Tag Archives: Oscars

Oscar Night (or A Very Low-Key Award Show)

After going to the Artios Awards earlier in the week, I was ready for a casual party for watching the Oscars. I was going to go to the same party that I normally go to, and I usually try to wear something comfortable when I go since I spend most of my time there sitting and watching the show. But since it’s also a costume party, I try to figure out something fun to do that also isn’t too awkward to sit in. I seem to be pretty good at figuring out lazy costumes, but this year I was cutting it close with making a costume.

Since I hadn’t seen that many of the movies, I knew it wouldn’t be too easy for me to be inspired for my costume. So I decided to pay attention to the names of the movies and use that for my inspiration instead of the characters and storylines. And I think I figured out something that was really funny and easy. I decided to go as the movie “Blonde”. For my costume, I used a box I already had and printed a photo of a hair dye box and covered the box with that. I know I could have gone out to buy hair dye, but I was doing this about an hour before I was leaving for the party and it was much cheaper to do this. But I think the box turned out ok and my lazy costume came together.

I didn’t wear anything to go with the costume, so I knew that there was almost no chance I would win the costume contest. But I know that I never place in the costume contest so I don’t try too hard. I just like to make a costume of something and this worked perfectly for me.

I got to the party right as it started, which was about an hour before the show started. Since I am in a room watching the show for most of the time I’m there, I wanted to get my social time in during that hour. A bunch of people were there early as well, and we had a nice food spread that was much fancier than what we normally have. Right before the show started, I put together a little plate and brought it to where I would be watching.

There are two viewing areas at this party, the quiet room and the loud room. I’m always in the quiet room since I like to focus on the show. We do talk during commercial breaks and sometimes we say little comments to each other during the show, but for the most part, we are quiet. Most people at the party hang out in the loud room, so we are a small group and I didn’t really see people who showed up after the show started until I took a break to get something during a commercial break. It does feel a bit weird to not be social when so many of my friends are hanging out just one room away, but I think everyone understands that we will hang out a little later in the evening.

I really enjoyed the Oscars this year. The show didn’t feel long even though it was a bit longer than in some past years. I loved the speeches and everyone seemed like they were happy for each other. There was a nice sense of community at the show that I don’t remember seeing in the past and that made it feel more like a celebration of the work that was done in the past year versus a competition. I think there are some things they should still fix, such as letting the winners speak and not cutting them off, but there have been changes that they have been working on making and I think they are paying off.

Once the awards were done, we all gathered to vote on the best costume and see who guessed the most winners correctly. I sometimes do well with guessing the winners, but this year wasn’t my year. I missed so many of them and I think there were 8 people who did better than I did. But that’s ok since almost all my guesses were random and not based on seeing the movies. And I just have fun being around everyone and winning something at the party isn’t something I feel like I need.

I wish I was able to stay later than I did, but I needed to head home to get to bed early so I could get enough sleep before my workout. But even with the limited social time I had while I was there, I still had a great time seeing my friends and I know I’ll see them again at whatever the next party will be. And that next party will be much more social since we won’t have a 3 1/2 hour long show to focus on.

Maybe next year, I’ll have a more interesting costume or will have seen more movies so I can make more educated guesses on who the winners will be. But even if that doesn’t happen, I know I’ll still have a great time watching the show in the quiet room and being in my lazy and casual costume.

Watching The Oscars With Friends (or Another Thing That Is Almost Back To Normal)

Even though the pandemic started just over 2 years ago, there was only 1 Oscar ceremony that was really affected by Covid. The 2020 ceremony was one of the last “normal” things that happened before everything shut down. Somehow, that feels like it wasn’t really 2 years ago but also so long ago. And I don’t think any of us were that worried about Covid at that time. I know we were all aware of it, but it still seemed so far away from us and not something that would affect us. We really had no clue what was about to come.

The Oscars last year was an odd experience to watch. There was no party to go to but the group that I normally see for the Oscars was together on Zoom. So we all watched on our own and then during the commercials, we unmuted our computers and talked about what we just saw. It was nice to be able to still be a bit connected for something that has become a tradition for us, but it was also a reminder of things that we were missing out on. And the ceremony itself didn’t feel the same as it normally does, so I think the entire evening felt a bit off to me. But I still was grateful that I was able to have something that reminded me a bit of what I used to get to do.

And for this year, my friends did a small gathering to watch the awards. Everyone who was there has been vaccinated and boosted and most of us are somewhat in a pod together or we don’t see others. I know that it would have been amazing to have a big party like we used to, but this was the way we had to do it to stay safe. I just was grateful that I am in this small protected pod so I was able to go. And I think also a bunch of people took Covid tests leading up to the party to be extra careful.

Because I was going to go to an in-person party, I had to think of a costume. I know that it would have been ok if I didn’t have one, but I wanted to take advantage of being with my friends and doing something that I used to do before the pandemic. But the problem with thinking of a costume was that I really didn’t see that many movies in the past year. I didn’t even see all the screeners I got for the SAG Awards. I hate how disconnected I have become with movies, but I’ve had other things taking up my time and I just don’t love watching movies at home as much as I do in theaters, and I don’t feel ready to go back to movie theaters just yet.

So I decided to look at a list of movies that came out last year to see if anything inspired me. I was willing to dress as either a character in a movie or something that represented a movie. And as I was looking down the list, I figured out what I should do pretty quickly. Even though I didn’t see this movie, there was a movie that came out last year called “Licorice Pizza”. And I knew I could do a fun thing with that movie name.

In one of my grocery deliveries a while ago, I ordered something that wasn’t available and they swapped it for these microwave french bread pizzas. So I had a pizza box. And it was very easy for me to go to the store and buy some of my favorite licorice. And my friend suggested I should find a way to make it a purse, so I took the strap off of a water bottle holder I had and used a hole punch to make holes in the pizza box.

It wasn’t a crazy or elaborate costume, but I thought it was fun and I was happy with how it looked. And I think other people really liked it and thought it was funny because it got a good reaction at the party! I didn’t place in the costume contest (but I never expect to) but I did get a few votes!

And this party was really so nice. It wasn’t exactly like the pre-pandemic parties, but it was close. I sat in the quiet room as usual to watch the Oscars, and there were only 3 of us who were in there most of the time. In the other viewing area, there were a lot more people watching but I like being in the quiet room. And a highlight of the evening was that one of the people at the party was in a commercial that aired during the awards! That was so much fun and I can’t remember that happening at another party.

Before and after the awards, a lot of us were trying to guess the movies in the pictures that Marie and Chris made. I wasn’t able to guess a lot of them, but that was more about me not knowing the movies that came out. I guessed some of them based on the picture and then was surprised that it was a movie title and I guessed it correctly.

Overall, I had such an amazing time at the Oscar party. It was something that I missed so much the year before and I am so glad that we were able to do something that felt so close to normal. I can’t really forget that we are still in a pandemic and that this had to be an acceptable risk for me, but it was still a bit of an escape from the real world for a few hours. And I just hope that things still keep getting better so that we can continue to have things get closer to the old normal as we did for the Oscars.

Still Watching The Oscars With Friends (or Not Missing This Tradition For Anything)

I’ve been watching the Oscars with my friends for a long time. I actually looked back to see how long I’ve been going to Oscar parties with this group of friends and it’s been since I was 19! I knew it had been since I was in college, but I didn’t realize it was that long. I don’t have photos of all the costumes I’ve worn throughout the years, but I did find a lot of them when I was looking back at Oscar Parties past.

I love watching the Oscars with my friends and it’s a tradition that’s been a part of my life for a long time. But just like so much over the past year, we all knew this tradition wasn’t going to be able to happen the way that we were used to. A lot of us are vaccinated, but it’s still safer to avoid big parties right now. So the Oscar party this year was done how so many things have been done since the pandemic started. We had a party on Zoom.

We weren’t wearing costumes and we didn’t have the contest to guess the winners, but it still felt like the Oscar party that I love so much. The party is a lot about the people who go, and I loved seeing the people who were able to join.

Usually at the party, there is a quiet room and a loud room. The loud room talks during the show and the focus is a bit more on the party. The quiet room, where I always am, doesn’t allow talking during the show and you can talk during the commercials. We are social during the commercials, but I want to be able to hear what happens during the show and don’t want to miss anything.

Originally, I said I would be doing quiet room rules on Zoom and many others said they would be talking during the show. But we realized that we all had to almost do quiet room rules with muting things because our tvs weren’t at the exact same moment at the same time. So most of us muted ourselves (I also muted my computer) and a bunch of us turned off our videos during the show. And as soon as the commercials started, we were back on Zoom to discuss things. We also had the chat in Zoom going so we could say our silly remarks during the show.

The Oscars itself were interesting. I wasn’t as invested in it as I normally am (similar to how I felt during the SAG Awards). I wasn’t really rooting for any particular actors or films, but I do still love to see who wins. And since they didn’t have a time limit on the speeches this year, it was nice to hear the winners say what they want without getting cut off. And it was nice that for most of the winners, they were in the room so they didn’t have to give their speeches over Zoom. For the few that did do that, it seemed like things were set up a bit more officially than other award shows, so they didn’t have the technical issues that other shows have had. That was nice.

And even though I was watching the show on my couch by myself, I still was able to feel like I was watching with my friends. We got to be silly together and joke about what we watched during the show. And I think we all agree that next year, all of us are going to try to go all out for costumes since we didn’t wear costumes this time. Hopefully, next year I will have watched more of the movies that were nominated and will have stronger feelings about who I want to win.

But no matter what, I’m so glad that I was able to continue this tradition with my friends even though things weren’t the way we usually do them.

Making Some Good Guesses (or I Am Not A Cat)

This past weekend was the Oscars, and as always I went to the Oscar party that my friends throw every year. It’s really the best party because I can watch the Oscars the way I want and I can still celebrate with friends. And I love that it is a costume party because that’s always fun. I’m not the best with costumes, but I love seeing what my friends come up with. But this year, I figured out my costume a few months ahead of time.

I have no clue why I thought of this, but I realized I could make a Fox News costume by having some newsprint on my clothes and wearing some fox ears. It was an easy and clever costume so I knew that was the perfect thing to do. And even though Fox News isn’t technically a character in the movie “Bombshell”, it kind of is. Plus, the costume doesn’t have to be an actual character. A costume that represents a movie from the past year is pretty much the only requirement.

I found a newsprint scarf online and some fox ears that also came with a tail. And even though I’m not good at doing makeup, I really wanted to try and see if I could do something. So I looked up a lot of videos on how to do fox makeup and did a very simple version of what I found online. And I have to say I think I did a really great job considering my lack of makeup ability!

It wasn’t super elaborate or fancy, but I felt like it represented a fox. And I was happy with the final result which is what mattered the most to me.

I got to the party earlier than I normally do, but that allowed me to hang out with my friends before the show started. I always watch the Oscars in the quiet room, where we aren’t supposed to talk except during commercials. So while the show is on, I’m not being social. And I knew I wasn’t going to stay super late, so I wanted to get my socializing time in before things got started. And it was nice that I was early and there weren’t a lot of people there because I could get a photo of my full costume plus a photo with my friend Marie.

But one thing I noticed as soon as I got to the party was that everyone thought I was a cat. I totally forgot that “Cats” came out last year and I guess in a way I did look like a cat. Plus, there were a few friends who did come dressed as cats. But I just kept saying “I am not a cat!” whenever that was the guess for my costume. I just wish now that I had thought of this being an issue so I could have worn a shirt that said that.

Once the show started, things were pretty normal in the quiet room. We did have a few moments that were really shocking where we were all yelling, but those were rare. We were quiet for most of the show and that allowed us to really enjoy it and hear every moment of the speeches.

It also helped us track who was winning because there is a contest to be the person who guesses the most winners correctly. I don’t always do great with the guessing, but I was making a real effort. And I was doing amazingly well from the start! I kept guessing them correctly, even the categories where the guesses were complete guesses and I had no reason why I picked one over the others. In the end, I only missed 4 out of 24 awards, which may have been my best one ever.

After the awards were done, we had the costume parade to pick the costume winners. And before we voted on the costumes, we also got a big group photo of everyone there. I don’t think we have gotten a group photo before, but I love that we got one this year.

I knew I wasn’t going to win the costume contest, but I wanted to at least be on the honorable mention list (which means that you got at least one vote). And I did get on that list (and I promise I didn’t vote for myself). The winners were all really amazing costumes that were clever and the ones I expected to win. I don’t mind not winning since my costume was good but not nearly as good as what I knew everyone else would come up with. But I was hoping I might place with guessing the winners.

I knew I’d be in the top few, but it’s the top 2 that win prizes. And it turned out that 2 people did 1 guess better than I did. So I did get 3rd place, but no prize. But I was still proud of myself for how well I did with my guessing!

After all the prizes were given out, I started making my rounds of goodbyes since I wanted to start heading home. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had an early morning the next day and about a 30-minute drive home. But I was glad I got to spend so much time with my friends and I’m sure the next party will be here before we know it!

A Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show)

This past Sunday was the Oscars and as always I went to the party that my friends Marie and Chris have. It’s one of their parties that I look forward to every year and it’s one of the best ones that I think they do. I love seeing people in costume and I love being around amazing people as we watch the awards. The party is the perfect mix of both of those things and that’s what makes it so special to me.

There are some years that I think of my costume for the party way in advance and there are some times that it comes together the week of the party. It just depends if something inspires me. And as soon as I saw “Incredibles 2”, I thought I’d go to the party as Edna. I did that the year the first “Incredibles” came out and I got second place in the costume contest! It was the only time I placed in the costume contest so I thought it would be the perfect repeat costume.

But someone went as Edna to the Halloween party and I decided that I wanted to do something different. I wasn’t sure what I’d do, but I figured I’d think of something. But time flew by and it was the night before the party and I still had no idea on what I wanted to go as. I had an easy idea that night and figured I could easily do it (it mainly involved wearing stickers) and I knew it wouldn’t be anything spectacular.

Then, on Oscar Sunday morning, I was doing my laundry and saw my Disney dog leggings I got a few months ago in my dresser. I remembered that “Isle of Dogs” came out in 2018 (which is the only rule for the costumes) and thought that would be so much better than my original idea. So I was going to wear the leggings and make stickers of pet store aisles to wear on my shirt. The stickers didn’t want to stick on my shirt, so I only put one on and used the others as backups for when that one fell off. It wasn’t my best costume, but it was comfortable and fun and that’s the best combination.

The decorations for the party were all about Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and they had an amazing puppet backdrop to use and they made puppets to go along with it!

There are a couple of different spaces to watch the Oscars, but I always sit in the quiet room. We talk during the commercials, but during the show we are quiet. There is sometimes something said quickly while someone is walking up to the stage, but the point of the quiet room is to be able to watch (the other spaces to watch has people talking throughout the show and the focus is being more social). We usually have the same people each year in the quiet room and we are all good at following the quiet room rules. But we also know each other well enough to be ok with the little whispers and talk that may happen.

And one thing we kept discussing was the show. There was so much in the press about how this show was the first one without a host in a long time and there were people wondering how it was going to go. And we all kept saying how much we were enjoying it without a host. I feel like the presenters had more opportunities to be funny and have little bits and the show still seemed to move quickly. It only ended about 15 minutes late, which isn’t bad compared to other years.

And we also were discussing how happy we were that they didn’t give any of the Oscars during the commercial breaks. Originally, 4 of the awards were going to be done during the commercials so we wouldn’t be seeing them while watching the show. They were going to have them online, but that’s not the same. The Academy reversed their decision and I’m so glad that they did it. I thought it was a bad decision to not air all the awards because everyone equally deserves to be honored the same way when they win.

And honestly, I felt more inspired watching the speeches for some of the awards that were going to be during the commercials than I did for some of the bigger awards. I love seeing people who are truly passionate about what they do be recognized for their hard work. I especially love seeing the winners of the short animated film, short live action, short documentary, and feature length documentary because I know that many times those films are passion projects. They don’t necessarily create these films to try to win an award. They do it because they had a story they wanted to tell and they went out and did it. And when they win you can see the pure joy and excitement on their faces. It’s really amazing to watch and I’m so glad I didn’t have to watch it online later to experience that.

Overall, I felt like the show was a really good one. Going without a host worked well, the winners for the most part were who I wanted and the speeches they gave were good, and I had a great time with my friends. I did get a few votes in the costume contest, but I knew I wasn’t going to win. The winners had really incredible costumes and I can’t compete with those. I was in the top 5 for guessing the winners of all the awards which was better than I expected to do. So many of my guesses were random so it was just lucky I did that well.

I realized while watching the Oscars that there have been a lot of films I missed. I’m trying to find ways to catch up on some of them now, and I’ve already been able to watch the winner of the short documentary on Netflix. There’s no rush for me to catch up on them, but I do want to make an effort to try just so I can see what made all of those projects awesome. It will be some good entertainment between customers when it gets slower at my job later this year.

Oscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired)

This past weekend was the Oscars and as usual I was at the party that my friends Marie and Chris do each year. This party is one of the best parties that they do because not only do they have amazing decorations but we get to watch the Oscars! I love seeing the awards being given out and I’m always happy to have an opportunity to figure out a fun costume.

I’ve been doing much more low-key costumes the past few years and this year that trend continued. I actually had this costume figured out last year when I saw “The Disaster Artist” for the first time. I had read the book first (which I recommend reading if you haven’t yet) and in the book as well as the movie the green screen almost became a character. It was so weird to create a green screen setup for a set that was right next to them. It makes no sense but that’s what they did. So I decided that I wanted to be the green screen from the movie as my costume.

I thought that there might be a chance someone else would get their costume inspiration from “The Disaster Artist”, but I was so excited to see that a friend dressed up as James Franco playing Tommy Wiseau so she could post the same way he is posed on my fake green screen!

And I loved the costumes that Marie and Chris wore (he was Pennywise and she was Tonya Harding).

And as more people arrived to the party, I was loving all the costumes. Some people went for costumes that made them look like characters from the movie (“Lady Bird”, “War For The Planet Of The Apes”, and “Get Out”) and others were more puns on the movie (the one with the name tags is “Call Me By Your Name”).

And before the show started, I also was checking out the decorations for the party. Marie and Chris had been posting online that they would be doing small this year and we all just figured that it was because they always go over-the-top and they needed a bit of a break. But it was more of a pun because they were inspired by the movie “Downsized” and did miniatures for all the decorations.

Once it was time for the Oscars to start, I hung out in the quiet room (where talking is only done during the commercials). More people hang out in the loud room, but I really do like to watch the awards and hear the speeches. I tried to go out of the quiet room during the commercials to socialize with people, but I pretty much stuck to my spot on the couch talking with the others in the quiet room between awards.

And since this was a live show, there was no way to forward through the commercials. Usually that bugs me, but this time we were noticing that the commercials were all pretty awesome. Most of them were about being creative and producing your own work. The commercials were very focused on inspiring those of us who were watching the Oscars from home but one day hope to be there. And they did inspire me. I was getting a little annoyed when we kept seeing the same commercials over and over again, but the inspiration I felt was more than the annoyance.

As far as predicting the winners, I didn’t do as well as I have in the past. I didn’t see as many of the nominated films as I hoped and I decided to guess the winners I wanted for some categories versus the winners that were more likely to happen. But that’s ok with me because there are some people at the party who take the guessing very seriously and do see pretty much everything that was nominated. I just like being around people who are as enthusiastic about watching the show as I am.

And most of the winners were what was predicted even if they weren’t necessarily the ones I picked. But it still made me so happy when I saw some of the winners like when Jordan Peele won for writing “Get Out”. That was one of my favorite movies of the year and I love how he has shared how hard it was for him to write it and how he quit so many times but just kept going. And I loved when the winners for live-action short film talked about how they got the money for their film by crowdsourcing. That’s something I’m familiar with and it’s a good reminder that as long as you have an idea, there is always a way to make it and you never know if it will win an Oscar.

After the show was done, everyone headed outside for the costume parade and voting. I knew I wasn’t going to win because there were so many amazing costumes, but I was hoping for at least a vote. And I did make it to the honorable mentions so that means someone voted for me (and it wasn’t me)! The winners all had amazing costumes and they totally deserved to win.

As soon as the winners for the costume contest were announced, I had to say goodbye so I could drive back home. I wish I could have stayed at the party longer, but I rarely can do that because of my schedule. But at least I got to spend Oscar Sunday with awesome friends and feeling like anything is possible!

Watching The Oscars (or Costumes and Twitter)

I’m sure by now you have all seen and read about what happened at the Oscars. If you haven’t here’s a great article about how the wrong film was announced as best picture, how it happened, and what was done to try to correct it. While that is a huge part of what happened at the Oscars, that was only a small time at the party I was at.

I went to Chris and Marie’s house for the Oscars as I have every year for a long time. It’s a great party every year and I’m always looking forward to it. The group of people who go to the party are a mix of those of us who take the Oscars very seriously and those who aren’t super into the awards but love any opportunity to dress up and hang out.

I had an idea for a costume around New Year’s Eve, but it seemed too complicated for me to figure out how to make and I gave up on it. I had another idea for a costume and even went out and bought things for it, but I decided that I wouldn’t be comfortable in the costume. I started researching what movies came out in 2016 (since the only rule for costumes is that it needs to be related to a movie that came out in the past year), and finally found the perfect idea for me!

I went as Anthony Weiner’s twitter account (inspired by the documentary “Weiner”). I had a dry erase board with his twitter profile picture where people could write tweets and I wrote on tape on my body a couple of statements Anthony Weiner had made after his scandals were in the news. It was another easy/lazy costume, but fortunately people at the party found it really clever and fun.

As always, Chris and Marie decorated their house and yard for the party. This year, the theme was Arrival and they did an amazing job making decorations that were exactly like the movie. I especially loved the photo set up they made with the aliens from the movie!

Since there is a mix of people at the party, the viewing areas are split up. There is the quiet room and the regular viewing area. The quiet room used to be much more quiet, but over the years we’ve gotten a bit chattier. We are still very quiet during all the speeches, but we will occasionally talk or say a comment during the show. And of course we are super chatty during the commercials. But my favorite party of the quiet room is that the video is projected onto the wall of a room so we have a giant screen to watch on!

We have ballots to use for the guess the winners contest at the party, but pretty quickly I knew I wasn’t going to do so well with that. While “La La Land” wasn’t my favorite movie of the year, I knew so many critics loved it and I assumed it was going to win more awards than it did. I also hadn’t seen all of the animated, documentary, or short films so for many of those I had to guess. But so many people and films that I wanted to win did and I was really enjoying the show.

Then there was the moment when the wrong movie was announced as Best Picture. I don’t think I’ve heard so much screaming before during the Oscars. We were all so confused (as was probably everyone watching) and we couldn’t believe what was happening. I’m glad that the error was corrected during the show so the producers from “Moonlight” could get up and speak, but I know that it was a moment during the ceremony that will not be forgotten. I know it was an honest mistake, but it was a big mistake.

I think everyone was in shock after the awards were done, but we all headed to the backyard to start the costume contest. We all go around and announce what our costumes are so we can vote. When I announced my costume, I got a bunch of laughs, but I knew that my costume wasn’t going to be a winner. So many people had amazing costumes and I was just happy to see how creative other people can be.

I loved my friend Regan’s Hidden Figures costume (she was with some friends who played other characters from the movie). Their group got first place in the costume contest.

And the funniest costume I saw was actually the costume I was originally thinking of doing! When I went to see Dr. Strange, I immediately thought how cool it would be to go as the cape from the movie. I was trying to figure out how to make a cape look like it was levitating in front of me, but I never could figure out a simple enough solution. But my friend Andy figured out a really easy way to do it and I think his costume looked so much better than anything I could have done!

After the costume winners were announced, the party started to wind down pretty quickly. Most of the people at the party had to work the next morning (I had an early workout the next morning) so a lot of people were trying to get home. I left pretty early too, but since that’s when most people were leaving I didn’t feel like I was missing too much of the party. I went around saying goodbye to all of my friends and walked out to my car.

On a random side note, this was the first party since my car died on New Year’s Eve and it was a little stressful driving home. Even though I have a totally different car, I was still paranoid something would happen on my drive home. I’m sure I’ll feel like that for a while because things like that stick with me. But I got home safely and I’m so glad that I have a car that doesn’t have any problems!

Overall, it was yet another amazing party for the Oscars. I love getting together to watch the show and it makes me feel a part of an amazing community. Most of us know at least one person who works at the Oscars (I know 3 or 4), and we love getting to celebrate movies and be proud of our friends who are there. Hopefully one day I’ll get to attend the show in person, but I know if that happens I’ll probably miss going to the party since that’s what I look forward to each year!

Scared Speechless (or A Book Giveaway!)

I’m doing another giveaway! I know I still have my “Once Upon A Time: The Rock Opera” giveaway going on, but this is another amazing giveaway that I think you will all love! So I had no choice but to run 2 giveaways at the same time! You can enter both of them and I really hope that you do!

I met Steve Rohr when I was at the Entertainment New Media Network Conference last year. He was so amazing when he spoke to the group that I had to talk to him immediately after he spoke and pitched him to be on the Inside Acting Podcast. I’m glad he said yes because I absolutely loved his episodes! The stories and knowledge that he shared is amazing and I know how lucky we are that he was willing to speak with us. And I’ve been fortunate that Steve has stayed in touch with me because he’s a seriously awesome person (beside everything else he does, he’s the publicist for the Oscars!).

Steve recently shared with me that he and his friend Dr. Shirley Impellizzeri wrote a book called “Scared Speechless”. It’s all about taking the fear away from public speaking and how to become the best public speaker you can be. He offered to send me a copy and of course I said yes! While I don’t do much public speaking, I figure that any help I can get to be less nervous when I speak would be good plus I love reading self-help books!

I was so excited when it arrived at my doorstep and loved that Steve and Shirley signed it for me!

Scared Speechless Signed Copy

I immediately started to read it. I read it so quickly that I was done within 2 days and would have put this post up sooner except that I wanted to read it again before blogging about it! I felt like I read it so quickly that a second reading was needed to I could digest everything I was learning and make sure that I didn’t miss any lessons.

This is such a wonderful book! Obviously, it’s great for people who have to do public speaking or presentations at work or school. But so much of this book is perfect for actors who are nervous about auditions. It discusses some of the science behind fear and how to overcome them. It shares ideas for speeches and how to write different types of speeches like presentations, toasts, eulogies, and commencement speeches. And it has a great list of speeches you can watch or read to be inspired and to help you with whatever you may need to come up with.

What I love so much about this book is how it is broken up. Each chapter could be viewed as a standalone article. You could read just what you need to or read the entire book and still get a lot of information out of it. Each chapter starts with a chapter focus (listed on the first page of the chapter) so you know what you will be reading about. Then toward the end of the chapter there is homework or ideas to try to help work on the lessons that the chapter discussed. And finally at the end of each chapter there are key notes from what you just read in the chapter. It’s almost like someone already wrote notes on the book so you can make sure you didn’t miss anything and you know exactly what you should have gotten out of that chapter.

I read a lot of non-fiction books and I have to say that this one is one of the easiest books that I’ve read in a long time. It is very clearly written and the chapters are split up nicely so it doesn’t feel confusing or like it is repeating itself (which is a common issue I see in non-fiction books). I think that this really is relatable and anyone could find something in the book that connects to them and their public speaking (or auditioning) issues. This may be the first non-fiction book that I honestly think everyone no matter what should read.

You can go online and buy the book in paperback or on your Kindle now, but I have a signed copy to giveaway! There are a ton of ways you can enter. You can follow people on twitter, visit different fan pages on Facebook, comment on this post, or tweet out a message (and you can tweet out a message every day for extra entries!).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I can’t wait for you all to read this book. It really is incredible and I have a feeling that this will be a book that I come back to from time to time to help me with my auditions and any public speaking moments I might have in my life.

Good luck and I can’t wait to announce the winner!

Oscars Time! (or Inside Out vs. Star Wars)

After seeing my sister-in-law on Friday night and spending Saturday day/night and Sunday morning in San Diego, I was ready to lay low on Sunday and relax. But that was not in the plans for the day. This past Sunday was the Oscars, and as always I had an awesome party to get to!

I had planned out my costume carefully for the party. I knew that I would be coming back from San Diego that morning and wanted to make sure that even if we got caught in horrible traffic I’d have time to get ready. So I decided to make something that was easy to put on in case I only had minutes before I had to get out the door.

There were a couple of ideas that I had going for my costume, but the one I went with was actually the original idea I had.

Inside Out

I was Riley from “Inside Out” and had all the emotions coming out my head. I accomplished this by attaching each character to a zip tie that I had tied around a headband. It took a couple of tries to figure out something that would work (glue wasn’t helping to keep the characters upright), but I think it looked pretty cool in the end!

I was super excited to see how Marie and Chris would decorate their house. They definitely go all out and over the top, and I love it! And this year didn’t disappoint!

Star Wars Yard

That X-Wing plane was made out of cardboard and PVC pipe and took up a good chuck on the backyard. And they made the BB8 and R2D2 out of various things they bought (the bottom of BB8 was a yoga ball). This was so impressive and amazing and we all took tons of pictures of it.

Before the Oscars started, I saved my seat in the quiet viewing room and got some food. I got there early enough that I had time to hang out with my friends before my focus went to the show.

Overall, I enjoyed the Oscars this year. I know there is a ton of controversy surrounding the show and the lack of diversity, but I think the Academy is taking some really great measures to make sure that this does not happen again. And of course the lack of diversity was mentioned a lot on the show so they weren’t trying to cover up for anything.

Normally I’m pretty good at guessing the winners, but this year was pretty bad for me! I got a couple of random ones right and best actor/actress correct. But there were plenty of surprises this year. While I enjoyed seeing “Mad Max”, I wasn’t expecting them to win as many Oscars as they did. They were all deserving wins, but not how I thought the Academy would vote. I also think that so many people were surprised by the supporting actor category as well as the best song (we were all crying watching Lady Gaga perform). And we were all pretty split on what would win best picture, and even though I really liked “Spotlight” it was not what most of us had picked to win.

Even though I was in the quiet viewing room, we were a bit louder than usual. Nobody seemed to mind so it worked out really well. There were a couple of people who were new to the Oscar party so we kept them informed on what the plan was for the night. I helped to let people know that after the In Memoriam segment several of us would gather to do a shot in memory of those we had lost in the past year. This year there was a special twist to it. At the New Years Eve party I had brought some of my grandpa’s vodka. The entire handle wasn’t consumed so we used that for the shot. And I had also brought the last jar of my grandpa’s blue cheese olives so many of us ate an olive (or added it to our shot like I did and made it like a martini).

For Grandpa

After the show ended, we all gathered in the backyard for the costume contest. While there was some variety in the costumes, it seemed like a majority of the costumes were either “Inside Out” themed or “Star Wars” themed. It was pretty crazy to see how many of us had the same idea (or the same costume like Dani and Marie had).

The Reys

Even though I liked my costume, I knew I didn’t stand a chance in the costume contest. I just like getting to participate and see what else everyone comes up with. I was the only person who had all the “Inside Out” characters on their head, so I was proud that I was at least a little bit original.

After the winners of the costume contest and award guessing were announced, most of us started to head home. I had an early morning the next morning and was still pretty exhausted from my weekend.

As I do every year, I had the best time at this party! It’s so much fun getting to watch the awards with friends who are just as excited about them as I am. And seeing how creative all my friends are with their costumes truly inspires me. Thank you Marie and Chris for being the most amazing hosts and creating such a fabulous party!

With Chris With Marie

I can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!

Fitting Splurges Into My Meals (or How I Need To Eat For Life)

I’m still getting used to post-cleanse life. It’s tough to find a balance even though I completely understand what I need to do now. But I had some opportunities to test out my new knowledge with some splurges over the past week.

It started on Sunday with the Oscars Party. I ate cleanly and limited my calories before going to the party. I tried to go to the party without being hungry, but I knew I could be there from about 3-10pm, so I’d have to eat at some point. I did make some good choices like cut up veggies. But that wouldn’t be enough to hold me over for the evening.

The traditional thing that Chris and Marie make for their party is queso dip with chips. So I made a small portion of that for me and it was really delicious! By eating so clean and plain normally, things that are different taste more extreme than I’m used to. So less of it filled me up and satisfied me. Beyond that, I stayed with pretty healthy options for the rest of the party. My weight the next day was up a little, but that was to be expected because of sodium.

The next test for me was Disneyland. I ate breakfast and lunch at home (and also did a pre-Disneyland workout at Orangetheory) and brought a snack with me. The only thing I ate at the park was my soup in a bread bowl. No treats or candy for me. And all I drank was water. With my smart choices and all the walking I did, I lost the weight that I had gained from the Oscar Party while at Disneyland and splurging a little.

I also had a minor setback/splurge this past week with some crispy M&Ms. Those are my favorite and they only just came back into stores after being gone for a long time. I didn’t need them, but I had them. But I balanced it out by not eating as much for dinner that night.

I’m also looking at finding more good options for lunch. Now that my lunches can be cooked, I’m exploring what else I can eat while I work (which means that I need it to be ok to eat cold). Right now, I’m loving the quinoa cowboy veggie burgers from Trader Joes. I had one the other day with half an avocado and a banana. This kept me satisfied and full even through my workout!

Vegan Lunch

I’m hoping to not have as many splurges/treats in a normal week. This weekend will be tough because I’m going wine tasting and will be going out for some nice meals. But once I’m back, I will be back to my almost always clean eating. But this is normal life, and I have to learn how to live this way and still continue the right way on my weight loss journey.