Shining Moments: March 1st – 7th, 2020

Happy March everyone! I hope that the weather has been beautiful where you’re at. It’s been mostly raining and the temp keeps changing here, so some days it’s a nice rain and other days it’s just GROSS.

This week I was really focused on being able to make rent, so unfortunately my eyes weren’t as perceptive to the Shining Moments around me.  While I had my moments of being bummed about it, I also know that I would be creating undue anxiety on myself if I chose to focus on that. We all have our moments of ups and downs, that’s just called Life™. I still found some good moments amidst the chaos that I felt, so I know that I’m still on a good track.

Shining Moments

– So last week I mentioned that I found a delicious peppercorn turkey pastrami for cheap and then super cheap Italian bread. Wellllll, the bread went bad earlier than anticipated. So instead of a sandwich, I was gonna just make the pastrami slices with sliced cheese rolled up (necessity sparks creativity right?) My coworker saw me beginning to prep what I was doing and inquired. I told her the story and she told me to go get bread out of the work kitchen (we do a daily hot breakfast buffet). I told her that I was fine, this was gonna be good either way, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer and walked me to the kitchen. She was right, the bread will make it taste better/feel fuller.

– This is one I’ve done before, but it still makes me happy nonetheless – a local tree company has lights in their oak tree and it’s just so pretty. I got to go by it a few times while doing my nightly UberEats deliveries

– Was really concerned about rent, but by God’s grace and provision, I was able to make it without having to use an option I didn’t want to have to do.

– Chad introduced me to a new show (one I’ve heard about) on Amazon Prime called Hunters. Here’s the description from IMDb: “In 1977, in New York City, a troubled young Jewish man bent on revenge is taken in by a secret group of Nazi hunters fighting a clandestine war against the cabal of high-ranking Nazi officials in hiding who work to create the Fourth Reich.”

It’s DEFINITELY different, LOTS of shock value in the first few episodes (Trigger alert: there is alot of racial slurs at first, but it does die out some) and then it turns into this mystery-drama.  I wasn’t as interested as first, but after the shock value wore off, I began to get interested in A) what are they going to say/do next? and B) how are these people connected?! It has vibes from The Blacklist, The Italian Job and some other things I can’t quite place yet.  Also, the cast is also pretty good (these are the people I know of, but the whole cast is good!):

• Al Pacino (The Godfather, Scarface, Any Given Sunday)
• Logan Lerman (Percy from Percy Jackson, Charlie from Perks of a Wallflower)
• Saul Rubinek (Artie from Warehouse 13)
• Carol Kane (Valerie from Princess Bride, Granny from Adams Family

– While watching the show, Chad and I had a discussion about the events of the show (back in the 70s), the intensity of the show/shock value has to be that intense because that’s probably exactly how it was back then, and how the events of today (decades later) still matches up from WWII and the 70s: we still have hatred/racial slurs, we have people/kids in [concentration] camps, Nazi’s are trying to rise again… kinda scary folks. #HistoryRepeatsItself

– I’m part of the Ruby Tuesday email club and they had $5 cheeseburger or fish sandwich for Friday lunchtime only. I had gotten a little extra from doing UberEats the night before, so to not have to pack a lunch and to get some more protein in, I chose the burger for lunch. I was telling one of my coworkers about it  (she hadn’t ate lunch yet either) and there wasn’t an exact coupon good for just 1 burger, so I placed an order for each of us, so both of us got a burger for $5 each. #CoworkersWhoEatTogetherPlayWellTogether haha

– Got more bookings at the reservations team that I’m temporarily helping out in. Yay!

– Got to physically go see 23 Ocean Course, one of our Premier 6 bedroom Homes on our rental program (at Kiawah, not at the new job)

– Chad gave me a nice compliment: “It’s good to see you with spunk again.”
This made my soul feel good, because I do feel like I’m becoming myself again.

– Despite a pounding headache, Chad took care of me: made sure that I ate, took meds and let me sleep it off. I meant to only lay down long enough to let the Advil do its thing and get the pounding to simmer down to a tolerable level, but apparently I CONKED out. Later on in the evening, when I went to bed for the 2nd time, I apparently turned down food (that I didn’t have to physically make – which says something! haha).

Progress on 32 Things
*For the full list, check out my birthday post 32 Birthdays and 32 Things*

Nothing this week to cross off the list unfortunately. However, with it now being March, some of the things will kick in this month. I’m excited to start seeing the process roll-out, tracking the goals and seeing them all checked off at the end of the year. For a recap, in case you didn’t see the link above or don’t want to go read it, here’s what kicks in this month:

– Reread all Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series (this is an ongoing thing)
2/12 books read and the 12th book is coming out this month. I’m already on the library list, so if I don’t get the book in time, I’ll read book 3 for March and read book 12 in April

– Try out 10 new recipes this year
Since I created this list mid-February, I’ll be starting this in March and ending in December. I’m excited about this one, because as I am still learning my coworkers’ interests, many of them like to cook so between my recipe books and them, I’m definitely set for some good eats soon!

– Lose 50 lbs this year (this is an ongoing thing)
I didn’t do any measurements yet )because you can’t go off of just  x lbs like scale  says – muscle weighs more), but my particular scale does weight, bone density, fat %, muscle %. It sends a small electrical pulse and when it reads back to the scale, it tells each section what the reading is. I know that it’s not 100% accurate, but  I think it’s a cool feature for a good $50 scale.

– Have $1,000 in the savings account by 12/31/2020
Again, since created list mid-February and was working out ending one job and starting another one, I put this one to start this month – March thru December = 10 months x $100 saved to account each month = $1,000 saved by 12/31/20). I can’t wait to have a good emergency fund again.

–  Drink 100 oz of water daily
I am REALLY struggling to drink water. Might lower this to 64 oz (the size of my time tracker water bottle – 32oz for each side) to make this more obtainable. I might also consider finding a cheap Brita pitcher to keep in the fridge at work. Any suggestions or even some good flavor suggestions (I hate cucumber, lemon, and lime) would be helpful.

– Go to the Chinese Lantern Festival held at Magnolia Plantation
I only have til March 15th for this one, but it keeps freaking raining! Plus I had to make rent, so that took up my entire week/weekend too

– Learn how to meal prep properly (this is an ongoing thing)
I am still adjusting to no longer having an employee cafeteria/dining area, but I feel that I’ve been doing well enough. I’m sure quite sure if I’m getting enough calories by the end of the day, but I must say, my stomach issues from my food allergies/intolerances certainly have calmed down since I’m not eating regularly at that employee cafeteria. I think I’ve only had 1 real day of aggravated stomach upsetness and I have one of two theories on that one.

Reflection

No ponderings this week. This week is about focusing on work (we’re getting busy), keep learning and creating/updating trackers I’ve made. I think I need to see a visual representation, so I think me and my bff, Canva, will be getting busy.

 

Here’s to a beautiful week ahead, full of March Blessings. Let’s shine bright together…