Monthly Archives: December 2020

Sending Out More Holiday Cheer (or Hope This Makes People Smile)

Posted on December 17, 2020 | Comments Off on Sending Out More Holiday Cheer (or Hope This Makes People Smile)

Along with doing some Secret Santa exchanges, I like to celebrate the holidays each year by sending out cards. I started doing this several years ago. At first, I was unsure about sending out cards since it seems like only people with kids were doing it. But I realized that it can be fun to send them out on my own as well. I have never done photo cards, but a few of my single friends have given me some inspiration for ideas in the future if I want to do photo cards. But for now, I’ve been sticking with non-photo cards.

Most years, I find pre-made cards and just buy enough for how many I’ll be sending out. When I didn’t have too many to send, regular cards with envelopes were fine with me. But as my holiday card list got bigger, sending out cards got a bit more expensive. So in recent years, I have switched to getting postcards since they are about half the price to mail. The selection of holiday postcards isn’t as great, but there are still a lot of options.

But this year, I wasn’t finding any that I liked that were in my budget. I knew I needed about 100 cards, and there were a lot that I loved that were about $15 for 10 cards. That’s just way too much for me. So I decided to make my own cards this year.

I took a little inspiration from some of the ones I liked when I was looking around but I wanted to change it up. Then I went into Canva to design it since I knew they would have the right dimensions for a postcard. Originally, I wasn’t planning on using one of their layouts, but I looked at them and found one that I liked that I could modify to be what I wanted. It was all pretty easy to put together. My original plan was to take the image and send it somewhere to print (like to an office supply store), but while I was doing some adjustments in Canva I noticed there was an option to order postcards directly from them. They weren’t too expensive, so I decided to go with them.

There was also an option to have them address and mail the postcards, but I wasn’t done getting updated addresses from everyone and finishing my list. So I had them shipped to me and I was going to make my own address labels and mail them myself. Maybe one year, I’ll have cards addressed and mailed for me, but it’s an extra cost so I’m not sure if the convenience is worth it yet.

I finally got my cards addressed and mailed and my friends should be getting them any day now. So I figure it’s safe to show what I made.

I feel like this ended up being the perfect card for this year. I did want it to look a bit cheery since it is a holiday card, but I didn’t want to pretend that this year was great. I had seen a lot of cards that were themed around this year being tough. And that seemed to be the right idea to represent my year and to put a little comedy in the cards.

Hopefully, all of my friends will like the card. I know how much I love getting fun things in the mail, which is one of the reasons I send cards out each year. But I also hope that this makes them smile a bit. It’s been so tough for everyone with everything going on. We want to look forward to next year, but it’s hard when we are still stuck in this year with all the struggles. But this card is a reminder that we should hopefully have a better 2021. This year is almost over and we are going to be going into a year that has a vaccine and maybe at some point next year it will be safe to start doing the things we all miss so much.

So suck it 2020! You were a horrible year. Yes, there were good moments, but overall it was awful. Good riddance to this year and here’s to what should be a better year ahead!

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Default ThumbnailSpreading Some Holiday Cheer (or Finding Cheaper Ways To Make People Smile) Default ThumbnailStarting To Wrap Up 2017 (or Getting In All My End Of The Year Things) Default ThumbnailUnion Working Holiday Party (or Just Enjoying Being Around Good People) Default ThumbnailUnion Holiday Party (or Seeing A Lot Of People In A Little Time) Default ThumbnailAnother Union Holiday Celebration (or Being Social And Working Social Media) Default ThumbnailIt’s Always Unexpected (or Sending Positive Energy To A Co-Worker)

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Getting More Used To My Schedule (or My First Full Week At The New Job)

Posted on December 16, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting More Used To My Schedule (or My First Full Week At The New Job)

Last week, I wrote about my new job and how I now have to work on maintaining a schedule again. And last week was a big whirlwind. Just from the time that I interviewed to the time that I was hired was crazy. And jumping immediately into the job was a bit overwhelming.

I told the people training me that’s how I was feeling and fortunately they understood. It’s a lot to take on and I had some assumptions about the job that were wrong. Most of the work in customer service is very similar to things I’ve been doing before, it’s just the method of the work that is different. For example, I’m used to helping customers on a chat system that runs through a website. It’s like instant messaging and the type of customer service chat that I think most of us are familiar with. But the new system is actually a text-based system. This does have a lot of benefits to it, but it changes how I will work and I will have to adjust to the idea that I won’t have customers sitting on a website as I help them. The assumption that the chat system was based on a website was completely on me, so it’s not like I was misled. I just didn’t think to ask and it’s been a bit switch in my thought process.

And of course, with any new job, there are new systems to learn and new protocols to follow. I’m very grateful that everything does seem to make sense and they are based on sites I’m familiar with. Even if it’s not the exact website I’ve used before, they have a lot of the same elements that I’m used to. That has made my training a little easier. At this point, I feel like I understand the job much more than before. I’m just working on putting together the pieces and the workflow of how things go. But that’s possibly something that I just have to jump into (with supervision) and start working through. And that will likely be happening this week.

I also got trained at the end of last week on the other part of my new job doing outbound engagement. Again, this is similar to something I have done before but different enough that I have to remember specific things. And it can be a bit scary starting something new that doesn’t have as much of a chance for starting with supervision, but I also feel confident that I can handle it. I know that I will likely be getting feedback and need to make some adjustments to the work I’m doing, but I’m expecting it so hopefully it will be easier when it happens. I just want the clients to be happy with my work and to have my work seem similar to what others do so they don’t realize I’m the new one doing this.

Because I’m still training for the customer service part of my job, my schedule is still not completely stable. Each day I work different hours as I learn different parts of the job. But this is just for training and soon I will be doing very steady hours for this work. It will likely be about 3 hours every morning, which might increase eventually but I accepted the job knowing it was probably only 3 hours a day. But I do also have 90 minutes of work for the outbound engagement side to do every day and I still have my data entry job that I do a few hours a week. I will eventually figure out how I want to schedule all my time, but for now, I’m just taking it day by day. I’m hoping once my schedule is regular, I can split up my outbound engagement to be partially before my customer service shift and partially after (doing 90 minutes in one sitting is actually harder than I expected). And I will try to fit in my data entry where I can. And if I find out that I can return to my other customer service job, I will figure it out at that point. But for now, I don’t expect to be asked if I want to come back for at least a few more months.

Right now, I am not making what I was making before, but it’s much closer than what it’s been for most of this year. And making any money is good these days. I will be losing my unemployment because of my work, but I’m ok with that. When we had the supplemental unemployment, things were different and I was doing ok. But since that ended, I was making only a fraction of what I was before. And if you make more than what you would get in unemployment, you don’t get it anymore. But I’ve been working with less money for most of this year, so I will be fine without it.

I know that the world is still far from normal, but things are finally starting to feel a bit more normal for me. I know that it’s not completely there and I cannot live this way the rest of my life, but having a regular schedule is something that I know I’ve needed. As much as I’ve tried to do this on my own, it’s nice to have something to actually work on every day. And any issues I’m having with figuring out how to schedule things are not that bad. It’s more about just getting adjusted to the new schedule and I know I will be ok before I know it. And because this is how things always work, as soon as I’m used to the new schedule I bet things will change again (hopefully, a change because I get my other job back). And then I’ll be back to figuring out my schedule again and I’ll have to just do it.

But for now, I’m just getting through my training and being really excited about my new job. I know I jumped right into working and it was a little much at first, but also I think I started at a good time because soon I will have shortened weeks because of the holidays. So hopefully that little break will be time for me to relax and be prepared to fully jump back in and make 2021 a much better year for me.

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Default ThumbnailGetting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition) Default ThumbnailAnother Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training) Default ThumbnailBack To Back Work Fails (or Attempting To Be Productive) Default ThumbnailA Little Job Update (or It Was Silly To Be Scared) Default ThumbnailGoodbye To July (or Looking Forward To Having Steady Work In August) Default ThumbnailTemp Job Time (or Feeling Like It’s An Old Job Again)

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Having My Story Out There (or Welcome To Any New Readers!)

Posted on December 15, 2020 | Comments Off on Having My Story Out There (or Welcome To Any New Readers!)

Back in July, I wrote a post about how I was a guest on a new podcast. I was invited to be on Brianne Davis-Gantt’s Secret Life Podcast. It was a podcast that hadn’t come out yet, but I heard about it through Brianne’s husband. He had posted about the new podcast and invited anyone who has a secret in their life to submit their story. Even though my eating disorder isn’t really a secret anymore, it was a big secret in my life for a long time. And I know that it is a secret for so many people.

I had the best time recording this podcast episode over the summer. Brianne was wonderful and she made me feel so at ease. This was the first time we had met, but she was so open and friendly and it felt like I was just sharing my story with a friend. I didn’t feel judged at all, which is so important when sharing a secret. And I felt like we had an amazing conversation.

We did discuss this blog a bit (which is why I might have some new readers) and how I originally wasn’t going to write about my eating disorder on here. Before starting this blog, I had another one that was going to be anonymous where I thought I could be open and honest about what was happening. But by hiding who I was, I wasn’t being open. And that was a big reason why my first blog failed. And with this blog, I wasn’t going to share that part of my life because I was terrified about how people would react. But sharing my story on here was the best decision I made for myself and it has only benefitted me. I have received a little negativity after sharing my story, but it has been so out there that it hasn’t bothered me (like someone blaming my eating disorder on not praying every day). Sharing has been such a good thing and I’m so grateful that I had another chance to do it.

I will admit, I was a little nervous between recording the episode and it when it was released. Mainly, I was nervous that I sounded dumb or said something I didn’t mean the way it sounded. I’m aware that I can sound dingy at times, and my vocal inflections don’t help that. But I hoped that I sounded the way I wanted to. And even though I felt pretty certain that the reaction to the episode would be positive, you never know. But it’s only been out for a day, and it’s already getting good feedback! And I am so happy about that!

And I would love for you all to listen to it as well! I hope that you find that it’s a slightly different take from how I share about my eating disorder here. And I highly recommend subscribing to the Secret Life Podcast and listening to the other episodes. I have been subscribed since the beginning and every episode has been incredible. I almost don’t feel worthy to have my story on there because I don’t know if it’s as good as the others. But I am trying to shut that little voice down and remind myself that my story is important too.

And if you are new here, as I mentioned in the episode, I have some resource links available if you are looking for help. It’s hard to start getting help, but as long as you are ready to receive the help you get it can be amazing. I know for me, I had the information way before I was ready. Before I was ready, I couldn’t really take it in and I wasn’t able to implement the things I needed to. But once I was ready to start my journey toward recovery, I’m so glad I had a lot of information I could use and it has been a great tool for me.

Thank you again to Brianne and Mark for letting me be a part of the podcast! I really am so grateful that you gave me this chance. And by putting myself out there in a different way and being honest to more people, I think this might help me just as much (or more) than it helps people who listen to it. I know that keeping a secret can only make things worse. So being more and more honest hopefully will only make things better.

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Default ThumbnailContinuing To Find Ways To Be Creative (or Podcasts and Online Shows) Default ThumbnailHaving To Defend Myself (or My Eating Disorder Isn’t Taken Seriously By Others) Default ThumbnailBeing As Honest As Possible (or Making People Feel Awkward) Default ThumbnailBinge Eating In The Media (or More Help Might Be On The Way) Default ThumbnailFinding Some More Control (or How Medical Stuff and Dating Stuff Are Alike) Default ThumbnailFeeling Normal Again (or Happy To Be Back In Control)

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

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Just A Bad Workout Week (or I Need To End The Year Better Than This)

Posted on December 14, 2020 | Comments Off on Just A Bad Workout Week (or I Need To End The Year Better Than This)

This past week of workouts was just bad for me. There’s no real way to make it sound better. I can say that I at least did something, but I don’t know if I can say anything more positive than that. And honestly, I wonder if doing nothing would have been better for my mood. I know it wouldn’t have been better physically for me, because something is better than nothing. But mentally, maybe I wouldn’t be so down if I didn’t work out at all compared to feeling really horribly about how I did.

I knew this past week was going to be tough. My nausea wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past, but it was still affecting me a lot. I really worried that I would throw up several times in the middle of the workout. I’m glad I didn’t, but it really made me hesitant. So I was already not doing my full ability and then this gave me a mental roadblock too. I wanted to try to push myself, but I was terrified to do so. And it felt like whenever I did push a bit more, that’s when nausea kicked in. It felt like an endless battle and at the end of each workout I was feeling pretty defeated.

I also had a bit of a weird schedule this past week because I was working around the schedule for my new job. Right now, my schedule isn’t the same every day because I am training and working at different times lets me see different parts of the job. This is only temporary and once I’m fully working on my own I will have a schedule that should be the same every day. It will still change when I’m used to working out unless I find a way to work out a bit earlier than I’m used to. That might be possible, I just have to see how it goes.

But I’ve gotten so used to having my workouts be one of the first things I do each day. Even if it’s not as early as I like to work out, I try to get it done first before moving on to other things with my day. But once I’m working my new schedule, there is a chance that I will be working and then working out after. Again, I may be able to work out before I work, it just depends on a few things. But that also may change if I end up doing the outdoor workouts because I will need to take driving time into account. But I’m not going to worry about that just yet.

As much as I want to do the outdoor workouts and I know that I will probably feel so much better about my workouts if I did those, I just don’t feel ready to do them yet. It’s not just not feeling like I’m ready to get back to hard workouts (which I don’t feel like I am), but it’s about how the number of cases is going here. I know that working out outside where everyone is spaced apart and people are required to wear masks is one of the safer things you can do. With contact tracing, they have shown that most cases are coming from people having gatherings in their homes. But I’m still a bit hesitant. And if I’m nervous about that, I don’t feel like I should force myself to go. It’s not like I’m trying to get myself to work out at all. I am still doing them (even this past week when it felt like I didn’t). I just need to feel like it’s safe enough for me to be able to focus on the workout and not be panicking while I’m there.

At this rate, I don’t think I’ll be doing any outdoor workouts before the new year. This means I will likely be ending my 2020 workouts by doing them at home. And I don’t want to end my 2020 workouts the way I feel now. I want to feel proud of myself for what I did. I want to be happy that I didn’t let a pandemic stop me from trying to achieve my goals. Working out from home for 9 months of the year wasn’t my plan, but it was my reality. And I want to make sure that is a positive memory and not a negative one.

I don’t know if I’ll be feeling better this week or not. I’m guessing at least part of this week will still be days I’m dealing with nausea. But I’m hoping that at least toward the end of the week I will be feeling better. And then I can work on finishing out the year with some of my best workouts at home of the year. I would love to end this year feeling really awesome and how I used to feel doing workouts in the studio. I know that might be possible, but it’s what I’m hoping for and I want to at least try to make it happen.

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Posted in Fitness, Tough Stuff

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Having Fun Doing Gift Shopping (or Keeping Secret Santa To My Budget)

Posted on December 11, 2020 | Comments Off on Having Fun Doing Gift Shopping (or Keeping Secret Santa To My Budget)

For the past few years, I’ve participated in different Secret Santa exchanges. Sometimes they are with big groups where I have no clue who I’m getting to buy gifts for and who is getting them for me. And sometimes they are smaller groups where I do know everyone and it’s just fun to get to shop for someone that I normally wouldn’t shop for. I love doing these and if I had the money I would participate in more of them. But I do have to be mindful of how much I spend so I do limit the ones I do.

This year, I’m doing 2 Secret Santa groups. One is through Reddit and one is through a Facebook group. With Reddit, I would be shocked if I matched with someone I knew, but I guess it could happen since I have friends who use the site. But I don’t think I’ve ever given a gift to someone I know on there or have gotten a gift from someone I know. But for the Facebook group, even though I don’t know the people in real life, we are a close-knit group online and I feel like I know the people in there.

I love buying gifts and figuring out the perfect thing to get someone. It is a little easier when I’m buying a gift for someone in my family because I know them well. But fortunately, the Secret Santa groups have us fill out forms that say what we like. So I have an idea of what to get someone and sometimes I find a really perfect thing.

I remember one year I found a book about the science of cooking for someone who said they wanted to cook but also wanted to understand the chemistry behind different cooking methods. Another year, someone said they liked cute things that looked like food and I found a set of erasers that were shaped like cookies. Both of those times, I heard back from the person I gave them to and they thanked me for getting them something they love. That’s an amazing feeling! And it’s not about how much I spend or what exactly I get them, it’s about finding the perfect thing even if it’s not something that is expensive.

I’ve completed the shopping for one of my exchanges so far and I’m hoping to do the shopping for the other this weekend. Both exchanges have a limit of about $30. I have gone over that before if I find something really perfect. The exchange this year that I found the things for already was like that. I didn’t want to just get one thing, I found 3 that I think will be perfect. But the 3 things together went about $5 over budget. But it’s worth it to me. I will hopefully find out soon what they think about the gifts.

I know that I should be saving money and not spending when I don’t have to, but doing Secret Santa exchanges are more than just about gifts to me. They make me happy. They bring a lot of joy to me and that’s something I know I need. And I need that especially this year. There haven’t been a lot of joyful things, so I want to take advantage of it any time I can. And of course, I’m excited to get presents too and I can’t wait to see what I end up getting. But for me, it’s so much more aobut being able to shop for others than it is for getting stuff back.

I’ve also made small donations to friends who are collecting for present shopping for families who need help. I didn’t feel like I could take on a family on my own, but joining together with friends will allow us to do something nice for a family in need to make sure they have a nice holiday season.

Hopefully, everyone I get presents for enjoys them. I know I’ve been enjoying shopping for them. And maybe this will make this month a little bit better for everyone involved. That’s all we can hope for right now. This is the year to spread joy however you can, and Secret Santa exhanges are the perfect way for me to do it.

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Default ThumbnailGift Shopping (or For Me, It’s That Time of the Year) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Gift Giving Time! (or Excited To Finally Give A Present) Default ThumbnailA Gift From A Stranger (or Positivity Online) Default ThumbnailFinishing Holiday Shopping Before Halloween (or Thank Goodness For Internet Bookmarks) Default ThumbnailFinding Little Things To Make Me Happy (or Shopping And Text Groups) Default ThumbnailFinding The Perfect Gifts (or A Gift A Year In The Making)

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Shopping

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Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

Posted on December 10, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

For most of this year, I haven’t had too much of a schedule. Once I had my work hours reduced, most of my days were free. When I lost my old customer service job, I did continue to log into our chat systems a few mornings a week to check in with my manager and to see if she needed me to help with anything. I wasn’t being paid to do that, but I also wasn’t really working. I mainly did it so I had something that I needed to do each morning. I didn’t want to get into a bad habit of sleeping in and not doing much each day. So those mornings helped to keep me on track.

Even when I’ve mostly been out of work, I rarely sleep in. There are 2 days a week that I can, but I don’t sleep in that often. Sometimes I’ll sleep in one of those days, but I have been pretty good about making sure I keep my sleep schedule somewhat consistent. The issue has been that I haven’t been going to sleep at the same time that I used to, so that was making me tired. I’ve been working on getting my sleep more on schedule, and I’m slowly getting there.

And now, I actually have a schedule to work with again. It’s not too crazy because  I’m only working a few hours each day, but it’s still something. And my schedule right now isn’t the same every day. It may get that way when I’m done with training and fully working. But right now, my schedule shifts each day to be a different time so I can be trained with different things.

Even with my old work schedule being slightly different each day, having a schedule that isn’t consistent from day to day is still tough to get used to. And because I’ve also been dealing with having almost no schedule for a while, I haven’t been great with time management. I only have had a few things I need to do each day and it didn’t really matter when I did them. So I got pretty lazy with when I was doing stuff. If I didn’t get to something until late at night, that was fine. I could put some things off for a day without it being an issue. I could do the things I wanted to do when I wanted to do them without worrying about a scheduling conflict.

Now, I still have a lot of flexibility, but I also have to be mindful about my schedule and making sure that I don’t start working on something right before I have to focus on something else. It’s not a big deal, but it’s enough of a change for me to really pay attention to what time it is and what I have to do each day. And I’m sure I’ve had this feeling before when I went from being unemployed to having a job, but it’s also a bit different because I’m still not going out to do things and most of the things I’m doing are in my home. So it feels a little less like a schedule than when I would have to go out for things and plan for traffic.

If I got my old job back before I started this new one, I would guess I would struggle almost more. Especially if I was brought back to my full schedule. It’s not easy to go from having almost all the free time in the world to a set schedule. At least with my new job, my schedule is only a few hours so I can still have a lot of the flexibility that I’m used to. I’m easing into the idea of having a schedule again. And I think I’m going to build upon it even more than I need to. While I don’t need to blog at the same time every day, I’d like to have that as a part of my schedule. I’ve also been doing my workouts at different times based on when I get up and going and I know that having a set schedule would be better for me. Especially if I think I might start trying the outdoor workouts. And I want to make my time to watch tv or do other lazy things set times instead of accidentally wasting away most of a day because I’m not focused on making sure I do other things.

I know that it might be a while before I need to have a more set schedule like what I’m thinking of doing, but I have the luxury right now to take my time to get back to that. I don’t have to worry about being on a schedule immediately. I can play around with things and see how it goes. Right now, it’s not a lot that has to be done at a specific time, but there are things that need to be that way. And I need to make other parts of my life work around it. But I see this as a positive thing. I’ve been a bit aimless lately and this will hopefully get me to feel a bit more grounded. Maybe this will help me get other things on track in my life. I don’t know if it will and I’m not expecting it. But it would be something nice if it did happen.

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Default ThumbnailWorking On Productivity (or Taking Advantage Of The Slow Season) Default ThumbnailMaking Up A Schedule (or What To Do With My New Free Time) Default ThumbnailScheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment) Default ThumbnailReadjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule) Default ThumbnailProductive One Way And Slacking In Another (or Working On Finding Time) Default ThumbnailBeing Grateful To Have A Bit Of A Schedule (or Trying To Not Waste My Days)

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Work

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Another Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training)

Posted on December 9, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training)

My job situation has been not great since March. Even though I was still working my customer service job a bit from March until the beginning of August, I was only working limited hours. There was a point where I was only checking the voicemails and not doing much else with work. And since August, I’ve only been working my data entry job and that is already limited hours.

In normal times, job hunting is tough. Especially for me with trying to find a remote job. But job hunting during a pandemic is another thing. In one sense, almost all jobs are remote so that helps me a bit. But so many people are out of work so it’s been hard to even get to a job interview. I’ve been spending time every day looking for jobs and applying, with no luck. But then recently, a friend let me know about a job opening at their company.

They work for a social media management company and there was a position open to help with customer engagement. It was only about 1 hour a day, but any work right now is really good. So I sent in my resume and had a phone interview with the owner of the company. I’ve actually met the owner before through my friend, so the interview was pretty casual. I felt pretty good that I would be offered the job because of my background in other social media work. But in my phone interview, the owner and I started talking about my job situation and I mentioned how I was pretty much out of work. The owner had mentioned there might be an opening in their customer care department and I shared some of my stories from my job. He asked if I’d be interested in interviewing for the other position as well, and I said yes.

Last week, I had a Zoom interview for the customer care job. I made sure I was sitting in the spot in my house with the best lighting and I propped up my laptop so that it would be a better angle. I don’t have a stand or anything for my laptop, so I just stacked some books and mail and it worked.

The interview was with their customer care manager and my friend, so it ended up being pretty casual. But I felt really good about things after it and just hoped for the best. And on Monday, I found out I got the customer care job!

Between the 2 jobs, it will still be part-time work, but that’s ok with me. I still have my data entry job and there might be more hours for me in the future. I also still hope that I will be back to my other customer service job once theater shows are safer to go to. But for now, going from pretty much out of work to having a regular part-time job is amazing!

This week I’ll be doing training every day and I’m not sure when I’ll officially be starting with my hours. But I’m not worried about that. I’m just excited that I have a new job since this is something I’ve been working on for a while. And like all the other jobs I’ve had recently, this is another job through a friend. I don’t know why it’s ended up that way, but it is true that you have a better chance of getting a job. And I’ve been lucky that my friends have been referring me to jobs that are perfect for me.

Having a new job is a great way to end this year and start next year. I hope that is a sign of other positive things to come my way! And I’m so happy that not only do I have a new job (which I needed), but it’s a new job I’m excited about. That makes things even better.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Time A Friend Found Me A Job (or It Really Is About Who Knows You) Default ThumbnailInterview Time! (or Maybe I Can Find Another Perfect Day Job) Default ThumbnailI Got A New Day Job, Sort Of (or Maybe I Won’t Be Unemployed For Long) Default ThumbnailTraining Day At A New Possible Job (or Next Time, I’ll Give Myself 3 Hours To Get There) Default ThumbnailDay Job News (or Things Are Getting Better) Default ThumbnailFeeling A Bit More Luck (or Hopefully This Was Just A Bad Phase)

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Work

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Trying More New Beauty Routines In Quarantine (or Anything To Keep Things Interesting)

Posted on December 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying More New Beauty Routines In Quarantine (or Anything To Keep Things Interesting)

Since March, I’ve been trying to find things to do to keep me busy. I’ve organized my house more times this year than I have in all the other years I’ve lived here combined. I’ve cleaned a lot. I’ve spent time catching up on tv and books. I’ve found new virtual hangouts to do. I need to fill my time with something and I’m always looking for something to do.

I have done a few things to change my beauty routine this year, but a lot of that has come from what life is like now. I changed my face washing routine because I’m rarely wearing makeup. I haven’t been using heat on my hair because I spend almost every day with my hair pinned back and I don’t care too much about what it looks like. I’ve tried to take more time for self-care practices, including beauty routines because I have the time. Again, it’s just stuff to change up my life a bit and to keep me busy.

My hair has had a journey over my lifetime. When I was younger, I alternated between having short or long hair. It used to be pretty curly but at some point, I feel like it lost the curl. It might have been when I was about 14 and I grew my hair very long. It was so long that I could sit on it. Then I cut it to my chin for no reason. I’ve had a lot of time where there are a lot of bald spots, due to my alopecia. I’ve dyed my hair so many colors (including one time I went blonde). My hair used to be thick, but now it’s thinning. And it’s going gray. I don’t hate my hair, but it’s not as good as I remember it being in the past. And not using heat on my hair has seemed to be doing some good.

But not using heat on my hair also means it isn’t looking that great. It’s almost half straight and half curly. It’s weird how it gets like that. But seeing the curl come back a bit has made me curious about letting my hair be curly again. I know that if it’s curly, sometimes it can seem a bit fuller and not as flat. But I’ve never really had my hair curly as an adult or with longer hair.

I’ve had several friends post about how they are doing the Curly Girl Method during quarantine. Since there might be a time period where your hair is adjusting, doing this when you aren’t going to see people is a good plan. And so many of them have posted amazing photos of what their hair looked like. So I decided to try it myself.

I’m still very early into trying this. I have found a few products to test out and try, but I’m not sure if they aren’t working or if I’m just in that weird time period where my hair is adjusting. But it is much curlier than it’s ever been. I don’t know if it looks healthier yet, but it is interesting to see how much my hair can hold a curl just by changing up my hair routine a bit.

There’s a lot of new stuff I need to learn with letting my hair go curly. And I’m still learning a lot. I’m trying to not do too much at first because I need to see what works and what doesn’t. Also, I don’t want to overwhelm myself with this new process and give up. I really want to give this a chance and see what happens. And if after a while, I really don’t like how my hair looks, I don’t have to keep doing it. I can go back to my old routine at any point. But with so many people saying that it took a month or two before they really noticed a difference, I don’t want to give up before I really try.

I know there are other ways to let my hair stay curly without doing the official stuff from the Curly Girl Method. But this seems to be a good place to start since there is so much information out there from them. And I know there are different forums and groups that I can join to get advice or ask random questions. Plus, since this is how many of my friends have let their hair go curly, I know I can ask them and they are familiar with the method.

Hopefully, in a month or two, I’ll have a better idea of how this goes and if I’m on the right track for letting my hair stay curly. And if I’m hating it, at least I’m not seeing anyone in person so it’s ok if my hair looks awful.

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Default ThumbnailSelf-Care Is So Important (or At-Home Beauty) Default ThumbnailCoconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick) Default ThumbnailWorking On Self-Care (or Continuing To Try To Fill My Day) Default ThumbnailI Guess This Made My Life A Bit Interesting (or An Outing To Urgent Care) Default ThumbnailDoing Some Beautification (or Feeling Better From The Outside In) Default ThumbnailFeeling Refreshed (or Looking Good While Babysitting)

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff

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Back To The Same Workout Debate (I Don’t Know What To Do)

Posted on December 7, 2020 | Comments Off on Back To The Same Workout Debate (I Don’t Know What To Do)

Ever since Orangetheory closed, I figured I’d want to be back as soon as I could. When they announced that they were going to re-open the studios, I was hesitant but decided to go for it. I didn’t end up going in because they had to cancel the re-opening. Then they announced the outdoor workouts. I couldn’t go when they started those because I was doing a full quarantine. Then I got vertigo. And now, I’m wondering if I should start doing them.

I’m having the same issues that I’ve had for a while with my workouts at home. I’m doing them, but I feel like they aren’t the same and I question if I’m pushing myself enough. This past week was my best week in a month because I was finally feeling better (just in time to start feeling nauseous again this week). But it still wasn’t as tough as I know I could do.

I know that the outdoor workouts won’t be the same as the regular studio ones, but I feel like they would be better than the ones I do at home. But at the same time, I’m scared to take the risk of doing them. I know they are doing everything they can to keep them safe. They are outside. People are being kept apart. They have sanitizing wipes (which they have always had). Masks are required. The classes are probably safer than going to the grocery store. But I’m still scared.

I think this year has given me a lot of new anxiety, and I’m trying to not let that dominate my life. But at the same time, we are so close to being through this and I don’t want to be the person who catches this the week before I could be vaccinated or something like that. I want to say that until I feel fully ready to be back, I shouldn’t go. But at the same time, I know pushing myself is something that I need to do. It’s a debate that I can’t figure out what side I’m actually on.

I’m really hoping that something will change for me soon. Maybe I’ll be able to push myself more during my workouts at home and I won’t be as worried about going to the outdoor workouts. Or maybe things will start getting better and I will be more comfortable going to an outdoor workout. I’ve been watching them to see what happens, and they do seem safe. Nobody has gotten sick from a workout which is good. I haven’t heard of any issues with people following the rules. They are doing everything they can to make it safe and for people to feel comfortable. I just don’t know if I’m there yet.

It would be amazing to be able to be back to a slightly more normal workout by the end of this year. But if it takes until next year for me to be able to do that, I will be ok. This is not me trying to avoid workouts or anything like that. It’s me dealing with a pandemic and circumstances that nobody has experienced before. I just have to figure out what the balance is between wanting to go and being safe and then I know it will be figured out.

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Default ThumbnailI Hate Not Having As Much Motivation (or A Week Of Workout Struggles) Default ThumbnailThis Does Feel Like A Normal Routine (or Another Full Workout Week) Default ThumbnailHitting A Workout Milestone In Isolation (or Still Working Toward A Goal) Default ThumbnailShort and Sweet Workout Week (or Taking It A Bit Easy) Default ThumbnailNot My Usual Thanksgiving Week Workouts (or Trying To Keep The Tradition Going) Default ThumbnailI Hate Having A Hard Workout Week (or Not My Usual Workout Recap)

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Posted in Fitness

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Feeling Like I’m Catching Up (or A Month With Vertigo)

Posted on December 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Feeling Like I’m Catching Up (or A Month With Vertigo)

It’s been about a month since I got sick with vertigo. Even though it was more severe than I ever had experienced, I thought it wouldn’t take too long to get over it. I had never had vertigo last a day, so I thought I just needed to recover the day it hit me and the next day it might be better. I had no idea how bad it would get (since the second day was actually worse than the first) or how long it would take to recover.

I don’t know if I’m completely over it. I still have moments where I need to catch or steady myself. I still feel like things are a little harder for me than they used to be. Most of the time, I’m not feeling dizzy, but occasionally it does hit me and I need to let it pass. But those moments are becoming rare and they pass quickly.

It felt like it took forever to recover and things progressed slowly. It took almost a week before I felt like I could walk without holding onto a wall. For over 2 weeks, I would have to sit down from time to time in the shower because I would get hit with vertigo. My workouts are still a bit tough, but I’m noticing a difference. For example, for a while, any exercise on my back made the room spin (like doing crunches). Now, I notice a little bit of swaying when I do floor exercises or get up off the floor, but it’s not as constant as it was.

Now that I’m finally feeling better, I’m starting to do all the things that I had been putting off. Most of it is related to cleaning since I wasn’t keeping up with cleaning my house. But I also have been working on little projects that I had to put on hold. Some of these projects are more idea-type things and not physical projects, but I still stopped working on them when I wasn’t feeling ok. When you are dizzy a lot, you don’t feel like you can focus on writing stuff down or researching. And it took a while before I felt comfortable spending a lot of time sitting at my computer. Even when I could sit at my computer, I was taking a lot of breaks to rest. Now, I feel like I can do a full day of working if I had to.

There aren’t a ton of things I need to do since there isn’t much going on in my life. But it still feels good to be able to get things accomplished and feel like I’m doing something with my day. I’m still a bit cautious to not do too much in case that makes me have vertigo again, but I am pushing myself to get more and more each day. And that means I get to feel more and more accomplished each day. That’s a feeling I have been missing and it’s nice to have it back again.

A month ago, I had no clue vertigo could be as bad as it was. I only had experienced short bouts of it and to me, those were horrible enough. It’s awful when the world is spinning around you and there is nothing you can do to make it stop. But it has always stopped just as quickly as it started and I was able to move on with my day. I had never experienced this slow recovery from vertigo and having to learn how to deal with whatever it is like each day. It’s been a learning process, not just how to deal with vertigo but how to be patient with recovering. I still am impatient and not good at letting myself take time to get better. But I’m working on it. I hope that I never experience vertigo like this again, but if I do I hope that I am more prepared to deal with it and I can have an easier recovery than I have had this past month.

And hopefully, in another week or two, this will all be a memory and I won’t be thinking about vertigo at all. I’m ready to be over it and feeling completely normal again. I know that I won’t be living a completely normal life when I’m over it because things are still weird here with safer at home orders, but I’m ready to be dealing with only 1 weird thing at a time.

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Default ThumbnailStill Dealing With Vertigo (or This May Take A While To Recover From) Default ThumbnailAlmost Missing An Entire Week Of Workouts (or Another Issue With Vertigo) Default ThumbnailDealing With A Small Setback (or At Least I Can Manage Vertigo A Bit More) Default ThumbnailAnother Thing Vertigo Screwed Up For Me (or Wrapping Up My 2020 Challenges) Default ThumbnailAll My Plans Didn’t Happen (or Vertigo Knocked Me Down) Default ThumbnailFinally Able To Drive Again (or Feeling Like I Have Some Freedom)

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

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