Thirtydays

No snooze

Well last day of no snooze and so far I haven’t used it for all of my work days. It has been slightly annoying. I’ve been waking up a half hour before the alarm is supposed to go off. So then I contemplate getting up or not. Lol. Not going back to sleep. That would be torture.

What will my next thirtydays be? It’s hard to say. I can’t believe I only have six more. Where has this year gone?

Recap of the first six.

1. no online shopping

2. No candy/chocolate

3. Shop small business

4. The Purge

5. Drink a green drink every day

6. No snooze

The hardest one so far was number one. No online shopping. I haven’t really quit doing that. I think that the thirtydays just made me more aware of what I was buying online and to think about number three. Shop small. I try to be more aware of small businesses now.

The easiest one by far was number five. I’m still drinking a green drink every weekday morning before work. It’s been even easier since I’ve been getting up earlier lol.

Number four, the purge, will probably last all year. I have way too much stuff for one person.

Number two, no candy or chocolate was tough and I may need to revisit this one as well. Sugar makes me a little crazy sometimes.

I think, for the most part, thirtydays has helped me organize parts of my life. Not completely but a little at a time.

Disneyland

Less than Thirtydays to plan and pack😲

Okay, so this is a bit off topic for my thirtydays blog but it has relevance to that and to Foxpartyofone.

Krystal : Let’s go to Disneyland California Adventure. The Avengers Campus is open and Camden would love it.

Me: Okay, when.

Krystal : Two weeks from now.

Me: 😲😲😲😳 are you crazy? That’s not enough time to plan and pack. I need at least 3 months.

Krystal : Be spontaneous.

Me: Impossible. No way. I can’t. I am a calculated travel planner. I need time to think about the logistics of everything.

Compromise. One month. Eek!

1. Dogs. Tracy, my dogsitter is not available….so dogs will need to be boarded at Canine Country Club. That’s not an issue. The fact that they need the kennel cough vaccine is. So, now I’m at the Vet and there is a, “several” hour wait time because Axel needs an exam to get that vaccination. 🙄 It is so long that they say I can leave and come back. So I did. I went to the gym and back to the house lol. Went back and checked in. The called me and made an appointment for later in the month with the assurance that it would be enough time prior to boarding them. I just hate waiting till the last second to get stuff done.

2. Tickets. Randy got the park passes and made our reservations to enter the park. They are limiting the amount of people in per day, masks are still required but they will be opening it up to guests outside of California on June 15th. So the rush is on. Not just for us but all of America lol.

3. Flights. I booked my flight to depart out of Eugene. I think that will be the easiest to get to. The only one available for a late departure was through Alaska Airlines and there is a layover in Seattle. I won’t fly in until midnight but I won’t have to worry about driving around Los Angeles. Randy will be picking me up. The flight back is a straight shot with United.

4. Packing. I’m doing carry-on plus a backpack. I think I’ll be fine for space. I will only be there three days. This is going to be a very quick trip.

Getting my paper list started. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it😂

Thirtydays

No snooze

So day two of no snooze is on the books!

In the past, I was setting my alarm for 6 a.m. Pushing the snooze until 7 a.m. Sometimes not getting out of bed until 7:15 a.m. Mind you I need to leave the house by 7:50 a.m. at the latest. So thirty-five minutes to let the dogs out, feed them, make a green drink, take a shower, get dressed, make up my face and let the dogs out again. This schedule makes for a slightly stressful morning lol. So, Tuesday, June 1st, I changed my routine. I set my alarm for 6:30 a.m., unchecked the snooze feature on my phone and crossed my fingers. I also sleep with a noise app on my phone. I set it to fade out at 5:00 a.m.

Did it work? Yes! I actually woke up at 6 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. It gave me time to lay in bed and plan my day.

I know that’s only two days but I am semi confident lol.

Wish me luck 🍀🤞🏽

Thirtydays

Green drinking

Wow, this thirtydays has to be THE most boring of them all lol. I have been drinking a green drink every morning before work but none on the weekends. I did add some to the Ingredient list. Ground hemp seeds, ground flax and ground chia seeds. I tried to add a banana but that was terrible. So was adding blueberries. I guess I’m not a fruit smoothie drinker. The major task has been getting up with enough time to make one. That means less snoozing and more getting out of bed lol. With that, I have my next thirtydays. No snooze. So far, this morning I was up on the first buzz. I will still continue to purge the unwanted stuff in my house. I took two more bags to Salvation Army. That is such a liberating feeling. With every bag that leaves the house I feel a little bit more organized and now with fire season in effect, there will be more donations less burning stuff lol. Not that I burn everything. Just the garbage.

Thirtydays

The Purge

Day? What happened? Where did April go?

The purge could take much longer than expected lol. It has really been an eye opener as to how much stuff I have. I’m still only on the second room of the house. The guest bedroom. It’s got a futon and closet full of stuff. Lots of empty boxes. Boxes for things that I’ve purchased and for whatever reason kept the box that it came in. Why? I guess if it breaks I can return it within the warranty period? Maybe keep the box to sell it later? Regardless of those reasons I have a bunch of boxes that will be going to the dump. They are way older than thirty days. Months or could be years probably lol.

The other thing I’m working on in that room? Photos. Old photo albums of trips taken with a bunch of landscape pictures along with some with people pics in them. I decided to take out all the people pictures and toss the rest. I will still need to go through all the people photos and sort them out but it consolidated them to one small box. It would be awesome to convert them to digital someday. I have to say, I really like the pictures that have the date stamped on them. It’s not like the digital photos that you can tell when it was taken. I also have a thing about people pictures. I can’t throw them out. That’s why they are in that box lol. Even if they are out of focus, ripped or of people I don’t know. That also goes for digital pics too but at least now the cloud will tell me I’m running out of space. It makes me go in and delete a few. End goal would be one or two albums with dates on the pictures and maybe where they were taken.

I took another load to Salvation Army. They will probably know me by name soon lol.

For my next thirtydays I will continue on with the purge and add in a green drink every morning. For those of you who are wondering, my green drinks are not fancy. I buy the bag of Power Greens at Costco and throw it into the freezer. It has organic baby chard, baby spinach and baby kale. It’s really the only way I’m going to get any green nutrition lol. Once they are frozen I smash them to bits. They are much easier to add to the blender that way. I add some flax seeds and chia seeds into orange juice or coconut water and blend them up. I could probably add something else but I’ve been doing it before I go to work and unless I start getting up when the alarm goes off there’s not much time for creativity 😂 that could be the next thirtydays thing. No snooze lol. That would be brutal.

Thirtydays

The Purge.

Day fifteen already! I have gotten rid of six bags of clothing and miscellaneous. All taken to Salvation Army. Drop off with them is super simple. I pull up, put the bags in a shopping cart and they take them away. Almost magic. Not so easy at Goodwill. They make you sort you stuff into bins. So that means tearing open the bags and sorting it out. Any small stuff at the bottom gets dumped in and potentially lost.

I have only tackled one room and my closet. While looking through all the stuff I have accumulated I come to realize that its’ worth is not in the price that I paid for it but the space it’s actually taking up. Realistically I could sell it on eBay or Mercari but I would actually have to do it. There is a ton of stuff that I could sell but I need to be honest with myself. Would I or will I store it for another 20 years and make my kids deal with it lol.

That’s one of my nightmares. Dying unexpectedly and leaving a giant house full of stuff. I don’t worry about dying. Just the stuff I leave behind.

Well, let’s move on from that morbid piece of information.

This thirtydays may take a couple of months lol.

Thirtydays

Thirtydays #3 Shop small

Well I’m almost finished with my third thirtydays. Shopping small. I guess I should define what that means to me. Shopping small for me is shopping local. While in Maui I did go to Costco to get some of the food staples but that puts the locals to work. The rest of the shopping was at the small shops. I loved walking along the boardwalk in the historic district of Lahaina and down the street from our Airbnb in Kihei. I know some might consider these tourist traps but well I was a tourist lol. Some of those stores you could get lost in. Not because of their size but the amount of merchandise there was to see and touch….oops sorry Krystal lol. Good thing they all had hand sanitizer going in and out. My favorite find was the quilt blocks that were hand cut from Aloha shirts. Awesome! They did all the hard work for me.

I also consider shave ice a shopping item. Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice was the best. Ice cream in the center with shave ice on top. Then you choose your flavor toppings and then add the fresh mochi and haupia cream. Yum!

I love how this table has holes for the shave ice cup!

I went to a few craft/farmers markets. This is what lead to the problem of packing it all home. Hahaha. Every. Single. Trip. Oh well.

Which brings me to my next thirtydays. Spring has sprung and I am in need of a little spring cleaning. So my goal for April is to get the house cleaned out, room by room. No, I’m not going all Marie Kondo and touching everything while asking myself if the item brings me joy. 🤣 I will be looking at it, determining when I last touched it and tossing it if applicable. I’m thinking that will be much less time consuming.

Fingers crossed for April 1st😁

Maui-2021

Day ten-travel home 😢

All packed up and ready to go. Sitting out on the Lanai listening to the surf roll in. I must have been a dolphin in a past life. The ocean calls to me.

It’s raining so it’s not quite so hard to leave paradise.

I just realized that I haven’t gotten sick the whole time I’ve been here. Normally, I am gluten free. If I eat anything with gluten in it it gives me the worst stomach problems and makes me feel like I swallowed a bowling ball. Since I’m on vacation I have played the gluten lottery and I ate a white bread egg sandwich, breaded fish and chips and other stuff that normally gives me problems. Weird. Is there no gluten on the island, is it the ocean or the sun? Maybe it’s the time of day that I’ve been eating. Up early. Eating early and last meal in the afternoon? I don’t know.

The rental return process was super easy. I just pulled up and they emailed me the receipt. I chose to walk the path from the return station to the airport rather than take the train with a bunch of people. I figured I’d be sitting down for five hours and a ten minute walk wouldn’t kill me. Well maybe. Dragging two bags lol.

On the way thru check-in my shoes fell through the conveyer belt and landed underneath. The attendant was too big to crawl under and get them so they were going to go look for a broom. I crawled under and got them. Gross lol. My bags weighed 37lbs and 43lbs so total would have been way too much for one bag and there’s no way I could have picked up an 80lb bag lolol.

I got to the gate three and a half hours early. Flash flood warnings behind the airport! Glad I made it before then. Went to the first class lounge which is really just a place to sit and get wifi and drink coffee, tea or soda. No snacks because of covid 🙄 but it’s quiet.

I have to show off my invention. My ears get really irritated and I get a headache from the mask straps so I bought two hat pins and wrapped the cord around them instead of my ears. Genius lol. Too bad I can’t wear a hat to work. Maybe I could do the same thing with a headband and buttons 🤔.

Finally in the air at 2:30pm. Oh joy. The flight is full and I have a seatmate. Ms. Gluten free dairy free. She brought her own food but complained they didn’t have food for her or non dairy creamer for her coffee. But she ate the crackers and chocolates they handed out? I’m pretty sure my eyes rolled into the back of my head and were about to get struck🤣 Uh hello? Gluten and dairy for sure. So headphones on, hood up and movie time for me lol.

The flight was four hours 59 minutes. Exactly. Pulled into Portland International Airport. Staying at the Radisson Hotel tonight then home😊

Maui 2021

Day nine-solo

Last day in paradise. Better make the most of it. Surf lesson at 10:30am and I hope the weather is going to cooperate 😃 my instructor’s name is Kris. Lol. I think I can remember that.

Didn’t find many waves to ride because of the storm but I got my workout in lol. An hour and a half of paddling out is hard! We saw a huge turtle poke his head up and take a look at us. So awesome. Forgot why you should wear a long sleeve rash guard….

OH yeah, now I remember. The board rubs your skin right off lol.

I’m starving so going to Leilani’s on the Beach. It’s rated number one on Yelp so we shall see.

20 minute wait for a table. Not bad. Seated next to the beach with an awesome view. The whales were really active not far out. I ordered a Ginger Hoku. Fresh fish and chips and Thin Mint Hula Pie for dessert. Delicious x10 😋 service was good too.

It started raining. A downpour lol. Everyone on the beach packed up and ran for cover. It was amazing how fast they cleared out. It’s still 80 degrees. I probably would have just waited it out. Maybe jumped into the ocean lol.

Back to the condo to try and pack. Yes, pack. Always my nightmare. My bag is not big enough for all my stuff🙄so I got another one. I opted for a smaller checked bag instead of a big one. Two small checked bags are much more manageable for me than one huge one. Because of Covid, Krystal said they won’t pick your bag up for you at the airport and it has to go through the scanner. Krystal must have used her big hair charm because some random guy offered to pick hers up for her 🤣🤣 So I’m checking two bags, carrying on a backpack. Hopefully I don’t break any wheels off lol.

It’s raining. A lot. There is a flash flood advisory. I hope I can get to the other side of the island tomorrow morning or I’ll be stuck on the island and that would be just awful lol.

Maui 2021

Day eight-solo

Omg. Got a text from Tracy the dog sitter. Axel got sprayed by a skunk 😫. Probably the skunk that’s been eating my tulips lol. All this time living in the country and this is the first time it’s happened. I texted Kris. He has a plan lol. Good thing Axel loves water. I feel a little terrible that I’m missing out on all this. A little. Lol.

I’m taking a surf lesson today and tomorrow at Island Style Adventures Surf School. The lessons are held at that awesome boarding beach down the beach walk. It was perfect. After being rolled, pounded by waves and almost losing my shorts, I surfed all the way in to the beach! It’s kinda like wakesurfing with a much bigger board but dependent on mother nature instead of the boat driver for waves lol. My arms and hands are super tired from paddling out but I can’t wait to go out tomorrow.

On a side note, when I was back in my room changing my clothes I bent forward and a ton of water drained out my nose like a faucet. Lolol. Probably from when I got rolled in the surf.

Had a little snack. Spam Musubi. Spam, rice and seaweed all in a convenient brick. It was a bit dry but I was starving.

Back to the room to watch the sunset.