Tag Archives: frustrated

Having Issues At Both Places (or I Know These Are Small Problems, But They Add Up)

Posted on February 8, 2022 | Comments Off on Having Issues At Both Places (or I Know These Are Small Problems, But They Add Up)

At my current rental, I’ve had a series of issues that have come up. I think this is to be expected considering I live in a house that was built about 100 years ago and I’ve been here for almost 12 years. But I feel like I have had so many random things that have gone wrong and needed to be fixed. I’ve had multiple flood issues from my water heater, bathroom pipes, garbage disposal, and toilet. And I’ve also had a gas leak before or have had gas appliances not work. With my old landlord, things were fixed pretty quickly and they were on top of telling me the status of things being repaired.

Well, last week at my house, the gas company came out because there was a suspected gas leak on my street. They came over to let me know my gas would be off for maybe a few hours, but they would let me know when it was back on and they would relight the appliances. This was a minor inconvenience, but obviously, a gas leak needs to be fixed.

It turns out that the gas leak is in the pipe that provides gas to half the units where I live. My current place has a driveway in the middle and each side of the driveway has one main gas pipe. The pipe on my side was repaired a few years ago. This time, it’s the pipe on the other side.

Normally, this wouldn’t affect me much, but when the gas company came back to turn on my appliances, they said they could not turn on my heater. I guess it needs to have a major cleaning because it’s a carbon monoxide risk. I don’t think it was causing issues for me before because my carbon monoxide monitor is only about a foot from the heater, but the risk isn’t good so I can’t use my heater. I’m glad I have a little space heater, but it gets cold inside my house at night and it’s been tough. I’m hoping my landlord will fix this soon (and legally he has to because heat is a required thing to have in a rental), but I feel worse for my neighbors across the driveway. Not only do they not have heat, but they also don’t have hot water or gas appliances. And over the weekend, we all discovered that the dryer in our laundry room is a gas dryer. So none of us were able to dry our clothes after washing them. So I had to hang up all my clothes around my house and hope they will dry soon.

While I was dealing with the issues at my current place, I was also dealing with a minor issue at my new place. I am trying to get things set up for me so that they will be ready when I move in. And this includes making sure I will be able to set up internet when I move in. There were a lot of cables that looked like they could have been for the internet, but none of them seemed to be in the right place. So I set up an appointment this past weekend to have a technician come and help me see what I might need to do.

This should have been an easy appointment, but just like the issue with the gas leak, nothing is as simple as it appears. The first technician showed up, was looking at some of the wires in my walls (fortunately, we are in the part of the renovation where the walls have a lot of holes in them), said he was going outside to look at things, and then 5 minutes later I got a call saying my appointment was canceled. The technician just left and never told me! I called back and the customer service person I spoke with was shocked that happened and said they set up another appointment. Nobody can explain what happened, but the company canceled and reset my appointment multiple times within 6 hours. And because I was always told they were always on their way, I spent about 7 hours waiting for someone to show up.

Finally, someone showed up who was able to do the work I needed to have done. And because of all the weirdness that happened with the appointments, the supervisor for the technician and the manager for the service department also arrived to make sure everything was completed. What should have been a 1-hour thing ended up being about 7 hours, but at least it is done. There is a bit of additional work we have to do to make everything work the way we want it to, but it’s minor compared to what we thought we might have to do.

I know that having no heat in my current place could be worse (while it does get cold here, it’s nothing compared to most of the country). And I know spending 7 hours for an appointment isn’t horrible either, just annoying. But I think having everything at one time was just a bit overwhelming for me and really made me have a bad weekend. But hopefully, I will have heat again soon and this is one of the last bumps in the road for my renovation!

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Default ThumbnailUnexpected Problems (or This Is Why I’m Glad I Rent) Default ThumbnailAnother Test Of Being Grateful (or Again I’m Glad I Rent) Default ThumbnailAnother Leak In My House (or Testing My Patience) Default ThumbnailFinally Doing Some Job Training (or I’ll Find A Way To Add In More Hours) Default ThumbnailWorking Through General Panic Issues (or Dealing With Lack Of Control) Default ThumbnailShould I Stay Or Should I Go? (or More Day Job Issues)

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Posted in Tough Stuff

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Remembering To Stay Calm (or Trying To Not Let The Little Things Get To Me)

Posted on January 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Remembering To Stay Calm (or Trying To Not Let The Little Things Get To Me)

Right now, it feels like there is very little that I can control. And the few things I can control aren’t the healthiest things (like how much/little I eat or sleep). And with so much that is out of my control, I almost want to have more control just to feel like it’s not as crazy. And when I can’t do that or if things don’t go the way I hope, it can be really tough to tolerate since I have so little happening in my life.

A good example is getting my groceries delivered. I very rarely go to the grocery store myself. I try to limit it to going to Trader Joe’s once a month or so because there are some things I can only get there. Most of the things I need I can get from another grocery store that delivers to me. I might have to make some changes to that because the grocery store I’ve been using fired all their union drivers to use non-union drivers, but that’s a separate issue (although maybe firing all the old drivers is what caused this issue).

The grocery delivery I have been using gives you different options when you select what time you want it delivered. There are 1 -hour, 2-hour, and 4-hour windows. The 1-hour ones are the most expensive and the 4-hour ones are the cheapest (none are free). I will usually pick a 4-hour window unless there are no other times coming up in the next day or two. And that’s something I encountered over the weekend when I tried to get some groceries delivered. The only option was a 1-hour window, so I paid for that and figured I’d have my groceries soon.

But they never arrived. I still don’t know what happened, but they “forgot” to have someone pick up my order to deliver it to me. And since the day ended, they canceled my order. I was fine and didn’t need the groceries at that moment, but it was still frustrating because I was hoping to make something for dinner that night that I couldn’t. And I was looking forward to knowing I was done with my grocery shopping for the week. Since my order was canceled, I placed another one for another day and was able to get a 4-hour delivery window.

Then that delivery never arrived on time. It did finally arrive about 5 hours late, and I guess late is better than never. But my frustration just kept building. I know that this is a service that there are human errors and delays that can happen, but it was one of the only things in my control and even that was no longer that way. I know it’s not a big deal, but it just felt that way to me. And I had to remember to not let this be a bigger thing than it really is.

I know staying calm these days is so important. Stress isn’t good for us at any time, but right now I know it can be even worse because our baseline stress levels are so much higher than normal. And I can feel in my body when I’m too stressed. My autoimmune conditions tend to get really bad, and I’m in the middle of a really bad flareup that I know is likely due to stress. Staying calm won’t necessarily resolve and fix everything, but staying stressed isn’t going to allow it to get any better.

I’ve let lots of little things get to me in the past 10 months that I’ve been isolating at home. Some of my go-to stress relief things aren’t an option for me right now, so even my normal stress has to be taken care of in different ways. And sometimes, I can handle things just fine. But to have a little freakout at home is probably to be expected. All of us are dealing with so much and if we were handling it fine, that would almost be a sign that something is wrong because this isn’t normal and fine.

Fortunately, I didn’t get upset or frustrated with anyone else like the customer service reps for my groceries. I kept it to myself and managed it on my own. And I was able to get over it pretty quickly and move on. I know it’s ok to be frustrated and stress and recognizing that and allowing myself moments to feel that way helps. And then I can move on with my day and hopefully try to stay calm and relaxed when dealing with other things in my life.

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

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Am I In A Rut? (or Not Sure What To Do About Work)

Posted on October 4, 2018 | Comments Off on Am I In A Rut? (or Not Sure What To Do About Work)

I’ve had several friends that have been in ruts lately. Sometimes they realize this on their own, and sometimes they have something dramatic happen in their lives and then they realize they can’t just keep doing things the same way anymore. Either way, I’m always so proud of my friends when they are able to make positive changes for themselves. They always seem so much happier and all I want for my friends is for them to be happy.

I’ve been in a couple of ruts in the past before. Sometimes it’s a rut with my day job and sometimes it’s a rut with my fitness or health. It’s not easy to change things up, but when I do I always feel so much better and I feel like the change was necessary. These ruts have led me to some new and fun things and I’ve never really had any regrets. I just see these changes as positive moves in my life and even if they don’t work for me I am glad I just tried to see if they would.

I don’t necessarily feel like I’m in a rut right now, but because I have so many friends going through them I’ve been questioning it. Things have been pretty stable and boring for me lately, but I like that. I have things in my life that are hectic or dramatic, so I like having other aspects of my life normal and routine. But I also know that sometimes when I feel this sense of comfort in my life that means I do need to make a change.

The main thing I have been debating about is my day job situation. I’m fine with my box office job right now. I would love if I got paid a bit more, but I should be getting a small raise around the new year. But my other day job hasn’t been able to tell me yet when they can bring me back. I haven’t worked for them since the end of September. I thought a month or two off wouldn’t be too bad since that job didn’t pay me that much. But even missing that little bit of income is affecting me and I know I need to figure out something.

I’m going to try to wait it out a bit more because I do want to keep working that job. It’s really an ideal situation because I can do it between the customers at my box office job and my boss knows me well so she doesn’t have to micromanage me. Plus, I actually enjoyed the work. It wasn’t that tough to find events to add to the calendar, but it was fun seeing what different things were happening around LA and different organizations that I might be interested in doing things with in the future.

I think waiting it out really is the right choice because I’m so unsure if I need to make a change. I don’t want to stress too much about when I will be working with them again, but I also know that eventually if they can’t add me to a new contract that I will need to find a new job. So I have casually looked at jobs online to see what is out there. It’s tough because I have requirements that aren’t always compatible with all jobs, but at least I’m not under a time crunch right now.

I think that this uncertainty with my job is just something that I feel from time to time. I have felt it with almost all jobs I’ve had as an adult. I wonder if I am doing what I should be doing or if I will be blindsided one day by losing my job. I want to be a step ahead so that if I do lose my job I am not at a disadvantage. I’ve been in jobs where I had no clue I was going to be let go and I hate that feeling. But I also know that this situation I’m in now isn’t that. As soon as my boss has a better idea of what will be happening she’ll let me know. It has nothing to do with me or my job performance. It’s just the downside of working a contract gig that depends on government funding.

I have said this a million times before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but just getting all that out has made me feel so much better. I needed to rant and typing it out has helped me get into a better mindset. This blog seriously is one of my best forms of therapy.

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I Really Am Doing Everything Right (or It’s Frustrating Not Losing Weight)

Posted on December 25, 2014 | Comments Off on I Really Am Doing Everything Right (or It’s Frustrating Not Losing Weight)

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you are all having an amazing day doing exactly what you want to do today! My recap of Christmas will come soon.

I’ve been on a very good path lately. My exercise routine is getting to be in a very good place. I’m going to Orangetheory 3 times a week every day and I’m even adding a 4th day every so often. I’m thinking that for 2015 I will do 1 week of 3 workouts and then 1 week of 4 workouts just to push myself.

I’m getting so much stronger and I know that I’m getting much healthier. While I haven’t necessarily tested my cardiovascular abilities, I know that I don’t feel as tired as I did my first few weeks of workouts after the cardio section. And I can row much farther than before without having to take a break.

There are some things that aren’t on the right track. My hips are hurting more and more each day. They aren’t nearly as bad as I know that they can get, but I do sometimes miss my pain-free days as now they are much less frequent than they used to be. I’m also starting to lose a bit of flexibility that I had worked very hard to get back after my hip surgery. I’m not sure what exactly is causing this, but I think it’s a combination of the pain and maybe my muscles being stronger and bigger. I’m going to be interviewing new orthopedic surgeons soon and this is a concern that I’m going to bring up with them.

And finally, I’m starting to get my food in control. I’m getting very comfortable with cooking and in fact am planning on spending some time today reorganizing my kitchen to help make things more efficient when I am doing my bulk cooking.

I still have some food setbacks, but they aren’t as often or as crazy as they used to be. Having my food ready for me the moment I’m hungry really does help stop me from needing to run to the store to buy something in desperation.

So why am I frustrated?

I’m really not losing weight at the pace I feel like I should be. I know the saying that muscle weighs more than fat and I could just be gaining muscle, I should be seeing the scale go down in more significant increments that they are doing right now.

I know that sometimes it takes some time for the weight loss to show up on the scale so I’m trying to be patient. But having that instant gratification of knowing that I’m doing the right things really does help with motivation. And I have some clothes in 1 size smaller that I’d really like to start wearing.

I really don’t think I can do more than I’m doing right now. I guess I can work on adding more workout days, but I do need those recovery days for my hips to stop hurting. And I don’t want to decrease or increase my daily calories. The number of calories that I’m eating right now is something that my old therapist/nutritionist set up for me and I know that it’s a good number for me.

So for now, I just have to keep doing what I’m doing and hope that my scale pays attention one day.

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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Weight Loss Update (or Why I’m Trying Not To Get Frustrated)

Posted on July 23, 2014 | 3 comments

So I’ve completed 3 weeks of my Orangetheory challenge so far. I’ve been working out 3 days a week (and burning about 500 each workout) and I’m trying to eat below my calorie goals (which seems to happen about 6 out of 7 days).

You’d think that I would have lost a good amount of weight so far. Maybe even in the double digits. That’s what I thought I would have done by now.

But instead, I am currently down 6 pounds from where I started at the beginning of the challenge.

I should be happy with those 6 pounds. They say that you should lose 2 pounds a week to have a maintainable weight loss and that’s exactly what I’m doing. And I know that my body composition is changing and I’m gaining muscle so that could also cause my weight loss to stall a little.

But I still keep thinking about how when I did the RFO diet I would lose about 6-10 pounds a week (my first week I lost 14). And I’m aware that that was a medically supervised starvation diet and that the weight loss was not maintainable. But I still miss those days when I lost a pound a day.

It doesn’t help that all over the media there are people losing weight at a rapid fire pace. On Extreme Weight Loss, people lose 100 pounds in 90 days. And yes, almost all of those people have more weight to lose than I do, but it’s still a message that sticks in my head. It’s possible to lose more than I am right now.

So why am I stalled?

Besides the reasons that I’ve already listed, I know that the weather is affecting me as well. It’s very hot right now, and with my house having horrible insulation, it’s very hot even when I go to bed (averaging at 90 degrees when I go to sleep each night). I have a fan next to my bed, so that helps, but I’m still overheated. And when I’m overheated, my body swells up. So my clothes feeling tighter is an illusion. It’s a frustrating illusion, but I know that I haven’t gained weight.

Right now, there’s not much I can do to make myself lose weight faster. I’m thinking of cutting my calories back a little (maybe from 1600 to 1450), but I’m not going to do anything drastic.

I just have to keep pushing along and eventually my body will catch up to all the hard work I’m putting in. I just have to make sure that I don’t give up before that happens.

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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