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Oh no! I’ve got the holiday blues, again…

It doesn’t matter what holiday you celebrate. This time of year can be stressful and potentially cause the mental health struggles you deal with regularly – and likely have under control – to flare up. Increases of anxiety and depression around the holidays are so common that a term has been coined and Elvis even wrote a song about it (well and missing someone!). According to Psychology Today, 38 percent of people surveyed said their stress level went up during the holiday season and listed their top stressors as lack of time, lack of money, commercialism, the pressures of gift-giving and family gatherings. Some known causes of the holiday blues include overeating, excessive drinking, not getting enough sleep and having unrealistic expectations. I have an extra special reason to catch this bug each year. My dad passed away on Thanksgiving and his birthday is at the beginning of the month of November on Veteran’s Day. So, each year just as everyone else is started to get me
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Help! I’m Vegan, and it’s the holidays…

You and me both sister! Oh, and your family is probably not from the South. They already looked at me like I was from Mars when I didn’t eat red meat, as they dug into their prime rib on Christmas Eve. I have always been the subject of ridicule my whole life because of this (I haven’t eaten red meat in years.) This last year, I finally decided to stop pretending that I ate chicken and dairy, which always upset my stomach. Suddenly, I’m happier about what I was putting into my body and much healthier. But, now I have a bigger issue, people care even more about what I’m eating at “community meals.” “Community meals” are any gatherings that you share food with other people – dinner parties, birthday gatherings and holidays. Let me be frank – I never cared what anyone else ever ate, yet people have very strong opinions about what I eat. This upsets me! So, here I am, and it’s my first Thanksgiving as a Vegan (Technically, I’m a Seagan TM . A term I’ve coined, because I sti
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My struggle through anxiety and grief

Have you ever had a conversation not go as planned, so you run through it in your head a few times over. That’s my life all of the time, except I relive conversations from last year or five years ago on repeat. If you’ve talked to me once, I’ve talked to you 50 times! This is probably the strongest of my anxiety symptoms. It starts the spiraling that leads to the others, if I’m not taking care of myself, or my stress levels aren’t under control. Most people have a triggering moment or a traumatic event that they can point to where everything went awry, and I have one of those, but this conversation spinning has been going on since my earliest memories – maybe even the playground.   Mental health difficulties have troubled my family as long as I can remember. My grandmother used to joke each morning, “I can’t make Paw Paw’s eggs without my Xanax.” I think she was serious but scared to say so. My dad struggled with anxiety, depression and what presented as PTSD, but no one
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Why can’t we choose kindness?

Have you ever been the victim of bullying? I have and it’s awful. I’m not sure if I have the personality type that draws them in if that’s a thing. Or if I have it written in my eyes somehow saying be mean to me, but I have been bullied multiple times throughout my life.   I was bullied in the traditional sense in junior high for having a flat chest – jokes on them I still proudly have a flat chest. The kids used to chant at me, “Dogs bark. Ducks quack. Why is your chest as flat as your back?” I’m literally laughing as I type this because it is quite catchy. But, as a 12-year-old, who was super insecure about this issue already, I cried myself to sleep at night. As an almost 35-year-old, I still don’t need to wear a bra, so those kids can stick it. Lol. I’ve also been bullied in places that are supposed to be traditionally safe: I was a victim of child abuse both physically and emotionally by my stepmother; I was in an emotionally abusive and manipulative rela
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Hair, hair, everywhere

Since I’ve gotten back into pageants and become a local titleholder again, my life has moved into the express lane. Talk about zero to sixty in five seconds.  One thing that sets you apart in this world is the crown and sash. If I’m walking around as Mrs. Capitol Hill, I can’t have my hair in a greasy bun, because I worked out and didn’t have time to wash and fix my hair before an appearance. Or if you are the unofficial hair and makeup artist for the state queen that night (ahem Mrs. DC, LOL) So, I’m in the process of learning — yes still learning, each time a little more — what works in a pinch and what is best for big events (full blowout and extensions always). My hair, as I’ve gotten older, has hit a growth limit. It never really grew much longer in reality. Maybe a few inches or so. My hair stylist speculates that this could be due to all of the heat styling that I’ve been doing. In my previous life as a communications specialist at a research center for an Oil and Gas
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Have a Bermudaful day

We haven’t had a vacation in well over a year, which is extremely odd for us. So, when we decided to book a last-minute beach vacation, I was pumped. Living the last ten years – and all of my adult life – in Texas, a last-minute beach vacation was almost always to Mexico and sometimes the Caribbean. But usually Mexico to Riviera Maya and on the rare occasion the Pacific Coast to Cabo or Puerto Vallarta. Being on the East Coast now, we needed to get our bearings on what actually is doable: where is easily accessible, what is affordable and what can be done quickly and easily. (I learned my lesson the hard way that Vegas is no longer a two-hour flight – it’s five and there are not many nonstop flights, except one that leaves at the crack of dawn!) We narrowed down our search to The Bahamas and Bermuda, based on proximity, cost and what we were looking for: beautiful beaches and warm weather. We discovered that The Bahamas was out this time due to costs on the last-minute bookings. S
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