Happy Mother's Day | Interview with Alexa (S1, E3)

Dear Muir Rock Family,

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Nice weather today in Irvine! I’m at the dog park writing this post so Mayo gets some exercise. As I sit here on this green bench by myself, I am glad I’ve taught him my introverted ways:

Why am I so introverted and just want to do things on my own (w/ Mayo) or on 1:1?? I don’t know.

Happy Mother's Day!

I feel torn now with blogging and doing podcasts, as both take up time and time always seems very limited. But first, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I'm tempted to call everyone or send them a video message (my new favorites thing to do these days). Why call vs. get a gift? I guess just don't think most of the moms I know need more stuff, well at least stuff I can think of giving. I really like to just tell people how I feel and appreciate them since life is short and I don't want to have any regrets. Anyways, if you need a call or video message, just let me know.

Life really is precious. I'm so thankful that my mom is still here with us on this earth and her willingness to drive out to Irvine to have lunch today at her favorite hot pot place:

Speaking of Hot Pot, Melody reminded me the other day (at hot pot) that it’s a bummer we go to hot pot so often without Teri. Reminds me how I always buy flowers now for myself and go on way more walks with Mayo then I did when Teri was around. It’s OK.

Afterwards, I took her at my stepdad shopping at Grocery Outlet. What do you get someone who has everything they need? Ice. Lots of it. Since it will eventually melt, no worries about taking up extra space in the garage. I splurged. I got her 96 lbs.

Just kidding Mom. I held onto the ice to support my ice bath stuff. Generic "why you should Ice bath" podcast episode coming up In the near future.

My Random Update

Since I talk to most of you reading the blog, this probably won't be news to many of you.

TLDR: I'm pretty darn happy these days. Lots of reasons. I am also off the anti-depressant I was taking since December of last year. I will attribute my better mood to “no online dating” and leave it at that :)

The only first world problem I have is that I just feel more busy and exhausted than usual. It’s mostly work stuff and all this last minute training for the Chattanooga 70.3. After this post I'll need to head to the pool. Thank God the race has a downstream swim and I'm somewhat familiar with the area because of the race I did with Teri. Let's hope the current is flowing and the race is wetsuit legal (I am terrible at floating).

Grocery Trip @ Podcast Recording with Dad

What I can't seem to forget about was what happened during the time at the grocery with my dad and Mayo (two weeks ago):

Mayo doesn't seem to enjoy the grocery as much as the dog park

It was another great Sunday since I took the afternoon to record a podcast with him. He’s quite a character. Let’s just say that I’ll need to do a lot of editing or just re record the whole thing…

For now, I’ll share one clip from his former colleague that we ran into. She was so delighted to see him:

This was an encouraging reminder that no matter how difficult Dad can be (especially now), he’s literally saved thousands of lives in the hospital. And so many people admire and respect him. His work is way more exciting than making PowerPoint slides and Excel Spreadsheets. At least to me.

Unfortunately my dad didn't even know her name, as he's worked with so many nurses and hospital staff over his 45 year career. He’s also getting older and has been more and more forgetful :(

After the recording, I had a nice talk with her about Teri and why I'm doing these podcasts. Another person I could have spent a while talking to, but of course we were both busy with our Sundays and couldn't chat for long.

The big moment for me that day was going from being really happy about having a great Sunday (bike ride, church, podcast with dad, nice weather, etc.) to feeling very sad when I saw these drinks on the shelf:

I felt like huge jolt from being on the emotional roller coaster I didn't even think I was on anymore. That is what happens with grief. And no point in trying to "plan" or put a timeline to it. This will keep happening, even if I end up getting married again.

I thought of Teri and how thrilled she would be to see these drinks. When she gets excited when she sees these things, she gets really happy. She would have made me buy a bunch of them. I almost wanted to cry in the store.

Why these drinks? Teri loved Georgia and peach colored stuff. A lot.

Peach related pictures from our old house. She literally painted her office peach colored :)

I also felt discouraged because it felt like I spent the whole day not even thinking about Teri. This is actually how it's been for the last few weeks, feeling really good about life and then being reminded about Teri and feeling a bit of sadness. I still really miss her. I even thought about putting my wedding ring again. I can't figure out how to "move forward" without "moving on."

Thankfully I was by myself as my dad was with Mayo doing his own thing. I took a minute to collect myself in the store and get to a place of thankfulness. I get to still experience these emotional roller coasters in the first place. I then bought 4 of the drinks, and have been drinking them when I don’t want to drink water. They’re pretty good! I’ll probably buy some more tomorrow when I see my dad.

May 2 = Teri’s 13 Month Death Anniversary

What really got me thinking was that for the first time since Teri passed away, I forgot her death anniversary. I guess 13 months isn’t as significant as Months 1-12. It just caught me really off guard when I realized this truth on May 4. I felt a bit of guilt and fear that I was starting to forget about her, but then reminded myself:

• Like when Teri went to Korea, she’s having a blast in heaven and is very happy for me no matter what I do.

• Perhaps she’s forgotten about me from time to time since she knows I’m in a good place.

• I want to keep blogging, podcasting, and write a book because I’m still inspired by her story.

• I’ll see her again. Thank you Jesus.

I’ll end this update with something more fun. In searching for “peach” in my google photos, her Tik Tok post of me always makes me laugh:

I am glad I have the rest of today to myself. Anyways, if anyone wants to still talk about Teri or the book I’m working on, please let me know.

Interview with Alexa (S1, E3)

I am finally done with episode 3! Episodes 4-6 are recorded but not ready. The possibilities of future guests are endless since I know so many amazing people that are willing to be on the podcast. Thank you everyone!

Fun Fact: 90% of podcasts don’t make it to episode 3. Not sure if this is really true? I’ll take it.

I was actually going to delay posting this episode since it's not really considered urgent, but since I have a race next week I felt like it would be appropriate.

Please meet Alexa Lee! I met her for the first time yesterday. I’m so inspired by her and glad I have this recorded to share with everyone.

For those that enjoy endurance events, there's a lot of good tips regarding training and racing in this episode. Here it is:

Huge Shoutout to my friend Gavin at Zander Z Project for the quick turnaround on the video editing! Reach out to him for any video editing needs.

I recorded a short intro about the future of "Muir Rock" and what I’m hoping to cover in future blog posts and podcasts. Stuff we talked about at E40:

This all came to mind after I recorded the episode. While Alexa mainly talked about showing resilience and perseverance, there’s a lot more I learned about her when we had lunch about her calling and being content with her life stage. In summary, the Muir Rock podcast is about embracing life's challenges with patience, resilience, and humility.

I know I know, I have tons to work on regarding patience and resilience, but at least I have the humility part figured out by a mile. Please don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel, just click on the picture and hit the subscribe button. Short term goal: Get to 500 followers before Helen.

What was most interesting is getting to meet someone new that had enough trust in me to come over and do a podcast episode. I was actually pessimistic the whole time with her even coming over, up until she showed up. What if she wasn't even real?? Anyways, I'm thankful that Alexa finds me to be "normal" and was willing to come over.

Other things worth noting about my time with Alexa was our brief discussions about Teri, grief, and mental health. I felt like we could have talked a lot longer about these subjects. I didn't want to turn the short time we had together to be all about me like I tend to do with people that are willing to listen. Maybe next time.

That’s all for today. Thank you Alexa for being such a great guest! And thank you all for reading and watching, especially if you made it all the way to the end! As a thank you, you can have a free $7.00 Mayo sticker if you head over to my store use the coupon code "MAYOBURS" when checking out.

Erwin