What's on your Thursday Menu?

Good Morning! It's my 50th Birthday! omg. That just doesn't seem possible, since it's still 1988 in my mind. I have no idea why but I couldn't sleep at all last night. It's not like I am excited or nervous about turning 50, but I woke up at 1:30am and just couldn't force myself back to sleep. I read the entire internet and then gave up at 3:15 and made myself the first (of many) triple espressos for the day.

Today we have an all day quarterly HR retreat. It should be a nice low-key day. We have the morning to update each other on projects and initiatives and the afternoon will be all about AI, which is pretty much how we spend every meeting now. The day ends at 3pm and everyone is going out together, but I am going slip off and take a 3:25pm train out to my parents. Dad got out of the hospital yesterday and if he feels well enough, we'll go out to dinner, but if not, we'll just order in and hang out. Either way it will be a lovely time.

QOTD: Tell me about your 21st birthday! I was living in downtown Boston worked about a mile away as a preschool teacher. I remember leaving my apartment and it was a beautiful sunny day. I was feeling so happy and optimistic. Then a bird swooped down and pooped on my shoulder. I went inside and changed, walked to work, and within an hour a kid puked on me. I had to leave and change again. Ha. Not the best start to the day but after work all of my friends took me out to an iconic Boston bar called the Pour House and I enjoyed my first legal drinks. I remember it being a great night and the first of many spent at the Pour House. My new job is on the same block as where that bar used be but it closed down about a year ago and it's turning into a fancy gay bar.

Accountability: About 6700 steps and stayed on track with food until a Grim surprised me by taking me out to dinner. I had grilled chicken tacos :)

I'm very lucky to be fed all day!

Our work event starts with a breakfast buffet, which is:

• eggs
• bacon
• hash browns
• assorted yogurts on ice, granola on the side
• bowl of berries
• vegan banana chocolate chip bread
• assorted muffins

And lunch is:

MYO Greek Bowl

Base:

• romaine
• quinoa & lentils
• couscous

Protein:

• Harissa Chicken
• Falafel
• Grilled Steak

Toppings:

• feta
• tomatoes
• cucumber
• mixed olives
• sliced red onion
• hummus
• chickpeas
• artichokes
• tzatziki
• baba ganoush
• corn

Dressings:

• green goddess ranch
• lemon herb tahini
• white balsamic vinaigrette

And assuming we make it to dinner, we're going to a restaurant at a gorgeous winery: https://nashobawinery.com/dinner/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY QJB!!! Sending you a lot of love today and hoping it's a great day! The food choices sound fantastic!

Not much happening here today. I have an appointment with the pain clinic at 9 this morning. Randall is staying the night tonight(Riley Friday night and Rachel is staying Saturday). Tomorrow I have my first PT appointment. Not sure what to expect with it. Guess I'll find out tomorrow lol.

Pain has been overwhelming and I'm still not sleeping.

QOTD: I hung out with my best friend. We went to a liquor store and I bought some rum and I think vodka. To explain how much of a party animal I was those bottles ended up going down the sink 10 or so years later. I have never been drunk in my life and barely buzzed. When I went to Canada I had more ****tails than I had ever had in that amount of time. Other than that it was pretty blah. I didn't get any presents that year(and many years since come to think of it). My birthday seems to fall on financially hard times since taxes are due close to it.

breakfast is eggs and coffee x 3

lunch is probably going to be chicken.

dinner is ???

Mel, I am a huge PT fan. As you probably know. The thing about PT is it is not an immediate fix. You will probably get many types of homework to do in between sessions. Do them all and do them as often as you can while increasing the number of sets you do at a time. Moving your body helps to lubricate your body making it less painful. Having a positive mindset helps helps the reps go by faster. Even if you find yourself parked with your butt against a wall and your feet in the air while you stare at the ceiling for 10 minutes, embrace it. My personal least liked is called J-Lo butt by my PT guy. I did it forever, and never got a J-Lo butt, but I did get serious relief from low back pain.

I hope you enjoy it. It's usually short sessions of hands on by the PT, followed by supervised exercises, followed by doing it yourself at home. Here's to some pain relief in your near future!

When I was doing PT for my shoulder, I was shocked at my doc telling me all the people that don't do their home exercises.

It's amazing isn't it? When I had pt on my back I was serious about it but they were very iffy about what to do. Most of the time I went they wanted to do heat therapy and I couldn't with the spinal cord stimulator. I enjoyed the cold though!

I'm hopeful it'll help the neck and arm stuff. I've done it before on my back and once they saw the report from my myelogram they said I was done. I think they should have continued but I also think it was an insurance thing to be honest. They had put me on a traction device and that was probably a mistake. I enjoyed water therapy in the heated pool but again Medicaid said no to more.

I will definitely be doing the homework, I am so over having to have surgeries and injections.

thank you, I appreciate the encouragement so very much!

Morning gang. Happy birthday to the Queen! Aside from picking her up later on and driving to her folks, I have no special plans.

Really. I got nuthin'.

That pic made me snort my coffee. I want that toy box.

Happy Birthday QJB! New decades are so exciting! Have a great time with the family, if I was at that winery, I would love the cara cara salad, the steak and the olive oil cake, lol.

QOTD - I was working for a DOD contractor, by far the youngest on the staff, which was about 80 men and 7 women. The receptionist birthday was the same as mine (she turned 60) and they surprised both of us by inviting a male stripper to the birthday lunch; she thought it was HILARIOUS, I can actually still hear her laughing; I thought it was funny but also embarrassing. After work some friends I went for drinks at Schooners and then to a "fancy" dinner. I had baked garlic at dinner that night and that and Billie's laughter were the most memorable parts of the day!

Today is just work and then I"m going to take a book to the deck and enjoy this "not even going to crack 70 degrees rainy day" after I get in a work out. Fitbit says 30-62 active minutes needed today. Yesterday was such a crazy busy work day, I logged on at 5:30A and sent my last email at 8:50P, I did not get in my pilates and only had 2 active minutes and under 3K steps.

menu today

coffee plus half and halfX3

yogurt

cheese sticks and pepperoni

taco leftovers

Have a terrific Thursday everyone. The weekend is in sight.

I hope your work day isn't as long today.