Oh what a fantastic Monday! Due to my vaccines my body temperature was raised during the night and my ring gave me the ominous “MAJOR SIGNS THAT YOUR BODY IS STRAINING” which it was – I was able to tag my night with “Vaccines”. Still got a fantastic night’s sleep and woke up feeling great, I did also take tylenol. Tax documents are all in (I think) and the accountant has been notified. Kathy scheduled to come clean, a yoga class and contrast session with Mike on the schedule and a walk with Uli in the future. We dropped off the Leaf at Little Tire since the driver side rear tire was losing air and needing refills (yes it had a nail in it) went to yoga and took a scrumptious class with Alana (saw lots of friendly faces!) then down to element for some contrast (another friendly face!) since I’d just done an hour of hot yoga, I went right into a cold shower, then 5 minutes sauna, cold shower, 1 minute 60 degree plunge, 5 minutes rest, then 15 minutes sauna, cold shower, 2 minutes cold plunge, 10 minute sauna, cold shower, changed into comfy close and then 15 minutes rest in the quiet lounge on the new warming chairs!!! My day wasn’t as restorative as Sunday but it was perfectly restorative to me – walking with Mike and Uli, even though at that point the wind had picked up and it was a bit chilly, was a nice break – to be outside and listening to the wind through the pines. Lots of birds at bird buddy, I’ll share this very bright and young looking American Goldfinch!
Peace out peaceful people (me and Mike) who read this blog! Be nice and be peaceful. Bye for now.
3/21: Workday! This is why I shouldn’t let too many days pass between a blog post and the date. LOL I really don’t remember much from Saturday but let’s see. I worked until around 12:45. Using forensics (my phone) it looks like I did my NY Times games, I didn’t take any photos or make any phone calls, didn’t text anyone except my family chat (Amelia’s work had an Irish festival on Saturday so she was sending us videos of llamas and baby goats) if I were to guess, I’d say I finished putting some of my tax documentation together, maybe sat out in my treehouse or on the deck (if it wasn’t cold) ate dinner and then watched TV. My post work metrics from my ring show that I had a chill afternoon and evening YAY.
3/22: Sunday! Day off, Mike even cancelled his yoga class so that we could meet up with an old friend at Titos! Yum, I had a tried and true egg and cheese on rye with a side of hashbrowns! After we were done eating we went over to Starbucks to chat some more. It is always good to see C, Mike has seen him through many stages of his life, we are so proud of him – best dad, best husband, best worker, he is funny and fun. He was driving through and I love that he reached out to see if we could see him for a few hours.
Once he left we went over to total wine because I’d heard that they were selling more variety of drinkies (instead of just Buzzin Berry 2mg) read all of the labels and decided on one. I drank it slowly from around 3-5 and it gave me a good buzz. haha. It tasted good, but I can always taste the CBD. The tangerine was really good, wasn’t very bubbly though so the next one I drink I’ll be sure to add some of my own bubbles. On that note, since Bed Bath and Beyond has gone out of business it is annoying to try and get my CO2 cartridges swapped – as per usual I’m trying to be mindful of my impact and would rather not have them shipped back and forth to reduce carbon imprint and packaging. I also don’t go to Target or Home Depot anymore. Last week I went to Walmart and they don’t do them in store, I tried CVS, no – I think I used Lowes last time so I’ll go there tomorrow.
After that we stopped at Walgreens to get our vaccines topped off, I got 3 and Mike got 4. I’m going back for Typhoid which insurance doesn’t cover BOO but is worth it to me to pay since it is an intestinal infection and I need to be so careful to not get my lower digestive system out of whack. I’m considering getting one of those camping water bottles that filters tap water – not only do I need to stay high fiber, I need to stay hydrated. I can’t think to myself “well you’re gonna have to pee if you keep drinking water” I just need to keep drinking water. Sunday in the treehouse with Uli, texting with my Jordan besties, my afternoon was super relaxing and needed. Saturday and Sunday were my peaceful days, I was nice to people and they were nice to me, bye for now!
Day off! SLEPT 10 hours, got rid of my 1.5 hours of sleep debt, triple crown and I was going to hopefully spend it outside. Had my coffee up in the window seat so I could get some early morning sunshine on my face, Uli joined me – it is one of his favorite places to keep watch. He also likes the bed in the twin guest bedroom.
I can see myself in his eyeball. Handsome boy with pretty eyes. You can see where he puts his nose on the window haha yucky. Did some work in the yard, general walking around and thinking about yard stuff. Raked leaves into the driveway so I could leaf blow them down the driveway and into the woods. As soon as I was done raking and started leaf blowing, the wind started to blow in the opposite direction. Like as soon as I used the leaf blower. Worked on my taxes, worked in the yard. Productive peaceful day at home. Bye for now!
My peaceful workday!, you wouldn’t believe it if you went solely on my metrics from my Oura ring. I remind myself, it is my physiological stress not my psychological stress.
Added another 30 minutes of sleep debt to my tab DANGIT! Since it is currently the future as I write this I know I’m fine haha. Had to have a candid conversation at 6:30am and I think it went over well (again, because it is the future when I write this) and I hope it sticks. Sometimes people change for a little bit and then fall back into old habits, my hope is that this young person can keep it up – I am rooting for them. I got to see so many familiar faces at work, returning guests and people I work with at the yoga studio, VIP MIKE of course. The sun came out and up and shone all day into my peaceful space. After my hard work, I did 15 minutes in the sauna, 2 minutes in the 60 degree cold plunge, and 10 minutes of rest (with one of Anne’s muffins and a cup of tea) in the warming chairs in the community lounge. Listening to the music and the hum of the fans, the tubs, the HVAC… looking at the plants and absorbing it all. I feel very lucky to work here, Anne came in for her shift after mine – we sauna’d together – it is just a nice feeling to be with my friend.
Amelia is feeling a little better, one of my front desk staff starting going downhill and I had to scramble to get a sub for her but one of my stars stepped up to the plate. I’m planning a nice dinner date with her to show her how much I appreciate her. Report back from Shirley on Wednesday was that my dad ate his lunch using his new birthday TV tray table! One of the troubles he has is getting into a chair – the ones at their counter are awkward anyway, especially for tall people, you can’t get close enough to the counter to not spill on yourself and if you do get close to the counter you have to put your knees on either side of the seat cushion. Anyway it’s an ordeal and you add to it someone who you need to give specific directions to and it can quickly become frustrating for all involved. He can do the love seat without direction, he moves his body along the edge until he doesn’t feel the arm anymore and then plops down. Jersey Mike’s night was a blast, and I dozed on and off from 7-8 and Mike told me to go to bed. I fought him on that but he won. Be nice and appreciate the people who get you through the day! Bye for now!
My dad’s birthday is March 18th. Today he turned 82. He really cannot believe it. It must be so strange to not have an awareness for how old you are. I ask him what age he feels and he usually sticks somewhere between 40-55. We video called with Debra and then with Denise – they were both at work and they looked so beautiful, my little sisters. I cannot express with words how much those two people mean to me. Man, I’m going to look like my dad when I’m old LOLOLOLOL I don’t have the wonky eye but I have the crooked nose and smile lines down the sides of my face. Maybe my skin will survive better than his, he never protected his face from the sun. He won’t cop to it now, but he smoked and drank too. Today he said he wanted a cigar. He’s in there alright. Shirley got him a TV Table haha and a new comfy sweater. I told him my presence was his present.
Happy birthday, dad – you are loved more than you know!
Today was my peaceful day, I had a lingering bad feeling after Amelia texted us that she had a fever. I guess that is a remnant of her going into full blown asthma attacks when she was little if she had a cold of any sort. I had a couple of moments of panic when I doubted a couple of things at work (turned out that all was well and I did everything as I was supposed to) so I settled into my drive out to my dad’s house, listening to music and enjoying the drive. I didn’t get as much sleep as I normally do, now I have an hour of sleep debt but I’ll get it paid off. But maybe that is why I let little thoughts impact my peace – I got it back, it was easy. But I can see how in the past I would have let that initial ‘bad feeling’ compound as they say. Be nice, stick up for yourself and be peaceful. Bye for now.
3/16: Didn’t do too much today, my work email, couple of records to send, pet stuff, bird stuff, yard stuff. I did finish my book and started a journal of my thoughts that I don’t want to publish to the internet. We had tornado warnings all day, schools closed and lots of businesses closed – we got the squall line at around 8:30 last night – our lights flickered on and off a few times but thankfully we didn’t lose power. (Got a message today from Shirley that their big pine tree went down!!
Messaged with an old co-worker from Jordan, we worked on the PRESTIJ project together. The ministry needed some info (that we gave them) that they couldn’t find. I didn’t have the info either since I’d emailed them from my work email, and that has been deleted since the start of the current administration when they dismantled USAID and the implementing partners all had to fold, too. Before Mike left for yoga he came back inside to say that SIRIUS/XM was making him sign in from his phone, so I went to my Notes app to look up the username and password for him and lo and behold – there was the info that my coworker was asking for!! I am glad to know the ministry is using the solution we built, it took a lot of brainpower, computer power and patience to get this system from our test environment to their production environment.
3/17: tried to figure out if I have my Hep A and Hep B and possibly my Typhoid vaccines since those are good to have especially if travelling to Vietnam which I hope I will be in three weeks! Good thing I save every email LOL because I searched Hepatitis in my hotmail and found an email from the Med in Jordan saying that my blood test results showed I was not immune and I replied that I would set up my appointment and ‘bring my paperwork’ I think that was for when I was hired at the State Department. So I do have the Heps which is good. It looks like I would have gotten vaxxed for Typhoid before going to Jordan but I just don’t have the record. My “paperwork” is somewhere. I met up with my new coworker for coffee and we chatted for 2 hours! She’s my age and recently retired, we have enough in common to talk for 2 hours. She will be working at Element, she is going to love it, I’m excited for her. Got most of my tax documents together to plug into the account’s site. Got some CDs mailed. Lazed around with my guy Uli and then chill time with Mike. No photos taken today either but I had the Bluebird couple at Fierce BirdBuddy so many times. They are so photogenic. I did kind of tear my office apart looking for my medical documentation from Jordan, it’s somewhere. UGH for a knowledge manager I am the worst about organizing MY files. But there were plenty of things I don’t need so it’s time to get rid of that crap like I did before we went to Jordan. Two peaceful days, be nice, bye for now.
Friday the 13th and my procedure day! Finished the last fourth of the drink and made it to the center early. All went amazingly well and even FAST! Doc said everything looked great, he saw the diver’s but nothing troubling! So thankful for the great staff, Dr. T and my doctor and his staff in Jordan. Super lucky to have found this excellent care, and I am doing everything they say – high fiber diet. We had Jersey Mike’s, watched our Bravo shows and chilled.
Saturday the 14th workie workie – did my shift at Dragonfly, interviewed someone for the front desk/spa attendant roles for the Kemps bizzzzzes. Picked up my hellebores that Mary brought up from HER weggies that Bobbi met her at 95/Rt 3 to get and were in her front yard for ME! THANK YOU friends. I hope they like it here, I put them along the sidewalk near the little “S” flag. Once I clean up the gardens, I’ll take a picture to share. Now the Moss Ladies are Moss/Hellebore Ladies haha. Came home and chilled, was surprised with Himalayan Heritage for dinner YUM!!!! More Bravo shows and chilling.
Sunday the 15th really chilling some more, oh my sleep scores have been so great. I even got up at 5 this morning and I still had a full and satisfying night of sleep!!!! The pets and I had a little bit of bed time this morning but I was listening to the end of a book so I got up and tidied the kitchen then went through all the shelves in the laundry room to move the cold weather stuff into the coat closet. There were a lot of ‘a-ha’ moments in this book I read/listened to – I’m going to listen to it again and take notes, just so I have something written down about how the things I learned from this book made me feel. I am a sensitive person with strong emotions who has a need for a connection with people and I have always been this way. That’s little Dianne, too. And tween, and teenager and young adult. Got our VISA applications in for Vietnam, hope we did everything right! Got wordle in 2. Put my Helles in the ground, topped off the bird feeders and bird baths. Picked up sticks.
Fierce bird buddy has been going crazy I’m sharing a blue bird couple who keep coming back and a new bird to me, Pine Siskin! I have some videos of him opening sun flowers seeds with his beak and tongue, it’s so interesting! Sunflower seeds are hard to open!!!
Ma’am
Ser!
Pine Siskin!
All of these days have been my peaceful days, peace begins with me. Bye for now.
So grateful for the sub for the 5:30am shift this morning, lets just leave it at that LOL! Got to element at 6:30 and had a slow and steady day. When Mike walked Uli this morning it was 71 degrees, he told me to bring rain gear because it was supposed to rain later, so I had my rainboots and my northface jacket. Throughout the day I could see, it was windy, it was sprinkling, it sleeted a little bit, the temperature dropped, then it started snowing around 1. My car was covered by the time I got out there at 2, big wet snow blobs LOL. Filled up my ‘prep’ with water and now it is in the fridge for me to start drinking at 5 UGH it’s 4:22 coming up fast. I had a carton thing of vegetable broth all day, some tea and now I’m drinking some apple juice to have a little flavor in my life today. I am looking forward to 24 hours from now when I’ll have my gummy and Jersey Mikes night haha
Same view as the other day after I was in the yard cleaning up. It is already sunny out and everything is melting. Mother Nature is drunk. Be peaceful, gosh I hope I am not up all night tonight and everyone be nice to each other. Today is my peaceful day. Bye for now!
Little bit of work, little bit of dad day. Wondered if I’d see my guy downtown this morning since I was there at the same time of day but I didn’t see him. Hope he got what he was hoping for, maybe it is better that I don’t know. Anyone who knows me knows… I can’t handle when someone else is disappointed. It wrenches my heart. Another unseasonably warm day, when I got to my dad’s, Shirley was ready to go – weeding the gardens. I’ve never met anyone who loves to be as busy as her, she said they have lots of appointments on their calendar coming up (and she sounded excited LOL) My dad had a cavity filled yesterday and he did great. He was in a fine mood when I got there, he was up following Shirley around and he gave me a big good morning hug. I was telling them a story about helping my friends at their great aunts house and I saw an old Lady Remington electric shaver in a really fancy pink case and I said “for when husband’s didn’t know their wives had hairy legs and needed a shaver” and my dad laughed, I saw his old regular face at that moment, his eyes. Definitely a chill 4 hours. Then I went to Wegmans to get my liquid diet, vegetable broth, apple juice, sprite and I did get some apple sauce for my dessert tonight. I have to drink 10 oz of something tonight, liquid diet tomorrow and then the big jug tomorrow night and a little more at 5:30am on Friday. Yes I’m writing all of this out because as Mike pointed out, I’m a little psycho about thinking I’ll get something wrong and mess everything up. Amelia was up pretty early and texted us she was brewing beer today as part of Pink Boots RVA, an organization for women in beer that she is a member of. She sent some cute photos one of her co-members took. Since the only photo I took today was of a few plants outside of Wegmans, I asked her if I could use some of hers.
I’m glad she is keeping busy and doing things she enjoys, she is such a supportive and appreciative person. She’ll always be my tiny tooter. Today was my peaceful day… and the start of my ‘prep’ got a last minute sub for my sub tomorrow at dragonfly not realizing my ‘prep’ started a whole day before I drink the ‘stuff’. Be nice, bye for now!
DAY OFF day! I woke up around 5am but made myself go back to sleep because it is my ‘no alarm’ day and I wanted to catch as much shut eye as possible. Not that I had a ton of plans or anything, just wanted to let my mind and body rest. We had two records to mail and Mike wanted to add the post office to his morning errands so I hopped up and packaged ’em up! Got the bird feeders topped off, water refreshed and decided to rake up the little bit of leaves on the lawn. While doing so I was mentally putting an area together for a garden area that we can put two of the red Adirondack chairs in, the spot of the yard where the grass just never really stays each year. So 2 chairs on the deck and 2 chairs in the front yard.
I started to clean some of the leaves out of the gardens but since it is still early March I left them to protect the baby plants that are making their way out of the ground. Lots and lots of Obedient Plant coming up, I’m fine if it takes over the spot where I planted it. It is from Kevin’s farm upstate from when I visited with Caroline and Bobbi in September 2021. I intended to a blog post about that trip back when I took it but never did. It was so much fun, we were farmers! We farm!
After sweating like crazy since it was like 80 degrees, took a nice shower, did my hair and a little makeup and then Mike and I got our VISA photos taken at Walgreens – we need a VISA to travel to Vietnam so this is the first step in the application. After seeing the ingredients on the counter I re-read my colonoscopy prep paperwork and realized I couldn’t have raw veggies so we pivoted for dinner and picked up General Tso’s Tofu after getting our picture took. LOL. Came home and enjoyed a little time in my “treehouse” (our screened in porch) with Uli. Being out there really restores me, I did my NY Times games, listened to all of the different birds – watched a couple of Red-Headed Woodpeckers flying around and doing lots of calls, I wonder if they were marking ‘their’ territories.
I noticed that the Eastern Phoebe couple is back, this would be the third year they reused the next under the screened in porch (if they decide to use it) I saw them flying in and out but didn’t notice any differences, I’ll keep an eye on it!
Once the sun got lower, Uli and I moved to the deck and I sat in my chair and moved his ‘bed’ over to where I was sitting. He looked so comfy and handsome, I asked him if he wanted mama to come lay with him and he said yes, so I did. I lay there with him, rubbing him and telling him what a good boy he is and how handsome he is – Mike captured that sweet moment as he went to pre-heat the oven for dinner! Have to share it since it is something that I have always loved to do, I can remember doing it with Madchen when I was little. I love laying with a dog and watching their eyes – closing as they get sleepy and loving the rubs, eyes opening but not moving their head because they recognize a word or hear something off in the distance. Some of my dogs throughout my life didn’t mind me all up in their business, some of them minded, all of them were loved and I accepted their boundaries haha. I’m happy that Uli doesn’t mind me laying like this with him.
So peaceful, just like my day. Be nice to everything, bye for now.
DiForYou 