Saving Your Sanity

Well, another late night rolling into morning. It seems this insomnia and pain combination has me whipped or have the sleep cycle of a five month old. (I am silently praying for the sleep cycle of a five month old because that means that I will grow out of shortly and naturally.)

One promise I made to myself I made last year just after my birthday was that from then on out I was going to start celebrating my birthday’s and holidays whether or not I was alone. Up until that point I went almost two decades without celebrating anything. It is not that I did not want to or that I grew up not celebrating these events, but by the time I was in my late teens my family was gone. Often that meant for me just another day with the exception of not having to go to school or work.

It is no exaggeration to say that I have been on an emotional roller coaster for the past couple of years. The lack of interaction with people,the loss of a loved one, the length of time it took to get a proper diagnosis, and then the surgery all took a solid toll on me. However, in the back of my mind I still had that promise, which I made to myself. I also believe now that even the littlest things that you can do to treat yourself is a way to save your sanity.

Well, with those 3 3/4 days to stew on before surgery I had a little time to plan how I was going to celebrate.

Did I mention that the day of my surgery was also my birthday. Yeah, double whammy. That also meant that whatever I ate had to be really good because come midnight I could no longer eat or drink. There is also no such thing as a 100% guaranteed surgery, especially since the surgery I was to have is still in its infancy. That was when I decided to to devote Sunday to finding a tasty sweet to fill in as my birthday cake and partial dinner (I was operating on a strict budget).

Anyways, armed with my map and quarters for the bus I headed for a beacon of the lifestyle blogger. Otherwise known as Laduree. I wanted to find out what all the fuss was over these macaron’s as I have never had any type of confection like these before.

Success on the first try. Although I have to admit that the ladies working in the store can be kind of intimidating. (Side note – I don’t think they are aware that they are not the only ones that can speak French. Of course moi, did not speak up. If I did it probably would have corrected them in German.)

Treats in hand I headed back to the hotel. Straight up to the room for me where I promptly cued up Netflix and reheated the previous nights dinner of Chicken Parmigiana, bread, and freshened the salad. (I’m still not sure how that restaurant stays in business selling such good food with large portions and low prices. If I remember correctly the place was called Nick’s.)

Anyways, after eating a bit of a hot meal like good adult I decided to give the sweets a go and see if they lived up to the hype.

I choose the Tarte Passion Framboise, which has a sweet pastry crust filled with passion fruit cream, and is topped with the sweetest raspberries that I have ever tasted. I also picked up some of the highly raved about macarons in a few different varieties. I liked them. The salted caramel and lemon were my favorite, but I would never go out of my way again to get them or spend the money on them. They just are not worth it in my opinion. (Have lifestyle bloggers not heard of Cheddar Bay Biscuit’s They are free and unlimited with a purchase of any entree.) Now that tarte, well that was absolutely heaven wrapped in a pink box and at a price point that not even The Outback could compete with. That tarte lingers in my dreams and was the best impulse buy ever !

I rounded out the night before surgery my surgery staring at the East River, listening to the Gilmore Girl’s as white noise, and feeling a little bit satisfied with myself that I decided to give myself one day to take care of me on things I would consider indulgences or to celebrate just another day. It can be a constant battle to remind one’s self that they are worth it when the chips are down. I just regret that I am realizing it at such a late stage in life.

The above picture was a great find on Pinterest. It really is true that you need to take time to find what makes you happy. I needed a few days despite how miserable physically and emotionally I was feeling to remember I was capable of traveling solo and smiling randomly. Who is to say that that little bit of happiness and confidence boost didn’t help me pull through surgery easier.

If you have any suggestions for Wellness Wednesday’s I would love to hear them. If you have any questions about my surgery or Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension please feel free to ask me and I will try to answer your question the best I can. I do not want to where you out on that topic, but that is the only health issue that I have had to study/deal with for over a year.

I still currently have my GiveForward Campaign. It has yet to have a successful launch most likely because of my small social network. I post updates on my IIH and doctor visits in the hopes of attracting visitor’s as well. It can be found at the above highlighted link.

I wanted to share with everyone some of my favorite bloggers that I try to read on a daily basis. Right now, instead of listing all of the blogs that I try and read on a daily basis I thought I would share with you the first few that I discovered when I was first taken sick, but yet undiagnosed. I don’t know how I stumbled upon the blogging world (I’m still astonished I am blogging), but it gave me great comfort to escape and read about things I loved – travel, food, hockey, healthy living, and just good old sarcastic humor. I wasn’t getting much of that when I was in bed for months at a time.

Reading these blogs kinds of made me feel like this

We Took The Road Less Traveled Delight in Casey’s beautiful European photo’s (see if you can find the one where her husband is mimicking a Greek God on their Mediterranean Holiday), get some facts on living in Germany as an US military family, and if that wasn’t enough let me not forget to mention they were just stationed in mere minutes from the Ocean in Florida and have already been going a tad bit Disney overload. Oh, well you can’t expect nothing but sweetness from a gal whose father works for Krispy Kreme.

What’s Up, Ya Sieve What can I say about this blog. Oh, how these New England hockey loving women have stolen my heart, made me laugh at the most inappropriate times, and I can only imagine that these two women would have been my best friends growing up in the eighties in Lake Placid (serious Cold War hockey action ladies). This isn’t your average girly fan sport page. They know their sh*t. They will tell it to you like it is all while still giving you a playoff beard rundown, the best NHL player workout video ever – Brooks Laich -, and ponder the ever deep mystery of why Sydney Crosby can not buy pants that fit properly.

Oh, The Places We Will Go This is an expat blog written by a sweet Texan named Selena. She relocated to London when she fell in love and married Matt (who somehow – in the best of ways – adorably comes across as 100% British when he guests posts on the blog and tells of his adventures of traveling to approximately 100 countries). Selena, takes the best photos of her travels, hosts impeccable London Blogger Afternoon Teas (that are then blogged about by all in attendance), she’s a straight shooter (not Texas gun style, more along the lines of best trip ever was the trip with girls to Provence where we drank all the Rose and yeah, I wear my Nike’s when I walk to work, and I’m not afraid to deploy my Princess bubble while traveling). Plus, her daughter aka mini-me is getting married, so one can barely wait to see those pictures.

Melanie Fontaine A Tale of Wanderlust Melanie is a bright, young German woman who recently finished up studying a year abroad in Norway. Prior to that she had spent year of her “high school” career studying in Canada. She has the heart of a true wanderluster as she just wrapped up an independent tour of South East Asia. She delights her readers with well thought out posts. Often she will give well planned itineraries (anyone up for going to Scotland). So, mosey on over and discover your next adventure be it Norway, Germany, England, Scotland, South East Asia, etc. Don’t worry she had you covered and she is supper nice.

Heather Goes To Deutschland Heather, is an American expat living in Germany where she is currently teaching English as a Second Language. I can easily relate to her and the her love (and frustration at times) with living in Germany. I can also relate to her as we are both in are thirties and seem to be at a period in our lives where we are reevaluating everything, but doing it with humor ! Want to know what Kindergartners, back packs, and hipsters all have in common, well head on over and let Heather tell you with her mid-western sense of humor.

Cause You Got To Have Faith Faith. (Well, there is a name sure would suit me right about now given my current situation to stand as a constant reminder for the days on end when I just can’t get going.) Have you ever had those days ? Faced an insurmountable challenge ? Well, than you need to mosey on over and meet Faith. First, she comes across as extremely nice – I mean she is a Canadian originally from the Maritimes ! Several years ago her and her best friend moved from the East Coast all the way to Pacific, ie gorgeous Vancouver. This gal doesn’t mess around when she wants something. Even more proof that she is a hard worker and determined is the fact that she loss around 100 lbs through sheer hard work and diet. She is open and honest about her weight loss, struggle, etc. She truly is an inspiration. I look towards her blog when I start feeling down that I only lost 43 lbs, blah blah. (I shouldn’t be so shy and I should email her.) She also has a great sense humour (spelled Canadian style – which is ticking off my spellchecker), but I get a feeling she inherited that from her dad who occasionally posts on blog.

And last, but not least, the blog that started it all C’est Moi, Sara Louise, formerly Sara in Le Petit Village. Sara is on a blogging hiatus right now (hopefully it is just a hiatus), but a highly recommend you read through her archives. Born in New York and raised in New York and Texas only to live for years in her mother’s home country of Ireland, until on a whim of love she moves to France to be with her French Boyfriend, Gregory. She spoke no French and he spoke no English. They would end up happily married and Sara documented her priceless adventures in Southern France. There is a cast of character’s from French Nana, to Mr. & Mrs. London, the Honey’s, and so forth to entertain you for days. However, after several years in France Sara has repatriated back to the States and is anxiously awaiting Gregory’s arrival. (Let’s be honest I am to because they are talking about relocating to the Berkshires, which is New England – my neck of the woods.) Follow her on Twitter @CestMoiSaraLou or Instagram @cestmoisaralouise , while she is on her blogging hiatus. Maybe you will be lucky enough to catch the two of us in one of our “hilarious & witty” eighties flashback and political tweets.

My, oh, my I am long-winded. I must learn to condense. Although that would not go over in my profession when I return back to work.

So, hopefully you take a mosey on over to some of these blogs that I mentioned. I really hold them dear to my heart. They didn’t ask me to write about them, sponsor, etc. Also, if you are a blogger that I mentioned and you would like me to remove your blog link info from my site, please just send me a message.

Now, onto the rest of my day ! I have only lucky thirteen days until my surgery and it also happens to be the same day Netflix releases all seven season of the Gilmore Girls ! What is going on with the world ?

Words Mogwai Would Approve Of