In my defense, I didn’t mean to miss the anniversary, but life has been crazy lately! And for some reason, I had July 19th stuck in my head.
But here’s to me writing faithfully on here for an entire year! Holy moly!
Honestly, when I started the blog, I didn’t know how long I’d do it. I thought maybe a few people would read it (like my parents), but I didn’t think anything beyond that.
One year (and a few days) later, I have over 10,000 views from over 80 different countries!
I can see what search terms people use to stumble upon my blog, and two of the most common are Dirty Shirley and Stripper Penguin. I’m not sure what that says about the last year of my life, but I think it’s pretty awesome.
Since I started this, I’ve gotten a better control on my eating disorder. I think that coming clean was one of the best things I could have done for myself. And in the last year, I’ve lost just over 20 pounds! That may seem like not much (or a ton) to you, but to me it’s steady progress. I’m hoping to keep this trend up for the next year.
Finally, something that this blog has done for me that I haven’t shared yet. Before I had to write something fun on here every weekday, I lived a relatively boring life. Many days when I’d get home from work, I’d just crash on my couch or read until it was time to go to bed and do it all again. Having the pressure of coming up with posts every day has forced me to be more social and to step outside of my comfort zone a lot more. I’ve attended events that I wouldn’t have done before, and I’ll try crazy things just because I know that they will make an awesome post.
I hope that I’m able to keep all of this up for another year (and more years after that). In the next year, I have lots of big events! I’m turning 30 in less than a month (I’m getting old!) and my brother’s wedding is about 7 weeks away! And I’m sure there will be lots more to share that I don’t even know about yet!
But for now, here’s to the last 367 days! Thanks for following me on my journey so far, and I hope you stay with me to see where things go!
And to celebrate, I’m going to be enjoying this split of champagne with my dinner tonight!
Posted onJuly 5, 2013|Comments Off on 4th Of July Recap (or It Was All About Vine Videos and Fireworks)
I had a pretty amazing day yesterday. And considering that 48 hours before I had no idea what I would be doing, I’d say I made some awesome plans.
My day started in spin class. I ended up going much earlier than I wanted to, but in all the later classes the bike I wanted was already reserved. It was an instructor that I hadn’t had before. His class was tough, but it wasn’t totally my style. I think I might try to stick with some of my favorites if I can.
After I got home from class, I had some free time so I just relaxed at home. I did some cleaning, I watched some tv, and I read a book. Then it was time for me to head over to Studio City for the 4th of July event there.
It was held at the CBS Radford lot, which I’ve been to before for a couple of auditions. But I’ve never really spent a ton of time on the lot wandering around. So this was my chance to do so.
I met up with my friend Robert there. The first thing we did was walk all around the lot. Most of the lot are soundstages, but there is one New York style street there.
I’ll come back to our adventure on that street in a minute.
A few soundstages had events going on inside. We sat down at one stage that had a bunch of model airplanes to check out the program for the day (and we wanted to enjoy the air conditioning). We realized that there was a magic show being done by The Magic Castle! So we headed over there and got front row seats for the show. It was a pretty great show! There were two magicians performing and they had some fun tricks (they kept it family friendly since there were so many kids there).
Next, Robert and I got some dinner. There was a huge line at the food court area, so we headed to the back of the lot where there was BBQ.
You ordered your food and then waited for your name to be called by a very entertaining guy (he kept cheering and high fiving people when they picked up their food).
After enjoying a nice tri-tip sandwich, we headed back over to the New York street. We wanted to shoot some video back there, and Robert decided (or maybe I convinced him) to download the Vine app. If you don’t know what Vine is, it is a like a video tweet. You get to make a 6 second video on your phone. You hold your finger to the screen when you want to film, and take it away when you don’t (so you edit your video inside the app). We took some pretty funny videos of us being crazy actors on a backlot.
After our video fun, it was time to claim our spot for the fireworks. For those of us who didn’t get $100 tickets (mine was $20), we had to claim a spot on the ground near the parking structure. Those who had expensive tickets had seats on the roof of the parking structure.
While we waited for the fireworks to start, Robert and I decided to take some fun photos (since there wasn’t enough lighting to do another Vine video).
(I feel like I look like I only have one front tooth in that bottom picture. As you can see from all my other photos, I have all my teeth.)
Finally, the fireworks started and we had an amazing viewpoint!
After the fireworks ended, Robert and I waited about 20 minutes for the crowd to clear out of the parking structure before we headed back to our cars. And since we waited, I had almost no trouble getting out of there and getting home!
All in all, I had a pretty amazing day. It’s so nice to get to go out and enjoy a holiday with a friend (and on a backlot which is one of my favorite places to be). I hope that you all had as great of a day yesterday as I did! Now it’s time to go back to reality.
Posted onJuly 4, 2013|Comments Off on Happy 4th Of July (or Feeling Like A Lady Of Leisure)
Happy 4th of July readers!
I know a lot of my friends are working today (hazards of working day jobs that are convenient for leaving for auditions), but I’m lucky enough to get today off. It’s not really a great day to try to make sales over the phone.
Normally on my days off, I’m pretty heavily scheduled. I have a lot to get done and only one day to do them. But since this is a bonus day off, I’m planning on enjoying it.
As of right now, all I have planned is to go to CBS Radford in Studio City to see the fireworks. I’m also planning on going to spin class, but I haven’t reserved my bike for one yet (still figuring out when I want to go).
It’s nice to have the day off (and I’m trying to keep in mind the reason we are so lucky to have a day like today). And somehow now, I’m able to appreciate the time off much more than I was when I was unemployed. Maybe I’m more grateful for something that I don’t get to do as often?
This is going to be a short post today because I hope you all get to go out and do something fun today (like see some fireworks!). Besides working out and seeing fireworks today, I’m not planning anything else. I’m going to enjoy my time and perhaps watch some bad tv. That sounds like the perfect day off to me!
This past Sunday, there was a picnic at Griffith Park for the writers of Ms In The Biz. Even though it was my only day off and I had a bunch of errands to run, I didn’t want to miss this. I’m trying to be more social in life (it’s easy to be a hermit outside of work when I’m working so many days a week), and this was a perfect opportunity for me to get out and enjoy the outside and great company.
This picnic was held at the same area as the Blognic, so I knew where I was going (which is nice is a huge park). It was pretty hot outside, but we had a nice shady spot in the grass so it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be.
I didn’t take a ton of pictures because all of us were having such a nice chat about lots of random subjects, but I did get a picture of me with Ms In The Biz founder, Helenna.
Please excuse my giant hair. With it being so hot, I’m trying to not use any heat tools in my hair. Not only is it damaging, but I feel no need to make my house hotter than it already is.
Some people brought their lunches with them (as we were instructed to do in the invite), but for me, it was too hot to eat. So I brought a giant bottle of ice water and some pita chips to share with the other ladies.
After being there a few hours, sadly I had to leave. I knew that I had a lot of errands to get done before my work week started and I didn’t want to be up all night trying to get it all done.
Thank you Helenna for organizing the picnic! I had a blast and it was the perfect thing for me to do on my day off!
I’ll end this post with this random photo that I took at the picnic while I was showing one of the other girls my camera. I love when I take a candid photo and it comes out looking so cool. And I feel like this picture really represents the vibe of Ms In The Biz. We are women in the entertainment industry trying to help each other out and having fun while doing it.
Posted onJuly 1, 2013|Comments Off on Another Disney Day (or Making Disneyland A Book Nerd’s Dream)
Despite the crazy heat wave that LA is going through right now, this past Friday I had another outing at Disneyland. But this time was pretty special for a few reasons. First of all, this was pretty much the last time I could go until the summer was over due to my pass having so many blackout days. But the second (and more important) reason why this trip to Disneyland was so special was because of who came with me.
Do you recognize this person who is over the moon excited to be on It’s A Small World? It’s Lindsey Kelk!! When we had our lunch a while back, we discussed our mutual love of Disneyland. So when she knew she was coming back to LA, we made plans to go down to Anaheim and have an awesome day!
I wore a new Disney shirt to the park that day. I found this one while getting some workout clothes from Old Navy, and it was perfect for a hot day.
We went on a ton of rides while we were there. Inside the rides was one of the few places that were air-conditioned, so that was pretty nice. The only ride that Lindsey insisted that we go on was It’s A Small World. She had always wanted to go on it, and the only other time she was at Disneyland it was closed. Since I normally don’t go on that ride, the song wasn’t as annoying as you’d think it would be. And again, I was enjoying the air conditioning too much to mind (I actually wouldn’t have hated it if we got stuck inside just to stay cool).
I didn’t bring a hat with me to the park because I really wanted to buy a Disneyland hat. I don’t have one, and even though I don’t wear hats all the time, it’s nice to have a couple of options. At the same hat store, Lindsey bought a few gifts and got herself these really cute Minnie Mouse ear hair clips!
We also had to get a character picture. Lindsey has a new book coming out this week and her publishers wanted her to take some photos of her book traveling the country. We looked for Mickey, but he was hiding, so we stalked Pluto to get some photos.
And then I jumped in for one.
We did make it into California Adventure for a few rides, but only stayed there for about an hour before heading back to LA.
I had an amazing time! Not only was it Disneyland (which I prettymuchalwayslove), but I got to hang out with a pretty awesome person as well! And since it was so hot, Lindsey and I have already made plans to go to Disneyland in the winter. It will be a lot cooler then, plus the Haunted Mansion and It’s A Small World will have their holiday overlays on the rides.
I know that I’m totally getting my money’s worth out of my Disneyland pass. It was a good investment for me this year. And I know that I’ll be going a few more times after the summer is over.
Seriously, mixing Disneyland and one of my favorite authors really did make things amazingly awesome! Sometimes I have to pinch myself because I’m so lucky!
Posted onJune 20, 2013|Comments Off on My Love Letter To The Actors’ Network (or Sorry Kevin, I Couldn’t Keep It Under 500 Words)
Today, The Actors’ Network will be closing their studio doors. TAN (as we members like to call it) has been around since 1991, and I’ve been a member since 2006. Kevin E. West, president and founder of TAN, asked the members to share a favorite story of something that happened at TAN to put on their blog. It was requested that our posts not be more than 500 words. I wanted to share some things, but couldn’t keep it under the word limit, so I’m putting it all out here.
I first heard about TAN in 2004. I was at Loyola Marymount University in my first semester of my senior year (I finished early so this was during the spring semester). I took a theater class called Performance Training 4 (I believe it now is called Career Development). This class was taught by a manager and his goal for the class was to prepare us for the real world of acting. So he took us all around town so we could meet casting directors, agents, managers, photographers, and actor organizations. TAN was one of the places that we went to, and I remember being very impressed by it from the first moment. However, after I graduated, I tried to have a “real” job. It wasn’t until I was laid off in 2006 that I decided to pursue my dream for real. And one of the first places I went to was TAN. I became a member in October 2006.
One of the first things I attended at TAN ended up changing my life. This is a long story, so sorry in advance.
It was in November or December of 2006. An editor from Backstage West was doing a focus group at TAN. Initially, I wasn’t going to go, but Kevin sent out an email asking for more people to attend. Since I wasn’t busy that day, I went. While in the focus group, a few of us suggested that they follow around actors that are trying to make it so they can share their stories with everyone else. While we loved reading about actors who are successful, they weren’t relatable. And the editors decided to follow me and four other actors around for a year and write monthly updates on what we had accomplished.
That’s me in the blue on the front of the cover looking super short (and much thinner). I wasn’t paid for the articles I wrote, however I did get a free subscription to the magazine. And in August of 2007, I saw an ad for Halloween Horror Nights auditions in one of those Backstage Wests. I went to the audition, booked it, and had an amazing time. I met some truly amazing people including one guy named Todd. He mentioned he had a great agent and that I should submit myself for representation. I did, and got a meeting. I brought my articles from the past year to that meeting, and based on those (and a great referral from my friend Todd), that agent decided to represent me. And I’m still with that agent (and super happy with her and the team that she has created).
I know it’s a long path, but if I never joined TAN, I wouldn’t have been in that focus group, I wouldn’t have been featured in Backstage West, I wouldn’t have seen the ad for Halloween Horror Nights, never would have met Todd, and I doubt that I would have met my agent or would have been offered representation. This is all due to TAN.
I’ve also met so many amazing people at TAN. Some of my best friends are people who I’ve met in various lectures there. I’ve also met some amazing casting directors there. And I know for a fact that there is one casting director who cast me because of seeing me at TAN and at least two casting directors who have brought me in for auditions because of TAN.
And over the past 7 years, there have been times where I questioned if I was doing the right thing. I felt like I was right in my heart, but sometimes my head liked to disagree. And all I had to do was go to TAN and hear some great motivation from Kevin or one of the amazing guests and I felt like I could take on the world.
Outside of TAN, I have to say that Kevin has been a wonderful supporter of me. He made a quick appearance in the twitter documentary that I produced. He also was a guest on InsideActing Podcast (I’m the production coordinator for the podcast). He has always cheered for me for my victories. And yesterday, when I went to say goodbye to the studio, he told me how much he enjoyed that I did 5Ks. I had no idea that he knew, but again, I love the support.
I’m sad that something that has been such an amazing part of my life is closing. It won’t be gone forever as the membership is now going to be 100% online with webinars, but I will miss going to the studio, seeing my friends, and leaving with amazing information.
So, thank you Kevin for creating such an incredible place. I’m so happy for you that you are going to be able to focus more on your acting career. After running TAN for 22 years, you deserve it! I hope you know how much TAN has meant to me. I know that I haven’t attended events lately as much as I would have liked (hazards of having an evening thrival job), but I still use information that I got from you from 2006. I know that I would not be the actress that I am today without TAN. It has taught me, motivated me, and made me a businesswoman instead of only an artist. I will forever be grateful for everything that you have done for me.
And I’m putting in the request again, Kevin, that we need to have the Holiday party still (or some other annual TAN gathering). That way, I’ll know that I will at least get to see you once a year.
For some reason, I can’t get it in my head that little victories are the steps that I need to take to get to big victories.
I should be ecstatic that I did my last 5K 10 seconds faster than my previous one. But all I can think about is how I am still over a minute slower than my goal time. But when I’ve talked about this with friends who run races, they talk about how they want to be 3 seconds faster or something like that. So 10 seconds (or 26 if you are counting how much faster I am now than my first timed one this year) is amazing.
I have the same issue celebrating my weight loss. I saw a friend online who mentioned that she lost 15 pounds since January and is now only 5 pounds away from her goal weight. That’s amazing! But for me, losing 20 pounds since I set my goal last year is not impressive at all. It’s a drop in the bucket for what I’m trying to do.
I know that in the past in my life, I’ve seen these victories as setbacks. Why have I only lost 20 pounds and not 60? Or 80? It’s a failure. This is why I hesitate to set goals for myself. If I don’t make it, I’ve failed. I haven’t had a partial win.
I don’t know how to change this mindset. I’ve discussed it in the past in therapy (I’ve stopped going because my new insurance doesn’t cover it and my therapist and I agreed that I was ok to stop). One of the things my therapist suggested doing was to not have goals for things related to my weight or health at all. That way, I’d never seem to fail.
But clearly, setting goals does work for me because I did my 5 5Ks in 6 months! Maybe I need to set goals that I can control more, but what counts as control? I should be able to control my weight, but it doesn’t work that way. I should be able to control my speed for my 5K, but again that doesn’t seem to happen for me.
I don’t know if I’m trying to get answers by writing this on here or what, but I needed to let it out. I know that I should be celebrating my 10 second victory this week, and I’m going to try to. I just wish that I didn’t feel like I was faking my happiness.
Yesterday, I completed 5K #5. I still can’t believe that I did it! I remember when I was writing this post and wondering if I would ever get it done.
At the time I wrote that post, the 5Ks I had in mind were the Color Run, the March of Dimes March for Babies (which I ended up missing because I was at the dress fitting that day), the Revlon Run/Walk, and then doing the Universal Studios one again. That would be 4 and I figured I would find another one before the end of 2013.
I never would have guessed on January 1st that I would complete my goal by June 16th. Part of what helped me get it done was just taking the risk and signing up for races that I didn’t know well. It does make me have a bit more anxiety during the race (because I don’t know the course that well ahead of time), but I’ve learned that using Google maps I can help reduce some of my panic and be more prepared.
Anyway, back to my recap of my race yesterday. I signed up for this one because it was extremely close to my house (the start/finish line was just under a mile from my front door) and there was a discounted entry for employees of the Culver City Unified School District (technically, I am still employed there as a substitute teacher).
Yesterday morning was not my best morning. I woke up in pretty bad pain. If I didn’t have a race, I probably would have spent my morning doing stretches and waiting for painkillers to kick in. I didn’t have that option, so I did some stretches and took some painkillers and hoped for the best. Because of needing to do extra stretches, I was running late. So instead of walking to the start line, I ended up driving (looking back, I wish I rode my bike as there were areas to lock bikes up right by the start/finish line).
The 5K started before the 10K, so I went to the start line and hung to the back of the pack. And of course, I took a before picture.
I found that shirt at Old Navy and felt it was pretty fitting since that shirt expresses how I feel about finishing a year-long goal in half the time.
I was one of the last people to start the race. One of my fears is being the last person to cross the finish line, so I tried to focus on staying ahead of at least a few people. For the first 2 miles, I was in pain. It sucked, but I pushed through (I’m only regretting that a little now as I’m still in pain). But I kept going and was very happy when I could see the finish line in my sight.
I ended up crossing the finish line 10 seconds faster than the Firefly Run, which means that I’ve taken 26 seconds off of my Hollywood Half 5K time (the first officially timed race I did this year).
And my self-portrait finish picture.
I was very happy that 4 people finished the 5K after me, so I wasn’t last. And right after I crossed the finish line, the winner of the 10K crossed. So it was pretty cool to see that.
Sorry for the short recap of this race. It wasn’t a super eventful race for me and I was by myself so I didn’t take a ton of pictures. But it did get me to my goal, and that will make this race very memorable.
So what’s next? I still have a few other 5Ks in mind, but I don’t know if I want to set another goal (like doing 10). If I do that, it will be awesome, but I also have to keep in mind that races aren’t always the cheapest things to do. I will do the Universal Studios one again, and there’s a Santa Monica one I’m looking at towards the end of the year.
But for now, I’m just super happy that I have a nice collection of bibs and medals.
My dad hasn’t been in town yet so my super cool medal hanger that my aunt got me is still not up yet. But it will be hopefully very soon. At least I can admire my work this way for now.
Today is my best friend Kate’s 30th birthday! First of all, happy birthday to you, Kate! As I’ve done for a few otherbirthdays, I’ve decided to do some of my favorite photos of my 21 year friendship with Kate (yes, we became friends when we were 9).
I don’t have a ton of pictures from before college on my computer, but I do have one from my sweet 16. For my 16th birthday, my mom allowed me to invite a couple of friends to drive down to southern California so we could go to Catalina! It was amazing! I invited Kate, another high school friend Jackie, and my cousin Leah.
When it was time to go to college, I was coming down here to LA (I went to Loyola Marymount) and Kate moved to Minnesota. But since I was starting school before Kate, she agreed to drive down with me to LA. She and I were in my car, and my parents were in theirs (and they had most of my stuff since I had a little car then). It was one of our first “grownup” adventures.
Until last year, Kate and I had not lived in the same city since high school. But she came down to LA to visit (her sister also lives here).
And I traveled to see her as well. I went once to Minnesota (where it was seriously the coldest I’ve ever experienced), but I visited her in Seattle more. Since we’ve been friends for so long, we both know that we are dorks. And on one visit to Seattle, we discovered that Kate had an old CD-ROM (remember those?) of Oregon Trail. So of course we put it in her laptop and played a couple of games.
It’s been really exciting to have Kate living in the same city as me now. Of course, she and I have had a lot ofhappyhouradventurestogether. And I’ve mentioned it before, but Kate is my5Kbuddy. And we’ve agreed to virtually cheer each other on when we can’t do the same races (I know she’ll be cheering me on while working during my race on Sunday).
So Kate, thank you for being such an awesome friend to me! You have been there for me through thick and thin (literally) and have supported me through every step! You are like a sister to me. And I’m so grateful that you are willing to listen to my rants every once in a while.
Cheers to you on turning 30! I’m looking forward to celebrating your birthday at the spa soon (I’m sure I’ll be writing a blog post about that in the future). And to all you readers, thanks for letting me use a blog post to celebrate my best friend.
Posted onMay 30, 2013|Comments Off on How Long Can I Wait? (or Wanting To Shop At The Last Minute)
Yesterday on the phone, a relative of mine asked me if I had gotten a dress to wear to my brother’swedding yet.
Honestly, I haven’t even really thought about what I want to wear. I have about 3 months until the wedding. That gives me time to shop around.
But also, I still want to see how much weight I can lose. I’m not going to be anywhere near my original goal, and that’s very upsetting to me. Just the other day, it was my 1 year anniversary at my day job. And I just couldn’t believe how quickly the time has gone by.
And while in the last 9 months I have lost weight, it’s not as fast as I wanted. There is a chance that somehow I could lose weight really quickly in 3 months, but I’ve learned from past experiences that that is not the best way for me to try to maintain the weight loss.
I have a size in mind that I’d like to be for the wedding, and it may or may not be doable. But at that size, I still wouldn’t fit into “normal” sized clothing.
Which gives me few options of stores that I can go and try on clothes at (that don’t look like something an old lady should wear). I’ve looked at some of the dresses available at David’s Bridal, and they have some cute things that would come in the size I’m at right now. And hopefully if I went to one of their stores they would have some options in my size to try on.
The other part of me is just wondering what I’ll want to wear for a black tie/formal wedding that is taking place near the beach in Hawaii. For practical reasons, I don’t want to wear heels, I’d want to be in wedges. I also don’t want something floor length because it would get dirty (and possibly be too warm).
Does anyone out there have any ideas for a dress that comes in plus sizes that would work for a formal Hawaii wedding? I’m serious open to suggestions. I might not try on a dress for another month or two, but I really need to get some ideas in my head for when I’m ready to shop.
5 Years Old (or My Blog Is A Kindergartner)
