Monthly Archives: November 2019

Cleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House)

Posted on November 15, 2019 | Comments Off on Cleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House)

The ongoing battle in my house is that it is very tiny and can look very cluttered easily. I love my house and I’m actually grateful to have a smaller space. In the apartment that I lived in before I found my house, I had significantly more space. My closet in that apartment could fit a bed inside of it. I had a lot of things in my room because I had space and I was living with roommates. So I needed my room to be more than just a place to sleep. I had a little couch to relax on plus my desk. I wasn’t working from home back then, but I still needed a place to do some work.

I probably have more space in my house than I did private space in my apartment, but I also don’t have as much storage as I did before and there are some rooms that were being fully used by me at the old apartment. Mainly the kitchen and bathroom (I had a private bathroom which was maybe triple the size of my current one). And I did a lot of downsizing when I moved here, but I also kept some of the habits from my old apartment in my house. For example, I had the storage space before to keep things that I didn’t really use but might use again one day. And now I don’t have that space but I struggle with getting rid of things because I’m worried I will need it again and don’t want to have to pay for it again.

I have needed to get over that struggle and have slowly made changes in my life to work on getting rid of things. And when I got my new tv stand, I had to do a lot of work with downsizing again. I’m still working on finding space for some of the things I had on my old tv stand that don’t fit on the new one, but I have gotten rid of a lot of things that were taking up space. And I think that project really kicked off wanting to do this in more areas in my house. The problem with these projects is that when I’m in the middle of them it makes my house so messy. But I have been able to find little projects I can do without making too much of a mess.

The first area I tackled was my entry closet. This already has a lot of organizational stuff inside of it, but the floor was a bit crazy. This was such an easy fix because the main thing taking up floor space was the storage box with all the holiday-related decorations I own. I rarely need to access this box (I don’t always decorate for the holidays) so having it take up so much floor space was unnecessary. I found a place in my utility room that isn’t easily accessible but fits the box perfectly. So even though I will need a ladder to reach the box when I need it, that’s a much better place than somewhere that I use every day and blocking things I really do need.

And when I was in my utility room, I knew I needed to do a lot of work on that space. That area has become a catchall for lots of stuff when I don’t know where else to put it. I’m so grateful I have that room because it is a great storage area that is inside my house. I can store things in my garage too, but I don’t store a lot there because I have to move my car to reach it and it’s not inside. So if I needed something in the middle of the night, it’s not really convenient. I try not to have too much in my utility room, but it can easily gather stuff. And a lot of it is stuff I don’t actually need and might have forgotten about.

I found some health and beauty stuff that I don’t need or use like unopened bottles of lotion I don’t use anymore or unopened bags of cotton rounds (I use reusable fabric rounds instead of cotton ones now). This doesn’t need to be in my house because I’m not going to use them. So they went into a bag that I’m using to collect things I can donate to a charity that needs it. Yes, I guess I wasted money on things that I never needed, but that’s in the past and I’d rather find a place that needs them instead of keeping them in case I decide to use them.

My dad helped me create some nice storage in my utility room, but I haven’t been maximizing it for a while. I have a sink that doesn’t work in there, and my dad built a custom topper so it becomes a flat counter. That space was used for my wine storage and I had a wine bottle holder on there. But I haven’t had alcohol for a long time and that wine bottle holder was just being used for me to put other things on top of. I could find a much better storage holder than a wine bottle holder for things like tools and cleaning supplies. So I asked a friend if they wanted the wine bottle holder and they took it off my hands. My utility room is still a work in progress, but I’ve been able to get rid of so much and I’m finally able to see what organizational things I need to make it a more efficient space.

I’m going to start working on organizing my kitchen and bathroom next because I know I have products in those rooms that I don’t need. I know my pantry has stuff that probably is past its use-by date that I forgot about. I know I need to store my baking supplies in better containers instead of just the bags they come in. And while my bathroom doesn’t really have storage space where I can forget about things, I know that there are products that I see in there that I tell myself that I use that I really don’t. I will probably take those products out of my bathroom and store them in a bag for a week or so. Then I can see if I go into that bag to get it out or if I really have been lying to myself that I need them and use them. After that, I need to work on my desk but that is going to be a much longer process and will probably require more time to decide what I need to save.

Even with the limited cleaning and organizing that I’ve been able to do, I have noticed a huge difference in my house. Things are easier to find and I don’t feel like there is just stuff around me. I like feeling more peaceful at my house since I am here so many hours a day. And once I have things clean and tidy, I might look at more decorative things to add since I know I want some more personality in my space too.

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Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year) Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailMore Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again)

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Taking Time For A Show (or Seeing Summer)

Posted on November 14, 2019 | Comments Off on Taking Time For A Show (or Seeing Summer)

I feel like a broken record because I am always saying how much I love going to the shows at the Pantages and how much they have benefitted my life. Not only are they awesome entertainment, but they also give a sense of routine or normalcy with my life. When I’m going through a crazy time and I have a show coming up, I know I will take that time to go and that I’m going to have a great time. Or if I’m feeling down for one reason or another, I know the show is going to get me out and social and I’ll be in a better mood. I still can’t believe how much I get out of having my season tickets, but it always makes me so happy when I see a show coming up.

I’m going to write about this a bit out of order by talking about the show first. This time, the show we saw was “Summer” which is the jukebox musical about Donna Summer.

For most jukebox musicals, I know going into it that I will probably know a bunch of the songs even if I don’t know that I know them. Since I’m not a big music person, I expect that I won’t know songs by the name or artist. But they are familiar when I hear them and that’s exactly what happened this time. The show was good and I enjoyed the music, but I wish they had shared more about her life. I thought there was a lot of interesting stuff that was starting to be talked about but then didn’t go into them much further. But since the show was done without an intermission, there’s only so much you can put into a show without making it too long.

But before the show, Dani and I went to dinner at Wood & Vine. Going there is one of our favorite pre-show dinner locations and we were worried about what we were going to do when our shows move to the Dolby soon. When we sat down for dinner, we ordered and then looked at what restaurant options would be over there. There are a lot of chain restaurants so we wanted to find anything interesting and unique. We weren’t having much luck, but we decided that we would have some time to do the research. We wanted to focus on our awesome dinner at Wood & Vine instead of looking up other places.

We got some of our familiar favorites and some new things as well. The Cesar salad was so good! It was really garlicky which I love. We were debating getting another salad but decided to wait until after we had everything else. We also got the vegan risotto with mushrooms which was incredible. It had great seasoning and was very flavorful. The mac and cheese and pork are favorites of ours and I figured we’d get them because we always love them. And for dessert, we were torn on what to get and we shared a few of our favorites and said they could surprise us. We got the banana caramel and butterscotch, which were perfect ways to end the meal.

While we were eating, the manager Wally came over to talk to us. We love chatting with him before the show because he always shares fun things with us about what happened when he saw it or things we should look out for. He was the one who told us that there wasn’t an intermission and I was so grateful he told us before we were sitting in our seats. And we talked about what we were going to do when the shows move to the other theater.

Wally mentioned how there is the subway and I had completely forgotten about that until he mentioned it. There’s a stop right next to both theaters so it would be easy for us to do that. We also could take a rideshare from one place to the other. And there may be some sort of shuttle service that we could use too. Knowing all this made me feel so much better about our dinner options for the other shows because it wouldn’t be too hard to eat where we like to go and still make it to the other theater. We may have to do things a little earlier to make sure we have enough time, but that’s a minor change we would need to make. I would be much happier going to our favorite restaurants a little earlier than having to try new restaurants and maybe not enjoying them as much. Wally gave us a lot to think about and I’m so glad we discussed this so Dani and I can figure out exactly what we want to do.

We still have 1 more show at the Pantages before they switch. And then it will be a very different experience seeing a musical at the Dolby because we will be sitting in a different area than we are used to and it’s a much bigger theater. But I think that even in the new theater, the shows are going to make me just as happy as I am seeing them at the Pantages.

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Default ThumbnailFinally Seeing A Popular Show (or It’s “Rent” Time!) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note) Default ThumbnailAn Amazing Dinner and Show (or The Food Might Have Been The Highlight Of The Night) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food) Default ThumbnailFunko and Frozen (or The Last Pantages Show For A While) Default ThumbnailAnother Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way)

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A Quick MRI Turnaround (or At Least I Have Some Answers)

Posted on November 13, 2019 | Comments Off on A Quick MRI Turnaround (or At Least I Have Some Answers)

I know I just wrote about getting my MRI yesterday, but the actual scan was last week on Thursday. Typically, I have my scan and then within a week, I have my followup appointment with my liver surgeon. Occasionally, I will get my MRI results sent to me a bit sooner by one of my doctors, but I don’t expect to have answers until I have my appointment.

This time, when I was scheduling my MRI, I was told my liver surgeon was on vacation for 2 weeks after my scan. So the soonest I could get my followup appointment would be the week of Thanksgiving. While I didn’t love having a big gap between the scan and the followup, I didn’t really have an option unless I wanted to do the MRI later. So I booked those appointment times and tried not to think about it too much. Even though my scans always show the tumors smaller, I do worry a bit that for some reason they will be growing again. But I know that the chances of that happening are really tiny, especially with my history.

So after my scan was done last week, I tried to not think about the results at all. I knew that it wasn’t going to be anything horrible even if I was told that they were growing again. The worst case would be that they were growing and that I would have the surgery that I had planned for originally. And I’ve already put so much thought into that surgery so I wasn’t as scared about it as I was before.

I got a notification on Monday evening that I had a message from a doctor to read. I thought maybe it was one of my other doctors seeing the MRI report and just forwarding it to me. I wasn’t expecting my liver surgeon to be sending a message since I knew he was out of the office. But that’s exactly who emailed me with a really amazing message.

I will still be going in for my appointment in about a week and a half, but it’s so good to have some information now. I can think about other things and not have moments of wondering what is going on. And honestly, these results are so much better than what I expected them to be!

I knew that 1 of the 3 tumors was already so small that they basically couldn’t be found, but it was nice to have confirmation that it still is not seen anymore. I had it in my head that maybe the last time they missed it for one reason or another. At my last scan, I knew that the medium tumor had shrunk a tiny bit, but it was still visible. Now it has disappeared like the small one did before.

But to me, the best news was about the biggest tumor. That was the one that made things so dangerous for me when it was discovered. The placement and size of it both were risky. And that has been shrinking quite a bit. The biggest change was the scan I had right before I was supposed to have surgery when it went from 10cm to 4cm. And it’s slowly been getting smaller since then. Each year it has pretty much gone down another 1cm. The milestone I knew it needed to be under was 3cm, and 1 year after we discovered the tumors it had gotten there. And it just keeps going down.

Now, my biggest tumor (which I always say was the size of a newborn’s head even if that’s overestimating it a bit), is not smaller than the smallest one was when we discovered it. It’s no longer dangerous for me to have this tumor in my body (even though that has technically been the case for a little while now). The tumor is 90% smaller than it was just 3 years ago! That’s a huge reduction.

There are still a few things I’m going to go over with my surgeon when I see him, plus I want to see pictures of the tumor now. But from his message to me, I know I have nothing to worry about. I do have some questions about what things might trigger the tumors to grow again and what monitoring I will need to do under those circumstances, but none of those things should be happening soon for me. So it’s more that I just want an idea of what I’ll need to do in the future.

I think I’ll officially believe this news when I see the images since it’s hard for me to believe that it’s really going this well for me. But I’m so grateful that my luck with my health has gotten better and that I’m able to relax about things a bit more now.

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Default ThumbnailA Boring Tumor Check In (or Still A Miracle) Default ThumbnailMRI Again (or Hoping For Some Answers) Default ThumbnailAnother Liver MRI (or Not As Routine As Always) Default ThumbnailMRI Time (or I Think Being Calm Is Helping) Default ThumbnailTime For Another MRI (or Still Trying To Stay Calm) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready To See My Liver Surgeon Again (or My Annual MRI)

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Another Liver MRI (or Not As Routine As Always)

Posted on November 12, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Liver MRI (or Not As Routine As Always)

As I mentioned last week, I did my blood work to prep for my liver MRI. Even though I’ve only been doing liver MRIs for about 3 years, I’ve done enough of them that I’m used to the process and it doesn’t necessarily scare me anymore. There are elements of it that I don’t look forward to and am a bit fearful of, but I know that I can get through it and that I’ll be fine. I’ve learned different things I can do to help when I’m having a tough moment during the MRI and I’ve managed to be ok every time.

I know the hospital tries to keep things on schedule, but I’m aware that emergencies and other issues can come up that will push back the time of my scan. I schedule my MRIs when I have nothing else I have to get to that day so if I’m stuck there for a while it will be ok. So when I went for my scan this time, I was prepared to sit for a while and had my Kindle fully charged and loaded up with a new library book.

But there was someone in the waiting room who didn’t seem to know the common rules for waiting room etiquette. They started playing their music through their phone speakers and not using headphones. This was already starting to irritate me and I was trying to not let it affect me. I didn’t want to ask them to turn off the music because I didn’t know if anyone else in the waiting room was bothered by it. And then things got a bit more irritating when they started to sing along with their music. I was getting really close to the limit of my patience when I was called back for my MRI. I was so glad to get out of there and almost looked forward to the MRI to escape the noise in the waiting room.

When I got into the MRI room, I got changed into a gown since you can’t wear your clothes in there. They used to allow you to wear your clothes if they didn’t have metal, but the rules changed. Maybe someone claimed they weren’t wearing any metal but they had a button or something. But I don’t mind changing into the gowns. It’s not a big deal plus it gives me a chance for a good photo.

When I got onto the MRI table, the nurses got everything ready for my IV. I gave them the same warnings I give to everyone and I’m glad that it didn’t go too bad. I had a little bit of a blackout when the IV went in, but I was back to my normal self almost instantaneously. They taped down the IV tubes to get ready to have the long tubing attached and I was joking with the nurses about how I can feel when they flush it with saline and how it tastes like permanent markers smell. I think they thought that was pretty funny.

The way I am positioned for the MRIs requires me to have my arms above my head. In the hand that is on the arm with the IV, I have the tubing for the IV around my fingers since they have to go toward the other side of the room. And in my hand on the other side, I have the panic button in case something happens when I’m inside. I’ve never used the panic button, but I appreciate it. Everything was set the way it needed to be and they moved the table into the machine to get the scans started.

But as soon as I got into the machine, I noticed two things. First, my nose started itching like crazy and I couldn’t do anything about it. I really wanted to scratch, but there was no way to bring my hands to my face. So I just had to suck it up and try to ignore it. And the other thing I noticed was the IV in my arm was hurting me. It’s a hard type of pain to explain, but in my head, it felt like the needle was moving and wasn’t in the right spot. I know it didn’t move, but it was pinching and irritating my arm. I didn’t want to press the panic button for either issue because I knew I could tolerate it and I didn’t want to delay the MRI.

The first part of the scan is without the contrast dye. You listen to the prompts from the MRI machine and it tells you when to hold your breath or when you can breathe normally. When you have to hold your breath, it’s usually between 15-25 seconds. And I have to say that 25 seconds feels like forever and I’m always trying to find a way to make the time go by faster. I usually try to count the seconds in my head or count each of the noises the machine makes. I can’t always make it for 25 seconds, but I’ve gotten better each time I have to do it.

Before they remotely injected the contrast dye, there was a moment that I almost had a panic attack. Maybe I don’t remember the past MRIs properly, but I don’t remember the other scans having a long break randomly in the middle. So when things stopped this time, I thought at first that maybe it was when they were injecting the dye. But I didn’t feel the dye going into my arm and the techs hadn’t warned me that it was coming. Because of how I’m positioned in the machine, I can tilt my head far enough back that I can see the ceiling of the room behind me. I don’t know why that calms me down, but it does. I had a moment of panic that maybe there was some sort of emergency and I was stuck in the machine alone, but I tried not to think about that. And finally, the machine started making noise again so I knew everything was fine.

After the dye was injected, they pulled me out of the machine so they could remove the IV since I don’t need it for the last few scans. And when they did that, I was finally able to scratch my nose. It has never felt better to be able to scratch an itch. And I knew at that point that I only had a few more scans left and I was almost done. When those scans were done, I was pulled out of the machine so I could get dressed and head home.

When I was leaving, the techs that were in the control room area complimented me on being able to hold my breath as long as I did and for being really still. I guess all the images came out really clear, but I don’t think any of my past ones were really bad. I just know of one image once that had to be redone because I shifted in the middle of it. But normally I think they are fine.

And when I was walking past the waiting room (because you have to pass it to leave), that one person in the waiting room still had their music going and they were singing along! I feel so bad for anyone in the waiting room that wasn’t ok with the noise, but I also feel so grateful that I didn’t have to deal with it for too long.

I won’t see my liver surgeon for about 2 weeks, so I won’t have an official update until then. But I have no reason to think that my tumors aren’t continuing to shrink and that I’ll get a good report and update.

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Default ThumbnailMRI Again (or Hoping For Some Answers) Default ThumbnailMRI Prep Work (or Vampire Victim and Nerves) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready To See My Liver Surgeon Again (or My Annual MRI) Default ThumbnailMRI Time (or I Think Being Calm Is Helping) Default ThumbnailTime For Another MRI (or Still Trying To Stay Calm) Default ThumbnailMeeting A Surgeon (or Working On My Liver)

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Finally A Normal Workout Week (or I Love Having Nothing Crazy)

Posted on November 11, 2019 | Comments Off on Finally A Normal Workout Week (or I Love Having Nothing Crazy)

I feel like the past few weeks of workouts have all had something crazy or dramatic. I’ve had to deal with nausea, Hell Week, fires, and other injuries. Things just haven’t been easy for me lately, but I’ve been pushing through and trying my best. And while this past week of workouts wasn’t simple, it was nice to have a week that didn’t feel like I was dealing with a lot of outside factors affecting my workout.

Monday’s workout was much more normal when compared to the past Monday when we had the fire. There was no more smoke in the air and most of the people I see in my Monday classes were there. I’m glad that the fires weren’t as bad as they were, but we are still dealing with a lot of fire danger here.

The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power; but to me, it felt much more like a power day. We had 30 minutes in each section of the room, and that allowed me to get a lot of work done on the bike.

Cardio had 3 blocks. Each block had a run/bike for distance, a recovery, and at least 1 30-second all out. The first block had a 6-minute distance challenge and 1 all out. The second block had a 3-minute distance challenge and 2 all outs. And the last block had a 90-second distance challenge and 3 all outs. I started the first distance challenge with my push resistance level, but I realized to be able to do my best with the distance I had to put it back to my base level. And I kept that base level for the all outs as well because my coach encouraged me to use those to work on my speed and not the wattage I was getting on the bike. The 6-minute distance challenge was tough because I haven’t had a long-distance challenge like that in a while. But after we were done with cardio I had one of my highest distances on the bike I’ve gotten.

The floor work also was 3 blocks. Each block started with a row and then we had the floor work. The first block had a 600-meter row, the second block had a 300-meter row, and the last block had a 150-meter row. I was using the ideas I had learned the week before with how to use my feet to maximize my power. My power is still lower than most people can get, but it was higher than I normally do and I was able to do the rows very quickly. And the exercises we had on the floor were froggers, skater lunges, plank forward reaches, single-arm snatches, reverse chest flys, reverse mountain climbers, single-arm clean to presses, and planks with leg raises. I kept my weights a bit lower than normal because most of the weighted work involved my hips and I was having a bit of a rough morning with my hips. But I had good form and got a lot of each exercise done.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength-based class and it was also a switch class. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we switched after each block. It was nice to have shorter blocks and breaks after working hard.

The first cardio block wasn’t too much of a strength block. We had rounds of push paces to base paces with an all out at the end. There were no inclines/resistance levels used. But it was a block designed for us to really feel how a push pace feels for us. The second block had rounds just like the first one, but instead of push paces, we had incline work. The goal was to make the inclines feel the same as the push paces did without changing our speed. It was a good block even with the incline work and I enjoyed testing myself and what I could do on the bike.

The first rowing block started with a 100-meter row. Then we had medicine ball work and did a 200-meter row. We increased the row by 100 meters each round until the block was done. When we got back to the rower for the second block, we started at the distance we ended on and then decreased the rowing by 100 meters each time. I did have to modify the medicine ball work a bit to work for me, but I was happy with what I did otherwise.

And on the floor, we had cluster sets. Cluster sets are 3 rounds of the same exercise but with low reps. This allows you to go heavier on the weight than you would if it was 1 round with more reps. The first block had cluster sets of chest presses and the second block had cluster sets of goblet squats. We also had lunges, pikes, and plank twists during those blocks.

Friday’s workout was the only one that had a bit of a weird issue. I had my MRI on Thursday (more about that tomorrow) and I was dealing with a few odd side effects from it. I had a lot of soreness in my arm where the IV was and I was feeling very dehydrated even though I drank a ton of water the day before. I had to adjust things to work around these issues, but it wasn’t as bad as many other things I’ve had to deal with.

For cardio, the first block started with rounds of push paces to base paces. I only focused on speed and not adding resistance because the next part of the block was hill work. And the end of that first block was a 2-minute distance challenge. The next block was rounds of 30-second intervals so I focused on speed again.

For the rower, we started with a 90-second row for distance. After that row, we had medicine ball work and then we worked on rounds of rowing, going down 100 meters each time. The rower ended up being a struggle for me. The pain in my arm was really affecting me and preventing me from pulling back on the rower properly. I ended up going pretty slow so I could do my best, but I wasn’t able to do what I know I could do.

The floor had a few issues with my arm too, but it wasn’t as bad as the rower. We had squats, skater lunges, shoulder presses, deadlifts, plank pull throughs, and hip bridges. I did modifications on most of the upper body exercises to work around my arm pain, but it also ended up being a good block to stretch my arm out and I was in less pain at the end of the workout than I was at the beginning.

I think Saturday’s workout was my best workout of the week. I think it helped that we switched every 3 1/2 minutes so everything was really quick for me.

For cardio, we started with a 2-minute push pace, a 1-minute base pace, and a 30-second all out. The next block took 30 seconds off the push pace and put a 30-second push pace before the all out. And the last block took another 30-seconds off the first push pace and put it with the push pace before the all out. I did work with the resistance levels on the bike for all the blocks, but I also tried to focus a lot of my pedaling speed.

The first two blocks on the rower matched cardio. When cardio had a base pace, the rowers did squats. But we had the same push and all outs. For the third block, we redid the distance we did for the second block and held a squat for the rest of the time. I’m glad rowing was much easier for me than it was on Friday, but I did still have a little bit of soreness left. So I did take a few breaks on the rower to massage the pain away, but I was able to have proper form again.

And on the floor, every block had mini-bands. We had 2 exercises for each block, which was fine since the blocks were so short. The first block had full thrusters with weights and side walks. The second block had squats and overhead tricep work. And the third block had reverse flys and front walks. We were supposed to have the mini-bands above our knees, but I can’t get them to stay there without rolling and hurting me. But I was able to keep them below my knees and not rolling which is a victory.

People joked that this past week was almost like another Hell Week, and it was hard but in the best way. And I’m glad I had a week that was strong when I’m potentially going to have a tough week this week. I say this all the time, but having these good weeks really does help me feel better about the bad ones.

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Finding Little Things To Make Me Happy (or Shopping And Text Groups)

Posted on November 8, 2019 | Comments Off on Finding Little Things To Make Me Happy (or Shopping And Text Groups)

I have been in a bit of a down mood lately. To me, this is obvious in the posts that I have been writing. But it took me a while to be in a place where I want to work out of the funk. I know that this is probably due to a few different factors, some of which I have no power over and can’t control. And just fixing the ones I’m in control of (such as getting enough sleep) hasn’t been enough to make me feel better. I’ve had more depressive episodes before, so I knew this wasn’t anything serious. But I still don’t enjoy being in a down mood for an extended period of time.

I finally was ready to work on fixing this over the past few days. It’s not easy to get yourself out of a bad mood, but I wanted to work on it where I could. Like I said before, getting enough sleep has been a big fix I’ve been needing to work on. I still am struggling a bit with falling asleep when I should, but at least now I’m getting to bed at a more appropriate time and not staying up doing other things until very late. But since this wasn’t enough of an improvement, I’ve been working on finding other things that I know make me very happy.

Fortunately, it’s the time of year for me to do some gift shopping for my family. I bring Hanukkah presents for my family to Thanksgiving, so I only have a few weeks left to do my shopping. But because I’m a bit crazy, I had gift ideas as soon as I had bought their gifts last year. A few gifts have changed since then, but I’ve been having so much fun doing some shopping and trying to figure out the perfect gifts to get for everyone. I’m also bringing birthday presents for my parents to Thanksgiving to give them those early since I had ideas for those as well.

If I had unlimited money, I would spend so much buying presents for other people. I get so much joy out of finding the perfect gift and seeing how happy it makes someone. I do have to be careful with how much money I spend on presents, but I will always find a way to get presents for my family. I don’t have to get them expensive things if they are creative. And I seem to be good at finding unique and creative gifts. I have all the presents picked out now for my family, and I’m already so excited to give them what I got and see how much they like them. (sorry dad, if you are reading this and were hoping to get some hints of what I got you)

And while I haven’t been feeling particularly social while I’ve been down, I do still crave being social a bit. Going out isn’t always the best option when I’m in a mood, but texting can still keep me from feeling isolated. And I’ve really been enjoying different group texts that I’m a part of as well as texting with my friends individually.

One of my text groups is with my friends from Orangetheory. We have always been a bit silly in that group so that is appreciated no matter if I’m in a good mood or bad mood. We will share random GIFs and memes and joke around about the workouts. We aren’t always in the same class together (and one friend in the group doesn’t live in LA anymore), but it is nice to have workout friends to chat with even if we aren’t in class. I’ve got another texting group with other Orangetheory friends, but those aren’t as active as the main one I’m in.

I also started a text group for women in the online dating FB group I’m a part of. I created it for safety because not everyone has a friend that they can use as an online dating safety buddy as I do. The text group is for us to share the information of who we are meeting and where just as a safety measure. And we check back into the group when the date is done and we are safe. I don’t love that we have to be so cautious, but it’s necessary and I’m glad we have a safe space with no judgment. I am glad I’ve always had a friend that I can use for this and not worry about what she thinks, but I’m even more glad now that I’ve created a space for others to use when they didn’t have someone. That group is very new so we haven’t had a lot of texting yet, but we have been sharing a bit of silly stuff as well. But what makes me happy about it is that I was able to start a group like that and feel like I have done something that would benefit others.

I can still feel a bit of my down mood lingering, but I’m so glad it’s starting to lift.  I have to stay aware because if I don’t keep working on it I know that things might go back to being down again. Knowing that I have some ongoing things that are making me feel better helps, but I’m going to keep working on finding more things that will bring me joy and make things feel more normal for me again.

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Default ThumbnailSpreading Some Holiday Cheer (or Finding Cheaper Ways To Make People Smile) Default ThumbnailBuilding Upon My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Work On Shopping) Default ThumbnailGift Shopping (or For Me, It’s That Time of the Year) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Gift Giving Time! (or Excited To Finally Give A Present) Default ThumbnailA Happy Hour Celebration (or Looking Forward To Another Wedding) Default ThumbnailDriving Around For No Reason (or Finding Places That Make Me Happy)

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Posted in Dating, Fun Stuff, Shopping, Tough Stuff

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Another Observer Opportunity (or Watching The Local Board)

Posted on November 7, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Observer Opportunity (or Watching The Local Board)

When I went to the SAG-AFTRA local board meeting recently, one of the things on the agenda was when the next local board meeting would be. I made sure I wrote that date down because I wanted to make sure I didn’t accidentally schedule something else that evening. I really am trying to make an effort to go to all the board meetings that I can. First, because it will help keep me informed about what is going on in the union. But also because I want to get an idea of what my responsibilities would be like if I get elected to the local board in the future. Even though I was prepared to be on the local board if I was elected this time, I’m glad I’m getting this time now to truly understand what it would require and the work I would be doing.

Many of my friends are thinking the same way as I am with wanting to go to observe to understand the union more. So when we had the local board meeting this week, several of my friends were signed up to go as well. There were so many members signed up to be observers that they list was full and some people couldn’t request a spot ahead of time. They also have a walk-up list, but with so many people signed up, it was unlikely that everyone would get into the boardroom. There is an overflow room for people to watch the board meeting on a closed-circuit tv, so everyone who showed up did have a chance to observe.

I got to the union early because I wanted to guarantee I got a seat inside the room. Only the first 40 or so people to check-in get a ticket that allows them in the room. I was the 3rd or 4th person in line, so I felt a bit of relief when the check-in started. I knew I was going to be in the room and I could relax. They also provide some food for us, so once I was checked in I got some of the pizza and hung out with my friends in the holding room for observers.

I’m now getting used to the routine of observing meetings, so when it was about time to go inside we had a quick review of the rules and policies. Mainly, as observers, we cannot speak or contribute to the meeting. We just observe. We can take notes, but we cannot take photos, videos, or audio recordings. Since I had friends there as well, I knew that I didn’t have to stress out as much about taking notes since we could share. And the information I heard wasn’t confidential to members, so I could also ask people I knew on the local board to explain something or clarify something I heard.

I ended up sitting in the same seat I was in last time, which was good. I like being in the last row since sitting for too long can make my hips hurt. This way, I could get up to stretch if needed without disturbing too many people. And because the last meeting went long, I was prepared for this meeting to do the same.

But I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly things moved during the meeting. There were disagreements and things to debate, but much less than the last meeting. And there weren’t as many things on the agenda so even if they were taking time to get through something, it wasn’t delaying a lot of other things. Also, having fewer things on the agenda made things easier for me to follow. I was so prepared for things to run long that when there was a motion to conclude the meeting I was thinking that I was hearing it wrong. I thought maybe it was to conclude discussion for one thing and not the entire meeting. But the meeting ended almost an hour early after accomplishing everything that was on the agenda! It was a very nice surprise for everyone in the room.

Since we ended early, I went to a restaurant next to the union with a few people from my slate to hang out and discuss a few things. But most of our talk was about silly things and it was nice to get a chance to do that. I’m usually in work mode and serious when I’m with those people, but this gave us an opportunity to relax and have fun. I had a few moments where I was thinking “how is this my life?” because it’s still so crazy to me that these amazing actors are my peers and that they wanted to hang out with me. But it also gave me a confidence boost and made me think that I am in the right place and pursuing the right career.

The next board meeting is next month, and it’s already on my calendar. Unless something crazy happens with my schedule, I’ll be signing up to be an observer again and trying to make sure I get into the room. I will keep encouraging other members to do the same because I feel like this is so important to do and not enough members take advantage of this chance.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Union Meeting (or Getting Into The Routine Of Things) Default ThumbnailMy First Official SAG-AFTRA Duty (or Learning What’s In Store) Default ThumbnailObserving The Local Board Meeting (or The Beginning Of My Second Term As A Delegate) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The SAG-AFTRA Elections (or Being An Observer) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA Local Meeting (or Coming To The End Of My Delegate Term) Default ThumbnailObserving a Board Meeting (or Finding A New Goal)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Work

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A Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me)

Posted on November 6, 2019 | Comments Off on A Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me)

With Halloween being on a Thursday, I knew the party that I go to wouldn’t be on Halloween night. But because I have to be up early most mornings, I figured that it would be a night that I couldn’t be out late. And when the party was scheduled to be the day after Halloween, I saw I was right. I work early on Saturdays, so I rarely am out late on a Friday night. It also didn’t help that I was already tired from my week. But I was determined to have a fun time at the party even if I was tired.

I try to be fun and clever with my costumes, but I also want to be very comfortable. And this year, I thought of a fun costume that wouldn’t be too hard to make about a month before. I had to make a run to Staples to buy some supplies, but I didn’t have to get too much and I knew I could make it the week of. I ended up having some time right after work the day before Halloween and spent about 20 minutes making this (it took longer than expected because I wanted to make it look good).

I took some paper borders and covered them with white duct tape. And then I added some letter stickers for my name and had to tape some pens on the back for stability. But I made a pretty awesome looking photo frame. And with my name on it, I made a frame for a headshot!

When I get my headshots taken, I usually dress super comfortable on the bottom since you only see the top half of my body. So I dressed in yoga pants and flip flops on the bottom and a nice sweater with full hair and makeup on top. When I got to the party, I could hold up my homemade frame and I went to the party as my headshot!

I was so happy with how my costume turned out and everyone at the party seemed to love it too! When I wasn’t holding up the frame, some people were confused with what I was dressed as, but most of them understood what it was as soon as I held it up.

The party was themed as The Ghosts of Halloweens Past and the backyard had a mix of decorations from old parties and collections of photos from the past several years. I found a few of my old costumes in the photos and loved looking at all the other photos that were decorating the party.

Because I was so tired while at the party, I knew I wasn’t going to make it too long. I hated that I felt this way, but I also didn’t want to force myself to be there late and then feel really bad over the weekend. But I did stay there for a few hours and got to have some great time hanging out with my friends. I loved their costumes and seeing how clever they were. There were a few costumes that I didn’t know what they were, but once I found out they made so much sense. I love seeing how creative all my friends are and I always wonder if I’ll have a costume as impressive as theirs.

Even though I was so proud of my costume and was hoping I might get votes in the costume contest, I wasn’t able to stay out that late. I found out a few days later that the costume contest was much later than it normally is and even if I wasn’t tired I probably would have had to leave before it happened. That made me feel a bit better. And the costumes that won were much better than mine so I know I wouldn’t have won. But it would have been fun to see if I did get votes.

I really had some high expectations for Halloween outings this year, and they ended up not being exactly what I thought they would be due to me being tired so often. It’s frustrating when I know it’s my fault that I’m not able to be as social as I want to be, but I’m always so grateful that I have amazing friends who understand why I can’t make it out or have to go home early. And I did still have a lot of fun even if it wasn’t what I planned it to be. I love going out and seeing the costumes that other people thought of and just spending time with people that I love to be around.

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Default ThumbnailFirst Halloween Party Of The Season (or At Least I Made An Appearance) Default ThumbnailLow Key Halloween (or Costume Flashback) Default ThumbnailA Busy Halloween (or Dressing As A Box Office Employee) Default ThumbnailIt’s Halloween Time! (or Another Disneyland Outing) Default ThumbnailHalloween Hangout (or I’m Just A Regular Puppet) Default ThumbnailHalloween Awesomeness (or I Am Covfefe)

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MRI Prep Work (or Vampire Victim and Nerves)

Posted on November 5, 2019 | Comments Off on MRI Prep Work (or Vampire Victim and Nerves)

I’ve got my liver MRI coming up this week. I haven’t had an MRI in a year, and I’m glad that I decided to do one this year. My liver surgeon gave me the option of waiting 2 years instead of 1 after my last appointment, but I think that would have been too long to wait. I’m still wondering what is going on with my tumors and I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if I still had to wait another year before I found out.

I’m trying to not be nervous about the MRI, but I can’t help it. I still am scared that for some reason my tumors will be bigger. I know that it’s a really tiny chance that could happen, but I know that I’m also the person who gets the 1 in a million situations. I’m nervous about the MRI itself. I know I’ve done so many of these by now, but they still aren’t routine for me yet. I have been very lucky that my claustrophobic hasn’t been an issue while in the MRI machine. I think it helps that I can tilt my head back and see the room behind me. If I was in head first, I think that would be much worse. I’m nervous about getting the IV as well. I hate needles and that is always something I struggle with.

But I did get one of the needles out of the way last week. Before getting an MRI where they use contrast, you have to get bloodwork done. Because of the contrast they use, they have to make sure that your kidneys can filter it out of your body. I’ve never had kidney issues (although I have been told that I have a small cyst on one kidney, that’s never been discussed more with me other than telling me it’s there), so I know that I shouldn’t worry when I get my kidneys checked before my MRI. But I do worry because you never know when things will change. And of course, because it’s bloodwork, I have the needle to worry about.

I decided to do my pre-MRI bloodwork on Halloween this year. I happened to have that afternoon free so the timing was good. Plus, I was able to make the joke that my costume was a vampire victim. I know that the needles don’t leave a huge mark, but I do usually have a bruise when it’s done.

The last time I had bloodwork, there was a huge line and a long wait from when I checked in until I was seen. That time it was also worse because I was nauseous that day. This time, I was feeling good so I wasn’t dealing with nausea. And when I checked in, I barely had enough time to take a photo of my number before I was called to one of the stations.

Since it was only one thing they were checking with the blood, they only had to collect one vial. I warned the nurse like I warn anyone putting a needle in my skin about my issues with them. I let her know I might pass out or get very tense but that it was ok and she didn’t have to call anyone to take me to urgent care or the ER. I think the warning freaked her out a bit, but I know when I don’t warn the nurses that things are worse. Even though the nurse decided not to warn me about when she was going to stick me, I did ok. I did have the blacking out/tensing up moment that I’m used to, but it wasn’t as bad as it’s been before. And only a few minutes after I got to the hospital, I was already on my way out.

I’ve been trying to not think too much about the MRI this week, but it’s hard not to. For some reason, it seems like I get another thing from the hospital every day to prepare me. I have gotten appointment reminders, text alerts, and paperwork with what to expect during an MRI. I didn’t review that paperwork since I’ve done this before and I know I still have to fill out a form confirming I know all this information when I go in for the MRI. I won’t find out for a while about the tumors due to when I could get an appointment, so I know the time between the scan and my appointment will also be nerve-racking. But soon I’ll be past this and hopefully, everything will either be the same or better and I won’t have to worry about it again for at least another year.

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Default ThumbnailBack To Focusing On Health (or Back To Back Doctor Appointments) Default ThumbnailA Boring Tumor Check In (or Still A Miracle) Default ThumbnailAnother Liver MRI (or Not As Routine As Always) Default ThumbnailMRI Time (or I Think Being Calm Is Helping) Default ThumbnailTime For Another MRI (or Still Trying To Stay Calm) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready To See My Liver Surgeon Again (or My Annual MRI)

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Finishing Hell Week (or Fires and Being Tired)

Posted on November 4, 2019 | Comments Off on Finishing Hell Week (or Fires and Being Tired)

This past week of workouts was the end of Hell Week. I was sad that I didn’t work out on Halloween since it’s always fun to work out in costume, but I couldn’t make that work with my schedule. Hell Week was hard and the workouts after it were hard from not getting enough sleep, so it felt like a full week of Hell Week workouts.

Monday’s workout was my 4th Hell Week class. This one was called Us. But even before getting to my workout, things were crazy. We have been having fires here lately, but they usually aren’t too close to my house. But I woke up on Monday morning and saw that there was one much closer. And the evacuation area was very close to Orangetheory. Looking at a map, I realized it was still a few blocks away from where they were requiring people to evacuate and the fire wasn’t too close.

I called the studio to confirm they were still open, and when I got there I saw all the smoke in the air.

A lot of people weren’t in class because they were evacuated in the middle of the night. Our workout coach had been evacuated, but his family was safe and he was still going to coach class. The mood was weird in the room, but I’m glad that we all were there and worked out since there wasn’t anything we could do about the fires.

The workout was a 3 group format even though we only had 2 groups in class. The cardio and floor switched back and forth every 3 1/2 minutes and it was the same format every time we were on cardio or floor. Cardio was always a 3-minute push pace to a 30-second all out. And the floor had hip hinge swings, low rows on the straps, overhead tricep extensions, and single-arm snatches. We had to remember where we stopped on the floor each time we switched and we picked back up where we left off. Because of all the switching we did, I was grateful we didn’t have a full class. It helped to keep things calm and that was needed that morning.

And on the rower, it was simple. We had a 13 1/2 minute row. That’s it. I’ve had a 2 group Hell Week workout where it was a 23-minute row and I’ve had long rows since then. But this time the row was the very last thing I did in class. I would have loved to have rowed the entire time without breaks, but I did need to take some breaks from time to time to either drink some water or tighten the straps on the footplates. We were told to try to keep our split times under 2:30, and except when I was starting back up after a break, I usually was around 2:27. I didn’t get as far as I had hoped to because of the breaks I took, but I still rowed over 2500 meters and that’s a lot!

Wednesday’s workout was the last Hell Week class for me. This one was called Psycho. It wasn’t the hardest workout I’ve done, but it was still a good ending for Hell Week. But what did make it challenging was that we were switching back and forth between cardio and the rower a lot.

This one isn’t the easiest to explain, but basically we did an all out on cardio and then switched to do the all out on the rower. And we went back and forth during the block. When I was starting the block on the rower, it was the same thing with switching each all out. It wasn’t a lot of work, but it was a lot of movement (if that makes sense).

On the floor, we mainly had lower body work. We had burpees, hip hinge low rows, sumo squats with upright rows, regular squats, and full thrusters. I tried to go heavy with the weights when I could, but it wasn’t easy because the exercises weren’t easy.

But even without going super hard, I still completed the Hell Week challenge! I will be getting my Hell Week shirt soon (there was a mixup with the order so most of us get our shirts in a week or so), and all I wanted was to earn my shirt so I’m happy.

Friday’s workout wasn’t a Hell Week class, but it still was tough. I slept horribly the night before and that really made me sluggish in the workout. It is also the start of a rowing focused month, so I knew I was in for a lot on the rower.

For cardio, it was a pretty standard power workout with rounds of push paces, base paces, and all outs. It was nice to have something that wasn’t too crazy on cardio since that’s where I start for the workout.

The rowing had 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of 250-meter rows with 8 squats. And we just repeated that until the block was done. The next block started with a 500-meter row and then we had 16 squats. The row went down by 200 meters each time but the squats stayed the same. If you finished that, you held a squat, but I didn’t make it to the end.

I felt my tiredness kicking in the most on the floor. A lot of the movements were things I had to modify and that was also making me feel a bit low. We had burpees to a squat jack, plank work, plank jacks to push-ups, and low rows on the straps. I used the bench to modify most of the exercises and that helped a bit. But they weren’t easier just because I modified them.

I was feeling a bit better by Saturday. But I still was a little tired. It was a strength workout and I wanted to work with the resistance levels, so being tired wasn’t as big of an issue.

On cardio, we had rounds of push pace and base paces at inclines. I was going higher with the resistance levels on the bike than I normally use for push and all outs. I had a few moments where my legs felt like they weren’t moving much at all, but I know that also means I’m working hard and using lots of muscles.

On the rower, it was all about stroke drills. We started with a 15 stroke count and then we had 15 squats with the medicine ball after. We repeated that again and then the stroke count and squats went down by 1. I worked hard at being slow and powerful with each rower stroke since I know my power isn’t as high as most people. But I was feeling really good after completing the rowing work and I know I was doing more powerful strokes than I normally can do.

And on the floor, we had bench sit-ups to sumo squats (I had to modify this by doing each exercise on its own), lunges with front raises, lunges with lateral raises, plank bird dogs, squats, and double crunches with weights. I really liked this floor block because it did have exercises that challenged me, but there were lots of things I know I’m good at and can have great form.

I’m so glad I made it through Hell Week and succeeded at completing my 5 workouts. And I’m glad I made it through the workouts that I struggled with because I was tired. I’m hoping to get back on a better sleep pattern soon (this is a recurring issue for me), and hopefully that will make my morning workouts a bit better this week.

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Default ThumbnailKicking Off The 12 Days of Fitness (or It’s Like Hell Week Again) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep) Default ThumbnailFinishing Hell Week (or I Need To Get Back To Running) Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep) Default ThumbnailFinishing Up 12 Days of Fitness (or This Felt Like A Long Hell Week) Default ThumbnailStarting Off Hell Week (or 5 Workouts And They Were All Hard)

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