At home with my babies…sigh, I’m happy.
After three straight weeks on the road that includes two weekends mind you, which were fabulous!
But you can’t beat it! Sigh…
{July 1, 2016}
Ahhh….
{June 30, 2016}
It’s the little things
It really is, isn’t it.
I checked into my hotel today and found this bunny, isn’t that sweet?
After negative attitudes this week and a long drive after class today, it was a welcome site.
I felt good and I know that tomorrow is a new day. Wahoo!
Thanks HGI!
{June 29, 2016}
Good intentions!
What do they say about the road to hell?
I swear to you, I have very good intentions of getting up every morning and going to the gym. It’s not like I have to drive anywhere, I have to get out of bed, put my workout clothes on, take the elevator and walk into the fitness center at my hotel. My alarm is set for 5:45 for that reason…I’m giving myself at least 15 minutes to snooze.
That sounds reasonable, right? Ha ha!
Man, that snooze button is too easy to hit! I need someone pushing me out of bed sometimes. When I’m up, I’m up, it’s the getting up that gets in the way! And I will tell you, once I do get up and hit the gym, I’m so very glad I did. And I get into a routine for a while, I go every day for a few weeks or months even, then…then the cycle starts all over again.
I went today, hmmm…what will tomorrow hold, I wonder. Keep ya posted!
{June 24, 2016}
Cleveland Rocks!
Dad and I have been talking about taking a trip somewhere and we’ve both wanted to see the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.
Problem solved, we’re going to Cleveland!
We made a decision, then just needed dates, then came booking flights. Just about that time, GES and I were trying to figure out what to do for Father’s Day…
Perfect…we decided to fly him to Cleveland. I got the rooms with my points, yeah baby! Doubletree Hotel , warm chocolate chip cookies, breakfast included, bath robe…we do things in style around here!
So…here I am in Cleveland to spend the weekend with my pops, enjoying good conversation, a lot of laughs and some rock…n…roll!!!
Can’t wait to tell you all about it! Gonna crash now!
I hope you have rockin’ dreams!
{June 24, 2016}
Sharing the vegan love
I know you know in a vegan, my friends and colleagues know, but it’s not something I push on anyone.
There are jokes about vegans out there “How do you know someone is a vegan? The tell you in the first five minutes of meeting them!” Ha ha, very funny. Well that’s not me. I like being vegan, but I don’t push it on anyone and I would never force anyone to be vegan. But if you have questions or want to know something, I’ll answer as best I can.
Most people find out I’m vegan when they make restaurant suggestions and I have to tell them my criteria. My coworkers have been great at our get togethers, always making sure I can get something when I’m there, I appreciate it so much. Don’t think my friends aren’t the same way!
Sometimes when I am having a conversation about it someone will say “oh, I want to try it, but I don’t think I could do it”, “I want to go vegan cold turkey”, so to speak. I’m happy to share knowledge, even recommendations. Sometimes it’s just, “do to want to taste what I’ve got?”
I’m always honest about what I think is good, I’ll tell you if it’s passable, I don’t think all vegan is awesome. Do you remember me telling you about the cheese that smelled like feet? See, honest!
And that happened at work this week. One of my new coworkers said she wants to go vegan. Ok…Tuesday she went with me and we had vegan for lunch at a place I like, and it’s the only vegan place near the training site. She loved what she tried, she was blown away!
Yesterday, I took two of my new coworkers to the vegan place, they were amazed! So was I! I had a new item on their menu and it was awesome! A kale salad with Seiten “chicken”. Wow! Guess what! My third new coworker wants to join us tomorrow! Suweet!
I’ll let you know how it goes!
{June 22, 2016}
To get up or not to get up…
That is the question…
My alarm goes off about 545am every day. I know, that’s not early for some people, maybe they have to leave by 7am to get to work by 8 or because of traffic maybe earlier. Many different reasons.
Since I’m on the road for work, I make sure my hotel is never more then 30 minutes from the client site, so baring any major traffic issues, I can get to the client site by 8am no problem.
I set the alarm for 545am so I can get up and go to the gym, I know I’ll get at least 30-60 minutes in doing something and that leaves me 30-45 minutes to shower and dress, grab breakfast and an uber to the client site.
My dilemma is, and it’s truly not a dilemma…do I want to get up and work out, even though I know I need to. I set the alarm for 545am so I can snooze for a few minutes and then get up. The problem is that I can keep snoozing until it’s too late to go to the gym.
Now, once I make the decision to get my arse up, no problem, I’m go, go, go, dressed and in the gym in less than 5/10 minutes. The problem is procrastinating getting up…
Today, I decided I wasn’t going because I wanted to take a few extra minutes to sleep after getting in from Hawaii, even though I slept so hard on that first leg of my trip. So, I snoozed until about 645 and then motivated.
Part of me thought I should have works out, not a very aggressive part, mind you…Hopefully tomorrow, that part wins…I need to work out. We’ll see…
{June 21, 2016}
A reunion and Second City!
Today I saw a friend from college and went to see The Second City company!
JO’S is a friend from college who I haven’t seen in about 23 years! She happened to be coming to Chicago and check to see if I would be available.
As it turns out, tonight worked for both of us and…she had reservations at Second City, the improve repot troupe. This is something I have always wanted to see! Some amazing talent came out of there! John Candy, Gilda Radner, Dan Ackroyd, Jane Curtin, just to name a few.
I left my hotel to pick her and her friend/co-worker, then headed to Second City. We didn’t have time to get some food before, they have a kitchen, so we decided to eat there.
After we got into the club, found out that the kitchen was having problems, so no food, what? I never got to stop and get something after the airport, so I haven’t really eaten since I left Hawaii, um, I’m a little hungry! Oh well.
The show was great! Is improv, so it’s always hit or miss. It took a minute to build, then…bam! There were still some things that were like “huh?”, there were things that were specific to Chicago and sports, didn’t help me, ha ha. There was topical and typical [typical was actually a typo, but it fit!] political humor, some racist humor, it may have gone too far, but who am I to say about what’s funny to others. Besides, I think I’m hysterical, so there you go! Let’s just say, my cheeks still hurt from laughing.
After the regular performance, they try out new material. Let’s just say…keep rehearsing…they did try out something new with an audience member and it was great! One of the players only spoke Spanish and the volunteer they got spoke Spanish, which they didn’t know when they brought her up, or did they…she translated for both players on stage, very funny.
After the show we were ‘starvin’ like Marvin’ and I don’t know about them, but my head was about to explode! so we went across the street to the pub for grub.
Let me just tell you, catching up was fabulous! I can’t believe it’s been 23 years! Oh, we stalk on Facebook so we have an idea of things, and she reads my posts, thank you! But in person, amazing. We couldn’t stop talking! I know “what? JJ not stop talking? Impossible!”
We talked family, work, lives, travel and does she get to travel for work! Oh my! She and her friend arrange conferences [I hope I remembered correctly! And they are global! Then we talked day to day, cars, shopping, like we has just seen each other last week, so comfortable, really nice.
I hope we’re able to keep the promise to not wait 23 years to see each other again!
Best quote of the night “Sometimes you just have to laugh, it’s good for the soul”. No truer words could be said…especially at a comedy club!
{June 9, 2016}
After a rough day…
What do you do to wind down? Everyone does things differently.
Some people go for a run, some purple take a bath, have a drink, take a nap, eat, candy or ice cream. People joke about getting a drink, I’m sure you’ve been there.
Today, during class, a few issues in the training environment people were joking about getting a drink.
What did I do? I don’t drink, the one or two recently was to participate, so…I went to get some dinner.
I went to Red Robin and I ate forbidden food…with my veggie burger…fries and onion rings. Oh my! But they were good! A big smile on my face! But oh my…ouch, what it was doing to my stomach! Smile through the pain!
Worth it? In the moment…you bet your sweet bippie!
What’s your go to?
Doesn’t that look fabulous?!
{May 24, 2016}
Getting sick on the road
Not fun.
It’s not fun getting a cold or more when your at home, but at least you’re at home, in your own bed and can stay there.
Now, you can do the same thing on the road if you need to, stay in the hotel in bed, sometimes a fabulously comfortable bed. Bu6y you can’t always take the day off.
It’s no wonder people get sick on the road, going from extreme temperatures, being around otherc sick people, being in planes, who knows.
I was on a project a few years ago and the second week I was there, I started to feel less than fantastic towards the end of the day. By the time I got to the hotel, I was a wreck, couldn’t function. I spent some time in the loo, then bed.
I got Nyquil from the front desk and I even ordered gingerale from room service, with a room service charge…I didn’t care! The next day, I stayed in bed, Nyquiled out and slept it out of my system. Then went back to the client site the following day, moving slower but feeling much better.
I know you’re wondering if I’m on my deathbed, and thank you for worrying. Nope, I just have a good old-fashioned cold. Or at least that’s what I’m hoping.
I started to feel the scratchy throat yesterday as I was teaching. Then last night while I’m prepping for a new class in the hotel, feeling a little wonky, so I took some Dayquil before bed, I can’t take a chance on Nyquil, that would knock me out completely! We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
The hard part about being sick on the road, depending on what you do, you can’t always call in sick. For me, I probably could, if I was in Chicago, closer to the home office, and if there were available trainers, but I’m almost three hours from Chicago and there’s no one to fill in for me.
So…it will probably be more Dayquil and fake it til you make it, then go back to the hotel and pass out!
Send positive vibes, I have two more days of teaching!
Peaches Prattlings 