Posted onJanuary 17, 2020|Comments Off on Time For Traditional Cheesecake (or It Can Still Count As Celebrating The New Year)
I don’t have a ton of traditions that I do every year, but the few that I do have are very special to me. And one of the few traditions I have are dinners with my birthday twin. We have our (almost) free birthday dinner and we have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory around the new year. The birthday dinner is usually done very close to our birthday since we have to go during our birthday month to get our discounts. But our cheesecake dinner is a bit more flexible. Sometimes we go before the holidays and sometimes we go after the new year. But whenever we go, we have been pretty good about making sure we have our dinner even if it’s a month or so late.
This year, I decided to be proactive in making sure we got our dinner in as close to the new year as possible. I knew both of us are busy so it might be tough to figure out when we could make dinner plans. So I reached out Joanna right around the 1st to say we needed to plan our dinner. And we were able to find some time this week that worked for both of us after work. Since the restaurant we go to is closer to my side of town than it is for Joanna, I let her decide the best time for her to meet. We had to be a bit flexible with each other because our schedules ended up being a bit busier than we expected, but we managed to arrive within minutes of each other and we were quickly seated for dinner (which was a miracle since there is usually a 30-minute wait).
We actually had decided on our cheesecake choices before we decided on our dinners, but we wanted to get the food ordering out of the way first so we could eat and get to our catch up talk.
We usually talk about the same few topics whenever we meet up. We catch each other up on what’s happening with our families and acting careers. But the main thing we usually talk about is the craziness about the dating world. We both have had a lot of random stories to share over the years and I love that we both have stories so it’s not just me sharing them. And as always, we both had lots of dating updates to give each other. And since both of us take screenshots of the profiles of the guys we meet (it’s a safety thing), we could show each other who we’ve had dates with. I’m waiting for the day that she and I (or any friend I know who is dating) discover that we have gone out with the same guy. That hasn’t happened yet, but I bet one day it will happen.
Both of us have had some good and bad dating stories to share, so it wasn’t all crazy stories. And I think hearing a friend is going through the same ups and downs that I am helps me feel like I’m not alone in my random journey with dating. And we can also support each other which is another positive. We both have recently had situations that hurt a bit, so it was nice to get some in-person support. And even though I know dissecting what happened on dates doesn’t necessarily do any good, sometimes it’s nice to go over things and have someone else confirm that the situation was weird or that I didn’t do anything wrong.
And of course, being at the Cheesecake Factory we had to have cheesecake! We did our usual tradition of ordering 2 different types and each getting half of a slice. Things are so much easier now that we know we can ask them to cut each slice in half. 2 halves of a slice are so much cheesecake, but it’s so good!
After our dinner and cheesecake, we were both very full. Since the restaurant wasn’t crowded we didn’t feel too bad about hanging around there for a while. And also, our service was a bit slow so we had to wait a very long time to get our dessert and the check. We ended up being there much longer than I expected, but we had a great time being able to hang out and catch up. And it was nice not feeling rushed that we had to get out of there. But since we both had to work the next morning, we didn’t stay out too late because we both wanted to get home to get to bed at a decent hour.
Every time Joanna and I meet up, we say that we need to hang out more often than our 2 traditions. But our schedules don’t always work that way and before we know it it’s time to have one of our traditional meals again. We do make efforts to see each other more than twice a year, but at least I know we will have our birthday dinner in August for our next catch up if we don’t have one sooner.
Posted onJanuary 16, 2020|Comments Off on Doubling Up On Union Days (or Really Trying My Best To Focus)
I wrote about how this past weekend I had a casual get together with my union slate. That was so much fun and I love how chill the afternoon was. It was so different from so many union events that I go to. And the day after that hangout, I had one of my more serious union things to go to.
I’ve been doing a good job with prioritizing going to our local board meetings to be an observer. As soon as I know what the date will be for the next meeting, I put it in my calendar so I can do my best to not schedule something else that day. I know that there may be something out of my control in the future that will prevent me from going to a meeting, but I can make sure I don’t plan a dinner with friends or something the same night. Making these meetings a priority is becoming more important to me the more meetings I go to. I don’t think I was expecting to feel that way, but it makes me excited that it happened. Hopefully, that will motivate me to go to more union events even when I’m not necessarily feeling up for them.
And the meeting this week was one that I wasn’t necessarily feeling up for. It wasn’t the event itself that I wasn’t feeling ok with, I was just having a really bad pain and nausea day. I took care of myself as much as I could before going to the union for the meeting. I made sure I was hydrated, took all the medications I could, and had some anti-nausea lozenges in my bag in case I needed them. And I told myself that if I had to leave at some point to sit on one of the couches outside the boardroom or if I had to go home, I could. But I really didn’t want to have to leave at any point if I could help it. The meetings are really educational for me and I find it very important to learn as much as I can. Especially if I want to try to be elected to the local board in the next election.
Just like with all the other board meetings I’ve attended, I really can’t talk about what happened in the room. Most things that were discussed were confidential and I have to sign paperwork before going in as an observer agreeing not to share anything. But I can share that there were a few things being said in the room that I strongly disagreed with, especially things that directly involved me or things that I have been working on. Hearing incorrect or misleading information being shared was very frustrating since as an observer I am not allowed to talk. I did discuss some of my concerns with my friends who are board members after the meeting so I could feel like my opinion was heard. And many of my friends felt the same way that I did so they did speak up about those issues when they could.
I think between feeling so lousy combined with the frustration of not being able to speak up really took it out of me. The meeting did run a bit longer than expected, but I was just exhausted when it was done. I felt like I had been through so much just sitting there and watching. I wanted to get back to my house so I could decompress from everything and I didn’t really worry too much about saying goodbye to all of my friends who were there. I did make a quick round around the room to say goodbye to who I could, but I wasn’t as focused on making sure I saw everyone I knew.
Once I was home and could reflect on the meeting a bit more, I was even more motivated to continue going to the meetings and seeing what I can do to be elected next time. I hate that I have to be so vague about things, but there were just so many things discussed that I would have loved to speak up about. I know that my friends who were elected are speaking up for me, but I want to speak for myself as well. And the only way I can do that is to be elected. The next election season is still about a year and a half away, but I’m now starting to think about what I can do outside of everything else that I do to help get elected as well as getting more people from my slate elected.
Posted onJanuary 15, 2020|Comments Off on A Frustrating Morning At Work (or Working But Not Working)
I’ve written in the past about how sometimes during the slow times at work that I can get really bored. I hate saying that I’m bored at work because I know there are things I can do to be productive with my time. But it’s tough to spend 5 days a week stuck behind a computer when you don’t have anything to do. I’ve tried to find things to keep me busy and that helps. And whenever it’s the busy season and I’m going crazy with customers, I try to remind myself that I will miss having work to do when it gets slow again.
But yesterday, we had a very different type of slow day at work. We are still in our busy season so we have a ton of customers we need to help. But when we opened yesterday, we discovered that our website wasn’t working. And it wasn’t just the public website that was down, all websites that we use for work that aren’t public were down too. We pretty much had no way to do anything related to work. We found out later that this was due to a huge attack on our website host and so many websites were down.
We do have a quick reference sheet to look up some basic information for all of our locations, so we could answer things such as the price for tickets or the venue for each city we have a show in. And there are lots of standard policies that we don’t need the website for. So we could explain our age requirement, dress code, and date transfer policies. But so many of our customers were calling for things such as checking availability, changing entrees, or having an email confirmation resent. And we had no way to access anything we needed to do any of those things.
We have had some customers in the past that have gotten very upset with us when we couldn’t help them with something specific. For example, the box office cannot authorize any exceptions to company policy. If a customer is asking for one (such as bringing someone younger than our age requirement), we pass that on to the producers at that specific location so they can make that decision. Sometimes, customers don’t like that we are just passing information on, but we don’t have another option. And when the website was down, I was afraid that customers would be upset that we couldn’t help them.
It was sometimes funny when a customer would ask for one thing and they would understand that we couldn’t help them with that because our system was down so they asked for something else that would require the system to be up to help them. There were a few calls where the customer asked for 3 or 4 things and all I could do was keep saying that I couldn’t help with that because the website is down. And yes, there were a few customers upset that we weren’t helping them or we couldn’t tell them the exact time the website was running again. I really couldn’t say more than that our IT person was working on it and the website would be up as soon as possible. But sometimes a customer would ask if I thought that would be within 15 minutes or if it would be more like an hour. I just kept repeating that it would be as soon as possible.
Fortunately, that didn’t end up being the case most of the time. So many of the customers I spoke to understood that the website being down was out of my control and that I wasn’t doing it to make things tough on them. And they also understood that I couldn’t tell them when things would be back up and that I had no way to assist them with whatever they were asking of me. It was nice to see how many customers were polite and felt bad because they assumed we had a lot of customers upset that the website was down. I think after having some very difficult situations with customers that I needed this morning of good customers.
But I will say, this made my work pretty frustrating. We had so many voicemails that we needed to return that we couldn’t do because we didn’t want to call people back only to say we couldn’t assist them. We waited to return them until we actually could help. And I know that most of my customers understood why I couldn’t help them, but it was frustrating to not be able to answer some of the simplest questions we got. It was almost like this was a horrible mix of the boredom of the slow season with the chaos of the busy season. And I couldn’t do much about either.
I’m actually writing this post in the middle of my work shift. We’ve gone through half the shift with the system down and because it’s a big outage affecting more than just us, we have no clue when it will be back up. And it’s not any easier telling customers that I cannot help, but at least I’m better at saying it and I have more eloquent ways than I did right when it happened. But I’m just hoping that before today’s shift ends that things will be back up so we can actually do the work we were supposed to do several hours ago. If not, then hopefully it will be up as you are all reading this post and we can finally assist all of the customers from Tuesday.
Posted onJanuary 14, 2020|Comments Off on A Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing)
So much of my work with Unite For Strength has to do with serious things. A lot of my work is related to our election or different negotiations. And my year-round work with them is making sure our social media is a good source of information. That’s slightly less serious, but it’s still more about the business side of union service and not the creative or entertaining sides of it. I don’t mind that because I have realized how important the serious and business sides are, but I have wanted to get to know my fellow slate members in a more fun way.
And this past weekend, I finally got that chance. We had a casual get together for friends and supporters of Unite For Strength. We did have some business that ended up being discussed, but this wasn’t about preparing for an election or a contract negotiation. It was more about getting to know each other and seeing what we are interested in doing with our union service and what concerns we might have.
Having hangouts like this have been discussed among the slate for a while. I know that during election season we just don’t have the time or ability to plan things. And in the past, there has been a lot of focus on the serious work that needs to be done after people are elected. But now, I think we finally have the ability to do some more fun stuff as a group. There are more people who are leaders within the slate (technically I’m one of the newer leaders even if I don’t think of myself that way). So having more people to handle things means that people aren’t getting overwhelmed. We don’t have a specific person who is going to focus on fun events, but at least everyone has a bit more time to be able to contribute.
And I’m so excited to have more of these events because I want to bring friends with me to them. A huge thing that I am passionate about in the union is educating my fellow members. And I know this is something that almost all of us in the slate believe in doing. But getting people to attend official union events can seem intimidating. I’ve been trying to get people to join me as an observer for a local board meeting and that’s a struggle. Even though all you do there is sit and watch, it’s scary. And I get that. I was nervous about being an observer too. But now that I’ve done it, I see how silly my fear was.
But it’s hard to tell other people not to be scared if they haven’t gone before. So having some fun events where I know informed people will be there is a good option. It won’t be the same as an official union event, but it can be a way to ease into things or meet people who might be at the union events so that it won’t feel like you won’t know anyone there. Plus, I love everyone who is a part of my slate. These people are some of the most inspirational and informed actors I know and I would love for my friends to get to know them too. I feel so lucky that these people are my peers and some of them have also become my friends. I always seem to have pinch-me moments when I’m with them.
We don’t have our next casual hangout for Unite For Strength planned just yet, but seeing the response from others at the one we had has motivated me to make sure that we get a few planned. I want to keep this going because it’s also a great reminder for us to make sure that we are involved throughout the year and not just during elections. And it helps us get to know each other better so it’s not as odd to reach out to someone to ask for help or get a question answered. Being familiar with each other can only benefit us when we have to work hard together.
I hope that I will be writing about another event that we have as a slate soon. But even if it takes us a while to figure out things, I’m just glad that I got to spend an awesome afternoon with all of these amazing union members and that I got to do more with my slate that isn’t as serious.
Posted onJanuary 13, 2020|Comments Off on Back To My Normal Routine (or Working Through My Workouts)
I was finally back to my normal workout schedule this past week. While I love holiday workouts and it can be fun to switch things up, it’s also really nice to be back to what I’m used to. I think having the regularity of my workout schedule has a positive impact on my mental health and I really needed it this past week with everything else feeling a bit tough. I knew that at some point I’d probably have to deal with nausea, but I wasn’t going to let that get me down.
Monday’s workout was a strength day, but it wasn’t as bad as it could be because it was also a day that we switched between blocks. We had 3 blocks at each section of the room so there were a total of 6 blocks of work.
For cardio, all the blocks had the same pattern. We had a 1-minute base with incline, a 1-minute base without incline, 90-seconds with inclines that decreased after 45-seconds, a 1-minute base with no incline, and 2 minutes with inclines that decreased every 30-seconds. Each block the inclines were supposed to get a bit lower, but I kept mine the same since I don’t have a lot of different resistance levels I can use. But I did follow the pattern with the decreasing inclines for the 90-second and 2-minute segments. Since I don’t use inclines every workout, I really feel it when I do use them. But this wasn’t as bad as some workouts because they were quick segments. But they still made me work hard!
On the floor, we had 3 exercises each block. And the first and second exercises used the same muscles so it was extra hard. The first exercise used weights and the second one used the TRX straps. The first block had chest presses with weights, chest presses on the straps, and upright rows with weights. The second block had hip hinge reverse rows with weights, bridge rows on the straps, and plank work. And the last block had triceps with weights, triceps on the straps, and double crunches using a weight. There was also rowing if you completed all the exercises, but I never made it to that point.
Wednesday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and everything we did was timed for 1-minute intervals and they were 4-minute blocks. And every 4-minute block at each section was the same. It was a lot of switching too. For cardio, we were there for the entire time. But the rower and floor switched after every 4 minutes of work.
For cardio, the 4-minute block had a 1-minute push, 1-minute base, 1-minute walking at a high incline (or just pedaling slowly at a high resistance level), and a 1-minute all out. Technically, the high incline was supposed to increase each time we did it, but I used the same high resistance level on the bike. Since we didn’t switch between each block for cardio, we also had a bit of recovery time while the floor and rowers switched. But the recovery felt short considering how hard we worked in those 4 minutes.
On the rower we started with a 1-minute all out row then we had 1 minute to complete 15 pulsing half squats. Then it was another 1-minute all out row and we finished with 1-minute of either pulsing half squats or holding a low squat. That repeated every time we were on the rower and I know my rowing got slower each time I did a 1-minute row.
And on the floor the first minute was a hip hinge swing with weights, the second minute was triceps with weights, the third minute was chest presses with weights, and the last minute was bench sit-ups to squats. I wasn’t feeling nauseous when I got to class, but the hip hinge swings were starting to make me feel a bit sick so I changed those to sumo squats with weights to not have as much back and forth motion. The swings are supposed to work your hamstrings and I made sure that I could feel my hamstrings working with the sumo squats.
Friday was a strength day and it was the start of my nausea being an issue from the beginning of the workout. I decided to go a bit easier on myself instead of pushing through to see if it would make my nausea not as bad throughout the workout or later in the day (I’m still testing this idea and I’m not sure if it will make a difference). It was also a switch class and each block was about 6 minutes long.
For cardio, the first block had 1-minute intervals between incline and flat base paces. I did use the resistance levels for the bike and decreased them as the inclines for the treadmills were going down. And we ended with a 30-second all out without incline. The second block was a similar pattern but we had a 1-minute push pace to replace one of the incline intervals. Again, I did work with the intervals on the bike even though it was making my pedaling speed extremely slow. But even with the slow speed, I was still feeling my leg muscles working so that’s the most important thing.
On the rower, the first block started with a 400-meter row and then we were supposed to do lunges. I did squats instead of lunges because getting on and off the rower is tough for me sometimes and I can do squats over the rowing instead of on the side. Then we had a 300-meter row and more lunges/squats. I was working on the 200-meter row when that block ended. The second block was the same work but in reverse order. So we started with the lunges/squats, then the 200-meter row, and so on. My rowing wasn’t great, but it also wasn’t as bad as it sometimes gets when I’m nauseous.
And on the floor, the first block had single-leg squats to stands (I did one round as single-leg and then switched to regular ones), step-ups (I modified these to be lunges), and weighted hip bridges. The second block was all mini-band work. We had squat walks, static crunch in and outs, and heel taps. Even though I had to modify several floor exercises, these blocks were pretty good for me and not too bad with my nausea.
Saturday’s workout was a power day and it was also a switch day. That really worked for me because I was really feeling nauseous going into the workout. But knowing that every block was 4 minutes or under and that I’d be constantly switching helped me feel better. But the switching was different.
We had a 4-minute block, a 3-minute block, a 2-minute block, and a 90-second block. Normally, we would do the 4-minute block at all sections of the room before moving on to the 3-minute block. Not this time. As an example, this is how things worked for me when I started on the bike: a 4-minute block on the bike, a 3-minute block on the rower, a 2-minute block on the floor, and a 90-second block on the bike. Then we went back to the rower to start on the 4-minute block there. That pattern continued until we did all 4 blocks at all 3 seconds of the room.
For cardio, 3 of the blocks were a push pace, a base pace, and a 30-second all out. Each block the push pace got shorter and for the 2-minute block, the base pace was shorter too. The 90-second block was 30-second intervals with 2 all outs and a recovery in the middle. I didn’t really have a lot of difference between my base, push, and all outs. I was just feeling horrible and just like on Friday was trying to not push through it too much. I went a little less than I probably could because I didn’t want to be completely sick on the rower or the floor.
On the rower, every block had 100-meter rows. The 4-minute block had 4 of them, the 3-minute block had 3, the 2-minute block had 2, and the 90-second block had 1. There were exercises that were different between each row in each block, but I actually don’t remember what those were because every block I just did regular squats between each row. We were also supposed to get through all the rows and exercises and hold a squat to end each block, but my rowing was a lot slower than normal. I only made it to the static squat in the 90-second block.
On the floor, all of the exercises for each block were Bosu exercises. But I didn’t use the Bosu at all. I modified everything that would have used it, but I think I had some good modifications that weren’t that different from what we were supposed to do. The 4-minute block had crunches (I just did them on the bench) and plank jacks (again, I used the bench for my hands). The 3-minute block had burpees and plank Spiderman (just used the bench for my hands for both). The 2-minute block had side hip dips (I was on the floor). And the 90-second block had lateral crunches (I did bicycle crunches instead).
This week, I’m going to keep playing around with the idea of not going as hard as I can when I’m nauseous to see if that helps me get through the workouts. I’m still not sure if it’s helping or not and I need to test it out more before I decide if it’s worth it. I know there are so few things I can do to manage my pain and nausea in my workouts (and in my everyday life), but if this idea helps it would be amazing! But at least I know I can continue doing my normal workout schedule no matter how I feel and I’m so happy to be back to the routine that I’m used to.
Posted onJanuary 10, 2020|Comments Off on The Longest Week (or Having A Regular Work Week Again)
The holidays are a bit odd with my job. Since so many holidays fall on a Monday and my work is Tuesday-Saturday, I don’t typically get days off. The only holidays we get off are the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. And it’s really bad when the 4th of July or the December holidays are on Sundays or Mondays since those are the days we don’t work. That happened in 2017.
I know I’m really lucky with my job and I’m incredibly grateful for it, but it was annoying when I didn’t feel like I got extra time off for the holidays. But this year was different. I got extra long weekends because the December holidays were on Tuesday/Wednesday. And I took advantage of having those and really enjoyed my time off. I didn’t do much, but I relaxed and spent some time catching up on life. I didn’t always know what day of the week it was and I occasionally mixed up what day or what time my shift was, but those moments were brief and didn’t really affect things too much.
Having 2 weeks in a row that had short work weeks were amazing. I felt like I had a real break from things and I was feeling refreshed and ready to start the year off right and work hard. And that feeling stayed there until this week happened.
This was the first full work week back since the holidays and it has felt like it lasted a month. I feel like this was because of a few different reasons. Obviously, having work each day felt weird when I had probably gotten used to having those short work weeks. I also haven’t been sleeping well so I’ve been tired in the mornings. And I haven’t had much I have had to do after work (I kept my schedule open on purpose) so I think my time has been blending together a bit. I usually try to step away from my computer as soon as I’m done with work, but the past few days I’ve had to stay on my computer for one reason or another. Sometimes I’ve been on my computer for another 3 or 4 hours after my work shift ended. That is just too long to be sitting behind a computer and I am to blame for those scheduling issues. But it also makes it feel like my workday lasts a lot longer and I don’t have as much of a break between one shift ending and another shift starting.
It only took 2 weeks to get used to a shorter workweek, so hopefully, it will only take 2 weeks to get used to my normal schedule again. So that would mean that next week or the week after I shouldn’t be feeling like the week is lasting longer than normal. And I’m trying to do a lot better with my sleep now and I know that it will take a few days for that to be felt in my body. Having to stay on my computer might not be something I can completely resolve, but it’s something I am aware of and trying to figure out what solutions I can find.
I will say that it does make me feel a bit better that I’m not alone in this feeling. Lots of my friends have mentioned how this week has felt really long and they couldn’t believe we were in only the second week of the month. I think because I’m so aware of how I’m feeling that sometimes I think I’m the only one going through something and I stress a bit that I need to fix it. But hearing that other people are going through the same thing right now makes me feel like maybe this is just something random that is affecting a lot of people and not something I need to work too hard to fix. But I still want to find solutions on my own because I know some things affect me longer than they affect others.
At least I’ve got my weekend coming up. I don’t mind working on Saturdays because they are shorter shifts and I don’t feel like I really spent a weekend day working. The only thing it really affects is that I don’t usually go out late on a Friday night since I have to be up so early on Saturdays. But that is definitely a normal feeling for me and I’m looking forward to my weekend and having some relaxing time. I don’t have much planned yet, but I hopefully will figure out something fun to do. And that fun should get me ready for next week’s work and I’m hoping that next week feels like a normal week and not an endless week.
Posted onJanuary 9, 2020|Comments Off on Thinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First)
I’m only 9 days into the month, but I’m already rethinking the monthly challenge that I set for January. I said that I wanted to have all my reading this month be self-help or self-improvement books. This challenge was something I chose because I realized I was behind in my more serious reading because I was enjoying my fun reading too much. I have gotten books that I know I need to read because they will teach me something I need to know but I just kept putting it off. I didn’t want to have that excuse anymore and I wanted to get through my book list. I knew I probably had enough to read for the month, but I also thought maybe this challenge would help me find more self-help books that I should read.
I really thought this would be a great challenge for me. I knew it might not be easy because I do like to have some fluff reading in my life, but the idea of a challenge is to push myself. And I thought this would be a good push and that I would be able to do it.
But 9 days later, I’m thinking that this might not have been the best challenge for me.
Reading has always been one of the ways I relax and escape. I love getting lost in a good book and getting sucked into a story. It’s something I do every night when I’m getting ready to go to bed. And even though I can read something serious or intense when winding down for the night, it’s not the only thing I want to read. I need to have some of that entertainment and escape from time to time. Sometimes I have a stressful day and all I want to do before going to sleep is to have something easy to read that will calm me down a bit.
And I have had some of those stressful days the past few days. It’s nothing horrible, but I haven’t been calm and relaxed when I was trying to sleep. And I continued to read the self-help book that I started this month as my bedtime reading, but it just was starting to stress me out a bit more. The book isn’t about anything crazy, but it is something that is making me think a lot and that keeps me up later when I already can’t quiet my mind about everything I dealt with during the day. I pushed through when I could, but on Tuesday night I had a bit a breakdown and realized I just needed to switch up my books and read some fluff.
And honestly, reading that fluff that night was exactly what I needed to do. I was able to be a lot calmer as I fell asleep and I slept a lot better that night. I know that things haven’t been completely normal for me lately, but I still felt so guilty that I had already failed my monthly challenge. I hate knowing that I won’t be able to be successful in what I set out to do.
And I let that feeling sit with me for a day before I realized that I didn’t have to make this challenge a fail. I could change what the challenge would be. There’s nothing that says I can’t change the challenge if I realize that this isn’t going to work for me. And this might be a good opportunity to change it to fit what I need the challenge to be. I’m still playing around with what I would want the new version of the challenge to be, but I’m thinking about making a list of the top 3 or 4 self-help books that I want to read this month and making the challenge completing the list. I’m not sure that’s what I want the new challenge to be, but it gives me a starting point for reworking it.
I’m glad that I was able to change my mindset and not think of this as a failure of my monthly challenge but an opportunity to find a better way to challenge myself. But it still bugs me a bit that I wanted to push myself to do something that I knew would be hard and I wasn’t able to do it. I know I’m very competitive with myself and that’s probably something I need to work on. But I can’t help thinking that I can accomplish any goals that are within my control. But I guess it’s a sign of growth that even though I have those feelings that I was still able to reframe it and make the situation a bit more positive.
I’m going to take the rest of this week to figure out what my new version of the monthly challenge will be, but I probably won’t be posting about it again until I do my challenge recap. I don’t think I will need to change it more than once, but I also want to give myself permission to do that if I need to.
Posted onJanuary 8, 2020|Comments Off on Getting Used To A New Dentist Routine (or This Wasn’t The Appointment I Expected)
I’ve only had my new dentists for a short period of time, so things are still new to me. I had my old dentist for a long time and that routine and process were familiar to me. It still didn’t help with my fear of the dentist, but at least I knew what to expect. I figured with the new dentists that it would take some time because they were also figuring out their plan. What I might have experienced at my first appointment might not be what they continue to do. So when I went in for my cleaning this week, I knew that things might be different. I just wasn’t expecting how things ended up going.
In the past, I would have my cleanings 3 times a year and at one of those appointments, I would have the full exam with the dentist along with x-rays. But because of how the new dentists run things, and since they are the ones that assist with all the cleanings, now all my cleanings will have an exam too. I won’t be doing x-rays every time, but I’ll probably have them more often.
Whenever I have a cleaning, and even more when I have an exam, I’m worried that something will be discovered with my teeth. It’s happened so many times and I know that it will continue to happen in the future. But I try my best to make sure I do everything I can for my teeth. But because of having genetically bad teeth, I know that I can’t prevent everything. And I will always have problems with my teeth discovered that will need to be fixed.
And unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened at this appointment.
While doing the exam, my dentist discovered 2 spots that weren’t quite cavities yet but would become cavities if I didn’t get them taken care of soon. They would need to be drilled and filled just like cavities and there was nothing I could do to fix them on my own. It’s exactly what I’m afraid will happen and honestly, it is probably what keeps me fearful of the dentist.
My dentist gave me a few options about what to do about them. I obviously wanted to fix them, and she said they could do it in that appointment so I wouldn’t have to come back another day. And because of where they were on my teeth and how small they were, I probably wouldn’t need any numbing medications. I wasn’t sure about that, but I was willing to give it a try. So we did both the cleaning and the fillings at the same time.
We did the first part of the cleaning before doing the drilling. Even though my dentist is new, she is very aware of how bad my fear is and she was trying to do everything she could to make the appointment better for me. She promised that if the drilling hurt too much that she could numb me, but she really wanted to try without it because she didn’t think I would need it. And she said that the drilling would only be about 20 seconds between both spots.
I wasn’t sure that she was right that I could do it without any numbing medications, but I promised to try. And there was only a split second that I felt anything. And what I did feel wasn’t too painful, it was just like an intense cleaning. And then the drilling was done. I think the worst part was that there is a burning smell after they do the drilling. But that’s nothing. It made me wonder about how bad all my other appointments with fillings were and maybe the worst part was getting numb.
The spots were quickly filled and they used the light to cure them and then the dentist did the rest of the cleaning with polishing my teeth. That’s it. I was done with the entire thing in under an hour which was crazy! I was expecting it to be much longer, especially since they were adding in the fillings. But they were super efficient and I really appreciate that. Anything that makes my time at the dentist faster makes me feel better about it.
I’ll have my next appointment in 4 months, which is normal for me. And now I know it will be both the cleaning and the exam so that won’t be a big surprise to me. But I will probably still be worried that they will discover something wrong. I don’t know if that feeling will ever go away because it keeps coming true from time to time. But at least now, I have a slightly better feeling about how things will be handled if that does happen.
Posted onJanuary 7, 2020|Comments Off on A Very Low-Key NYE (or I’m Glad I Don’t Have To Impress My Friends)
I have written severalposts about how I’m so excited to start a new year and what I think the new year will bring. And I am excited about it being a new year and feeling like there is a fresh start (even though that fresh start isn’t really real). I love the idea of a clean slate and feeling like I have a new chance to do something amazing.
But despite all those things I love about a new year, I’m really not the biggest fan of going out for New Year’s Eve.
I might have been a bit more excited about NYE when I was younger. And even in more recent years, I think I was a bit more enthusiastic about it. Maybe having my car die on NYE has made things a bit more serious for me. I don’t worry about my car breaking down on my drive home, but I am reminded about it each year. It’s hard to forget when it was a pretty big deal.
But there are other factors that make me not as excited about NYE. I don’t want to go out somewhere that is going to be really crowded and will be very expensive to go to. If you go out to dinner, it is overpriced and they seem like they want to rush you so they can get to the next seating. I don’t want to be out late because I don’t want to be on the road when people are leaving bars. Hopefully, people wouldn’t be driving drunk (especially with all the rideshare options in LA), but it’s still something I worry about. And I usually don’t sleep in on New Year’s Day because I have a lot to get done.
I’m lucky that I’ve got a group of friends that usually get together for NYE that I can hang out with. And it’s nothing fancy or extravagant so I don’t have to feel like it’s a big deal. And hanging out with my friends is exactly what I did this year.
It was a smaller group than normal because my friends have a dog that is a bit skittish. So it was mainly people that they knew their dog was familiar with. But it was still a good-sized crowd. And there were some people who did dress up, but that wasn’t necessary and there were plenty of people who didn’t dress fancy. I was one of the people who dressed pretty casually. I figured if I was going to be out late, I might as well be comfortable. And I know my friends don’t necessarily care how I dress so I didn’t feel like I had to impress them or meet a certain standard.
I didn’t take any pictures at the party, but that was deliberate. I wanted to focus on being with my friends and not trying to take photos or make sure I have things I can post on social media. But also, I didn’t do anything too crazy. I spent a lot of time hanging outside in the backyard with my friends just chatting about lots of random things. And when it got too cold for me, I went inside and hung out on a couch with other friends.
I usually don’t stay up too late, so I had to do something to keep me awake and alert. I thought it was close to midnight at one point and then looked at my watch only to discover that it was only about 10 pm. I think a lot of us were starting to feel that way, but we didn’t want to leave before midnight since we did want to celebrate together. We decided to play a game and we went with Cards Against Humanity. We started with a small group, but as people were coming inside to get out of the cold more would join us. It was a pretty fluid game with the group size changing often, but we were just playing for fun and we weren’t going to figure out an overall winner when we were done.
Finally, it was almost midnight and everyone was in the living room with us for the countdown to midnight. And once it was the new year, we all celebrated together. Everyone usually goes around to make sure they hug everyone to say happy new year. It’s a nice tradition because you don’t feel left out if you don’t have someone to kiss at midnight or to celebrate with. Everyone celebrates together and I like that.
And right after midnight, I went around to say my goodbyes to my friends. I was so tired and I really wanted to get home before it got too late. I think my friend group understands me wanting to leave early since I have one of the longer drives back. And since everyone was gathered in the living room, it was pretty fast to say goodbye to everyone and to get into my car to head home.
I was home and in bed before 1 am and that was perfect. I did get to celebrate the new year, but I didn’t have to do anything fancy or crazy. Nobody cared that I was dressed in comfortable clothes or that I left so quickly after midnight. And I love that nobody cared about those things because getting together was more about being with friends and not impressing anyone. Plus, we realized that the Oscars are coming up really soon so we’ll all be together again before we know it.
Honestly, it was the perfect way for me to ring in 2020 and I couldn’t have asked for anything else.
Posted onJanuary 6, 2020|Comments Off on Some New Year Workouts (or Finishing Out 2019 and Kicking Off 2020)
The past week of workouts included my last few workouts of 2019 and my first few workouts of 2020. It was a good way to end and start a year and it was exactly what I wanted to do. Because I wanted to keep my regular workout schedule as much as possible but I also wanted to work out on New Year’s Eve, I ended up having a 5 workout week. But somehow that seemed really fitting for me.
Monday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it had a lot of switching around. It was a good workout to start off a week with 3 workouts in a row and a total of 5 workouts (which I rarely do). The first part of class switched between the floor and the rower and the second part of class had one longer cardio block and one longer floor block.
For the first part of class, everything was 3 minutes long. On the rower, we had 2 different 3-minute rows for distance. The goal was to be able to go further on the second row than we did on the first, but I didn’t realize we were going to have 2 rounds of it and I probably went a little too hard on the first attempt. I still did better than I expected with both rows, but I wish I had been able to do better on the second row. And on the floor, the first time we were there we had plank rotations and bicycle crunches. And the second time we had bench hop overs and seated knee tucks.
For the long floor block, we had squats to calf raises, lateral lunges, plank low rows, plank side toe taps, and sit-ups to squats. It was a long floor block with a lot of work, and I was already a bit tired after the other work we did. But I was grateful that the switches were different from how they normally are and I had the long floor block before my cardio block. So I had a bit more energy even though I was tired. For all the exercises we had with weights, I didn’t go too heavy with them, but I did try to switch them up when I felt like they might be too easy.
And for cardio, we had 4 rounds of a 2-minute run/bike for distance. Each time we finished the distance challenge, we got a bit more recovery. After the first one, we only had 60 seconds and before the last one, we had 2 minutes. I kept my resistance level on the bike the same the entire time and just focused on speed work. 2 minutes is a good amount of time for a challenge because it’s a bit harder than most of the all outs we have to do, but it’s not too long that I can’t recover after. Plus, since all we had were the distance challenges, I didn’t have to worry about going back to my base speed after it. It did feel a bit weird to end on the bike since I rarely do that, but I felt like I had done the entire workout even if in my head I felt like I still had to do some more floor work.
I also worked out on Tuesday for my traditional New Year’s Eve workout. This class had a countdown theme and it was a 2 group class so there wasn’t a lot of switching around.
For cardio, we had a very long hill workout. We had 10 rounds of 1 minute at an incline (going down 1% each round) and between each round, we had 75-seconds to recover. Because I can’t do too high with the resistance levels on the bike, I decided to double up each level. So I did level 16 for the first 2 rounds, level 15 for the next 2, and so on. For reference, level 10 is my regular level and what I set it at for the recovery time. It was a lot of hill work, but fortunately, the minute went by quickly and we had a good amount of recovery time before having to get back to hill work.
On the floor, we started with a 700-meter row. Then we had countdown work with push-ups and pop jacks. We started with 10 push-ups and 9 pop jacks. Then 8 push-ups and 7 pop jacks. We worked all the way down to 1 and then it was back on the rower for a 500-meter row. Then countdown reps with lunges for the even number rep counts and lateral flys with weights for the odd number rep counts. Then back to the rower for a 300-meter row and squats for the even number rep counts and low rows on the straps for the odd number rep counts. And finally, on the rower for a 100-meter row and leg lifts for the even number rep counts and toe reaches for the odd number rep counts. It was a lot of work and a lot of reps for each exercise, but I think it didn’t feel as bad as it could have because we were constantly changing what exercise we were doing.
My goal for 2019 was to be able to do at least 200 workouts, and after my New Year’s Eve class, the total for the year was 207. That was pretty amazing to see.
Even though it meant I worked out 3 days in a row, I was also in class for Wednesday to kick off the new year. I didn’t go as early as I usually do, so it was a 2 group class instead of a 3 group class. But it was a good workout to start off my 2020 workouts.
For cardio, we had rounds of push to all outs. We started with a 1-minute push pace with a 1-minute all out. After a recovery, we had a 2-minute push pace to a 1-minute all out. Then it was a 3-minute push pace to a 1-minute all out. And we ended with a 4-minute progressive push to a 1-minute all out. I kept the bike resistance level the same the entire time and I really had to focus on my wattage and speed during the progressive push to make sure I was increasing them every minute. It’s not as easy to do that as it is to increase the resistance, but I really like keeping the resistance steady unless we are doing hill work.
On the floor, we had exercises plus a little bit of rowing. The first block had lunges to upright rows, regular lunges, and side planks with leg lifts. After doing one round of all the exercises, we had a 400-meter row. Then we just worked on the exercises for the rest of the block. The second block had step-ups (which I modified to be squats) and planks with leg lifts. Just like with the first block, we did one round of the exercises and then a 400-meter row. And after the row, it was only the exercises until the class was done. I did have some hip issues during the floor work, but that could have been because it was my 3rd workout in a row.
I was back to my normal class schedule by Friday. And it was an extra special class because my friend Jesse was in town (she lives back east now) and she took class with our group of friends. We were missing one person from the group, but it was still so much fun to have her back for one class.
This class was made up of 4-minute blocks and the cardio and rower switched every 4 minutes. Since I started on the bike, my workout went bike, rower, bike, rower, bike, rower (my bike time had 2 blocks on the bike and 1 on the rower and the rower time had 2 rower blocks and 1 bike one). Every time we were doing cardio or rowing, we had the same thing. For cardio, it was doing .25 miles (1 mile for the bike) and then we had a 30-second recovery before doing 30-second intervals of all outs and recovery. And on the row, it was a 500-meter row and then after that it was lunges until the 4 minutes were done. I did the lunges for most of the rowing blocks, but I switched to squats toward the end.
And on the floor, we also had 4-minute blocks. Each block had 2 exercises and most of them were Bosu exercises. The first block had pullovers with weights and side to side push-ups, both using the Bosu. The second block had kneeling lateral raises with weights and plank spiderman. They were both supposed to be on the Bosu but I didn’t use it for the plank work and put my hands on the floor instead. And the last block had hip hinge low rows with weights and plank jacks. The plank jacks were supposed to be on the Bosu, but I skipped that because I knew I couldn’t guarantee my feet would be stable enough on it (which is the point, but it’s a risk with my hips).
And since it was a special class with Jesse there, we had to take a group photo when we were done!
Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. It was also supposed to be a workout where we added to our base pace. While I do want to work on increasing my base resistance on the bike this year, I also knew that this wasn’t going to be the workout for me to do it. Doing 5 workouts in a week is tough for me and I was feeling sore. So I had to take this workout as a bit of a recovery day.
For cardio, it was a mix of push and base paces to start. Then it was a mix of base paces with incline and base paces at no incline. This was to test if the new base pace was the right one. For me, I just kept the bike resistance level at my normal level for most of the work and increased it for the incline work. I didn’t go as fast as I normally do, but that’s to be expected with a recovery day. Most of the intervals were 1-minute, but in the end we started to have 30-second push paces instead which made it easier for me.
On the rower, we started with a 400-meter row. Then we had medicine ball squats after the row before doing another 400-meter row. After that row, it was a different medicine ball squat exercise. Then we repeated that pattern with a 300-meter row twice and 200-meter rows twice. I didn’t get past the 200-meter rows because my squats took a bit longer than normal, but at least my rowing was still good.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks of work. The first block had suitcase squats with holding a weight in one hand, sumo squats, and step-ups (which I did as lunges). The second block had goblet squats and bench tap squats. And the last block had seated shoulder presses to stands (which I had to split into 2 exercises) and single-leg v-ups. It was a lot of lower body work and a lot of work that involved my hips, so I was feeling a bit sore after class was done. But it was my normal soreness and nothing too extreme which was good.
I’m so happy that I was able to end 2019 with awesome workouts and beating my goal number of workouts for the year. And I started 2020 off with 3 workouts even though it was only half the week, so that’s a good start for my goal for this year. It’s crazy to me that it’s only been a few years that I’ve been ending and starting years with workouts because it feels so perfect and routine to me now. And now I’ve got an entire year that will be filled with workouts before I get to end and start a year this way again.
Cheesecake With My Birthday Twin (or Continuing A New Tradition)
