Category Archives: Weekend

Dentist experience update

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We survived this week and can now enjoy the weekend! How was your week? Mine was spent dealing with my least favorite kind of doctor, the dentist. I went to one earlier in the week because she was right around the corner, but she was anything but helpful. Not only was she not helpful, but she also lied. First, she told me that she was unable to pull my tooth and she needed to send me to an oral surgeon, and she also said the tooth was not infected. None of this made sense to me because my husband had a tooth pulled that was even worse than mine.

Considering I was desperate to get this tooth taken care of before we went on our vacation to celebrate my husband’s birthday, I called my original dentist. The only reason I did not go to her in the first place is that she is a little further away and I was trying to get things done during a long lunch break at work. I ended up calling my normal dentist and having the x-ray sent to her and she said she could pull the tooth for me.

I left work at lunch yesterday and went to the dentist to have her pull my tooth. I was a nervous wreck because I have never had a tooth pulled before and I am already terrified of all dentists. For someone who hates all dentists and fears them to an irrational level, I do like the dentist. It helped that she let me have her little dog on my lap while she pulled my tooth. The little dog was so sweet and just laid on my lap and offered a lot of comforts. The entire process was not too bad, but it was not fun either. Of course, when they did the shots to numb my mouth it hurt, but not for too long. The cracking sounds when she was pulling the tooth were a little uncomfortable.

Once the numbing medication wore off, I was in pain last night. I was only able to eat soft foods but could not eat much because I was very nauseous, which was probably because of the infection the first dentist said I did not have. Things were better today, but I was still not feeling 100%, but I did work today. Thankfully, work has been very slow, so I did not have to do too much. Overall, I highly recommend therapy dogs be at doctor’s and dentist’s offices because they make the experience much better.

Thank you for visiting my site today. The reason I have been absent from blogging is because of the tooth pain, but now that is all taken care of, and I am thankful the weekend is here because I need to rest. After the traumatic experience of having my tooth pulled and fearing the dentist, I think I could sleep for an entire day! I hope you have had a good week and you are able to enjoy your weekend. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

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It is finally Friday!

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Happy Friday y’all! How was your week? I am not sure why, but this week felt incredibly LONG and I am so glad the weekend is almost here! It seems like the closer we get to the holidays, the crazier people become and it does not make sense to me. The insanity is exhausting and I think everyone needs to calm down and relax. The things some people think are so important and urgent are most of the time not that big of a deal. I find it a little disturbing that people think they need to spend LOADS of money on Christmas when there are still so many people starving and without a roof over their heads at night. I have already made several blankets that I am going to be donating to homeless shelters to try to help keep people warm when the temperatures are cold. I am also donating clothing to help people in need.

With today being the last day of the week before the weekend begins, I think it is the perfect day to let go of any negative feelings the week created. The weekends are so short and we should be able to enjoy them to the fullest without the weight of negative feelings from the week evading it. I hope you will find meaning in the quote that I am sharing with y’all today because I found this very powerful. I guess one of the reasons I found this quote so meaningful and encouraging is because life is not always easy or fun, and we all deal with issues in life that altered our perceptions, but most of the time the challenges we face made us a better version of who were used to be. Change is scary, but a necessity in life!

Do you have any plans for the weekend? I am happy to say that I do not have anything planned, except hopefully having a chance to finish a few posts that I have been working on. One of the reasons I love the weekends as much as I do is that I do not have to do anything that I do not want to do and I do not have to wake up early. Although I am sure I will wake up earlier than I would like, I can rest with the cats on the couch and watch the shows that I enjoy! I am not sure if it is the weather or what the reason is, but I just feel exhausted and do not have the energy needed to deal with any frustrations or unnecessary BS.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I do apologize in advance for the negative tone I might have had, I am just trying to deal with some irritating issues. There was one good thing that happened last week, which was that lying twit Herschel Walker losing😊. It is the simple things in life that bring SO much joy! I am looking forward to reading your comments and I will respond as quickly as I can. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and you can do anything that brings YOU joy! Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Let It Go Friday

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Finally, happy Friday y’all! I hope you have had a good week, but are looking forward to the weekend! I am definitely looking forward to a weekend I do not have any plans or anything I must do besides laundry! This might sound insane, but I enjoy doing laundry, but absolutely despise cleaning a bathroom or to be more specific despise cleaning a tub! I think the worst part of cleaning a tub is the fact there is too much space to cover and the smells from the cleaners make me nauseous and slightly dizzy! I know it seems like it would make sense to leave the bathroom door open while cleaning the tub, but I am unable to do this because of our cats and one of them has asthma.

As today is the last day of the week and the weekend will begin soon, so now is the day to let go of anything that caused frustration or stress during the week, so we can enjoy the weekend! I think it is important to learn to walk away from negative things in our lives, which might be people, jobs, and anything else that causes negative emotions because life is far too short to deal with anything that brings us down. It is crucial for everyone to know what they are worth and to never allow anyone or anything to diminish our self-worth!

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you have had a good week and you have a wonderful, and safe weekend! Whatever you do this weekend, I hope it brings you a lot of joy. I am hoping after resting this weekend that the pain I have been struggling with for a while now will get better, but I am logical and know it has been part of my life for years and does not seem to be letting up. I am looking forward to reading your comments and I will respond as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

The adjustments

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Over the past couple of weeks, there have been numerous changes to the weather. While I am thrilled the temperatures have cooled, the changes have caused havoc on my body. The hot weather I had to deal with all summer long was miserable and I could not wait for fall to arrive😊! Now that the fall weather is here, it is taking me a longer time than I would have anticipated adjusting. I know I can adjust to cooler temperatures because I love hoodies and snuggling up in a warm blanket😊! The issue is the constant fluctuation. If only it could just remain constant, I would be able to adjust and not be in unbearable pain!

Last week felt like an incredibly long week that I did not believe was ever going to end. Monday always seems like the busiest and most aggravating day of the entire week, but they all ran together and were just as frustrating. Working from home has many amazing attributes, but it also makes me feel like I am always at work because my work laptop seems to sit there and mock me. Yes, I do understand a laptop cannot really mock someone, but it does constantly remind me about work and what has gone all during the week.

The good thing about my job is, I truly do appreciate my team and my supervisor. One of my teammates always knows how to make me laugh and my supervisor appears to think highly of me, and I trust that she will have my back if I ever need support. I do believe this is uncommon in the United States because it has been a LONG time since I had a supervisor that is supportive and caring. Living with Multiple Sclerosis and dealing with the challenges is not easy, so having a supportive team at work is helpful and makes the week not as bad as it could be.

I am thankful the weekend has finally arrived, and I do not have anything that is a must do. I was even able to sleep in this morning, which is VERY uncommon. Two of my cats did start trying to wake me up earlier, but I was able to ward them off because I was not ready to move yet and was WAY too cold! This morning the issues I have been having with my feet and ankles were much worse, which I assume was due to be EXTREMELY cold. It is amazing what a heating pad can do to help with my issues with MS.

After a long week, what do you feel is the best way to recuperate? Are you doing anything fun this weekend or are you planning to just rest up in preparation for next week? I have a book that I need to read because I feel like it is going to help me with a challenging issue I will be dealing with soon. I think it is best to over-prepare when you know something seems like it is going to be impossible to handle. Even in the most challenging situations in life, there should always be hope, right? Right now, I need all the hope and preparation I can have because things are going to be hard in the coming weeks.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed and found meaning in what I have shared today. If anyone has any advice for ways to deal with an impossible situation, I would love to know! I hope you have a great and safe weekend doing what YOU want and not what others think you should do. I am really looking forward to reading your comments and will respond as quickly as possible. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes! 

Always, Alyssa

Personality Traits

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Happy Friday! I hope you had a good week and you are prepared for the weekend! It has been a crazy long week and I am thankful the week is finally over. How was your week? Today, I am not doing my normal Friday post because I wanted to write about something that I found interesting and hope you do as well. Sometimes I just enjoying writing about things I think are fascinating and different than the normal.

We are living in a world that has eight billion people, all of which have different and unique personality traits. I find most of these personality traits intriguing and want to learn and understand them better. With the various types of traits, there are, I find it challenging to comprehend several of these traits because they are the exact opposite of who I am. Before I explain the personality traits I cannot understand, I want to discuss how we develop our personalities. Are they something that is ingrained in us since we were young or do are personalities continue to develop throughout our lives? Do our personalities have anything to do with how we were raised? Do past experiences alter who we are in life and therefore affect our personality?

Before I continue to write and you take the time to read, there is something important I need you to understand. Please be advised that I am not a medical professional or psychologist, so all the information I am providing is from research I have done to further my understanding. The information in the rest of this post is not meant to be professional or expert advice, but just some amateur knowledge I have obtained. I have always found psychology interesting and exciting to learn. Personalities can be fascinating and the development of them is beneficial to understand why people behave the way they do.

According to social cognitive theory, our personality development occurs by observing the behaviors of others. Psychologists believe our personalities get better over time and refer to this as “the maturity principle”. As time passes, we become more extroverted, emotionally stable, agreeable, and conscientious as we age. We are not born with a personality, but our experiences in life, education, and environment help to mold aspects of our personality. Our genes and parents do play a role in our personality as well, but not entirely.

Psychologists have determined that those that display positive personality traits, such as kindness, honesty, caring, reliability, responsible, loyal, strong, and resilience have developed habitual responses that have remained permanent. The good news is, habits can be learned, so simply altering your habitual responses over time is an amazing way to create a change in your personality.

The personality traits that I will never understand are those that are considered negative. People can be pessimistic at times because of bad events that occurred in their life, but most can snap out of this when life gets better for them. I think it is exhausting to be around someone who is constantly pessimistic throughout their entire life and always sees the glass as half empty. Unfortunately, you can try helping these individuals view things differently, but many times you cannot fix their perception of issues in life. Personally, I do not judge anyone based on anything besides how they treat others. I would like to think we are all just human beings trying our best to survive in this crazy world and should be thought of as equals.

I try to avoid dishonest people, which seems to be a trait of all politicians possess. I would guess this is the main reason I do not like politics. You never can be sure when politicians are being truthful. Once someone lies and loses our trust, it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to regain. Another trait many people seem to have nowadays is manipulative qualities. I would almost put these traits in a similar category. Manipulative people are being dishonest. Manipulative people try to play on another person’s emotions, get frustrated and impatient easily, tend to be the ones that will make plans, and they do not listen without interrupting.

Lastly, one of the main personality traits I do not understand is narcissism. Narcissistic people tend to have an inflated sense of self-importance, have a sense of entitlement, require constant and excessive admiration, expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that would warrant it, and exaggerate their achievements and or talents. This type of person lacks empathy for others when they are struggling.

After reading this, are there any personality traits you find difficult to understand and may try avoiding those with the traits? Do you have ways to tolerate people with personality traits you do not understand or care for? Do you know what type of personality traits you have and are proud of?

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed what I shared, and it helped you understand the development of personality traits. I hope you have had a good week and you are looking forward to the weekend. This week has been much cooler, so my body is learning to adjust. The cooler weather has definitely created a lot more pain. Thankfully, the space heater I have under my desk and the heating pad helps a lot! I am looking forward to reading your comments and promise to respond as quickly as possible. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Irritating Sounds!

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Each person has unique qualities that set them apart from everyone else. These qualities are not something negative or to be ashamed of, but they can create challenges for the person to handle. Since I was a young child there have been certain sounds that I found extremely irritating, which I thought made me strange. It is not loud noises, but small noises such as people chewing gum, chips, popcorn, ice, or anything else that crunches. I remember a time being in the car with my mother or anywhere else when people were chewing gum and it caused an intense feeling of pure and utter irritation. Are there any sounds that you find irritating?

There is a rare disorder known as misophonia that affects about 20% of the population. Scientists suggest that one in five people suffer from this disorder to some degree and less than 1% experience extreme symptoms. This disorder can trigger emotional or physiological reactions to sounds. Of course, those that do not suffer from this view the reactions as an unreasonable and illogical response to sounds that can range from anger and annoyance to panic with a need to flee.

Those that live with misophonia have explained they are triggered by oral sounds, such as the noise a person makes when they eat, breathe, or chew anything. Other sounds people have found to be irritating can include the tapping on a keyboard, table, or steering wheel, or the sound of windshield wipers or blinkers. Some have said small repetitive motions are the cause, such as someone fidgeting or wiggling their foot.

Those with misophonia have said they respond to visual stimuli accompanied by sounds and have an intense reaction to repetitive motions. It has been suggested by researchers that those with this disorder have issues with the way their brains filter sounds and one feature of “misophonia sounds” would be their repetitive noises, which exacerbates other auditory processing issues.

Misophonia appears to range from mild to severe. Many have reported various physiologic and emotional responses. Mild responses can cause people to feel anxious, uncomfortable, disgusted, or have the desire to flee the situation. The more severe response may include rage, anger, hatred, panic, fear, and or emotional distress. 

Doctors are unsure what causes this condition but have stated it is not an issue with the person’s ears. They do believe it may be related to the way sounds affect the brain and trigger an automatic response in the body. The onset is not known, but symptoms have been reported to begin between the age of 9 and 13 and last a lifetime. This is more common in girls and comes on quickly and does not appear to be related to any specific event.

A recent breakthrough study discovered that misophonia is a brain-based disorder. Researchers have referred to a disruption in the connectivity in parts of the brain that processes both sound stimulation and the fight/flight response. This is said to involve parts of the brain that code the importance of sound. 

If this is something any of you deal with, I am sorry because I know how incredibly frustrating it can be. There have been times I had to cover my ears to avoid the annoying sounds because it causes me massive amounts of frustration and anger. It was so hard to deal with when I worked in an office setting because many people loved chewing gum and that is one of the most annoying sounds in the world. Thankfully, I am not working in an office setting, so I do not deal with this anymore, but my husband does love chewing ice and tries to say it is soft ice. It is NOT soft ice! If this is something you must live with, how do you handle it without losing your mind?

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope what I have shared is something you do not live with, but if you do, please know you are not alone. I am looking forward to reading your comments and I will respond as quickly as I can. I hope your weekend has started pleasantly and you enjoy these two days! Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Finally Friday

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Happy Friday y’all! I hope you had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. Even though it is only two days, I am thrilled the weekend will be here in a few hours. It felt like an extremely long week and I feel like I could use more than just two days, but I will not complain and accept it. The good news is there is a long week coming soon. Do you have anything planned for your weekend? Even though I am sure I will not sleep in much, at least I will not be working and can sleep in if can without the adorable fur children waking me😊.

As our week comes to an end, I am sure there is a lot we can look back on, but that is not necessary because it is the weekend. With each week we learn many lessons and endured many different challenges. Honestly, we should not view challenges as negative because they all provide us with additional strength we did not have before. We should always be proud of ourselves for never surrendering to hardships and painful struggles because we came out of them with more courage. Think about it, would you be as strong as you are today if you did not go through difficult times? Maybe, but maybe not.

Thank you for visiting my site today. Remember to enjoy your weekend doing exactly what makes you happy. You do not have to have your weekend all planned out, that is what the weekdays are for and weekends should be spent relaxing. I hope you enjoyed the quote I shared with you today and I look forward to reading your comments. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Let It Go Friday

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We have finally made it through this insanely LONG week and the weekend is to arrive soon. I know it was the same amount of time as every other week, but the past five days have been brutal. Actually, who am I kidding, the past several weeks have been ruthless! The only good thing that came out of this past week was the temperatures have been a little milder. Instead of it being in the high 90’s or low 100’s during the day, it has only been in the high 80’s, which I will take instead of any higher. I do not do well with high temperatures, it makes me completely miserable.

The week is finally over and we will be able to enjoy the weekend. We should be able to do whatever brings us the most joy during the extremely short weekend. I am just delighted that I do not have to sit and stare at a computer screen and get up early the next two days. We can all probably agree that weekdays can create a lot of negative emotions, whether it be work-related or other, we need to be able to let those feelings go. The only thing negative emotions do is cause stress and frustrations, so why bring that into the short weekend? No matter what anyone says, nobody is perfect and they do not have a perfect life. The only thing we can do is try our best and avoid stressing over an outcome we have no control over!

Now that the weekend will be here in a few hours, do you have anything planned? I mentioned the other day that I want to get the daith piercing, but I might wait until my birthday to do it, but who knows? If this is something that truly helps headaches, I cannot see a reason to wait another month. Does anyone have any advice on this? Other than possibly doing that, I have nothing else planned besides recuperating from the week and getting some much needed rest.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed what I have shared and found the quote helpful. I am looking forward to reading your comments and I promise to respond as quickly as I can. Hopefully, whatever you have planned for the weekend, you will remain safe and do what brings you the most joy. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Headache Day # 6

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We are finally able to enjoy the weekend😊! My goodness was it a long week for me! Unfortunately, today is day # 6 of a headache that I do not think is ever going to go away. I am not sure why this headache has been here so long, but I do know I am ready for a break from it. Honestly, headaches are very common for me but, they do not normally stay around for this long. The issue making it slightly abnormal is, that it is creepy down into my neck and shoulder. I have no intentions of letting my MS specialist know about this because I feel she is on a need-to-know basis, and she does not need to know this!

Another issue that started yesterday is my big toe on both feet is completely numb. The numbness is trying to move up into the rest of my foot. I am sure it will stop and not get any worse. Of course, I am not a medical professional, but I do have a few years of knowledge of living with Multiple Sclerosis and I am assuming the issues I am dealing with have a lot to do with heat and stress. At least I have the weekend to rest and recuperate before another week begins😊!

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you have a great, relaxing, and safe weekend. We all know how short the weekends are, so I hope you make the most of it. This is going to be a short post because of my non-stop headache, but hopefully, it will improve soon, and I can do another tomorrow. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

How to deal with high gas prices

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In recent times we have all seen massive spikes in gas prices. While gas prices have created stress and frustrations when at the pump, it has left everyone wondering why, which is a reasonable question to ask. The situation with high gas prices did not happen overnight but has been building for decades. The United States depends heavily on other countries, such as Russia, Canada, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia for gas, but sources are becoming scarce due to increased demands in other countries.

During the summer months, the increased demand has always caused higher gas prices. The only thing that is different this year is gas prices were already too high and we may feel we need to adjust summer vacations slightly. Of course, I understand the desperate need for a vacation, especially for those who have children because the kids are on summer break from school. 

To help everyone beat the higher than we are used to gas prices, I am going to share a few tips that may help. I am sure there are many other ways, but these are tips I found through a little research. If you have any other suggestions, I would love to hear about them. 

1. Slow Down:

This is hard for me because I cannot help going a little faster than the speed limit. I always joke and say, the speed limit is just a suggestion or that I have a genetic disorder where my right foot is heavier than my left foot. Although I have never had a speeding ticket, I do not think the cops would find this funny or consider it to be a logical reason for going too fast.

Experts suggest that each 5mph you drive over 60mph is the same as paying an additional $0.15 per gallon for gas. Aggressive drivers who speed, have rapid acceleration and braking are wasting gas, which means they are also wasting money. 

2. Keep your vehicle’s maintenance updated:

This means we need to do regular tune-ups. It is also important to have a clean air filter, which is typically done when you get your oil changed. Randomly, check your tire pressure and be sure your tires are properly inflated. The proper tire pressure will be located on your tires. Also be sure you are using the proper grade of oil, which you should be able to locate in your vehicle driver’s manual.

3. Use your engine sensibly:

Avoid allowing your vehicle to idle excessively. This means you should not let your car’s engine run without moving for an extended period. When driving on the interstate, utilize your cruise control as much as possible. We normally maintain a constant speed on the interstate with limited stop-and-go traffic, so cruise control will not only help save on gas but can also help feet fatigue from constantly pressing down on the pedal. 

4. Drive Smarter:

Plan to do all errands at the same time, instead of making multiple trips out. This just requires a little better planning and time management. It might be more challenging because of COVID, but you can also try to carpool when possible. Anytime it is an option, try to telecommute. Zoom has been used much more frequently because of COVID. 

5. Lessen usage of the air conditioner:

According to GasBuddy, about 20% more fuel is used because of A/C usage. During the summer months, it is nearly impossible to not run the A/C, but we can try turning the A/C off when we are 5 minutes from our destination, parking in the shade or garage can be helpful. It is also important to keep the windows and moon, or sunroof closed when traveling at high speeds. 

Of course, I do not have to leave my house often because I work from home and get groceries delivered, but I do have to go to doctor’s appointments and pick up prescriptions for myself and my cat. Can you remember a time when gas prices were affordable? I can remember gas prices being under $1.00 a gallon when I first got my license. It has surely been crazy several decades, hasn’t it? Unfortunately, the chances of gas prices ever getting as low as they were when I first started driving are slim to none.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you found what I have shared useful and please if you have any other suggestions I would love to hear your thoughts. We are finally able to enjoy the much-deserved weekend and I hope you are enjoying yours. Of course, two of my cats thought it was a brilliant idea to wake me up at 06:30 AM, which I definitely did not appreciate. It is a good thing they are adorable, and I love them as much as I do or I might be ready to kick them out of the house. I look forward to reading your comments and I will respond as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa