Category Archives: Fun Stuff

Back To More Scheduling (or Seeing How Much My Time Unemployed Affected Me)

Posted on February 2, 2021 | Comments Off on Back To More Scheduling (or Seeing How Much My Time Unemployed Affected Me)

I feel like so many of my monthly challenges are going to be all about getting things back to feeling normal. Or at least, I know my challenge last month and this month will be.

Last month, I challenged myself to have some social time every single day. I knew I was isolating myself too much and I wanted to fix that. I had a goal to always talk to a friend or family member. And I’m happy to say that I did accomplish that.

I did want to try to do more video calls, but I didn’t get that many of them done. But I did have more phone calls than I normally do and didn’t have to rely just on text messages for a majority of the days. I do feel a bit better and less isolated, but I also know that until I can start doing more in-person things that it will be a struggle. But I also know I have the tools to feel better and I need to remember them more often when I’m feeling alone.

And now onto my challenge for this month.

Working on my personal schedule has been an on-going battle for me. It’s usually tough for me to balance work, fun, and time to recover at home. But before the pandemic, I had a pretty decent schedule happening with so much being a weekly or monthly thing and I felt like I was finally getting things balanced. Of course, as soon as I feel good about something, things change and I have to start over.

I spent a good amount of last year without a regular work schedule. Even when I still was working a little, working an hour a day is really nothing. And I didn’t have much to schedule into my life since I wasn’t doing anything. And when I wasn’t working any regular hours at all, I know my schedule got really bad and I wasn’t doing any sort of planning.

Once I started my new job, I had to get things back onto a regular schedule again. I still have significantly less to schedule than I did before the pandemic, but I noticed how not scheduling out my days has started to affect me. I’m feeling a mix of having too much to do and having nothing to do. I stress to get things done only to have hours to do nothing later. I feel like I’m still in a bit of a mindset that I want to be done with all work by a certain time so my afternoons and evenings are free. But they don’t really have to be.

So this month, I have a challenge to actually start scheduling out my days. I want to write more than I have to on a schedule because I know that I need to overdo things a bit so I can see how much I really need. I want to include things like my workout times and when I do my morning and evening routines. In a perfect world, I’d love to have when I’m going to eat on my schedule, but I know that can change a bit. I want to put all my work time in there and the time that I plan on relaxing and watching tv.

I’m hoping that by doing this I can find where I’m pushing myself too hard in my schedule and where I need to add more things. And it should be a bit easier than other times I’ve tried doing this because the things I can have on my schedule will be limited. And hopefully, by doing this I will also get my sleep schedule back under control. I’m doing better with my sleep than I was a month ago, but I’m still staying up too late. And if I can figure out when I can do the things that keep me up late at other times of the day, then I can go to sleep when I want.

I know that scheduling myself won’t be a perfect challenge and I will have mistakes and errors. But my goal is not perfection. I just want to see some progress in how I schedule my life so that I can continue to plan to add more things back into my life as things become safer.

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Default ThumbnailScheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is) Default ThumbnailUnemployed Again (or Trying To Not Make It Feel Like Summer Break) Default ThumbnailFinding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed) Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailGetting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition) Default ThumbnailScheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment)

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Maybe I’m Too Good At Figuring Out Gifts (or At Least I Didn’t Already Buy It)

Posted on January 29, 2021 | Comments Off on Maybe I’m Too Good At Figuring Out Gifts (or At Least I Didn’t Already Buy It)

I’ve said it a few times before on here, but I love buying gifts for people. If I had more money, I would buy more gifts. I love figuring out the perfect thing to get someone. And I usually end up planning gifts almost a year in advance. I keep a running list of websites in a favorites tab of all the gifts that I want to get for people. And I get so much joy out of seeing someone’s face when I get them a gift that ends up being perfect for them.

A lot of the time, perfect gifts also end up not being the most expensive things. But I would like to be able to buy more extravagant things when I see gifts that are more expensive. But maybe because I have to work on a budget, that’s why I work so hard on finding gifts and feel so good when the recipient ends up loving them.

I tend to be better at buying gifts for people I’ve known longer, but that’s not really possible with my nephew. Then again, he’s a baby so he doesn’t have a ton of likes and dislikes. So I just have to find good baby gifts. I’m still so happy with the busy board that my dad and I built for him for his Hanukkah present. And as soon as my dad and I finished that project, I realized I needed to start working on what I was going to get him for his first birthday.

And I figured out the perfect gift right after that last visit. I wanted to get Rory a ball pit! I had seen a kiddie ball pit on someone else’s Instagram and they had posted where they bought it. I didn’t need to buy it right away, but I found the shop online and saved it to buy later.

I had told my parents what I was planning on getting for Rory and they loved the idea too. The ball pit had a bunch of color options and I discussed which ones I thought would be best and they agreed with me. I was so excited to find this gift and couldn’t wait to buy it and see his face when I gave it to him.

I was getting ready to purchase it because I knew it would take some time to get to me. I had it in my cart and ready to purchase, but I was going to finish the purchase a little later. And then I got a text from my brother and sister-in-law of Rory playing that day while it was raining outside.

They got him the exact same ball pit in the same colors that I was about to order! I couldn’t believe it! I was a little disappointed because I was so excited to Rory this gift. But also, it was so cute to see how much he was already enjoying it. And I took it as a sign that I was on the right track for what types of gifts would work well for him. But I obviously knew that I needed to work on finding a new gift for his first birthday.

I think I’ve figured out what I’m going to get Rory instead. I’m still super excited about the gift and I think it’s something that he will love. I also have been working on presents for my niece because she will be born in about a month! I’m getting my niece almost the same present that I got Rory when he was born. I’m finding some great books and also making custom bookplates. My brother and sister-in-law know that I’m getting my niece these as gifts, so my sister-in-law helped me decide on a few things for the bookplates so they match what her nursery will look like.

I think I’m going to see Rory around his first birthday, so I should be able to give him his gift in person. And hopefully he likes it as much as he enjoys the ball pit!

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Default ThumbnailFinding The Perfect Gifts (or A Gift A Year In The Making) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Gift Giving Time! (or Excited To Finally Give A Present) Default ThumbnailFinishing Holiday Shopping Before Halloween (or Thank Goodness For Internet Bookmarks) Default ThumbnailFirst Half Of Thanksgiving (or Hanukkah Gifts And Birthdays) Default ThumbnailI’m Officially An Aunt (or Welcome Rory!) Default ThumbnailHaving Fun With Photos (or My Brother And Nephew Are Twins!)

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Trying To Find More Fun (or Being More Ok With Spending Some Money)

Posted on January 28, 2021 | Comments Off on Trying To Find More Fun (or Being More Ok With Spending Some Money)

For a good portion of last year, I really hesitated to spend money on things because I was not working much. There weren’t a lot of things I could spend my money on that I wanted either. I didn’t need new clothes for going out. There weren’t events that I was getting tickets for. Even though I was getting some delivery food, I wasn’t going out to dinners with friends. I guess in a way, it was good that while I was out of work I didn’t find things I needed to splurge on.

And now, even though I am working much more, I still am very cautious of spending money. I’m not making as much as I did a year ago and I don’t want my spending to get out of control. But at the same time, I’m finding myself getting bored so often. I think I’ve done pretty well with staying home and not doing things. I’ve dealt with boredom before and gotten past it. But it is happening more and more frequently. And I’m not happy just watching more tv or reading more. I want to have new experiences and adventures. It’s just not that easy to do that these days.

But I’m trying to be better about finding things to do. There are online events I can get tickets for and some other events where you watch from your car. For the car ones, I have to either go alone or go with a friend who I can trust is being as safe and cautious as I am (like I did when I went to the drive-in screening over the summer). And if I’m in the car with someone else, wearing masks and keeping the windows open is pretty much a must to try to keep things as safe as we can. I am trying to not do too many of these car events because they are a bit riskier than I’d like, but doing them occasionally isn’t bad.

But with the virtual events, I finally am starting to look into more of them and seeing what I want to sign up for. I’ve got one coming up that is a lecture event that my parents had an extra ticket for. I think that will be really fun to watch and learn from. And I’m looking at some of the plays that are being done over Zoom and other live stream things and might be buying some tickets for those. Again, I do have to be cautious of my budget and not spending more than I should, but I also need to allow myself to have some fun.

I still feel pretty certain that we are past the halfway point of us all having to stay at home. I’m hoping that by the end of summer or the beginning of fall that things will be safer and we can all start going out and being social again. But even though we should be past the halfway point, it doesn’t make this time any easier. I need to find ways to stay entertained and ok with being home. I want to have more fun in my life and the ways that I’m used to doing that aren’t really options for me. I hope I can find more online events that I can attend so I have more going on in my life. I’d love to have less time where I’m just sitting and looking at the walls in my house.

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Default ThumbnailWorking on Budgeting (or Spending Money To Save Money) Default ThumbnailGirls Shopping Day Out (or Spending Free Money) Default ThumbnailWorking On Money Priorities (or What’s Worth The Splurge) Default ThumbnailExpress Headshot Day (or Another Fun Podcast Event) Default ThumbnailNot Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents) Default ThumbnailA Very Low-Key Christmas (or Not Spending My Day Off Doing My Usual Stuff)

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A Different Type Of Self-Tape Audition (or Recording An Audition In Bed)

Posted on January 27, 2021 | Comments Off on A Different Type Of Self-Tape Audition (or Recording An Audition In Bed)

While I haven’t had a lot of self-tape auditions, I have had enough that I feel pretty good about my setup. There are still a few things that I want to get to make my self-tape auditions better, but nothing is desperately needed. But I have a feeling that even when auditions can be held in-person again, there will still be more self-tape auditions than there were before the pandemic. And I’m ok with this because I’m happy for any auditions I can get!

All of my self-tape auditions have been on video. Some have been for tv shows and some for commercials. I don’t think I’ve had a movie self-tape yet, but it’s the same idea as tv and commercial auditions. They are filmed and it’s on-camera. I have a place in my house that I use for recording these because the light is the best and I have a way to set up my tripod and everything else I need to look the best I can. And I know I have to look good when I do them. I might wear sweats on the bottom with a nice top or dress on top, but I look presentable and have my hair and makeup done.

But not all auditions are on video. Voiceover auditions are just sound recordings.  I rarely audition for voiceovers, but I have had them in the past. But those auditions were all done at a casting office or recording studio where they had a sound booth to do the audition in. I know that recording voiceover auditions (and even some jobs) at home has been common for a long time, but it’s not something I had any experience in.

Until this past weekend.

I got an audition notice from my commercial agent about a voiceover commercial audition. It was pretty simple, only 2 lines, but it needed to be done at home. I guess I could have rented a recording studio for my audition, but that would have cost money and I knew it wasn’t necessary. My audition didn’t have to be perfect, but I needed to find a way to make things as clear sounding as possible.

I knew using my external mic on my phone was going to be the best option. I guess I could have tried my headphones, but I know that things usually sound better on the mic than when I use my headphones. And I also knew that clothing and fabric are great for soundproofing and muffling other noises so a lot of people recommend recording in your closet. But my closet is a weird shape where it’s almost like a little hallway with the handing rods in the back. I did try doing one take in there, but it was very echoey and you could hear some ambient noise.

So I did some research online for other options and one that kept coming up was recording under a blanket. Covering yourself with a blanket is the same idea as being in a closet. You have fabric all around you and have a good chance to not have any echoes. I don’t own a ton of blankets, but I figured the comforter on my bed would work. And I didn’t have to sit up to do this, so I got back into bed with my phone in front of me to have the script up and my mic near my face.

I still did a few different takes to make sure I had a take that I liked. There were a few where it didn’t sound the way I wanted it to, but that was about my performance and not any outside noise coming in. It didn’t take too long, but I still took my time doing this. And after doing a little bit of editing to cut out the dead air at the beginning and end, my audition was done and ready to be submitted!

I don’t know if I want to try to pursue more voiceover work. There are a lot of things I don’t know about doing voiceovers that I should learn if I want to do it more often. But it was fun to play with it this time and it would be really cool if I booked it! I don’t expect to since I know some of the other women who auditioned for this part are very experienced in voiceover. But no matter what, it was another day to audition and have fun. And anything that makes me happy and brings joy into my life these days is amazing!

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Default ThumbnailAlmost Getting To Act (or Being On The Other Side Of A Self-Tape Audition) Default ThumbnailAnother Self-Tape Audition (or So Grateful For Anything Related To Acting Right Now) Default ThumbnailUpgrading My Self-Tape Set Up (or 2 Auditions In 30 Minutes) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Audition (or Working On My Self-Tape Game) Default ThumbnailAudition Horror Stories (or Sometimes I Like Things To Be Boring) Default ThumbnailSelf-Tape Saturday (or Turning A Video Shoot Into A Photo Shoot)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

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Watching History Happen (or Actually Enjoying A Political Morning)

Posted on January 26, 2021 | Comments Off on Watching History Happen (or Actually Enjoying A Political Morning)

I didn’t realize I was going to be writing about politics again so soon. But then again, I didn’t realize how much I was going to react to the inauguration happening. I knew I’d be watching it, but I wasn’t expecting to be so emotional about it. But I was.

This inauguration was literally history happening in front of my eyes. To see the first woman saying the oath of office to be the Vice President was amazing. In one sense, I can’t believe that this is happening in my lifetime. But in another sense, I can’t believe it took this long to happen. And I know for many of my friends, it was even more meaningful to see someone who looked like them or was of similar ethnicity. I feel like everyone I know was just in awe watching everything happen considering what happened only 2 weeks before.

And it was so nice to know most of the people in my life were watching the same thing at the same time as I was. I had several texts going with friends plus one texting group where we were all reacting in real-time to what we were seeing on tv. Some of it was serious and emotional and some of it was silly (like discussing fashion). But it really gave me a sense of community and communal experiences, which is something I have missed so much during this pandemic.

I wasn’t able to watch the entire thing without distractions. I did have to log in for work right after President Biden took his oath. But because my job now doesn’t require me to make phone calls, I was able to keep it on while I worked and I was able to listen to it. And I was recording it on my DVR so I did go back and watch some parts that I knew I hadn’t really been able to listen to. And there were so many good parts during the inauguration.

I loved seeing so many people posting positive things about politics for a day. People were feeling so much hope and not the fear that many of us have felt for a while. That’s how I felt. I knew things wouldn’t be changing right away, but at least now we had someone in charge who would make some changes for the better. For example, Trump had been saying for a while that there was a plan for vaccinations. But now we know that there wasn’t one. If he was still in charge, how long would be believing a plan was coming when one wasn’t in the works.

But I think one of my favorite things from the inauguration was seeing all my friends post photos of their kids watching it happen. I loved seeing kids watching history happen. Even if they were born during the last presidency, they might not remember that happen. So many of them will grow up in a world where a woman has been elected to such a high office. It won’t seem like a dream or something to hope for. It’s a reality of their world.

After seeing so many friends post photos, I texted my sister-in-law saying I wanted to see a photo of Rory watching. One day, he will learn about this time in school and I wanted him to have a photo proving he was there when it happened. And I loved the photo that I got texted back to me.

Since that day, it’s been nice to have things feel almost a little boring in politics again. There are daily press conferences. Things aren’t being announced on social media that others are confused about. Nobody is reacting based on just emotion. Things may be slow and boring, but they are working on getting things done and making sure they are done correctly. And that’s what I want out of my government.

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Default ThumbnailA Day Of Watching Politics (or I Believe Her) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners) Default ThumbnailThe End To One Political Era (or This Is Still Just The Start Of My Involvement) Default ThumbnailSAG Awards (or Watching After Knowing The Winners) Default ThumbnailUnion Working Holiday Party (or Just Enjoying Being Around Good People) Default ThumbnailI Have To Be Political (or Hoping My Healthcare Stays The Same)

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Having Weird Reminders (or Needing To Remove Some Things From My Calendar)

Posted on January 19, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Weird Reminders (or Needing To Remove Some Things From My Calendar)

Even though I have a planner, I don’t use it for scheduling out my day. I use my Volt Planner for goal setting and things like that. My schedule can change a lot so I like using digital calendars to have appointments and plans. Plus, it’s easy to have things that recur set to appear automatically each time (like when I have to submit timesheets for work).

I use the Mac calendar app on my devices and one of my jobs uses Google Calendar (but I can import my personal schedule into my Mac calendar). I’ve used this for a very long time and it’s an easy system for me to use which is why I haven’t tried to find a different app.

And the simplicity of the app also meant I got a bit lazy with entering things into my calendar. I had my work for my old customer service job in there even though my schedule didn’t really change each week. I put my OTF workouts in there even though those were very consistent. I didn’t need to have reminders to not schedule other things then, but I just put it in there to have an accurate schedule somewhere.

When the pandemic started, I didn’t remove things from my calendar. My work schedule didn’t change at first and I figured OTF would be opening again soon so I didn’t feel the need to remove it. But as we all know, that didn’t really happen. But I still kept all those things in my calendar. It didn’t really bother me for a long time because I didn’t have to look at my calendar for anything. I had nothing scheduled and nothing to work around in my day.

But now that I have a job that I need to check my schedule for (not for my normal work hours, but for any meetings I have to attend), I’ve realized I need to get rid of the other things on my schedule. It was actually starting to upset me when I thought about the things I was missing. It was bad enough thinking about my old job and my workouts. But this past weekend was also supposed to be the weekend my parents were going to be in LA and we were going to see “Hamilton”.

This wasn’t the first time we had tickets for “Hamilton”. We had some in the spring last year that were canceled. We figured scheduling them for January this year was a safe bet for things to be better. And they were going to be on my dad’s birthday, so I was so excited to get to spend my dad’s birthday with him. I know that it’s for the best that things are still canceled, but it doesn’t mean I can’t be a little upset about it.

So over the weekend, I worked on removing all my old recurring things in my calendar. It will be easy enough to add them back in when things start back up again. But it’s important for me now to have things on my schedule that I really have and not things that are reminders of what I was supposed to have and not getting to do.

I know it’s a bit silly to be upset about things like this, but when I have so little happening in my life and so much that I feel like I’m missing, every reminder of what my “normal” life was like hurts a bit. I’m glad it was an easy fix for me to make and that it didn’t take me a long time. And hopefully, now I can focus on making plans going forward and not looking back at what I was hoping to do.

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Default ThumbnailRemembering To Do What I Like (or Weird Disappearing Time) Default ThumbnailTrying To Plan Ahead (or Hopefully Things Will Normalize Soon) Default ThumbnailSocial Media Reminders (or Another Thing To Celebrate) Default ThumbnailAn Up and Down Workout Week (or a Weird Week and a Weird Milestone) Default ThumbnailFeeling Optimistic About My Jobs (or Working This Year Has Been Weird) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again)

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A Virtual Cheesecake Dinner (or Not Letting Anything Stop A Tradition)

Posted on January 14, 2021 | Comments Off on A Virtual Cheesecake Dinner (or Not Letting Anything Stop A Tradition)

As I’ve written about for several years, I have 2 traditions with my friend and birthday twin, Joanna. The first is our birthday dinner at Truxton’s. And the second is our cheesecake dinner around the new year. We turned our birthday dinner into a picnic, but we still got food from Truxton’s. While it didn’t feel exactly the same as what we normally do for our birthday, it was still fitting into our tradition and it made me happy.

When we were together for our birthday, I think we both thought by now things would be a bit more normal. So we assumed we would be having our cheesecake dinner the way that we are used to doing it. But as we all know, we are still very far from normal and it’s even more dangerous to be out with others now. We had decided to order from Cheesecake Factory to have our dinner, but we decided to not have a picnic. It was just safer for us both to be eating at our own homes. But we could still video chat so we could be together.

So we set it up so our food should arrive around the same time. It didn’t quite work out like that, but it wasn’t too bad. My food was to me sooner than Joanna’s food, but I ordered a salad so it was ok to wait a bit. And her food arrived at her house soon after.

It was a little weird to be eating on Zoom, but we both found it easier if we turned off the self-view on our screens. I don’t think I could have eaten while watching myself eat. I knew that Joanna could still see me eat, but somehow that’s different. We both also tried to do a little bit of nicer lighting so we could see each other, but it was nice to be a bit more casual than we normally are when we go out to dinner (for example, neither of us dressed up).

And while it wasn’t the same as being at dinner together, I’m so glad we did it. It was so nice to get to see Joanna and catch up like we normally do. And even though it was a bit odd to eat while on camera, it’s been a while since I’ve had a meal with someone else. So even virtually eating with someone so I wasn’t alone was nice and felt like I wasn’t as alone as I am.

Our conversation was like it always is. We both had a lot of random stuff to catch up on with our lives. And I love getting to catch up and hear all the crazy stories she has and I’m sure she loves my crazy stories too. And because we weren’t at a restaurant and felt like they needed our table or something, our virtual dinner was much longer than our dinners normally are! We were on Zoom together for over 3 hours! But I think we both needed the social time and I’m glad that neither of us needed to rush to something else.

Normally, I take a photo of our cheesecakes because we split cheesecake. We order 2 different slices and have them cut each slice in half so we each get half of each type. But that wasn’t possible for our virtual dinner. We both joked that we should order 2 slices to make it almost the same, but neither of us did (we didn’t need to spend the money or eat 2 pieces of cheesecake). We didn’t discuss our cheesecake choices before we ordered, but we both ended up getting tiramisu cheesecake. And we took a photo over Zoom to be our photo for the dinner.

Even though having a virtual dinner is better than skipping our dinner (we never would have skipped our tradition!), I still wish we could have had dinner together. We both are trying to be hopeful that by our birthday, we will be able to be having a meal in the same place. I don’t know if restaurants will be open (and safe) by then, but at least feeling safe going for a picnic with our food or maybe eating at my house. Just something so we can be in the same space.

But even if we have to do another virtual dinner together, I know we will not let anything stop us from our traditions and this proved that we are both as dedicated to make them happen as possible!

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Default ThumbnailCheesecake Dinner (or A Half Birthday Outing) Default ThumbnailAn Evening Of Cheesecake (or Just A Calm Dinner With My Birthday Twin) Default ThumbnailVery Belated New Years Cheesecake (or A Birthday Twin Dinner) Default ThumbnailA Socially Distant Picnic (or Still Having One Birthday Tradition) Default ThumbnailA Full Friend Day (or Cheesecake For Lunch And Drinks For Dinner) Default ThumbnailCheesecake With My Birthday Twin (or Continuing A New Tradition)

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How I Ended 2020 (or A Night Alone At Home)

Posted on January 7, 2021 | Comments Off on How I Ended 2020 (or A Night Alone At Home)

Most of the time, I spend New Year’s Eve with friends. I usually will go to a party where things tend to be pretty casual. I’m not a big fan of elaborate plans for New Year’s because things can be overpriced and very crowded. I like just having a relaxed night with friends where we celebrate but everything is pretty low-key.

When the pandemic started, I never thought we’d still be dealing with it by New Year’s Eve. I really thought things would be safe again by the 4th of July. Then maybe by  Halloween. I fully expected to be able to spend New Year’s Eve with my friends at a party and didn’t think too much about things.

But as it got closer and closer to the end of the year, reality set in and I knew there was no way that there would be any party or gathering with friends. Even trying to figure out a way to be safe with one friend didn’t seem to be possible. I know that I have pretty much been in quarantine for a while, but most of my friends don’t have that same luxury. So it just wouldn’t be safe to try to meet up with even one friend. So my New Year’s Eve was spent the way I have spent so much of 2020. Alone in my house.

It wasn’t the worst thing to be alone for New Year’s Eve, but it was still sad. It was sad to think about how things didn’t have to be this way with the pandemic. It was sad to think that there are people who I know aren’t dealing with the isolation as well as many of us are. It was sad to think that things were looking up because of the vaccine but they were still not looking that great.

My night was not really that exciting. I spent a lot of time watching tv and catching up on my DVR and streaming shows. I made some dinner. I sat around and texted with a few friends. And I was in bed by 11 pm. I did stay up until midnight, but I spent the last hour of 2020 reading in bed. And pretty soon after midnight, I went to sleep.

This wasn’t how I wanted to spend my New Year’s Eve. This wasn’t how I liked to spend my night. But it was how I needed to spend my night to stay safe and healthy and to do the right thing.

In some ways, it did seem fitting to end the year the way I spent so much of it. But at the same time, I would have loved to have ended the year in a happier and more fun way. I hope that this will be the only New Year’s Eve that I have to spend this way. I might choose to spend one like it, but I want it to be my choice. This was not what I wanted, but it was the only option I could have without taking a lot of risks that I’m not ok with taking.

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Default ThumbnailNew Year’s Eve In PJs (or I Think This Is Finally My Last NYE Post) Default ThumbnailRinging In 2018 (or Being Festive While Being Lazy On The Couch) Default ThumbnailNew Year’s Eve Fun (or Making Sure 2014 Is A Lucky Year) Default ThumbnailWelcoming 2017 (or The Start To My New Year’s Eve) Default ThumbnailA Very Low-Key NYE (or I’m Glad I Don’t Have To Impress My Friends) Default ThumbnailRinging In The New Year (or Fun With Glow Sticks)

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Making The Month A Little Less Lonely (or Still Trying To Find Challenges To Do While Isolated)

Posted on January 6, 2021 | Comments Off on Making The Month A Little Less Lonely (or Still Trying To Find Challenges To Do While Isolated)

I got another Volt Planner for 2021, so I’ll be doing another year full of goal setting! I love using this planner for setting weekly, monthly, and annual goals as well as monthly challenges. I also use it to track my daily intentions and my gratitude list. It is a planner so I can track other things, but that’s what I mainly use it for. When I was able to work out at the Orangetheory studios, I would also use it for some workout tracking. But since I’ve been working out at home, I don’t really do that.

It really is the perfect planner for me and I’ve been using them for several years now. I keep all my old planners because it’s interesting to see what I’ve accomplished and how far I’ve come. My collection is pretty decent so far.

My monthly challenges used to be much more excited. But since we’ve had to isolate at home, they are not as grand and much more personal. For December, my challenge was to get myself ready for 2021. And I did a fair amount of preparation with things I wanted to do like getting different parts of my house organized. But the plan to prep was sidetracked a bit by getting a new job. I think that’s a very good excuse to be sidetracked. And in a way, getting a new job was preparing me for this year. I needed a new job so I wouldn’t be struggling as much. But there was some other stuff I wanted to do that I didn’t get a chance to, like doing some rearranging of things in my kitchen. But nothing I didn’t do was urgent so I can get them done this month.

And for this month’s challenge, I was a bit inspired by the idea of how we’ve all been isolated for so long. And being isolated at home doesn’t have to mean being completely isolated from the people you love. I know that I have been isolating myself more than I’d like to, but it’s what happened to me when I was feeling low. It’s so much easier for me to ask a friend to get dinner or hang out if I’m lonely compared to asking if we could have some sort of virtual hangout. But virtual hangouts are really all we can do (with few exceptions).

So my challenge for this month is to not isolate myself from my friends completely and to make sure that I connect with someone that I care about every day. This means I can’t go run an errand like go get groceries and count seeing people in the store or talking to the cashier as a connection. This has to be with a friend or family member.

And I know there are different levels of being able to connect with someone. Right now, the thing that would make me happiest is seeing someone in person (outdoors and keeping a distance between us). This isn’t the easiest thing to do, and also not necessarily the safest for now. If I can make this happen, awesome. But I also understand that for now, I might not be able to do this at all this month. But it’s something to hope for. Next, would be doing a video call. These are totally safe, but so many people have Zoom/video chat fatigue. I get that. Then I would put phone calls next on my list and texts/message groups last.

My goal is to not just do texts every day with friends, but I know that there will be days where texts are the best I can do. I hopefully can have more phone and video calls with friends and family this month and continue that beyond this month until we can all safely meet in person.

I’ve been isolated at home for almost 10 months now, and it’s really getting to me. It’s easy to avoid people, but I know that it’s not the best thing for me to do. So hopefully this challenge this month will get me back to being more social in whatever ways I can and I can feel much better about the current situation. I need to figure out how to be happier while I wait for things to be safer. And I know having time with friends and family will help do that.

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Default ThumbnailRecapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself) Default ThumbnailAlmost Through A Year Of Monthly Challenges (or Picking A Good Challenge For November) Default ThumbnailNot Perfect This Month (or Challenged With The Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailStill Trying To Get Back To Normal (or Isolation Monthly Challenges Really Are Not Easy) Default ThumbnailGetting More Productive (or More Monthly Challenges) Default ThumbnailAnother Reminder That It’s Ok To Be Struggling (or We Might Be Isolated But Not Alone)

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

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Having Patience (or My Word For 2021)

Posted on January 5, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Patience (or My Word For 2021)

As I have done the past few years, I have decided on a word for 2021. My word for 2020 was Balance, and I think that kind of didn’t end up happening too much for me because of the pandemic. I wanted to balance out my life in so many different ways, but I was prevented from doing it because of circumstances that were out of my control. I tried to balance what I could, but I know that what I wanted to do with the idea of balance just didn’t happen.

When trying to pick a word for this year, I wanted to pick it with the understanding that I might be isolated at home for some or most of the year. I know that a lot of things that I have in mind with different words each year involve doing something that doesn’t involve just me. I need to be around others to work on the idea. But I finally settled on a word that I think is perfect for 2021 (and if I’m being honest, was kind of my word for 2020 without me knowing it).

My word for 2021 is Patience.

I need to have patience in so many aspects of life. I need to be patient with the pandemic and what is happening. I need to be patient with getting the vaccine and having some sense of my old life back. I need to be patient with myself when it comes to my workouts and working on recovering from my eating disorder. There is so much that I need to be patient with in 2021. I think it’s the perfect word for me.

Even though I didn’t end up wearing my bracelet that much in 2020 since I rarely was out doing anything, I still ordered a bracelet for 2021 from MantraBand. I feel like that also makes me feel a bit more hopeful that I will be out and wearing jewelry this year. But even if I only wear it a few times, I like having it as a reminder even just seeing it in my room each day. And I do love the sayings that are on the packaging.

“Everything worthwhile takes time to become. Practice patience with others, and with yourself. Because there is nothing that patience and time can’t resolve.”

I feel like that perfectly describes why I picked patience to be my word this year.

The final part of my routine with my words each year is to change up the background on all the different devices that I use. I only include the word on my computer background (my phone and iPad are only the image without the word). But every year, I have put the word in the middle of the background image and I feel like I never see it. So this time, I moved the word to the side and I will see it almost all the time that I am on my computer. I like this change already, and it’s only been a few days.

I picked the image because it was pretty and I liked the colors. But after a day, I realized that it looks like Spaceship Earth at EPCOT. I wasn’t trying to make it a Disney thing, but it unintentionally became a Disney thing! I love that too and whenever I see the image it makes me smile.

I spent a lot of time in 2020 being patient and now I need to continue to do that and build up that skill in 2021. Patience is what will keep me safe and healthy. Patience will get me through this time. I know it’s not easy and I will have plenty of time that I’m impatient and frustrated, but I just need to keep reminding myself that patience will pay off and I will be able to get to the other side of all this eventually.

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Default ThumbnailFinding Balance (or My Word For 2020) Default ThumbnailMy Word Of 2016 (or I’m Going To Be Strong) Default ThumbnailReflecting On My 2019 Word (or Did I Trust Enough Or Too Much?) Default ThumbnailWorking On Being A Warrior (or Something To Remind Me) Default ThumbnailMy Word For 2018 (or Time To Be Fearless) Default ThumbnailHaving My Patience Tested (or Taking Deep Breaths)

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Posted in Fun Stuff

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