Showing posts with label Palm Springs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palm Springs. Show all posts

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Greetings from California

Greetings from the high desert of California! I'm vacationing with my sister and her hubs at their winter place and I am having a great time! The weather has been perfect with sunny, blue skies and temperatures in the upper 60s. It's supposed to get a little warmer after the weekend. As you read this, we're on our way to Death Valley National Park, which we are all really excited about. 

So far, I've gotten some running and hiking in with lots of climbing. This makes me really happy because as you know, my training for April's trail race has not been optimal. The trails at home have been icy and muddy and it has been difficult to get any decent mileage on them. I'm hoping to do some quality work on these mountain trails while I'm here. We're having a lot of fun too!

Monday, February 27, 2023

Coffee Talk

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Let's catch up over a cup of coffee! What are you having? Today I'm enjoying a cup of Dark Matter Westown Bakery Blend that I picked up last week while meeting up with Deborah. Freshly roasted, it is just perfection with a scoop of GLG collagen and a splash of half and half. My new coffee maker has made me love coffee even more if that is possible! It's fun to try all the different local roasts.  

What would you tell me over coffee?

Sunday, October 23, 2022

A Change of Scenery

This week, my sister and I traveled to California for our 11th annual sister trip! We first started our tradition as a getaway to Naples, Florida to 'celebrate' my 50th birthday. The following year, my sister turned 50 and we went on our second sister trip to Las Vegas. We've continued to go somewhere new every year with the exception of 2020, due to the pandemic and my sister's diagnosis of breast cancer. 

Thankfully, we've moved on from both of those events! This year, our travels took us to Santa Barbara. I added a couple of days to my trip so that I could spend time at my sister's new place in Palm Desert. I share some of the details below. I feel so fortunate to have had these getaways with my sister. Not only is she my closest sister but she is my best friend. As we always do, we had a great time and a lot of laughs!

As you read this, I'm still in California and will sadly be returning to Illinois on Monday. Reality is always so hard after a fun time away!

Monday, October 9, 2017

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

After a week of bad news and an RA flare, the annual sister weekend we had planned was a welcome break. Timing is everything, isn't it? My only regret about our timing is that it was the Chicago Marathon and I would be missing it. I don't know what I was thinking when I gave my sister the date. I will admit to a little FOMO, seeing everyone's photos. Congrats to all the finishers!!!

My goals for the weekend were: destination sunshine and relaxation. Maybe we'd squeeze in a little fitness. Let the fun commence!



Wednesday, October 4, 2017

5 Things I'd Share Over Coffee

Good morning! Care to join me for a cuppa? I can't think of a better way to start the day. Do you take yours black? Cream and sugar? Or are you jumping on the pumpkin spice latte trend?

I'm drinking my coffee from my hotel balcony in lovely Palm Desert, California! It's time again for our annual sister trip. Today on the blog, we're just going to catch up on life off the road. Kind of nice, isn't it?


FYI, I prepared this post before I left. I did some editing on my iPad using an app called Blogo. It's my first time doing that, so if the post looks weird you'll know why!


If we were having coffee, I'd share that this trip to California couldn't have come a better time for me. Sometimes a break in the routine is therapeutic. Earlier this week, I shared my anxiety about the Las Vegas shootings and my upcoming trip to run the R'n'R half marathon there. I've also had an increase in my RA symptoms this week. In fact, I had to quit on a run this week because my knees did not want to let me move. There may have been some tears at that point. While we are in California, I'm hoping that the arid desert conditions will do my joints some good. I'm going to look for my mojo on the trails here. The temperatures are predicted to be in the 100s while we are here. But as we like to joke, "it's a dry heat!"


If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that I've been feeling very nostalgic these days. That's probably because I'm reading one of the most fun books I've read in a long time. It's called Sting-Ray Afternoons (affiliate link) by Steve Rushin. It's a memoir of his childhood, a coming of age story about growing in up the suburbs of Chicago and Minneapolis in the 1970s. His writing is superb and the book is hilarious, especially for me because it's all so familiar, since I too grew up in that era. I don't know how he remembers all this stuff but every time he mentions some product or icon from that time, it takes me back! While I was reading this book, Spotify serendipitously came out with a new feature called "Your Time Capsule" which is a personalized playlist to take you back to "your teenage years".

My sister and me, 1969 That is my birthday crown on my head!

If we were having coffee, I'd tell you how sad it was to learn this past week that Tom Petty passed away. Still feeling nostalgic, I remember when his first single came out. When I was 16, I was working at the Fotomat-clone in the shopping center parking lot, listening to rock and roll on "The Loop", Chicago's album-rock radio station (40 years later, they still play that same music), and this whiny voice came out of my radio singing I Need to Know. Considering that I used to love the hard rock of that era, like Rush, Boston, and the like, this new sound wasn't an instant hit with me. Over the years, I grew to love the music of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. When I first started running with music, Running Down a Dream was on my original playlist and there it has remained since. I do have one other Petty song on my running playlist, You Wreck Me, for obvious reasons!

Tom Petty was a regular on The Simpsons

If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that I've started seeing patients at my new clinic and it's a loving/not loving thing for me right now. The clinic is beautiful and I'm seeing a lot of patients from my old clinic, which is really wonderful. The nurse that I work with (and sit next to) is a scream and we make each other laugh most of the time. My commute is cut by about 20 minutes so that I can leave my house 15 minutes before I need to be there. The pace is much more relaxed than at my old clinic, which was crazy. And yet...I miss my old clinic and my colleagues. I'm sure I'm still adjusting. I also think that I'm just a little burned out on healthcare. Last week, I asked my husband when I could retire and he told me 5 years...

Some of my former amazing colleagues.  So nice to have lunch together while we attended the AAP national conference last month.

If we were having coffee, I'd need some mama brag time. I'm actually starting to think that maybe my oldest finally has his frontal lobe! He completed his 12 week college classes he needed for his IBEW apprenticeship, receiving all As in his classes! He's back on the job and is happy to be there. He's also taken up golf. Who is this kid? More good news on the homefront: this week we learned that our youngest son was named a National Merit Scholar. While this is an amazing honor, I can only hope that it leads to some scholarship money for college. Hence, the reason I can't retire yet.

Why I want to retire: Me at work, all day long. And for the last time, vaccines do NOT cause autism. My boys are fully vaccinated.


What would you tell me if we were having coffee? Dry heat or humid heat? Current read? Have you listened to "Your Time Capsule" on Spotify yet? Any running songs that have endured for many years on your playlist? Loving/not loving? Mama brags? Tell me everything! I love coffee and if we get too hopped up we can always switch to wine.

I love this link up! You can share your coffee post with The Ultimate Coffee Date, hosted by Deborah and Coco. I'm also linking up with the Friday 5, hosted by Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness. Have a fantastic weekend!