Monthly Archives: May 2020

Trying To Not Be Sad About Missing Things (or This Was Going To Be An Awesome Weekend)

Posted on May 15, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying To Not Be Sad About Missing Things (or This Was Going To Be An Awesome Weekend)

So many people are upset that major events in their lives are being canceled or postponed right now. I’ve had friends who have had to postpone their weddings and baby showers. I know that those in school have had their graduations and proms canceled (or only happen virtually). There are very few people who haven’t had to miss a major event that they were looking forward to.

I consider myself lucky that I have only had smaller things that have been canceled. For example, I have no clue what will happen with the rest of the season of musicals. I do know that some shows have been canceled, but others are just postponed. But postponed until when? I have been sad about missing the shows, but I know that I will appreciate them even more when they are able to come back. The next season is also still a bit of an unknown. Some of the shows that were supposed to be in it have said they might cancel their tours. But they could reschedule them at another time. So maybe they will tour in LA.

This weekend was supposed to be an amazing show weekend for me. Earlier this week, I should have seen the musical “Mean Girls”, which was a part of the season. But tomorrow, I was supposed to be seeing “Hamilton” again. My parents were going to come to LA for a fun weekend. We were going to see the show (and I was planning on taking them to Wood & Vine to dinner). We didn’t have a lot of the other things planned for the weekend, but I had talked to my mom about maybe going to Disneyland together. I’m sure we would have done some projects around my house. It would have been a great weekend. And now, obviously, there is no way for that to happen.

I don’t know when I’ll see my parents again, but I do talk to them most days on the phone. So at least this trip wasn’t my only chance to connect with them. And I know when things are safer that they will plan another visit to LA. I have no clue about what will happen with “Hamilton”. I want to hope that they will reschedule their residence in LA and there will be a chance for us to go see it together. But it did improve my mood a bit when Disney+ announced that the “Hamilton” movie was going to be released a year earlier and on Disney+ (it was supposed to be released in theaters). We are going to do a family movie night where we watch it at the same time and maybe do a video chat after. We’ve got some time to plan that out. But at least it is allowing us to have a bit of what we had been excited about still happen.

I know that there will be more things that I will be missing out on that I was looking forward to. Everyone has to deal with that now. Just the other day, the Hollywood Bowl announced that they have had to cancel their entire season. I hadn’t looked to see if they had announced their season, but I figured there would be a few shows I would want to go to. The Bowl is a tradition for me during the summer and I know so many people in LA are sad about this tradition having to be canceled for a season. But even if they didn’t cancel, I don’t know if I would feel comfortable going to a show. Maybe there will be better circumstances by the summer, but right now it’s still too scary to think about what might happen if you catch COVID-19 for me to feel ok being in a huge crowd.

Things are starting to very slowly open up again in LA. Retail stores can do curbside pickup. The beaches are opening for activities (but not for hanging out at the beach). And hopefully, with people wearing masks when they are out, we will not see a surge in cases. And if there is no surge, then more things can open up. It’s going to take a long time to get back to something even close to normal. But it’s getting there. And slowly we will be able to reschedule all of these things that we had to put off. And I’m looking forward to when that day happens. Even if it’s a year away.

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Default ThumbnailA Virtual Musical Night (or Trying To Replicate My Routine) Default ThumbnailHaving Another Lazy Weekend (or Trying Not To Feel Like I Missed Out) Default ThumbnailFeeling Like Something’s Missing (or Getting Sad In The Greeting Card Aisle) Default ThumbnailTrying To Make A 5K Plan (or Maybe This Is The Motivation I’m Missing) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailAnd Another Season Of Musicals (or The Next Season Will Be A Bit Different)

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Posted in Tough Stuff

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A Virtual Town Hall (or Getting Some Answers About My Industry)

Posted on May 14, 2020 | Comments Off on A Virtual Town Hall (or Getting Some Answers About My Industry)

There have been so many things that feel up in the air right now. Nobody knows when things will be back to normal (or even when we can start to figure out what the new normal will be like). People don’t know when they will be working again. The entertainment industry is at a complete halt and there is no timeline for when we can start working again. It’s overwhelming and scary.

On top of that, there have been many issues with people who don’t have a traditional job to get unemployment. If you were only an independent contractor, they did create a new system to be eligible. I’m so grateful for that since all my income is 1099 and I don’t qualify normally. As easy as it was for me to apply, I’m still dealing with issues as they never asked me how much I made and my unemployment amount is not what it should be. But my issues are much easier than others. Some people who worked both W2 and 1099 income can only apply for unemployment under the standard system. So if they made $50,000 last year and $49,000 was 1099 and $1,000 was W2, they have to file with the $1,000 of W2 income (which makes the amount they get significantly less than it should be).

There are also issues with people who have incorporated and are dealing with small business options. I know the government is doing their best and this is not what they ever expected to happen, but it’s still hard when there are so many people depending on things to be fixed so they don’t have to worry how they will pay the bills.

A lot of these unique circumstances are unique to people in the entertainment industry. So when I heard that our union president, Gabrielle Carteris, was doing a town hall, I knew I wanted to watch. And the town hall was also hosted by the president of IATSE, Matthew Loeb so it was going to discuss issues that other entertainment industry employees would have. But it wasn’t just SAG-AFTRA and IATSE, Congressman Schiff was going to be a part of it so we could hear what a representative of our government thinks and we could share some of our concerns to him.

I didn’t submit a question, but I was very interested to hear what others were worried about. And a lot of issues I expected, like the split income for unemployment, was covered and Congressman Schiff seemed surprised that we had that issue as the bill they passed was supposed to prevent that. And it was good to hear someone who felt very strongly about us needing to get back to work but needing to be cautious so things don’t get worse. There was no sugarcoating things, our industry might be one of the last ones to come back due to the large number of people that would be on set or the fact that actors work very close to each other (and that’s not counting intimate scenes). But it was hopeful to hear that Congressman Schiff does want to figure out how we can work and get back to making the entertainment that so many people have been spending their days watching.

I know that acting work won’t be coming back soon, but I hope it will be not too far away. There are so many things I miss about the entertainment industry and I know they can’t start up again until it is safer for us to gather in groups. We had no clue that things would get like this as quickly as they did, so there is a chance that things can get better just as quickly. But I don’t want the government to rush it and force us to go back into isolation to stop another surge.

I guess the unknowns will just have to continue for a while longer until more is understood and can be known.

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I Guess This Made My Life A Bit Interesting (or An Outing To Urgent Care)

Posted on May 13, 2020 | Comments Off on I Guess This Made My Life A Bit Interesting (or An Outing To Urgent Care)

Of course, right after a post where I said I have a lot of repeating days, I have something that changes things up for me. This wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but I guess any variety helps me from boredom.

I’ve had a few different autoimmune diseases for the majority of my life. I’ve been very lucky because I have never had really severe cases. One of my autoimmune diseases is about hair loss. And while I have lost a lot of hair from time to time, and even had significant bald spots, it has never been as bad as I know it could get. And while hair loss is upsetting, it’s not the worse thing I could deal with and I’m lucky that there are ways to cover it up if I did lose more of my hair.

My other autoimmune disease isn’t as simple. It causes flares and bumps on my skin (for me, it’s mainly on my upper legs). Most of the time these flares are just annoying, but sometimes they can get painful. But they tend to be pretty small so even if they hurt, they aren’t affecting too much of my body. There are a few treatment options I can try to reduce the frequency or size of these flares, but I have never been so severe that I considered doing them. Although I will say that I am considering it more now.

I had a flare appear over the weekend. I’m assuming that a lot of the flares I’m getting are due to stress right now. I’ve noticed that I’m also losing more hair than normal, so I just figured that all my autoimmune issues are reacting to the stress. But this new flare wasn’t like the ones that I’m used to. It was very deep in my skin (compared to being closer to the skin) and it was super painful. I assumed that it would get better as that is what normally happens. But on Monday, it was much worse. I felt a lump under my skin that was the size of a softball and I had a lot of redness and swelling. I have always known that my flares could cause cellulitis because I had experienced a minor case of that, but this was much worse than anything I had ever dealt with.

I really don’t want to go to the hospital for any reason right now, but after trying some of the remedies I know to try at home I knew that I had to. The size of the painful area on my leg was just increasing without stopping and I didn’t want it to turn into something much worse. I did try to do telemedicine first because I thought maybe they could just prescribe me antibiotics, but I had to be seen by a doctor. So I went off to urgent care since I couldn’t get an actual doctor’s appointment any time soon.

Fortunately, it seems like most people feel the same that I do and were avoiding the hospital. There were only 3 other people at urgent care (all suspected COVID cases go to a special section of the ER and were not near urgent care). There was still a bit of a wait because they were limiting how many people were inside urgent care and they wanted everything to be ready and clean before a new patient went in. But there was a waiting area outside in the shade so I waited out there.

Once I got inside, things were really quick for me. I was very lucky that the doctor that saw me was familiar with my autoimmune disease (I’ve encountered a lot who didn’t know anything about it) and she was able to confirm that I did have cellulitis immediately after seeing me. And as expected, she wanted me on a course of antibiotics to resolve it. She said that coming in was the right choice because this wasn’t likely to resolve on its own. It was pretty large, and if left untreated, could need IV antibiotics. I’m glad that I just have to take some pills for a week to hopefully make it go away.

I did giggle a bit when she was saying that this was very large as she measured the site being 8cm by 7cm. All that made me think is that while this did look big on my skin, the tumor in my liver was bigger! I know it’s not a perfect comparison, but it still was what my mind went to.

I was able to get my antibiotics at the hospital and started taking them on Monday evening. The doctor said I should notice a difference in a few days and I’m optimistic that it will start getting better by then. I have already noticed a small reduction in the swelling, but the pain is just as bad as it was before. But I feel better even with the same pain knowing that I got checked out and didn’t just try to wait it out and see.

Even though I was worried about going to urgent care, I will say that everyone at the hospital worked hard to make me feel safe about being there. And they were working hard to make sure all the patients were getting seen as quickly as possible. I was grateful for that because I was nervous about having to go in. But they made it as easy as possible for me. And while it wasn’t a fun adventure to my week, at least it changed things up a bit for me.

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Default ThumbnailBlogging Led To A Breakthrough (or I Need To Believe I’m Worthy) Default ThumbnailAvoiding Something I Should Be Doing (or Scared Of What I’ll Find Out) Default ThumbnailAn Evening At Urgent Care (or Why Being Polite Is Always Best) Default ThumbnailBeing A Bit Paranoid (or Trying To Believe I’m Not Having More Health Issues) Default ThumbnailI Guess I’ve Been Very Lazy (or I’m Sorry This Isn’t That Interesting) Default ThumbnailTaking Care of Me (or Making Sure I’m First in My Life)

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

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Having A Lot Of Repeat Days (or More Organizing and More Virtual Hangouts)

Posted on May 12, 2020 | Comments Off on Having A Lot Of Repeat Days (or More Organizing and More Virtual Hangouts)

I know a lot of people feel like they are living the same day over and over again right now. This is probably happening a lot for people who are completely out of work. I am lucky with my work because I do still have some (even though the hours are a fraction of what they used to be). I know that 3 days a week, I work from 8-9 am with doing customer voicemails. And I do still have my other job, but those hours are limited too as I can’t find a lot of things to add to the calendar. I also have my workouts a few days a week, so that helps to make things feel a bit different. I usually know what day of the week it is based on if I have a workout or work that morning.

But besides those things, there isn’t a lot of variety in my day. I’m working on not just sitting in front of a screen all day long and trying to continue to be productive, but there have been days where sitting and watching tv is all I feel up to doing. And it’s not easy to find other things to fill my day with while staying inside and staying safe (and yes, I know I can go out for walks or drives, but it’s not the same).

I wrote about 2 different things I’ve been doing a lot of lately. And those are organizing my house and having virtual hangouts. Honestly, that’s all I’ve been doing a lot of lately to change things up. And I know these are good habits or activities to have, so I don’t feel as guilty as I do when I watch tv for hours on end.

Fortunately, doing organization in my house was long overdue, so there have been a lot of projects to work on. Some of the projects have been pushed off because I needed something to complete them, so now I have been ordering what I need. Because of the pandemic, there are shipping delays with some things, so I just work on what I can as I get things. And this week, I got these little drawer organizers that I had been looking at online. I know it’s hard to make them fit perfectly in my drawers, but I found some that don’t actually snap together so I can keep open space between them. My plan was to just organize my desk, but I had so many extras that I also did 2 of my kitchen drawers. I didn’t really get rid of anything as I did these projects, but it looks much better and my drawers look like there isn’t as much because there is some space to spare.

I’m sure I’ll continue to modify these over time, but for now, it’s so much better than it was and I can start working on the top of my desk and my file cabinet now.

And with my virtual hangouts, I’m trying to plan them with different groups of friends so I have them as often as I can. And the one group of friends that I had been working on scheduling one with is with my workout friends. Right now, we are spread over 3 states and we all have different schedules and things we have to do each day. So it hasn’t been easy to find a time that works for us all. But we were able to plan one for this past Friday. And I felt like that was the perfect time to do it because when we all worked out together, Fridays was the day we were all there!

And it was so nice to see my friends. We did talk about workouts briefly (I think I’m the only one doing the official home workouts regularly), but we mainly talked about all the random things we could think of. We were all laughing so much and laughing so hard that we were crying. I needed this virtual hangout so much and I didn’t realize how badly I needed it until it was done. It really boosted my mood and made my day so much better. And now that we’ve done one, I think everyone agrees that we need to do these more often.

I’m sure this week will continue to be filled with more organizing and virtual hangouts. I also have some ideas for new skills that I want to learn since I have so much free time. Anything that can change up my day a little bit is exactly what I need to do right now.

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My Workouts Are Never Simple (or I Need To Keep Working On Modifications)

Posted on May 11, 2020 | Comments Off on My Workouts Are Never Simple (or I Need To Keep Working On Modifications)

I knew going into this past week that my workouts weren’t going to be my best. I was going to be dealing with nausea and I was still struggling with losing some motivation. I’m not going to lie and say working out when feeling like this is easy. It’s not even as easy as it is when I’m in the studio (when it’s really not that easy). Pushing myself when I’d rather be lying in bed is tough when there’s nobody expecting to see me at a workout. I could easily lie and say I worked out when I did, but I know that would just make me feel worse.

What I wasn’t expecting going into this past week of workouts was dealing with the injury to my finger. That caused an entirely new set of issues for me. Of course, I knew I didn’t want to stress my finger as it was starting to heal because I didn’t want to delay the healing process. I always bandaged up my finger when working out because I wanted to protect it. And part of that protection involved not allowing myself to bend it that much. Bending my finger stresses the injury and can damage any scars or scabs on it. So I had to be as careful as possible.

Even though I knew I was bandaging my finger to prevent it from bending, I guess I didn’t think through how much that would affect my workouts in terms of being able to hold or lift anything. Monday’s workout was the worst for that. I tried to lift even the lightest things, and I couldn’t get a grip on it. Even though I was using the rest of my fingers, it was like I lost my grip strength because I was not able to use my middle finger. It might have been how I wrapped my finger or it might have been how new the injury was. Lifting things was a struggle through the rest of the week, but it did get easier as the week went on. I think it’s still going to take a few weeks before I’m completely healed and able to use it. The healing process is going much faster than I expected, but the lack of movement in my finger is almost the same as it was when it happened. I have no clue how long it will take to get that back.

And the pain and nausea were also worse toward the beginning of the week, so at least all the tough things were easing up through the week. I continued to struggle with figuring out modifications for the plank work, which was made harder by the limits I could do with my finger injury. I’ve tried so many types of chairs and ladders to be similar to a weight bench, but they don’t work. And the things I have found online that could be good are either out of stock or cost too much. I know that people are hoping the studios can open up again in about 2 months, but that’s still 2 months of home workouts that I want to have as much success as possible. So I need to figure this out.

Even though I would say that this past week of workouts was probably the hardest one I’ve had since starting the home workouts (possibly the hardest workouts I’ve had in years), I still got my 4 workouts in for the week and I still tried my best. I took a lot of breaks and rests for various reasons, but I did remember to pause the workout video sometimes so I didn’t use workout time as break time. And I just keep telling myself the same thing over and over again. I am doing something. I am trying. I am not giving up and saying I’ll just get back into my workouts when the studios open up again. I have prioritized my workouts and that is a win to me. I just look forward to when things are a bit easier for me so I can feel like I’m making progress or getting some wins in my workouts each week.

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Finding A Social Life Where I Can (or Virtual Parties and Distance Hangouts)

Posted on May 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Finding A Social Life Where I Can (or Virtual Parties and Distance Hangouts)

I can write so many posts about how isolated I feel right now. I know that technically we are all isolating, but most people I know are isolating with others inside their home. They might be with family, roommates, a significant other, or a pet. But I am just alone. I know I’m not the only person living alone right now, but I think it just adds another layer to things right now that makes it tough.

I’ve been trying my best to not feel as isolated as I really am. But there are only so many things I can do. I’ve had a lot more phone calls with friends than I can ever remember. I’ve done video chats with friends that I never normally would do that with because they live so close. I’ve really tried to find ways to feel like I’m still connected to others out there, but my options are limited.

But I feel like there have been 2 things that make me feel so much more connected than anything else. The first is something that hasn’t happened that often. In fact, I think I’ve only had this happen a few times since isolation started. And that is having a friend come by for a social distance visit. Once this happened when a friend came by to borrow something from me and she was in her car and I was in my driveway. Another time was when a friend did some grocery shopping for me and I was in my car and she was in her driveway (yes, there is a bit of a theme here). And this week, my workout buddy Erin came by!

She was dropping off some stuff for me like hair dye to do my roots (which I know I don’t need to do but I appreciate the chance to not see my gray hairs!). We made sure we stood pretty far away from each other. I know the guidelines say to be 6 feet apart, but we were probably more like 12 or 15 feet apart. But it didn’t matter because it was so nice to see a friend! This was the most face to face time I’ve had with a friend in a while and I needed it. Just talking to a friend in person for a few minutes made my day (and my week) so much better! I know that right now it’s not necessarily safe to do hangouts like this often, but if I can do one once a month until it’s safer to have them more often, I think that will be so good for my mental health.

And the other thing that has been giving me a social life right now is my Netflix Party group that I have. The group has been going strong since we started it and I love knowing that on Wednesdays and Saturdays I will have a virtual hangout with the women in the group. We’ve changed things a little in the group since we started. Now, we are usually doing double features on Saturdays and we are trying to have a theme each week. And on Wednesdays, we are watching a tv series together. We did a vote and we are watching “Schitt’s Creek”, which is a show that I had been meaning to watch. We watch a few episodes each week and it’s been so fun.

And the group that does the parties has really bonded. We have a group text going which was originally set up to share the links for the movies we watch. But that group text has turned into an amazing support group. If someone is feeling lonely, they can write something and we all rally around them with support. When someone posted that they lost their job, some people replied with help with filing for unemployment, and others replied with other things they might need to do. And when it was a Friday and someone wrote that they were sad it wasn’t Saturday because they didn’t want to be alone, we scheduled an impromptu bonus movie night and were all watching a movie together within an hour. It’s been an amazing support system that I am so grateful for.

Right now, it’s not easy to feel connected to others (or others who don’t live in your home). We are all trying to figure out how to not feel alone, and there is no right answer. For right now, these things are what work for me and what feels right. If this continues for several more months, I might have a different plan. I just have to stay flexible with what I do to feel social and keep trying new things to see what will work for me.

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Default ThumbnailSo Many Virtual Movie Nights (or Thank Goodness For Technology) Default ThumbnailFinding Time For Friends (or Busting Out Of My Routine) Default ThumbnailSocial Days Off (or Finally Seeing Some Friends) Default ThumbnailHaving A Lot Of Repeat Days (or More Organizing and More Virtual Hangouts) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For A Fun Rewatch (or More Netflix Parties) Default ThumbnailRemembering To Have Some Fun (or Hangouts Don’t Always Have To Be Events)

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Even More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project)

Posted on May 7, 2020 | Comments Off on Even More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project)

I’ve been working hard at finding ways to keep myself busy. I have struggled with figuring out what to do from time to time, but in general, I think I have been doing a pretty decent job. This is not a normal time at all, so there is no way that we should be acting. I’m just trying to do things that are safe and smart to occupy myself.

I wrote about doing some big cleaning projects recently. I’m working on getting into a better cleaning routine and schedule that I can maintain even when things start getting back to how they were. I know that I’m not the best housekeeper and I would totally pay for someone to clean my place if I could. But there is no excuse for at least trying to get better at cleaning and seeing what I can get used to doing.

Part of those cleaning projects has also involved getting myself organized. As I clean, I find things around my house that maybe I forgot that I owned or had been looking for. I need to make my space the most efficient and practical for myself. Organizing my desk has been a project on my to-do list for a long time because I can tell that the disorganization is making some things harder for me. That project still is on my list and I haven’t really gotten started with it. But I have been spending a lot of time organizing my kitchen.

My kitchen organization happened for a few reasons. When I did the huge deep cleaning of my fridge, I realized that I wasn’t keeping things organized in my fridge. Things weren’t necessarily in the best places to keep them and it made it look sloppy and harder to find things I might be looking for. And that can lead to food waste, which is something that I am very guilty of but am trying to be better about it.

After organizing my fridge, I looked around my kitchen and realized that I hadn’t really done much organizing of my kitchen at all. When I moved into my house over 10 years ago, I put things in places that made sense and they haven’t moved around much. And I know that there was some wasted space in my kitchen, which was really bad since I am so limited in space. So I decided to take a look at things, see where I can organize things better, and spend a lot of time moving things around and making my kitchen a better space.

This project took a lot of time (which was fine since I’ve got nothing but time right now) and I broke it up into chunks. I did have to order new things to help me organize like a new spice rack and some can holders to maximize the space that I do have.

I had a spice race before, but it wasn’t working for me because the containers had to be a specific size to work. I was using my pantry area to store spices because they needed a place to go, but once I got the new spice rack I could move the spices to a better place and use the pantry for things like soup and rice (using the new can holders). Being organized like this is also allowing me to have more food at my house. I’m not hoarding or stocking up a lot, but it’s nice to know that I have cans of beans that I can use for dips and not have to go to the grocery store just to get them (which you can’t really do easily right now anyway).

But what I think was the biggest organizing project in my house were my cabinets where I have kept dishes and cups. Those cabinets haven’t really had any changes in 10 years, even as I got new stuff or realized that I didn’t use things. The first part of that project was going through everything in those cabinets and taking out things that I know I don’t use. I put a lot of cups and mugs into boxes and stored them away. I had something like 30 cups and 15 mugs and really don’t need more than a few of each.

Then, I found some shelves that I could add to my cabinets to have the ability to use more vertical space. There was so much wasted space since I wasn’t going to make tall piles of dishes and these really made a huge difference. There were a lot of different attempts to make these work the best way that they could for me and I probably redid the cabinets a few dozen times, but I finally found something that I was happy with.

I wish I had taken a real before photos of the cabinets, but I only took it after I had removed most of the cups and mugs. So it looks a lot emptier than it really was. And in the after photo, you can see that I have a space to store things like reusable zipper bags, silicone dish covers, and some storage containers.

And by stacking the dishes and cups, I was able to use one half of the cabinet for those things instead of having one half for dishes and one half for cups. I’m really happy with how much easier this makes things for me with getting dishes and storage containers.

I’m not completely done with the organizing project, but I’m almost there. But I have already noticed a difference in how my kitchen feels. And since I’m cooking so much more now, having a kitchen that feels right and that things are where they should be is very important. Hopefully, when I finally get to my desk organizing, it will feel as good as organizing my kitchen did!

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Default ThumbnailOrganization Time (or Seeing A Bit Of A Mess) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year) Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again) Default ThumbnailMore Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

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More Virtual Union Meetings (or It’s Funny I Wrote About This Not Long Ago)

Posted on May 6, 2020 | Comments Off on More Virtual Union Meetings (or It’s Funny I Wrote About This Not Long Ago)

A few months ago, I wrote a post about how I was attending some of my union meetings virtually. That post was about learning how some of the union things I attend can be virtual and how it was exciting that I could still be involved even if I couldn’t make it to a meeting in person. I had no clue how relevant that post would become right after I wrote it.

There are not a ton of union meetings right now as the union is focused on essential things such as getting residuals out to members and our current negotiations. The committees I’m a part of can still meeting, but those would be on our own and not through the union. None of the committees I’m on are doing those meetings just yet, but I think that’s because those committees are all about going to events in person and in large groups. Those aren’t happening so we don’t need meetings to discuss upcoming ones or how we can support them.

But I have been a part of virtual meetings with my slate. Those meetings are a bit more of hangouts where we can see each other’s faces over Zoom and a lot of the time is spent checking in with each other. We also go over any news that we should be aware of or that we should make sure other members know. For example, our union dues were just due and I know that some people couldn’t afford them right now. Dues couldn’t be waived completely as the dues go toward paying our staff. But the union did make some accommodations for those who cannot pay. There will be no late fees this dues period if someone cannot pay. We also have an option to pay half of our dues this summer and the other half this fall. I am in a fortunate position and was able to pay my dues as usual, but I know not everyone is in that position. And I’m glad that my union is trying to help with those who cannot pay.

Our union has also been working with politicians a lot to make sure that actors are a part of various relief packages. They worked to make sure anyone who is not a standard employee is included (which I am so grateful for as I am in that category). And I know that some people are saying that actors and performers are not essential and don’t need help, but I think those people are just thinking of celebrities. There are so many performers who work normally but aren’t wealthy. And now that there is no work, they need help. Also, while people are isolating at home, I think most people are enjoying the work that we create. People are watching tv and movies or listening to music. And broadcasters (such as news anchor) are members of SAG-AFTRA as well, and we know that we rely on them for getting us the news and keeping us informed. So making sure the members of our union are included in the help the government is providing is important.

Even though there was a lot of news that we covered in the virtual meetings that we have had, I am most grateful for just feeling like I’m a part of something. I’ve shared how isolated I feel since I live alone and any connection I can get is big. So if that connection is a virtual meeting with people that I love spending time with, then that’s amazing and I am so happy to have it. I just can’t wait until I can see them in person because I appreciate them all even more now!

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Default ThumbnailAnother Union Working Evening (or Doubling Up On Live Streams) Default ThumbnailAnother Union Meeting (or Getting Into The Routine Of Things) Default ThumbnailFinal Union Working Meeting For 2017 (or A Commercial Roundtable) Default ThumbnailMore Union Working (or Influencers And Contracts) Default ThumbnailLots Of Virtual Meetings (or Virtual Union Meetings) Default ThumbnailLearning So Much From Union Working (or Getting Ready For Contract Negotiations)

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Posted in Acting

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Of Course I Have A New Injury (or Thank Goodness For Family and FaceTime)

Posted on May 5, 2020 | Comments Off on Of Course I Have A New Injury (or Thank Goodness For Family and FaceTime)

Even though I am one of the klutziest people I know, I am pretty lucky with what happens in my klutzy moments. I always seem to have new bruises popping up that I have no clue how they happened. I’ve broken my toes more times than I can count and have gotten really good at buddy taping my toes together. And more often than not, my klutzy moments only result in hurting my ego a bit.

But this past Sunday, my klutziness caused something that really made me have a moment of panic. I was preparing ingredients for my dinner (yup, cooking from scratch again). It’s something I’ve made before and I was happy that it was going to be easy to put together. I have a decent knife set, but I usually don’t use the bigger knives because the small ones work. But I was trying to cut a big onion and the small knife wasn’t doing the job. So I took one of the bigger ones out (I think I’ve used it once or twice before) and got to cutting my onion.

I don’t actually remember how it happened, but the knife slipped and went through the top of my finger. It basically sliced the top knuckle area on my middle finger. But on the top of it where it’s just skin and bone, not the bottom by the finger pad where there is more to it. And as soon as it happened, I was in a lot of pain. I quickly grabbed some paper towels and put pressure on it because it was bleeding quite a bit (although I managed to not get any blood on my ingredients). I didn’t look at the injury too much since I immediately put the paper towel on it, but I knew it wasn’t good.

After a few minutes, I realized that this cut may be worse than I thought and I was terrified that I’d need stitches. Needing stitches is never good, but now it’s especially scary since I do not want to have to go to the hospital if I can avoid it. It was bad enough to have to go to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions. I do not want to have to step foot into an ER where I know there may be patients with coronavirus or other contagious things. So I called my parents.

I’m lucky with my parents and brother all being in medicine. Even though my parents are both retired, they still are great at giving medical advice and letting me know when I need more serious medical help. So when I called my mom I was trying to explain the best I could about what happened and how much my finger was bleeding. She gave me some advice about when I should worry and how long it might take for the bleeding to slow down or stop. And then we got on FaceTime so she could see the wound after I took the paper towels off. By the time I was on the phone, the bleeding was not as bad as it had been when it happened. So that’s a good sign. My mom told me to keep putting pressure on it and to check in with them in an hour or two.

I put a clean paper towel on my finger and wrapped it with some medical tape to keep a bit of pressure on it. I also needed to finish preparing dinner because I didn’t want my ingredients to go to waste. Cooking with only 1 good hand isn’t easy, but it can be done.

By the time my food was done in the oven, the bleeding had stopped. So I put a regular bandage on it and called my mom to update her. I’m sure she knew I would be fine, but it was still good for me to check in with her.

I had to figure out some creative solutions for things that evening because I wanted to protect my finger. I used gloves for a lot of things so my bandage wouldn’t get wet. And it seemed to be doing ok when I went to bed. My finger was really sore (and I could tell it would be hurting a lot for the rest of this week), but the bandage was staying on and it didn’t seem like it was bleeding anymore.

Yesterday, I had my workout and that was another challenge. Anything that required me to support myself on my hands or lift weight wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t have the ability to grip with the cut where it was. When I started my workout, I just had the bandage on there. But I realized I needed a bit more protection so I wrapped the bandage in medical tape to keep it secure. It limited my movement in my finger even more, but it helped with a lot of the pain. It also made it look like I was giving the finger no matter what.

Showering was another interesting challenge. I ended up cutting a finger off of a rubber glove and then putting medical tape around it to try to secure it. Water still got in there and I needed to change the bandage again, but it was better than if I hadn’t done anything. Because of where the cut it, the waterproof bandages don’t really stick to it. I did order some knuckle bandages that should be arriving this week, so hopefully those will help.

I’m sure this sounds silly and that I shouldn’t have needed to call my parents just because I cut myself. But it’s scary when something like that happens and you are all alone. And I really didn’t know if I needed to go to the hospital for this. If I couldn’t reach my parents, I probably would have gone because I would rather be safe than sorry. But right now, the hospital isn’t always the safest choice. I’m grateful that my mom was able to calm me down when I was scared and could help me try to fix this the best she could. I probably have a few weeks of healing ahead of me before my finger seems normal again, but at least I’m taking care of it and I know I’ll be ok.

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Default ThumbnailWelcome Tucker! (or Filling The Dog Shaped Hole In My Family) Default ThumbnailInjury After Injury (or I Swear It’s Not Because I’m A Klutz) Default ThumbnailMore Family Time (or Seeing All My Immediate Family Last Week) Default ThumbnailTrying To Be Patient (or Did I Re-Injury Myself?) Default ThumbnailWorkouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury) Default ThumbnailLearning How To Maximize My Injury (or Feeling More Normal)

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Posted in Tough Stuff

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I Hate Not Having As Much Motivation (or A Week Of Workout Struggles)

Posted on May 4, 2020 | Comments Off on I Hate Not Having As Much Motivation (or A Week Of Workout Struggles)

I’ve written before about how I’m really doing my best with the Orangetheory at-home workouts. I am so appreciative of Orangetheory for doing these for everyone every day. There are other workout studios that either took much longer to pull something together or still have not found a way to do virtual workouts. I’m so lucky that the place that I consider my workout home was one of the leaders when it comes to creating home workouts to do right now.

And I have maintained my workout schedule by doing the workouts 4 days a week. I’m not necessarily doing the workouts at the same time as I usually do, but I do get them done. And I do try my best in the workouts with every exercise that is given in each workout.

But just because I am trying my best, it doesn’t mean I am doing my best. And I know that this past week was not my best at all. I had 2 things working against me that just made things harder than normal.

The first thing was that this past week was the start of another cycle of nausea. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be that bad this time, but it really did kick in a lot this time. And the workouts weren’t ones that were easy for me to do while nauseous. I’m used to having the ability to make modifications for a lot of things that are hard for me to do when I’m nauseous. But because I don’t have all the equipment that I normally use to help me. I really tried to find ways to do things like making burpees easier, but I really don’t have the right setup. I thought maybe I could use a step stool as a replacement for the bench, but it didn’t really work the way I needed it to. It wasn’t wide enough for the plank work and it was slipping on my floor.

I have looked at what other alternatives I could use for a bench. There are a few ideas like different types of workout boxes (like a wooden box). Some of them are really expensive or really huge, and I don’t want to make it something that isn’t easy to store in my house. I’m looking at the brands that make them seeing if they have some other types that would work better for me. And I have been looking at workout benches to see if there are better portable ones that I wasn’t aware of.

But even without the issues of not having the right equipment to modify my workouts, working out when I’m nauseous is always a tough thing for me. And it was just so much harder when I wasn’t surrounded by my workout friends or have my coach helping me out. There is no question that a big part of what makes my workouts so amazing is being around people that are so incredible. And lack of motivation was another big issue this past week that made things harder.

I never knew I would connect to a workout the way that I have. And so much of that workout is about what happens when you take a class in the studio. I’ve never been a huge fan of working out at home. I’ve tried it so many times and it just has never clicked with me. I’m forcing myself to do them this time, even if I don’t feel like doing it. But when I’m not feeling like it, I know that I’m not doing the workouts as hard as I can and I’m not necessarily getting as much out of it as I should.

I’ve been doing this for a while now, but there’s a chance that I haven’t even gotten through half the time that we might need to do this. There is so much unknown still about when things will be reopening. Even states that have reopened aren’t really fully open. The studios in the states that have opened gyms back up have released statements saying that they will not be opening until they can make it safer. California isn’t close to being open again. I’ve seen some things that people think that gyms (of any type) won’t be open again until maybe July. Obviously I don’t want things to open up until they are safe, but July seems so far away. And I’m trying to not focus on how much longer I will have to work out at home, but I also can’t forget that. I’ve been looking at options to still be working out at home but not feeling as alone, but they haven’t happened just yet. But I need to figure out something to make these home workouts better for me because there is a chance that I’ll be doing these for a while.

I really hope that this week of workouts goes a bit better for me. I’m expecting another week of nausea (fortunately, I haven’t been experiencing as much pain as normal). I don’t know what it will take to feel more motivated, but maybe something will kick in as well. I wish I had a better post to write about how my workouts went last week, but I feel like being honest is the most important thing. And honestly, this past week just wasn’t that great for me.

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Default ThumbnailThe Motivation Struggle Is Real (or Nausea Really Kicked My Butt) Default ThumbnailThis Does Feel Like A Normal Routine (or Another Full Workout Week) Default ThumbnailNot The Workout Week I Planned On (or Starting To Prepare To Go Back) Default ThumbnailFinally A Good Workout Week (or Continuing To Build My Home Gym) Default ThumbnailI Hate Having A Hard Workout Week (or Not My Usual Workout Recap) Default ThumbnailAnother Mixed Motivation Week (or I Might Be Almost Done With At-Home Workouts)

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Posted in Fitness

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