Category Archives: Fun Stuff

My 2021 Goals (or Preparing For A Year With Lots Of Unknowns)

Posted on January 1, 2021 | Comments Off on My 2021 Goals (or Preparing For A Year With Lots Of Unknowns)

Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a great New Year’s Eve, even if you were home alone like I was. I’ll be writing more about my New Year’s, but for now, I wanted to kick off the year with my 2021 goals.

Setting goals for this year was a little different from what I normally do. I have no clue when things will be more normal and we won’t have to be isolating ourselves. I hope that by the summer, things will start reopening again, but we have no clue. So I had to create goals that wouldn’t be affected if a majority of the year is spent at home and isolating myself from others.

The first goal shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s one that I’ve had a lot. I want to do at least 200 workouts in 2021. My plan is for these workouts to mainly be Orangetheory workouts, whether it’s in the studio or at home. Once I can go work out with others, I plan on the workouts all being at Orangetheory. But at home, I’m a bit more open to trying other workouts that are available online. I do love the Orangetheory at Home videos, but I also want to allow for some flexibility in case I feel in a rut or that I need a bit of a change. It’s still not easy for me to work out at home by myself. But I know I can do it and I feel confident that I will be able to do at least 200 workouts again this year.

My next goal is another repeat and one I’ve talked about recently. I want to work on my budget this year. I know that this won’t be easy because my job situation isn’t as stable as it’s been in the past, but I cannot let that be an excuse anymore. My hours with my new job are going to be pretty stable starting next week. And I should know soon about my hours with my data entry job, and once those are figured out they should be stable as well. The only big unknown for my income is my box office job. I don’t know when I’ll be asked back or how many hours I might get. But I still need to budget with what I do know and start making a plan so that I have things in order when I do have more steady income and I have things I want to use my money on.

Next is something that I’ve been doing a lot since I’ve had to isolate myself at home. I want to keep my house organized and continue to find the best way to maximize the space that I have. 2020 was a year that I discovered that I have a lot of things I don’t use or don’t have in the best spot to make sure I use them. I have things in my kitchen that I know I don’t use, and they are taking up space. And I have gotten new things for my kitchen and nowhere to put them. I’m looking at storage solutions for inside my house, but with space being limited I have to be careful what I bring in. The same goes for my bathroom. I don’t have any counter space, so I have to keep things on a shelf I have and in my medicine cabinet. The space is limited and I know I have things there that I don’t use or need. Organizing my house will be an ongoing project throughout the entire year, but I’m excited to see what my house will look like as I continue to work on this.

The next goal is a combination of a few ideas. I want to try more, take more risks, and be ok with accepting possible failure. Now, this doesn’t include my health or safety so I will not be taking risks by going out until it is safe to do so. But this is more about not limiting myself to things that only make me comfortable. If I want to take a chance in my acting career, I should go for it so I don’t wonder “what if?”. If I want to take a chance with online dating and say how I really feel to a guy, then I should do it without worrying that I might scare him off. If I want to try cooking something new, I don’t want to be afraid that I will ruin it because that might happen and that’s ok. It’s not easy to accept failure, but it’s a part of life and I want to be better at dealing with it.

And my last goal is a bit more about whatever time we are still isolating at home. I want to be ok with asking for help and support. There is no question that 2020 was a difficult year for me in so many ways. Being lonely and isolated is something that I’ve never dealt with to this degree. And I wasn’t as open about how much I was struggling as I could have been. I never reached out to a friend saying I needed a phone call or video call instead of just texts. It’s not easy for me to do this for a few reasons. One is that I don’t want to feel like a burden, even though I know that isn’t how my friends feel about me. But the bigger problem is that I haven’t been good at recognizing when I need to ask for support. Sometimes I don’t realize I could have used the help until I get over that feeling. I need to be a bit more aware and mindful about this and make sure I reach out when I need it.

I feel like these are some good goals for 2021. I feel confident that I should be able to make progress on all of them. I might not end this year saying I was successful in all of them, but I don’t think that I will be a total failure in them either. Hopefully, these goals help me to make 2021 a good year for me. Whether the entire year is spent in isolation or if I am able to go out and be social for a part of the year. I feel like I’m prepared for almost any possibility of what this year might look like, and that I will find ways to continue to better myself and grow as a person.

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Looking Back At My 2020 Goals (or Some Wins and Some Not Wins)

Posted on December 31, 2020 | Comments Off on Looking Back At My 2020 Goals (or Some Wins and Some Not Wins)

We are finally at the end of 2020! I know that things won’t magically change tomorrow because it’s a new year, but the new year brings hope that we’ve all been needing. I fully believe that I will be able to get the vaccine in 2021 and that some sense of normalcy will be returning. It may not be until the end of 2021, but it’s still something to look forward to.

And as I do at the end of every year, it’s time for me to look back at the goals that I set for 2020. Obviously, the pandemic changed a lot in my life and about 75% of my year was spent isolating at home. But I’m happy that I was able to get a few of my goals done, even if they weren’t the way I expected them to happen. And I’ll take a look at each goal on its own.

My first goal was to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes. As I am writing this post, I haven’t done my last workout for the year. But when I do, I will have done 204 workouts for the year. These workouts were not the way I planned on doing them. I was only in the studio until mid-March and then every other workout was done at home. I’ve built a nice little home gym setup, something that I never expected to have. I’ve been able to motivate myself when nobody is holding me accountable. I might not have done as tough of workouts as I’m used to, but I still did over 200 workouts this year.

My next goal was to cook more often. And that definitely happened. I might have ordered more delivery food than I would have liked, but I didn’t really go out to any restaurants this year. So I think it probably balanced out. I found some new easy recipes that I can make with minimal effort. I still don’t love cooking the way that I want to, but I’m getting much closer. This is one goal that I think the pandemic helped me with because I was forced into it.

The next goal was to work on my home organization. If only I knew then how often I’d be working on organizing and cleaning my house this year. A lot of organizing was more about staying busy and having something to do that day. But I still got myself more organized. I have more projects that I want to work on, but those have been figured out as I work with new systems in my house and seeing what I’m missing or needing. Having limited space does make things tough, but I’m looking at new options for storage that will help me keep all the new organization I’ve done.

The next goal was to work on job hunting and my budget. I think this one was a bit of a fail, but not a total fail. I’ve already written about my lack of budgeting work this year. It was hard to feel motivated to budget when I wasn’t working. And I wasn’t planning on job hunting to be during a tie when so many people were out of work. But I did continue to apply for work and hope for the best. And I did get a new job this year, but it wasn’t from my job hunting efforts. But it was because I was being open about needing work and continuing to build skill sets. I hope that I will be able to get my budget in order soon again, but not doing it for the majority of 2020 really did set me back a bit.

Next is a goal that almost makes me laugh. It was to be more social and have more fun. I actually wrote about how being home was something I do too much of and need to not do as often. Again, if only I knew then that I’d basically be trapped at home for the year. I don’t know if I can say I was more social. I did create new virtual social opportunities like the Movie Club I run twice a week. And I’ve become really good friends with many of the women in that group. Many of us agree that our becoming friends has been the one good part of this year. But my goal was to get out more and I clearly couldn’t do that.

And my final goal was to be more active in union service and working on my acting career more. I think I have become more active in union service. Just creating the You Are The Union live-stream has made me more involved. And I’ve had a lot more time to be involved and stay informed. So that’s good. But as far as my acting career goes, besides getting better at doing self-tape auditions, I haven’t done much. But I’m hopeful that soon I’ll be able to do more as things become safer again.

Considering this past year, I am proud of what I did. So many of the goals I didn’t do were out of my control. And I did find ways to make some of these goals happen when the original way I planned no longer was a possibility. Also, the goals I set for myself are not requirements for the year. Failing to accomplish one or two is ok. But overall, I’m happy with what I did and how I didn’t allow this crazy and challenging year to stop me from trying my best.

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Merry Christmas! (or I Hope You Are All Finding Ways To Celebrate!)

Posted on December 25, 2020 | Comments Off on Merry Christmas! (or I Hope You Are All Finding Ways To Celebrate!)

Merry Christmas everyone! As my posts on Christmas usually are, this is going to be a bit of a short one.

I normally would say that I hope that you are all celebrating Christmas with the people you love. But this year is different. As much as I want you all to be around friends and family, I know that many of you can’t. It’s so tough not spending a holiday with your family. I experienced that on Thanksgiving. But I know that not being with family on Thanksgiving was necessary to make sure none of us get the others sick. And I know that many of you know that about Christmas as well.

I hope if you celebrate Christmas, you can still find a way to celebrate even if you are alone. A virtual holiday isn’t as good as an in-person one, but it does help. So I also hope that those of you missing family can see them on a video chat today. And if you spending time alone and that’s what you wanted to do, I hope that it’s exactly how you wanted it to be.

For me, I usually spend Christmas alone. It’s not a big deal to be missing family today since I don’t usually see them. I’ll probably just be lazy around my house. But that’s ok with me and what I expected to be doing. It’s still a little harder than normal because I am feeling lonely all the time, but I’ll be ok and I know that soon enough things will be able to open again.

So I hope you all have an awesome Christmas (or Jewish Christmas), that you get fun presents, and you are able to be happy today!

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And Another Virtual Party (or A Secret Santa Hangout)

Posted on December 23, 2020 | Comments Off on And Another Virtual Party (or A Secret Santa Hangout)

In past years, this was the time that it seemed like there were dozens of holiday parties to go to. This year, this is the time that there are dozens of virtual parties to go to. The benefit of virtual parties is that you don’t have to worry about driving from one location to another. You might get tired of sitting at your computer, but you can party hop a lot easier when they are virtual. I’ve been pretty lucky with the timing of virtual parties and they haven’t really been overlapping, but it has been keeping me busy.

In the past week, I think I’ve had 4 virtual parties. That’s not a ton, but it’s been more virtual hangout time than I normally do. But they have all been really fun parties. And one of them was a gift-opening party for one of my Secret Santa groups.

Not everyone who participated in our Secret Santa exchange was on our Zoom hangout, but we had a good-sized group. And most of the time we were on Zoom, we weren’t doing any Secret Santa stuff. We were being silly, sharing stories, and just having a nice time being social. This group is a Facebook group that I only know virtually. We’ve had other Zoom hangouts, but we’ve never met in person. And some of the people who were at the Secret Santa party were new to a Zoom hangout. It was so nice to be able to put voices to the profiles I’ve seen online.

I was a little late to this hangout because of work, but I only missed a little bit. But it was really nice to have it after work because it broke up my day. Even though I was still at my computer, it felt like a clear end time to work and start time for having fun. That’s something I’ve been missing a lot since the pandemic started. I used to try to run errands or something after work to have a clean break from work time. Now, I know I could go for a walk or something but I really don’t have a lot of opportunities to do much else.

It was so nice to have a nice just being social and having fun. And of course, we opened our presents while we were together on Zoom. The person I bought gifts for was on the Zoom, so I was able to see how happy she was with what I got her (I got her something she specifically said she wanted plus a few other things that I thought she might like). She seemed very excited to get the thing she asked for, and that made me really happy too.

My Secret Santa was not on the Zoom hangout, but I understood that not everyone could be there. But she got me some really amazing things! I got a candle that has my favorite scents, some nice hand cream, face masks, and chocolate!

I loved it! Nothing was extravagant, but they felt like special things since they weren’t things I usually buy for myself. And any presents I get from someone always feels special. Even though my Secret Santa doesn’t know me in real life, she picked out some really great things for me and I could tell that she paid attention to the forms we filled out with what we like.

Our virtual hangout ended up lasting several hours because we were all just enjoying talking to each other. I know we should try to do them more often, but it’s tough. We all have different schedules and I know many of us have Zoom fatigue. But this was such a nice time and so relaxing compared to many other things we all have to do on Zoom these days. We’ve all joked that when the pandemic is done, we will have to travel somewhere to all meet in real life. But for now, meeting up virtually is what we can do. And if I’m being honest, if we weren’t in a pandemic, I don’t think we would have done this. So making a lot of new friends is one good thing to come out of this really hard year.

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A Virtual Holiday Party (or Missing My Union So Much)

Posted on December 22, 2020 | Comments Off on A Virtual Holiday Party (or Missing My Union So Much)

I’ve been getting more and more involved with my union. A lot of my involvement has been related to union service, such as being a delegate and attending board meetings. And being involved with union service is important since the members are leaders of the union. Even though we have staff, so much of what the union can do is because of the membership. So being involved in union service is something I try to do a lot of and try to encourage others to do so as well.

But I also have been trying over the years to do more fun things with the union too. And there are normally a lot of fun opportunities, such as going to screenings and attending classes and Q&A interviews. And a few times a year, there are big social events for the union. The biggest one in my opinion is the annual holiday party!

I’ve attended the holiday party for the past several years. I haven’t always been able to attend, but I always try my best. And it’s just a good fun time. It’s all about being social with other members. There is food, lots of photo opportunities, and lots of time to just talk to each other. Since there is no real agenda for the holiday party, it’s a great time to catch up with union members I haven’t seen for a while and to meet new members. Since most of the members I know are also involved in union service and a lot of members aren’t involved, it’s always been a time that I get to meet a lot of new people.

It can be a little overwhelming being in a big crowd when you don’t know everyone, but I’ve never regretted going. Sometimes I don’t stay too long, but I always go when I can and I always leave feeling so happy.

So with everything going on this year, missing the holiday party was just another thing that couldn’t happen. But that didn’t mean that it was completely gone. Normally, the holiday party is for the Los Angeles Local, so it’s only members from LA that are a part of it. But this year, with everyone getting used to having virtual hangouts, they made the holiday party a virtual one! And it was with union leaders from all over the country!

There were different videos that were included in the virtual party that highlighted different Locals within the union. And it was very positive and upbeat about how we have made it this far during the pandemic and soon things will be going back to how we are used to having them. Film and TV have started up again but at a very reduced capacity. I think everyone is ready for the entertainment industry to be back up and running and all of the leaders were very encouraging about that happening soon. We can’t control when the pandemic will end, but we can be prepared for when it happens so we can get back to work.

There was also some entertainment at the virtual party. Since our union covers singers too, we have amazing singers in the leadership. And there was even a short video with a cooking demonstration. It was really cute and I loved what they were able to put together.

I did miss out on seeing my friends and meeting new people, but that’s how I’ve been feeling about this entire year. I’m hoping it won’t be too long before we can all be together again. And I know I will appreciate it even more. And I hope that next year, they can do both the in-person and virtual holiday party. I love the in-person one because I get to meet so many members that live in LA. But I loved the virtual one and how it included members all over the country! That feeling of unity was wonderful and I want to continue feeling that.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens next year with the party (or parties). But I’ve got my fingers crossed that we will have 2 parties in a year!

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Sending Out More Holiday Cheer (or Hope This Makes People Smile)

Posted on December 17, 2020 | Comments Off on Sending Out More Holiday Cheer (or Hope This Makes People Smile)

Along with doing some Secret Santa exchanges, I like to celebrate the holidays each year by sending out cards. I started doing this several years ago. At first, I was unsure about sending out cards since it seems like only people with kids were doing it. But I realized that it can be fun to send them out on my own as well. I have never done photo cards, but a few of my single friends have given me some inspiration for ideas in the future if I want to do photo cards. But for now, I’ve been sticking with non-photo cards.

Most years, I find pre-made cards and just buy enough for how many I’ll be sending out. When I didn’t have too many to send, regular cards with envelopes were fine with me. But as my holiday card list got bigger, sending out cards got a bit more expensive. So in recent years, I have switched to getting postcards since they are about half the price to mail. The selection of holiday postcards isn’t as great, but there are still a lot of options.

But this year, I wasn’t finding any that I liked that were in my budget. I knew I needed about 100 cards, and there were a lot that I loved that were about $15 for 10 cards. That’s just way too much for me. So I decided to make my own cards this year.

I took a little inspiration from some of the ones I liked when I was looking around but I wanted to change it up. Then I went into Canva to design it since I knew they would have the right dimensions for a postcard. Originally, I wasn’t planning on using one of their layouts, but I looked at them and found one that I liked that I could modify to be what I wanted. It was all pretty easy to put together. My original plan was to take the image and send it somewhere to print (like to an office supply store), but while I was doing some adjustments in Canva I noticed there was an option to order postcards directly from them. They weren’t too expensive, so I decided to go with them.

There was also an option to have them address and mail the postcards, but I wasn’t done getting updated addresses from everyone and finishing my list. So I had them shipped to me and I was going to make my own address labels and mail them myself. Maybe one year, I’ll have cards addressed and mailed for me, but it’s an extra cost so I’m not sure if the convenience is worth it yet.

I finally got my cards addressed and mailed and my friends should be getting them any day now. So I figure it’s safe to show what I made.

I feel like this ended up being the perfect card for this year. I did want it to look a bit cheery since it is a holiday card, but I didn’t want to pretend that this year was great. I had seen a lot of cards that were themed around this year being tough. And that seemed to be the right idea to represent my year and to put a little comedy in the cards.

Hopefully, all of my friends will like the card. I know how much I love getting fun things in the mail, which is one of the reasons I send cards out each year. But I also hope that this makes them smile a bit. It’s been so tough for everyone with everything going on. We want to look forward to next year, but it’s hard when we are still stuck in this year with all the struggles. But this card is a reminder that we should hopefully have a better 2021. This year is almost over and we are going to be going into a year that has a vaccine and maybe at some point next year it will be safe to start doing the things we all miss so much.

So suck it 2020! You were a horrible year. Yes, there were good moments, but overall it was awful. Good riddance to this year and here’s to what should be a better year ahead!

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Having Fun Doing Gift Shopping (or Keeping Secret Santa To My Budget)

Posted on December 11, 2020 | Comments Off on Having Fun Doing Gift Shopping (or Keeping Secret Santa To My Budget)

For the past few years, I’ve participated in different Secret Santa exchanges. Sometimes they are with big groups where I have no clue who I’m getting to buy gifts for and who is getting them for me. And sometimes they are smaller groups where I do know everyone and it’s just fun to get to shop for someone that I normally wouldn’t shop for. I love doing these and if I had the money I would participate in more of them. But I do have to be mindful of how much I spend so I do limit the ones I do.

This year, I’m doing 2 Secret Santa groups. One is through Reddit and one is through a Facebook group. With Reddit, I would be shocked if I matched with someone I knew, but I guess it could happen since I have friends who use the site. But I don’t think I’ve ever given a gift to someone I know on there or have gotten a gift from someone I know. But for the Facebook group, even though I don’t know the people in real life, we are a close-knit group online and I feel like I know the people in there.

I love buying gifts and figuring out the perfect thing to get someone. It is a little easier when I’m buying a gift for someone in my family because I know them well. But fortunately, the Secret Santa groups have us fill out forms that say what we like. So I have an idea of what to get someone and sometimes I find a really perfect thing.

I remember one year I found a book about the science of cooking for someone who said they wanted to cook but also wanted to understand the chemistry behind different cooking methods. Another year, someone said they liked cute things that looked like food and I found a set of erasers that were shaped like cookies. Both of those times, I heard back from the person I gave them to and they thanked me for getting them something they love. That’s an amazing feeling! And it’s not about how much I spend or what exactly I get them, it’s about finding the perfect thing even if it’s not something that is expensive.

I’ve completed the shopping for one of my exchanges so far and I’m hoping to do the shopping for the other this weekend. Both exchanges have a limit of about $30. I have gone over that before if I find something really perfect. The exchange this year that I found the things for already was like that. I didn’t want to just get one thing, I found 3 that I think will be perfect. But the 3 things together went about $5 over budget. But it’s worth it to me. I will hopefully find out soon what they think about the gifts.

I know that I should be saving money and not spending when I don’t have to, but doing Secret Santa exchanges are more than just about gifts to me. They make me happy. They bring a lot of joy to me and that’s something I know I need. And I need that especially this year. There haven’t been a lot of joyful things, so I want to take advantage of it any time I can. And of course, I’m excited to get presents too and I can’t wait to see what I end up getting. But for me, it’s so much more aobut being able to shop for others than it is for getting stuff back.

I’ve also made small donations to friends who are collecting for present shopping for families who need help. I didn’t feel like I could take on a family on my own, but joining together with friends will allow us to do something nice for a family in need to make sure they have a nice holiday season.

Hopefully, everyone I get presents for enjoys them. I know I’ve been enjoying shopping for them. And maybe this will make this month a little bit better for everyone involved. That’s all we can hope for right now. This is the year to spread joy however you can, and Secret Santa exhanges are the perfect way for me to do it.

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Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

Posted on December 10, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

For most of this year, I haven’t had too much of a schedule. Once I had my work hours reduced, most of my days were free. When I lost my old customer service job, I did continue to log into our chat systems a few mornings a week to check in with my manager and to see if she needed me to help with anything. I wasn’t being paid to do that, but I also wasn’t really working. I mainly did it so I had something that I needed to do each morning. I didn’t want to get into a bad habit of sleeping in and not doing much each day. So those mornings helped to keep me on track.

Even when I’ve mostly been out of work, I rarely sleep in. There are 2 days a week that I can, but I don’t sleep in that often. Sometimes I’ll sleep in one of those days, but I have been pretty good about making sure I keep my sleep schedule somewhat consistent. The issue has been that I haven’t been going to sleep at the same time that I used to, so that was making me tired. I’ve been working on getting my sleep more on schedule, and I’m slowly getting there.

And now, I actually have a schedule to work with again. It’s not too crazy because  I’m only working a few hours each day, but it’s still something. And my schedule right now isn’t the same every day. It may get that way when I’m done with training and fully working. But right now, my schedule shifts each day to be a different time so I can be trained with different things.

Even with my old work schedule being slightly different each day, having a schedule that isn’t consistent from day to day is still tough to get used to. And because I’ve also been dealing with having almost no schedule for a while, I haven’t been great with time management. I only have had a few things I need to do each day and it didn’t really matter when I did them. So I got pretty lazy with when I was doing stuff. If I didn’t get to something until late at night, that was fine. I could put some things off for a day without it being an issue. I could do the things I wanted to do when I wanted to do them without worrying about a scheduling conflict.

Now, I still have a lot of flexibility, but I also have to be mindful about my schedule and making sure that I don’t start working on something right before I have to focus on something else. It’s not a big deal, but it’s enough of a change for me to really pay attention to what time it is and what I have to do each day. And I’m sure I’ve had this feeling before when I went from being unemployed to having a job, but it’s also a bit different because I’m still not going out to do things and most of the things I’m doing are in my home. So it feels a little less like a schedule than when I would have to go out for things and plan for traffic.

If I got my old job back before I started this new one, I would guess I would struggle almost more. Especially if I was brought back to my full schedule. It’s not easy to go from having almost all the free time in the world to a set schedule. At least with my new job, my schedule is only a few hours so I can still have a lot of the flexibility that I’m used to. I’m easing into the idea of having a schedule again. And I think I’m going to build upon it even more than I need to. While I don’t need to blog at the same time every day, I’d like to have that as a part of my schedule. I’ve also been doing my workouts at different times based on when I get up and going and I know that having a set schedule would be better for me. Especially if I think I might start trying the outdoor workouts. And I want to make my time to watch tv or do other lazy things set times instead of accidentally wasting away most of a day because I’m not focused on making sure I do other things.

I know that it might be a while before I need to have a more set schedule like what I’m thinking of doing, but I have the luxury right now to take my time to get back to that. I don’t have to worry about being on a schedule immediately. I can play around with things and see how it goes. Right now, it’s not a lot that has to be done at a specific time, but there are things that need to be that way. And I need to make other parts of my life work around it. But I see this as a positive thing. I’ve been a bit aimless lately and this will hopefully get me to feel a bit more grounded. Maybe this will help me get other things on track in my life. I don’t know if it will and I’m not expecting it. But it would be something nice if it did happen.

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Default ThumbnailWorking On Productivity (or Taking Advantage Of The Slow Season) Default ThumbnailMaking Up A Schedule (or What To Do With My New Free Time) Default ThumbnailScheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment) Default ThumbnailReadjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule) Default ThumbnailProductive One Way And Slacking In Another (or Working On Finding Time) Default ThumbnailBeing Grateful To Have A Bit Of A Schedule (or Trying To Not Waste My Days)

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Another Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training)

Posted on December 9, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training)

My job situation has been not great since March. Even though I was still working my customer service job a bit from March until the beginning of August, I was only working limited hours. There was a point where I was only checking the voicemails and not doing much else with work. And since August, I’ve only been working my data entry job and that is already limited hours.

In normal times, job hunting is tough. Especially for me with trying to find a remote job. But job hunting during a pandemic is another thing. In one sense, almost all jobs are remote so that helps me a bit. But so many people are out of work so it’s been hard to even get to a job interview. I’ve been spending time every day looking for jobs and applying, with no luck. But then recently, a friend let me know about a job opening at their company.

They work for a social media management company and there was a position open to help with customer engagement. It was only about 1 hour a day, but any work right now is really good. So I sent in my resume and had a phone interview with the owner of the company. I’ve actually met the owner before through my friend, so the interview was pretty casual. I felt pretty good that I would be offered the job because of my background in other social media work. But in my phone interview, the owner and I started talking about my job situation and I mentioned how I was pretty much out of work. The owner had mentioned there might be an opening in their customer care department and I shared some of my stories from my job. He asked if I’d be interested in interviewing for the other position as well, and I said yes.

Last week, I had a Zoom interview for the customer care job. I made sure I was sitting in the spot in my house with the best lighting and I propped up my laptop so that it would be a better angle. I don’t have a stand or anything for my laptop, so I just stacked some books and mail and it worked.

The interview was with their customer care manager and my friend, so it ended up being pretty casual. But I felt really good about things after it and just hoped for the best. And on Monday, I found out I got the customer care job!

Between the 2 jobs, it will still be part-time work, but that’s ok with me. I still have my data entry job and there might be more hours for me in the future. I also still hope that I will be back to my other customer service job once theater shows are safer to go to. But for now, going from pretty much out of work to having a regular part-time job is amazing!

This week I’ll be doing training every day and I’m not sure when I’ll officially be starting with my hours. But I’m not worried about that. I’m just excited that I have a new job since this is something I’ve been working on for a while. And like all the other jobs I’ve had recently, this is another job through a friend. I don’t know why it’s ended up that way, but it is true that you have a better chance of getting a job. And I’ve been lucky that my friends have been referring me to jobs that are perfect for me.

Having a new job is a great way to end this year and start next year. I hope that is a sign of other positive things to come my way! And I’m so happy that not only do I have a new job (which I needed), but it’s a new job I’m excited about. That makes things even better.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Time A Friend Found Me A Job (or It Really Is About Who Knows You) Default ThumbnailInterview Time! (or Maybe I Can Find Another Perfect Day Job) Default ThumbnailI Got A New Day Job, Sort Of (or Maybe I Won’t Be Unemployed For Long) Default ThumbnailTraining Day At A New Possible Job (or Next Time, I’ll Give Myself 3 Hours To Get There) Default ThumbnailDay Job News (or Things Are Getting Better) Default ThumbnailFeeling A Bit More Luck (or Hopefully This Was Just A Bad Phase)

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Trying More New Beauty Routines In Quarantine (or Anything To Keep Things Interesting)

Posted on December 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying More New Beauty Routines In Quarantine (or Anything To Keep Things Interesting)

Since March, I’ve been trying to find things to do to keep me busy. I’ve organized my house more times this year than I have in all the other years I’ve lived here combined. I’ve cleaned a lot. I’ve spent time catching up on tv and books. I’ve found new virtual hangouts to do. I need to fill my time with something and I’m always looking for something to do.

I have done a few things to change my beauty routine this year, but a lot of that has come from what life is like now. I changed my face washing routine because I’m rarely wearing makeup. I haven’t been using heat on my hair because I spend almost every day with my hair pinned back and I don’t care too much about what it looks like. I’ve tried to take more time for self-care practices, including beauty routines because I have the time. Again, it’s just stuff to change up my life a bit and to keep me busy.

My hair has had a journey over my lifetime. When I was younger, I alternated between having short or long hair. It used to be pretty curly but at some point, I feel like it lost the curl. It might have been when I was about 14 and I grew my hair very long. It was so long that I could sit on it. Then I cut it to my chin for no reason. I’ve had a lot of time where there are a lot of bald spots, due to my alopecia. I’ve dyed my hair so many colors (including one time I went blonde). My hair used to be thick, but now it’s thinning. And it’s going gray. I don’t hate my hair, but it’s not as good as I remember it being in the past. And not using heat on my hair has seemed to be doing some good.

But not using heat on my hair also means it isn’t looking that great. It’s almost half straight and half curly. It’s weird how it gets like that. But seeing the curl come back a bit has made me curious about letting my hair be curly again. I know that if it’s curly, sometimes it can seem a bit fuller and not as flat. But I’ve never really had my hair curly as an adult or with longer hair.

I’ve had several friends post about how they are doing the Curly Girl Method during quarantine. Since there might be a time period where your hair is adjusting, doing this when you aren’t going to see people is a good plan. And so many of them have posted amazing photos of what their hair looked like. So I decided to try it myself.

I’m still very early into trying this. I have found a few products to test out and try, but I’m not sure if they aren’t working or if I’m just in that weird time period where my hair is adjusting. But it is much curlier than it’s ever been. I don’t know if it looks healthier yet, but it is interesting to see how much my hair can hold a curl just by changing up my hair routine a bit.

There’s a lot of new stuff I need to learn with letting my hair go curly. And I’m still learning a lot. I’m trying to not do too much at first because I need to see what works and what doesn’t. Also, I don’t want to overwhelm myself with this new process and give up. I really want to give this a chance and see what happens. And if after a while, I really don’t like how my hair looks, I don’t have to keep doing it. I can go back to my old routine at any point. But with so many people saying that it took a month or two before they really noticed a difference, I don’t want to give up before I really try.

I know there are other ways to let my hair stay curly without doing the official stuff from the Curly Girl Method. But this seems to be a good place to start since there is so much information out there from them. And I know there are different forums and groups that I can join to get advice or ask random questions. Plus, since this is how many of my friends have let their hair go curly, I know I can ask them and they are familiar with the method.

Hopefully, in a month or two, I’ll have a better idea of how this goes and if I’m on the right track for letting my hair stay curly. And if I’m hating it, at least I’m not seeing anyone in person so it’s ok if my hair looks awful.

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Default ThumbnailSelf-Care Is So Important (or At-Home Beauty) Default ThumbnailCoconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick) Default ThumbnailWorking On Self-Care (or Continuing To Try To Fill My Day) Default ThumbnailI Guess This Made My Life A Bit Interesting (or An Outing To Urgent Care) Default ThumbnailDoing Some Beautification (or Feeling Better From The Outside In) Default ThumbnailFeeling Refreshed (or Looking Good While Babysitting)

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