"Another year over..."

 Okay, it's not Christmas and there's currently not a war going on (locally), so quoting John Lennon and Yoko Ono with "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" isn't the most ideal thing, especially in the summer, but the line has been in my head all day.

Why?

It's my birthday.

I'm another year older and another year not much wiser. Sometimes smarts don't come every year as a present. They seem to skip a day or two. 

However, nothing has stopped me today. It's business as usual: two hours in the gym (I made jokes with the gym bros) and a decision on what to do afterward.

First thing was going to Starbucks for the free birthday reward. 

It's the "Lavender Crème Frappuccino® Blended Beverage", in a venti, which means I probably need to go back to the gym tonight to burn it off. 

Why? Because of the nutritional information.

Yup. "Go big or go home; it's a freebie". So I went with something I know I shouldn't get. The sugar and caloric content will set me back a couple days. Even though I used this as my lunch, I'm not used to drinking a large frozen sugar cube these days. I haven't had one of these blended beverages in years. There's a reason my last round of blood work looked good (except for the cholesterol, which I'm working on - it's a slow roll for that one). I've cut a lot of snacks out of my diet and I'm going to the gym on a daily basis.

Hell, if one of the gym bros passed me a "great job on what you're doing!! Keep it up!!" note a couple weeks ago, then I must be doing something right. 

Which is ever the more reason I should think about going back to the gym for a few hours tonight. 

Especially since my next trip was to Racetrac to redeem my monthly free drink (I alternate between Vitamin Water and Powerade. Another liquid I should cut, but it's usually used after a workout and I know there are healthier options. "It's only once a month"). I also redeemed a free small ice cream at their "Swirl World". 

I shamefully didn't get a picture of this, as it was melting by the time I got home. 

The soft serve ice cream I got was supposed to be a mix of cookies and cream with vanilla sugar cookie, but I don't think the sign is correct. It came out blue and when I got home, tasted like cotton candy. Add some Reese's Pieces and chocolate chips to the mix, I probably had another 300 calories and 30 grams of sugar. I don't know exactly, as it's hard to find the nutritional information online for this stuff. 

Let me backtrack to the Starbucks drink for a minute, since I squirreled right in to the ice cream. I forgot to talk about the taste of the frappucino. Honestly, it's not something I would get again. To me, it tasted like a sugary cereal. It wasn't an "omg! Sugar!!!!!!!!!!!!!" drink, but it was a "I taste a wee bit of a Froot Loop or Fruity Pebbles in here". I don't know if it was the combination of lavender and vanilla, but as I told Emi, "it's missing the crunch of a kid's cereal". 

For real. It legitimately felt like I was drinking one of the sugary kid's cereals, even down to the milk. I needed to be able to chew this, in order to think it's Saturday morning, I'm in my jammies, and I am in the basement watching cartoons. 

But, when my mom tasted it, her face went sideways. She said it's way too much sugar and lavender. I said "that's because it is a lavender drink". She did not like it one bit. I didn't get it for her, so she's entitled to hate it. 

Then again, I'm not thrilled with it either. I should have stuck with a regular coffee. I regret ordering it because it wasn't what I was expecting, even though I don't know what exactly I was expecting. It isn't something I would get again and I used my birthday reward on it. 

I did talk myself out of getting an iced green tea, solely because I could make that at home. The nutritional facts for that are at zero, where a cold brew coffee starts at 5 calories. Add some creamer and you're looking at under 40 calories, maybe? Yet something else I should have stuck with, however, it can be made at home too. 

Yes, today is one day out of the year I can splurge and treat myself, but then Catholic foodie guilt hits and I'm like "Whomp whomp 😞".

Okay, back to the day so far.

Once I finished the ice cream (and put the Powerade in the fridge), I went to the library. I decided, in a crazy lapse in judgment, to request "Criminal Minds" on DVD (instead of buying all 15 DVD seasons on Amazon as one large package). I haven't seen "Evolution" yet (because I don't have access to Paramount+), so I've got to remind myself of what's to come. 

However, I am totally going to be watching this series out of order. This is when my comment about not being the brightest light bulb among the 100 watt package comes into play. I requested "Evolution" (season 16 and 17) first because I was thinking about it when I made the request. I had seen an advertisement on the television in the gym, that said season 18 is going to be streaming soon on Paramount+, and I got to texting Emily about it. She had the streaming channel but no longer subscribes, so her access is gone. I said I was going to look for it at the library, since the internet says the first two seasons are on DVD. So I went to my library profile, searched for the show, et voila, it's there. I added it to my list. 

Then I fell down a rabbit hole and started requesting the prior seasons. 

As you can only request twenty DVDs at a time, this is going to take me forever to get through the entirety of the show. Each season has up to six dvds and my library doesn't count one season as one request. The discs are split up into their own request, so it's going to be over twenty discs I'll be taking out at the end of this. 

Meaning, season one is six discs. That's six requests out of a 20 disc hold. Season 2 is six requests, leaving me at a 12 disc hold. Now I can only add eight more films to my queue before I hit the "you've reached your limit" notification. Therefore, the next six discs I got was actually seasons 16 and 17 of the show because they're three discs each.

How's your math? Are you keeping up? Okay. 

I guess I should watch Evolution first, since it's the more current part of the series, and then work my way back, even though I said I should catch up with older episodes first. The more I think about it, the more I've seen one of the channels on the TV have reruns of the show. I could always catch the older stuff while I work out, much like I've done with "M*A*S*H" or like the other day when I spent two days watching Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II. 

Speaking of Back to the Future Part II, when they go to 2015, anyone ever notice the cars look a little like a Tesla Cybertruck?? 

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that. 

It's real quick, so you have to imagine that car having a slightly more angular design and a more pitched back end (what would be the pickup part).

Knowing what we know now, about science fiction items becoming real products in the wild, how strange would it be if Tesla figureheads decided to take a page out of the 1989 movie and create a new car? I know it's a long shot, especially since there's been rumblings about the El Camino having more similar features to the Cybertruck, but still... wouldn't it be "a laugh" if they decided to combine a few different things and didn't admit to it??

I squirreled again. 

What else have I done today? 

I got a lot of texts from people. Emails from companies wanting me to come in. Lana (age 4) and Daisy (age 1) sent me their artwork in the form of a birthday card and coloring page via the post mail. They're a pair of sisters who are the daughters of my cousin in Connecticut. I had already gotten a birthday card in the mail from Emi, so that was easy. She too, sent me her artwork, and damn, is she good. This chick needs to start selling her drawings as a side hustle because she is seriously skilled. But, she's doing her thing in Orlando at a theme park because the job is within her major ("Theatre Design & Technology ✦✦" she texted me recently, because I forgot what her degree was in). She works primarily at night, doing the light shows at the park. She's made herself a great niche there and works hard. I'm proud of her. I also know her AV struggles, and am glad someone is using their degree correctly. Haha. 

It's at this point I have to say she's a bit younger than me, and I worked with her at a completely different job when she was still in Fort Myers. We both did setup and we both got conned at the position because we thought it was AV heavy or had a good amount of sound and vision work, but instead, it was furniture moving with a side of audio visual hookup. Lucky for her, she got out when she could, but only after the bosses snagged her for her opinion on a new building design on property. They knew her background and asked her what she could recommend for the campus auditorium. Once she left, it was up to me to take pictures for her to swoon over. Prior to her leaving, we had a lot of conversations about our shared field, and I explained the AV job I had before the one we were at. She knew of the company and had one point wanted to apply. I gave her the pros and cons of the place and told her that although she's free to do what she wants, she has to be prepared that it's a dead job come summer. The whole reason I had left that place, was due to the fact there are little to no events from May to October, so she has to be prepared to look for other work. Although the company said I could go national, I had to do the leg work and see if anyone had any openings in another state. So if I wanted to go to Boston for the summer and work, I had to pay my own way and also compete with the local workers. There was no promise I'd have opportunity elsewhere. It's limited by season too. 

Long story crazy, Emi is thriving and surviving (better than me at the moment) in Orlando and doing amazing work. Her birthday is in a little over a week, so this is my reminder to get a birthday card out soon. Haha.

I've got so many emails to still troll through. I've got to weed out the ones that expire today, this week, next week. Figure out what "freebie" is really important, and tell myself I do.not.need. to buy an entrée, only to get a free dessert. I ran myself crazy last year, trying out new dishes at places, only to not enjoy the piece of cake or pie. Some of the food was good, some was bad, but I'm getting too "meh" for that. I don't like eating by myself in restaurants, so I tend to bring it home and eat in the comfort of my house. My mom will go with me if I eat out, but I don't want her to have to find something to eat, only to not want the dessert to share with me (I'm nice and I share with her, but sometimes she doesn't like what I choose. I'm willing to get what she wants, but sometimes I don't like it either). It can be a no win, and if the meal is expensive, I feel bad. I don't want to make anyone pay a lot of money for lunch or dinner because it's my birthday and I'm getting a free something. Then again, I don't want to make them pay a lot any other day either. Food prices at restaurants have gone up plenty, and I know the place has to pay bills, but my wallet says "I'm sorry. No. I can't afford you right now". So I end up not going to a lot of places when I could be "helping the economy". It's bad enough I'm using gas in my car to get the absolute free items when I don't need those either. 

Indulge is indulge and I need to work on fixing it.

Just like I need to work on wrapping this up. It's getting late in the afternoon and I've got stuff to do before I go back to the gym tonight. If I expect to do a couple hours of a workout, I need to go soon.

Until the sugar high kicks in and wears off, take care of yourselves and others.

Cheers;

See also:

* M*A*S*H on Amazon

* Back to the Future on Amazon

* Criminal Minds via Paramount+ on Amazon

* Paramount+ streaming information on Amazon

* "Tesla Cybertruck" search on Amazon

     * Go ahead and buy your Tesla protest decals while you're at it. If you want it.