Monthly Archives: September 2015

Getting A New Look (or Two Attempts To Dye My Hair)

Posted on September 30, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve had a very similar hair color for several years now. I’ve had small changes and have had it dyed a little darker or a little lighter (depending on the season), but it’s pretty much been the same for a long time. And while I’ve loved the color it’s been, I’ve been ready for a change for a while. But I’ve been putting off changing up my hair.

Part of the reason for this is that if I change my hair color drastically, I have to get new headshots. It’s just the way it is. Before I was really pursuing acting, I would change my hair color almost every time I had my hair done. In some ways I miss that, but in other ways I’m glad I’m past that stage (I’m not good looking as a blonde).

So the last time my friend Erin did my hair, I mentioned that I thought that the next time she did my hair I would go for a big change. She’s totally cool with changing it up (I think she wishes she could change my hair more often) and we texted back and forth a couple of pictures of ideas. We had finally settled on one and this past Friday I finally got to change up my color.

Besides being excited to change my hair, I desperately needed a cut and color. It had been several months since my hair was done, and it was looking a bit scraggly.

Hair Before

First, Erin dyed my hair the color that she had picked out and texted a sample of to me. While it looked good in the sample, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I did really love the color, but I knew that it wasn’t the most marketable color for me to have (I’m a big mad that I loved the color so much and had to change it). Then Erin added a brunette toner on top of the color she had dyed it earlier and it came out perfect and exactly like the picture I had sent to her.

Hair After

I’m so in love with my new color, but it’s a big change and I’m still getting used to it. It looks so much healthier now and I think that the color is going to be easier to manage. And so far, everyone who has seen me has loved it. And while it looks much shorter in the after picture, it’s pretty much the same length it was before.

Because of the hair color change, I’ll be doing new headshots very soon and I’m excited to see how casting directors react to the new color. Hopefully the new look will get me more auditions because I won’t look like a lot of the girls in my category (we’ve all had light auburn hair for a while).

Change is sometimes scary for me, but this time I think it’s a really good change and I’m excited to see what my new hair color inspires me to do!

 

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailTime For A Bit Of A Change (or Getting Chopped) Default ThumbnailFeeling Refreshed (or Looking Good While Babysitting) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Get Back To Me (I Needed My Hair Done!) Default ThumbnailAt Home Hair (or I Haven’t Done This Since I Was A Teenager) Default ThumbnailCoconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick) Default ThumbnailGetting Pushed Into Changing (or A Story About My Hair)

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Beauty, Fun Stuff

Tagged ,

FaceTime Repair (or Baby Steps To Prepare Me For Home Ownership)

Posted on September 29, 2015 | Comments Off on FaceTime Repair (or Baby Steps To Prepare Me For Home Ownership)

For the last several years, whenever something goes wrong at my house that my landlord needs to fix, my dad reminds me that these are things that I will have to deal with on my own when I’m eventually a home owner. He always says that there are some things that you just need to be prepared to write a check for (like those floods and gas leak that I had at my house) but there are other things that I should know how to do myself.

I think that I’m pretty handy with things. I have issues with some repairs at my house because my walls are weird (it takes anchors and a special drill bit to hang things on my walls), but I was able to install my air conditioning with the help of a friend. And a couple of years ago, a built a screen door with my dad and installed it at my parents’ house (we talked about that accomplishment a lot). I have a pretty well stocked tool kit thanks to my dad and I’m prepared for several things that I might need to do around the house (or that my dad might do for me when he comes to visit).

The other day, there were some friends over at my house. After everyone went home, I was putting things back where they belong and fixing things up when I realized that my toilet was broken. I eventually figured out that the chain (which on my toilet was actually a rubber string) had broken off. Without the help of YouTube or my dad, I did figure out how I could manually flush the toilet by putting my hands into the tank (that’s clean water, don’t worry) and pulling up the stopper.

But I didn’t want to have to do that a ton. So I let my landlord know that my toilet was broken and then called my dad to see what he would say. He was out but got back to me a bit later that night. He agreed that the chain was broken on the toilet and we tried to think of some temporary solutions to fix it before my landlord would have a chance to fix it.

Somehow, my dad remembered that he had given me picture hanging wire in the past, so I dug through my tool kit and found the last piece of it. I then put my dad on FaceTime and balanced my phone on the shelf behind my toilet so he could see what I was doing.

FaceTime Help

It only took a few minutes, but I managed to fix it! I know this will sound so corny and silly, but it was the greatest feeling ever that I was able to create a temporary fix for the chain in the toilet. I needed this positive boost in my life after having a bad day. I was on such a high knowing that I did this and so thankful that not only is my dad handy but that he is willing to get on FaceTime and help me fix things on my own!

My landlord was able to come the next day to do a real repair, but he was pretty darn impressed with my picture hanging wire repair. He even tested it a couple of times before doing the fix to see how well it worked!

Obviously, it would be nice to be able to call a plumber for every little repair that I need. I’m lucky that I’m in an apartment where I’m not financially responsible for repairs. But I’m trying to do as much as I can on my own (or learning how the repair is done when the professionals do work here) so that hopefully one day when I own a home I can do as much as possible on my own. As easy as it would be to write a check for these things, it’s so much more empowering to do things myself.

Who knew that a broken toilet would be the key to improving my mood?

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Back To Cooking (or My Check In Kicked My Butt Into Gear) Default ThumbnailBaby Shower Saturday (or Celebrating Baby Allen) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Progress (or Surprising Myself) Default ThumbnailBeing A Bit Of A Show-Off (or More Baby Steps) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Of Improvements (or Getting Ready For The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps (or Trying To Be Proud Of The Little Victories)

Comments Off on FaceTime Repair (or Baby Steps To Prepare Me For Home Ownership)

Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,

Workout Struggles and Wins (or My First Early Workout In A While)

Posted on September 28, 2015 | 1 comment

I’m still on the path of recovery for my calf injury (I laugh now when I think back at how I thought before it would only take 2 or 3 weeks to recover). I’m in a weird balance point of trying to push myself more and more and trying not to re-injury myself. I’m so terrified of another tear but I know that I do need to get myself stronger. It’s a weird thing for me to really want to hold back and push forward at the same time, but I think I’m finally understanding my body more and figuring out things I can do to both protect my muscle and build it at the same time.

I’m learning that if we are going to be on the treadmill for the first half of class uninterrupted (instead of either having a run/row day or switching between blocks), I’ve got to take it easy. Taking it easy is still at 3.4 miles an hour, but I’m not really pushing it any more than that. I’m feeling twinges in my calf when I go faster after being on the treadmill for an extended period of time, so I’m taking that as a sign that I’m not ready for that yet.

But when we are switching between blocks or doing a run/row day (we did both of these in workouts this past week), I’m able to do almost all my treadmill time at 3.5 miles an hour. I’m still keeping the incline on the lower end of things, but I’m testing the waters there a bit too. On Friday, we had very short treadmill segments on the run/row (1 minute or 45 seconds each), so I was able to try slightly higher inclines. But I’m not sure if I’m going to keep pushing myself on the inclines as much because I really want to focus on speed.

Besides the treadmill improvement, I’m still working on my form and other things like that on the rower and on the weights. The rower is tough because of both my hip and calf, but it’s getting better (and less painful). For weights I still have to be careful with some lower body things (I did something on Monday that made my legs hurt through Thursday) but I’m testing my limits there too.

The biggest struggle of my workout week was Friday. Because of my crazy schedule, I had to do a 7:30am workout. I don’t do those that often (I sometimes do 8:30am but that feels so much later than 7:30am), but it was the only way I could get in 3 workouts this week. I’m not sure if it was the early wakeup time or the fact that my heart rate monitor wasn’t registering correctly for the class, but I had the worst time in class. I was constantly dizzy and when I would look at the heart rate monitor for guidance if my heart rate is too high, it was showing false low heart rates. I tried to take my heart rate by feeling my pulse, and my heart was racing higher than it probably should be. I had to take it easy a lot during the rowing and weights segment, but I stuck it out through the entire class.

This week will bring another potential struggle for me. I’m going to be doing 3 workout days in a row. It won’t be the first time I’m doing this, but it will be the first time in a while. It’s not ideal for me to be doing this, but if I don’t I won’t be able to get 3 workouts in for the week and I haven’t done fewer than 3 workouts in a week since starting at Orangetheory. I’m going to try my very best in those 3 classes and I know that even a half-ass workout is better than no workout at all.

And I’ve got the new parking validation stamp from Orangetheory to remind me of that fact.

OTF Validation

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan) Default ThumbnailA Week On The Bike (or Ending My Year By Taking It A Bit Easy) Default ThumbnailBalancing My Workouts (or Doing Some Planning) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Workout Wins (Or 3 Days Of Awesomeness) Default ThumbnailI Hate Not Having As Much Motivation (or A Week Of Workout Struggles) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Get Better (or Still Finding Wins In My Workouts)

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged , , , , , ,

Trying To Go With The Flow (or Staying Calm And Remembering To Breathe)

Posted on September 25, 2015 | 1 comment

I hate when I have a bad day. Obviously, everyone hates bad days, but I feel like my bad days take it to an epic new level. And when that happens, I get sucked into how bad it is and feel like I can’t dig out of the hole of awfulness.

This past Tuesday was one of those epically bad days. It didn’t start off too bad. Work got off to a good start, but then it just took a direct downhill turn. The majority of my shift I felt pretty horrible and really debated if I want to stay at my job anymore or if it’s time for me to move on. To be honest, I’m still debating this issue. I don’t really get time off at my job and when I have taken time off it’s made me feel guilty because my co-workers have to cover my share of the work. There are more and more things and opportunities that I’d love to do, but they happen during my work time. I have no intention of leaving my job anytime soon, but I’m also not going to ignore options that come my way.

The worst part of my work shift that day was the last customer I had to work with. It wasn’t the customer’s fault at all. They needed a confirmation resent to them, but it didn’t appear that the type of order they placed could have been done. I got this customer the last minute of my shift and I ended up working 30 minutes after closing trying to figure out their situation. One of my co-workers stayed on too and was a huge help, but we still had to manually search through every city that our show runs in and never found their order (it ended up being an error on the location’s side so there was no way we could have helped the customer).

After working 30 minutes late, I was late for my next thing which was a meeting with my therapist. It was a pretty standard check in appointment and we’ve decided to continue on the dosage of Vyvanse that I’m currently on. He re-wrote my prescription and I was on my way.

Once I got to the hospital to get my refill, I found out that my doctor forgot to write today’s date on the refill order (since it’s a controlled medication, I need to have a handwritten refill request every time). I wish I could have just gone outside and added the date or shown them the bill from seeing my therapist, but they needed an entirely new refill request.

Of course, because of traffic, there was no way I could drive all the way back to my therapist to get another form. So I called and asked if one could be ready for me to pick up another time. I did manage to go at 7am yesterday and got the new form, but now they are out of the medication at the hospital and it will take at least 4 days before I can get my medication (I’ll run out before then).

After that day, I was ready to just sit and home and be in a funk. And that’s exactly what I did. I felt like nothing was going to go right with my day so I didn’t want to bother. And fortunately, I didn’t have anything else that was urgent to do that day, so I could indulge in my bad mood.

I’m lucky that it seems like these epically bad days only last one day (except for the fact that yesterday they ran out of my prescription at the hospital and I can’t get it refilled for a few days). I’m totally in a better mood now. I wish that I could control how I deal with bad days better, but I don’t think that I handle them horribly. I just want to be able to get out of the funk prior to going to bed for the night.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailStaying Healthy (or 2 Needles in 30 Minutes) Default ThumbnailFollowing My Doctor’s Instructions (or Days Off From Vyvanse) Default ThumbnailStaying Calm In The Crazy (or Is This Month Over Yet?) Default ThumbnailBeverly Hills Shorts Festival (or Remembering To Breathe After Being So Stressed) Default Thumbnail2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back (or Going With The Flow) Default ThumbnailBack Into The Groove (or Staying On The Right Path While At Work)

1 Comment

Posted in Health, Tough Stuff, Work

Tagged , , ,

My First Official SAG-AFTRA Duty (or Learning What’s In Store)

Posted on September 24, 2015 | 1 comment

After winning my delegate seat in the SAG-AFTRA election, my first question was “what’s next?”. I knew that I would get to attend the convention this year, but so much of what I could do or get to do was a mystery to me.

Fortunately, not only do I have some amazing mentors through Unite For Strength but the union has been sending emails with lots of information for us! And with the convention coming up next week, the Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA local decided to have a sort of orientation for all elected delegates.

The orientation was this week with a dinner first, followed by an opportunity to observe the local board meeting, and then finishing with the orientation. I got there nice and early so I could check in and make sure there wasn’t anything else I had to do before the official things started for the evening.

SAG-AFTRA Delegate

The dinner was fun. It was very nice of them to have food for us and we all had a great time getting to chat with our friends. We had a minor snafu when the fire alarm went off, but we were back inside pretty quickly.

Next, all the board members took their seats for the board meeting and then all the delegates got to follow inside to find a seat. I found a seat pretty close to the front and was very excited to see what would happen at the board meeting.

This was my first time getting to see a local board meeting for SAG-AFTRA and while we didn’t get to have the agenda and other paperwork that the board members had, they put the agenda up on a screen for us to follow along with. There was some housekeeping stuff to take care of since this was the first board meeting since the election. But there was also some new business and discussion about committees and other things that the local board will be doing soon.

It was really fun to see the process that goes on in the room. There are rules to follow and ways that you can and cannot bring up information or concerns. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to observe more board meetings in the future because it really was cool to see how things that affect me and my fellow actors are decided and debated on. And maybe one day I’ll run for local board and I want to make sure I understand what it’s all about before running.

When we had our delegate orientation, there was a lot of information to cover. With convention being next week, they wanted to make sure that all of our questions were answered and we were ready to go. Since the convention is in LA, we are the host local and we want to be able to help any of the other locals who are traveling to LA with questions they might have.

The convention is going to be a couple of very full days. I’ll be working my day job from the convention (just the chat customer service work since I won’t be able to answer the phone) so I know that each day will be tiring. But there are some fun things involved too. There is a gala that you had to buy a ticket for (I did) that will be held on the backlot of Warner Bros. That should be pretty awesome. There will also be a food truck lunch one day, but if it’s on Friday I will have to miss out on it because I will be in the convention room working my day job during lunch. But maybe someone can bring me food.

No matter how full the days will be or how stressed out I might get trying to balance out my schedule, I know that this is going to be great. I’ve been wanting to get more involved in the union and now is my chance to start! I’m excited to represent my fellow Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA members with the voting that will be happening next week and I hope that what is decided continues to make us a stronger and more unified union.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailObserving a Board Meeting (or Finding A New Goal) Default ThumbnailObserving The Local Board Meeting (or The Beginning Of My Second Term As A Delegate) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA Local Meeting (or Coming To The End Of My Delegate Term) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The SAG-AFTRA Elections (or Being An Observer) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA National Convention (or I Had No Idea It Would Be Like This) Default ThumbnailUnite For Strength (or SAG-AFTRA Election Time)

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

Excellent Customer Service (or A New Fitbit)

Posted on September 23, 2015 | 2 comments

I’ve been enjoying the Fitbit I got earlier this year ever since I got it. There was only one day that I missed getting my 10,000 steps in for the day and even then I was pretty close. I’ve worked really hard at getting in all my steps for the day and have been very happy that while sometimes it’s isn’t easy, it’s not nearly as impossible as I thought it might be.

I had been enjoying all of the challenges and social things that Fitbit offers and most days I checked my progress throughout the day to make sure I was on pace to hit my goals.

While at ENMNCon, I was able to reach my goals the first two days of the conference. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. But on Saturday of the conference, I was too busy to think about checking the app on my phone to see my progress. When I got into my car to head home, I finally checked and realized that there were very few steps recorded for the day. I then looked at the middle of my bra where I keep my Fitbit device attached and realized that it wasn’t there!

My first thought was to look around and inside my car to see if it just fell off. But the app was also showing that it was searching for the device and wasn’t able to connect so I knew that it couldn’t be that close to me. There was no way to drive all over town to look for it, so I just drove home and hoped that somehow I had forgotten to put my Fitbit on for the day and I would find it at home.

I got home, my Fitbit wasn’t there, and I had to come to the realization that it must have fallen off at some point that day and it was lost. I emailed Fitbit support and didn’t have high hopes on a good resolution. I had recently emailed them to get a new clip because my old one broke. And they sent me one at no cost and the day I lost my Fitbit was the first day I used the replacement clip.

So my email to Fitbit was more about how the replacement clip was likely defective and I wanted to let them know about it. They emailed back pretty much right away and let me know what time my device connected with my phone last. I thought back to that time and it was while I was walking near Hollywood and Highland. There is no way that someone hadn’t picked up the Fitbit and took it or that it was run over by a car. I knew it that I had to get a new device.

But fortunately, Fitbit let me know that there were going to send me a new replacement device at no cost! It was going to take a little over a week to get it to me, but that’s better than me paying $100 for a new one! I’ve heard of other friends getting a free replacement device, but I thought that since I had just gotten a free replacement clip that there was no way they would now send me a device. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong!

It did feel weird not to have my Fitbit on me. I tried to do as many steps as I could, but I wasn’t able to get a decent count of them (my phone tracks steps, but I don’t aways have my phone on me as I’m walking around my house. Finally, on Monday my new Fitbit arrived!

New Fitbit

It’s a different color than my old device, but I was able to get it set up pretty quickly and got started back at my challenges right away! I probably won’t win challenges this week because I pretty much missed all of Monday, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get back to my 10,000 steps a day streak! I’m excited to be back on track with my steps and to have all the steps counted (and not just counted when I have my phone).

It’s so funny how much I didn’t care for Fitbit the first time I had it, but when I was without it last week I felt lost. I’m just glad that I have it back and I’ve gotten proof that Fitbit really does care about their customers and has awesome customer service!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailLosing Weight The Techie Way (or My FitBit Fail) Default ThumbnailNo More Slacking (or Paying Attention To My Fitbit) Default ThumbnailGiving Fitbit Another Chance (or Doing Laps Around My Living Room) Default ThumbnailBeing Upset With Customer Service (or Trying Not To Be The Type Of Customer I Hate) Default ThumbnailAdventures In Customer Service (or Trying Not To Be The Bad Call) Default ThumbnailCustomer Service After The Fact (or An Update to My Experience At Performance Bike)

2 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Shopping

Tagged , ,

Over Scheduled In The Best Way (of Taking Time For My Friends)

Posted on September 22, 2015 | Comments Off on Over Scheduled In The Best Way (of Taking Time For My Friends)

While I’ve been a bit over scheduled lately, I’m trying to not let that overwhelm me to the point that all I do is work and chores. So even though I’m still catching up on sleep from not sleeping a ton during ENMNCon, I dedicated this past Saturday to being a friend filled day!

I started my day with my short shift at work. A customer kept me on past the end of the shift, so I was a bit late leaving my house, but it wasn’t too bad.

My first (and technically second) stop was in Hollywood. I was meeting one of my workout friends for lunch at The Counter! I love eating at The Counter (their burgers are really good!) and it was an awesome hangout because this workout friend and I had never hung out outside of a workout before!

We had a nice catch up chat because I haven’t seen her in a while. She is working at a new school and is going to be going to a different Orangetheory location now, so she isn’t going to be working out with me anymore. It was great getting to talk and make some plans for some hangouts in the future.

My next stop was right across the street from The Counter at the DGA. I was going to a screening of “Everest” in 3D there and invited one of the girls from my Women In Film mentoring group to join me.

I’ve read “Into Thin Air” and have seen the TV movie, so I was pretty familiar with the tragedy that happened on Everest. But I really thought that this movie was well done and kept me interested even though I knew who was going to live and who was going to die. And my friend only knew a bit of the story and she thought the movie was great too.

My final hangout for the day was back in Culver City at Rush St. (where my birthday party was) with another workout friend! We had tried to coordinate it so I could hang out with both workout friends at the same time (we are all friends), but schedules never matched up so I got double the workout friend hangouts!

Again, I hadn’t seen this friend in a while. She’s also working out at a different Orangetheory location (I guess that’s what happens when there’s more than one location!) and she’s also been recovering lately. So it was another great catchup chat with each of us filling the other in on our lives and other random stuff.

And since this friend had missed my birthday, she decided that we should celebrate it now even though it was over a month past my birthday!

Extra Birthday

After two meals out and a movie (plus my work in the morning) it was a super full day. But getting to see a bunch of friends and doing lots of fun stuff really did revitalize me. The exhaustion I had been feeling for the past week is gone. And that’s a good thing because the next two weeks are going to be a bit crazy! But I’m ready to take it on!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailHow I Spent My Actual Birthday (or Friends, Friends, and More Friends) Default ThumbnailAn Evening Out With Friends (or An Excuse To Dress Up) Default ThumbnailA Birthday Celebration (or An Orangetheory Reunion) Default ThumbnailA Bit Over-Scheduled (or Starting To Stress Out) Default ThumbnailSeeing Friends In Random Places (or Unscheduled Hangouts) Default ThumbnailGetting Through It Because Of My Workout Friends (or 3 Days In A Row)

Comments Off on Over Scheduled In The Best Way (of Taking Time For My Friends)

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

Almost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri)

Posted on September 21, 2015 | Comments Off on Almost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri)

Another week of ups and downs with my workouts. Since I like to end on a positive note, I’m going to start with the negatives.

Last week I was debating whether or not I’d be doing the Dri-Tri this past Sunday at Orangetheory. Then I found out that the Dri-Tri was moved to another date and was going to be a partner challenge, so I got really encouraged by that. I figured that there was no reason now to skip the Dri-Tri and I was all set to find a partner.

Until I found out the date that it was switched to. There is no way I can do the Dri-Tri on the new date. I’ve got one thing I have to do from 8am-noon that day and then I’m working from 2-8pm. Technically I might be able to do it between the events, but with driving time and having to be clean and in professional clothes for work I doubt that I could make it happen.

I believe that this is the last Dri-Tri of the year, so this will now be my second year of not being able to do one. It’s so frustrating because even though I know it will be very tough, I know that I could do it. And I want to prove to myself that I can and now I will have to wait a year to do that. And of course I think that knowing my luck I’ll end up having something else that prevents me from doing the event next year.

But I can’t think like that. I just have to focus on working on my workouts as hard as I can from now until the event next year so my first attempt will be great and I’ll be able to get a fast Dri-Tri time.

And working on my workouts is going better and better. My calf almost feels 100% normal now. I’m still struggling with my inclines a bit, but perhaps I was overdoing them before and that’s what caused the injury to happen. I’m getting the inclines high enough that I can get my heart rate up, and that’s most important to me. I’m not too worried if I’m told I should be at 15% and I’m at 8 or 10%. It’s what I can do right now and that’s all good with me.

And as far as my speed goes, I’m testing out 3.5 miles an hour now. I was able to do it a couple of times in the workouts this past week. And when I wasn’t at 3.5, I maintained 3.4 miles an hour the rest of the workout! I’m so close to where I was pre-injury. I still have a goal of being a bit faster before my next 5K in about 6 weeks. But if I’m able to do my treadmill workouts the week leading up to the race at 3.5 miles an hour, I’ll be happy.

I’m still hoping for a new PR at the race, but my PR expectations are lower than they were before. I know now that being a minute faster might not be realistic. But even if I’m 1 second faster at this race, I’m going to be happy now. That will prove to me that I’m 100% recovered from the injury and I’ll be able to train for speed for my next 5K after this one (that next one will be in the spring).

Now that my power walking is very close to what it was pre-injury, I need something new to focus on improving. I never realized that having a very specific workout goal could be as powerful as it is. I don’t think if I had as specific of a goal for the treadmill that I would have gotten back to (almost) normal as fast as I have. I’d love to get better on the rower. My power is still not as high as I wish it was. But I’m also aware that that might be due to my hips and my calf still healing. And I did recently improve on my weights for the strength portion of the workout, so I’m not sure if I can move up to the next weights very soon. I’m going to spend the next couple of days working on ideas for my workout goals and hopefully I’ll have something to work on soon!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailDri-Tri Prep Workouts (or The Beginning Of My Workout Week) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For The Dri-Tri (or Working My Way Through The Workouts) Default ThumbnailDri-Tri (or Suffering From Fear Of Missing Out) Default ThumbnailFeeling Better About My Progress (or Coming Back From The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailMy First Dri-Tri (or Beating My Expectations) Default ThumbnailThird Time’s Not The Charm (or Being Ok With An Ok Dri-Tri)

Comments Off on Almost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri)

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

Going Out While Exhausted (or The Opposite Of Fear Of Missing Out)

Posted on September 18, 2015 | Comments Off on Going Out While Exhausted (or The Opposite Of Fear Of Missing Out)

After all of the ENMNCon excitement, I was hoping to have a bit of a lazy week the next week. Sadly, that wasn’t going to be the case for me. Of course I knew I’d have work to catch up on and errands to do (those few days of ENMNCon seemed to take up my entire time so I didn’t do a lot of housework), but I was hoping to keep my evenings as free as possible.

I knew that there was an event that the podcast I work for was co-sponsoring on Monday evening and I had it on my calendar for a while. And I figured that somehow I wouldn’t be exhausted that evening to attend so I told everyone I would be there.

Of course, Monday comes around and the day is just beyond full for me. I was exhausted from the weekend, I had a workout in the morning, and then a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. I had every intention of going to the party, but I didn’t think I was going to make it.

After a team phone call with everyone from the podcast (we have those every other week) I realized that everyone else was going to be there and I should try too.

I got out of my junky clothes (I don’t care to dress up to go to the doctor so I wore workout clothes) and put on some jeans and a cute top. I also tried my best to do some makeup and make my hair look better and then headed out the door.

The event was in Chinatown, so it wasn’t too far of a drive for me. I was a bit lost because the venue was on a pedestrian only street and wasn’t sure at first where to park, but I managed to find a meter (it was free at night!) and headed inside.

As soon as I got in, I knew that this was going to be a quick appearance for me. The noise and lights were bothering me and I was so tired that I wasn’t feeling very social.

I saw a bunch of my friends and managed to say hi to them all, but after about 30 minutes I was getting ready to go. Of course, I stayed long enough to be in an awesome photo with the entire podcast team!

IAP Team

As soon as we took the photo, I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed back home. Before I knew it, I was in my pjs on my couch catching up on my DVR (there were a lot of shows I hadn’t had a chance to watch).

I’ve written before about fear of missing out and I was scared that if I hadn’t gone to this party that I would feel that way. But I almost had the opposite reaction. I am glad that I went and said hi to my friends, but I almost regretted spending that time driving there when I knew I wasn’t going to be all in for the event.

It’s hard to say no to social obligations. And because I had told people for a while that I’d be going, I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. But I know that if I hadn’t been there and had explained that I was exhausted from a 3 day conference that people would have totally understood. But I also don’t want to let people down. It’s a struggle of balancing obligations and needs that I need to work out.

And I know that I’m going to have to focus on that struggle a lot over the next few weeks. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now and there are weeks that I’m getting very close to overbooked. I’m going to take some time between things this weekend and take a good look at my schedule. I’m going to have to decline some things that I’ve wanted to go to in order to keep myself sane. I have to focus on what’s most important in my life right now (I’m thinking day jobs, workouts, and doctors appointments) and then add in what else I can when it fits.

Hopefully that focus will allow me to stay rested and at my best self over these next few crazy weeks!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailMissing Out To Make Money (or Realizing When I’m Over-scheduled) Default ThumbnailDri-Tri (or Suffering From Fear Of Missing Out) Default ThumbnailThe Fear of Missing Out (or The Power of No) Default ThumbnailSurviving At The Dentist (or When Will I Grow Out Of My Fear) Default ThumbnailNot Having Fear Of Missing Out (or I’m Sorry In Advance For Boring Posts) Default ThumbnailActing Like A Grownup (or Missing Out On Fun)

Comments Off on Going Out While Exhausted (or The Opposite Of Fear Of Missing Out)

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

“The Wisdom Of Walt” (or Time To Win An Amazing Book!)

Posted on September 17, 2015 | 18 comments

I’ve covered almost everything from the Entertainment New Media Network Conference in my past two posts. But I did skip talking about one of the speakers. And it’s not because I didn’t enjoy it. It’s because it was my favorite speaker of the entire event!

Jeffrey A. Barnes is a professor, an author, and a Disney fanatic. And as a fellow Disney fan, I was super excited to hear what he was going to talk about.

Without giving away a ton of Jeffrey’s story, he had always dreamed about writing a book about Walt Disney and Disneyland. Then he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He put off having surgery for a while because he was teaching a college class on Disneyland (where was that class when I was in school?!?). After having the tumor removed, he had mentioned that he had the life regret of never writing his book. His wife told him that he still had plenty of life to live and encouraged him to write the book he always wanted to.

The book “The Wisdom Of Walt” was written as both a story about the history of Disneyland as well as leadership and self-help through the lessons that Walt Disney went through while building his park.

The Wisdom Of Walt

When Jeffrey was speaking at ENMNCon, he talked about how we needed to be the hero in our own stories. Every story needs a hero who is willing to fail, willing to act, and willing to dream. And to get your dreams accomplished nobody can be that hero except for you.

His talk really connected with me. I try not to be the victim in my story, but sometimes that’s tough. I need to focus as much as possible on being my own hero and making sure that my dreams are my priorities.

Obviously as soon as the conference was done, I bought “The Wisdom of Walt”. To say that I’m devouring the book is an understatement! I’m putting off watching my favorite TV shows to read more and more of the book! I’m getting close to the end of it and I’m already planning on re-reading it because I know that there is so much to absorb in the book.

I love the history of Disneyland parts. I do know a lot of Disney history but I’m still learning new things. And I love the lessons that are in each chapter. The book is such a great mix of learning Disney history and leadership skills with fun facts about the parks.

Why am I sharing this all with you? Because Jeffrey A. Barnes is super amazing and is giving away a copy of “The Wisdom Of Walt” on my blog! Not only is he giving away a copy, the winner will have their copy signed and personalized!

All you have to do is enter at the bottom of this post. There are a bunch of ways to enter including commenting on here, following me on twitter/Facebook/Instagram, and tweeting out the contest (you can do that every day and earn extra entries!). The contest goes until midnight on Thursday September 24th so you have lots of time to enter and earn extra entries!

And if you don’t want to enter (or if you enter but don’t win), Jeffrey has decided to give all readers of Finding My Inner Bombshell $5 off his book if you order it through his website! All the books ordered through his website will be signed (just not personalized) and if you enter the code “blog” in the notes, you will get a $5 refund after purchase! If you would prefer the Kindle version, you can get that on Amazon (but no discount and obviously it won’t be signed).

Good luck to everyone who enters! And I hope that even if you don’t win, you get this book because it is truly amazing!

Please make sure you enter through the Rafflecopter below even if you just enter by writing a comment. I will be selecting the winner randomly from the Rafflecopter entries on Friday the 26th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailTacocity (or A Book Review And Giveaway!) Default Thumbnail“Beyond The Wisdom Of Walt” (or Another Amazing Giveaway!) Default ThumbnailScared Speechless (or A Book Giveaway!) Default Thumbnail“Life…In A Word” (or A Wonderful Holiday Giveaway) Default ThumbnailLearning About “Breaking Vegan” (or An Amazing Book Giveaway!) Default ThumbnailAnother Disney Day (or Making Disneyland A Book Nerd’s Dream)

18 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Shopping

Tagged , , , , ,