Babbles Nonsense
Welcome to my verbal diary where I want to discuss any and all things that is essentially on my mind or have wondered about. Sometimes I will be solo and then other times I will have some amazing guests to bring all different perspectives in life. The ultimate goal is to hopefully bring some joy, laughter, inspiration, education, and just maybe a little bit of entertainment. Don't forget to like, rate, and share the podcast with a friend!
Babbles Nonsense
Snow Days and MRIs in New York City
#162: This episode features a hilarious and candid recounting of recent life updates, including adventures in New York City filled with Broadway shows, unexpected weather, and a health-related MRI scan. Through light-hearted anecdotes and reflections on personal well-being, I invite listeners to find humor and insight amid life's unpredictability.
Join me as I recount a magical but very cold day in Central Park, Broadway shows, delicious foods, and a speak-easy when visiting NYC recently. I also discuss my Prenuvo MRI scan and adventures of traveling alone in NYC.
With a dose of humor, I'll recount a hilarious book club night that ended in an unplanned fast and share the bittersweet joy of Broadway, where not every show delivered a standing ovation. There's a brief nod to the political climate too, but we'll keep that discussion for another time.
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What is up everyone? Welcome back to a whole new episode of the Bible's Nonsense Podcast. Today is just going to be some life updates traveling that I have done recently, this crazy-ass weather and so forth and so forth. So if you wanna know what I've been up to, this is the episode for you. So so, all right guys, welcome back. Happy Tuesday. I hope you all have made it past January.
Johnna :I know there was a lot of memes online talking about how January felt like I had 72 days, and boy ain't that the truth. If you are not in the United States, I know I have some out of the country listeners. It is a shit storm over here. I'm not a very political person. I do not like to debate things, but I will say I did not vote for him. I will say that I'm going to say that I'll stand by that. This is my podcast. I'm allowed to say whatever I want, but no, I just really do not want to get into the politics of it all because I just mentally don't have the capacity for it right now. And with what's going on, with all the policies and the changes and whatnot, I truly feel like you have to have the mental capacity to be prepared for someone somewhere trying to debate you on how you feel and whatnot, and it goes both ways. I'll say that I'm just not mentally in that space. All I can say right now is I did not vote for our current president and that's where I'll leave the politics on this episode.
Johnna :Maybe one day I will do an episode on my stance and talk about it a little bit more and I know I probably should use my platform for that. But I want it to be very well thought out. I don't want it to be just where I get on here and babble like I do with random episodes, like I'm doing today. I want it to be well thought out. I want my stance to be known. I want it to be an educated and informed podcast. So maybe I'll try to get someone who is more politically you know, renowned, I guess you could say on the episode and we could talk about it a little bit easier. Because when I do solo episodes I'm just shooting the shit and I'm just sitting down. There's no form, there's no questions, there's no honestly thought that goes behind it. So I want that to be if I ever sit down and do a political podcast. That's what I want it to be. But if you want to hear a funny story before we even start talking about anything in this episode, I had vacation January 17th through the 22nd in New York City, which we're going to talk about in this episode, and then I ended up hosting our book club recently and I was just, I guess, so tired that I had ordered some food afterwards and I had a couple of mimosas and I sat down at six o'clock and I had ordered some food.
Johnna :It was ready to be delivered at 630 per the app. Somehow in between fell asleep. I don't even remember being tired. I don't even remember falling asleep, but I remember waking up an hour and a half later and being like oh shit, my food it's outside. Who does that? Like I'm so old, I'm like a granny, but I love it. I love being at home, I love being on my couch. It is what it is. But now we're going to start the episode.
Johnna :But I know a lot of y'all have reached out asking for house updates because I haven't mentioned it in several episodes. I still, unfortunately, cannot talk about it yet. Just not yet. That whole story is coming, I promise. Yeah, that story is coming.
Johnna :It was interesting going through this winter with half your walls down. My electric bill is probably the most it's ever been in my entire life living in this house for the past four years, but I'm sure everyone's is, I'm assuming because half my walls are down and my emergency heat was running a lot that that's why my electric bill was so expensive. Who knows? I'm just you know, that's my assumption. I'm not. I'm not an electrician, I'm not a contractor, but I would assume that, speaking of the weather, it's been hella crazy here in Alabama. I don't know about everywhere else in the United States or outside the United States. I mean, I know it's been crazy in LA, and then all this crazy weather like the fires in LA, the hurricane that happened in North Carolina, and then this extreme winter wonderland that happened where we got down to like 10 degrees.
Johnna :So we actually traveled to New York. I finally took a vacation from January 17 to the 22. And surprisingly it was colder, temperature wise, in Alabama than it was in New York, which was crazy to me. But then we did get to experience snow for one day in New York City, which was really cool. We went to Central Park to obviously see that and it was just very cool to see, like in the city, you know, I mean because we don't get to see a lot of snow anyways. In Alabama it snows every you know few years, and this year we actually had a really big snow. It only lasted for like a day, but it was just cool to be in New York City and have that experience.
Johnna :Other things that we did in New York City that I really found exciting and cool was going to Broadway. Obviously, if you go to New York City, that's where most people go. We saw three shows One I don't know if it's considered a show and I'm going to talk about that but the two shows that we saw on Broadway was, um, it was called All In, and that one, to me, my personal experience, it was just okay for me because there wasn't a lot of movement. So, basically and this is going to be spoiler alert so if you're going to New York City or you know the off-Broadway I don't know if it's off-Broadway, but they come to your town or whatever, or whatever it's called the traveling Broadway um, this will be spoiler alerts but, um, we saw All In and it's four actors and actresses or three.
Johnna :So three actors, one actress, and they're pretty famous and they sit in chairs on the stage and they tell stories and they just read from a script. You can tell they kind of already know it, but they're supposed to be quote unquote reading from the script and the stories were cute and they were entertaining. It's just I need a little bit more action, like I need actors and actresses moving around the stage, you know. So that one was pretty good, but my friend really wanted to see that because two of her favorite actors were in it. So we did see that and that was the night it snowed. So when we left it was like snowing so crazy. It was, um, that was interesting to see, cause everyone like being in time square and stuff like that when it was snowing, we didn't actually go. My other two friends went to time square while it was snowing, um, and then we saw drunken Shakespeare one night.
Johnna :This is the one that I don't know if it's considered a show, I think it is, but it wasn't like on the actual, like where all the main shows are and it's a smaller vicinity. That one was by far so funny. If you ever get a chance to do Drunken Shakespeare, it's so cute. Like there's not a bad seat in the house there's only like two rows of seats. So like you're either right there on the floor with the actor I'm just gonna look, I'm just to say actors for actresses and actors, because they're all actors on the floor with actors, and then there's a row above you so you can see and what happens is is like it's like a lottery situation where they draw a name and one of the actors has to get drunk before they start acting, and the guy at our show.
Johnna :So there's two different times. There's a don't quote me, I want to say five and a seven. I don't remember what time we went. Anyways, there's two shows and we went to the later one and the guy had already performed just before us and he got picked both times. So he was like stupid drunk and it was hilarious. So he had. They had told us that he had six shots at the previous show and then he had to take six shots prior to our show. So that man had a total of 12 shots in the matter of like two and a half three hours. So can you imagine speaking in Shakespeare language, drunk? So then they add lip right. Then they have to kind of go off script if they're not really knowing what they're talking about and it's hilarious just the things they say and they kind of make it like it's not just Shakespeare, like they kind of make it more modern. So I highly recommend, if you're in New York City to check that one out.
Johnna :And then my favorite that we saw was the Great Gatsby. That one was phenomenal, like both leads in it did such phenomenal singing and that set should win a Tony. Who knows it may have already ran. I'm going to have to look it up, give me just a second. Okay, so they did win a Tony, but per Google, it was for costume design. But that set should have won a Tony because that set was just beyond like beautiful. The engineering that had to go behind that and how much they were able to fit in and make it look like different scenes throughout the whole thing was just phenomenal and we had great seats. So really recommend those two shows.
Johnna :Uh, obviously go see All In if that's what you're looking for. Again, it was cute, the stories were good. It just wasn't something that I loved. I love things like the Great Gatsby and People Moving and just being super flamboyant and stuff like that. So obviously going to Broadway is top tier in New York City, just because I feel like they do have like the best of the best up there and there's really not a bad show that I've ever been to there. They're all good.
Johnna :Um, and then we went to it was for my friend's 40th birthday, that's why we went. And then we went to this really cool speakeasy like jazz club and they had like swing dancers and whatnot. So it's really so the history of the bar itself and I probably should have looked up the name of it so that I could tell, tell everyone, but it's in lower Manhattan and it's from the Prohibition era, and so there's like a lot of history behind it. So they still treat it like the Prohibition no-transcript at this particular place. If you got a cocktail it was served in a tea cup, and if you got a beer it was served in a coffee cup, and then if you got a shot it was served in like a little espresso cup. So it was really that was really cute.
Johnna :And then they had their own like professional swing dancers. That was, you know, dancing around the entire place and it wasn't like huge, it was just like a little downstairs and a little like a little second floor. That was like kind of like a loft looking area, and then they would come down like they would dance, like in the loft area and downstairs, and then they would come around and then they would just get random people. Like I got asked to dance, I politely declined because I was like no, let's not do that and let's not embarrass ourselves. But my friend Caroline did it and it was super cute. We got videos.
Johnna :Eventually I'm going to make a reel and post it on Instagram. So if you're not following me on Instagram, then you might miss out on that, but if you are, who knows if I'll post it? And then, while I was in New York City, there is something that I've been wanting to do. I don't even know if I mentioned it on this podcast yet or not, but there's this new MRI scan and then this is going to be kind of medical. So if I have any medical people listening, this is pretty cool. So there's a new MRI. It's been around for maybe a year, a couple years now, and it's called Prenuvo and it's like a whole. You can do a whole body. Mri Insurance does not cover it. It is pretty expensive, but it is kind of a preventative thing if you're like high risk or maybe you've got some symptoms that can't be explained. And I wanted to do it. Actually, let me tell a little bit of background on how I heard about it. So I heard about it on a podcast Marina Menounes was talking about it Because she had been having a lot of weird symptoms with her abdomen, like having pain losing weight, I believe she said.
Johnna :And then she ended up going to the ER a few times. They did CAT scans of her stomach, told her they couldn't really figure out what was going on, sent her to specialists, did like other things like colonoscopies and stuff like that. Still couldn't give her a diagnosis. You know how many people have stories like that. And then her mom, I think she said her mom had a history of brain cancer. So she I can't remember if she said that she got approached to do the scan or she was like doing some research. However, she got this scan done and ended up having pancreatic cancer and then also brain cancer at the same time, but the areas were so small that she was able to catch it in time and have surgery and she's, from what I know, doing well. Now I haven't finished following her story.
Johnna :I think I listened to that on a podcast maybe a year ago. And then I talked to a friend in town who had been like hearing about it too and she wanted to go. So we were going to go to the the nearest one to us in Alabama is in Atlanta, georgia, because they're right now in big cities and we were going to go. And then we had. We hadn't really talked about it in a few months, probably six months and then I had heard on the Giggly Squad. I had heard Paige talking about it, how she and Hannah Berner also went and had this scan and I was like you know, they're in New York City, there is one in New York City. I'm going to New York City. Why don't I just do this scan? And I'm very fortunate that I could pay for it. I've saved some money for it because I wanted to do this scan.
Johnna :And the reason why I wanted to do this scan number one I'm in healthcare. We think about things and like we kind of put off care for ourselves. Also I have, you know, these weird metabolic things, the thyroid autoimmune thing. And then I have talked openly about how I had breast implants and then I had them removed. Well, I had like three surgeries. I had breast implants in 2010 and then I had a revision in 2015 because my left one displaced and then I completely removed my breast implants in 2017.
Johnna :And since removal, and since I've had three surgeries on my breast, I have a lot of scar tissue. So every time I do myself breast exams I usually find a lump. And in the past year I have found two lumps in two different spots, one of them being in my right breast, like towards my armpit. And of course I told my doctor he sent me for a mammogram and since I have so much scar tissue, they always have to do an ultrasound. But it still wasn't giving me peace of mind because I was like I feel this lump and when I got my report back they were like it's fine, there's nothing there. But then of course, there's a statement saying that you have very dense breasts, you have a lot of scar tissue, so there's a chance that something could be missed.
Johnna :So I was like let's just schedule this MRI while I'm in New York City. And then so I scheduled it for like 645 in the morning because I didn't want to, like interrupt anyone's vacation or anything and I get up early anyways. But then I was super nervous, like just traveling in New York City by myself Just because my friend Mal, who is all who I always go to New York City with, because she just can travel the subway and do all that like so seamlessly and I have to use my GPS everywhere I go when I drive and I was like mapping it out. When we got to the hotel I was like, okay, so this is wonderful, there is a subway that is direct there. It's a. It's a five minute walk to the subway from the hotel. It's a direct subway there and then it's a 10 minute walk in a straight line to the MRI. I cannot, you know, get lost.
Johnna :So I went by myself that morning, had my MRI and if you are claustrophobic which I know some people are extremely claustrophobic I have like a very, very, very mild form of claustrophobia and it only happens at certain times, like I think it's more because I have anxiety, because I've had a brain MRI before when I've had my migraines and stuff like that. And if you've never had a head MRI or brain MRI, that one is pretty claustrophobic because not only are you in this small tube, you also have this like it's not a net but like a cage, a cage over your head, in your face, so that one can be, you know. But when you're getting your brain scanned it's not very long, so I can typically, you know, just talk myself through that or whatnot. But in this particular MRI they are phenomenal. So when I went in, checked in or whatnot, they were just super nice, super friendly, they were on time. They took me back to my own little changing room so I had like my own little room that was decorated so cute and so cozy. They give you scrubs with their logo on it Prenuvo on it and then they take you back to your MRI and have my MRI and the technician I had she was so lovely. She was like what would you like to watch on Netflix, spotify or Hulu? And so I just picked, you know a show that I've been watching on Netflix, and so she was like okay, the scan is going to be about 55 minutes. You're doing the whole body. If you get nervous or anything that like, they give you like a little squeezy thing to push so that they can pull you out, but they get you all strapped in and push so that they can pull you out, but they get you all strapped in and they have like all these like little, look like these little neck cages, like things, and then, of course, the one that goes over your head and then she puts these like little ski goggles on you that reflects this huge TV. That's obviously not in the MRI room because it's a magnet. It can't be in there, and it made the MRI seem so much larger than it was just because there was a TV like right in front of my eyes, no matter how the MRI was moving in or out or like how my body was moving in and out of the MRI machine. And so I was.
Johnna :I initially booked it also at 645, because I was like well, I could probably just go back to sleep because it's so early in the morning, we're probably gonna stay out like the night before. And then I I would told her. I was like yeah, I'm just gonna go to sleep. She's like Well, there's a lot of breathing exercises you have to do for the first 20 minutes because we're doing like your abdomen and your chest first, so you have to like hold your breath and do all that. And so I was like Okay, well, that's cool, I'll just watch've already seen it. I was just going to rewatch it and so they're like 20 minute episodes on Netflix and so I'd watched like two. I realized I was like halfway through the second episode and she was like you're doing really good, you got like 15 minutes left. I was what I was like I only got 15 minutes left. So I like watching that just made it so much easier and it didn't make me feel as claustrophobic because it just seemed like there was a huge TV in front of my face. So I don't know how that would work with someone. If you have like extreme claustrophobia, it still may make you feel a little claustrophobic, but for me it just cause I kept looking past the glasses Like I would look up and I'd be like, wow, the MRI machine is right there. But then when I look at the glasses it just seems like it's not. So that was cool.
Johnna :But I got my results back. It took six days to get mine. They say anywhere from seven to 10 days. Nothing too serious on it. But in my right breast, where I keep filling this lump where my mammogram and my ultrasound told me there was nothing there, I do have a cyst. So it's just a little cyst, it's benign, don't have to worry about that. And then I already knew that I had some narrow arteries in my brain. I only knew about one, but there's two happened at birth. Nothing that I've done or anything, but it would probably, more than likely, be the cause of my migraines. I've had migraines since I was six years old and then there was. I have a liver cyst and my common bile duct to my gallbladder is slightly enlarged. So I'm going to talk to my doctor. I have a doctor's appointment in two weeks for that, and then, other than that, I don't think there really was. Oh, and then of course it said my thyroid was like pretty much non-existent because it's so small. But that's to be expected because I've been on thyroid medication since I was 22 and we're suppressing my thyroid gland. So, oh, and I almost forgot.
Johnna :The one of the things I wanted to know is I have been having some like back pain and neck pain. Um, not bad, but like my neck was bothering me and I just checked it up to like some computer work. And then my lower back, of course you know it hurts sometimes and I just think it's because I went from like a active job to now I sit at a desk a lot and then I just have to get my steps in afterwards. So I just attributed to that but surprisingly enough well, I mean not surprising but I have arthritis in my neck and my lower back. But then my thoracic spine, the middle of my back. It said I had five herniated discs. I was like what? Like I don't typically hurt in the middle of my back. Sometimes I will if I'm sitting too long, like on an airplane or driving a car or something like that. Sometimes I'll hurt there. But like never had this like crazy sharp shoot, like pain that people talk about when they have herniated disc. Because I worked in spine for a year and like the way people would describe it which I know everyone has pain. That's different. If anything, I expect that in my lower back and who knows I'm like, did I do this lifting weights? Like I never felt like a crazy pain lifting weight. So that was cool. I'm not cool, interesting, I would say that was really interesting so, but other than that, nothing terrible. So that was really really good news to not have anything like super terrible on there.
Johnna :But as far as the liver cyst goes, I looked that up. I was like, why do I have a liver cyst and there's like a lot of causes, one cause being if you have a dilated common bile duct with your gallbladder. So got to talk to my doctor about that because I have no idea it also can be you could be born with it, it could be genetic. It's not alcohol induced or anything like that. It's not from eating. People just get cysts. Some people are just cyst formers. That's what one doctor because I've had actually like three sebaceous cysts cut off my skin before because they just popped up. And when the doctor, when I asked her, I was like why do I get these? She was like some people are just this former. So I do know that I'm not crazy and I felt that lump in my breast and it was there and it's a cyst. But I'm glad it's a cyst and nothing else.
Johnna :And they also give you recommendations, like on your MRI, like it said, like we recommend just to follow up in two years just from the cyst to make sure they're not growing or causing any symptoms. And they also give you like you get a free consult with a nurse practitioner to read the MRIs to you. I forwent that just because I could read it myself and then, of course my doctor's really wonderful, so I forwarded it to him because it worked out perfect, because my yearly physical exam is always end of January, february, so I just sent it to him and we'll go over it together and see if he sees anything that I didn't. But afterwards, because if you get the, if you get your torso which means your abdomen and your chest if you get that done, you have to fast for four hours before, just so that your stomach is empty and they can see things better. So when you're done they have this wonderful cute little refreshment area. They have like healthy snacks, like the sparkling waters. They have this cute little Italian espresso machine, like coffee machine, and you can just sit in there and hang out and then you get a little package afterwards.
Johnna :And so then I went back to the hotel thinking you know well, I got here easy enough. It was that straight subway here. No, I get, I go down to the it. You know well, I got here easy enough. It was that straight subway here. No, I get, I go down to the. It was the D train at the time. I went down to the D. They call subways trains. That confuses me. But anyways, I went down to the D subway, waiting, waiting, waiting, whatever, and of course all my Google Maps. And then all of a sudden they made an announcement and then my Google Maps said the D train is closed. And then they made an announcement saying that it was closed because someone jumped on the tracks and NYPD had to get them off.
Johnna :So then I had to figure out a different route to back to the hotel and then had a little bit of anxiety because I really did not want to have to switch subways Like there was. There obviously was different routes to get back to the hotel, but the other routes that I had already looked up prior to going was where you switched subways and I was like I do not want to do that, because it was in like this huge hub where you have to switch, where there's like probably 10 different subways to get on. I don't know if anyone listening to this has ever been to New York City or you're listening from New York. But there are subways where you know you just easily change to another one. And then there's some where you have like 10 or 15 connections and of course it was that one. But I am happy to say I successfully did. It got back no problems, didn't get lost, so that was fun.
Johnna :We did eat at I should have looked up all the names of these places but we did eat at a pretty cool vegan restaurants when we got there. My friend Megan's vegan and Mal is vegetarian places, but we did eat at a pretty cool vegan restaurants when we got there. Um, I, my friend, my friend Megan's vegan and Mal is vegetarian. So typically when we travel we do eat at a lot of vegan restaurants and they always pick really cool spots that are really delicious and you'd never even know. The last time I went to New York city, we ate at this vegan sushi place that was, I think it was called beyond sushi and it was so good Like you would have never even known it was called Beyond Sushi and it was so good Like you would have never even known it was vegan. But then we ate at some popular Italian place Unsure what that place was, but it was really cool. Apparently it's been in a lot of movies and they had a lot of photos of like celebrities and stuff and they have like a candle at the back where the like they have let the wax drip and it's literally been there since they opened and this thing is humongous, humongous. So, other than that, the snow in New York City, the restaurants that we went to, the Broadway shows, that was a fun time.
Johnna :We were nervous about flying back. We flew back on Wednesday and we were nervous about cancellations, because the snow happened on Sunday night, monday, and some people flew back on Monday. They had delays. One girl left on Tuesday, she ended up having delays. And then we left on Wednesday and I guess everything had melted or everything was good to go. So we fortunately did make it back and it was funny because the pilot, when we got on the plane, was like this is New York City and we're going to Nashville, tennessee, because we flew out of Nashville, because it's so expensive to fly out of Huntsville, if you, if you know anything about that. So we drove to Nashville and he was like and oddly, it is colder in Nashville than it is in New York City right now.
Johnna :Oh, going back to the snow while we were in Central Park, like, even though it was colder, like temperature wise in Alabama, I tell you what I've never felt more cold in my life and I was dressed to the nines the day it snowed. I had on my snow boots like that are waterproof With two pairs of socks. I had on my jeans. I had on like two t shirt, I had a like an undershirt, a sweater, gloves, toboggan and then, of course, my huge winter coat. I was freezing. I don't know what it was about, that snow all compacted together in Central Park, but it was so cold. I was like, guys, we got to go in somewhere so that I can warm my toes up because they are frosty. Oh, I forgot. We did get to go down to what is that place called where they have that gala oh, the Met Gala. We got to, actually got to go in there for the first time. That was I've never done that going to New York into the museum, so that was pretty cool.
Johnna :I just think there's a lot of cool things to do in New York City. If you've never got to go, it's a really good experience. I know people, if you're listening to this from New York, you're probably like, oh my God, it's just a city, but we don't have stuff like that in the South. So yeah, but also, if you're into reality TV shows, there is a new show about I want I don't know if it's called Sailing in the City. It's the one with the female, not the male, but it was really good to watch before I went. Like, I just want to go inside one of these penthouses that they say is like 25 to 3500 square feet, like that is bigger than my house and that's a penthouse, and it's like 5,000 feet in the air. How cool would that be. I mean, I wish I was rich enough to be able to be like, yeah, I'm just going to buy me a penthouse and that'll be my travel place. Maybe one day we'll manifest that, but other than that, I think that's all I wanted to catch you up on.
Johnna :Hope everyone is staying warm. Well, probably warm, because it's now 73 degrees this week in Alabama. Our weather is insane. Oh, I don't know if anyone has ever watched that movie, the Day After Tomorrow that was released. In what year was that released? It was released in 2004. I swear that movie I haven't watched in forever. So I'm only like what I'm remembering. Is that not what our weather is doing right now? Like, did someone predict that? I mean, I truly believe it's global warming. I know a lot of people do not believe that. I do. We've got to figure this crisis out before it gets any worse because there's too many natural disasters and it's just not good. So I will end it right there, because I'm now starting to babble, as I usually do. And until next time, guys. Bye, thank you.
