Bridges Through Life

 Oh hey it’s mid February…my how the time flies by. Most of my weekends are filled with homework assignments these days. Brian and I are also trying really hard to save money so we are pretty much home bodies at the moment. I think this works quite well for winter time as it’s cold, icy, snowy and dark so early. Honestly, so far, I would say it has been a mild winter. We got about 6 inches of snow a week ago Friday and Brian drove me home from work a bit early (perks of working at the same place) and then I just picked up my car on Saturday morning. I shoveled the whole driveway and was working on the hardest snow pile from the plow and then my neighbor came down the street with his snow blower.

              Valentine’s Day was last Friday and we don’t really do anything for the holiday. Last year I asked Brian for chocolate covered strawberries and he said they were so expensive so instead we made our own. This year we had to continue the tradition and make our own strawberries again. It’s fun because we get to melt the chocolate and work together and then get a nice treat. Brian also cooked up some steaks for dinner and then we rented the movie Hustlers (after seeing that Superbowl halftime with Jennifer Lopez, I had to see the movie). I think we both really enjoyed the movie and it was a nice break from homework for the night.

I’ve had many group meetings at 9pm and that’s usually when I go to bed so I have been tired from staying up for those. Overall though, the semester hasn’t really been too bad and lighter on the workload compared to the last couple semesters which has been nice. I have been reading ahead whenever I get the chance and that helps for doing the assignments mostly on the weekends. So now that we have caught up a bit, I did want to share a few currently items.  

             

Current Book:  Scythe By Neal Shusterman. I heard about this book from The Lazy Genius podcast with her recent winter book episode and her summary had my intrigued so I immediately bought the book. Also, sidenote, this book is a trilogy and in doing the math, it’s cheaper to buy each book in paperback individually than to buy the boxed set…like why? Book prices literally do not make sense anymore like when it is cheaper to buy the physical copy than the Kindle version. I just don’t understand. Also I started reading this book aloud to Brian when we got into bed one night and it’s such a fun book to read to someone that it’s kind of become our nice bonding thing to read it together.

Current Podcast: I just discovered The Kelly O Show as Kasey Brown (a blogger I follow) was on the show recently and I listened to her episodes and curious to check out more of her podcast episodes.

Current Purchase: I finally got myself another Columbia jacket. I got my black one about 2.5 years ago and it is what I live in at home so it has gotten its use for sure. I’m still keeping the black one but the new mint green one is so comfy and I love having a color other than black as mint green is my favorite color lately.

Current Essential Oil: I have been diffusing orange essential oil in my office when I am working and love the refreshing citrus smell.

Current TV show: I randomly came across Locke and Key on Netflix last weekend and I was hooked. I somehow managed to watch 4 episodes in one weekend and then finally stopped for a bit. I do not typically watch anything scary, like even people popping out suddenly. This show is a little creepy but so mysterious. I can only watch it during the day or in the morning time for this reason so it’s more of a weekend show to enjoy, but it’s so addicting with all the mystery.

 

Current Food: I finally made a salad recipe from The Heathnut Cookbook, the beauty glow salad. I didn’t get all of the ingredients, but had most of them and the lemon ginger dressing was also sooo delicious. If we ever have some people over for a meal, the recipe makes a nice big salad. I cut the salad recipe in half and enjoyed some for lunch Saturday and Sunday.

Current Snack: Flex BBQ flavor protein chips. So my co worker has been getting everyone hooked on these chips as she found them at Sam’s Club I think. They are great macros and apparently great on Weight Watcher points as they are high in protein. I also love that they are classified as vegan so no dairy for me and they are keto friendly which works well for Brian. I recently discovered they sell them on Amazon (I mean of course) and so I got the Buffalo and BBQ variety pack. The buffalo flavor is definitely a bit on the spicy side for me, so those will be for Brian and I will eat the BBQ. I think next time I order them, I will just get the BBQ pack. The chips worked out to less than $1 a pack and that’s not bad at all considering I often buy protein bars for $1 or more individually.

Current countdown: Having a countdown to something keeps me excited and it’s currently 52 days until my 30^th birthday. Being that it’s the big 3-0, I am planning a short trip to Chicago with my sister and a couple friends. It should be a fun time. We will see if the weather cooperates because it could be anything from snowing to raining to sunshine and beautiful in April if you know Chicago.

 

Do you do anything to celebrate Valentine’s Day?

I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane. It was so fun to look through all my old photos. I’m so glad I took so many pictures. Of course when looking through all my backup drives I somehow can not find half of the year 2011 and then all of 2012 and most of 2013. Thankfully I have Facebook to dig up some photos but now I am really curious as to where all those photos went and I’d be really sad if they were lost. I’m sure I backed them up before switching computers, but I don’t know where at the moment. 

 

2009: Met Brian, was in my second year of college and got my first car

2010: First long long distance with Brian as I traveled to Costa Rica with International Student Volunteers for 5 weeks in the summer and volunteered with sea turtles

Brian visited Chicago in August 2010 after our time apart

 

2011: Went to Australia for the first time, studying abroad from Feb – June 2011. Australia is where my start for Bridges everywhere I go began. Got a blog on blogspot to follow my Australia adventures.

My best friend got married.

2012: Took my first vacation that I paid for myself with Brian to Myrtle Beach over Spring Break. Graduated college, moved back home and got my first job

2013: Went to the Bahamas with Brian – still one of my favorite island trips

2014: laid off from my first job, moved to Philadelphia on my own to be closer to Brian and live on my own for the first time after college. Started yoga training. Started a new job and created Bridges Through Life blog

2015: Graduated from Yoga Teacher Training and traveled to Bermuda with Brian

2016: Started teaching yoga at a local gym in Philadelphia. Brian and I went to Disney in February and then got engaged on leap day!

The biggest thing of 2016 was I quit my job with a one way ticket to Australia with Brian. Celebrated Christmas with my parents and then flew to Australia with Brian and celebrated New Year’s in Sydney, Australia

2017: The beginning of 2017 was a dream with traveling for 3 months through Australia and New Zealand with Brian. We didn’t have an itinerary for where to go when, we just planned as we went. The most time we had ever spent together in our relationship since even in Philadelphia we were long distance with his job travels. It’s hard to pick just a few photos from that time because I took thousands. My blog followed our adventures and you can always check out the travel tab for tips. 

I then traveled to Europe {London, Paris, Southern France, Barcelona and Dublin} in April 2017 on my own, meeting up with some friends along the way.

In May 2017, I moved to Binghamton, NY and in June 2017 I started my job here. The end of 2017 was really rough as Brian’s dad suddenly passed and then his grandma was ill and passed and then my uncle suddenly passed. It was rough for the holidays.

 

2018: I competed in my first powerlifting competition and completed my first mud run with the Warrior Dash. Brian and I purchased our first house together and I got into grad school to start my MBA. I still will say the week at Penn State to kick off my MBA was the best highlight.

2019: The beginning of the year had challenges. I lost my last grandparent right before my wedding. The highlight of the year was Brian and I got married with a destination wedding in Charleston, SC with a small group of people. We followed it up with a quick stop in Atlanta to check out the Aquarium and then Aruba for our honeymoon where I got to see Rachel’s yoga studio and practice yoga there and Brian finished his scuba certification. In the summer we held a wedding celebration at our house for family and friends. Brian and I also celebrated 10 years together. I celebrated 10 years with my first and only car and I ended the year being halfway through my MBA program. Brian and I decided to celebrate New Year’s in Rochester, NY with some friends which was a nice getaway.

And now onto 2020. 2020 is a big year as it starts a new decade for me as well. In April I will turn 30! So 2019 marked the end of my twenties as well. I look back at everything in the last 10 years and it’s amazing how much can happen over that time. I did accomplish so much. They say your twenties are for finding yourself and if there was a turning point that stood out to me, that was my move to Philadelphia in 2014. I changed my life from that point on. I spent more time on me (because I lived alone as Brian was working and I had that time). I learned so much about myself and in 2019, I feel that stress got in the way and I didn’t give myself the time I needed. This year will be a busy year as I continue to work on my MBA program and work full time. I remind myself that this is just a busy season in my life and it will not last forever, but I do need to give myself some grace with it. I need shorter, more effective workouts, spend more time with meditation and journaling to reflect.

 

 

Last year I enjoyed picking a word of the year. I chose growth as I was working on learning and growing in many areas of my life. 2019 brought a lot of changes. Growth definitely happened. You always grow through challenging times and 2019 was definitely a challenging year for me in many ways.

              Looking onto 2020…wow. I just remember being in college and hearing about the school’s 2020 vision all the time. I guess they must be almost on 2030 now huh? There are also many 2025 vision planning going on and honestly I just can’t look that far ahead right now. It’s great to have a 5 year plan, but I’m putting focus in the next 1-2 years right now. This brings me to me word for 2020, which is Present. I want to be more present in life, in my workouts and my school work and work. It’s so hard for me to not think ahead. When I am in school, I constantly plan out what assignment I will be working on a week or two weeks or even further ahead. I mean, some of it is necessary because having classes online and working during the day, there has to be planning. However, I often spend too much time stressing and worrying about the next thing due. I don’t stop until the semester is done and then months go by and I haven’t really enjoyed myself. All the pressure really comes from myself as I am also trying to save money and so I restrict in spending and basically lead to not being allowed to have fun because “fun” requires going out and meeting friends and buying a meal. I think I could do better to have some fun and also save.

              I haven’t felt very present in my workouts at the gym lately. There is just so much on my mind all the time. This time off from school and a few days off for the holidays have helped me. One thing is writing. My blog has obviously taken a backseat and while I don’t need to always write for the blog, I like to write for myself, to remember moments in my life and also to process things happening. Somehow I need to give myself some more time to write again.

              With being present, I think it’s important for me to remember block timing. I wake up early to go to the gym. I set aside that time for a workout and I should be able to set my mind in that time to focus on working out, rather than homework. My thing is I LOVE the mornings and I want to get everything done in the mornings but it just doesn’t happen that way. I usually aim to go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. I used to sleep in a bit on Tuesday and Friday, but now I often get up at 5am anyway to use that time and do some homework or yoga before work. It’s my “me time” that I love and a chance to work on things. Since Brian heads off to work around 5:30am, it’s also quiet time, which I enjoy. So I have to remember, the morning gym session, even if only 45 minutes, is important as my me time and workout time. Then I can do some homework after. I also have been better about coming home from work, having dinner with Brian for 30 minutes or so and then heading to my office to work on things. While I don’t always like doing homework in the evening, it’s also necessary when working full time and going to school. I remind myself that it is only temporary in this phase of my life.

              Days and months can sometimes feel like such a blur, just chugging along to get by, but that’s no way to live. I need more presence overall in my life and focus on the here and now instead of the future or past. So that’s my word for the year. Be present!!

Namaste