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Weird kind of luck

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I’m that person that gets chosen to participate in a local radio contest for a chance to win $10,000 cash and a brand new Honda Civic. But I’m also the kind of person that loses thanks to a game of rock paper scissors.

I’m that person who last minute decides to go to a sold-out concert, pays more than she should have for nose-bleed tickets and is then randomly upgraded to front row, front and center tickets.

And this week, I was the person who found a half carat diamond buried in a baseball field.

What luck, am I right?!

But I also don’t know if it’s part personality, part determination on my end. It can’t all be by chance, right?

I mean I had no stinkin’ clue where that diamond was buried but I did have a gut feeling and a pretty legit game plan before walking on that field.

Here’s the story:
I guess at the last home game of each season, the Tri-City Valley Cats bury a half carat diamond on their field for one lucky woman to find. Don’t get me started on the whole woman thing… but that’s another blog post. Well, we were a couple innings into the game and a co-worker of the beau asked me if I was signed up for the “Diamond Dig!” Nope, but I was intrigued. I did look at the beau at one point and told him that if I won, I’d sell it for money toward our debt. So, I marched downstairs and signed myself up.

And also asked the rep. a ton of questions!

Where is the diamond buried? Between third and first base in the warning track.
Is it a diamond? It’s a necklace pendant.
When did they bury it? Overnight.
How many people are participating? I thought she said 150, but the real answer was 115.
She told me they’d give me a wooden spoon to dig with once I gave them my ticket / entered the field.

For the entire rest of the game, that was all I could think about. I just sat there staring at the field, trying to visualize where that diamond was buried. When it was the bottom of the 9th inning, we all walked downstairs to line up… and this is where the first decision was made. You could enter the field on the left (third base) or right (first base). I immediately said right while the other women wanted to go left… they did follow me. We lined up and chatted with a woman in line who seemed like a pro. She had participated over the last couple of years but had never won – close but not enough. She did tell us that it would be in a box and that after some time, they’d give us clues. Okay I thought, I’ve got this.

Once on the field with a wooden spoon in hand, a few of us took a selfie together (not me, remember, no phone) and did a little team on three chant. I mean it was all fun and games but I wanted to be the winner. I proceeded to look around, trying to see any clue or difference in the soil – nothing. 3, 2, 1…

And we all started digging! Or I should say, scratching at the dirt. Hard as a rock! I felt like I was just scratching the surface, so I moved on to a different patch: same. We were digging for what felt like only a minute when the guy on the microphone stopped us all to give us a clue: everyone from the home plate to third base was on the wrong side of the field. I knew it! I knew I had chosen the correct side! In that moment I blocked out the rush of women coming toward us and got back down on the ground to try something new.

I’m not going to share my tactic in hopes of giving it a-go again at next year’s game, but within what felt like 10 seconds I knew I had found it. Dirt was flying and there it was, the plastic bag containing a box with the necklace inside. I shot my arm up in the air, bag in hand, and yelled “I FOUND IT!” From there, pure laughter. Mostly because I had found it so fast, partly because I couldn’t believe it. Had I just manifested this find?!

The rest was a blur: photographs, meeting the jeweler, showing other women what the diamond looked like. I was in shock – it was larger than I had expected AND I couldn’t wait to see the look on the beau’s face.

Classic.

He too was laughing! “Of course you found the diamond!” he said when I marched up the stairs to greet him with a kiss. I just couldn’t believe it! The fireworks started but I could barely concentrate, as my adrenaline was high.

Was it luck that I had chosen that spot to dig? I was within a five foot radius of the diamond the entire time. My tactic might have been spot on but if I had chosen the other side of the field, I would have been out of luck. Or would I have been out of time?

Either way, I’m still super happy and can’t wipe the smile off of my face.

I’m not a diamond kind of gal and am still up in the air with what I should do with the pendant. How does one even go about selling a diamond?! I’ve got another necklace and pair of earrings at home from a previous relationship… help a girl out.

Needless to say, I’m wearing the diamond today and loving it.

July in Review

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July was a pretty boring month for us. No big numbers, just stuck with the budget and trudged along.

And despite it being a blah month, we still hit a milestone… we’re officially under $25,000!

Looking over our budget, these areas came out different than planned:

  1. Gas: we’re usually pretty spot-on with our allotted $120 but this month we went over because I went hiking twice, both trips totaling an additional 10 hours in the car. Next month I anticipate hiking even more so we’re going to up that line most likely to $160.
  2. Cell phones: last month I received a random message from AT&T stating that my plan had been changed, unannounced. I called and they reassured me that nothing had changed. Well, when I received our invoice, it was higher, as they had changed our plan by upping the data. I immediately called them and gave them hell because A. we didn’t authorize that change B. they had told me nothing had changed just a few weeks prior and C. we don’t come close to using the 6GB of shared data as is, there’s no reason for us to pay for 12GB. The representative couldn’t understand why I was refused double the data for just $5 extra and tried to convince me to watch tv on my phone = I was officially pissed. When the rep. transferred me over to the customer retention department, I was on hold for over 45 minutes and gave them even more hell, as nicely as possible I may add. That honey paid off! Not only did the new rep. change our plan back to the original one, he took $20 off of our monthly invoice from here on out as an apology. AND he gave us an additional $25 credit that will be popping up in August. Long story short, our old monthly expense for cell phones was $104.95, it’ll now be $85.62. I’ll take it!
  3. Groceries: for the first half of the month, I planned our meals and everything went as scheduled… until the second half of the month came and I decided we could wing it. Well, we can’t. I’ve learned we overspend with this tactic so in August I’m going to have to try harder by keeping staples in our pantry. The thing is, our pantry is so low every month because we only buy the necessities. Mom, please don’t read this and think we need money or food. We don’t 🙂 We just can’t have the pantry packed like we could a year ago. In just a few short months however… golly, I CAN’T WAIT to stock up on 81 cent pasta and 69 cent beans, ha! Oh, the shit-eating grin on my face just thinking about all the canned and bulk items we’re going to have on hand. I’m picturing myself walking through the isles with, “they see me rollin’, they hatin'” blasting in the background. Back to reality: we went over by almost $50 this month, also partially because I needed to shop for backpacking food options.

Speaking of food, we did eat a lot of delicious meals! I checked out Chloe Coscarelli’s Flavor cookbook from the library and it’s so so good! It might be my favorite vegan cookbook! The flavors are spot on so far with every recipe we’ve tried. The beau said I’m like the woman cooking through Julia Child’s cookbook, except the vegan version. Made me laugh! (Photographs of the food on Instagram)

Items we didn’t have in the budget but paid cash for:

  • deodorant cream from Meow Meow Tweet (the beau now uses this too!)
  • I split a hotel in Philly for the Taylor Swift concert – see, you CAN budget fun!
  • 2 rides on the subway in Philly
  • running coach
  • AAA batteries for my headlamp
  • shampoo
  • a nozzle for our gifted hose (so we can water the garden more easily)
  • and a visit to my favorite spa friend

More fun this month: we continued the Nine Pin cider 26er challenge and I scored free tickets to the opening night of the NYC Ballet.

To the numbers because that’s my favorite part! As of July 31st:

We’ve paid off $66,060.21 in 11 months!

That’s 73.37%!

In July alone, we paid off $4,682.07 of debt, or 16.49%. This month we did receive our STAR rebate and a refund from Navient because we were eligible to have 6 months worth of payments (on one specific loan) refunded to us. Their story/reasoning isn’t straight but I’m not complaining – I’ll be fighting like hell to get a refund later this year on a second loan with this benefit.

When I recapped the numbers with the beau, I could see the excitement (FINALLY!) on his face. Every payment I make, I do a little happy dance. Literally. My excitement has been present since day one, but then again, I’m the nerd watching the spreadsheet change multiple times a month. He’s been happy and supportive of this process and gives me the high fives I need to celebrate, but this morning I could see that reality was finally hitting him: we have less than 6 months to go.

I remember when we paid off our last debt and realized we only had two more student loans / debts to go. They’re our two highest debts, $16k and $17k and I’m not going to lie, it felt daunting. I knew it would take months to pay off each debt and the satisfaction wouldn’t be instant like we’ve experienced in the past. But I no longer feel that burden – it’s actually been really exciting tracking the progress on these bigger balances. Less than $15k to go! Less than $10k to go! And now, we’re in the $5,000s! It’s happening, the process is working. We’re taking it one month at a time and we’re so close to being down to one student loan. Ahhhhh!

Fitness recap for the month: I only ran 61.6 miles in July due to the heat and my lack of motivation, but I did hike 39.6 miles! So that’s 101.2 miles total for the month. Included in those hiking miles, was my fire tower challenge finish on Cathedral Rock! I’ve officially climbed enough (23/23) to earn the patch but I’m going to keep climbing the remaining towers in NYS; there are 7 left that I have yet to summit.

My goal for August is to not skip a workout, as this is my last full month before my race, and to hike at least 8 times. I’ve got a couple other challenges planned for the month ahead – more on those in the next recap.

Finalizing the location for my next FPU class this week – I can’t wait to start back up and witness the a-ha moments! These are the women who took the class along side of me this past spring. In the 9 weeks, the group paid off over $25,000, saved over $3,000 and cut up 15 credit cards! Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!

Hiking Pillsbury Mountain Fire Tower

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I’m on a blogging roll! Can you believe it?!

Last Wednesday I took advantage of the cooler temperatures and lower humidity to hike another fire tower. And this time I brought a friend! He’s just getting started on his fire tower list so we plan to hike a lot together over the next month to get his numbers up and me in shape for this race.

Rocco and I were on the road at 6:30AM from Saratoga and headed west on Rt 29 and then north on Rt 30 until we reached the seasonal road leading us to the trailhead. I pulled over briefly at the lookout on Mason Lake to confirm on my map that we hadn’t passed the dirt road and saw three loons! They were at the edge of the lake closest to us, such a treat! Rocco had never heard of a loon, noting that they looked like ducks, so later that evening I sent him a YouTube video of loons at night. “Loud!” he said.

About the dirt road: it’s approximately six miles to the trailhead and at times, very bumpy. I had read warnings about low-riding vehicles and parking at the Sled Harbor “clearing” (didn’t look like much of a clearing to me) but I wanted to take it slow and give it a try… mostly because when we stopped the car at one point for an oncoming vehicle, the car was SWARMED with deer flies. Nope. I wasn’t about to tack on 3+ miles if the bugs were that bad. I took it slow, at some points needing to downshift into first gear, and got us there safe and sound and in one piece. It took us about 30 minutes to cover those 6 miles.

Before getting out of the car, we lathered on the Young Living Insect Repellent. I was admittedly a little nervous about it working because this was my first test hike but let me tell you, worked like a charm! Neither one of us came home with a bug bite, despite the deer flies attacking the car and the trail being wet due to rain the previous day. It says it’s not greasy, but it was. Never did I feel heavy or sticky however, I just noticed the sweat beaded up more so than usual. It didn’t stain my clothes and it’s vegan / plant based sooooo that’s all that matters in my book.

Reading reviews for this hike, it states that it’s strenuous and difficult over the 1.6 miles up to the summit. I tried to prepare Rocco as best as I could for this immediate climb and told him to lead the way; we’d take a break whenever he needed one. It wasn’t that bad! And the kid agreed! While there were sections of continuous climbing upward and a couple of water breaks, there were nice recovery sections throughout. I want to say the last half mile or so was pretty enjoyable. We chatted about vacations and other hikes we’d like to do eventually and before we knew it, the tower was in sight!

There was an old caretakers cabin and some lumber on the summit, I’m assuming for updates to the cabin of the tower. I had read that the tower cabin was closed but I wasn’t expecting there to be minimal wire on the stairs. As someone who’s afraid of heights and watching a kid not her own, we only climbed up three levels. There was still a wonderful view and a breeze to keep the bugs at bay. We each enjoyed a Pillsbury crescent roll – thanks mom! – and some Pirate’s Booty. We didn’t sit for too long because the breeze gave us a chill.

Note: we saw a lot of toads on this trail! One peed on me when I picked him up; him couldn’t help it.

I enjoyed this hike despite the drive being longer than the hike. I’m determined to get Rocco camping at least twice over the next month so that we can knock out 4 more long distance towers, even if that means having his younger brother tag along for company / moral support; these boys have never been camping! Challenge accepted! Rocco if you’re reading this, get ready!

Pillsbury Mountain brought my fire tower challenge total to 22/23 and 4/23 for Rocco.

Random question: anyone know what kind of animal poop this is?

 

Hiking Poke-O-Moonshine Fire Tower

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Last Friday I took the day off from work to take advantage of the beautiful day and hike another fire tower peak. And to start getting miles under my feet on trails. With my September race quickly approaching, I’m scrambling to hike as much as I can.

This trail head is almost 2.5 hours away from our doorstep, just a few miles off of Exit 33 on the Northway. I hit the road at 5:30AM and was geared up and walking into the woods at 8:03AM… without any bug spray! I couldn’t believe I drove that far and didn’t pack any bug spray. I almost panicked because last month when I had hiked the mosquitoes were UNBEARABLE, and I wasn’t about to turn around. More on this topic to come…

I decided to hike the Observer’s Trail because I wanted as many miles under me as I could, especially because it was such a long drive. Out and back, this trail only totals 5 miles. Almost immediately the trail starts to head up but gradually and nothing to make me stop and need to catch my breath. It was a gorgeous sunny morning and everything looked so green! And because I was hiking solo, my senses were heightened; every chipmunk seemed to make me jump! And there were a lot of them! But I think I scared them too, many of them peeling out making their little screeching noises.

Before I knew it I came to a clearing that’s flooded due to beaver activity. After reading reviews, I was curious how the crossing would be and it was just dried mud but I could see how it would be a problem in the spring or after some heavy rain. I snapped a couple photographs and continued up.

There was a short section just below another clearing where the trail was wet with a small stream running. Nothing sketchy but I made a mental note for the run down. Eventually you come upon a short landing with a privy and lean-to; if you were to continue straight at this junction, you’d start heading DOWN the mountain and down the trail that begins in the old campground two miles up from where I started out. You want to take a left toward the old caretaker’s cabin remains to reach the tower. It’s clearly marked, especially if you turn around and look back at the lean-to (sign is on the front of the lean-to). From there, it’s only .3 up, pretty easily, with a gorgeous view southwest toward the 4,000ers.

Walking past the tower, there’s a spectacular view! Not only can you see the tallest ADK peaks, but you can look across Lake Champlain and see the Green Mountains. And if you work up the courage to climb the tower (I only went up three sets of stairs), you can clearly see more of Vermont and the lake. I sat up there for about 20 minutes eating a snack and snapping photographs, soaking up the views all by myself.

I was back and forth about running down the mountain because A. it was such a long drive and I didn’t want to rush things and B. I didn’t want to fall and get hurt and be alone in the woods, hurt. But once I hit the trail down, I started moving and grooving, convinced someone had to pass me eventually on this gorgeous day. And they did, a summit steward, about a half mile from the trail head. But I hadn’t fallen and I wasn’t hurt, so I didn’t stop and just shouted hello as I zipped passed.

I was back in the car and on the road at 9:40AM.

And didn’t have a single bug bite. There was the occasional buzz from a black fly on the way up but nothing annoying, even on the summit with the occasional breeze. Golly did I get lucky!

I loved this hike and wish it was closer to home. I’ll have to hike it again with my friend that’s just starting his tower challenge. Oh! And you can see the tower as you’re driving up the Northway, which got me excited and pumped to hike, especially while blasting the Black Eyed Peas. There were a ton of cars parked in the old campground when I left, I’m assuming to rock climb; the rock face is impressive!

This tower brought my count to 21/23

Books I’ve Read: Q2 2018

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Quarter 2 was off to a slow start reading-wise, focusing on the garden, running and other life activities, but in June I picked up speed and read three books before month end.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown // This book should have been at least 100 pages shorter; much of what he shared was repeated a number of times throughout the book. There were a couple of ah-ha moments that I connected with, like not doing it all. “What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance?” Taking it all on doesn’t mean you’re successful by any means and I’ve learned this over the past year. I’ve worked on slowing my schedule down by choosing what is truly important to me and saying no when I don’t want to commit or spread myself too thin. It’s been easier being on a budget and practicing saying no because of financial constraints, but I must add, now that I know what it’s like to slow down, being busy really wears me down and I crave a low-key lifestyle. Efficiency is greater than quantity in my book.

Raised Bed Revolution: Build It, Fill It, Plant It… Garden Anywhere! by Tara Nolan // This book, while inspiring from the photographs, was too general. I read it front to cover one evening while babysitting (don’t fret, the kiddos were sleeping), which inspired me to do more specific Google searches the following week. The MIgardener.com is an excellent resource, we’re obsessed with watching his YouTube channel.

The Book of Polly by Kathy Hepinstall // My mom highly recommended this book so I pushed it to the top of my list. It was hilarious, I literally laughed out loud a couple of times. All of the characters are real – they draw you in fast whether you can relate to them or not. Super easy read – I was done within two days. Great beach read.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed // This book has been on my must-read list for a number of years because so many people ask me if I’ve read it when they find out I’m a hiker. I can finally say yes. And I can finally respond, eh, it was okay. It was a slow read, taking me almost two weeks to finish. I suggest taking a hike instead of reading this book. I’m hoping the film is better, ha!

Up: A mother and Daughter’s Peakbagging Adventure by Patricia Ellis Herr // I started and finished this book within 24 hours: super easy read, super pretentious writer. Don’t get me wrong, a 5 year old hiking all 48 peaks is impressive but man oh man, this mother spends half of the book trying to convince us how exceptional they are – she gave up her Harvard PhD to be a stay at home mom, slinging *organic* bars to her bright, home schooled child. The dialog is so phony between the two of them, ugh, she just rubbed me the wrong way… and I’m ALL FOR kids being outdoors, eating organic and heck, I’d love to home school any future kid. It was just written in the completely wrong way.

I started Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams but to be honest, as interesting as it is, it put me to sleep! Ha! I noted the page I left off on (40) and returned it to the library; I’ll try again in a couple of months.