Monthly Archives: April 2014

Vacation At Disneyland (Celebrating My Mom’s Badassness)

Posted on April 30, 2014 | 2 comments

Once my mom was done with her treatments for cancer, I knew that I wanted to celebrate with her somehow. I knew my parents would be headed down my direction (they wanted to see my grandparents first) so I tried to think of ways to celebrate in LA. But then I decided that we should celebrate at Disneyland instead (why not be at the Happiest Place On Earth to celebrate?).

I thought that we’d do just one day (and go to both parks), but my mom decided that we would do 2 days at the parks and they would get a hotel room there. And to save me from driving back and forth, I could stay at their hotel room with them for a night.

I was super excited to go! I recently got a new backpack at The Container Store that seemed perfect for Disneyland and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

We all met up at the hotel on Sunday morning. My mom decided that she wanted to stay at the Grand Californian, which is the hotel connected to California Adventure. I had never actually been inside the hotel, and I was super impressed by how amazing it was as soon as I walked inside.

My parents got there shortly after I did, and after a quick stop to put all our things down in our hotel room, we were off to California Adventure. I had gotten my parents 2 day 1 park tickets, which meant that we couldn’t do both parks in one day. But we wanted to spend time in each park so Sunday was devoted completely to California Adventure.

We met up with my mom’s friend Roberta and her family once we got inside the park, but we only really spent the day with Roberta (her son, daughter-in-law, and young granddaughter didn’t want to ride the rides so they walked around on their own).

One of our first rides was the tires in Cars Land. My mom loves this ride because it’s so similar to the flying saucers that were in Disneyland when she was a kid. My dad had only been to California Adventure once (and it was when the park opened so there weren’t a ton of rides there) so this was all new stuff to him. My mom rode with Roberta and I rode with my dad. Somehow, the tire that my dad and I got was a total bust. We couldn’t make it move at all. My mom and Roberta on the other hand we flying around really fast.

Next was on to one of my favorite rides, Radiator Springs Racers. My mom and I both love this ride so much, and in all the times I’ve ridden it, my car has always won the race (I’m sure I jinxed myself now). Before the trip, I was a little worried about how my mom’s wig would do on the rides (because like me, she likes to ride with her hands up). She wore it on Radiator Springs Racers, and as you can see from our ride photo, her wig stayed on without a problem!

And I was super happy that my dad decided to ride with his hands up too! Even though my face is covered up by the photo number, I still think this is a pretty amazing photo. Roberta also took this really great photo of me with my parents while we were waiting in line.

We also rode Soarin’ Over California (the music from that ride is the ring tone for my phone) and Toy Story Mania (where for the first time ever I had the highest points in the car).

Next was another roller coaster, California Screamin’. Neither Roberta nor my dad do upside down roller coasters, so they waited on a bench for my mom and I to ride. We ended up riding twice, the first time in the front row (which is my favorite) and the second time in the second row. Again, I was worried about my mom’s wig on this ride, and so was she. So while we got ready to leave my dad and Roberta with all of our stuff, my mom decided to leave her wig with my dad as well.

It was actually pretty funny when she took it off because my mom said that some lady walking by her gave her a double take when the wig came off. My mom is getting her hair back, and if you didn’t know what she looked like before or with her wig, you’d think that this was just the style that she wanted to cut her hair in.

Both rides on California Screamin’ were awesome, and my mom and I agree that it is one of the best roller coasters out there.

Next we met back up with the rest of Roberta’s family and went to dinner. And after dinner, my mom wanted to rest before World of Color, so we headed back to the hotel.

On the way, we passed all of the bear sculptures that are near the hotel, and since my mom loves everything to do with bears, I took her picture with them all.

I also found the coolest hat for my mom, but she didn’t think that she’d wear it at all.

After resting for about an hour, my mom decided that she didn’t want to stay up for World of Color (the show was at 9:45pm). But my dad and I both wanted to see it so we headed back into the park. But since we had some time to kill before the show, we decided to ride Radiator Springs Racers again. In the dark, the mountains are all lit up and are really pretty.

Then it was time to get into our section for World of Color. I’ve seen the show a couple of times, but my dad had no idea what the show would be like. He was pretty impressed by it, but we got pretty wet while watching it (I guess we were in the splash zone).

After World of Color, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep before we had our next big day at Disneyland. But while I was in my pjs and getting ready to brush my teeth, the fire alarm went off in our hotel and we were evacuated. The evacuation waiting area was actually right next to our room so we didn’t have to walk too far in our pjs (and I was glad that I brought pj pants instead of a nightgown). We waited outside for about 30 minutes before we could go back into our room. I have no idea if there was a fire, but we never saw the fire department while we were outside the hotel.

Finally, when we got back inside around 11:30pm, I was ready for bed and for our next adventure the next day!

2 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, cancer, Disneyland, rides, roller coaster, theme park

Marching For Maddie (or Being A Supporter And Not A Walker)

Posted on April 29, 2014 | Comments Off

Saturday was the March of Dimes walk. I’ve done this walk a couple of times in the past, and I always do it in memory of my friend Heather‘s daughter Maddie who passed away several years ago. I never knew Maddie, but through Heather’s blog and all the stories she has told about her, I feel like I did know her.

I had every plan to do the 5K walk on Saturday, but then a couple of things didn’t go my way. First, I had the horrible experience with the Hollywood Half 5K and my major hip pain (and almost inability to walk for a few days after). Then, it rained the night before and my hip pain came back with a vengeance right before the 5K.

It was pretty much a sign that I was not supposed to walk at this event.

But just because I couldn’t walk it didn’t mean I couldn’t support it. So on Saturday morning, I got on the light rail and took it to Exposition Park where the walk was happening. I wanted to at least get to see my friend Heather and let her know that I was supporting her (plus I wanted to see her super cute kids!).

I got there pretty earlier so I got to chat with a few other people on the March for Maddie team before Heather and her family arrived. I hadn’t seen Heather since the documentary premiere (she was one of our twitter stories) and it was great to see her again.

I also got a quick picture with Heather’s husband Mike (who is a writer for BuzzFeed).

There was a lot of time to hang out before the walk started, but once everyone was heading out on the course, I turned around and headed back to the light rail. I just didn’t want to risk being in so much pain (also, Sunday and Monday were Disneyland days and I needed to be as pain-free as possible for that!).

But Heather did tell me where they were all meeting up for food after the walk, so once I got back to my car I ran a few quick errands and then headed out to the restaurant to meet up with the group again.

It was a really fun brunch. I knew a bunch of people there from doing the walks in the past and I got to meet a few new people as well. And of course, I was excited to catch up with Heather and her family.

Hopefully this will be the only 5K I miss out on for a long time. While I’m a little disappointed in myself, I know that I did make the right (but tough) choice to skip out.

I think my next 5K is in about 6 weeks so I’m hoping that I can work on some of my hip pain issues before then.

Also, if you would like to also support Heather and family, they started a charity in Maddie’s memory. Friends Of Maddie supports families who have babies in the NICU and is a wonderful charity. Part of what they do is create support bags for families and they drop them off at various NICUs around the area so families have some of the things they need while they wait to be able to take their babies home from the hospital. I know that every dollar helps them out so much and they would appreciate gifts of any size.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged 5K, charity, March of Dimes

Double Time (or 2 Days Of Split Shifts)

Posted on April 28, 2014 | Comments Off

First of all, a quick update on my audition from last week. I heard back from my agent because the show wanted to check my availability for the filming date! This could be a very good sign. Normally they only check the availability of 2 or maybe 3 choices. But you never know when things aren’t done as normally, so I might not be in the top 3 yet. But it’s still a positive sign and again, I promise to update you all on any news.

Thursday and Friday last week were both double job days. I worked from 10-2 for my recruiting job and then headed over to the box office job and worked there from 4-8. I need more days like this if I don’t want to have to get day job #3. Although I did talk to my bosses at the recruiting job about potentially getting a higher hourly rate once I’ve been there for 90 days which could make it possible to only need 2 jobs.

But even though I need more days like those days, I have to admit that it was pretty tough. I’m used to working 8 hour days when I worked in the telesales office, but somehow doing 2 jobs in that same amount of time is more exhausting. It could have something to do with the craziness of working in the box office. It’s pretty calm for the first hour or so, but once people start showing up at the will call window (which is what I do there), it’s non-stop work. And people are constantly asking me for better seats or some other sort of favor that I really can’t do. And this particular show that’s going on right now doesn’t allow for late seating (at all!), so we also have to deal with angry people who show up 10 or 15 minutes late and aren’t allowed in the theater (everyone is warned about this when they buy their tickets).

I’m sure in a week or two the box office job won’t feel as crazy or stressful and I’ll get used to it. But once I’m used to it, I might not be working much more there for a while.

Right now, I’m working evenings and weekends during the shows since I work my recruiting job in the mornings and early afternoons. The season is over in about 2 weeks at the theater and there won’t be any more shows until the fall. They will still need people at the box office, but it will only be until 6pm.

I have some ideas on how I can try to work both jobs even without evenings or weekends, but it won’t be easy. I’ll probably have to start earlier than I’d like to at the recruiting job and then rush over to the box office to work 3 hours instead of 4.

I also heard back from my old boss and he’s running a short fundraising campaign this summer and wants to talk to me about joining that. I’m hopefully going to meet up with him next week so I’ll have a better idea of what those hours would be like.

Either way, these double days need to become a more regular occurrence. I just don’t know how to make that happen quite yet.

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Posted in Work

Tagged box office, busy, job, theater

Craziness Of Auditioning (or How I Spent A Day Getting Ready For A Minute)

Posted on April 25, 2014 | Comments Off

This week I had my first audition in a long time. I know my agents aren’t to blame. There just isn’t much out there right now. And not just for my type, lots of my friends are in slumps right now. Plus, it’s a weird time for auditioning for tv. The new pilots have already been cast and shot and most shows already airing on tv have wrapped up for the end of the season already.

But I lucked out into auditioning for a cable show that airs in the summer (so they are just starting to film their season). I can’t say much about the show I auditioned for (that’s super frowned upon), but I can say that I had a great time in the audition room!

The part was a co-star, which means that it wasn’t a big part of the episode. In fact, my audition only had about 10 words.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t do my prep work! I found out about the audition the day before so I had plenty of time to do some research on the show. Normally for a show that hasn’t aired yet, there isn’t much you can research or find out about the tone of the show. But for this show, I lucked out because I had a small connection to it. I know someone related to the real-life person the show is based on. And she had been sharing information on Facebook about the new show.

So I went back through Facebook and found everything I could. I also made sure that even though there were only 10 words, I knew those words. When there aren’t a ton of words on the page it really stinks to not have them all memorized. I didn’t go over everything too much (it can sound stale and rehearsed sometimes), but I definitely spent time with my research and memorization.

The audition was at CBS Radford (where I was for 4th of July last year) and while I walked up the gate, I noticed a sign for Sarah Jones.

If you aren’t familiar with the Slates for Sarah movement, take some time to check it out. The short story is a young crew member died on set because of some careless (or lazy depending on how you look at it) choices in cast and crew safety. Nobody should have to die while working in a preventable accident. I’ve seen these signs at a couple of different studios around town and I’m glad they are there so people who don’t know what happened go to look it up and get educated.

I had some time to kill once I signed in at my audition, so I ran though my lines again and tried to relax. I try to think of each audition as not an audition, but the chance to perform and do what I love. If I happen to get the job, that’s a bonus.

I think the audition went well. It’s hard to tell with so few lines. I know that I did the best I could and I made an impression on this casting director. Plus, it was the first time I got to see this particular casting director so that’s awesome too! It’s another industry person who knows who I am and has seen a bit of what I can do.

If I get the job, of course I will share everything on here. But for now, I’m just super happy that I got to spend even a small part of my day doing something I love so much.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Work

Tagged acting, audition, script, TV

A Disneyland Tease (or A Mini High School Reunion Steps Away From The Happiest Place On Earth)

Posted on April 24, 2014 | 1 comment

On Easter Sunday, I had absolutely no plans. I was going to do some cleaning in my house and get ready for my work week, but it was a pretty unscheduled day.

I had an errand that I had to do in Anaheim and was planning on putting that off for another day until I saw that a friend from high school was at Disneyland that day.

My friends Ali (who co-hosts The Super Fantastic Nerd Hour podcast) and Nhu-An (both of whom I went to high school with and are now engaged) were at Wonder Con in Anaheim and decided to take their day off to do a Disneyland adventure. I totally wanted to join them, but my pass was blacked out for the day. And I didn’t want to spend a lot of extra money on a blackout day ticket. I really wanted to go into the parks, but I knew that spending that money wasn’t the right choice.

I had messaged them both to see if they would be spending any time outside of the parks on Sunday so I could meet up with them and say hello. Even though it seems like I keep in touch with a ton of people from high school, I had not seen Ali nor Nhu-An since we graduated high school in 2001.

When they messaged me back, they said that they planned to spend the entire day at the parks. So I suggested that maybe we meet up for a drink or something in Downtown Disney toward the end of their day. We agreed to meet up around 9:15pm between the parks so we could have a quick catchup.

I did my errand in Anaheim and then hung out with a friend until it was time to go over to Disneyland. You can actually park for free at Downtown Disney for 3 hours, so at least I didn’t have to pay the $16 to park at the parks. I walked over to where we were supposed to meet when I got another message.

They were at dinner and running late. But they could still meet me when they were done. So I hung out between the two parks for a while. It’s actually not bad there. I was able to see the fireworks (even though I couldn’t hear the soundtrack that went along with it).

While I waited, I did some work on my phone and played a couple of rounds of Words With Friends. And then Ali and Nhu-An came out and we had a mini reunion outside the gates of the parks.

It was actually pretty fun. We chatted about some random stuff from high school and Ali and I discussed podcasting. I’m trying to hook him up with a fun guest (and if it happens I’ll totally share it on here) for his podcast and he is having some technical issues that the hosts of the podcast that I work for can probably help him with.

We only hung out for about an hour before they were both ready to head back to their hotel (they had just had a full day at both Disney parks). Before we said goodbye, we got a quick picture together to prove that we had a (almost) 13 year mini reunion.

While I haven’t really stayed in touch with a lot of people from high school in real life, I love that since we all stay in touch virtually it’s not awkward at all when we get together even when it has been a long time since we saw each other face to face. I also like how all the high school cliques that used to exist are pretty much gone now and everyone I stay in touch with over Facebook is very supportive of each other. I sometimes wonder if high school had been like this if I would have still felt like such an outsider.

Either way, this was a great way to spend a Sunday that was completely open for me! And in less than a week, I’ll be spending 2 days at Disneyland with my parents!

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, high school, podcast, theme park

Table Read (or Spending My Saturday Acting)

Posted on April 23, 2014 | Comments Off

First of all, thank you to everyone who texted, emailed, tweeted, FB messaged, and called me after Keri’s death. I’ve passed on all of your messages to the rest of my family. Writing that post ended up being very therapeutic for me, even though it was tough to write.

But now I want to get on to my regular, happier posts. I know that’s exactly what Keri would want me to do.

Last week, a friend of mine put it out on Facebook that he needed to get some actors together to have a table read for a pilot script that he wrote for a CBS competition.

If you aren’t familiar with the idea of table reads, it’s pretty simple. You have all the actors read their parts of a script while you are all sitting around a table. For a show that is on tv, this is when the writers hear if their lines make sense (or are funny) and the other departments such as costumes or props can make lists of what they will need for that week’s episode.

But for this script, we would each read a few parts so my friend could hear everything out loud and see if he liked how it was going.

We all met at his apartment in the valley and read the script to ourselves before we all got assigned our parts.

It was a sitcom style script and it was really really funny! I don’t want to give a lot away because this is still a work in progress, but I can totally see it as a CBS sitcom on the air.

I got to read a couple of different parts which was a lot of fun. And there was one scene where 2 of the characters I was reading had a conversation so I got to have a funny little moment where I talked with myself.

After the table read was over, we all went over little notes we had about the script. There were a few things that needed clarification and some typos that we noticed, but overall it was an amazing pilot episode.

I’m not sure when the CBS script competition is making their cuts, but I would be shocked if I heard that this didn’t make the next round. And my friend promised that if something comes of this script, he will try to find a way for all of us who helped at the table read to be a part of it.

Even if nothing else comes from this, it was a great opportunity for me. I got to spend a couple of hours acting. I got to read an awesome script and make some character choices. And I got to network with a bunch of new people and reconnect with my friend who I hadn’t seen in years.

Overall, this was an amazing Saturday.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, competition, script

Losing A Friend (or Life Can Be Just So Unfair)

Posted on April 22, 2014 | 2 comments

I got some pretty bad news yesterday. My friend Keri passed away after an almost 2 year battle with advanced cancer.

I had known that this was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. I’m heartbroken.

I met Keri in 2005 at my cousin Stephie’s wedding. Keri and my cousin Adam had been dating for years by then and the wedding was the first time that she and I got to meet in person. Before I got to meet her, but after she started dating my cousin, Keri had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. It wasn’t cancerous and they removed it, but it did cause some health issues. But she beat that tumor and when I met her, she was the most vibrant and friendly person ever.

A few months after the wedding, Keri and Adam had invited me to Portland to come and visit them. That trip was so much fun! I really got to know Keri and realized then that she was just a super generous friend and so many people in Portland loved her.

We got to go out on my cousin Adam’s sailboat during that trip and even though there was no wind so we couldn’t really sail, we had an awesome time.

That trip is so memorable for all the fun that we had, but also because while I was walking in the Portland airport to take my flight home, I collapsed in pain. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the start to all my hip issues. While I was dealing with all my hip issues and misdiagnoses from my doctors, Keri was someone who I could call and vent to. She always was happy to listen to me and give advice when it was asked for.

The next time I got to see Keri was in 2007 at my grandparents’ 60th anniversary party. I was at my skinniest then, and as soon as Keri saw me, she said that I was beautiful at my heaviest and beautiful as I was then too. She said that she would love me no matter what my weight was and all she wanted was me to be happy. At the time, she was the only person who I felt felt that for me and it meant so much that she said it out loud for me to hear.

I only got to see Keri in person a few other times after that. But we always stayed in touch. We called when we could and Keri also wrote me the most beautiful handwritten notes that she mailed to me. Sadly, I lost a bunch of those notes when I moved into my current house (they were in a box with all my non-digital pictures and somehow that box never made the move), but I still have one.

Keri and I were also birthday buddies. My cousin Adam and I have birthdays close together (his is August 7th and mine is August 9th) and Keri’s was right in the middle on the 8th. Every year I would call Keri on her birthday and she would call me on mine. It was pretty funny to have calls 2 days in a row, but it was special. And at the end of every phone call, birthday or not, Keri always ended the call with saying that she loved me.

Sadly, about 2 years ago Keri had gotten in a car accident and had some abdominal pain. It was discovered that she had very advanced cancer and that it had already spread. Traditional treatment options like chemo or surgery were not options for her. So she used holistic treatments as well as positive thinking and she did amazing! The doctors had only given her a few months, and she almost made it 2 years.

My Aunt Cindy (my cousin Adam’s mom) called me last week to let me know that Keri wasn’t doing too well. She let me know that the end was probably near and she wanted me to know. For the last week, I panicked every time my phone had an alert because I was terrified that it was bad news. I checked Facebook all the time for news.

And today, after I had gotten home from a dentist appointment, an email from Aunt Cindy came saying that Keri had passed away in the morning.

The news hit me so hard and it felt like I was punched in the stomach. It just wasn’t fair. Even though I knew it would eventually end like this, it just sucks. Keri was so wonderful and had overcome a tumor already. Why did she have to get cancer too? And if she had to get cancer, why couldn’t it have been treatable?

She was doing so much good in the world and there was so much more good she could have done. Keri was a teacher and I’m hoping that her students carry on her legacy by being as kind and gracious as she was. I know that that’s why I’m going to try to do.

I wish I had more to write about Keri. I wish I had more pictures of us together. I wish her story in my life wasn’t ending like this.

2 Comments

Posted in Family, Tough Stuff

Tagged cancer, death, friends, obituary

Being Typed (or A Fun Actor Activity)

Posted on April 21, 2014 | Comments Off

This past week, I was invited to a Type Party. If you aren’t familiar with a Type Party, it’s something for actors to do to understand what their type (or who they would realistically play) is for film/tv. I had been typed before when The Actors’ Network still had a location, but it had been a long time since I had done it. I had also been typed during a SAG Conservatory event, but since there were so many people at that event and I was one of the last people to go, many people didn’t fully fill out the sheets.

A friend of mine was hosting the party and we were all encouraged to come dressed as you normally would for an audition. So I came in a simple top and jeans, since that’s something I wear a lot for auditions.

I got there on time, but was actually the first one there. Guess not everyone stresses about being on time the same way as I do. Everyone else arrived about 5-10 minutes later. There were about 10 of us there (all women) and we chatted and gossiped a bit before we got started.

I actually didn’t know anybody there except my friend who organized it, but that’s almost better. That way, nobody typing me would be influenced by things they know about me in real life. Everyone’s opinion was just based on superficial things (which is what you want).

The things we wrote down for everyone were things like age range, ethnicity, what jobs you could see the person in, how educated you think they are, celebrity look-a-likes, and any physical or characteristic adjectives you think fit the person.

Most of the things I got were as expected. My age range was between 22-28 (although there was one person who put 32-40). I was given bubbly, enthusiastic, friendly, helpful, and cheerful as some of my adjectives. As far as physical adjectives, they were all what I expected (plus size, full-figured, short), but one person wrote tan and dirty blonde. Maybe the lighting made me look that way? Because I’m not tan at all and I don’t think my hair could be described as dirty blonde (brunette maybe).

Unfortunately, I had to leave early so I wasn’t able to type everyone else, but I’m going to do it for some of them on Facebook. But I did get to take home all of the sheets people wrote things about me on so I could think about new ways to pitch and market myself.

I’m so grateful that a friend of mine organized this. Not only was it a great actor activity that will be super helpful, but I got to meet a ton of new girls that I probably wouldn’t have met without the party!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, party, The Actors' Network

Busy Time (or Scheduling Again)

Posted on April 18, 2014 | Comments Off

I’m really starting to get a hang of having 2 part time jobs. It’s not easy, but it’s starting to make more sense in my life.

The recruiting job is going well. I’m still pretty much working from home all the time, and I’m starting to have more success at it. My boss is pretty happy with my progress, but I’m hoping I get much better at it pretty quickly. The money that I earn from successful calls would be really nice.

The box office job is going pretty well also. I’m still waiting on getting my own login information for the computer systems, but I’m able to borrow another person’s login for now so at least I’m able to do all the work I need to do. It’s still a bit weird to be doing some of the same work I’m used to doing but it’s still pretty different. I’m not pushing ticket sales as hard as I used to and there’s no pitch to join as a member. I’m also not feeling the same motivation to try to get people to buy more (or fancier) ticket because none of the sales in the box office are commissionable. But I’m sure that the box office will feel like normal very very soon.

And finally, my money situation is getting better. After taking my NYC trip, my savings account was pretty much wiped out. My unemployment was ending (because I was still using an old claim and it was almost done) and I didn’t know how much I’d be making at either job. At the beginning of this week, I didn’t know how I was going to manage to pay my rent at the end of the month.

But I got paid from my recruiting job (I missed the cutoff for the mid-month payroll at the box office job so I won’t get my first check there until the end of the month), I got my new unemployment started, and my tax refund came in. This all happened in 2 days. And I finally had my rent money in place (and was able to pay it early which I like to do).

I always say that somehow things fit into place for me. And I’m starting to have more hope that that is really how it will work out. I’m not sure how things will be next month, but maybe I’ll get more successful calls from my recruiting job or more hours in the box office. It’s all a little up in the air but it looking like a much more realistic lifestyle now.

Sorry if this is a somewhat boring post, but that’s where I am in life this week. But to add some excitement, here’s a set of photos my dad just sent to me. The top picture is Tucker when we adopted him and the bottom photo is Tucker yesterday (about 4 months later). He’s getting so big!!

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Saving, Work

Tagged bills, box office, busy, job, money, scheduling, work

Passover (or A Family Reunion A Decade Overdue)

Posted on April 17, 2014 | Comments Off

Monday evening was the first night of Passover. Even though both of my parents are Jewish and I went to Hebrew school for a few years, I don’t really celebrate any of the Jewish holidays. I went to a Passover Seder a few years ago that a friend did, but she and I were the only Jews there.

A little over a month ago, my mom was talking with her cousin who lives in LA and somehow I came up in conversation. My mom mentioned how I still live in LA and her cousin had no idea. I had seen her years ago, but she just thought that when I finished college I had moved away. So as soon as she realized I was still here, she invited me to Passover dinner.

I was really excited to get to see my second cousin again. The last time I saw her was right after my hip surgery, and I hadn’t seen her siblings (my other second cousins) in possibly over a decade. That’s a little ridiculous when we all live in LA.

I was a little nervous when I got there because I wasn’t sure how it would be with family who were practically strangers to me. But as soon as I walked inside, I was welcomed with open arms. My cousin Wendy, who was hosting the event, was so happy to see me again. She was asking me all about my life and as soon as other guests arrived, she made sure to introduce me to them right away so I didn’t feel left out.

My second cousins Randy and Craig were also there with their families. I had met Craig’s wife before but I don’t know if I had met Randy’s wife in the past. And I had never met any of their kids before, so I got to meet 4 new third cousins that I didn’t know existed!

Dinner was great. I was seated next to cousin Wendy so that was very nice. And I got to catch up with all the other family at the table. Also, pretty much everyone there was either in the entertainment industry or knew a lot about it so that dominated a lot of the conversation.

We did a semi-traditional Seder. We went over the Seder plate and the plagues and said some of the prayers, but we didn’t do a full Seder. But that gave us more time to catch up.

I had also brought the wedding album my mom made of Ross and Krystle’s wedding, so all my second cousins wanted to see that and see other family members (they haven’t seen anyone from my section of the family for a very long time).

Before I knew it, it was time for all of us to go home. I exchanged numbers and email addresses with my second cousins and I’m hoping that I can get to know them even more and make sure that it’s not another decade before I see them again.

But before we all said goodbye, I made sure we all got a picture together so I could show my mom.

It was really an amazing evening. I feel like I’ve gotten to reconnect with a section of my family that had been lost to me in the past. I know it’s nobody’s fault that we all fell out of touch and hadn’t seen each other in forever. But I’m going to make it my responsibility to make sure that I get together with them more often now.

Comments Off on Passover (or A Family Reunion A Decade Overdue)

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged cousin, dinner, family, Passover

Monthly Archives: April 2014

Vacation At Disneyland (Celebrating My Mom’s Badassness)

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Marching For Maddie (or Being A Supporter And Not A Walker)

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Double Time (or 2 Days Of Split Shifts)

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Craziness Of Auditioning (or How I Spent A Day Getting Ready For A Minute)

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Table Read (or Spending My Saturday Acting)

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Losing A Friend (or Life Can Be Just So Unfair)

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Being Typed (or A Fun Actor Activity)

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