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Coffee with a Twist!
Coffee with a Twist!
V8, Memories, And A Big Exam
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A cold can of V8 sparked a flood of memory—fishing trips, a convenience store that sold worms, and a father who made ordinary moments feel solid. That small joy became the on-ramp to a bigger truth: after ten years of delays, detours, and self-doubt, I’m finally sitting for the PMP. Not because life got easier, but because life didn’t—and I’m choosing to move anyway.
I open up about the real reasons big goals stall: caregiving and grief that drain focus, a layoff that reshapes priorities, and the tug-of-war between how projects run at work and how a standardized exam wants you to think. Along the way, I chased an urgent ITIL certification to keep opportunities alive, learned to pivot without losing the thread, and accepted that momentum often looks like a chain of small, unglamorous wins. If you’ve ever stared down a four-hour exam while juggling sick days, snow closures, and a noisy house, you’ll hear your own story in this one.
Then we get tactical. I break down the study plan that fits a chaotic schedule: 15-question sprints to build the PMP mindset, a 100-question block for endurance, and daily reps to keep scenario thinking sharp. We talk about avoiding terminology overlap, choosing people-centered answers, and staying calm when the wording gets tricky. Most of all, we sit with fear—naming it, not feeding it—and hold the line on a test date that’s easy to move but costly to postpone.
If you’re navigating certifications, career shifts, or any long-haul goal, join me for a candid, practical boost. Press play, share your best focus tips, and send a little luck my way. And if this resonates, subscribe, leave a quick review, and pass it to a friend who needs a nudge to finally start.
Thanks for listening coffee with a twist.
Email me at: coffeewitatwist@gmail.com
Note: I don’t own copyrights to any music you hear in any of my episodes.
Hey guys, welcome back to Coffee with a Twist. Hope you all had a great week and looking forward to a great weekend. Today is Saturday. I wanted to get on here last night, but my phone was acting weird. When I went to record, it wasn't recording, so I was like, okay, maybe they didn't want to hear from me yet. So tried again now. It's the middle of the day, and it is working. Uh had my two cups of coffee this morning. Well, kind of late morning, but had my coffee. Now I'm talking to you guys. I'm drinking my V8. Ugh, so good. Something about like the way it hits that lip, your top lip when you're drinking it. Oh, so good. And you get it real, real cold. I love V8. I love V8. Um, it it's a good thing. So when I was younger, my dad would get V8, even when he go to the like groceries, not grocery store, but like the little convenience store, like before we go fishing or something, he'll grab a V8, and that's when I started drinking them. Like he'd be like, Oh, you want some or whatever you tasted? That was pretty good, and surprising. I was a kid and liked it. And um, it makes me so happy because my son likes a V8 as well. And always called my my son. Uh him and my dad have uh a couple of uh characteristics, character traits, what is it? Uh not character traits, not care. Um like some of the things that my son does remind me of my father. What is that? I can't think, guys. I'm sorry. Um, but yeah, so it it warms my heart that he actually likes V8 because uh that's why I like V8. It was introduced to me from my father, at least from what I remember of it, and going fishing. I have this really vivid memory uh when I'm thinking of it, like even right now, going to Seneca to go fishing, and that there's this little uh convenience store there where you go pick up your worms and all that to go fishing, and then you know, head on down and go fishing. But yeah, so V8 is not something that I always have. Um, I I can I I'm a like I might go years without drinking it, and then something will pop my mind like get a V8, and I get it, and then I'm like, oh my god, why didn't I why don't I always have these? So um last year into early this year, which I know we're only in February, um, I have been making it a point to keep V8 in my freezer, in my refrigerator. So um, so you know, and it's great because sometimes you do want something um, you know, to drink, but a different taste than maybe soda juice, sparkling water. Um, you know, and it does have some stuff in there, you know, that's supposed to be good for you. I have, you know, I like the regular V8, of course, but um health consciously, um, I have started getting the low sodium, and I'm not gonna lie, I got a mix of both. I get the regular and the low sodium. So on days where, like, you know, I really want to drink one or two, well, two or three in a day, I will do the low sodium. But here and there I'll, you know, drink the V8 one, the regular, because it it does, it has a different taste, it's still good, but I guess what I'm liking is the salt or the sodium, whatever is in there. And the crazy thing is, I don't like salt. I don't even cook with salt, even though I know salt is like in everything. But what I mean by that, table salt is not something I add into my food when I cook. Um, I'm not a big fan of salt. Um, once upon a time, and don't get me wrong, I do know salt enhances flavor, um, the flavor of the context, like the meat or whatever it is that you're eating. And it's not like I'm anti-salt. You know, my grandmother cooked with salt and pepper. I ate it, but me personally, I typically don't put salt on things, but that V8, uh, so good. Shake it up, ice cold, drink it, and like it hits the top of your lip, and then you go to like with your tongue, you lick the top of your lip. Oh, it's so good. Not many people like it. Um, in my family, they were like, You're drinking. I'm like, it's so good. How can you not drink it? So, yeah, I just gave y'all like five minutes of like freaking V8 juice. Uh, but it's good. I hopefully others like it, but it it's to me is very good. Um I don't drink it, you know, in the sense like, oh my god, you know, it has all these nutrients. It probably does. I I truly just like the taste. Yeah, I'm looking at the container right now, and um, because I have the original one, the regular. Let me take a sip. Oh my god, that's so good. And yeah, the sodium is pretty high on here. Um, 920 milligrams, um, 10 grams of sugar, which isn't terrible, you know. And again, I'm not a nutritionist, so please do not listen to my comments. Like, oh, that's I am not endorsing it in a way like drink this for health. I'm not saying that I truly like the taste of it, but I do know um the sodium, you know, is is high. So really get into that to say I got the low sodium now. Um, and I keep a mix because it to me it does taste slightly different. I don't have the low sodium one in front of me, so I don't know what that sodium is to say, like, hey, it's so much lower. I don't know, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But either way, I I like V8. Let me take another sip before we get into this. So you guys are probably drinking your wine, coffee, liquor, whatever. And I'm sitting here drinking V8. So the Super Bowl is tomorrow, which is very exciting. Um, you know, I always watch it for the commercials, halftime, things like that. So hopefully, you know, it'll be some good commercials on there. Um, so I definitely want to get on here and say hi to everyone. Uh, today I'm feeling really good. Um, so you know, um sometimes, and you guys hear my son in the background, it's daytime, he's not asleep, he's um probably playing his game or watching Teen Titans go, something like that. But um, today's a good day. I've been studying and I doing this episode so that I can get a break from studying. Am I studying as hard as I should? Probably not. Um, for those that know, I'm studying right now for my PMP. PMP has been something that I have been trying to take for 10 years. I know you guys are probably like, why the hell haven't you done it? It is a well, I have never taken the test to say it's a hard test, but that's what I hear. Even the teachers like it's tough. It's this, so it kind of scared me. Um, and they're like, you really gotta prepare for it, and this and this and that. So, anyways, life gets in the way. Um, when I first started trying to do my P and like took the course, all of that, and you know, and I work in that field, but we all know um what you do in real life and how things are handled in real life and how the exam wants you to answer it are two different things. So sometimes that can be bad because even though you might have been a project manager for 10 years or however long, the way it's handled and the way your company or organizations may want you to handle it are typically not aligned with the book and how the exam would be. So sometimes it can be very hard or confusing to take the standardized test. So, um, two times I tried to I attempted to take the exam. Um, again, you gotta study for it and things like that. Like they're like, you need to have your head down for like 30 days, 45 days, and the test is long, it's um 180 questions, 175 questions, and it's like a four-hour exam with like two 15-minute breaks, if I'm not mistaken. And um, to prepare for that type of exam, I mean, you do so many ones, but you also need to do true mock exams for the same, you know, for that time length, you know, timed because it is a time test, and that's where it gets hard for me. I really don't have the time to sit for four hours each mock exam. You you know what I mean? That's a half half a work day, that's a part-time job. I get you do what you gotta do, but it just wasn't working for me. So 10 years ago, I tried to take it like twice. So it and never fails. My sister, if she hears this episode, she's gonna be rolling her eyes because she's like, I'm tired of hearing about your PMP exam, should have already taken it. And she's not wrong, but you know, every time, and I told her this and I gave her an example of something similar that just happened to me recently, but I will tell you guys about that shortly. But every time, like when I'm ready, I'm preparing, something would come up. So when I started trying to take this, it was when, you know, unfortunately, when my dad was sick, and like we would have like a breath of a breath of fresh air, and I'm like, okay, I can go back to um, you know, trying to do this test, do it, and then boom, something else, you know, with his health or whatever would go on. And I was his like I was his caretaker and giver, things like that. So I was like highly involved. So it's not even about even being the caregiving part of it. It was just like your dad's going through a crisis, and my mind just wasn't in it for so even take the caregiving a part to the side, it's more mentally, I just wasn't focused. It was I was mentally exhausted. Um, I really put a lot into it of like researching and you know, going down rabbit holes. It it was it was terrible, it was good and bad, but anyway, so twice during the time that he was going through this and you know, living, um, I tried and it just didn't work out, so I just kind of gave it up. Unfortunately, my dad did pass away, but um I tried again, you know, and um here later, like uh 20 early 2025, I want to say it was. So again, um, you know, started that whole thing again. Yeah, it was 2025. Started that whole thing again. My goal was to take it like right after, and I think my episode before this one, you know, I talked about like procrastination and like putting others before yourself. There you go. That's exactly what I did. I did something stupid. Um, and you know, my job was a little bit busy at the time, and we needed to get some audits done. You know, things just popped up, things didn't go how I planned it, and I didn't make time for me. I made time for the business, you know, that I don't own. So, anyways, um, you know, I'm like, oh, I'll get to it. And you know, things at work just kept changing, kept changing, and I'm just like, you know, this is just not working out, you know. So, anyways, I'm like, um, I told myself, I said, I'm gonna take this early next year. So, um, I don't know if I talked about it in my last uh episode. So I'm a contractor by day, and my contract was up basically, and they were laying off many people. Um, so I did get laid off, and then um, you know, I think I told you guys about like how a certain certification that I needed to take, that I was planning to take uh the middle of last year, you know, it got pushed aside because again, business needed stuff and put them before my needs and uh my own needs, and here we are. So that particular exam, um, by the way, for anyone that wanted to know from the last episode um for a job opportunity that may pop up, I did take that at class and I passed the exam uh last Wednesday, Tuesday or Wednesday, so I did pass that, so that's a good thing, but still passed that test um before even doing my PMP. So it was so funny because I told my sister I had literally about 30 to 40 days ago, I was like, all right, I'm gonna go ahead and sit for this PMP. I had a whole study plan. I went into Chat GPT, did a whole study plan, boom, great. So around that same time was when kind of found out I'm gonna be getting laid off, cool. Um, and then literally I I planned it, I was like, perfect, done. I hit the button at like 7:30 p.m. By 9:30 that night, um, 9:30 p.m., my son was sick, vomiting, things like that. The reason why that is important is because I'm his only parent here at home right now. My my husband was gone for like a month, so that means I am the only caretaker, it's not like I'm gonna be like, oh, this or that. And being the fact that he was sick, as you guys know with sick kids, they're a little more clingier. So that was one week gone because he was sick for about a week, not going to school, whatever. Because again, I had a whole plan. I was like, okay, while he's at school, I'm gonna do this, and in the evenings, you know, I can spend time with my son. Again, I was the only parent home, so that happened. Then, like the following week, he went to school for a few days. Um, it was like um they had like some days off. Cool, no problem. Then the following week, it was a lot of snow. Okay, so he was home for a whole week. Not that it's a big deal, but this test you really kind of got to focus in even when you are um practicing because the words and stuff are tricky. So, you know, you do what you can, but it's still not the same. So you're talking, we're on thir three weeks. And then also what came up during that time, which I had to do the fourth week, mind you. I told you I had scheduled this test like 30 days to 40 days ago. So we'll say, we'll say even five weeks. We're on week three, so at least like two weeks, and I'm approaching that week coming up, is when you know my boss, like, hey, can you get ITIL? Okay, let me see what I can do. And of course, it matters because you know, you you gotta have an income. So you switch gears. So I was like, okay, so I had to take that class. That class was like a four night four-day class. I was taking it in the middle of the night because it was because of um how it was being um taught, it was, you know, it's like all over the world, it was internationally. So I took that, so I was literally up from 11:30 to 4:30 in the middle of the night, and up during the day, because my son was home because of the snow. So I'm doing that, and my son will wake up 7:30 every morning, so I'm like up all day, all night. So did that, you know. Then I had to study hard. So class finished Thursday morning. I had to rest, I was so tired. So, like Friday, Saturday, I was just like a zombie. So I was scheduled to take the test. I thought I was gonna take it Monday, and ended up not having you know, any openings because it's online, but they had no openings, so I think I scheduled it for Wednesday, so this past Wednesday. So I was like, okay, it was actually even better because I'm like, all right, that gives me Monday, Tuesday to study. So Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, I studied, and then Wednesday before the test, I studied, I took the test at 2 p.m. my Eastern Standard Time. So I took the test, studied, took the test, passed. So keep in mind that whole week and a half, I wasn't studying at all for my PMP because I didn't want to get the terminologies and stuff, they're very similar but different definitions for depending on what you're getting, if if that makes sense. So value stream and PMP is slightly different than it is in ITL. So I didn't want to confuse the two and fail the in the ITIL one, which could potentially get me a position. So I didn't study. That's another you're talking on you're you know, that's week four, and we're now we're going into week five, and my exam is this Wednesday. So I have been studying um, you know, what I can without over exerting myself because I don't want to get so overwhelmed studying and studying that when the test comes, I'm just like exhausted from reading because it they're long, they're scenario-based, and it's boring. And to me, there's like asking the same things, just different answers. So I needed a break. So I said, let me get on here and talk to you guys. I needed a break, I needed a mental break, but I'm really hoping. I'm not gonna lie, even though I'm scheduled to take it, I would love to pass on the first try. Like, I really feel like I could. But if I don't, I won't be as upset because I know I didn't do what I needed to do to pass, like to really study. But I'm also at a point where I'm like, I should pass on the initial. I have been at this for 10 years, studying and doing different things, like it's in there and I'm in the field. It it should, I should pass, you know. So I'm really hoping that I do pass. Um, I'm just I thought about moving the exam, but that's$70 to move it because I didn't do it within 30 days. Mind you, I scheduled it in probably less than 30 days. Um, and you know, I I just need to conquer my fear because it's kind of like I'm fearing it from what everyone else is saying. I'm hoping it's I'm not gonna say it's not hard, but I'm hoping it is to my expectation, not everyone else's expect uh not to what everyone else is telling me, you know. Because you know, someone could say, I don't know, the sun is really bright to them, and maybe it's the perfect brightness for me. So this will be a nice way. I'm I my plan is to take it. Only way I would move it is if like something with school happens. Like, for instance, uh this past Friday, school was out two hours delayed because of snow. So only way I would cancel or move it is if something comes up with my son's school. My goal is to take it and pass. So I've been taking, you know, these mini tests, like 15, you know. Um, I've been doing the very first one I took of the 15 test, um, it questions, I didn't do well. I failed it. Um, the second and third one, I did good, I passed. So now I'm on the fourth one, and I've got like two more to do because I think it's a total of six. Uh, and then I'm gonna go back and do that first one. It's definitely a mindset. So anyone that's taking their PMP or planning to, the teachers, trainers, etc., keep saying mindset, they're definitely not wrong with that. Like the first 15, I wasn't in the right mindset, and I can tell when it was starting to click. Um, you know, so you you do better and better. So I definitely want to keep doing these practice exams in the mini bytes up until I do the exam because the mindset, and I don't wanna I can't afford to get 15 and 20 wrong until I get into the right mindset on the true exam. So I want to stay in the mindset. So every day I'm doing what I can. Um I'm I'm hoping and planning to do I'm hoping, sorry, I see the mail carrier. This is gonna be funny if so let me see. Okay, I was making sure that they weren't leaving us any mail, that's a whole nother thing. We'll talk about that another time, but anyways, um, so the mindset is a big deal. Um, so like I just said, I'm working on number four. I have five and six. My plan is by the end of the night to have four, five, and six completed. There are 15 questions, bite sizes, and then tomorrow go back over that very first test that I failed. And then after that, so that'll put me into Sunday. Then so I'm do that other 15 and then um I want to start working on there's a hundred question to exam to take and then so Sunday I want to knock that one out. Not I probably won't do it in one sitting, but I'll try to do like 15 or 30 at a time, you know, throughout the day. So I'm trying to break it up through Tuesday. So I need to have I my goal is to have tackled close to 500, 600 question styles um by the time I take my exam on Wednesday. And I think my exam's probably in the morning. I probably did like a 10 o'clock because it's four hours, so I do it while he's at school. Um but yeah, wish me luck, guys. Um, I don't have I do have some topics I want to talk about, but I want to focus on what I'm doing right now. Again, this was more like I needed a mental break and just to kind of uh keep myself motivated. So that's really what this episode is like helping me stay motivated. So thank you for listening to me ramble. Um, I need this like motivation to keep me going because you're reading and reading these questions, you're just like uh, especially ones that are like a paragraph long. It's like, you know, they're trying to trick you, of course, but it's it's just too much. So just wanted to pop on here and empower myself some more. I needed it. Cheer me on, guys. I hope when I speak to you guys again that I'm saying I passed. Um, but yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now, and then we will get into some, you know, good topics here soon. Um and and go from there. Like I'm just uh I'm tired. I you know, exam after exam, but it it's it should hopefully pay off. So that's kind of that thing. So keep me up in the prayer or what have you, you know. Think about me, guys. Think about me. I need to get through this. Um, Wednesday's my exam as of right now, as long as nothing comes up again. Um, yeah, so thank you for listening to my ramble, and uh you're here with Madam Balou, Coffee with a Twist. Until next time.