done by not me! This might be the most I have read in a month ever. I enjoyed all books except The Other Black Girl. This was the 3rd or 4th time it came home from the library.

Well that was October, November to come before too long.

Hope all is well in your world.

August recap

Another month down. I swear it will be New Year’s Eve before I blink again. Time is flying.

There was not a lot of walking done in August as the hot days were too much for me and I find that if my friend is not available I am less likely to go out. 😦 I have been doing the Callenetics 17 minute workout 3 times a week. Having said that there were only 12 workout days in August. Not ideal but better than nothing.

It was not a busy reading month. I took longer than I thought I would to get into False Witness. Not because it was a terrible book but because it was the only book by Karin Slaughter book that I hadn’t read and I didn’t want it to end too quickly. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a great collection of short stories. Not what I was expecting but enjoyable none the less.

I didn’t get the PT job at my old company. They wanted a lot more availability that I was willing to commit to at this time. A little disappointing but for the best. I had an interview for a new FT job. It went well but the salary expectations were way too low for me at this stage in my life. I have slowed down on the search temporarily as I have 2 trips scheduled for next month.

I will be visiting the East Coast at the beginning of October. I am joining a friend and her family on a road trip. It will be my first time on the East Coast and I am very excited. It has been on my list for at least 5 years. So happy that this is becoming a reality and crossing my fingers that there are no lockdowns between now and then.

At the end of the month, I am going to the West Coast, cheap plane tickets will get your friends inspired and make you think why not? A friend of a friend recently came back from Vancouver and said she was ready to return. My friend in turn reached out to a few of her friends to see if there were any takers. I along with another mutual friend said sure. Then the original friend dropped out so it is now just the three of us. I have extended my trip by 2 nights to spend some time with a cousin I have who has been asking me to visit for way too long. It has been way too long since I was in BC and I want to see and do everything as I am not sure when I will return.

Tonight I committed and finally picked up a new cell phone that I have been lusting after for quite some time. It is not a good financial decision as I am sure I could have got one for cheaper but hey I “need” a better camera to capture all my adventures, right? LOL

That’s all that’s going on in my world.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

2019 – A look back

The last real update I posted was early July. This past summer was a good one. I was out and about almost every weekend and it was tiring and fun. I went to 2 different cottages and caught my first fish.

I have no idea what kind of fish it was. It was small and returned to the lake. I think I might be more of a pretend fisher, really only doing it to be out on the water.

Hung out with my friends and we went all over. I had a lot of day trips all over Ontario. Went to an alpaca farm. Went to 3 different outlet malls. Finally made it to St. Jacob’s Market. Spent an afternoon at the beaches. Took a drive to Tobermory, which is beyond beautiful. Took my kids to do the Whirlpool Jet Boat ride. Went to visit a friend in Ottawa. Visited my Aunt in MD. Saw Michelle Obama.

People, I was tired and my wallet was crying. I was trying to good, then my friend’s sister died and she requested my presence at the memorial. I booked the the tickets to Chicago and my friend booked everything else. In the spirit of generosity, I refused to take payment for her ticket. She is a student and has always been there for me, so I figured it was the least I could do. My bank account is not pleased with me.

Since I was already off the budget train, I bought myself a smart watch. I absolutely love my Samsung Galaxy watch. I appreciate the gentle nudges to move more than I thought. I installed a water reminder app which helps greatly. I am trying to get back to healthy in 2020.

Next time, we will talk about my goals for 2020. Until then, I hope life is treating you well.

The past couple weeks

2 weeks ago, above was a short drive away. Went to Florida for my Grandfather’s 90th birthday party. It was attended by over 40 people who came from near and far. It was a great function. I am so very glad I went. I had lots of time with my Grandfather which is priceless. Seeing my Dad’s side of the family mostly all together was amazing.

I arrived on the Friday evening and soaked up the sun and family time for 5 glorious days. We severely over-estimated the amount of food needed for the party on Sunday and ended up with way too much food. Unfortunately I think most of it went to waste as we did not have any one to give it to and it was way too much to finish in the short time the majority of us were there.

At work we revamped our gym with 2 new Bowflex Max Trainer machines and a Peloton bike. I have been on the Max Trainer twice now and am recommitting to going to the gym at work on my days off. The preset workouts are 7, 14 and 21 minutes long. Right up my alley. So far I have only done the 7 minute version. Next week I will be stepping up to the 14 minute workout. This I will do for the rest of the summer just working on increasing the intensity.

My weekend shift change was approved a long while ago and yet I had to email the manager to ask her when it would take effect. Next week will be my first Sunday shift. This works out well as I have my cousin’s baby shower to attend next Saturday and a birthday party to attend the Saturday after that. I look forward to getting my social life back.

Next week my entire sales team is coming to HQ for the entire week. Going to have to try my best to get in to work on time. 😦 This will be a challenge for sure. But hopefully a habit I can keep up as I want to be able to leave at 5 pm with a clear conscience moving forward.

 

A little burnt out

This week was a complete wash where exercise was concerned. I focused instead on getting to bed on time. And for whatever reason that seemed to make me more tired. Not sure why that happened but I was not motivated at all to workout. So I didn’t. I feel no guilt or regret. Sometimes more rest is a good thing. I will start fresh tomorrow.

Thursday night I went out with some of my coworkers to all you can eat sushi. I ordered and then someone else added to the order and we ended up with a ton of food. I figured we would have to pay extra for the waste but another coworker showed up and ate a few. When it was determined that we could eat no more, someone else said she’s take some of the rolls home and that was the end of that. I was so full that I missed eating breakfast on Friday. And at lunch I figured I should eat even though I didn’t feel hungry. I really over did it.

Yesterday my oldest turned 21 and her wish was to spend the day in Buffalo. So I took the day off. We left later than I wanted to but we still managed to hit most of the stores on my list and all of the ones on hers. Except for not finding a purse she had a great day. We bought a lot of food, so much so that the border security agent did not believe we spent so much and didn’t buy clothes. My daughter ranted on the way home that it is sexist to assume that we bought clothes. I will cringe when I see my credit card bill. In my defense I only bought what we like to eat that is not available in Canada.

The evidence of the cutting of the PT work hours is here. I lost an hour this week coming. Not much but I’ll take it. It means I will be home earlier on Monday and Wednesday. Although I am sure there may be the option to go home early or not work at all if the shift is slow.

Missing 3 PT shifts on the last pay period will have a significant effect on my next pay cheque. Thankfully this will just slow down my reno fund and not my day to day life. I feel badly for my coworkers who depend on this job.

This coming week, I don’t think I have any plans so it should be smooth sailing. I made cheese cannelloni and vegetable lasagna for my meals and will probably make something else on Tuesday to supplement.

I think I am ready for the upcoming week.

Sad News

This past Monday, I received an email from my Uncle letting our family know that his wife had passed away that morning.

I had no idea she was not well, much less was admitted to hospital the Friday before. Mind you, they do live overseas, but still.

My heart breaks for my cousins and my uncle. They seem to be coping well, but I’m not sure it is real to them yet.

I was going to try to attend the funeral that was held yesterday, but plane tickets were $2000!?! I love my Aunt but this is too much. I was telling a friend who works for an airlines that I wanted to go but cost is prohibitive and he looked to see if there is anything he could do. While he was able to find a route for significantly cheaper but it was standby with a stop in Miami. My gut told me that I would be able to get to Miami but no further and the way the flights were I would have had to leave on Thursday in order to make the funeral on Saturday. I learned all of this on Wednesday.

Much too rushed for my liking.

I miss my Aunt. She taught me to cook and more importantly provided some valuable insight into my family, more specifically my mother, when I was growing up which helped pave the way for a better relationship between us.

I am sad that I was not able to be there with my family, although it seems like more of us didn’t make the trip than did. To be fair, my family is huge, my Grandfather had 17 kids and most of them had at least 2 kids.

Maybe it is time for me to properly plan a trip.

Impromptu challenges

On Monday, I randomly decided to try intermittent fasting. Stop eating by 8pm, restart again at noon the next day. It was easy as I was working Monday thru Wednesday night. Thursday however … I decided to grab a bite with a friend, which ended up being much later than I would have liked. And just like that intermittent fasting is over for me. lol

While I was intermittently fasting, I was also having a few no spend days. Yeah me! But again once the fasting fell off, so did the no spending.

I bought the Samsung S8. After putting feelers out, I was given a price that was about 45% cheaper than what I had seen in the stores. I debated it for about 12 minutes. I was tired of running out of storage space. So I am now the proud owner of a new phone. The camera is fantastic and I will be taking a ton of pictures moving forward. Especially when I hit the west coast next week. 🙂 There is a bit of a learning curve and a search for a few favourite features. I did lose the ability to give personalized message tones but I’ll get over it.

I accepted my fate for a minute and bought 2 pairs of pants in a larger size. I am tired of being uncomfortable. But not tired enough to consistently commit to a diet and/or exercise program. When I return from vacation, I will be getting back on board. I am still doing some exercise but it’s more maintain than create change. I put My Fitness Pal on my new phone and will start tracking everything this week so I can get back into the habit. It will probably be very discouraging to see my lack of progress.

Wednesday, I am meeting with my financial institution to finalize the renewal of my mortgage. I am glad to get this resolved before going away.

Got my schedule for the PT job for this week and was surprised to see that I am on the schedule on Saturday. That will be hard to do when I am not in the country. I think that when I asked for the time off, someone confused June with July as I had an unexpected week off last month. Hopefully no one will be calling me when I am off to ask where I am.

I am counting down to my trip. I am in need of a change of scenery and some down time. My cousin has my whole trip planned out and I am looking forward to doing new things and the food. I have already sent her a long list of places I want to go to. I tried to get her to commit to driving me to the nearest In N Out Burger, 5 hours away but she does not seem game.

 

 

Free Time

Coming up this week, I am going to see Wicked and have a birthday party to attend. I asked for the 2 days off from the part time job. Guess who has the whole week off???

Not sure how that works in their mind but OK. My only issue is that usually work Friday and or Saturdays which is how I get the new schedule. I refused to join the Facebook group and haven’t exchanged phone numbers with any of my coworkers yet. I will have to make trip to pick up the schedule next weekend. Good thing it is less than 10 minutes away from home.

Not sure what I am going to do with all my free time. Although if I was smart, I would use the time to get back on the exercise bandwagon. I went shopping yesterday with Princess and the multiple mirrors in the change room are very unforgiving. Plus my tight pants don’t lie. LOL

Last Thursday, I broke out an oldie and not so goodie, Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels. I thought I was going to die. That 30-ish minute workout took me over 45 minutes. There were many pauses. I was and still am very sore. I walked yesterday to try to alleviate some of the soreness. It didn’t work as well as I would have liked it to.

Going to try to work out in the morning and then go for a walk in the evenings all next week. I am really in need of a lifestyle change. This has gone on long enough. Going back to tracking my food on My Fitness Pal. I also see a cleanse in my future. I usually do one in the spring but didn’t this year so it might be time to make drastic measures in the short term … after cake day on Wednesday of course. 😉

In other news, I am in the process of renegotiating my mortgage and the number of spelling/grammatical errors in the emails from the bank representative is hurting me. I’m concerned about her abilities and kind of question all her “advice” now.

I booked my plane ticket to visit my cousin in Portland, OR. I’m starting to get very excited about the trip. My cousin is recommending I bring hiking boots. Luckily for me, another cousin just got back from her hiking trip and we are the same shoe size! No need for me to purchase something I will probably only use once. Winner, winner!!!

Any suggestions on what to do in Portland are greatly appreciated.

 

 

2 week catch up

I know I missed last Sunday’s catch up. I kinda forgot it was Sunday until Monday morning. Then I had every intention of coming on here in the week to recap last week and I goto my exercise in and was feeling myself! But last week turned out to be a hectic one.

First things first, I was scheduled to work every weekday at the PT job. It was overwhelming to see. Every Monday for the past 3 or 4 weeks, I have been scheduled to work only to walk in and be told I could go home. Imagine my surprise when I walked in this past Monday to crickets. They were still feeling out if it was slow enough to send people home. 40 minutes in, I was given the A-Okay to go.

Since the rest of my week was looking very busy, I used the new found free time to get a long overdue pedicure. I dragged my sister along to catch up with her. She was less that enthusiastic and refused to get her feet done. She did keep me company so there’s that.

Tuesday’s walk into the PT job was greeted a head shake from one of the team leads. That was my go ahead to leave, which I didn’t even hesitate to do. I left to go get my eyebrows done then had dinner with a friend as I figured that would be the last free evening I would have for the rest of the week. I was right.

I worked the remaining shifts for the week. I was very surprised that I was not on the schedule for today as this is one of my 3 mandatory shifts. Next week I am only scheduled for Monday to Wednesday. Another weekend off! Not sure what to do with myself. I want to go away, but then I take a look around my home and realize I have neglected a few things and I should be responsible.

We shall see. Right now I am most likely going to Portland, Oregon so I should probably be responsible.

Last night, my Uncle had a party for his 65th birthday. It was a great evening even though the venue was beyond far and we ran into traffic on the way home.

It’s been a rather lazy day. Took my girls to Eva’s for ice cream. I had the Raspberry Cheesecake something and it was delicious. Sweet Jesus is next on my list to try. I will travel for food. 🙂

 

What’s new, but not really exciting

Progress is slow, but I am hoping that my reduced PT work schedule this week will help. I moved a DVD player back to my room and it is helping me get a little exercise in. Now to move my workouts to the morning and I’ll be golden!

I was “given” more motivation this past week as a neighbour that I only say hi and bye to felt “inspired” to tell me that she noticed I had lost weight and put it back on. Apparently she saw me 2 months ago and I looked like I lost weight and now I look like I put it back on. Her words not mine … I am not sure why this woman felt the need to enlighten me with this knowledge, as if I hadn’t noticed it myself. I found it a bit forward but was too shocked to give her a piece of my mind.

Yesterday I stepped on a bulletin board that was in my giveaway pile that had fallen over and the result was a tack going into my foot. I can’t remember when I last got a tetanus shot and did not go yesterday. There are not as many clinics open today and this does not qualify as an emergency in my mind. There have been “pains” in the affected leg but I think that’s all in my head.

One of my coworkers introduced me to David’s Tea and I am an addict. Every night I have a different flavour of tea and it’s a wonderful way to relax at the end of the evening. A few weeks ago, we had a conversation about cold brewing tea and surprisingly I had all I needed to start making some delicious ice tea. I have been experimenting with different flavours and have come up with a few hits. Along with some simple syrup and I have great drink options.

I’m still trying to firm up my summer travel plans. I will be headed to Portland, OR to visit a cousin. I just need to figure out when as the dates I gave her do not work. 😦 I need to get on this sooner rather than later as I want to go next month.

Still need to make more headway with decluttering my home. I think I just need to set a timer for 1 hour and put myself in one spot and focus on it. We I have way too much that I am not using or haven’t used in a long time. Next year is go time for the kitchen renovations and I want to have less stuff overall. Less that will be displaced while the renos are happening and less that I have to build storage for.

The local cousin I usually go walking with is leaving on Thursday to go to Scotland for her hiking/backpacking trip. I hope she has a great time. Right now she is in panic mode but I’m sure she will get it together.

I think that’s all for now.