Monthly Archives: April 2013

Boston (or Again, I Have No Words)

Posted on April 16, 2013 | Comments Off

Very few events make me speechless. Yesterday, I was at my first day back at work. I wasn’t watching the news or checking twitter. A couple of hours into my shift, I decide to do a quick twitter check (sometimes my app doesn’t let me know if my @ replies come in).

All of the sudden, I’m seeing all these posts about the Boston Marathon. At first, I was confused because I didn’t think a marathon would be on a Monday. So I decided to google it.

And after seeing what I saw, I couldn’t speak for a minute. Finally, I was able to say something to my co-workers and then after a bit I went back to work (I had to). But I kept checking twitter every so often.

I don’t understand why someone would do something so horrible. Finishing a marathon should be a moment of pure joy. Or at least I imagine it would be. I remember how happy I was when I crossed the finish line of the first 5K I did. I was with my dad, and the finish line was at the 50 yard line of the LA Coliseum.

And now that joy has been taken away from so many people.

One of the photos that has stuck with me the most was the one of the runner who fell down very close to the finish line after the first bomb went off. He was almost to the end, and then he was on the ground. I found out that this man was doing his 3rd Boston marathon and after the picture was taken, he crossed the finish line and walked back to his hotel.

That sort of resilience is amazing.

Another thing that was amazing was the incredible outpouring of support from the world. Of course there were the usual posts on twitter and Facebook, but people rushed to donate blood. There were even runners that as soon as the crossed the finish line they went straight to donate. There is a googledoc online where people posted if they had a place that someone could stay. I checked it out, and there are probably at least 1,000 posts of people who put their information out for the world to see just so they could help someone.

Why can’t there be this outpouring of love and support outside of a tragedy?

I read online that people are going to be wearing various race shirts today in support of those in Boston. While I do work in a casual office, a race shirt might be pushing it on a non-Saturday shift. So I went through my dresser and grabbed all the race shirts I had (some I don’t have any more).

I hope that if any of you reading this are in Boston, that you are ok. And also I hope that any of you who have friends in Boston know that they are ok now too (everyone I know is fine).

I don’t have another 5K until next month, but now I’m thinking I want to do something special when I cross the finish line this time to support those who weren’t able to finish the Boston marathon because of this. If any of you have ideas I’d appreciate hearing them.

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Posted in Fitness, Tough Stuff

Tagged 5K, finish line, marathon

Boy Band Ride (or Bringing Out My Inner Teenager)

Posted on April 15, 2013 | 1 comment

On Saturday, there was a special ride at SoulCycle. It was going to be all boy band music!

When I was in high school, it was like the battle of the boy bands. You were either a fan of *NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys. I personally loved *NSYNC. I remember recording their Disney special onto a VHS so I could watch it again (this was a time before DVRs). I had their CDs, I went to their concerts (with custom-made t-shirts as well), and I even did the choreography for a high school lip sync contest for one of their songs. One of my craziest memories of being an *NSYNC fan was when I was a junior in high school. That year, I started school at 7am. And there was a radio contest for *NSYNC tickets on May 5th (they called it *NSYNCo de Mayo). I remember leaving the house at 4:30am (with my parents’ permission) to go try to win tickets before school. That’s dedication!

Anyway, I was beyond excited for this spin class!

When I arrived, the lobby area was all decorated with boy band pictures.

I checked in, put on my fancy bike shoes that I’m loving, and headed into class.

There was some One Direction music in there, but most of it was *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. We were encouraged to sing along, and yes, I remembered the words to almost all the songs!

The instructor, Heather, was amazing! First of all, I like that she pointed out that I was singing along when she asked us to. I was working hard to sing so I like that she saw my effort. Also, during the class, Heather mentioned that she used to weigh over 200 pounds and has managed to lose the weight. I love getting to meet people like that, because I really feel that they get me. She never pointed out that I did most of the class sitting down (I’m going to ask my hip surgeon about doing the stand up work when I see him at the end of the week).

After the class was done, I was a sweaty mess, but I had to get a picture with Heather, who is now one of my favorite instructors!

I’m back to work this week, so I’m trying to figure out where spinning can fit into my life and not be an issue. I’m obviously not going to miss work to spin. I can’t do that with a seasonal job. I’m hoping that if I go early enough in the morning, I can make it back home to shower and then get to my job on time. I don’t know if I’ll try that this week since I’m going to be getting adjusted to being back on a 6 day a week work schedule, but I’m hoping that next week I’ll be back in the groove.

Thanks again to Heather who was such an amazing and motivating instructor!

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged SoulCycle, Spinning, workout

Yup, Back At Disneyland (or This Time It Was A Pretty Happy Place)

Posted on April 12, 2013 | Comments Off

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I love Disneyland. And you may recall that they last time I was there, it wasn’t too fun. I got stuck on rides, unable to go on rides, and it just kind of stunk.

Well, this is supposed to be my last week of unemployment (unless my start date gets moved for the 4th time), so I wanted to get in one more Disney trip before I was very limited to when I could go. Once I’m working, unless I have a random weekday off, I’m pretty much only able to go after my shift ends at 1pm on Fridays.

So I was fully prepared to make yesterday another solo trip to Disneyland. But then I noticed that my friend Piper was there with her mom. So I sent a quick message on Facebook and I was off to the park.

I met Piper and her mom in California Adventure and we rode The Little Mermaid ride (I finally made it on there!) and Soarin’ Over California.

Then we headed over to the Disneyland park and we did a lot of other rides. We started by going to the Tiki Room so we could get a Dole Whip (one of my favorite treats).

I really like the Tiki Room. It’s a nice place to sit and watch a cute show, plus it had some of the first audio-animatronics in the park (and they still look good).

We then made it on The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones. Although on Indiana Jones, we got in our Jeep, it made a jerky motion when trying to leave the load station, and the ride broke down. Fortunately, since we were still in the load area, we were let off of the Jeep. So we waited while the house lights came on.

And after maybe 20 minutes, the ride started back up again.

After that ride, we headed over to Tomorrowland where we rode the new Star Tours ride. It’s not new new, but new to me. This ride was something that I was terrified of as a kid. I remember my dad and brother would go on it, and my mom would take me on the People Mover. But thankfully I’m over that fear now, because it was an amazing ride (with some amazing looking 3-D glasses).

Next was Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Another favorite ride of mine. I rode by myself, and got one of the highest scores I’ve ever gotten (somewhere in the 400,000 range). But when I looked at my picture after the ride, the scores were not right at all.

As you can see, the gun that I wasn’t using at all scored 252,600 points and it shows me with only 10,000. Oh well. And the reason I have a silly face in that picture was because I was testing exactly where the camera is on it. I now think I have it figured out.

After all those rides, we made a quick stop for some dinner, and then we conquered the Fantasyland rides. We did Peter Pan, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Pinocchio, and Alice in Wonderland. Then it was back to Tomorrowland to ride Autopia (I joked that I had a British car).

Then it was off to catch the Disneyland Railroad though the Grand Canyon diorama and the dinosaurs to Main Street.

Seriously, in 8 hours, we did 15 rides, had a snack, and had dinner. I’d say that was pretty successful!

And I did buy one thing there. I stopped at the Disney store at Downtown Disney and saw this shirt.

It’s a cute color and it has one of my favorite princesses on it. Plus, I was so excited to see that I didn’t have to buy the biggest size! I got the next to biggest size, but to me that’s a big improvement! Maybe all the hard work I’m putting in is finally paying off!

I’m so glad that Disneyland is back on my good side now! And thanks Piper and Piper’s mom for letting me hang out with you all day!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Rita’s Ice (or Trying An East Coast Food In The South Bay)

Posted on April 11, 2013 | Comments Off

Over the weekend, I was invited to a preview of Rita’s Ice. I said yes first, and then looked up what Rita’s Ice was afterwards.

Rita’s Ice is water ice and custard. It’s pretty big on the east coast, but until this week, there were no stores on the west coast. But now there is one in Redondo Beach!

Rita’s Ice is in a shopping center, so there was lots of free parking (a huge thing for me!). I walked right up and it was nice and crowded for the preview inside.

I got a menu of what was available.

And while I was deciding, there were a ton of free samples to test out.

This was a Misto with strawberry ice and vanilla custard.

This is the lemonade ice (which was amazing!).

I also tried a chocolate custard milkshake, but I finished it before I took a picture.

There were a ton of other ice flavors to try, but I didn’t want to get full before ordering.

I decided to get a Gelati with strawberry ice and vanilla custard.

Honestly, everything I tried was delicious! If you haven’t had water ice, it’s tough to describe the texture. It’s like a mix between a slushy and snow cone, but a softer texture (if that makes any sense).

I loved my Gelati! I ate all the custard off the top first and then worked my way down the water ice. I wasn’t able to finish it, so I dug out the custard from the bottom and mixed it in with the ice and had a few more bites. Sadly to say, I ended up throwing some of it out because I couldn’t finish (and this isn’t exactly a treat to enjoy while driving).

Even though this location isn’t the most geographically desirable for me (I’m hoping they will open one up closer to my house), I know I’ll be back, especially over the summer. When it’s super hot out, one of my guilty pleasures is having frozen yogurt or a slushy for dinner. I know it isn’t the healthiest, but when it’s so hot outside you can’t think about eating, you have to cool down somehow.

So if you are in LA, I highly recommend making the trip down to Redondo Beach to try Rita’s Ice. Maybe you loved it on the east coast and want to have it again, or maybe you are like me and have never tried it. But in my opinion, this is a great treat to have in LA.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dessert, Redondo Beach, treat

Wedding Season (or A Bridal Shower For Another Jen)

Posted on April 10, 2013 | 1 comment

One of my good friends, Jen, is getting married next month. Jen and I met through our mutual friend Devon (we joked that she was collecting Jewish girls named Jen) and we’ve been friends ever since. In fact, when I tried online dating way back when, Jen and I attended a JDate event together. We joked that it was like an adult bar mitzvah because all the men were on one side and all the women were on the other.

Jen met an amazing man, Rich, online 2 years ago, and their wedding is fast approaching. So this past weekend, Jen’s aunt threw her a bridal shower, and I was honored that I was invited!

The shower was held at Inn Of The Seventh Ray in Topanga. I had never been there before, but it was a great drive up there. I was pretty much following the ocean up the coast for about 20 minutes.

When I got there, the first thing I noticed about the shower was how beautiful it was.

The tables were set so nicely and we were all underneath the clear tent so we could enjoy the views.

After chatting a bit with some of the girls at my table (who I didn’t know before but were all awesome!), the bride-to-be arrived!

I know it’s hard to tell in the picture, but her dress was so amazing! It reminded me a bit of Tinkerbell, but in a good way. I might try to find something similar to wear to my brother’s wedding.

Brunch was a buffet, and there were a lot of things to choose from. If you are vegan, this is a good place to go as many things available are vegan. I got an assortment of things to try.

Eggs, potatoes, more eggs, and fruit. Not the healthiest, but this was counting for 2 meals.

Next was the cake. It was made gluten-free and dairy free just for Jen.

Everything was Hawaii themed because that is where Jen and her fiancée will be going on their honeymoon.

I tried a piece of cake (it was red velvet which I love).

But I actually wasn’t able to eat it. I don’t know if it was because it was gluten-free and dairy free, but all the cake touching the fondant on the outside was as hard as a rock! And since I had the edge piece, my whole slice was impossible to cut into. It was actually a bit of a joke with one of the girls sitting next to me. I attempted to put my fork tines down into the cake, and it got stuck in there! Oh well. I really didn’t need to add those calories anyway. And it will be the same cake at the wedding so I can try it again then.

After presents and cards, it was time for me to say goodbye to Jen. I don’t know if I’ll see her before her wedding. I’m super excited for the wedding, and I got a new dress that I think I’ll be wearing to it.

Congrats Jen (and Rich, her fiancée)! I can’t wait to see you exchange vows soon and live happily ever after!

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged bridal shower, gluten-free, vegan, wedding

Hollywood Half 5K (or 5K #2 For The Year!)

Posted on April 9, 2013 | 3 comments

A while back, I saw a notice on Facebook for the Hollywood Half marathon. I’m in no way prepared (or motivated enough right now) for a half marathon, but I noticed that they also had a 5K available.

Since I set a goal of doing at least 5 5Ks this year (and have only done 1 so far), I signed up. And my friend Kate signed up too (but I knew ahead of time that she would be running it).

I wasn’t able to go to the expo to pick up my bib number, so Kate grabbed it for me. But I was super excited when I got it from her and noticed that my name was on it (a first for me)!

The 5K started at 6am, which meant a VERY early start for me. I was so terrified that I’d sleep in that I set my alarm like this.

Getting to the 5K was a bit of an adventure. The start and finish line were just under a mile apart. No free parking (most lots would have cost about $25). But we noticed that there were subway stations near both the start and finish line (and we had both taken the subway to Hollywood before). However, the light rail that we’d have to take to the subway did not start early enough in the morning.

Spa Night Out to the rescue! I noticed that we got this in the swag bag:

It was a $20 credit to Uber, which is basically a very fancy taxi service (if you are interested, you can use this link to get your own $10 credit). So we ended up going to the start line in a Town Car. Seemed fitting for a Hollywood event.

It was so cold that early in the morning that we hung out in the subway station to keep warm.

Finally, it was time to line up at the start line.

While waiting, we made a new friend with the girl behind us. Her name is Krystle and she was doing her very first 10K. And it was weird enough that her first name is the same as my brother’s fiancée (same spelling too), but it turns out her last name is the same too (we looked up at the race results to see how fast our new friend finished).

And when we started, Kate was off and running, and I just focused on walking and not stopping at all. I had my iPhone going with a good workout mix, so I was pretty happy.

The race had an out and back sort of set up, so I watched people going past me the opposite direction for a good portion of the race. And just around the 1 mile marker, I saw Kate running at full speed towards me. We gave each other a high-five and cheered each other on.

Eventually, I crossed the finish line. It wasn’t my best time, but it was about 8 minutes faster than the 5K I did at Universal Studios, so I’m super excited about that!

I also loved that there was a step and repeat at the finish line!

I met up with Kate at the finish line (who turns out ran so fast that she placed 3rd in our age group!) and we headed down to the subway. And we were pleasantly surprised by how cool it looked down there in the station!

I’m so excited that I got my 2nd 5K of the year done! I’m almost 1/2 way to my goal. And I’ve just signed up for 2 more 5Ks for next month. First up will be the Revlon Run/Walk which I have done twice before. That one is actually a 5.6K (according to their website). So I’m not going to stress if my time isn’t great for that one. And then at the end of May I’m going to be doing the Firefly 5K, which is a 5K at nighttime (it will be a first for me).

Looks like my goal might have to be changed to be more than 5 5Ks, but right now, I’m super excited that I’ve done 2 so far (and got this bad ass medal)!

3 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, Hollywood, race, uber, walking

Family Day (or How A Broken Hip Allowed Me To Celebrate My Mom’s Birthday With Her)

Posted on April 8, 2013 | Comments Off

As I mentioned before, my grandma fell and broke her hip. As soon as I heard about that, I wanted to go down to San Diego to see her.

But my mom advised me to wait until we knew that she would want visitors.

My parents were down in San Diego taking care of my grandma, and my mom said that I could go down on Thursday, which was my mom’s birthday.

So on Thursday, I made the 2 hour drive down to San Diego. The original plan was for me to see my grandma at the hospital, but she was doing so well, that the day I came down she got moved to the skilled nursing care in the building she lives in.

So when I arrived, I waited for my parents to meet me at my grandparents’ building. It was a gorgeous day out.

Once my parents got there, we grabbed a quick lunch while we waited for my grandma to be brought over. And pretty much as soon as she was settled into her new room, we all went down to visit her.

Considering that she had just had a major fall and surgery, she looked amazing! She was a little tired from everything, so the visit was pretty short. But I’ll see her again for Mother’s Day, so that isn’t too far away.

After the visit, I went over with my parents to the hotel that they were staying in for a few days. Our dog Dante made himself at home pretty quickly.

And then we all dressed for dinner. Since it was my mom’s birthday, we went out for fancy steaks at Donovan’s Steakhouse. I was excited for a yummy meal, but even more excited as this was the first time I got to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her since I was in high school!

Dinner was delicious. I had the twin filet medallions off the Prix Fixe menu.

And a split of Prosecco since we were celebrating my mom.

And then my mom got a birthday creme brûlée.

I had ordered cheesecake as my dessert course.

It was so much food, so I got a little to-go box for half of my steak and some of my mashed potatoes.

It made a very delicious breakfast the next day.

After dinner, it was time for me to make the 2 hour drive back home. I’m so glad that I got to see my mom on her birthday. I wasn’t expecting that at all (I mailed her birthday card to the house and she won’t get it until they get back). I wish that the reason we were all together wasn’t because my grandma got hurt, but I’m trying to focus on the positives of that visit.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged birthday, grandparents, hip, mom, San Diego, surgery

Considering Plastic Surgery (or It’s Not What It Sounds Like)

Posted on April 5, 2013 | Comments Off

Since I was out of work earlier this week (I’m actually starting back with a half shift today), I was trying to get a lot of maintenance stuff done. One of these things was going to the dermatologist.

My old dermatologist is no longer practicing at the Kaiser I go to, so I had a new doctor. Normally, I see the dermatologist once a year at the end of summer to get my moles checked for skin cancer (if you don’t do this, please consider doing it this year).

But this appointment wasn’t for something as glamorous as mole checks. This was for a wart on my face.

Yup, a wart.

It’s not as gross as it sounds. You can sometimes see it on my chin in pictures, but I can cover it up with makeup pretty well if I want. But it really hurts so I want it gone. I’ve had it frozen off once in 2001, but now it’s back.

So I go in for my appointment in what looks to be the scariest room ever.

I’m shocked that when they took my blood pressure in this room it still came back normal!

I met with my new dermatologist, who’s very nice and willing to explain everything to me (as I always have a million questions). He gave me my treatment options: freezing or burning it off which has about a 70% success rate or having it cut out which has a 90% success rate.

Since it’s on my face, I said that if I was going to have it cut out, I wanted a plastic surgeon to do it. He agreed and said that that is what he would want me to do anyway.

I’m not exactly sure what I want to do. Freezing or burning leaves less of a scar, but I’m still unclear about how bad the scar would be. I left that doctor’s appointment with a referral to plastics, and I’m waiting on them to call me to set up my appointment.

So I’m turning to you, blog readers. Anyone have any experience with having a wart surgically removed? I don’t want a huge scar on my face, but I don’t want to have to deal with this again. I really don’t know what to do.

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Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged plastic surgery

Happy Birthday Mommy! (or I Promise Not To Reveal Your Age)

Posted on April 4, 2013 | 1 comment

Today is my mom’s birthday! My mom and dad are in San Diego with my grandma, and I’m heading down there today as well. So this will be the first time I get to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her in a long time (possibly since I was in high school).

Since I want to get on the road to see my family, this is going to be a short, but photo filled post.

Going through all my photos on my computer, I’ve got some pretty cool ones with my mom.

My mom has a fear of elevators (I’m not a fan of them either). But when my mom and I were in Paris celebrating my college graduation, she conquered her fear and rode the elevator up the Eiffel Tower. Also, a highlight of that trip was when we were in Italy. My mom found a coat she liked, and was trying to talk with the store employee about it. My mom doesn’t speak Italian and the employee didn’t speak English, but they both spoke broken French. Watching them try to communicate was pretty funny (my mom ended up passing on the coat).

My mom loves Disneyland almost as much as me.

100_1394

The second picture is from our trip a few years back to Disney World.

Also, my mom now will indulge me in taking silly pictures (which I love).

This is from the WB Tour we went on right after I had hip surgery.

This is on the “Exorcist” steps in Washington DC (we were there for my brother’s med school graduation).

Also, my mom is still willing to try new things, like working out with Richard Simmons.

And even though my dog has pretty much replaced me (and maybe also my brother) in the family, I know she still loves and supports me. She even reads this blog!

Happy Birthday Mommy! I’ll see you in a couple of hours in San Diego so we can celebrate together!

And finally, this is my favorite picture of me with my mom (and my grandma too).

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, mom, photos

More Hip Issues (or Wish It Was Me)

Posted on April 3, 2013 | Comments Off

If you follow me on twitter or Facebook, you have some idea of what’s been going on in my life the past few days. But here’s my recap for the rest of you.

On Monday, I called my mom for some silly reason. It was probably something about an upcoming doctors appointment or something. I honestly don’t remember. But a few minutes in to our conversation, my mom let me know that something had happened to my grandma.

From what we understand, she was walking on the hardwood floor in my grandparents’ place in socks and slipped and fell. She wasn’t able to get up, so my grandpa got help. Turns out, my grandma broke her hip.

All day Monday, my family wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen. We pretty much knew she needed surgery, but we weren’t sure what exactly was going to be done.

Finally on Monday evening, my grandma went in to surgery for a partial hip replacement. She did wonderfully in surgery.

I’ve been staying in touch with several family members the past few days. My aunt and mom both got to talk with my grandma yesterday, so they let me know that she is in good spirits (and is recovering nicely).

I’ve previously mentioned my hip issues, but my grandma’s is much more extensive than mine. But my aunt has had both her hips replaced in the past so she can really help my grandma understand what she needs to do in recovery. Yes, that’s 3 generations of hip issues in my family (although if you are being technical, my aunt isn’t blood related, but I don’t count that).

I’m hoping with encouragement from my aunt and all the rest of my family members, my grandma can get back to her usual self in the projected recovery time.

I’d appreciate all positive and healing thoughts for my grandma. I know she isn’t going through the easiest time. I’m going to go down to see her this week so I’m hoping that I can cheer her up just a little.

Comments Off on More Hip Issues (or Wish It Was Me)

Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged grandparents, hip, hip issues, surgery

Monthly Archives: April 2013

Boston (or Again, I Have No Words)

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Boy Band Ride (or Bringing Out My Inner Teenager)

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Yup, Back At Disneyland (or This Time It Was A Pretty Happy Place)

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Rita’s Ice (or Trying An East Coast Food In The South Bay)

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Wedding Season (or A Bridal Shower For Another Jen)

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Hollywood Half 5K (or 5K #2 For The Year!)

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Family Day (or How A Broken Hip Allowed Me To Celebrate My Mom’s Birthday With Her)

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Considering Plastic Surgery (or It’s Not What It Sounds Like)

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Happy Birthday Mommy! (or I Promise Not To Reveal Your Age)

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More Hip Issues (or Wish It Was Me)

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Monthly Archives: April 2013

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