Monthly Archives: December 2018

Holiday Workouts (or Making Myself Enjoy The Bike)

This past week was my last full week of workouts for 2018, and I have to say I think they went pretty well! I had some random issues, but I also had some victories over issues that I have been dealing with for a while. And as always, I enjoyed having a bit of holiday fun during my workouts too.

Monday’s workout was the traditional Christmas Eve workout with the Present and Coal cards. We drew cards out of a Santa hat that had different workout assignments. Some were easy (the Presents) and some were hard (the Coal). I’ve had a mixed bag with what workouts I’ve gotten in the past and I figured I’d have the same this time.

I started on cardio with the bike. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with enjoying the bike more often, but I was glad I used it for this workout.  I did 3 different cards and they were all Presents. The first and third cards that I drew were 3 rounds of .15 miles (which was .6 on the bike) with 30 seconds of recovery in between each round. Each round took me about 90 seconds to complete so it was a 90 second push pace for me. I forgot what the second card said exactly, but it was shorter than the other card. I think it might have been 3 rounds of .1 miles (.4 on the bike) but I’m not totally sure. But again, I did it as a push pace and I was using my new push pace resistance level on the bike.

I was on the rower next and I only drew one card, and it was a Coal card. I had 2 rounds of an 800 meter row with 50 squats using a medicine ball between the rows. The first row wasn’t too bad and I was able to do it in a decent time without stopping. But the 50 squats were a killer! I thought I could do them with only 1 break in the middle, but I had to rest every 5-10 squats. I was so happy to be back on the rower for my second 800 meter row even though I did it slowly and needed breaks. I was just finishing it when that block was done and I went to the floor.

I’m not sure if I was just normal tired or tired from the workout, but I got really confused when reading the card. We had 6 different exercises on the floor (low rows on the straps, sumo squats to presses, crunches, burpees, squats, and plank work) and the first card I drew said Exercise 4 x 25. I thought that meant 4 rounds of 25 reps of everything and started working on them. But after the second exercise, I realized that had to be wrong and I checked with my coach. The card meant I only had to do the 4th exercise (which was the burpees) for 25 reps. All the cards I got on the floor only had been doing some of the exercises, but by the end of the block I had done all 6 of them pretty equally.

I have a tradition of getting a photo with my coach Bruce before Christmas with him wearing a Santa hat, but I knew this year it might not happen. I don’t take his class anymore and I rarely see him. So I had to do some creative photo editing to make it happen this year.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength day, and I was on the bike again. We had 3 blocks with cardio and 3 blocks on the floor, but the cardio work seemed extra tough to me that morning.

The cardio was a similar pattern with a regular push pace, a hill, and ending with an all out with base paces in between everything. The push pace and hill work were 2 minutes each for the first block, 90 seconds each for the second block, and 1 minute each for the last block. And the hill work was 2 different inclines/resistance levels each time so we went higher and harder halfway through each hill. I was using my new base and push resistance levels and kept my hill work around what my all out resistance level is at now. I had Chinese food the night before and I think having that the night before an early workout did affect me because it felt so much harder than it had felt in a long time. I struggled a bit with the hill work, but I tried to not think about keeping my cadence the same and just focused on moving. The one really good thing was that my new base pace resistance level is feeling much easier and such a relief when I get to come back to it after higher resistance levels.

On the floor, we got to pick our own work for each block. We had 3 different row distances and 6 different exercises. For each block we picked 1 row distance and 2 exercises and by the end of 3 blocks we did them all. The rows were 200, 300, and 400 meters and the exercises were hip hinge low rows, double crunches, shoulder presses, single arm fly, pullovers, and toe reaches. I decided to do the longest row first and go down with each block. And I didn’t have a plan with the exercises more than I was going to do 1 and 3 for the first block, 2 and 4 for the second, and 5 and 6 for the last. We were told not to do the double crunches and pullovers in the same block since they were the same movement, and for some reason the way I split things up made the most sense to me. I wasn’t using the heaviest weights I could because there is a small chance I have a pinched nerve in my right arm (I’ve got some recurring pain and weakness in my hand) so I wanted to be careful. But using light weights really did help me see my progress since those weights were ones I would have used for those exercises toward the beginning of the year and they felt very easy to me in this workout.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was a workout that made me happy to be on the bike. For cardio, we had a mix of progressive pushes and incline work. And neither of those are things that are easy to do on the treadmill. So being on the bike really was the best option and it made me appreciate knowing I can do some good work on there.

We had 2 blocks and each block started with a 4 minute progressive push and ended with 4 all outs using different inclines. For the progressive pushes, I increased my bike resistance by 1 level each time starting at the resistance level between my base and push. And for the incline work I did high resistance levels starting at my all out level and going higher from there. As it’s been since I increased my base, push, and all out resistance levels; it was really tough but felt really great. The base resistance level is feeling so much more normal even if the other levels are feeling much tougher than I’m used to.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks as well and they all had rowing plus regular floor work. The first block started with a 100 meter row and then we had 1 round of lateral raises, single arm snatches, and bench hop overs. Then we had a 200 meter row and 2 rounds of the exercises. The block ended with a 400 meter row and doing the exercises again. The second block was a similar pattern but started with the highest row and moved down. And the exercises were Y raises on the straps, plank rows, and sit-ups.

Saturday’s workout was a power day and it would have been a perfect day for me to work on my running. But I’m working on being happier with the bike so I tried to reframe my thinking and look at it as the perfect day to work on being faster on the bike.

There were 5 blocks for cardio and 5 blocks for the floor. The first and last blocks were 2 minutes, the second and fourth blocks were 3.5 minutes, and the third block was 5.5 minutes. For cardio, it was a run/row format. The first and last blocks were a .1 mile run (.4 on the bike) and then row until time was done. The second and fourth blocks were .2 miles (.8 on the bike) and then row until time was done. And the third block was .3 miles (1.2 on the bike) and then row until the block was done. I was able to get through the bike work pretty quickly and had a decent amount of time on the rower each block. But I was never on the rower more than 2.5 minutes which was nice. I felt pretty great about my biking speed and my rowing for all of the blocks and also felt like I had worked harder on the bike than I would have on the treadmill.

The floor blocks were the same amount of time as the cardio blocks. The first and fifth blocks had push-ups and sit-ups, the second and fourth blocks had tricep extensions with weights and chest presses with weights, and the third block had tricep extensions on the straps, plank shoulder touches, and toe touch sit-ups. I tried to not go too quickly with the exercises so I could keep my form the best I could, so I didn’t do too many rounds each block. But that’s ok.

Overall, I’m happy with how my feelings about the bike were at the end of this past week. I was looking at it more positively and started to think of ideas of challenges for 2019 for the bike (more on that soon). I’ve got just today’s workout left for 2018 and then it’s time to start working on my 2019 fitness goals!

An Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals)

I know there are still a few more days left in the year, but I wanted to get my end of the year recap done before the new year started. I feel like it’s a nice transition to have a clean break from year to year and I didn’t necessarily want to spend the beginning of the new year going through the past. So I figured with a few days left I would have a good idea on where I would stand with my goals by the end of the year.

My first goal I had this year was to do 199 Orangetheory workouts. That one I accomplished and I’ll finish out the year with a few more! I should be at 206 workouts by the last day of the year unless something happens that prevents me from going to one of my planned workouts. But even if I didn’t go for those classes, I will still be ahead of the goal! I did 4 workouts a week almost every week which made it easy to make it to over 199. I thought I’d have more 3 workout weeks over the year but I didn’t have that many. I tried to look back at my schedule and I don’t think I had any 5 workout weeks (I could be wrong) which is what I thought I’d need to do a few times to make sure I made it to my goal. I’m so glad that this goal ended up being relatively easy to accomplish since it seemed like one that would be tough for me.

And I’m lucky that first goal was easy for me to accomplish because it ended up being the only goal I really did accomplish that I had set for myself. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but for some of these goals I didn’t meet there is a reason. But I still need to hold myself accountable for why I didn’t do what I was hoping to do.

The next 2 goals I had are somewhat related. I wanted to find a 5K race to do and I wanted to get a new PR on my mile time. Neither of those happened and if I’m being totally honest I really don’t care too much that they didn’t happen. Doing 5K races was a big part of my life for a long time, but that was also a while ago. I didn’t have Orangetheory when I did a bunch of races every year and I think having a regular workout has made me not feel as motivated to find races. I had a few races that I kept doing, but once they stopped having races each year I didn’t try to find a replacement. And with wanting to get a new mile PR time, I really thought I’d be able to do much more running this year than I have been able to do. This is due to multiple factors like getting sick, my hormonal nausea, and other things that have prevented me from using the treadmill as much as I wanted to do. Getting a new mile PR used to be so important to me and a sign of my progress, but I’ve had to learn new ways to measure my progress and the mile time has lost some of the importance it used to have.

The next goal I failed on is one that I feel like I have the most excuses for. I had a number in my head that I wanted to get my debt below. I was making real progress toward this for the first part of the year and I was so excited about it. But then I didn’t have as many hours with one of my jobs as I thought I would have and then that job wasn’t able to offer me a new contract like we expected. Being down one job meant that I didn’t have the money to put toward paying my credit card that I used to and I had to start using my credit card for more things than I would have liked to. Losing a job and using my credit card to pay for regular expenses is how I got into debt. I’m trying to stop this before it gets as bad as it did before (and I’ll have more on that in my 2019 goals), but it did increase how much I owed on the card. It’s unfortunate, but it’s my reality. I wasn’t expecting to lose a job and I don’t make enough money right now to really have savings to cover a job loss. I know this is bad and I want to fix this, but for now I have to just focus on finding a new job so I can get back to paying down my debt.

And my last goal I had for 2018 was to keep doing what I’ve been doing with my eating disorder recovery. While I wouldn’t say I necessarily failed at accomplishing this, but it didn’t go the way I planned it would. I did keep doing what I was doing and I’ve found new things that do work for me and I’ve dropped things that I found weren’t working for me anymore. I had the hope that I would feel like I made more progress by this point, but I also know that recovery is a weird journey and it’s not always easy to judge progress.

Even though I really only accomplished one of my goals I set for the year, I don’t see that necessarily as a bad thing. Instead, I feel like I had a minor failure to plan with my goals which is a newer issue for me. I think I need to allow myself to alter and change my goals throughout the year. If I had that as the plan, I would have switched out my running related goals before the year was half over to something else that was fitness related. Maybe I would have had a goal to be able to use a certain weight for an exercise or I would have changed it to a goal on the rower or bike. But I felt like my goals were set for the year and I didn’t want to alter them. That is something I will be changing as well as adding to my monthly challenge planning reminder to look back at my goals for the year to see what steps I need to make and if there are any changes that should happen.

It’s so funny to think about how happy I am to have goals I failed at because it has given me a lot of insight into myself and how I can make the next year even better. And I’ve got some interesting goals in mind for 2019 that I’ll be sharing next week that have been inspired by me not reaching my goals. Sometimes you need a setback to help you think clearly and I think that’s exactly what I had this year.

Thinking About My Relationships (or Starting My 2018 Reflection)

As I mentioned yesterday in my post, I spent time on Christmas being alone and reflecting on some things. I think reflecting back on the year that was is a pretty common thing to do and I’ve been doing it more and more each year. I think having posts on here regarding goals and monthly challenges has helped me think more about what happened over the past 12 months. And I usually can put things into a single post when reflecting back. But I feel like this year had too much and I wanted to split things up. So over the next few posts, I will be doing reflections of the year that was and goal setting for the year coming up. And I’m starting with the relationships I had this year.

I know many people think of relationships as romantic and dating ones. That wasn’t what came to my mind originally, but it is a part of what happened. And since it is the smaller portion of the relationships I wanted to reflect on, I’m going to start with those.

I continued my crazy journey of online dating this year. I would have loved to have ended this journey during the year, but that wasn’t the case for me. Fortunately, even though I had a ton of bad dates, they were bad dates that were funny. I left so many dates filled with stories to tell my friends about how bad the date was, but I was telling them with a smile on my face. I also learned to be a bit pickier about who I met in person and how to stand up for myself better so I think that the idiots and creeps I encountered online were easier to deal with. I didn’t hesitate to end a conversation that made me second guess things even if it was going fine before that moment. I also set the new rule/restriction that I didn’t give out my phone number until I met someone in person. Somehow that seemed to help me filter out guys I met and I didn’t have to worry about the scammers getting my number.

But while most of the relationships I had with guys this year weren’t bad, there were some situations that hurt me. I felt betrayed by some guys and that’s not easy to get over. I tried to think about how I didn’t do anything wrong and it didn’t really have to do with me, but that’s not the easiest thing to keep in mind. But as the year went on I got better about dealing with it and it is hurting a bit less each time I feel hurt or blindsided. I don’t necessarily want that feeling to go away completely since I do want to still keep my heart open to the possibility of meeting someone amazing. And when your heart is open you are at risk for feeling hurt.

I’m still staying as active as I can with online dating and trying to be more thoughtful about staying active and trying to get beyond messaging on the app and going out for a drink or something with the guys I meet on there. And while that didn’t result in me meeting anyone incredible this past year, I am trying to stay optimistic that doing it again for the coming year will bring better results.

While finding a romantic relationship is important to me, while reflecting back on the year I realized that I had the biggest and best gains in my relationships with my friends. I thought from time to time that I might be a bad friend and I let some friendships drop for one reason or another. But when I thought about it more over the past few days, I discovered that while I might have turned some friends into acquaintances the friendships I kept grew so much stronger.

Building and strengthening friendships can come out of the good times, but I had so much growth out of the more difficult times. When my friend told me he wanted to kill himself and I was able to convince him on the phone to go to a hospital, I had to be ok with the idea that my friend might want to end his friendship with me. I am so grateful that not only did they want to stay friends but I feel like our friendship has grown quite a bit. We have been able to be more open and honest with each other and that is incredible. I was worried about telling my friend things in our friendship that were hard on me, but they listened to me and we were able to fix things and make our friendship even more mutually beneficial than it ever has been.

I’ve had multiple friends go through the end of romantic relationships this year and their breakups weirdly brought us closer. I think when they thought about having to date again, they came to me asking for my advice and stories about online dating. I don’t want to scare anyone off, but I was honest and shared my tips and how I stay safe. And putting that honesty out there helped to make my friendships with those people more honest in other ways too.

But of course, I was also able to build my friendships from fun things that I do in my life too. Even just going to a movie with a friend gives time for us to talk one to one without the distractions of other people trying to get our attention. Having those 15-20 minutes before a movies starts can be better than 3-4 hours at a party where there are so many other people. I’ve been trying to be better about doing fun things with other people instead of just going alone so I have those chances to talk to someone and have a real catching up talk.

I thought this past year was really a year of me being selfish. There were several monthly challenges that were all about me and putting myself first and I thought that meant some of my relationships would not be able to grow. It was such a nice surprise for me when I was reflecting back and realized that I was wrong with that assumption and that I really did have growth with my friends over the past year.

A Solitary Christmas (or Just Enjoying Being Alone)

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas doing whatever you were doing. My traditional plans are to watch movies and get Chinese food, and that’s exactly what I did.

There have been a few times where I have done something different on Christmas, but I really do like my tradition. I was invited to a few different orphan Christmas dinners (and my sister-in-law said I could drive to Santa Barbara to join them for dinner), but I really just wanted to do what I planned. And I sometimes go out for Chinese food or a movie, but this year I really had no motivation to do that.

There have been a bunch of movies on my list to watch that I could find on various streaming services, so I spent time watching those. I also have access to some of my SAG Award screeners so I had even more movie options. I haven’t gotten any of my DVDs but a majority of the screeners are digital screeners that you watch on different websites. So I had instant access to them and have been watching them since we got all the passwords and links. I’m determined to watch everything and I don’t want to feel rushed closer to when voting is due, so I’m glad I’ve been able to start early.

I spent Christmas completely alone. The only person I saw was the food delivery guy. But that actually was perfect to me. I could have invited people over for movies or dinner and I did mention it to a friend or two, but honestly I’m kind of glad I was on my own for the day. There are some days I hate being alone and feel lonely and sad, but Christmas wasn’t like that at all. I made a choice to be alone and I was happy with that. I spent the day in my new Disney leggings with my hair back in a claw clip with no makeup on. I made no effort to look presentable and that made me happy.

I actually had some opportunities to have dates on Christmas just because it was a day that some guys who don’t celebrate the holiday were free, but I made the choice to turn down those dates. Hopefully I’ll be able to go out with those guys another time, but if I don’t then clearly it wasn’t meant to be. Again, I had the plan in my head to be lazy and do nothing and I really didn’t want to change up my plans or have to make myself look cute.

Being alone had other benefits other than not needing to make an effort in my appearance. I really had time to do exactly what I wanted to do. I spent the morning in bed reading, watched whatever movies I wanted to watch, and ordered exactly what I wanted to eat. I didn’t have to worry about what other people wanted to do and that was nice. I gave myself the gift of being selfish and didn’t feel guilty about it at all.

I also had some time to do some reflection with the end of the year coming up. It doesn’t feel like the year will be done in less than a week, but it will be and I wanted to think about some ideas for 2019. I didn’t get as much done with that planning as I thought I would, but it was a starting off point and I’ll keep working on it the rest of the week and I know I’ll have it done by the first of the year.

I really don’t have much else to say about my Christmas. It was boring, but it was perfect and exactly what I wanted to do with my day off. All I can ask for is to do what I wanted to do and I accomplished that. And hopefully you all got to do whatever you planned and feel the same about your Christmas as I do.

Merry Christmas (or I’ll Be Enjoying My Movies And Chinese Food)

Just a quick post today since I hope you are all doing something awesome today! Whether you are celebrating Christmas with friends or family, spending the day being lazy in bed, or watching movies and ordering Chinese food like I am; I hope you are doing exactly what you wanted to do today.

While Christmas isn’t a holiday I necessarily celebrate, I love seeing how much people get into the holiday season and participating in it as well. I love seeing the different holiday decorations or reading posts about what gifts people gave to others or got themselves. Hopefully you are finding that joy in your day today.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a normal post again, but today you should be spending the day doing something other than reading my blog!

Almost End Of The Year Workouts (or Hitting A Milestone And Debating A New Plan)

I never should predict how a workout week will go. In my post last week, I said how I would expect the coming week to be a good week of workouts because my nausea was done. I clearly spoke too soon.

Monday was a weird day for me. I’m not sure if my pain and nausea was due to hormonal things (it should have been over by then) or if I got food poisoning or something, but I wasn’t feeling good that morning. It was not just the pain and nausea that I’ve dealt with for the past 2 years but I was also having hip issues that morning. I don’t know why everything was happening for me, but I went into my workout with the mindset that I was just going to do what I could and that was better than missing my workout.

It was a power based workout and we had 3 blocks with cardio. I was on the bike and used my normal resistance levels since I wasn’t feeling good enough to push myself. Every block was a longer push pace, a base pace, a push to all out, a recovery, and another push to all out. For the first block I was feeling not too bad and didn’t need to take any breaks, but for the other blocks I just had to stop when I felt like it was too much. I was frustrated, but not because of how I was feeling. I was frustrated that I wasn’t mentally prepared for a day like this. I thought I was going to be feeling great and I hated how let down I felt when it was a rough day for me. But I did what I could and that’s all I can hope for sometimes.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first 2 blocks had 3 rounds of 2 different exercises and then a timed row. We had chest presses, squats to upright rows, push-ups using the bench, and single arm chest presses. And then the last block was rounds of 30 second rows with squat jacks using the medicine ball. I couldn’t do the squat jacks so I did regular squats with overhead presses. My rowing wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. But I was able to use heavy weights for the weighted work on the floor so it felt like that made up for something.

The weirdness continued on Wednesday for me. I started out on the treadmill, but my hip was just bugging me. And since I was going to be going to Disneyland later that day, I didn’t want to do anything that would make me hurt too much while walking around at Disneyland. So after I did my warmup I switched over to the bike for the rest of the cardio.

The goal of the cardio work was to work with a new base pace. I ended up being pretty glad I was on the bike since I know I couldn’t go faster on the treadmill yet. What I did for the bike was use my normal push pace as my new base pace, my normal all out as my new push pace, and then go higher with the resistance level for my new all out. It ended up working out well and it wasn’t as tough as I thought it might be. There were a few times where I was wishing the push pace was shorter because my legs were getting tired, but that is to be expected with any workout.

On the floor, we had a long block followed by a short core blast. For the long block we had deadlifts, shoulder presses, back extensions, and mountain climbers. And after completing a round we went to the rower. The first row was 800 and it was cut in half each time we were back on the rower. I didn’t do my fastest row, but it was one of my more consistent speed rows so I was very happy with that. And we ended the workout with a core blast with different types of crunches.

On Friday I pretty much decided to stick with the bike. I’m doing some thinking about not trying to use the treadmill for a while just to get happier with the bike (more on that when I figure it out) so this would be a good chance for me to work with the new base pace I got to on Wednesday. It was a bit frustrating because this would have been the perfect day to work on running, but that’s exactly why I knew I needed to stay on the bike.

All of the blocks were very short and it was a switch day so we were in each section of the room 3 times. On the cardio all the blocks were a push pace, base pace, push pace, base pace, and all out. Each block the last base pace got a bit longer which was a good chance to work on my endurance with that new base pace resistance level. It was a bit easier than it was on Wednesday which was a good sign to me.

On the rower, we started with a 200 meter row and then had different types of squats each block. Then we went back to the rower and finished the row to 400 meters. And since there was time at the end of each block before we switched, we had to hold a squat to complete the block. The last squat was usually about 30-45 seconds for me which wasn’t too long.

And on the floor every block had some form of a lunge movement and some core work. For the lunges we had speed skater lunges, regular lunges, and lunges knee raises (which I was able to do by using the straps for balance). And for the core work we had sit-ups, side plank crunches, and seated torso rotations. I got through 2 rounds of the movements each block before we switched and the time really flew by.

But I did hit an amazing milestone on Friday. I had the goal to do 199 workouts this year, and my workout on Friday was my 200th workout of the year!

I can’t believe that not only did I make it to my goal but I would pass it! And having that milestone happen really did help me feel better about the workouts.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day and I stayed on the bike. But I felt much better about that decision and that helped me feel much better about the workout in general. I was also able to keep working with my new base pace resistance on the bike and combining that with the hill workout made it so hard, but in a good way!

The cardio workout had 3 blocks with a similar format. There was a push pace, a hill base pace, a regular base pace, a push pace, another hill base pace, a regular push pace, and it ended with a push to all out pace. The difference was that each block the hill (or resistance level for me) went down. It was hard doing that work with my new base resistance level, but I think it was a good thing in the end because that new resistance level doesn’t feel as hard as it did when I was using it as my push pace.

On the floor, we had rowing in the first and last block. The first block had a 1 minute row and the last block had a 100 meter row and then a 300 meter row after a 15 second recovery. The rest of the work had a lot of good weight work. We had single arm snatches, goblet squats, shoulder presses, lunges, uppercuts, and sit-ups. I tried to go with the heaviest weights I knew I could use for those exercises to not go easy on myself. I might have done more weight with the goblet squats, but I’m happy with what I did.

I pretty much just have this week to finish up my workouts for the year (except New Year’s Eve which will be the week after) and it’s a good time to evaluate what I want to accomplish in 2019. The idea of making myself use the bike more often is something I think I need to do, but I don’t have the exact plan figured out. But I also want to set more goals beyond that so I can have something to try to reach for in rowing or with weights. Hopefully this week’s workouts will inspire me so I have a good plan for 2019!

Another After Work Disney Adventure (or Holiday Time And Random Fun)

I haven’t been going to Disneyland as often as I used to. I still am getting my money’s worth on my pass and I still love to go, but I just haven’t been there as much as I would like to. I used to go by myself all the time, but now I just don’t feel like doing that. I miss having my friends with me if I’m there alone, but maybe I’ll work on doing that from time to time in the future.

But since my pass is about to be blacked out for the holidays, I wanted to make it one more time before the end of the year. And my friend Dani was able to join me after work earlier this week so we decided to do another afternoon and evening in the parks. Fortunately, the weather did not predict rain like the last time we were there, so we knew we’d be able to do a few more rides. But we also mainly wanted to go to the parks to see the decorations and have some fun so we weren’t too focused on getting a lot of rides done.

The drive down to Disneyland was a bit longer than normal due to traffic, but we got there with plenty of time left in the day to have some fun. We knew that in California Adventure they were doing the Festival of Holidays, so we decided to see the offerings and decide if we wanted to do one of the food passes. As soon as we got into California Adventure, I was just so happy to see all the holiday decorations and how festive the park looked!

We weren’t too excited by the food options at the different stands, so we just got 2 things on their own instead of getting the food pass. We got a turkey tamale and bagel chip nachos (the nachos were much better) but I didn’t get a photo of them. We needed to get some real food for dinner so we went to the sourdough place to get bread bowls (I had broccoli cheddar soup and again forgot to take a photo).

After food, it was time for a few rides in California Adventure. I had to go on the Incredicoaster since I couldn’t go on it the last time I was there. While it is the same ride as before, they added some theming and a new soundtrack. And I really liked how the updated version looked especially with it all lit up at night!

And we also rode the Guardians ride since that one is really one of my favorites. I still have one version of the ride to do and this time it was another repeat song. But one day I’ll get that last song!

We were in the California Adventure side for a few hours and even though we didn’t ride that many rides, we just enjoyed walking around the park. We both thought it would be much more crowded, and while there were a lot of people, it wasn’t that bad. There were areas where things got a busy, but in general it nice to not feel packed between everyone. And since we weren’t squished, we could take time to appreciate how pretty things looked.

Then we headed over to the Disneyland side. And just like California Adventure it was decorated so nicely for the holidays.

We knew we wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion to see it decorated for the holidays, but we had to make a quick stop first. We knew that there was going to be a new quick service restaurant opening near the Tiki Room, but we didn’t know if it would be open when we were there. But it turns out that they were starting to do a soft opening that day so we had to check it out!

It’s called the Tropical Hideaway and they have some really amazing offerings. They had 3 different types of bao buns and some other savory options. But what Dani and I were most excited for were the Dole Whip flavors!

They have the regular pineapple one as well as orange and raspberry. You can do one flavor or swirl 2 of them and there may be new flavors coming in the future. I hate pineapple yet I love Dole Whips, but I was so excited to try new flavors! I got an orange and raspberry swirl and Dani got the pineapple and raspberry swirl.

It was so good! I loved the orange and it tasted like a creamsicle! And the combination of orange and raspberry was perfect! Dani also got some of the bao buns and I tried a little bit of one and they were really good too. I know this is totally going to be one of our new favorite snack places to get something savory and something sweet. I can’t wait to go back another time so we can try more of the savory foods!

After riding the Haunted Mansion, we were feeling ready to head home. We were in the parks for over 5 hours and we did a ton of walking! But it helped me get my Disney fix in now so I don’t miss it too much while my pass isn’t good.

But one of the best parts of our Disney outing was actually something that happened toward the beginning. We both love to look through the different stores to see what new merchandise is for sale. Disney has really been stepping up their game in getting fun and cute new things. I rarely buy things since I can’t afford them (especially now), but I love to look and dream of things I’d love to get.

In one of the first stores we went into, Dani grabbed me because she saw something amazing: Disney is selling really cute and soft leggings! In the store they had a castle pattern, Disney cat pattern, and Disney dog pattern. I feel in love with the dog leggings and was debating if I should just get them and figure out money later. They were so awesome and I was so sad when I had to be responsible and decide that I just couldn’t spend the money. But that’s when Dani said that she wanted to buy them for me for Hanukkah!

I was totally not expecting her to say that and I told her she didn’t have to, but she wanted to and I am so grateful that she did! As soon as I got home after being in the parks, I changed and put them on. They are so comfortable and the perfect lounging leggings!

I don’t know if I’d wear them out and about, but I really just wanted them for being in my house or for sleeping in. And these are seriously just so perfect! I still can’t believe that Dani got them for me and I have thanked her over and over for her generosity!

All in all, this was a really successful Disney adventure. We got to do a few rides, we got to each some food, we checked out a new restaurant, and we got new Disney swag! I couldn’t ask for anything more!

Spreading Some Holiday Cheer (or Finding Cheaper Ways To Make People Smile)

With it being the holiday season, so many people do things to try to make others smile. I love seeing the happiness and cheer this time of year and I try to participate however I can. If money wasn’t an issue, I would do so much for friends and strangers alike. That’s not the case for me so I do have to find out how to do things for less money.

I don’t have to worry about buying too many presents which does help with spending. I really only get presents for my immediate family and I already did those gifts. I work hard on those gifts and try to find the best things that I can afford. Fortunately, the gifts I’ve done the past few years have been less expensive than they appear to be so that helps. And since I get one gift for my parents and one gift for my brother and sister-in-law, that helps too. I don’t have to worry about getting 4 presents and can focus on 2 really good ones.

The only other gift I had to do this year was for the Reddit Secret Santa. I’ve done a few of these Reddit gift exchanges before and they have always been fun. Again, I would love to spend way more money than the suggested amount to get everything the person I got matched with asked for. But I have to read into what they want and really try to find the best thing that I can afford. This year, the person I got mentioned how they wanted to learn more about the science of cooking and they love popcorn. So I found a great book all about cooking and why things happen with different preparations as well as some fancy popcorn salt. The person I matched with posted online about how they loved the gifts and they fit exactly what they were looking for. So even though I couldn’t spend a ton of money, I got them something they liked and appreciated.

My presents from my Reddit Secret Santa have been coming in a few different boxes. There is still one more box coming and I don’t know what is in it, but I’ve gotten 2 presents so far. Just like the person I matched with, in my profile I mentioned I love popcorn and my Secret Santa got me a variety of gourmet microwave popcorn flavors! I also mentioned I like historical fiction books and they got me a box set of books that are about female pirates. I have no idea what the last box will contain, but I’m excited to see what they got me since these gifts have been so cool so far!

Another holiday thing that I’ve done the past few years is to do holiday cards. I don’t do anything with my photo since it seems weird to do that when I don’t have my own family (or a pet), so I can buy just regular cards in a store or online. For a few years, I did cards with envelopes and those were easy enough to do. But to save money as my holiday card list has grown, I did postcards last year and am doing the same this year. Postcard stamps are about half the cost of regular stamps so that is a pretty significant savings for me. And since the cards are always pretty simple ones, it’s not a big deal for me to do postcards instead of cards in envelopes.

I’ve been a bit slow with getting my postcards out this year. Normally I have them out toward the beginning of the month, but this time I’m still working on finishing them. I’m hoping to get them to the post office by tomorrow, but I’m not sure if I’ll make that deadline. But it’s ok if they arrive after Christmas since they aren’t specific to any holiday. And I know that since most people don’t get things in the mail, it will make them happy even if they arrive in January. No matter when they get them, it will be something special and not just boring bills in their mailbox.

I’m also starting to get holiday cards from my friends which makes me so happy too. I do get a lot of joy out of doing things for other people, but I also enjoy getting things myself. I always feel special that someone has included me in their holiday card list and I love seeing the fun cards that people send out. A lot of my friends that send cards have kids so it’s also a nice treat to get to see what pictures of their kids that they have on the cards.

It hasn’t been the easiest holiday season for me due to stress and worries, but I’m glad that it hasn’t stopped me from still finding ways to celebrate the holidays and to do special things. I know I don’t do a lot, but it’s something and I’m glad that the people who get things from me appreciate even the little things I can do.

Asking For Help Again (or Trying Not To Feel Desperate)

Job hunting has been a part of my life for a long time. Even when I had regular jobs, I’m always looking for other things I can do because it never hurts to make more money. I figure the more money I make, the quicker I can pay off my credit card. This has been my game plan for a long time because I want to have no debt in my life, but it just hasn’t been my reality yet. For a while, I was doing pretty well at making dents into what I owe, even if I wasn’t going at the pace I wanted to. But it was amazing to see the total owed go down and I felt hopeful that I would reach my goal eventually.

But lately, that’s not what has been happening. I’m down to one day job right now, and that job doesn’t pay enough for me to live off of it. It basically pays enough to cover my rent and maybe one of my cheapest utility bills. I’ve been looking for a new job for a while and looking for a job is almost like a full time job for me. When I started job hunting, I mainly focused on remote positions that I could do around my current job schedule. That worked out really well with my last job and it would be amazing to find something like that again. Then I started looking at remote jobs that would be replacing my current job. Even though I enjoy my current job and it’s easy, I can’t keep it if there is something else out there for me that can pay me enough. And now I’m just applying for anything and everything I’m right for.

On average, I’m guessing I’m applying for 50-60 jobs a day. It’s a lot and it’s a bit ridiculous, but I have to do whatever it takes to find another job. I hate feeling so hopeless and stressed, but I honestly don’t know what else to do. I know I am very lucky and privileged that if it comes down to it, my parents can help me out a bit. But I don’t want to ask for their help. They already do so much for me and it’s so embarrassing that I can’t be an adult and take care of my financial stuff myself. I hate feeling dependent on someone else and even though I’m grateful to have them there if I need it, I don’t want to have to ask. I’ve already spoken to my parents about my current situation and they know what’s going on, but I’ve also said over and over that I don’t want to have to ask for help from them. I am just trying to stay hopeful that something will come my way.

And like with the other job hunting type posts I’ve written on here, I’m asking you all for help. If any of you know of any jobs, can you please comment on here, use the contact form to reach me, or message me on social media? I’d love a remote job and that would allow me to work for companies anywhere in the world, but if they are non-remote jobs I’m looking for something in LA (preferably on the westside of LA but I can’t afford to be picky right now). I have found jobs through my friends so many times and I have a feeling that my next job will be through a referral again since that seems to be the most common way people are finding work these days.

And I’m looking at lots of random side jobs that I could do. I’ve gotten my availability back up for babysitting again on the apps I’m registered with since that can be really good money. I’ve looked into doing dog walking which is something I did years ago (I stopped because the company I worked for was being weird about paying their employees). I’ve looked into working for the scooter companies for charging scooters. And I’m signing up with different temp agencies because I know that maybe I’ll find something good that way.

I’m really doing whatever I can right now and it’s just hard when things aren’t happening for me. I have gotten some rejections from applications I’ve been doing online and at least that proves that someone is seeing what I’m sending out. And I have gotten some responses back regarding some of the jobs, but when I looked into them they appear to be more of a scam than a job (like having to pay to work for them or the point of the job is to get friends to sign up). As much as I want to believe I will find something soon, I know right now is a weird time to get a job with the holidays. I won’t stop applying for things because of that, but I’ve also had to be realistic and realize that I might not be able to find something until the new year.

All I can do is keep applying for everything I can, keep asking if anyone knows of any jobs, and hope for the best. I know eventually I will find something, but I really thought that eventually would have happened by now.

Just A Simple Dinner Out (or A Union Working Hangout)

I’ve been helping out with the Union Working group for a while now. For me, it seems so easy to run the FB live and it’s not a big deal. But I know that for the core members/leaders of the group, it is a big deal because that is one less thing that they have to worry about. And they really don’t have to worry about anything because I come to the meetings with all the equipment needed to run it and I set things up without needing any help. And with our new location for the meetings, we have WiFi so it’s even easier to run the live stream.

I know how hard the core members/leaders of the group work to run Union Working, so when they invited me out to a hangout to celebrate an awesome year as a group I was really honored! I am friends with some of those leaders, but others are people who I don’t know that well and I was excited to get to hang out with them in a casual setting and get to know them better. When we are at the meetings, I don’t want to bother them since they are so focused and working on running the meeting. So this was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

The hangout was at a brewery that is near where we have our meetings. I got there early and had a chance to hang out with a friend of mine who is one of the leaders before other members arrived. We found a big table that would fit us all and people started arriving pretty quickly once we were sitting down. A bunch of people were ordering drinks, but fortunately the brewery had a nice food menu too so I got a grilled cheese (which was delicious!).

Most of the time we were there we were just talking about random things. Some of them were acting related, some of them were just normal every day things. The conversation never stopped and there were times that 2 or 3 different conversations were happening at the same time. I was seated at the middle of the table so I was able to be a part of it all, but sometimes I just sat back and enjoyed listening to everyone else. It was pretty entertaining when some people got a bit silly and I just had fun watching it all happen.

There were some moments where the group and the accomplishments of the past year were mentioned and each of us were singled out for what we were able to do. When it came to me, they thanked me for taking over the FB live and for just jumping in and helping. They also thanked me for keeping them on task and bringing new ideas. It just reminded me of how something that might not be a big deal to me is really appreciated by others and I should accept their thanks instead of playing it off. When it’s a big deal to someone, I should acknowledge that and allow them to thank me however they feel appropriate. I don’t have to play it down and try to be modest that I’m not doing much. It’s not an easy thing for me to do because I don’t like feeling like I’m getting credit I don’t deserve, but I did deserve the credit from their perspective.

As it goes with so many events like this, I had every intention of leaving at a reasonable hour so I could get home and to sleep, but that didn’t happen. I was just having too much fun hanging out with everyone and I didn’t want to leave. But I couldn’t stay too late since I did have a bit of a drive home and had an early workout the next morning. But I was there for a few hours before I said my goodbyes and headed back to my car.

I left the hangout really feeling like I had made friends out of more of these core members/leaders. While I’m sure they were always my friends before, I really got to know them when we weren’t worried about working and I feel much more a part of the group now. I’m happy just doing my FB live work, but if they want more I know that I am willing to do that because I want to help however I can. And I’m much more comfortable now asking for help from those leaders if I need it because I know them better now.

We’ve got some amazing things happening with Union Working in the new year and some things that will still be happening this year. I can’t wait to get to share them when I can because they are really cool. I love getting to be a part of this group and every time I meet with them I appreciate the group more and more.