Posted onJune 21, 2023|Comments Off on Fitting In Social Time (or Taking Advantage Of My Weekends)
Since the start of the pandemic, I feel like my social life has taken a big hit. At first, it was due to trying to be safe during the worst of the pandemic and staying isolated at home. I slowly started to see friends again, but so much had changed just a few months into the pandemic. Many of my friends moved away so they weren’t around to hang out with. Once I started my social media job, I worked a lot more hours than I used to and didn’t feel like going out after work. I was used to being done with work at 3pm, and now I was done at 5 or 6pm. That’s a big difference with free time after work. And since I get up so early in the morning to work out, I don’t like to go out after work because I know I need my sleep.
I’ve tried to be more social in the past year or two, but it’s still not easy. It’s never easy to make new friends as an adult, but it seems even harder now. I’ve been working on making the most of the friendships that I already have or seeing people that I felt were acquaintances more so they become friends, but my social circle does feel pretty small. It is still better than what it was like at the beginning of the pandemic because at least I have my workouts in the morning and that gets me out and around people. And because I usually see the same people every week, I have gotten to know them. It’s better than nothing, but still, I know I need to be with friends more.
Since I don’t really like to go out after work (although I have been trying to do so when something has to occur then), I’ve been trying to do more over the weekends. I know I need to take some time over the weekend to relax and reset to be ready for the next week, but I don’t have to do that for the entire weekend every weekend. And one of the easier ways I’ve been able to make time for my friends over the weekend is to go to brunch on Sundays. I’ve been able to do this a few times over the past month and it’s been really great for my mental health.
Brunch is so casual and easy, so I don’t have to stress too much about planning it or making it a big event. And most of my friends feel the same way about brunch so we don’t dress up to impress each other. It’s nice to be able to fit that social time in between other errands that I have to do on the weekend, but I’ve also been trying to make an effort to do as many errands as possible on Saturdays to keep my Sundays free for more fun things.
Not only have these brunches been a great chance for me to catch up with friends that I don’t see that often, but it’s been fun exploring new places around LA. I didn’t set out to do this, but all the brunches I’ve had recently have been at restaurants I haven’t been to before. When I do go out for meals, I tend to go to the same places over and over again. So finding new places has been something I probably needed to do and these brunches have been a great excuse to do just that.
I know that I can’t just expect to have brunches with friends planned and I have to make an effort to make them happen as well. But I do feel a bit more motivated to do these since they fit into my schedule a lot better than other things I have been trying to fit in. I’ve been trying to make myself be better about going out in the evenings when I knew I didn’t want to. And I finally feel like I found a good option for friend hangouts that fit into my schedule and my life. And maybe this will push me to be more social in other aspects of my life, but I’m just happy with finding something that gets me out in the world more and feel a bit more like the old me.
Posted onJune 7, 2023|Comments Off on Giving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer)
I feel like I’m picking the right monthly challenges at the right time. I seem to know that I will need to do something in the coming month and focusing on it really allows me to make sure I do what I need to do. Sometimes I don’t know why I need to do something until the month is over, but it’s always a great lesson for me. And this past month was no exception.
The overall challenge I set for myself was to be ok with not being perfect. I wanted to let myself use that idea for different things throughout the month, but it mainly concentrated on one part of my life. And that was how I plan out my blog posts. I’m almost 11 years into writing and until May I wrote a post every weekday. Coming up with 5 posts a week is not easy. Sometimes I have ideas for each day and I can be excited about what I want to write about. But more often, I struggle to come up with ideas and I know that my posts can become repetitive. So my challenge with not being perfect was about being ok with not writing every single day.
As you can tell from the posts I posted last month, I did go down to 2 posts a week. My Monday post was my workout recap and then my Wednesday post was about something else. I debated if I wanted to also do a Friday post because I did have things that I wanted to write about, but I knew that it would be a better challenge if I did limit myself to just 2 posts a week. Sometimes I didn’t write about things as quickly as I normally would. For example, this post would have been on Thursday or Friday last week if I had my old writing schedule. I had to be more selective about what I was going to share, but that also allowed me to not focus on turning things I do into posts. I liked not having that stress and I know that this was the exact thing I needed to do for myself.
Giving myself permission to not feel perfect really did release something from me that I didn’t know I seriously needed. And my plan is to continue to not worry about posting every day. Right now, I think keeping it to twice a week is a good option. Later, I might want to add in a third day, but I want to do another few weeks with just 2 posts a week to see how I feel about it. And maybe it’s something I keep flexible and I write 3 posts if I have things I want to share but only do 2 posts if I don’t feel like I need that third post.
Releasing the stress of having to always think of posts has been great for my mental health. And I think I will need as little stress as possible as I get prepared for a potentially stressful summer. This summer is election season for my union, and that’s what inspired my challenge for June. This month, I challenge myself to stay involved in union things as much as I can and try to help others be involved as well.
I’ve already been working on this with the strike authorization vote. I worked on making sure all the people I knew voted and understood what the vote meant. Most people understood that the authorization vote didn’t mean we were going to strike, but we were giving the negotiating committee the ability to call a strike if necessary. And I’m so proud of the union because we had a really good voter turnout (at least for us) and almost 98% of the members who voted approved the strike authorization!
Union elections are always stressful, but adding in contract negotiations adds to that. We will have our regular elections plus we could be voting on a new contract if one is presented to the members. And if we don’t get a contract, there is a chance that we will strike. This is a lot of information for members to take in, especially if they haven’t been involved in the past. Even for me, things can get overwhelming with staying on top of all the things we should know to be informed voters.
But with all the craziness and potential stress, there are so many ways for me to stay involved and connected with my acting career. I know that I will be stressed (and not having to write as many blog posts will help to not add more stress), but it will be worth it. I know I feel better when I’m involved and active with the union. I look forward to the different opportunities that will be coming during this election season and contract negotiations. I might feel like it’s too much in the moment, but once I get through this summer I know I will be grateful that I did whatever I have the ability to do.
Posted onMay 31, 2023|Comments Off on Seeing Six (or This Was An Incredible Musical!)
Because I’ve had season tickets for the Pantages for several years now, I’ve had the opportunity to see so many musicals. I’m always so grateful that I’ve been taking advantage of having shows tour through LA and that I’ve had friends who have done seasons with me. I don’t always love every show, but I always enjoy my evening out seeing them. And sometimes, I see a show that is truly amazing!
I had heard a lot of good things about “Six” before this current season was announced. So when I saw that it was a part of the season, I was excited to see it because everyone seemed to enjoy the show. I didn’t know much about it other than it was about the wives of Henry VIII, but usually, I have a good time even if I don’t know much about the show or the plot. Sometimes, it’s better if you don’t know too much going into a show so it can surprise you. I didn’t even know that it was a short show without an intermission until I got an email a few days before the show from the Pantages with things to know (they send these out most of the time before a show).
We didn’t get dinner before the show this time, and it looks like our favorite pre-show place has closed down which I’m really sad about! Some of the things online say that it’s temporarily closed, but I think it permanently shut down so I’ll have to find a new pre-show dinner location for future shows. But it was fine not getting dinner ahead of time and we just met at the theater before the show and sat down just before the show was going to start.
And honestly, this was one of the best shows I think I’ve ever seen! I knew I’d probably like it because of how others were reacting, but I feel like people were underselling the show! It was so much better than I expected and I was enjoying the show from the second the first note played.
The story is about the wives of Henry VIII and each of the wives has a song to share their story. I didn’t know a ton about the different wives before so each of their stories was pretty new to me. I knew a bit about how some of the wives were beheaded, but that’s pretty minimal. And each of the songs was so amazing and unique. Each wife had a different singer or singers their style was inspired by and I loved how the styles were different and they didn’t blend together. There is a part of the story about how they are all unique but with a little bit in common, and I think the style of the show really demonstrated that idea.
It was a short show, only about 80 minutes long. I think the only thing I wished was different was wishing it was longer because I had such a great time at the show. I was in awe watching it and I didn’t want the show to end! I’m not someone who usually listens to the soundtrack of a show after seeing it, but I did listen to this one a few times in the week after going to the show. That’s how much I enjoyed it and wanted to relive it! And if a friend wanted to see the show, I would totally go again!
It’s hard for me to say what musical might be my favorite because I think I have a few favorites for different reasons. But there is no doubt in my mind that this is now in my top 3 of all time because it was so well done and so entertaining! The last 2 shows we have in this season are supposed to be really good ones too, so it will be interesting to see if either of them ends up in my top 3. And the shows we have next season look really great too!
I always love going out to a show to see a musical I’ve never seen before, but it’s even better when the show ends up being one of the most spectacular shows I’ve seen and I have no critique other than wishing there was more that I could watch!
I knew this past week of workouts would be better than the week before. I was feeling much better, which always helps me have a good workout week. But this week was unexpectedly good in ways I didn’t plan for, which made things even better!
Monday’s workout had an interesting format. For cardio, we had our blocks back to back. But for the rower and the floor, we switched between blocks. So when we started on the rower, we went rower, floor, rower. And on the floor, we went floor, rower, floor.
I started on cardio, and we had 3 blocks that focused on 30-second intervals. We had 3 30-second intervals before a recovery in each block. Sometimes those were base, push, and then all-out. And sometimes it was a push, push to all-out, and all-out. I used my normal resistance levels for these and when we were supposed to be between a base and push or push and all-out, I used the level between those.
On the rower, we had the same thing each time we were rowing. It was a 3 1/2-minute row with a 30-second all-out at the end. Rowing for 4 minutes isn’t the worst thing, but it’s also tough to do sometimes. I tried to limit my breaks on the rower, but I did have to take a few. And on the floor, we also did the same thing each time we were at that station. We had bicep curls, lunges, tricep extensions, and push-ups.
On Monday evening, I went to look at the Orangetheory app because I knew on Tuesday we had a benchmark class. I wanted to see my past times so I would be prepared for the next class. I took a look at that but noticed something else pretty amazing. The app also tracks how many in-studio classes you have taken (it doesn’t could any of the at-home classes done when things were shut down). And I missed noticing this before, but Monday’s class was a milestone one for me!
I knew that this milestone was coming up, but I wasn’t paying that much attention to when it would happen. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it, but I’m proud of myself. When I started going to Orangetheory, I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to keep things up even though I knew I wanted to. But I was quickly hooked and it’s become a part of my routine now and I’ve missed it when I haven’t been able to go to class. When you could my home workouts, I’m over 1700 workouts, but I also know I didn’t work out as hard when I was at home compared to when I was in the studio.
Tuesday’s class was the 200-meter row benchmark. This is a fun benchmark to do because it’s always very fast. Since I knew my past times for the row, I had a goal in mind for what I wanted to do. I wasn’t going for a PR since I know I can’t PR every time, but I wanted to be close to it so that was the goal I had in mind.
I had my cardio work first, and it wasn’t too intense since we were supposed to save our strength for the benchmark. The first 2 blocks were 4-minute distance challenges. I set my resistance level to be just below my push level so it wasn’t too hard but not too easy either. I think that was a good choice because it did feel challenging, but not impossible. In the last block, we had intervals of a push pace to a base pace with an all-out at the end. I did use my normal resistance levels for those, but I didn’t go too crazy since I was about to row.
On the rower, the first block was more of a warmup and prep for the benchmark. We did have 200-meter rows, but we weren’t supposed to go hard and be closer to a push row. Between each row, we had lunges. I felt pretty ready for the benchmark in the second block. And that’s all we had in the second block to do. I didn’t rush into starting since I had 4 minutes and I knew the row would be less than a minute. And I was very happy with how it went. I was rowing a lot harder than I thought I could do and I was keeping my form to a sprint row form. I didn’t get a PR, which is what I expected, but I was closer to it than I thought I could. Only being .15 seconds off is probably more about a tiny bit of form than anything else so maybe I’ll be able to beat it soon.
The last row block gave us another chance to do the benchmark, but I was exhausted so I just did push rows again instead of going crazy. I also still needed a bit more recovery time from the benchmark, so I was happy I had the time to do that.
And the floor was also a bit easier than normal since the entire workout was designed around the benchmark. Each of the 3 blocks had 2 exercises that were supposed to help people get ready for the benchmark if they did the floor first. We had high lows to low rows on the straps and hip hinge swings, plank pikes and superhero planks, and single-leg deadlifts with the straps and plank pull-throughs. I know I was still a bit sore from the row so I didn’t do anything extraordinary, but I was trying to work harder than I would have if I still had to do the row after.
Wednesday’s workout was a bit of a recovery workout. I might have overdone things on Tuesday or I might have just been having a bad hip day. I wasn’t sure what was causing the pain, but I was hurting so I had to just be cautious. But I was still pushing myself quite a bit.
For cardio, our 3 blocks focused a lot on incline work. We had base, push, and all-out paces with inclines and a lot of base paces without inclines between them. For the resistance levels, I did try to increase them compared to what I would normally use, but I struggled to do exactly what we were supposed to do. So for most of the workout, I did just one level higher than normal when we were supposed to have inclines. It was still harder than normal, but not quite as hard as it could have been if I did what I might have done if I wasn’t hurting.
On the rower, we had one long block. We started with a 600-meter row followed by front presses with a medicine ball. Then we had a 400-meter and 200-meter row also with the front presses. Then we worked our way back up starting with a 200-meter row but we had overhead presses with the medicine ball between each row. I did a lot better with my rowing than I thought I would. Even though I did need some breaks in the long rows, I didn’t need as many as I thought I might have to take.
And on the floor, the focus was on load and explode movements. So we had back-to-back exercises that worked similar muscle groups. We first had goblet squats to regular squats. Then we had lateral raises to uppercuts. And finally, we had bicycle presses to sit-ups. I did have to do a few modifications for some exercises, but they were expected modifications for me and not necessarily because of how my hip was doing.
When I showed up to Thursday’s workout, my coach had set up the brag board to celebrate my milestone. It was set up to say I did 1500 classes, but that class was going to be my 1503rd. So I joked to him that I was going to fix it later, which is exactly what I did before I posted it online.
I really appreciated that because it’s always awesome to be celebrated. But it’s more awesome to be celebrated for something that wasn’t easy to start and could have been very simple to give up on. But I have stuck with it. Even though now it’s something I’m used to, I still make a choice to go early in the morning when I would rather be sleeping in a bit more.
I only celebrated the milestone for a quick moment before the workout started and it was time to get into things. For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first block was focused on 30-second intervals with a base pace, push pace, and all-out. We did that twice within the block. In the second block, we did bases at inclines, and I was able to use the resistance levels I should have used. And the last block had 90-second base paces with 30-second push paces with the focus being more on the base pace and making sure we could get back to a base without needing to recover.
On the rower, we had 3 blocks that all had 150-meter rows. The first block was just rounds of an all-out 150-meter row. We could take whatever recovery time we needed before doing another all-out row. In the second block, we had 10 step-out squats between each row. And the row was supposed to be a push row instead of an all-out row. And in the last block, the rowing was supposed to be more of the recovery than the focus. We had 10 squats to start and then the 150-meter row was a base row.
And on the floor, we had one long block. In that block, we had skater lunges, cleans with weights, kneeling shoulder presses, lunges, plank taps, and double crunches. I didn’t go extra heavy with the weights I used, but I did try using the heavier weights before going to the normal ones I use. I’m glad it was just one block of work because it allowed me to take my time to work on each exercise and not feel rushed.
When I started this past week of workouts, I knew it would be a benchmark week, but I had no clue it would be a milestone week. I’m so glad I happened to look at the app on Monday so I could see that I hit such a cool milestone the day it happened. Of course, I would have celebrated it even if I didn’t notice until I was past it, but I’m happy I got to celebrate as I did my 1500th class! And based on how many workouts I do on average, I’m about 2 1/2 years away from celebrating my 2000th class!
Posted onMay 3, 2023|Comments Off on I’m Picking Some Good Challenges For Myself (or Being Ok Not Being Perfect)
I’ve been doing monthly challenges for several years now, and sometimes I pick really good challenges and sometimes I struggle to figure out what I want to do. It’s ok that it’s a mix, I know they can’t all be exactly perfect with the challenge I pick. But I’m always so happy when I pick a challenge and something just clicks with me and I feel like I’ve started a new habit that will continue for a while.
For April, I set the challenge to have less food waste. I knew I needed to do this challenge because I was getting lazy and wasteful with the food I bought. I might have all the best intentions when I go grocery shopping, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I feel the same way when it’s time to cook things. And while I have no issues eating leftovers, I also don’t want to eat leftovers several days in a row of the same thing so sometimes portions go back. Whenever I throw out food, that’s wasting money and I’ve been trying really hard to improve my spending. So I wanted to see how much I could reduce food waste to save money and be better about planning meals and making sure I don’t just order in if I get lazy.
I was surprised at how well I did with this challenge. I did still have things I had to throw out if they expired, but it was significantly less than what I normally would do. I was very careful about what I was buying from stores and opted to buy more frozen things like vegetables so I didn’t have to worry about things going bad quickly. I also started to make easier meals so they were only one or two servings. So I might make something like meatballs and some vegetables, but only make enough to have something for the next day instead of having it for 3 more days. I did still occasionally order in or go out to dinner, but with what I bought and made at home, I really reduced how much I wasted. And after last month, I feel like this is something I can continue to do and improve upon.
And for May, this challenge I feel has already started for me. This month, I want to work on being ok with not having perfection with things in my life. There are some parts of my life where I’m ok not always being perfect, but there are others where I really stress and get anxious if things aren’t exactly how I feel like they should be. One example of this is the frequency of my blog posts. I know I wrote last week that I was reducing how often I post on here, but I also really debated about doing a post yesterday because it felt so odd not to have something up when I’ve written every weekday for years. But I knew that I wanted to try to post less and had to be ok with the anxiety that brought me. I’m not being perfect with my writing the way I’m used to. I know it’s for the best, but that doesn’t always make it easier.
And there are other things that I know I only want to do if I can do them right. Sometimes the fear of not being perfect stops me from trying and I want to work on that feeling. I know that I won’t fail with everything I try, but I need to remember that it’s ok. I have failed at monthly challenges before and that has been ok. I have had bad workout days and that’s ok. I don’t know why I’m ok not being perfect in those ways but then with other things I just can’t get over it. And it’s not just being perfect, it’s also the fear of starting a task that I might have to split over a few days instead of getting it done in one. If something isn’t accomplished in the way I feel is right or perfect, sometimes I just can’t get started with it. And that’s not a good way to be.
I’m not going to try to deliberately fail at things, but I’m going to try to be more flexible with how I can do things and what accomplishing a task or idea means to me. If I want to get my whole house cleaned in one day but have to split it up in 2 because of time constraints, that’s ok and I need to remember that. I can’t necessarily predict what I will need to let go of the idea of perfection with, but I know that I will encounter that feeling several times over the month.
This is a challenge that I also have to accept will not necessarily be perfect since there will be times I let this feeling stop me. But all I can do is hope that I can overcome it more often than not and see some positive results by the end of the month.
Last week, I wrote about how I was debating again about reducing how frequently I write blog posts. It wasn’t the first time I was thinking about doing that, but for some reason, it felt different to me. I’m not sure what is making this time different, but I’ve just had a lot of thoughts and reflections on how I’m spending my day each day and what I’m sharing with the world.
I’m so glad that I have shared a lot of things here and I know that it has helped other people, but I also feel weird sometimes knowing that I’m out doing something and I will be writing about it later. I do try to keep things private as far as other people go, so I don’t usually say names unless that person has given me the ok to do so. And I don’t share a lot of details that others tell me because those aren’t my stories to tell. But it’s still a weird feeling being on a date or something and knowing that will make a good blog post and not feeling like I can tell my date about it. And then there is always the fear that they will find my blog and see the posts I’ve written about them. It’s not just with dates, doing things with my friends usually have become blog posts and I don’t like that I always have that mindset. It takes me out of experiencing things as they are happening and makes me think about how I can craft the story I want to tell. Even with some things about my health, I don’t necessarily want to share everything. It’s not because I’m ashamed or gatekeeping anything, but health issues really can vary from person to person so I don’t want to say something that happened to me and have others feel like that’s how it is for everyone.
And when I’m struggling with what I want to write, I feel like I have to take more and more from my life and turn them into posts. Even if I wasn’t planning on writing about something, if I’m really stuck for what I want to write I feel like that’s the only option I have. That pressure hasn’t been horrible, but it does happen from time to time, and I have to decide if that idea is worth writing about, if it’s interesting, or if I’m sharing something that I really want to keep private for now. I don’t necessarily regret any of the posts I’ve written, but I do feel like there are some that I don’t really love. Writing 5 days a week for over 10 years is a lot and my life really isn’t that interesting. I do have some interesting days, but to come up with that many posts means that there are a lot of boring or repetitive posts.
And after I wrote that post last week, the idea of changing my post frequency really just stuck with me. I normally write a post about thinking of doing that and then it leaves my brain. Almost like I just needed to put it out there and then I’m fine. But this time, I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind. And it doesn’t help that I really don’t have anything planned for a while for posts outside of my Monday workout recaps.
So I’ve decided that for May, I want to see if I feel comfortable writing less frequently. I’m torn between wanting to have 2 or 3 posts a week, but it will likely be one of those. And my plan is to still do a workout recap on Mondays and then I’ll do either 1 or 2 other posts during the week. I’m not sure which day or days I’ll post the other ones. It may depend on what I have to write about.
As much as I feel like this is the right move, it’s hard not to think that somehow I’m failing because I take a lot of pride in the fact that I’ve written 5 days a week for over 10 years. But at the same time, the person I was 10 years ago or even 3 years ago is different from who I am today. When I started this blog, I couldn’t have even imagined that I’d still be writing over a decade later. So the ideas I had for myself back then don’t have to be what I hold myself to now.
I also know this might not be the right move for me and I might change my mind. But I want to give it a try and see if maybe I will have a bit less stress since I won’t be spending as much time thinking of ideas and writing. If it works, then I’ll continue with the new plan until I think I need another change. If I hate writing less often, then I can go back to my old ways. This change doesn’t have to be permanent, but I do think it’s a good move going forward.
And no matter what ends up happening with this blog and the frequency of posts, I am so proud that I was able to maintain this schedule for as long as I did. It was a real challenge for me at first since being so public was foreign to me. But for a lot of the struggles I went through over the last decade, having this outlet to write out my feelings has really benefitted me. And I think even with less frequent posts, I’ll still be able to have that same benefit for myself.
Posted onApril 21, 2023|Comments Off on 1 Year Of Living In My Condo (or I Do Feel Settled In)
1 year ago, I had a moving truck move most of my furniture from my rental to my condo. This move was one that felt like it took months, and in a way, it did take months. I moved things very slowly into the condo, starting from when I got the keys. I didn’t move much into my place until most of the renovation was done, but the renovation also felt like moving in since I was picking appliances and other items to have here. And once the renovation was getting close to being done, I started to move a few boxes of stuff over almost every day until I had officially moved out of my rental.
When I had the moving truck move my stuff, that was when I really felt like I had moved in. My bed was already here since I got a new bed for the condo, but having my couch, tv, and desk really made the condo somewhere I could live and work. Even though a lot of the furniture I moved over here has been replaced or will be getting replaced, I made things liveable for me as soon as I could.
I didn’t give up my keys to my rental until the last day of April last year, but those last few days there were only for me to finish giving away some things I had there and for doing a big cleaning so I could make sure I get my deposit back. Once I was sleeping and working at the condo, my old place stopped feeling like home to me. It’s crazy how quickly things switched from it feeling like my place to feeling like it was just a random place. But it took longer for the condo to feel like it was my home.
I had things in boxes for a very long time. I am the type of person that likes to unpack and get organized as soon as possible, but it wasn’t that simple for me after my move. I needed to get a lot of things to be set up, so keeping things in boxes was the best solution until I had what I needed. And I do still have 2 boxes of things, but those are mainly things that I want to have in my office when I eventually buy the bookcase Murphy bed that I will hopefully get in the near future. But I’m able to keep those boxes in a closet, so they aren’t sticking out and obvious anymore. Once I finally got rid of the boxes that I was seeing all the time, I felt so much more settled.
The condo felt like a space in flux for a long time, and I think that was preventing me from fully feeling like I’m home. I also had things that I was still trying to figure out where I wanted to put them and I knew that once they were displayed, I would feel more like it was my place. I also think getting some new furniture that fits the size of my condo better really helped because my old living room furniture really made me feel like I was just using furniture temporarily here and that it wasn’t meant to be what I had permanently. It’s weird how getting furniture that fits properly like a new tv or tv stand really can make things feel more grounded.
All of the things I want to replace or buy now are things that I don’t necessarily need or will make the condo feel more like home. I can’t wait until I get the bookcase Murphy bed because that just looks incredible. I also will be getting a new desk that will be much more functional for me. My current desk isn’t bad, but I know I can get something that fits my needs better. And I’m looking at getting a new dining room set because what I currently have starting to show a lot of signs of age (but it is 50 years old so it’s not weird that it’s starting to fall apart a bit). I also need to get some outdoor furniture so I can really enjoy my outdoor space, but it hasn’t been easy to find what I want at a price I can afford. But I keep looking and don’t feel like I need to rush to get something so I’m waiting for something perfect.
This last year has really been a year of getting settled into my new home. It wasn’t easy leaving a home I had been in for 12 years, but I’m so much happier where I am now. I’ve also learned so much about what I need to feel like I’m home and what I need to do to feel like I’m living in a space. And this is just the first year of hopefully a long time here, so I have plenty of time to keep working on new projects, finding new pieces that fit in here, and really making this place my perfect home.
Posted onApril 14, 2023|Comments Off on And Another Season Of Musicals (or Continuing My LA Tradition)
Seeing musicals at the Pantages has been a tradition for me for several years now. I’ve been so happy every year I’ve gotten season tickets, even if I’m unsure about some of the shows. There have been very few shows that I haven’t enjoyed, and even if I don’t love a show I usually have a great time there and it’s a fun night out. It’s been a great way to have regular hangouts with friends and to feel connected to LA and the entertainment industry.
I’m so glad that I’ve been able to get tickets for the season each year, even if the people I’ve gone with have changed over the years. I wasn’t sure who was going to go with me after my friend Dani moved away from LA, but I’m so happy that my friend Jodi decided to join me for the shows this current season. And we’ve been having a great time getting dinner together before each show and seeing the variety of shows that have been happening this season. It’s one of the few regular things that I did before the pandemic that I continued doing since it reopened.
Every year when they are getting set to announce the next new season, I wonder if it will be a season I want to see. I usually feel pretty certain that I would want season tickets again, but if a season was mainly shows I didn’t want to see or that I’ve seen before and didn’t enjoy, I would probably consider not getting a full season and just getting a couple of shows. And I also have always wondered what the person or people going to shows with me would think as well. I know the tickets aren’t horribly expensive, but they aren’t cheap and it’s not worth the expense if you know you won’t be enjoying the shows. I’m always so happy when it’s worked out for me and I haven’t had to stress too much about what I want to do next.
So when the 2024 season for the Pantages was released about a month ago, I was excited to see that it looked like a pretty fun season.
It’s a 7 show season since we aren’t going to be doing the add-on shows, but that’s a good number and more than what we have in the current season. I checked with Jodi, and she was interested in doing another season as well. So we just renewed our tickets so we are all set for the next season!
In past seasons, once we set up our season we rarely changed things. Sometimes we would have to change the date and we would end up with different seats. But we wouldn’t make plans to change our seats for the same night. But Jodi and I have been having fun finding better seats than what we have in our current season. I think we only will have 1 show out of the 6 this year where we sit in the seats we originally got. And I have a feeling we will be moving our seats around again for the next season. We couldn’t do that when renewing since you have to renew for the same seats each year, but it’s simple for us to change them online whenever we have time to see what our options are. And once the regular ticket sales are open, then we can see where we can move around to for each show. We don’t really care if we sit on the same side or in the same section from show to show, so that gives us a lot of flexibility to get better seats.
I’m so happy that I’m continuing this tradition since it has brought me so much joy over the years. And I’m so glad that I also will be having a lot of fun nights out with a friend already planned for 2024!
Posted onApril 13, 2023|Comments Off on Creating Another LA List (or Really Trying To Find Things To Do)
I have gone on some really interesting and creative dates over the last several years, but most of the dates I go on have ended up being at the same few locations. It’s fine with me that those first dates are somewhere that I’m comfortable and feel safe, but it can also be a bit of a rut. And this rut isn’t just with my dating life, in my regular life I seem to go to the same places or eat at the same restaurants. It’s not a horrible thing to have this type of rut, but it also can feel sometimes that I’m not taking advantage of the amazing city that I live in.
I recently went on a few dates with a guy who moved to LA at the end of last year, so most things in the city were new to him. We had some really fun phone calls between dates making a list of places that would be fun dates. They weren’t necessarily anything extravagant, one of them was going to a rooftop movie venue, but most of the things on the list were things that I wouldn’t normally think of when I’m thinking of something to do. There were some places that were new to me and some that I had been to before. But they were all things that I was excited to go to.
I’m not seeing that guy anymore, but the idea of the list that we had made has stuck in my brain. I didn’t keep the list that he and I made, so I don’t have all the places we thought of, but I realized that I should make one of my own. I think some places could be good for both dates and hanging out with friends, but I also want to see if I can think of some places that would be better for one thing or another.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had an idea to do something like this, but I haven’t really been good at checking things off of a list that I create. But I think the dates that I went on pushed me to realize how much fun I could have if I make more of an effort to go to places and not just do the same things that I always do. I also feel like there is a sense of LA feeling new to me again since I have been staying home for so long. I know that not everything is safe and I do still have some hesitation as I’ve had for a while, but I also have noticed that as I push myself a bit more I’m getting more comfortable as well. It’s been all about finding a balance between what is fun and what is safe for these last few years, and I think I’ve probably been too timid to push that balance until recently. I don’t regret doing that because I’m very grateful that I haven’t gotten sick, but it’s too easy to stay in this rut.
I also know that I need to push myself to go and hang out with friends more than I do right now. That’s also still a struggle and it’s also tough with how many people have moved away from LA. But I’ve been doing better at making sure I spend time with the friends I do have here and it’s been so nice to take friends who became more like acquaintances into friends again. I know that I will miss my friends who aren’t here, especially when I do something that I would have done with them before. But I’m working on appreciating the people who are still local and also making new friends when I can.
The list that I am working on is just a draft email right now. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s something I can look at when I’m trying to make plans to do something. And it’s not something that has a deadline of when I want to get all of them accomplished, I just want a list that is a reminder of all the amazing things I can go out to do when I am looking for something different from the usual things I do. And hopefully, between friends and dates, I will get more fun things added to the list that I will get to experience with others in the near future.
Posted onApril 11, 2023|Comments Off on Finally Meeting An Online Friend (or An After Work Ice Cream Outing)
Even though I have had my Movie Club group for over 3 years now, I’ve never met any of the women from the group in person. A few of us in the group have gotten close over the last few years and have a text group together, but I’ve never seen them outside of a screen. Most of the women from that text group got together about a year ago when they all met up, but because they are all on the east coast and it was really difficult for me to travel there and find an affordable flight, I had to miss out. It was tough being left out of that mini-vacation, but I knew that it wouldn’t have been the right choice to miss work and spend a huge amount of money on just a weekend trip. We’ve talked about having another group trip, but as things have been opening up more and everyone has gotten busier, it’s harder to organize.
I’ve had some conversations with some of the group one on one about them coming out to LA. Again, it’s not easy to plan trips when everyone is so busy. But one person in the group might need to be out here for work, so that could be a possibility for meeting up. And another member of the group has a brother who lives only a few blocks away from me, so we had said the next time she was here we should meet up. And finally, she was going to be in LA for a very quick time so we were able to make some plans.
We had to work around some family things she already had scheduled and the limited time she was going to be here, but we made it work to meet up for an hour or so when I was done with work last week. Since she was staying with her brother and was only a few blocks from me, we met up by the Culver Steps since that was easy for both of us to get to. She had dinner plans after we met, so we met up for some ice cream as a pre-dinner treat. And it happened to be a place I had a gift card for from work, so it was a free treat for both of us!
In a weird way, it reminded me of meeting someone from a dating app. It was in a location where I tend to do a lot of dates and I was meeting someone who I had only known virtually. But since we’ve been texting and talking for years (compared to dating apps where it’s usually only a few days), there was no weirdness when we finally met in real life. It felt like we’ve known each other forever and not that we only knew each other for the past 3 years.
It was so awesome to be face-to-face and hang out. It was a quick hangout and we were talking about the same things that we talk about via text, but it was so nice to have the hangout feel so normal. It’s crazy to think how the women in our text group have become some of my closest friends and I really have never met them. But I think a lot of us learned through the pandemic how friendships can be formed in unique ways. And making friends as an adult is hard enough, so I’m always open to however I can make new friends.
We weren’t able to sit and chat too long before we both had to get to what we had to do that evening, but even having an hour of face-to-face time with a friend helps me feel much more involved in the world. I’ve said so many times how I’ve become more isolated and how I want to work on being out and about more. This quick hangout accomplished that plus it allowed me to finally meet a friend that I’ve known for years but have never seen.
Hopefully, some more of the women in the text group will be able to make it out to LA in the near future so I can get to know more of them in real life. But even if that doesn’t happen soon, I’m so grateful that I at least have had some face time with one person from the group now.
Making Condo Hunting More Fun (or Taking Advantage Of Ways To Be Social)
