Renewed, Rejuvenated, Ready...

To think just one week ago, I was writing about how I was annoyed, irritated, frustrated and sad.  Well, happy to say that those sentiments have gone as quickly as they came.  It was a crazy Thursday to get work things wrapped up before heading to Vegas and I had a very huge trip request late in the day on Wednesday, so I moved mountains to get the quote.  In the end all of my efforts were for nothing as I found out this week- they just were not able to process things as quickly as I needed them to with accounting.  I missed out on a huge chunk of business due to technicalities that were out of my control.  As much as this pissed me off, I was able to shake it off and was thankful that this company was seeking my help once again - I feel as though things will happen again with this company.   It becomes much easier to let things go when you come to grips with the fact that you just can't control others and their inability to plan properly.  I think I am growing in this regard.

Somehow, I managed to leave the house on time, I got everything done that I had to get done.  I did pack a few files for loose ends that I expected to wrap up while I was gone, but overall felt pretty good with the way I left things- which doesn't happen that often before going away.  Got to Vegas and everything went very smoothly.  Checked into my hotel room, did some work that needed my attention, got a glass of wine and got to bed relatively early for me.  I knew I needed sleep for my big AIM (Advanced Instructor Module) Training on Friday.  I slept like crap- too many noised in the night and I think I was subconsciously afraid of oversleeping.

Friday I was up early and got to the gym about 30 minutes early, went through my choreography again while driving and waiting and then starting to mingle with other instructors while waiting for our trainers to arrive and get us started for the day.  We had the pleasure and honor of having Susan Renata and Petter Ehrnvall as our trainers.  I have admired Susan since my start with Body Pump, she has been with the program longer than me, so it was literally a thrill to be trained, mentored and critiqued by her.  As luck would have it our group was split into 4 groups and she was in charge of 2 groups and Petter the other 2.  We had Susan- YAY!   She gave us the option to pick our track and really encouraged us to pick a track that was hard or one that we thought we could use some improvement.  I thought long and hard about this and knew that lunges were not the track for me given my ankle injury and my off/on degenerative toe.  I'm so glad that I didn't pick lunges because the floor was super slippery and it was hard just to do lunges and stay in one place as a student.   I did pick Shoulders, which is one of my favorite tracks, but it's always challenging from a coaching perspective because you have to get in so much in such a short time, while trying to keep things concise.  You also tend to have 4-6 different moves in Shoulders, which adds to what could be chaos.

We started with our track presentation, which followed with immediate critique of our track.  Susan had a lot of great things to say about my presentation and for the most part had very little to critique- a slight adjustment on the standing rear deltoid raise was it for technique.  Cutting down the talking was adjustment number 2 both during the track and the track intro.  I was pleased and happy to work on these issues.  During everyone else's track presentations we had a few helpers going around giving us tips on things to correct and my two flaws:  1) legs too spread out while laying down, which I'm not surprised.  2) I seem to have a tendency of moving my thumb in the grip of my bar during back track. Never, ever noticed it.  Have never had it brought to my attention before- clueless.  I tend to like my thumb wrapped over the top for rows, but like it wrapped under for the Clean & Press.  Quick eye-opening and now I catch myself.  As Susan told us- it'll take about 4000 times of doing something to break the bad habits...but I'm on my way.

We had lectures by both Susan & Petter on cueing, layering the cues, bringing in the fitness magic moments, using our 5 voices, riding the peaks and valleys of the music.  We also did several fitness and technique tests with a partner and that was very interesting.  I have pretty crappy upper back strength- had a very tough time doing this one balance/core/hover exercise- it was HARD!!!  But most everything else in the technique session went pretty good.   After all of the technique, lectures and lunch we gave our final presentation.  An attempt of using the things that we learned and working on the things Susan said to work on and then present once again.

I must have gone through my track introduction at least a dozen times in my head and then it was finally my turn and BAM- the words just rolled out - it was quick, it was concise and to the point and even everyone in my group had this look on their faces, like "WOW".   I nailed it and it felt good- not that I nailed it in an approval sense, but just that it felt better as an instructor- I felt like I was taking care of business instead of being conversational.  It was a monumental difference, a turning point.  The instructors in my group said that the way I delivered the track introduction made them want to stop what they were doing and get down to do push-ups.  As tired as I was I encourage everyone to get up on their toes for push-ups at the end and I led by example.  Susan was impressed and said that with as much as we'd been doing, she didn't expect anyone to do that many push-ups on their toes.  I made the correction to my rear dealt raises, implemented a few coaching cues that Susan had recommended and overall it was a phenomenal track presentation.  Really gave me a sense of renewal for my teaching.  This was the highlight of the weekend for me and I can't wait to implement everything that I learned and just keep on working at being the best that I can be.

The rest of the weekend was still awesome, Friday night I networked and socialized with several instructors (some that I knew, some that I didn't or some that I knew only in name on Facebook), several bottles of wine were consumed and we all dispersed around midnight.  Somehow though I was up early after another awful night of sleep and hit RPM at 630am, followed by Body Pump 85 at 8am- both of which were off the hook!   I was a bit nervous for the lunge track in 85 with these new straddle squat jumps- but I did them, they weren't as intimidating as I had expected.  They are tough, but not intimidating.  It was awesome to have the fabulous Emma Barry leading the workout with help from Josef, Ruben (ooo la la) and Sheldon.  2nd row from the stage in the VIP section was awesome.  Did more socializing with people and spectated for the 2nd round of Body Pump to get more choreography in my head, split for lunch time and ended up taking a nap...missed the rest of the afternoon sessions, which I was bummed, but also knew that the body spoke.  Went to the after party and finished off my night line dancing at Gilley's.  It was really a great weekend, very happy that I went - but was happy to get home.

Thinking of this great weekend and thinking seriously of expanding my Les Mills horizons.  I don't think I met any instructors who just teach one format.   I really enjoy RPM and given my spinning history it feels like a natural progression and I do have access to teach it at one of my gyms.  So that may be my next step.  Now that I have networked a bit more with other instructors, I am going to start taking more of these classes myself...I'm ready.

Annoyed, irritated, frustrated, sad...

How can Palm Springs bliss have been just yesterday and then today-  UGH!    Aside from today being a crazy day with lots of work to catch up on, which was expected- I also had to take mom to buy her antibiotics, a break in my day that I needed to take but really didn't have time to take.  Add to that I have to go back tomorrow and pick up the remaining pills because they were out of inventory.   Just not the sorts of things I need to add to my already crazy short week.  Of course, whenever I step away from my office anywhere near the end of the day, I lose all focus and motivation so I have gotten zero done this evening.

I'm frustrated because I have injured my right ankle/leg, I took a stretched step off the escalator at SFO last night and I heard a snap/pop and felt a shooting pain up my leg immediately.  Tried to walk it off. I'm sure I pulled a muscle or ligament. Well, have been RICEing it off and on last night, today and tonight and although the swelling is minimal now, it still hurts.  I got a sub for my class tonight- I probably could have taught without much trouble, but didn't want to risk anything with the BIG Vegas Les Mills Q weekend.  I just hope that I will be feeling better come Friday so that I can participate in the AIM workshop and praying that I don't get lunges or squats - I think I can do any of the other tracks with minimal pressure on my ankle.  But I am also frustrated because tonight was going to be my live run through of Body Pump 84 to practice the release that we'll be using for AIM.   I guess I'll be doing a dry run Thursday night in my hotel room.

I'm irritated because I spent hours working on a huge incentive trip for a client while away in Palm Springs only to have gotten undercut by the hotel and that just PISSES me off!  There is no way in hell that the hotel should be quoting the client a better rate (almost 50% lower) than what they quote to me- it's bad business and I can seriously say there are a few Vegas hotels that I won't be selling EVER again.  Dis me once shame on you, Dis me twice shame on me.  Tomorrow is decision time, so we'll see what the client goes for- if it's not Vegas, then I have good rates at local properties that they will likely take.   But this sort of crap just makes me want to hang up my travel hat.  I never would, but I'm allowed to have a moment.

I'm sad because tonight I missed a phone call and when I retrieved the message it was from the sister of a friend.  Her message asked me to call her when I get into the office tomorrow and that I could call on her cell phone or her sister's home phone.  I could just hear something in her voice and as soon as I googled my friend's name- I discovered that she passed away on Sunday.  Margie was my first "travel friend".  When I first came to work at June Jackson Travel in August of 1990, Margie and I were at the two front line desks.  She mentored me, coached me, encouraged me and praised me.  She was one of the first people in the industry to tell me that I was going to be an awesome Travel Agent.  We were close, heck we spent a lot of our time alone in the office just the two of us as we were the two full time employees and management came and went as they pleased.  We shared similarities of losing our fathers when they were way too young, our moms were very similar.  In fact, I think the last time I saw Margie was at her mom's funeral several years ago.  We have not had our "June Jackson Travel" holiday reunion with her present in probably 4-5 years.  She gave me a bridal shower for my first marriage and I still have the Mickey & Minnie wedding figurine that she gave as a gift.  Even though the first marriage didn't last, Mickey & Minnie forever!  When it was time for me to move on to a new employer, Margie & I had a pact- we were both down with our current situation and she could have left at anytime, but I was the "starving student" so to speak and couldn't leave until I had a job in place that was waiting for me.  So Margie did not leave until I was ready to leave.  Once I had that set up, we both left at the same time and ended up once again at the same agency where she was full time and I was an outside agent...starting to explore my independence and my entrepreneurship.  I knew even then that at some point I wanted to own my agency some day.  Margie & I shared a lot of laughs and some tears, we shared a love for the furry children and she was always there for her friends.  I missed her when she moved to Medford, Oregon and have not seen her for years, so I am even sadder that I didn't cease the moment to call her the times that I had been thinking of her recently.  63 is way too young for someone to go, I know this first-hand with losing my dad when he was only 60.  

So as much as I have been annoyed, frustrated and irritated today-- the sadness of this evening trumps everything else.   I will talk to Margie's sister tomorrow, but I suspect that damn C disease took her.  Margie had battled Cancer about 5-7 years ago and won at the time...I'm guessing not this time.

It's been crazy & it's been nuts, but gotta say that March has been a pretty good month so far.  Still another 2 weeks left, so bring it on!   Work has been super busy, in fact my hopes of not doing any work in Palm Springs fell to the way side...with a huge group of 220 people taking a trip in May with "Destination Unknown", meant that I needed to be on top of this.  It's a great chunk of business that I've already invested quite a bit of time into, so had to keep working on that.  Also, had a few other trips with decision deadlines, but it's all good.  We did miss about 3 hours of pool time on day one here in Palm Springs, but Bill was very understanding.

We have been having a super time in Palm Springs.  We have danced SO FRIGGIN MUCH this weekend-- 3 nights in a row and hours on end!  It feels AMAZING to have that activity back in my life.  I can't believe how much I really missed dancing with my foot injury and then just plain fatigue from last year's stresses.   But even better, seeing the shear joy on Bill's face when we are dancing.  He just lights up, his "fancy feet" go crazy and it just warms my heart to see his joy.   Tonight we were doing a swing dance and I sometimes have to get into "self-protect" mode because he can get a little crazy with his moves and if not careful, I could very easily injure my shoulder.  So I tend to back lead the moves and/or not follow his lead...tonight I had done it 3-4 times in a row and just got into such a giggle.  I was laughing uncontrollably and he was chuckling, it was the deep down belly laugh, I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.  Just AWESOME to have that much fun!   We have decided that now we are going to set aside about 45 minutes each evening to line dance in the garage- for fun and for exercise.  Now that my foot feels pretty good, I want more!

On this trip, we finally took the Tram up the mountain and that was pretty fun, we had a nice dinner and watched the sun set, then see all of the lights in Palm Springs come on- very pretty and boy it gets chilly up there!   It was nice to finally do this as we've wanted to for years!   We also visited the Indian Casino down here, again after passing it during every trip we've taken down here- it's a pretty nice place and had some fun gambling.   Lots of time by the pool, enjoying the 90 degree weather.  My only complaint is that the time has flown.  But we will be back.  We really do love the desert!

Gearing up for a crazy few days of work this week and then it's off to Vegas for the Les Mills Quarterly, which I think will be fun- although I will say that I'm not really "feeling it".  Although I know a lot of people who are going to the Quarterly, most are just acquaintances- so it will be interesting to see how the "social" part of the weekend plays out.  I have a ticket for the after party and hopefully will be able to find and hang out with some of these people and enjoy a fun time.  But as far as I know I am completely on my own Thursday and Friday night.  I get the impression that people have set up their own plans for those nights, so we'll see.   I am looking forward to AIM on Friday as that is 200% for me, it'll be a great workshop and will hopefully jump start the weekend into being the great experience that it is meant to be.  

March has been a month of mostly great news for mom.  We had several follow up Doctor Appointments- Cardiologist did an Echo Cardiogram and said that mom's heart function is much better than it was last year at this time, Dr Giattina was thrilled.   We go back to see her in June, barring anything unforeseen.  Pulmonologist said that mom's breathing test didn't reveal anything unexpected and that the allergy tests revealed common allergies- mold and dustmites- two things that you pretty much can't avoid...but basically said to come back if there are any issues otherwise 4 months to follow up.  We went to see Dr. O'Halleran and he took the unna boot off of the leg and declared the leg wounds HEALED!!  Amen, Halleluiah!  So all GREAT news in one week.  Of course, the one pending appointment was to occur while I was gone this weekend in Palm Springs- mom had to go for a procedure with the GI Doctor 1) to scope down the throat to make sure the ulcer of 2 years ago is healed - and YES, it is, so no worries there.  and 2) to do a "semi-colonoscopy"- to find out why mom has been having some bleeding in her stools.  Well, test revealed that she has that darn C-Diff AGAIN!   Has probably had it for at least a week or two, but the symptoms were so mild that she didn't think that was the issue- but seems her colon is so irritated, hence the blood.   Sigh.  Back on the very expensive antibiotics for 10 days and then try to figure out how we can keep this from recurring again and again.  So much good news all around, but this darn C-diff is just horrible!  On the up side though, at least this case did not send her to the hospital, it is mild and the antibiotics kicked in right away- she had not felt back at all this time around, yet does feel much better already.  I have of course been really drilling to her to stay hydrated, which is a concept she has a hard time grasping but I think I've gotten her to drink tea now so that she can get some hydration and also cut out the caffeine from coffee (hence more dehydration)...I spoke to her tonight and she had a wonderful St Pat's day (her day), went to bingo with my sister and paraded her "St Pat's Bear" around at breakfast and dinner and brought joy to many of her neighbors at Woodside Terrace when they hear the Bear sing "When Irish Eyes are Smiling"...she loves that bear!

Adios February....Hola March Madness...


February- a month of sickness, just a cold that sidelined me for a week.    A month of zero progress in the weight loss arena...so much for that goal.  I seriously have been trying, I have been working out more, I have been dancing, I have been making foods that are so not the old "me".  I have been drinking green smoothies, I have been eating fruit, I have cut back on wine during the week- yet still the scale yo-yo's up/down with the initial 5 pounds that I lost in January.   It's friggin' annoying.  I'm convinced now that this has got to do with the mid-life shit.   I have been Pre-M for years now, but I think I am finally smack dab menopausal now.  The Doctor told me that officially you are considered menopausal once Aunt Flow stops visiting for one full year... well I'm on my way...I think.   I'm going to have to do some more research and see what power foods may help to turn this around.

February - a month of new friends.  We attended a Baptism Open House party for the Pastor at our church and ran into another parishioner.  After chatting at the party, we ended up going out to dinner and have seen each other every weekend since.  It's nice to have new friends who are fun to be around and who live close.  It's been fun ,between dinner out, dinners in, brunch enjoying the sunshine, dancing at the Saddle Rack...really enjoying this new friendship with Lisa & Jonathan.

February- the month of Super Bowl 47 where the 49ers were finally back in the BIG Game..We didn't win, but it was a great game and I can feel confident knowing that we have a very bright future ahead of us with our new leader, QB  Kaepernick.   One more year in Candlestick and then we start the 2014 Season in the new home at the brand new Santa Clara Stadium.  I'm not excited to pay for our seats, but will be beyond excited once the stadium opens and we get to experience the new life that a new stadium brings to a team.  Look what happened to the Giants with the building and move to AT&T Park...3 World Series appearances and 2 wins in 12 years- not bad, not bad indeed.

February- the month of many Doctor visits for mom- but HAPPY to say, NO hospital visits or stays! Taking this month by month and trying to keep her healthy.  The leg wounds are almost healed, some modifications have been made on her medications to try to fix some leg swelling & trying to get her to gain weight and drink more water.  It's a challenge, but we're trying.  

February- our early Easter Family Celebration and Family Celebration for my sister's 60th Birthday.  Since Michael's college break was the last week of the month and with my sister leaving on a very special birthday trip on Easter, we had to celebrate early.  Bill & I hosted a very nice dinner - BBQ'd steaks, baked potatoes, creamed corn, french bread and of course birthday cake.   We also used our outdoor Chimnea fireplace for the first time, it was very cool (as in Fonzi cool) to have a fire out on our patio.

March - hello!  Where the hell did you come from so quickly?  This is going to be a crazy month and today - March 1st did not start out on a good foot, so I HOPE that it's not a sign of the rest of the month.  Started with oversleeping and missing my YMCA Cycle class.  I had to have been so tired because my alarm was set and I unconsciously hit "snooze"  6-7 times before I actually woke up and when I did, a few expletives came out of my mouth.   Nothing I could do at that point, except to email the Director and hope that the 620am instructor noticed that I wasn't there and stuck around to teach for me.  Thankfully, Janet was there and she did teach my class and the Director was very understanding and said it has happened to her as well.  I still felt horrible.   The day just didn't go much better - it was a choppy day with a 1230pm class to sub, I broke a finger nail, mom's Doctor appointment was moved to later in the day since the Dr. got stuck in surgery and then we hit traffic getting there.   As much as dancing was the plan for tonight- well Bill was pooped, I was still tired- so we stayed in.   I need to snap out of the funk that today has put me in - quickly.

March- a month of extended weekend trips.  Palm Springs for a wonderful 4 night stay of R&R..looking forward to that and hoping I can really leave my work at home.  I will check emails for any emergencies- but don't want to do any "work" while gone if I can at all help it.    Vegas the weekend after for the Les Mills Quarterly - which is going to be EPIC, but I'm not excited for how I look- the self-image is just not very good right now.  So at this point, I will be the fat & fit instructor at the Q, the one who has goals that she is going to reach eventually- once this body will start to behave and cooperate.  I will also be going through AIM 1, which will be really awesome.

March - a month of celebrations...Godson Nolan is going to be 7 years old this month..so hard to believe- these kids grow up so quickly.   Spending this weekend catching up with BFF Diane & family and we will get together next weekend as well to celebrate Nolan's birthday.   Spending some time with Lisa & Jonathan on Sunday and they have invited mutual friends- Tony & Lupe- such a small world in Redwood City.  Next weekend - party to celebrate Yvonne's birthday..dinner with my Mercy Alums the night before Palm Springs...a fun, social month.

March- a month of deadlines - taxes must get done, ACE renewal must be met- hoping I will have enough continuing credits after the Quarterly and then I also get to renew my CPR.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed when I see what is on the calendar this month- because it really is never ending.  Not to mention at least 2 Doctor appointments for mom each week, I get to bring my car in for a bunch of things that need to get done (cha-ching)...I am going on record now and saying that March 30th weekend is a NO PLAN weekend...Sunday is Easter, but with 1/2 the family gone, it will be a low-key family get together.

I am ready for the weather to stay nice..although seems we still have another cold front coming--but the longer day light days will start to happen after next weekend- seriously ready.  Need my Vitamin D!