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Coffee with a Twist!
Coffee with a Twist!
Embracing Life's Highs and Lows: Celebrations, Loss, and Setting Intentions for 2024
As the festive season twinkles on the horizon, I offer a gentle nudge to consider the spirit in which we give. Let's not measure love by the price tags of our gifts, but rather, let's embrace the essence of our connections and the thought behind each gesture. I extend an invitation to reflect on personal achievements and to realign with goals that nurture our growth. With the new year peeking around the corner, I share my aspirations for 2024, aiming for well-being, business expansion, and solidifying life-enriching habits. Together, let's treasure the precious moments with our loved ones, capturing memories that outlive the temporality of existence, and stride into the future with intention and heartfulness.
Thanks for listening coffee with a twist.
Email me at: coffeewitatwist@gmail.com
Hey guys, welcome back to Coffee with a Twist. I've missed you guys. I've been wanting to put out an episode for a while now and you guys are going to hate me because some of the topics I had they were really good, but I forgot some of them, like in my mind, things that have happened to me in the last few weeks or six weeks, and I'm like, oh, that's a great topic, but I keep waiting for the right moment to do this episode, things like that, and waiting for it to be quiet or this or that, and I'm finding myself I have like a different sleep schedule now, like I go to bed a little bit earlier and stuff. I'd be like, oh, I'll do it, I'll put Eli to bed and then I'll do it after. Nope, not happening. So please disregard my background noise. My son is playing the game, my husband's in there watching and sleeping, things like that, so please excuse my background noise. I'm doing it when I can do it, because it's just not working out for me the other ways. But yes, I hope you guys had a great week, a great month, a great everything, a great day, looking forward, hopefully, to the holidays Christmas is in a few days. I can't believe how quickly this month went.
Speaker 1:Last Monday I'm a week before Christmas was my birthday, so that was nice. My cousin took me out for a nice early dinner at a Thai restaurant. That was so yummy and delicious. I got shown so much love through texts and emails and packages that appeared and mail and things like that. It was really nice. I had a low key birthday, but it was really nice to get all that love. This wasn't a milestone birthday, but I will have one coming up and I gotta think about what I want to do then, but either way.
Speaker 1:So I do want to take a couple of moments to talk about something a little bit sadder in my life. So this December has been a tough, a tough December in general. It's been a lot of different things going on moving parts, my job, there's different mergers and acquisitions going on with that so that's been a lot. My household getting sick they get scary. I hate when my son gets sick. It's always scary, especially when it's respiratory. It's just you stay up all day all night with him coughing and different things. I'm always waking up every hour just to check on and make sure he's breathing and stuff. So that was a little hard.
Speaker 1:But unfortunately, one of my uncles on my dad's side, one of my uncles on my dad's went into the hospital around the 29th or 30th of November and was put on hospice by November 30th night into December 1st and passed away December 2nd around 4 or 5 o'clock December 2nd, even though, yes, he was sick. It just seemed like this particular process of it went really fast. It just seemed like it just whoop. Definitely a sad moment, sad for many reasons. Of course he was young, in my opinion, he was in his 50s, late 50s, and then two, you know, it's just. You know, yeah, you know a person sick, but it's like you never know when your last moment with a person will be, you know. So, luckily I did talk to him on the phone like a week or so beforehand and also we missed a couple of calls. So I got a couple of voicemails from him that are kind of funny, so I made sure I saved those. But you know he's in peace now. You know he definitely was suffering in general over the past few months and weeks in general, but he was still moving, you know, moving around, getting around the best he could. So I don't know, sorry, you guys are probably like why is she stopping? For some reason? Give me one second. God Seems like hold on. Okay, it was doing that weird thing again. Guys, I'm sorry Again. I think I told you guys before I got a new phone and when I do my recordings it like graze out, like it doesn't show the dial. So I'm like I hope I'm not doing all this talking and it's not recording. So I had a double check and it is working. But anyways, back to my story. But anyways, so you know I'm glad he's at peace now because he definitely wasn't paying.
Speaker 1:I, you know, already said that, but also you know he I only have one living uncle left on my dad's side. My dad is deceased and now my uncle's deceased and I have one other uncle on my dad's side and I do have two great uncles that are still living. But it's like kind of scary because you know, you look at your genes and like your history and things and like my dad was young when he passed. He was in his 50s, early 50s, and now this uncle has passed and he's born his late. He made it to his late 50s. Then I have an uncle left who's in his very early 60s with some health issues. So it's a little scary because you're like, oh my gosh, you know, and it's no, as you can hear, there's no real, there's no females in my family for me to really gauge just things. You know, health wise, my grandmother, my dad's mom, she died in her early mid. She was mid six, I mean, sorry, mid 50s. My grandfather on my dad's side, he died mid 70s. So that's kind of nice, but that's it, you know. But either way, I'll tell you this quick story about my uncle and then I'll get off of these. You know more of a sadder conversation, I guess.
Speaker 1:But one thing about my uncle that I really, of course, as a kid you're like, but I always remember and that always stands out and that he's said pretty much up until up until the last time I spoke to him, is he's always saying save your money. And when you see him again he'd be like what do I always tell you? And the same thing save your money. That's all he would ever say. So it was kind of nice, you know, you hear it so much. You tend to listen.
Speaker 1:I guess I wish I started saving my money when it was first even told to me. I would have a lot of money right now. Think about it when you're a kid you get a lot of money. I mean, yeah, I get 10, 15 bucks, but that stuff adds up. You have some aunts and uncles. When they see you, or every time they see you, they give you a couple of dollars. That adds up, you know. So no, I didn't save my money like I should have back then, but I listen definitely now.
Speaker 1:Anyways, I'm sure he's resting in peace. He's with his brother, his mom, his dad and I'm just thankful to have known him and to have a relationship with him, a strong relationship with him. So I definitely wanted to take a few moments to recognize him. But, yes, excuse my voice too. Like I said, we and my family been getting over being sick and I feel way better than I sound, but still have that cough and clearing of your throat and nasal drip. I don't know what the hell is going on out here.
Speaker 1:But anyways, like I said, I really wanted to do this episode. I've been wanting to do them for a while and it was more of me, you know, things getting in the way, like me waiting, like I told y'all earlier, like lady, okay, I'll wait till my son go to bed. I'll wait for this. So, like I said, I'm just doing it. So I excuse. I mean I've never polished anyway, but I don't know, it might not be that polished at all, you know.
Speaker 1:But anyways, I had a weird experience today. So I took my son to his appointment and we go out to the car. You know we're in the parking lot. So I helped him into the truck, I opened the door, helped him into the truck and into the car scene I hear someone honking their horn. Really didn't pay it too much, I kind of looked but didn't pay it any mind.
Speaker 1:So then the dude next to me, the car next to me, it was a guy, older male and female, and he winds his window down. You really need to watch, mind you. This was like at least a minute or so, even after honking the horn. He's like you need to watch how you open up your door. And I said, excuse me, and he's like you heard me? You hit up, you hit your car doors on my car. So I took my hand and ran it. Like in between the opening of my car door and where his truck is, my hand can go straight up and down. So I said what are you talking about? My door is not even touching you, it's nowhere even near it. Yes, it is. I said, look dude. I said you better get out of my face.
Speaker 1:He's trying to, like I don't know, have a tone and aggressiveness and I guess he thought I would apologize or back down One. I didn't do anything, so it's nothing to apologize. If I would have looked back and my car door was on his car, definitely my apologies Mistake. You see, I'm here for my child, like trying to get him in the car. You're the one that wants, like I guess, a very close spot If you. You know what I'm saying. I'm not saying that anyone should hit someone's car on purpose, but if you are, so it does happen. I mean, I'm not saying I've never done it, I've done it and like, oops, sorry, you know, I'm sure people have done it in my car.
Speaker 1:It happens A lot of times. These parking spaces are so tight, but my thing is, you care that much and then go park at the very end and walk your ass up. He's just sitting in the car eating something. So you know he's trying to get aggressive and I'm like I looked him right in the face and I said, look, if you don't get out of my face or you show me where my door is on your thing, you're gonna get a lot more than just a imaginary ding on your car. I was pissed, like. I was so pissed that like I really wanted to take my truck and like ram it into his car. Have you ever, like he ended up to finish that story off, he ended up putting his window up. His wife said something to him and putting his window up, whatever. Again, I ignored him. But have you ever and I'm sure you guys have, but have you ever had a situation similar to like this?
Speaker 1:You know it could be any situation where it really infuriates you and you're like don't even know why you're so mad at it. Like there's some situations that happen. You're like, why am I so pissed? Like, even though it was something to make you a little mad. But sometimes you like go over the top. You know what I mean. Like, what the hell? Like, and for a moment I was that pissed, like certain situations I've noticed lately like for some reason it gets me really, really pissed, more pissed than it should, and I'm like, oh no, that's not good and I don't think it has anything, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I say like nothing's going on to make me like trigger, like that. But I don't know, sometimes you know we're human beings that things are going on, but you're just rolling with the punches so you don't feel that it's bothering you, but it is. You know what I mean. So when things happen, you have a lot of emotion. So it just pours out at a certain time, rather, if it's anger or sadness, crying or what have you. It's just really weird.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I was kind of surprised and I was like I was in, you know, in my mind I'm like I always keep my baseball bat in my cars. But hey, you know, I was like, oh, then I'll end up on the news somewhere and this and that have my kid with me. So luckily it didn't go too far. But like I was pretty pissed, like I really wanted to like bag my car out and just ram him and be like now that is hitting your car, like you know. But I would have been in the wrong. You know it's not worth it. Of course, with a level head, you know it's not worth it. But at the moment I was like I really just wanted to like either take my dorm, just really pound it but I'm like it's not worth it. But yeah, there's times where I find myself I get like so angry and it's like big emotions. I guess, like I feel like how the kids when they have their tantrum like my son when he's tantrum I would love to like as an adult, like can we have tantrums, shit. But yeah, thanks for letting me vent, guys, but anyways, so as we know what I've been talking about, one of the things I've been talking about, as we're approaching this new year and I know everyone's been busy with Christmas time and shopping and this, and that you know we gotta start thinking about the next year coming up, 2024.
Speaker 1:I do hope that no one overextended themselves for Christmas. Just remember, you know, Christmas is great, holidays are great in general, it's great to be with your friends and family and to celebrate together. But don't overextend yourself. If you don't have it, you don't have it. You know you can make your family a nice dinner, brunch, you know anything. Just remember you do. I'm pretty sure you share your love and show your love and appreciation for others throughout the whole year. So don't feel that Christmas you just have to go all out, you know. Just you know, do some simple things, inexpensive things, hand soaps, you know, candles, things that you know that are essential. People like you know Me my biggest thing for probably about the past five years four to five years my main thing is I only buy useful gifts.
Speaker 1:I try not to buy little tinker type things that would look more like for a white elephant type gathering. I try to buy useful gifts and sometimes useful gifts aren't the prettiest and things like that. When I say useful, it might be a lunchbox, I know it's cheesy, but if you know I try to do things that I know you'll use. Yeah, you might be like, oh, this is as a Christmas present, but you'll be using it. So I try not, you know. That way also, you don't feel like your money's wasted and you're giving somebody something that they can actually use. Excuse me, sorry for that. So you know things like that, so like let's. You know, don't just don't overextend yourself.
Speaker 1:The other thing what I do for the kids I have kids make their Christmas list and they give it to me. You know October, november timeframe and I start and I typically buy them one thing off the list. For you know I pick a price point in my head to fight, you know, depends on how many kids I have and I try to, you know, stick to that price point for each kid and send it to them and things they might. Just it's just the one gift and, if you know, if I end up just getting the kids something and not their parents, it is what it is. Most parents are okay with that because they kind of prefer for you to buy for the kid. It's one less thing they got to buy their kid because, unfortunately for the parents, they kind of got to get everything on that list. So it kind of helps them out.
Speaker 1:So, but yeah, I just say that to say don't let the holidays get you off your goals and things or feel overwhelmed, or that you have to. If you don't have it, you don't have it. A Christmas card shows you thought about them. But as we approach the new year, new year's Eve, as you know, I'm all about the vision boards or collages, whatever you want to call them, whatever it gets you to doing them list. Start taking out your list after you know Christmas is over the day after and so start pulling out your list from 2023 and seeing what you accomplished or the steps that you have taken to get to your bigger accomplishment. And also, you know, before even tackling your new resolutions, you know, maybe, as I've said before, a couple of months back, reassess, look at your list and think about this year of things that worked and didn't work people, things that you might have that you or environments, things like that what is keeping you from your goal or what helped you meet your goal.
Speaker 1:Keep in mind guys, you know, not everyone that's in your life is in your life for certain goals you have, and that includes family. I mean I hate to say it that way Family friends. You know you can pick your friends, but you kind of can't pick your family. You're stuck with the family you're given, but you can put them in categories. You know, if you feel you're around people who kind of just shit on your dreams or I don't know, make you feel bad about your drive and your motivation and your goals in life, and those are probably people that you don't need to surround yourself with.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying, even if it is a family member, because sometimes it's low key hate or aid yes, I brought that word back Sometimes just low key jealousy, hatery, and then sometimes it's just the lack of their knowledge and knowing about a particular topic or finance or whatever it is that goal is. You know, when you lack the knowledge of it, you know it sounds very weird to you or like, oh, that can't be done or too good to be true to them. You know what I mean. So sometimes it's not coming from a bad place, it's just more of a not knowing, and some people don't know how to address that. So you know, my big thing is you know, when you're a kid you have tons of friends.
Speaker 1:Everybody's your friend. You're in elementary school, everybody's your friend. When you're in middle school, you got a lot of friends. When you're in high school, you still have a lot of friends, but they trinkle down a little. If you had 30, you might only have about 20.
Speaker 1:You go to college. You make some friends. By the time you're four years it's over. At college you have about anywhere between one to four good friends. The rest are just acquaintances you might hang out with and things like that. You join the workforce. You still have possibly one or two of those friends from college that you still talk to pretty regularly, and then the other two that y'all were good friends you talk to not as much, but you still have a good relationship. You can call on them dependable.
Speaker 1:When you start working, you have your work friends. They're your friends. You go with happy hour, you might do a couple of things with them they're your work friends and if you're lucky enough you might make one good friend from the workforce. So that might up your little network there to maybe about what? Five people at max six.
Speaker 1:So I give that example to say the older we get, the tighter and the smaller our group, our true friendship should be. You can't successfully have a large group of friends. It's like trying to please so many people and it's a lot of different energies and a lot of different factors and problems to deal with. So the older you get, the tighter your friendships, your relationships and friendship you shouldn't have. But about a handful of friends, even if that Not saying you might have, you might know a lot of people, because of course we live life. You know a lot of people. I know a lot of people and I've hang with a lot of those people, but in different settings. Some of them don't overlap. Some of them do overlap. It might be. Yeah, that's my good friend. We talk once a year. We meet up, like I have a good bit of friends and I meet up with them for lunch, brunch and different things you know, once every couple of months and things like that. But then I have my core friends, the friends that I would share my dreams with and ideas with.
Speaker 1:So I say that to say reassess, maybe, reassess your network that you have around you and see if maybe you need to pull back and pull in closer someone else, someone that's more aligned with you. Those things help with your success and how you approach things. You know it's true what they say, you are what you hang around to a degree. I mean, you know when you're younger you hear that it seems so shallow, but it's kind of true, you are what you hang around. When you're around certain things you want more, and I don't mean more where it's got to be material. It might mean that you want more because you want to learn a little bit more about a particular topic, for instance, one of the things that I want to do this year.
Speaker 1:One thing is I want to learn more about money, and when I say learn about money, I don't just mean the cash, I just want to learn more about finance and money and just how it truly works, how the world really works with money, and I'm trying to figure out what I feel like once I have a true understanding. I understand I feel you know a good bit, you know to get me through life, to get me this far, but I want to understand money and figure out how finances can help me. And I might not be explained right because you're probably like it's money and you just know you need more of it. I'm not physically talking about the paper we hold. I'm trying to figure out how does it move around in the world? You know you hear these people say, oh, you can do this and write this off. And you know, buy a car and do it to your billet, to your business just different things that you hear about. I want to do my own research and really learn how the world goes around, how there's, you know, money and finances truly work here in America. So that is on my bucket list and it's more just for understanding a deeper should I say a deeper understanding, because I feel like I have like a you know, if it was levels to this, let's say it was five levels to this I feel like I'm at like a level two. So I'm trying to level myself up and figure some things out, trying to become a little bit smaller and more knowledgeable in it, to where I can start teaching it to my child at a younger age so he won't have to I mean, he will still do his research but I'll be teaching him things to where it's more natural for him to just know it and understand it. So that is big on my list.
Speaker 1:The second big thing is I got to get my life together, y'all. I got to really stick to eating better, exercising, movie watching, what I put into my system. You know what I mean. Like we only get older, we start to break down and, like I said, this kind of stems back to the beginning of this conversation, when I was talking about, like, my family dynamics, at least on my dad's side. I'll say, and I, you know, I just want to really do better. I don't want to try, I want to do better. I need to do better. I want to be around to watch my kid grow up and have kids and make a family and things like that. I want to live out my life without spending years being sick in our months and you know what. What have you I get? You know, of course, we don't know what's really written for us and when things will happen, but you know the things that I can control I want to control. So those are the two big things on my list.
Speaker 1:Of course, I got a lot of little small things, but I really need to be better. So I really want to get back to my meal prepping and and Just, I eat good to a degree, but you know, those days when you don't meal prep and you just grab whatever or go out and buy whatever, yeah, and then you do it once that week and then you end up next the following week doing it twice that week and then it just falls off. So I really want to be more conscious of what I do and what I put into my body. And you know and that includes, you know, the people in my household we all need to become better and I just want to be the best I can be. That's what my 2024 is.
Speaker 1:I want to be a better me. I have made great accomplishments, I feel, but I still lack a lot, you know. So I definitely want to be a better me. I want to grow my business more I want to. There's a lot that I want to do that are bigger goals, but I have to get through these smaller goals first. You know I want to feel good when I look in the mirror. I want to feel good. You know, I just want to be better.
Speaker 1:So that is top of the list for 2024 and a lot of it I've already started, but it's sticking to it and maintaining it is more so, I guess, what I want to do for 2024. I want it to be a habit. So that is huge and I hope you know you guys will start thinking about things you guys want to do for 2024. That way, you can have, you know, a good list going and you know, throughout the year, I'll keep reminding you guys to look at it and check things off. And I do hope, when you look at your 2023, because there's some people that don't look at it all the year and that is fine but I hope for many of you, for all of you really that you can at least check one thing off that you accomplished and feel good about. You know I will stop it here because I'm just rambling, but I will have more to talk about. I probably will put out another episode in a couple of days because, like I said, I had some really good topics but right offhand here I can't remember them and I'm, unfortunately, I'm a little distracted because, of course and that's also why I prefer to do it when it's like my house is not loud and crazy, but it is what it is I really wanted to get this out.
Speaker 1:I really wanted to get this out because, like I said, unfortunately my uncle did not have a memorial service or anything, unfortunately, and you know, I feel like we live on earth and, yes, funerals and things are for the living, but it's nice to sit there and hear about stories and things of the person of the deceased. So I really wanted to give him a little bit of airtime because he's deserving of that and, like I said, one of my fondest memories is, you know, save your money. So it was a fond memory, but a useful one. Back to like what I was saying, like giving useful gifts. In a sense, it was useful information, it wasn't just talk. And he same way, he told me to save my money. What he preached out is what he did. So, even though he told me to save money and I didn't listen. He was saving his money. So you know, it's key when you are giving out advice. Nothing's wrong with giving out advice even if you're not proving to do so, but it looks better when you can show what you're talking about. So I definitely, like I said, I definitely wanted to get this episode out because I felt he at least needed five minutes of recognition for his life and something close to my heart. You know, saving money and there's other stories, but plenty of stories actually but that was the main one. That was something every time I saw him. Literally it was save your money, but cool guy. I'm just glad he's at peace and no longer suffering and any pain, and I'm pretty sure him and my dad right now are loving life together. So I definitely wanted to put this episode out, mainly for him. But yeah, so I'll be putting something else out in a couple of days with some other topics.
Speaker 1:And thanks for joining in. You're here with Madame Belue. Have a good day night, week, weekend and Christmas If I don't put out an episode before Christmas. Enjoy just being with your family. Make sure you take a lot of pictures and videos with your loved ones. Those are memories you have. You have to keep and cherish because, unfortunately, our minds sometimes forget. But when you have it in a picture or a video, you can go back and review it, and those things are really key. So please make sure, when you're spending time with your friends and family and all your loved ones, try to capture it. All right, guys here with Madame Belue Coffee with a Twist.