Category Archives: Celebrations

Another Year Of Disneyland! (or Paying With Ink Recycling)

It’s been almost a year since I got my Disneyland annual pass. And if you remember, last year I paid for a little bit of it by recycling ink that my mom gave to me (she doesn’t want to have to deal with going to recycle 10 inks every month).

Well, I saved all my ink recycling money for the past year so when it was time to renew, I had quite a bit more in gift cards than I did last year. I actually had enough to pay for almost half of my annual pass! So the balance that I had to pay on my own was only a little bit more than a one day park hopper ticket. Not too bad!

I’m really excited to have another annual pass. As you’ve all seen in my posts about Disneyland, I like to go to the parks. I have fun there and I do get a ton of walking in.

With not having a job right now, I’m going to try to take advantage of the free time and do some more mid-day park adventures. I’m actually thinking of paying the extra money for a parking pass so I can do that more often (it takes 10 visits to pay off the parking pass, and I went 9 times last year).

I’m spending an hour every morning and an hour every evening applying for jobs (if I spend more than 2 hours job hunting I start to go a little crazy). That leaves the middle of the day open for me right now. I’ve been going for walks or planning on going to spin classes (I’m going to the 10:30am one today!) in my mid-morning through afternoon free time. But I think I’m going to start going to Disneyland maybe once a week.

I don’t always ride the rides, especially when I go alone. But it’s such a gorgeous place to walk around and if I don’t have to pay the $14 to park there, it pretty much makes it a free outing (not counting the gas to get there).

I’m a little nervous to spend more on my annual pass because I don’t have a job right now and I’m pretty much living off my unemployment (which barely covers everything). So I’m going to spend this week trying to budget and plan it out (I don’t think I’ll have time for Disneyland this week so I don’t have to worry about it yet).

But at least for now, I know that I can go into the parks almost any time I want and not have to pay a penny! And this will come in handy because in the spring I have a multi-day Disneyland adventure planned! But more about that when it gets closer to the date.

Super Bowl (or Faking My Football Knowledge)

My friends Kate and Beth held a Super Bowl party this past weekend. I don’t really care about the Super Bowl. I wasn’t raised in a house that watches football. In fact, the very first time I had ever really seen a football game was at my high school.

But I do love the Super Bowl commercials! It’s even more fun when I know people in them!

So I went over to the party to watch the game and have a good time. I knew that most people there were going to be into watching the game and not the commercials, so I DVRed the game at home just in case I needed to re-watch commercials that I missed (this was a very smart move).

The party was full of food. I’m glad that I brought wine because there was pretty much no room for any more food in the apartment! I got a plate with some goodies and got a seat on the couch for the game.

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The tv was working fine for the first 40 minutes or so, then it decided that we needed to watch the game in black and white.

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It went back to color after a few minutes, but then right after that, the screen went black.

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Turns out, the standard definition feed for Fox went out for Time Warner customers in Los Angeles. Since Kate and Beth didn’t have access to the high-definition feed, we ended up streaming the game from a laptop.

As most of you probably know, the game wasn’t all too exciting. It was pretty much a win for Seattle from the first minute (which kind of stunk since everyone at the party was rooting for Denver). I didn’t really understand too much of what was going on during the game, so I just cheered when everyone else cheered and booed when everyone else booed.

Since the game was looking pretty dismal, everyone started to pay attention to the commercials. But we noticed that we kept seeing the same commercials over and over again and everyone on twitter was talking about different commercials than what we were seeing. Turns out, the live stream didn’t show the commercials! That’s the best part of the game! Fortunately, I had my DVRed game waiting for me at home, so I watched the commercials then (my favorite was the Budweiser one with the puppy).

When the game ended, everyone pretty much agreed that the game stunk but at least the party was good. I liked that the game was boring because I was able to follow along a lot more than I probably would have been able to.

Hopefully next year, the game will be better and maybe I’ll be in one of those Super Bowl commercials!

One Last Work Happy Hour (or I Guess I Really Am Unemployed Now)

To be perfectly honest, it didn’t hit me that I’m actually unemployed until yesterday. Before then, it just felt like one of our usual breaks from work. But it’s now sinking it that I don’t have a job to go back to in a few weeks.

It’s actually been a while since I was really unemployed. In 2011 I started working at a credit card dispute company. I worked there until I got my telesales job in May of 2012. I’ve had plenty of times that I’ve been out of work, but this time feels so different because I had been working pretty steadily for a while.

Part of the reason the unemployment is starting to sink in is because I only have one more show shift at work. I’m working tonight, and then after that, they might not have any people working a member table at shows anymore. If they do bring it back, it won’t be for a few months. I’m still trying to see if there is another position open for me at my old work, but it’s not looking too good.

Another reason this is all hitting me now is because yesterday was the goodbye happy hour for my boss. Everyone in telesales was invited as well, but I was the only one who could make it.

Everyone else at my work is still pretty much in shock that our entire department was let go. All through happy hour people kept asking me what I knew about the lay offs and what my plan was to do next. I wish I had a plan, but right now, I’m just trying to get my cover letters and resumes in order and start going crazy with applying for jobs.

Happy hour was fun, but it definitely had a somber vibe to it. I think that with so many people being let go at once, everyone is feeling a little insecure about their jobs.

After most of the people left happy hour, there were still a few of us who wanted to hang out and get some dinner. We had a great time just chatting about crazy things that have happened at work and random facts about our lives.

It’s a little sad that most of the people I worked with I didn’t know too well. The trailer that the telesales team was in was a little isolated, but I always tried to make an effort to get to know people. But I have to say that at the dinner part of the happy hour hangout, I got to know my co-workers better than I had in the entire time I worked there.

Eventually, we all had to head home. Everyone else had to be at work early the next morning and I just wanted to get home (it’s a bit drizzly out and my hip was killing me).

Tonight will probably be my final goodbye to my workplace. I know that I’m going to see some of my co-workers again (we are trying to organize a monthly get together even if we are all working in different places), but it does feel like I’m closing a chapter on my life. Hopefully the next chapter just gets better from here.

Time For A Celebration! (or A Pie Date)

Yesterday marked my mom’s final day of chemo. Not just the final day of a type of chemo. The end of all chemo treatments!

Even though my mom still has radiation to go, the end of chemo is something that everyone in my family has been counting down to. It seems like it’s taken forever and taken no time at all at the same time.

I told my mom that she should celebrate with the nurses at the chemo room. She was already ahead of me and told me that she was going to make a carrot cake for everyone. And I promised to celebrate for her in LA.

A few days ago, it was National Pie Day. My pie friend, Emily invited me out to pie but I had to work a crazy shift that day. So I suggested we get pie to celebrate the end of chemo. We went to Marie Calendars (where we always go for pie) and my friend Kate joined us too.

The way we always get pie is each person gets a slice and then we share the slices among the group. So we got 3 slices: cream cheese, chocolate, and razzleberry.

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I know the pie doesn’t look pretty since we cut each slice up to share, but it was still delicious!

It was a nice lunch outing. We spent a lot of time catching up on life and I updated my friends on my job situation. One of the advantages of being laid off is having time to see people I haven’t seen in forever and having a relaxing visit with then.

And of course, we thought about how awesome my mom is. Through all of the chemo, she’s rarely complained. The only times I really remember her saying a thing negative is when I called to ask how she was and she’d tell me that she was having a bit of joint pain. But the pain didn’t get her down. She’s been busy training Tucker and making sure that he is becoming a well-behaved and polite dog (he’s totally getting there). She’s played tennis every week and her record has way more wins than losses.

Even though radiation is an unknown and we don’t know if it will be easy or tough on my mom, I don’t question for a second that she won’t still be kicking butt and doing all of her usual things every day.

The final countdown of my mom’s treatment has begun and I can’t wait until we can really celebrate the end of this.

400 Posts (or Wow, That’s A Lot Of Writing!)

Today marks my 400th post on Finding My Inner Bombshell! I remember when I started writing I wondered how long I could keep doing this. Now, it’s a part of my day that I look forward to!

I’ve mentioned in the past how this blog is almost like therapy for me. I’ve gotten so much out of it that I would probably still do this even if nobody read it (but please keep reading it because I love the feedback and stories I hear from you all!). Writing on here has also helped my relationship with my family and friends. There have been many things that I never would have the courage to share with them if I had to say it out loud. But writing it helps to disconnect it from me and make it seem less personal.

In the last 400 posts, I’ve done a lot of things. So I thought I’d share some of the highlights of my first 399 posts.

The scariest (and best) thing I’ve ever put on here was in the beginning when I wrote about my eating disorder and credit card debt. I was so terrified to put that out into the world. I’ve hidden both of those things for many years and even some of my close family had no idea (or if they did, it’s because they guessed it and not because I ever told them). But after writing that post, it was like there was a weight lifted off my shoulders. And people started sharing their stories about money issues or eating disorders. I had no idea so many people had the same problems as me. By sharing my story, I discovered I wasn’t alone.

Another tough post to write was when I wrote about my mom being diagnosed with breast cancer. I knew about the cancer for a few weeks before I was allowed to share her story. I felt like I was faking it on the blog because I couldn’t be completely honest. But sharing that story again has made me feel less alone. Many people have shared their stories with family members dealing with cancer. When my mom was diagnosed, I started to research joining a support group. I never found one that I connected with. Then once I shared on here, I realized that my support group was on the blog. And I hope that I can support others in the future who are going through the same thing. And just to update you on my mom, she’s still kicking butt and only has 1 more chemo treatment to go before starting radiation (the final treatment step)!

The most positive thing that has happened since starting the blog was discovering SoulCycle. I never thought I would connect with exercise this way. But it’s happened and I’m definitely obsessed (this entire list is totally true for me). Celebrating a year doing the same exercise is a first for me, and I’m already looking forward to my next SoulCycle milestone (maybe taking 50 classes?).

I wish I could make some predictions to what the next 400 posts will bring. But honestly, when I started this 400 posts ago, I had no idea that it would become what it is today.

Thank you all for reading and following my journey so far. I just know that the journey will only continue to get better and there are amazing things ahead for me.

Happy Birthday Dad! (or Just Like Mom, I Promise Not To Reveal Your Age)

Today is my dad’s birthday! So, Dad, if you are reading this on the 16th, Happy Birthday!

My dad has been an awesome support this past year for me, my brother, and my mom. He’s the one spending every day making sure that my mom is ok (and she’s still kicking butt on chemo and only has 2 treatments left). My dad is also the one who has to deal with my phone calls when I’m worried about my mom. So many of the things that my mom tells me about I don’t understand (I’m the only one in the family who hasn’t worked in the medical field). So instead of consulting Google, I consult my dad a lot. And he’s pretty willing to put up with me through all of this.

Every time my dad comes to visit me, he helps me do projects around the house (isn’t that what dads are for?). The last time my dad was here, he brought me something that he made for my house.

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The bark planter is something that my dad is known for making. I have one outside my house, but this one he made especially for inside. He also made the wine bottle and bark candle holders. While my dad was here, he helped me pick out some silk flowers to put inside the planter. It’s still on my dining room table and everyone compliments me on it when they see it.

My dad has also pushed me this past year. He, along with my Aunt Cindy, got me to go into an ocean for the first time in over a decade. I have such a horrible fear of oceans (or more specifically, a fear of being attacked by creature that live in the ocean). But with my dad’s encouragement, not only did I make it into the ocean, I lasted over an hour out there. The only reason I went back to the beach when I did was because my dad got tired (and it’s a good thing we got out then because even wearing SPF 50 did not protect my back from getting a horrible sunburn).

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He’s also pushed me with my 5Ks. Even when I’m stressed out about doing them, he reminds me that it’s not important how fast or slow I am, as long as I complete the race.

And I have to say that my dad is one of the best challengers I have in Words With Friends (my username is thejenlevin if anyone wants to challenge me). He pretty much beats me in every game. And when I win, he’ll say I’m cheating. If I take too long to play my turn, sometimes he’ll send me a message in the game saying “suck it up and play”. And when I place my tiles on a space that he wanted, he’ll joke that he had reserved that space a few turns ago and ask me politely to move my tiles.

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So those are some awesome things about my dad that I wanted you all to know. Of course, there’s a ton more awesome things about him, but I’ll have to save those for future birthday blog posts about my dad.

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope that you have a great day today (maybe including a bike ride). And in case you read this before I call you to wish you a happy birthday, I’ll give you one hint about your birthday present: it has to do with the Disneyland trip that you, Mom, and I are doing in the spring.

My SoulCycle Anniversary (or 1 Year Of Spinning)

This week, SoulCycle Santa Monica is celebrating their 1 year anniversary. There will be some fun stuff in the studio on Saturday (if any of you want to try SoulCycle with me I’ll be going to the 4pm class).

I realized that if the studio is at their 1 year anniversary, I must be getting close to the 1 year mark of my first spin class. My friend Kate and I were trying to figure out when our first class was the other day. I finally scrolled back in my calendar on my phone and it said that my first class was on 1/9/13.

That didn’t seem right to either of us. We couldn’t think of how we could double-check this for sure until I realized that I could look at what day I wrote my first spin class blog post. And since that post came out on 1/10/13, I realized that January 9th was my SoulCycle anniversary!

And how did I celebrate my anniversary of spin?

By going to spin class of course!

I took Charlee’s class because I knew it would be an awesome anniversary class (and the time fit in perfectly with my work schedule). Right before the first song of class, the instructor normally asks if anyone is taking a SoulCycle class for the first time. After Charlee asked that she announced to everyone that this class marked my 1 year anniversary of SoulCycle! And she had everyone give me a round of applause!

That was so incredible (and totally unexpected). While I figure my friends would acknowledge the fact that I’ve stuck with this workout for so long, I didn’t think anyone at SoulCycle would think it’s a big deal. I’m sure people have done way bigger things than that.

After class, I thanked Charlee and told her how much I appreciated her caring about my accomplishment. Her shout out to me in the beginning of class really made my day.

Reflecting back on my 1 year of spin classes has been interesting. I’ve lost some weight in the past year (about 25 pounds), but it’s not as much as I would have thought with the new workout. But so much more about me has changed. I’m so much happier and more confident. I know that I can push my body so much harder than I ever expected. And I’ve stopped feeling like a victim due to my weight.

While I still have so many struggles with everything relating to my weight and eating disorder, I like knowing that whether I’ve lost weight, gained weight, or stayed the same; I can still kick some ass in spin class.

And of course, I have to share a day one and year one picture with you!

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Because of how the picture was taken, it’s hard to tell if I look like I’ve lost any weight between the two pictures. But the picture I’m more proud of from yesterday is the one I took right before I left SoulCycle to go to work (after I had showered and gotten ready there).

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The picture looks a little weird because I’m standing in front of a neon wall, but I think that I look more confident and happy with myself in this picture than in any other that I have taken recently.

One year of SoulCycle done. And I hope that I have a ton of years of SoulCycle ahead of me!

New Year’s Eve Fun (or Making Sure 2014 Is A Lucky Year)

I had a pretty low-key New Year’s Eve. I started off my day by working at my day job. Our typical shift on Tuesdays is from noon-8:30pm, but since nobody wants to be making calls in the evening on New Year’s Eve, our shift was changed to be 9am-1pm.

After work, I headed home to take a nap. I needed it so I could stay up until midnight (I woke up at 5am that morning). I spent the rest of my afternoon relaxing and getting random chores done.

Then I headed out to Marie and Chris‘s house. They were hosting a relaxing hangout for New Year’s Eve, and that sounded perfect to me!

I spent most of my evening just catching up with friends. Some of the people at the party I hadn’t seen for almost a year (since I missed the Halloween party this year).

There was also a fire in a fire pit in the backyard. Besides just being cool, many of us decided to spend New Year’s Eve making sure that 2014 would be a better year than 2013. So one of the people at the party brought paper for everyone to write their wishes for 2014 on. And as we finished them we put them in the fire so the ashes would rise up and the Universe would see our wishes.

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I don’t know if New Year’s wishes are the same as birthday wishes, but just in case I jinx myself, I’m not going to share them. But you can pretty much figure out what I want based on my goals for this year.

We also put cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices in the fire. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are supposed to be good luck spices. And besides giving us good luck for 2014, the spices made the fire look amazing!

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Yes, we were all being safe around the fire.

As it got closer to midnight, the party headed inside to watch the NYC ball drop on tv (even though in reality it happened 3 hours earlier). We all got some champagne and celebrated the end of one year and the beginning of another.

And I did get a New Year’s kiss (on the cheek) from a friend of mine.

Since Marie and Chris live about 30 minutes (in no traffic) away from me, I wanted to head home pretty soon after midnight. The bars close at 2am and I knew that I didn’t want to be on the road when that happened. I left about 12:30am and got home safely and quickly.

Overall, it was the perfect New Year’s Eve party. Relaxing, fun, and surrounded by so many friends. I know that this will be the start of an amazing year for me.

 

2014 Goals (or Hoping To Get More Goals Done This Year)

So last year, I didn’t accomplish as many of my goals as I would have liked. That’s ok. I picked some goals that were very big stretches for me and while trying to do them I learned a lot.

I’ve thought a lot about my goals for this year. And for some of them, I’d also like to explain why they are worded the way that they are worded.

Continue To Do 5Ks

One of the things that I’d like to do in 2014 is to keep doing my 5Ks. I did 9 last year and that was amazing. But the reason I don’t have a number that I’d like to do this year is because last year, I picked some races that I really didn’t care to do just to see how many I could do in a year. And the races aren’t that cheap. For a while, I thought that it would be cool to make a goal to be 10 5Ks in 2014 (that way I would have raced 31 miles and I’m turning 31 this year). But I don’t want to have that pressure on me. I want to do the races that I want to do and that’s that (plus, each race entry fee adds up!).

Make Spin A More Regular Habit

While I do go to spin pretty regularly, it’s not as regular as I would like. I pretty much go every week, but I still don’t have set days/times that I know I will go. And if I don’t schedule my classes ahead of time, sometimes I’ll schedule other things in the times that I should be going. So I need to sit down with my schedule and SoulCycle’s schedule and pick out the classes that will become my regular ones.

Track My Food/Exercise Better

I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for a couple of years now. It’s easy to track my food on there. But sometimes when I’m eating foods I’m not happy about or overeat, I stop tracking my food for the day. I need to own up to everything I eat whether I’m within my calorie limit or have gone many times over. And tracking my exercise is much easier now that I have my heart rate monitor. I just need to remember to wear it all the time or pack it in my bag if I’m working out after work.

Get Into An Improv Class

Meant to do this last year and didn’t. I’m not going to keep putting it off. Currently looking at the schedule and figuring out which class I can take.

Pay Down My Debt And Not Add More

I know that I can’t stop using my credit card completely. There are some charges, like Netflix, that are charged every month. But I can stop frivolous spending. I need to work on using cash for most of my needs.

Go On Another Vacation

I loved having time off of work and getting out of LA. I need to do that again to help keep me sane. There is a trip in the works right now and hopefully all the plans will fall into place. But if that one falls through, I’m going to try to plan another getaway from LA at some point.

Keep Blogging

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

That’s my goal list for this year. I’m optimistic that it can all be done. And if it doesn’t I know that I’m going to try as hard as possible to do each one.

3 Cities 1 Day (or My Christmas Adventure)

Christmas ended up being a pretty busy day for me and my family. First, we had a nice breakfast at home. I made a bacon and cheese bread pudding (I’ll post the recipe soon) and it was delicious.

Then we headed up to San Francisco to see my brother, sister-in-law, and sister-in-law’s family. My brother and sister-in-law live about an hour away from my parents but since there was no traffic, we got there pretty quickly.

While my family doesn’t really celebrate Christmas, my sister-in-law’s family does. So we did give gifts to each other. I had already given my parents their gifts when they visited me for lunch, but I brought my brother and sister-in-law’s gifts with me. I got them each a SoulCycle gift card good for their first class (and shoe rental). SoulCycle just opened up a studio about 6 blocks away from their house. So I figured it would be something awesome to share with them. And they seemed to like it!

I got some gifts too! My brother and sister-in-law got me a SodaStream (it’s being shipped to my house and I should have it in a week). I’ve been wanting one for a while. Even though I haven’t had a soda in almost a year, I do enjoy sparkling water. But it gets expensive to keep buying them at the grocery store. So I’m excited to be able to make it at home soon! And my sister-in-law’s parents got me a really nice scented candle (I felt bad because I didn’t get them anything).

After presents, we took a walk down to the marina. It was a gorgeous day in San Francisco and was surprisingly warm.

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Before we knew it, we had to head home so I could catch my flight back to LA. We said goodbye to everyone and my parents and I started the drive back. We had just enough time to stop at my parents’ house for me to get all my stuff ready before I headed to the airport.

The airport and my flight were pretty crowded. I expected it to be empty since it was Christmas, but maybe that’s what everyone else thought too.

My flight was fine. I’m having an easier time flying now because I can keep myself distracted with my podcasts or e-reader during takeoff and landing (I’m so glad the ban on electronics during those parts of the flight ended).

Once I landed at LAX, I headed home in a cab and ordered some delivery Chinese food for dinner (it’s a Jewish tradition) while in the cab. Fortunately, the cab and I beat the delivery driver home, so the timing worked out perfectly.

I spent the rest of the evening enjoying my dinner and catching up on my DVR.

Overall, it was a pretty exciting day for me. Lots of fun and family and maybe we started some new traditions as well.