Vicky Blogs: COVID-19 (& beyond)

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my spine surgery.  The photo above was one of my first MRIs.... of many....  So much has happened between then and now, yet it also feels like not that much has happened. I finished my graduate school program and earned my masters degree in intervention, communication and behavior change.  I didn't have a real graduation, although my school did host a virtual ceremony.  The pandemic reared its ugly head.  Three weddings I was supposed to be in got postponed, two of those three bachelorette parties that I was planning got postponed (and I still don't know exactly when those might happen....).  A fourth wedding that I was going to attend got cancelled completely, as the couple actually broke up.  My brother got engaged while he and his now fiancé were living at my parent's Florida house and working from home.  They are planning an intimate wedding this coming January in FL, but everyone who is going (all ...

Most people have an opinion on roller coasters.  They either love  them and want to go to every theme park that they can, trying out the highest, fastest, twistiest roller coasters that they can OR they hate them.  I am one of the haters, unfortunately.  I think of myself as a relatively adventurous individual.  I like to do mud runs, travel, meet new people and try new things.  But, I can't deal with the feeling that I get when I ride a roller coaster.  The anxiety in the anticipation of getting on the ride or rising to the top of an impending drop.  The squeamish feeling in my stomach when the drop finally arrives.  Frankly, it all makes me want to throw up. I looked up the science of this roller coaster feeling to try and understand it better.  Basically, I wanted to know if there was any way to control it.  Short answer is, no.  Long answer is that the constant force of gravity normally causes all the parts of you body to b...

I recently wrote a summary for my internship with the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts ( WWCMA ) about the changes that are happening in the world of benefits enrollment.  I'd like to share the information here and potentially dive a little deeper on certain aspects.  As we move forward in 2020 with the uncertainty of when this pandemic will end, employees are craving different options from their employers as they attempt to adapt to more remote work and other socially distanced parts of life.  A recent survey found that 52% of employees would leave their company for a job with the ‘right’ benefits and 77% stated that benefits were a big part of their consideration. The question then becomes, in this climate, what are the ‘right’ benefits?  The Society for Human Resource Management ( SHRM ) suggests that the following will likely be the most common changes in benefits: expansion of telehealth coverage, increasing mental health services, increasing cost-sh...