Category Archives: Fun Stuff

More Serious Condo Hunting (or Being Real About What I Want)

Posted on September 16, 2021 | Comments Off on More Serious Condo Hunting (or Being Real About What I Want)

I’ve been casually looking at condos around LA for several years now. A friend of mine from Orangetheory is a realtor and I’ve been working with him since I started looking. But most of the time, that just involved me looking to see what’s available and occasionally going to open houses. Several years ago when my parents were in town, we did so a slightly more serious look at what is out there, but we didn’t find anything that was right and there wasn’t a need to really look harder at that time.

But now, things are a little different. I’m not being kicked out of my current place just yet (it hasn’t sold, but I don’t know when it will sell), but I know that I will need a new place in the near future and now I’m really looking. Before it was more about seeing what was out there and if there was something good then my parents and I would discuss it. Now, it is more about finding the right place for me and looking until we find it. I’ve never felt this type of pressure to make sure we find a place, but I am grateful that there isn’t a serious time crunch so I don’t have to feel rushed into anything.

When my parents were here recently, we looked at 6 places in person. Since then, I’ve looked at 3 more on my own. And I don’t want to complain because I know how lucky I am to be in this situation and that I know I will find something that is right, but it has been tough seeing so many places that might be 80% right but something is off. And if I was looking for just a new apartment, I might let some of those things slide. But because this will be something purchased, I don’t want to buy a place (or have my parents and I buy a place) that I’m not sure about.

Ever since I started looking at condos, I’ve had a list of things that were must-haves and nice-to-haves. I’ve kept my must-haves to a pretty small list. Besides the obvious one of being within budget, the only other things on my list were having a washer/dryer (or ability to have my own washer/dryer) and off-street parking. That’s it. On the list of things that would be nice, I had other things like an outdoor space (like a balcony), a gas stove, a dishwasher, and other things that I didn’t feel like I needed but would be cool if a new place had.

Not a lot has changed on my personal list now that we are looking more seriously, but my parents did add things to the list that are on the must-have list. All of them are things that I think are great, but I didn’t put them on my list when I wasn’t looking as much as I am now. Now that this feels a bit more real and happening soon, I think we all had to figure out some real things we needed to make sure my realtor knew about so we could find the right place.

And as I’ve been looking more and more, I’m also learning more about what I really want to find. When I first found out my current place was for sale, I talked to my parents about getting more serious about a condo hunt and mentioned that I might be ok letting go of having a washer/dryer so we could find a place. So when we looked at 6 places together, not all of them had laundry in the condo. But as we looked at more of them, I had to admit that the washer/dryer was more important to me than I thought. I think part of this was also due to seeing the lack of price difference between places that had the laundry and the places that didn’t. So why not get something I want if the price is almost the same. And I’m also realizing that location is more important to me than I thought. When you are looking online, things that might be a bit further away aren’t a big deal. But when you start thinking about driving to things you go to now, it’s made me think more about where I would want to live. I have always said I wanted to stay in my neighborhood, but I was willing to look outside of my neighborhood in other parts of West LA. But now, I really feel more strongly about staying where I am. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of inventory where I live, but as they come on the market my realtor lets me know about them and I can decide if I want to see them.

I’ve been a bit overwhelmed and anxious about all of this because for so long the idea of getting a condo seemed so far from me and something that would happen in the future one day. But now, that day is going to be soon and it’s real. But I know I will be more excited about it when I find the right place. I know that I won’t find the perfect place, but I want to find a place that feels right. And once that part is figured out, then I can probably enjoy the idea of moving and celebrating everything that comes with that.

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Default ThumbnailA Pure Moment Of Happiness (or Loving Life) Default ThumbnailA House Anniversary (or A Decade In One Place) Default ThumbnailEnjoying A Family Weekend (or Adventuring Around LA) Default ThumbnailDog DNA Test (or Tucker Is A Real Mix!) Default ThumbnailMy First “Real” Run (or Testing Out My Birthday Present) Default ThumbnailMaking Time For Real Life (or Trying To Not Just Live Virtually)

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Having Good Workouts While Feeling Awful (or At Least I Had Some Distractions)

Posted on September 13, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Good Workouts While Feeling Awful (or At Least I Had Some Distractions)

I knew that this past week of workouts was likely to be tough for me because I would be feeling pain and nausea through most of them. I can’t predict the exact day I would feel horrible, but it was almost a guarantee that it would happen at some point this past week. So I tried to hope for the best before the week started. But I also had some good distractions that helped me when I wasn’t feeling great.

Monday’s workout was a special one for me because my dad was able to come work out with me! We hadn’t worked out together in almost 2 years, and I’m so glad that we were able to do so when my parents were visiting me this time. Also, since it was a holiday I did a slightly later class than I’m used to, so I didn’t have the usual people in class with me. But that’s ok because my dad and I still got a great workout in together.

The workout was a power-based class and the cardio section had 10 all-outs! We had 4 blocks and blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. For blocks 1 and 3, we had 2 rounds of 1-minute push paces and 1-minute base paces with a 30-second all-out at the end. And for blocks 2 and 4, we had rounds of 30-second all-outs with walking recovery after each one. I was on the bike while my dad was on the treadmill, so we weren’t exactly next to each other during cardio. But that just allowed us to both focus on doing the best we could in the cardio blocks.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks on the floor and then 1 block on the rower. Each floor block had 2 exercises. We had single-arm full thrusters with rotations and supermans, split stance high rows and plank punches, and sumo squats and mountain climbers. And on the rower, we matched the final cardio block with rounds of 30-second all-out rows with recovery between each all-out.

And of course, my dad and I had to celebrate working out together with a photo with our coach!

Wednesday’s workout was a bit of a struggle for me. I was really starting to deal with some serious pain and nausea that day. And I found out when I got to the workout that it was also the 2000-meter row benchmark class. I had thought the benchmark was a day I had off, so I wasn’t expecting to do it. It’s the hardest benchmark and we had done it recently, but because the Dri-Tri is coming up we had it again to prep for that.

I started on cardio, which was really more of a floor block. We had a short push pace before going to the floor where we had sumo deadlifts, alligators on the straps, palms to elbows (which I skipped due to my nausea), and sit-ups. It was an easier block than normal because we were supposed to use that time almost like an extended warm-up for the row.

When we got to the rower, I knew I wasn’t going to do a great job. I didn’t have much of a plan for what I wanted to do because I really didn’t know how I would feel. I knew I’d get it done, but I also knew that it was very possible that it would be my worst time ever. So I just rowed when I could and took breaks when I needed to. It was a little frustrating when I didn’t really want to take a break but I was either having a severe cramp or my nausea was really extreme and I knew I needed to. But I just kept going and I did have a very slow time in the end. But I did get it done and after class I also took a photo with the brag board because I wanted to celebrate doing the 2000-meter row when I was feeling so awful.

After the benchmark, we were back on the floor where we had upright rows to lateral lunges (which I did as 2 different moves), tricep extensions on the straps, and side plank work. And we ended on cardio for the last block where we had 1-minute intervals of push pace and base pace before doing a 1-minute all out to end the class.

Friday’s workout was a power day, and I was feeling truly awful. I knew going into the class that it was going to be a day where I just did whatever I could and not stress out too much about what I was doing or how my effort compared to my normal days. We had 3 blocks for cardio that all had push paces to all-outs. Every block had 30-second all-outs and the push paces got shorter each block. I did the first block with the resistance levels on the bike that I normally use, but it was getting too hard for me to keep going so I just kept it at my base pace level and tried to do what I could with pedaling faster.

On the floor, we mainly focused on rowing. Every block started with rowing before moving to the floor. We had 2 rounds of stroke drills where you go back really hard with each stroke and try to let the water settle between strokes and 100-meter row sprints. The stroke drills started with 15 strokes and went down each block. After the rowing we had 2 exercises each block on the floor. We had goblet squats and squat jumps (which I did as squats with calf raises), reverse lunges and jump lunges (which I did as regular lunges for the entire time), and double crunches and sit-ups. I really did try my best during the entire class and I know that if I had gone much harder that I probably would have felt even worse than I already did. But I was annoyed how horrible I was feeling since it’s never fun to feel rotten when working out.

While I wasn’t feeling much better on Saturday, I was doing a little better than I was on Friday. But I knew this meant another class where I just had to do what I could and not stress too much about it. The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and I used a few different methods to make sure I didn’t make myself feel worse.

For cardio, each of the 3 blocks had a different focus. The first block was the endurance block and we had push pace to base pace intervals. All the base paces were 45-seconds and the push paces ranged from 30-seconds to 2-minutes and we had an all-out at the end. For this block, I did use the resistance levels for the push paces and all-out. The second block was the strength block and we had intervals of either 30-seconds on a hill or 1-minute at a flat road. Again, I was using the resistance levels on the bike to do the hills. And the final block was the power block and we had 30-second all-outs with recovery time after. But for this block, I was really really nauseous so I didn’t use the resistance levels at all and just tried to pedal faster for the all-outs.

We also had 3 blocks on the floor. For the first and second block, we started with rowing and I just rowed at a slow and steady pace to make sure I didn’t make myself feel worse. In the first block, we had all strap work. We did chest presses, Y raises, and back reaches. And in the second block it was all weight work with close grip chest presses, low rows, and squats with shoulder presses. For all of these exercises, I was able to do them without modifying them. The last block was timed with the treadmills and we did pop jacks when the treadmills were in their all-outs and squats when they were recovering. I used the bench to modify my pop jacks and I had to take a lot of breaks during this block to breathe through either pain or nausea. But I did at least a few reps each time.

I’m hoping that this week I will be feeling better soon. I say this each month, but it’s so tough on me when I’m feeling like this because I hate having limitations on my workouts that I don’t feel like I always need but I know how bad it can get if I don’t do them. I think at least the end of the week should be ok, but I hope that the beginning of this week isn’t too bad.

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Default ThumbnailWorking Through Physical Challenges (or Not Letting Feeling Bad Ruin My Workouts) Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Normal Workouts (or Balancing Hard Work And Taking It Easy) Default ThumbnailGoing Easy And Pushing Myself (or Feeling Better In Time To Try Harder) Default ThumbnailMy Short Workout Week (or 6 Years Of Family Workouts) Default ThumbnailFinally Getting Back To Feeling Like Me (or A Transitional Workout Week) Default ThumbnailFeeling Better About My Progress (or Coming Back From The Dri-Tri)

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A Night At The Bowl (or It Finally Feels Like Summer To Me)

Posted on September 9, 2021 | Comments Off on A Night At The Bowl (or It Finally Feels Like Summer To Me)

There are a lot of things I do each year in LA that feel like traditions now. And one of those things for a long time has been to go to a show at the Hollywood Bowl. I’ve been going to shows at the Bowl most summers since I moved to LA. Some summers I’ve gone to a bunch of shows and sometimes I only go to one. But I try to go each summer if I can.

Of course, last summer wasn’t normal and there weren’t any Bowl shows. I remember when they announced that they wouldn’t be open for the summer, it felt like a gut punch. Going to the Bowl is such a big part of what makes it feel like summer in LA to me. And to know it was closed made the pandemic hit me even harder. Also, a year ago, I think so many of us were hopeful that things would be normal again by the summer, and knowing the Bowl wouldn’t be open was a sign that we were going to have to wait longer for normal (if only we knew then how long it would be).

So this summer, when the Bowl announced they’d be back, I knew I had to get tickets to something. Before tickets went on sale, my parents were planning their trip to LA but they didn’t have a date set yet. So we were going to see what shows were happening when and they could try to plan their trip around it and we could go to a show together. Things didn’t exactly happen that way, but it worked out perfectly. I found the show I wanted to go to with my parents and called my mom and she said they ended up booking their trip already based on the availability of other things they were planning. And it happened to be over the weekend of the show I wanted to take them to! So things fell into place perfectly.

And the show I picked for us to go to was the John Williams show. This is a show that I have tried to see each year and it’s really so much fun. I knew my parents wouldn’t know all the movies, but I thought they’d like how it all comes together. I tried to get us tickets in the front section with the tables and chairs, but that was all sold out when it was time to buy tickets. So I found some bench seats toward the center that were the front row of the section (which is my favorite because you have the most legroom).

So this past Sunday, my mom, dad, and I headed to the Bowl. And for the first time, we drove there. Normally I take the bus, but we felt it wasn’t the best option for us. I knew the parking around the Bowl was stacked parking, but we figured it would be ok and we didn’t mind if it took some time to get out of there. And we were able to park in one of the close lots to the entrance and headed up to our seats.

I loved where we were sitting. Of course, sitting closer would have been cool, but we were in the center and had the front of our section to put our drinks and stuff. It’s so much nicer being in the first row so you have that extra space.

The first half of the show was with another conductor leading the LA Philharmonic, but it was still having the music that is the score to movies being played live. I love hearing the music live, and they did some fun movies like “The Godfather” this year. And in the first section, it was mainly older movies and my parents knew all of them. So it felt like the perfect way to introduce them to the show.

And in the second half, John Williams came out to conduct. He’s like a rockstar and the entire place went wild when he walked out. And you can tell he loves doing this show and seeing how excited people are to see him. Everyone was waiting for him to play music from “Star Wars”, but I knew it would be toward the end of the evening since that’s one of those things that is just so special and magical. And just like every other year, as soon as those familiar notes started to play, hundreds of people got their lightsabers out and conducted along to the music.

I started to get a bit emotional seeing this in front of me. I think seeing it made me realize how much I missed this last year and how much I needed to do something familiar to me again. My parents and I did talk about what we were going to do to stay safe while we were at the Bowl. We were masked the entire time and at least it’s outdoors. And most people who go to shows are locals and we have a decently high vaccination rate. But it still felt a bit overwhelming to be around so many people. I have multiple panic attacks while I was there, but I tried to focus on the positive and how much I was enjoying the show. And seeing a show that I’ve seen so many times before really helped me focus on things other than my panic attack.

I think my parents really enjoyed the show too. It’s not something they would have picked out for themselves, but they liked seeing something that I love so much. Plus, it was something new and different for them and they like to see different things when they come to visit me. So overall, I consider it a success!

Seeing this show with my parents was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. And it did make me think if I should try to go to another show before the summer is done. I’m not sure about that because there are only a few things I might want to go see and the people I normally go to shows with aren’t living in LA anymore. I don’t think I’d want to go alone, but I have to think about it more. I enjoyed the night so much, that maybe I can overcome the feeling of not wanting to go solo. Or, I’ll just go to shows again next summer.

Either way, I’m just so happy I got to do something I had missed so much and that I got to share the experience with my parents.

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Default ThumbnailA Night At The Bowl (or Movie Music With Friends) Default ThumbnailHollywood Bowl Evening (or A Perfect Way To End The Summer) Default ThumbnailAnother Bowl Night (or Not Letting Rude People Ruin My Fun) Default ThumbnailAnother Night At The Bowl (or My Parents Got To Rock Out) Default ThumbnailA Night At The Bowl (or Combining Several Of My Favorite Things) Default ThumbnailAnother Week Another Hollywood Bowl Adventure (or Trying To Enjoy The View From The Cheap Seats

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Enjoying A Family Weekend (or Adventuring Around LA)

Posted on September 8, 2021 | Comments Off on Enjoying A Family Weekend (or Adventuring Around LA)

This past weekend, my parents were visiting me in LA. This trip had been planned for a little while, but the timing ended up being a bit perfect (more on that in a bit). My parents planned a trip to Southern California to go to Catalina first, then to see me, and finally to see my brother and his family. I didn’t plan a lot for when they would be here, but there was one thing I had planned and I’ll write more about that tomorrow. But the plan for my parents’ visit was pretty low-key leading up to their arrival.

And then before their trip, I got the news about my place and how it will be listed to be sold soon. And of course, I had talked to my parents about how stressed I was about the idea of moving and how I didn’t think I wanted to wait to see if maybe I could stay in my house once it’s sold. I wanted to act quickly and not waste time since finding a new place could take time. Even though I don’t have to rush to find a new place, it’s better to give myself the most amount of time possible. And after talking with my parents, we decided to also explore the options of buying a condo. I can’t buy a place alone, but I can if I have some help from family and then pay them back. So we decided to reach out to a realtor we worked with before to see if we could see some condos when my parents were in town.

The day my parents arrived, they got here in the late afternoon and I went over to their hotel for dinner and to hang out. It’s always nice to have family visits that are relaxing and not packed with things we have to do the entire day. The next day, we spent the morning looking at condos with the realtor. We didn’t find the perfect place for me, but it was a very informative time. We got a better idea of the options out there and what we might want to have on our list of what we would like to find. I am trying to limit what is on my list since I would not be the only person making this purchase, but there are a few things that I do want and a few things I would like to have. It would have been amazing to find the perfect place that day and so convenient, but it wasn’t meant to be and I didn’t want to rush into anything because this is a huge thing.

And on the last day of my parents visiting me, we had nothing planned yet for that day and we were figuring out what to do that morning. It was Labor Day, so we wanted to try to avoid crowds as much as we could. So I looked online for options and came across The Huntington Library. I’ve only been one time before, so I thought it could be a really fun thing to do. Plus my mom had been wanting to go there. We knew there were quite a few things closed there, but we figured we would see what we could and we got to see a lot of the gardens when we walked around.

However, it was extremely hot there and I knew I was already a bit dehydrated, which is very unlike me. And while walking around in the sun and the heat, I was sweating a lot which made the dehydration worse. I was starting to feel a bit sick and we ended up taking some breaks in the shade before getting to the little cafe where we could buy some water. I also was starting to experience some really horrible nausea, and I know the heat was making that worse. So we ended up leaving without exploring everything I think we wanted to see, but my parents understood I wasn’t feeling good.

And we were supposed to get dinner that evening, but because of how I was feeling we didn’t get dinner together. My parents hung out at my house for a bit, but then they headed back to their hotel so they could have dinner there (I ended up eating much later and was just picking at food because my stomach was still very unsettled). It was unfortunate that the end of their visit was a bit of a downer with how I was feeling, but I’m glad we got a lot done while they were here and had a lot of fun.

And what I feel was the highlight of their visit was something I was so excited to do. And I’ll be writing about that tomorrow!

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Default ThumbnailFamily Weekend (or Hanging Out With The Dog) Default ThumbnailMore Family Time (or Seeing All My Immediate Family Last Week) Default ThumbnailSan Diego Day (or Some More Family Time) Default ThumbnailSan Diego Day (or Hanging Out With Family On My Day Off) Default ThumbnailAn Unexpected Family Visit (or Making Plans, Canceling Them, And Making Plans Again) Default ThumbnailSanta Barbara Weekend (or Family and Friends Time)

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A New Reason To Do Big Cleaning Projects (or Putting Other Projects On Hold For Now)

Posted on September 2, 2021 | Comments Off on A New Reason To Do Big Cleaning Projects (or Putting Other Projects On Hold For Now)

Over the past year and a half, I feel like I’ve done a lot of projects around my house. Sometimes I was doing them because I was getting bored while I was out of work and sometimes I was doing them because they were things I was bothered by in my house and I knew that with a small project I could fix it. And my project list seemed like it never ended because there were always little improvements I’d like to make. But because of budget, I often have to just keep them on the list and not actually do them.

But there have been a few projects lately that I was starting to get ready to do and I was doing some comparison shopping online to figure out the best thing for me. But as soon as I found out that my place was being sold, I put a stop to all the projects on my list. I know that I’m not moving out right now or even in the next month or two, but I don’t want to do improvements around my place if I’m going to be moving soon. A lot of these things would be removing something that I would have to put back when I eventually move out, such as finding a new curved shower curtain rod so things didn’t feel as cramped in my shower or bathroom. I don’t want to do things that I might have put back again soon when they aren’t urgent projects to do. And other things on the list were about buying things to fit into a specific space, mainly to provide more storage for me. But because this might not be my space that much longer, I don’t want to spend money on something that might not fit into whatever place I move into next.

All the projects I had planned were taken off my list and one big one was added on. I need to do a big clean of my stuff in my house. I used to joke about how annoying it will be when I eventually move out because I have collected so much stuff and I know that I don’t need to move it all with me. Well, that time is upon me, and now is the time to start working on seeing what I really have and what I really need. And a lot of this is stuff that I know I’ve needed to do and have just put off. For example, my filing cabinets have things that I really don’t need anymore but it’s easy enough to keep since they are in a folder. But when I will have to take that folder into a new place, I don’t know if I’ll want everything in there. Same with stuff in my closet. I know I have shoes and bags that I don’t use and there is no point in me eventually moving stuff that I don’t have a use for.

I’m glad that I will probably have a while before I’m moving because I know cleaning out a lot of stuff will take more than an afternoon or a weekend. I really need to evaluate what I have and what I use and make sure that when I move I only move things that I want to have with me, not stuff that I feel like I should keep for one reason or another.

I have made cleaning different parts of my house monthly challenges from time to time. And while I haven’t always succeeded at those challenges, I have always made at least a dent in what I was hoping to do. But now, I have a new motivation to get this done because I know when I start packing up my place it will be easier if I’m not sorting and cleaning then. Getting it out of the way now when I’m not stressing about a lot of other things will be best for me. And allowing myself lots of time to go through things will be good too. And maybe this will stress me out a bit, but I know I have to do it. And I know I will feel much better about things once I know I’ve removed things I’ve been holding on to just because it was easy to do that.

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Default ThumbnailStill Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way) Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailDoing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day) Default ThumbnailAlways Cleaning (or At Least The Pandemic Helped Create This Habit)

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Celebrating And Future Planning (or Preparing For What Comes Next For Me)

Posted on September 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Celebrating And Future Planning (or Preparing For What Comes Next For Me)

Last month, my challenge was to celebrate what I could in my life. I knew I needed to do this. I have been focused on a lot of negative things lately and I wanted to change that. Things are still not normal or feeling really safe, but there are still good things happening in my life even if they are silly. And celebrating the silly things was kind of what this challenge was about.

There were the obvious things to celebrate like my birthday and how I celebrated my birthday. I didn’t celebrate my birthday as much as I would have liked to, but I still celebrated. And seeing friends and going out for a meal are really things to celebrate these days. I celebrated little victories I had in work like when I got good news or figured out something that will make my work better. And I celebrated anything I could think of. I still use grocery delivery a lot (I have to admit it’s pretty convenient), and I would celebrate if I got everything I ordered without a substitution or something being out of stock. I celebrated when I found a good deal on things I was looking at buying. I celebrated when I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to within a day.

I really did notice a change in my mindset as I celebrated things. I have been doing gratitude lists every day as I’m getting ready for bed, so I usually take some time each day to focus on the good things that happened to me. But I usually don’t think about it all day, just when it’s the end of the day and I’m reflecting on things. But this past month, I did keep it in mind as I went about my day. Even taking a moment to recognize something to celebrate put me in a better mood for whatever I wanted to do next. I don’t know if I’ll continue to celebrate everything I can the way that I did this past month, but I want to continue at least some of this habit because it did help me each day.

And this month, in a way my challenge is a bit of the same thing but also a bit of the opposite. I know a lot of people do this in different situations, but I tend to think way ahead in the future whether it is good or bad. If I have an amazing audition, I think about how my life might be if I booked the job. If there is something that worries me that may be happening in the future, I start thinking about all the bad things that might come. I was doing that recently when I found out about my landlord selling where I live. I dream of what the future might look like, whether it is good or bad, and I get myself either worried or excited about things that might not happen. So I want to work on curtailing that.

I know that I can’t prevent it completely nor do I think that would be smart. I do want to plan ahead, both good and bad. I do want to celebrate if a good thing could happen and imagine some great things. But I don’t want that to be a big focus for me. I want to maybe spend a little time on that future planning and then move on to things that I can work on at that time. For example, when I was panicking about my place being sold, I spent a lot of time wondering what I would do and where I would go. I started to stress out about a lot of things that may not happen for months depending on how quickly my landlord finds a buyer. Instead of worrying about all the things that might be coming, I refocused on what I could change. I started looking at options for where I could move instead of just imagining a plan. I started to make a plan that I think will be a really great thing (but more to come on that when I have more information). I can’t change how quickly some things might happen, but I can be prepared for what I have ready at that time. And that’s how I want to manage my future planning.

The same idea can work for when my future planning is about good things. Using my union election as an example, I can imagine how great it would be if the people I want to be elected win and what it might be like if I am elected to the local board. But right now, I can focus on the work I was doing to get out the vote and help other candidates campaign by what I post on our social media. Planning for the future with tangible things and not just daydreaming.

I’m curious how this will work out for me this month. It might be a great thing or it might feel stifling. I’m not sure yet. But that’s why it’s a challenge I’m going to try out and see how I feel in a month. And if I love it, I’ll keep doing it. If I don’t, I’ll adjust as I feel necessary and maybe try again. And maybe in a month, I’ll be writing about something new I learned about myself or how I manage things that come my way. That’s what these challenges are all about. Pushing myself to try something and see if it benefits my life and if I want to keep doing it.

I guess we’ll have to see in a month what happens!

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I Love When Things Remind Me Of The “Before Times” (or Seeing Another Workout Friend)

Posted on August 30, 2021 | Comments Off on I Love When Things Remind Me Of The “Before Times” (or Seeing Another Workout Friend)

I’ve been back at Orangetheory for a while now. I’ve said this so often since going back but having something in my life that feels like the before times has been so good for my mental health. Obviously, working out in the studio is also great for my physical health and I work out harder in class than I do at home, but the benefit for my mental health has been amazing. This has been a steady routine for me for so long, and getting it back has helped me when there have been so many uncertain things recently. And for the most part, this past week of workouts was pretty routine and what I have come to expect out of OTF.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day, and it had a lot of tough endurance challenges for us! I think certain elements wouldn’t have been so tough if they were the main challenge of the day, but we had so many of them!

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks were rounds of push pace to base pace and ending with an all-out. The base pace was always 1-minute, which didn’t feel too bad at first. But the more we went on, the shorter that minute felt! The push paces were between 2-minutes and 30-seconds and it changed up each time. And the end of both blocks had a 30-second all-out. Because it was an endurance day, I really tried to limit my breaks during cardio. It’s not easy because I need to drink water and sometimes I need to stretch a bit. But I’m getting better about not doing as many breaks when I’m not dealing with nausea.

On the floor, we had one floor block and one rowing block. For the floor block, we had 3 rounds of doing squats to presses, pop jacks, and Spiderman planks. Those were all supposed to be while using the Bosu, but I only used it for the squats to presses. After those 3 rounds, we had pullovers, front raises, and alternating Supermans until the end of the block. For that part, I only had to skip using the Bosu for the front raises. Then, we had a 7 1/2-minute crew row. A crew row is where everyone tries to row together at the same speed and with the same timing. So you are supposed to be very aware of the people on either side of you so you can make sure you are not out of sync. You can take breaks, but you have to be aware when you start back up so you are with the group. The biggest struggle for me with crew rows is that I know I’m a much slower rower than most people. I always find it hard to keep going that fast. But I took breaks when I needed to and then got back with the group as quickly as I could. It was still much faster than I normally would row, but it was a good challenge for me.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, which was a nice switch from what we did on Monday.

The cardio blocks were all similar with a lot of 1-minute intervals. The first block had a 1-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, 1-minute all-out, and a 1-minute recovery. We did that interval set twice. The second block had a 1-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, and 1-minute all-out. And the last block had 4 rounds of a 1-minute all-out followed by a 1-minute recovery. It was a lot of work and a lot of switching around, but it was really fun to do!

The floor also had 3 blocks. The first block had bench sit-ups to squats, deadlifts, hop overs (which I did as lunges), and lateral lunges. The second block was a mini-band core block with in and out crunches and toe reaches. And the last block had burpees to bicep curls (which I had to split into 2 moves), step-ups (which I did as squats), power sit-ups, and plank low rows. The first and third floor block felt a bit more like endurance work because it felt like we never stopped, but the number of reps we had to do were pretty low so that made it more of a power day.

Friday’s workout was an endurance day, and it was designed to keep the people who worked out on Thursday in mind. Thursday’s workout was the Everest Challenge, so they tried to make it more focused on upper body.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. In each block, we had 3 rounds of a 90-second push pace. But the base pace between each round decreased with each block. The first block had 75-second base paces, the second block had 1-minute base paces, and the last block had 45-second base paces. The goal was to try to maintain what we did for the push paces each block, even though the base paces were decreasing.

On the floor, we did so much upper body work and my arms felt like noodles! The goal in each block was to do all the exercises before taking a break. In the first block, we had uppercuts, chest flys, and incline chest presses. And we were supposed to use the same weights for the entire thing. The second block was with the straps and we had bicep curls, y raises, and high rows. And the last block was a bit more core-focused with plank jacks and crunches. I really did try to not stop in the middle of the exercises, but for the first and second blocks my arms were getting so tired! I had to lighten the dumbells I was using and step back when using the straps to make it a bit easier on me. But it was crazy to see how even using lighter weights was so tough when you didn’t take a break during the exercises.

Even though most of the workouts this past week reminded me of what things were like before the shutdown, the workout on Saturday was even more like that. Because Saturday’s workout was a special class where you had to bring a friend with you to take class. And the friend I brought with me was one of my workout buddies from before! She and I hadn’t seen each other since things shut down a year and a half ago, so I was thrilled to get to see her and work out together again.

The workout was a strength class and the cardio section had 4 blocks with the same pattern. Every block had a push pace, base pace, base pace on an incline, and an all-out. The base pace and all-out were always 1-minute long. But the push pace and incline work changed. The push pace started at 2-minutes and went down 30-seconds each block and the incline started at 30-seconds and went up 30-seconds each block as well as go down with how high the incline should be. Because of how short each block was, it also felt a bit like a power day, but the hills got tough as they got longer!

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had bird dog low rows with weights, single-arm lunges to step-ups (I had to do these just as lunges), and double crunches. After 2 rounds of the exercises, we had a 200-meter row and then went back to the exercises. And the second block had lateral goblet lunges, hollow hold chest presses, and plank pull-throughs. And just like in the first floor block, after 2 rounds of the exercises we had a 200-meter row.

Since we were busy working out, I didn’t get to chat with my friend too much during class. But of course, we took some time to catch up after class and we had to get a photo with our coach (who was so excited to see her too)!

This past week of workouts was one of the weeks I wasn’t sure if I’d get my 4 workouts in, but I’m glad I made it work! This week is also like that. As of right now, I am scheduled for 4 workouts, but things are still in the air to see if I can make it to all of them. But if I can’t, I know I’m good for 3 of those workouts. And at least that keeps most of the routine that I love in my week.

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2 Decades In LA (or Another LA Anniversary)

Posted on August 20, 2021 | Comments Off on 2 Decades In LA (or Another LA Anniversary)

Just like so many things that happened over the past year and a half, it’s surprising when milestones or anniversaries happen because it doesn’t feel like time has really been passing. I feel so stuck in an endless cycle of a few different things and I really have trouble remembering that things are still going on and time has moved. But just because we are not living our full lives due to the pandemic doesn’t mean these things aren’t happening. And I am now celebrating 20 years of living in LA.

I’ve been a bit shocked with different LA anniversaries in the past. When I celebrated 18 years in LA, that marked when I had spent half my life in the Bay Area and half in LA. Because it always felt like I had spent so much more time in the Bay Area, it felt so weird to know I had spent half my life in each place. But all milestone anniversaries in LA have been things I have celebrated. I haven’t necessarily done anything big to celebrate, but I always think about how many years it’s been since I moved into my dorm room. Somehow, I always knew I was meant to live in LA, and it felt right to me as soon as I moved here. I didn’t always have the perfect situation in LA, but I learned how to make it my home.

And maybe one of the reasons the pandemic has been so hard on me has been how much I have made this city my home. I had things I loved to do and routines I enjoyed. And that all ended so quickly for me and most of it still hasn’t returned. I don’t really feel like I’m living in LA right now. I’m existing but not living. And I miss living in the city that has been my home for 2 decades. I also feel sad for the losses that the city has had. The loss of people and places that so many loved so much because of death and closures. Things that we all assumed would be around forever in LA are gone now. I don’t know if all of it will hit me until I’m out and about in the city more because I’m not confronting things that have changed that much. But I do notice the change and different feelings in the air when I am out and doing something.

But even if I’m not able to celebrate my LA anniversary the way I would like, I still want to celebrate. I’ve experienced so much in 20 years of living in LA. Some of it has been amazing and some of it is very sad. But I have gotten through all of my good and bad days. I have built a life here (even if I’m not really living it right now) and I have grown so much as a person because of the choices I’ve made. And I do look back occasionally with regrets of things I wish I had or hadn’t done, but every choice from my past has made me who I am now. And I am grateful for that.

20 years ago, I had no clue what this city had in store for me. I knew I was going to college and what I hoped to do. But I had no clue how it would happen. And so much hasn’t happened the way most people would accomplish different goals, but it’s ok that I’ve found my own way. And I’m sure if I had told myself 20 years ago what I’d be doing now, I’d never believed it. But I have created a life that I appreciate and am celebrating on this milestone anniversary.

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Returning To A Birthday Tradition (or A Rare Meal Out)

Posted on August 17, 2021 | Comments Off on Returning To A Birthday Tradition (or A Rare Meal Out)

I’ve had my birthday tradition of eating at Truxton’s with my birthday twin for a long time now. I say every year how much I love having this tradition of going to dinner with Joanna because we always set aside this time for each other each year. We don’t necessarily get to hang out as much as we’d like to over the year, but this time is sacred and we will always make sure we find a way to have this dinner.

Even last year when things were so unclear with the pandemic, we made it happen. We might have had a picnic instead of what we were used to and we were both being so cautious and careful about everything we did, but we still had our dinner. And at that point last year, I was seeing so few people that any real face-to-face time was special to me.

So even though things have taken a turn for the slightly worse with the pandemic recently, we knew we would still have our birthday dinner. We didn’t decide until the day of what the final plan would be. For me, I really did want to eat there if possible, but I wasn’t sure how Joanna would feel about it. But since they had tables outside that were set pretty far apart from each other, we agreed that eating there would be nice and safe enough.

We ended up arriving at the restaurant within about a minute of each other, and since there was nobody sitting outside at the time, we were able to be seated quickly. Since the pandemic, I’ve rarely gone to eat at a restaurant. I’ve gotten take out and delivery, but this dinner was only the 3rd time since March of 2020 that I have sat down at a restaurant and had a meal. Even if this wasn’t our birthday dinner, that alone would have made this feel so special.

Even though we have been going to Truxton’s for a long time, we always still see what is on the menu in case there are new things. And I’m not sure if they changed things earlier but last year it was a limited menu or if these were more recent changes, but there were so many new items on the menu this time!

We pretty much always get monkey bread to start and then share a dessert, plus we each get our own entrees. But this time, there was a new burrata grilled cheese sandwich that sounded so good to both of us! So we decided we’d get 2 sandwich meals and then each take half. So we got the grilled cheese and the turkey avocado club (which is a sandwich that I have gotten before and really like).

And I’m glad we split the sandwiches because the grilled cheese was so good but so rich! I never could have the entire thing myself!

Besides enjoying a nice dinner out and having a good meal, of course I loved getting to catch up with Joanna too. Both of us haven’t had a ton going on because of how we are being careful, but there is always something to update each other on. I was filling her in on some random dating stories that happened recently and she was telling me about a trip she was going to go on soon. Despite all the craziness going on in the world around us, this dinner was a nice sense of normalcy that I feel I don’t get to have that often. And while I can’t escape thinking about everything happening in the world, it was so nice to have just a bit of time to focus on something else that is more positive.

And yes, it was almost a free meal. The completely free meal isn’t really an option for us, but that’s ok. It ended up being about $5 each after our discount and we each left $20 (so our server got a $30 tip). The meal was beyond worth the $20 each!

And considering that our last 2 traditions (our birthday last year and cheesecake around the new year) had to be done in an unusual way, getting to have this almost normal dinner tradition was really one of those things that made me hopeful and grateful that more normal things might be coming soon.

I have no clue if by the end of this year or the beginning of next year things will be normal enough for us to have our cheesecake dinner the way we are used to. Worst case, we find another way to do it like we did the last time. But at least for our birthday dinner, we did get to return to an almost normal way of us celebrating.

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Having Some Workout Celebrations (or I’m Glad I Felt Ok At The Beginning Of The Week)

Posted on August 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Some Workout Celebrations (or I’m Glad I Felt Ok At The Beginning Of The Week)

I knew going into this past week of workouts that it was likely going to be one of my bad weeks. But I really hoped it wouldn’t kick in as soon as I thought it might. And I’m glad it didn’t because my week of workouts kicked off with a big celebratory workout!

Monday was my birthday workout! I do laugh a bit at the fact that I worked out at 6:30 in the morning on my birthday. I still can’t believe I’ve turned into this person. But why should I change up my routine for Mondays? And I like doing a workout on my birthday so this was perfect.

It was a power workout (which is usually my favorite so that was a nice birthday treat!) and we had 4 blocks on each side of the room. 2 of the cardio blocks were run/row blocks and 2 were timed cardio blocks. For the run/row blocks, we had .1 miles on the treadmill (.4 on the bike) and then a 100-meter row and repeated that until the block ended. And the other 2 blocks we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 45-second recoveries. All of the blocks were tough because I made them tough, but they were really good too.

On the floor, 2 blocks were regular floor blocks and 2 blocks were times exercises (that were when cardio had timed blocks). For the regular blocks, we had pull-ups, triceps, chest presses, and bicep curls on the straps. In the first timed block, we had neutral thrusters with weights during the 30-second intervals and hops during the 45-second intervals. And the second timed block had hip hinge low rows during the 30-second blocks and lateral hops during the 45-second intervals.

And of course, I had to do a birthday workout picture with my coach!

On Wednesday, we had an endurance workout. I also started to have to deal with pain and nausea (I did appreciate that it didn’t start on my birthday). So that made the workout a bit more of a challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Each block was intervals of push paces followed by 1-minute base paces. We started at a 3-minute push pace and it went down by 30-seconds each round. The entire thing was split in half so we did the first half of it as the first block and then had some recovery time before continuing the intervals until we were finishing with a 30-second push pace.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks. The first block was a bit of a balance focus. We had pullovers, hip bridges, plank work, and hyperextension all on the Bosu. After doing 2 rounds of all the exercises, we had a 500-meter row. I was a bit slow and didn’t get a chance to finish my row. The second block had 2 rounds of front squats to shoulder presses and hammer curls before having a 500-meter row. This time, I did get to finish my row even though it wasn’t that fast.

Friday’s workout was themed for Friday the 13th. And besides the workout being themed, it felt like the situation in the studio was a bit cursed too. All the wi-fi went down, which meant we had no heart rate monitor screens to look at and the screens that showed the workout were down too. I’ve done classes without being able to monitor my heart rate and they can be an interesting challenge, but I usually have to be careful because I know my heart rate can be a bit crazy too. But this time, I didn’t worry too much about it because my pain and nausea were really awful so I was doing a very light effort through the entire workout.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and 2 of them were rowing blocks. For the first and last block, we had 5 rounds of 30-second all-outs on the rower with only 15 seconds to recover between each round. On a normal day, this would probably have been a fun challenge, but because of how I was feeling I was just trying to keep rowing. I did make it through all of the rowing, but because I wasn’t rowing hard I didn’t get a lot of distance for each block. And on the treadmill and bike for the middle block, we had 3 rounds of a 3 1/2-minute distance challenge with 75 seconds to recover between each round. I did better on the bike than I expected. I was able to keep my resistance level at my push pace level for the entire time for each of them. I still didn’t get as much distance because I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I can, but at least I had the resistance up.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks and the first and last blocks were timed with the rowers. We had 30 seconds of effort with 15 seconds of rest. In the first block, the exercises were neutral half thrusters and skater lunges. And in the last block, we had ground to press with weights and high knees (which I did more like marching in place). And for the second block, we had 13 reps of a lot of exercises. We had pull-ups on the straps, rollouts on the straps, push-ups, bench tap squats, sit-ups, and bear planks. I didn’t have to do too many modifications due to my nausea, but I did move slowly since I needed time to let the pain and nausea pass.

Saturday’s workout was the toughest one for me because of how I felt. I had spent a lot of Friday after my workout really miserable and having to be very careful with timing out my medications because I didn’t want to miss anything. Saturday wasn’t as horrible as Friday day was, but it was still worse than Friday morning had been. So again, I just did what I could in my workout and didn’t stress too much about what I could or couldn’t do.

For cardio, we had long push paces with all-outs after. It started with a 3-minute push pace with no incline and each time we decreased the time but increased the incline/resistance. And every time we had a 1-minute all-out after the push pace. And I did make the effort to increase the resistance level each time, even if I was feeling horrible. I just took a lot of breaks to let the pain and nausea pass when I needed to and then continued when I could.

On the floor, we started and ended with a 2-minute row. For both rows, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go that hard so I just tried to row without stopping. And I’m proud of myself because I was able to do that even if I got a very low distance at the end of the row. Being able to row without stopping has been a struggle, so knowing I can do that when I feel my worst is a great feeling. We had 2 other blocks between the rowing. In the first block, we had lateral hops, sumo deadlifts, and sumo squats to froggers (which I had to split into 2 different exercises). And the second block we had squats, weighted squats, and skier swings. I wasn’t going super heavy with the weights because of how I felt, but at least I did use weights for all the exercises that asked for them.

I’m so glad I had a great birthday workout and felt like myself for it. That really started off this past week on a great note. I wish I had been feeling amazing for the rest of the week, but I knew that was very unlikely so I am not too disappointed that happened. And for this week, it’s still up in the air how I’ll feel. I might be only a little off or I can have some of my worst days. I’ll just have to wait, see, and let you all know in my workout post next week!

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