Birthday Celebration &The Wallflowers

Excitement overcame me first thing yesterday morning when I realized the domain MyCrazyLife2go was up for grabs. I snagged it and began to set up my website!

I need a better logo!

I relaxed the rest of the afternoon until Ralph got home at 3:30. Time to support my hubby in his new hobby.

It took me awhile to to get it up and running, but it’s up. I need to tweak it here and there, but I am happy with it.

I rested on my recliner until Ralph got home. Time to support the hubby’s new hobby, scuba! It was his first time with a tank.

Scuba practice session 1

He enjoyed it though had trouble remembering not to breathe through his nose. In the end he got it.

No… I am not going to attempt scuba. I wasn’t able to snuba in Grand Cayman last year. Not sure if it was the oxygen as the expert said, but I kept getting nauseous or a panic thing. Me and another girl had the same problem.

We headed to McMullens Irish Pub for a friend’s birthday and dinner.

Birthday Girl on the left!

Ralph and I ate dinner and enjoyed the live band. Why is it in the USA, we get Irish music, but in Ireland we heard mostly American music? I guess everyone wants something different.

The one thing I had on my calendar to do for months… The Wallflowers. The Fremont Street Experience has free concerts all summer long. Check it out if you can brave the high temperatures.

Thanks Tina for the pass!

Oh my goodness. They were so good. I stood for two hours. You can watch it on The Ralph and Rita Show.

There is always consequences to having fun. Fibromyalgia is paying me back this morning. I think almost every muscle in my body is sore.

Thankful that yesterday was a good day. No dizziness or migraine. I was preemptive to take a sumatriptan in the morning when I saw the floaters. I think so much of my daily dizziness is due to silent migraines. The pool water caused me mild issues, but I am trying to desensitize to that movement. The only other symptoms I had yesterday was balance. For the life of me, I couldn’t walk straight and kept tipping like a drunk person. But I managed to stand for two hours with incident.

Fremont Street 3rd Street Stage VIP passes.

I am blessed to have good days.

I hope you are spin free!

Love, Peace and Light! Rita

Sleepless Nights

Sleep… What I would give to have 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep. Between my nightly trips to the bathroom and my old man cat… He’s 20. I am awakened almost every hour from 1 am on. While I do sleep in between more sleep sounds like heaven.

Sleep disturbances cause chronic illnesses to flare. Not always, but enough to let you know they’re with you.

Last night was one of those sleepless nights, I have been awake since 3 am. Thinking of doing a sleep meditation this morning to try to go back to sleep.

I hope everyone is spin free.

Love, Peace and Light! Rita

Is Happiness an Illusion?

Depression is a mood disorder, we cannot control it and the severity is different for everyone. Read here about major depressive disorder.

I am lucky, because for the most part I am happy. It took work to get where I am. Much of it came from working on myself.

Steps I took toward happiness.

1. I learned to meditate. Meditation has been a life saver for me as it allows me to connect with myself on a deeper level.

2. I say the Serenity Prayer whenever I feel out of control.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

The Serenity Prayer reminds me that I can only change myself, not others and some circumstances are out of my control. I am still working on not reacting badly in certain situations. Depression makes it difficult.

3. Think positively about myself. This is perhaps one of the hardest things to do, because I am working on a lifetime of bad habits. Writing a list of all my positives and negatives helped. I could see on the negative side it was mostly about my perception about myself. The positive side was my accomplishments. In order to change my self image, I began simply by saying something nice about me in the morning upon waking and before I slept. Just two things helped me love myself more.

4. Loving myself. This is a really important thing in finding happiness. Until, I started to love myself, my happiness was dependent on others and situations. No amount of love from my husband (second husband) helped me to love myself. I had to do that all by myself. Changing my thoughts was and is the biggest hurdle in loving me.

As I said I am a work in progress. Depression causes setbacks and I have to begin again. Old habits creep back in. I have to be diligent in these steps, especially as I spend much of my time alone while Ralph is at work. Not being able to drive when I am dizzy curtailed my singular adventures. Being afraid to venture out for a walk, because of drop attacks is another problem if I want to be by myself.

For the most part I am happy within myself. I like and love me and that for me has been the biggest step toward true happiness.

I hope you are spin free!

Love, Peace and Light! Rita

Brain Fog

I was having a great morning. My dental appointment teeth cleaning went great. I thought I would take the opportunity to write a bit at Bad Owl, which is right next door to the office.

Can you believe the place was packed? I decided to sit outside. In Las Vegas it is 90ish at 9:30. I didn’t realize it was 9:30 until after I began eating my lunch. Brain fog at its finest. My stomach didn’t help, because it’s always hungry.

Gluten free & dairy free brisket and avocado.

I did remember to order food I can actually eat. I forget all the time to say no dairy or wheat on things like salads. It’s frustrating that I have these two allergies, but it could be worse.

I was planning to do a bit of writing, but I could even see my phone screen, so I doubt I would have seen my laptop screen. And I think it was too hot for it in the sun. I love heat, but my electronics do not.

I left earlier than I was planning, because the only people who left were people who opened the door to notice how packed the place was…

After a quick trip to the grocery store, I am home. I still don’t have dizziness, but my ears are loud and full. I am exhausted and I haven’t done much yet. I will hopefully write in a bit.

I hope you are spin free!

Love, Peace and Light! Rita

Waves

View the deck on Carnival Paradise.

Not that kind of waves. The ones I of which I am speaking are physical waves that move through my head. That is how I describe the sensation of dizziness that seems to move from my ears, across my face and in my head.

These sensations are usually brief lasting only seconds. They don’t hurt, but sort of tickle. Almost like an electrical current. It’s rather hard to explain. With a momentary dizziness. I think this is the Ménière’s as it’s on top of my daily dizziness.

They don’t affect me, except while they are happening, which is mere seconds. No extra balance issues or nausea following them. They have been happening for awhile now, but this is the first time to mention them.

I was curious to see if any of my readers experience this too.

I hope you are spin free.

Love, Peace and Light! Rita

It’s All About Fun

Meet Tippy. Tippy who is balance challenged is The Invisibles unofficial mascot. She came to visit me from Alabama after going on a camping trip to the New River in West Virginia.

She arrived in Las Vegas, but I was a bad hostess and didn’t take her anywhere she wanted to go. Finally, she got to do the strip.

Tippy at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.

Excitement filled the air of the car as Tippy looked at all the shiny, sparkly, colorful buildings. She wanted to meet the other Flamingos, but decided it was too hot.

She opted instead to go to a casino. She chose The Orleans. She managed to loose a bit of money. The slots were not in her favor.

Tippy is on her way to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee now and hoping the weather is much cooler there. She felt like she would start loosing her tail feather if she remained much longer in our heat.

I hope Tippy’s adventure made you smile.

I hope you are spin free.

Love, Peace and Light!

To Do List

1. Shower

2. Eat

3. Fix http://ritalsmith.com

4. Work on book

5. Laundry

6. Forget about clothes in the washer, because I am too engrossed in my story.

7. Read Vickie Peterson’s The Taken (I am already ahead of our discussion in the haberdashery.) or I can read something else (There is a chance I will confuse the books.).

8. Make dinner. (Maybe I’ll have Ralph pick up something on his way home.)

Oh, boy, what an exciting life I lead. I am not sure when our next adventure will be. Family gathering at Ralph’s folks on Sunday. As long as my volatile emotions don’t make an appearance, it should be fun.

Oh and the football game on Saturday. Hopefully, I can get som good photo shots.

At the end of September, we are going to Anaheim. No not to Disneyland, I think, but to the Astros vs Angels game. Maybe I’ll talk Ralph into a little exploration too.

And now time for the health portion of our program…

I have confirmed that wheat tears my stomach up more than dairy. It causes more pain, like it’s ripping the inside to shreds. Both still get me ill. Sometimes you just need to torture yourself.

Still daily migraines and dizziness. Though the Sumatriptan actually worked in alleviating mine yesterday, just not as quickly as the Frova.

I have tests coming up in the next few weeks for my neurologist. Maybe we can find a root cause for the migraines or what kind I have. I think it’s Vestibular Migraine.

I hope you are spin free!

Love, Peace and Light! Rita

My Crazy Life

My husband, Ralph, and I have an amazing life. We love sharing our adventures with you.

Since I have some health issues, travel is not always easy, but we make it work. I have Meniere’s Disease, an unpredictable debilitating chronic illness.

I carry a cane, earplugs and wear blue light filtering glasses. I make sure I carry enough medication to last the entire vacation plus a few extra days.

I want to let others know that their disabilities don’t have to limit the enjoyment they get out of life.

We recently went to see Gwen Stefani. Concerts can be challenging for vestibular issues with all the stimulus from sound and lights. I turn my head often to prevent the lights from causing dizziness and/or vertigo. The earplugs help in situations like this. I use Fusion earplugs, because they work great.

I hope you are spin free.

Love, Peace and Light! Rita