Posted onJune 9, 2022|Comments Off on One More Design Choice (or I’m Ready To Be Done With The Renovation)
There have been so many decisions I’ve had to make regarding the renovation. It has been stressful, but it’s also been really amazing to see my place come together. And all the fear I had that the choices I was making would clash were unfounded because things really did look good. I still think it’s a bit of a miracle that I didn’t end up with things that looked mismatched, but since so much of what I picked were neutrals in the same color tones, I guess I set myself up to have that happen.
I do still have to buy a few more things for my place, but for the most part, the design work has been done for a while. Most of the design choices I made were actually before the renovation started, so it was done a while ago. But there have been a few things I’ve still had to figure out. I’m still planning a bit of a design for my living room, but I know that will happen once I get my new couch delivered. And once I buy some of the display cabinets I want to get, I will need to style those, but that feels less like design since I’m going to be using things I already own.
But one thing that I have been needing to do but have been waiting on was getting curtains for my slider door in my living room. I put shutters on my windows, but to do shutters on the sliding door would have been really expensive so I didn’t do that. I knew I wanted to at least have sheer curtains there since that’s what I had when I got my place. But getting regular curtains too would be nice in case I wanted to make my living room a bit more private.
When my parents have been in town during the renovation, they helped me out by meeting with some companies that could do curtains. But they were either too expensive or didn’t have fabrics we liked. I didn’t want anything too crazy for curtains, just something basic that went along with everything else that I had in the room. And even though I wanted to have some more privacy, I didn’t feel like I needed to rush to get more appointments set up. But I realized that I just needed to make a plan and go for it, so I scheduled an appointment with a company that could come to my place with samples and helps me decide on a design.
I had the appointment the other day, and I went into it thinking I might not find what I want. But I lucked out and I think I found something that will look nice. For the sheers, I went with the most basic white ones they had. I didn’t want them to be ivory or to have a design. I just wanted something simple and bright to go along with some of the accent paint in my living room. But picking out regular curtains was a bit harder. I didn’t want a big design, and a lot of the samples seemed to be too bold for me. But I think I found something that will go nicely with my paint as well as the new couch when it’s here.
It’s nothing crazy or fancy, but it will add a bit of texture and color to the room. And since they will mainly be off to the side because I’ll only have the sheers closed, they will not be a huge focal point in the room. I think it will look nice when they will be installed!
I got everything ordered during the appointment and the installation will hopefully be sometime next month. But since I wasn’t in a rush to get it done, I’m ok if it takes longer to get them. I just want to keep moving forward with getting my place finished and feeling like I’m really living in here and not just still moving in.
I know that there will always be more projects to work on, but at least for now, I think I’m done making big design decisions and can focus on the smaller things I need to get and style.
Posted onJune 7, 2022|Comments Off on Actually Going To A Movie (or Enjoying A Summer Blockbuster)
Before the pandemic, I went out to see movies pretty frequently. I didn’t go to regular movie theaters that often, but I would go to screenings through my union or the SAG-AFTRA Film Society on a regular basis. I saw more movies than I think I ever had in my lifetime. I still got plenty of screeners for the SAG Awards that I watched at home, but I loved going out to a movie and seeing something on the big screen.
Of course, when the pandemic hit, that all changed. I don’t know exactly how long movie theaters were closed, but it was quite a while. And more movies were being released through streaming services so I didn’t have to go out to see movies. There were a lot of movies that also delayed their release so they wouldn’t be coming out while things were still really bad. I know things still aren’t great, but when comparing now to how things were in June 2020 it is better.
So I just haven’t been going out to see movies. There have been a few released in theaters that I would have liked to have seen, but most of them I was able to watch at home. And I didn’t feel like I was missing out on too much by not seeing them at a theater. But as this summer has been starting, there are more and more movies that I feel should be seen in a theater and I knew it was time to finally go to a movie again.
I’ve done a few things that are indoors with quite a few people, like going to the musicals, so I knew that since I had felt comfortable enough there that I would be fine going to a movie. So once I kept hearing from everyone that “Top Gun Maverick” was so good and needed to be seen on the big screen, I knew that would be the perfect movie to be my return to theaters.
I was talking to some friends about going to see it, and 2 of my workout friends said they’d like to go so the three of us made a plan to go this past weekend. I wasn’t too picky about what theater we went to, especially since I don’t go to regular theaters that often. So when one friend said they wanted to go to the AMC in the Marina, I was ok with that. It turned out that it was a dine-in theater that had nice recliner seats.
An added bonus of this theater was that since it had these recliner seats, there weren’t as many seats in the theater and they were spread out quite a bit. I was not close to other people seated near me. Except for my friends, the closest people were a few feet away from me. That helped me feel more comfortable, especially since masks weren’t required in the movie theater as they are when I go to the musicals. Also, recliner seats are obviously more comfortable than regular seats, so it was nice to be relaxed and able to stretch out since I’ve gotten used to watching movies on my couch.
And this was really the perfect movie to see on the big screen! I had seen the original “Top Gun” a ton of times, but it had been a while since I had watched it. So I decided to watch it the day before we went to see the movie. I would recommend doing that because there are so many callbacks to the original movie that I know I would have missed if I hadn’t seen it so recently. But even my friends who weren’t that familiar with the original enjoyed this movie. It was really a classic summer blockbuster movie and that’s something that hasn’t been happening recently.
I’ve said this a lot in the past 2 years, but the pandemic has made me look at the things I have been enjoying in my life and there are a lot of things that I have gained a new appreciation for. And going to the movies is something that I know I didn’t appreciate as much as I should have. It was such a routine and regular part of my life and didn’t feel special. But now I know much much I missed being able to see a movie on a big screen with other people around me. There’s no comparison.
This was also the first movie back for my friends as well, and I think we all felt so happy after the movie was done and we agreed that we need to plan another movie outing to see something else soon. I can’t wait to see what else we end up seeing and how much fun I’ll have back at the movies again. And I know that I will continue to appreciate the fact that going to the movies is something I can do again and I won’t see it as routine anymore.
Posted onJune 6, 2022|Comments Off on Non-Mayhem Workouts Are Still Hard (or Pushing Myself During A Good Week)
After getting through Mayhem, I was hoping for a bit of an easier week this past week. I know they make the Mayhem (and Hell Week) workouts extra tough, but sometimes the regular workouts are just harder than normal too. And I feel like this past week was definitely tougher than normal, but it allowed me to really push harder.
Because Monday was a holiday and I had the day off of work, I went to a later class than I normally go to. It was actually the class time that I used to go to before the pandemic, but it seemed like everyone was in a class later than they normally do because most of the people in my class were the ones I see each week. And because this was a later class, it was a 2 group class. I forgot that it would be 2 groups and not 3 groups until our coach was doing the intro, but since it was a run/row day it felt similar to a 3 group class.
For the run/row, every time we were on cardio we had the same distance. For the treadmills it was .4 miles, for me on the bike it was 1.6 miles. After the cardio, we headed to the rower. The first row was 300-meters and then we took as long as we needed to recover and then we had another 300-meter row. The first row was supposed to be a push pace and the second was supposed to be an all-out, but for that distance, they were about the same for me. The second time we went the rowers we had 2 rounds of a 200-meter row and the third time we had 2 rounds of a 100-meter row. For those distances, I was able to do better on my second row and make it a bit more of an all-out.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks. For each block, we started with a buy-in exercise of doing roll-outs on the straps. After doing one set of that for each block, we focused on the other exercises in the block. The first block had chest presses, y-raises, and reverse grip low rows on the straps. The second block had chest flys, single-arm shoulder presses, and high rows with weights. And the last block had chest presses, hammer curls, and single-arm low rows with weights. I did try to go heavier with some of the weights because I know my upper body is getting stronger. But I kept my lighter weights at my station because I did have to switch back and forth as I got tired during each block.
Wednesday’s workout was back to my normal schedule and my normal 3 group class. And while I know that now all classes have a mix of endurance, strength, and power in them, this class felt a lot more like a power class to me.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first 2 blocks were the same. We had 1 minute between our base and push paces, 1 minute at our push pace, 1 minute between our push and all-out paces, and 1 minute at an all-out. So I started my resistance level exactly between my base and push paces and then going up by one every minute worked out perfectly for what we were supposed to do. The last block was a 1-minute base pace, 1-minute push pace, and 1-minute all-out.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks and in each block, we had one row distance and one exercise and we went back and forth until the end of the block. The first block was 200-meters and halos with a medicine ball. The second block was 150-meters and lunges. And the last block was 100-meters and tricep extensions with a medicine ball.
And we had 3 blocks on the floor as well. Each block had 2 exercises. For one we had a range for the reps and for the other we had a set number of reps. The exercises that had a range were single-arm shoulder presses, suitcase deadlifts, and double crunches. And the set rep exercises were dead bugs, plank bird dogs, and back extensions. Because the blocks were short, it didn’t feel like I was repeating each exercise too many times because I used heavy weights and that took up time.
Thursday’s workout was a bit tough. I thought it might have just been me because I didn’t sleep well the night before, but one of my friends in the class said after class that this workout felt harder than Mayhem did. So I guess it was just a really hard class.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and third blocks were the same and focused on 45-second intervals. We started with a 45-second push pace followed by a 45-second base pace. We had 2 more rounds of that but each push pace had an increase in the incline/resistance level. And then we ended with a 30-second all-out. In the second block, everyone on the treadmills did power walking and nobody was running. This was all about the incline work for 30-second intervals. For me on the bike, I worked with really high resistance levels. I started at what is normally my all-out level and increased the level every 30 seconds. I have worked with these much higher levels more often lately, but they are still very difficult for me and it feels like I’m barely moving.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks and the first and third blocks were the same again. For those blocks, we started with a 500-meter row. Then we were supposed to do foot exchanges and high knees, but I was only able to do the high knees. Then we rowed until the last 30-seconds of the block and did that as an all-out. The second block was a similar pattern, but we had a 250-meter row instead of a 500-meter row.
And on the floor, we had one long block with 3 mini-blocks. For each mini-block, we were supposed to do the exercises twice before moving on to the next one. And again, we had a range for the reps we were supposed to do so I tried to go heavier and went back to my normal weights if I needed to. We had single-arm low rows and tricep extensions, hip hinge swings and lunges, and push-ups and bench pullovers. I did make it through the entire floor workout and was working on the first mini-block again when the workout was done. I know I probably could have gotten through the exercises faster if I used lighter weights, but the challenge was good even though the workout was already hard.
Friday’s workout was an interesting challenge. I could really tell which sections of the room were which type of workout and that allowed me to focus on the workout in a different way.
For cardio, it was very clear that it was all about power. The first block had all 30-second intervals. We had a few rounds of a push pace to a base pace and then we ended with an all-out. The second block was all 30-second all-outs with 1-minute walking recoveries between each one. And the third block was all 30-second all-outs with 45-second walking recoveries between each one. It was nice to not have to work with any higher resistance levels for cardio so I could really focus on trying to pedal faster during the all-outs. I still want to get better, but I did notice that I was going faster than I have been pedaling recently.
On the rower, we were focusing on strength rows. We had all timed rows and we were supposed to keep the stroke rate below 24 strokes, which is just a bit slower than I naturally go. We had a 4-minute, 2-minute, 1-minute, and 30-second row. I was very happy that I was able to keep rowing the entire time for all the rows and I didn’t need to take any breaks. That’s totally a sign that I’m finally getting some of my endurance back with my rowing. Between each row, we had medicine ball exercises that I had to modify. We were supposed to do lunges with halos and squats with bicep curls and front presses. I didn’t do the lunges or squats but did the upper body part of each exercise.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks and it was about endurance. The first block was all about core work. We were supposed to do bicycle crunches and v-ups on the Bosu. I modified these to be side crunches and regular crunches but I did still do them on the Bosu. And for the next 2 blocks, we were timed with cardio. So for the second block, we had 30-second and 1-minute intervals. For 30-seconds we had close-grip chest presses. And for 1-minute we had to do 6 lunges on each side and then we could use the rest of the minute to recover. And in the last block, we did low rows with weights for 30-seconds and we had 10 skier swings to do and then we could rest for any time in the 45-second interval that we had left.
I’m seriously so happy with how I did this past week. I challenged myself more than I thought I would and I feel like seeing the progress was a nice surprise. And because there is a chance that this week will be tough for me toward the end of the week, I’m glad I got this boost before heading into a week where I might be feeling down about what I can do.
Posted onJune 3, 2022|Comments Off on A Bit More Technology In My Home (or Continuing To Upgrade)
I do consider myself a pretty techie person. I don’t have a ton of technology that some people have, but I do like having things that run smoothly and can make my life easier. I don’t always have the latest and greatest things, but having different devices that work together is really convenient for me and I have always tried to make my home as efficient as possible.
In my last place, I was limited in what I could do but I did try my best. I had my different devices connected so I could do things on any of them. I had my streaming services linked up so it would be easier to see what I have watched or to pick up on a show that I might have started on one device to another. But because it was a rental, I couldn’t make a lot of changes that I wanted to make.
For example, I wanted to be able to control my heat and air conditioner more. My air conditioner was a bit easier to manage since it was something I bought to put into the window, so I did have ways to set it. But because it was a standalone device, I only had the controls on the actual unit to change the temperature. Plus, since it was not really able to cool my entire place, when I used it it was always just running at full blast and never would shut off because it never got cool enough. And my heater was really simple and not able to have much control. It was a gas-powered wall unit and even though there was a temperature control for it, it only worked as an on or off switch. I couldn’t set the heat to be for a specific temperature, so I just had it on until I wanted it off. For that reason, I never could sleep with my heat on and it got extremely cold in my bedroom in the winter (I know people make fun of me for saying it was cold, but my bedroom would often be 50 degrees or colder).
Moving into a new place also meant I had an upgrade with my heating and cooling. I now have a central heat/air unit, but I haven’t had to use it because of how insulated my condo is. We have had some warm days, but I’m sure when it’s really hot it will be nice to have. But the control for my central heat/air was a very old-fashioned control that had mercury in it. So of course, I wanted to upgrade it. So I purchased a Nest control.
Getting the Nest installed ended up being a bigger ordeal than I expected. I paid for the installation when I bought it, but the technician they sent couldn’t do the work. Then they scheduled and canceled about a dozen appointments due to a lack of availability with their workers before saying they would not schedule a new one. I had to fight for my refund, but I finally got that settled. So I asked my contractor if he knew anyone who could help me, and he did!
It’s probably better that I had someone who was referred to me because the actual installation also was more complicated than the technician expected. But after a few hours, it was done. It is a bit low on my wall because we had to use the space where the old control was and my unit was designed for wheelchair accessibility, but I don’t mind it too much.
And another techie thing I added to my house was something I had at the old place too. I liked having a little temperature monitor that showed the indoor and outdoor temperatures. I had the one in my old place for such a long time and it ended up dying right before I moved. So I knew I would just be buying a new one and that worked out fine with me. I got a much nicer one that is easier to read. I still need to hang the outdoor monitor outside, but I’ll be doing that this weekend. And then I’ll be able to easily check the temperature before I head out. It’s a small thing, but it’s nice to have so I’m not just always looking on my phone.
There are a few other techie things I would like to add, such as automating my outdoor light, but I haven’t gotten to those projects just yet. There’s no rush for me to do it, but it’s on my list. And when I upgrade my tv and other things, I know I’ll be setting up more to go along with that.
I know I’ve said this over and over again, but I’m just enjoying getting settled into a home that is truly mine and I don’t have to worry about what is or isn’t allowed to be done. And I’m sure that making my home feel like mine will be something I always am working on as I get new things and continue to make upgrades.
Posted onJune 1, 2022|Comments Off on Finding More Ways To Clean Up (or Now Doing Some Digital Organizing)
Happy June! As always, a new month brings a new monthly challenge for me. I feel like so many of my challenges so far this year have been about moving, and I have a feeling that trend may continue through this year a bit more.
Last month, I set my challenge to work on consolidating the boxes I still have left. And I think I did an ok job with this challenge. I had some setbacks with moving things out of boxes that I didn’t expect, so I do have a few more boxes than I would like. But I have gotten everything down to only a handful of boxes that are all in my office. I don’t have boxes everywhere, and that has helped me a lot. I do still want to work through the boxes I have in my office and see what can be combined. And I know that if I really worked more on it, I could probably put away a few more things. I would also like to get more boxes into my closet and off of the main room in my office, but I need to work on that still. But compared to how things were at the beginning of the month, this is a huge improvement and I know that it has made me feel more at home.
Even though consolidating boxes isn’t exactly organizing, it feels like it is. And this month, I’m working on a different type of organization. And I think that this was inspired by my move as well.
I want to work on my digital entertainment and organize that as well. And what I mean by that is to go through the podcasts I’m subscribed to and the shows I have set on my DVR and see what I really want to keep. For my DVR, this was something I had to do because of my move. Getting a new DVR means setting up all my series recordings again. So I really thought about all the shows I was recording and started to get rid of things that I know I don’t really enjoy much anymore. Most of these things were news or reality tv since I tend to finish out scripted shows that I watch. But I might want to start seeing which shows I record that I don’t really look forward to watching anymore.
And as I’ve been paying attention to what I’m entertaining myself with, I’ve noticed there are a lot of podcasts that have been piling up in my podcast app. Sometimes I have to be in a specific mood to watch something, but there are some podcasts that I’m not really enjoying anymore or I feel differently about. For example, I used to listen to true crime podcasts a lot, but I feel like those aren’t always done with the best intentions or with the permission of the families involved so I’m not listening to them anymore. And there are some interview-style podcasts that don’t have guests I want to hear from, so I’m always skipping episodes. I have so many podcasts that I’m subscribed to that I haven’t listened to in quite a while, and it’s time to just move on and unsubscribe.
I haven’t decided if this digital organizing is going to extend to going through the apps I have on my phone, but it might. I have found that as I started clearing out things I’m not interested in, it snowballs and I seem to feel more motivated to continue doing that. So I just want to see what happens this month as I work on being a bit more selective about what digital clutter I have.
And maybe, I’ll start the second half of this year in a much less cluttered setup between the physical space and the digital spaces I have.
Posted onMay 31, 2022|Comments Off on My First Real HOA Meeting (or This Felt Like A Union Meeting)
When people are looking to buy a place, there are positives and negatives to different types of homes. I know a lot of people don’t like condos (or some neighborhoods) because of HOAs, but I knew that I would have to get a condo so an HOA was something I knew I would have. If I wanted to get a place without one, I would have to move to a part of LA that I didn’t want to live in. And location was one of the most important things for me.
Maybe it’s because I have lived in a rental for so long, but having an HOA didn’t seem like a huge deal to me. I didn’t look at the rules for the HOAs at other condos I looked at, but I did see what the monthly cost was. And where I live is one of the lowest monthly costs. We don’t have a ton of amenities, but I didn’t want to have to pay for things like a pool or super fancy gym if I didn’t need them. My place does have a gym, but it’s pretty basic so the HOA dues are not too high to maintain it.
Since we closed on the condo, there haven’t been a lot of HOA meetings. The first one after the closing was the meeting I attended to discuss the plan for my renovation. But that meeting was a bit different because they changed the agenda to discuss my renovation at the beginning of the meeting and after that was done I didn’t stay in the meeting much longer. So I didn’t really get an idea of what the meetings were like.
But the next one just happened this past week and I knew I wanted to observe it. It’s smart to know what’s going on with the HOA and what costs might be coming up. I have had a neighbor ask me if I was interested in running for the HOA board, but I don’t think I want to do that just yet. I’d rather live here for a year or so and see what things are like before I really consider if I’d be interested. But as an owner, I can be an observer at the meetings and that’s what I want to do. It’s like how I used to be able to observe the local board meetings for my union (which I plan on doing again as soon as they are in person).
This meeting really did remind me of the union meetings. The agenda had a couple of things on it that the board and the HOA management company needed to go over. Nothing was too serious, but there was discussion of fixing a few things that need to be repaired or changes to community areas that would like to be considered. And there was another owner that is planning on remodeling their kitchen so they had to discuss their plans with the board to be approved, just like I had done in the past meeting.
There was a lot to learn while observing the meetings, although I think I would be ok if I didn’t know all this information. But I like to be informed and this is my home so I would like to know what things are concerns for other owners. But because this is a small building and there aren’t too many amenities, I don’t think there will ever be anything too crazy discussed. For example, one of the biggest issues discussed was a bee issue happening on the other side of the building and hiring someone to remove the bees without killing them. I’m sure there could be bigger issues brought up if someone was causing a disturbance, but from what I have seen so far, everyone who lives here is very respectful of the public spaces. The biggest issue was someone smoking on their balcony, and the HOA sent an email reminding everyone that smoking is only allowed inside of the condos and not in a place where the smoke could affect others.
The meeting only lasted a bit more than an hour, so it was pretty short. And everything discussed was written on the agenda so everyone was good about staying on topic and making sure the meeting was running smoothly. I did appreciate that a lot since I have heard horror stories of HOA meetings lasting hours or people grandstanding. I’m lucky that I live in a building where it seems like everyone is just trying to live their lives and not do anything to affect others around them.
And even though I didn’t speak or contribute to the meeting, I did get a better sense of how things will work with the HOA and what I can expect from future meetings, whether I’m an observer or if I decide to be on the board. And being informed about my living situation is always a good thing in my mind.
Posted onMay 30, 2022|Comments Off on A Week Of Mayhem (or Completing Another Fitness Challenge)
This past week’s workouts were a part of Mayhem! I have done Mayhem before, and it’s similar to Hell Week. This year, I knew I’d get enough workouts in to complete it and get the swag, but I didn’t officially sign up for it. They were giving away a water bottle, which I would love, but I also know I don’t need it. If it was a shirt, I probably would have paid just to get it. But this year I just got my 4 workouts in and get the bragging rights.
Monday’s workout was called Distance Distortion. And it was a switch template so we had 2 blocks at each section of the room, but we switched after each block. So I did cardio, rowing, floor, cardio, rowing, and floor. That’s a change from what we normally do with back-to-back blocks within the same section of the room.
For cardio, the first block started with 1 minute between a base and push pace. Because of what was coming up, I kept it at my base resistance level on the bike. Every minute, I was supposed to increase the resistance level by 1. Because this block was over 6 minutes long, I got the resistance higher than what I normally do for my all-out. And when I got back to the bike for the second block, we started at what we ended with in the first block and every minute I decreased the resistance level by 1. We were supposed to track the distance to see if we could beat it in the second block, but I forgot to look after the first so I’m not sure if I did that.
The first block on the rower started with a 500-meter row. Then we had some knees to elbows followed by 3 rounds of a 100-meter row. After completing the last 100-meter row, we had squats until the end of the block. And in the second block, we had 3 rounds of a 100-meter row followed by both exercises and just keep repeating that. I only got to my 4th 100-meter row when the block ended.
And on the floor, the first block started with sumo squats and then we had froggers. For the sumo squats, we had a rep count, but for the froggers, we were supposed to do as many as we could until we needed to rest. And after 2 rounds of the exercises, we had double crunches until the end of the block. And the second block had low rows with weights for a set number of reps and low rows on the straps until we needed a rest. And after 2 rounds of those, we had bicycle crunches for the rest of the block.
I did have one small incident on the floor. I have had a lot of klutzy moments over the years at Orangetheory, but I always seem to have more. And this time, I dropped the weight I was using for my double crunches on my head because it slipped. It was totally my fault and I’m fine, but I did get a nice bruise from it. I’ve always worried about dropping a weight, and now I know to make sure I have a better grip on my weights when I’m starting to get tired.
Wednesday’s workout was called Base-ically Upside Down. For this workout, each section of the room had 3 blocks that were 4 minutes each.
For cardio, each block had the same pattern. We had a 90-second base pace at an incline, a 1-minute push pace at the same incline, a 45-second walking recovery, and a 45-second all-out. Each block the incline went up. The way it was set for me with the resistance levels, the first block I was at my push pace level the entire time, the second block was between my push and all-out, and the last was at my all-out. And I really made an effort to increase how fast I was pedaling between the base and push paces at the incline. It was really tough in the last block because that was a long time to be at what is normally my all-out level, but I feel like I did a pretty good job with it.
On the rower, we also had a similar pattern for all the blocks. Each block had a row for a specific distance. then we had front jacks and power jacks with a medicine ball, which I modified to be front presses and overhead presses. And then we rowed until the block was done. The goal was to try to get the same distance for each block. In the first block, the first row was 400-meters. The second block was 300-meters. And the last block was 200-meters. I tried to match my distance each time, but I didn’t quite make it for the second block.
And on the floor, each block had 3 exercises that had a load and explode format. The first block had bench tap squats, bench tap front squats, and bench tap jump squats. I did calf raises instead of the jump for the jump squats. The second block had push-ups, chest presses with weights, and power push-ups. This was one of the first times in a long time that I really tried to do the power push-ups. It wasn’t easy and I had to go slow, but I managed to do most of them as power push-ups each time. And the last block had mountain climbers, plank pull-throughs, and plank jacks. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job with the exercises and making sure I really tried to make the last exercise in each block an explosive move.
Thursday’s workout was called (De)construct Your Reality. I was a bit tired from not sleeping well plus I was a bit sore from Wednesday, but I knew I could at least do better than how I do when I’m dealing with nausea. Just like on Wednesday, each section of the room had 3 blocks that were 4 minutes each.
For cardio, every block we had a push pace to an all-out. That was the entire block. The first block had a 3-minute push pace to a 1-minute all-out. The second block had a 3.25-minute push pace to a 45-second all-out. And the last block had a 3.5-minute push pace to a 30-second all-out. We normally don’t have a push pace that is more than 3-minutes, so that added to how tough each block was. Plus, not having a break during the entire 4 minutes was a challenge. But it was a good challenge and I really enjoyed it.
On the rower, for the first block, we started with a 45-second push row followed by a 30-second all-out row. Then we had 30 seconds to rest before we had a 45-second all-out row. And we ended that block with another 30 seconds to rest and then a 1-minute all-out row. After finishing that block, we looked at our distance on the rower because we would use that for the next block. For the second block, we did half the distance we did in the first block. Then we took 30 seconds to rest and did a base pace row until we did a 45-second all-out row at the end of that block. And for the last block, we did a similar pattern as the first block. But we had the 1-minute all-out row first and we ended with the 30-second all-out row.
And on the floor, each block had 3 exercises that either constructed or deconstructed an exercise. For the first block, we had squats, alternating shoulder presses, and neutral full thrusters. For the second block, we had straight leg raise to crunches (which I did as double crunches), weighted crunches, and straight leg raises. And for the last block, we had high rows on the straps, triceps on the straps, and pull-ups on the straps (which I did as low rows instead). Even though it wasn’t a ton of different exercises and not a lot of work with weights, I really felt the floor work when we were done with the workout.
Friday’s workout was called All Out Darkness. And as it sounds, it was all about all-outs or feeling like you are in an all-out in the workout. Each section of the room was one long block, so we didn’t have a lot of rest time during the workout.
For cardio, we repeated the same pattern for the entire block. We had a 90-second push pace, a 30-second push pace at an incline, and then a recovery. Doing a push pace at an incline is basically the same as doing an all-out. But because the incline/resistance level increased each time, that got harder and harder each time. That’s different from a regular all-out where it can feel the same the entire time. And because of how many times we repeated the pattern, I was using resistance levels much higher than I normally use in the workout. I felt like my legs weren’t moving at the end, but I was also using a level that I think I’ve only used once or twice before.
On the rower, we followed the same timed pattern as cardio. For the 90-second segment, we had squats and then a 150-meter row. The squats started at 25 reps and went down each round. Any time in the 90-seconds we had left after the row we could rest. But I didn’t have extra time until the 4th round. Then in the 30-second segment, we had an all-out row. And we also had the 45-second recovery.
And on the floor, we had drop set work. For the drop sets, we had deadlifts, double crunches, lunges, and tricep extensions. And we also had regular reps with skater lunges, running man, and lunges. I did have to skip the drop sets for the lunges and just did regular lunges for both lunge reps. But I was able to do all the rest of the exercises, even though I was exhausted at the end of the workout.
These workouts were definitely hard, but they were such a good challenge. And even though I didn’t get the water bottle for completing the challenge, I still completed it and I’m proud of myself! And I’m so grateful that this week happened on a good week for me because it would have been so frustrating to be limited with what I could do. So I’m glad I really could push myself and feel so accomplished!
Posted onMay 25, 2022|Comments Off on Finally Finishing An Upgrade (or I Almost Forgot I Needed To Do This)
I bought my new computer a while ago. I really needed it when I got it and I quickly got all the things I knew I would need set up so I could start working from it. Fortunately, a lot of my information migrated to the new computer right away because of iCloud, so I didn’t have to worry about transferring things like my photos or music. But there were plenty of things I knew I would need to manually move to the new computer that weren’t needed for work so I figured I could wait a bit on doing it.
But because the timing of getting the new computer was also while I was busy packing up my old place and getting ready to move, doing the rest of the data transfer wasn’t something I thought about a lot. When I was packing up my computers, I knew I would need to do that so I was reminded about it about a month ago. But it wasn’t something I felt a push to do until the other day.
I needed something that I knew was on the old computer that I hadn’t transferred over yet. The original way I was going to do the transfer of data was something that I couldn’t do while I worked, so I needed to look up another way I could do it so I could get it done quickly and not have to wait. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but I realized I could AirDrop the files and folders I needed to move from the old computer to the new one. So I finally turned the old computer back on (which ended up being a bit of an ordeal because of how bad the old computer was) and pulled everything I would need to transfer so I could quickly do it during my lunch break.
Doing the data transfer over AirDrop was ridiculously easy and I almost laugh about how long I had been putting this off. And because most things had already been transferred over through the cloud, it was only a small handful of things I needed to deal with. They were pretty big files, which is why I was putting it off (otherwise, I would have just done it by emailing them to myself), but each thing I moved over took only seconds to be done.
I feel pretty certain that I’ve gotten everything off of the old computer by now, but I’m still going to think about things for a bit before I wipe the old machine. I also don’t really have plans to try to sell the old one since the keyboard is broken, so I’m not in a rush to get rid of it. I might wipe it and then hold on to it a bit longer. I don’t want to store something I don’t need, but for some reason, I feel like I’m not totally done with making sure I have everything transferred. But that’s why I’m not wiping the machine yet. Hopefully, by the time I’m ready to do that, I will feel better about getting rid of it and I can see what options I have for it. Maybe I can sell it super cheap because someone could fix the keyboard and make it work. Or someone might want it for other parts. I’m not sure what could be done with it, but I also am not the sort of person who looks online for old computers for any reason.
And even though I transferred everything left over from the old computer, I do want to go through some of the folders because I’m certain I have things in them that I don’t need. If I haven’t needed them in the past month or so, I probably don’t need to keep them taking up space. But I also don’t have a rush to get through that since the new computer has significantly more storage so I’m not desperate for more space. I guess I need to do a similar clean-out that I did in my move and see what I really need and what I was just holding on to. But at least everything is probably in one place now so I can take my time going through it all.
Posted onMay 24, 2022|Comments Off on My First Big Social Event In Over 2 Years (or This Was Overwhelming In A Good Way)
As I wrote last week, I’ve been trying to be more social when I can do so. It’s not easy and I’ve become more of a homebody and introvert in the past 2 years, but I am working on finding ways to get my old life back. I know I will never have the same life I used to have because I may always have an extra bit of fear about getting sick. Even if Covid is eradicated, I might still worry about catching a cold or the flu more than I did before. But I also know that I miss being out and seeing friends, so I push myself to do that when I can and it feels safe. And I had that opportunity this past weekend.
It was a friend’s birthday and they were having a casual get-together at a bar that has a seating area and has food and not just drinks. When she invited me, I wasn’t sure if I could make it because of my schedule, but I was free so I decided to push myself a bit and go even though I hadn’t been at a big gathering since the beginning of 2020. Almost all my socializing since then has been one on one or maybe with 2 friends. I haven’t been to a party or somewhere I could meet a lot of new people in a long time. But I knew I needed to go out, plus I wanted to go. I know it was a risk I was taking, but I decided it was worth it and I was going to try to be as safe as I could be.
It did feel weird to be inside a bar since I haven’t really done that in a while. And almost all the meals I’ve had in the past 2 years have been outside, so eating inside was almost a novelty. But I could tell that most of the people around me were taking things seriously too. Not everyone was wearing masks, but a lot of people were. And people seemed to be aware of how close they were to others. But the weirdness of being out went away pretty quickly for me. I still was more cautious than I would have been before, but I wasn’t as scared as I have been of other things I’ve done in the past 2 years.
And I’m so glad I went. It was awesome getting to celebrate my friend and her birthday. I got to meet some really nice people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I got to see someone who I knew about a decade ago through a friend group and reconnect with her (and she’s now married and pregnant so that was something to celebrate too!). And I just got to have fun. I know I’m not having as much fun in my life as I used to, and I need that. I crave fun. I just don’t seem to have the opportunities to do things like I used to do and it’s hard to make new friends as an adult and find people to go out and do things with. But this was a way to ease into meeting new people since not everyone there was new.
I did have some moments of being overwhelmed with so many people around me and I could feel some really minor panic attacks come from time to time, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it could be. I think it helped that I spent most of the time that I was there talking to the same small group of people and I didn’t have to track multiple conversations at once. I was with a lot of people but it felt like a smaller gathering at the same time.
I do worry now a bit that I might have been exposed and could get sick, but I also know that could happen to me anywhere. I could get exposed and sick by going to the grocery store (even though I wear a mask, a lot of people don’t anymore). I could get exposed by being at the mailboxes if another neighbor is next to me when I’m getting the mail. I think for so long, I saw some things as necessary risks and other things as risks I needed to avoid and I haven’t been able to merge the idea that they might be the same thing now. Everything is at a similar risk level if they are similar activities (being inside a grocery store versus a restaurant are probably the same risk level now).
I don’t know if I’ll have another chance to be in a big gathering like this again soon, but I’m glad I’m over the hurdle of being scared of doing it now. And hopefully, the fear decreases each time I go out and things just start to feel a bit more normal to me again. I know we aren’t in a post-pandemic world yet, but we are also not in the same world we were in 2 years ago.
Posted onMay 20, 2022|Comments Off on Not Fully Able To Unpack (or I Think The Move Prepared Me For This)
It’s been about a month since I really moved into my new place. I had a few things I moved after I moved in before I turned in my keys to my old house, but almost all my things were here when I had the moving truck. And I have gotten a lot of things settled and unpacked in the time that I’ve been here. I know there isn’t necessarily a timeline to be fully moved in, but I think I assumed I would be much more moved in by this point.
There have been a few unexpected things, such as changing up furniture, so I haven’t fully planned out things I need or where I want to put things I already have. I also haven’t bought a few things that I know I need that will help with my organization. Some of the things I will be buying will be bought pretty soon. I should have them within a month or so. But for my office, the main storage piece that I want to have will have to wait because it is a combination sliding bookcase and murphy bed and I need to work on saving up money for that.
I can recap more about this at the end of the month when I go over the monthly challenge I set, but I have been working hard on getting most of my stuff out of boxes. I only have a fraction of the boxes before, and I’m so glad that it feels less like a transitional area. But in my office, I have all the boxes I have left with the things in them. And those won’t be moving for a bit.
A few things still have to be done around my new place. The biggest of which is repairing my floors. I got all new floors when we remodeled, but unfortunately, the floors were not installed correctly and they have to be redone. While this isn’t what we would have liked, the company that did them realized the error and will be doing all the repairs for us. We need to wait on the new floors to get here since they were ordered and have to ship to LA, and we don’t have the exact timeline of how long that will be. But because everything I have will have to be moved when the floors are fixed, I’m not taking the rest of my things out of boxes. Keeping them in the boxes will make them easier to move.
I’ve been living with boxes for longer than I would like to remember. I started packing up my old place really early because I was hoping my new place would be done sooner than it was. At least this time, the things in the boxes tend to be things I don’t really use that often. A lot of what is boxed up are different decorative items, so while I would like to have them out and in view, they aren’t necessary. And if there is something that I need, because the boxes are all open and in one place, it’s easy enough for me to find what I need.
I’m ready to not live with boxes, but I know it will take a bit longer until I get to that point. But at least I’m finally at the tail end of this time and I can just focus on unpacking and not also packing and moving.
Into The Next Stage Of The Renovation (or Seeing Things Come Back Into My Place)
