Category Archives: Fun Stuff

Time For Traditional Cheesecake (or It Can Still Count As Celebrating The New Year)

Posted on January 17, 2020 | Comments Off on Time For Traditional Cheesecake (or It Can Still Count As Celebrating The New Year)

I don’t have a ton of traditions that I do every year, but the few that I do have are very special to me. And one of the few traditions I have are dinners with my birthday twin. We have our (almost) free birthday dinner and we have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory around the new year. The birthday dinner is usually done very close to our birthday since we have to go during our birthday month to get our discounts. But our cheesecake dinner is a bit more flexible. Sometimes we go before the holidays and sometimes we go after the new year. But whenever we go, we have been pretty good about making sure we have our dinner even if it’s a month or so late.

This year, I decided to be proactive in making sure we got our dinner in as close to the new year as possible. I knew both of us are busy so it might be tough to figure out when we could make dinner plans. So I reached out Joanna right around the 1st to say we needed to plan our dinner. And we were able to find some time this week that worked for both of us after work. Since the restaurant we go to is closer to my side of town than it is for Joanna, I let her decide the best time for her to meet. We had to be a bit flexible with each other because our schedules ended up being a bit busier than we expected, but we managed to arrive within minutes of each other and we were quickly seated for dinner (which was a miracle since there is usually a 30-minute wait).

We actually had decided on our cheesecake choices before we decided on our dinners, but we wanted to get the food ordering out of the way first so we could eat and get to our catch up talk.

We usually talk about the same few topics whenever we meet up. We catch each other up on what’s happening with our families and acting careers. But the main thing we usually talk about is the craziness about the dating world. We both have had a lot of random stories to share over the years and I love that we both have stories so it’s not just me sharing them. And as always, we both had lots of dating updates to give each other. And since both of us take screenshots of the profiles of the guys we meet (it’s a safety thing), we could show each other who we’ve had dates with. I’m waiting for the day that she and I (or any friend I know who is dating) discover that we have gone out with the same guy. That hasn’t happened yet, but I bet one day it will happen.

Both of us have had some good and bad dating stories to share, so it wasn’t all crazy stories. And I think hearing a friend is going through the same ups and downs that I am helps me feel like I’m not alone in my random journey with dating. And we can also support each other which is another positive. We both have recently had situations that hurt a bit, so it was nice to get some in-person support. And even though I know dissecting what happened on dates doesn’t necessarily do any good, sometimes it’s nice to go over things and have someone else confirm that the situation was weird or that I didn’t do anything wrong.

And of course, being at the Cheesecake Factory we had to have cheesecake! We did our usual tradition of ordering 2 different types and each getting half of a slice. Things are so much easier now that we know we can ask them to cut each slice in half. 2 halves of a slice are so much cheesecake, but it’s so good!

After our dinner and cheesecake, we were both very full. Since the restaurant wasn’t crowded we didn’t feel too bad about hanging around there for a while. And also, our service was a bit slow so we had to wait a very long time to get our dessert and the check. We ended up being there much longer than I expected, but we had a great time being able to hang out and catch up. And it was nice not feeling rushed that we had to get out of there. But since we both had to work the next morning, we didn’t stay out too late because we both wanted to get home to get to bed at a decent hour.

Every time Joanna and I meet up, we say that we need to hang out more often than our 2 traditions. But our schedules don’t always work that way and before we know it it’s time to have one of our traditional meals again. We do make efforts to see each other more than twice a year, but at least I know we will have our birthday dinner in August for our next catch up if we don’t have one sooner.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

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A Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing)

Posted on January 14, 2020 | Comments Off on A Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing)

So much of my work with Unite For Strength has to do with serious things. A lot of my work is related to our election or different negotiations. And my year-round work with them is making sure our social media is a good source of information. That’s slightly less serious, but it’s still more about the business side of union service and not the creative or entertaining sides of it. I don’t mind that because I have realized how important the serious and business sides are, but I have wanted to get to know my fellow slate members in a more fun way.

And this past weekend, I finally got that chance. We had a casual get together for friends and supporters of Unite For Strength. We did have some business that ended up being discussed, but this wasn’t about preparing for an election or a contract negotiation. It was more about getting to know each other and seeing what we are interested in doing with our union service and what concerns we might have.

Having hangouts like this have been discussed among the slate for a while. I know that during election season we just don’t have the time or ability to plan things. And in the past, there has been a lot of focus on the serious work that needs to be done after people are elected. But now, I think we finally have the ability to do some more fun stuff as a group. There are more people who are leaders within the slate (technically I’m one of the newer leaders even if I don’t think of myself that way). So having more people to handle things means that people aren’t getting overwhelmed. We don’t have a specific person who is going to focus on fun events, but at least everyone has a bit more time to be able to contribute.

And I’m so excited to have more of these events because I want to bring friends with me to them. A huge thing that I am passionate about in the union is educating my fellow members. And I know this is something that almost all of us in the slate believe in doing. But getting people to attend official union events can seem intimidating. I’ve been trying to get people to join me as an observer for a local board meeting and that’s a struggle. Even though all you do there is sit and watch, it’s scary. And I get that. I was nervous about being an observer too. But now that I’ve done it, I see how silly my fear was.

But it’s hard to tell other people not to be scared if they haven’t gone before. So having some fun events where I know informed people will be there is a good option. It won’t be the same as an official union event, but it can be a way to ease into things or meet people who might be at the union events so that it won’t feel like you won’t know anyone there. Plus, I love everyone who is a part of my slate. These people are some of the most inspirational and informed actors I know and I would love for my friends to get to know them too. I feel so lucky that these people are my peers and some of them have also become my friends. I always seem to have pinch-me moments when I’m with them.

We don’t have our next casual hangout for Unite For Strength planned just yet, but seeing the response from others at the one we had has motivated me to make sure that we get a few planned. I want to keep this going because it’s also a great reminder for us to make sure that we are involved throughout the year and not just during elections. And it helps us get to know each other better so it’s not as odd to reach out to someone to ask for help or get a question answered. Being familiar with each other can only benefit us when we have to work hard together.

I hope that I will be writing about another event that we have as a slate soon. But even if it takes us a while to figure out things, I’m just glad that I got to spend an awesome afternoon with all of these amazing union members and that I got to do more with my slate that isn’t as serious.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

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Thinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First)

Posted on January 9, 2020 | Comments Off on Thinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First)

I’m only 9 days into the month, but I’m already rethinking the monthly challenge that I set for January. I said that I wanted to have all my reading this month be self-help or self-improvement books. This challenge was something I chose because I realized I was behind in my more serious reading because I was enjoying my fun reading too much. I have gotten books that I know I need to read because they will teach me something I need to know but I just kept putting it off. I didn’t want to have that excuse anymore and I wanted to get through my book list. I knew I probably had enough to read for the month, but I also thought maybe this challenge would help me find more self-help books that I should read.

I really thought this would be a great challenge for me. I knew it might not be easy because I do like to have some fluff reading in my life, but the idea of a challenge is to push myself. And I thought this would be a good push and that I would be able to do it.

But 9 days later, I’m thinking that this might not have been the best challenge for me.

Reading has always been one of the ways I relax and escape. I love getting lost in a good book and getting sucked into a story. It’s something I do every night when I’m getting ready to go to bed. And even though I can read something serious or intense when winding down for the night, it’s not the only thing I want to read. I need to have some of that entertainment and escape from time to time. Sometimes I have a stressful day and all I want to do before going to sleep is to have something easy to read that will calm me down a bit.

And I have had some of those stressful days the past few days. It’s nothing horrible, but I haven’t been calm and relaxed when I was trying to sleep. And I continued to read the self-help book that I started this month as my bedtime reading, but it just was starting to stress me out a bit more. The book isn’t about anything crazy, but it is something that is making me think a lot and that keeps me up later when I already can’t quiet my mind about everything I dealt with during the day. I pushed through when I could, but on Tuesday night I had a bit a breakdown and realized I just needed to switch up my books and read some fluff.

And honestly, reading that fluff that night was exactly what I needed to do. I was able to be a lot calmer as I fell asleep and I slept a lot better that night. I know that things haven’t been completely normal for me lately, but I still felt so guilty that I had already failed my monthly challenge. I hate knowing that I won’t be able to be successful in what I set out to do.

And I let that feeling sit with me for a day before I realized that I didn’t have to make this challenge a fail. I could change what the challenge would be. There’s nothing that says I can’t change the challenge if I realize that this isn’t going to work for me. And this might be a good opportunity to change it to fit what I need the challenge to be. I’m still playing around with what I would want the new version of the challenge to be, but I’m thinking about making a list of the top 3 or 4 self-help books that I want to read this month and making the challenge completing the list. I’m not sure that’s what I want the new challenge to be, but it gives me a starting point for reworking it.

I’m glad that I was able to change my mindset and not think of this as a failure of my monthly challenge but an opportunity to find a better way to challenge myself. But it still bugs me a bit that I wanted to push myself to do something that I knew would be hard and I wasn’t able to do it. I know I’m very competitive with myself and that’s probably something I need to work on. But I can’t help thinking that I can accomplish any goals that are within my control. But I guess it’s a sign of growth that even though I have those feelings that I was still able to reframe it and make the situation a bit more positive.

I’m going to take the rest of this week to figure out what my new version of the monthly challenge will be, but I probably won’t be posting about it again until I do my challenge recap. I don’t think I will need to change it more than once, but I also want to give myself permission to do that if I need to.

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A Very Low-Key NYE (or I’m Glad I Don’t Have To Impress My Friends)

Posted on January 7, 2020 | Comments Off on A Very Low-Key NYE (or I’m Glad I Don’t Have To Impress My Friends)

I have written several posts about how I’m so excited to start a new year and what I think the new year will bring. And I am excited about it being a new year and feeling like there is a fresh start (even though that fresh start isn’t really real). I love the idea of a clean slate and feeling like I have a new chance to do something amazing.

But despite all those things I love about a new year, I’m really not the biggest fan of going out for New Year’s Eve.

I might have been a bit more excited about NYE when I was younger. And even in more recent years, I think I was a bit more enthusiastic about it. Maybe having my car die on NYE has made things a bit more serious for me. I don’t worry about my car breaking down on my drive home, but I am reminded about it each year. It’s hard to forget when it was a pretty big deal.

But there are other factors that make me not as excited about NYE. I don’t want to go out somewhere that is going to be really crowded and will be very expensive to go to. If you go out to dinner, it is overpriced and they seem like they want to rush you so they can get to the next seating. I don’t want to be out late because I don’t want to be on the road when people are leaving bars. Hopefully, people wouldn’t be driving drunk (especially with all the rideshare options in LA), but it’s still something I worry about. And I usually don’t sleep in on New Year’s Day because I have a lot to get done.

I’m lucky that I’ve got a group of friends that usually get together for NYE that I can hang out with. And it’s nothing fancy or extravagant so I don’t have to feel like it’s a big deal. And hanging out with my friends is exactly what I did this year.

It was a smaller group than normal because my friends have a dog that is a bit skittish. So it was mainly people that they knew their dog was familiar with. But it was still a good-sized crowd. And there were some people who did dress up, but that wasn’t necessary and there were plenty of people who didn’t dress fancy. I was one of the people who dressed pretty casually. I figured if I was going to be out late, I might as well be comfortable. And I know my friends don’t necessarily care how I dress so I didn’t feel like I had to impress them or meet a certain standard.

I didn’t take any pictures at the party, but that was deliberate. I wanted to focus on being with my friends and not trying to take photos or make sure I have things I can post on social media. But also, I didn’t do anything too crazy. I spent a lot of time hanging outside in the backyard with my friends just chatting about lots of random things. And when it got too cold for me, I went inside and hung out on a couch with other friends.

I usually don’t stay up too late, so I had to do something to keep me awake and alert. I thought it was close to midnight at one point and then looked at my watch only to discover that it was only about 10 pm. I think a lot of us were starting to feel that way, but we didn’t want to leave before midnight since we did want to celebrate together. We decided to play a game and we went with Cards Against Humanity. We started with a small group, but as people were coming inside to get out of the cold more would join us. It was a pretty fluid game with the group size changing often, but we were just playing for fun and we weren’t going to figure out an overall winner when we were done.

Finally, it was almost midnight and everyone was in the living room with us for the countdown to midnight. And once it was the new year, we all celebrated together. Everyone usually goes around to make sure they hug everyone to say happy new year. It’s a nice tradition because you don’t feel left out if you don’t have someone to kiss at midnight or to celebrate with. Everyone celebrates together and I like that.

And right after midnight, I went around to say my goodbyes to my friends. I was so tired and I really wanted to get home before it got too late. I think my friend group understands me wanting to leave early since I have one of the longer drives back. And since everyone was gathered in the living room, it was pretty fast to say goodbye to everyone and to get into my car to head home.

I was home and in bed before 1 am and that was perfect. I did get to celebrate the new year, but I didn’t have to do anything fancy or crazy. Nobody cared that I was dressed in comfortable clothes or that I left so quickly after midnight. And I love that nobody cared about those things because getting together was more about being with friends and not impressing anyone. Plus, we realized that the Oscars are coming up really soon so we’ll all be together again before we know it.

Honestly, it was the perfect way for me to ring in 2020 and I couldn’t have asked for anything else.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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First Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

Posted on January 3, 2020 | Comments Off on First Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

As I have done for several years, I am using a Volt Planner to work on my goal setting for the year. And that includes the monthly challenges that I’ve been doing every year I’ve had the planner. When I started using it, I think I was a bit more successful with the monthly challenges. Maybe I was doing easier challenges or maybe it was the novelty of it. But in the past year or so, I haven’t been completing them as much as I used to. I don’t know what I can do to change that, but I’m going to try hard to pick challenges that push me but are doable.

And my challenge for December was one that I was able to be successful with. I wanted to spend my month getting prepared for this year. A lot of that meant getting organized because I know a cluttered space makes things more chaotic for me. I did get a lot of organizing done with different spaces in my house. It’s not a completed project, but it’s significantly better than it was before. I also wanted to be in a better mental place for the new year and I feel like I was finally able to release some negative feelings and people from my life. I didn’t do anything special to do that, but I did make a focus on why I was dealing with those feelings and somehow they faded away. Maybe I just needed to acknowledge them and that allowed my brain to know they were there and I didn’t have to think about it more. I still have a few things that bring me down that I want to let go, but just like my organizing, it is a work in progress. But the most important thing is that I got started on the right path and I know it will be better for me.

Going along with the idea of being ready for the year and in a better mental place, my January challenge will be another one that hopefully will put me in a better space. My challenge for this month is to only read self-help and self-improvement books. I usually do a mix of self-help/improvement books with fiction or fluff books. Lately, I’ve been neglecting the non-fiction books and I’ve just been reading things that make me happy or are an escape. But I want to get back into the habit of changing up what I read and I want to catch up on books that I’ve been putting off.

I have several books on my Kindle that are self-help/improvement ones that I bought when they were super cheap and told myself that I would read them soon. So I already have lots of books to choose from. I don’t know if I have enough to read to get through the entire month, but if I need more I know I can get some e-books from the library. I have been putting some books on my wishlist that would be good options. I usually buy these books instead of getting them from the library because I like to take my time reading them. But I think that reasoning isn’t the best one. I can always get something from the library to make sure I like it and then if I want more time with it I can buy it. My book purchasing habit is significantly less than it was before, but I do want to find more ways to save and this is one way. Fortunately, I’m pretty sure all the books I bought are ones that I will like so I’m not too worried that I wasted money.

Since I read every day, I know I’ll get a lot of reading done this month. And since I will only be reading books that fit into this challenge, I feel very good that I can be successful at it. I will need to resist the temptation to read something silly as a break, but maybe I can find a self-help/improvement book that isn’t as serious or intense to read if I need that mental break. But challenging myself to not go easy on me is a part of this challenge that I want to try to do. I know that I can try to do something hard but I want to prove that I can complete what I set out to do. And hopefully, that will give me the boost I need to keep pushing through future challenges if they seem too hard to do.

I’m excited to work through this challenge this month. Not just for proving to myself that I can do it, but also to see what I will learn from what I read. I know that I will learn something from every book I read even if it’s not exactly the perfect book for me or my situation. And those things I learn can only benefit me in my life.

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Finding Balance (or My Word For 2020)

Posted on January 2, 2020 | Comments Off on Finding Balance (or My Word For 2020)

I’ve been enjoying setting a word for the year over the past few years. They seem to work well as an idea for a theme for the year and they usually help me discover new things about myself. But these words also seem to be decided as a reaction to the past year’s word. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but it’s the way that it’s been happening. And my word for 2020 was chosen because of how I feel after my word for 2019.

My word for 2020 is balance.

I picked this word for so many reasons. First, I liked the idea of how the year 2020 looks balanced to me and it seemed like a fitting word. That’s not the main reason I picked it, but it did help me when I was narrowing some options down.

The most important reason why I picked balance as my word for the year is it is something I have struggled to find in so many aspects of my life and I need to work on figuring out. I have struggled to find balance both physically and mentally. I feel like I write about having highs and lows so often and it usually is about how I’m not balanced in my life.

I want my schedule to be more balanced. I go through phases of being overscheduled and overwhelmed and then those lead to times of being bored and feeling isolated. I need to figure out a healthy balance of being an extrovert and an introvert so that I don’t have those swings back and forth.

I want my finances to be more balanced. This is related to my goals of working on my budget and job-hunting, but I can also do things besides that. I need to work on being more aware of exactly how much money I am making and what it needs to go toward every month. I don’t want to have to stress out about paying for things, but I also know that I can’t do everything I want to do. I don’t have that much financial freedom, but I have more freedom than I have had before and I want to make sure I don’t mess that up.

I want my physical self to be more balanced. I know my eating disorder is not necessarily something I can control, but I can find more areas where I can control it. I feel like my workouts have been a huge tool in finding balance, but I can find ways to include food into that too.

And the reason why I originally thought of having balance as my word for 2020 is because of how I felt after having trust as my word last year. I wrote how I might have trusted people too much and that led to me being hurt. I need to find the balance between being open and allowing others into my life but also not giving people trust they haven’t earned yet. This isn’t easy to do because in order to allow for relationships to grow I have to take a leap of faith and give them trust. I can’t only trust someone when they have shown they deserve it. But I also can be a bit more cautious and wait a bit before trusting someone as much as I have in the past. Hopefully, I won’t be putting trust in people that don’t deserve it as much this year as I did last year, but I think being able to know when to give trust has to come from finding a balance in the relationship.

I’m excited about this being my word for the year. Whenever I choose a word, I have an idea of what it will mean for the year and what will come from it. But then at the end of the year, I’m always surprised by what growth I have made in my life because of it. Right now, I think of balance as one thing. By December 31st, I will probably think of it as something different. And the lessons that I learn because I focus on finding balance will be things that I can’t imagine just yet. But I know they will be good and I can’t wait to share in a year what happened.

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2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)

Posted on January 1, 2020 | Comments Off on 2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)

Happy New Year! Even though I know that the start of a new year (or a new month or week) doesn’t have to mean a lot, I like the idea of a fresh start and kicking off the time with something new. And that’s exactly what I’ve been able to do for the past few years.

And just like the last several years, I’m going to be using a Volt Planner to do my goal tracking and monthly challenges. They are really beautiful planners and they are laid out perfectly for what I want to. They do keep me organized and I spent some time this past week working on what I wanted my goals to be for 2020. Some of them are new ones, but there are several that I feel like I have tried to do multiple times. But just because I didn’t accomplish a goal in the past doesn’t mean I can’t get it done this year.

My first goal shouldn’t be much of a surprise. I want to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes this year. This goal is one I have been setting each year (or at least I would have a target number of classes I wanted to get to) and it’s a goal that I know I don’t have to think about much. I typically go to 4 classes a week which will easily get me to 200 classes. It also allows for a bit of flexibility if there are a few weeks that I can’t do 4 classes. Of course, something could come up that would prevent me from working out, but I’m not expecting anything to do that so this goal should be one that in a year I can say I was able to do.

My next goal is that I want to cook more often. I have had this goal several times and the reasons for it have always been the same. I know that it is healthier for me to cook at home plus it is a good way to save money. I have the ability to cook, I just don’t have the motivation. I need to work on finding the motivation because I know that it’s the main thing holding me back. I also want to work on finding recipes that inspire me and can become something I cook regularly.

The next goal is one I already have started. I want to continue to work on my home organization and be able to maintain it. I have slowly been going through my house and seeing what I really need and what I might be able to get rid of or donate. I’m also getting things that help me organize what I do keep. For example, my bathroom is tiny and there is no storage space. But I finally found a little basket I can use to keep my cleaning supplies together so they don’t look as cluttered. It’s not necessarily organized, but it looks that way. My big challenge will be organizing my desk, but I’m giving myself plenty of time to work on it.

Next is a bit of a combo goal. I want to get back to my job hunting as well as working on my budget. I’ve been doing ok with my budgeting work. The app that I use has made huge changes and I finally had to switch to the new system. There is a bit of a learning curve with it, but that’s why I want to make budgeting one of my goals. I can see how easy it would be to let this slip, and I don’t want to do that. I do not want to get back into credit card debt and the best way to do that will be to budget carefully. And along those lines, budgeting would be easier if I had more income. And that’s why I need to get back to my job hunting. I am so lucky I have the job I have right now, but it’s not enough. It’s never made me enough money and I can’t keep ignoring that fact.

Another combo goal is to be more social and to have more fun. I have a tendency to be a bit of a homebody. And even though that is something I choose to do, I get a bit lonely when I do that and I crave going out. I need to be more productive in making plans with friends and seeking new ways to go out and have fun. And part of this may be working on expanding my circle of friends and finding different groups to be a part of. It’s not easy making friends at my age, but it’s not impossible either. And I can’t make an excuse to not do it because it might be difficult.

And the last two go together even though I consider them very separate goals. I want to be more active in union service and I want to focus more on my acting career. I have gotten very involved in union service and it has been an amazing addition to my life. I love what I have been able to be a part of and how much more I understand my union. But I know there is so much more I can do and I want to work toward that. I have more ways to be involved and I want to get more people involved. And along with that, I need to focus on my acting career. That is my goal in life and I need to get things back in order because I didn’t prioritize them enough in the past year. Some of the things I need to do cost money and that was holding me back, but I need to find ways to make it happen because my career is important to me and I don’t want to waste time not doing it.

I think I have a good variety of goals for 2020. Some of them I know will be easier to do than others, but they cover a variety of areas in my life. And even if I only get half of them done this year, my life is going to be so much better with them accomplished.

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Looking Back At My 2019 Goals (or I Might Have Forgotten To Work On Some Of These)

Posted on December 31, 2019 | Comments Off on Looking Back At My 2019 Goals (or I Might Have Forgotten To Work On Some Of These)

I can’t believe that it’s the last day of 2019! I know I’ve been saying this for a few weeks already, but it’s true. Every year seems to be flying by faster than the year before and I still am in shock that this year is over. And part of that shock is the fact that I might have forgotten to work on my goals as much as I usually do. But I did try my best with many of these goals and it’s time to look back at what I set out to do and what I actually accomplished.

I had 2 categories for my goals this year. My normal goals and my Orangetheory goals. Even though I had separate posts for each category, I’m going to do my end of the year wrap up in just one post.

For my normal goals, I wanted to do 200 Orangetheory classes, find a new job, reduce and eliminate recurring spending, work toward living a more minimalistic life, spend my free time in a better way, and take my blog and social media to the next level. I feel like I was 50/50 on these goals.

I will have done 207 Orangetheory classes this year (my last class will be after this post goes up). This was the easiest goal for me and I didn’t question that I would be able to get it done. I also was able to eliminate some of my recurring spending and looked more carefully at what recurring charges I had in my life. There weren’t a lot of things I eliminated, but there were a few things like magazine subscriptions that I wasn’t aware was charging me that I was able to cancel. And I didn’t exactly get into a more minimalistic lifestyle, but I took a lot of steps toward it and I feel so much better about my home and how things are organized here.

While I did do some job hunting, I wasn’t successful in finding a new job. And over the past few months, I haven’t really been working on it the way that I know I need to. My contract for my data entry job did get extended for a few more months, so I do still have a bit of a buffer. But I know that I can’t keep putting this off and I need to get more serious about my job hunting. As far as spending my free time in a better way, I don’t think I really accomplished this. I did end up having less free time this year due to new responsibilities in my life, but I don’t feel like that counts as doing better with my free time. But I have been figuring out better things to do with my time and I hope I can start implementing those soon. And as far as taking my blog and social media to the next level, I took some tiny steps toward this and I know the next big steps I need to do for my social media. But those big steps require some more prep time and I just haven’t been able to do them. But I have found that I might not want to take my blog to the next level the way I used to. It’s something I’m still looking into, but for now, I think taking this year to try to do that made me realize how I don’t necessarily want to.

And for my Orangetheory goals, I wanted to do 200 workouts, use the bike more than the treadmill, get a new PR on the rower, track my work on the floor like I do for cardio and rowing, and bring more friends to class with me. These goals are not quite 50/50, but I actually feel like I was more successful with them.

As I wrote above, I did over 200 classes and it wasn’t that hard for me to do that. I’m still impressed that I have been able to maintain the schedule that I have set for myself. And I can’t believe that a few months ago I did my 1,000th class! And I only used the bike for my cardio work this year. I never stepped on a treadmill and I’m so happy about that. I honestly don’t think I will use the treadmill anymore because I have found I can do much better work on the bike. It’s no longer something I do because I’m nauseous. It’s something that I put energy into doing better with and that is exactly the mindset I wanted to get to when I set this goal.

But for the rest of my Orangetheory goals, I really didn’t accomplish them. I didn’t get any new PRs on the rower, although I did come close. And I only tracked a few of my floor workouts, but I discovered that it just wasn’t easy for me to do it since there is so much variation with what we do on the floor. And while I have talked to so many friends about coming with me to a class, I haven’t quite gotten them to join me. But I know they will soon. But one of the things I wanted to get out of having more friends come to class is to have more friends in a workout with me. While I didn’t get friends into class, I have made more friends in my class. I have more friends in all of my classes so I am working out with more of my friends. But they are friends I made at Orangetheory and not friends I brought into Orangetheory. Technically I didn’t accomplish the goal, but I did accomplish the result I wanted.

Even though I wasn’t really successful in accomplishing about half my goals, I feel like I did way better than that. I think I had set new goals for myself that weren’t ones I set in January, so I’ve been thinking about revamping my annual goals more often. But I’m still debating on that. I’m so proud of what I was able to get done and what I learned when I wasn’t able to get other goals done. And I think all of that will be helping me with my goals I will be setting for myself in 2020!

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Default ThumbnailA Mid-Point Check In (or Some Slacking and Some Progress) Default ThumbnailAn Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals) Default ThumbnailMy 2019 Goals (or Another Year Of Planning Some Big Things) Default Thumbnail2014 Goals (or Hoping To Get More Goals Done This Year) Default ThumbnailReflecting On My 2019 Word (or Did I Trust Enough Or Too Much?) Default ThumbnailOrangetheory Goals (or A Blog/Vlog Partnership!)

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Reflecting On My 2019 Word (or Did I Trust Enough Or Too Much?)

Posted on December 27, 2019 | Comments Off on Reflecting On My 2019 Word (or Did I Trust Enough Or Too Much?)

With the year wrapping up, it’s time to look back at what goals and ideas I had at the beginning of the year. My next few posts will be covering different aspects of this and I was debating about what I wanted to start with for the past few days. But I decided that I wanted to start with my word for 2019.

As a reminder, my word for the year was “Trust“. This was an important word for me to choose for so many reasons. My main focus was that I wanted to be able to put more trust in others because I knew I had closed myself off. I also knew that I wasn’t always thinking the best of people and I hated that I didn’t have that as a mindset anymore. But I also wanted to work on trusting myself and what will come. So much of that needed trust was about what others thought of me or saw in me. I wanted to trust that I was worth it, even if I struggled with that thought.

This ended up being the perfect word for me for this past year because I had to put a lot of trust into many different people and situations. And for the most part, I would say this was a positive experience for me. I was able to have belief in friends that I might not have given them before. If someone said they would confirm something with me later, I didn’t stress too much about it wondering if they forgot about me. Of course, I wasn’t perfect with this and I did sometimes worry that I was forgotten, but I decided that I could wait the situation out before automatically thinking that I couldn’t trust or believe them to do it.

I also had some trust in my job situation and while it hasn’t gotten to a place I want it to be, it’s much better. I feel much more secure in my main day job and I think I’m in an ok place with the other job. I will be refocusing my job hunt again starting next month, but I don’t stress as much as I did before with all the issues I’ve encountered with work. Even with my customers making complaints about things that are out of my control, I am able to trust that my bosses know what is really happening and that my job isn’t at risk.

But the biggest place that I knew I wanted to put more trust in my life is with dating. I wanted to believe that I could trust someone with my feelings and that I didn’t have to always be on guard. And there were several times that I was able to be open and comfortable when I don’t think I would have been that way before. It never worked out the way that I wanted it to, but it wasn’t always bad. When I was open and honest with someone and they tell me that they don’t want to see me again, it hurts but I also don’t have regrets because I know that I was my real self. And putting that little bit of trust in others was necessary for me to be fully in my date and not putting on an act or hiding too much of myself.

But as I expected it might happen, putting this trust in my dating life did also backfire at times. I gave people trust who didn’t deserve it. Or I gave them more trust than I should have and I needed to be a bit more protective of myself. I allowed a few guys to take that trust and use it against me. And it hurt a lot when that happened. I wish I hadn’t allowed myself to trust that way and it made me question if I was being too naive or letting someone take advantage of me. But I have realized that these guys were going to betray me no matter how much or how little trust I gave them. I had blinders to who they really were and that wasn’t necessarily my fault. They only showed me one part of themselves and I gave them that trust based on that. And while I do regret giving them that trust and faith, I also know that if I hadn’t done so that they still would have done the same things that hurt me and I probably would feel the same.

Looking back at the past year, I do think I put more trust out in my life and that it was a worthwhile thing to do. I think I needed to do this to find new boundaries and ideas with myself and how I think of others. Even with the few regrets I had, I know they have made me a better and stronger person and has allowed me to see how I can put trust out there without putting my emotions at risk. This was something I needed and I think that it made the year better for me. And I know these lessons are ones that I will continue to do in 2020.

I won’t be revealing my word for 2020 for about another week, but I have to say that having “Trust” as my word this year helped guide me to my word next year. I love it when these words of the year connect and help continue my journey. It just feels so perfect and meant to be.

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Another Small Upgrade (or Making Things Easier To Watch)

Posted on December 26, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Small Upgrade (or Making Things Easier To Watch)

I try not to always splurge on the latest and greatest technology. I’m usually the person who keeps something as long as possible, even when it gets a bit outdated. I’m always having friends making fun of me for my phone because it’s so small (the reason I haven’t upgraded my phone is that I like a small phone). The only time I got something brand new as soon as it came out was my laptop, but that was something I had been waiting on for a while.

Besides my phone being a bit outdated, the other thing I have that wasn’t close to being the most recent version was my AppleTV. I got my AppleTV years ago so I could watch Netflix and Hulu on my TV. I know there are cheaper devices I could have gotten that could have accomplished the same thing, but I liked how the AppleTV worked with things I had in my iTunes account and it was worth the splurge. And I’ve been enjoying it for years (almost 9 years to be exact) even though there were features that people were able to enjoy that I couldn’t because my device was so old.

There were lots of things that I was ok with missing out on, but this year it got a bit much and I realized that I should just upgrade it. I think the final straw was when I realized I couldn’t watch Disney+ because I couldn’t access the app. I debated about getting a different device, but there were a few things that were only able to be accessed with an Apple device (like lots of movies and apps that I had things on). So getting a new AppleTV was the best option for me. I didn’t feel like braving the Apple Store so close to Christmas, but fortunately, Target had some in stock and there wasn’t a huge crowd when I happened to be passing by. I was in and out of the store in under 10 minutes with my new toy in my hands!

I’ve actually been enjoying this more than I was expecting! Obviously I’ve been able to take advantage of downloading different apps so I can watch things from different systems. I also can access my digital screeners for the SAG Awards on it so I don’t have to watch on my laptop. I spent more time than I probably should have this week with my time off watching screeners, Disney+, and all other streaming services. But I was also recovering from food poisoning and my plans were already to spend a lot of time watching shows.

This wasn’t the cheapest upgrade, but it wasn’t too horrible either. I didn’t get the most expensive version since I didn’t need all that it had to offer. And I figure that since I enjoyed the last one for almost 9 years that hopefully I could do the same for this one as well. And if the cost is spread over 9 years (or even 5 years), it’s not bad at all. And it does bring me a lot of happiness and makes it feel like I did a big upgrade in my house. And having that upgrade did inspire me a bit to spend even more time working on cleaning up my space and making it even better for sitting on the couch and watching movies. So having something I bought motivate me to do something I have been putting off a bit is another added bonus.

Of course, I don’t want to get into a place where I spent more time sitting and watching shows because I can finally access them on my tv. I think this week was a weird one since I had so much time off and could actually be lazy like this. When I’m in my normal schedule, I don’t think I will prioritize watching stuff on my tv over what I need to do. Of course, if I notice that I’m starting to do that I’ll have to take action and get back on track. But for now, I’m really just enjoying being able to watch things I’ve been wanting to watch and have something that feels a little fancy in my house.

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