Day 7 - Circling Back, Part 2 in These Foolish Things

(continued from last entry)

More things I have been wanting to write about and need to circle back on:

The Disaster Hotel: Around mid-October last year (I think?), I got an email from one of the hotel chains where you get points for every stay, telling me that if I don’t use my several tens of thousands of points by the end of the year, I’d lose them. I’d never heard of this happening before, but I’d worked hard for those points - I didn’t want to lose them! So I did some clicking around on the website and discovered that I had enough points to pay for something like one night in one of their premiere hotels, OR I had enough points to fully pay for four nights at a lesser-grade hotel back in [former city]! So that way I could have a home base when I went there for the holiday parties (see previous entry). Good deal! So I reserved the inexpensive room, understanding the general location of where the hotel was…not realizing that it was right NEXT DOOR to the hotel where I stayed when I was supposed to have my major cancer surgery. Now, the thing about all of that is, neither of these hotels are BAD, per se…they are clean, decent location, newly-constructed, safe, yada yada…but the thing about the hotel next door was that it had bad juju from my cancer days. It was the hotel I was staying in when the once-every-hundred-year storm hit and the power went out for DAYS in 10-degree (F) weather! It was the stay of nightmares for many, many, many reasons. And every time I drove to and from the hotel I seemed to get a little bit of PTSD. It just brought out a lot of emotions in me that I was a little surprised by. I’d get over it when I’d get to the room and settle down, but it just made me think about how certain locations and landmarks can bring up such wild memories.

Martini’s Golden Gotcha: And speaking of wild memories - it’s been 10 years since I adopted my little bundle of joy! I don’t know if these pages do her justice - or how attached to this little creature I am. But she is my tiny soulmate and I love her so freaking much. Ten years ago, on December 10th, 2014, I was handed a tiny puppy, full of wiggles and licks and was immediately floored by her energy. She is a tiny force. She is something else. And I honestly don’t know what I would do without her. She’s been with me for ALL of my medical emergencies - in fact, she ALERTED me to my carotid artery dissection by lying down around my neck when I was so fatigued I had to take a nap (and I never nap). How did she know?? She’s an angel, I tell you. But the bottom line is, she’s been my tiny sidekick for TEN years now and I’m so freaking grateful for her!

2025 Challenges: I think these require separate entries, but just know that I’m now 7 days into my 75-day challenges that are combining a couple of challenges together. Have I mentioned that I love a challenge? More on those soon.

2025 Thrifting: Related to above, more to come!

Obvi, I’ve run out of steam. I’ll be back with more ASAP!

xox,
GS