Beautiful Life…

What’s been preventing me from counting sheep? A puppy! To be more specific, a  six month old, Bernadoodle. Puppies are like having a newborn, without the contained poop. But I wouldn’t have it any other way! I am dog sitting for a customer and loving every moment! 

I discuss puppies and living life. Hugging your family and friends. 

I also talk about trying new things. Saying things like, “I would NEVER try….” Is no fun. Getting out of your comfort zone can be good for your physical and mental health. 

I love being wrong about my negative expectations. I talk about reaction videos  and the fact I feel we all have a little redneck in us. 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Ramblings of an Insomniac. I am Courtney. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everybody out there. How is everybody doing? Isn't a nice day where you are? Because it is um it's supposed to be up to I hear anywhere from 81 to 83 today. In May. In the beginning of May, the very beginning of May. And it's potentially going to be um 81 to 83. Um, yesterday, the day before, it was like 70, 71, something like that. Crazy, crazy. My only concern is we need some rain. We do need the rain. Um, I don't want there to be a lot of dry, you know, everything to be so dry that wildfires are going to become a huge concern. I mean, wildfires are always a concern, always in the summer, but even more so when things are extra, extra dry, because we, oh yeah. Henry agrees, he's like a huge fan of the environment, big advocate for uh for the environment. Um, so I am a little concerned. Also, people with like wells and just in general. We need we need that's what makes Oregon green and lush and beautiful because we've got the rain and the sun. Get a little bit of this, a little bit of that. We have a little desert, we have a little ocean, we have mountains, we have valleys, we have forests. It is pretty spectacular, I have to say. Not a fan of the politics, not a huge fan of that. Um, I do like some of the politics here. I like that we are such huge advocates for animals. I love that we are a very, very animal-friendly state. We are we really stand up for animal rights, and I love that. I love that we stand up for prison reform. Um, we don't necessarily do it in the correct way, but at least we try. There are not a lot of states that are really into prison reform, and man, we could use that for sure. So, aside from, you know, some quirky, crazy things, but we're all quirky and crazy, right? We all deep inside have a quirky person, we have a goth person, we have a country side, we have a city side, even if it's like, you know, 0.03%. I feel like we have a little smidge of this, a little smidge of that. And maybe you don't know that maybe you're a city person, you're like a very city business person in New York and you love that hustle and buzzle and the noise of the cars and the sirens and just that hustle and bustle and wanting to be social and going out and going, going, going in that fast pace. And that is amazing. Totally, of course, nothing wrong with that. But maybe you don't realize you're a redneck, a redneck, until you go out and you go mudding on an ATV, until you're doing cookies and you know, um, getting yourself all muddy in an ATV and you're tailgating and you're eating barbecue and you're shooting guns. Because I have to tell you, I watched some videos the other day. I've been, like I said, I've been talking about this a lot. I've been watching reaction videos and videos of people that are from different countries. Lately, I've been watching people from the UK that have visited America multiple times or here for the first time or whatever. And they three different ones were talking about how they never thought in a million years that they would want to shoot guns or like it, you know, that they would enjoy it. Same with like going mudding, you know, and getting all dirty and and being on an ATV or in a jacked-up truck, you know, and going mudding. And one of the couples um ended up, they are obsessed, obsessed with um really jacked up trucks from America. They were like, in the UK, we just do not really have trucks. We hardly ever have trucks. And if you do see a truck, it's a very small truck. It's a very, very small truck. They don't, she's like, we just don't have trucks in the UK. And so not only do we have trucks here in America, of course, but a lot of people really love to like jack them up, you know what I mean? And you know, lift them to lift them. And um, and so they were obsessed. They're like, and then they got back to the UK and they're like, man, here's some things that we miss about America, and one of the things they miss um are the jacked-up trucks, and they really want them. But the other thing they liked um was hunting, they actually like shooting guns, and they thought it was kind of fun, and you know, you just never know. Like, I didn't think, you know, I grew up in a city, and granted, by city, I don't mean New York or Chicago standards, you know. By city I mean like, you know, maybe 300,000 people. That's a pretty large city, you know. Um, but I lived in a neighborhood that was fairly quiet. It wasn't super hustled and bussy. It was in the suburbs, you know, it was in the burbs. And so I wasn't like downtown with all the chaos. However, I was with the traffic. I experienced the traffic. I went to a large school. I went to a million different elementary schools and they were all large. And then the middle school that I started out in had 1,200 kids, and that was um the school that I went to had um seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, and there were um 1,200 kids, no, 2,000, excuse me. There were 2,000 kids, and so that's fairly decent size. It's not huge for having three different grades, but it's a decent size, you know. Um, and then I ended up going to a middle school. I ended up leaving that school and going to a middle school that the entire school had seventh and eighth grade. It didn't have seventh, eighth and ninth, it had seventh and eighth, and the entire school had 125 kids in it. So it was interesting. But um, point being, I have lived also downtown in an apartment. Again, it wasn't a huge city, but it was, you know, a little city and there's hustle and bustle, and you could walk to everything. And I kind of liked it. You know, part of me is like, hey, an apartment's not too shabby, especially a smaller one. You don't have a lot to clean, you don't have a lot to maintain. Other people have to fix things. If something breaks, you're not responsible. Um, I was in walking distance within anything. I could I liked kind of seeing everybody, you know, and and eavesdropping and seeing what everybody was up to and living where I could, you know, take all that in. And I thought, you know, I don't think I could live here full time, but it wasn't terrible. So, you know, I always say I think we all maybe have this side of even if it's just a very small percentage, maybe we all um that's why trying new foods. You don't know, you don't like I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure that some of those things on Bizarre Foods, um, not Anthony Bourdain, I know he's the one that passed away that um committed suicide, but uh Andrew Zucker Zuckerman, Andrew Zuckerman, um, I think I can't remember his name. Uh, but Bizarre Foods. I mean, some of the stuff on there, I'm like, I'm pretty sure I would not like a fermented rotten egg, you know, or fermented monkey brains. I feel like I'm I don't know that I would try that. I'm not sure. But I've eaten crickets, I've eaten ants, I would try a lot of things. There's a lot of things I would try. I don't know if I would try the whole monkey brain thing, but um anyway, I do this, I do it a lot. I'm like, oh, I could never live in New York City and Chicago, and I stand by that. I don't think that I could live in New York City or Chicago, but a city, um, I always say I'm never gonna go, I'm not a city girl, I'm not a city girl, but I lived in the city briefly with, like I said, an apartment and it was close to everything, and I didn't mind it. It wasn't terrible. Now it was a much, much, much, much smaller city. It was a town more than a city, probably. But there were a lot of hustle and bustle. There was a lot of stuff going on. For a smaller town, it was pretty, it's pretty busy, a lot going on, and I could walk to everything, and like I said, that was kind of nice. And um, there were a lot of like little pathways and stuff to walk on. So, you know, I was like, okay, never say never. I could maybe do it if I had to, it wouldn't kill me. Um, but I consider myself a country girl for sure. I always say a bohemian, I'm like a bohemian gypsy. Um, I always call myself a bohemian conservative, a conservative hippie. Although I don't like saying hippie because I'm I'm not really a hippie, I'm more of like a bohemian. By that I mean people are like, well, what's the difference? I think of hippies being this total um protesting all the time, constantly rioting, well not rioting, but protesting, constantly, you know, wanting to seek drugs and not do a whole lot and just listen to music all the time and you know, be part of the peace corps, and you know, just be like, all right, man, and wear tie-dye and all that, you know, and let your hair grow out on your legs. Now I'm probably being really stereotypical, but what's your definition of a hippie? If I am be if you feel I'm being stereotypical, what would you say a hippie was? You know, I know they're all about peace, love, make love, not war. You know, make love, not war, all of that. Um, and that's great. I'd I'd rather people make love. Well, I don't even know if I want people to make love unless they're wearing a condom because pro-creating right now, I wish people would stop unless they're gonna make better humans. If you're making good, decent humans, and you know, they're gonna pull their own weight. Hey. But if you're popping out shitty children, God, please. Please stop. Have sex all you want, but there are a million different forms of protection. You know what I'm saying? He could wear protection, you could wear protection, you could both, you could pass out protection like Oprah. Be like Oprah with protection. You get protection, you get protection. But stop making crappy kids. You know what I'm saying? I mean, again, can't tell you what to do, but I'm getting tired of having to take care of crappy kids because then it's like I'm having kids and um I didn't want any more than two kids. So I have my two children and I don't want more. I have grandkids, I love them. I don't need to take care of other people's children, and that is exactly what's happening when tax dollars go toward quote unquote free health care and free food and all of that. It isn't free, it's free to you, but other people are paying it. So if you can't afford it, please stop having kids. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, I'm not gonna get on that. Today is a beautiful day, it's a gorgeous day. I don't want to get into politics today. There's like I said, I went on a really a long stretch without paying attention to it, and I'm I kind of briefly popped back on, and now I'm like, ugh, I'm out. I'm out again. Everybody's still up to their up to no good. Been watching West Wing and it's been cracking me up because I'm like, this is funny. It's the same, same thing, different day. And West Wing, I never looked it up, you guys. I'm sorry if you listen to my mop my podcast. I said I would look it up and I didn't, but you know, West Wing came out what late 90s, early 2000s, something like that. And um, same thing, different day, you know. Democrats are still Democrats then, up to the same shenanigans as they are now. Hasn't changed, you know. And Republicans are we're all, you know, I just wish sometimes it's good to change. There are times when I feel like we need to go with the flow and evolve. You know, evolution is okay, you know. Um, you have to adapt, I guess, you know, adapting is always good. And then there's times when you, I guess I shouldn't say adapting is always good because I guess not always. There are times when you should be like, plant your feet firmly and say, no, I'm not budging. I believe in this. I think this should be this way. It's an incredibly important subject, important thing, and I'm not gonna move. I'm planting my feet firmly to the ground, I'm not going anywhere. So I feel like there's times where it's good to be strong like bull and stubborn and plant your feet and strap yourself to things and chain yourself to things, but then there's times that it's like, you know, bend like a tree. You know, sway like a tree. Go. If you are too rigid, you're going to snap. If you're incapable of bending, you're going to break. You're gonna break mentally, you're gonna hurt your body physically, you know. You've got if I myself, I say this, I don't mean you, I mean myself included, trust me, I'm not riding that high horse in the wind, you know. I am I'm right there. I say this to myself as a reminder. What I can say is it's a gorgeous day right now, and I love I love and am so grateful that um now I am dog sitting a burnadoodle. By burnadoodle, that means part Bernie's mountain dog and part poodle. Um, but she is mixed with a miniature poodle, so she is um a medium-sized dog, and she's like almost six. I don't know if you heard those horses just now, but they have a lot to say to each other. Um, but she's almost six months old, and I get to be her dog nanny for a couple of days. I've been watching her for two days so far, and I get her for another day, and I'm bringing her back home tomorrow. So I love that I get to sit out, soak up the sun, play with my dogs, which is what I'm doing now, and then babysit puppies. I mean, in the sun in the sunshine. I get to dog sit, run around and frolic, frolic in the daisies with my dogs and other people's dogs while getting paid for it. How amazing is that? I gotta tell you, it's the life. I think I'm gonna roll around in the grass like my dogs to celebrate. Everybody should roll around like a dog. I roll down hills with my grandkids all the time. There's a park that has pretty steep grassy hills, and I showed them how to roll down it. They thought it was the coolest thing in the world, and then I got down with them. And I'm like, heck yeah, I'm gonna get down. We were playing at the park the other day, and I was pretending to um I had Nerf guns and I was shooting them with the Nerf gun, and we were like playing dragon, and um they were climbing on top of stuff, and I was trying to, you know, they were on top of a tower. Oh my god, that horse is having a cow. Um they were climbing on top of a tower and I was running around with them, and you know, I'm gonna run around with my kids, I'm gonna run around with my grandkids. I'm not gonna sit and talk on my phone and talk to other parents. If I bring my kids to a park, I mean, don't get me wrong, if they're perfectly content playing with other kids, then I won't bug them. But if they're kind of just chilling out on their own or there's not a lot of kids there, the kids aren't their age or whatever, I get down and play with my kids and I get down and play with my grandkids because same with that a dog park. I hate dog parks, I won't take my dogs to a dog park. But if I did, it drives me crazy when people don't pay attention to their dogs. Dog parks are a very bad place, by the way, for anybody listening. You do not take your dog to socialize to get socialized at a dog park. Worst place ever. Most of the time, you are um having your dog um learn very bad, bad habits. Because most of the dogs that go to dog parks don't listen and have poor habits that you don't want your dog to pick up on. Also, parents aren't watching their dogs. So dogs could be posturing, dogs could be doing a lot of stuff that say they're gonna attack each other or say they're gonna fight, and humans miss it because they're not watching it, and humans could prevent that fight if they were paying attention to their dog's body language. But putting a whole boatload of dogs together with a bunch of different personalities is so overstimulating for even the best dog in the world. Even the most well-trained dog on earth, it is so sorry, my dog's panting in the background if you hear that. Even the best trained dog on earth, it's so overstimulating to have 20 dogs with 20 different personalities running around like chickens with their heads cut off, no direction, no no discipline, nothing. And then you're just letting them, and then your people aren't paying attention to see if dogs are getting along or not, and then there's dog fights. And so it's not a good place to take your dog to socialize. Um, even if you're watching your dog, more often than not, people aren't watching your dog, and you can't always get to a dog in time or prevent a dog fight if you can't see it ahead of time, if you're not paying attention, you know. So, anyway, point is I love this. I am sitting here, I hate shorts, I don't like showing off my legs, never have. Even when I had decent legs because I was a runner and I was very in shape, even when I had no cellulite and no jiggle, I didn't like showing off my legs. It's no, but today I'm like, fuck it, who's looking? Who am I trying to, you know, who cares? What is God gonna be like? Dang, dang girl. Look at those legs. Wouldn't that be hilarious if God talked that way? He was like, girl, you need to do something about those legs. Wow. I'll keep it sunny for you for a while and uh we'll get those legs tanned up. I don't get tan, I get pink, different shades of pink. I'm mainly Swedish. Um, I'm anywhere from 53, I mean, excuse me, 58 to 63% Swede. I always forget because um it started out as one thing, and more and more people are getting on to my um family tree thing and uh my ancestry.com, and um, so there more and more people are chiming in that know me apparently that are related. So point being, I always get my pink on first and then I tan, but it takes me a long time to get tan, and it lasts about four seconds, and then I'm pasty again. My tans don't last long, um, and usually I burn first. So tanning beds are kind of nice because if I know I want to be tan, I'll go to a tanning bed first so I can ease into it, and that way I don't burn so much out in the real sun. Remember when tanning beds first came out? Oh god, I had a friend, oh god bless her. I had a friend, we had like three tanning beds in the area that I lived, and that is a horse. That does not sound like a horse. Oh, it's a donkey, it's a mule. That's why. I'm like, what kind of fucked up sound? What is wrong with that horse? But it's a mule. Anyway, um, there were like three tanning beds, and it and it was when tanning beds had been out for like a year. So they were super popular, and you know, you're only allowed to go one time a day, and they make you sign in and they won't let you go if you try to go again. So she would go to three different tanning beds, and she would go tanning fucking three times a day, you guys. Three times a day. She ended up looking like the chick, the old lady on Something About Mary. Remember that movie? If you haven't seen Something About Mary, there's an old lady on there who's really nosy and she's obsessed with tanning, and she looks orange. She looks like a leather orange peel. Well, Tamara looked purple, it was weird. Uh-uh, Gwenny, Gwenny, come, come, come, come. Gwen, come. She looked so creepy. The color of her skin, and she was so her skin was so dry. It looked like a purse and leather, and it was purple. It was so bad. And finally, people were like, Oh my god. And tanning places wouldn't let her in anymore. They were like, No, you're like gonna get cancer for sure. But tanning beds aren't bad if you don't abuse them, if you're not going to, you know, three times a day, and you're not going 365 times a year, if you're just going occasionally, it's like everything. Alcohol is not terrible for you unless your doctor has told you otherwise and you've got medication problems or you're pregnant or whatever. But if you're, you know, in moderations, if you want to have a glass of beer or a glass of wine every now and then, I don't think a doctor is gonna be like, no, that's horrible. Again, unless you have some kind of conditions or whatever. Um, same with, you know, having a slice of cake every now and then. Just don't have 20 slices of cake, you know. Just don't have cake and then do nothing, you know. Just make sure you're you're watching your balance. It's all balance. If you're gonna eat something, then make sure you're exercising. If you're gonna eat something, make sure you're not eating a ton of it. I feel like diets are silly because again, if you diet, I shouldn't say they're silly. I don't do diets, I just do where I'm like, I'm just so conscientious of being like, okay, I'm starting to gain weight. All right, so I'll dial back, you know. I won't have as many sweets. I need to be a little more active, need to drink a little more water, you know. I just bounce it out and I cut it off at the past. I cut it before it become-I like getting things before they become issued. That's a control freak in me. It's the again, it's coming from abusive backgrounds, it's coming from someone who's been physically and sexually abused and all of that. You always have to, you're always trying to make sure you're aware and that you're you're um prepared and that you're um that you have things under control. So I like to keep things under control. And if I notice that I'm starting to get overweight, I'm like, oh, that's getting out of control. I can't have that, you know. I gotta keep things, gotta keep it together here. Which is good and bad, you know. Sometimes that makes me uptight and neurotic and can't sleep, hence ramblings of an insomniac, you know. But other times it's good because at least I know I've got my shit together and I can handle things, you know. I'm responsible. I'm an upstanding member of society. Let's see, you want to hear some birds? Listen to that. Nature. Nature and my dog panting. Um, so what else is on my mind? Um, just being thankful. Being thankful for all the people that have been tuning into my podcast. Man, you guys are super stars. Superstar. Remember her? SNL? Shannon. Shannon, what's her name? She's on like Meet the Falkers. And Shannon, I forgot her name, but she's like Superstar. And she dressed up in like that nun outfit. And she like puts her hands under her armpits and then like smells them as she goes out and does like a lunge and goes superstar. Anyway, unless you're older like me, you probably have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about. Maybe you do. Who knows? Anyway, if you do get that reference, yeah. Um, but you guys are superstars. You guys are rock stars. You're all the stars. You're a star. Look at yourself in the mirror and be like, I fucking rock. Yeah, I do. You go, girl. You go, dude. Work it, own it. No, honestly, thank you, thank you, thank you, times a bajillion times infinity. I cannot express to you the amount of gratitude I have. I genuinely, genuinely do um appreciate everybody that takes the time out of their day to listen to my podcast. You have so many options, so many. God, there are a plethora. I love that word, so I had to use it. It's not on a word-a day calendar. I already know what it meant. Okay, I just like it. It's a fun word. A plethora of podcasts that you can listen to. But you know what you did? You were like, you know, even if I listen to other podcasts today, you know what podcast is gonna be on my in my queue, in my quay, the ramblings of an insomniac. So good for you. You make good choices. It shows that you are a logical, reasonable person who makes awesome choices. And I love that. I love those qualities in humans, you know? We should make more people like you. They should make clothes. Have you guys seen the movie Multiplicity with Michael Keaton? Oh my god. And Andy McDowell. If you guys have not seen Multiplicity, it's called Multiplicity. It's with Michael Keaton and Andy McDowell. Um, the gist is that they are both hardworking, busy people. And he is a busy dad that owns a contracting company, and he's so busy, and then his wife is always like, Hey, you're never home for us, and you never get to spend time with us. And he's like, Man, I have a lot going on. So he meets a scientist who basically knows how to clone people. But so they were like, long story short, they end up cloning him. It it it'll go into why and how and all of that, but irrelevant, and that's just they clone him. And it gets around to how she doesn't realize that there's two of them, but so that he can have more time, so that he could have more time to be with his wife, so he can have more time to be with his family and golf and all that. Well, then he realizes there's not more time because now he's still he has more time with his family, but he doesn't have time for himself, and he wants time for himself. So then he clones himself again. Well, the scientist is like, hey, listen, the more you clone something, the dumber it gets, the less accurate it is, the you know, the more flaws it's going to have. The more you keep multiplying it, the more you keep making a clone of a clone, it's not gonna be as good quality. And so it just shows all of his characters, and he ends up cloning himself to where he has four of them. And then, of course, his wife figures out, but it's really funny, it is hilarious, you gotta watch it. Um, but point being, we shouldn't get to the point where we have to clone ourselves. It's sad. We should all have time to be able to spend with our families, and it's very sad that nowadays, you know, there's a two-person household that has to work, and people aren't able to spend as much time with their family as, you know, as they should, and that is so sad. I hate that. So I am um I'm hoping that everybody out there gets to have a day to themselves or at least a half an hour, at least a half an hour to read a book, go on a walk, whatever it is you choose to do. Um, and I hope that you get some time with your family. Um, and the fact that you're taking that free time that hardly anybody has, again, people have less and less free time. So the fact that you're taking what little free time you have to listen to my podcast, man, honestly, that just that means everything. That means everything to me. And shout out to you guys. I hope you continue. Please let me know what you think of my podcast by emailing me at ramblingsofaninsomniac49 at gmail. Ramblings of an insomniac49 at gmail. You can catch me on YouTube, you can catch me on Instagram, you can catch me on TikTok, you can catch me on Facebook. Please like and subscribe. You guys are listening to my podcast. If you guys could also go over to my YouTube and just like and subscribe, you know, like a bunch of videos, man, also would mean the world to me. Thank you so much. Remember, control what you can, let go of all the rest. Remember to take a deep breath in through your nose slowly, let it out slowly through your mouth, let go of all the crap that you can't control, focus on what you can, hug your family, hang out with your family, appreciate your friends, and have a nice day. Until next time.