Ever found yourself daydreaming of an escape from the daily grind, a luxurious retreat to a AirB&B with your own personal theater room? Well, I'm on the cusp of such an adventure and the anticipation is palpable. Join me as I unravel the thrill of an upcoming vacation, which not only signifies a break from everyday responsibilities, but also a quest to explore the beauty of the United States more extensively. We venture into a wider conversation about making no-regret decisions and the challenges of understanding people.
As I prepare for this much-awaited escape, there’s an immense excitement for what the future holds. Beyond just vacation time, it's a symbol of a journey from dependency to self-reliance, setting personal boundaries, and the growing intolerance for being ill-treated. We'll delve into valuable life lessons learned along the way and the growth that has followed. Amid the anticipation, there's a profound appreciation for the simple joys in life, be it a supportive family, loyal pets, or cherished friends. Don’t miss this heartfelt reflection and be a part of this exciting countdown.
Ever found yourself daydreaming of an escape from the daily grind, a luxurious retreat to a AirB&B with your own personal theater room? Well, I'm on the cusp of such an adventure and the anticipation is palpable. Join me as I unravel the thrill of an upcoming vacation, which not only signifies a break from everyday responsibilities, but also a quest to explore the beauty of the United States more extensively. We venture into a wider conversation about making no-regret decisions and the challenges of understanding people.
As I prepare for this much-awaited escape, there’s an immense excitement for what the future holds. Beyond just vacation time, it's a symbol of a journey from dependency to self-reliance, setting personal boundaries, and the growing intolerance for being ill-treated. We'll delve into valuable life lessons learned along the way and the growth that has followed. Amid the anticipation, there's a profound appreciation for the simple joys in life, be it a supportive family, loyal pets, or cherished friends. Don’t miss this heartfelt reflection and be a part of this exciting countdown.
Hey, you're listening to On Our Best Behavior, and it's just me today. Kelly and I just wanted to come onto the podcast and talk about life right now. Mccoy is downstairs happily gaming his life away and I we are on the brink of our vacation. It is my most favorite part of vacation is leaving work and knowing that you have for me, example, 10 days of freedom ahead of myself and 10 days of you know. As the days dwindle, it, reality creeps closer and closer. But right now I have my whole vacation in front of me and I am so looking forward to it. My back is killing me. I'm tucked in my bed. Right now. It's about 830 at night on a Thursday.
Speaker 1:
This isn't going to get released for a little bit. So when you hear this, you'll be like, well, that was a long time ago. And I'm going to be thinking like, oh, my vacation is already halfway over. Anyway, do you ever get that feeling where you want to just get in your car and drive forever not forever, but for a really long ways away? Well, that's how I feel right now. So I am so excited to wake up tomorrow and get in my car and drive all the way to Schaumburg, illinois, where we have a gorgeous hotel, because I am a little bougie and you know I have a lot of checkboxes that need to be met at my age that I'm at now. I need a comfy bed. I need to have, you know, certain things like the hotel has to offer like a little market where you can get, like, a snack or a drink or I'm over vending machines. It has to have a pool and a hot tub and it has to be luxurious. To, you know, four stars or above. I am done with. The days of sleeping in cheap hotels are far behind me and the days of traveling this country are very much in front of me. I have traveled enough, but not enough for my liking, and it is now my goal to make it to every single state and spend time there. I would love to see more of the world, but I think that the country that we live in, the United States of America, has a lot to offer and there's so many beautiful places to see and I am just ready to experience that.
Speaker 1:
And I also feel like, now that McCoy is a teenager, he can you know if I don't have anyone to go with, like I can just say you're coming with me, and he has to. And I, as an adult now, I feel like the only vacation my parents ever took me on was a trip to Mexico when I was in the 10th grade. We never went on family vacations. My parents went on vacations and left us behind, and so I know he might not appreciate it now, but someday he'll be like, oh mom, remember when we did this and this and this and it's going to be great.
Speaker 1:
So my I always have to have a plan of a vacation ahead of me. I always need something to look forward to, something to work towards. And so, after Tyson, will you please lay down? My dogs are also trying to get all tucked in with me. So, lay down, you can't lay on the podcast equipment. Lay down or get down, tyson, joseph, lay down or get down. Speaking of my crazy dogs, I already miss them and I haven't left them yet, even though they're annoying me right now because they always like to be right on top of me. Lay down, violet, or you're gonna get kicked out like your brother.
Speaker 1:
But I am also very much looking forward to not having to let them out for a week, not having to feed them for a week, not having to take them in the BACK for a week and, yeah, I'm just really looking forward to no responsibilities, very minimal. I used to just take a staycation and stay at home, but then I found myself doing laundry and doing home projects and worrying about things and thinking about things and feeling guilty if I wasn't doing anything and wasting time, and so I feel like going somewhere, renting an Airbnb that once again checks all my boxes, that has a luxurious king bed and a jetted bathtub and a hot tub and is on the river and has a bonfire and a beautiful kitchen and just all the things. Then I don't feel guilty about not getting stuff done around the house. So I am so excited, so excited. I was thinking about recording this podcast and I thought I had so much to talk about and now I'm at five minutes and I'm like, oh, I just feel really relieved. But I feel like talking about things, getting them out there. It is so therapeutic.
Speaker 1:
I've never been a journal or diary person. I don't like to write things down. I was gonna just say like I don't want there to be any proof that I had those thoughts, as I'm recording this and letting the whole world listen to it. That sounds kind of. That seems kind of ridiculous. But I've also tried to meditate and I just can never shut my brain off.
Speaker 1:
When I was younger, I could never talk in front of people, I was very quiet, I did not offer up much information, and now I am just an open book and I feel like which is also a quote I love to say often I feel like because I have so many feelings, but I used to make a lot of mistakes and I used to do a lot of things that I would regret and then I would feel bad about that and guilty about that and ashamed, and I didn't want people to know. But now I'm at a point in my life where I make decisions that I feel are good and I make decisions that I know I'm not going to regret or feel bad about, and that makes it much easier to live an honest life. And I'm not perfect and I do many things wrong, but I keep trying to learn and grow. And, yeah, I also really have been struggling lately. This is another thing I'm really looking forward to for my vacation is I have been struggling with people so much because you know, if you know me, you might not agree with this, or maybe you're going to be surprised to hear this, but I truly feel like I am a kind human being, but so many people are so rude and inconsiderate and demanding and it is really hard to kill people with kindness.
Speaker 1:
I just when I feel like when I stumble across somebody who is so nice and uses manners and is appreciative and thankful, it is a breath of fresh air. It doesn't happen often enough. So many people are just so Tanita, stefan Bateman, picasso, les Cart ρ as what's the word? Oblivious or they don't care, or I don't know if they're just not paying attention, but it is exhausting. I feel so exhausted all the time dealing with people and I just you know people say like they get bored. I wish I could feel bored. I can't. I cannot remember the last time I've been bored, because I'm just so exhausted and I feel like I have so many tasks to do and I'm tired. I'm so tired and I'm so sick of being treated poorly.
Speaker 1:
And I went through many phases of my life and the first phase that I can remember is I have always I used to be always so dependent on everyone else taking care of me and my parents taking care of me, my ex husband taking care of me. And you know I'm going to take some accountability and say that a lot of that is my own fault, because I didn't want to take care of myself and I didn't want to make decisions and I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't even know who I was. Let's be honest. And you know, in my 30s I started figuring out who I was and what I wanted and not quite knowing if I could obtain that and if I could afford that and if I was independent and financially stable enough to take care of myself only. And I did finally make that decision. And if I say, and one more time, I'm going to be so mad at myself.
Speaker 1:
But now I have figured that out and now that I'm in my 40s I feel that I am good at being independent and I know what I want and I refuse to let people treat me poorly. I'm just and sometimes that can come across as being unkind, but it's really just having a threshold and a tolerance for what's okay and what's not okay for myself and my family. So if that comes across as being rude, I'm happy. I'm happy with where I am in my life right now. The only thing that would make me happier is if I won the lottery and I never had to work again and I didn't have to worry about money. But otherwise, I like my little house, I love my kids, I love my Justin, I love my dogs and even my two little bunnies. I have a really great friend group that I love.
Speaker 1:
And you know, if I didn't have to worry about money and I could just like get in a place in St Thomas and live there for the winter so that's that's what I have been working on. How do I become rich enough to never have to work again and to just live? I don't even need to move, I just want to be able to just do whatever I want to do, and it doesn't need to be lavish, even though I just talked about like needing bougie hotels. But you know, if I'm gonna vacation, I'm gonna vacation the way I want to vacation. I'm not gonna barely do it, I'm gonna do it and make it memorable and lovely. Ah, my little girl violet. She's just all tucked in Justin's at basketball practice and I am just so ready to check out, reset my brain and not have to worry about anything other than missing Justin and my dogs and my bunnies Cause I'll have Mac with me.
Speaker 1:
And, of course, you know I always miss AJ, but I don't ever. I don't see him as much as I'd like to, so I constantly miss him. But he's getting older and he's living his life and he's doing great and I'm so proud of him. So after this trip, I am gonna come home and Justin's gonna be crazy because I'm gonna be obsessed about planning my next trip to the Redwood Forest. It's been a place that I haven't wanted to visit for most of my adult life. So I don't know if we're gonna drive there or if we're gonna fly there or if we're all gonna go or I'm gonna go, but I'm going, I am going. Nothing is stopping me. No, no, like round of applause, okay, okay, I'll keep talking, don't worry, mmm. I don't really know if I have anything else to talk about. Which is crazy, right, oh, but my back is on fire. It hurts so bad.
Speaker 1:
Let me tell you, getting older, my grandpa used to tell me this when I was younger and I could not fathom the thought. I was like what? But he would tell me he would. He envisions himself as 20 something, 30 something, whatever his peak was in his life. That's how he envisioned himself mentally. And he would get up in the morning and brush his teeth and get ready for the day and he would look in the mirror and he would be like who is that old man? He'd be like you know. He told me, like I don't even recognize that person. And then he would tell me, like just you wait. When you get older, your mind has a great idea, or your mind believes that it can do things, and then your body doesn't cooperate with it. Oh, mackey's making his way upstairs and let me tell you, grampy, I feel you, that is happening to me since I turned 40, like there's things that I'm like, nope, I can't do that anymore. Ah, so that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1:
I'm excited to recharge my body and my energy and my mind and my soul. I'm excited to sing my heart out in the car to all my favorite songs. I am excited to stay up late, sleep in early, drink coffee with a beautiful scenery. I'm excited to see beautiful waterfalls and trees and hikes and rivers and animals and, my gosh, my family is crazy. I don't know if you can hear that, but Mackey's playing tug-of-war with Tyson right now and Tyson is really. He really loves it. So he's being very vocal. But yeah, I love to. You know, I'm excited to eat meals as a big family together and I'm excited to maybe put some Baileys in my coffee and have some wine, listen to some music, dance about a puzzle, because I'm old and I'm excited for everybody to work on the puzzle throughout the week and I'm really excited to see, like, what kind of antique stores there are and shopping there is, and looking around and just exploring and all those things.
Speaker 1:
Mac dog, mac dog, I'm doing a solo podcast. Do you want to pipe in and say hi, oh yeah, I did a solo. Well, because I just had a lot I wanted to get off my mind and I thought this was a good place to do it. So here I'll let you talk in the mic so you can say hi, hello, tell us about what you're excited about right now. I'm gonna tell we're just sharing a mic right now because I didn't hook it up for two people. But I got home from work and Mackie was like mom, are you excited? And I'm like I'm so excited I don't have to work for 10 days. And he's like right, I don't have to go to school for 10 days. So I'll let you tell your part of the story now.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so tomorrow's our vacation, we leave. So, yeah, we're going on vacation. Are you all packed and ready? Yeah, I'm just gonna pack my Xbox in the morning, oh, okay, okay, I'm gonna do it before I get off. What time do you want me to wake you up? One time, maybe I have to leave. Eight, yeah, seven and thirty, seven and thirty yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Okay, sounds good. I love you. Love you too. Ah, all right, guys. Well, on that note, I'm gonna sign off and when you're listening to this, I will be in the midst of my vacation and I'm gonna read a lot, and all this air B&B that we have is a theater room, so I'm so excited to watch like movies in there. Oh, it's gonna be lovely, lovely. All right, we will talk to you when we get back and we'll have so many stories for you. I'm even excited to hear what they're gonna be, because I have no idea what the future holds for me, but only great things. Everybody, take care of yourself.