Tag Archives: social

The End Of A Pandemic Social Group (or No More Regular Movie Nights)

Posted on March 30, 2023 | 1 comment

Just over 3 years ago, at the start of the pandemic, I posted something in a dating Facebook group that I’m in about ideas for virtual dates. One of those ideas was virtual movie nights through a service called Netflix Party (which has since been renamed Teleparty). Someone in the group suggested that we organize movie nights within the Facebook group, and Movie Club was born out of that. And about 3 years ago, we had our first movie night together.

Movie Club started as just a part of that Facebook group and eventually, we became our own group. We also started with just one movie a week, then we went up to 2 movies a week, and then we switched to movies on weekends and tv shows on Wednesdays. We’ve watched hundreds of movies virtually together and we are about to finish our 4th tv series. We’ve watched one-off movies and we’ve gone through movie series (like watching all the MCU and Star Wars movies).

I know I’ve written this before, but I feel like Movie Club really helped me survive the pandemic. When I was experiencing the most severe isolation, I knew every week I’d have somewhat regular interaction with others. Our chats in Movie Club were different from texting because we were all experiencing the same thing at the same time. And it helped me not feel like I was on my own little planet. When I was not working, having these on my calendar gave me something to look forward to and helped me have things to do other than just sit and be alone.

And for a while, we had a lot of people joining in every week. We could have 8 or 9 people in a movie or tv show and the chat was so lively and fun! And while I didn’t know any of the other people in Movie Club in real life, we all got to know about each other’s lives and would always be checking in with each other. There are people from that group that I do honestly consider friends now and I know we wouldn’t have come together without these movie nights.

But recently, Movie Club hasn’t been as active. We used to do movies every single Friday or Saturday, and for the last few months, I have been doing polls just to see what days people would be interested in watching something. We could go a few weeks without a movie due to everyone’s schedules and also possibly a lack of interest. And with the recent tv series we’ve been watching, most weeks it’s just me and one other person. I’ve still been enjoying watching a show with someone else, but it’s not what it used to be. We are almost done with the current series, so I put out a poll to see what the interest would be in starting a 5th series. And the poll was clear, there wasn’t really any interest in having regular tv or movie nights.

I knew this was coming. When Movie Club started, most of us had nothing to do. We weren’t going out with friends for dinners and many of us were either working from home or not working at all, so our evenings were pretty free. And things have been opening up more and more, so everyone is starting to get busy again. I have always made sure I kept the evenings we watched things free just in case we’d be watching something, but lately I’ve had to work around other things that could have been on those evenings. One of the issues I’ve had with finding an acting class is finding one that works around the Movie Club schedule.

So I posted this week in our Facebook group that once we finished the tv series we were currently watching in a few weeks, we wouldn’t have any more regular Movie Club nights. I am not going to get rid of the group and I said I’d be happy to run a random movie night if there is a movie people want to watch, but I think if those happen they will be only a few times a year.

I remember when I started Movie Club I thought I’d be sad when one day the group would be ending. I knew it wouldn’t be forever, and when it started it really was a big part of my life. So thinking about the end was depressing. But now that I’ve announced that things will be ending, I’m not as sad as I thought I’d be. The reason this group was created was to help us not feel alone when the world seemed to be shut down. I know that not everything is normal and open again, but it’s getting closer and closer to that. And it’s a good thing that we all have been able to resume the social lives that we had before the pandemic. I think that’s a positive thing. And I’m happy for all of us in the group.

I’m sure that I’ll miss the group from time to time or I’ll hope that someone wants to watch a movie, but I also know that I’m working on being more social in real life so I might not miss it as much as I think. I might be busy with other things and not realize that it’s Wednesday and I’m not watching a tv show with the group. But I’m choosing to look at the end of this era as the start of something else that is good and I’m looking forward to seeing what adventures my life will have for me coming up.

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Default ThumbnailHaving More Virtual Movie Nights (or Still Trying To Be Social) Default Thumbnail2 Years Of Movie Club (or Another Pandemic-Related Anniversary) Default ThumbnailSo Many Virtual Movie Nights (or Thank Goodness For Technology) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners) Default ThumbnailWorking In A Social Media Outage (or There Were Some Good Things That Happened) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For A Fun Rewatch (or More Netflix Parties)

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Being Social Outside Of Workouts (or Making OTF Friends)

Posted on October 23, 2018 | Comments Off on Being Social Outside Of Workouts (or Making OTF Friends)

Pretty much since the first Orangetheory location opened in Los Angeles in Brentwood, there have been social events for members. They want to make the studio feel like a community and I love that about Orangetheory. They have done hikes, beach days, yoga classes, and other fun things. I’ve only made it to the yoga class though.

A lot of the social events happen on Saturdays. The beach days and hikes have almost always been on a Saturday. While I could go after I’m done with work to the beach days (especially if I skip my workout that day), I could never make the hikes because I have to work. I guess I could use some of my banked hours to miss a shift, but since Saturdays are one of our busiest days I feel bad when I do that. And some of the other social events have been on a Friday evening. For me those were tough to go to because of my schedule and drive time. If I went after a workout on a Friday evening, I had 2 options. One would be to shower at Orangetheory, wait a few hours, and then be a part of whatever event was happening. The other would be to drive home (which sometimes took over 90 minutes), shower, drive back to where I was, and then be late for the event. Neither of those were good options for me so I never went.

But once the Culver City location opened, I knew that I’d have a better chance of going to one of the fun things they would be planning. Some of the events are the same ones that the Brentwood one does because they are regional events (like the hikes and beach days), so I had missed those. And they did do a wine tasting event at a bar near the studio, but since I’m not drinking right now I didn’t feel like paying for an event that I couldn’t really participate in.

But this past Friday, there was finally an event I could go to! It was hanging out at Rush St (where I seem to go all the time) and while that is a bar it wasn’t necessarily an alcohol event like a wine tasting. We had the back patio area reserved for Orangetheory for a few hours that evening and we could hang out, order food and drinks if we wanted to, and just have a fun time. And since I work out in the mornings, it was super easy to go to something that night!

I’ve joked to people that when someone from my workouts sees me in normal clothes, a lot of times they are shocked. I have long hair but since I have it in a top knot during a workout most people don’t realize that. Plus since my hair is so thin, the top knot doesn’t look like it’s holding a lot of hair. The first time people from the Brentwood studio saw me with my hair down, many of them couldn’t stop saying that I have long hair. I guess they weren’t expecting that. So I thought I might have the same situation with this event.

When I got there a couple of coaches as well as front desk staff were there. But I didn’t recognize anyone from class. I knew that there was a chance that even if I was next to someone who usually is in class with me, I might not recognize them. People do look different in normal clothes and I’m usually in my head and focusing on myself during workouts. I don’t really pay attention to others, but I think a lot of people are the same way. I tried to not be shy when I didn’t really know anyone there, and fortunately there were people who brought me into their conversations so I wasn’t there alone and looking awkward.

I had gotten there toward the beginning of the event and it wasn’t that packed when I arrived. But people were quickly showing up and before I knew it the patio area was packed and there were so many people hanging out! I still didn’t recognize anyone from class, but I didn’t mind it after a bit. Several of us said we should have written what class times we take on the name tags we had so we could tell who might have been in class with us. But since everyone was in the same situation with wondering who they have seen in class before, it wasn’t that weird. We all were joking about it whenever we were meeting someone knew.

Since I didn’t see anyone I knew from class (or if we had been in class before, it was only a few times), nobody was shocked by how I looked out of workout clothes. But when one of my coaches arrived an hour after it started, she took a look at me and couldn’t believe that I had long hair. It was funny seeing her shocked at my appearance, but I also think that it’s a good thing that I look very different in a workout compared to when I’m in normal clothes. I never look good during a workout because I don’t really care how I look, so I would hate it if I still looked the same when I make an effort.

I was at the bar for longer than I was planning on being there. I work on Saturday mornings so I usually am not out that late on a Friday night. But I was having such a great time meeting new people and getting to hang out with my coaches in a social setting that time just flew by. I met so many new people who go to Orangetheory, but many of them work out super early or in the afternoon or evenings so I won’t be seeing them in class. But many of us did exchange numbers so we can hang out another time. And many of them have never done Hell Week before so they wanted my advice on how I have done it in the past. I’m always happy to help out people who have questions about the workouts so I was just glad I could help a little bit.

So many people talk about how hard it is to make friends as an adult. I agree completely with that idea because it really isn’t easy. I work from home by myself so I don’t make friends at work. I have made friends from workouts, but those friendships usually take months to happen because most people there aren’t looking around to chat before or after a workout. I do make friends at parties or union events, but that’s not always the case. So to have a night out with people that I know have one big thing in common with me was such a great opportunity to make new friends. And I’m so glad that’s exactly what happened.

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Default ThumbnailBeing Social and Nauseous (or Taking Some Inspiration From My Workouts) Default ThumbnailAn Evening Out With Friends (or An Excuse To Dress Up) Default ThumbnailAnother OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar) Default ThumbnailAnother OTF Hangout (or Having Fun Being Social In Normal Clothes) Default ThumbnailFriends and Rowing (or More Records In My Workouts) Default ThumbnailFriends and Family Workouts (or Getting Pushed To Do Better)

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

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Another Evening Of Mentees (or Advice and Socializing)

Posted on May 21, 2015 | 3 comments

My second mentee only meeting with my Women in Film mentoring group was this past week. I offered to host again because it’s pretty convenient for me to have the meetings in my house. Plus it seems to be centrally located for the rest of the group.

Only about half of our group was able to make it, but I was still excited to catch up with those who were going to be there. I took the opportunity to use my new serving dishes I got from my grandparents and they were perfect!

New Serving Dishes

Since the group was smaller this time than in the past, we only spent about an hour catching up on the goals that we have gotten done and what our goals for our next meeting will be. It still inspires me every time when I hear what everyone else is doing with their careers. I’m so lucky that I was matched with this group who are all very motivated and are dedicated to getting as much out of this mentoring group as possible. This is exactly what I was hoping to get out of doing a second mentoring circle.

I hate that I feel like I’m trash talking my old mentoring group. I’m not. But with that group our mentors weren’t as tough on us about attending meetings and they never told us to meet on our own between the meetings with them. And the other women in the group were mostly absent from the meetings. I really only got to know 2 of the other women because they were the ones who showed up for the meetings.

After our hour of catching up, we ate some dessert and started to me less formal and more social as a group. It’s not that we haven’t been social in the past, but this time we really relaxed and started to share fun and silly stories. I got to know the ladies much better and I feel that we got to bond a bit more as a group. I’m hoping that if we try to stay to time limits with our personal catchup and goals discussion that at future mentee only meetings we can continue to be more social and not just about business. It was a really nice touch and I think that everyone else enjoyed that too.

We will have another meeting with our mentors next month (the date isn’t set yet), and I’m hoping to have fun news to update everyone with. Since everyone else always seems to have such great news and stories to tell everyone, I feel almost a bit competitive and want to have some awesome news of my own.

So I’m trying to work on my career much harder than I have in the past just so I can feel like I can keep up with everyone. But I think that is one of the reasons you get into a mentoring group like this. You get motivated by everyone else to better yourself and you have a great group to lean on and ask for help.

I’m working on some ideas about what will push me farther in my career, and I’ll be sharing one of those things with you all tomorrow!

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Default ThumbnailEnd Of The Mentoring Circle (or One Final Lunch) Default ThumbnailLast Official Mentee Meeting (or Planning For 2016) Default ThumbnailMeeting My Mentoring Circle (or Being In The Minority) Default ThumbnailLess Networking More Socializing (or Another Evening With My Fellow Mentees) Default ThumbnailHearing Some Non-Nonsense Advice (or A Substitute Mentor) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready To Get Mentored Again (or A Evening With WIF)

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Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff

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Getting My Butt In Gear (or Missing Out On Fun Stuff To Work)

Posted on May 1, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting My Butt In Gear (or Missing Out On Fun Stuff To Work)

I wrote recently about how I needed to get back into the job hunt more seriously. It’s never easy to find day jobs (or additional day jobs), but it is a necessary evil of life.

My unemployment ended recently. And even though I was only getting about $90 a week from it, that money really did help me out. And while I could reapply for unemployment, I don’t think I earned enough W2 money recently to qualify for enough unemployment to get money after taking in consideration how much I make at my at home box office job. I also don’t want to have to keep depending on unemployment.

After my WIF meeting, I was really feeling motivated. I had to really plan time every day to apply for new jobs and to expand what my job searches were like.

In the past, I really just tried to find data entry/virtual assistant type work that I could do in-between my clients at my current job. I like my hours and was hoping to keep my work hours similar to what they are like now.

But I’ve now expanded my search to include evening and weekend work. This might mean that I would end up working 50-60 hours in a week when you add up the time between the two jobs. While this isn’t what I want, this might be what I need.

And since I’m getting serious about looking for a job, I’m starting to turn down social events in order to spend that time job searching. I was supposed to go to a really fun event by AJ, who hosts the podcast I work for, this week. I had been looking forward to it because AJ was in town and wouldn’t really have other time to hang out. But because of other things, the only time I could dedicate to job hunting would be during the event.

I had to let him know that I couldn’t go, and while it made me pretty mad about the situation, I did manage to find 7 day jobs that would be perfect for me and sent my cover letter and resume to all of them. So the missed event was worth it for my job hunt.

I’m probably going to have to miss another event tonight that I wanted to go to because I need to spend more time searching and applying for more jobs and I already have a busy afternoon with work and then my workout.

Even with canceling a couple of events, I’m still living a very social life. I just have to keep reminding myself that I need to pick and choose what I go to and that missing these events will benefit me in the long run. And once I get another day job, I’ll have more money to go to better social events.

Let’s just hope that this job hunt ends soon (and successfully)!

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Default ThumbnailUnderemployment Is Frustrating (or Trying To Find The Balance Of Flexibility And Work Hours) Default ThumbnailFinding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed) Default ThumbnailOn Hold With Work For Now (or It’s Now A Waiting Game) Default ThumbnailAt Least A Little More Work (or Getting My Contract Extended Again) Default ThumbnailUnemployed Again (or Trying To Not Make It Feel Like Summer Break) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Back To Cooking (or My Check In Kicked My Butt Into Gear)

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Posted in Acting, Tough Stuff, Work

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It’s The Most Social Time Of The Year (or I Wish There Were Two Of Me)

Posted on December 5, 2012 | Comments Off on It’s The Most Social Time Of The Year (or I Wish There Were Two Of Me)

I love how many events there are to go to this time of year. I’m learning to not say yes to all of them, but there are still plenty I want to attend.

There are the usual holiday parties, happy hours, and New Years Eve parties. But this year, it’s the first year I’m a member of SAG-AFTRA (an actor’s union in case you didn’t know) and there are a ton of screenings that I’m invited to for movies that are coming out now.

I wish I could go to them all. This week, there are 4 screenings that I wish I could go to. But since I work late 3 nights a week, I can’t go. This is the end of the season for my job, so I really can’t ask for any time off. If I get an audition or something, I know that my boss will let me go, but I don’t think asking to attend a screening is very appropriate.

I’m trying to pick out screenings to go to on Wednesdays (the one day a week I work “normal” business hours), but either there aren’t any on that day or they are for a film that I don’t care to see.

Fortunately, I will have some days off around Christmas and New Years so I can attend events then. One of the girls in my Girls Night Out group is throwing a New Years Eve party that I’m going to go to. And I’m not totally sure what I am doing for Christmas, but the “traditional” Jewish thing to do is to go to a movie and then have Chinese food. I’ll probably do that, I just don’t know if anyone else will be joining me.

In the meantime, I have to be careful with my time. I can fit a couple of events in between my work shifts, but I also need to remember to take time out for myself and time to sleep. For example, next Sunday I have acting class until 10pm. Then there is a LA Actors Tweetup that I want to at least make an appearance at. But then the next morning, I am babysitting at 9am until my work shift starts and then I’ll be at work until 8:30pm.

That’s a whirlwind couple of days!

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Default ThumbnailFinding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed) Default ThumbnailOne Year (or Actually One Year And A Couple Of Days) Default ThumbnailSocial Days Off (or Finally Seeing Some Friends) Default ThumbnailLooking Back At 2013 (or Where Did The Year Go?) Default ThumbnailWhat I Plan To Do This Year (or 2015 Goals) Default ThumbnailAnother LA Anniversary (or What Will Year 15 Bring?)

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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Keeping Life Exciting (or Making Sure Tomorrow is Different Than Yesterday)

Posted on September 12, 2012 | Comments Off on Keeping Life Exciting (or Making Sure Tomorrow is Different Than Yesterday)

Along with my focus on trying to get healthier, I’m also trying to mix up things in my life. It’s a bit tough to have a super active social life when you work 6 days a week (and 3 of those days include evenings), but I try.

I try to go out on adventures on Wednesdays when I get out of work early. I’m investing in Groupons and Living Social deals to try new things (although that doesn’t always work out how I would like). I’ve got plans for some trips coming up (Texas for my friend’s wedding, home for Thanksgiving, and San Francisco for my future sister-in-law’s dress fitting). I’m even starting to get back into acting class (currently signed up for the SAG-AFTRA Conservatory and Marci Liroff’s Audition Bootcamp).

Since I’ve done this, I’ve been a lot happier in my life. I’m still a bit exhausted sometimes from my schedule, but overall, I’m happy. And yes, most of these things cost money, but it’s worth it. And I feel like I’ve been able to cut back financially in other areas.

And I have noticed a bit of a steady weight loss since doing this. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m eating differently or if letting go of some of my stress is helping, but I’m glad the numbers on the scale are going down. I still need to make a bit more of an effort to get the numbers to go down at a rate that I would like, but I always figure a tiny weight loss is better than a gain or being the same.

Soon, I might have a lot more time to be social. My current day job is seasonal, but right now, the end of the season is up in the air. In past years, the end of the season would be coming up in 3 weeks, but that isn’t probably happening. We might start having our hours cut back, and that would give me more than one day free a week. I’m kind of excited to see what other fun things I can bring back to my life when I have a bit more time! But for now, I look at my calendar and smile at all the fabulous things I have scheduled.

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Default ThumbnailMaking Time For Real Life (or Trying To Not Just Live Virtually) Default ThumbnailScheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is) Default ThumbnailI’m Back (or Planning On Keeping My Routine) Default ThumbnailA Non-Exciting Life (or Trying To Not Feel Left Out) Default ThumbnailFinding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed) Default ThumbnailWorking On My Inner Badass (or How Spinning Fit In Perfectly With My Life Yesterday)

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Weight Loss

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