Monthly Archives: May 2014

A Belated Mother’s Day Post (or The Awesome Women In My Family)

Posted on May 16, 2014 | Comments Off on A Belated Mother’s Day Post (or The Awesome Women In My Family)

I know that Mother’s Day was almost a week ago, but I wanted to write a post about it anyway.

Growing up, I’m sure my dad always made sure that my brother and I did awesome things for our mom on Mother’s Day. Once I moved to LA to go to college, I know I always sent a card to my mom, my grandma, and my great-aunt (the closest person to a grandma on my dad’s side).

After college for a couple of years, I had a pretty set Mother’s Day weekend tradition. My parents would come down here on the Friday before. Then on Saturday morning, my mom would drive to San Diego to go to my grandparent’s house while my dad and I did the Revlon Run/Walk 5K. After my dad and I finished the 5K, we would get into my car and head down to San Diego to join the rest of the family. We would go to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate Mother’s Day. Then on Sunday, I would go up to Laguna Hills to celebrate with my Great-Aunt Shirley (my dad’s aunt).

This tradition really maximized who I got to spend Mother’s Day with. Sadly, a few years ago, my Great-Aunt Shirley passed away.

After that, my Mother’s Day traveling pretty much ended. Last year I went down to San Diego because my parents were down there, but that was a trip that just happened to fall on Mother’s Day.

But just because I didn’t see my mom or my grandma on Mother’s Day doesn’t mean that I didn’t celebrate them.

I think you all know by now how incredible my mom is. She’s kicked so much butt in the past year that I wonder if I could be that awesome in my entire lifetime.

And my grandma is pretty amazing too. She and I get to talk on the phone pretty much every week, and she’s always excited to hear about what adventures I’ve had since we last talked. Sadly, life is pretty much work, work, and more work these days, but she still loves to hear about it. She’s done very well since her fall last year and is possibly stronger now then she was before.

I got to talk to both my mom and grandma this past Sunday. Of course, I sent them both cards. And hopefully I’ll get to see both of them soon. I’m hoping to pick a day to go down to San Diego to see my grandparents this summer and I’m currently planning a trip to Tahoe to see my parents in the next month or so.

But even though I don’t get to see my mom and grandma a lot, I’m sure that they know I love them and appreciate them every day (not just on Mother’s Day).

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This picture was taken in 2007 at my grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary. It was also taken when I was at my thinnest I’ve ever been as an adult.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

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Unexpected Problems (or This Is Why I’m Glad I Rent)

Posted on May 15, 2014 | Comments Off on Unexpected Problems (or This Is Why I’m Glad I Rent)

Again, this is not a blog I expected to write. But things happen in life that make you think about how you react to them and this is one of those situations.

It’s the middle of another heat wave here in LA, and I’m definitely cranky again. It’s a combination of the heat, lack of sleep, and bad nutrition (because I know I’m making bad food choices while it’s triple digits here).

So I wasn’t in the best mood yesterday morning when an employee from the gas company came to my door to let me know that they had to turn off my gas. What he told me was a pipe was old and it cracked. Later, I found out that the gas company was attaching a new meter and they cracked a pipe. And it was just over the boundary that makes it my (or my landlord’s) responsibility and not the gas company’s responsibility.

Of course this happened before I had a chance to take a shower in the morning. And while a cold shower does sound refreshing, I prefer it to be cool with a bit of warm water. Not ice cold. There was no way to get the gas turned back on until the pipe was repaired and the gas company man left me with some paperwork explaining what needs to happen next as well as a citation saying what needs to be fixed.

Fortunately, I was working from home with my recruiting job until 2pm yesterday so I was able to call my landlord and leave a voicemail saying that this needed to be fixed ASAP. And since sometimes they don’t get my messages, I also emailed him.

This is where my attitude could have been adjusted. I was so mad that I got a voicemail for my landlord. The house I live in now is the first place I’ve lived where I didn’t have on-site management. I’m not used to being able to reach people immediately to fix things. I tried calling my landlord every 30 minutes until I got through to someone. Finally, I got through and they said that they were sending the plumber to fix things.

I really didn’t have patience yesterday for any of this. I know that I wasn’t a pleasant person to deal with, and I regret that I didn’t take a breath and try to deal with things with a better attitude.

Right before I had to leave for day job #2 in the box office (where I’m so happy they have air conditioning), the plumber as well as my landlord got to my place. They promised that it would be fixed by the time I got home from work, so I left and they worked on it.

While I was at work, I called the gas company to figure out how to get the gas turned back on, and the gas company was at my door a few minutes after I walked in.

I’m glad that somehow this all got done in a day. I really wasn’t that inconvenienced even though it felt that way. And I’m super happy that I didn’t have to pay for any of the repairs done to the gas line. I don’t have that type of money to spare and if I had to pay for it myself, I don’t know what I would have done.

Hopefully, this type of situation won’t happen again in the future, but if it does, I’m really going to work on my patience and having a better attitude about it. Having a nasty attitude really didn’t help anything get done quicker and it made my day kind of stink.

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Posted in Tough Stuff

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A Concert, Film Premiere, And A Fire Pit (or The Best Saturday Evening Ever!)

Posted on May 14, 2014 | Comments Off on A Concert, Film Premiere, And A Fire Pit (or The Best Saturday Evening Ever!)

After taking my spin class on Saturday, I rushed home to shower and change so I could head over to my friends Chris and Marie‘s house. They were having a party at their house, and I knew it was one not to be missed.

This party was first of all a birthday party for Darci, who I met through Marie and Chris many years ago (if you ever need a vocal coach, Darci is amazing!!). There was also going to be a concert in the backyard featuring Mark Aaron James. And finally, Chris was going to premiere the show film he shot recently.

When I got to the house, there was a little bit of time before the concert was going to start, so I got to catch up with my friends who were there. Then I took a seat and got ready to hear the show.

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And the show was amazing! Mark was so good and his songs were awesome. The music was very fun to listen to and he has really clever lyrics (if you want to buy one of his CDs, you can do so at this link). Darci got up and sang backup for one of the songs as well, and that was really fun to watch.

After the concert, we all headed inside the house to check out the film that Chris did.

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It was a cute little short and I encouraged Chris to submit it to the film festival I run. Hopefully it will make it in (I have nothing to do with programming so I can’t help him out that way).

And of course, since we were all there to celebrate Darci’s birthday, there was birthday cake.

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After the cake and short film, some of us headed outside to hang out by the fire pit.

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There were some hot dogs that you could cook over the fire as well as marshmallows. I cooked a hot dog, but since there were not graham crackers for the marshmallows, I ate one uncooked (they are just as delicious raw).

Eventually, I had to head out since it’s like a 30-45 minute drive home and I was still pretty tired from that spin class. It was an awesome night getting to hang out with friends and I’m already looking forward to the next Marie and Chris party!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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Getting Fly (or Spinning With Bloggers)

Posted on May 13, 2014 | 1 comment

As part of being more in the blogging community, I’m trying to get more involved with blogger events. Fortunately, one of the Facebook groups I joined is just for blogger events in Southern California.

One of the first events I saw posted was for a spin class with Biggest Loser trainer Brett Hoebel. Even though I have issues with the show “The Biggest Loser“, I’m still a fan and totally wanted to work out with one of the trainers from the show (he was on season 11).

I signed up for the class and did some more research into it.

The class was held at Flywheel, which is a SoulCycle competitor. Flywheel was created by someone who used to work for SoulCycle, so there is a bit of a rivalry there. When I did some google research, there were some pretty nasty posts saying how much SoulCycle stunk and how amazing Flywheel is. That made me a little weary about going to a new studio, but I was totally willing to give it a try.

According to the Flywheel website, all classes include free shoes, towel, and water. So I didn’t bring anything with me (it felt pretty weird!). The class was held in Larchmont, which was a bit of a drive for me.

Once I walked inside, the first thing I noticed was how nice and open the lobby was.

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I signed my release form and got my Flywheel shoes.

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It did feel weird using spin shoes other than my own. I like my shoes and the clip on the shoes is in a different place (my legs felt weird while spinning because the clip was on the ball of my foot instead of the toe like on my shoes).

I asked at the front desk for the free water, but they explained to me that the free water was in the form of a drinking fountain. The bottles of water were $2. I explained to the person at the desk how on the website they promote the fact that they have free water for every class (and say how bad it is that SoulCycle charges $2 for a bottle if you need one), so she gave me a free bottle of water. I think that that was kind of misleading advertising, but it was my fault for not thinking to bring my own water.

Before the class started, Brett came out to greet us all. It was very cool to meet him, and of course I had to get a picture with him.

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We also took a big group picture with all the bloggers and Brett.

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Brett explained how the class would work and we headed inside.

The setup inside the studio is different from SoulCycle. The bikes are done stadium seating. Everyone is supposed to have a great view of the instructor. I had a great view of Brett’s upper body, but his legs were blocked by the laptop doing the soundtrack (I used the mirror to see how fast his legs were going so I could try to keep up).

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Another thing that was different was in SoulCycle, we focus on riding as a pack and staying on the beat of the music. Flywheel is very competitive. Every bike has a computer on it and it takes your RPM and the torque being used and gives you a score. And every so often, the top ten scores for the class are shown on a flatscreen tv.

I tried really hard to keep up, but between the clips on the shoes being in a different spot and the fact that this was my first spin class where I didn’t get a cushioned bike seat, I was hurting. I did my best, but I never came close to ranking in the top ten on the tv.

I also kept almost laughing at how similar things were to SoulCycle. There were a lot of the same moves (but they had different names). And the stretching segment was done in the exact same order as my SoulCycle class. But I guess that’s what you get when the creator of this studio used to work for the other.

Overall, I’d say this class was a bit harder than SoulCycle. It was a much faster class and there is very little focus on upper body work. Also, it felt more like a competition than a dance party.

I had a great time in the class, but it did reinforce that SoulCycle is the place for me. There’s nothing wrong with Flywheel. I’d totally recommend it, especially to my very competitive friends. But it’s just not for me.

After class was done, we were all given a gift bag full of awesome goodies by Kind Snacks, Vega, and Quest.

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I actually ate my Quest bar on the drive home and it was amazing! I usually don’t like protein bars, but this was really yummy! I’m looking into ordering some to keep on hand.

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I’m so glad that I joined in for this event. I got to try another amazing spin class, meet an awesome trainer, and connected with a ton of new bloggers!

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health

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After-Work Adventure (or I Love LA)

Posted on May 12, 2014 | Comments Off on After-Work Adventure (or I Love LA)

After I finished making calls for my recruiting job on Friday, I knew I had to get out of the house. I hadn’t been good about doing things after work most of the week, so I needed to force myself to put some shoes on (I do get dressed to work at home) and leave my house.

I asked around to see if any friends were free on short notice, but nobody really was. So I decided to take myself on a little adventure and go watch the sun set from the Griffith Observatory.

Since I was driving up there during rush hour, it took me a while to get there (not exactly sure how long, but it was over an hour). And then to find parking was a whole other issue. But I did the parking lot stalking thing long enough to finally get a space in the observatory parking lot.

It wasn’t the clearest evening, but it looked more like haze than smog from up there. And the observatory looked awesome.

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And it was surprisingly crowded there. I’m not sure if that’s a usual for the after-work crowd or if something special was going on that evening. But I had to squeeze in by the railings a few times to get some pictures. And of course, as soon as I got there I realized that I left my nice camera at home and only had my phone. So while I tried to get the best pictures I could, I know that with my real camera they would have been better.

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The Hollywood sign and the city were so beautiful. Even though I’ve lived here for almost 13 years, those views never get old. I still get excited when I’m close to the Hollywood sign. One day, I’ll have to do the hike to it, but I’ve heard that it’s not an easy hike to do.

I also checked out the moon, which was so bright in the sky even though the sun hadn’t set yet.

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I ended up watching the sun set from one of the side views where you can also see the Hollywood sign, but of course the camera on my phone could only get either the sunset or the Hollywood sign, not both.

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I stayed until the sun was completely gone and then I headed back to my car. I had wanted to take some awesome nighttime city pictures, but I’m going to have to go back with my real camera (and tripod) to do those.

Even though this was only a short adventure, it really revitalized me. It made the workday seem shorter (since there was a definite end to when I was sitting at my computer) and it made me appreciate my city even more. I have loved living in LA since I moved here (I wanted to move here as a kid). But sometimes I don’t really think about how lucky I am that I’m working on living my dream while living in my dream city.

But seeing everything from up at the observatory and realizing that below me were all people living their dreams and I was one of them, that was an amazing moment.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

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Being A Better Blogger (or Joining The Community)

Posted on May 9, 2014 | 1 comment

While I do have several friends who are bloggers, lately I’ve been feeling a little isolated as a blogger. I feel like my progress on here has stopped (although I’m a little unsure on how I should really be measuring my progress). And I’m sure some of you have noticed that my blogs aren’t always as interesting as they’ve been in the past.

I was part of a blogger group that did the Blognic and the cookie exchange, but that group has kind of ended. We have a FB group for us, but nobody has been active on it for a while.

And I’m not just feeling stalled on this blog, I’m having issues coming up with topics for the two other blogs that I freelance on. I’ve hit a bit of a slump and I’m working my way out of it.

So I’m working on becoming more active in the blogging community. For the first time, I have a day job that is allowing me to do that (at least for now until I find another job to keep me from being underemployed). So I’ve joined FB groups, been commenting on other blogs to get information, and based on the recommendation of some women in one of the blogging FB groups I’ve also downloaded a couple of blogging podcasts.

Before I started blogging, I had a friend who encouraged me to do it as a way of supporting myself. This particular blogger was living off of the money that she made from her blog. If I had gone in with only that idea, I would have quit a long time ago. Even though I have ads on my blog, I have only made 2 cents (and I haven’t been paid because there is a $20 minimum to get paid on ads). I’m starting to realize that success does not equal money (or getting a blog post to go viral).

Success is now being part of a community that supports each other. Success is me sharing my story and hopefully inspiring or encouraging someone else. Success is being able to vent on here instead of burdening my friends and family.

And if those things really do equal success in my mind, I’m truly on the path of being a very successful blogger.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

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Spring Cleaning (or Feeling Pampered)

Posted on May 8, 2014 | Comments Off on Spring Cleaning (or Feeling Pampered)

I recently got a promo code for 2 hours of free house cleaning from Handybook. I’ve never had my house professionally cleaned, so I figured I should totally take advantage of this!

I scheduled my cleaning to be yesterday after I would be done making calls for my recruiting job. And the timing of it worked out really well.

Just as I was wrapping up my work, the cleaner was at my door! And to make this review a bit simpler to read, I’m going to section it out into the pros and cons of the cleaning.

Pros:

My house is super clean now! While I always have kept a clean house, I’ll admit that I could do better. All my floors were scrubbed and I’ll admit that my kitchen and bathroom have never looked better. Also, the woman who came to clean my house was really cool and I didn’t feel like I was in her way too often (more to come about that in the cons section). If I had to work while my house was cleaned, it totally would have been possible (except while she vacuumed). I thought that I would have to almost leave my house to get it cleaned, and I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to be on my computer or reading the entire time.

Cons:

While my house is super clean, there are a few things that were missed that I think should have been done. My desk, bookcase, and dresser were not dusted at all. Not that she missed sections, she missed the entire pieces of furniture. Maybe she ran out of time (although she was here for 3 hours when it was supposed to only be 2), or maybe she didn’t notice the dust on those pieces. I just felt that was kind of weird. Also, and this con is about me more than the service, I felt weird just sitting in my house while someone cleaned. I almost felt like I should be helping. But I tried to relax and get other work done while she was cleaning and that helped a bit.

Overall, I’m so glad that I had my house cleaned. I’m really considering doing this once or twice a year just to get my house to a baseline of being clean so my maintenance cleaning is easier. It’s not the cheapest thing to do, but if I don’t do this all the time, I’m sure I can fit it into my budget. This has also inspired me to do better on my own housekeeping. Everything looks so great and I want it to stay this way!

If you’d like to check out Handybook (they also have a handyman service you can use), I’ve got a promo code for all my blog readers to get $25 off either the housekeeping or handyman service! Just use promo code “jen9709” on the checkout page to get your $25 off!

Quick Update: After the cleaning yesterday I got a text from Handybook asking how I liked my service. I was honest and said that I felt some parts of my house were missed. I heard back today from Handybook that they are crediting my account 1 hour of free housecleaning because I wasn’t satisfied with the service. That makes Handybook an even better service in my mind now that I know how much they care about keeping their customers happy.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

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Margaritas and Mexican Food (or Girls Night Out!)

Posted on May 7, 2014 | Comments Off on Margaritas and Mexican Food (or Girls Night Out!)

My Girls Night Out group hasn’t had a get together for a long time (pretty much since the Magic Castle). Life kind of took over and we just couldn’t seem to organize another gathering.

About a month ago, we agreed that we would meet up for dinner on Cinco De Mayo. I wasn’t in charge of planning this gathering, but I was super excited to see that El Cholo was the restaurant that was chosen! I usually go to the one in Santa Monica, but this one was in Koreatown. It was still pretty easy to get to, and I lucked out finding some free street parking a block away (valet is not in my budget right now).

I had seen many of the girls from the group more recently than the Magic Castle outing, but we all hadn’t been together for almost 2 years! So of course, as soon as we sat down, we had to get a group picture!

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Of course, we all had to get drinks as well. I got the Borderline, which is a half regular blended and half strawberry blended margarita.

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And for my meal I got a combo plate that had an enchilada and a pork tamal on it.

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The food and drink were great, but the best part of the evening was the company. I’m so lucky to be in such a great Girls Night Out group. Even though it had been a while since we were all together, once we were sitting down, it was like no time had passed.

We updated each other on our lives, shared crazy stories (I’m such the loud laughing from our table annoyed the tables around us), and just had fun being together as a group.

I’ve agreed that I would help to plan our next outing, which will be going to the Hollywood Bowl. Some of the girls in the group have never been to the Bowl, so I think that it will be a perfect Girls Night Out event. We just have to figure out what show and when.

Even though the specifics of our next gathering aren’t figured out yet, we did promise that we would make Girls Night Out happen way more often. And I’m super excited for that!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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At Home Manicure Time (or I Actually Made My Nails Look Cute)

Posted on May 6, 2014 | Comments Off on At Home Manicure Time (or I Actually Made My Nails Look Cute)

As much as I am a girlie-girl, I’m not very good at doing beauty things. I just didn’t get the hair and makeup gene. I can do basic things, but usually when things are more than using concealer or putting my hair in a ponytail I’m pretty much a failure.

When I was in college, I used to get my nails done fairly regularly (maybe every other month or so). Back then, $10 manicures weren’t much since I didn’t really have bills to pay. Nowadays, I can’t afford them (especially since they seem to chip right away), so when I do get my nails done, it’s a pedicure not a manicure.

But I still like my nails to look nice, so I’ve tried to do at home manicures. Normally it looks like a 5-year-old coloring outside the lines. So I pretty much stick to just putting some top coat on my nails so they are shiny (and a little stronger since my nails tend to peel).

But a while ago, I saw an idea online to make patterns on your nails using blue tape (also known as painters tape). So I decided to try it out and it worked really well!

Here’s what you’ll need:

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Base Coat, Top Coat, Color of Choice, Blue Tape, and Decorative Hole Punch.

First step is to do a basic base coat on all of your nails.

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Next, tear off some of the blue tape and use your decorative hole punch (mine was a star shape) to punch a hole in the middle of the piece of tape.

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Then, put the tape on the nail that you want to have the design on. Press the tape down so there are no air bubbles next to the hole (that would ruin the design).

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Take the nail color of your choice (mine was a silver glitter) and paint over the piece of tape. I did 2 coats because I wanted it to be very sparkly.

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Then you need to let the colored polish dry. And once you think it’s dry, let it dry for a few more minutes. If it’s even a little bit wet still, the borders of the design aren’t going to stay clean. Trust me on this. I made that mistake on my first attempt.

After the polish is dry, peel off the blue tape and you can see if you need to do any touch-ups.

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I thought that it looks pretty good as it was, so I didn’t do any touch-ups. Also, I’m sure if I tried to do a touch-up, I would screw up the design.

After the touch-up, paint all your nails with a coat of topcoat. You might have to do 2 coats on the nail with the design for it to feel smooth.

That’s it! I have another decorative hole punch that make a heart design (I bought the set on Amazon), but I’ve also seen a design that uses a bandage to make polka dots on your nails (I might try that one in the future).

While I might never really be able to do a full at home manicure, at least I can feel cute and girly with designs on my nails.

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Posted in Beauty, Crafts, Fun Stuff

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Loving Air Conditioning (or A Bonus To Babysitting And Working)

Posted on May 5, 2014 | Comments Off on Loving Air Conditioning (or A Bonus To Babysitting And Working)

So, on Friday I complained about the heat. I know I probably sounded whiney (even in text form), but I was honestly miserable. On Friday night, I got my pjs soaked before going to bed so when my fan blew over them I cooled down (my bedroom was in the high 80s when I went to bed).

Fortunately, this weekend was much better.

First of all, on Saturday I went to spin class. Somehow, the steamy studio still felt cooler than my house. But not only that, I got in a good workout and it really made me feel better. I hadn’t been to spin for about a week, and I really did miss it. It’s feeling more and more like a place I want to be all the time (and yes, I have applied for a job there).

The only thing that frustrated me at spin was after class when I checked out the new shirts that were for sale. Each month, SoulCycle does a new collection of workout clothes. The larges tend to sell out super quickly so I normally can’t find a tank top in my size. I figured since the month had just started, I should be able to find one. But nope, all the larges were sold out in 2 days. I might wait for them to restock in the studio because I’d rather try it on first before buying it, so buying it off their website isn’t really the best option for me.

Then, on Saturday evening, my friend Erin asked me to babysit. I’m always happy to babysit her kids so I was excited to say yes. And when I’m going over there to babysit, I always ask Erin if I can do laundry at her house. It saves me money and I always bring my own detergent so I don’t take too much advantage of her. And this Saturday, besides getting to do free laundry, there was another bonus to babysitting! Erin’s house has central air conditioning!! It was so great being able to relax in a nice cool house.

Babysitting was relatively easy. Erin’s daughter and I get along super great. We watched a movie and she tried multiple hair styles on me. Erin’s daughter recently broke her leg and has a cast from foot to hip, but she’s doing awesome! And Erin’s son isn’t the biggest fan of mine (he knows that usually when I come over that means that his mom and dad are leaving), but he was pretty easy to watch as well. He just chilled and watched his own tv show and went to bed. Easy peasy.

While the weather did finally start to cool down on Sunday, I had another opportunity to enjoy air conditioning yesterday. I worked a 4 hour box office shift. It was a pretty standard box office shift so nothing too stressful. And this might be my last shift there for a while. After the season ends this week, there won’t really be any evening or weekend shifts for me to work. So I might not have too much work until the new season starts in the fall. But I’m not trying to stress out about that (yet).

Overall, even though I technically worked both days this weekend, just the air conditioning alone made it totally worth it!

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Default ThumbnailFeeling Refreshed (or Looking Good While Babysitting) Default ThumbnailBabysitting=New Vacuum (or I’ve Got $0.49 To Spare) Default ThumbnailComedy in Babysitting (or Surviving An Afternoon With A Crying 2 Year Old) Default ThumbnailFull Day At The New Job (or Seeing My Old Workplace Abandoned) Default ThumbnailProductive One Way And Slacking In Another (or Working On Finding Time) Default ThumbnailWorking The Graveyard (or Starting Work When I’m Normally In Bed)

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