Category Archives: Family

How Long Can I Wait? (or Wanting To Shop At The Last Minute)

Posted on May 30, 2013 | Comments Off

Yesterday on the phone, a relative of mine asked me if I had gotten a dress to wear to my brother’s wedding 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.

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

Tagged dress, Hawaii, plus size, shopping, wedding

Mother’s Day (or Another Day Trip To San Diego)

Posted on May 15, 2013 | 1 comment

The past few years I’ve been going to San Diego to see my grandparents for Mother’s Day. In the past, my dad did the Revlon 5K with me and then he and I would drive to San Diego together (my mom would drive while we were doing the 5K).

This year, my parents were on a trip and were already in San Diego on Mother’s Day. So on Sunday, I drove down alone to see my parents and grandparents.

My grandma has been doing really well since her hip surgery. The Friday before Mother’s Day she was able to leave the skilled nursing care and return home, so that was very exciting!

It took me exactly 2 hours to get from my house to my grandparents’ place, and it was actually a really nice drive.

Most of the day was spent visiting. My grandma got to FaceTime with my cousin’s brand new baby boy, Hudson.

It was really cool to get to see the baby. I don’t know when I’m going to get to meet him in person, so FaceTime is a good substitute. I also got to talk with my cousin’s other two kids, who are super adorable (I didn’t get a chance to try to take screenshots then).

I gave my mom and grandma their presents. I got my mom a purse hook, but since I had to order it online, I printed a picture of it and put it in her card.

And I got my grandma some new slippers she could wear inside her house (so she doesn’t slip again).

My mom made a great brisket dinner. Seriously, I can never make brisket as good as she does. We also had homemade meringues with strawberries for dessert.

About 7 hours after I got there, I had to start my drive back home so I could go to bed at a decent hour. I’m not sure if I’m going to get to see my grandparents before Thanksgiving, but maybe when my work calms down in the fall I can do another day trip. I’ll be seeing my parents again in August when we celebrate my 30th birthday.

I’m so happy that I live close enough to my grandparents to see them a lot. I’ve now had the time to make the drive there and back 3 times in the past 3 months. That’s pretty awesome!

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged celebration, grandparents, mom, Mother's Day, presents, San Diego

My Last Day By The Bay (or Time To Head Back To Reality)

Posted on May 2, 2013 | Comments Off

On my last day in San Francisco, my parents came up to have brunch with us (they were on their way to Lake Tahoe so they made a quick stop).

Before brunch, we went up to the roof of my brother’s place to check out the view.

We went to brunch (where I forgot to take any pictures, sorry), and then my parents had to head out to continue their trip.

My brother, Krystle, Anna, and I weren’t too sure what we were going to do for the day since I had to be at the airport that afternoon to catch my flight home.

We started off by heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito.

We walked around for a bit, checked out some shops, and checked out the view of the city.

Then after my brother and Krystle did some wine tasting and got some wine, we headed back to the city to drive down the most crooked street in the world.

Then we headed over to Pier 39 to check out the sea lions.

Sorry for the far away picture. It was very smelly close to the sea lions and we wanted to keep our distance!

After checking out Pier 39 a bit more, stopping at a bar for a quick drink, and heading back to the car; it was time for me to get to the airport to catch my flight.

My brother drove me to the airport, so I didn’t have the same adventure going back as I did coming in. My flight ended up being delayed so I had some dinner in the airport (nothing good enough to talk about) and got a lot of reading done.

I boarded my flight about an hour after it was supposed to take off, and then we got delayed again on the runway. I’m not sure how long we were stuck because I ended up falling asleep. I woke up during the drink service and watched us fly into LA (I love seeing all the city lights when I’m flying in).

After a long weekend, it was really nice to be home. I enjoyed my trip, but I knew that the next morning I had to go back to work and I wanted to be prepared.

Thanks again to my brother Ross and Krystle for inviting me out for last weekend and letting me stay with them! Unless they come out to LA for my birthday in August, I think the next time I’ll see them will be at their wedding in Hawaii!

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged adventure, brunch, flying, San Francisco

Dress Fitting (or The Reason I Took This Trip)

Posted on April 30, 2013 | Comments Off

On Saturday, us girls (me, my brother’s fiancée Krystle, and Krystle’s friend Anna) had a very busy day planned.

We started our day by walking a couple of blocks up the street for brunch. We went to Blackwood, which is a Thai restaurant that does some really good egg breakfasts.

I decided to get the spinach scramble. It seemed like one of the healthier choices. I was pretty surprised when I got my plate and it looked like this.

I’ve never had scrambled eggs that looked like an omelet on top, and in the middle it was all scrambled. Nevertheless, it was delicious!

Next, we headed over to a bus stop so we could ride the bus over to where the bridal salon was. It was a pretty nice ride. The bus wasn’t crowded at all so I was able to look out and check out the city. We drove through Chinatown, and then we were over by Union Square which is where the salon was.

Krystle’s dress is by Jin Wang. The store was gorgeous, but you weren’t allowed to take pictures of dresses that you didn’t purchase so not photos to show how nice the store was.

I did get this picture of the sign in the entryway.

And this photo of the dressing rooms where Anna and I waited for Krystle to come out in her dress.

Krystle’s dress is really pretty. I would love to post photos of it on here, but she doesn’t want my brother to see them (I don’t know if my brother even reads this, but knowing my luck this will be the first post he looks at).

So the only photos I can share are these cropped ones that Krystle gave me permission to put on here.

After the fitting was done, we headed over to where our next adventure would be: Burke Williams! But before doing that, we realized that we all forgot to bring swimsuits and we wanted to use the hot tub/steam room/sauna at the spa, so we made a quick side trip to Macy’s where all 3 of us bought new swimsuits.

Now, I have to say, I haven’t worn a swimsuit in forever. Before purchasing this one, I didn’t even own one in my size. So this was an adventure all in itself. I don’t love the swimsuit I bought, but it fits and works for now.

My mom’s goal for me for this trip was to bond with my future sister-in-law. Between going to her dress fitting and then trying on swimsuits together, I’m pretty sure I met that goal.

I’ll write all about the spa tomorrow! There’s so much to say that it needs to be its own post!

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

Tagged dress, San Francisco, shopping, swimsuit, wedding

Family Day (or How A Broken Hip Allowed Me To Celebrate My Mom’s Birthday With Her)

Posted on April 8, 2013 | Comments Off

As I mentioned before, my grandma fell and broke her hip. As soon as I heard about that, I wanted to go down to San Diego to see her.

But my mom advised me to wait until we knew that she would want visitors.

My parents were down in San Diego taking care of my grandma, and my mom said that I could go down on Thursday, which was my mom’s birthday.

So on Thursday, I made the 2 hour drive down to San Diego. The original plan was for me to see my grandma at the hospital, but she was doing so well, that the day I came down she got moved to the skilled nursing care in the building she lives in.

So when I arrived, I waited for my parents to meet me at my grandparents’ building. It was a gorgeous day out.

Once my parents got there, we grabbed a quick lunch while we waited for my grandma to be brought over. And pretty much as soon as she was settled into her new room, we all went down to visit her.

Considering that she had just had a major fall and surgery, she looked amazing! She was a little tired from everything, so the visit was pretty short. But I’ll see her again for Mother’s Day, so that isn’t too far away.

After the visit, I went over with my parents to the hotel that they were staying in for a few days. Our dog Dante made himself at home pretty quickly.

And then we all dressed for dinner. Since it was my mom’s birthday, we went out for fancy steaks at Donovan’s Steakhouse. I was excited for a yummy meal, but even more excited as this was the first time I got to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her since I was in high school!

Dinner was delicious. I had the twin filet medallions off the Prix Fixe menu.

And a split of Prosecco since we were celebrating my mom.

And then my mom got a birthday creme brûlée.

I had ordered cheesecake as my dessert course.

It was so much food, so I got a little to-go box for half of my steak and some of my mashed potatoes.

It made a very delicious breakfast the next day.

After dinner, it was time for me to make the 2 hour drive back home. I’m so glad that I got to see my mom on her birthday. I wasn’t expecting that at all (I mailed her birthday card to the house and she won’t get it until they get back). I wish that the reason we were all together wasn’t because my grandma got hurt, but I’m trying to focus on the positives of that visit.

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

Tagged birthday, grandparents, hip, mom, San Diego, surgery

Happy Birthday Mommy! (or I Promise Not To Reveal Your Age)

Posted on April 4, 2013 | 1 comment

Today is my mom’s birthday! My mom and dad are in San Diego with my grandma, and I’m heading down there today as well. So this will be the first time I get to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her in a long time (possibly since I was in high school).

Since I want to get on the road to see my family, this is going to be a short, but photo filled post.

Going through all my photos on my computer, I’ve got some pretty cool ones with my mom.

My mom has a fear of elevators (I’m not a fan of them either). But when my mom and I were in Paris celebrating my college graduation, she conquered her fear and rode the elevator up the Eiffel Tower. Also, a highlight of that trip was when we were in Italy. My mom found a coat she liked, and was trying to talk with the store employee about it. My mom doesn’t speak Italian and the employee didn’t speak English, but they both spoke broken French. Watching them try to communicate was pretty funny (my mom ended up passing on the coat).

My mom loves Disneyland almost as much as me.

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The second picture is from our trip a few years back to Disney World.

Also, my mom now will indulge me in taking silly pictures (which I love).

This is from the WB Tour we went on right after I had hip surgery.

This is on the “Exorcist” steps in Washington DC (we were there for my brother’s med school graduation).

Also, my mom is still willing to try new things, like working out with Richard Simmons.

And even though my dog has pretty much replaced me (and maybe also my brother) in the family, I know she still loves and supports me. She even reads this blog!

Happy Birthday Mommy! I’ll see you in a couple of hours in San Diego so we can celebrate together!

And finally, this is my favorite picture of me with my mom (and my grandma too).

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, mom, photos

Being Helpful (or Using Unemployment To Be A Better Person)

Posted on March 20, 2013 | Comments Off

I’ve been doing a lot of selfish things while out of work. I’ve gone to Disneyland, taken lots of spin classes, and hung out with friends who I haven’t seen in a while.

But the past two days I’ve focused on other people, and that makes me feel good.

My friend Trevor, who happens to host the podcast I work for, was in a bike accident last week. He’ll be fine, but for a while, he was looking like this.

So while he had both casts on, he had to go to a doctor’s appointment. He texted me, and of course I was going to help him out (he’s going to pay me back when I must have my other hip fixed). I actually didn’t mind driving him because he had taken a pain pill that made him pretty loopy. He didn’t say anything too bad (I promise), but it was pretty darn entertaining. Some highlights were him saying hi to every car that passed us, discussing the bee that landed on my windshield, and saying that I needed to make him banana bread.

By the time I drove him back to his house, his loopiness had ended, but it’s still nice getting to chat with a friend and help him out.

Then yesterday, I made the 2 hour drive down to San Diego to see my grandparents. I wanted to see them, first of all. They had moved into a new place last January, and the last time I was there was before they had any furniture in the place.

So it was nice spending time with them, and I was able to help them out as well. I drove them to the store (neither of my grandparents are driving right now) and helped them get groceries and other necessities.

I also helped my grandpa fix something on his DVR (he’s super tech-savvy, but this was a weird fix). And I brought them some treats. I brought my grandpa some Peeps (I remembered that he used to love them), and then I made them some banana pecan bread.

It’s actually the exact same recipe as my banana blueberry bread, but the store was out of blueberries. So I used the same amount as pecans in it. We didn’t try any of it because we ate dinner at the restaurant where my grandparents live, but it smelled really delicious.

I drove back from San Diego the same day since it’s just easier to not have to bring all my stuff down there for a night (and I didn’t want to impose). Added bonus, as I was driving north on the 5, I got to see the fireworks over Disneyland as I was driving past! That was good timing!

I’m glad I was able to do a bunch of good things over the past few days. And I’ll be doing some babysitting for a friend for the next two days, so I’ll be helping out some more. I just want to make sure I balance the selfish things in life with being a good person.

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Posted in Family, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged grandparents, help, San Diego

Going to The Happiest Place on Earth (or How Recycling Ink Got Me an Annual Pass)

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 3 comments

Yesterday was the last day that my mom and aunt were in LA. And we had our grand finale adventure then as well.

We went to Disneyland!!!

I’ve previously expressed my love for Disneyland (and how I couldn’t quite afford it), but I found a way to get my pass. At Thanksgiving, my mom gave me about 70 or 80 ink cartridges that she wanted to recycle. And since I could use the $2 for each ink, she decided to let me recycle them and enjoy the extra money. You can only recycle 10 at a time, but I had gotten about $50 in coupons since I also purchased some items at the store. And you are able to use your coupons for gift cards online (but not in the store). So I got a $50 gift card, and I ended up using that yesterday to put towards my pass (it was $269 so I only really paid $219).

Disneyland was amazing. I hadn’t been in about 2 years, so there was a lot of new stuff for me to see!

We totally lucked out by going on a gorgeous day.

(that last picture is from the StoryBook Canal Boats)

One of the highlights of the day was going to Cars Land. We rode both the tires and the racing ride. We ended up doing the racing ride twice, once in the daytime and once at night.

I highly recommend going at night. It is gorgeous there!

For our main meal yesterday, we had another linner but this time it was at the Blue Bayou. We had a waterfront table, so we got to see all the boats for Pirates of the Caribbean going right by our table. I had never eaten there before (maybe once when I was 3 but my mom can’t remember).

I decided to splurge on my calories a bit and had the short ribs.

It was so delicious that I forgot to take a photo of my food!

We rode almost everything that we wanted to go on (except Space Mountain which was broken) and spent almost equal time between Disneyland and California Adventure.

We ended our day with seeing the World of Color show at California Adventure. None of us had ever seen the show, so we weren’t sure what to expect. But we were all pleasantly surprised by how amazing the show was!

We ended up spending about 10 hours in the parks. Not my all time record, but after the past few days I’m exhausted!

Today I go back to “real” life and work. I hope I’ll be able to focus.

Mom and Aunt Cindy, thank you so much for coming to visit me and indulging me on these adventures! Thank you for paying for meals and driving around so I didn’t have to! I think we should make this girl’s week a new tradition!

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

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

A Burbank Day (or Spending Some Time At Warner Bros.)

Posted on February 13, 2013 | 4 comments

Yesterday, my adventure with my mom and aunt mainly took place in Burbank.

We started out by going from their hotel near Brentwood and we took the “scenic route” to go past Griffith Park to go to Burbank (if you aren’t familiar with LA, this is a very roundabout way to go).

We just walked around and looked at the view from the Observatory, but I could see the hiking trail that I conquered last year. The views were pretty nice, but I was so distracted I forgot to take any pictures!

Next we headed over to Burbank to walk around the WB lot. I worked at WB as a tour guide back in 2005, and a friend of mine got us walk on passes so we could explore and do some DVD shopping. After a little issue with getting our passes, we finally made it on the lot.

We walked around the backlot area where all the facades are and enjoyed the gorgeous day that we were having.

We took a couple of pictures.

And then we left the lot to head to The Smokehouse for linner (which is lunch/dinner).

The Smokehouse is a restaurant that my mom went to a lot growing up. She hadn’t been there in forever, but feels like the inside still looks the same.

We all ordered the prime rib sandwich (seemed to be their specialty), and I enjoyed everything except the bread (I had a taste of their famous garlic bread instead).

And then it was time to head back over to WB because the 3 of us had tickets to a taping of one of our favorite shows!

I love “2 Broke Girls”! It’s one of the shows that I dream of being on one day!

We got great seats in the audience, right in the second row and between the apartment and diner sets.

I’ve been to a couple of tapings before so I knew what to expect, but neither my mom nor aunt had been to one (at least as adults).

We were there for about 5 hours. It was a lot of fun getting to watch everyone work. And the director for this particular episode was Fred Savage (of “Wonder Years” fame)! As much as I loved watching, I couldn’t help feel like that was not a place that I belonged. I should have been on stage.

I think my mom and aunt had a pretty fun time at the taping, and now they understand what I do even more now. And my mom won a t-shirt!

This taping might have given me a little kick in the butt to work even harder as moving my acting career forward!

After 12 hours away from home, I got home yesterday exhausted. But we still have 1 more day adventure to go today!

4 Comments

Posted in Acting, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged 2 Broke Girls, Burbank, studio, taping, television

Family Time (or A Culver City Type of Day)

Posted on February 12, 2013 | 1 comment

My mom and Aunt Cindy got here yesterday in the afternoon, so I spent the morning doing errands and cleaning up and the afternoon with them.

My mom and dad normally come to visit me together (my dad’s first solo visit was for the Pat Metheny show), but my mom has been here a few times alone. My aunt has never visited me while I’ve lived at my current house, but now that I think about it, I don’t know if she’s ever visited me in LA before.

The first stop when after they both had gotten in (my mom was driving from the Bay Area and my aunt was coming in from Sacramento), was my house. It was nice and clean (I hope), and my aunt finally got to see my cute little house. I gave her the grand tour, which took all of 2 minutes, and then we were off for an adventure.

My aunt grew up in Culver City (my mom and her siblings grew up in the LA area too, but in the valley), and had not been back in years. I was always telling her about different areas, but she couldn’t quite picture it. So we did a little driving tour of Culver City.

We went to check out my aunt’s old house. My aunt wasn’t sure she wanted to go inside, but my mom has an awesome track record of getting to see the inside of houses she grew up in, so she tried. And we did get to go inside and see my aunt’s old house.

I had never seen it before, but according to my aunt, a lot of the place was exactly the same as how it was when she lived there with her parents. Even the tiles in the kitchen were the exact same! She’s going to find some old photos so I could see what it looked like when she lived there.

After that, we drove around to see her old school, which is one of the schools that I used to substitute teach at!

Finally we had a nice early dinner at Ugo.

We ended the night early since both my mom and aunt had long drives earlier today. We have more adventures planned for today, and I’ll be writing about those tomorrow!

1 Comment

Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged adventure, Culver City, family, home, tour

Category Archives: Family

How Long Can I Wait? (or Wanting To Shop At The Last Minute)

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Mother’s Day (or Another Day Trip To San Diego)

Like this:

My Last Day By The Bay (or Time To Head Back To Reality)

Like this:

Dress Fitting (or The Reason I Took This Trip)

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Family Day (or How A Broken Hip Allowed Me To Celebrate My Mom’s Birthday With Her)

Like this:

Happy Birthday Mommy! (or I Promise Not To Reveal Your Age)

Like this:

Being Helpful (or Using Unemployment To Be A Better Person)

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Going to The Happiest Place on Earth (or How Recycling Ink Got Me an Annual Pass)

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A Burbank Day (or Spending Some Time At Warner Bros.)

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Family Time (or A Culver City Type of Day)

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