Welcome to the March 2023 Ultimate Coffee Date. Deborah and I enjoy hosting this monthly link up to foster friendship, camaraderie, and encouragement. Pour yourself a cup, pull up a chair, and let us know what is going on in your life.
You know how this works—grab the badge, link your post, and comment on the other blogs in the link-up.
You also may be joining the Fit Five Friday Link-Up with Darlene, Michelle, Renée, Jenn, and Zenaida.
Marching To The Ultimate Coffee Date
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I finally am jumping on the collagen bandwagon—or at least reluctantly crawling on it. I am so frustrated with my fragile fingernails I am desperate to try anything—including collagen.
I’m not gonna lie, the thought of where it comes from sort of nauseates me. If I notice a difference in my nails I’ll have to make a decision whether it’s worth it or not. For now, I’m taking a hint from Wendy and adding a scoop to my coffee.
If we were having coffee, I might tell you about epic travel fail I committed booking my trip to California. I first booked my trip with a return on Thursday, but then learned that I could fit in a client meeting on Friday before catching a red eye home. United still doesn’t have change fees (yay!), so I made that change—or so I thought.
At the final conference breakfast Friday morning people were talking about their flights home and I realized I hadn’t got a check in reminder. I opened the United app and to by horror saw that when I changed my return I accidentally changed it to March 3 instead of February 3.
You can do a lot of things on the United app, but apparently you can’t change to a flight a month earlier on the desired day of travel. I left breakfast shaking with nerves and called customer service. They were able to rebook me on a red eye that night, although I had to pay the astronomical fare difference. Since even that would cost less than another night at my hotel, I bit the bullet. As much as I hate the cumbersome process of using our travel agent, this experience showed me that maybe they can do a better job than me. 😉
If we were having coffee, I would change the topic to happier things and show you the fabulous puzzle I finished in February—just before we went skiing. Wasn’t it the perfect theme?
Yes, all those snowy pieces were hard!
If we were having coffee, I would ask you about your roadtrip style? My preference is to drive straight through with minimal stops—packing food to eat in the car. On our drive to Vermont we made three stops—one at the first Maryland House on 95 (the price of our morning coffee), one at the first rest stop on 87 in New York, and one at the last rest stop on 87 (to get gas)—the one I think of as the I ❤️ NY rest stop.
It was February 13, but I convinced my husband to take this Valentine’s photo.
After all, it was an official Photo Opportunity.
What would you tell me over coffee?
Have you ever totally botched travel reservations?
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
I hate car travel (and so does my body), so we always fit in pit stops for snacks, potty breaks & meals… and simply to just stretch the legs. That ski puzzle was timely! I agree, collagen kind of creeps me out as well. I’ve tried a couple different brands and they all have a weird taste (even though they advertise they’re “tasteless”). Yuck!
Oh noooo, I’m so sorry to hear that! 🙁 I’m glad you were able to change it to what you needed, but boo on the fare difference — that sounds like a nightmare!
My road trips have typically been packed with stuff to do along the way (e.g. cross country national park tour, Pacific Northwest road trip), but if I just needed to get from point A to point B and there were no distractions in between, I’d likely try to do it in as little stops as possible!
We don’t do car trips often but when we do we try to push straight through. Yikes on the flight booking mistake. Love that fun puzzle!
Oh no on the travel snafu! I’m glad it all worked out. That definitely would be anxiety provoking.
My husband is a drive straight through and I’m a stop and smell the roses. It’s kinda a problem. Frankly I usually win (to some degree).
Great puzzle!
As much as I’d love to keep plowing through on road trips, I know how important it is to stop frequently for walk breaks. When I drive alone, I drink lots of water to force more frequent stops. 😉
Hah! That’s one way to do it. Coffee is another. 😉
That is quite a travel faux pas! We had something kind of similar when we booked my son’s tickets this past Thanksgiving- SOMEHOW we put the return flight on the wrong day- don’t ask me why no one noticed this- but luckily it was earlier, so we were alerted the day before when he got a notification to check in for his flight. What??? His flight’s not till Sunday! Oops. We had to pay a fee to change it but it wasn’t too bad.
I’m with you on the road trip style- when we drive to Texas, my son and I pack breakfast, lunch and dinner to eat in the car. Then we try to limit stops to rest areas along the highway just to use the bathroom and stretch a little.
I love that puzzle! But all those white pieces might put me over the edge. You are a serious puzzler.
It was harder than I thought it would be, but not quite impossible.
I am all for official photo stops but I really don’t like car trips. Philly is about as far as I go! I get too antsy, and have to pee too much. Oops on the airline travel snafu. I would also not take a red eye bc I would just be miserable the next day. I know you are used to early wakeups but nope. United is pretty good about changing flights. You must have high status by now?
I have not gotten on collagen bc of where it comes from but people love it! It’s one of the things you can add to protein powder but I did not do it
I’m glad you were able to resolve the travel snafu! I’m sure the fare difference was crazy!
I prefer to just power through a road trip but being in the car for too long makes my hip oh so cranky so a break or two to stretch is usually the wiser choice.
I’ll be honest I see more of a difference with my hair when it comes to collagen than I do my nails. Curious to hear how it goes for you.
Well, my hair needs help too, so maybe I’ll get something out of it. 😉
I just read a study about collagen that might help you stay on the bandwagon: https://www.trailrunnermag.com/training/theres-new-evidence-that-collagen-might-help-your-tendons/ . I hope WP doesn’t flag me as spammy!!!
Travel is a challenge no matter how you slice it! My trip out to California took half a day because of all kinds of glitches. But I’m heeeereeee!
I have made similar travel blunders more often than I’d like to admit!
I like to stop and my husband doesn’t so we usually do it his way b/c he’s the main driver. LOL.
Lol. I know those rest stops and that sign.
It’s easy to make a snafu when using an app. Glad it worked out
I would prefer to get some place. But I don’t drive far much.
Nice puzzle.
I bet you do know those rest stops!
Cute photo! Thats funny that you started college. I actually just started too bc my nails are so brittle. I’d love to see a difference. We will see. Keep us posted on your thoughts.
You too!
Oh no! I once booked tour tickets for the wrong date but that was an easy fix.
I love road trips. I like to leave at like 4AM, and then drive as far as we can. I don’t care if we bring food or get food on the road, but I must have my Starbucks iced coffee.
Love that Valentine’s picture of you two!
I expect you will see a change for the better in your nails from using collagen. I’ve been using it every morning and I hope that it’s doing something for my Achilles.
Road trips! I must be the worst road-tripper ever! Hate every minute of it. I love your NY photo! Perfect for Valentine’s Day!!
I tried collagen for a while but I also really cringe at the source. I hope it helps you! I decided to just get my nails done by my original nail lady from 14 years ago and now Im pretty much in it for the long haul!
That’s a really epic travel fail!! Reminds me of when I thought we were going to be flying home on the last Friday of our Boston trip, so I spent the whole day Thursday with my cousin, at the beach, at the movies, having a great dinner, etc. Turns out my flight was on THURSDAY but I arrived back in the Netherlands on FRIDAY. DOH!! I wondered why I got a check in mail so early… Fortunately it only cost us $75 each to rebook to the Friday flight.
We are bring your own snacks but stop often car travelers. Both of us have too many issues with sitting for a long time so we stop, walk around a bit, get an espresso and then hit the road again. Our max driving time is around 7 hours per day. Once we did 12 hours in one go back from France and were pretty tired, stressed and in pain from that endeavour. We do have quite a lot of vacation days here, so for us it’s worth it to add a couple days for traveling if we are going by car.
My flight difference was more than $75 ….
This drive was about 8 hours. I won’t say that’s my limit, but it’s the longest I’ll plan for to allow for traffic.
I use that same brand of collagen. I will not look to find out where it comes from. I just know that my nails grow very fast!
So sorry about your flight mixup – I haven’t done a lot of traveling by plane since COVID and I’m always worried I’ll make a mistake or forget something important!
Vermont is so nice, I’d love to go back again! We drove up from Philly and it wasn’t too bad of a drive, but to be fair, my husband usually does most of the driving!
Thank you for hosting us!