Shoulder Relief

All day I've been trying to push my shoulders down and back to improve my posture, hoping it would make my aching back feel better. Nothing I tried worked. I even tried using my opposite hand to physically push my shoulder back and it wouldn't move.

Then I went to the chiropractor and complained about how I couldn't get my shoulders to go backwards. (I am always hunched over the computer and have terrible posture, so this is no surprise.) He tried something new (to me) where I was on my back and half rolled to the side, and something cracked, and ohmygoodness, my shoulders are where they should be. I have no idea what he did but my shoulders have not gone back that far in months, if not more than that. I know it probably won't even last for an hour with my horrible body structure but the amazing relief that I had when I stood up and realized I was actually standing with correct posture was incredible. I can't stop talking about how good it feels - to have normal posture. I think I'm going to have to request that from now on because that was so, so, so, so good.

Black Friday Time

Just after midnight and it's time to get ready for some Black Friday shopping!

Black Friday is a tradition in our household. I don't really remember when it started, but I remember in college (and maybe even in high school?) waking up early and getting in line for some really great deals. There were $10 DVD players at Best Buy one time which actually lasted for awhile (this is when DVD players were more expensive). There were tons of things free after rebate, including tech stuff at Circuit City and Staples. There was the time I was in and out of Best Buy in 5 minutes to get a DVD because I was that quick and the line wasn't that long. But mostly, I remember how Black Friday used to be humane.

The sales would start at 6 am or 7 am, and it was reasonable. People would line up but they would get there an hour, maybe two hours, before it started. There was a camaraderie among the people in line waiting to get the deal. There was none of this camping out more than 24 hours in advance. Is it really worth it to get in line the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving? Is it worth missing your entire Thanksgiving day to just be in line for a discount? Not in my opinion. You may be getting monetary savings, but you're certainly paying for it with your time.

The opening times have been getting more and more ridiculous. When the store opens at 4 am, you have to drag yourself out of bed in the dark with the alarms blaring to get to the store in a groggy state. Of course, you don't have to do any of this, but if you want to participate in Black Friday, you do.

I'm glad that the stores pushed the opening time to midnight. I'm not a fan of the ones opening on Thanksgiving night itself, but midnight seems reasonable to me. It's much better going after Thanksgiving dinner than at 4 in the morning! We're usually up and about at this time anyway, so it fits our normal schedule so much better. Since this is the first time we're doing it, I'm curious to see how it will impact our usual late afternoon movie and naptime tradition.

Time to get ready to go!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We're at my parents' house and I just finished making the mashed potatoes. I love mashing potatoes. So much fun. It's usually also a stress release to mash them but this year they were pretty soft so it became mashed and creamy fairly quickly. I called myself the mashed potato line cook. It's not my recipe but I'm providing the labor. It's worth it though because otherwise we would have baked potatoes and mashed potatoes are just so much better. Especially the healthy way we made them (a little margarine, a lot of Greek yogurt, skim milk) which had no butter.

Thankful for many things in my life. I know I complain a lot, sometimes about little things, sometimes about things that are more overarching and overwhelming. But I truly am thankful for my husband, family, friends, activities, interests, freedom, having a home, having food on the table, having my health (generally), and even having work to do. I know there are so many people out there who have it worse and that we're really fortunate for all that we have. So, on this Thanksgiving, may we give thanks for everything we've been blessed to have in our lives - things both big and small - and enjoy family, friends and food!

Geneva Sights

After we left Gare Cornavin, we set out for the lake, which is located in the center of Geneva. The lake isn't a far walk from the main station and we wanted to check out one of the famous sites in Geneva we had read about, the Jet d'Eau.

The Jet d'Eau is a giant water fountain on the side of the lake which is so high that it is visible from all directions.


Unfortunately the picture above is the best shot we have of the Jet d'Eau. When we started our walk toward the lake, we could see it above the buildings, but by the time we actually got to the lake, it was off. We thought they were just taking a break, but later we saw on the informational sign that they shut the fountain off when the winds are too strong. If the winds are strong enough to blow water back onto the shore, no more fountain. Sad but understandable. This was one of the tourist attractions we wanted to get a picture in front of but I guess we'll just have to go back to Geneva sometime.

One of the first sights we came across on our walk to the lake was Monument Brunswick. This monument was extremely ornate and detailed. We walked around it on all sides and were just amazed by how intricate all of the work was.


The monument is apparently a mausoleum for the Duke of Brunswick, who the Geneva tourism site calls "eccentric and paranoiac." He left a lot of money to Geneva and in return required this monument to be built in a prominent location. On the side of the lake, it's hard to find a more "worthy" site than that. It's a really striking monument and guarded by lions. The style of the monument is apparently exactly like the Scaligeri family tomb in Verona. (Side note: I love the Geneva tourism site for all of its helpful info!)

We got to the lake and encountered signs describing the lake, the surrounding area and the local wildlife. This sign amused us:


If you don't read French, the duck is basically asking you not to feed it because it can take care of itself. The rat is telling you that it is he who benefits. In other words, don't feed the animals! I don't remember if we even saw any animals.

We continued our sightseeing walk by taking the Mont Blanc bridge across the lake. The view of the lake was great. Much better than the view of the road which was a lot of stopped traffic. We would later learn the reason for all the traffic (next post).


After crossing the bridge to the other side of the lake, we visited the National Monument. The National Monument consisted of tall statues of two women on a pedestal. The women represented the Republic of Geneva and Helvetia, and the monument celebrated them coming together so that Geneva became part of Switzerland in 1814. The monument was from 1869 but is still in pretty good condition.


The National Monument was right next to the Jardin Anglais (English Garden) so we wandered around that for a bit, taking in the sights and taking photos.


We were enjoying sightseeing in Geneva throughout the morning and then we stumbled on something awesome. Next up: the Geneve Marathon!

Train to Geneva

When planning our trip, we deliberately chose flights that would give us a (very) long layover. We love long layovers (so it should be no surprise that we love Bourdain's new show "The Layover" on the Travel Channel) because it gives us the opportunity to take a "day trip" in a place we might otherwise never have the opportunity to visit. When we saw that we could have a ~10 hour layover in Geneva, we jumped at the chance.

After a brief snack at the airport and a visit to the grocery store (one of my obsessions), we headed down to the train platforms to catch the next train to Geneva's city center.


One of the great things about taking the train to the city center is that it doesn't matter what train you get on at the airport. They all go to Geneva's main station. That eliminates any confusion about whether you're on the right platform or getting on the right train. Just jump on the next train to arrive!

Another great thing about Geneva is that they give you a free train ticket to the city.


I don't recall how I first heard about this (probably online forums or travel sites) but you can get a free ticket, valid within 80 minutes of printing, at the airport. I think it's great that the city encourages visitors to get into the city of Geneva by subsidizing the cost of a ticket! When we saw the ticket machine, we printed up our tickets and kept one eye on the clock to make sure we didn't miss our 80 minute window. (I think we just made it.)

It was a short train ride and it was great to see the sun shining for our day trip.


In just a few minutes, we had arrived at our destination - Geneva's main station, Gare de Cornavin - ready for our Swiss adventure!


Next: we go sightseeing in Geneva!

Migros

We are SO behind on our honeymoon recaps! I'm forgetting everything!

We had just gotten a snack at the Geneva Airport railway station, and decided to do some more exploration of the stores and the station before heading toward the city center. We also ran our "errands" during our time at the station including getting Swiss francs from the ATM (before the snack) and storing our carry-on bags in a locker. I love how easy it is to store your bags in lockers in Europe so you can go exploring during a layover without lugging it all with you.

One of the stores we stopped at was Migros. I love how European airports have full supermarkets and not just newsstands with snacks. A few photo highlights:

variety of pizzas

vegetable combinations made easy - wish we had these

tarte flambee - a special place in our hearts because of db bistro, so we love tarte flambee

not just food but cute stuffed animals for souvenirs too

the sour gummy candy we bought
There was a surprising lack of gummy candy in Geneva and I noticed there was no Haribo (my favorite brand) in the stores we visited. We tried the Bizzl mix here which was some sour fruit-flavored gummy candy, but it wasn't that sour or that fruit-flavored. It was fine, but not Haribo.

Next: We jump on the train and head to the city!

Friday Night Exhaustion

It always amazes me how people can work all week and manage to make it out on Friday nights. By the time Friday night rolls around, I'm usually ready to pass out. Yesterday, I actually gave in. I was trying to watch Psych (since our incredible shrinking DVR is pretty much full) and around 9:30, I just couldn't do it anymore. I considered going to bed for the night for real but didn't even have enough energy to brush my teeth. So I napped for about 2 hours on the couch, then got ready for bed, and then passed out again until morning. My fitbit tells me my sleep was not very restful though (and hasn't been all week), so that could be a factor in why I felt so terrible all week. If I need to be in bed for almost 11 hours in order to get 8 real hours of sleep, that's a problem!

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy birthday to me. It's a bit surreal to me that it's already time to be "celebrating" my birthday, since I don't know where the past year went. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was passing the milestone of 30, and now we're already here.

Birthdays these days seem to cause me to reflect on life and how I feel like it's speeding by out of my control. I hate that feeling but more and more, life seems to feel that way. There's always so much to do, so little that gets done, so many responsibilities, so many pulls in every direction that any day that's not a vacation day just goes by in a blink. Is it a sign of getting old that instead of looking forward to and counting the days until your birthday and celebrating it, you're burnt out, looking backwards at days that should have been more and thinking about how fast life has passed you by?

I should be celebrating, not being a downer, I know. And I am thankful for everything I have in life. I just feel like I need to enjoy each day more and make the most of every single one. I'm not sure how to do that. But I need to start. Somehow.

Malaise

I'm not quite sure what my problem has been recently. Ever since getting sick on vacation I've been rundown and exhausted regardless of how much actual sleep I've gotten. I can't get up in the morning no matter what I try. I also seem to just not be able to get/stay healthy. After recovering from my various ailments that required antibiotics, I still have no energy and I'm still sneezing and stuffed up. It's almost as if I got better for a day or two and then picked up another cold that won't go away. I understand that the weather changes can cause this, but at some point you'd think my body would figure out what to do.

Before you ask, I take daily vitamins and also vitamin C supplements. I also drink tons of water daily, less so on the weekends. I know I need to exercise more, and I know I need to eat better, but come on body, work with me a little. Maybe if I took a full week or two off and did absolutely nothing but rest I would start to feel better, but who has the time for that?

Hello November

It's a new month (already?!), which means it's a good time to reboot my life improvement project. I've fallen off the wagon a bit lately when it comes to my resolutions.

Here's what I would like to do in November:

1. Resume my water drinking habit. I was trying to drink 4 glasses of water (or iced tea) every day. Lately, I haven't gotten nearly that much.

2. Resume my expense book habit. I had been keeping track of our expenses on a daily basis when I first made this resolution, but lately have gotten lazy about it. Lazy is bad! Must not be lazy!

3. Clean up 5 things per night, provided that I get home/am done working from home by 10 pm. I'm not unrealistic enough to impose this on myself after a long night of work, but if it's early enough, I need to combat the clutter. This apartment is out of control.

I've learned from experience that too many resolutions just don't work and that you need at least 21 days to make a habit stick. (Unfortunately the old ones were sticking until I got off my routine.) Let's hope these work in November!