Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Rest Of ENMNCon (or Learning How To Improve My Blog)

Posted on September 16, 2015 | 4 comments

While going to KOA and having an adventure day was fun, the main point of ENMNCon was to learn about blogging and how to make the best blog you can. When I won my tickets, that was the part that I was most excited about. While I have been blogging for a couple of years now, I still consider myself a newbie blogger. There are so many things that I don’t know how to do (or don’t know that I should do) and I want to learn as much as I can!

I’ve already talked about the first session that we had while we had lunch at KOA. The other session that we had on Thursday was in the evening at the PJ party we had at Dave & Busters at Hollywood and Highland. I’ve only been to a Dave & Busters once (I think) and I didn’t have time to check this one out too much, but I have it on my list of things I want to do around LA!

At the PJ party, Genevieve Goings (from Choo Choo Soul) taught us how to do a 5 minute face. I’m totally not a makeup person (I really wish I was!), but the instructions that she gave were pretty simple so I think I might be able to manage it! We also got some really great stuff from Pur Makeup!

The next day was a pretty full day of sessions. We were at the Hard Rock Cafe at CityWalk and I was there so early that CityWalk was basically empty (I’ve never seen it like that before!).

It was so nice of the Hard Rock to open up early just for our group! We had the entire upstairs to us and it was nice and quiet so we could hear all the speakers.

I learned so much that day! We heard from some people who work with affiliate marketing. I haven’t really ever done that before but I think it might be something great to add to here. I’d love to be able to share with you all products and businesses that I love and think you would all love too!

We also heard from some bloggers who have gone the next step with their blog. One woman has sold her blog (don’t worry, I don’t plan on selling Finding My Inner Bombshell any time soon!), another has created her own conference and has worked with legislatures, and the last one has written a book!

We also learned even more about travel blogging (I really need to look more into that!) and finally there was an expo where we got to meet with some vendors who want to work with us bloggers! I think I’m going to have some great things to share with you all very soon about some of these vendors!

The last day of ENMNCon was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood and Highland (where I was for the Hard Rock 5K event last year). I didn’t get a ton of pictures because I was so busy with my note taking! There’s one speaker we had that I’m going to be sharing with you tomorrow (you don’t want to miss it because I’ve got something special for you all!), but everyone who spoke was awesome! My friends Leah and Helenna were there as part of one panel so I got a quick photo with them between sessions.

After all the sessions were done, there was a tour with Starline of filming locations. I ended up missing that part, but I heard from my fellow attendees that it was amazing!

But even though I missed the last activity of the conference, my afternoon wasn’t spent sitting around doing nothing. First, I hung out at Hard Rock Cafe with some new and not-so-new friends. We had drinks and dessert (and maybe over-ordered desserts) and discussed our blogs and things that we learned over the past few days.

I also got to hang out with my new blogging buddy Jana at the host hotel. We hung out at the pool and planned to have an epic adventure the next time she comes to LA!

Overall, I’d say that my first blogging conference experience was a huge success! I learned so much and made a ton of new friends! I don’t know how many conferences I could afford to attend (especially if they aren’t local) and right now my job isn’t the most flexible one. But hopefully I will be able to do more and more of these in the near future and continue on working on bringing you all the best Finding My Inner Bombshell that I can!

Thank you again so much to the Entertainment New Media Network (especially Erica and Margaret) for putting this all together! Thanks Ventura Ranch KOA, Dave & Busters Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe CityWalk, and Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood for hosting us! And thanks to all the sponsors who helped to make sure that we all had the most amazing time those days!

4 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged blogging, event, Hollywood, Los Angeles

Ventura Ranch KOA (or Maybe I Am The Camping Type)

Posted on September 15, 2015 | 7 comments

A little while ago, I won tickets to the ENMN Conference through my friend Mindy who blogs at Budget Fairy Tale. I was so excited for a couple of reasons. First, I feel like I never win anything! And second, this was going to be my first ever blogger conference!

Fortunately, this conference was going to be in LA, so I didn’t have to make any travel or hotel arrangements. I knew I’d be driving a bit around town, but I’m used to that. But to have my first blogger conference to be where I live made things much less stressful for me.

The first day of the conference was actually going to be off-site. We were going to take a bus about 90 minutes outside of LA to Ventura Ranch KOA. We were going to have some time to explore there, have some lunch, and have our first session. At first I was pretty nervous about this being the first event. It was going to be very hot out there (and I don’t do well in the heat) and I’m not really an outdoorsy person. But I wasn’t going to miss it so this past Thursday morning, I was at the meeting place at 7am to get on the bus!

I only knew a few people at the conference before it and the bus was pretty big, so I ended up sitting alone for the ride. I listened to what the conference founder, Erica, had to say and spent a lot of the ride checking out the view.

As soon as we got to KOA, I knew that this wasn’t going to be what I had expected.

Our first stop was the pool to learn a little about KOA and the Ventura Ranch KOA.

KOA is all over the US. There are some locations that are mainly for people who want to camp in a tent or in their RV and then there are some locations (like Ventura Ranch) that have much nicer and less rustic accommodation options if you are looking for those. This location in particular has the RV or tent options, but you can also stay in a teepee, a glamour tent, or a cabin (which has bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and my new favorite thing a/c). There are also a ton of activities that everyone in your family can take part in there. There’s the pool (they are working on adding a huge water slide right now!), a climbing wall, crafts, and a zip line. But the first activity that KOA wanted us to see was the jumping pillow.

The jumping pillow was so much fun! It’s like a giant trampoline that is filled with air and you can bounce really really high! Toward the center you are off the ground quite a bit so I had a bit of trouble staying standing. But then I discovered (like my friends in the picture) that the best thing is to sit down while everyone bounces around you!

After that fun (and it was like a workout too!), we toured one of the teepees they have at Ventura Ranch.

It was really nice inside and pretty spacious too! It’s hard to tell in the picture but there was more than enough room for 4 of us to be standing in there. The teepees are all on raised decks so you don’t have to sleep on the ground. While there aren’t bathrooms inside, the bathrooms are pretty close by.

After that quick tour, they asked to see which of us wanted to go zip lining. I have zip lined a few times in the past, but it’s been years (or decades) since I’ve done it. I decided that this was the perfect time to do it again!

There were two sets of zip lines we could do. The first (pictured above) was a less scary zip line because there wasn’t really a drop off at the end of the platform, just a slanted drop. I was one of the last ones to go down this, but it was amazing! I wish I could have done it again.

After the first zip line, there was a second one that went farther and had a real drop off at the end of the platform. It wasn’t really that scary on the zip line, but I turned around during the ride and ended up coming in for the landing backwards so I couldn’t see when I was going to stop! Even with that small amount of scariness, all of us who chose to go on the zip lines had so much fun!

While we were zip lining, others in the group were checking out the Glamour Tent option at KOA. I sadly didn’t get to see the inside of those, but from the picture on their website they look pretty amazing!

After zip lining, I was able to check out some of the cabins that are available at KOA. I think that these look amazing and I’d love to stay in one!

These cabins are seriously incredible! They are even nicer (and probably bigger) than my house! They are decorated really well and they made as many of the walls windows as they could. Why wouldn’t you if this was the view from the kitchen?

After touring the cabins, a couple of us went back down to the pool to cool down a bit (it was pretty hot out) before heading back to where the nice cabins are for some lunch and our first session.

We got to learn a lot about travel blogging and how to approach different PR people to help you with your posts. I don’t really do travel blogging so this was very informative to me. I took a lot of notes and hopefully I’ll have some great travel posts to share on here in the future.

After lunch, it was time to head back on the bus to try to beat the LA traffic back to the host hotel (where the bus got us). The ride back was pretty quiet since a lot of people took naps. We did a lot of activity in a little amount of time, so we were pretty exhausted.

I never thought that I’d have fun at a campground, but obviously I’ve been going to wrong types of campgrounds. I’m already thinking about going to KOA for a fun weekend sometime soon. We are lucky here in LA because our KOA is open year-round (some of the locations where it gets cold and snowy are only open seasonally). Maybe I can organize my friends for a weekend adventure. I know that they would all love the zip line and pool and it would be fun to camp (in a cabin) and have s’mores by the fire.

Thank you so much Ventura Ranch KOA for hosting us for the day! You’ve converted this non-camper into someone who is dreaming of going camping soon!

7 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged adventure, blogging, Los Angeles, outdoors

Steps Forward And Back (or Working On Frustration)

Posted on September 14, 2015 | Comments Off

My week of workouts were both good and frustrating. I’ve had this injury for too long (in my opinion) and whenever I feel like I take a step forward I end up taking a step back too.

The next Dri-Tri is this coming Sunday. I really thought I’d be better by then so I can do it, but I’m having some serious hesitations too.

My weight work is doing pretty well. I’m noticing that my balance is getting better and my core got significantly stronger recently. I’m wondering if compensating for my injured calf helped to strengthen my core. Whatever it was, I was finding my weight work to feel easier and more natural this week. This been a while since I’ve had a step forward like that and I’m pretty happy about it. My weakest part are still my arms/shoulders, but I think I can work on those.

My rowing also had some strides forward this week. I’m getting my wattage closer to what it was pre-injury and I’m doing well in my sprints. The longer distances are still my struggle. And that concerns me as far as the Dri-Tri goes. That has a 2,000 meter row. The longest distance I’ve done post-injury has been 1,000 meters (I’ve done 1,600 meters pre-injury). And with that 1,000 meter row I did have to take a bunch of breaks. I’m sure I could do 2,000 meters, just not sure how many breaks or how long it would take me.

But as it’s been lately, my biggest concern is the treadmill. I’m getting closer and closer to my pre-injury speed, but I’m not even close to where I was on incline. I’ve done a few quickie segments at 3.5 miles an hour, but I’m pretty much sticking to 3.3 or 3.4 for now. I’m feeling the muscle in my calf straining so I know I can’t do much more. And for inclines I’m doing pushes at 6% and all outs at 8% or the occasional 10%. I’m not sure if I’d have to do inclines for the Dri-Tri, but if I do those might disqualify me.

I’ve got a few more days to figure out if I’m going to do the event or not. I’m going to ask the staff/trainers about my concerns and try to make the best unemotional choice for me. As much as I really want to do it, I’m worried that pushing myself that hard is going to either make my recovery take longer or possibly even tear the muscle again.

I find it so odd that this injury is frustrating me as much as it is. My hip issues have been an ongoing problem for about 10 years now. And even though I know I need surgeries to correct them still, I put up with it and know that it is what it is. Now I have an issue that is going to be better without medical intervention and in the somewhat near future and I’m beyond impatient and annoyed with my progress. You’d think that I’d be more annoyed with an almost permanent issue than a temporary one.

I’m working really hard at being patient and knowing that this will be a memory and not an issue soon. And there will be more Dri-Tris next year, so this won’t be my last opportunity to do one. I just really had my heart set on doing the one last month (which I skipped due to the injury) and the one this month. I figured I’d be better by now, but I guess I was wrong.

But if things turn for the better, you’ll see a post from me next week recapping the Dri-Tri!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged fitness, injury, Orangetheory, pain, workout

Skipping Over An Anniversary (or Forgetting But Not Forgetting)

Posted on September 11, 2015 | Comments Off

This past Monday was my grandparents’ anniversary. Last year, I was lucky enough to spend their anniversary with them in San Diego. It was a pretty fun trip and I had a great time celebrating with them and seeing some of my other family. And after that I got to see my grandparents a few other times prior to my grandpa passing away.

Obviously, you never know when someone is going to pass away. We had no clue that my grandparents’ anniversary last year would have been the last one that they would celebrate together. And even if we did, I don’t know if we would have done anything different with our celebration.

I’ve mentioned that days that used to be celebrations for someone who has passed away have been weird for me. Some dates are harder than others. Usually dates where I remember that I don’t need to buy a card are the worst. But this is the first time that there has been an anniversary that I usually celebrate where one person has passed away. It’s one thing to not celebrate a birthday or even Father’s Day for someone who has passed away. But an anniversary where one person in the couple is still alive does seem weird to not celebrate.

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to call my grandma for her anniversary or anything so I checked with my mom and my aunt. Both of them said that we weren’t going to celebrate it because it may have upset my grandma. We weren’t trying to forget that it was their anniversary, but we didn’t want to bring it up and make my grandma sad that my grandpa isn’t alive anymore. I think they might have also thought it is a weird thing to try to celebrate when half of the people you are celebrating are dead.

Even though I was nervous about how to celebrate my grandparents’ anniversary, it did feel weird not celebrating it. I did acknowledge it on social media by posting the photo that I took at their last anniversary.

With this anniversary gone, I wonder if it will be weird again next year on their anniversary. Or how it’s going to feel at Thanksgiving when I think it will hit us all pretty hard that my grandpa isn’t there. There was a Thanksgiving years ago where my grandpa got sick and ended up in the hospital on Thanksgiving (we brought pie to the hospital after dinner). That dinner was weird enough and we all knew that he was fine and being released from the hospital the next day. What’s it going to be like when we know that he isn’t just somewhere else and we’ll see him the next day?

I guess this is all part of the grief process. I’ve had a weird time with grieving his death. Obviously I’m sad that my grandpa is gone. He’s the only grandpa I knew. But he and I have a very complicated relationship. While I’m sad I also have other conflicting feelings. But the sadness is greater because I also have the sadness I feel for other members of my family and how they are grieving.

Dealing with all these complicated feelings can be tough. I know that grief can be a long process and having these significant dates can bring up lots of feelings or make you feel like you took a step back in dealing with death. I’m just trying to focus on the positives and think about how much fun it will be at Thanksgiving this year with all of my family, even if we will be missing one family member.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Tough Stuff

Tagged anniversary, death, grandparents

Out Of The Heat (or Finally Getting A/C!)

Posted on September 10, 2015 | 7 comments

I’ve been complaining about the heat in my house since my very first summer here. Because my house is so old, the insulation is pretty bad. So when it gets hot in LA, the heat gets trapped inside even if it cools down outside in the evening. There have been plenty of nights where it’s over 90 degrees inside my bedroom when I was going to bed.

I have never really lived in a place with a/c (my last apartment had it but it was facing a wall in the kitchen so it was useless). And I wanted to get some sort of a/c for my house. But there were issues from the beginning. Until recently, my house had fuses and there wasn’t enough power to run an a/c. Then when I got circuits, I was told that I would have to still watch how much power I used because there is still very little power in my place.

Next was the issue of trying to find a portable a/c unit that wasn’t a swamp cooler (because it does get too humid in LA to use one) and didn’t use a ton of power. Once I found that, then it was the issue of finding one that wasn’t insanely expensive. I never found anything that seemed right to me so I never got a portable a/c unit.

I was talking to my landlord last month and we were making small talk about the heat. I mentioned the lack of a/c and he said that because of my house set up I was pretty limited in my options. I said how I really wanted to put a window unit in my dining room, and he said that it couldn’t block the communal driveway (my dining room looks onto the driveway and there is about a foot of room between my wall and the driveway path). With that new restriction, I started to do some research again.

I actually found a low profile window a/c that doesn’t stick out that far and is energy-efficient so it doesn’t go over the power limit I have in my house! And since I hadn’t asked for anything for my birthday from my parents, they agreed to buy it for me!

Once I knew it was on its way, I had to figure out how I’d install it. Fortunately, the directions were available online so my dad and I both researched them. And when I was at brunch with my friend Jane a week ago, I mentioned the new a/c unit and she said that she had installed one before! So she agreed to help me out when it was here!

This past Sunday was installation day. Prior to that, I had made a trip to Home Depot because my dad discovered some fine print in the directions that would require me to drill a piece of wood onto my window sill. And my dad and I had multiple FaceTime calls so he could look at what I was doing.

It was actually pretty funny when we were on FaceTime trying to figure this all out.

On Sunday, there were dozens of phone calls/FaceTime calls to my dad while Jane and I were working and then we also had to make another Home Depot run. But after a couple of attempts (and thanks to my power drill and saw that my dad got me years ago), we were able to install it!

I’m sure this sounds silly, but even in the couple of days that I’ve had it this a/c unit has made a huge difference in my life! I got it installed just in time for another heat wave in LA and I’m finally getting to work in my house in reasonable temperatures.

I’m still super nervous about how much more expensive my power bill will be, but there was a little guide on the a/c unit that said if you ran the until 8 hours a day for 3 months it would only cost an extra $48 a year. Hopefully that’s true.

I’m so glad that my parents were generous enough to get me this a/c unit. I’m so happy that I was able to install it and that Jane was willing to help me (and we did this in the heat since the a/c wasn’t in yet!). And I’m so excited that I will not feel as sick inside my house during a heat wave and feel trapped since I have to work in my house.

Hopefully when I eventually move one day this a/c unit is as easy to uninstall as it was to install. This thing is totally coming with me wherever I go!

7 Comments

Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged birthday, heat, home, Los Angeles, parents, presents

Being Socially Anti-Social (or An Observer At Game Night)

Posted on September 9, 2015 | Comments Off

This past Saturday, my friends Marie and Chris had one of their epic parties. I was totally looking forward to this party because I had nothing scheduled for Sunday morning so I could finally stay at the party as late as I wanted to! I still had to work on Saturday morning prior to the party, but work was going to be done several hours before the party.

Saturday got here and the day got off to a rough start. I had a pretty bad night sleep the night before and I had some difficult situations with customers at work during my shift. I tried to take a nap after work, but that wasn’t working.

I also ended up getting asked to dog-sit on Saturday night, so I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay at the party super late because I had to get to the dog. But I decided to make an effort to go to the party for as long as I could.

It was another game day party and when I got there there were several games in full swing. Everyone was having the best time and were super into the games that they were playing. I was still feeling off so I just watched from the side. I got asked to join in some games, but I decided to just stick to watching.

Eventually, I ended up hanging out with one of my friends inside and catching up. I talked about how I was feeling off and we had a really nice talk which made me feel much better. By then, some of the other party people were coming inside to play games inside or to sing some karaoke (which is set up in Chris and Marie’s garage). It was getting late by then and I didn’t want to start a game when I knew I’d have to leave to get to the dog-sitting job so I just watched again.

I ended up doing a Periscope broadcast from one of the games and that was pretty entertaining for me.

By about 10pm, I realized that I needed to get to my dog-sitting (the dog has access to the outside so I wasn’t too worried about how late I’d be, but I didn’t want it to be super late when I arrived). As always, it took me forever to say goodbye to everyone and I got sucked into a bunch of conversations.

Even though I wasn’t feeling it at the party, I’m so glad I went. Seeing my friends did help bring me out of my funk a little bit. And I still had fun watching games even if I wasn’t playing. Seeing my friends have fun is something I like to watch.

I need to remember to be social even if I don’t feel like it and want to watch movies at home. It really did improve my mood, even if I still was feeling a little off the entire time. Hopefully by the time the next party comes around (which I think will be Halloween), I’ll be in more of a party mood.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged friends, party

People Don’t Get It (or My Comment On The Dear Fat People Video)

Posted on September 8, 2015 | 3 comments

Some of you may have seen a video online called “Dear Fat People”. I’m not going to link to it because I don’t want to necessarily promote it (if you want to watch it, it’s pretty easy to find). I actually had not seen the video until yesterday and I had some pretty strong feelings about it.

First of all, I guess the fat people video is supposed to be funny. The woman in it is a comedian who thought that it would be seen as a joke (or at least that’s what I’ve read in interviews). In the video, she claims that fat shaming isn’t a thing. People who are fat should be shamed so they can change themselves. She thinks that fat people are fat because they don’t know that it’s wrong and don’t know how to fix it. She tells a story about a family who are all overweight (she says that they smell like sausages and sweat out Crisco) and are on a plane with her. According to her, she has to hold back the son’s fat while he is sitting next to her so it doesn’t cover her. She goes on and on about more stories about how fat people don’t realize that they need to change because they are all dying off from fat diseases. She does say that this video isn’t about anyone who may have a medical condition who makes them fat.

I have so many issues with this video that I don’t even know where to start.

First of all, her disclaimer that this video isn’t about anyone with a medical condition is stupid. How does she know that the people she discusses in her video don’t have a medical condition? While I don’t have a medical condition that causes my weight issues (beyond my eating disorder) I do have an invisible disability with my hip issues. I get a pass when I go to Disneyland that lets me sit off to the side when I wait for rides. I still wait just as long as anyone in line, but I don’t have to stand in line while waiting. When it’s my turn, I get to go onto the ride. Many guests think this is a front of the line/instant access pass. It did used to be that way, but too many people were faking injuries to get it. Back then, the disability line for many rides were longer than the regular line (I once waited 3 hours for Space Mountain when the regular line was 1 because I need to use the accessible coaster car so I can get into the ride safely). Now that it’s not considered as desirable to people who fake their injuries, the wait times are similar or maybe a little longer than the regular line. With this pass, I’ve had some people shame me for using it. I’ve had people tell me that if I wasn’t so fat that I wouldn’t have to cheat the system. I’ve been called names. I’ve been pointed out and laughed at. In the beginning, I used to carry around the pictures from my surgery to call out people, but now I just don’t care. But it does make me mad when someone assumes that someone doesn’t have a disability because they can’t see it.

I also find the story of the airplane completely unbelievable. If someone doesn’t fit into one seat and will be encroaching onto another seat, the airlines are pretty quick to force that person to buy a second seat so they have enough room. The guideline is that the armrest needs to go completely down without any spillage for the airline to agree that you take up one seat (yes, I’ve been called out on this and it was stupid because there was more than enough room for the armrests to go down). If this woman really had to hold back the fat of someone to enjoy their flight, I’m sure that the other passenger would have been asked to buy a second seat. I’m sure that either this story is made up or exaggerated for theatrical purposes.

Finally, the person in the video believes that people who are fat don’t know what to do to fix it. While this might be true for some overweight people, the majority of the people I know with weight issues know more about health, nutrition, diet, and exercise than almost anyone else. This is because most of us have tried every diet under the sun to lose the weight and get healthy. I can tell you the calorie counts of so many different foods. If you tell me your weight, I can guess how many calories you will burn if you walk or run a mile with pretty decent accuracy. I know what drinks have added sugars, fake sugars, or have a base other than water. I probably could teach a class on nutrition by this point. And I think that most of you who are regular readers would agree that I am working pretty darn hard on my fitness and know what I need to do. If I didn’t have my eating disorder, I’d probably be a size 2 now.

To anyone who watched that video and was embarrassed about your weight issues, there’s no need to be. Everyone has their struggles in life. Those of us with weight issues just have our issues on the outside where everyone can see them. If you are happy at the size that you are and your doctors say that you are healthy, then stay exactly how you are. If you want to lose weight, do it. There are plenty of great and healthy ways to lose weight and become the best that you can be.

And if you watched that video and felt like that people who are overweight should be shamed, you should know that shaming someone isn’t probably going to motivate them. For people with eating disorders, it will probably make the problem worse. If there is someone you love who is an unhealthy weight and you are worried about them, try to let them bring the issue to you. It’s embarrassing to discuss these things at times and if someone else brings it up they might not want to talk about it and then keep it buried inside even longer.

I’m aware that this is a rant about a silly video online. But if I had seen that video online maybe 5 years ago, I would have had a very different reaction to it. I see it as silly now, but then I would have been devastated and would have wanted to avoid the public in fear of random people trying to shame or taunt me because of my weight.

But now I know that no matter how skinny or fat I might be, I’m still the same fabulous person. People love me for who I am and not what I look like. And anyone who thinks differently isn’t someone who I need in my life.

3 Comments

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

Tagged beauty, binge eating, eating disorder, fitness, health issues, hip issues, love, weight gain, weight loss

Almost Back To Normal (or Making Progress)

Posted on September 7, 2015 | Comments Off

I’m feeling really great about my last week of workouts! I’m still at only 3 workouts a week (and I laugh that I use the word “only” in that sentence), but those 3 workouts were really awesome!

I had some workouts where I spent 22 minutes straight on the treadmill and some workouts where the treadmill segments were until 5 minutes. And each of those types of treadmill workouts had their own advantages and made me feel really great about my treadmill progress.

For those 22 minutes straight on the treadmill, I’m still keeping myself at a lower speed than before. I’m starting at 3.3 miles an hour, but I did test out going 3.4 for brief moments. Sadly, I couldn’t stay that long at 3.4 miles an hour for more than a minute toward the end of the treadmill workout. But that’s still progress and I’m getting closer and closer to my speed pre-injury.

But for the quick treadmill segments, I had a milestone (at least to me). One block involved going 1/4 mile on the treadmill and then moving on to strength work (it was like a run/row day but instead of rowing we did floor work between treadmill segments). I decided that since I knew that I would spend less than 5 minutes doing that 1/4 mile, I would see if I could start at 3.4 miles an hour. It didn’t feel that bad so I was able to bump it up to 3.5 miles an hour! I was hurting a bit at the end of that workout, but it wasn’t bad pain so I’m ok with that.

Beyond the improvement with the treadmill, I’m feeling like other parts of my workout are benefitting from my healing.

The most obviously one is the rowing machine. Right after the injury, I really couldn’t row because my leg wouldn’t bend enough (part of that was due to pain and part of that was due to the compression bandage I was using). But that’s not an issue anymore so I can go all out on my rowing like I did before. I’m still a little lower in wattage than before, but that’s all about building the strength back up and not because of my injury. I didn’t realize how much strength I’d lose taking it easy in my workouts, but it was pretty significant. I guess my fear of not doing enough workouts is valid. It’s easy to slip backwards.

The weights part of the workout didn’t really suffer from my injury, but I know I took it a bit easy while recovering. Again, I’m working on building things back up. My struggle there is my stubbornness. I like to use the same weight for as much of the workout as I can. But I know that some parts of me are much stronger than others and there’s nothing wrong with switching weights for each part of the strength workout. But I like to move easily from exercise to exercise so keeping the same weight makes that easy. But I need to slow down, take my time, and make sure I’m using the proper weight for each movement.

And finally, there is one part of my workout that I’m still struggling with quite a bit: the TRX Straps. Some of the moves I’m totally fine with. Pretty much anything where I’m facing the straps is fine. But things where I’m facing away (like chest presses or triceps moves) involve being on your toes to do the moves. When I’m on my toes, my calf muscle is screaming in pain! I’m finding that if I stand in a wide stance it helps, but it’s still the worst part of my workout for now.

While I’m going to be in injury recovery for another few weeks (at least I hope it’s only for a few more weeks), but I’m working on getting out of the post-injury mindset and moving on to the usual just kick ass in my workouts mindset!

Comments Off on Almost Back To Normal (or Making Progress)

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged injury, Orangetheory, progress, workout

Busy Busy Busy (or Triple Job Day)

Posted on September 4, 2015 | 1 comment

Most of the time, I have a pretty low-key situation with my job (or jobs). With my two main jobs, I can pretty much work them at the same time. I do my data entry between my customers at the box office job. It’s not always easy to juggle it, but I make it work.

Then of course there are the days that my box office job is insanely busy and I have no time for the data entry job. I then either have to not work the data entry job that day (not a big deal since I can only work that job 12 hours a week) or I have to work after my box office job is done for the day. It’s not a horrible situation and I still consider myself so lucky that I’ve found these two jobs (and the combined money between the two of them is almost enough to pay my bills!).

I’m trying not to get overwhelmed on the days that it’s super busy, but lately I’ve struggled with that. The combination of a lot of customers, lots of either repetitive questions or questions I can’t help with, and the heat have made me cranky and I don’t want my customers to know about that. I keep videos of puppies playing up on YouTube in the background to watch when I need to calm down.

The other day, I was asked by my old boss to help him at his job. I’ve done phone calls for him as well as some day-of box office work. But this time he needed me to help him stuff envelopes.

I wasn’t really looking forward to it. I knew I’d be working my 2 jobs earlier in the day and it was hot (and that office has no a/c), but I needed the extra money. So after working a double day, I drove over to Venice to work my 3rd job of the day.

At first, it was a bit annoying doing the work. It’s busy work and very repetitive. But then I decided to get my phone and headphones out and listen to some podcasts while I worked. Between the podcast entertainment and the repetitive action of stuffing envelopes I started to relax and calm down. I had to pay attention to what I was doing because each envelope had a different paper that needed to go inside, but it was still a job that I was able to just focus on what I had to do and let the rest of my mind drift.

After working those 3 hours, I felt so much calmer than I did before. It’s not something that I’d want to do every day, but stuffing those envelopes that day was really the perfect thing for me to do. It’s nice that while I wasn’t looking forward to the job before I got there, it was exactly what I needed in my day (plus, the extra money doesn’t hurt!).

I’ve been trying to find ways to separate my mind from work when the work day is done. I thought that I had it worked out well, but I’ve now realized that it’s not totally what I need. When I go to work out, that’s a perfect separation of when it’s work time and when it’s fun time. And on the other days I try to do some sort of errand (even if it’s just going to the store or post office) as soon as my box office shift is done to help my mind realize that work is over (if I stay at my computer I wouldn’t feel like it’s done). I’ve realized now that just going to the store after work might not be enough to create separation for me. I need to work on figuring out what would work best for me. Workouts work well, but I’m not sure if I can work out every day.

If any of you work from home, I’d really appreciate your suggestions on how to separate work life from regular life!

1 Comment

Posted in Work

Tagged job, work

Rehearsal Pro (or Help Build An Amazing App!)

Posted on September 3, 2015 | Comments Off

I’ve talked about some apps on other blogs that I have found essential as an actor. So many apps that I love are freebies because I’m very cautious on how I spend my money. In general, I rarely pay for apps because many times there are free versions of anything I want. But there’s one app that may be the most expensive one on my phone, has no freebie version, and is also the most important one for me: Rehearsal 2.

Rehearsal 2 is seriously the best app for actors ever! You can import your scripts into it and you can highlight lines, make notes, black out your lines to rehearse with yourself, and even record the other lines so you can rehearsal against your own voice! I love recording the lines around my lines in a normal voice and then my own lines in a whisper. Then I play it through my car speakers while I’m on the way to my auditions. I get to rehearse against myself while driving in traffic and if I forget my line I can listen to my whisper to hear what it’s supposed to be. It helps calm me down and lets me prepare without worrying about taking my eyes off of the road.

I downloaded this app the day I got my iPhone (it’s iPhone only). I’ve used it for every single audition and many actors I know use it for auditions and booked work. We all still print out sides for auditions (I never bring my iPad with me to auditions), but this does help save paper for booked work scripts.

I’ve loved this app since day one, and the creator of the app is very happy to help you with any questions you might have (he also ran with me in the recent SAG-AFTRA election). When I did run into the creator, David, at the ballot counting for the election, he let me in on a not-so-secret secret. He was getting ready to announce the newest version of the app: Rehearsal Pro!

Rehearsal Pro is going to be incredible! There are going to be some great new features. The one that I’m most excited about is being able to sync your scripts between devices (this was an issue with the studios in the past due to privacy concerns). But there will also be some other fun things too (I’m not sure how much I can share because David told me some of these features but I don’t think they have been officially announced).

Of course, as soon as I found out that Rehearsal Pro was happening, I asked David how I could get the new version and how much it would cost me. He told me that there is an Indiegogo campaign to help raise the funds to build the new app and would allow me (and everyone else who has Rehearsal 2) to get Rehearsal Pro at a discount!

~~At the time that I’m typing this, there are 3 more perks to allow current Rehearsal 2 customers to get Rehearsal Pro for $5~~! (quick edit, that perk level sold out, but there are plenty of upgrade perks available at the $10 level!) After that is filled, you can still get Rehearsal Pro at the discounted price of $10 (it’s going to be $20 normally). I highly encourage all actors to donate to this campaign. Not only do I want to see Rehearsal Pro built, but this is an app that I cannot recommend enough to you all! And if you aren’t a current Rehearsal 2 customer, you can still donate $20 to get Rehearsal Pro when it’s released.

If you aren’t an actor and you want to help actors, you can donate without getting Rehearsal Pro as a perk (there are a couple of levels that allow for that). I hope you all know that I rarely share things on here that cost people money. This is something that I’m not getting paid to do. I just honestly feel that strongly about this app and want to see my fellow actors have a great tool to use to make sure they all have the best auditions they can have.

If you have any questions about this app, feel free to ask me. If I don’t know the answer, I’m happy to pass it on to David to get you the answer! I just want all my fellow actors to be able to enjoy this app the way that I have for years!

Comments Off on Rehearsal Pro (or Help Build An Amazing App!)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged acting, audition, technology

Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Rest Of ENMNCon (or Learning How To Improve My Blog)

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Ventura Ranch KOA (or Maybe I Am The Camping Type)

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Steps Forward And Back (or Working On Frustration)

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Skipping Over An Anniversary (or Forgetting But Not Forgetting)

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Out Of The Heat (or Finally Getting A/C!)

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Being Socially Anti-Social (or An Observer At Game Night)

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People Don’t Get It (or My Comment On The Dear Fat People Video)

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Almost Back To Normal (or Making Progress)

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Busy Busy Busy (or Triple Job Day)

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Rehearsal Pro (or Help Build An Amazing App!)

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