Day 159: Polar Vortex, Take 2

It was another extremely cold day again here in the Midwest, but there is hope: we MIGHT get positive temperatures tomorrow! I have been getting cabin fever lately, so bad that last week I had my first anxiety attack since college. I used to get them sometimes during finals week, but last week was almost as bad as a finals week. It included a construction project, which threw me into a job I didn't sign up for: glorified babysitting. Usually I am able to do a fairly good group with about 4-10 people. This project moved a lot of people around and now I have up to 30 at a time. I lose my voice daily trying to talk over people, and that's just the staff. I know everyone is trying their hardest, though, it's stressful for everyone. Reason number two is a certain staff member made a very discriminatory remark about how no one from my generation knows how to work hard anymore. As my blog title says, I am 30. Anyone else out there in my generation? What do you think? Most of my friends actually work more than I do because the economy is so bad and no one has the money to go to college anymore. This staff member also referred to me in a written documentation that I am an aide. No offense to any other professions, but if I go to school to earn a certain title, I should be called by that title, whether it be music therapist, aide, or doctor. Of course I can't change signed documentation, and the staff had already left for the day, so instead I buried the disappointment.


By the weekend, I was ready to do something fun, no matter what. I needed to cut loose, get out of my apartment. I had been skipping the gym and eating fast food, and was developing skin rashes on my arms, which I figured was a form of shingles, caused by the stress piling up. I figured it was either the mental hospital or the open road. I have been trying to plan a road trip for quite some time, but with the cold and snow traveling far is a dumb idea. So instead, I had a mini "stay-cation." I had one of these last summer due to the state of my bank accounts, and I have to say sometimes they are more fun than anything else.


Saturday I called up a couple people asking if they wanted to hang out, maybe go on an "adventure" (I say this all the time to my friends, no one every says yes right away, but it's fun to call it that). Nobody felt like leaving their homes on that cold and snowy day, so I plotted that evening what I was going to do. It's a good thing I did go somewhere too, because my internet stopped working for the evening. I decided to head down to Apple Valley, because they have a lot of good shops and I was in need of some retail therapy. I waited until late, though, because I hate crowds. I hit up Savers, which is a thrift store, and $20 later I was feeling better already. I walked next door to Half Price Books. They had some really cool key covers, see picture, and I also got some great clearance books.

 

Next I decided to hit up the casino, since there's not much else to do at 9:30 at night. So I went to an ATM, got some cash, then headed up to Mystic, but not before getting some cheese curds from A & W. I figured my diet would be in full swing next week, I needed to let some steam off. My GPS took me on a back road, which took forever with all the wind and snow. When I got to Mystic, I felt so at peace. I didn't even get carded (first time ever). There was a live band doing one of my favorite songs, there were free drawings and games everywhere, and everybody seemed so happy. This was the first time I have pulled out ahead at the casino in years, too. I didn't win very much, but it was enough to cover the gas out there and my cheese curds.


When I got home, which was just shy of midnight, I changed into my pjs, flipped on the tv....and my phone rang! A couple of my friends wanted to know if I wanted to hang out and play board games late into the night. I almost declined, but knew I needed to go. I am heading into my 30's and know that my days are numbered where I can party late into the night. I will always be a night owl, but doubt I will always be able to pull off 6am when I'm in my 40's. Yep, went to bed at 6 in the morning, just late enough to see light coming over the trees. I felt like total crap the next day, and missed my workout session, but it was worth it for one evening of cutting loose and having fun.

Day 140: Polar Vortex

There is a new weather phenomenon, or at least a new term: polar vortex. Basically, the cold air from the north pole is getting brought down to the Midwest, which makes for some very cold temperatures. Today it was -2...and that felt warm to me. That's how cold it has been. It actually has helped my diet a little because I don't get drive thru food, my window is frozen shut. I could roll it down today, but you never want to chance it in these temperatures. The extreme cold to heat (indoors) has caused my skin to break out, which has prompted me to use acne crème for the first time since high school.

It has been a good time to stay indoors, which I have been doing. I've been watching more holiday movies and catching up on some tv shows, such as Family Guy and Sons of Anarchy, which I recently got into. I've also been able to brave the cold with family and friends, going out to brunch on Sunday with my parents, party because I had a groupon, but also because my dad's birthday was yesterday. I was also able to go out New Year's Eve with some friends to eat, and went to a makeup party on Monday night. I like being outdoors, but even I can't handle this. They actually closed the schools two days in advance and shut down a lot of major businesses for the day. The last time this happened was sometime in the mid 90's, which would have been around high school for me.

My mom has a blog site on here and she posted a lot of good ideas for keeping warm. I try to think of it as a day to enjoy things you can do indoors. During the summer people complain about not wanting to be indoors on such a nice day, why play video games and watch movies on such a nice day. Well, these are the days to completely immerse yourself in these kinds of activities. I still make time to go to the gym, I'm just really careful to not go outside afterwards without my layers on. I think that's how I got such dry skin last week.

What are some of your favorite indoor activities? I know I will be hitting up Netflix and playing some video games in the next couple weeks until the cold snap disappears. Until then, I leave you with a picture I took Monday morning, when the high temperature was -14.

Day 133: What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

I work at a nursing home as a music therapist, and one of the songs that I had to learn this year was "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Well, I didn't have to learn it, but figured it would be a good one since only that one and Auld Lang Syne are two of the only New Year's songs. It got me to thinking about past new year's eves, and how every year has been slightly different. I thought about where I was with y2K, my NYE in the roman coliseum, and the year that the we lost power, only to get it back five minutes before midnight.

This year I was invited to a party at my brother's, which was about a month ago. Him and his wife usually have good parties, so I thought why not. And they are all night owls like me, at least on New Year's Eve they are. Before leaving work, I was making plans to go to the gym with a friend, but realized at the last second that the gym closed at seven, so asked her if she wanted to grab a bite to eat instead. I had a Groupon that I had been meaning to use, so I called up the restaurant to make a reservation. They said they couldn't fit me in until 8:30pm. I asked my friend if that was ok, and she said yes, so we showed up around eight and got seated right away. I guess they either had a lot of cancellations or weren't as busy as they thought they would be.

Right after sitting down and looking at the menu, I got a text from a couple more friends. They asked if I wanted to come over and join in the festivities at their place. I told them no, I had already made plans. I could have gone to more than one party, but I figured New Year's is one of those holidays where the parties pretty much fade after midnight. It also didn't help that it took an hour to get our appetizers, and another half hour to get our actual food. Talk about slow service! My brother texted me to see if I was still coming, which I assured him I was, and that I would be there before midnight.

I left the restaurant around ten, with leftovers of course because I had filled up on appetizers, and headed to my brother's. I made it, of course, and enjoyed the rest of the evening with friends and family. One thing that I always rely on for a good NYE is to be around people I care about, people that I can be proud of to call my friends and family. I was able to see a lot of people yesterday, not just at the party, but also got to see my friend at dinner, and that's all that matters. This was pretty much how I spent last NYE too, just chilling at my brother's house, this time I was too far to walk home, so I had to drive. It was fun just relaxing until 3 in the morning, not a care in the world because people didn't have to be at work the next day, or at least they were going in later so weren't too worried about sleep.

I also have started a tradition. Below is a jar full of slips of paper. From January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 I wrote down all the good things that happened to me. I read through them earlier and I was very surprised by some of them. Some I had forgotten about and they made me happier, some made me sad. There were some, though, that I looked at and couldn't figure out why I put it in there. In hindsight some of them seemed very trivial. Overall, though, they all made me realize I had a very good year. This is a good way to look back and not be too negative about the year that has passed, and look forward to what the new year will bring.