Tag: #CTBlogger

My Clean Living Life Part VIII

My Clean Living Life series  has been maintenance driven lately.  I stopped drinking wine back in 2020 at the onset of the Covid Pandemic so outside of an occasional mocktail, it’s strictly water, juice, black coffee and Snapple Zero Sugar Iced Tea for me…

 

 

 

I no longer smoke cigarettes nor have I ever done drugs so to address it now would be a moot point…

 

 

 

It’s getting coolish now that we are well into the month of October in Connecticut so instead of Grilled Chicken and veggie filled Summer salads for lunch, I’m digging into hearty soups with protein and crusty breads.  Also lots of  plant based foods which I have grown to love.

 

 

I still work out regularly at OrangeTheory Fitness Center in Hamden (5 mornings a week at 5am) so my energy levels are on point.

 

 

I’m reading fiction now and watching less TV, which helps keep my mind feeling whimsical and fancy free.

 

 

I attend church services every Sunday morning at 1030am online via YouTube (my church home is Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church in Hamden, CT where the pastor is Keith A. King).  This helps me stay centered, grounded and not take myself too seriously.

 

 

And lastly, with the recent onslaught of illnesses amongst people my age and older, I have been paying extra attention to my body and any signs coming from it so I don’t fall victim to medical emergencies.

 

 

Take good care of yourselves.

 

 

TVFL

 

My Current Situation Part XV

I did not plan on writing in My Current Situation series so soon because I wanted to wait until I had my hearing test and the results had come back and I wanted to wait for the appointment with my APRN to review the results of my 30 day’s worth of blood pressure pills (to see if I truly had a blood pressure problem).  However, 3 days ago I had an eye emergency which changed everything.

 

 

To play it back, in 2024  (2 years ago) I called my eye doctor’s office to schedule an eye exam for the first time since the Covid Pandemic of 2020.  I made this eye appointment because I was seeing floaters in my right eye, “small specks, dots, circles, lines, or cobwebs in your field of vision – although floaters appear to be in front of the eye, they are actually floating in the vitreous fluid inside the eye.”  The eye care doctor’s  office front desk receptionist asked what took me so long to schedule an eye appointment and I told her in all transparency that no one in their office had pinged me since the onset of the 2020 Pandemic and I hadn’t honestly really thought about my eye health.  My bad…

 

 

As it turned out the eye appointment I had in 2024 for the floaters in my right eye was not at all that serious because after my eye was dilated, the eye doctor was able to see that all I needed for these floaters were prescription eye drops.

 

 

Now 2 years later in this scenario the floaters (a long black curly string) were in my left eye and more of a nuisance than anything else.  On the second day this piece of curly black string had turned into tiny black dots which appeared one at a time but were forming a starry sky.  My inner voice urged me to call the eye doctor.  I originally wasn’t going to call because I thought this is what happened before and the remedy was eye drops but something said, Call.  So I called and told the eye care doctor’s office front desk receptionist what happened and she said she needed to speak with the clinician because they may ask you to come in today and I said why can’t it wait until Monday and she said if its a retina tear, which it sounds like it could be, we would be condoning you not coming in which could lead to a bigger problem.  Sure enough the clinician called me back within 5 minutes and said I needed to come in as soon as possible.  They scheduled my appointment on that same day for 1245p.  I reluctantly cancelled an upcoming client lunch at Solun Restaurant in Woodbridge with one of my favs and went to the eye doctor’s office in Hamden, CT.

 

 

After getting and A-cing an initial eye test my left eye was then dilated so the eye doctor could examine it.  What he discovered unfortunately were 2 retinal tears in my left eye!  He told me and the technician that this was a very serious case and it would need to be dealt with today.  He asked the technician to have the front office girls call around to see which eye surgeon could get me in on a Friday.  The only office that had an opening (or was even open on a Friday) was in Trumbull, CT which is only 25 minutes away (with no traffic) from Hamden but it was a Friday…so traffic central…

 

 

 

I drove myself home to North Haven so that James, my partner in love could drive me to the eye surgeon’s Trumbull office.  It was crowded there with mostly middle-aged and elderly people.  I filled out the necessary paperwork and was seen by a technician within a half hour.  My left eye was dilated and afterwards another technician examined me then sent me back to the waiting room.  The longest wait was getting in to see the eye surgeon who had multiple eye surgeries stacked up in front of mine.

 

 

 

I tried to read and send text messages to kill time but my vision was too blurry from the recent dilation and my eye felt heavy.

 

 

This is how much time we still had, James was able to go eat lunch and make it back before I even got into see the eye surgeon (smile).

 

Ignorance is bliss though because I can honestly say had I known what was coming up, I probably would have bolted from the waiting room.  Not for nothing, the eye surgeon did explain what he was going to do to numb the left eye but I don’t think I grasped the severity of it even when I saw him in front of me with a long needle in his hand.  I will not share pictures of this scene because they are not pleasant to look at.  I will say that having had a literal needle in my eye caused me to feel nauseous and limp with pain. Even though the poking seemed to go on forever, the next process, which was the my left eye literally being exposed over and over and over again to a blinding light, made me feel like I was going to vomit for sure.  My head was splitting from this light and at one point, as the doctor promised, I could only see black where my left eye was situated which was real scary.  But even with only seeing black out of the left eye, I could still feel the pain from the constant exposure to the blinding light.  The surgeon told me the only way he could fix these retinal tears were to “solder” them together.  He also told me I may down the road wind up with the same issue in my right eye…

 

Hoping this is an OTO experience for sure!

 

That’s not anything I want to even think about right now.  I’m just taking it one day at a time.

 

 

It’s post-surgery now.  I’m home with a splitting headache and a left eye ache.  I can do things around the house and I will work from home on my laptop a day or two but thankfully I’m not too too bad off.   My eye surgeon said I will still experience floaters for the first 2 weeks and then 2 weeks after that I should be all healed.  I should take Tylenol for pain and not lift anything over 10 pounds.  I will go back and see him in his Hamden office at that point.

 

 

A word to the wise:  If you are middle-aged and happen to see floaters or flashes which they say are common as we age, please do get yourself checked out immediately.   Let the professionals tell you whether or not these black lines or cobwebs or flashes or dots are serious.  I for one am fortunate that I listened to my inner voice on that fateful Friday afternoon or I might not be writing this blog post as we speak…

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

TVFL

 

My Current Situation Part XIV

It’s Hotter than July in the smallish state of Connecticut and right now the  residents are inhaling smoke from the Canadian and Minnesota wildfires.  Chief Meteorologist Gil Simmons from News Channel 8 in New Haven, CT has been delivering the “Smoke Index” all this week so folks will take the dimmed sunlight seriously.   When I’m outside my eyes feel like I am wearing yellow rose colored glasses (smile).  But seriously I would much rather be in this position where we are only mildly affected by the smoke as opposed to living in a part of a state or country that’s quite literally on fire…yikes!

 

Are these sunglasses really yellow rose colored?!?

 

The other strange phenomenon this month is that suddenly eating lettuce, some fresh produce, vegetables and herbs has become risky business.  Wait, what?!?

 

I live for my once-a-week salad with protein (smile)

 

By consuming these foods you may come down with Cyclosporiasis which is caused by a parasite that is found in the above mentioned foods.   To combat catching Cyclosporiasis, we are being asked to wash our fruits and vegetables thoroughly or cook our vegetables at high levels of heat to kill the parasite.  Otherwise we may wind up on the toilet for an inexplicable amount of time (smile).

 

My iPhone goes with me everywhere (smile)

 

Gas in Connecticut is a tiny bit below $4.00 a gallon which is not saying much considering it averaged just $3.15 a gallon this time last year.  The  job market is dependent on what industry you are in.  Healthcare is booming but in the media industry jobs continue to fall by the wayside due to mergers and acquisitions.   I am so thankful and blessed that I have been working in the media industry now for almost 40 years so things for me are starting to wind down…

 

 

Health wise I just found out from my new APRN (no more Primary Care doctors now, just APRNs as apparently they are more plentiful in Connecticut) that I have high blood pressure so she prescribed Amlodipine (5mg a day for 30 days) at the end of which we will see whether I can stop taking the pills altogether or continue on for an indefinite period of time.  This diagnosis came out of an Echocardiogram test that I received as part of my full physical a month and a half ago.  It showed that I may have leaky heart valves.  Keep in mind that this is no doubt a family medical history diagnosis as this girl works out 5 days a week at Orangetheory Fitness Center in Hamden, CT, she quit drinking wine 6 years ago, she doesn’t indulge in drugs, she quit smoking cigarettes 30+ years ago and she eats clean most days (smile).

 

My heart feels fine to me (smile)

 

Here’s where I’m at hobby wise:  In my last blog post I mentioned that I had taken up reading non-fiction books for the Summer and after reading Elin Hildebrand’s Paradise series I promptly booked a trip to St. Thomas, USVI with my partner in love (smile).   So now I just finished reading Kennedy Ryan’s Hollywood Renaissance series and I could not, for the life of me, put these books down!  Ryan’s writing is so relatable and I learn so much about a new health issue every time I read one of her books.   She is truly an award-winning author!

 

Reading is still my jam!

 

Other than that I am living my life, trying not to take myself too seriously and keeping in touch with my loved ones as no one is promised anything, most of all time.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

TVFL

Before my entry into the media Industry

In my latest blog post Back to Broadcast Media Sales! of the Broadcast and Media Industry series,  I ended with how much the media industry has changed over the past 35+ years and how it continues to evolve due to the impact of  the internet and streaming channels.  You should really read the aforementioned blog post before you continue with this one…

 

 

But I need to back up now because my real beginning in the Media industry was at the tender age of 22 at a community led public broadcast TV station in Bridgeport, CT.

I graduated from college back in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Media Studies from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.  Media Studies was an interesting field because we were taught a little bit about different media industries such as Public Relations, Television, Radio, Newspaper, Magazines and Photography.  It was just enough to peak your interest in what you might want to pursue further.  In my case I was fascinated my both Broadcast Television and Broadcast Radio.

However, once I earned my college degree, I continued to work the next 3 to 4 months in the same sales support position I held in college.  It was at a Bridgeport, CT financial services firm.  I also continued with my internship from the Summer before where I worked at a Bridgeport, CT Public Broadcasting TV station for a Minister from a local African American Baptist church.  Minister John and I collaborated on this gospel TV show called Lifeline Gospel Videos.  He was the host of  the show and I was responsible for interviewing gospel artists over the telephone, writing up and editing their biographical stories and broadcasting these stories on air in 2 to 3 minute increments.  My segment was called Bio-Line Gospel Videos. And it took me all week long to write, create, produce and serve as the talent for one segment.  This was back in the 80s so the videos stories were saved on Betacam and converted to VHS for home use.  Working on these video stories with the gospel artists was truly a labor of love.  I am particularly fascinated by everyday peoples’ stories and I also love to share them with others so this opportunity was Win/Win.   What wasn’t Win/Win was that this was an internship so I did not get paid one thin dime and as much as I loved my job, it did not pay the rent or the bills so consequently when it came time to put in my notice to the financial services firm so I had time to devote to the field I just earned a degree in, I quickly shed the public broadcasting TV station internship as well.

In my mind I was still on the right track though as the goal post college was to gain as much experience in the media industry as possible so by starting early with the Public Broadcasting TV gig, I had a little leg up on building my resume.  I called myself being “paid in experience” so I could command a certain salary for when I entered the field of Media.  In my opinion, back in the 80s, the media industry was like a closed fist.  There were lots and lots of people looking to get in and very few openings.  So it took a lot to pry open that “fist” and receive an open position (and this was both behind the scenes and in front of the scenes) as the demand exceeded the supply.  And this was at a time where the pay scale in Media (especially for behind the scenes positions) was extremely low but this did not deter people from trying to get into what was perceived as the “glamour field.”

 

 

As I mentioned, post college was when I discovered that living in Bridgeport, CT was not working for me anymore as I needed to be closer to a TV station and the closest,  WTNH “Action News 8,” was located in New Haven, CT.  As luck with have it, my sister Casandra and her husband Alfredo were living in New Haven, CT at the time.  They had not yet purchased their forever home in Ledyard, CT so they were living in a large 2 bedroom apartment in the Edgewood neighborhood.  I asked Casandra (since my plans of moving to the Washington, DC area after college and working in Media recently imploded) if I could stay with her and Alfredo until I got on my feet and they both graciously agreed.  I stayed with the two of them all Summer long rent free while looking for work as well as looking for an apartment.  Casandra was instrumental in finding me my first apartment, a Studio apartment on Whitney Avenue in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven, CT.   The rent was $375 a month plus utilities for essentially one large room with a teeny tiny kitchenette, a teeny tiny dining area and a separate full bathroom.  I bought a tiny dining table and chairs for the dining area, a daybed for the living area because it served the dual purpose of a couch in the daytime and a bed at night.  The kitchenette was way too small to fit in any furniture.  Oh and yes, housing was very affordable back then and this unit was perfect for me (smile).

My apartment was located right on a bus line which was ideal because my car had died on the Merritt Parkway earlier that Summer and I really had no other way to get around.

As far as work, I chose to register with an employment agency so I could make money while focusing on finding a job in Media.  Right after registering, I was sent by the agency the following day to Easter Seals Goodwill Industries in New Haven, CT to work as a Job Coach.  As it turned out, the supervisors and Administrators loved me so much that they tried to convince me to stay and make a career of it.  I made it clear to them that I was on a mission to break into the Media industry and nothing was going to get in my way (smile).  I liked everyone there and I believed in their mission but not working in media was not an option (double smile).

 

 

As luck would have it, a few months down the road I spied a Want Ad in the Classifieds section of the New Haven Register newspaper for a Local Sales Assistant at WTNH Action News 8!   I was overqualified so of course I got the job (smile).

 

 

I was elated.  This was my first entry into Broadcast Media as well as my first real paying job in the Broadcast Media industry so life was good – for reference please read My Entry into Broadcast Media Sales.

 

 

In the next entry of the Broadcast and Media industry blog post series I will chat about the differences between working in the sales departments of Print Media, Broadcast TV and Broadcast Radio stations.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

TVFL

 

Don’t Call Me A Senior!

We are roughly one month away from the end of the year – another year flying by way too quickly.  And, as it turns out, my birthday (Valentine’s Day which falls on the second holiday of the New year) is quickly approaching.  So I will turn 64 years old on February 14th, 2026 God willing.  Which brings me to my dilemma.  I don’t consider myself a Senior Citizen.  And I say it with a straight face (smile).

 

 

Technically speaking  I am not yet a Senior Citizen since the state of Connecticut defines a Senior Citizen as a state resident who is 65 years or older in terms of program eligibility like Social Security, Property Tax Relief, Medicare and other state aid.

 

Don’t call me a Senior!

 

There are, however, some programs and/or services in the state of Connecticut which consider 55 as the starting age.  As a matter of fact 13 years ago when I turned 50, AARP had the nerve to send me an unsolicited membership card!   I tossed it in the trash (smile).  Clearly they had confused me with my next door neighbor who, at that time in my life, was most certainly a Senior Citizen (smile).

 

I am not my next door neighbor

 

Another thing.   My name Le Jeune means ‘The Young’ in French so that might have something to do with my age obsession (smile).   True story:  While reading Jet magazine, my late mother Jean found my name attached to a very popular African American model who had just won an award in Cannes, France.  The model’s name was Le Jeune Hundley and, as it turned out, she traveled to France because it was easier for a black woman from the United States to find modeling work in France then it was in the U.S.  At any rate my mother loved the name, but changed the first E to an A, dropped the capital in J, closed the letters together and Voila! named me (her 5th daughter) after this model.  Here is a picture of Le Jeune Hundley on the cover of Jet magazine:

 

By the way her name was misspelled here by Jet Magazine…

 

Another concern of mine is that scientists have identified the 5 stages of the human brain and 66 (or the mid-60s) is when the so-called Early Aging phase begins.  This is the phase when people face increased risk for a variety of health conditions that can affect the brain, such as hypertension.  Hence why I wake up 5 days a week at the crack of dawn (430am) to work out from 5am to 6am at  Orangetheory Fitness in Hamden.  I’m usually one of the oldest members in my class but I can still keep up with everyone (smile).

 

I am truly an Early Bird

 

And also why I (as of the Covid Pandemic of 2020) completely cut alcohol (in my case – Wine) out of my life and continue to work very hard to eat clean and nutritious meals.  It can be harsh (especially around the holidays) so I allow myself to cheat from time to time. Like the other day when I went with my girlfriends Sherry and Thais to see Wicked 2 at the Cinemark movie theater and  treated myself to a Medium popcorn with extra movie theater butter (smile).

 

 

I truly believe life is for living and I have reiterated it as much in more than one of my previously written blog posts.  I will continue to not act my age and just enjoy life to the fullest.  So unless I am getting a serious Senior Citizen discount, you will not know when I am in fact a Senior Citizen.

 

I will be a selective Senior Citizen (smile)

 

Sincerely,

 

 

TVFL