Posted onApril 4, 2014|Comments Off on Happy Birthday Mommy! (or The Past Year In Review)
Today is my mom’s birthday. I know I’ve written a birthday post to her in the past, but I think that since this past year has been quite a year, she deserves a new birthday post to celebrate everything from the past year.
The first time I saw my mom was after her surgery but before she started chemo. This was on my trip to Tahoe. And during that trip, not only did we hike a lot, my mom took me off-road driving and drove so aggressively that I had a seatbelt bruise for days afterwards!
I also got to see my mom when we all went to Maui for my brother’s wedding. That was a great week filled with lots of adventures.
After the wedding was when my mom started her chemo treatments, and I have to say that she was able to still be her usual ass kicking self through all of it. I’m still amazed that she still played tennis (and usually won) ever week. She even scheduled chemo around her tennis matches.
Usually, my parents are in Tahoe a lot during the winter (so my dad can fulfill his dream of being a ski bum), but because of the treatment schedule, they didn’t get to go too often. That’s ok since Tahoe had a horrible winter as far as snowfall goes.
Somehow, the universe must have known that my mom was done with all her treatments because there was a good snowfall the other day. So my mom, dad, and Tucker are all up in Tahoe this week celebrating my mom’s birthday.
While thinking back at this past year, I think my family has become much more grateful for the little things. I don’t think we were ever ungrateful people, but we make more of an effort to be grateful now.
I’m so grateful for my mom (and dad) for so many reasons. While they don’t completely understand my desire to act, they support it as much as they can. I’m grateful that my parents are willing to pay for me to fly home so I can see them (and Tucker). I know some friends who don’t have that opportunity so they don’t get to see their family very often. I’m also really grateful that my mom is almost as much of a Disneyland nerd as I am, and we are going to try to get my dad to enjoy Disneyland as well when the 3 of us go to celebrate my mom’s birthday/the end of her treatments later this month.
I know that my mom is going to have an awesome birthday today. I’m sure she, my dad, and Tucker are going to go on some sort of adventure in Tahoe. I’ll just have to wait to celebrate with her in a few weeks.
Our last full day in New York was this past Saturday. We started by taking the subway to our brunch location. We had reservations, but we got there before the restaurant opened! So to kill some time, we went to a little coffee house so Krystle could get a coffee.
While walking across the street to get coffee, a familiar logo was in front of me.
I found a NYC SoulCycle! SoulCycle started in New York and they have a bunch of studios there, but we didn’t see one until the last day. We went inside to see what clothing they sold there (if they had a NY SoulCycle shirt I probably would have bought it) and because all SoulCycles use the same brand of candles, it really smelled like being home (who would have thought a workout place would be considered home to me). I gave my brother and Krystle gift cards to SoulCycle for Hanukkah this past year, and they haven’t had a chance to go yet. But hopefully since Krystle saw what one looks like inside, they’ll be more motivated to go soon!
After the SoulCycle and coffee detour, it was finally time for brunch. Krystle and I both got mimosas to celebrate our last breakfast on the trip.
It was sad to think our trip was coming to an end, but we still had a full day to do. After brunch, we got onto the subway and checked out Central Park.
We didn’t really get to walk around (next trip we will) because we had a mission to go to Bergdorf Goodman. Krystle is a buyer for the department store Gumps, and Bergdorf is the east coast equivalent to Gumps. So we went inside to see what they had for sale.
After looking at lots of expensive things, we continued our “out of our price range” shopping on Fifth Ave. and a stop at one of the biggest jewelry stores I’ve ever been to.
This particular Tiffany is 6 floors! We only explored 2 floors before we headed back out to the next part of our day.
We were meeting one of Krystle’s college friends at Serendipity, which is famous for their frozen hot chocolate. They don’t take reservations unless you are getting lunch or dinner, so we had a little over an hour wait outside waiting for our name to be called.
But at least Saturday was a much warmer day so it wasn’t too bad waiting outside. And the wait was totally worth it!
I got the peanut butter frozen hot chocolate, Krystle got the salted caramel frozen hot chocolate, and her friend got the original frozen hot chocolate. They were so delicious and I figured all the walking around and stairs going in and out of the subway would work off the calories of the treat (side note, even with all the crazy eating on this trip, I managed to lose a pound).
After our treat, we said goodbye to Krystle’s friend and headed back into the subway to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and the show that evening.
I was beyond excited for the show that night. It was our only off-Broadway show, but it was perfect because my friend AJ was in it! We saw “Heathers”. Technically it was still in previews, but that’s ok. AJ lived in LA until recently. He moved to NYC to be in the show (he was also in the LA version of the show).
As soon as we got to the theater, I was so giddy to see a dear friend doing what he loves to do.
And seeing a familiar face in my Playbill was one of the coolest things of the entire trip!
“Heathers” was incredible! I think it was the best show that we saw this entire trip! The set and costumes weren’t as grand as the Broadway shows that we saw, but the music and story was so much better. I think that if this show moves to Broadway (which it totally should), it will be a serious contender for the Tonys!
After the show, we met up with AJ near the stage door, where he was busy signing autographs.
While we were waiting for AJ to finish up with his fans, my phone rang. I saw that it was my friend Alex, who we saw the night before. When I answered the phone, nobody was there, so Krystle and I figured it must have been a butt dial. But just then, Alex came around the corner! She was walking past the theater and figured that we would probably be there. It was so cool to get to see her again really quickly, and to introduce her to AJ. It was one of those really cool moments that made the trip so perfect.
After AJ was done with autographs, we went around to the other side of the theater to get a picture together in front of the poster for the show.
And no, AJ doesn’t have a giant hand. I didn’t notice that particular optical illusion in the photo until someone else pointed it out to me.
After the photo, a group of us which included AJ’s girlfriend and a listener of the podcast I work for (and AJ co-hosts) headed a few blocks away for a drink at a bar.
There was nothing super special about the bar. It was just a good hangout with friends. It was so normal (and not touristy) and the perfect way to end the evening.
Before we knew it, it was midnight and Krystle and I had to get up around 5am the next morning to catch our flights. It sucked to say goodbye to AJ, because if “Heathers” is as successful as I think it will be, it could be a long time before I get to see him again. But it gives me motivation to visit New York again (and to see Alex again as well).
As Krystle and I headed back to the hotel in a cab, she and I both said how this evening really was the perfect ending to the trip. It sucked that it ended so quickly, but I don’t think we could have asked for a better NYC adventure.
Posted onMarch 18, 2014|Comments Off on The End, Kind Of (or My Mom Is Seriously A Rockstar!)
Yesterday was my mom’s last radiation appointment. Technically, she is officially done with all the treatments that her doctor prescribed to her to beat breast cancer. I say technically because she is in a drug trial right now and still has to finish that, but it wasn’t part of the original treatment plan.
I can’t believe that my mom is done. It seems like it’s been forever and super quick at the same time. Since July, she’s gone through a mastectomy, 2 different types of chemo, and a full course of radiation. And through it all, she’s kicked so much butt.
This has been long journey for our family, and there are still some things that are a bit uncertain. We haven’t gone through the genetic testing yet, so I’m not sure what my future looks like in terms of my chances of getting breast or ovarian cancer. We are going to do this, we just having had the chance yet (although my mom and I have both taken an online class required by my mom’s hospital to start the testing).
Also, I’ve learned that there’s no way to know if someone is completely cancer free after breast cancer. There’s not really a test for it. All they can do it be extra vigilant with monitoring my mom. But I really thought before all of this that there was some blood work or something that you could do to prove you don’t have cancer anymore. You can’t do that with breast cancer.
I really do wish that there was some way to guarantee that my mom beat this. Although there really isn’t a question in my mind that she did, I still want some proof and not just a gut feeling. It sucks that that isn’t possible.
But instead of focusing on that, we are going to focus on how awesome my mom is. Yesterday after her final radiation, she went out to lunch with friends. I don’t know what other celebrations she has scheduled soon, but in month I know how I will be celebrating with her.
My mom, my dad, and I are going to be going to Disneyland for 2 days (and staying overnight in one of the Disneyland hotels) to celebrate the end of her treatments. My mom is a Disneyland person like me, but I don’t think my dad has gone to the theme park for maybe 15 years. He has no idea what he is getting himself into by going to the parks with me and my mom. But in my opinion, going to the happiest place on earth seems like the perfect place to celebrate. That’s coming up in a month.
I also wanted to say thank you to all of you reading this. Throughout this journey, many of you have shared your own journeys with me. You’ve said prayers for my family and kept us in your thoughts. There’s no question in my mind that your thoughts and prayers helped my mom do so well in all of her treatments. I know that some of you know me in real life, but for those of you who don’t, I’m so touched that you took time out of your life to think about my mom. It means the world to me that you did that (and I’m sure my mom would thank you too).
This isn’t exactly the end of the journey for breast cancer in my family, but it’s the end of a major part of it. As more things happen, I’ll update you all. If I have to go through genetic testing, I will share all of that with you (and be completely open and honest).
Here’s to my mom: the ultimate cancer ass-kicking rockstar!
Posted onMarch 17, 2014|Comments Off on Baby Steps Progress (or Surprising Myself)
I don’t feel like I’ve made a ton of progress in spin class lately. I’m still sitting down for the entire class. I had previously discussed trying to stand up (or ride out of the saddle) with my hip surgeon, and his advice was simple. If it hurts after the workout, that’s good. If it hurts while I’m doing the workout, that’s bad.
And since day 1, it has hurt whenever I tried to ride out of the saddle in class. Every so often, I’ll try to ride out of the saddle to see if somehow it doesn’t hurt (at least in the bad way). And it never seems to be only good pain.
This past Saturday I went to Heather’s class (I love that since I’m not at my old job anymore I can go to her lunchtime class on Saturday!). It was a great class and I was sweating like crazy. It was exactly what I needed.
In the past, I’ve always tried to ride out of the saddle when there is very little resistance on the bike. I’m not sure why, but that’s always what I’ve done. And every time I’ve tried, I can stay up for a couple of seconds before I feel the bad pain (which is basically my hip locking up and feeling like the bones are grinding).
But this past Saturday, I decided to try riding out of the saddle while we were in the hill portion of class. This meant that there was a lot of resistance on the wheel and that we were not pedaling as fast.
And I was actually able to stay up for about half a song! It was tough, but it didn’t start hurting until about half way through the hill section. I was able to stay up and even do some of the moves (we were sitting down for 2 counts and then standing up for 2 counts).
After half of the song, the bad pain started again, so I sat down. But this was still the most that I’ve ridden out of the saddle for any spin class I’ve taken!
It’s tough to be super excited over this since I only rode out of the saddle for about 90 seconds and a majority of the 45 minute class is supposed to be out of the saddle, but I’m trying to be happy. Maybe the next class I take I can ride out of the saddle for a majority of the hill section. And one day, I’ll be able to ride out of the saddle for 45 seconds when there is no resistance on the bike.
These are baby steps. And they will take a while to add up to what seems like progress. But I’m trying to stay optimistic that this will snowball into faster and faster progress and one day I will look back at the time that I had to sit down for an entire spin class as something in the past.
Wednesday was already going to be an awesome day because of my stand-in job at WB. I knew waking up that day that is would be a good day (and would give me something positive to write about). But I had no idea how good my day was going to get.
After my lunch break, I was back on the set getting ready to do some stand-in work when my phone rang. It wasn’t a number a recognized, but since the number was a LA number, I guessed it was a call I should answer.
Turns out, it was the boss at the job I was waiting to hear back from. They wanted to hire me and have me start right after I get back from my NYC trip! I was so excited to get that news! It isn’t going to be full time to start, but it can lead to that. Plus, after being trained, it will be work from home! It’s exactly what I wanted!
I had a mini-celebration by myself on the set, but my focus had to stay on the job I was hired to do that day, so I didn’t really celebrate until I got back into my car after being done.
If that wasn’t good enough, I got a very interesting phone call while driving home. It was from my last job. The COO of the theater company called and asked me to come back to work with them! It won’t be the telesales job I had since they got rid of that department, but in the box office.
The work from home job is pretty much only during business hours and the box office job would be evenings and weekends, so I can do both (although I will make sure that I have at least 1 day off a week)!
I went from no jobs to 3 jobs (although 1 of those was only for that day) in 24 hours! How crazy is that?!?
It is also going to allow me to stop working the film recruiting job. I’m still not getting good results and I can’t survive on the minimum wage that they pay. But at least I have 2 new jobs to do to pay the bills!
And finally, some somewhat frivolous good news. There is a purse that I have been wanting to get for a while, but it’s not in my budget. I told myself that if I got the new job, I could use my final unemployment check to buy it (since I won’t have to use it for bills). Well, I was planning on buying the purse in NY (I figured it would be an amazing souvenir).
But I randomly went to Nordstroms Rack yesterday and the purse was there! And it was 50% off! I figured it was meant to be and I bought my dream purse! Now I’ll be super stylish when I start my new job!
I’m so glad that the universe has decided to send a lot of good things my way. It is a reminder that as long as you can tough it out, eventually it will get better and things will turn out right.
The Oscars were this past weekend (but I’m sure you all already knew that). This is like the actor’s Super Bowl so of course it was a big deal!
I always go to my friends Marie and Chris‘ house for their party. I’ve been going for almost as long as I’ve lived in LA. And every year it’s a costume party.
I hadn’t felt too inspired with the movies this past year for a costume. The movies I loved had costumes that would be either too complicated to make or would be too simple and I wanted to try to do something a bit more.
After my hair was dyed, I realized that my hair is almost the exact same color as Anna in “Frozen”. Here’s a photo for reference:
I have a maroon sweater that looks like the cape and I wore blue jeans (because I thought I’d be too cold in a skirt). And I went to the beauty supply store and bought white/blonde clip in extensions so I could add the white streak to my hair. I tried to braid it but the extension kept getting lost in my hair, so I went with pigtails. After doing my hair and makeup, this is how I looked.
After getting dressed, I thought I did a pretty good job creating a more modern version of Anna.
Although my costume was tame compared to the hosts (aka cheerleader from “Monsters University” and Rayon from “Dallas Buyers Club”).
The party was awesome (as it always is!). There were great decorations and amazing food.
There were two different viewing areas to watch the awards show. I chose the quiet room for two reasons. One, I wanted to be able to hear all the speeches and the show. And two, Marie and Chris project the show on their garage wall so it’s a huge screen!
That was Chris celebrating as Jared Leto won for “Dallas Buyers Club”. He looked pretty good in drag and had great legs in heels.
I didn’t do too bad with my guesses for the winners. I got 20 out of 24 correct. But the winners of the guessing contest got 21 right! That’s ok. I’m happy with all the winners and thought that everyone deserved their awards.
After the show was over, everyone headed outside for the costume parade and a group photo.
Before I knew it, it was time for me to head home. I had such a great time at the party. I got to hang out with a ton of awesome friends and I got to see actors who I admire getting their Oscars.
Thanks again to Marie and Chris for being the best hosts ever! I can’t wait for next year!
Posted onFebruary 28, 2014|Comments Off on One More Outing To Bar Food (or A Friend Leaving LA)
After my training at the new job, I headed back over to my side of town to go see my friend Kate. Kate is moving away from LA today and I wanted to go and hang out with her before she left.
It’s been a fun novelty to have my best friend living in the same city as me. We grew up living close to each other. When we went to college, I moved here to LA and she moved to Minnesota. While I’ve been in LA for 12 1/2 years (wow, I’ve been here a long time!), Kate has moved around. She’s lived in Minnesota, Ireland, Missouri, Alabama, and Washington State. I’ve visited her over the years (only to Minnesota and Washington) but when she moved here about a year an a half ago, it was awesome!
It had been so long since we lived an easy driving distance away from each other (or in the same state). We’ve had some awesome adventures and I got to show Kate why I think that LA is the most amazing place to live.
But Kate’s boyfriend lives up in the Bay Area and she got a job offer up there, so she has to leave. When I went over to her apartment, I kept her company while she did some packing. We also spent a while reminiscing about funny stories that happened in high school. It was a pretty fun afternoon.
Once Kate got most of her packing for that day done, we headed out for dinner. Kate’s roommate, Beth, joined us as well. We just walked across the street to go to Bar Food. They don’t have free happy hour hot dogs anymore (they are now $2 each), but we all wanted to get some real dinner.
We started off with getting some drinks, where of course I ordered a Dirty Shirley.
We ordered some spicy edamame to share for the table (I forgot to take a picture but it was really yummy!) and for my dinner, I ordered mac and cheese.
It was the perfect dinner for a rainy evening. We also got some bread pudding for dessert, but of course I forgot to get a picture of that too.
While I’m sad that my best friend is moving out-of-town, I’m happy for her. She’s moving closer to her boyfriend and her new job is really amazing. She’s going to kick butt there. Plus, it’s only a short flight to the Bay Area and I go up there anyway to see my parents. So hopefully we will hang out more than we did when she lived in another state.
So if you are reading this in the morning, please think good driving thoughts for Kate. She’s driving up north with 2 cats in the backseat, one of whom is a good traveler and one that she’s not too sure of yet.
And I’m sure that the next time that Kate and I hang out, it will be another amazing adventure!
Yesterday was my friend Justin’s birthday. For his birthday, he wanted to go to Disneyland and he put out an invite on Facebook. One of the joys of being out of work is being able to go to Disneyland on a weekday, so I told him I’d meet him at the park.
We actually both got there at pretty much the same time, so we met at the trams that took us from the parking lot to the theme park. After a snafu with my annual pass (which ended up taking an hour at the ticket booths at the end of the day to fix), I ended up getting a free ticket for the day so I was able to go into the parks before dealing with the issues with my pass.
Since both Justin and I are annual passholders, we didn’t feel like we had to rush around the park and do a ton of rides. We started in California Adventure at Toy Story Mania, where Justin ended up beating me, but not by a ton. Next, we rode Radiator Springs Racers. This is really one of my favorite rides in the park. We did the single rider line, so we didn’t end up riding together. But that’s ok. While my car was waiting to go, I took a quick photo.
The ride was great as always. Then Justin and I decided to head over to Disneyland and do some of the rides over there. While walking through Main Street, we noticed Cruella de Vil just standing there with no line to take photos. So we took the opportunity and got some photos with her (I took one for Justin and he took one for me).
Then, right next to her we saw Pluto with almost no line! We figured we had to do another photo.
I was trying to give Pluto a kiss in the photo but now looking at it it just looks awkward.
Next, we were going to ride Star Tours, but on the way we saw Peter Pan and Captain Hook coming out from a backstage area. We figured we should see if we could get pictures with them too. They said we could, but only if we walked with them. So I ended up getting a picture with them toward the end of Tomorrowland.
Finally, we went into Star Tours where finally Justin and I got a picture together (wearing the awesome 3D glasses for that ride).
For the last ride of the day, Justin and I went on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Earlier in the day, Justin mentioned that his dream was to max out the counter on the ride. In order to do that, you have to get over 1,000,000 points. Justin was super motivated to beat me in this ride, and check out what he did.
I don’t know why his score is above my head and my score is above his, but he got over 1,000,000 points! And not only that, he had the 33rd highest score for all of Disneyland! And this was done on his 33rd birthday!
After that awesomeness, there was no way that the day could be topped. We declared that we conquered the park and headed out.
Justin was going to go straight back to his car and I still had to go to the ticket booths to deal with my annual pass issue (thank goodness it’s all fixed now), so we took one last quick picture together to remember this epic day.
I don’t know how future Disneyland adventures are going to top this, but I’ve got almost an entire year left on my annual pass to try.
Happy Birthday Justin! I hope the rest of your day almost lived up to the awesomeness of Disneyland! And thanks for letting me be part of your celebration!
Posted onFebruary 21, 2014|Comments Off on Bingo Night (or Helping Out The Pet Matchmaker)
After our pretty much failed attempt at snow and sand in one day, Kate and I both went back to our homes to rest and get ready for Drag Queen Bingo! This was at the same place that the last Drag Queen Bingo was at (I don’t know if there is even more than one place in LA for Drag Queen Bingo).
Every Bingo night, it’s a fundraiser for a different charity. This time, it was a fundraiser for The Pet Matchmaker, one of the blogs that I freelance on. I was super excited to support the blog and all the good that they do. And this particular fundraiser was to help the blog officially become a non-profit charity (there’s lots of paperwork and lawyer’s fees to pay for).
Kate and I got to Bingo pretty early, so we were able to order some food and drinks before all the games started. And yes, of course, I drank a Dirty Shirley.
Once Bingo got started, there were several celebrity callers that evening. First of all, Elaine Hendrix, the founder of The Pet Matchmaker, was there. She knows me through some mutual friends as well as the blog, so it was great to see her. The next celebrity caller was Erin Murphy, who played Tabitha on “Bewitched”. I love watching that show so seeing her was actually very cool! And we learned some cute trivia about Erin: her husband’s name is Darren (which was the dad’s name on “Bewitched”). The final celebrity caller for the night was Randall, who you might know as the narrator of the Honey Badger YouTube video! He and I have a mutual friend (and are represented by the same agents) so it was great to see him as well!
Bingo was so much fun! The crowd is so energetic and while everyone wanted to win, it was a fun competitive room. And I got pretty close to winning a few times.
I never won, but I that’s ok. I still had a great time! Kate got really close to winning a few times as well.
After Bingo was done, Elaine grabbed me and a couple of other people and we went into a back room to hang out for a bit (they had to clear out the restaurant for the 9pm Bingo to start on time). In the back, I got a picture with Randall so I could show my agents that two of their actors were hanging out together.
And of course, I got a picture with the host of the evening as well.
After chatting for a bit, it was time for me and Kate to head out (our meter was about to expire!). I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but I do know that we raised quite a bit for The Pet Matchmaker at Bingo. Hopefully it was enough to get all the non-profit paperwork filed because I know that the site has a lot of amazing things ahead once that is all finalized.
If I know of another Drag Queen Bingo fundraiser for The Pet Matchmaker, I’ll try to remember to post it on here so I can get some blog readers out to join us!
Posted onFebruary 14, 2014|Comments Off on Exciting Weekend Plans (or Finally Meeting The Puppy!)
As you are reading this, I’m on my way to the Bay Area to see my parents and finally meet Tucker! I’m so excited! I’ve been seeing so many videos and pictures of Tucker that my parents send to me, but I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever (but in reality like 6 weeks) to meet him!
And Tucker is no longer a baby puppy. This week he graduated from puppy socialization school (although in the end he ended up being the only puppy to finish all the classes) and my dad texted me this picture yesterday morning.
It’s hard to tell, but Tucker lost his first puppy tooth (right in the middle on top)! He’s officially becoming a grown up puppy now!
I’m also excited to see my parents. It will be my first visit with my mom since she finished chemo (and by the time I get to the house tomorrow she will be 1/3 of the way done with radiation). And I’m planning a fun trip to the gym with my dad (more on that when we get it done).
I’ll also be seeing my brother and sister-in-law on Saturday. My sister-in-law and I have a lot of planning to get done for our trip, which is coming up in a month, so we’ll be working on that this weekend.
Going home will also be a nice break from being in LA and feeling a little lost without a job. But I will say that after my 2 job trial offers I got this week, my 3rd interview resulted in me getting hired! I’ll be working as an on-call personal assistant. There’s no guarantee with hours and the pay is independent contractor (so I have so save a lot of the money I earn to pay my taxes), but it’s something. And my birthday twin, Joanna, is hired by this company as well so I know that it’s a good and flexible day job.
As I’ve said before, I’m hoping that this round of unemployment ends quickly. While I’m getting by with unemployment money, it’s not enough to pay all the bills (or pay down my credit card). I don’t want to be surviving on that money for too long.
But for now, I’m not focusing on my lack of work but my excitement about meeting Tucker (and seeing everyone else in my family!)! And seeing my family will make my Valentine’s Day a day filled with people I love. I hope that you all get to have the same!
