Monthly Archives: September 2014

Awake for 40 Hours (or I Guess All-Nighters Aren’t Just For College)

Posted on September 16, 2014 | Comments Off on Awake for 40 Hours (or I Guess All-Nighters Aren’t Just For College)

So here’s the story behind my exhaustion on Sunday when I wrote my last blog post.

The graveyard shift coding job has pretty much moved to daytimes only. I’ve worked a couple of projects, but I’m only averages maybe 2 or 3 hours a week with daytime work from home. That should become more hours in the future, but to supplement that (and my income), I’m making myself available for graveyard shifts on the weekends.

I can’t do the weekdays because I’m working my new box office job, but if I’m available on Saturday or Sunday I let the company know that if they need someone to work, I can help out.

I found out that I was going to work an evening shift this past Saturday. That was fine with me.

I woke up that morning at 7am (my box office job starts at 8am on Saturdays) and worked my first job. Then I did some errands before heading into the coding job at 7pm.

Since the start time was 7pm (instead of 11pm like it usually is) I figured I wouldn’t be there too late. Even some of my co-workers agreed that we should be able to get the work done pretty quickly.

And the first part did move quickly. As a team, we finished it in about 2 hours. That’s not bad at all. Then our bosses had been told that there were a couple of other surveys that we could tack on to the end of our shift to get done and help out the other employees.

I guess there was some miscommunication between some higher-ups and my bosses because these extra surveys we worked on were not something to just “tack on” to our day (or evening as it was). There were well over 1000 surveys (usually we have about 300 or 400) and there were multiple parts to each one that needed to be worked on.

Even though as a team we worked as quickly as possible, these surveys never seemed to end! At 2am I was starting to get exhausted and tried to take mini-breaks to keep myself from going crazy. At 4am I started to feel nauseous. Probably because my last meal was at 6pm and I had a light dinner (I thought I would make it to a friend’s party that evening and wanted to save my calories). Finally at 6am after 11 hours of working, I was told that my part of the work was done. The sun was coming up as I was driving home.

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I was so tired from being up for almost 24 hours straight. And as much as I wanted to go home and go sleep for a long time, that wasn’t my reality. I had to be up at 8am Sunday morning for some things and appointments that I had scheduled before knowing I was working graveyard the night before (and I did cancel since I figured I wouldn’t be working too late).

So I had the option on getting an hour or two of sleep or not sleeping at all. I chose to not sleep at all because I was scared of not hearing my alarm to get up at 8am. So I just hung out and read until it was time for me to start my day.

Then Sunday evening, before I had time to write my post for Monday, my job emailed me and let me know that they needed me to work from home during the evening. I had plans to go to bed as early as possible, but I needed to take the job. So I worked as quickly as possible, wrote my blog post, and started to get ready for bed.

Then my boss contacted me again to ask me to work more. I was so tired that I could barely see straight. So I finally had to tell them that I had been up for almost 40 hours straight and I just needed to go to bed. They totally understood. Most people who work those graveyard shifts sleep in the next day until 2 or 3pm. That’s just not an option for me.

I’m still shocked that I made it 40 hours without sleeping. The last time I pulled an all-nighter was in college when I was preparing for my art history final (I didn’t do that well because I was too tired). I’m not planning on pulling all-nighters on a regular basis. If I go in for graveyard shift work and I know I have an early morning the next day, I’m going to let my bosses know at the beginning of the shift that I have to leave by a certain time (you can only do that at the beginning of the shift, not the middle). I need to look out for me, even though all the overtime pay is going to be really nice on my next paycheck.

But I made it through, and now I’m going to spend my week catching up on the sleep I missed!

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Posted in Tough Stuff, Work

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Another Week In Workouts (or Finally Able To Do Some Jumping Jacks)

Posted on September 15, 2014 | 1 comment

First of all, if this post is a little crazy, I apologize. I’m writing this after having been up for 38 hours straight. I’ll write about that soon, but for now, I’m doing another weekly recap of workouts!

In my sleep deprived state, I really can’t remember a ton of specifics about each workout this week. But there is one thing that totally sticks out in my mind.

Pretty much since 2005, I haven’t been able to do jumping jacks. 2005 is when my hip issues started. And honestly I don’t know the time prior to 2005 that I ever did any.

Before my hip surgery, everything was just too painful to try any higher impact activities. And right after my surgery, I had to avoid them as the bone healed from where the bone spur was removed.

I had been warned for several years in follow-up visits that high impact activities can cause my other hip to go bad quicker or to need a hip replacement quicker. So I did modifications for most high impact things (or avoided them all together).

When I used to workout with Richard Simmons, modifications were easy to find. He would always do several types of modifications (including some for the people who worked out while in chairs). So I was fine doing them there.

At SoulCycle, it wasn’t as much modification, but more avoiding specific motions that aggravated my hips. Since I didn’t have to find a new way to do something, that was easy too.

But at Orangetheory, modifications aren’t always given (they are given a lot though). And sometimes I have had to remind the trainer that I’m not able to do that specific motion that they have asked us to do.

But as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been pushing myself to do more and more things. Part of it is that I’m getting stronger, and the other part is that I’m no longer living in fear of hurting my hips quicker (but I still am avoiding things like skiing or ice skating that are really dangerous for me to do). I’ve done jump squats (and it turns out I can jump pretty high!), plank jacks, and mountain climbers.

And for the first time this week, I did jumping jacks!

They weren’t pretty but they were done. I think we only had to do 10 at a time so that wasn’t too horrible. And I did take it easy on the second round of them.

But the point is that I did them! I’m sure if my hip surgeon is reading this he wouldn’t be thrilled about it, but like I said, I can’t live in fear of hurting my hips. I’ve pretty much been told that these other surgeries are going to happen eventually, so I can’t put them off forever.

I wish I could tell you more about the workout this week, but honestly my mind is so foggy right now (I’m writing this at 9pm on Sunday night and I’ve been awake since 7am Saturday morning). But I wanted to make sure that I got my Monday Workout Recap out to you all!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

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Another Leak In My House (or Testing My Patience)

Posted on September 12, 2014 | 1 comment

I’ve had a lot of issues with my house lately. In the past few months, I’ve had 2 different gas leaks and one water leak. Although I will say, the gas leak must have been going on for years because I just got my gas bill for last month, and it’s less than half of the cheapest it has ever been. So at least I’m saving some money now.

I will say, having issues with a rental should be expected when the place you are renting is almost 100 years old. But on Wednesday night, this problem made me go a little crazy.

The evening was going normally. Got home from my workout and took a quick shower. Then I headed into the kitchen to make some dinner. I had to grab something out of my utility room behind my kitchen (that’s where my pantry storage is) and when I stepped into the room, my foot went into a puddle.

I turned on the light in my utility room and noticed water pouring out of the bottom of my water heater. There was at least half an inch of water on the ground (thankfully it turns out that my utility room is the low point in my house and most of the water was contained in that area).

First thing I did was grab some towels, I tried to stop up the leak and that seemed to help a bit. Then I started trying to clean up the floor and move everything that was in the utility room. My suitcases are in there and they are fine (but they were soaked). My vacuum was also there and when I lifted it out, water poured from the bottom. I think that might now be garbage.

Thankfully, the water stopped leaking so I could take a minute to evaluate the situation. I tried to shut off the water to the water heater, but the instructions weren’t clear on which pipe that was. So I called my dad.

My dad was able to FaceTime with me and I had the camera pointed out so he could see what I was looking at. He was able to find the pipe that I needed to shut off, so I tried that. It was stuck, but since my dad stocked my tool kit with everything, I was able to use some WD40 on it and stop the water from filling up the tank again.

My next call was my landlord. I figured this was an emergency and I needed to leave a message for him right away. And of course, when I called, the voicemail wasn’t working so I couldn’t leave a message. I found his email address from an old email that I sent to him regarding a rent issue and sent an email with the subject “Leaking Water Heater”. That got his attention and he emailed me back within a few hours letting me know that the plumbers would be at my house in the morning.

The plumbers showed up (and we laughed about how often they’ve been sent to my house lately), and they immediately saw that my water heater was not salvageable and that they would need to go out and buy me a new one then.

All in all, it took a little over 2 hours to get the old water heater out and put the new one in. And about another 2 hours to clean up all the mess (when they moved the old water heater a flood of rusted water came out of the bottom and all over my floors).

Even though this situation was not idea, I tried to practice gratitude again. At least I noticed the flood at the beginning and it didn’t flood overnight. At least I rent so I didn’t have to pay for the repair. At least my landlord saw my email that night and sent the plumbers right away. And at least I had already taken my post-workout shower.

My dad added one as well. With all the issues that I’ve seen in my house lately, I’m getting more and more prepared to eventually be a homeowner. And I’m seeing what these emergencies can cost and why renting is the best situation for me right now.

In the 4 1/2 years I’ve lived in my house, I’ve rarely had a problem. But having these three back to back has really tested my patience and my ability to stay positive and grateful. But fortunately, I am able to stay on the positive side and not freak out about these things like I would have years ago.

And now, I have a fancy new water heater in my house!

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Feeling Like Normal In More Ways Than One (or Getting Better)

Posted on September 11, 2014 | Comments Off on Feeling Like Normal In More Ways Than One (or Getting Better)

I’m finally starting to feel better after my throat ulcer issue. I’m still having pain while drinking water and breathing heavily while working out, but the pain is not nearly as severe as it was when I went to urgent care. The doctor there told me to give it 2 weeks to get better and I’m just past the 1 week mark. Hopefully by the end of the weekend the pain won’t be noticeable anymore.

I’m still trying to take it easy while working out. My ear issues have not gone away as quickly as the throat issues. My dad suggested that I take some decongestants to make the fluid in my ear get absorbed. I haven’t tried that yet, but I think I’m going to start. I’m still getting dizzy a lot during the day (and especially during workouts where you go from sitting or laying down to standing a lot). As long as I’m sitting, the dizziness isn’t happening. So at least I’m able to drive and work without feeling like I’m going to fall over.

And speaking of work, that’s getting better too! I’m finally getting used to my schedule for the national box office job from home. There’s a lot of down time at that job (hence the low pay), so I’m trying to find the best use of my down time. I have done some survey coding between calls and online chats for the box office job, but there haven’t been a ton of surveys to work on lately (that should change soon).

I’m also looking into some other freelance type work that I can do from home between my work for the box office. I know that I can write and blog. I just need to find some gigs that pay for me to do that! If you know of any, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

I haven’t gone back to substitute teaching yet, but that’s mainly because all of my Mondays lately have been very busy. And since I can only work on Mondays, when that day is filled up, there’s no other option for me that week. But I’m checking for work each week and hopefully soon there will be a job for me to work.

And I emailed my old box office job. They claimed that they wanted me to come back in September when the shows were starting again. I’m a little concerned that they have decided that I’m not necessary since they haven’t had me work for a while now. But I did send them an email saying that I wanted to get back to work now that the shows are coming back as well. I haven’t heard back yet, so until I do I won’t know if they are going to keep their word about me coming back this fall.

I know I say this all the time with day jobs, but it’s feeling more and more normal now. I’m used to my schedule and I’ve created routines for myself each day that fit into the new schedule better.

If only I was making enough at one day job things would be perfect. But the struggle is worth it for me. And I know that I will find a way to fit in all the jobs that are necessary for me to support myself somehow.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Work

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67 Years (or Celebrating An Anniversary With Fondue)

Posted on September 10, 2014 | 1 comment

This past Sunday was my grandparents’ 67th anniversary. I’ve been lucky enough to get to celebrate with my grandparents on their anniversary a couple of times. For their 50th and 60th, we had big events (their 50th was in Africa and their 60th was a family party in Portland). This year, we were doing a low-key dinner in San Diego.

That morning I went to breakfast with my parents and Krystle (and Tucker of course) and then we did some walking around at the seaport. Then Krystle had to get to the airport so she could get back to San Francisco. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to stay for the dinner because there weren’t that many flight options for her.

After saying goodbye to Krystle, my parents and I headed back to the hobbit house where we got all of us stuff together to go out that evening (and I packed my car since I’d be driving home straight from dinner).

We got to my grandparents’ place around 1pm and spent the afternoon talking. We asked my grandparents what their big memories were from their wedding and I asked my grandparents how they met (I had never heard that story before). It was really cool to get to hear them tell it and my mom actually took video of it so we can share it with other family members who couldn’t make it out to San Diego that weekend.

We all got ready to go to dinner and then we drove over to the place where the restaurant was.

We went to The Melting Pot for dinner. I had never been there and had never really had fondue before. My only experience with fondue was a single serving of goat cheese fondue that came with some bread at a restaurant once. But this was nothing like that.

We all decided to get the 4 course dinner (it was actually cheaper than getting 2 courses on our own). Between the 6 of us at dinner, we selected 2 cheese fondues to start with, then we each got our own salad. The main course was interesting. We each got to choose up to 3 meats and then as a table we got to choose 2 different cooking liquids. Then you had to cook your meat in the hot cooking liquids.

While it was fun, it was a little messy and crazy at times. All of us lost at least one piece of meat in the cooking liquid because we had so many fondue forks in the pot at one time. But it was pretty yummy.

After the main course, we were all stuffed. But we still had the dessert course to go. As a table we selected 2 types of chocolate (I don’t really remember what they were but they were both dark chocolate). Then they brought over a selection of cakes and fruit to dip into the chocolate.

The plate that my grandparents got had 2 candles in it for their anniversary.

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I tried a little of the dessert fondue, but I was only able to take a few bites since I was so full from the other courses.

Before we knew it, dinner was over. My mom and I left a little early so we could get our cars (we didn’t want my grandparents to have to walk too far to the car and it was parked in a parking garage). When my mom and I got our cars back to the restaurant, everyone else got into my mom’s car so they could all go back together. I said goodbye to everyone and made the 2 hour drive back home (no car breakdowns this time!).

I’m so lucky that I got to spend time with my grandparents on their anniversary. Since I live pretty close it makes it easy enough for me to come down to see them. I don’t think I’ll make it down again before Thanksgiving, but November will be here before we know it!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

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San Diego Weekend (or Spending Time At A Hobbit House)

Posted on September 9, 2014 | Comments Off on San Diego Weekend (or Spending Time At A Hobbit House)

This past weekend my grandparents celebrated their 67th anniversary. My parents were going to be in San Diego with them and they invited my sister-in-law and I to come down too (my brother is currently working in Africa so he couldn’t make it).

Everyone else got there on Friday, but I had to work on Saturday morning. So I headed down after my short shift on Saturday morning (fortunately, my drive was much less crazy than my last trip to San Diego). I got down there around 2pm and headed to my grandparents’ place first.

We all visited there for a little bit and then we headed to the dog park nearby so Tucker could get some playtime. I didn’t take any pictures there because I was more concerned about not getting knocked over by the dogs there (there were a lot and they were all running around like crazy). It was very hot but we were able to find some shade so we all sat there and watched all the dogs having fun (my grandparents really seemed to enjoy the dog park too).

Next, we headed to the rental house my parents got for the weekend. My mom warned me ahead of time that it was a little bizarre, but that doesn’t even begin to describe it.

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We all referred to it as the hobbit house. Each section of the house was its own pod/hut. When you walked in the front gate, to the left of you was the pod that had the master bedroom and bathroom. To the right was the pod that had the living room, kitchen, and second bathroom. Through the backyard and up some outdoor stairs was the second bedroom where Krystle and I slept. Yes, that meant for us to use the bathroom to get ready for bed, we had to leave our room, walk outside and down some stairs, through the patio area and then into the house.

It was seriously weird, but I was only staying there for one night so it wasn’t a big deal.

That evening, my mom and dad made a steak dinner for all of us (which included my grandparents and my aunt). We just had a relaxing dinner and caught up on each other’s lives.

Then we moved over to the outdoor patio was and my dad build a fire in the outdoor fireplace.

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A little while later, my aunt took my grandparents back to their place and my parents, Krystle, and I all decided it was time to go to bed. Krystle and I chatted a bit at night discussing our next New York trip and how weird this house was.

Overall, it was a great afternoon and evening in San Diego and I was excited to spend the next day with my grandparents as that was their actual anniversary.

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

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Mini College Reunion And Restricted Activity (or My Week In Workouts)

Posted on September 8, 2014 | Comments Off on Mini College Reunion And Restricted Activity (or My Week In Workouts)

This week my workouts had some really awesome moments and some pretty annoying ones.

Let’s start with the bad so I can end on a positive note. Due to being sick this past week, my workouts became very tough to do. Not only was I feeling off, I had to restrict my activities to make sure that I was safe and not preventing myself from getting better.

First of all, the fluid in my ear was causing some dizziness. So I had to be super careful on the treadmill because I didn’t want to fall off. I reduced the speed I was walking and made sure to hold on to the handrails extra tight. Monday wasn’t too bad (because that’s when I was starting to have problems), but Wednesday and Friday were very tough. There were plenty of times I had to stop on the treadmill because the room was spinning around me and I was terrified I’d fall over. I had some issues during the strength portion as well, but it wasn’t as bad as the treadmill. For the strength, I only had issues when we transitioned from standing to sitting (or laying down) exercises.

I took it easy and I’m finally starting to feel better. Hopefully this week I will have much less dizziness.

The second problem was due to my throat. The ulcer/canker sore was extremely painful. And breathing heavily made it feel much worse (probably because my throat was getting dry). Trying to drink water felt like I was being stabbed in my throat, so I had to be careful with drinking water as well. So that prevented me from working out as hard as I could.

Even with these issues, I still averaged about 500 calories burned in each class, so that’s good. Going there and doing reduced activity is still way better than not going at all.

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Now for the fun thing that happened in my workout. On Monday, I went to a morning workout. This was due to the holiday (so there were no afternoon workouts that day). And in that workout, I ran into someone I went to college with and hadn’t seen in at least 10 years!

I thought I had seen her before, but not in the same class as me. I saw her name on the heart rate monitor screen (and she has a unique name so I was pretty sure it was her) but I didn’t see her when I was looking into the workout room.

So on Monday, when she walked in to the workout room, I stopped her to ask her if she had gone to LMU with me. And I’m shocked that she remembered me!

She was a couple of years ahead of me, but I met her in the first few months of college. I was in a student film I think in September or October of my freshman year, and she was in that film as well. We knew each other a bit through college since we were both in the theater world.

So it was so awesome to see her and get to catch up for a minute after class after not seeing each other for so many years! I’m not really in touch with a lot of people I went to college with so it’s nice to see people again randomly like that!

Overall, this week in workouts had its highs and lows. But like I keep telling myself, the most important thing is that I had a week of workouts!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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My Book List (or Putting A Challenge From Facebook On Here)

Posted on September 5, 2014 | Comments Off on My Book List (or Putting A Challenge From Facebook On Here)

I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to write about today, but I was inspired by something I was challenged to do on Facebook.

My friend Daniel (who runs the film festival I work for) challenged me to list the 10 books that have stuck with me the most. I was totally for this challenge, but then I realized how difficult picking 10 books out of a lifetime of reading could be. So I bent the rules a little and picked some series and authors as well.

Most people just listed the books on their list, but I wanted to explain each one. Some of these books (or stories about these authors) have been mentioned before on here. I tried to find those posts and link to them when I could.

So this is my list, copied from Facebook:

1. “Rumpelstilskin”. I remember reading this book as a kid (probably when I was 3 or 4) and it terrified me. But I loved it so much. So I would read the book in bed and then take the book outside my room and leave it there overnight so the book couldn’t scare me while I was sleeping. I was a very early reader (I learned to read at 2), and this is one of my first memories of reading.

2. “The Babysitter’s Club” series. Holy moly I loved these books! I devoured them! My parents still have all the books somewhere in their house and when I eventually have a kid, I know that I’ll be passing them down to them.

3. All of the American Girl books. Another series from my childhood. This was the start of me getting into historical fiction (although I didn’t know that at the time). And yes, I had an American Girl doll too (I had Samantha). My doll and all of my books are being stored by my parents at their house so I can pass those down as well.

4. The Body Movers series by Stephanie Bond. I randomly picked the first book from this series up from the bookstore before going on a trip to Tahoe to see my parents. I totally judge books by their covers and this one really interested me. I remember reading the first book at the condo in Tahoe. I got to the end, which happened to be a cliffhanger, and screamed out loud when I realized that the next book wouldn’t be coming out for a year! This is also an important book and author to me because Stephanie Bond is one of the first authors that I ever connected with via social media. The day she followed me on twitter was so awesome.

5. “Jemima J” by Jane Green. Yes, this is chick-lit. But it was the first chick-lit book I ever read. I never knew that there were fun silly books like this that I would love to read. And it opened an entire new world up for me.

6. Anything by Jennifer Weiner. I started with her book “Good In Bed” because again, the cover looked cool. Since then, I’ve read several of her books and have loved them all. She is another author that I have connected to via twitter and it turns out that she reads my blog! When she tweeted to me about that, I almost passed out.

7. “America’s Women” by Gail Collins. This was one of the first non-fiction books I read that I was able to finish without having to read some “fluff” in between. It’s an amazing book about the history of women in the US and it got me interested in finding more historical books to read.

8. Anything by Danielle Steel. I know they are silly, but some of them are pretty fun to read. And this is one of the only authors that both my mom and I both like. It’s nice to have some books in common to talk about and to recommend to each other.

9. The Hunger Games series. This was my introduction to dystopian future books, which is now one of my favorite genres to read. I started to read them after all the books were out so I didn’t have to wait to find out the result of the cliffhangers between the books. Since then, I’ve read many more dystopian future books, but most of them I’ve had to wait as patiently as possible before the next book comes out.

10. “I Heart NY” and all the other books by Lindsay Kelk. This was another random purchase of mine. I saw it as an e-book and it looked like fun. I got it and after only a few pages, I realized that I loved this book! So I went back online and got all the other ones in the series that had come out so far! I connected with Lindsay over twitter and we met up for lunch in Santa Monica when she was out this way. I was totally geeking out over meeting her. But she was super cool and we found out that we both love Disneyland. So on her next trip to LA, we went to Disneyland together and had a blast! I love that I have a new Disneyland buddy!

I love that a book related challenge is going on around Facebook. I challenged 10 of my friends to do this one as well. And I’d love to see any of your top 10 books lists in the comments! I’m always up for discovering new books that other people love!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

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Having A Little NYC In LA (or Getting To See A Friend Again This Year)

Posted on September 4, 2014 | 2 comments

I’ve mentioned my friend Alex on here before. Like I said before, she and I met while working at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. Working that job bonds you to your co-workers pretty quickly. You work crazy hours, deal with even crazier people, and at the end you feel like you survived something amazing during the month of October.

I got to see Alex for the first time in 3 years when my sister-in-law and I were in New York earlier this year. That was so amazing and I loved getting to catch up with a friend. I also got to see her very quickly after my sister-in-law and I saw “Heathers” since Alex happened to be walking down the street while we were outside (running into people like that is awesome!).

Even though I got to see Alex twice in New York, it didn’t feel like enough. Even though she hasn’t lived in LA for 3 years, when she did live here we saw each other a lot. And I still miss getting to hang out with her.

Earlier this summer Alex told me that she was going to come to LA for a visit. So I marked the date down on my calendar so I would get to see her again.

The day that she had a get-together ended up being a tough day for me. I had a lot of things to get done and my day started at 6am. Plus, I didn’t know it then, but I was about to get sick. I didn’t want to go out in the evening, but I made it out there eventually.

It was so great to get to see Alex again. There wasn’t a big group of friends when I got there, so we did have a chance to talk and hear each other talk. And one of her friends actually has met me through one of my day jobs, so that was pretty cool.

Of course, we had to get a group picture to commemorate Alex’s trip to LA.

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I managed to hang out for a little over an hour before I was starting to get exhausted. I hated not being able to stay longer, but I’m super grateful for the time I got to spend with my friend.

I’ll be seeing my sister-in-law this weekend so I’m hoping to talk with her about when we can go to New York again. I’m hoping she and I can go sometime next year. Then I know that I’ll get to catch up with Alex again sometime soon!

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In the meantime, I’m just so happy that I got to see Alex twice (or I guess technically three times) this year after not getting to see her for 3 years!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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An Evening At Urgent Care (or Why Being Polite Is Always Best)

Posted on September 3, 2014 | 1 comment

Yesterday, I had to go to urgent care. Since Friday, I’ve had a sore throat and my ear was hurting. I tried to just wait it out, but since I’ll be seeing my mom and grandparents this weekend, I wanted to get checked out (none of them can afford to get sick right now).

First of all, I’ll let you all know that I’m fine. It’s a virus that caused a little sore on my throat. I just have to wait it out (like I thought). But at least I know now that I won’t get anyone sick this weekend.

I tried to schedule an appointment with my doctor first, but there were no times that wouldn’t cause me to miss work. And since it’s only my second week, I didn’t want to have to ask for time off.

So I took the chance with urgent care. You never know how long it will take, so I went in prepared to be there for several hours and had my Kindle with me.

When I checked it, I had a smile on my face and was polite to the receptionist. I know that she has to deal with sick and annoyed people all day and I figured by being nice I would at least make a little part of her day easier. I did the same thing with the second check in receptionist (who takes the payment for the appointment).

They told me that it might be an hour or so and I was fine with that. I said thank you and went to take a seat in the waiting area.

But before I could get my Kindle out and open, my name was called to go back! I was shocked that they were ready to see me so quickly!

The nurse that I met with was also very nice and friendly. She was happy that I was prepared for my appointment with all my vital information that they need (allergies, prescriptions, general stats). And she also thought it was very nice of me to let her know that my blood pressure has to be taken on the lower portion of my arm (I’m not sure why, but when it’s on my upper arm I either have very high or very low blood pressure).

I was brought back to the room and the nurse let me know that she was going to make sure that I was the next patient that the doctor would see. And no joke, a minute later the doctor walked in!

After the quick exam where the doctor determined that this was a virus and that I didn’t need a prescription, she sent me on my way. My mom had guessed that this was exactly what was wrong with me, so I was happy to have a quick diagnosis (and not needing to wait for a prescription).

As I headed to the parking garage to get my car, I realized that I only arrived there 30 minutes before! I was in and out so quickly!

I know that it wasn’t because urgent care was empty (there were lots of people in line to check in and waiting in the waiting area). And I probably wasn’t the most urgent person for them to see. The only idea that I have is because I was polite and pleasant to deal with. So everyone I encountered at the hospital wanted to help me out and make sure that I didn’t have to be there that long.

I’m happy to be polite around other people. I know how bad it feels when a customer is angry and rude to you (I’ve dealt with that at plenty of jobs). And when you are rude, things only seem to take longer. So I try to go in with a positive mindset and keep calm.

If everyone could work on being a bit more positive and polite when dealing with people, the world would seriously be such a better place.

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

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