Category Archives: Celebrations

Thanksgiving Meal Prep (or Hopefully Everything Tastes Great)

Posted on November 24, 2015 | Comments Off

Soon, I’ll be heading down to San Diego to be with my family for Thanksgiving. It’s probably going to be a long drive (a combination of holiday and rush hour traffic), but I’ve got lots of podcasts to keep me company while I’m making the drive.

My mom is making pretty much everything for Thanksgiving this year (technically my family is hosting it at the house we are renting in San Diego), but I really wanted to help out. I know that my mom works hard to get everything done, so if I can do a little of that work for her I know that she’ll have some extra time to be with everyone.

I first offered to make the feta, pine nut, sun-dried tomato dip that I made last year. I know that it’s a pretty easy recipe and that everyone seemed to like it when I made it last year (although I personally think that my mom makes it better than I could ever do). I also said that I’d make the blueberry banana bread since everyone likes that too and it can be breakfast for a couple of days. Then I thought about what else I could make in advance that my family might like. And I decided to make the black bean dip that I love for veggies. I’ve personally been adding salsa to the dip to make it a bit spicy, but it’s doesn’t last as long that way (maybe it’s too watery?) so I made it the normal way.

The only time I’d have before driving down to make all the food was on Sunday, so I made that my cooking day (even though only one thing actually has to be cooked). The first thing I got done was the blueberry banana bread since I figured I could do the dips while it was in the oven. It’s simple enough to make and within about 10 minutes I had that recipe done and in the oven to bake.

Next I worked on the black bean dip. Again, it’s super easy to put it together. I think the most time consuming task was to drain and rinse the beans. I got that done and in a disposable Tupperware container to bring with me.

Then I ran into a big of a snafu. I only have one food processor bowl and both of the dips needed to be made in the food processor. I had washed the bowls for the bread and the food processor after finishing the bean dip, but I used my kitchen towels to dry the bowls (not sure why I did that but I did). So I couldn’t really dry my food processor. So I took a break while that dried and then about an hour later got started on the feta dip.

I’m hoping that the feta dip turned out ok. It seemed more difficult than last year to make. The food processor didn’t want to process it. I had to start and stop several times and try to mash things down myself. I finally got it to look the way I feel it should look (it’s a bit smoother than I like it to be), and it seemed to taste ok to me. It has a few days for the flavors to meld together. Hopefully it just gets better with time.

I know that making 3 things for Thanksgiving is much less than most people have to make. But for someone who has been struggling to make more things from scratch, making 3 things from scratch in one day is a lot! But I think that it all looks pretty good to me!

Hopefully when my family gets to eat them that they enjoy them! I’ll have to let you all know how it goes when I do my Thanksgiving recaps next week!

The next few days of posts will be written before Thanksgiving, so they won’t totally be Thanksgiving related. But I want to share with you all what I’m thankful for this year, the gift that I had made for my mom that she will be getting tonight, and what my mom, dad, and I worked on to give to everyone in my family this year for Thanksgiving.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged baking, cooking, family, food, recipe, San Diego, Thanksgiving

Focusing On The Happy (or What Will Be Good At Thanksgiving)

Posted on November 19, 2015 | Comments Off

After talking about how stressed out I’m getting about getting everything done before Thanksgiving, I decided to take a step back and focus on the good things that will be happening next week. I think I realized that I need to focus on the good after reflecting on my happiness checklist yesterday. I’ve realized that happiness and good things haven’t been as much of a focus as it should be and I wanted to remedy that.

Obviously, we are all trying to remember that last Thanksgiving was pretty epic and will likely be impossible to top. It wasn’t just that almost the entire family was there at one time, but we had amazing weather and everyone seemed to have a great time. We have the same rental house this year as we did last year, but since my grandpa won’t be there (and a few other family members will be missing due to scheduling issues), it won’t be the same even if we have the amazing weather again.

I’m really excited to see my family. So many family visits lately have been a bit on the sad side, so it will be nice to have a family gathering that should be happier. There are a couple of things that have been planned for Thanksgiving (that I can’t share yet because they are surprises) that may bring a bit of a somber mood, but I think we are all focused on making our family holiday a happy thing.

I’m super excited to give my mom her Hanukkah gift. I’ll be sharing what I got her next week (again, I can’t ruin the surprise), but I think that she’s going to be shocked by what I got and I think she will love it. And I can’t wait to give my dad his birthday present because I think it’s something that he’ll be so happy to have but never would have bought for himself.

I can’t wait to see my cousin’s kids and do some face painting on them. I bought a big face paint kit this year and I think it will be a bit crazy when my cousins and I start painting their faces. We can get more creative than we’ve been in the past, but we can get over the top as well. But I know that when the kids have their faces painted and they are showing the designs off to everyone that the entire family should be smiling. I think everyone has gotten a kick out of this weird tradition that I started by accident.

And of course, I can’t wait to see the dog! It’s been a while since I’ve seen him and he’s gotten so much bigger! I’ll be working with him on a trick or two and my parents have been telling me how much better he’s gotten with his obedience training. The other day Tucker was at the dog park and tore up his skin from a bush. My parents didn’t realize he was hurt at first because he didn’t cry, limp, or show any signs of being injured. But once they saw it they took him to the vet to get it checked out (we might be a bit overly cautious because of what happened with Chaucer). The vet said it needed to be cleaned and stitched up so that was done. And instead of putting Tucker in the cone of shame, the vet recommended putting Tucker in a shirt so he can’t lick at his stitches.

I think he looks so silly and cute at the same time! I don’t know if he will still need to be wearing a shirt next week (his stitches don’t come out until after Thanksgiving), but he will look cute whether he’s clothed or naked. Tucker is officially now our dog with the most scars. And they’ve all been very minor injuries that Tucker doesn’t even notice. That dog either doesn’t have a ton of pain receptors or he is so distracted when he’s playing that he ignores any pain he has. But all his scars have fun stories and he seems to not mind visiting the vet (I don’t know if he loves being in the shirt).

And of course, the food and company are things to look forward to next week. I’ll be in San Diego for about 3 days so I’ll have a lot of time to hang out (even if I do have to work the day before and the day after Thanksgiving). No matter what happens over Thanksgiving, I’m so grateful that I have the chance to spend time with 4 generations of my family and be surrounded by people who I love and who love me. I know that that is a luxury that not everyone has and I need to be grateful that I do have that.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, happiness, holidays, positivity, San Diego, Thanksgiving

A Bit Over-Scheduled (or Starting To Stress Out)

Posted on November 17, 2015 | 1 comment

For the past few weeks, my schedule has been pretty crazy. Every weekend is filled with something (sometimes something fun and sometimes lots of working at some of the day jobs). A few weeks ago, I realized that my next day off without having something on my schedule like work, class, or hosting an out-of-town friend would be Thanksgiving. I’m not used to not having a day every so often to just relax and do what I want to do. Right now, every day has something important and on a specific schedule. And that freaked me out a bit.

Now that my Thanksgiving trip is about a week away, I’m still extremely busy and I’m starting to worry about how I will get everything done before I head down to San Diego to be with my family.

I have to work while I’m in San Diego (I work the day before and the day after Thanksgiving) so I need to make sure I pack all of my work stuff. That ends up being very last minute because I will be driving down to San Diego right after a work shift next week. So I need to wait to pack everything I need until I’m logged out of my shift. But I’m starting to work on a work related packing list so I don’t forget anything.

I also have a few food things I need to make and bring down to Thanksgiving. I won’t have time to make them until after my class on Monday next week (that alone is stressing me out), but I’m starting on my shopping lists now and I’m hoping that I can get the ingredients this week so everything is ready for me to go Monday afternoon.

I also have gifts for a couple of people. I have a Hanukkah gift for my mom (I’ll write about that next week because it’s an awesome gift that I think you all might love), a Hanukkah gift for Ross and Krystle, and a birthday gift for my Dad (he got his Hanukkah gift back in April because I knew he’d want it as soon as possible). I’ve also got face paint for my cousin’s kids (it’s tradition) and I’m still thinking about bringing something else to maybe help decorate the house. Fortunately, all the gifts are all wrapped and in a bag with the face paint. It’s ready to go in my car but again it’s something else to have to remember to pack.

And of course, I have to start thinking about what clothes I want to bring with me. I’ll be doing another Thanksgiving morning workout with some of my family so there’s that checklist too (can you tell that I’m checklist obsessed right now?).

With all that I have to do plus lots of work do to for my day jobs, I know that when Thanksgiving day comes and I have the day off to spend with my family I will be very grateful. I’m trying not to get overwhelmed by everything I have to do, but that’s just who I am. The checklists are helping me because I can see exactly what I’m planning on bringing and when I’m packing up my car and I make sure that I don’t forget anything.

I am very happy that I can drive to Thanksgiving and don’t have to worry about flying because I can bring a lot more stuff and it’s easier to pack my car with several random small bags instead of trying to make sure everything fits into airline regulations. At least that’s one thing I don’t have to stress about.

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

Tagged busy, driving, family, San Diego, scheduling, stress, Thanksgiving, travel

Peak Performance Week (or Pushing Myself To The Max)

Posted on November 16, 2015 | 1 comment

It’s been a crazy few weeks at Orangetheory lately! First there was Hell Week. Then there was Recovery Week (which didn’t feel like a recovery but more like a normal week). And this past week was Peak Performance Week.

We had a Peak Performance Week back at the beginning of the summer, and I had a pretty great time with it. I got some PRs, challenged myself, and felt like I had set some good benchmarks to try to beat. Not all of the challenges were the same as the beginning of the summer, but it’s nice to have something to compare to. Especially when that last time it was right before I tore my calf muscle. I was able to see how close to fully recovered I am.

Monday’s challenge was a 10 minute run/walk for distance. The goal for all the runners was to get at least a mile done in 10 minutes. So technically the goal for me as a power walker was to get half a mile done. I know I can do half a mile in 10 minutes, so I set my own goal of trying to get to .6 miles in 10 minutes.

I did most of the work at 6% incline and as much as I wanted to increase my speed, my hips and calf weren’t having it. So while I didn’t get to my personal goal, I think I did pretty great.

Wednesday’s challenge was something that I was really looking forward to. It was the 1 mile challenge. When I did this over the summer, I had a PR with my mile. While that was amazing, it was very disappointing for me how I wasn’t able to translate that mile time into my 5K (and yes, I know that the PR was pre-injury and the race was post-injury). I knew that my mile time wasn’t going to be a PR. But I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do better than I did at my race.

I spent most of my mile alternating between 3.4 and 3.5 miles and hour. In the last minute, I bumped up the speed as much as I could. And when I was done, I was so happy with myself.

This is about 30 seconds slower than my mile PR (which isn’t that much) and about 50 seconds faster than my mile time from race day. I needed this boost because I had still been feeling a bit low from my race. I know that somehow I could have done better, but I’m not sure what I would have had to do. So showing myself on the treadmill that I’m not as far back from fully recovered as I thought really made me feel great.

Friday was a pretty exciting day for me. First of all, it was my 150th workout of 2015! That’s amazing to me! Also, Friday’s challenge was the 2000 meter row. I’ve had so much rowing lately that I knew I could do some great work on this challenge. My PR for my 1000 meter row is 4:58.9, so my goal for my 2000 meter row was anything under 10 minutes.

Since I knew the row would totally take it out of me, I chose to do that first instead of the treadmill like I usually do. I set my rower to count down from 2000 meters (it would also stop the clock once I reached that distance) and tried to not look at the screen. I counted the strokes in my head as a distraction and once people next to me were finishing I knew I must be getting close. I rowed as hard and fast as I ever had for those last 100 meters and when the clock stopped, I almost couldn’t believe my time.

I was a little more than 16 seconds faster than my goal time! And since distance rows are a weakness of mine, to be able to do this was amazing! The only downside was that after the row we had to go on the treadmill and my hip gave me one of the electric shocks I get from time to time and my calf muscle was feeling like it was pulling and tearing. So I got off the treadmill and did the rest of my cardio on the bike. I wasn’t happy to be on the bike, but I needed to do that to keep my body from being in pain and damaging itself.

Overall, I would consider this Peak Performance Week a huge victory for me. While not everything was a PR, I proved to myself that while I’m still recovering I’m getting closer and closer to where I was pre-injury.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged fitness, goals, Orangetheory, pain, progress, rowing, treadmill, workout

A Busy Halloween (or Dressing As A Box Office Employee)

Posted on November 3, 2015 | 1 comment

I love having fun on Halloween, and I had been looking forward to the party that my friends throw for months! I knew I’d have to work on Halloween morning from 8-11 for my at home box office job, but I then found out that I would need to be working at my other random box office job not only on Halloween but the next day as well. So my plans for doing a fun costume ended because I knew that I’d be working a lot that day and wouldn’t want to change after work before going to the party. And I knew that my time at the party would be limited since I’d have to work the next day (and even though the clocks “fell back” I needed to get up early in the morning).

My jobs went pretty easily. The first job was a bit busy with everyone hoping to get into the sold out Halloween shows, but since we cannot add seats to shows all my customer calls were pretty fast. The second box office job was a bit crazier since it was a sold out show and we had to make sure that everyone sat in their assigned seats, but overall it went pretty smoothly.

I don’t have to dress fancy for the random box office job, just nice casual. So that evening I was wearing jeans, a nice top, and some boots. And I had a headband with cat ears on it that I added to my outfit when I got to Chris and Marie’s house.

Not the most creative outfit, but I joked to everyone that my outfit was “box office employee” and everyone understood that I was coming straight from work.

Marie and Chris really outdid themselves this year with the party. The house and backyard were themed to Jurassic Park. They had lots of dinosaur themed things around including cardboard dinosaurs stalking the party.

They even made a jeep with a t-rex chasing in the background. They made sure that the side mirrors had a picture of a t-rex in them too!

Of course, I had to take advantage of that amazing photo opportunity to have a great party picture!

Even without being in a decent costume, I still had a great time on Halloween. Getting to hang out with my friends is always fun and I loved seeing all the creative costumes everyone came up with (I didn’t stay for the costume contest so I don’t have pictures of the winners). Even though this is a very competitive group with costumes, nobody judges anyone for showing up without a costume. So even though I felt bad for my lack of costume, nobody really cared.

I don’t have a ton of stories about the Halloween party because it really was just a fun hangout with everyone. Some of the people at these parties are people I only see at the parties so I tried to make sure I take the time to catch up and socialize with them. And since I had to leave before it got too late (because I was tired, had to work the next morning, and I wanted to get on the road before too many people thought about driving drunk), I didn’t do much more than hang out.

The next great party that should be at Chris and Marie’s will be the New Years Eve party (unless a scheduling issue comes up and they can’t have that party). And after that will be the Oscars party where I know I want to have an amazing costume. But even though those parties are a few months away, I have the awesome photos from Halloween to look at and make me smile until then.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged busy, friends, Halloween, job, party, work

How Is This Year Almost Over? (or Doing A Check In On My Goals)

Posted on October 28, 2015 | 1 comment

I was on the phone with a friend the other day and it came up that this year is over in 2 months. I know I say this every year but it’s crazy how fast the year is going by! It feels like my birthday was just a few weeks ago!

I’m not the type of person to do quarterly check ins with my goals (so many friends are trying to get me to do this and I’m thinking about maybe doing it next year), but with 2 months left I did want to see how I’m doing with what I set as goals for this year.

My first goal was to do 175 workouts at Orangetheory this year. Not counting the workout I’ll be doing today, I’m at 142 workouts. I’m very much on track to hit my goal, but I need to get back to 4 workouts a week soon so I make sure that I get there. But it’s very possible and I’m really happy with myself that I’ve gotten this close so far.

My next goal was having at least 4 home cooked dinners a week. This one I’m not doing so great with. If you could microwaved dinners as home cooked (I don’t), then I’m doing amazing. But I’ve really gotten out of my cooking trend that I was in for so long and I’m struggling to get back in to. A lot of that has to do with working one of my jobs on the weekends when I used to do meal prepping or knowing that I won’t be at home many nights a week. This is a scheduling issue that I’m always working on and I know that I need to make it a better priority in life.

Next on my list was getting down to 2 main day jobs. This one I actually did! I now have my box office from home job (which I’ve been at for over a year) as one of those main jobs and my data entry job with my old boss as my other main day job. I also have my sporadic jobs (babysitting, the film festival, my weekend box office job with an old boss), but I’m definitely down to 2 main day jobs. I have to admit that I’m shocked that I accomplished this one since it was the hardest one in my mind. I’m now looking at some other day jobs with more flexibility (my main box office job isn’t as flexible as I’d like it to be), but I’m very happy for now with the 2 main jobs I have and I’m super grateful to have them both.

Getting into an improv class was checked off the list last week when I started at UCB and I’ll be doing those classes for 6 more weeks. Again, I’m super shocked that I got this done because I’ve been wanting to do it for a while and haven’t had the chance or money to do so.

I haven’t been able to travel a lot this year. I’ve gone to San Diego a bunch and I went to Napa earlier in the year, but I was really hoping to do another New York trip this fall. There were schedule and financial issues with doing that trip, but it’s looking like it might be in the works for 2016.

And my final goal (as it always has been) was to keep blogging. I’ve had people ask me how long I can keep up blogging 5 days a week every week and I’m happy that I haven’t quit doing that yet. There may come a day in the future that I miss a day or that I decide to go down in the number of posts a week. But I’m still happy with my schedule as it is and it seems that you all like reading my posts too.

So that’s my almost the end of the year check in with my 2015 goals. They aren’t all done yet, but I’m making huge steps and progress so far and I feel like on December 31st I will be looking back and realizing that I got most or all of my goals accomplished for the year.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged cooking, goals, improv, job, Orangetheory, progress, travel, UCB

A Speedy Disneyland Day (or Getting My Halloween Rides In)

Posted on October 8, 2015 | Comments Off

When I’ve got a free Monday, I go to Disneyland. It’s one of the advantages of having an annual pass. And since I won’t have a free Monday again until December (I’m going to be in a class on Mondays for a while), I had to take a trip to the parks this week to see all the Halloween fun.

I went with the same friend that I’ve done my past few trips to Disneyland with since she lives around the block from me and we have similar attitudes on being laid back in the parks.

We got the parks around noon and it was really crowded. I wasn’t expecting a Monday during the school year to be that bad, but it reminded me of a Monday in the middle of the summer. Maybe some local school districts had the day off?

As soon as we got into Disneyland we knew our game plan was pretty much to do the Halloween rides first and then see what we want to do after that. But first, we had to make our traditional first stop and get a Dole Whip!

It was nice to be able to enjoy the Dole Whip and not have to eat it super quickly because it was melting. We sat in the shade and enjoyed our treats before heading to our first ride of the day.

Even though the Haunted Mansion has their holiday overlay of The Nightmare Before Christmas from Halloween until Christmas, I try to go on it once during Halloween and once during Christmas (at least). We ended up getting stopped on the ride a couple of times, so I was able to get some pictures of the ride without worrying too much that I was ruining someone’s experience on the ride.

Our next ride was going to be Space Mountain to see the Ghost Galaxy overlay, so we rode the train around from Haunted Mansion to Tomorrowland. The train is going to be closed for at least a year starting in January, and I love it a lot so I’m going to try to ride it each time I’m in the parks before it closes down.

I’ve missed going on Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy most years, so I’m glad I got to ride it this week. I swear that the ride was so much faster than it usually is and it was a lot darker so I couldn’t see the track at all even though we were sitting in the front of the ride.

And of course, we had to do a silly pose for the photo (we were trying to hula dance to celebrate our love for Dole Whips).

After that, we decided to head to the Disneyland Hotel for some lunch at Trader Sams and rode the monorail over to Downtown Disney (I was feeling a bit lazy that day). This was my second time at Trader Sams and it was just as fun as it was last time. I still didn’t get a drink, but one day I will try one of their fun and festive drinks.

While we were sitting and enjoying our lunch, we both realized that we were exhausted. I had found out while at Disneyland that I had an audition with 7 page audition and she had a class that she was thinking of attending that evening. So even though we only rode a few rides and we would potentially be hitting rush hour traffic home, we decided to call it a day.

But we did make one more stop before going back to the car. The last time we were there, we saw these churro ice cream sandwiches in Downtown Disney and thought they looked yummy. We didn’t get them then, but we decided to try them this time.

What we didn’t realize is that the churro ice cream sandwiches need to be assembled by you and the ice cream is just a container of it (and not easy to scoop out with a plastic spoon).

I ate one part of the churro and tried to brush the cinnamon sugar on to the ice cream to have that second. It wasn’t quite an ice cream sandwich, but it was pretty yummy. I just don’t think that I’ll be getting that again (it was also way too much food!).

Even though this was a super short trip to Disneyland, I got my Halloween rides in and had fun with a friend. And while I won’t be able to make it back on a Monday until December, I might try to go on a Sunday sometime in the next month or two. I’ll know going into that trip that it will probably be very crowded but at least I know I can have fun when I only do one or two rides. It gets me my Disneyland fix.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Disney, Disneyland, Halloween, rides, theme park

The Convention Gala (or An Evening Under and With The Stars)

Posted on October 7, 2015 | 1 comment

With all the business surrounding the SAG-AFTRA Convention, I’m glad that there were a couple of fun events planned as well. Most of the fun things were free (like a screening I decided to skip because I needed to catch up on sleep), but there was one ticketed event as part of Convention.

The gala did cost money to attend, but I justified it by saying that I was saving money by not having to buy food during Convention (since they fed us) so I got a ticket before they sold out.

Part of the gala was the American Scene Awards, but mostly this was an event to have fun, dance, and get to know the other delegates there.

Since Convention was at Universal and the gala was at WB, I didn’t want to have to go home to change (I never would have made it in traffic). Fortunately, one of the SAG-AFTRA staff members let a couple of us use a meeting room to change in at the hotel. While there wasn’t privacy, none of us minded since it was better than having to change in the bathroom (I don’t want to have my bare feet on a public bathroom floor).

After we got ready, we carpooled over to WB were there was some on-site parking for us (most people bussed over, but I wanted to have my car there to get home quicker). The parking was pretty easy and we were on our way to the backlot right away so we could enjoy the party.

Of course, when there is a step and repeat, we have to take a photo.

The museum was open for us to enjoy, but I ended up not making it up to the second floor. I was having too much fun seeing my friends there and enjoying seeing everyone dressed up fancy.

We moved over to the buffet to get dinner and to the bar for drinks (just sparkling water for me) and then found a table to sit at for dinner and the awards.

Yes it was cool to see the awards, but I really just enjoyed having a fun night out. There are so many things to vote on and debate about at Convention, but this night was all about fun. I goofed off with people at my table and was just silly and giggly (it’s been a while since I felt like that).

After the awards and getting dessert, it was time to move over to the dance floor. There was a live band there and they were pretty awesome!

I’m not much of a dancer, but when there is a good band and lots of awesome people, I can’t turn it down. I was jumping around and pulling people into our group to dance. I’m not sure how long I was dancing, but by the time I was ready to go I was super sweaty and my feet had blisters. And I didn’t even care because I had such an amazing time!

I was worried about the timing of the gala, especially since I don’t live super close to everything. And yes, I was a bit tired the next morning, but it wasn’t unbearable and it was totally worth it. Bonding with my fellow delegates and getting to know people from all over the country was amazing and really helped me not feel like an outsider in the union anymore. I had gotten some haters during the election who didn’t believe that I should be a delegate due to what they perceive as a lack of credits. I questioned things a bit, but even beginner actors have the right to be active in the union government. I don’t regret things at all anymore and seeing everyone having fun all night made me realize that I totally fit in.

The next gala (and Convention) is 2 years away, but I’m already counting down the days. This entire 4 day process really was an eye-opening experience for me and reaffirmed all the choices that I’ve made in my career. And if I can feel that from my first Convention experience, I can’t image what will happen after my next one!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, party, SAG-AFTRA

Over Scheduled In The Best Way (of Taking Time For My Friends)

Posted on September 22, 2015 | Comments Off

While I’ve been a bit over scheduled lately, I’m trying to not let that overwhelm me to the point that all I do is work and chores. So even though I’m still catching up on sleep from not sleeping a ton during ENMNCon, I dedicated this past Saturday to being a friend filled day!

I started my day with my short shift at work. A customer kept me on past the end of the shift, so I was a bit late leaving my house, but it wasn’t too bad.

My first (and technically second) stop was in Hollywood. I was meeting one of my workout friends for lunch at The Counter! I love eating at The Counter (their burgers are really good!) and it was an awesome hangout because this workout friend and I had never hung out outside of a workout before!

We had a nice catch up chat because I haven’t seen her in a while. She is working at a new school and is going to be going to a different Orangetheory location now, so she isn’t going to be working out with me anymore. It was great getting to talk and make some plans for some hangouts in the future.

My next stop was right across the street from The Counter at the DGA. I was going to a screening of “Everest” in 3D there and invited one of the girls from my Women In Film mentoring group to join me.

I’ve read “Into Thin Air” and have seen the TV movie, so I was pretty familiar with the tragedy that happened on Everest. But I really thought that this movie was well done and kept me interested even though I knew who was going to live and who was going to die. And my friend only knew a bit of the story and she thought the movie was great too.

My final hangout for the day was back in Culver City at Rush St. (where my birthday party was) with another workout friend! We had tried to coordinate it so I could hang out with both workout friends at the same time (we are all friends), but schedules never matched up so I got double the workout friend hangouts!

Again, I hadn’t seen this friend in a while. She’s also working out at a different Orangetheory location (I guess that’s what happens when there’s more than one location!) and she’s also been recovering lately. So it was another great catchup chat with each of us filling the other in on our lives and other random stuff.

And since this friend had missed my birthday, she decided that we should celebrate it now even though it was over a month past my birthday!

After two meals out and a movie (plus my work in the morning) it was a super full day. But getting to see a bunch of friends and doing lots of fun stuff really did revitalize me. The exhaustion I had been feeling for the past week is gone. And that’s a good thing because the next two weeks are going to be a bit crazy! But I’m ready to take it on!

Comments Off on Over Scheduled In The Best Way (of Taking Time For My Friends)

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, friends, lunch, movies, Orangetheory, workout

Going Out While Exhausted (or The Opposite Of Fear Of Missing Out)

Posted on September 18, 2015 | Comments Off

After all of the ENMNCon excitement, I was hoping to have a bit of a lazy week the next week. Sadly, that wasn’t going to be the case for me. Of course I knew I’d have work to catch up on and errands to do (those few days of ENMNCon seemed to take up my entire time so I didn’t do a lot of housework), but I was hoping to keep my evenings as free as possible.

I knew that there was an event that the podcast I work for was co-sponsoring on Monday evening and I had it on my calendar for a while. And I figured that somehow I wouldn’t be exhausted that evening to attend so I told everyone I would be there.

Of course, Monday comes around and the day is just beyond full for me. I was exhausted from the weekend, I had a workout in the morning, and then a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. I had every intention of going to the party, but I didn’t think I was going to make it.

After a team phone call with everyone from the podcast (we have those every other week) I realized that everyone else was going to be there and I should try too.

I got out of my junky clothes (I don’t care to dress up to go to the doctor so I wore workout clothes) and put on some jeans and a cute top. I also tried my best to do some makeup and make my hair look better and then headed out the door.

The event was in Chinatown, so it wasn’t too far of a drive for me. I was a bit lost because the venue was on a pedestrian only street and wasn’t sure at first where to park, but I managed to find a meter (it was free at night!) and headed inside.

As soon as I got in, I knew that this was going to be a quick appearance for me. The noise and lights were bothering me and I was so tired that I wasn’t feeling very social.

I saw a bunch of my friends and managed to say hi to them all, but after about 30 minutes I was getting ready to go. Of course, I stayed long enough to be in an awesome photo with the entire podcast team!

As soon as we took the photo, I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed back home. Before I knew it, I was in my pjs on my couch catching up on my DVR (there were a lot of shows I hadn’t had a chance to watch).

I’ve written before about fear of missing out and I was scared that if I hadn’t gone to this party that I would feel that way. But I almost had the opposite reaction. I am glad that I went and said hi to my friends, but I almost regretted spending that time driving there when I knew I wasn’t going to be all in for the event.

It’s hard to say no to social obligations. And because I had told people for a while that I’d be going, I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. But I know that if I hadn’t been there and had explained that I was exhausted from a 3 day conference that people would have totally understood. But I also don’t want to let people down. It’s a struggle of balancing obligations and needs that I need to work out.

And I know that I’m going to have to focus on that struggle a lot over the next few weeks. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now and there are weeks that I’m getting very close to overbooked. I’m going to take some time between things this weekend and take a good look at my schedule. I’m going to have to decline some things that I’ve wanted to go to in order to keep myself sane. I have to focus on what’s most important in my life right now (I’m thinking day jobs, workouts, and doctors appointments) and then add in what else I can when it fits.

Hopefully that focus will allow me to stay rested and at my best self over these next few crazy weeks!

Comments Off on Going Out While Exhausted (or The Opposite Of Fear Of Missing Out)

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged event, party, podcast, scheduling, tired

Category Archives: Celebrations

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Over Scheduled In The Best Way (of Taking Time For My Friends)

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