Posted onJune 29, 2018|Comments Off on Finding Ways To Treat Myself (or I Wish Money Wasn’t An Issue)
This post is similar to what I’ll be writing when I do my recap of how my monthly challenge went, but it’s a bit different. I’ve been working on reconnecting to myself and doing things that make me happy. And as I’ve been working on that, I’ve discovered one area where I’ve been not really able to work on things. And that is doing things that feel special to me or treating myself.
It may seem like I treat myself a lot because I do fun things. But most of those things are something I’ve saved up for to do (like my Pantages tickets or my Disneyland pass) or things that I get to do for free or at a discount because either I review them on here (and I will always disclose when I get a discount or free item for a review) or because I have a connection with someone who can help me out (like when I got to go to the friends and family day at Face Haus). But beyond the things that have been planned for a while or that I have a connection to, I really don’t seem to go outside of the set things I spend money on.
Of course, a lot of this has to do with lack of funding. If I had unlimited money (or significantly more money), I would not hesitate to spend on things I wanted to do. I’ve been wanting to get my house professionally cleaned recently. I don’t need a weekly or even monthly cleaning person, but I’d love to do a deep clean from someone who knows what they are doing once or twice a year. This doesn’t have to be expensive, but it’s not in my budget right now. I’d also love to either buy fresh flowers or have a delivery of fresh flowers on a regular basis. I have some friends who do this and it always seems so nice to have flowers in your home. Plus, flowers always seem to put a smile on your face, even when you ordered them for yourself. And then there are all the fun monthly/quarterly subscription boxes that so many people do and love. I have a list of ones I’d want to try if I could afford it.
All of those things are more of luxury splurges because I could be fine without any of them. But then there are the more basic splurges that I’ve been not doing either. I don’t get pedicures regularly, but I try to do it a few times a year (I have issues with my toenails sometimes and a pedicure is cheaper than an appointment with a podiatrist). I’ve been saying for almost 3 months that I was going to set aside time to go get a pedicure but I haven’t done it yet. Money is a small part of why I’ve been putting it off, but I also just don’t feel at times that I deserve it or should do it. It’s the same with buying clothes. I would love to buy the rare nicer piece of clothing that doesn’t feel as much as throwaway clothing. I’ve got some things picked out that I’d like to get and I haven’t purchased them. This one is a bit about money but also a bit about wanting to wait until I’m a different size to buy stuff. Either way, I’m delaying doing something that I’d like to do.
Obviously I can’t just go out and buy all the things I want and do all the things on my list. I do need to budget and find where the money is in my budget to spend. And some of these things may need to be something I save a few dollars a month for and then later this year I can do it. But I’m also looking at adding another job to what I’m doing. I’ve got one job that should be very part-time and won’t pay a ton of money, but I think it will cover at least my cable and power bills each month. It should be starting in the next month or two and I’m excited about it. And I’m meeting with someone soon who knows me through the podcast I work for and wanted to see if there is something that they can hire me to do. They don’t have a specific job for me to apply for, but they wanted to see if we could work together.
If I have these new jobs, they will probably fit into my schedule with my current ones. And I plan on doing them all if possible. I could use all the additional income toward my debt and then once that is eventually paid off I could reevaluate things. The priority is to pay off my debt as soon as possible, but I also know I need to allow some flexibility to have some fun money. But until I have that extra income, I think my list for how I want to spend the fun money is going to have to just stay a list for now.
Posted onJune 28, 2018|Comments Off on Listening About The Union (or Showing Up No Matter What)
I am almost always looking forward to any opportunity I have for any union related things. If there is a mixer, educational session, or event and I can be there I go. There have been the rare times that either something conflicted with something and I had to pick which I would go with or I was sick and couldn’t go, but those are not the norm at all. And when I knew we had a Union Working meeting this week, I was excited to get to go.
Not only was I excited to go, I knew I needed to go. I have been running the Facebook Live video of the meetings for a while now and while it is an easy job I do take that responsibility seriously. I have friends who depend on those videos because either they work during the times we have the meetings or they currently aren’t in LA. I’m glad that I’m able to help out and I know that even though I think it’s easy that it is a big deal to some of the leaders of the group (it takes the responsibility off of them so they can focus on more important things). So I know the meetings are something I need to go to besides just want to go to.
But before the meeting this week, I was struggling. I was dealing with lots of pain and nausea that I expected would have been over by then. I also was exhausted from a lack of sleep. I’ve been trying to sleep more, but there have been things that kept me up later than I expected (like going out with friends) and because I’m getting good at getting up at the same time every day I’m not sleeping in. So even if I go to bed 2 or 3 hours later than I wanted to, I’m still getting up at the same time and I’m losing that sleep. I usually don’t feel bad if it happens once in a while, but this was several days back to back and it really caught up with me. But I knew I needed to be at the meeting.
Well, when I got to the meeting I found out I actually didn’t have to run the Facebook Live. We can only live-stream certain parts of the meeting because some parts are a bit more confidential (like when we are discussing what we want to bring up in contract negotiations) and this entire meeting was going to be more confidential information. So nothing could be shared publicly and I didn’t have to run the video. I did share to a friend that I might not have come to the meeting if I didn’t think I needed to because of how I was feeling, but I was glad I went because it still was very educational.
The entire meeting was a panel with 4 major agents and how they feel about different things we as actors are concerned about. I can’t go into too many details but most of the things we were asking about were common negotiation issues (pay, union vs. non-union projects, opportunities for all actors). Some of the things discussed were issues that I don’t have personal experience with or have a strong opinion on, but I knew they were important to my fellow actors so I wanted to learn about them. And if I book a really great job those issues could start affecting me so I don’t want to have to play catch up if that does happen.
Recently at the meetings I’ve had to split my focus between whoever is speaking and running the video. I do have technical issues from time to time because cell service isn’t that great where we have the meetings and when the video goes down I need to work on getting it back up. I do still try to listen while I’m fixing it, but I know I’m not paying as much attention as I could. So it was nice to have a meeting where my focus was on the speakers completely and there was nothing else that really was grabbing my focus (although my pain and nausea did from time to time).
As our contract negotiations get closer, there may be more meetings that I cannot do a live video for. So if you are an actor who wants to stay informed I do recommend coming to the meetings. Even when we do stream the meetings there are always things we cannot put in videos so you don’t get the entire meeting online. But I will always go to the meetings prepared to run a live-stream in case we can post things online because I really do believe that an educated union is a strong union.
Posted onJune 27, 2018|Comments Off on A Backstage Adventure (or Back to Back Pantages Nights)
We were just at the Pantages, but we had another night out there the night after seeing “Cinderella“. But this time, we weren’t there to see a show. Because we have season tickets, we were invited to an open house and backstage tour of the theater! I was so excited to get to do this for a couple of reasons. I am a huge theater nerd and wanted to see what all the backstage stuff was like. Plus, I love to learn how things work and all the technical weirdness. So this was something I was thrilled to get to check out!
When we were at Wood & Vine the night before for dinner, the manager told us that they were one of the restaurants that would be featured and have free food. And he told us about a few of the other restaurants that would be there. We figured out that we wouldn’t be there right when the open house started, but he said that would be fine and that there would be lots of food and fun no matter what time we got there.
He also promised to take a photo of the theater empty since that wouldn’t be possible for us to take when the open house started. And he was right that the empty theater is an incredible sight to see.
We arrived about 30 minutes after it started and the lobby and many parts of the theater were almost empty. But when we got to the stage where all the food was, it was packed! They had a much larger crowd than normal at the open house so many of the restaurants were running low on what they were serving. But we did get to have the Nutella Bombshell from Wood & Vine again along with a few other nibbles. While we were looking forward to the food, the main reason we were there was to check out all the stuff we normally can’t see.
The tour of backstage was more of an exploration. So many different areas were open for us to check out and take photos. We first went to the star dressing rooms which were on the stage level. In the biggest dressing room there was a poster with signatures of so many actors who had used that room while doing a show at the theater.
And of course, with the dressing rooms having giant mirrors we had to take some silly photos in them.
Then we went below the stage to see the ensemble dressing rooms. The star dressing rooms are nice because they are big, but to me I think the ensemble ones feel a bit more exciting because I think about all the performers sitting next to each other getting ready for their show.
In all the dressing rooms, people had signed their name in different areas. I didn’t get photos of them, but the smaller mirrors with wooden frames had signatures all over them as well as under the tables. It was fun to see the casts from shows we saw recently who autographed various pieces of furniture.
I was hoping we’d be able to check out the orchestra pit area, but that was closed to the public (only a few spaces were closed off to us, but that was one of them). But next to the orchestra pit was where the lift area was created for when “The Lion King” was performing there. I don’t know if they use the lift area for more than storage now, but I feel like there have been some trap door stuff in shows I’ve seen so they must still use it.
We continued to wander around the various rooms below the stage. Since “Cinderella” closed the night before and the next show wasn’t going to be in the theater for a few days, most things were pretty empty. It would have been cool to see some of how they organize the props, costumes, and set pieces; but I understand why it would be difficult to do an open house when there is a production using the space. Maybe one day in the future I’ll have a friend in a show there so I can explore some more backstage while I show is running.
When we got back up to the stage level, we checked out the restaurants that were still there and got a bit more food. We also took a look at some of the random things on the sides of the stage like a collection of rubber ducks that were just off stage and the photos on the walls of various production crews from the shows that recently toured there.
Things were starting to clear out a bit when we were getting ready to leave, but it was nice to see things with not as many people crowding the stage. I took time just to look out at the audience and take it in. I don’t perform in front of an audience that often so it was nice to feel that sort of feeling I had when I used to do plays again. And of course I took a look at where our seats were located to see what it looks like looking at our seats from the stage (compared to the stage from our seats).
I don’t know what I was expecting when we found out about the open house, but it did exceed my expectations in a bunch of ways. I just loved getting to see a different part of the theater than what I usually get to see as an audience member. And I think all of us just enjoyed having another night out too. We’ll be back at the theater in a few weeks for our next show, but I think it will feel different watching now that we know what the view is like for the actors on the stage.
It was already time for another musical this past weekend! It’s been so fun having our shows back to back and I’m happy that it’s going to be that way for a little while. And with all of our shows, we try to have a fun dinner as well. We realized recently that it had been almost a year since the last time we were at Wood & Vine so we had to make a plan to go back there! Because we have gotten to know the manager from the times we had been there before, I sent him an email once we made our reservation to give him a heads up that we’d be there.
And the manager really hooked us up while we were there! First, we sat upstairs and got to sit at his favorite table. We had a great view of the theater and it allowed for some fun people watching.
The menu had changed since last year so we took some time figuring out what we wanted to eat. The bone marrow we love wasn’t on the menu this time (but they did mention it might be coming back in the future), but there were still lots of options that sounded good to us.
Everything on the menu is designed to be shared. In the past we’ve gotten a few things that we all wanted and then one or two things that only some of the group wanted. But this time, we seemed to agree on everything we wanted. We got the cheese plate, the scallops, the salmon, the lobster mac and cheese, and the asparagus and tomatoes. But when the manager saw what we got and noticed we didn’t have the tortellini, he sent some to us because he said we needed to try it (he was right). And he also spoiled us by sending us all the desserts from the menu! It was so much food, but nothing was too rich or heavy so we didn’t feel overstuffed.
All the food came out pretty quickly so we were able to enjoy our time and relax while we were eating. We didn’t feel rushed (which has been an issue in the past with other restaurants) and we felt like dinner was a nice starter to a fun evening out. It feels like such a splurge to eat there even though it really isn’t. But it feels so much nicer and the food is so delicious that it does seem like a treat.
We ended up staying there until about 5 minutes before the show started (the benefit of eating right across the street from the theater) and got inside with time to spare. This time, the show we were seeing was “Cinderella”, which was one of the shows I saw when I went to NYC a few years ago. I enjoyed the show when I saw it then and I was excited to see how the tour compared to the Broadway production.
I was impressed with the tour production. It was almost exactly the same as the Broadway show with the sets and costumes. I know that it’s not always possible to do that when it’s a tour since they have to be able to pack it up and move it from city to city, but they were able to keep it all the same as I remembered it. I’m sure there were some differences, but nothing noticeable or that I could tell.
Dani and Michelle hadn’t seen this musical before so they were excited to check it out. And they both enjoyed it. It was a nice show to see when life has been a bit stressful. We could watch and escape and there was nothing too heavy and dramatic. And of course since we are all Disney nerds this was nice. I know the musical isn’t the same as the Disney cartoon, but it’s close enough.
I’ve had more and more opportunities lately to see musicals for the second (or third) time and that’s still a treat to me. I love being able to compare productions and see the little changes that are made. The shows are still pretty much the same but I do like to notice the little differences or things that make each production special. While this show was so similar to the Broadway show, it still felt special and different in a way. The performers were all awesome and the way the audience reacts is always different too. I seriously just enjoy being in an audience with a group experiencing any show. And that was exactly what I did.
While our next musical is in a few weeks, we’ve actually already been back to the Pantages already! But that will be shared on here tomorrow!
Posted onJune 25, 2018|Comments Off on Just Surviving The Workouts (or Hoping Next Week Will Be Better)
I knew going into this week of workouts that I was going to have days of nausea. I was very lucky it didn’t affect me too much the week prior, but since coming off the pill and having regular periods again I have not had a period without nausea. I always hope for the best, but the realistic side of me makes me worried and I try to not let that affect my workout too much.
Monday wasn’t that bad of a day for me. I knew I’d be going to Disneyland after the workout so I wasn’t pushing myself too hard and the nausea was pretty minor. It was a 3 group class and we spent 15 minutes at each section before moving on.
For cardio on the bike, we had 3 short blocks. The first block was a 3 minute push pace with a 1 minute all out pace. The second block was a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, and a 1 minute all out. And the last block was a 1 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, and 1 minute all out pace. I stuck with my usual resistance levels but I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I normally could. The nausea waves were coming during my time on the bike, but they were over quickly and not as severe as I know they could be so I felt good about that.
On the floor we had some work that was timed and some work that was by the number of reps. We had skater lunges, seated knee tucks, push ups, chest flies, and bear step plank work. I knew I couldn’t do things where I was horizontal with my face toward the ground because that makes me feel worse. So for the push ups and the bear steps I did modified push ups using the bench for both. It was still tough doing that, but I wasn’t feeling as sick as I would have if I was completely horizontal with my face toward the ground.
And on the rower we started with a 100 meter row with 10 squat presses using a medicine ball. Each round we went up 100 meters on the rower keeping the medicine ball work the same. The goal in 15 minutes was to get to 2,000 meters which didn’t seem that tough since usually I can do 2,000 meters in under 10 minutes. The first few rounds weren’t too bad and I was able to row without stopping and quickly get to the medicine ball work. But as each round went on the rowing was more and more difficult and I needed to take breaks. I got to about 1,900 meters when class was done which was a bit frustrating that I was so close to the goal (I would have rather been at 1,500 meters and been really far from hitting it).
Wednesday was a pretty brutal day for me. I’ve had bad nausea days before, but this was a totally new level of bad. I debated skipping the workout, but I knew that I would be mad at myself if I did that. So I showed up and figured that even if I could barely do anything it would be better than doing nothing.
The cardio portion was similar with rounds of push to all out paces ranging from 1 minute to 30 seconds. I tried to stick with my usual resistance levels on the bike, but my legs were moving very slowly. It reminded me of the week before doing Everest on the bike where it felt like my legs were in jello or syrup on the high resistance levels. But I just kept trying to keep moving and not caring how little I was able to do. I had to take so many breaks to let the nausea pass and I just let my body control what I could do. I had taken 2 medications which are supposed to help with the worst nausea but they didn’t seem to touch how I was feeling this day. Fortunately I have an appointment with my doctor soon so I’m going to ask if there are other options so I don’t have too many days like this.
When we got to the floor, I realized this workout was not designed for the issues I was dealing with. We had 3 blocks and each block started with a rolling burpee. This means we start on our backs on the weight bench and do a sit-up. Then we are supposed to stand, put our feet on the weight bench (so our head is lower than our feet), do a push up, and then put our feet back on the ground to start over with the sit-up. I knew this was not possible for me to do. So I did the sit-up, stood up and turned around so I was facing the bench. I used it to help with my push up so I didn’t have to be horizontal and then turned around to do the sit-up again. It added time to my work, but I needed to do this. The other work we had included some plank work so again I used the bench to put my hands on so I didn’t have to be face down on the ground. When class was done, I was ready to be home and just try to get the feeling of nausea over with. While it did get better after class, it didn’t go away.
Friday was an interesting day. Since starting to go to the Culver City studio I haven’t done many afternoon workouts. My Saturday ones are at 11:20am which could still be considered the morning. But I hadn’t done a 4pm workout in a while. But some of my workout friends were going to take the 4pm class and I wanted to join them for a workout reunion! It was another bad nausea day and I honestly have no idea if working out in the morning would have been easier or harder, but it was going to be an afternoon workout no matter what.
It was an endurance based workout but we did switch between blocks so that helped. But I know that the nausea was awful because my friends kept checking in on me. I guess I looked really green sometimes and really pale other times. They don’t usually see me when I’m this sick so I think it freaked them out a bit. But I just kept reassuring them that I was fine and I pushed through the best I could.
For the cardio, there were 3 blocks that all had a similar pattern. It was 3 rounds of push paces to base paces and ending with a push pace to an all out pace. The first block had the push and base paces for 1 minute, the second block for 45 seconds, and the last block for 30 seconds. I tried my best to just keep pedaling on the bike and I surprised myself a bit by how well I did. I did take lots of breaks to let the nausea pass, but considering how horrible I was feeling earlier it was significantly better than what I was expecting.
On the floor, even though we had 3 blocks it was really 1 long block that we kept working on during each block. We started with a 600 meter row and then had add on exercises. We started with lateral lunges and regular lunges and then each round we added on another thing. We also had hip hinge reverse flys, weighted hip bridges, and sit-ups (which I did as crunches). Then we had a 300 meter row and started with all the exercises and each round we were supposed to take away something. I did the 300 meter row and started doing all the exercises again, but that’s as far as I got.
Even though this was another pretty brutal workout, it was made so much better by having my friends there. It was a rare treat and we talked about trying to make this happen once a month or every other month and I hope we are able to do it!
Saturday was a little better, but still a pretty nauseous day. It was a strength based workout and there were no switches so I was on the bike for about 25 minutes before moving to the floor. There were 3 blocks on cardio and each block started with a longer push, then had 2 rounds of base to push paces, and ended with a 30 second all out. Overall it was easier for me to bike than it was earlier in the week, but when a wave of nausea hit me it was much more severe and literally stopped me in my tracks. Usually I can slow down the bike before letting it pass, but this time I had to stop completely immediately because it just took over. I know this probably sounds so horrible and it’s probably bad that I’m getting used to this, but it’s the reality of my life now.
The floor had 2 blocks. The first block was supposed to be all ab dolly work, but I couldn’t do any of it on the ab dolly. First were roll outs which I couldn’t do because being horizontal with my face toward the ground makes things worse. So I did roll outs with the straps instead. Then we were supposed to do pikes (which I usually do as knee tucks) and that was the same issue with the roll outs. So I did leg lifts instead (which my coach said was basically pikes on my back). And the last thing were hamstring curls which I just can’t do on the ab dolly so I did hip bridges with a weight on my hips.
The second block went better. We had hip hinge reverse grip low rows, sumo squats, and shoulder work. Normally for the low rows and shoulder work I would use 15 lb weights and the squats would be either 20 lb or 25 lb. But I decided to challenge myself to make up for my issues with cardio and did 20 lb weights for the row and shoulders and a 30 lb weight for my squats. It was tough, but not as tough as I thought it would be. We also had 200 meter rows in this block and I did manage to do it in under 40 seconds which is pretty decent for me.
It was unfortunate that I was accurate in this past week of workouts being lots of nausea days. But I think I’m dealing with them better now than I have before and I’m more familiar with the modifications I’ll need to do and what I can do instead. There is a chance that some of this week will still be not so great, but I know that by the end of the week I should be better. And not only will the nausea go away, but I’m finally over this cold I had! So there is a chance I might be trying the treadmill for the first time in about 7 weeks!
Posted onJune 22, 2018|Comments Off on Finding Time For Friends (or Busting Out Of My Routine)
This is a problem I’ve mentioned before on here, but I know that I’ve been neglecting some of my friendships lately. It’s not really anyone’s fault, time is limited for a lot of us and we just don’t think about scheduling time for each other. I’ve also said how social media has given me a false sense of seeing my friends more recently than I really have. And it’s true that it does because sometimes I’ll look at my calendar and realize that almost a year has passed since seeing a friend when I feel like I am up to date on their life.
I’m also a bit lazy with some of my friendships because other ones have hangouts that are pretty much built into my schedule. I see my friends who go to musicals with me once a month and those are in my calendar way in advance. Some of the musicals scheduled are over a year away but I know I’ll be seeing my friends then. It was also this way with my friends that I work out with, but that changed since my workout schedule changed. So some of my workout friends I haven’t seen in a long time.
I’ve tried to make conscious efforts in the past to fix this and I’m in a phase of life where I’m doing that again. I’ve got a pretty good routine going on with what I do from week to week. But I need to change that in order to see my friends. This week was a pretty decent one for me to do that because other things in my life weren’t taking up time. I’m even doing an afternoon workout today in order to see my workout friends again! And I went to a movie with another friend after work one afternoon this week. I usually don’t do that, but I wanted to see this friend and I wanted to see the movie so it was a perfect plan.
Since this is an ongoing problem for me, I was trying to think about why it was hitting me so hard right now. And then I realized that there was another routine of mine that was different too. It’s been a slow transition, but I’m not on social media as often as I used to. I used to see everything on Facebook. I would sort my posts in chronological order so I knew when I was caught up. But over the course of the past month or two, I haven’t had the time or desire to check out social medial as often. Now I just look at the top posts out-of-order and scroll for a bit before I move on.
Since I’m doing that, I’m not feeling as connected to my friends’ lives as I was before. I know I’m missing out on things online and that’s pushing me to feel like I want to see people in person. that’s a good thing since online relationships aren’t as strong as in person ones and I know I need to be better about seeing people in person. If this is the motivation that is getting me to see more people in person, then I guess it’s a good thing. I don’t see myself being on social media significantly more in the future just because of my life and how things are taking up time. So if I want this feeling to go away I have to make an effort to see people in person.
I think the other thing that has been making me feel this way is how much I’ve been relying on my friends lately. Life has taken a lot of weird turns lately and I have been asking more and more often for support from my friends. I usually try to be strong and don’t want to bother people asking for help. But I know now that it’s not a bother to ask and that it really is something that I need. And I’ve been asking for help and receiving it which has been amazing.
I’m sure things will ebb and flow with friendships just like with everything else in my life. When things get crazier and my schedule is more packed, I’ll end up neglecting some friendships again. And when I have the time to be reflective and think about what is happening, I’ll make more efforts to stay in touch with people. I’m just grateful that my friends have the same issues that I do and none of them hold it against me when it’s been months since I’ve seen them.
If you are a listener of the Inside Acting Podcast, you know that we released an episode this week which is the final episode of one of the hosts and creators of the podcast. Trevor has been incredible and he did so much good work with this podcast, but he feels like it is time for him to move on. As sad as I am about that, I am very excited to see what Trevor will be doing next. I will be working with the other host and creator, AJ, on what the new version of the podcast will be like. But this is still the end of an era and the version of the podcast that has existed since the beginning.
I was looking back at when I joined the podcast and smiled when I realized that the start of my time as their production coordinator and when I started this blog was around the same time. I’ve shared about how this blog has been life changing for me and the podcast has as well. It’s so fitting that they both came into my life at the same time.
If you listened to the episode that was just released, you heard a voice memo from me about my start with the podcast. I was a listener from the beginning and they had shared on an episode how they were starting to need some help. They had always been “just 2 dudes with a podcast”, but they needed someone to help with production work and scheduling. I sent an email in to them and explained why I love the podcast and how the skill sets I have would work with them.
I looked back at that original email, and it’s funny that a lot of what I said I would do is exactly what I ended up doing. But at the time, I figured there must be so many people who would be better at the job or have better skills than I did and that they would go with them. So when they told me that they would love to have me as a part of the team, I was shocked and so excited! But I am so grateful that they picked me because it has been such an incredible experience working with them both!
I’ve helped them with interviews with people who I never thought I’d get to meet. Because of that I have gained more confidence in approaching people I don’t know but want to meet. I’m still a bit shy around new people, but it’s much better than it was before. I’ve learned new skills in team management, coordination, scheduling, and being more efficient in email communication. And it has kept me connected to the acting community even if I’m not doing a lot of acting work at that moment.
I’ve also loved the various events I’ve helped to organize. When we had the 100th episode, we did a live episode (no party for that event) and while it was stressful it was so much fun to organize! I spent almost the entire time there worried that something would go wrong and I really wasn’t able to focus on enjoying the moment. But when it was done, I was so proud of Trevor and AJ and what they had created.
The 200th episode brought new stress to me. I was used to the live recording part of the podcast so I was able to relax a bit about that. But we were also throwing a big party at a second location after the recording. And since I couldn’t be in 2 places at once, I had to let go of some of my control freak tendencies and allow someone else to set up the party. The live recording went well and I we had a nice sized crowd there. I loved seeing so many familiar faces and watching the guys do what they do best. And that party ended up being epic! We had a step and repeat and everyone was loving it and taking so many photos. We also combined the step and repeat with a photo booth with props and I smile when I look at all the crazy photos I took.
The 300th episode should have been a bit less stressful. We weren’t doing a live recording, just a party. But of course, it wasn’t just a party. We had a photo booth with a step and repeat again and it was a big hit as we expected. I didn’t take as many crazy photos because I was busy helping run the party, but I’m glad I got one of the entire podcast team.
While the party part was running smoothly and not too stressful, what I was stressing about was a surprise that I had worked on for a while for the guys. I had contacted all of our past guests and invited them to send in a video telling Trevor and AJ congrats on 300 episodes. We had some technical difficulties getting the video started, but it almost worked to our advantage because the first video was with the guest we interviewed for the 300th episode. So the guys thought that she just sent in a quick video since she wasn’t at the party and they didn’t think too much about it. But once we got it running, they discovered what we created and I was just enjoying watching their faces react to it.
I’m so glad we pulled off that big surprise, but at the same time I was aware that the podcast would be going through a transition. I tried not to be sad at that party and just celebrate the guys, but it was in the back of my head. This podcast has been a huge part of my life for so long and I really can’t imagine it ending.
Fortunately, it won’t be ending. As much as I would love it to stay the same, we are going to transition and have a new version of the podcast in the future. AJ and I have had some ideas of what we would like to do and what we could do, but it’s still all in the works. I don’t know the timeline for when we will have a new episode of the podcast out, but it will happen. My job with the podcast has always included bugging the guys a little bit to get something back to me or to let me know information. I’m going to continue that with AJ and bugging him that we need to figure out what the plan will be moving forward.
I still can’t believe that the podcast will be transitioning into a new version and that Trevor won’t be hosting it along with AJ. It’s been that way since the beginning and it is so weird to think of it any differently. I have a feeling that when I email AJ about podcast things that I will accidentally CC Trevor from time to time because that’s the habit I’m in.
But I’m also choosing not to focus on the unknown or the feeling that this is ending in a way. I am remembering all the amazing things that have happened because of this podcast and from my involvement with the podcast. I’ve told both Trevor and AJ how much they mean to me and how they have changed my life for the better. And even though Trevor won’t be a part of the podcast, we are friends so we will still see each other. I am so grateful for these guys and for what they mean to me.
I’ll share on here when I know what the next version of the podcast will be like or when we release episodes. And if you are a new listener to the podcast (or have never listened to it), now is the perfect time to catch up on the 314 episodes we have done so far!
My annual pass for Disneyland is about to be blocked out for the summer. There is a slim chance I might do a quick trip after work next week to check out the new Pixar Pier offerings (those should be opening this weekend). But even if I go for that it will be a very quick outing and I will be doing only limited things. I wanted to get in one more Disney day before the summer and this past Monday was my best chance to do that.
I went with my friend Dani and we didn’t have a ton of things on our agenda which was nice. But we did have one big thing we wanted to get done. We wanted to see Fantasmic! The show reopened last year, but I hadn’t seen it since then. The last time I saw it was quite a while ago. And now you need a Fastpass for the viewing areas and they are usually gone by the time we get to the park. But there are some dining options that include Fastpasses so Dani and I set that up and went to the parks to enjoy some time before the show.
Since we didn’t have a big plan for what we wanted to do, we were pretty lazy with our day. We first went to the California Adventure side where the only ride we ended up doing was Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. I finally got to hear a new song on the ride so there is only 1 song left that I haven’t heard yet. Dani and I didn’t plan a pose for the ride photo, but I think this ended up being perfect! I’m acting crazy and Dani is confused by me but enjoying it all.
After ride we got some food and wandered around the various stores. I have an ears headband that you can change the bow on and I wanted to get the bow that is themed for the movie “Up”. I got that and Dani got a new bow as well. And I just like to see what else they are selling because Disney really is getting some fun merchandise!
After that, we headed to the Disneyland side where we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. They recently changed the ride a bit and we wanted to see the new scenes. The big news has been about the auction scene which used to be an auction for brides. But it changed to be an auction for household goods and the redheaded character (which previously was supposed to be the hot bride for sale) is now a pirate.
There were also a few other fun changes in the ride that we enjoyed and got a kick out of seeing. After Pirates we walked over to Finding Nemo where we went to the alternative viewing area. This is a room where you can watch the ride on a screen instead of going down into the submarines. I personally prefer the viewing room because there is nice air conditioning and it’s not crowded. We also had an amazing cast member who starting the video for us that showed us a bunch of fun Disney secrets in the room. If you do the alternative viewing room for this ride, check out what’s inside the lockers!
Our last ride of the day was the Haunted Mansion. Dani hadn’t been on it without it being the holiday overlay for a long time so she really wanted to go on it. And it’s one of the classic rides I love so I was happy to go on it too. Then we headed over to the Hungry Bear restaurant for our food and Fantasmic Fastpasses.
The meal at Hungry Bear is a picnic dinner. We both got the BBQ chicken which was a nice piece of chicken along with a kale salad and a mixed grains salad. We had a pretty big lunch earlier so I only really ate the chicken, but it was good. I also tried the grains salad which was tasty but I was too full. This picnic also came with soda and I decided to splurge and have a soda. I never drink them and it was a bit too sugary for me, but it was a nice treat.
When we were done eating, we spent a bit of time just hanging out and relaxing at the seating area of the restaurant. There is a nice view of the Rivers of America and it was nice and peaceful. It had been a hot day and the park was pretty crowded so it was nice to have a bit of an escape.
Our Fastpasses said to be lined up between 8-9 for Fantasmic, but since the show was the main event for us that day we ended up getting into the line area closer to 7:30. We only had a few people ahead of us in line but there were also the people who had Fastpasses from eating at Blue Bayou that had priority over us. But it worked out really well for us because we were still able to sit right at the fence for the show!
It was pretty close to be center and I was happy there was nobody blocking my view (the fence was there, but it was easy to look through it). The only downside to being that close to the action was the mist from the show got us pretty wet. But considering how amazing the view looked it was worth it!
There are so many times that we view things through our phones or cameras looking for the perfect picture, so I really tried not to do that. I took very few photos during the show so I could enjoy what was happening in front of me. But I did get the pirate ship as it went right in front of us!
The show was great and I really loved it! This was the best view that I ever had for it and if I go with people again to watch it I will totally do the picnic Fastpass deal from the Hungry Bear.
After the show, there was an announcement that we could stay where we were to watch the new Pixar fireworks show. I knew that they did some projections in that area for the show, but I didn’t realize they used the mist screens again to show clips of various Pixar movies during the fireworks!
I’m sure the view is amazing when you are in front of the castle and the projections there are incredible, but I loved watching the fireworks from where we were so we didn’t have to stress about rushing quickly to another section of the park so we could see both evening shows.
After the fireworks, we started our journey toward the exit of the park. We usually don’t stay this long and the downside is everyone seemed to be leaving the park at the same time as us. It was a little crazy, but we didn’t want to hang out there much later since it was already getting late for us and we both had to work in the morning.
If I don’t make it back to the parks before my pass isn’t good for the summer, this was a pretty great last day for a while. While we didn’t do a ton of rides, we both had a great day. Sometimes it’s nice being able to take advantage of just relaxing and being lazy at Disneyland. We had fun people watching and just enjoying a day out in a place that makes us and so many other people so happy.
Posted onJune 19, 2018|Comments Off on Getting Banned From Tinder (or No Regrets Calling Out A Cheater)
The twists keep coming in my online dating adventures. But this one was one I never thought about and was shocked when it happened. As the title states, I got banned from Tinder. I still don’t feel like I did anything wrong, but I guess that’s not up to me to decide.
This story has a bit of back story in it. I actually briefly mentioned the guy this involves before. Right in the beginning of my online dating adventures, I matched with a guy and was chatting with him on Bumble. We had even started texting each other and I thought maybe we’d be meeting up soon. Our texts were pretty innocent and silly. We were talking about our jobs and the pets our families had. But the texting ended and I figured he moved on so I deleted his texts and didn’t think much about it.
Then several months later, we matched again on Bumble. By this point I had already dealt with finding several guys who lied about being single and I was much smarter about doing a bit of research on who I’m talking to. When we started chatting again, I did a quick search on him and discovered that he was a newlywed. He had only gotten married about 4 months before the first time we had talked to each other. I was disgusted by him and used his wife’s name in a message to him (I said something like, “does your wife so-and-so know you are on here”). He unmatched with me, but I took screenshots of the messages and sent them to his wife on Facebook.
This was almost a year ago and I really hadn’t thought much about him. On Bumble you can pay to see who swiped on you before you swipe on them, but I’ve never paid for it. Tinder has the same option and I’ve done it on Tinder just because I’ve found it’s easier to weed out who I’d actually want to meet (Bumble seems to have a higher ratio of quality guys). And when I was looking through who swiped on me on Tinder, I noticed this guy again! Clearly he either didn’t remember me or was swiping on every girl just to get a match. I was furious that he was still being a cheater and decided to match with him and message him.
In his bio, it said that he was looking for a hot and sexy girl. So I wrote to him how we had matched on Bumble previously and asked how he was. Then I used his wife’s name again and asked if she knew he was on Tinder looking for a hot and sexy girl. I might have been a bit aggressive by doing that, but I was angry. Within seconds he unmatched with me and then I got logged out of my Tinder account. I couldn’t figure out what happened so I decided to google the error code I was getting. And that’s when I discovered the error code meant my profile got banned.
I emailed their support to find out more, but this is all I got back.
I have looked at all the policies and the only thing I could even remotely think would fit would be that I sent a harassing and threatening message by using his wife’s name. I really don’t know and the support team said they couldn’t tell me what I did wrong and there was no more information that they could give beyond that I got banned.
I was pretty angry that this cheater got me banned, but I’m not mad that I did what I did. He needed to know that people can easily figure out that he’s married and that he should make sure he tells his wife (I did message her again after this, but since my messages are likely being filtered on FB I know she hasn’t seen them). As much as I would like to believe that they have an open marriage and she knows, his behavior would lead me to think otherwise.
Since my profile was banned, there is no way to go back and talk to anyone I matched on there unless we had already started texting. And at first that bugged me, but the more I’ve thought about it it’s probably a good thing. I had a few hundred matches on Tinder but was only really talking to 4 guys on there (2 of whom I’ve texted with so I could always text them if I wanted to talk to them again). There were maybe 100 or so guys I had matched with but never messaged for one reason or another. And over 100 guys that I started conversations with that died off or they never responded to my original message.
I’ve set it as a weekly goal several times that I wanted to do a purge of my current matches on the various apps, but it was tough to let go of a potential date. This forced me to do that and it feels pretty good so far. I did create a new account and started over, but I haven’t really been using it. But it’s there for if I want to. If I catch cheaters on there again, I might send them the message and then unmatched with them quickly before they can report me. But I’m not sure since I still believe I did nothing wrong.
Just like all the other crazy stories that happened in online dating, at least this one will make another interesting story for my book.
Posted onJune 18, 2018|Comments Off on Continuing My Progress (or Still Pushing Through)
After having some great workouts the week before, I was really excited to see what could be done this past week of workouts. I knew that there was a chance that I was going to start feeling nauseous during the week, but I really wanted to see what would happen without setting too many expectations for myself.
My Monday workout is usually a 3 group workout even if there aren’t enough people in class to need the 3 groups. But for some reason this time it was a 2 group workout. But that was fine since we did switch between blocks so I wasn’t on the bike for too long. We also had a benchmark row challenge to do.
When I was on the bike, the blocks were pretty simple with push paces to base paces and ending with an all out pace. Even though it was a strength based day, the treadmills didn’t have much incline work so I stuck with my usual resistance levels on the bike. I did manage to do all the blocks without needing to take a water break in the middle of the block which was nice. I also was doing almost all of my bike time sitting up in the seat instead of leaning over the handlebars which does help add a little bit of core work to the biking.
On the floor, the first block had the benchmark row. It was a 500 meter row and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to beat my current PR. I wasn’t being pessimistic, I was being realistic. I knew I’d be coughing while on the rower and that my endurance is still lower than normal. But I wanted to get as close as possible to my PR and to row without taking a break. When I was done, I was about 10 seconds slower than my PR which isn’t too bad considering the issues I’ve been having. After the row we also had ab work to finish that block. In the other floor blocks, we had mini band work doing toe taps and squat walks plus a lot of single arm work using weights.
Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and I was excited to see what distance I could get on the bike. The cardio work was technically 1 long block, but it was broken up into 5 minute segments plus a walking recovery. Each segment was a 3 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute all out, and then the walking recovery. Since I knew it was endurance work, I stuck with my usual resistance levels and just tried to pedal a bit faster than normal. Each of the 3 minute push paces felt like they took forever, but I made it through them. And the only times I took a water break was during the walking recovery. I didn’t get my furthest distance on the bike, but it was very close to my furthest which I had done the week before.
The floor was also 1 long block but also broken up into different segments. The first segment was squats using weights, bicep curls with weights, shoulder presses with weights, and a row. The row started at 300 meters and you did the exercises for 3 rounds with the row going down each time (so after the second round it was 200 meters and after the third round it was 100 meters). Then it moved to 3 rounds of squats, pop jacks, and the same rowing pattern.
Usually with pop jacks (or burpees), I step my feet back and step them back up since I can’t do the jumping motion. I don’t know why I decided to try it, but I discovered in this class that I can jump my feet back! This is the first time I’ve been able to do this ever and it was really exciting! I still need to step my feet back up, but I’m 50% toward doing the exercise without a modification! There was another group of exercises after that, but I didn’t make it that far. But that’s ok because I was happier taking the time to do the pop jacks than to rush through them to get to the last set of exercises.
Friday’s workout was a signature workout for Orangetheory. It was the Everest workout. That means that you are on the treadmill for 23 minutes starting at 2% incline. Every minute you go up 1% until you get to 15% and then you start going down 2% each minute. I’ve done this workout a few times, but doing it on the bike was a different beast for me.
I started the bike resistance at what my normal base resistance is at 6 (my normal push is 8 and my normal all out is usually 10 but sometimes 12). Later I thought this might be a mistake, but it ended up working out ok for me. Every minute I increased the resistance by 1 and for a while it was fine. Even when I got a little above my usual all out resistance I was still feeling good. Then at about 14 it started to feel like I was pedaling through jello or something. I didn’t think I could keep going higher but I was determined to do it. 18, 19, and 20 were impossible resistances and I was barely moving but I was still going. When we finally started to decrease it, I was happy but it took until getting to about 14 again before it felt normal. And when we were done, I was so ready to get off the bike to stretch out my legs!
The first block on the floor was chest presses with weights, hammer curls with weights, squats with weights, and then a 250 meter row. I usually use the same weights for chest presses and squats, but go down to the next weights for my hammer curls. But I couldn’t find any 15 lb weights to do my hammer curls with so I had to use the 20 lb ones. I know my form on my hammer curls wasn’t the best, but I just tried to take my time and broke up the set into smaller sets. I probably would use 15 lb weights again since I prefer to have good form and not feel like I’m swinging my body, but it was a good challenge. And the second block was plank low rows with weights, tricep extensions, and leg raises. The leg raises were definitely a challenge on my hips (and after doing all the high resistance work on the bike my hips were not doing so great), so when I was doing the second round of all the exercises I ended up doing crunches instead. But it still felt like a pretty victorious workout!
After the Everest workout, I knew I’d have to go a little easier on Saturday. On the cardio, we had 5 blocks. Each block started with a 90 second push pace and ended with a 1 minute all out. The second and fourth blocks had a 1 minute base pace in the middle and the third block had a 1 minute base and a 1 minute push pace in the middle. I went back to my usual resistance levels on the bike and I was getting more tired than I had in the past few days. I figured that was due to the hard work the day before and didn’t push myself too much to allow myself to recover.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was 3 rounds of rowing with arm raises using the mini-bands and then plank arm raises and crunches. The second block was lateral raises using weights and mountain climbers. And the last block was bench sit-ups to squats, hop overs, and more rowing. I tried to go hard on the rowing in the first and last blocks, but I was getting burned out pretty quickly and having issues with catching my breath so I had to take it down a bit.
I feel really lucky that I wasn’t nauseous much during this past week of workouts. I had a few brief moments where I questioned if I needed my medications, but they passed quickly and I was able to get back without any issues. This week is also another potentially nauseous one so I’m a bit hesitant about what will happen. I would love to be optimistic and say that I won’t be nauseous at all, but I know realistically the I just have to expect the worse while hoping for the best.
Spreading Some Holiday Cheer (or Finding Cheaper Ways To Make People Smile)
