Category Archives: Celebrations

Goodbye 31 (or Hello 32!)

Posted on August 7, 2015 | Comments Off

First of all, this is my 800th blog post! That’s so crazy! I feel like I need to start planning something amazing to do for my 1000th post now!

Anyway, back to today’s post!

This weekend is my birthday! As you know I look forward to my birthday every year. I enjoy all the freebies that I can, and I get to see so many of my friends over my birthday adventures.

This is always a busy time for celebrations for my family. Not only is it my birthday on Sunday, it is my cousin’s birthday and my parents’ anniversary today! I like having all these celebrations at the same time. Sometimes being at the tail end of all the celebrations isn’t fun, but that’s ok. The best time with the celebrations back to back was when my entire family traveled to Africa for my grandparents’ 50th anniversary. While we were in Africa, we celebrated my cousin’s birthday, my parents’ anniversary, and my birthday. That birthday is still one of the most memorable ones for me (and not just because I had the worst food poisoning of my life the night before my birthday).

I know many people my age hate getting older, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Maybe that’s because I don’t look my age, or maybe that’s because in the acting world I play younger than my real age. In fact, there are times that I forget my real age and only remember my acting age. That always makes for an awkward moment when I’m having to think about how old I am.

Getting older doesn’t scare me at all either. I’m not in the place I thought I would be when I’m 32, but I also never knew I could be in the place that I am in right now either. I have a really amazing life. I have really amazing friends who love and support me 100%. I am living in my dream city and working on making my dream career come true. I always thought by the time I was 30 that I would be married and have kids. By 32 I figured I’d be living a stay-at-home mom life and maybe still pursuing acting.. I still have the dream of getting married and having kids, but I don’t feel the same time crunch that I imagined in my 20’s.

Turning 32 isn’t a milestone birthday. But whenever I try to do things for milestone birthdays, they’ve never happen the way that I wanted them to. I remember my 21st birthday, I was supposed to have a ton of friends come meet me at a restaurant so we could celebrate my first legal drink. Throughout the day, friends were contacting me saying that something came up or there was a family emergency. I didn’t feel like I was being bailed on, most of these people had real conflicts and it didn’t help that I had done the planning at the last-minute. In the end it was me and two friends celebrating that first legal drink. But I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It also stands out in my mind how the morning after my 21st birthday, I had to be at work at 7 AM. So there was not a lot of drinking to be done that night. So I don’t see the point in trying to make milestone birthdays special (unless I’m not planning it).

I wrote about my 30th birthday on the blog. While it was a milestone birthday, it was still a relatively low-key birthday celebration. For some reason, turning 31 seemed like a much bigger deal than turning 30. Turning 32 feels more like turning 30 but it did turning 31.

I’ve got lots of fun things planned for my birthday this year. I’ll be sharing them over the next couple of blog posts. I’m doing things a little bit more low-key this year than I have in the past, but that’s exactly how I want them to be.

I’m going into my 32nd year a much stronger, confident, happier person than I was before. This is exactly how I want to start my 32nd birthday. While I’ve had struggles and challenges this past year, I wouldn’t change one thing. Each of the struggles has improved me. While I would like to believe that I would still be the same way even without these challenges, I know that without them I never would have been able to build myself to be the way that I am.

So here’s the last few days of being 31! And here’s to making 32 my most amazing year ever!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, birthday party, friends, happiness, party

Wedding Dress Outing (or Helping A Friend Find The Perfect Dress)

Posted on July 28, 2015 | 2 comments

When Rayshell and I had dinner recently, one of the topics we talked about was her wedding planning. She’s actually gotten a ton of planning done already. The venue is set and they’ve got the caterer and hotel blocks done. But the one thing she was having trouble with was finding the perfect wedding dress.

She had found a couple of dresses that she liked, but didn’t really love. And one dress that she almost loved, but it was way over her budget.

As we were talking, I remembered how years ago I had gone wedding dress shopping with a friend. She was looking for a very particular dress (she is very religious and needed it to cover from neck to the ground and have long sleeves), so we had gone to a handful of store together. The only one that I really remembered was Alfred Angelo. So while Rayshell and I were at dinner, we pulled up their website and checked out some of their dresses. There were a couple that she liked (and were in her budget), so Rayshell made an appointment and invited me to go dress shopping with her!

We got to the store about 10 minutes before the appointment, so we sat down and looked at some of the dresses in the store and in some of the catalogs they gave us.

Rayshell found several dresses that she wanted to try on while we were waiting for someone to come and help her pull dresses. When the stylists came over, we showed them the ones that Rayshell liked, and then we got the bad news. Most of the dresses that she liked are discontinued and not in the store. But one of the ones that she liked was still there, but there was only one dress left and the stylist wasn’t sure if it was in her size.

So we started wandering through the store together pulling dresses. We found the one that was on the list that Rayshell liked, and luckily it was in Rayshell’s size! So we grabbed that one. Rayshell and the stylist pulled a couple of other dresses and while Rayshell and I were looking we pulled that original dress again two more times!

Finally it was time for Rayshell to go into the dressing room and start trying the dresses on.

The first dress Rayshell tried one was pretty, but it seemed not quite right (and Rayshell seemed to think the same thing). The second dress looked too much like a costume to me.

Finally it was time for the third dress which was the one that we had selected 3 separate times. And when Rayshell came out of the dressing room, I knew instantly that that was her dress!

She was glowing and smiling and it was exactly what she had described to me as her dream dress! It was the only one in the store like that because it was discontinued the day that the sample arrived so nobody else would have that same dress. I felt that it was fate that the only one of that dress was in the size and color she needed!

Of course, Rayshell had to walk around and see how the dress looked in sunlight (versus the store lighting) and I took tons of pictures so she could see how it looked from every angle. I can’t share the pictures of the dress with you (because then her fiancée might see them), but I did get permission from Rayshell to show you one detail from the dress.

That detail doesn’t even do it justice. That dress is so incredible and so perfect for Rayshell! After Rayshell was pretty sure that it was the dress, she Facetimed her mom (I held up the phone) so she could show her mom the dress too. After her mom approved, it was settled that Rayshell had found her dress!

I felt so lucky that Rayshell invited me to go dress shopping with her. It was a really fun and special afternoon. And it was a nice added bonus that I got to be there when she found her dress. I haven’t had that opportunity before so it was really cool for me to do that. For most weddings I’ve gone to, I only get to see the dress at the wedding (or maybe a picture of it from a website). With my sister-in-law, I got to see the dress at the fitting, but that’s different from getting to go shopping for it together.

Rayshell’s wedding is still months away, but I’m even more excited for it now because I can’t wait to see how she looks in the dress when it’s all fitted and accessorized!

2 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged bride, friends, shopping, wedding, wedding dress

Happy Hour Birthday Dinner (or Just Having A Nice Catch Up Chat)

Posted on July 24, 2015 | 1 comment

My friend Rayshell’s birthday just passed. Instead of doing another big birthday party, she decided that she wanted to do a couple of one-on-one dinners with her friends. Since Rayshell and I do fairly regular happy hours, we combined our happy hour gathering with a birthday dinner!

We usually alternate meeting on my side of town and Rayshell’s side of town. But since I had to be on my side of town pretty late in the afternoon, Rayshell was awesome and agreed to stay on the westside.

We met up at Bossa Nova. It’s a Brazilian place that I’ve passed a million times but have never gone to. I thought at first it was a Brazilian steakhouse, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was more sandwiches, salads, and pastas.

We started off with some yummy cheesy bread (that we ate so fast that I didn’t get a photo of it) and we each got a sandwich.

It was a nice chill hangout. Of course, we talked a lot about her wedding planning. I really loved hearing about what she’s got set for her wedding so far. I already know that it’s going to be an amazing event and I’ve been trying to plan what I want to wear even though it’s months away!

Beyond the wedding discussion, we really had what most people would consider a boring conversation. We discussed our day jobs (we both have had a slower summer at work). We talked about random acting stuff like new headshots and a film that Rayshell just booked (that wasn’t boring to hear about!). And we talked about random stuff that is happening in our lives.

While it is fun to go out and do adventures with my friends (I’m going on one with Rayshell this weekend), it’s also so nice to just have a simple dinner and chat with a friend as well. I feel like these chats are what help keep my friendships grounded and strong. We all live such crazy lives and it’s easy to either let a ton of time pass without connecting or forget that we haven’t had a catch up chat in a while.

I know that I need to make this effort with more of my friends (especially my LA based friends). There are some friends who I feel like I’ve seen lately because we are connected on social media but when I look back at my calendar I haven’t seen them in months or even close to a year! I know that this isn’t their fault or my fault, it just happens. But now that I’m aware of it I’m going to work on fixing that.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, dinner, friends, happy hour

3 Years Down (or Where I Started)

Posted on July 16, 2015 | Comments Off

3 years ago today was the first post ever on Finding My Inner Bombshell. The last line in that post was about how I didn’t know where my journey would be going, but it was going to go somewhere.

And in the past 3 years it definitely has gone places.

Am I where I expected to be in 3 years after writing that first post? No way. I honestly thought that by putting myself out there everything thing would be fixed. I know that that sounds stupid, but I really believed it. I really thought that that first post was the start of my new life. And while that was true, it’s not true in the way that I expected it to.

I thought that somehow my weight loss would finally happen and I wouldn’t have to deal with any weight gain. I thought that I would figure out how to live within my means and pay off my credit card debt. I honestly thought that within 3 years all my debt would be completely gone.

None of that has come true.

But what has happened is I have become more accepting of myself. I don’t beat myself up as often as I used to. I still do that from time to time and I do share that on here. But when I become open with the world, many other people opened up to me. I realized that I’m not alone in this battle and journey. And by knowing I’m not alone, I know that everyone has slip ups and moments where they aren’t their best.

I’m still in shock that I’ve been doing this for 3 years (and almost 800 posts!)! I’ve said this before, but I never had an idea of how long I’d be able to keep this up. Sometimes it is tough to find things to write about every day. And I’m sure that eventually there will be a day that I don’t post. But I’m doing my very best to stay consistent with this as it does hold me somewhat accountable for my actions.

When I started this blog, a friend of mine had encouraged me to start a blog because she made decent money off of her blog. She thought that this would be a great day job for me and that I might be able to support myself on my blog income. In no way is that true. While I have had a handful of sponsored posts where I’ve gotten cool things, I haven’t made cash money off of this blog. And shockingly, I’m totally ok with that.

As I’ve blogged, while it would have been nice to make money, it’s become less and less important. I’ve found that having a voice and allowing others to feel comfortable to share their voices has been the best thing to come out of this blog. Maybe one day I’ll make a couple of dollars on here, but I really haven’t worried too much about trying to do that.

So I’ve talked about where I thought 3 years ago where I’d be today. Now to look toward the future. Where will I be in 3 years from now?

I’m hoping that I will still be blogging in 3 more years. I’d like to still be blogging 5 days a week, but I don’t want to stress out about that. Who knows where I’ll be in 3 years. I’ve seen other bloggers decrease their blogging when major life events happen (like getting married and having kids). Maybe something big like that will have happened for me in 3 years?

While I hope to be at a steady and healthy weight in 3 years, I have no idea if that will happen. I’d love to be at a “normal” weight and it is possible to lose my excess weight within 3 years. But I don’t know if that is in the cards for me. No matter my weight, in 3 years I want to be in a place where I am more comfortable with my body and appearance than I am right now.

And I’d love to have all my credit card debt gone in 3 years. I crunched the numbers and it may be possible. It won’t be easy at all. But there’s a small chance that it can be gone in 3 years. And even if it isn’t gone, it would be nice to have it at a much smaller number than where it is right now.

It’s so crazy to think that I’ve been blogging for almost 10% of my life! I love that I have this documentation of my life. When I was a teenager I kept diaries. I have them safe in my house right now. I did put them in waterproof sealed bags so I can’t look at them without breaking the seal. But I did go through them before sealing them and loved that I had all of that saved to re-read again. This is the same thing. It’s digital and public (so a bit more censored than my diaries), but it still allows me to reflect back and be proud of what I’ve done.

Here’s to the next 3 years of Finding My Inner Bombshell!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged anniversary, blogging, debt, weight loss

Fabulous 4th Of July (or Fireworks!)

Posted on July 8, 2015 | Comments Off

My 4th of July was spent at Chris and Marie’s house (my favorite party house!). The party didn’t start later in the day (some people had earlier parties to attend), so I spent some time relaxing during the day so I could try to stay at the party as late as possible.

I also made something to bring with me to the party. I made Drunk Fruit Salad.

Super easy recipe. Cut up fruit and soak in liquor (I used tequila). I soaked it for about 2 days, but right before the party I realized that I forgot to add margarita mix, so it was a bit stronger than I planned. I also made “sober” fruit salad for people who didn’t want to have alcohol.

I also tried to work on some sort of patriotic outfit. I was drawing a blank and then I remembered that I had gotten a headband to wear at Disneyland that would be perfect!

The party had a lot of the usual crowd. It’s so much fun to catch up and hang out with everyone. It also helps to keep a relaxed atmosphere at the party.

As always, there was lots of good food. Since parties like this aren’t all the time, I didn’t stress about what I ate and enjoyed myself. But I really don’t think I did that badly. I may have overdone it a bit with the desserts because there were so many yummy things, but again this was a special occasion.

Last year at 4th of July, it was so hot that a couple of us ran through the sprinklers to cool down. This year wasn’t as hot, but we decided to recreate the photo (minus the sprinklers).

We’ve already decided that this photo will be an annual tradition!

Once it got dark, a couple of us headed up to the roof to watch the fireworks. There were shows all around us and we kept turning around to catch them.

As we were on the roof, we saw a truck race into the alley behind the house. They stopped and then sped off. They had left a box and before we knew it fireworks were shooting out of the box! It was so close to the house and that made the fireworks look huge! But with them being so close to the house, the sparks were coming down right by us. One of the sparks got me on the ankle, but it only stung for a second.

We got down from the roof after that and the alley fireworks drop off happened 2 more times (it wasn’t as scary when we were on the patio versus on the roof).

As much as I wanted to stay late at the party, I always have to time out when I leave based on traffic and potential drunk drivers. Since bars close at 2am, I didn’t want to leave close to then. So at about midnight, I headed home (and only had to stop at 1 DUI checkpoint).

This was such a perfect low-key 4th of July. While I know that there will be plenty of parties before next 4th of July, I’m already looking forward to next year!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged 4th of July, fireworks, friends, party

Playing Catchup (or Recovering From The Beginning Of The Week)

Posted on July 3, 2015 | Comments Off

After all the excitement on Monday, I’ve pretty much spent the rest of my week making up for everything I didn’t do because I was focused on both the live recording and after party.

Obviously, the first thing I had to make up were work hours. Fortunately, my box office job doesn’t have Monday hours so I didn’t have to worry about that. But with my research job, I had to make sure to work a few extra hours to make up for not doing anything Monday (or over the weekend).

The research job is still trucking along. Things are a bit slower than I’d like, but my boss is totally understanding. I think that once I get all the initial work done and it’s more about maintaining the data I’ve collected, things will be better. Now it just seems like a race against time.

Even though I got through all the festivities of Monday, the podcast team still needed to meet up on Tuesday. We met at Lyfe Kitchen and I think it’s pretty obvious that we all were pretty hungry going into the meeting.

Some of the meeting was a debriefing of how things went the night before and what we could improve on for the next event. I think most of us were on the same page about things, but I think that I also kept some of the issues I encountered too quiet as nobody else on the team knew about them. In a way that is good because I was the only person stressed out. But I’m glad I got to share them because we can make changes to prevent those issues from happening again.

We also discussed the 300th episode. Yes, it’s about 2 years away. But I’ve got to top what we did for the 200th so I’m getting a head start. I can’t share any of the ideas we’ve been discussing just yet. But if things go the way we want them to, in 2 years you will all want to come join us for our 300th episode!

I also had a friend of mine ask me to write them a letter of recommendation for Women In Film! That was such an honor. I took my time and wrote several drafts before sending it to her to submit with her application. I’ve asked for letters of recommendations plenty of times. But I never knew until know how stressful it could be! Maybe I’m just so stressed because I know how great Women In Film is and I want all my amazing friends to be a part of it as well. I’ve got my fingers crossed that she gets in!

Finally, I just had to catch up on working on my happiness checklist. I’ve been neglecting some of the things that make me happy lately (although other things have been happening almost daily). I see my therapist in just over 2 weeks and I’m planning on bringing my checklist for him to see. I want him to see that I made a real effort in the homework he gave to me to do for 3 months. I really am taking this seriously and if I want to get my dosage of Vyvanse adjusted (which I’m pretty sure it needs to be), I have to work on the mental aspect of my recovery and not just getting the “quick fix” medication.

That’s a lot of work to get done on an already crazy week! I’m glad that this weekend is a holiday weekend and I get tomorrow off from my box office job!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged binge eating, busy, happiness, podcast, scheduling

200 Episodes (or We Managed To Throw An Amazing Event!)

Posted on July 2, 2015 | 3 comments

This past Monday was the live recording of the 200th episode for Inside Acting. I still can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we did the 100th episode.

This time, we did another event at SAG Foundation. They are really awesome to work with and they are so helpful. We were able to set up at Q&A with the creative team from the show “Defiance”.

For the past month or so, I’ve been sending so many emails and texts trying to get this organized. I’m sure I panicked more than I needed to, but I’m a perfectionist with anxiety. I had to make sure that everything was going to be ok.

As soon as I got to SAG Foundation, I started to relax a little. We had a line of people waiting to get into the room for the Q&A! There were a bunch of listeners as well as several past podcast guests there to support us! While everyone took their seats I was hanging out in the green room with the panelists and hosts of the podcast. And before we knew it, it was their turn to head on to the stage!

During the live recording, I hung off to the side monitoring our twitter account to see if anyone was tweeting questions that they wanted to have Trevor and AJ ask the panel. And every so often, I glanced over to the audience and was so amazed at everyone who showed up to support us.

The recording went great and I think that the panel and the audience had an amazing time! And once we finished some technical stuff at SAG Foundation, we all headed over to the after party at The Parlor.

The after party was something that caused me a ton of anxiety. This was going to be set up without anyone from the podcast there. But we were fortunate that some great friends offered to get there early to set up and help our sponsors get their things set up as well.

And as soon as I got there, I breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was the after party exactly what I was hoping for, it beat my expectations so much! The place was packed and everyone was having an amazing time!

As soon as you walked into The Parlor, we had a photo booth/red carpet setup with photography from The Headshot Truck.

I know that before the event some people wondered about if the red carpet and photo booth setup would be cool together. And I’m happy to report that everybody loved it! There were some traditional red carpet photos taken, but there were way more fun photo booth style photos taken with the props that The Headshot Truck had brought for us to use.

I definitely enjoyed the photos. And since there was wifi at the venue, the photos were added to Facebook immediately (you can see all the photos on their page). I really feel like that having them there turned the party into an event!

We also had some amazing treats that Brandi from Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe made! We had some regular cookies that everyone was eating all night. But the coolest thing was the custom logo cookies that Brandi made for us!

I think those cookies were the most photographed thing at the party!

I spent a lot of time at the party running around making sure that everyone was having a good time. I wish I was able to relax a bit more, but that’s just not who I am. But from everything that I heard from everyone and that I read on social media, everyone had an amazing time.

I still can’t believe that we pulled this off. It really turned out better than I ever could have imagined. And because I feel like things need to continue to get bigger and better, I now have to top this for our 300th episode.

At least I’ve got about 2 years to plan it.

Seriously, I’m so incredibly lucky that I get to be a part of the Inside Acting Podcast team that has created an amazing community around it.

(we left a space in the middle because one of our team members was out of the country for the 200th episode)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, celebration, event, Inside Acting, party, podcast

Disneyland Bucket List (or One Last Visit Before The Summer Blackout)

Posted on June 24, 2015 | 2 comments

I went to Disneyland on Monday with my friend June. She and I both have annual passes that are blacked out for the summer starting at the end of this week, so we wanted to get in one more Disney adventure before we can’t go back until the end of August.

We got down to the parks around 1pm (we both had workout classes that we went to in the morning), and we started things off right away.

Our first stop was at the Haunted Mansion. The Hatbox Ghost was recently brought back to the Haunted Mansion after disappearing soon after the ride opened in the 60’s. I hadn’t had a chance to see him yet, so I was beyond excited to check him out!

As we were getting close to his spot in the ride, I mentioned to June that it would be so amazing if the ride broke down or stopped right in front of him so we could check him out even longer. And about 3 feet before we got to him the ride did break! But it was just before we would have been able to see him, so our view was of the bride instead of the Hatbox Ghost.

Once the ride got started again we finally saw the Hatbox Ghost, and he was totally worth it! I wish we could have ridden that ride over and over again, but we had more Disneyland things to get done.

Next was a stop to get my favorite treat: Dole Whips!

It was the perfect refreshing treat on such a hot day and we were able to find a bench in the shade to relax on while we ate.

After our snack, it was time for another ride that was recently updated. The Matterhorn!

I don’t love the Matterhorn because of how bumpy it is and how it hurts my hips while riding it, but they just added a new animatronic on the ride and I had to see how it looked. I had seen some videos online so I had an idea of what to expect, but June hadn’t and she got a good scare on the ride. And since I decided not to put my hands up like usual, I was able to brace myself a bit better and only hurt a little after the ride.

After those two upgraded rides in Disneyland, we headed over to California Adventure to see the newly upgraded Soarin’ Over California. They had upgraded the screens and cleaned up the film (which desperately needed it). The upgraded ride looked very nice, but we did have a bit of a scare at the beginning of the ride. When the ride was moving up into the screen area, our seats jerked forward and we all had a little moment of panic. But the ride was smooth sailing after then.

After those 3 rides, we had checked off all the rides that we really wanted to do before we were blacked out for the summer. So we just did some fun rides after that. We checked out The Little Mermaid (mainly for the air conditioning) and then watched the Aladdin show (again for the air conditioning).

Our final ride for the day was Tower Of Terror. We tried to do a silly yawning photo this time and I think it came out pretty cute.

After those rides, we walked through Downtown Disney to the Disneyland Hotel for dinner. We got dinner somewhere where I’ve never gone before, Trader Sams!

They don’t have a huge food menu, but I got a really delicious pork sandwich. June got a fun drink (that came with the zombie mug that she got to take home) but I was just drinking water.

After our fun dinner, we did a couple of silly things around the parks like take advantage of the fun photo ops.

And take photos in front of the decorated castle.

And finally a little bit of shopping. We found this ceramic Dole Whip and I knew I had to have it!

And since it was getting close to the fireworks time and there were a couple of spaces right in front of the castle, we decided to suck it up and wait about 2 hours for the new fireworks show.

We got a pretty awesome spot to watch from. Where we were, you were required to stay seated, so that was almost better than having to stand and watch (and hope that you aren’t behind a really tall person). The new show has lots of cool projections on different spots in the park like the castle, the Matterhorn mountain, Main Street, and It’s A Small World.

Sorry for the random Cast Member in my photos. He was there the entire time making sure that nobody stood up or went under the rope. The fireworks were a bit shorter than I expected, but I’m glad that we waited it out. I rarely do that and when I do, I usually am much farther back. So being almost right in front of the castle was a real treat for me!

It was also a great opportunity to take a castle picture at night with nobody behind me in the photo.

After the fireworks, it was time for us to head home (I had to work the next morning). The funny thing was that it took us longer to walk from the fireworks spot, get a tram, and get to my car than it did for us to make the entire drive home!

And as soon as I got home, I found my Dole Whip a place in my living room to live.

Both June and I kept saying on the drive home how perfect this Disneyland day was. We got everything done that we wanted to and we really maximized the air conditioning opportunities and stayed out of the heat and sun for a good chunk of our time there.

I’m sad that I can’t go back until the end of August because of my blackout dates. Especially because the Peter Pan ride is supposed to open in a week! I have to wait it out for my time to go back. But June and I are already planning our return to Disneyland in August and hoping that it will be just as epic as this visit was!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, bar, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Celebrating 200 Episodes Of The Podcast (or Come and Celebrate With Me!)

Posted on June 12, 2015 | 2 comments

Remember a while ago how I shared that the podcast I work for was celebrating 100 episodes? Well, enough time has passed now that we are now getting ready to celebrate our 200th episode!

200 episodes of a podcast is a rarity. I hate when I find a podcast that I love and they quit after a few dozen episodes. It isn’t easy to have a podcast go up regularly (we post one once a week), so it’s something to be proud of when we hit major milestones like this!

We’ve got a 2 part celebration for our 200th and you can celebrate with us even if you aren’t in LA! Both parts of the event will be coming up on June 29th (a Monday), so mark your calendars now!

First, we will be doing a live recording at SAG Foundation. We will be doing a Q&A with the team behind the tv show “Defiance”! While this event is being done at the union, it is open to both union and non-union guests. But RSVPs are required and seating is limited. So if you’d like to join us for the first part of our 200th episode celebration, go to this link and reserve your spot. But if you’d like to watch our live recording and you aren’t in LA, that’s ok! We will be live-streaming the event through SAG Foundation’s live-stream. To join us for that, you can come to this link on the 29th at 7pm.

After what I’m sure will be an awesome recording, we will be moving from SAG Foundation to The Parlor on Melrose to have a great after party! We will be partnering with the LA Actors Tweetup for the after party and will be having a photo booth by The Headshot Truck and sweet treats by Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe.

You can see the event invite on Facebook as well. Only the recording requires RSVPs. The after party is open to all and no RSVP is needed (although you can say you are attending on Facebook so we can be excited to see you!).

This is going to be such a fun evening. I know that the live-recording will be great because we have amazing guests for it. And I think everyone can agree that an after party that has a photo booth and treats is a win!

I’m so excited to be able to celebrate the podcast’s accomplishments. Even though I am a part of the team, I’m really celebrating our two hosts Trevor and AJ. They did this podcast for a long time without ever having any help. I was the first team member added and while I helped to coordinate interviews, they still had to do so much of the work on their own. Now we have a slightly bigger team, but this is all done with the leadership of the hosts. They are the captains of the ship and we should all celebrate them for creating (and maintaining) not only an amazing podcast but the wonderful community that they have created around it.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, event, Inside Acting, party, podcast

Watching Musicals At Home (or Getting Antsy To Get Back To NYC)

Posted on June 9, 2015 | Comments Off

This past Sunday was the Tony Awards. While I’ve dreamed of winning pretty much every type of acting award, I’ve never dreamed of winning a Tony. I know that they have acting awards for plays, but in my head the Tonys are for musicals. And since I’m tone-deaf, I’m never going to win an award that involves singing.

But I love watching the Tony Awards. Prior to my NYC trip last year and getting this season’s tickets for Pantages, the Tonys were almost my only exposure to musicals. I love watching the presentations that each of the best musical nominees do on the show. And I’d always chose which shows I’d want to see when they came to LA (even though I never went to see them).

This year, I watched the Tonys at home alone. There were some funny moments (like this matchy-matchy dress moment).

And with any awards show, I loved watching the speeches. Especially from people who won for the very first time (some of whom won on their Broadway debut).

And of course, I watched (and re-watched) the performances several times.

I texted my sister-in-law to joke that I was watching the Tonys to pick out what musicals we should see when we get back to New York. But even though I said that as a joke, now I’m really hoping that we can make that a reality soon.

My brother and sister-in-law are moving soon. And my sister-in-law hasn’t really been able to job hunt from a different city. So she has no idea what her job situation will be like in the near future. We really can’t trip plan without knowing that.

And with my jobs now, I’m not too sure about my availability to go out of town. For my newest job, I’m sure it would be fine. I could probably even get work done on vacation without too many issues. But for my box office job, I have no idea how I can take a trip. I’d probably just have to take time off without pay (and hope that my boss is ok with that). I never asked about that when I interviewed for the job since my focus was on getting a job more than anything. But they have been flexible with me taking occasional time off for auditions as well as having time off for spending time with my family after my grandpa’s death. So I’m sure I could figure out how to take a trip.

I haven’t really thought about how I’d take a trip with my jobs, but now that I’ve watched the Tonys and have seen performances from several musicals that I really want to see; I really want to get back to New York at some point this year.

Hopefully I can figure out how to save up the money and get the time off (without losing too much of my paycheck) in the near future so my sister-in-law and I can start planning this! We said that we wanted to make our NYC trip an annual tradition and we’ve got until December to make that a reality.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged awards, Broadway, musical, New York

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