Category Archives: Family

Not The Family Visit I Planned On Having (or An LA Afternoon)

Posted on November 13, 2020 | Comments Off on Not The Family Visit I Planned On Having (or An LA Afternoon)

One of the most upsetting things about getting vertigo is having my weekend plans ruined. I was supposed to be with my family in Santa Barbara and I had done lots of things to get ready for that visit. When I first got vertigo on Saturday, my mom was trying to be optimistic and told me that maybe I would wake up on Sunday and feel ok. And I wanted to believe that too. But that’s not how it worked for me.

I tried to not be too upset about missing my family time, but it was impossible to not be. Fortunately, my parents said that they would come down to LA to see me one day so I didn’t miss all of my family time. I would still be missing some of my family, but at least I wouldn’t miss all of them. So this past Monday, my parents came down with the dog for a few hours.

I was still not doing that great on Monday, so I couldn’t do much. I was able to walk a bit more than I had the past few days, but I was pretty much stuck on my couch (which I guess is better than being stuck in bed). I kept apologizing to my parents for not being a good host and not being able to do much, but they understood. And it was nice to just have some time with them and the dog and not feel like I completely missed out.

I had missed what was supposed to be our family Thanksgiving on Sunday evening, but my parents brought me some leftovers so I could still have Thanksgiving food. And they brought other leftovers so we could have lunch together. That was really awesome and I appreciated my parents doing that. And for the majority of the time, we were just hanging out on my couch since that’s all I could do.

But it also had been a while since my parents were at my house so they were checking out the changes I had made since they were there the last time. And there were a few projects I wanted my dad to help me with and we got them all done. We actually almost forgot about some of the projects since I wasn’t preparing to work on them with him, but we did get them all done. Nothing was too big, but they were projects that I couldn’t do alone so it was good to be able to accomplish those and feel a bit productive (even though I wasn’t able to help much at all).

And we also exchanged Hanukkah gifts since I was going to do that over the weekend. And my parents took the gift I got for my brother and sister-in-law back to Santa Barbara for them so I didn’t have to ship it. It was not how I planned on exchanging gifts, but at least I didn’t miss out on some in-person gift giving.

After a few hours, my parents headed back to Santa Barbara. I was exhausted from being out of bed so I didn’t mind that it was a short visit. I would have liked it to have been a longer visit, but I knew I couldn’t handle it. But at least I had a little visit and a little social time. I needed the in-person social time for sure, even if it wasn’t what I planned on. I wish I had a few days with my family and not only a few hours, but it wasn’t meant to be this time.

I’m not exactly sure when I’ll see my family again. It might not be until next spring, which is a while away. But it seems like the most likely time I will see them. But at least I got a little time this week to be with them. And when I get to see them again, I just hope that I don’t get hit by vertigo again.

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Default ThumbnailFamily Weekend (or Hanging Out With The Dog) Default ThumbnailAnother Family Day (or The Best Father/Daughter Project Yet) Default ThumbnailQuick Family Visit (or My Extra Long Lunch From Work) Default ThumbnailWork Time Family Visit (or Already Preparing To Renew My Disneyland Pass) Default Thumbnail24 Hour Visit Home (or Another Cancer Patient In The Family) Default ThumbnailPart 1 Of A Family Visit (or Letting My Parents Relax A Bit)

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Reflecting Back On Last Year’s Convention (or Photos Bring Back So Many Memories)

Posted on October 13, 2020 | Comments Off on Reflecting Back On Last Year’s Convention (or Photos Bring Back So Many Memories)

I know I’ve written before how sometimes I forget that it’s the anniversary of some important moment in my life until social media reminds me of it with an “on this day” post. Sometimes that reminds me of something good and sometimes it reminds me of something not good. But whatever it is, that post or photo brings back a ton of memories. This time, I almost reverse-engineered that idea. I knew something was coming up and I searched for the photos that would show me the date.

One year ago, my grandma passed away. The one year anniversary of her passing was actually this past Sunday. And I knew exactly what date it was because it was the same night as the National Convention Gala. I know I wrote a little about things in both of those posts, but I didn’t tell the full story of what happened and my memories of it.

I had a feeling my grandma was going to pass away during Convention. There was no reason for me to feel that way, but I did. I knew she wasn’t doing well, but her health had been declining for a while. The first time that I really heard that she might not live that much longer had been last September, but there wasn’t a timeline we were all thinking about. We just knew that she was slipping away and we had to be grateful whenever we could see her. I was hoping that she would make it to Thanksgiving so I could see her one more time, but I knew that it might not happen.

The day she passed away, I spent most of my day doing official Convention stuff. We ended around 5 and then I went to my car to get my clothes to change for the Gala. I changed in a room that was set aside for anyone to get ready in and I walked back to my car to put my day clothes and makeup away. And when I was walking back to the hotel to hang out before the Gala started, I saw a text from my dad. It didn’t say much. It was something like “Text me when you are doing at the Convention”. I think my parents thought that I’d be heading home after things were done, not that I had the Gala. But I knew I couldn’t wait until after the Gala was done. So I found a couch in the lobby and called my dad.

I knew it had to be one of two things. Either my grandma died or something happened with my sister-in-law (she was pregnant with my nephew then). But right before I called my dad, my brother and sister-in-law texted me to let me know they were having a boy, so I knew it was about my grandma. My dad and I didn’t say much on that call. He said that she passed away that afternoon. My grandma was in her room taking a nap after lunchtime and she passed away in her sleep. It was peaceful and that’s all we could have hoped for. I don’t think she was in any pain at the end of her life. I don’t know how aware she was of most things. I’m just grateful that she wasn’t hurting.

After the call with my dad, I was pretty hysterical. A friend of mine saw me, asked what happened, and went to find some tissues for me. He sat with me for a while until I calmed down a bit. The entire night kind of went that way. I randomly cried a lot. People found out what happened and tried to comfort me. I know I could have gone home and skipped the Gala, but I knew that my grandma would have wanted me to be there. And I didn’t want to go home and be alone. I wanted to be around my friends, and that’s exactly what happened at the Gala.

It was a weird night for sure. I was grieving but also trying to have fun. I didn’t want to be crying as much as I did, but sometimes it just hit me really hard. But I was always around a friend and whoever I was around made sure I was doing ok. I was seriously so grateful to my friends that night because I’m sure it was a bit weird for them too. But nobody made me feel bad about being upset or when I needed a shoulder to cry on.

That night was a bit of a blur for me. I know it’s because my brain was processing so much and I was also worried about how the rest of my family was doing. But I tried to enjoy things as much as possible. That’s why I don’t have a lot of photos from the Gala. I didn’t do a red carpet photo because I was still crying so much. I don’t have a lot of photos with my friends because I was not thinking about it. I took some photos of the awards during the Gala, but that’s about it. The only photo I have with my friends was a photo that my friends dragged me into. But I’m so glad they did that because it is one happy memory I have of that night.

And my smile in that photo is real. I was having a good time at that moment. And I’m glad I have that moment to remember that night by. Not all my memories are sad ones, even though that photo does remind me of some sad things too. But it also reminds me that I have amazing friends who were there for me and made sure that I was ok and had a good time at such a weird moment.

I remember so many things when looking at that photo. Even though I have a few other photos from that night, that one, in particular, is the one that brings so many memories back. I looked at it again on Sunday and took some time to remember my grandma. It was a bit of a sad day because of everything else going on in the world. But I’m glad that when she passed away, I didn’t have to be alone and I was able to be supported by so many people.

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Default ThumbnailThe Convention Gala (or Casino Night And Awards) Default ThumbnailA Big Loss In My Family (or Saying Goodbye To My Grandma) Default ThumbnailThe Convention Gala (or An Evening Under and With The Stars) Default ThumbnailA Full Convention Weekend (or Preparation Pays Off) Default ThumbnailIt’s Convention Time (or I’ve Been Waiting 2 Years For This!) Default ThumbnailThe Roadrunner (or More Memories In My House)

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Another Family Day (or The Best Father/Daughter Project Yet)

Posted on September 30, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Family Day (or The Best Father/Daughter Project Yet)

As I mentioned the other day, I recently did a full 2-week quarantine so that I can spend time with my family. It’s not easy to do a full quarantine, but it’s worth it to see my family. I know I have to do this to make sure that I’m not sick and I don’t get anyone sick. If I wasn’t taking these precautious and someone got sick, I would never forgive myself. So doing the full quarantine is a small sacrifice to make in order to feel good about seeing people who I do not live with. I can’t wait until I don’t have to think about this before seeing my family (or being able to see my friends), but I just remind myself that this is will end eventually and it is what we have to do in order to have our future.

Just like my other recent visits with my family, this was just going to be for the day. It’s not that long of a drive (only about 90 minutes each way) and it’s just easier to be there for the day than it is to pack up everything that I would need to spend the night. Plus, if I was staying overnight, it would only get me a few more hours as I would be going home the next day. So doing a day trip is just easier for me. I’m sure my parents would love it if I stayed longer, but they understand why I don’t.

This time, we were going to be hanging out at the rental house my parents were staying at because they had the dog with them! I hadn’t seen Tucker since the baby shower, so I was so happy to see him. He can’t be inside my brother and sister-in-law’s house because they have a cat. So to let him hang out with all of us, we had to be where my parents were staying. But that also worked for another reason.

I take a lot of pride in finding awesome gifts for people, and I was starting to think of things I wanted to get for Rory. And something that kept coming up in random searches that I was doing was busy boards. A busy board is basically a collection of things that babies and toddlers like to play with such as light switches, doorknobs, wheels, different types of locks, and stuff like that. And while there were some really nice looking ones that I knew I couldn’t make, in general, they didn’t look too fancy and it seemed like something I could do. Or at least something my dad and I could do together.

So I talked to my dad a month or so about this idea. The original idea was to make this for Rory’s first birthday. So we weren’t in a rush for anything. We both said we would just look around to see what we could find that would be good things to put on a busy board. We didn’t think we would need to buy a ton of stuff. Most things could be random things we had as extras from other projects. And then a week or two before I was going to see my family, my dad and I started talking more about the type of board and holder we would use for this. We wanted to maybe work on it when we saw each other, but we had no idea how to actually make it stand up and be safe. We looked at a few different ideas online like artist easels and other pre-built things, but we ended that call not knowing what to do. I promised my dad I would do more research.

But the next day, my dad texted me to stop the search. I guess he got inspired because he went to the hardware store, bought some wood, and built this.

And it actually can flip and be used the other direction so it doesn’t have as much of an angle! This is way better than anything my dad and I were looking at online. I was shocked that he was able to build this and do it so quickly! And he said that he would have it painted before they were in Santa Barbara so we could work on adding the gadgets together.

We were going to have a few hours before my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over after I arrived; so when I got there my dad and I immediately got to work. We had a bunch of tools to drill holes and get everything in there safely. And we had figured out that we might give Rory his present early (instead of driving it back and forth) so we were extra motivated to get it done before they arrived! We had a little bit of planning to do so we could figure out what should go where, but that ended up being pretty quick. And we made an awesome team with getting everything installed. My dad did most of the hard work and I did the prep work (like getting the correct screws and washers ready). It still took us a few hours, but we got it done! And I am so proud of how it looks!

My dad and I have done a lot of projects together. It’s something we like to do and we are good at it. Our go-to ultimate project for a long time has been a screen door we built years ago. It came from a box with instructions, but we did have to do some customizations. But this busy board was completely from scratch. Honestly, I think it’s the greatest thing we have made and I still can’t believe how it looks. I’m so proud of it and this easily beats the screen door!

Rory is still a little too young for this, but he was fascinated by it. We let him try to play with it, and he was so interested in what things were. He just didn’t know how to do them just yet.

This photo is also the first time he sat up unassisted, so I guess the busy board motivated him to do that! And I know that as he gets a little older, he’ll love it even more. He’ll play with the different things that spin and move. And I hope it will keep him busy for a while so my brother and sister-in-law can get other work done and know that he is entertained! And in the future, my niece will hopefully enjoy playing with it too! I can’t wait to see him really enjoying it, but the few moments that he was playing with it while I was there was enough to make me feel so good about what we made.

Besides letting Rory play with the busy board, we had family dinner that night (the cookies I made were for dessert). We also spent some time hanging outside because the weather wasn’t too bad. And when we were outside, Tucker seemed to want to be a part of the conversation too.

After dinner, my brother and sister-in-law needed to go home to put Rory to bed. And I started to get my stuff together so I could drive home. I was able to spend almost 8 hours with my family, which really was awesome. Of course, more time would be better, but just those 8 hours revived me a bit. It had been so long since I had a hangout like that and I needed it.

And fortunately, I won’t have to wait too long before my next family hangout. Usually, my family does a big Thanksgiving with my extended family. But this year, that just isn’t possible. Between travel and trying to keep people safe and healthy, we just can’t get together like we normally do. So my immediate family is going to do our own little Thanksgiving. And because house rentals and other things are more expensive during the holiday, we are doing Thanksgiving a few weeks early (this was actually the original plan for the extended family Thanksgiving too). So I am only about 6 weeks away from seeing everyone again. That does mean that I am about 4 weeks away from another quarantine, but like always, it will be worth it. And I can’t wait until I get to see everyone and get to spend a few days with the family!

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Default ThumbnailFamily Brunch (or Sibling Catch Up Time) Default ThumbnailHaving Fun With Photos (or My Brother And Nephew Are Twins!) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Week (or Lots Of Family Time) Default ThumbnailI’m Officially An Aunt (or Welcome Rory!) Default ThumbnailMore Family Time (or Seeing All My Immediate Family Last Week) Default ThumbnailFamily Weekend (or Hanging Out With The Dog)

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Another Full Quarantine (or I Don’t Know Why This Feels Different)

Posted on September 16, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Full Quarantine (or I Don’t Know Why This Feels Different)

I mentioned yesterday that I’m doing another full quarantine right now. I’ve done these twice before and it’s always because I’m getting ready to see my family. Doing it a third time was something I didn’t even have to think about. I knew that if I wanted to see my family, I had to do a full quarantine. This was something my brother told me to do the first time I was going to see everyone, but I also assumed I would have to do it. Although the first time, I misunderstood and did a month of full quarantine. But now, I know it’s 2 weeks.

Doing a full quarantine means I don’t leave my house, even to do essential errands. I don’t go out for anything other than to take my trash to the curb and to walk across my driveway to do laundry. It’s not that different from what I normally do. I don’t do most of my errands in person. There are a few places that I can’t get delivery from or that it’s much cheaper to get if I go to the store. But for the most part, I have everything delivered to me. But even though I don’t leave my house for almost anything, doing a full quarantine feels so different.

Maybe it’s just the idea that I can’t go out to do errands. I don’t necessarily want to go out and about, but knowing I can’t do it feels different. There are things I’d love to go out and get from the store, but I just can’t. If there was something that I needed urgently and I couldn’t get it delivered, I know I could message a friend to see if they could go to the store for me. I’ve done that before with stuff from Trader Joes. But I hate having to ask friends to do errands for me (even though they are doing it when they are at the store too). It’s silly because I would do it in a heartbeat for anyone. I just don’t like having to ask for myself.

Since I knew this 2-week full quarantine was coming up, I tried to make sure I did my errands that had to be done in person at a store ahead of time. I actually didn’t have much I needed to do, so it was easy to get them done. Of course, as soon as I couldn’t go out I realized there was something I wanted to get that I forgot to do. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I could probably wait until after my visit with my family. And if I end up running out of something, I can either find something else I can use or I will ask my friends if anyone is going to the store so they can help me out. I think part of this time has made me very paranoid about running out of things I use. I am trying to make sure I have purchased whatever I need before the one I’m using runs out. For example, I use a specific shaving cream from Trader Joes. In the past, if I ran out in the shower, then I’d go to Trader Joes that afternoon to get another one. It wasn’t a big deal. Now, when it’s starting to feel like it’s getting close to empty I want to go out to buy a new one. I know that I can use something else and that it’s not the end of the world if I have to use a slightly different product, but I like having things that are familiar to me.

Doing a full quarantine is totally worth it so that I can see my family soon. It’s also the only way I can see them and feel like I’m not putting anyone at risk. There is no way that I could get my family sick if I do my quarantine properly. And I don’t want to be scared if I could pass it to someone else. So this isn’t just for everyone else’s safety, but for my peace of mind too. And getting able to see everyone is worth any sacrifices I have to make. I want to be able to see them and I can’t wait until I get to be around people I love! I’m about halfway through my quarantine and I’m counting down the days until I get my reward for doing it!

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Default ThumbnailBack Into The Groove (or Staying On The Right Path While At Work) Default ThumbnailNot Letting A Slip Up Be A Set Back (or I Splurged Again) Default ThumbnailFeta-Pine Nut Dip (or My Contribution For Thanksgiving) Default ThumbnailA Quarantine Birthday (or Just A Normal Sunday) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Trip (or Being With My Family In San Diego) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Week (or Lots Of Family Time)

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Having Fun With Photos (or My Brother And Nephew Are Twins!)

Posted on August 26, 2020 | Comments Off on Having Fun With Photos (or My Brother And Nephew Are Twins!)

Even if we weren’t in a pandemic, I’m sure that I would be getting a ton of photos of my nephew from my brother and sister-in-law. I probably would be going to Santa Barbara more often than I have been able to do now, but the photos would have still been a constant thing. And I love getting new photos of Rory. He’s already looking so big and I can’t believe how big he will be when I get to see him again (which will hopefully be in a month). And while the photos do make me sad that I’m not there more often to see him, it does make me happy to see fun little things that he has been doing, like going to the pool for the first time.

A lot of the photos are just of Rory being cute and smiley. And of course, those make me smile and make my day. And the other day, my brother and sister-in-law sent our family text group some new photos of Rory. And there was one photo that made me stop to stare at it because it looked so familiar. I realized that it looked almost identical to a photo of my brother when he was a baby.

I called my mom and told her to look at the photos that we just got and that I knew there was a photo of my brother that matched. I couldn’t describe the photo too much, I just knew it looked like the one we were sent of Rory. I thought the photo of my brother had him in a gray or blue outfit, but I wasn’t too sure. Fortunately, my mom knew exactly what photo I was talking about. And because she is so organized with her digital photos, it was only a few minutes before she could find the exact photo I was talking about. She sent it to me so I could make a little side-by-side comparison to text to the family text group.

To me, they look like twins! Their faces, their smiles, and how they hold their hands are so similar! It probably helps that they are posed the same way too, but I have said since the first time I saw Rory how much he looks like my brother. But now, I see it more than ever!

And everyone in my family agrees with me that they look like twins. I think they all liked that I put the photos together (I’m known in my family for making collages and other photo things). There isn’t a lot that makes everyone smile, but photos of Rory always does that. And I think the side-by-side photos made everyone smile too!

And now, my brother and sister-in-law are expecting another baby! They are having a girl this time and she will be here next spring! I wonder if she will be another twin for my brother or if she’ll be a twin for my sister-in-law. I guess we’ll see when she’s born next year. I am excited to be an aunt again and to have another member of the family! Hopefully, by the time she arrives, things will be a bit safer to be around others so going to meet her won’t be as intense of a situation and I can be there more often. But if not, at least I know I will be getting a ton of photos!

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Officially Getting A New Cousin (or A Zoom Wedding)

Posted on August 11, 2020 | Comments Off on Officially Getting A New Cousin (or A Zoom Wedding)

There are so many things that we are doing these days that nobody would have expected to do before the pandemic. Virtual hangouts are so common that many people have Zoom fatigue. Even though I know people have live-streamed weddings before, that’s usually done for people who couldn’t be there (like how my grandparents watched my brother’s wedding on Facetime because they couldn’t fly). But now, if you are getting married almost everyone has to be on Zoom. And that’s exactly what happened with my cousin’s wedding.

My cousin Danny and his partner Alisa have been together for a long time. And from the day I met Alisa, I have felt like she was my family. She and I always call each other cousin, even though it wasn’t official. But it was official enough for both of us. Even though we felt like we were already family, I was so excited when Danny and Alisa announced their engagement and so it would be official!

I don’t know how big of a wedding they had been planning on having, but I do know a lot of things had to change because of the pandemic. They were keeping their original wedding date (August 8th), and they just had to make adjustments to keep things safe. So they had only immediate family in person at the wedding and everyone else watched on Zoom. I was very ok with that because that meant I got to watch it and that’s all that mattered to me!

The wedding was pretty early (since they are on the east coast and it was a morning wedding for them), but I was happy to be up and watching it. And since the Zoom was just for us to watch (and not them to see us), it didn’t matter what we looked like while watching. And it made me so happy to get to be a small part of their big day!

Everyone looked beautiful and I was smiling the entire time while I was watching. The camera running the Zoom stayed in the same spot the entire time, so we didn’t get a lot of close up looks, but soon after the wedding was done some photos were being posted online and I could see more of Alisa’s gorgeous dress!

I’m so happy that Danny and Alisa got married and Alisa is officially my cousin now! And I’ve already told her that when things are safer again that they need to come to CA to visit us so we can have our first official family hangout! I’m looking forward to that!

I’ve seen people joke about having Zoom bingo with checking off how many things you’ve done during the pandemic. I know Zoom wedding or baby shower has been on every bingo chart I’ve seen. So I guess now I can check off Zoom wedding!

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Another Santa Barbara Day (or A Little Bit Of Social Interaction)

Posted on June 30, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Santa Barbara Day (or A Little Bit Of Social Interaction)

I’ve been in isolation for about 3 1/2 months now. I haven’t left my house much. My biggest adventures in the world have been going to urgent care and seeing my family for a day. I rarely leave my house for errands and have been relying on delivery services (and yes, I do tip generously for the deliveries). Isolation has been tough on me. It’s very lonely. I’m used to being alone, but not lonely. And the lack of social interaction and physical touch is very hard to deal with. But fortunately, last week I got to change that up a bit.

My parents were down in Santa Barbara visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. And since they were there for a few days, they asked if I wanted to come up to see them all. And of course, I said yes! Besides feeling lonely and wanting to be around people, I wanted to see my family!

And I will give this disclosure like I did when I saw my family again. I only went because I had been isolating myself for a length of time without going out for errands. My family is all in medicine and I followed all of their guidance and rules. I didn’t do this without thinking it through or ignoring the fact that we are in a global pandemic. I didn’t know how close I could be to my family or if I was going to be required to wear my mask the entire time. I was prepared for whatever they said.

When I got there, I wasn’t wearing my mask while hanging out with my family because we were able to sit far enough apart. Plus, none of us have really been going out in public at all so we’ve all been pretty isolated for a long time. And it was so good to get to see my family and talk to them in person! I’m grateful for phone calls, texts, and video chats; but there is no replacement for in-person interaction.

And Rory had gotten so big since I had seen him! And his little personality was really coming out. He was very clear in what he liked and what he didn’t like. He had this really adorable look of frustration from time to time. I hated that he was frustrated, but I loved that you could tell that he had so much he wanted to say and express to us. I have a feeling that he will be very chatty as soon as he can talk.

And I got to hold him again too! Because I have been isolated for so long, I was able to hold him without wearing a mask. He’s pretty wiggly and was looking at everything around the house, so it hard trying to get a photo with him looking into the camera. This was the best that I could do.

We spent a lot of time at my brother and sister-in-law’s house, but we also went out for a walk. One of the main streets in Santa Barbara has been turned into a pedestrian-only area, so there was a lot of room to walk around without being too close to anyone else. I hadn’t really been out like that in months, and it was so nice to get to do that. I still was wearing my mask, even without people being that close to us. I have to be careful and cautious and it was an easy thing to do to stay safe.

Once we got back to the house, we had family dinner and then I had to head back home because I had something I had to do early the next morning. But I had gotten to spend a while with everyone and it was exactly what I needed. I needed to feel connected to people again to get ready to go back to being lonely.

I know that I am lucky that I got to do this. Not everyone is close enough to family to go to see them for the day. Not everyone can isolate the way that I’ve been able to so that they can be safe around others. And I am so grateful that I got to do this again. I don’t know when I’ll be back to see family again, so I am just grateful for the opportunities that I have had to see them. And when I can go again, I know that I’ll feel so happy that I can go.

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Modifying Mayhem (or A Good But Challenge Week Of Workouts)

Posted on June 1, 2020 | Comments Off on Modifying Mayhem (or A Good But Challenge Week Of Workouts)

With all of the at-home workouts, Orangetheory is trying really hard to make them as fun and unique as the regular in-studio workouts are. I really appreciate the effort that they are making and I feel like they are doing a great job considering that they didn’t have this plan in place before the pandemic started. The workouts aren’t necessarily as hard as they are when we have someone coaching us, but I think that also has something to do with what efforts I put in when I’m home alone compared to when I’m in class.

But this past week of workouts was made extra hard. One of the things that Orangetheory does is have a challenging week called Mayhem. It’s similar to Hell Week, but during May. These workouts are very tough and they usually push you to try to do more than normal. I love having these challenging weeks because it does help me believe that I can do more than I normally do in workouts. And since almost all the studios around the world are still closed (very few are open, but more are getting ready to open), they made Mayhem part of the at-home workouts this time.

You can usually get something for completing Mayhem in-studio. I think it’s always a hat (Hell Week is always a shirt). This time, you could pre-order the hat to have it after completing Mayhem. I think you were supposed to do 4 of the 6 workouts, but because of the timing of when the workouts were I only got 3 done. But I still pre-ordered the hat and used it for motivation during each of the workouts.

The first part of the week of workouts was much better than the second part of the week. I didn’t have too many issues with pain and nausea on Monday or Wednesday. But Friday and Saturday were really bad. I had to make so many modifications in my workouts to be able to get through things. But I still tried to make the workouts harder for me in my own way. I did focus as much as I could on working on strength/weight-lifting exercises since those don’t always make me feel worse.

What I did notice while doing that was that I do feel weaker than I did before. I have known that this would be a possibility as I’m not able to work as hard at home as I do in class, but it was hard when I really thought I was trying. But I just have to keep going because that’s the only way I can limit how much of a set-back I have. I know when I get back to class (hopefully at some point this summer they can reopen safely) I will have to not have any expectations of what I will be able to do. I might struggle in the workouts the way I did when I start. But I also know that I might have a faster time getting back to where I was since I had already been there once. I honestly don’t know what it will be like when I get back to class, but having few expectations will probably be best for me.

Even though I know that this Mayhem wasn’t as hard as past ones were, I still am proud of what I did. I tried my best. I worked as hard as I could. I pushed through pain and nausea when I could. And I did have harder workouts than the other workouts have been.

I know this week is likely to be a struggle, mainly due to pain and nausea, but I’m still figuring out how to do workouts the best that I can. It’s not as easy to modify things at home, so I’m still figuring out what options work for me. I’m doing a lot of completely different exercises instead of modifications due to what equipment is available at my house. So I’ll have another week of practicing how to modify things for myself this week.

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Meeting Rory (or This Made Isolation Worth It)

Posted on April 22, 2020 | Comments Off on Meeting Rory (or This Made Isolation Worth It)

Before I get into this post too much, I want to explain something because I know some people might question why I did this. I understand that we are currently experiencing a global pandemic and that it is important to stay home unless absolutely necessary. And for the past 4 weeks, I have not left my house (not even for essential errands) except one time. Most people are still going out once a week or so. I have not. So the chances of me having COVID-19 is extremely low. I also did this under the guidance of my brother (who is an ER doctor), my dad (who is a retired OB/GYN), and my mom (who is a retired pediatric nurse). I did everything they said would be necessary plus some. And now, I am in 2 weeks (minimum) of strict quarantine of not leaving my house for any reason. I am not going to see anyone that I could pass this onto if I happened to be exposed by my family (who also have not been leaving their homes for any reason). Please understand that I did things beyond what the current guidance to stay safe and healthy and that I do not recommend people just go visit family unless you have been in quarantine before seeing them.

When my nephew Rory was born, I wasn’t sure when I would get to meet him. I was sad that I wasn’t there when he was born, but I knew I would get to meet him one day soon. I wasn’t going to ask my brother or sister-in-law when I could come to meet him, because I didn’t want them to feel pressured to let anyone see him if they weren’t ready. But when they asked me if I wanted to come to meet him, I immediately said yes! Because I had been avoiding all people for so long, they felt safe that I wasn’t a carrier. There were still going to be rules to be at their house, but I didn’t care. I wanted to meet my nephew! Plus, my parents were going to be there (they also followed the same guidelines I had and would have the same restrictions) and I wanted to see them too. My parents were supposed to come to see me next month and that trip has been canceled. And they had a few things for me, like some weights for my workouts, and I wanted to pick those up.

So this past Friday, I drove up to Santa Barbara to spend a few hours with my family. I made sure I wore clothes that I hadn’t worn outside recently and I had a mask with me since that was required to be around my nephew. Fortunately, a friend of mine made me a mask so I had a cute one to wear! The drive was very easy with very few cars on the road so I was able to get there a bit earlier than I expected.

And being so lonely and isolated at home was completely worth it when I walked into their house and got to meet Rory. He is so tiny and so adorable. And I instantly fell in love with him. Which also meant I took a million photos.

He was only 2 weeks old when I was there, but he was already starting to have a little personality. He’s a very happy and content baby and only cried once or twice when I was there. He is very snuggly and likes to be crunched up in your arms. He especially likes having his feet and legs crunched up and close to his body. He’s seriously so adorable and I felt so lucky that I was able to meet him so much sooner than I expected.

Just like I wasn’t going to push for going to visit my brother and sister-in-law, I wasn’t going to push to hold Rory. I really wanted to, but I know that these times are not normal circumstances and I knew they were being careful and cautious. But they said as long as my hands were clean (I washed my hands and used hand sanitizer) and wore a mask, I could hold him. And it was one of the best moments ever!

I know you can’t see my smile under my mask, but trust me when I say I was smiling! Of course, we were all joking about how you couldn’t tell what anyone’s emotion was under the masks, but we knew they were necessary. I only wish I had one that had something to be tighter around my nose because the fabric mask made it a bit tough to see Rory if I was holding him super close to me. But I found a way to prop my arm up higher on the couch so I could stare at him while holding him. And he pretty much just slept in my arms and seemed very content.

I also loved getting to hang out with my family. I haven’t seen anyone in so long with the exception of a few moments, and I was seriously needing this type of human connection. Virtual hangouts are not as good as in-person ones and this made me feel so much better than I had been feeling earlier in the week. I felt content and like life was almost normal. I really needed this time to get myself back in alignment and feeling like I will be ok.

I would have loved to have spent a ton of time with my family, but I was only there for a few hours before I had to head home. I had things I had to get done in LA so I couldn’t stay too late. Also, my brother and sister-in-law have a cat and I’m very allergic to cats. I took allergy medication for almost a week before I was there, but after only an hour I was starting to feel symptoms of an allergy attack. When my throat started to feel funny and my voice was getting very raspy, I knew I had to leave. And when I got home, I showered immediately to get any cat dander off of me, but I still had several marks on my body where I think some fur got under my clothes. I don’t know what I’ll do for future visits, but I’ll figure something out. But even if my allergies were worse, it was still worth it. There’s no question in my mind.

I’m now doing 2 weeks of strict staying at home. No going out for groceries or supplies (thank goodness for delivery options). And if I have to do these strict quarantine rules before I go see Rory again, I’ll do it. Hopefully, there will be some new guidelines soon that we can use to help make sure we are keeping everyone safe. I’m not sure when I’ll be going back to Santa Barbara again and so many things can change from week to week. So I’m not doing any planning on what I’ll need to do for next time. But I do know that whatever I have to do, it’s completely worth it.

 

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A Santa Barbara Afternoon (or Celebrating My Future Nephew!)

Posted on March 10, 2020 | Comments Off on A Santa Barbara Afternoon (or Celebrating My Future Nephew!)

Even though my brother and sister-in-law live pretty close to me, I don’t make it to Santa Barbara that often. I haven’t been up there for a while and I know that I should make plans to do that more. It’s only about 90 minutes away from me, so it’s not that far. But I know I will be going up there more often soon because my sister-in-law is pregnant and my nephew should arrive in about a month!

I’m so excited to be an aunt and I’ve already got a lot of things that I can’t wait to get for my nephew. And when I found out the date for the baby shower, I immediately started to think of a good gift.

I looked at a bunch of different websites to get inspiration for a gift, and I found something that I loved and could make myself. They were bookplates (stickers that say “Library of Baby Levin”) and I knew that would be perfect! I know what my nephew is going to be named and I knew the theme of the nursery is safari animals, so I made some really cute stickers with different animals on them. The only problem is that they aren’t telling most people the name yet (only family knows right now), so I couldn’t give a gift with his name on it. So I had to get something to go along with the bookplates to give at the shower. The obvious gift was to get some books, so that’s exactly what I did!

I wanted to find books that relate to things that my brother and sister-in-law like so they could be an introduction to those things for the baby. So I found a book on San Francisco (where they met), Santa Barbara (where they live), world-traveling (which they love to do), and wine (which is one of their favorite activities). I will say, finding a baby book about wine wasn’t easy, but I was so thrilled when I found it!

The baby shower was this past weekend and I drove up to Santa Barbara just for the afternoon. I drove with my great aunt (who lives near me) and we went a bit early so we could spend time with my parents and dog. The dog had knee surgery recently so I really wanted to get to see him. And I hadn’t seen my parents for a few months and I knew they had some stuff for me. We got up there about 2 hours before the shower started, so that allowed us some time to relax after the drive and hang out. Shockingly, I didn’t take a single photo of the dog when we were there!

And when we were at the shower, I didn’t take many photos either! Part of the reason I didn’t take photos was that I was dealing with a lot of nausea that day. It’s unfortunate that a bad nausea day fell on the same day as the party, but I can’t really control that. But the other reason I didn’t take a ton of photos was that I was focused on enjoying being there. I wasn’t sure how many people I would know there, but I did end up knowing quite a few people. I knew I’d know my family and my sister-in-law’s family. But most of my brother’s friends who were there were people that I have known for a while too. I think the last time I saw them was at the wedding, but since everyone stays in touch through social media it didn’t seem like it had been that long. And I did chat with some people that I didn’t know so I did end up feeling like I knew everyone there.

The few pictures I did take were of some of the decorations.

And of Ross and Krystle when they opened up gifts.

I had given them a heads up that there was a part of the gift that had the name on it, so they opened that without showing anyone else before opening up the books for all the guests to see. I think they were just as surprised as I was that there was a baby book about wine! And I think they loved all the other books I got them too.

After they opened the gifts, the party started to wind down a bit. My great aunt and I hung around for a while so we could catch up with family, but we didn’t stay too late since we did have to drive home. We were there for quite a while, and I should be back soon since I will go to Santa Barbara when my nephew is born. My parents will be staying there next month so they don’t have to worry about driving down when she goes into labor. I’ll just be in LA basically waiting for the call to get into my car and head up. I can’t wait!

I’m so excited that there will be a new member of our family soon and I can’t wait to see what he’s like and what he will add to the family dynamic!

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