Monthly Archives: August 2021

Returning To A Birthday Tradition (or A Rare Meal Out)

Posted on August 17, 2021 | Comments Off on Returning To A Birthday Tradition (or A Rare Meal Out)

I’ve had my birthday tradition of eating at Truxton’s with my birthday twin for a long time now. I say every year how much I love having this tradition of going to dinner with Joanna because we always set aside this time for each other each year. We don’t necessarily get to hang out as much as we’d like to over the year, but this time is sacred and we will always make sure we find a way to have this dinner.

Even last year when things were so unclear with the pandemic, we made it happen. We might have had a picnic instead of what we were used to and we were both being so cautious and careful about everything we did, but we still had our dinner. And at that point last year, I was seeing so few people that any real face-to-face time was special to me.

So even though things have taken a turn for the slightly worse with the pandemic recently, we knew we would still have our birthday dinner. We didn’t decide until the day of what the final plan would be. For me, I really did want to eat there if possible, but I wasn’t sure how Joanna would feel about it. But since they had tables outside that were set pretty far apart from each other, we agreed that eating there would be nice and safe enough.

We ended up arriving at the restaurant within about a minute of each other, and since there was nobody sitting outside at the time, we were able to be seated quickly. Since the pandemic, I’ve rarely gone to eat at a restaurant. I’ve gotten take out and delivery, but this dinner was only the 3rd time since March of 2020 that I have sat down at a restaurant and had a meal. Even if this wasn’t our birthday dinner, that alone would have made this feel so special.

Even though we have been going to Truxton’s for a long time, we always still see what is on the menu in case there are new things. And I’m not sure if they changed things earlier but last year it was a limited menu or if these were more recent changes, but there were so many new items on the menu this time!

We pretty much always get monkey bread to start and then share a dessert, plus we each get our own entrees. But this time, there was a new burrata grilled cheese sandwich that sounded so good to both of us! So we decided we’d get 2 sandwich meals and then each take half. So we got the grilled cheese and the turkey avocado club (which is a sandwich that I have gotten before and really like).

And I’m glad we split the sandwiches because the grilled cheese was so good but so rich! I never could have the entire thing myself!

Besides enjoying a nice dinner out and having a good meal, of course I loved getting to catch up with Joanna too. Both of us haven’t had a ton going on because of how we are being careful, but there is always something to update each other on. I was filling her in on some random dating stories that happened recently and she was telling me about a trip she was going to go on soon. Despite all the craziness going on in the world around us, this dinner was a nice sense of normalcy that I feel I don’t get to have that often. And while I can’t escape thinking about everything happening in the world, it was so nice to have just a bit of time to focus on something else that is more positive.

And yes, it was almost a free meal. The completely free meal isn’t really an option for us, but that’s ok. It ended up being about $5 each after our discount and we each left $20 (so our server got a $30 tip). The meal was beyond worth the $20 each!

And considering that our last 2 traditions (our birthday last year and cheesecake around the new year) had to be done in an unusual way, getting to have this almost normal dinner tradition was really one of those things that made me hopeful and grateful that more normal things might be coming soon.

I have no clue if by the end of this year or the beginning of next year things will be normal enough for us to have our cheesecake dinner the way we are used to. Worst case, we find another way to do it like we did the last time. But at least for our birthday dinner, we did get to return to an almost normal way of us celebrating.

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Default ThumbnailBirthday Twin Tradition (or An Almost Free Meal) Default ThumbnailA Socially Distant Picnic (or Still Having One Birthday Tradition) Default ThumbnailAn Almost Free Meal (or Amazing Food And Crazy Dating Stories) Default ThumbnailContinuing The Birthday Celebrations (or A Birthday Twin Adventure) Default ThumbnailAlmost Free Birthday Dinner (or Spending My Birthday With My Birthday Twin) Default ThumbnailBelated Birthday Dinner (or We Don’t Mind It’s Not Totally Free Anymore)

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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Having Some Workout Celebrations (or I’m Glad I Felt Ok At The Beginning Of The Week)

Posted on August 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Some Workout Celebrations (or I’m Glad I Felt Ok At The Beginning Of The Week)

I knew going into this past week of workouts that it was likely going to be one of my bad weeks. But I really hoped it wouldn’t kick in as soon as I thought it might. And I’m glad it didn’t because my week of workouts kicked off with a big celebratory workout!

Monday was my birthday workout! I do laugh a bit at the fact that I worked out at 6:30 in the morning on my birthday. I still can’t believe I’ve turned into this person. But why should I change up my routine for Mondays? And I like doing a workout on my birthday so this was perfect.

It was a power workout (which is usually my favorite so that was a nice birthday treat!) and we had 4 blocks on each side of the room. 2 of the cardio blocks were run/row blocks and 2 were timed cardio blocks. For the run/row blocks, we had .1 miles on the treadmill (.4 on the bike) and then a 100-meter row and repeated that until the block ended. And the other 2 blocks we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 45-second recoveries. All of the blocks were tough because I made them tough, but they were really good too.

On the floor, 2 blocks were regular floor blocks and 2 blocks were times exercises (that were when cardio had timed blocks). For the regular blocks, we had pull-ups, triceps, chest presses, and bicep curls on the straps. In the first timed block, we had neutral thrusters with weights during the 30-second intervals and hops during the 45-second intervals. And the second timed block had hip hinge low rows during the 30-second blocks and lateral hops during the 45-second intervals.

And of course, I had to do a birthday workout picture with my coach!

On Wednesday, we had an endurance workout. I also started to have to deal with pain and nausea (I did appreciate that it didn’t start on my birthday). So that made the workout a bit more of a challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Each block was intervals of push paces followed by 1-minute base paces. We started at a 3-minute push pace and it went down by 30-seconds each round. The entire thing was split in half so we did the first half of it as the first block and then had some recovery time before continuing the intervals until we were finishing with a 30-second push pace.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks. The first block was a bit of a balance focus. We had pullovers, hip bridges, plank work, and hyperextension all on the Bosu. After doing 2 rounds of all the exercises, we had a 500-meter row. I was a bit slow and didn’t get a chance to finish my row. The second block had 2 rounds of front squats to shoulder presses and hammer curls before having a 500-meter row. This time, I did get to finish my row even though it wasn’t that fast.

Friday’s workout was themed for Friday the 13th. And besides the workout being themed, it felt like the situation in the studio was a bit cursed too. All the wi-fi went down, which meant we had no heart rate monitor screens to look at and the screens that showed the workout were down too. I’ve done classes without being able to monitor my heart rate and they can be an interesting challenge, but I usually have to be careful because I know my heart rate can be a bit crazy too. But this time, I didn’t worry too much about it because my pain and nausea were really awful so I was doing a very light effort through the entire workout.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and 2 of them were rowing blocks. For the first and last block, we had 5 rounds of 30-second all-outs on the rower with only 15 seconds to recover between each round. On a normal day, this would probably have been a fun challenge, but because of how I was feeling I was just trying to keep rowing. I did make it through all of the rowing, but because I wasn’t rowing hard I didn’t get a lot of distance for each block. And on the treadmill and bike for the middle block, we had 3 rounds of a 3 1/2-minute distance challenge with 75 seconds to recover between each round. I did better on the bike than I expected. I was able to keep my resistance level at my push pace level for the entire time for each of them. I still didn’t get as much distance because I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I can, but at least I had the resistance up.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks and the first and last blocks were timed with the rowers. We had 30 seconds of effort with 15 seconds of rest. In the first block, the exercises were neutral half thrusters and skater lunges. And in the last block, we had ground to press with weights and high knees (which I did more like marching in place). And for the second block, we had 13 reps of a lot of exercises. We had pull-ups on the straps, rollouts on the straps, push-ups, bench tap squats, sit-ups, and bear planks. I didn’t have to do too many modifications due to my nausea, but I did move slowly since I needed time to let the pain and nausea pass.

Saturday’s workout was the toughest one for me because of how I felt. I had spent a lot of Friday after my workout really miserable and having to be very careful with timing out my medications because I didn’t want to miss anything. Saturday wasn’t as horrible as Friday day was, but it was still worse than Friday morning had been. So again, I just did what I could in my workout and didn’t stress too much about what I could or couldn’t do.

For cardio, we had long push paces with all-outs after. It started with a 3-minute push pace with no incline and each time we decreased the time but increased the incline/resistance. And every time we had a 1-minute all-out after the push pace. And I did make the effort to increase the resistance level each time, even if I was feeling horrible. I just took a lot of breaks to let the pain and nausea pass when I needed to and then continued when I could.

On the floor, we started and ended with a 2-minute row. For both rows, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go that hard so I just tried to row without stopping. And I’m proud of myself because I was able to do that even if I got a very low distance at the end of the row. Being able to row without stopping has been a struggle, so knowing I can do that when I feel my worst is a great feeling. We had 2 other blocks between the rowing. In the first block, we had lateral hops, sumo deadlifts, and sumo squats to froggers (which I had to split into 2 different exercises). And the second block we had squats, weighted squats, and skier swings. I wasn’t going super heavy with the weights because of how I felt, but at least I did use weights for all the exercises that asked for them.

I’m so glad I had a great birthday workout and felt like myself for it. That really started off this past week on a great note. I wish I had been feeling amazing for the rest of the week, but I knew that was very unlikely so I am not too disappointed that happened. And for this week, it’s still up in the air how I’ll feel. I might be only a little off or I can have some of my worst days. I’ll just have to wait, see, and let you all know in my workout post next week!

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Having A Bit Of Writer’s Block (or I Really Thought More Might Happen This Week)

Posted on August 13, 2021 | Comments Off on Having A Bit Of Writer’s Block (or I Really Thought More Might Happen This Week)

I’ve started and stopped working on this post so many times. I always want to write about interesting things on here, but I don’t always have interesting things happening in my life. And for about a year and a half now, my life really has had fewer interesting things than normal.

And I will never regret staying home to stay safe and healthy. I know that I’m doing my part to try to bring this pandemic to an end. It’s really tough to feel ok all the time about doing this because I’ve been doing the right things for so long and I see people I know going out and living their lives. I wish I could do that, but I will never forgive myself if I got sick or got someone else sick. So I just have to be ok with staying home most of the time and being bored.

And when I’m bored, I usually hit writer’s block. And that’s what happened to me this week. It wasn’t just that I was staying home and not going out, I doubled my work hours this week so I didn’t even make plans for anything after work. I wanted to give myself time to adjust to the new schedule without other things making me busier. So except for leaving my house for errands or my workouts, nothing has really happened this week. So I don’t have anything to write about.

I thought this week might be more interesting because of my birthday, but I didn’t really do much for my birthday. And I’m ok with that, but it also still makes me sad because I had really high hopes that things would be normal by now and I could celebrate my birthday with all of my friends. But that’s going to have to wait for another time.

For now, I’m living a pretty boring and routine life and dealing with writer’s block. But I also know that this time will be a blip in my life and I’ll be back to enjoying life outside of my house again soon. It might feel far away now, but I know that when I’m looking back at this time it won’t feel as endless as it feels now.

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Getting Used To A Full Time Schedule (or I Didn’t Think It Would Feel That Different)

Posted on August 12, 2021 | Comments Off on Getting Used To A Full Time Schedule (or I Didn’t Think It Would Feel That Different)

This week is the first week that I’m working full-time at my customer service job. While I’ve had full-time hours in the recent past when you add up all the hours I did for all my jobs, I never was working 8 hours a day at any particular job. Even before the pandemic when I was working full hours for my box office job, I only worked 7 hours a day and I was always done by 3 pm each day. Now, I’m working  8 hours each weekday for a single job and I’m working until 5 or 6 each evening. Obviously, working more hours is putting me in a better financial spot. But when the extra hours were offered to me originally, I was a bit hesitant. So right now is a bit of a trial period to see how I feel working so many hours.

I was able to negotiate some things with my hours so I’m only working until 6 pm one day a week (for some reason, being done at 5 seems so much better than being done at 6). And my co-workers and I are testing out how to split up responsibilities so I’m not feeling overwhelmed by doing one task for too long. Working in customer service can be a lot, but I’ve been lucky that for the most part the customers are kind and have questions that were easy to get answers for. But there are the occasional situations where it’s very stressful and I am grateful my job is mindful of how that can affect any of us.

And I do know one of their concerns was if I would feel burnt out because I was doubling how many hours a week I was working. I figured it wouldn’t be too bad since I was working until 3 since I was working my box office job. So working until 5 was only adding 2 more hours onto my day. And I have worked 40 hours a week before, so I thought it would be easy enough for me to adjust to it. Technically now, I’m working closer to 60 hours a week when you consider my other jobs, but there is overlap with my hours (all my jobs are aware of this and have approved of me doing so). I’m only a few days into working my new schedule, and I’m already noticing how things feel different for me. And I’m trying to make adjustments so I don’t feel like I need to reduce my hours in the future.

Most of the things are related to time management or comfort while working. Time management has always been a struggle for me. Fortunately, right now there isn’t a lot going on in my life outside of work and my workouts. But I do want to plan time to relax and decompress from my day. I eventually will have more happening in my life, and I need to know how to add that in when I have the chance. But if I’m always exhausted after work, then I won’t be doing much in my evenings except being lazy at home. So I need to find a way to manage my time so I’m not feeling so tired. And that might have to include things like taking more stretching breaks and other things like that so I don’t physically feel exhausted after work.

And along the lines of stretching breaks, I need to find ways to be more comfortable while working. My desk setup hasn’t changed much since I set it up when I built this desk. I have added little things like a better desk chair and a footrest (which sadly broke so I need to replace it), but I want to see what else I can do so my body isn’t hurting after working for so many hours. I do have a cushion on my chair that is supposed to help, but I think I need to either get a better cushion or a better chair. But I also might want to add something on my desk so my arms and wrists don’t hurt after working. Also right now, because it can hurt for sitting for a long time, I take breaks and bring my computer into my room, lay on my bed, and work. I know that’s not the best way to work and I’m sure I’m straining or stressing some part of my body. But sitting at my desk for so long isn’t great for me either. So I have to figure out what I can do so I don’t have other issues while working.

I know this work setup is new to me and I need to still figure out what to do. But I also feel pretty supported by my job in having flexibility if things change or I need to figure out a better situation for me. But hopefully I will get it all figured out and this will just be a blip in my work history before being settled into a new routine.

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I Really Don’t Feel Older (or Doing A Double Take With My Age)

Posted on August 11, 2021 | Comments Off on I Really Don’t Feel Older (or Doing A Double Take With My Age)

Leading up to my birthday, a lot of people asked me if I was feeling older. And in many ways, I feel like I’ve aged decades since March 2020. Some of it was growth that I appreciate gaining because I have learned more about myself that I don’t think I would have figured out for a while unless I was isolated at home. And some of it is growth that I see physically that I don’t love. I’m glad I’m back to doing some of my beauty routines again because that does help me feel better about myself, but I’m not doing everything yet so I still feel like I look older than I want to.

I don’t think about what my actual age is that often. I don’t think I look or feel my age. And the saying that age is just a number is really true. What 38-year-olds were doing a generation or two ago has nothing to do with what they are doing now at the same age. I don’t have to compare myself to what others did when they were my age or what younger people are doing now that I didn’t do. And it’s not often that people ask me how old I am, so there are plenty of times that I honestly have to think about what my age is.

One of the few times that I’m confronted by my age a lot is on dating apps. I don’t believe in lying about my age on there because the truth will be revealed at some point. And if a guy lies to me about his age, I know it’s an innocent lie, but it makes me wonder what other lies he has told me. So I’m honest with my age and if anyone wants to judge me on that, that’s their problem. I don’t see my age while on dating apps that often because I only see it when I’m looking at my own profile. But I do like to look at it right before and then on my birthday because it shows the new age. And that’s usually the first time I will see my new age out there.

And I know that being 38 for a few days shouldn’t feel that different from the entire time I was 37. But I don’t feel like I was ever 37 since I spent most of that year not doing much or seeing others. Obviously, I know it doesn’t work that way, but I feel like I am still owed time from being 36 since the last half of that age was isolated at home.

I haven’t felt my age for a long time, so I know it’s not just becuase of the pandemic. But I think the last year and a half being at home made me feel even less like my age. I know I will still have to think about my age when someone asks me or if I am filling out a form. And maybe I’ll be like this the rest of my life. But even though I forget my own age and don’t feel it most of the time, I do still celebrate being 38. Aging isn’t something everyone gets to do and it is something to be celebrated!

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A Busy Birthday (or I’m Not Sure What I Expected My Birthday To Be Like)

Posted on August 10, 2021 | Comments Off on A Busy Birthday (or I’m Not Sure What I Expected My Birthday To Be Like)

Yesterday was my birthday, and I knew it wasn’t going to be anything too crazy. It was on a Monday, we are still in a pandemic, and I had to work. I figured it would be a bit different from my birthday last year since things are a bit better right now, but I still wasn’t going to be going out and celebrating. At least not on my actual birthday. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to enjoy my birthday however I could.

My day started off with my workout. I’ll do a recap of my birthday workout next week, but it was a good workout.

I don’t think I ever believed that I would be someone who would do a workout at 6:30 am on my birthday, but that’s exactly what I did! I’ve done birthday workouts before and it’s always a nice way to enjoy the day. And this time is was the perfect way to start off my day!

Then I had work for my day job. Monday was the first day I had my new, longer work schedule. It’s not too bad so far, but I know that it might be adjusted if it becomes too much. But at least for kicking it off, it was ok. I had a lot of work I had to get done, but it’s what I’ve been doing before and now I had more time to get all my work done.

And while I was working, I was getting texts and messages from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday. Even though I wasn’t going to see any of them, I still love getting messages from them. And my friend Dani, who moved away from LA a few months ago, messaged me and also asked when I’d be home because something was going to be delivered to my house. I let her know when I had a break and I thought that she was having food or something delivered to my house.

I was so shocked when my doorbell rang, I opened the door, and it was Dani and her new puppy!

I was speechless. All I could say for a few minutes was “oh my god!” and other exclamations like that. She was in LA for some work stuff and decided to not tell me so she could surprise me! And it was the best surprise! I was not expecting to see her or any of my other friends on my birthday and it really made my day! And I’ve missed our hangouts since she moved away, so it was nice to have a little time to hangout and chat before she had to leave and I had to get back to work.

The rest of my birthday was pretty low-key. I worked a few more hours, I did some stuff for my union election, and after work I ordered in some dinner (I figured I should do something nicer for dinner) and watched some tv. Nothing too crazy after work since I didn’t feel like trying to go out to a restaurant or organize anything else. I will have a birthday dinner coming up this weekend, but it didn’t feel right doing much else since things are still not that safe.

Overall, this was a great birthday. I didn’t do a lot, but so much of it made my day feel so special. I didn’t have a plan for what my day would be like, but I wouldn’t have guessed this. But it was exactly what I needed and besides wishing we weren’t in a pandemic, I don’t know if I would have changed a thing. It was the perfect Monday Pandemic Birthday.

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So Much Hard Work (or I’m Still Grateful That I’m Able To Go Work Out)

Posted on August 9, 2021 | Comments Off on So Much Hard Work (or I’m Still Grateful That I’m Able To Go Work Out)

I know that things don’t seem to be getting better as far as the pandemic goes. There are a lot of people who seem to be in denial about that and claim that everything is done and fine even though their area is having more cases than ever over the past year and a half. California and LA aren’t doing great. We aren’t doing worse than ever, but it’s still scary. And I do worry that gyms might have to close again and I really hope that doesn’t happen. We are working out in masks and I would be more than happy to show my vaccination card if necessary to keep working out. I just want to not have to miss my workouts again. And I think that fear is what pushed me a lot this past week.

Monday’s workout was a run/row day. Although I would call it a row/run day because the rower was the focus of the cardio half of class and being on the treadmill or bike was considered a bit of recovery time.

There were different intervals in the row/run, but the rowing always added up to 800-meters. The first was an 800-meter row with 2-minutes on the treadmill or bike. Then it was 2 rounds of a 400-meter row with 90-seconds of cardio after each row. I made it to where we were working on 4 rounds of 200-meter rows with 1-minute of cardio after each row. My longer rows are still a bit of a struggle, but I’m trying to get better. I know it’s partially an endurance issue and partially my form making it harder than it should be. But at least this workout gave me a lot of opportunities to work on that.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. Each block started with doing 1 set of high rows on the straps before moving on to the rest of the exercises that were focused on upper body and core and we were supposed to use the Bosu for all of them. We had single-arm chest presses, pullovers, running man planks, scaption raises, goblet lunges, plank jacks, hip bridges, chest fly, and Spiderman planks. But for a lot of the exercises, I had to skip using the Bosu because of my stability issues. I usually at least try to use it to start and then make the decision from then. But for some things like the lunges, I knew it wasn’t safe for me to try. But I can still do things on the floor and get the same work done, so that works.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength-based day. And I really pushed myself hard in this one. Ever since my coach pushed me to work with resistance levels more, I have taken that to heart. And strength days are the best days to do that.

We had 3 blocks for cardio and they all had some regular push paces as well as incline work. The inclines got shorter each block but they also got steeper. And we also had some all-outs at inclines, which we rarely have. Just like the past few times I’ve been working with the harder resistance levels, my legs felt like they were moving so slowly and it was really hard. But I know that’s a good thing.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. And the first block was a mini-band block. We had good mornings, lateral walks, suitcase squats, overhead presses, front walks, and chest fly with weights all with the mini-bands. We also had a few 400-meter rows in that block too. The mini-band work was really hard because it’s tough on my hips. And I had an issue with my hip popping out a lot in that first block that didn’t want to go back in. The second block had step-ups (that I did as lunges), plank low rows, and seated twists. These were hard because of my hip issues, so I had to go a little lighter with the weights than I would have liked. But I still got some good heavy weights in for most of the workout.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And it was a really great mix although I was a little tired during the power moments so I know I didn’t go as hard as I might be able to do on an only power day.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We started with a 5-minute run for distance and then had a 1-minute walking recovery. Then we had 4 rounds of 30-second all-outs with 1-minute to walk between each all-out. And then we repeated the entire thing again. Doing a 5-minute distance challenge isn’t anything too crazy and doing 30-second all-outs aren’t bad, but somehow doing them back to back was a lot in a good way. I didn’t change the resistance levels on the bike that much during the 5-minute challenges. I did start at my usual push pace level but had to split the difference between my base and push paces to keep going the entire time. But that was the only adjustment.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was longer and started with a 300-meter row. Then we had 2 mini-blocks in the block. The first mini-block had chest presses, bench push-ups, and ab dolly hamstring curls (which I modified to be hip bridges). The second mini-block had hip hinge low rows, bridge rows on the straps, and ab dolly knee tucks. We were supposed to do the first mini-block 3 times, the second mini-block 3 times, and then go back to the rower. But I was finishing my last round on the second mini-block when this block ended so I never did my second row. And the second block on the floor was timed with the all-outs for cardio. We had side planks for 30-seconds and then rollouts on the ab dolly for 1-minute and had 4 rounds of that.

Saturday’s workout was a 2 group class, but it was formatted like a 3 group class. So we had 15 minutes at each section of the room. It was an endurance-based workout and the main feature of it was that we didn’t stop the entire time. Each section of the room had a single 15-minute block. And it wasn’t easy at all! This honestly felt like a Hell Week class!

The cardio block started with a 3-minute push pace and then we had a 90-second base pace. Then it was a 2 1/2-minute push, 75-second base, 2-minute push, 1-minute base, 90-second push, 45-second base, and we ended with a 1-minute all out. It was a lot and I was exhausted. I did have to take breaks during the block to drink water, but I tried to keep those just when we were at a base pace and make them as quick as I could. I wanted to try the challenge as closely as possible with no breaks.

On the rower, it was the same thing as cardio. No breaks and push pace and base pace intervals. This time, I knew I would need breaks. Even when I had the best rowing endurance, rowing for that long was almost impossible. But with my significantly reduced endurance, I just wanted to do as much as I could. I did take a lot of breaks during the rowing. I couldn’t make it through the 3-minute push pace without stopping. But I only had to unstrap my feet once to stretch, so that was an improvement over some of what I’ve done in the recent past.

And on the floor, we had 2 sections to the exercises. The first section was lower body focuses and the second section was upper body focused. The goal was to use the same weights for the first section and then switch to another set of weights and use those for the entire second section. The lower body exercises were lateral lunges, reverse lunges, front squats, and deadlifts. And the upper body exercises were hammer curls, shoulder presses, hip hinge high rows, and push-ups to plank high rows. I did ok with the weights for the first time through the exercises. But then my hips were starting to bother me a lot, so I did all the lower body exercises except the deadlifts without weights. This at least allowed me to have better form and make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong. But for the upper body exercises, I was able to use the weights for the entire block.

This past week of workouts really did feel extra hard to me, but I don’t mind. Maybe it’s harder because I’m not sleeping well or that I’m struggling with working out with my mask. Or maybe the workouts are harder or I’m pushing myself more. Whatever the reason, I’m really proud of what I did last week. I know I will have another tough week soon, so these good weeks really help to balance those out.

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Default ThumbnailGrateful Again For This Routine (or Sorry If These Posts Aren’t Too Interesting) Default ThumbnailStill Testing Things Out (or Finding Another Advantage With The Bike) Default ThumbnailLots Of Lower Body Work (or A Week Of Froggers) Default ThumbnailA Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Bike Work (or Working Through Nausea and Pain) Default ThumbnailAt Least I Was Prepared For A Bad Week (or Something Is Better Than Nothing)

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Some Beauty Fun Before My Birthday (or Working While Trying To Relax)

Posted on August 6, 2021 | Comments Off on Some Beauty Fun Before My Birthday (or Working While Trying To Relax)

As I wrote yesterday, we are fully into election season for my union election now. This is going to be a big part of my life for the next month until the ballots are counted. I still have to do my normal stuff while doing election stuff, but I know I will find ways to fit it in. I won’t be doing campaign stuff in person, so maybe saving that commute time will help me.

The good and bad part about doing social media work is that my phone can always be with me. I do try to have breaks when I’m not looking at every notification, but it’s hard when things are so crazy as they are now. But I do try to time out when I’m actively working to be when I don’t have to focus on other things. And then I can monitor social media and respond to comments when it’s not my full focus. And that’s exactly what I was doing this week.

I got my hair done pretty recently, but it was starting to grow out and all my gray hair was showing a lot. Normally, I’d wait another few weeks before getting my hair done since I don’t need to go all the time. I’m trying to be better about doing my hair at regular intervals and not letting several months go by. I think 6-8 weeks between appointments is probably ideal. But this time, it was only 5 weeks but I wanted to get my hair done so it would be nice for my birthday.

Even though I have nothing planned for my birthday, I like the idea of having my hair look nice even if I’m celebrating at home alone. So I messaged my friend who has been doing my hair to see if she could fit me in sometime this week. She had availability after I was done with work so that was perfect for me! Of course, I hadn’t planned that would be the day I posted a ton of things to my slate’s social media and I would need to be tracking a lot of stuff that afternoon.

But it all worked out fine. I tried to not always have my face in my phone and to spend the time also catching up with my friend. We haven’t been working out together lately, so it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other and we were catching each other up on our lives. Both of us haven’t been doing a lot because we are trying to stay safe, but it was still nice to have some time to catch up with a friend since I have so few hangouts these days that are in person. So I tried to focus on being present when she was putting my color on and then doing my work while we were waiting for the color to set.

Also, regarding the mask, this is the mask my friend gave me the first time she did my hair during the pandemic because she had an extra KN95 mask. I’ve pretty much only worn it when getting my hair done, so it’s got a bit of hair dye on it. But I also don’t mind if it gets more dye on it since I consider it my hair dye mask and I don’t wear one that I worry about getting dirty.

I was at the salon for about an hour and a half before my hair was done. I only got it dyed and not trimmed, so it was a little less expensive than normal. And I’ll get a trim when I go back in 6 weeks (or whenever I end up making it back). But just having fresh hair color makes me so happy and, like I’ve said so many times before, it makes me feel more like myself. My hair is a bit of a struggle sometimes. Between going gray since I was in color plus losing my hair with alopecia, it doesn’t always look how I want it to. And I have explored options to help, like partial wigs, that might help both issues. I just haven’t looked too much into it. But the more I get my hair done, the more I’m really starting to think I should consider it. If it makes me happy, why not?

But at least for now, I have nice-looking hair for my birthday and that’s something that brings me so much joy. And I don’t have to stress about covering up my gray hair when I have so much else to stress out about this month.

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Default ThumbnailFeeling A Bit More Like Me (or A Little Bit Of Pampering) Default ThumbnailSelf-Care Is So Important (or At-Home Beauty) Default ThumbnailTrying More New Beauty Routines In Quarantine (or Anything To Keep Things Interesting) Default ThumbnailAt Home Hair (or I Haven’t Done This Since I Was A Teenager) Default ThumbnailCoconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick) Default ThumbnailBirthday Beauty Discounts (or Making My Birthday Last The Entire Month)

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Now It Feels Like Election Season (or Creating So Many Things)

Posted on August 5, 2021 | Comments Off on Now It Feels Like Election Season (or Creating So Many Things)

For me, election season for my union starts a lot sooner than it really begins. Not only do I do social media work year-round, there are different phases to election season. There is time before the candidates are announced where we see who is interested in running and making sure that we have things in order. Between the time of candidates being finalized and ballots going out, there is a lot of preparation and announcing some candidates and what our platform is. And when ballots are mailed, everything ramps up and there is a lot more going on with making sure people know who is running and sharing who else is running with Unite For Strength.

And since ballots have been mailed and people should be getting them any day, we are fully into election season which means I’m doing a lot of work. And while I will admit that it can be overwhelming and I’m not sleeping enough, it’s also so rewarding. I have learned a lot of new skills in order to make our social media look the way it does. I am not a graphic designer (another volunteer does a lot of that), but I know how to do some basics and then send it to someone else to edit and correct. And I do get to be creative with what we make and how we present different information.

There have been 2 big projects I’ve been doing for our social media recently. First, we wanted to make images for our candidates to have that show their support for Unite For Strength. We did have a template to make these (which made my life a lot easier), but they did all have to be created one by one. But I’m so proud of how they look and I’m so happy to have this on my personal social media accounts.

And I loved seeing how others loved these too! Seeing so many of them come across my social media feed made me happy and I know people appreciated my work.

And then over the past few days, I worked on our social media voter guides. We do have flyers that announce everyone running with us, but I wanted to create something for social media too. It was easiest to make it on Instagram because of how the restrictions are on other services. But I love how it turned out with the different photo groups for different types of candidates.

I know there is a lot of work I can do on my personal Instagram to make it look beautiful, but I have been able to do so much with the Unite For Strength Instagram account that I really could use for my own. I probably wouldn’t use the same types of grids that I use since I personally would post more photos, but I would like to take a moment when things calm down to see what I can do to make my account look more professional and polished.

And now, it’s all about making sure all members who can vote do so. Just like with national politics, not everyone votes and getting the voter turnout up is something I personally am passionate about. I work on reaching out to all of my friends who I know are members and making sure they vote. And while I do hope they will vote for me and the rest of Unite For Strength, I understand that not everyone feels as passionately about the same issues as I do so they might not vote the same way I would. But getting people involved and voting is so important.

If you are a member of SAG-AFTRA, please vote. I know I ask this every time there is an election, but I will keep saying it every time. I know there are so many people who don’t vote because they forget or they don’t think it matters. But it really does matter. And if you have questions about why I’m running or why I’m a part of Unite For Strength, please reach out to me. I’d be happy to talk to anyone even if you don’t agree with me or decide you don’t want to vote for me.

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Default ThumbnailKicking Off Election Season (or Time To Be Busy With Campaigning) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer) Default ThumbnailThe Official Start To Election Season (or I Can Finally Share Some Things I’ve Been Working On) Default ThumbnailMore Election Fun For Me (or I’m Running For 2 Things) Default ThumbnailElection Season Time (or Being A Part Of Unite For Strength) Default ThumbnailUnite For Strength (or SAG-AFTRA Election Time)

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Sometimes I Have To Be The Bad Guy (or At Least This Isn’t Really About Pandemic Dating)

Posted on August 4, 2021 | Comments Off on Sometimes I Have To Be The Bad Guy (or At Least This Isn’t Really About Pandemic Dating)

I know I just wrote about dating the other day. But honestly, it’s one of the few things I do that isn’t just about me being isolated at home. It’s still not super easy to figure out how to go out and date, but doing virtual dates or phone calls at least makes me feel a bit less isolated. And I know that this past year and a half has really taught me what I’m looking for in another person because I know my limits for being alone. I have always known I didn’t need a boyfriend or husband, but I wanted one. But now I know more about how I could fit someone into my life and what type of support I would want from another person. And I think being clearer on what I’m looking for is one of the things that keeps me going on dating apps when it can be so overwhelming and upsetting.

Before the pandemic, I would always try to meet up with someone as soon as possible. You can have amazing chemistry over text and not have it in person. There are some people who are only on dating apps just to text and get an ego boost. So meeting in person can help eliminate those who have no interest in meeting at all and those with who you don’t have great chemistry with.

And it is a little easier now to feel ok meeting up in person. Especially with people very happy to share that they are vaccinated (I wouldn’t meet with someone who said they weren’t vaccinated right now). And so many have their vaccination cards on their profiles which is nice. And even though I don’t feel safe going to a lot of places, I know I can still find places to have dates. And that’s what I did this week.

I matched with someone last week and we were texting for a few days before having a phone call. And it was a really great call and we ended up talking for hours. I try to not get too excited before meeting in person, but I was thinking he could be a really great match for me. A lot of what we talked about were more intense topics than you’d normally discuss with someone new, but it also allowed us to know we were on the same page with a lot of things. He agreed to come to my part of LA and we decided to meet up in downtown Culver City where there are a lot of nice places to sit outside and talk.

I knew I’d get there first because it’s so close to my house. So I found a nice picnic table to sit at and wait for him to arrive. It’s been really hot in LA, but I was in the shade and it was starting to cool down. So I was just enjoying the view and being outside while waiting.

And he ended up being about an hour late. It wasn’t really his fault and we were texting while he was late. But where we met has a similar name to another location and his rideshare driver convinced him that he was going to the wrong place. He wasn’t, but he didn’t know so the driver took him to a different location that was about a mile or two away. He was confused about where I was and I told him he went to the wrong place. So he walked over to where I was. I can’t fault him for being late since he really didn’t know and if his rideshare driver didn’t think they knew better, he would have been on time. And I was enjoying the people watching so it didn’t seem like I was waiting that long.

And unfortunately, we just didn’t click and connect in person the way we had on the phone or over text. I know he was upset about being late, but I told him that it was fine and I wasn’t upset. And if I wasn’t ok waiting, I would have left. I don’t know what was making our meeting so awkward for me, but it wasn’t the usual awkwardness from a first date or meeting. It was just more of a sense of knowing this isn’t someone I’m meant to date. I tried to give him a chance, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. I ended up staying later than I originally planned to since I wanted to see if my feelings changed. And when I said goodbye, I didn’t imply that I felt the way I did (but I didn’t say anything about seeing each other again either).

I hoped after that, he would message me saying he didn’t think we clicked so I could know we felt the same way. I know how much it can hurt when you think you are on a good date and then find out from the other person they didn’t feel the same way. But I also didn’t want to wait too long and leave him thinking something different. I hate to be the one to reject someone. I don’t want to hurt anyone. And I have the little voice in the back of my head saying to me that I have no right to reject someone because I don’t deserve anything good. But I knew I had to say something.

I sent him a message saying that I was grateful we could meet and thanking him for coming to my side of town, but that I didn’t think we clicked in person the same way we did on the phone. And I wished him luck and told him that I hoped he found someone amazing because I know he deserves that. And I don’t know if he felt the same way or what, but his response back to me was very low key and just thanking me and saying that sounds good. After his messages, I unmatched with him since I knew he saw my rejection. And I can move on.

Even though I know he and I weren’t a good match, I still have that annoying voice in my head making me question it. I hate being the bad guy, but I had to. I know more than ever now the type of person I deserve and what I want, and this guy just didn’t match that. He’s not a bad person or anything, he just wasn’t what I’m looking for. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I just have to keep telling the voice in my head that same thing.

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