Monthly Archives: October 2014

Fall Cleaning (or Making My Workplace Spotless)

Posted on October 3, 2014 | 2 comments

I’ve always tried to keep a clean house. I do my laundry weekly, vacuum at least weekly (now that I have a vacuum again), and seem to dust and wipe down various surfaces in my house a hundred times a day.

The one place that hasn’t been super clean has been my desk. It’s not dirty, but until recently it never looked that dirty.

But now that I’m working at my desk and computer a good portion of the day 5 days a week, I’ve noticed that things have gotten a little grimy.

The one positive about being chained to my desk so many hours a day is that now I’ve cut down my computer time to only be when I’m working and then again in the evening (which is when I typically write my posts).

The bad thing is that I’m noticing the grime more and more since I have to stare at it for so long.

One day after work I searched online for how to clean the body of my laptop (I have a MacBook Pro). There were a ton of posts that came up and most had one thing in common.

They said to use a Magic Eraser.

I don’t own Magic Erasers so I went to the store to get one and see if this trick worked (and hoped it wouldn’t ruin my laptop).

It was pretty simple. Wet the Magic Eraser and then wring out most of the water. You want it to be damp and not dripping.

Then you can start cleaning. I first shut down my laptop and disconnected the power source (most websites didn’t suggest this but it seemed like common sense to me). Then I gently wiped the body of my laptop with the Magic Eraser.

It totally lived up to its name!

No joke, it was only a minute before my laptop looked clean again.

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And it worked so well, I cleaned the grime off my desk quickly too!

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I know I sound like a commercial for Magic Eraser. I swear I’m not. I’m just impressed at a product that really cleaned well and easily and figured that some of you might want to know how to de-grime a laptop too.

Now I have another weekly cleaning task to add to my list.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge (or What To Do When You Are Crazy Busy) Default ThumbnailFull Day At The New Job (or Seeing My Old Workplace Abandoned) Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again) Default ThumbnailFeeling Like A Fresh Start (or Spring Cleaning and New Toys) Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused)

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Work

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Challenge Winners (or OK Being A Loser)

Posted on October 2, 2014 | Comments Off on Challenge Winners (or OK Being A Loser)

This past weekend was the party for the Orangetheory weight-loss challenge. I knew how much I had lost because the weigh-in was the week before, and I was pretty sure that I didn’t win.

There was going to be a men’s and women’s winner and while I had no clue who the winner for the women would be, I had a good idea who the winner for the men would be.

There is one guy who I talk with from time to time. Sometimes we are in the same workout class, but more often he’s in the class after mine. We would check in with each other throughout the challenge and made sure that neither of us were slacking off. It also turns out that we have a mutual friend.

The day of the final weigh-in, he shared with me that he had lost over 30 pounds in the 6 weeks. In my opinion, there was no way that someone else could win.

And I was right. He was the winner for the men.

On the women’s side, until I showed up for the party, I couldn’t guess the winner. But while we were all waiting for the party to start, one of the trainers and I were talking and she brought another woman into the conversation. They were discussing her weight loss and it turned out that she had lost 17 pounds (which was 10% of her original weight).

As soon as I heard that, I knew that she would end up being the winner for the women.

There were also second and third place prizes for both men and women, but I didn’t rank in the top 3.

And you know what? I’m totally cool with that. In the 6 weeks, I had lost 9 pounds. I might have been able to lose more if I hadn’t had any setbacks (including food setbacks and health setbacks), but 9 pounds in 6 weeks is great! It’s a good pace for weight loss.

As much as I want to lose it all quickly, I’ve done that twice before. And it hasn’t ended well for me. So this time instead of the quick fix, I’m going for the happy ending.

But what I’m most proud of is that I was part of such an amazing group of people for this weight-loss challenge. I have really found my community and workout home. I thought that I had found it before, and maybe one day it will become more of a workout home for me. But this time I really feel completely comfortable with the staff and everyone who works out at Orangetheory and I feel no judgement at all.

That’s a prize that no contest can award me and I’m lucky that I got it.

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Default ThumbnailDoing Some Challenges (or Mondays Are Going To Be Tough) Default ThumbnailA Welcome Distraction At The Film Festival (or Loving Second Place) Default ThumbnailGetting Weighed In (or A New Orangetheory Challenge) Default ThumbnailWeight Loss Challenge Time (or Not Worrying About Winning) Default ThumbnailEnding My Challenge Early (or I Guess I Made A Mistake) Default ThumbnailAnother Weight Loss Challenge (or Getting Back On Track)

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

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Cutting Back (or Unsubscribing Both Virtual And Actual Things)

Posted on October 1, 2014 | 4 comments

I’ve been working on cutting back again. That’s what you have to do when money isn’t coming in the way it used to.

I can’t really drop much more of my cable without getting rid of almost all the channels, so cutting back there isn’t an option. I’ve seriously cut back on delivery food and ordering books for my Kindle. The most recent thing I’ve been cutting back on are subscriptions.

First to go were online subscriptions. There are so many emails I get in a day. Many of them I need to get (casting notices, work information), but there are at least 15 emails a day that are unnecessary. I know there are online services you can use to unsubscribe to them, but what I’ve been doing is unsubscribe to them as they come in.

I probably spend 5 minutes each day getting rid of more and more email lists. The ones that were easiest to let go of were shopping related one. I don’t need to see what sales are going on or what Groupon or Living Social has to offer. I can’t buy any of those things right now.

Next on the unsubscribe list for emails were email newsletters from friends who put me on their email subscription list. I do have a small problem with people subscribing me to their emails without me opting in. But I’ve always stayed on the list because I didn’t want to offend anyone. But really, if we are friends on Facebook, I don’t need your email newsletters. I see what is going on. So I’ve unsubscribed to dozens of those (5 alone yesterday).

After tackling email subscriptions, it was time to move on to my magazines. I love magazines. And there are plenty that I am going to keep, but I need to get rid of a bunch of them.

And I needed to get rid of them not just because of the extra cost, but these magazines were making me feel less. I’m talking mainly about the beauty/fashion and fitness magazines. While I do enjoy the beauty/fashion ones and the advice that they have, I can see that online. And it just makes me depressed that none of the clothing that they recommend comes in my size.

And the fitness magazines are just the same pieces of advice over and over again. I know how to lose weight. I’ve done it.

If you find me a magazine all about maintaining a weight loss, that I would consider subscribing to.

The magazines that I plan on keeping are People (which I think everyone pretty much gets), Los Angeles magazine, The Hollywood Reporter (which somehow I get for free), the SAG-AFTRA magazine (free with my union membership), and Cooking Light (I actually do enjoy seeing what recipes they have each month).

While that still is a few magazines, only 3 of them are ones I pay for. And I think that the ones that I’ve selected to keep all are positives in my life (maybe not People but everyone needs a fun magazine to bring to the beach or airport).

This has been an interesting decluttering experiment so far. I haven’t missed anything that I’ve gotten rid of. And once I’m used to this, I might consider cutting back some more.

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Default ThumbnailHaving A Lot Of Repeat Days (or More Organizing and More Virtual Hangouts) Default ThumbnailAnother Virtual Doctor Appointment (or Planning Some Next Steps) Default ThumbnailMore Virtual Union Meetings (or It’s Funny I Wrote About This Not Long Ago) Default ThumbnailCutting Out My Favorite Drink (or Goodbye Diet Coke, Diet 7-Up, Fancy Water) Default ThumbnailAn Easy Therapist Check-In (or Virtual Appointments Make Things Easier) Default ThumbnailLots Of Virtual Meetings (or Virtual Union Meetings)

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Saving, Tough Stuff

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