Tag Archives: relaxation

A Long Short Week (or Ready For The Weekend)

Posted on February 24, 2023 | Comments Off on A Long Short Week (or Ready For The Weekend)

It seems like when I have an extra day off of work because of a holiday, that somehow makes the week seem longer. I don’t know if that is because I usually use that extra time to get more things done than I normally would or if I just feel off because I mix up what day it is. But it seems to really hit me hard and I feel like I need to recover more from a short week than a long week.

I know that I am also still probably used to having Mondays off from when I had my old job, but I should be used to this schedule by now. And when I get a Monday off now, I get to have 2 days without work instead of just 1. It doesn’t always feel like I just have 1 day off a week since I only work 3 hours on Saturdays, but I still have to wake up early in order to work. I just get to have extra time to be lazy or do other things after work.

I know that this short week also was busy with a lot of things. Over the weekend, I drove to and from Santa Barbara. I have done that drive a bunch, but it’s still at least 3 hours of driving in a day. Maybe I had more endurance for driving when I used to commute to work, but now it seems like it’s a decent drive. I do keep myself entertained by making sure I have good podcasts to listen to, but it’s still a good chunk of time. I also had my parents here and even though I don’t have to necessarily entertain them, I still try to be a good host when they are here even if we are just meeting for dinner and doing work around my house like we did this time. And hanging up things on my walls and doing all the house projects on Monday made that day seem pretty busy and not a normal day off.

I’m glad it’s Friday even though I still have work tomorrow. But I’m ready to have a bunch of hours when I can relax and just get things back in order. I still am catching up on housework from when I was sick, so I want to get that done. I also have a few more things to put away after all the projects we did earlier in the week. But I also want to make sure I take time to rest and relax since it will be Monday morning before I know it.

I originally had some plans for this weekend, but they were canceled due to the big storm we are supposed to have. I’m not upset about not having plans since I probably shouldn’t have made them in the first place. I would prefer to not be out in the rain unless I really have to. And if bad weather is what I needed to remind me that I should take it easy this weekend, then I guess that’s not a bad thing.

Hopefully, I can really take some time to get things and myself back to normal before Monday and I have to be back to a busy work week. And if I don’t get as much done but I get more time to relax, then I’ll consider that a good thing too. As much as I know I need to get some things done in my place this weekend, the bigger focus should be resting so I can be back to my full energy soon. And nothing that is on my list of things to do this weekend can’t wait until later, so I won’t allow myself to stress about what I need to do if that’s going to prevent me from resting.

And even though next week will be a full work week and I could easily be more exhausted by the end of the week, hopefully taking the time this weekend to rest will have me ready to go and I won’t be as tired as I have been this week.

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Appreciating Some Laziness (or Finally Having Time To Play Catchup)

Posted on September 6, 2019 | Comments Off on Appreciating Some Laziness (or Finally Having Time To Play Catchup)

With all the craziness of my schedule lately, I haven’t been able to do some of the things I usually get to do every day that make me happy. I don’t know if I realized how little I was doing until I finally had time to get back to a more normal schedule. But I’ve finally had some time over the past week to really do nothing that I had to do and could do things I wanted to do.

I knew I was stressed and that it was getting to me. But I don’t think I realized how much it was affecting me until I finally had the time to decompress. And while I wanted to spend time hanging out with my friends and catching up on the life I missed, I realized that it was more important for me to catch up on my own life. That’s part of the reason I created the challenge I set for this month.

Since most of the tv shows I watch are during the fall and spring, I didn’t have much tv to catch up on. I did watch the few random things I recorded on my DVR, but I didn’t have a huge list of shows I hadn’t watched that I needed to get through. That was probably good because I think having a list like that would have added to my stress. And while I try not to watch tv mindlessly and usually only watch shows I record or the news, I did take some time to zone out watching tv from time to time. I also took some time to look at my DVR and see what shows I could take off the recording schedule. I do watch a lot of tv, but I don’t want it to take over my free time. I need to find a balance and I know that with the new tv season starting up that I will be adding new shows. So a few old ones needed to go. But that’s something I usually have to do each year so it was nice to have some time to do it.

Without having tv, I did spend a lot of time doing other things that make me happy. Mainly, I have been doing a lot of reading. Reading is almost a daily thing for me. I really can’t remember the last day that I didn’t read at all. But I hate it when I only have time to read when I’m going to bed. I usually fall asleep quickly and there have been a few times that I dropped my Kindle on my face while falling asleep reading (and getting an impressive bruise because of it). I took some time over the weekend to go through my wish list at the library to get some new e-books or put things on hold. And I did some research online to see what new books I could add to my lists. There are a few books that I’m re-reading because they are the book equivalent of comfort food for me. And I’ve been getting through those books quickly since they are easy reads. There have been several afternoons that I just spent hours reading and not worrying about anything else. It has been so nice to get to do that.

I know I can’t be lazy like this forever, so I’m taking advantage of this week when I can do that. I know my schedule will be picking back up soon and I won’t be able to spend my time relaxing as much as I have been. I won’t be as crazy as I was recently, so it should feel a bit more balanced. And besides my schedule picking up, there are a few other things that I want to work on adding to my life and schedule and I need to see what free time I will have each day.

But for now, I’m really enjoying this time that I can be home doing nothing if that’s what I want. I can do as much reading as I can fit into a day and not have to worry about any other plans I have later. And I’ll probably get to do that through this weekend so I’m already looking forward to seeing what other books I can read, shows I can watch, and other lazy activities that I can get done.

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A Weekend With My Mom (or An Adventure In Palm Springs)

Posted on February 28, 2018 | 3 comments

I don’t get to take vacations that often. And when I do, more often than not they are for me to go somewhere to Thanksgiving or San Diego for my grandma (now I’ll be visiting her in Northern CA when I get a chance). While those are vacations, they don’t necessarily feel like one because they are usually for a family event or to help with family in some way. I also don’t really have the money to go on vacation, so when I get the chance to take one I jump at it!

My dad and brother were going on a ski trip together and my mom asked me if I wanted to go on a trip with her (she invited my sister-in-law but she ended up having to stay home). Of course I said yes! I’m not sure if everyone is the same, but I love traveling with my mom. Part of this is because she pays for the trip (which allows me to go), but she really is a great travel companion. We have similar taste in traveling and she’s great at planning. And for this trip, she wanted us to go to Palm Springs.

I had been to Palm Springs when I was a kid, but I don’t remember that trip. And the last time I was in Palm Springs was when I was a college freshman and we were actually outside of Palm Springs. So I was happy to get to go back since it’s not that far from LA and I haven’t been in forever.

I drove down after work and a workout on Saturday. I didn’t really think about other people going out-of-town in the afternoon, but I dealt with more traffic than expected. And by the time I got to Palm Springs, it was already dark so I couldn’t see too much. My mom had gotten there a few hours earlier and once I arrived we did a quick run to the grocery store for some stuff for the week and we  spent the night relaxing at the house. Even though I didn’t go outside, I was already loving the house and the pool looked amazing in the dark!

The next morning when I woke up, the pool looked just as amazing in the daytime.

But we had no time to be lazy by the pool in the morning because we had plans to go to The Living Desert. The Living Desert is a zoo and garden that is all about the animals and plants of the deserts in North America and Africa. I had never been there before and I love going to zoos so I was excited to check it out. And fortunately, it was colder than normal in Palm Springs so we weren’t too hot while we walked around. And since it wasn’t too hot, the animals were out too. The giraffes were enjoying their breakfast when we got to their area.

And the warthogs were all spooning together in the sun (although one was spooning the wrong way).

And we were able to be at the cheetahs when they were doing their run demonstration and feeding.

We did a lot of walking around and we managed to cover the entire place. It’s a nice sized zoo that has a lot of offer. But it’s not too big that you can’t see everything in a day, especially on a day that isn’t unbearably hot like we had.

After The Living Desert, my mom and I headed back to the vacation house so we could relax by the pool and be lazy. The rental house also had a small putting area and I discovered that I totally suck at that! I haven’t played mini-golf in forever so I guess I couldn’t expect to be good at it.

The next day, my mom and I started the day with a walk around the neighborhood. We were checking out all the mid-century modern houses and how gorgeous the view of the mountains was.

Then my mom and I headed to the airport because one of my mom’s friends was flying in. My mom was going to be in Palm Springs for a week and I wasn’t going to be there for the last half. So my mom invited a friend to join her for the second half of the trip and we had a little bit of an overlay.

After the airport, we headed to the Palm Springs tram. It had been cold near where we were staying, but we knew it was going to be much colder at the top of the tram. So we bundled up and got on the tram headed up the mountain. I had been on the tram when I was little, but since I didn’t remember that I was excited to check this out. And since the last time I was on the tram (or my mom was on the tram), they had changed up the tram cars and now they are round and rotate while you are going up. So you will get to see all around as you are going up and can enjoy all the views.

Because there hasn’t been a lot of rain or snow, there wasn’t much snow on the top of the mountain. But it did smell like snow (or Tahoe) to me and it was freezing cold! While I was in the sun I felt fine, but in the shade or when the wind kicked up I was wishing I had gloves or hand heat warmers with me.

I didn’t end up doing the hike around (it was a very steep incline and my hips were a bit sore), so I just sat in the sun while my mom and her friend went on a mile and a half adventure that they enjoyed. But I was happy sitting in the sun and just looking at the view.

When they returned, we checked out the various movies and displays inside the mountain top building and then took one more look at the view before heading back down.

And we got to enjoy another lazy afternoon/evening at the rental house which was perfectly fine with me. I love going on adventures on vacation but also having time to relax too. And we did just that.

There’s still one more day of my Palm Springs vacation, but since that was a trip outside of Palm Springs that will come later!

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Time For A Spa Day (or This Is Exactly What I Needed To Do)

Posted on October 24, 2017 | Comments Off on Time For A Spa Day (or This Is Exactly What I Needed To Do)

A friend of mine is taking some time off from their job right now and she posted online that they were looking for some fun ways to spend the time off. She was looking for people who work non-traditional hours who maybe wanted to hang out and help her fill her time away from work with awesome stuff. And since I work non-traditional hours, I immediately sent her a message saying that I typically have Mondays free. So we made a plan to get together this week on Monday and it was such an amazing day!

The main reason my friend is taking time away from work is because they have dealt with some medical issues lately and needed to relax and take some time for herself. So I was thinking of some fun things we could do and I remembered that I have a bunch of day passes to Burke Williams from various swag bags! And since my friend lives in the valley we decided to go to the location in Sherman Oaks. So this was the 4th Burke Williams location I’ve been to!

Our plan wasn’t to get any treatments (I don’t have the money for that right now), but having a day pass to the spa is pretty great too. And my friend had never been to a Burke Williams before so I was so excited to share it with her.

We arrived around noon and since we didn’t have any appointments we were able to take our time doing whatever we wanted in the women’s spa section. So after we got changed and into our spa clothes (I just bring a bathing suit with me), we immediately headed to the hot tub for some relaxation. Since it was a weekday, we pretty much had the place to ourselves which was pretty awesome. So we just soaked in the hot tub and enjoyed spa water and the cool wash cloths that they had there.

After a little while, we were getting a bit warm so we went into the misting room which is basically like a cool steam room. It felt so nice to be in there! It was a really hot day (over 100 degrees outside) so being in a nice cool room felt great. I think we were in there the longest. And once we were nice and cool, we went back to where the steam room and sauna were. We decided to skip the steam room and went into the sauna. It was so hot (we joked how it felt similar to what it felt like outside) so we only lasted in there for a few minutes.

Then it was back to the hot tub for some more soaking before we decided we were ready to leave. We were there for over an hour which is a pretty decent amount of time to sit and relax. We ended up in the sauna one more time because we used it as a way to dry off after rinsing off (I took a shower so I wouldn’t smell like chlorine). It was a really smart idea and I was able to get my bathing suit much drier than I would have without the sauna.

After our spa time, we were both feeling a bit hungry. And the mall that Burke Williams is located in also has a Cheesecake Factory so we decided to stop there for a late lunch.

We didn’t get any cheesecake, but the food is still good. I got my usual salad that I almost always get there and it felt like the perfect post-spa meal. And getting time to hang out with an awesome friend and just be silly and gossip was exactly what I needed to do. Things have been a bit more stressful for me than I would like and I know that a lot of that stress is coming from me. But having an afternoon where the focus was on just relaxing really helped. I felt so separated from my regular life and stress while we were at the spa and after we left I was happy that the stress didn’t come back the way I thought it might.

While some of my stress is gone, not all of it is. But the good thing about the stress that is left is that I seem to have a bit more clarity on some things. Maybe I just needed a break from my normal life to step away and figure out what I need to do. I’m so glad that my friend needed some fun things to do this week because it gave me the perfect excuse to do a fun thing for myself and not feel any guilt about it. I was being lazy and relaxing at the spa, but I was also hanging out with an awesome friend and feeling like I was taking time for myself without worrying if I should be doing it or not.

I’ve got a few more spa passes left, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make it to the spa again soon. And I want to get another facial from my friend Michelle so that would be an opportunity to go to the spa but not have to use one of my passes. I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to make it back, but it’s something in my head now that I know I need to do more often for my mental health.

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Spa Day! (or It’s Almost Like Being At Disneyland)

Posted on July 27, 2017 | 1 comment

After I had my eye appointment, I had to rush out to get over to Santa Monica. All the stress I felt at the doctor was about to be wiped away because I had an appointment to get a facial at the Burke Williams spa in Santa Monica!

I’ve been to Burke Williams before, but never to the Santa Monica location. But I’ve driven past it probably hundreds of times because it’s right by so many other places I go to in that area. But this was an extra special adventure to Burke Williams because my Disneyland girls would be there!

Michelle works there and does facials and she told us that we should come in for facials sometime. And it worked out well to go this past week so Dani and I made appointments back to back with Michelle. Since I had my doctor appointment, Dani took the first appointment and I got there while she was already being worked on by Michelle. But it was fine since I wanted to take my time getting relaxed after a bit of a stressful morning. And as soon as I went up the elevator to the spa, I could feel my body calm down.

Each Burke Williams has a lot of similar stuff, but they are all different. This one was the first one I’ve been do where it wasn’t as isolated from the outside world, and I kind of liked that. When you were in the lounge area, there was a balcony that you could go onto that looked over Downtown Santa Monica.

When I checked in for my appointment, I was given a quick tour of the spa. They have a lot of the same amenities that the other spas had like the hot tubs, steam rooms, and saunas. Plus the locker room had showers with anything you might need and a nice vanity area where you could do your hair and makeup. I was shown where my locker was and I changed out of my clothes and put on my swimsuit and the robe that they provided.

I looked around at the different amenities and then headed out to the lounge to wait for Michelle to finish Dani’s facial. The three of us chatted for a minute before Dani headed back to hang out in the steam room and Michelle brought me back to the facials room.

I’ve had facials lots of times, but this was the first time it was a friend of mine doing it. It was a bit weird, but I think acknowledging that it was weird helped to make it seem less weird. There’s no reason it should feel odd and it’s probably better that a friend is working on my skin since she knows what is normal and not normal for me.

Most of the time when I’m getting a beauty treatment like a facial, I’m quiet and that’s my time to relax. But since it was Michelle working on me, we kind of used that time as gossip hour. We were catching up on life since it’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen each other and both of us have had some fun things going on in life. While it wasn’t probably as calming of an experience as most of my spa ones are, this was just as fun if not more since it was just like hanging out when we are at Disneyland.

After my facial was done, I headed back to the locker room area to find Dani and we headed to the hot tub. And since Michelle was done working then she came back to join us! It was nice hanging out in the hot tub and socializing. It was really relaxing and I’ve realized how much I’ve missed getting to be in a hot tub. And since that day I had a workout plus the doctor appointment, I really needed to be able to relax and calm down. This was exactly what I needed.

We had our same catching up and gossip as a group as we do at Disneyland. And we did talk about when we would be back at Disneyland. There’s a small chance we will be going in about a month, but that depends on a few scheduling things we all have.

After about 30 minutes in the hot tub, it was time to get out and get ready to leave. I took a quick shower there (I wish I had more time because the shower was pretty awesome!) and changed and met Dani and Michelle in the lobby so we could pay. Michelle had to park pretty far away so we drove her back to her car (she had to get home to do some errands with her boyfriend) and Dani and I drove to The Counter to get some burgers for dinner.

Probably not the best thing to get after a spa day, but it was exactly what I was craving and it was delicious!

I have a feeling that this spa outing will become a somewhat regular thing for us. Michelle did an amazing job on my skin and I feel like it’s still glowing now! I used to be better about my skin care and this has inspired me to get back to that. Facials are good to do a few times a year and I’m hopefully going to be able to do that. And now that I don’t feel awkward having a friend work on my skin, it will be even more fun the next time I have Michelle do my facial!

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