Category: Uncategorized

When unprepared for class – regressing back to high school.

I woke up early today for my 7am zoom class, I was very tired. I got home from work the night before at 9:30pm and after walking the dog and decompressing I ended up going to sleep pretty late. And yet, when the alarm rang this morning I crawled out of bed and made myself a strong cup of coffee and logged into my class. Up to now all sounds good, except when I logged in I realized I forgot to submit my homework. Me, the mom who always yelled at my kids when they forgot to submit their homework , actually forgot her homework.

My fight or flight response kicked in and  I felt back in school. In one  moment I regressed back  40 years to a 15 years old me,  waiting for my parents to be called because I didn’t do my homework, except that I was a nerd and always did my homework so this was worse. 

Many times I can talk myself out of situations, but when it’s a language class and you’re a beginner it is not that easy. After my first freak out moment, I calmed down. I remembered that this class is with all adults who do have work and other commitments and is full of curious people who are taking the class to enrich their lives and not from a need to gain a grade, certificate or advancement in the workplace.  Did I like joining class feeling unprepared? Nope, definitely not. But I can guarantee that I will not forget to do my homework again, at least not for this class. I will start on my homework at some point today or tomorrow and will even submit.

What I found amusing is that even as an adult when you are not prepared you regress back to your highschool self, being called to the board and having no answer. Luckily I can also laugh about this and make fun of myself. 

Next I am going to review the quadratic equation in case I am ever asked, no, not really!

When the Temperature “feels like”

The temperatures dipped this week in California and we are cold, real cold and not the fake California cold. We keep getting blizzard warnings, snow at the Hollywood sign and rain, lots of rain. When we actually get weather we check out the weather channel to see how many layers of clothing we need  since a sweater and jacket will clearly not be enough and we will need to wear a warm coat, that’s if we even own one.  But the temperature report does not only consist of what the thermometer says, they also include information about what the temperature feels like, feels like to whom?

That’s what made me wonder- when they say it’s 46 and feels like 42 degrees, Who is the person that works for the forecasters and tells everyone what the temperature feels like. What if that person’s internal thermostat is broken and they run cold or hot. Today it said 42 degrees but feels like 41, now really will I be more cold with that extra less degree?

If there was a 10 degree difference , I might feel it again depending on the circumstances. Let’s say it says 70 degrees but feels like 80, I would. But if it is  10 degrees formally but they say  it  feels like 9 or 11, I believe I will be freezing cold regardless.

So my mission now is to find that person that reports the “feels like” aspect of the weather report, find them and see if that person’s internal thermostat is accurate and then go find the people who report the temperatures and ask them if really anybody cares about this and does it really natter.

My dislike of 10 best lists

The internet is full of lists – 10 things you should not buy at costco, 10 things you should, 10 things you should or shouldn’t buy at trader joes, target or whatever store you go to.

As much as I love lists like any other person (I hate lists!) These people who write the lists either have too much time on their hands to go from store to store or they must enjoy the constant travel from store to store and forget to add the shopping time or the gas as a cost.

My time is limited and even if I love a great deal and really I do,I have to also  account for my travel time and the time it takes me to go from one place to another to find the bestest deal. Driving time comes at a cost. Many of us discovered that when we moved to work from home when tha pandemic closed everything that without driving we had time to play with our kids, cook and even give the dog an extra walk. So even if I am on the hunt for my next great deal I have to calculate my driving time. What will I miss if I spend more time in the car plus in some cases the cost of gas adds up. 

Not to mention that we all value our products differently, what I see as a great bargain or the best product ever, does not mean anything to someone else with different preferences. There is a reason I buy a specific brand of  toilet paper despite an article telling me that a different brand is better, better for whom I ask?

So read these lists, take what you want from them, But don’t let them rule your universe as at the end of the day you have your own list.

Life in the yoga pants lane

I envy people who are all put together everyday, especially those that are all done early in the day. I wake up and go walk the dog in whatever I find in the morning, luckily i find my glasses and hearing aids otherwise it would have been a complete disaster.

When iI do zumba i see the difference between me and the others, the front row is full of people who have color coordinated matching clothes,down with matching socks and shoes while I am in whatever color kirkland yoga pants that are clean and the tshirt that was on the top of the laundry basket. Frankly I am just happy that I actually went to zumba in the first place and managed to follow the steps.

 Somedays I even manage to follow the hand movements and not just the legs, very exciting for me. So of course my attire for zumba class comes last on my list, could also be that the hundred or so  kirkland yoga pants I own are very comfortable and usefull. They do have side pockets after all, one for the cell phone and the other for doggie bags.

Funny thing is that I used to be one of these well coordinated people back in the day. Somedays I wonder what happened to me that I changed and then somedays I really don’t care. Yoga pants with pockets are the best thing since gluten free sliced bread, at least in my opinion!

Resenteeism or hating your job

Read an article  this weekend about work resenteeism as in resenting our work, I started laughing, apparently I love humor columns. They coined this as a new term and a new  danger to the work environment.  However, some of us have resented or hated our jobs for many years without having a great term to define it, we just called it hating our jobs. That’s why you see so many people going drinking after work in TV shows or in the movies, at least in my opinion. I on the other hand do not drink at all, maybe I like my job, maybe not.

According to the latest articles there are several reasons for resenteeism, being underpaid, overworked, feeling like you missed the boat on getting a different job with all the layoffs going around, not feeling appreciated and undervalued by your company. These are all valid reasons that have been around forever and will most likely be around forever. However for most of us, we don’t always need to find a reason why we hate our jobs and yet stay at the job we hate. Most of us stay in our jobs because we are responsible, we have family obligations, we need to  put food on the table,  we have kids in college, a mortgage and the need for health insurance. Maybe we should all  start drinking.

The weird things I like to read in my local newspaper

My local newspaper publishes a  list of restaurants that have had health violations the previous week, each week I think to myself do I check the list or do I not. Do I really want to know? And yet every week I go to that list and read it, hoping and praying that I did not go to any of these places. It’s like a traffic accident that you see is about to happen and you can’t turn your head to avoid looking. 

There really is no point in reading  that a restaurant I went to last week or two weeks ago had a cockroach infestation or no sufficient hot water and yet I still read it. Maybe its a form of self torture, who knows.

There usually have some normal and reasonable closures, but when it said the closed CVS and only allowed prepacked foods at this particular CVS I started to wonder what exactly they sell, we have several CVS’s close by and none of them sell fresh food or ice cream. So I went to the official county website to see if there is any further information but alas there is none.

What should we do with the information about health department closures,do I go to a place that was cited and closed with the belief that it is cleaner now, with immodium in my purse just in case or do I avoid going to a place I like as they frequently have issues. This is going to be a tough decision!

It’s a fine line between not comprehending and not listening

Hearing is not my strong suit, in fact without my hearing aids I hear almost absolutely nothing. Listening is a slightly better skill for me, depending on who you ask. As I wear  hearing aids I do need to pay more attention to what is being said around me. Which brings me to my point, I work at a place with slightly different business hours and no, it’s not a strip club, although I would have definitely  been making better money.Our voicemail states our name and our hours very clearly as does the sign on our door. And yet quite frequently we receive complaints that we were closed when they stopped by or that we do not answer phone calls and when we check the timestamp of the complainer it’s always when we are closed. Sometimes people leave us voicemails asking us to call back but during the hours we are closed and then they keep calling and calling while we are still closed demanding to know why we are not calling them back. I often wonder about these people, do they not listen to our voicemail and if they did not listen the first time they called, did they not listen the 3rd time they called? We had one such call this week, the funny thing is when we called her back she asked if we are Fedex. We were not sure if to laugh or cry when she asked if we are fedex. So is this I am not listening or a comprehension problem?  Maybe it’s a I don’t care, I just want an immidiate response problem.

When fries are on the no go list

I love eating and I love eating crap! The problem is my body, with complete agreement from my doctors, all disagree with my love of crap. This sucks big time! So for the last 2 weeks I have been eating relatively healthy, not that I don’t like healthy foods, fruit and vegetables, I actually do like them and some I even love. What I don’t love is not having the freedom to eat what I feel like. As a celiac, I should be used to this feeling. But adding more restrictions to my already restricted diet is not fun. Goodbye french fries and potato chips hello cottage cheese and tomatoes. Someone should write a country song about this, really. I can even hear the song  in my brain and  it’s a very sad breakup  song. But truthfully. While I will be limiting some of my favorite  fried food groups,I will not be giving them up completely, I will just be more conscious of what I am eating and some foods will be modified. Fries are really too good to give up completely.

Unfortunately for my walking partner, the vet told Sagey girl that she is a little chonky as well and needs to lose a few. So both of us will be adding more veggies to our diets and walking a couple more steps. Thankfully the weather where we live is good almost year round so someone is happy about the extra steps.I already exercise and walk 10000 steps a day thanks to my 70lb dog, who makes sure to provide me with my resistance training as well.

Enjoying the sunset

We are busy planning our trips for the next couple of years, trying to decide on where we would like to go and what we would like to see. This is great because we both really like to travel and did not have any destinations planned for 2023 and beyond.  Planning big trips is a lot of fun but we should not forget day trips and hikes and local amazing places that most of us have close to home. Sometimes our own backyard can be amazing as well. Today we  decided to go down for a walk and went down to our local  beach. The weather was perfect, low 70’s (20C) and just beautiful. I haven’t gone to the beach in the last  3 months, no special reason, just did not get a chance, which is a real shame. 

The weather was amazing and we were blessed with a great sunset. And we really enjoyed our walk as did Sagey girl,our Airedale,  she behaved well and did not bark or terrorize the other dogs either. So what have I learned from this? 

I learned that I  have  to remind myself to enjoy the simple things. Grand plans are great, but sometimes local things are great as well. I also had to remind myself to pause a little and take a break, walk the dog on different paths and just enjoy being away from work even if it’s for an hour.

Valuing your time as a patient

I had an 8 am doctor’s appointment the other week, the office called to confirm and requested that I arrive at 7:45.  I have been a patient of this doctor for more than 20 years, in those 20 years my appointment has never been on time, I love this doctor and he usually runs late as he takes time with each patient and really listens so I don’t mind usually but as I am aware that he runs late I try to be his first appointment of the day, hence my 8am appointment. But even me being his first appointment I know he will be late as usual, this time he saw me at 8.25am.

I did not arrive at 7:45 as I am very aware he takes his time, I arrived at 7:58am and with me all the medical staff arrived as well. I was even there before the nurse arrived and felt like I should turn on all the lights in the office as well. I was not called in until 8:10am.

So why do these schedulers not value  our time? If I had actually been there early, that would have meant almost 40 minutes of just waiting there. Shouldn’t there be an appreciation for the patient’s valuable time as well as the doctor’s time? 
Sadly, this doctor’s appointment was actually one of the most efficient ones. I had another appointment with a different doctor lately that  had me waiting for 30 minutes in the waiting room and another 45 in the exam room, when I asked his medical assistant if he was running late today, she looked at me in wonder and goes no, he is on time, to which my reply was really, I have been waiting for an hour and half already. I have canceled all future appointments with this practioner as this was the second time in a row that I was left waiting for hours and will be shopping around for another doctor. It seems like some medical practitioners overbook and value their own time but not their patient’s time. Yes, if the doctor has had some emergency this is expected, but most cases this is not the reason for leaving us in a waiting room in a paper robe cold.

So who’s time is more valuable? CVS just announced that their pharmacies will have less hours and will close earlier in the day. Those who need to pick up their prescriptions will have to go get them in the middle of the day or during lunches or wait for  the weekend and delay taking them,again the focus is not on the patient. When did the medical field change from being patient focused to being corporate focused.

 Every one’s time is valuable, us waiting in a doctors office to be seen for hours or running to the pharmacy instead of eating lunch as well as the service providers,  there must be some middle ground and respect between everyone’s needs.