Lately, I’ve been going on some really long bike rides. Maybe not long for a cyclist but definitely long for the average person, which is what I consider myself, athleticwise anyway.
I’ve been training for a 50 mile ‘race’ I’ll be doing this coming Sunday. The Tour de la Vallée is held every year in my hometown and others in the Saint John Valley to raise money for the Guy Paradis Memorial Cancer Fund.
Today, I got to visit a few really good friends in Portland, Maine. Two of them are moving to Ohio (for graduate school and love of a graduate student, respectively) and this was our last horrah.
We spent the afternoon on the terrace of Silly’s Restaurant, which is a neat place known for its good values, fun ambiance, and actual vegetarian/vegan items on their menu. They also have an entire page of possible milkshakes you can order with the usual ingredients (chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter) and the unusual ingredients (key lime pie, rice krispies, avocado).
On the top of the list was a bacon and peanut butter shake. Clearly, I had to get it.
For $5, I was expecting a peanut butter milkshake sprinkled in bacon bits. Oh no, it was much more.
The following is a timeline of my Aetna insurance claim, which began on March 31 and concluded today. What a pain! Guess that’s what I get for trying to make a journey towards better mental health…
If I was actually crazy, I could have had the energy to deal with my insurance company. Here’s my saga, and why you need to advocate for yourself at all times.
I wrote this over two weeks ago and debated posting it because it is a little personal. But I think maybe it might be helpful for other people to read, as I found it really helpful for me to write.
When I was growing up, the most important quality a person could have was to be hardworking. This trait has translated well for me in school, in my career, in living within a budget, and has in general helped me attain a lot of what I want in life.
The one place where this trait has not served me well is in my love life. I think part of me, up until very recently, has thought that if I worked hard enough to get and then maintain a relationship with a good man that I would find ‘the one’, and maybe some additional happiness.
Recently I did the math and have found my weekly income has dropped about 20% from what it was when I was working full time at the newspaper and part time on my internet marketing business. (To refresh, I am now working full time at my internet marketing business full and part time at an inn.)
But here’s what my life looks like at my part time job:
My friend Jessica and I had breakfast the other day when she passed me this book across the table.
“You have to read this!” she said.
So I started reading it Thursday, and I couldn’t stop. The first line of the book:
The book is written by Simon Doonan, who is the creative director at Barneys New York and instantly becomes the reader’s fabulous gay best friend with his knowledge and his tone, respectively.
I seemed to giggle every four or five pages, which went between ridiculous stories, sound advice, and interviews of fellow “eccentric glamour”ous people.