Traversing Triumphs and Trials: From Personal Peaks to Chicago Streets

Ever had one of those weeks where every little win felt like conquering Everest? That's exactly what I, Marcy Bacckhus, experienced, and I'm here to share it all with you. From the comical annoyance of a phone dying just as you arrive at the airport to pick up someone to the ever-present question of when to switch from weight loss to maintenance mode, it's been a rollercoaster. But it's not all about life's hiccups; join me as I navigate the complexities of finding a new primary care physician and tackle the grown-up task of updating my Social Security details. And for those who know the struggle of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, I've got some personal anecdotes that'll hit close to home.

Now, let's get out and about in Chicago! I'll take you along for my solo adventure to see the river turn a vibrant green and share the excitement of breaking free from routine. As Craig and I dust off our bikes for the season, I'll compare the nifty features of my electric bike to his traditional racing model, along with some essential safety tips like helmet use and bike transportation. We'll also dive into the joys of discovering new restaurants, the adrenaline of dating, and the treasure hunt that is thrifting. So, whether you're single and ready to mingle or looking to spice up your weekends with some new activities, I've got insights and stories that will inspire you to embrace the vibrant life and opportunities waiting outside your doorstep.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hello and welcome to the AG name for Sissy's podcast. My name is Marcy Backes and I am your host. Well, I hope you all had a great week. I had a quiet week and you know we take those for granted sometimes. I was looking back at the week and I thought I always try to look back at it before I talk to you guys and figure out what went on.

Speaker 1: 0:29

And uh, oh, I know, picked up Craig from the airport Okay, picked him up from Chicago. Oh, here. Normally he doesn't check any bags, so I know where to pick him up, and so on and so forth. And this time, because he had skis, he had stuff to pick up. So I get there and I get a call from him hey, I'm off the plane. Okay, I'll let you know where to meet me. Well, then his phone dies. His phone dies. Yes, that's, the perfect thing to do is make sure you have just enough battery to tell the person you've landed, but nothing else. And I'm texting and trying to get a hold of him. Thank goodness I know the airport well enough now. We've been here two years. We fly in and out all the time.

Speaker 1: 1:19

I didn't want to move. I wasn't sure because I had told him kind of where I was and finally I moved and he was scared to death to move because he knew I had to find him. So I found him, a baggage claim, so on and so forth. But I honestly, honestly, when you are landing and someone is going to be picking you up, do not let your phone run out. Needless to say, that's how my week started. That was Monday, but the rest of the week was fine.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Like I said, it was just a quiet week. You know, nothing too eventful, which is really nice. Made it to the gym for my four days. That's my goal every week. Four classes a week, that's four hours of high intensity exercise and I'm finding that that is suiting me just fine. Weight is still going down, which at some point I need to stop, but I'm not willing to stop yet.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Craig asked me that question when are you going to stop? I'm like I don't know. I think soon. I think it's good, I think I have enough saggy old ladies skin. I look like the saggy baggy elephant, I swear, but I feel good, I feel healthy. I'm not sure if we talked about this at all, but we've been here for two years Two years for Craig this month and two years in May for me.

Speaker 1: 2:46

We got settled, got our doctors. You know how all that goes. Our doctor's office sent us a message well, just before I left for California. But they're closing down all the Chicago offices. Erg, erg, erg is all I can say.

Speaker 1: 3:05

So I go ahead and I pick a new group. I'm going to go ahead and go with a university group. So I'm going with the University of Illinois it's where my new cardiologist is anyway. But then I'm trying to find a primary care provider and it's saying well, not with your group, not with your group, erg. So I call, I explain the whole problem to the lady on the phone. Oh, no problem, I see two that are available to you and I'm like well, I'm not seeing them. First of all, she takes me back through Well, here, I can help you find it. And she takes me back through all the steps and I'm like no, no, no, no, no. I already know that. Nonetheless, she sends me the list. I pull up the list. It's from my old group. A wasted 45 minutes on the phone. So I need to tackle that.

Speaker 1: 3:55

I also need to go to the Social Security Office because some way they have told me that I've said I want all things only by snail mail. So they've locked me out of my Social Security account because I've said I don't want to do anything electronically. Doesn't that sound like me, the lady that has a podcast and has loved electronics since the day the first digital watch and ATM came out? Yeah, it sounds like something. I would have chosen, a box I would have clicked, but nonetheless I'm locked out of my Social Security account and I had put in my application to start my Social Security benefits and I'm doing like I think we've talked about spousal benefits. So, yeah, I need to go over to the Social Security Office. It's really just up the block here. It's on the other side of the river, up about three blocks, so not very far, about a mile away, and I need to get myself over there. But you know, I just really haven't wanted to do it.

Speaker 1: 4:53

Do you have anything like that on your list? Do you have anything on the list that just you just keep moving to the next to do list. You kind of finish your list, you start a new one and you slap that one over. Well, that's been that one, and now the doctor thing's going to be an issue. But I do need to get a doctor. We all need to have a primary care physician.

Speaker 1: 5:12

The older we get, that knows us, and I loved and adored mine here. She did everything for me. She bent over backwards. She knew that I had Ehlers-Danlos-Venius type four, which is a genetic disorder which, as we've talked about, I've outlived my life expectancy by about 13 years now, and she was awesome, really awesome, and so that's a really hard thing to do, and I loved my doctor in California, so I'll get another good one. But I just shake my head. You know that the person that sent me the list didn't look and realize they had pulled the list from my old group, not my new group, and her and I had had a long discussion about the new group. So that's. I guess I did have an eventful week in some ways. A couple of sister-in-laws had some birthdays this week, so oh, let's see my dad would be. Where is it today? What day is it? No, tomorrow my dad would be 104. If he was still alive, I miss my dad. You know, no matter how old you are, your parents are your parents. Now I'm getting choked up. I do miss my parents.

Speaker 1: 6:39

It's a holy week, which, in the Christian realm is our Super Bowl week here. A lot going on this week, a lot to think about, a lot to reflect on Again. For us Christians, this is Super Bowl and this is the week that we walk in Jesus' footsteps. We think about what he went through in those last hours, 24 hours that changed the world and he saved us. And for me, that is a really important thing, because none of us walk through this life perfect. None of us walk through this life unscathed, and I love having a faith, and if you don't, I respect that too. And if your faith is different than mine, I respect that too. If you just believe in nature and feel that that is your savior, I'm all for it. I feel that we need to all believe in something greater than ourselves, and whatever that looks like to you, if you don't, I honestly feel sad because you're not the be all, end all. There has to be something greater than that. I don't believe we're the only planet with life on it either. I feel that there's a whole lot out there and I am super excited.

Speaker 1: 8:17

I'm getting more and more excited for our trip to Greece. We are leaving on April 8th and we are traveling with our friends and fellow worshipers, fellow Christians from California, and we're going to travel in St Paul's footsteps because our trip to Israel got waylaid by a war and we are going to head to Greece instead and I'm excited. I'm excited about the trip. I was just talking with Craig. We were at Costco this weekend and we grabbed a whole box of baklava to kind of get in the mood for our Greece trip. Mediterranean food is my favorite food on the planet. I love me some hummus, some pita, some olives and tomatoes and onions. I am not a fish eater, but I love falafel. I love, like I said, a Greek salad, my favorite Greek salad in the planet. I got at a restaurant below the Acropolis. I never thought I would be able to ever eat that delicious salad again and if I have anything to say about it, I'm going to get one while I'm there.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Craig and I will fly in a day before everyone and we were talking about what we want to do that day because we were just in Greece two and a half years ago. So part of this tour we've already done, but there's a big part we haven't and of course, we've not done it with our friends. So I'm looking forward to that. But the day that we, the day that we fly in, I want to take a catamaran trip and do some snorkeling. I haven't done any water sports in a really long time. I wasn't in good enough shape. I wasn't where I am now physically. So I love a good snorkel. There is nothing better than just that quiet sound of your own breathing and the fish I don't know. Snorkeling is my favorite thing. So I think Craig and I are going to are going to not gonna. We are going to look into some sort of water trip, water day thing while we're waiting for everybody to fly in. So that's what's been going on with me getting ready for my trip, getting some clothes for my trip, some clothes that fit and don't fall off, which is kind of nice.

Speaker 1: 10:44

And what are we going to talk about today in the body of our podcast? Well, we're gonna talk about activities and things to do. Hang in there, we'll talk about that. Go ahead and grab yourself something to drink at that Diet Coke, that iced tea, sit back, relax, world. We're gonna go through some fun information, some things to get your brain thinking about what you can do in life. That's different than what you've been doing. What made me think about this topic today activities is Craig and I were just talking about this at dinner is our life, and friends have mentioned that our life changed immensely when we moved here and we moved to the city. I think part of it is we're not working as much, I'm not working at all. Craig's working part time. I think that has a big thing to do with it, but I don't know.

Speaker 1: 11:43

I, when we got here, I wanted to find things, I wanted to do things. I wanted to do. You know, late last week they died the River Green. Craig was out of town but I walked up there anyways. I want to intake everything that this city has to offer. Wherever you live, there are offerings from the city surrounding city, for God's sakes. We lived in Southern California. There is no more offerings. But I said to Craig, we were in a rut. We ate the same places. We could have gone down to Laguna Beach, newport for dinner any night. We wanted to. Did we ever do it occasionally with friends, but not on a regular basis. Every once in a while I'd get a little antsy and we and we do a few things, but I find myself looking for it here. I'm already talked to Craig today about Our first bike ride when the weather turns better.

Speaker 1: 12:35

It did snow this week. We've had warm weather. It snowed twice this week. It's flurries one day and actual snow snow the other. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow and still be cool.

Speaker 1: 12:47

So, thinking about the bike ride when we take the bikes out of mothballs and this will be the first activity let's talk about bike riding. So I had seen that down south of us, here, south along the lake. Now, most of you know that the lake when you're in Chicago is Michigan Gigantic lake, size of an ocean, bigger than some oceans, and we have bike lanes all along the coastline and I would like to go down. I saw that there was this beautiful park in 10 free things to do in Chicago behind the Science and Industry Museum, and I wanna go down and explore that park. It's got water and waterfalls and whatnot. So that is. I've already started planning our bike trips. Now talking about biking.

Speaker 1: 13:41

If you choose to go back to biking, craig has a regular bike, his choice. It's a racing bike he's had forever. Very lightweight, great bike. Has these stupid cages. His feet get stuck all the time. He's fallen every time we've ridden on the bikes. Just an FYI, I personally bought myself a electric bike and I chose. So when you buy an electric bike, do your due diligence, look into it, look into what's out there, find out what's best for you.

Speaker 1: 14:12

What was best for me is I wanted flat foot technology, which means I could be sitting on my seat when I come to a stop. My feet will be flat on the ground. None of this tippy toe stuff. We ride in traffic because we ride. We're a block, block and a half from the lake, so we, in order to get there, I either need to walk the bike, which I don't enjoy doing. I will not ride on sidewalks with people. I think it's rude and I'm afraid I'm gonna hit somebody, and the other thing. So we always choose a one way street that heads towards the lake and we ride on that. So I wanted flat foot technology. The other thing I did not want, I did not wanna throttle, so mine is called pedal assist. So I have three levels of pedal assist, and a lot, a little bit more, or I mean a lot, a little bit less, or very little. And what pedal assist is is if I'm pedaling, it assists me. If I stop pedaling, it stops assisting. So there's none of this accidentally taking off, and for me, I could just see me ending up in the lake, which would not be fun. So I have a helmet. Craig chooses not to wear a helmet. Choice, we all make choices.

Speaker 1: 15:28

But if you haven't gotten out on a bike and you don't wanna invest in one, go down somewhere where they rent them. They rent them at local parks, they rent them all over the city here. Oh my gosh, they are everywhere. But give yourself a try. Now, one of the things I did learn about the electric bikes they are heavy and I thought we could just pop it on a bike rack. Well, that's not the case, they're too heavy. So our goal this year is my back seats fold down in my sedan, and I've been watching YouTube videos and I've told you about this. Youtube videos are awesome because I've actually looked up my car, honda Clarity, fitting two bikes in, and it's just a matter of taking off the front wheels, which is the easy wheel to take off, obviously, and so we're gonna figure that out this year so that we can get. There are so many forest preserves, there is so many beautiful places around Chicago to go ride your bike. It's unbelievable, and this year I want to explore some of those places and not just have it be on our bike paths here. There's a lot more to explore. So that's the first activity.

Speaker 1: 16:41

If you haven't done it, my thoughts are you should Try a new restaurant. You know we get into these resins, man. We were in it in California. I'm really actually disappointed in myself. When I first met Craig, he lived in Venice Beach and that was where our first home was, and we used to go to every new restaurant Beverly Hills, century City, you name it. We ate everywhere and I don't know how we got into such a rut, but we were. So this is me poking you with my stick, with my fork. Get out there and try some new restaurants. If you're single, start dating again. Put yourself out there. I know that's easy said than done.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Go shopping at thrift stores. You know you stay out of them all. So go to these thrift stores. Thrift stores are so much fun. My kids love thrifting Alex still loves thrifting and go to a thrift store. Find yourself a great 50s sweater, embellished sweater. Go find something unique, something different for your home. Another thing you can do is this is something I used to love to do.

Speaker 1: 18:04

I haven't done it so much here, but about once a year in my house I would take all of my accessories from all of the different rooms, mainly downstairs, and I'd put them on the dining table and I'd re-look at them, place them sometimes most of the time in new places. Some things would go back to where they were. But just doing that, having a fresh eye, because what happens is you get something, you get a candle, you get a this, you get a that and you fit it into what you have. Well, take all that stuff down, put it on your dining table, put it on your kitchen table and reimagine it. And take one of those thrift store finds and and fit it in somewhere. I saw something really cool. People were using old ashtrays. Okay, so think back. Remember when your parents had the giant crystal ashtray on the table with the matching lighter. Well, they're using those giant ashtrays as a water dish for a potted plant. What a great idea. I really thought that was super, super clever, using it as the saucer, and they were beautiful and I bet the thrift stores are full of them. So think about something like that. With the weather turning nice, go to one of these flea markets and spend an afternoon.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Plan a road trip. I love and they're all you know this. I love nothing more than a road trip. I'm already planning the one for next spring. We have too much going on this year to do another one. We already did one this year. We went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and then we went down to Pennsylvania and we went to Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Waters House. That was our road trip this year. Next year I want to my dad's from Minnesota. He's from Edina and I've never been there. I've been through Minnesota, I've stopped in places in Minnesota, but I want to take a road trip to Minnesota and I want to go to where my dad grew up. So that's my. I'm already planning my road trip. This is a good one.

Speaker 1: 20:12

Check out your local senior center. They'll have classes. They'll have all kinds of things to do. They might have something staying glass. There might be something. Just look at it and see if there's something you would like to do. I actually need to. I still, I had started taking Spanish and I want to go back to it and I was thinking I might find a Spanish class at the senior center again.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Take advantage of your landscape and where you live. If you're wherever you live, there's things to do, there's places to explore, there's waterfalls to go see, there's you name it, you have it. Get out there and explore. This is where. So I find a lot of my things online. But look at your, not your, newspaper. For special events, traveling is a given.

Speaker 1: 21:11

Okay, farmers markets are starting. I think our farmers markets here start at the end of April. Farmers markets are a blast. They're fun to go to go once a week. Get some produce, create a menu from it, look what's fresh, create your meals from that.

Speaker 1: 21:31

And, as long as we're talking about cooking, step out of your comfort zone with your cooking. Have you gotten in a rut with that too? You know I use hello fresh for two to three meals a week for Craig and I. I love it. Number one it gives you all your groceries. Number two you get to do the cooking and it tells you how to do it step by step. Love it. I have learned so much and I've tried a lot of the different cooking kits and I love hello fresh the most. And I do things. We do a lot of bowls. We've done, you know, like a burrito bowls. We've done sweet chili bowls, you name it. We've done it things that I never would have cooked before. It really helps you step out of your comfort zone with cooking.

Speaker 1: 22:16

I'm going to your local farmers market. You can find things and enjoy yourself. Find yourself a little dessert to have for that night's meal. Or we went this year to one of our farmers markets and we got sausages fresh made sausages. So think about that, think about how you're cooking, think about and I'll tell you, hello fresh is a great way to not have a lot of leftovers or leftover food. There's nothing worse than buying a little bag of potatoes because you want to do a pot roast and then you have potatoes left and then you have to have potatoes during the week. When you do the hello fresh, you use all of your groceries right there and it all comes to you. It's pretty awesome.

Speaker 1: 23:01

Have you been working out? Try something new. You guys know how I feel about that. If you're not in great shape, try chair exercises. Go right on YouTube. There's all kinds of chair exercises that you can do.

Speaker 1: 23:15

Join a gym. If you are on Medicare, find out which gyms in your area are free. I believe most. Medicare covers most of the planet fitness and if you have a supplement, they might cover different gyms. But how about a free gym membership? Pretty nice, right With your Medicare, and just go Go once a week.

Speaker 1: 23:48

Try something new. Try to juggle. Craig can juggle, he mastered that. But talk about help. Okay, my cat is like his own tail is freaking him out Sometimes. I wonder if he could feel it after he lost his leg back there. Anyways, he's like losing his mind with his tail right now. Learn to juggle. Helps with your hand-eye coordination. Do something fun.

Speaker 1: 24:16

Find a group that walks. You know there's women who walk here in Chicago and I've been following them on Instagram. I haven't gone on any other walk yet because last year I was afraid that I couldn't keep up, but this year I think I will. I can keep up now and I think it's called the Silver Sneakers Program. Silver Sneakers is the one that's with your Medicare. I believe is the name. Let's see if I have any other ideas before we All. Right, this is kind of interesting. So all of you know that I've been sober for 36 years and I would say my accountability group is AA, but there are different accountability groups out there If you're trying to get a handle on your eating. If you're trying there's all different kinds of things and if you want to surround yourself with people that feel the way you do, think the way that you do, look for an accountability group. You'll get motivation and you'll find support from them.

Speaker 1: 25:29

And the last thing I'm going to leave you with is get a massage. Oh my gosh, if you haven't gotten a massage in a long time, book yourself a massage. Find a massage school. That's where I get my massages here in Chicago, and it used to be three blocks up and now it's in the building that's attached to my building. It's awesome, and they are spectacular masseuses because they're in school. They're working hard, they're trying, they're learning all their techniques. I haven't had a bad massage yet. So that's my last thing I'm going to leave you with is get a massage. All right, hang in there.

Speaker 1: 26:02

And we're going to talk about our senior moment. Okay, so our senior moment today is if you have not gone yet, if you're not at retirement age yet, if you're one of my younger listeners, go to ssagov and get yourself a social security account. Make sure you don't click any boxes, though that says you only want information by snail mail, but go in and get it. It will give you a lot of information preparing for retirement, figuring out if you've got enough credits which most of you should have, unless, like some of my listeners I know, have government jobs and are paying into a separate pension. But make sure you look into that ssagov and get yourself an account. Get things set up.

Speaker 1: 26:50

I'll tell you, the government websites are super helpful. We're paying. We are paying a lot of people to create all this information online. I'll tell you one of the things if you put in creating a budget, there is a great link in our government's websites on how to set up a budget. So if you're looking at retiring and you're thinking about setting up a budget, that's another great thing to look for. But if you have not yet set up your ssagov account yet, go ahead and do that. It's going to give you information that's going to really help you towards those retirement years. And if you're already retired and receiving social security, it's a great you have access to that website. You should check on that website, get information from that website, check in now and again as things change, but make sure you get your social security site set up With that information. I bid you adieu, until next week. And you know what I always say A, g and E persist.