Just Not Enough Time to do all the Nothing I Want!

Can’t believe it’s already the middle of June! Time just seems to go by so fast.

I think someone should invent something different than the 8-hour workday. That just seems like too many hours of precious lifetime to waste. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, I love what I do; I just would like to do it less and still get the same pay…am I right?

It’s also tough being a morning person. I can conquer the world up until around 2 pm and then I’m done! I’m usually up at 5 am full of energy and creativity and on weekdays I spend that time getting ready for work and commuting to the office, not doing things I love to do, like reading and art. By the time I put in that 8-hour workday and the commute home I’m too pooped to be creative or energetic!

I can remember thinking that someday when I retire I’ll garden or hike or take cooking classes or a wine tasting course. I’m a few months short of my 60^th birthday and already my knees hurt too much to do much gardening or hiking. I can still take that cooking class, I just can’t eat any of the food I cook because you get to a certain age and you have to watch sodium intake and cholesterol!

The wine tasting course is still a great option as I read all the time that wine helps to boost the immune system, contains antioxidants, increases bone density, reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease, helps to lower cholesterol and reduces the risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Plus, it really helps with creativity. Win-Win!

So…until I can retire I will just have to steal little moments out of my life to do what I love…drink Wine and make Art!

What’s your passion, what do you wish you had more time for?

Why Does Time Fly As You Get Older...or Does It?

There is a really great blogger that I have followed for years who has also faithfully comments on almost all my blog posts with thoughtful, uplifting messages. She is the great DUTA of Places with Character. Her blog is amazing and I have learned so much about places I will probably never travel too, and people I will probably never meet. I don't know what she does for a living but she should be a tour guide or a teacher, she never ceases to teach and inspire me!

Yesterday DUTA commented on a post In Like a Lion and Out Like A Lamb. You can read that post HERE. DUTA mentioned that she liked the title phrase of my post and she went on to say that she also has accumulated materials with intentions of making them part of some project, but as she advances in age she while she still prepares for projects she quickly loses interest. She's now more realistic about projects she takes on.

I responded that as we get older time seems to go by faster. I used to read more and embroider and crochet and sew and refinish furniture and now it seems that I barely have time to pull together a good healthy meal! So what changed? Is it that I'm older? Where did my energy balance go off kilter? Why are things to tumultuous right now, how can I calm them down?

I wish I had the answers!!! But it did make me stop to think, what has changed?

Photo Credit - Jar Of Quotes

I have come to the conclusion that it's my energy level/balance. I still want to change the world, I still want to become President, I still want to be all that I can be...but most of the time I just want to be still, I want to just take a moment each evening for myself to watch a favorite TV program or read a few pages of a book. I want to be able to do my job without feeling like I am letting everyone down because there are not enough hours in the day and I only have two hands!

I guess as we get older we get to choose what we want to use our energy on. When I don't make time to do the things I love and want to do I feel cheated, I feel stressed, I feel out of control and off balance.

We should be able to choose what we use our energy on, especially since the quote above in the image is pretty spot on, we're all running out of time so choose what you want to spend that time on. For some that may be projects, for some reading, for some blogging...it's all a matter of choice and it's nice that as we get older we can make choices just based on what we want.

How do you feel about your life? Do you feel like it's out of control and out of balance? And if it's in balance what do you do to keep it that way?

       

I'm not Super Woman After All

I almost died last night! 

Ok, so I didn’t almost die, but I could have. The day started out like any other day. I got up, took the dogs out to say hello to the day and to pee of course. Came back in and dressed and did my Leslie Sansone walking video. I texted my sister that it was time for coffee and headed to the kitchen to make coffee. 

Lisa got there and we had coffee with mom. We showed Lisa all the treasures we had found the day before at the Goodwill and gave her a few surprises we had bought for her. Toward the end of the coffee klatch I started feeling a little bit dizzy. The room would spin and when I looked at my mom or Lisa they would kind of float left to right or right to left. I thought it was odd but put it to the side because I had a lot of stuff on my “to do” list. 

Lisa left and I put in a load of laundry and went outside and got the little step ladder because one of my “to do’s” for the day was to scrub the walls in the bathrooms. You know how they get icky after shower upon shower and then when the new cooler was installed a few weeks ago a lot of lint and other yuck got stuck and it was looking horrendous and I just can’t handle that. 

So I got up on the ladder with a warm bucket of soapy water and a dizzy head and fell to scrubbing and scrubbing. I was concerned about the dizziness but as women are wont to do I soldiered on because I’m an idiot! 

I finally got one bathroom done and then realized it was ridiculous to continue using a ladder due to the dizziness, so I put it away and told my mom I was done because I felt a little dizzy. She had made some breakfast burritos so I had one thinking maybe I was just hungry. Just so you know, I un-wrapped it and just ate the stuffing; the tortilla is not worth the carbs! 

As I sat there eating my burrito my right arm started hurting, aching. I thought that was weird because I had mainly used my left arm to scrub the walls but took an Aleve and tossed in another load of laundry. My arm started hurting more and more. So badly that I could find no position to place my arm in that did not give me unbearable pain and I started to get nauseous and had to throw up. 

So I did what I do anytime something is difficult in my life, I took a nap. It was hard finding a good position, but eventually I realized if I laid on my right side with my arm straight out and my head on my arm I was comfortable enough to sleep, so I did, for about an hour. 

When I awoke I immediately tried to get up and couldn’t! We have a bug in Arizona that we called a “pinacate”, also called a Desert Stink bug. When you turn this little bug on its back it struggles with its legs and arms flailing to turn itself over….and that is exactly how I felt, flailing with no results. I had to text my son to come and help me up. 

Up to now I had not told anyone how bad the pain was so he was shocked that I was holding my right arm to my chest and in tears. Then my sister called and I told her about the dizziness and the shakiness and the nausea and the pain in my arm and she immediately said it sounded like a heart attack. My sister…she always turns to the worst case scenario. I told her no, because it was my right arm, if it was a heart attack my left arm would hurt. 

We hung up and she called back immediately as she had consulted with Dr. Google and Dr. Google said heart attacks in women have different symptoms than heart attacks in men and she read me the symptoms which sounded exactly what my symptoms were. I told her we better head to the ER room.

Since I had planned to spend the day cleaning and doing laundry I had not bothered with make up or doing my hair and though I tried to “pretty up” it was a struggle just to brush my teeth. Mom had to make a ponytail for me. My mom had not made me a pony tail since I was a child. Needless to say she was out of practice! I cried while I changed into a clean shirt and shorts and just put on a ball cap! 

We headed to the ER. The great thing about thinking you are having a heart attack is that you become a priority in the ER. You don’t have to sit there with other sick people for hours. The bad thing is they quickly did an EKG and said it was not a heart attack, my blood pressure was great, and so they sat me on a bed in the ER room until they had a chance to take some x-rays to find out why my arm and shoulder hurt so badly. 

Another bad thing is x-rays, especially when you are in excruciating pain and you have to maneuver your arm in different angles to get a good view, but I’m a soldier and did what I had to do…and then we waited and waited and waited. The x-rays were taken at 5:27 pm and we didn’t get to speak with the doctor until 9:24 pm! 

While the results were not as horrible as a heart attack, it was still not great news to hear that I have Bursitis. Bursitis in my right shoulder and Sciatica in my left leg! I think it’s time to put this old horse down, I’m just a mess! 

They gave me a shot of Tramadol for the pain and some Prednisone tablets for the inflammation, and a prescription for some more meds. If you know me you know that I HATE to take meds. I have to be dying before I even will take Aleve, now I have more meds I will have to take daily. 

It sucks! It makes me realize I am getting old. I can remember my mom and dad sitting at the kitchen table on Sunday night sorting out their pills for the week in a little plastic box like this one. 

It’s just sad to realize I am at that point. It’s also sad to realize that I can’t just scrub walls like I did in my 20’s and 30’s, I have to slow down and some of the chores that need to be done will have to wait or just not get done at all. I’ve always hated to depend on anyone and preferred to do it “my way” before and now I will have to rely on someone else to help and to be happy with the way they do it. 

I know, look on the bright side and be happy it wasn’t something more serious like a heart attack, be happy that you didn’t fall off the ladder which you insisted getting on like a moron when you were dizzy, but it’s hard to realize that you’re human and that you’re body is going to start rebelling. In my mind I feel like I’m 22 but my body sure doesn’t feel that way!