Monthly Archives: January 2023

Recognizing Some Weird Habits (or Continuing To Work On Being Used To My New Space)

Posted on January 31, 2023 | Comments Off

I’ve been living in my condo for just over 9 months now, and I feel like I’m still getting used to it. I was worried about the move being weird, especially since I was staying in the same neighborhood. I joked that I would probably accidentally pull into the wrong driveway at least once because I had been going into that driveway for 12 years. I’m still shocked that I haven’t made that mistake yet, and even before I was fully moved out, my old place just didn’t feel like home anymore. Maybe I’ll make that mistake someday, but at least for now, it hasn’t happened.

But I’ve been noticing other odd habits that I think have carried over from living at my old place. I had such a routine being in that home for over a decade and so many of them were specific to that space. But because they had become routine to me, I guess I carried them into my new home and it took me until now to realize what I was doing.

A lot of these old habits have to do with how I put things away or store things. I’m so used to having very little space and even less storage space. I found a way to make a 400-square-foot home not feel tiny and cramped, but I think a lot of that was luck and how I put things away when I brought them into my home. I had only so many places I could put things like my purse or keys and if they weren’t in that location they made my place feel messy or I couldn’t find what I needed when I needed them.

Now that I’m in a home that’s almost 3 times the size, I’m still doing some things the way I did when I had less space. I’m trying to find places to store things that feel a bit more random and weird. I don’t need to store things behind others in closets or squish things into drawers anymore. It took me until this past weekend to realize I had the entire top of the closet in my guest room/office to store things and I finally put some things away in there. I’m used to putting things away in specific areas, but they aren’t always the best places now that I have more options. I went through this a lot with what I stored in my bathroom compared to before, but I guess it never really connected that I needed to do this for other areas of my home.

I am still getting some furniture that I know I need to store items, but I’m hopefully getting my new tv stand in the next few weeks so that will give me a bit more storage space in my living room. And I’ll probably keep my old tv stand in my office for a little while and use that for storage until I get the library bed I’ll be putting in there eventually. I still have things in boxes that I’d like to put away when I can, even if the place I put them isn’t going to be where they stay for a long time. But I’m realizing that it’s not a big deal for me to have to rearrange or reorganize things as I continue to get more furniture or more set up in my home. And as I do that, I hopefully will find more of these storage habits I have held on to and see how I can do things better in my current place.

I know that it’s not easy to break habits I have had for almost 25% of my life. I need to remember how much space I have now and how I can put things where I want to and not just where it has to go because that’s the only place they can fit. And I’m sure I’ll create some other odd habits with storage in this place too and if I move in the future I’ll have to break those. But for now, I just want to really allow myself to take advantage of how much space I have and feel like I can use it the way that seems right to me now and now just how I am used to doing things.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged condo, home, organization

Another Good Workout Week (or Another Week With A PR)

Posted on January 30, 2023 | Comments Off

I had a pretty great workout week this past week. I was feeling good, which really helps everything in life. But it especially helps my workouts. I’ve also been doing better with getting more sleep, so I’m not dealing with the same tiredness I had before. The only time I didn’t get enough sleep was when we had an earthquake and I struggled to get back to sleep. But only 1 night of bad sleep is so much better than every night with bad sleep.

Monday’s workout had a good mix of endurance, strength, and power. And I was ready to push myself in each type of workout.

We had 3 blocks for cardio and each one had a different focus. The first block was about endurance and we had rounds of a 45-second push pace and a 90-second base pace. The second block was all 30-second intervals and the incline changed every 30 seconds. I used all resistance levels higher than my normal all-out so that made it more of a challenge. And the last block was all 30-second all-outs with recovery between each one.

On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. For the first block, we rowed for 5 minutes and then checked our distance. For the second block, we did 15 stroke drills with lunges between each row. And the goal was to get to half of the distance from the first block. And in the last block, we had rounds of 100-meter rows with 10 seconds to rest between each row.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 3 mini-blocks and we did each one twice before moving to the next one. We had lunges and bicep curls, lateral lunges and hammer curls, and squats and clean to presses with weights. It was a good variety of exercises and really liked how the floor work was organized so I didn’t feel like any part of my body was getting overtired.

Tuesday’s workout was a tough one, but it was a good and tough one. Each section of the room was a single block, so we didn’t have a lot of time to rest. But it was a challenge and I’m glad I got to do it on a day I was feeling good.

For cardio, we had rounds of a push pace and a base pace. The time matched for the push and base paces each round starting at 30 seconds and then increasing by 15 seconds each time. Even though it got harder as the push paces got longer since the base paces were also longer it helped me get ready for each one.

On the rower, we started with a 200-meter row followed by a front press with a medicine ball. Then we had a 400-meter row, the front press, and a lunge. Next was a 600-meter row with those exercises plus overhead presses with a medicine ball. I was working on the 800-meter row when the block ended.

And on the floor, we started with reverse rows with weights. In the second round, we added sumo squats to upright rows. In the third round, we added squats. And in the last round, we added rows on the straps so we did all 4 exercises. We were supposed to go slowly and use heavy weights, so even though this doesn’t sound like a lot of work it did take up the entire time for me.

Wednesday was the day that I was tired, so my workout wasn’t as great as it had been earlier in the week. But it was still better than a lot of workouts have been for me recently.

For cardio, both blocks focused on incline/resistance work. We alternated between a push pace without an incline and a push pace with one. In the first block, the push paces were 45 seconds each and in the second block, they were 30 seconds each.

On the rower, the first block started with a 12 stroke drill. We looked at the distance we got and then tried to get to that same distance again but in fewer strokes. After that second row, we had squats before repeating the pattern again. The second block was the same pattern, but we did 15 stroke drills instead.

And on the floor, we did cluster sets. So we did an exercise, rested for about 10 seconds, and then did the same exercise again for as many reps as possible. We did each exercise as a cluster set 3 times before moving on to the next one. We had chest presses, tap squats, and overhead triceps. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights and I was feeling a bit weak, but I think that was because I was tired.

And Thursday’s workout was a signature workout. This one was Inferno, which is a rowing challenge. It’s a bit different when you do it as a 3-group class compared to a 2-group class, but it’s still a challenge where you try to get the best rowing distance possible.

I started on cardio, which wasn’t too hard since we were supposed to save our energy for the row. The first block had 1-minute push paces with increasing base paces. And the second block had 30-second push paces with increasing base paces. Both blocks ended with a 30-second all-out, but I didn’t go as hard as I normally would since I wanted to do my best with the Inferno challenge.

Then I was on the rower. For the 3-group class, the row starts with a 100-meter row, and then you do 20 lateral hops. Each time you sit back on the rower, you increase your row by 100 meters. I had a few ideas of the distance I wanted to get to in 14 minutes, and I knew I wanted to do better than 2000 meters. For some reason, 2100 meters was sticking in my mind so I went with that as my goal. I really tried to row as hard as I could and not rest. I knew I’d be close to my goal, and when the time was up I was at 2098 meters. That was so frustrating because 2 meters is nothing. It’s a fraction of a second. It would be me sitting down a millisecond faster. I did get a PR with the row, but it was tough knowing I was so close. I tried to focus on the PR more and I did celebrate how well I did when I know my past attempts weren’t this good.

I had the floor after the row, but I went pretty slow on the floor since I was tired from rowing. But I still tried my best. We had 2 floor blocks and they were focused on upper body work. In the first block, we had chest flys, lateral raises, and lunges. And in the second block, we had torso reaches on the straps, standing chest flys, and push-ups. I didn’t get that many rounds done, but I did them.

I’m so glad I had another good week. They have been rare lately and I always need that confidence boost to know that I’ve continued to make progress. Even with the minor disappointments and issues I had this past week, it was still a really great week for me and I know it will help me with any nausea and pain issues that may come for me this week.

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Posted in Fitness

Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Starting To Plan Some Next Steps (or Researching Classes and Looking At My Schedule)

Posted on January 27, 2023 | Comments Off

I really want to get back into my acting career this year. I’ve been way too passive about things lately and I know I need to stop doing that. I was using the pandemic as an excuse at first, but I know now that isn’t really the reality of the situation anymore. Things aren’t completely back to how they were before, but they are almost there and I need to get back to pursuing my acting career that I did before as well.

Because it’s been a while since I’ve really been working hard at my career, I do have to restart a few things and make sure that I have the best situation as possible for various things. I’m going to look for a new agent, which will require making sure I’ve got a nice new headshot and demo reel to use when I submit myself to agencies. I also know that having new headshots will help when I’m submitted for work. Most jobs will come through my agent (whether it’s the one I have now or a new one if I change agents), so I won’t be submitting myself as much as I did before. But I still plan on continuing to submit myself for work because that’s one of the few things I can control about this career.

The photographer that I used most recently for headshots is no longer in LA. Another photographer I’ve used before is still here, so I may see her again. But I’ve been looking into new photographers in case I find someone new that I’d like to work with who I feel could get some great shots. I know getting my materials updated is important, but I also think that planning is the easier part for me. I just have to decide when I want to do the photos and book them. But there are other things that I’m trying to get ready for and that’s taking more effort.

I haven’t been in a formal acting class in a while. I miss being in class, but before I had my current job it was harder for me to find a class that worked with my budget. There were a few affordable classes I tried to get into, but they usually had a lot of interest and I wasn’t picked to be in the class when I auditioned for it. And I wasn’t really sure what type of class I wanted to be in since I’ve done a bunch in the past and I have liked the different focuses and couldn’t pick either a favorite or one that I felt I really needed to focus on more.

Now that I have the ability to spend money on classes again, I’ve been trying to do some more serious and specific research. I’ve been asking my friends who are enjoying their classes where they are studying so I can look into those teachers a bit more. Some of them aren’t a good fit for me or have a focus on something I’m not interested in (some classes, for example, focus on both directing and acting and I don’t have an interest in directing). But I’ve started to build a short list of some classes that do seem to be good fits for me, at least when considering the focus and the price. There are a few that aren’t super close to where I live, so it would be harder to get to them.

And then I have to consider my schedule. A lot of classes are during the day, and I can’t do those unless they were a 1-hour class on Zoom and I could do that on my lunch break. But classes typically are longer than that, so daytime classes wouldn’t work. And I’m not always free every evening so there are only so many nights a week that I could potentially go to a class.

Finding the perfect class or classes for me is going to take time when I consider all the different factors. I’m not in a rush to get into a class, but I do want to get a plan going sooner rather than later since I know how easily time can just slip by. I hope that it won’t take too long for me to find the perfect match with all the different things I have to work with and around. And maybe with all this research, I’ll have a good list of classes to consider in the future once I’m ready for a different class option.

Even though I won’t see results from this research right away, I’m glad I got started on it already since this will all take time. And hopefully, by the end of the year, I will feel like I have accomplished so much more with my acting career than I have in the past few years.

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Posted in Acting

Tagged acting, class, planning

A Cheesecake Lunch (or Still Keeping Up With An Annual Tradition)

Posted on January 26, 2023 | Comments Off

Going out to the Cheesecake Factory around the new year has been a long-running tradition with my birthday twin. We used to go closer to Christmas or New Year’s, but the last few years have been more about just getting there at some point in January instead of worrying about going during the holidays. It is nice going during the holidays since the outdoor mall we go to has some really nice decorations, but I also like going outside of the holidays since it’s not as crowded. This time, we also decided to go on the weekend for lunch instead of going after work one day. That allowed us to have a bit more flexibility with how long we were there and we didn’t feel tired after having a full workday.

I was surprised when we got there and we were able to be seated immediately. We are used to having a long wait, but we must have gotten there at exactly the right time because they were able to seat us at a table outside with no issues. And I wanted to sit outside since I’m still a bit hesitant about being somewhere inside without having a mask on. It was cold, but they have a lot of heat lamps on their balcony so it was actually warmer outside under the heat lamps than it was just being inside. Plus, it’s always nicer to sit outside where we can people-watch while we eat.

Because we went on a weekend for lunch, we had brunch as an option for our food. I was seriously considering getting something different that I’ve never had, but I ended up getting the same salad I always do. I was trying to think about what I would enjoy plus trying to have something that is at least somewhat healthy considering how bad the meal could be.

As soon as we placed our order, it was time for our catch-up. We always have a lot to catch up on when we have our meals together. She filled me in on the renovation she had to do to her condo, which had been something happening for the last year. And I told her about my crazy date, which was the day before, and some of the things I want to still do to the condo. I think both of us going through renovations at the same time has made her the perfect friend to bounce ideas off of when I have had moments where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do something or not. Or to be someone who understands how stressful it can be to have to make so many decisions.

And of course, we got cheesecake. I think we confused our server when we asked if each piece could be cut in half so we each would get half, but he understood and we each got half of the flavors we ordered.

With my new medication, I’m not eating as much as I did before, but I still was able to enjoy this meal. I just had a lot less of my salad than I normally would and I ate probably half of the cheesecake I normally would. I rarely finish the food we get since it’s so much, but it was still interesting to see how much less I wanted to have this time. But that’s not a bad thing so I’m not mad about it.

And since we were there for lunch instead of a later dinner, we had some time to wander around after we were done eating. I think we both needed to walk a bit before getting back into our cars after that meal. We did a little window shopping at a few of the stores while walking around and then we went into Cost Plus since I wanted to see what they still had on sale since I know they normally have things on sale after Christmas. I ended up getting a couple of random things that I didn’t really need but would look nice as decor around my condo. And nothing was very expensive or elaborate. But I am trying to be better about either getting things that are cute that catch my attention or noting them somewhere to buy later. I want to make sure my home has things in it that are nice and make me happy.

After shopping for a bit, we both had to head back to our cars to get to other things we needed to do. But it was a nice change to our tradition to be able to spend more time than just eating a meal and then leaving. Maybe we’ll continue to do lunches for our cheesecake meals so we don’t have to feel as rushed as we have in the past. But even if in a year we are back to doing dinner, it’s still a tradition I look forward to each year and I’m so glad that we fit it in this year!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged cheesecake, food, friends, lunch

Sometimes I Need To Be Ok Not Being Polite (or Knowing The Value Of My Time)

Posted on January 25, 2023 | 1 comment

My journey with dating has taught me so many lessons over the past few years. I’ve learned to stand up for myself a lot more, which has really helped me to not waste as much time as I did in the past. I don’t try to play cool about things and speak up if I want something that doesn’t seem to be happening. I might not have as many dates now as I did a few years ago, but they tend to be better dates. Or at least they are dates with guys who claim to be looking for the same thing as what I’m looking for. They aren’t always good dates and there have been guys who have lied to me, but I’m very upfront about what I want and I’m not worried I’ll scare someone away. The right person will not be scared off.

I’ve also learned that I don’t have to tolerate bad dates or bad messages on apps. If someone starts to send me messages that are inappropriate or make me uncomfortable, I don’t have to see if things will get better unless I think that maybe there is some miscommunication. I will unmatch with someone without worrying that could be rude when I’m not ok with messaging with them anymore. Because I don’t give out my phone number until I meet someone in person, I haven’t had to block too many people from being able to call or text me, but I’m starting to be more ok with that and I have had to block one person from my past. But fortunately, since I don’t give out my number too quickly, I don’t think I will have to do that too often.

But it’s much easier for me to end bad or unwanted messages than it is for me to end a bad date. I’ve walked away quickly from a handful of dates, but it tends to be when something pretty extreme happens that makes me feel very uncomfortable or worried about my safety. For other bad dates where I might just be uneasy, I usually end up looking at my watch and trying to find a graceful way to leave. If it’s been an hour, that seems like a reasonable amount of time to leave a first date. Or if my phone is buzzing, I might lie and say that something came up and I needed to go. But I still try to be polite when possible even if I’m leaving a date very quickly.

Over this past weekend, I had a first date with someone new. It was during the day, which is a rare first date for me but I was happy to not be out at night when it’s been a lot colder. We were going to meet at my usual first date spot, which is an outdoor seating area near where I live. I like that location since it’s in public and there are always people around. Plus there are options to get something to eat or walk around if we decide to do so. I do prefer to meet closer to where I live so I don’t have to drive that far. And this time, my date was driving somewhat far to meet me. I usually try to only meet someone who lives a reasonable distance from me, but this guy was willing to come to my side of LA which was about an hour-long drive.

And from the beginning of that date, I knew it wasn’t going well. He said things that made me very hesitant. I tried to not judge him too quickly and thought maybe it was just nerves on his end that made him say things like that. But he continued to say things that made me realize quickly that we weren’t a good match. But because he drove over an hour to meet me, I really felt guilty ending the date quickly and tried to see if I could make it for about an hour. If he hadn’t driven that far, I probably would have ended things a lot sooner and that’s really what I should have done. But I guess I was lucky that he ended up storming off after about 15 minutes because when he asked me if I thought the date was going well I was honest and said I didn’t think we were a good match. He wanted me to explain why, and I was starting to feel more uncomfortable and I tried to just say it seems like we don’t have the same interests. I’m glad he ended up walking away so I could leave too.

I know that he drove a lot longer than the date lasted, but I’ve been in situations where I drove a lot longer than a date as well. I know it’s been a long process of learning how it’s ok to not always be polite, and I guess I found another of my weaknesses because I wanted to not feel bad about how long he drove. But at the same time, I was willing to waste an hour of my day on someone who wasn’t worthy of it. And that should have been important to me. I should have valued my time (and I guess his as well) and ended the date soon after I knew that it wasn’t going to work.

I don’t want to say that I will be able to do that the next time something like this happens to me, but I hope that I will remember what my time is worth and that I shouldn’t have to waste it.

1 Comment

Posted in Dating

Tagged dating, online dating

Medical Stability Is A Good Thing (or Yet Another Easy Check-Up)

Posted on January 24, 2023 | Comments Off

I’ve been working with my dermatologist on a lot of different conditions over the past few years. Some have been ongoing conditions and some have been one-off discussions or resolved within a few appointments. I know I have said this before, but I’m lucky to have a doctor on my team who works with me to figure out solutions and listens to me and my concerns. I know not everyone has that experience or the ability to speak up for their concerns. But I made sure that the doctors I see worked with me and not just talked at me. Not all the doctors I’ve seen are like that, but if they don’t see us as a team I don’t go back to them.

This is so important with all my doctors, but especially when you are working with someone for an extended time. When it’s not just a few appointments and then you never see them again, you need to make sure that they really hear what you have to say. And I think the positive experiences I’ve had with doctors that I’ve had to see for years is because I am willing to say that I want to find a different doctor to work with. I probably should have done that sooner with other dermatologists I’ve seen in the past because I have wasted so much time trying solutions that weren’t working but I wanted to keep trying what they told me to do.

Even though I have a few different ongoing conditions I work on with my dermatologist, my appointments aren’t that frequent anymore. Most of the things I’ve working with him on are going to be things I have to deal with for the rest of my life. Or if they can go away, it might be years before that happens. With my autoimmune condition, I know the end goal is to be in some sort of remission. This isn’t always possible, but it can happen. But the things that can get you into remission can be more extreme than what I’m willing to do at this point. There is a surgery that I could have that would help me significantly, but the recovery process would be very lengthy and painful. Maybe one day I’ll get there, but it’s not what I want to do at this point.

I had another follow-up with my dermatologist this past week and I knew it would likely be an easy appointment. I’m not in remission with my autoimmune condition, but things have gotten so much better over the past few years. I think I’m in a lower stage of the condition than I have been in years. I still have quite a bit of pain to deal with, but it’s more manageable now and that’s something that I never thought could happen. I know my doctor would have liked to see more improvement with me, but I’m happy that things are just stable where they are and they aren’t getting worse. It used to be stable years ago before things started to get really bad. And now, it’s stable but in a good spot. Maybe I’ll have some more regression and it will stabilize at an even better spot, but I’m not too worried about that right now. My main focus is hoping that it just doesn’t get worse again.

And because things are stable, my plan with my doctor is stable too. I’m going to continue the same medications I’ve been taking since they clearly are doing something to help manage this condition. I also use certain body washes to help my skin and I just need to continue to use that as well.

Having boring follow-up appointments like this is becoming more common for me, and that’s a good thing. I’ve had so many ongoing medical conditions for so long and to have them stabilize is so awesome. The more stable things get, the more boring my appointments are. I never knew that I was hoping for boring appointments in my life, but it turns out that it’s one of the best things and something that I continue to hope will happen in the future.

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Posted in Health

Tagged doctor, health issues

An Almost Normal Workout Week (or Happy To Be Able To Push Myself)

Posted on January 23, 2023 | Comments Off

I was so grateful to be feeling better this past week. I wasn’t feeling the best I can feel, but it was so much better than the week before. I had only a little bit of nausea left toward the beginning of the week, but it felt like a huge relief compared to the week before. I’m always so happy when I’m at this point in my monthly nausea because I know it normally means I’m about to have a good week soon.

Monday’s workout was a bit different from my usual because I had the day off work. I was able to go to a slightly later workout than normal, but I still went in the morning because I like to get my workout done before enjoying the rest of my day. And because I went to a different class time, I had a 2 group class instead of a 3 group one.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks. The first block was a push pace, base pace, and all-out. The second block was the same as the first plus a recovery after the all-out and then another all-out after. The third block added on another recovery and another all-out. And the last block again added on another recovery and all-out. But the push pace got shorter each block so that helped to make the all-outs a little easier to get through.

On the floor, we also had 4 blocks and it was a similar pattern to what we did on cardio. When cardio had its push pace, the floor had a row. And then we had timed exercises on the floor and we added on exercises each block. The first block had only front squats. The second block added on lateral lunges and plank knee drives. The third block added on low rows with weights. And the last block added on lateral hops. It was a lot on the floor with very little rest, but it was a good challenge and I was happy with having a little less rowing than normal.

I was back to my normal workout time on Tuesday and I was feeling even better than I had on Monday.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we started at a base and increased the speed/resistance level every 30 seconds, ending at an all-out. I just added one level to the resistance level each time and it perfectly ended at my normal all-out level. After those intervals, we had a minute to recover, and then we had a 3-minute distance challenge. For the second block, we started with the distance challenge and then did the progressive one after.

On the rower, we started with a 250-meter row. Then we rested as much as needed and did another 250-meter row, with the goal to beat the time from the first time. After the second row, we had overhead presses with the medicine ball. We repeated that pattern, but the row was decreased by 50 meters every time we did it. I wasn’t always able to do better on my second row for a certain distance, but I was always very close.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges, reverse flys, and leg raises. And the second block had step-ups, rows on the straps, and plank dips. I was able to do the step-ups since I lowered the bench, but even with the lower bench, they are still a challenge for me to do, especially with my balance issues. But I’ve been really trying to keep trying them even if they take me longer than a modification because I know it will help me in the long run.

Wednesday’s workout was a tornado workout and it was hard! I think it might have been one of the harder tornado classes we’ve had and I knew I had to pace myself. But I also wanted to push myself and finding that happy medium was tough.

On cardio, each block started with a 1-minute push pace. After that, in the first block, we had a 1-minute base and in the second block, we had a 30-second base. After that, we had a .1 mile (or .4 mile on the bike) all-out with recovery until a 30-second all-out at the end of the block. It was a lot each time and I didn’t have a lot of recovery time in any block.

On the rower, whenever cardio was in a push or base pace, we had a timed row. So they ranged between 2 minutes and 1 minute. Then we had front presses and overhead presses with a medicine ball before getting back on the rower and rowing until a 30-second all-out row at the end.

And on the floor, we started with timed exercises to go along with cardio and the rower. we had lunges and plank pops. And then for the rest of the block, we had squats, bicep curls, and upper cuts. And for the last 30 seconds of the block, we had crunch holds. I didn’t go too heavy with my weights because there wasn’t any rest in the block and I wanted to try to keep going until the block ended each time.

Thursday was tough too, and it felt like a lot after how tough Wednesday was. But I was up for seeing what I could do and I was so glad that I was doing these while feeling good.

We had 2 cardio blocks that had the same pattern. We had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 1-minute push pace at an incline, 1-minute base pace, and 90-second push pace at an incline. The inclines/resistance levels were higher for the first block than the second block, but they weren’t too high for either block and I didn’t feel too much of a difference compared to when I’m normally pushing myself. I think that was the idea of these low inclines to prove what we can really accomplish.

On the rower, we also had 2 blocks with the same pattern. We started with a 2-minute push row before having a series of 1-minute intervals. In each interval, we had to do 10 reps of an exercise, and then whatever time was left over was spent rowing. In the first block, we had front and back steps and in the second block, we had side-to-side crunches. Getting on and off the rower so frequently was tough for me and I usually only had about 10 seconds left to row each time, so I didn’t get a ton of rowing in outside of the first part of each block. But I was glad I did the exercises and didn’t just row because I wanted to see if I could do it.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 3 different anchor exercises and 3 normal exercises. We started with doing the first anchor before each of the normal exercises. The next round had the second anchor before each of the normal exercises. And so on. The anchor exercises were shoulder presses, reverse grip low rows, and chest presses. And the regular exercises were plank shoulder taps, back extensions, and crunches. I did have to do some modifications to the exercises, but they were minor compared to what I’ve done in the past.

Overall, I think this past week was one of my better workout weeks. I needed a good week to boost my confidence and this was exactly what I needed. And hopefully, this week will be another good week for me so I can continue to feel amazing about how I’m doing with my workouts!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Making Sure All The Details Are Right (or Maybe This Is Actually The End)

Posted on January 20, 2023 | Comments Off

The renovation of my condo has been a much longer process than I think anyone imagined. There were things that were out of our control that added to the timeline and there were things that needed to be adjusted or corrected that made things take longer. I’ve never really been directly involved in a renovation before, so I didn’t know what to expect going into this. But I know that things haven’t been as easy as they could have been. It’s been frustrating, especially when I was waiting for most of the work to be done so I could finally move in. I think the last 8 months since I lived here were easier since I wasn’t also dealing with the stress of a bad landlord and trying to get ready to move.

There were a few small things that were fixed in the fall and I was hoping at that time that would be the end of the work. But unfortunately, there were more issues that came up after that. Everything was pretty minor and didn’t necessarily affect my daily living, but they needed to be fixed. If this was a rental and it was a handyman fixing things, I wouldn’t be as picky. But since this is my home and we hired them to do specific work, I want everything to be right. For example, I found some cracks in the grout in my kitchen that I wanted to be fixed. This wasn’t going to cause any issues in my kitchen or become a bigger problem down the line, but I still wanted there to be no cracks in the grout.

Because of scheduling, the holidays, and other stuff happening; the contractor wasn’t able to get to my place until this past week. There were only a handful of things to fix, and they were all connected to tile work and things like grout and caulking. I was very specific with them about what needed to be fixed and how I wanted it to be completed (thanks to my parents who told me what needed to be done), and I know I was probably a little harsh and maybe rude when talking to them. But this has been a year-long process and I felt like things had taken long enough and I was ready for it to be done.

I think because there have been so many little fixes, they had a supervisor here as well to make sure that my concerns were being understood and addressed and they also explained some of the repairs that were being done a little differently than what I expected. I know I don’t know a lot about construction, but I still want to make sure that I understand why certain materials are being used and not others. For example, to fix some cracked grout, they didn’t use normal grout but something that was more like a grout and caulk hybrid so it would allow for movement that might happen from the unit above mine and would hopefully prevent any other cracks in the future. I appreciate that they took the time to go over those things with me so I felt a bit better about everything going on.

As far as I can tell, I think the work is finally done. We haven’t signed off on it yet because my parents want to see everything in person. They will be here in about a month, so they will go over everything in super detail to make sure there isn’t something missing or incomplete. But I have high hopes that maybe the work is finally done and I can feel like I’ve gotten past this phase of my new home. If it’s not, I guess there will be a bit more work to do before I can finally feel like that.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged condo, home

I Might Have Picked The Wrong Monthly Challenge (or I Guess I Still Have Half Of The Month To Go)

Posted on January 19, 2023 | 1 comment

I try to really think about the monthly challenges that I set for myself before I decide which one to do that month. I usually have a few ideas that are very different and then I think about what I will get out of each one and try to pick the best option. For a while, I think I was doing a lot of challenges that would better myself in some way. But lately, I’ve been focused more on things that will better my environment or living situation.

That’s why when I picked my challenge for this month, I really thought it would be a good plan for feeling more settled in my place and just having a better routine and schedule. I know that things for me can feel like I’m in a rush to get them done or that I’m putting things off until the last minute without intending to do so. So if I could have an idea of what days are best to do certain things, I might feel a bit more stable when I’m trying to plan ahead.

But what I didn’t plan for were things that are out of my control and would affect what I could do and what I wanted to do. For example, with all the rain lately, I haven’t been wanting to run errands if I could avoid it because I don’t like to be out in the rain. Even if I had planned to go to the grocery store if the rain was coming down too hard I didn’t want to do it. I also don’t love driving in the rain and many other drivers seem to not be great at it either, so being off of the road seems like a smart choice. I wasn’t expecting to work extra hours this past week, so when I had things planned to do after work, that was affected by my later hours. And if I’m working until 8pm, I just don’t feel like going out to do other things after work. I’m ready to settle down for the evening.

On top of all this, I haven’t been feeling well and have been working through nausea for the first half of the month. Maybe if I was feeling ok, I would have been up for doing some of the things I had been putting off. But with all of that together, I just haven’t wanted to do a lot of anything. I know that if I had to go out and do something, I would. I had some errands I couldn’t avoid or do another way, so I went out and did them. I wasn’t always happy about it, but I got them done.

Maybe I’m just making excuses for myself because if there were things I had to do, I probably would have done them. But it’s easy to not go to the store and get groceries delivered or put off cleaning because nobody is going to see that my house is a little messy. And I’m aware that how I was feeling affected my mental state and that had a lot to do with things. I really set this challenge this month with the best intentions of getting it done and I’m wondering if I picked the right one. But I also think that maybe because of this struggle, this was exactly the challenge I needed to do and I need to step up my game.

I have used up half the month really not doing anything for this month’s challenge. Maybe I’ll be able to turn things around for these last 2 weeks and end the month feeling successful about what I got done. Or maybe the end of the month will come and I’ll be feeling down about what I picked for this month and wishing I did something different. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

1 Comment

Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged challenge, mental health, motivation

Having Less Of A Weekend (or Taking My Day Job Seriously)

Posted on January 18, 2023 | Comments Off

Even though my main day job is still a day job, that doesn’t mean I don’t work hard at it. If anything, I think I work harder because I want to show my value in case I have to take time off for booking acting work. I’ve heard of so many friends who couldn’t get time off that they needed and still have their job, so they had to quit in order to take a role they were offered. I never want to be in that position, so I really want to make sure that I’m always working hard and making sure that I do all my work to the best of my ability.

In the 2 years that I’ve been at this job, things have changed quite a bit for me. I started working part-time and my responsibilities changed frequently as I got more and more familiar with the company. Then I became full-time and got more work. And my biggest and most recent change was transitioning out of direct customer care work and more administrative and systems-based work. While my background has always been in customer care work, I’m really happy with the new type of work that I’m doing and I feel like it’s a much better fit for me. I also like that I don’t have the same time restrictions as I did before to do deep dives to figure things out. It’s nice to be able to look really hard at all aspects of a problem you are trying to figure out and get a full picture. Then I can share my findings with my co-workers who do the direct work with customers so they can provide the best answers possible.

There have been people who have been hired and left in the 2 years I’ve been working. And now, I’m one of the most senior employees in my department. That’s a bit crazy to me because it feels at times that I’m still new at all this. But I also know that I am familiar with what I’m being asked to do, especially since many of our systems are things that I have designed or created for us. It still feels weird to be in charge or this high up, but I know that I’ve taken the steps to get there and I wouldn’t be thought of this way by our executive team if they questioned my abilities.

Because I have senior status, that also means I sometimes have to do more work. We had a bunch of changes that happened in the past week, and there was a lot of extra work that needed to be done in order to make sure we stayed on top of everything for the month. There were some nights I worked later than normal and I had to work over the weekend even though I have weekends off (and this was a holiday weekend). I was paid overtime for doing all this extra work, so I didn’t mind it too much. And I didn’t have any plans for the weekend so I wasn’t missing anything that I was looking forward to.

I know that putting in those extra hours was appreciated by the executive team. And I know I don’t have to prove myself to anyone, but I also know that this showed how seriously I take things even if this isn’t the career that I am working toward. I know that many people with day jobs aren’t as lucky and either don’t get a chance to prove themselves or it doesn’t help if they need to take time off in the future. But I’m grateful that I have been in a good job for these past 2 years. And if I have to give up a weekend once every few years, I think that’s worth it for everything that I’m getting in return.

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Posted in Work

Tagged work

Monthly Archives: January 2023

Recognizing Some Weird Habits (or Continuing To Work On Being Used To My New Space)

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Another Good Workout Week (or Another Week With A PR)

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Starting To Plan Some Next Steps (or Researching Classes and Looking At My Schedule)

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A Cheesecake Lunch (or Still Keeping Up With An Annual Tradition)

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Sometimes I Need To Be Ok Not Being Polite (or Knowing The Value Of My Time)

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Medical Stability Is A Good Thing (or Yet Another Easy Check-Up)

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An Almost Normal Workout Week (or Happy To Be Able To Push Myself)

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Making Sure All The Details Are Right (or Maybe This Is Actually The End)

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I Might Have Picked The Wrong Monthly Challenge (or I Guess I Still Have Half Of The Month To Go)

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Having Less Of A Weekend (or Taking My Day Job Seriously)

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Monthly Archives: January 2023

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