Category Archives: Fun Stuff

Goal Recap Time! (or Things Didn’t Go Exactly As Planned)

Posted on December 27, 2023 | 3 comments

It almost feels like I’m doing a recap of my 2023 goals too early, but since I’m not blogging as often as I used to, now is the time to review how my year has gone! And while I haven’t completed everything since there are still a few days to go, I have a pretty good idea of how my goals for this year will turn out.

My first goal I had for this year was to do 200 Orangetheory workouts. This is one of my goals that hasn’t been completed just yet. This will be done tomorrow, so I will get it done before the end of the year. But I really expected to be to my goal by now since I’m usually over 200 before the last week of the year. But this year, I had a few things that caused me to miss some workouts. I was pretty sick toward the beginning of the year and I missed a week of workouts. I had a day that I couldn’t get out of my parking garage and missed that morning’s workout. The hurricane/tropical storm closed the studio for a day so that was another one that I missed. And this week, I’m only getting in 2 workouts because the studio was closed on Monday for the holiday and it had limited hours yesterday so there wasn’t a workout time that I could make it to with my work schedule. But even though I won’t be getting in as many workouts as I thought I would this year, I will still get to my goal of 200 workouts before the end of the year and that’s something I’m still proud of.

My next goal I had for this year was to work on getting more sleep. This one I consider to be a bit of a success but not as much of a success as I was hoping it would be. I still am working on getting to bed earlier so I can get more sleep, but I have been a lot better about not getting sucked into a book and staying up super late reading the entire thing. I do have a time that I want to try to have my lights turned off, but I’m not always doing that on time. I have been doing a lot better with getting myself ready for bed earlier, but I am continuing to work on shifting that a bit earlier. It’s not easy to do this since I am still trying to do things after work and if I go to bed much earlier that reduces my free time a bit more, but I’m trying to remember that I can just make a sacrifice for the 4 days I have to be up early and not be too worried about free time those evenings and focus on scheduling things when I know I can sleep in a little bit more the next morning.

The third goal I had for this year was to continue setting up my condo. This was another goal that I feel like I had some success with but not quite what I had hoped I would do. I did get a new tv and tv stand for my living room, which helped the room feel more complete. I moved everything out of boxes for the most part even though I haven’t found new office furniture that I like. But I am learning to live with what I currently have because it’s not cheap to replace things. I don’t want to just buy something cheap because it works for now, I want to find pieces that will last. And with my office, I feel like I keep learning more about what will be functional and what is just a design idea that I like. But I have been looking at getting new dining room furniture and I think I have found the perfect thing. I am getting fabric samples now and I’m hoping that it will work out exactly like I hope it will so I can have a new dining room sometime this coming year.

And the final goal that I had for this past year was to rebuild my acting life. Well, this one really wasn’t that successful for me but it also was a bit out of my control. I wasn’t expecting a long strike this year that essentially shut down the entire industry. I also wasn’t planning on randomly finding out that my agent isn’t my agent anymore and needing to look for a new agent. But I’m finishing out this year on some really positive notes (which I’ll write more about when I do my monthly challenge recap), so it wasn’t a complete wash. But I had to rebuild a lot of things that I wasn’t expecting to instead of building upon what I thought I already had.

I’ll be sharing my goals for 2024 soon, but since not everything was accomplished this year that I wanted to, I set up some goals that I feel will be building upon the ones that I worked on this year. And even though my goals this year weren’t perfectly completed, I didn’t fail at any of them either. I found ways that I could succeed and accomplish them even if they weren’t exactly what I planned to do. And making steps forward is totally a win for this year!

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Default ThumbnailMy 2023 Goals (or Some New Goals and Some Repeats) Default ThumbnailMonthly Recap Update (or My New Habits) Default ThumbnailHow My Goal Setting Is Going (or A Spark Planner Update) Default ThumbnailMarch Recap (or I Almost Hit All My Goals) Default Thumbnail2015 Recap (or How I Did On My Goals) Default ThumbnailA Goal Setting Experience (or Mindfulness Seems To Be A Theme)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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Starting To Wrap Up The Year (or Fitting In Friend Time)

Posted on December 20, 2023 | Comments Off on Starting To Wrap Up The Year (or Fitting In Friend Time)

It’s so crazy that it’s almost the end of the year. I don’t think it will fully sink in until I have a random day off later this week for the holidays. And I’m very grateful I get some time off from work. I will only have 1 extra day that doesn’t have any work because one of my jobs doesn’t have any days off for the holidays because I already get Sunday and Monday off. But I will still have other days that I don’t have to be up as early as normal to work, so that will be nice.

And with the end of the year and the holidays upon us, I think a lot of us do some reflection on how the past year went and how we feel about how we spent our time. I will be doing more of an end-of-the-year post next week when I recap my goals, but I’m still taking time to reflect on this past year. More specifically, I have been reflecting on my friendships and social life.

It’s always tough to find time to hang out with friends. I make an effort, but often one of us will have a crazy schedule and things get delayed. It’s not that we don’t want to hang out, it just doesn’t happen and before we know it, months have slipped by before we try to reschedule. But I do try to stay in touch with friends even if it’s not necessarily happening in person. I think staying connected with my friends through text and social media does help to maintain a friendship, even if it’s not enough to keep it going forever. But when you do have that virtual communication, it helps to make those in-person hangouts feel like you haven’t missed a ton of time together.

I was able to have brunch with a friend recently whom I hadn’t seen since the beginning of the summer. But we had stayed in touch regularly so when we had our brunch, we were able to pick up like we had seen each other just a few days ago. And it was so great to have that face-to-face time with a friend. I know I need to do that more often, but it’s tough when so many of my friends don’t live in LA anymore. And many of my friends who are local live very busy lives. I don’t blame any of my friends who have been too busy with work or family to hang out, but it’s always hard when you realize you haven’t seen someone in person in years because you just don’t have similar lives anymore. But I still do what I can to keep those friendships going because I never know when I will be able to rekindle a friendship that may have slipped away in the past.

That’s why I do things like sending out my holiday cards each year. They aren’t anything fancy, but I like sending something to people who are friends of mine and who I want to keep our friendship going. It’s not that expensive to do them, especially since I send postcards now instead of regular cards so postage is cheaper. And I hope that my friends who receive these smile when they get something fun in the mail from me.

I think I will always try to be more social and focus on my friendships each year. It’s something that has to be worked on or else you will realize you have lost touch with someone you used to talk to all the time. I think I’ve done a decent job this year with meeting up with friends and keeping my friendships going. It hasn’t been perfect, but I have been able to reconnect with people this year that I hadn’t been able to in years. And I’ve already started to make that effort for the new year by planning some more brunch hangouts since brunch seems to be one of the times that I can usually meet up with someone and not worry about how late I’m going to be out.

Hopefully, whatever things happen with my friendships and social life in the new year will be positive! And then in a year, I’ll be having the same feeling about the end of the year and I’ll only have the best memories of what I was able to do with my friends in 2024.

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Default ThumbnailStarting To Wrap Up 2017 (or Getting In All My End Of The Year Things) Default ThumbnailFitting In Social Time (or Taking Advantage Of My Weekends) Default ThumbnailThinking About My Relationships (or Starting My 2018 Reflection) Default ThumbnailA Special Birthday For A Special Friend (or Celebrating A “College” Friend) Default ThumbnailAn Unexpected Friend Hangout (or Helping Out And Getting Social Time) Default ThumbnailLast Mentoring Group Brunch For The Year (or Switching Things Up For Next Year)

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Cleaning Up And Getting Ready (or Still More Prep For 2024)

Posted on December 6, 2023 | Comments Off on Cleaning Up And Getting Ready (or Still More Prep For 2024)

It’s the last month of the year, which is insane to me! This year has flown by, but not just in the normal way that it has been in the last few years. So many of the things that seem to mark different points of the year haven’t happened the same way they have before. Having the strike happen made time feel like it stood still and skipped by at the same time. Even though it feels weird to be in December, I’m also feeling ready for this year to be done. It hasn’t been a horrible year necessarily for me, but I like the feeling of a fresh start with a new year and I feel like I have been setting myself up for what things might come my way in 2024.

In November, I had the challenge to work on cleaning out things that I no longer need. I have been noticing that I’ve had things that I just held onto because they were in my old place and they aren’t really useful anymore. And because I got a lot of new things when I moved, I had a lot of extra stuff that was taking up space that I didn’t need to use up. I didn’t clean out as much as I expected to do this past month, but that’s because I kept finding more things I wanted to go through. I know my desk will continue to be a project because I have so much that I used to use but don’t anymore. But I was able to get a lot of stuff cleared out of my closet and my kitchen drawers. I’ve also started to replace things that I have had for years with higher quality things so I am getting rid of the duplicates.

Even though I didn’t clear out as much as I thought I would by the end of the month, I did make a significant dent in the project and I’ve been creating new systems for reviewing what I still need to go through. And just like so many other challenges I’ve been doing recently, this one isn’t ending just because the month ended. I’ve been starting to work on my dresser, and I’ve gone through about a third of my stuff and found a lot of things that I was able to get rid of or donate.

And my challenge for December is yet another one to set myself up for the new year. But this is one that I’ve been needing to do and finally am getting around to it. I want to get all my stuff ready to really be back in the acting world again in 2024. This is going to be a big process and I know it won’t all be done in December, but I’m working on making a list of what I need to do and trying to get as much of it done this month.

The biggest thing I need to do for my acting career is to find a new agent. I found out that my agent can no longer represent union actors and they also might have gone out of business. I don’t know exactly how long ago this all happened because I discovered this randomly and I wasn’t notified by my agent. No matter how long I’ve been without an agent, I need to find a new one to really be back in the game. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to find representation, so I’m easing into this again by starting with reaching out to people I know. If I could get represented by an agent who already knows me, that would be amazing! If I have to start reaching out to agencies that I don’t know personally, then I’ll do that but that won’t be until the new year.

I also need new headshots. The ones I have are fine and I still look like those photos, but they have been used for a while, and having fresh headshots can help when I’m being submitted for auditions. The timing of doing the new headshots depends a lot on whether I get an agent that I already know. I would prefer to be signed by a new agent and then get new headshots so I can do the photos that they want for me. But if I have to start reaching out to new agents that I don’t know, I should get some new photos to add some more variety to what I have and then I will probably expect that I will have to still get more photos after I sign with someone. So that’s another reason for me to hope that I can find a new agent soon.

I also worked on cutting a new version of a demo reel, although I don’t have a lot of work that I can choose from that is recent. But I made something that I think looks better than what I had before. I did some work on my acting resume, but I might be making some more adjustments on that after I’ve had some more time to think about it. And I’ve been working on my stuff on the online casting sites so everything is updated and ready to go.

Some work has been coming back as the strike has been suspended (by the time you are reading this, hopefully, the new contract has been ratified and the strike is officially done), but things are still slow. It’s normally slow this time of year because of the holidays, and most productions don’t want to start up only to have to shut down again for holiday time off. But I’m hoping that once the new year starts, things will be getting back to a more normal pace and I want to do whatever it takes so that I can be a part of the acting world again. I’ve had too much time feeling disconnected between the pandemic and the strike, and I’m ready to go full force again and see what wins will come my way.

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Default ThumbnailStill Getting Ready For 2024 (or I Feel Like I Keep Finding More To Do) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For The New Year (or Trying To Set Myself Up For Good Things) Default ThumbnailNew Things To Think About With My Acting Career (or I Need To Plan Things More) Default ThumbnailGiving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer) Default ThumbnailStarting To Plan Some Next Steps (or Researching Classes and Looking At My Schedule) Default ThumbnailReally Getting Ready To Get Back To My Workouts (or I’m Not Sure I’m Ready To Work That Hard Yet)

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Another Fake Thanksgiving (or A Busy Day Without Many Pictures)

Posted on November 22, 2023 | Comments Off on Another Fake Thanksgiving (or A Busy Day Without Many Pictures)

My family did our Fake Thanksgiving 2 weeks ago. I think we will continue the tradition of doing our Thanksgiving early each year since that’s a cheaper time for everyone to travel. It makes it a little harder for some of our schedules, but that’s probably a smaller problem than the crazy cost of traveling during the actual holiday. It can be a bit tough with my work schedule to spend too much time on whatever Fake Thanksgiving we have, but I do my best to make it work. We have been doing it over Veteran’s Day so that at least gives me time off from my one of my jobs. And I just have to take time off from one job on that day.

This year, we had Fake Thanksgiving in Santa Barbara, so it was just a drive for me. I was looking at possibly spending more than just the day there, but with schedules and other things, it was just going to be easier for me to drive up that morning and drive back home that evening after dinner.

There wasn’t much scheduled for the day that I would be up there. I drove up that morning and spent some time with my parents and the dog before my dad and I went to our Orangetheory class. I was hoping we would have a larger group for the workout, but it was just my dad and aunt joining me. I know my brother wanted to join but he couldn’t at the last minute, and my cousin wanted to come but she was recovering from an injury. But it was still a good workout and I’m so happy that tradition continued!

After the workout, I went back to the rental house my parents were staying at so I could shower and get changed for dinner. But as I was getting ready, there was a press conference announced regarding the end of the SAG-AFTRA Strike. I was able to watch while I got ready for dinner, but that also meant I wasn’t really being social with my parents. I think they understood why I wanted to pay attention to that, so hopefully they didn’t mind too much.

Fake Thanksgiving dinner was held at the country club that my brother and sister-in-law belong to, which is where we had it a few years ago. And most of my family was able to be there. We were missing 2 of my cousins and one cousin’s husband, but everyone else was at dinner. It was a little overwhelming since dinner was the only time that I was going to see most of the family, so I didn’t really get to catch up with everyone as much as I would have liked to.

But I was excited to give my niece and nephew their early Hanukkah presents. I got them both really cute toddler digital cameras. I thought it could be fun to see what types of pictures they might take during dinner. I haven’t seen all of those photos yet, but we got to see some of the photos on the screen as they took them. The ones I did see were mostly selfies and crazy close-ups of random things. But I think they will have fun as they learn how to use them.

I wish I had taken more photos with my family while I was there, but I only got one photo during dinner of my place setting. Nothing fancy or anything, but it was all I got when I looked back at what I took that evening.

But a lack of photos also shows that I focused on being with my family and in the moment. I was sitting next to my cousin and she and I spent most of dinner talking and catching up on random things. And she was telling me about a road trip that her family will be doing hopefully next summer which would bring her to LA. I would love for her to see my place and get to see her more than just once a year!

And as dinner was finishing up, I started to talk to some of my family about where Fake Thanksgiving would be held next year. And after talking a bit and thinking about some logistics, it looks like I might be hosting it for the first time ever! I never could have all my family at my place when I lived in my tiny rental. And even though I don’t have a huge place now, I have the space to get a rental table and make it work. My parents came to LA a few days after Fake Thanksgiving and we were talking about me hosting it, I think we all agree it’s totally feasible and that’s what we will be doing in a year! My dad is already sending me articles with Thanksgiving ideas so I’ll be prepared for next year.

For tomorrow on actual Thanksgiving, I’m not sure if I’ll have company over. I was talking to a friend about if they wanted to come for dinner, but we both have agreed that we’ll see how we feel. But I am cooking some of my favorite Thanksgiving things and I’ll be trying a dry brine on a turkey breast that I might use for next year.

And if it’s a low-key Thanksgiving Day, that’s fine with me since I already feel like I got my Thanksgiving celebration during Fake Thanksgiving!

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Default ThumbnailFake Thanksgiving Weekend (or A Few Days With My Family) Default ThumbnailNot Quite Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Time (or A Full Family Day) Default ThumbnailHappy Thanksgiving! (or Just A Quick Post) Default ThumbnailThe Rest Of Thanksgiving (or Getting In Lots Of Family Time) Default ThumbnailAnother Low-Key Thanksgiving (or Doing Some Of My Traditions) Default ThumbnailFamily Zoom Time (or Thanksgiving After Thanksgiving)

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Another Low-Key Halloween (or Still Doing Punny Costumes)

Posted on November 8, 2023 | Comments Off on Another Low-Key Halloween (or Still Doing Punny Costumes)

I’m always so grateful that not only do I have a fun group of friends to celebrate Halloween with each year, but the party is always both low-key and creative. Some people go all out with their costumes and it’s so fun to see what people come up with. But not everyone does that so if you go without a costume or in a simple costume, you don’t stand out too much. So it’s perfect no matter what your mood might be with a costume.

I usually do a simple costume since I have a bit of a drive to get to the party. I know I could wear regular clothes to drive and then change when I get there, but I like having something that is easy to put together when I get to the party and to remove when it’s time to drive home. Since I do simpler costumes, I tend to have a costume that has some pun to it. I have a fun time figuring out what to be and how to accomplish it. Sometimes it’s easier to make a plan than others, but I always enjoy what costume I come up with.

This year, I was stuck for a bit with what I should do for Halloween. Nothing was really jumping out at me or inspiring me, so I just kept looking online to see what I would connect with. It took a bit of time, but I found the perfect punny costume. I dressed as a third wheel.

I actually don’t remember how the person dressed that I was inspired by online. I just remember that their version of the costume wasn’t something I could do or wanted to do. So I had to think of my own version of it and I was pretty happy with what I came up with.

It’s not super easy to tell from the photo, but what I did was print out a picture of a wheel and attach it to a headband with a zip tie. Then I made little stickers of different celebrity couples and I put those all over my shirt when I got to the party. I liked how it turned out and I was happy with what I was able to create. Especially since I didn’t have to buy anything for the costume so it was nice to save money.

The only downside to my costume was that not everyone got it right away. I guess it was an easier costume to guess when you knew what it was. But I got some interesting guesses from friends when they didn’t know what I was. The one I got the most was the paparazzi. I guess I can see how the wheel looked a bit like a flash and I had photos of celebrities on me. But it was funny how many people guessed that. Once I said what I was, everyone thought it was really clever.

As always with these parties, the main focus while I was there was catching up with my friends. I saw most of them at my birthday party, so it hadn’t been that long since we had a chance to hang out. But it also seemed like so many people had a lot of things that happened in the last month or two. I’m glad I was able to be there and catch up face-to-face instead of just online. I know I’ve always appreciated the time I’ve been able to spend with my friends in person, but I appreciate it even more now after the isolation of the worst of the pandemic. And I try to take advantage of the time that I do get with my friends more because I never know if something will happen where we won’t be able to be together in person for a while. I never thought like that before, but now it’s something I think about quite a bit.

Normally, I’m at the Halloween party for the costume contest to see who wins. I know I won’t place since other people have much better costumes, but I like to see how my friends vote. But this year, things were a bit later than normal because a lot of the people who go to the party were in a play that was happening that night. So they weren’t going to be able to be at the party until after the show was done. I wanted to stick around as late as I could to see everyone and see the costume contest, but I got really tired at the time I normally leave and had to head home before I was too tired to drive. I’m sad I didn’t get to see everyone or see who had the best costumes, but I’m glad I got to see some of my friends and have a fun night out!

And now, I have about a year to think of my next funny and punny costume to wear to a Halloween party. And hopefully, that costume will be one that will be easier for other people to guess.

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Default ThumbnailLow-Key Halloween (or A Work In Progress) Default ThumbnailLow Key Halloween (or Costume Flashback) Default ThumbnailHaving To Explain My Costume (or An Almost Normal Halloween) Default ThumbnailBeing A Word Nerd (or A More Normal Halloween Celebration) Default ThumbnailA Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me) Default ThumbnailOscar Night (or A Very Low-Key Award Show)

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Still Getting Ready For 2024 (or I Feel Like I Keep Finding More To Do)

Posted on November 1, 2023 | Comments Off on Still Getting Ready For 2024 (or I Feel Like I Keep Finding More To Do)

Happy November! I know I say this all the time, but this year has been flying by so quickly. I think it’s been a bit of an unusual year and it doesn’t feel like certain time markers I’m used to have happened. Some of that might be because of the strike and how there is usually a lot around the new fall tv shows and that didn’t happen. Or maybe I’m just in the same routine I’ve been in for a while so I’m not noticing some things as much as I used to. But no matter the reason, I can’t believe we are in the last 2 months of the year!

Last month, I set my monthly challenge to work on getting myself set up for the new year. I didn’t accomplish everything that I wanted to do, but I did put a big focus on doing the financial things that I wanted to get set up. My planning took a bit of a turn when some of my annual expenses were higher than planned. For example, my condo insurance was about 30% higher than I paid the year before. I was able to call in and negotiate a lower rate by raising my deductible, but it still was more expensive than I budgeted for. I had the same issue with my property taxes. I thought I budgeted enough for what they would be, but I was about $1,000 off. Fortunately, I did have enough saved up so I was able to get the money from other saving buckets I have so I was able to pay for it all. But it did make me think about how I need to maybe overestimate my budget goals more than I already did so I don’t run into this problem again. And I’m hoping to be able to afford a few fun things in 2024, so I need to make sure I don’t pull money from a fun fund in order to be able to pay bills. And I want to be able to do something like afford a monthly cleaning service, so I need to be able to budget for that without making my bills an issue.

Even though I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to do, such as working on creating more reminders for myself, I did get a lot done. And I’m working on those reminder ideas, I just haven’t found the perfect system for myself yet. But I did do work on organizing my calendar and email so whatever new system I put into effect will work with those better.

And this month’s challenge continues on the trend of getting set up for the new year. It’s also something that I probably need to do a bit more regularly. I want to go through my things and see what extra stuff I have that I could donate or find a new home for. I did a lot of this when I moved, but somehow I feel like I filled my new place so quickly even though it’s 3 times the size of my old place. I don’t think that anything is cluttered or necessarily messy, but I also know there are a lot of things here that I’m just storing. For example, I have a lot of old books I got from my parents. I had some friends who took books for their kids, but I have so many left. It’s not the end of the world for me to keep holding on to them, but I do want to get new furniture for my office and those books won’t have a spot when I do that. So I should just take them to the library to donate so someone can enjoy them. I finally donated my old tv, which was just sitting on the floor after I got my new one. And I have a few other things that I think I just don’t need but I need to take the time to go through everything and make a plan for where they should go.

I think maybe once I do a lot of this cleaning and donating in my office, I will finally have a better idea of what furniture will work here. I have needed a new desk since I moved, but I just haven’t found a good one. But maybe I’m looking at what will fit what I currently own and not what I think I will keep.

I also want to go through stuff in my kitchen because I do want to get some new pots and pans, but I’m probably not going to just buy a set since I want to get just the pieces I need. But to know what I need, I have to figure out what I have and what is still in good condition so I can continue to use it. I can’t guarantee that getting new kitchen gear will make me cook more, but it would be nice to not have to look at a recipe and realize I don’t have the right equipment to make it.

I don’t know why I keep feeling like I need to set myself up for a really good 2024, but I have a pull to keep working on that. Maybe there are some really good things to come for me and this is getting me ready. And even if next year isn’t anything spectacular, all these things I’m doing will still be positive for me and the coming year.

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Default ThumbnailI Actually Wrote A Book! (or Getting Myself Ready For 2020) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For The New Year (or Trying To Set Myself Up For Good Things) Default ThumbnailSpreading Some Holiday Cheer (or Finding Cheaper Ways To Make People Smile) Default Thumbnail1 Year Of Living In My Condo (or I Do Feel Settled In) Default ThumbnailFinding More Ways To Clean Up (or Now Doing Some Digital Organizing) Default ThumbnailRecapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself)

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Not The Conventional Convention (or We Are Having An Intermission For Now)

Posted on October 25, 2023 | Comments Off on Not The Conventional Convention (or We Are Having An Intermission For Now)

This past weekend was the SAG-AFTRA Convention. It was going to be our second virtual convention, but we learned last time that virtual conventions can be just as productive as in-person ones. I hope the next one will be in-person because I love seeing people face to face and there are many fun little things that can’t be done with a virtual convention. But because the union knew while planning this convention that our negotiations might still be happening, it was safer to plan for something virtual. I don’t think anyone expected the convention’s first day to be the 100th day of the strike, but that’s exactly how it worked out.

Because the convention was virtual, there weren’t as many things that I had to plan and prepare for. I did make sure that my work schedule wouldn’t be affected too much, but I also knew I would be able to work while attending the convention again. I didn’t have to change anything with my workouts or plan out outfits in advance, which was nice. I think things weren’t as hectic leading up to the start of the convention due to so much attention being on our strike, but I also think that having a much calmer election season helped too. Even without the usual craziness, I was ready for things to start.

The convention usually has a similar schedule. The first thing we do is elect the last few officers that get elected at the convention and not during the election. Then we work on voting for or against different resolutions that were submitted before the convention started. And on the last day, we have a few speeches followed by using all remaining time for more resolutions. So as expected, once the convention started, we got to work on the officer elections. Things took a bit longer than they were scheduled for, but I think it always goes that way. With a virtual convention, there were some technical issues. But with an in-person convention, there are always technical issues as well. They just are different types of issues for each one.

I personally got to vote for 3 officer positions. Our Executive Vice President, which all delegates vote for, the Los Angeles Vice President, which only delegates from Los Angeles vote for, and the Actor/Performer Vice President, which all delegates from around the country that are actor/performers vote for. I was really excited that the candidates that I voted for were the ones that won those races.

And once all that voting was done, it was time for all of us to have a short lunch break. The break was only supposed to be 30 minutes, but it kept getting pushed back. We knew that the negotiating committee had a meeting during our lunch break, so some people were wondering if maybe that meeting was taking longer because negotiations were going to start again. And when we finally came back from our lunch break, that’s exactly what we found out.

A few weeks ago, the AMPTP had walked away from negotiations and we were just waiting for them to agree to talk to us again. They announced they agreed to meet again while we had our lunch break. And since negotiations were going to start again in a few days and our negotiating committee wanted to have time to prepare so they could be as ready as possible, it was decided that the convention was going to be put on pause. We were going to have our speeches and a quick keynote that afternoon, but voting on resolutions, which were supposed to be on Sunday and Monday, was going to be postponed until a later date.

This wasn’t what anyone expected to happen, but I agreed with my fellow delegates that it was the best thing for us to do. Negotiations haven’t been easy, and that should be the focus right now. And we will get back to voting on resolutions at some point and finish our convention. But hopefully, when that happens we will be done with the strike and we can focus more on the convention and less on picketing.

As I’m writing this post, it’s the first day back of negotiations. I don’t expect us to hear today that a deal was made, but I’m hopeful that we will hear back soon about a possible deal. I think the AMPTP sees how much support we have and they know that what we are asking for is what is fair and nothing unreasonable. I don’t know how long after a deal we will continue the convention, but I hope it’s not too long because I do enjoy working with my fellow delegates on union service like this. I can’t control when I audition or book work, but I can control some of my involvement in union service and I do take my elected position seriously and want to represent my fellow actors the best I can. And finishing out my voting when the convention returns is exactly how I can do that.

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Default ThumbnailVirtual Orientation (or Still Getting Ready For Convention) Default ThumbnailPreparing For A Virtual Convention (or My First Task For This Delegate Term) Default ThumbnailNot The Convention I’m Used To (or Still Taking On More Responsibility) Default ThumbnailA Full Convention Weekend (or Preparation Pays Off) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA National Convention (or I Had No Idea It Would Be Like This) Default ThumbnailTime For Convention (or I’m Ready To Get To Work)

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Doing More And More Cleanup (or Feeling More Setup For Things To Come)

Posted on October 4, 2023 | Comments Off on Doing More And More Cleanup (or Feeling More Setup For Things To Come)

I made my monthly challenge in September to be working on digital organizing. I probably should do this more often than I do, but I really noticed that I needed to work on it over the summer. I just needed the push to get it done, and setting it as my challenge was what got me started.

I only worked on my phone since that’s where most of the extra apps have been. I do need to work on organizing and cleaning the files I have on my computer, but that’s a much bigger project and might take a few months since I need to see what I have saved in various folders. But there were so many apps on my phone that I forgot about and was easily able to delete.

With the way that you can set up an iPhone now, you can hide apps from your main app folders but keep them so you can search and open them back up. I don’t know if I hid a bunch of apps in the past or if my phone automatically did it when I wasn’t using an app that often, but I had so many hidden apps that I had no clue were still on my phone. Going through the hidden apps made things a lot easier to decide on since I knew if I forgot that I had that app, I didn’t need to keep it. I also did find a few apps that I forgot about that could be useful, so I made a new app folder of apps I want to test out this month so I can decide if I should keep them or not.

I really felt like doing the digital organizing was a success last month. I got more done than I expected, even if I only worked on cleaning up my phone. And I feel like doing that work set me up for being more efficient with using my phone going forward.

And the idea of being efficient and ready for things to come inspired my challenge for October. My challenge this month is to continue to get things set up for myself for the coming year.

This new challenge involves a few things, but I basically want to have some new systems and plans set for 2024. I have said so many years in a row that I want to take a vacation. I haven’t had the time or the money to do it. Now, I’m in a slightly better financial place than I have been in and I have the ability to continue to save money. I want to work on some budgeting and savings plans in order to be able to afford a vacation at some point in the next year. I also want to have some time management plans in place, such as working on setting aside time to make sure I cook more often and use the time I have outside of work better. It’s not easy to do that since I’m usually so tired after work and I have only 1 day off a week between my two jobs. But I need to really work on focusing on creating a plan that maximizes the little free time I have in my week. I have gotten into a routine lately, but it’s not the best routine for me since I’m not accomplishing as much as I know I could.

I also want to work on setting up more reminders and systems for myself so things don’t slip through the cracks. I am pretty good about setting up annual doctor appointments, but sometimes I only remember to call to make the appointments after the time I’d like to do that. It’s easy enough to have a reminder once a year (or however often I need it) so that I don’t forget. And when I’m doing regular shopping, I usually am putting together a list at the last minute and seem to forget one or two things. I’ve been using email drafts to work on creating lists as I go, but I know there has to be a better system for that and I’m going to take some time to figure it out. And yes, that might mean I will be adding more apps back onto my phone, but if they are helping me get through the errands I have to do regularly and make it so I don’t spend as much time focusing on them, then they will be good additions to my phone.

There are a lot of things that could make my time and money more efficient and used wiser. I haven’t been taking the time to figure those out because I haven’t really cared as much as I do now. And I think I’m thinking about it more now because there have been a lot of articles and stories coming out about how single people have additional costs and struggles because they are only relying on themselves to get by. I can’t have someone else make dinner because there is only me (but I do order in if I know I don’t have the energy to make something). All tasks that have to be done must be done by me unless I hire someone to do something like clean my home.

It’s a lot that I have put on my plate without realizing that I need to maybe adjust things considering that it’s just me doing all the work. And I’m hoping that working on setting myself up to have the best year ever next year will really help me find out how to make my life better and easier so I don’t have burnout as often. I deserve to have some fun and more than just the day-to-day routine I’ve been doing for a while. I just have to do some work now to maximize what I do have in order to make that happen.

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Still Making Small Upgrades (or Almost Fully Unpacked A Year Later)

Posted on September 20, 2023 | Comments Off on Still Making Small Upgrades (or Almost Fully Unpacked A Year Later)

When I moved into my condo, I tried to unpack as much as possible as quickly as possible so I could feel settled in my new space. But as I unpacked, I realized that some things I thought would work in my new space didn’t seem to fit the way I wanted them to. It was a crazy adjustment to move into a space that was about 3 times the size of my old home. But I have tried to make things work as much as I could since I didn’t want to buy a ton of new things.

But there were some things that just wouldn’t work no matter how I tried to get them set up. I had to get a new couch because my old one looked so wrong in my living room. I got a new tv because it was hard for me to see the small tv clearly from the distance between my couch and tv (which was probably about 4 times further away than my old home). But that also allowed me to use my old tv stand in my office since I hadn’t found new office furniture that I liked. Things have been moving around in my place and I’ve tried to figure out new ways to use things so I didn’t have to sell or donate a lot, but it hasn’t been easy and it’s been a slow process.

But over the past week, I’ve been able to make a few small changes that seem to have made a big impact on my home. One was a purchase and the other was unpacking things a bit more.

In my living room, I have a lot of empty space. I do like a bit of a minimalistic style, but not quite as bare as things have been. I have slowly been adding things in and trying to figure out what else I could possibly want, but it’s been hard to decide on anything. I would like to maybe add more artwork, but I don’t have anything in mind so I just keep looking around to see if anything inspires me. But one space that has been bugging me is the empty space between my couch and sliding glass door. It’s not really a functional space to use, but I also didn’t want my couch to be off-center to fill it in. So I just kept looking for things that might fit in there like a light or high-sitting end table.

And one day, in my random online searches I happened to find a nice floor lamp that would fit the space and was on sale! And this had glass trays on it that could serve almost like an end table. Because my couch is so tall, only one of the trays would be visible from the couch, but that worked for me. So I ordered it and it arrived only a few days later.

To build the light, I won’t go into the frustration I experienced. I will say that the person who designed it really didn’t think the process through and I had to keep balancing pieces of glass on my feet while I built the other sections. But when it was done and in the space I wanted it to be, I felt like it was the perfect addition!

It’s a really big lampshade, but that’s exactly what I needed to go there. And if I ever want to have light in my living room but not the lights in my ceiling, now I have another option.

After getting the light and putting it together, I was inspired to do some more organizing. I have been putting off working on my office and organizing more because I was hoping I would get a new desk soon. But I have been struggling to find something that fits what I want and need, so I have no idea if I’ll get a new desk any time soon. But I wanted to finally get out the last few things that have been in boxes waiting for my new office furniture so I could finally feel like all my things were out. There are a few things that will have to wait until I figure out my new office setup because I don’t want to hang things on the walls if they might need to move, but that was only a handful of items compared to what was still in boxes.

The first task was going through the boxes and seeing what I actually wanted to keep. And of course, there were things that I realized that if I hadn’t needed them in over a year, I could get rid of them or donate them. These were mainly random things that I had held onto from my old home. For example, I had some old IDs that I had on a corkboard in my old office area, but I have no need to keep them now. I also found some things that went with items that I had previously gotten rid of, such as the extra shelves for my old makeup stand which I think I got rid of almost a year ago. But I forgot that I put those extra pieces in a box and closed them up when I moved.

I decided to use my old tv stand as a combination of a bookcase and a display case. I don’t have a lot of physical books anymore, but I still have some of my favorites that made the move with me. I would like to have more actual books eventually, but I want to work on building an interesting library instead of the random paperbacks that I used to have. Most of the fiction that I read now is on my Kindle, so I don’t buy a lot of books. But there are some collections of classics that I’d love to have in the future. But for now, I just wanted to get the books I had in boxes out and fill in the space in my office that has felt so blank.

This is still a work in progress. I actually want to switch where things are in my office so this would go under the window and my desk would go on this wall, but I can’t move my current desk because it’s starting to crack. So moving things around will have to wait until I finally get a new desk. But at least for now, I have things out and on display and I can feel like my belongings are not just in boxes.

I do still have a few things in an open box that I haven’t decided what to do with or can’t put up just yet, but considering that I got things down from being in 2 boxes and a storage tub, this is a huge improvement.

I know that even in my old place, I was still organizing and redoing things all the time, even after living there for over a decade. And I’m sure I’ll be always redoing things in my current place too. But at least things are finally unpacked and I can feel like I have moved in just a little bit more.

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Default Thumbnail1 Year Of Living In My Condo (or I Do Feel Settled In) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year) Default ThumbnailNot Fully Able To Unpack (or I Think The Move Prepared Me For This) Default ThumbnailI Really Did Give Myself An Easy Monthly Challenge (or This Month Will Possibly Be Easy As Well) Default ThumbnailRecognizing Some Weird Habits (or Continuing To Work On Being Used To My New Space) Default ThumbnailI Feel Like I’m Always Buying Stuff (or Some Small And Big Upgrades)

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Celebrating And Organizing (or And Yet Another Repeat Challenge)

Posted on September 6, 2023 | Comments Off on Celebrating And Organizing (or And Yet Another Repeat Challenge)

I set out to make sure that I celebrated my birthday in August as my monthly challenge, and I would say that I accomplished that. I know that some people might do a lot more to celebrate their birthday, especially if it’s a milestone one like mine was, but I did exactly what I wanted to do. I had a party with friends, and it was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. I’m not great about planning things for myself, but I am glad I did it and loved seeing different friend groups coming together and having fun. I also got to continue my birthday tradition with my birthday twin and had our dinner out. It might have been a bit different than we thought it would be, but it was still perfect and made us so happy to continue the tradition.

I also just tried to be excited about starting a new decade of life, and I really did feel that way. I know realistically that turning 40 means that I’m not that young anymore or at the beginning of my life, but just because I might be in the second half doesn’t mean my life is over. I still love my life and have a lot of things that I enjoy doing. I’m planning for more fun things in the future and I truly believe that my life is just going to keep getting better as I age. And I feel healthier now than I did in my 30s, so that is helping me really enjoy my new age and new decade.

I’m really happy with how my August turned out and the celebrating that I did. And I know that I will continue to celebrate being in my 40s for a while. But I also want to set myself up for as much success as possible, and that helped to inspire this month’s challenge. I’ve done this challenge before, and it always has been helpful for me. I want to do another digital organizing/detox with the different apps and systems I use on my devices.

I have added a lot of apps to my daily routine over the years. Some of these are from challenges in the past, like using Duolingo to learn French, and some are apps I use to do other sorts of tracking in my personal life. But a lot of these apps or routines are just routines and are not really benefitting me anymore. I’m stubborn and want to continue a streak of doing something just to prove that I can keep it going, but that’s not the best use of my time. And even though most of these apps take minimal time from my day, it can add up and I don’t want to keep doing something that takes time if it’s not really doing much good for me.

When I’ve done this type of challenge before, I’ve gotten rid of apps that I know now were really just taking up time. Like the different food tracking apps that I didn’t use accurately so they weren’t benefitting me. Even though I had the best intentions to use it properly, it wasn’t working for me so I was making a minimal effort to maintain a streak but it wasn’t providing any results or data for me that I could use for other things.

There are a few apps I have in mind for this month. I’ve been doing my habit tracker either on paper or on my phone for over 8 years now. I haven’t changed the habits that much over the past few years and most of the things on there are things that I do on a regular or daily basis. I have reading listed as one of my habits, and the only time I can remember a day that I didn’t read was when I had horrible vertigo and couldn’t keep my eyes open. I have going to workouts on my list, and that’s something I do regularly and don’t need to have on a checklist as a reminder to do it. As much as I love seeing the streak of habits I’ve got going on the app, I think it’s time for me to let that app go since I really don’t use it for the reasons I started it years ago.

That’s probably the app that I use the most that I’m thinking about getting rid of during this month, but there are a lot more that I know I will probably delete. I plan on dedicating time to going through my various app folders because the way I organize apps means I don’t see a lot of what I have on there. And I know that keeping apps on my phone isn’t a big deal or makes using my phone harder, but I just want to streamline things. I want to do something similar on my computer, but with the various documents and things I have saved and not necessarily apps since I don’t put too many apps on my computer. And while I should do this on my iPad too, that device is starting to become a brick and not that useful, so I’m not using it that much. I don’t know if I’ll get another tablet anytime soon, but if I decide that I want one, then I might just start from scratch instead of transferring over all my old apps. So that’s a low priority for me. Working on my phone is at the top of my list and I’ll work on my computer after I feel like that work is done. If it takes me more than just this month, then I’ll continue into next month. But my plan is to really dedicate time so this should be done in the next few weeks.

Hopefully, while I work on getting rid of apps that don’t benefit me anymore, maybe I’ll also discover gaps in what I could be using to make my life better and I’ll find new apps or new routines that I want to add to my life. I just want to do whatever it takes to make sure that I’m not wasting time on unhelpful routines and that I maximize the free time that I do have in my life.

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