Category Archives: Celebrations

Last Happy Hour Of 2015 (or A Speedy Catch Up)

Posted on December 23, 2015 | 2 comments

My friend Rayshell and I have been trying to do monthly happy hours, but our schedules lately have been so busy and conflicting. We wanted to make sure we got in one more happy hour before the end of the year, and we both happened to have Monday evening free! So we scheduled a happy hour hangout immediately before either of us ended up booking something else we had to do on Monday!

We met on her side of town (which sadly took me forever to drive to due to rush hour, holiday traffic, and the rain), but all that driving stress was gone when I got there. We met at El Torito Grill (we go there a lot) and while I was a little bit late, Rayshell didn’t seem to care too much since I drove to her side of town.

I had brought her holiday card with me to happy hour (it saved me a stamp) and Rayshell gave me a bottle of wine! I was totally not expecting a holiday gift, so that was a pleasant surprise!

As soon as we ordered our food, I got to hear all about the trip that Rayshell and her fiancée just went on! It sounded like she had an awesome time and it made me start thinking that I should plan another trip soon. We also discussed her wedding and the upcoming bridal shower and bachelorette party. She’s got so much about her wedding already figured out and under control, so I know that it’s going to be an amazing party! There’s only a few more months before her wedding, so I’m getting really excited for all the festivities and to be celebrating Rayshell and Paul (her fiancée).

When Rayshell asked me about what was going on in my life, I had some things I could tell her about Thanksgiving and work. But I really didn’t have a ton of fun updates to talk about. I really wished that there was more going on in my life right now, but my days are pretty full and I’m not focusing on the fun things as much. I’m working on fixing that and I’m thinking that next year will be filled with more fun adventures.

We didn’t stay at happy hour too late. It was raining and while the patio we were eating on had space heaters, it’s was pretty cold. And I had told a friend of mine that I could get them at LAX and take them home after they returned from a trip.

I’m so glad that even though Rayshell and I didn’t manage to do happy hour every month, we did do a pretty decent number of them this year. Both of us are busy with our lives and since we live on opposite sides of town (a big deal in LA), we don’t always get to see each other unless we make the effort. I know that we will continue our happy hour tradition next year as well (the next happy hour will be on my side of town) and I’m looking forward to having more exciting things than work to update Rayshell on!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, friends, hangout, happy hour

Graduation Show (or Completing Improv 101)

Posted on December 16, 2015 | 1 comment

This past Sunday was the graduation show for my improv class. The way that UCB runs their classes is that the class has 8 classes that are 3 hours each (typically 1 class a week unless it’s the intensive class which means 4 times a week for 2 weeks) and at the end you have a graduation show.

I had been a bit nervous about the graduation show because it felt like we hadn’t been told too much about how it would work. But I’m used to short-form improv where it is game based and not scene based. So the nerves were unnecessary because we pretty much did the same thing that we had been doing in the past few classes.

Our class was split into 2 groups (there were 12 of us doing the graduation show) and each group thought of a team name. My group was going second so we sat in the audience for the first half and got to watch our classmates perform. The audience was made up of us from the other group and friends and family that we invited to the show (I didn’t have any friends or family in the audience, but I only told people about it a few days in advance). Before I knew it, it was our turn to go backstage and get ready.

When my group started, we got a suggestion of one word to start things off. Then one person said a personal monologue and we created 3 scenes from that monologue. After the 3 scenes were done, another monologue was done followed by 3 scenes. In total, my group had 3 monologues and 8 or 9 scenes. And I initiated a few, joined in on a few, and did walk ons in a few. We had about 25 minutes on stage, and it rushed by so fast. And since the lights on the stage were so bright, I never felt like I was performing for an audience. I felt like we were performing to our classmates the way we did in the classroom.

Overall, I feel pretty good about how I did and how the entire class did as a whole. And I think that we were all pretty excited about completing the graduation show.

UCB 101

The only thing that I was a bit sad about was that we didn’t really seem to bond as a group until the last week or so. There was the awkwardness at the beginning and then just feeling the personalities of the group out. And we really felt like a team at our last class and then again in the show. I’m not sure if making the class longer than 8 weeks would have helped, but it was a bit sad to say goodbye to everyone when I felt like I was just getting to know them.

UCB Graduation

We don’t find out if we failed the first level of improv until we register for the next class (if we failed, they will let us know that there was a problem). I’m still thinking that I’d like to go on to the next level and possibly do all 4 levels eventually. I’ve got a year to sign up for level 201 before I have to repeat 101 and I have a feeling that I’ll be signing up sooner than next fall. I just need to get the money together for it (I might have extra money left over after I pay my 2015 taxes) and figure out a time that works with my schedule.

I’m so glad that I finally jumped in and took another improv class. While I still miss Kip all the time and wished I had heard his laugh in the audience (he had the best and most distinctive laugh), I think he would have been happy that I moved on and continued my education. I don’t know if I want to join a troupe after I complete all the levels (if I do that), but I’m taking things one step at a time and just focusing on taking level 201 now.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, class, improv, success, UCB

A Birthday Celebration (or An Orangetheory Reunion)

Posted on December 15, 2015 | 1 comment

When I started working out at Orangetheory, I didn’t have any expectations of making new friends there. I wasn’t thinking that people would be mean or anything, but I’ve never really made friends in a workout setting before. The closest I had to friends at a workout place was meeting someone at Richard Simmons who mentioned having an opening at her work and I ended up working for her (and she and I are friends now).

I’ve worked really hard at making friends as an adult, and I think that there is something about Orangetheory that just lends itself to people becoming friends. I’ve made some really good friends there, but the people I think I’ve become closest to are Lindsay and Sarah.

The 3 of us used to always work out together on Wednesdays and Fridays. But now Sarah goes to the Santa Monica location and Lindsay goes to the West Hollywood location. So we don’t see each other that often. So when Lindsay invited me to her birthday party, I said yes right away! And when I found out Sarah would be there too, I got even more excited!

The party was at Toca Madera, which is pretty close to where I live. I had never been there before, but I had checked out the menu ahead of time and it was pretty much healthy Mexican food.

Toca Madera

The restaurant was pretty crowded and loud, but we were seated in the back room. It was still a bit loud, but it was much more relaxing than near the bar in the front. And we were seated below this amazing tree with tons of lights and lanterns on it. It was gorgeous!

Lit Tree

There were 10 of us at dinner, so we got a couple of orders of guacamole to share at the table. And the restaurant serves tortillas and butter (instead of bread and butter) so we got a decent amount of food in before our dinners arrived. And one of Lindsay’s friends who wasn’t able to be at the party had ordered champagne for the table!

Birthday Girl

For dinner, I got fajitas (or the closest thing to fajitas there is). It was perfectly cooked and delicious and I was very happy with my order.

Dinner

There were several pages of tacos that you could get, and most of the girls at dinner got one or two orders of tacos. I know I need to go back another time so I can test out some of the tacos and sides (I got a taste of their street corn and it was amazing!).

Another one of Lindsay’s friends brought an ice cream cake. So after the dinner dishes were cleared, the cake came out.

Birthday Cake

It turns out that this type of ice cream cake is Lindsay’s favorite and she was so excited to see that someone had arranged for it to be there! I really enjoyed it, but it was a bit cold inside the restaurant (they had one of the skylights open and it is brisk in LA now). But I still finished it because I’m also a huge fan of ice cream cake!

Before I knew it, it was time for me to head home. I wished I could have stayed longer, but it was already pretty late for me and I knew I had to be up early the next morning. But before I left, I had to get a picture with Lindsay and Sarah.

OTF Friends

I’m so happy that Lindsay invited me (and Sarah) to celebrate her birthday with her. It was really awesome to get to be there and I love that my workout friends have become more than workout friends. We try to hang out when we can and even though we don’t see each other on a regular basis anymore, it’s ok because I appreciate the random times we see each other even more.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, birthday party, dinner, friends, Orangetheory, party, workout

Finishing The 12 Days Of Fitness (or Some PRs and Some Setbacks)

Posted on December 14, 2015 | 3 comments

It was another 4 workout week for me this past week. It’s still tough to do that many workouts in a week, but I need to do it to hit my 2015 workout goal!

My Monday class was my final 7:30am workout due to my improv class. I still might have to do occasional 7:30am workouts, but they won’t be on a regular basis (unless my next improv class is at the same time). This week was the end of the 12 Days Of Fitness challenge. And even though I wasn’t there for all 12 days, I still wanted to do my best each of the days that I was there.

Monday was a 7 minute challenge on the treadmill. I’ve done these before and they always kick my butt because I push myself harder on the treadmill than I usually do (and maybe harder than I should at times). I try to keep photos of my PRs on my phone so I can always check to see what my past workout PR was. Lat time, my PR on the 7 minute challenge was .414 miles. I haven’t beaten a PR since my torn calf, so I didn’t really have any expectations for this 7 minute challenge.

For this 7 minute challenge, I did try to push the treadmill speed up as I went along. I kept the incline at 6% for the entire time, and I did get it to go pretty fast by the end. When I hit the stop button for the end of the challenge, I was very pleased by what I saw!

OTF 7 Minute Challenge

This was a .007 mile increase over my last PR. It’s not a huge different, but it’s a difference in the right direction! My goal one day is to be able to do half a mile in 7 minutes (although I don’t ever expect that to be how fast I can walk during a 5K). Baby steps toward my ultimate goal is the way I need to be! And having my first PR since my calf injury was really a great feeling for me. I felt like I was maybe finally at the end of my recovery (it’s been taking forever!).

Wednesday was another tough day, but part of that was due to me feeling a bit off. I started some new supplements this past week and I’m pretty sure I had a negative reaction to one of them. So I actually don’t remember a ton from my Wednesday workout because my head was so foggy that entire day.

Friday was another tough challenge. The plan was to do a mile on the treadmill during one segment and a mile on the rower during another segment. Since I’m a power walker, I only had to do a half mile (and since the time limit was 11 minutes I wasn’t going to push myself for the mile). I felt fine at first, but then I started to get horrible shin splints. I’m not quite sure what happened, but that half mile was one of the most painful half miles I’ve ever done. My row wasn’t fabulous, but I did get it done in just over 8 minutes (my goal was under 8 minutes but since it was at the end of my workout I was exhausted).

I thought that maybe the shin splints on Friday was a one day thing, but when I worked out on Saturday they returned. There was someone else on the bike for a while, so I had to stay on the treadmill until almost the end of the workout and then I moved. I’m not sure what I did to cause this pain, but I’m really going to be cautious now. I’m thinking maybe taking a break and being on the bike this week might be a good thing for me. I can still do decent cardio work on the bike, and maybe my legs just need a break from all the 4 workout weeks.

Overall, I’d say I had a very successful week at Orangetheory. It wasn’t the best week I’ve had, but at the same time I wasn’t as upset with myself with the setbacks as I have in the past.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, pain, progress, setback, workout

An Epic Disneyland Day (or VIP Status and Mini High School Reunion)

Posted on December 10, 2015 | 2 comments

I’ve had some pretty awesome Disneyland adventures over the years, but I have to say that my Disneyland trip this past Sunday was pretty amazing! This Disneyland outing had been planned for a while because I knew my schedule was crazy, but I had no idea how great it was going to be until it was closer to the date.

I went with my friend June again (it’s very easy to plan a trip together since she lives 2 blocks from me). We had a couple of things we wanted to do because so many things will be closing either for a long time or permanently soon, but we actually didn’t end up doing most of them.

The first thing we wanted to do was see the Aladdin show again. I love this show and it will be closing permanently in the new year. We had known for a while that we would be seeing the show no matter what on Sunday, but I found out that my friend was playing Aladdin in the first show of the day! So we decided to do that first!

Because my friend was in the show, he was able to get us VIP seating. That meant that we could go into the theater first and get whatever seats we wanted. I typically like to sit toward the middle, but since my friend was Aladdin I wanted to be in the first row to be able to see him. When we sat down, I got to see the entire audience from the front and I never realized how huge it is in there!

Aladdin Theater

I’ve seen the Aladdin show dozens of times, but this was such a special experience. It was a bit weird seeing my friend in the show, but he was the perfect Aladdin!

Aladdin Aladdin with Jasmine Aladdin and Genie Aladdin Finale

At one point in the show, Aladdin comes by in an elephant. June and I tried to get a selfie with him as he was behind us, but it wasn’t the most successful photo.

Selfie with Aladdin

As my friend came right in front of us in the elephant, he winked at us so we knew that he knew we were there. When he winked, the girls sitting behind us thought it was for them and they were all so excited and giggly that Aladdin wanted them and thought they were cute.

After the show ended, my friend arranged for us to be able to be a part of the post-show meet and greet. We got a picture with a lot of the cast and I got a quick photo with my friend before he had to go backstage again to get ready for his next show.

Aladdin Cast With Aladdin

After Aladdin, June and I rode on Tower of Terror. We tried to do a pose inspired by my friend in Aladdin (doing a pose that he did when he was impressing Jasmine with the flying carpet), but the people in front of us kind of blocked us with their hands in the air.

Tower of Terror

After Tower of Terror, we headed over to the Disneyland park to ride some of the rides over there. Our first stop was the Haunted Mansion. We got stopped a couple of times in the ride, but it gave us a chance to look around and check out all the little details that they put into the ride.

Next was something pretty cool. I saw on Facebook that a girl I went to high school with, Amy, was going to be at Disneyland with her family that day. I hadn’t seen her since I graduated high school in 2001, but it worked out pretty well to meet up! So June and I met up with Amy, her husband, and her kid for the last couple of rides of the day.

First as a group was Small World. I love seeing it at the holidays and they make the inside so beautiful (and the songs are better too).

Small World

After Small World we headed to Tomorrowland to go on Space Mountain. The ride is themed for Star Wars as Hyperspace Mountain and I hadn’t had a chance to check out the themed ride yet.

Since Amy’s son is too small to ride, we did the child swap for the ride. So June and I both got to ride twice (Amy and her husband each got to ride once).

Space Mountain Space Mountain Photo

Again, we tried to go with Aladdin themed poses, but it wasn’t the biggest success.

Hyperspace Mountain was pretty incredible! I’m not always a fan of ride overlays, but this one was so great and I’m so grateful that I got to ride it twice! The projections and lasers that they added to the ride made it super exciting and the music fit perfectly! I know that the next time I’m in the parks I’ll be riding it again and hopefully will get a chance to ride it several more times before they change it back to regular Space Mountain.

After those two rides on Hyperspace Mountain, we got some dinner at the Plaza Inn. Even though they are famous for their fried chicken, I’m not a huge fried chicken fan. So I got pot roast and it was very yummy.

Disneyland Dinner

By that time, Amy and her family needed to get over to Fantasmic because they had Fastpasses for the show and June and I were ready to head back to LA. I had to get one more photo with Amy before saying goodbye.

With Amy

I didn’t go to my high school reunion and I’m rarely at my parents’ house, so it’s pretty rare for me to see people from high school. I seem to always see people from high school at Disneyland and I’m happy to keep up that tradition.

Even though this wasn’t a day full of rides, it was a day full of amazing experiences and is definitely one of my favorite Disneyland days ever! I might be back in the parks next week and for sure one more time before so many rides and experiences close down in the new year. I love that Disneyland keeps getting better and better, but I’m also getting sad to say goodbye to so many things I love in the parks.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disneyland, friends, musical, rides, theme park

Checking Out A Local Restaurant (or A Birthday and Pizza)

Posted on December 8, 2015 | 1 comment

This past Saturday was my friend Dani’s birthday. I’ve definitely gotten to know Dani well over the past year. Between our season tickets to Pantages and her now working out with me at Orangetheory, she’s no longer just a friend of a friend. So I was super excited to be invited to her birthday party and getting to celebrate with her!

I had to work my second box office job on Saturday (making it a double work day), so I knew that I was going to be a bit late. But fortunately, I thought the show was later than it was so I wasn’t as late as I thought I’d have to be!

The party was held at Bella Vista, a Brazilian pizza place that’s pretty close to my house. But I had actually never been there before! It was described to me as all you can eat pizza, so I was pretty excited to check out the offerings.

The way it worked was that the servers came around from time to time with different pizza options. If you wanted a slice (or two) of that pizza you let them know. If you don’t want that pizza, another one will be by soon.

I sat next to Sarah (who was also part of the Pantages tickets group) and she had been to Bella Vista a couple of times before. So she was helping me know what pizzas are crowd favorites and what was on some of the pizzas that I was unsure about. And since the slices are on the smaller side, you can try a bunch of pizzas without filling too disgustingly full.

I pretty much had basic pizza while I was there. I enjoyed the four cheese and margarita pizzas. And I tried the fried garlic one because that was Sarah’s favorite (I agree that it’s pretty awesome!). And then I got a bit more adventurous and tried one that had bacon and spinach on it (I’m not normally big on the bacon/spinach combo but this was yummy).

After getting our fill of savory pizzas, it was time for the sweet pizzas to come out. I had the chocolate strawberry and the caramel coconut ones and they were ok (I think the savory pizzas were better). After all of that pizza, I was beyond full!

There was a pretty big group at dinner and I didn’t know everyone so I stuck with staying next to Sarah. And Dani came over to chat with us too. And my friend Kate (who is the one who introduced me to Dani) flew in for the party and ended up staying at my place that night (it was a nice little mini-visit with Kate).

I think that Dani had a pretty amazing birthday dinner. I had a great time and I know that I’ll be going back to Bella Vista for pizza in the future. There are a bunch of other adventurous pizzas that I didn’t feel gutsy enough to try then that I’d like to try now! Hopefully I’ll think of a good excuse to have all you can eat pizza soon!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, dinner, friends

Full Thanksgiving Trip (or Being With My Family In San Diego)

Posted on December 1, 2015 | 4 comments

My Thanksgiving trip to San Diego was from Tuesday until Friday last week. I had to work on Wednesday and Friday, but since I work from home I was able to bring all my stuff with me to San Diego and worked from the place we were staying (I did the same thing last year).

Those few days in San Diego were pretty packed, but it was a great family visit. I was nervous how it would be without my grandpa there, but it wasn’t as weird as I expected.

Tuesday I drove down to San Diego (it took 4 hours) and arrived there to have some dinner and spend a bit of time with my parents, aunts and uncle, and grandma. We really didn’t do too much that evening (I was pretty exhausted), but it was good to be around my family.

Wednesday I started with a short work shift. I worked in the kitchen so I had my family hanging out with me. It wasn’t a horribly busy shift so I’m glad that I worked in the kitchen and not in my room. That afternoon my mom, aunt, uncle, and grandma had some errands to run. So I spent a lot of time relaxing at the house and hanging out with my dad and aunt.

Wednesday evening was my grandma’s birthday dinner. We used to do this on Friday after Thanksgiving, but a couple of years ago we moved it to Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I think it’s better that way. We had a private room for the family, so it was nice that we didn’t have to worry about being too loud or my grandma being distracted by a lot of noise. While my grandma isn’t as involved in the conversations as she’s been in the past, she had a nice birthday dinner and it makes me happy to see her so happy.

Thursday starting with the workout at Orangetheory. After we got back from the workout, we helped set up the dining room for dinner (we did this in our gross gym clothes so we didn’t get our nice clothes dirty). The dining room has a gorgeous view and even though we weren’t able to see it at dinner, it was very nice to look at during the day.

I did a last minute grocery store run for my mom after that (who would have guessed that grocery stores would be out of green beans?!?) and then helped my parents get the bears set up to give out to the family before dinner. We put all the bears on a couch and covered them with a sheet so nobody would see them before the presentation. Of course with our sick sense of humor we thought that we made it look like we were hiding a dead body and my dad added some shoes and a hat to the pile to make it look even sillier.

My cousin Stephie and her kids arrived after that and my cousin Adam was able to take a Thanksgiving day flight to arrive in time to help carve the turkey (we’ve named him the official family turkey carver).

We had a pretty nice spread for dinner and the evening went really well with no awkwardness with my grandpa not being there.

I didn’t end up using the face paint on my cousin’s kids (they took the face paint home so it won’t go to waste). It was a bit weird not doing that tradition, but the evening was pretty full. And after dinner was done, I went to see the final Hunger Games movie with my cousin and her husband (that’s been our tradition for the past few years).

The next day, my grandpa’s ashes were being scattered at sea. The entire family was going on a boat, but I was not able to get the day off of work so I stayed back with the dog. I’m a bit sad that I wasn’t able to spend time with the family, but I’ve gotten seasick in the past so it was probably for the best.

I had fun with the dog at the house and took lots of silly photos of him. This is him trying to help me work.

After my family returned from the boat, I had enough time to get some leftovers for dinner and then I packed up my car to head back to LA.

I’m so lucky that I got to spend as much time with my family as I did. I know that not everybody gets the time off from work or have the ability to travel. I might not have had the time off of work, but I have the luxury of bringing my work with me and since San Diego isn’t a huge drive it’s not a big trip for me.

We are planning on going back down to San Diego to the same place again next year for Thanksgiving. It’s a great house that fits the family nicely and the set up is pretty ideal for a big family meal. I know I’ll be back in San Diego before next November, but I’m glad that I have next Thanksgiving to look forward to as well.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged dinner, family, San Diego, Thanksgiving, travel

Grandpa Bears (or Our Thanksgiving Surprise)

Posted on November 27, 2015 | Comments Off

When my grandpa passed away, my grandma immediately wanted us to remove his things from their apartment. I totally understood why she wanted us to do that and most of his things were either easy enough to get rid of or someone was going to take to their house (like his computer so we could get all important things off of it). But when we were in his closet, we weren’t 100% what we wanted to do with all of his clothes.

Some of the things we set aside for various family members to keep, but most of it was going to be donated to a charity. While I liked the idea of donating his clothes, I thought it might be nice to keep some of it for us to remember him by. My grandpa had some epic and colorful sweaters and didn’t want to donate those.

Then I remembered seeing on a website at some point that people turn baby clothes into bears to have as keepsakes from when their kids were little. I figured if you could do that with baby clothes, we could do that with my grandpa’s clothes too. My mom and dad decided to help with the plan, and only my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Steve knew about it as well.

So I did some searching online and found several people who make memory bears. But the person who made the ones that looked best to me and my mom was Paula of Paula’s Bears. She totally understood that we had multiple sweaters and wanted to create mix and match patchwork bears. So everyone would have the same sweaters on their bear, but all the bears would look a little different. I also had some of my grandpa’s ties and Paula said we could use those for the hands and feet.

Paula was undertaking a big project for us, but fortunately we got her the sweaters and ties in April and we didn’t need the bears back until October. I had asked Paula if she could take pictures of the bears as they were being worked on because I knew we’d all love to see the process of making them.

She cut each sweater into a bear and then mixed and matched the pieces. So each bear had a part of every sweater on it. Some had the same sweater in the same spot, but they were all a bit different.

Every time I got an update from Paula, I passed it on to my parents and we were all shocked and amazed at how the bears looked. We had no idea how they would look when they were in bear form, but Paula did such a great job making them all look perfect.

The bears were shipped to my parents house (my mom added various fraternity pins, boy scout things, and my grandpa’s dog tags to each bear to make them even more unique) and when they got the bears out of the box and lined up, we joked that we created a bear army.

We made enough bears for one for each single person or one for a couple to share (as an example, I get a bear but my parents will share a bear). I know that I will treasure this bear for forever and I hope that the rest of the family feels the same way about them.

Having Paula make these bears for us is such a nice way to remember someone by that doesn’t feel morbid or weird to keep in your house. I’m not totally sure where my bear will live in my house, but I know I’ll find the perfect spot for him.

If any of you are looking to have a memory or keepsake bear made, I highly recommend using Paula for them. She took so much care in making sure each bear was perfect and those touches really made all the difference. I know that tomorrow is Small Business Saturday and I really encourage you all to participate in that. Small businesses are sometimes just someone working out of their home and they can make the item you are buying even more special.

I know that having Paula was the perfect person to make these bears for my family and I’m so happy that I found her online. I know that for any future projects similar to the bears, I will be going back to her immediately. I’ve been wanting to tell you all about Paula and the bears for months, but I had to keep it a secret so that we could surprise the family. I’m glad that I can finally share her with you now!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Shopping, Tough Stuff

Tagged family, gift, grandparents, presents, Thanksgiving

What I’m Thankful For (or Happy Thanksgiving!)

Posted on November 26, 2015 | 1 comment

I hope that you all are spending Thanksgiving exactly how you want to be. Whether that is with your actual family, with your chosen family, or just hanging out by yourself.

I’m with my family in San Diego right now celebrating but I just want to share with you all what I am thankful for this year.

First of all, I’m very thankful for my family and the fact that I get to be with so many of them today. We are celebrating with 4 generations of the family (plus the dog) and we are only missing a few people who couldn’t make it. We all live crazy lives so it’s a miracle that we can all get together as a family once a year. I’m glad that I have this tradition in my life.

Beyond being thankful for my family in general, I’m so thankful for my parents. We’ve had our fights from time to time, but almost all of the time our relationship is unconditional love. I didn’t realize how lucky I am to have that until an adult when I learned that many people I know didn’t have the same relationship with their parents. I know that they don’t get why I don’t have a “real job”, but they try to understand my passion and they support it.

I’m also super thankful for my friends. So many of my friends have become my family over the years and I don’t know what I would do without them. When I’m having a bad day, they remind me why things are really good in the world. When I need to rant about something stupid, they are there to listen. And when I need to celebrate even the tiniest thing, they are celebrating as much as I am. I try so hard to be as good of a friend to all of my friends as they are to me, but they are all so awesome that I’m not always sure that I can compare.

I’m grateful for my day jobs. Both my day jobs are from referrals and for the most part they are both exactly what I need. I could use a bit more flexibility in one of my jobs, but it hasn’t really caused an issue for me lately. But to be able to work from home and pretty much make enough to get by is such a luxury that I know that many of my actor friends don’t have. So I’m grateful that the friends who got me these jobs considered me when they knew of the job openings.

I’m thankful for my acting class. It’s been tough to get back into improv classes, but each week things are getting better and better for me. I’m feeling more comfortable and like I’m doing the right thing at the right moment for me. I’m still trying to plan out what the future will bring as far as more classes go. But each week I’m leaning more and more toward taking the next level of classes. I’ll just have to see what my schedule looks like in the new year and what my money situation is like.

Finally, I’m thankful for the communities that I’ve been welcomed into or that I’ve created. I’ve had an acting related community around me for a while. But now I have a blogging community and a workout community that I can turn to for support and advice. Those have been so invaluable to me and I know that within those communities I’ve made some lifelong friends.

I’ll do my Thanksgiving recap next week on here. Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing with you all the big gift that my immediate family will be presenting to my extended family at Thanksgiving dinner tonight!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, friends, grateful, thankful, Thanksgiving

Scripted Jewelry (or My Mom’s Hanukkah Present)

Posted on November 25, 2015 | Comments Off

I take a lot of pride in the fact that I’m pretty good at giving gifts to people. I listen to what people say off-hand throughout the year and use that as inspiration for birthday and holiday gifts. And most of the time, the gift is a hit!

Most of my awesome gifts have been things I’ve gotten my dad. He’s much easier to shop for, so I can figure out something he’ll love pretty quickly. In the past, I’ve gotten him an iPod, a gym bag (that has a lifetime warranty and he’s had replaced twice since), a ski bag, and a chair made out of old skis. This year for Hanukkah, my dad got TRX straps from me, but I gave them to him back in April since I figured he’d want them.

My mom is much tougher to shop for. She always says that she doesn’t need anything and even when my dad does spy work for me we sometimes can’t figure out what to get her. I had an idea for a gift that didn’t end up panning out, so I was stuck a bit ago with no idea what to get my mom.

When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I got her and I matching bracelets with the word “positivity” on them. We both have loved them, but since they are made with an elastic they have stretched out. I’ve gotten us replacements before, but I was thinking that maybe a stronger piece of jewelry would be the right Hanukkah gift.

I did lots of random searches and couldn’t find what I wanted. But I had stumbled across the ScriptedJewelry page on Etsy and realized that this could be the perfect gift. I decided to make my mom a piece of jewelry for her to remember my grandpa by.

I did need a lot of help with this project. I actually don’t have any handwriting of my grandpa’s in my house. Everything I got from him was typed or my grandma wrote it. So I initially asked my dad for help, but he wasn’t able to find any handwriting samples either. I asked my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Steve for help next, and they found a letter that my grandpa typed to them on their honeymoon, but he signed it “Dad” at the bottom. So that was perfect to start with!

I realized that I would have to get my mom involved because we knew that she had old letters of my grandpa. So I lied to her and said that I wanted to do something for Thanksgiving and needed some of my grandpa’s old letters. I’m glad she didn’t ask me too many questions about it because I have no idea what I would have told her. But she had a couple of letters that my grandpa wrote his parents during WWII and she scanned those in and sent them to me. At the bottom of one letter, he had signed it “all my love, Bob”, so I was going to take the “all my love,” part of it.

I had reached out to the woman behind ScriptedJewelry, Caroline, and she said that they could combine the two handwriting samples and make something really beautiful for my mom. Of course, I had to figure out what type of jewelry to make for her. So I told my mom that I was working on her Hanukkah present and that she was not allowed to ask me questions but had to answer questions from me. I managed to find out that she would want a teardrop necklace in gold.

A couple of weeks later, the necklace was at my house and I’m so amazed by how wonderful it looks!

You can really see how the handwriting matches the necklace in this picture that Caroline took for me (it’s so much better than my iPhone photos!).

As I’m writing this, I haven’t given my mom the necklace yet. But by the time you are reading this, she has gotten it and hopefully she loves it!

The cutoff for Christmas present for ScriptedJewelry is December 1st, so I know that it might be too late for some of you to order from her for Christmas. But I highly encourage you all to make something to remember a loved one by. She can also turn artwork from kids into jewelry if you don’t want something with handwriting on it.

I’m so lucky that my random searching online led me to ScriptedJewelry and that I was able to have my family help me in making what should be one of the best gifts I’ve gotten for my mom ever.

Comments Off on Scripted Jewelry (or My Mom’s Hanukkah Present)

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Shopping

Tagged gift, grandparents, Hanukkah, mom, necklace, presents, Thanksgiving

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