My Free Vacation - continued

You can read the first part of My Free Vacation here if you are interested!

The company provided breakfast for the attendees, not spouses.  The first morning, I asked my husband to bring me a muffin from the buffet and I made coffee using the Keurig in the room. I'm not a big breakfast eater so that was fine. 

On Saturday, the second morning, my husband was too full from dinner to eat breakfast so he made me go to the buffet in his place. I brought him back an apple!

After breakfast, I headed out for a walk alongside the ocean. Clearwater Beach has the whitest sand I have ever seen.  And it stays cool to the touch too. It also has the warmest ocean water - probably due to it being the gulf side of Florida. We always go to the Atlantic side.

Clearwater Beach

After my walk it was back to lounging at the pool. However, I had a little task to keep me occupied, aside from books and crosswords. The company had all kinds of skits and games going on for the attendees. This was to break up the work and make it feel "fun".  There was a printed handbook of all the attendees with their pictures and profiles (bios). There was an answer key with a "fun fact" about each attendee.  It was a Match Game to pair up the fact with the correct person.

Hey, there was no rule that spouses couldn't help!  I truly enjoyed reading the bios and looking at the pictures and I filled that whole darn thing out.

Hotel pool early in the morning - the railing to the right overlooks the gulf

I sat with the woman that I met the previous day and that was nice.  The guys were done around 2:45 pm and had a good 4 hours to relax until cocktails and the award dinner later that evening.

My husband and I were in the hot tub watching a beach wedding, when we noticed a pod of dolphins leaping in the ocean.  It was really breathtaking to see!

The view from the pool railing at sunset - it felt like being on a cruise

That night was the award dinner.  My husband was not expecting to win any awards.

Then it was time for the winner of the Match Game.  Only 28 out of 80 or so attendees handed their sheets in, and apparently only some of them were actually correct.  Out of the correct ones, two winners were selected and my husband was one! He got two prizes - an Amazon Echo Dot and a set of wireless earbuds. I just knew that I - I mean he - was going to win! 


For dinner I had salad, teriyaki chicken, potatoes au gratin, asparagus and broccoli and rolls and butter. Other entrees were short ribs and grouper. That is the first time I have seen grouper as the fish selection at a catered function. Remember the scene in the movie "She's Having A Baby" where Elizabeth McGovern cooks grouper for Kevin Bacon? It goes without saying that I didn't have any grouper.


Dessert was the bomb - instead of a slab of cake they served three mini cakes: one cheesecake, one tiramisu and one lemon meringue tart. We headed back to the room content and satisfied.


I had intentions to get up early Sunday and do everything - pool, beach, hot tub, fitness room - one more time! But no, I had my husband bring me a muffin, drank Keurig coffee, packed up and we caught our Lyft to the airport. 

It was a great free vacation!

My Free Vacation

This post is coming from sunny Clearwater, Florida where I am enjoying a free four day three night vacation. No, I don’t have to sit through a time share spiel, nor did I win a radio contest.

I am tagging along on my husband’s business trip. My husband has his own business; this trip is the annual meeting for a company he works with. The company was encouraging spouses to attend. The only cost was my airfare and they even paid $100 towards it.

So while my husband is in meetings I get to be on vacation.

Clearwater Beach - the very last tall building is our hotel 

We flew to Florida on Thursday; it was great timing because we could check in to our hotel right away. We hung out at the pool and beach. The first night was a meet and greet at the hotel with drinks and a casual buffet dinner. There was sushi, meat and cheese board, chicken and beef sliders, French fries and veggie pasta.

It felt a little awkward for me since I didn’t know anyone other than my husband. I was tired from our early flight so I went up to the room. He stayed with the group since they all had to go to their first meeting right after for an hour.

On Friday hubs had meetings until 3 pm so I was on my own. I did a run on the treadmill in the hotel fitness center and then spent about 4 hours at the pool. Why is it so easy to do on vacation but impossible to do at home? Probably because the music is playing and the view is beautiful. I met another wife at the pool which was really nice.

Sand sculpture in the hotel lobby 

Friday night the company shuttled us to the owner’s mansion nearby. There were appetizers and drinks and a delicious catered dinner of steak, salad, potatoes, rolls and pasta. They had their pool covered over with a dance floor / stage like in “It’s  A Wonderful Life”. This big guy was jumping on it to prove it was safe. They also had karaoke and a belly dancer for entertainment. The vibe was much more relaxed than the previous evening. We sat with the woman I met earlier and her husband, plus several other nice people.



Big guy and belly dancer for your viewing pleasure. That is the pool below them.

The company owner's wife led a tour of their mansion which was pretty cool! Later on, the belly dancer's fire sticks set off a real fire and a group of younger guys started singing karaoke to a rap song with lyrics mother f*&$#....that is when my husband and I decided to Uber ourselves back to the hotel!  

That wraps up the first two days of my free vacation!



Swagbucks

Recently, I discovered Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is a rewards site where you can answer surveys, browse online and shop, all while earning points (called Swagbucks, or SB for short) which can be redeemed for paypal cash and gift cards.

I used a promo code from a blog that came up in a Google search. That earned me 1,000 SB which is the equivalent of $10.00. That blogger certainly earned some money or Swagbucks from his referral, but I'm fine with that. To earn the promo, I had to make an online purchase of $25.00. On Labor Day all the retailers were having sales, so I ordered two dresses from Old Navy (half price).

The dresses retailed for $40 and $35 but half price they were $37.50. I also earned an extra 260 SB for shopping through the Swagbucks site. After my sales and SB, the $75 purchase cost me $24.90 or something like that. Both dresses were super cute too!

However, I don't want to spend money to earn SB points. Thus, I have been doing a lot of surveys. This is what it looks like on the website.

Lots of surveys available to take

I also redeemed my first SB for a $25 Visa gift card. The gift cards themselves go "on sale" so I redeemed 2,160 SB points for the card.

Swagbucks emailed me a Virtual Visa card, which means that it's good for online shopping or you can add it to apps like Dunkin Donuts. It is legit! I used my Virtual Visa to pay a race entry fee (for a very inexpensive local race coming up) and used the balance to buy Kind Bars from Amazon.

I must confess that I did purchase LaraBars first thinking I had used my Virtual Visa, when I actually used my credit card on file with Amazon.  The second time around, I got it right and used the Virtual Visa.

The Kind Bars and the LaraBars were on sale and Amazon was offering free Prime for 30 days, which I signed up for.  Prime means free shipping. Yes, I now have a lot of bars in my house.

Is this a productive use of my time? At night, I am usually watching TV and playing on my phone anyway, so I figure if I can earn something all the better.

Being Neighborly

Every September our YMCA holds a Member Appreciation Picnic barbecue in their pavilion. A few weeks ago a notice was up that the picnic was being held on Friday September 6th.  There was an email to RSVP.  I didn't remember there being an RSVP in the past, but I went ahead and emailed the contact. It seemed odd that it was a gmail.com address and not a ymca.org address.

A few days later there was a notice that the YMCA Picnic was going to be on Friday September 13th.  I asked the woman working at the desk if that was a date change.  She told me that there were actually two picnics; the first one was a new neighborhood organization that is forming and was not the YMCA picnic. The new organization was using the Y as their venue. She said "You may as well go to both".

So, on Friday, my husband and I tentatively went over to the first picnic with absolutely no idea what I had signed us up for. As my husband said, we could always "Bite and Bolt". It turned out that our town was forming a Neighbors Helping Neighbors type of organization.  It is geared for ages 50 and up (yup, that's us). 

They asked us to fill out an information form with what services you can offer and what you may need.  For example, help running an errand or minor handyman tasks. The goal is to help seniors age in place and to encourage neighborliness. It turns out that this is a part of a larger national organization. 

Instead of handing in the info form, we took it home with us.  We are going to share it with a friend who is already retired and would enjoy doing that. Right now, two full time jobs and caring for our own home, cars, pet, volunteering at races, exercise and leisure takes up all of our time. I'm glad I went though! We met some very lovely people sitting at the table next to us and enjoyed a great dinner.  Stewarts contributed a "make your own sundae" station and I had a butterscotch sundae for the first time in years.😋

On Saturday night, we went to see Little River Band which was a free outdoor concert. If you remember them from the late 1970's and early 1980's their biggest hits were "Cool Change", "Reminiscing", "Lady" and "Lonesome Loser". It was a lot of fun.

Reminiscing about "Reminiscing"

On Sunday, my husband ran a 10K race up in Lake George. This race was a Half Marathon / 10K. I volunteered at the finish line water station.  It was my third year in a row doing water at the finish line. In fact, I never heard from the race organizer after I signed up so I headed straight to the finish line and started pouring. When I saw him, he said "I didn't email you because I figured you know what your job is".  After the race, there was a free barbecue for runners and volunteers.

Perfect day on Lake George

It was a fun and frugal weekend!

Last Week's Workouts: On Monday I ran 3.5 miles, on Tuesday I did HIIT with Erin, on Wednesday I did Zumba with Michelle, on Saturday I did Zumba with Tammy, and on Sunday I ran 3.5 miles. A five-workout week in the books.

Thanks for reading!

August Clean Out

At the beginning of August I decided to set a goal of cleaning out, dumping and getting rid of something every day. I have mentioned before that I hate clutter and excess.  While I don't want to be a true minimalist with a bare house, I would love to be able to name every item that I own and know exactly where it is located.

Anything beyond that is probably not necessary.  However, I live with two other people, so I can only get rid of things that are mine unless I have my husband or daughter's blessing.

Here is what left our house in August:

Trash
Old running shoes (too decrepit to donate)
Everything in my bottom night stand drawer
Black flip flops (broken)
Contents of bag in kitchen cabinet
Contents of box in older son's bedroom
Items from kitchen junk drawer
Items from top dresser drawer

Sold
Husband's wetsuit (apparently he is done with triathlons)

We sold one of these

Gave Away
Glassware (belonged to late mother-in-law; gave to brother-in-law)

Donated
3 bags of clothes
Old bedsheets
Snuggie
5 pocketbooks

Recycled
Plastic gladware
Old piano book


And there you have it - my August cleanout.  Thanks for reading!

Reading Lately

The Witch and Other Tales Retold by Jean Thompson
This book is a retelling of fairy tales in modern times. It made me wonder if the originals were based in truth as well. The very first story "The Witch" is so well done you will feel the emotions of the children. The reader will quickly realize that this is a modern day Hansel and Gretel. Instead of a witch in a candy cottage in the woods, she is an evil foster mother. I enjoyed figuring out which fairy tale was being retold. You will recognize “Little Red Riding Hood” but with a twist. I loved the last story "Prince" about how an unusual Prince Charming of sorts comes to the heroine’s rescue.  Every story was thoroughly enjoyable and some stayed with me for a while.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
This book is about Jason Dessen, an average type college physics professor, husband and father, who is kidnapped, drugged, and wakes up in an alternate universe.  He is still Jason Dessen, but now he is a world famous quantum physicist, who has invented a machine that can transport people to other worlds. Who kidnapped him, and why? Will Jason be able to return to his old life?  It reminded me of the movie “The Family Man” with Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni - except Nic’s character started out successful and woke up as the middling family guy. This is fast paced and I liked it until the end when it got more and more outlandish.

Little Sister by Barbara Gowdy
Another supernatural book!  This book is about Rose, who runs the family’s indie theater which her late father adored, while trying to look after her mother, who is in the early stages of dementia. Rose’s entertainment is suffering through dinner dates with her boring boyfriend Victor. During a summer lightning storm, Rose is somehow transported into the body of Harriet. Harriet is the complete opposite of Rose, and also bears an uncanny resemblance to someone from Rose's past.  Basically there are two stories going on at once, as the story follows Rose’s life and Rose gets drawn into Harriet's exciting life. I liked this book but it ended abruptly and never explained how Rose ended up inside someone else’s head (or how she got out).

Pilgrims by Elizabeth Gilbert
This was another book of short stories. They’re all real life; nothing supernatural going on here. These are the type of stories that are snippets of different people’s somewhat ordinary lives. The author was adept at creating characters who were all a little downtrodden, yet Gilbert always seemed d to convey an optimism that things would turn out okay. My favorites were “The Many Things That Denny Brown Did Not Know” about a few summer weeks in 15 year old Denny’s world, “At The Bronx Vegetable Terminal Market” which is just one thought provoking night in Jimmy Moran’s life, and “The Famous Torn and Restored Lit Cigarette Trick” which is just a little bit about magicians but ends up magical. Every story was a little gem to read.

Happy Reading!

Attitude Adjustment

In June I got a new job and I was extremely excited to be leaving the old one which was very toxic to me and caused me undue stress. Here it is only two and a half months later and the honeymoon period at the new place is over. 

I don't want to be a complainypants. This job is everything I wanted - which was basically good management.  My managers are amazing.  For example, a big stressor at the old job was the hoops everyone had to jump through to get even one day off. Here, we are encouraged to take as much time off as we would like!

The old job was a busy, fast paced environment where the work was nonstop.  On top of that, the bad managers were always having us change and redo things because their procedures and expectations were constantly changing.

In contrast, the work volume at the new job is significantly less. The managers like things done the way they always have been done, so once something is complete, that's it. The pace is slow and I'm not used to that. I started to feel dread in the sense that I am the kind of person who wants to always be busy. Years of school and decades of work train you to always be productive.

Last week I went to Lake Placid and only worked three days. There was a lot of good stuff going on after work and this past weekend which I will write about below. 

Lake Placid is my happy place

The problem was that instead of being fully present enjoying my time off in the evening and this past weekend, I was mentally and verbally complaining about work. I decided yesterday that it is time for an attitude adjustment. I have to embrace a new mindset that a laid back work environment is not bad, and maybe even good. Hey I can work on my blog so that is good!

This weekend my husband and I had two barbecues to go to which were both amazing with good food and good conversation. On Sunday we both volunteered at the Thacher Park Trail Running Festival. I didn't take pictures, but if you click on the link you can see how pretty it is. Summer finally got a long overdue professional grooming!

Last Week's Workouts: On Tuesday I hiked Hurricane Mountain, on Thursday I did a 3 mile trail run, on Saturday I ran 3 miles and on Sunday I ran 3 miles (after the trail running festival).

Thanks for reading!