Category Archives: Fun Stuff

So Much Entertainment So Little Time (or Scheduling Leisure Time)

Posted on September 26, 2019 | Comments Off on So Much Entertainment So Little Time (or Scheduling Leisure Time)

I have written in the past about how I try to watch at least 1 episode of every show on tv. That used to be a much easier task. While there were a lot of new shows at the beginning of the fall tv season, it was a limited time and I was able to work through all the shows. Now, while the beginning of the fall tv season is when most of the new shows start, it’s not just happening then. And even the time that new shows premiere in the fall is longer. It seems like every week there is something new to watch and it’s becoming harder to stay on top of things.

This year, I think things got crazier for me because my schedule has been busy. I’ve had a lot of other time commitments and other things I go to in the evening. So I’m not home as much to watch tv and I don’t necessarily have time to watch shows between customers as I have before. I know this is a really stupid problem, but it is a problem when I have a way that I prepare for things that I’m used to.

The new tv season really started this week, so there have only been a few days of new shows. But I already feel very behind. I haven’t watched any new shows yet and some of the shows that I watch regularly are still sitting on my DVR. There are some shows that are more of a priority for me to watch the night they come out, so it is helping me decide if there are shows that I might want to stop watching. If I don’t care enough to watch them right away, I probably could just wait until I don’t have other things to watch and catch up on Hulu or Netflix. I do have a bit of hesitation to delete series recordings, but I’m working on being ok with that and not following shows the way I used to.

But it’s not just tv that I’m not catching up on. I love to read and I take advantage of e-books from the library for my Kindle all the time. It’s really helped me cut back on spending because I rarely buy books anymore (but I do recommend that my library buys them so I feel like I’m still supporting authors a bit). I put lots of books on hold because they usually don’t become available all at once. Until they did last week. 6 books I had on hold were available and I downloaded them all because I wanted to see if I could read at least a majority of them. But I don’t know if I’ll have time to read 6 books in 3 weeks.

If it was only the tv scheduling or reading scheduling, I think I could get it all done. But I have to decide what I will do in the evening when I have free time: read or catch up on tv. I’ve been trying to find the balance to do both, but I know it’s not really possible. Every day that I’ve tried to do both I usually don’t really get much of either done or I fall asleep reading or watching tv and then have to pay attention to it a second time.

So I’ve been working on scheduling my tv time and reading time so I set aside the time to do it and not have other things I have to work on. I’m aware how stupid this probably sounds, but since I view watching tv as research, it’s important that I set aside time for it. And while I don’t have to read, it is something that makes me really happy and I feel off when I don’t read at least a little bit each day. And scheduling my entertainment time also makes me find time to relax and not do other work things. It’s so easy for me to not stop working since I work at home. I need to remember to stop work at some point and focus on something else. So scheduling fun time is helping.

I know that once I catch up with the new tv shows and with my library books, there will be more shows to watch and books to read. But hopefully it won’t all come at me at one time so I can spend more time with each thing. But for now, I just have to schedule things so I can get through them and make sure I feel prepared for any auditions I might get for new tv shows and get through at least some of my library books.

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Default ThumbnailAppreciating Some Laziness (or Finally Having Time To Play Catchup) Default ThumbnailRevisiting Old Characters and Stories (Or A Journey Of Re-Reading Books) Default ThumbnailSo Much Reading (or Really Taking Advantage Of The Library) Default ThumbnailHaving A Book Nerd Moment (or The Little Things That Make Me Smile) Default ThumbnailI’m a Book Nerd (or Seriously, I’m a Book Nerd) Default ThumbnailHappy 4th Of July (or Feeling Like A Lady Of Leisure)

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It Doesn’t Take Much To Upgrade A Space (or A Multi-Day Furniture Build)

Posted on September 25, 2019 | Comments Off on It Doesn’t Take Much To Upgrade A Space (or A Multi-Day Furniture Build)

The furniture I have in my house has been mine for a long time. Many pieces were either hand-me-downs or they were things I “inherited” when an old roommate left them at my old apartment. Most of the things I have are things that I brought with me from my old place to my current house, so I’ve had them for at least 10 years. And while most of the pieces I have are in great condition and I have no plans to replace them, I’ve also tried to start upgrading things bit by bit as I could.

The setup I had for my TV was something I had for a very long time. The DVD towers were something I purchased when I lived in my old apartment. And the TV stand was a cabinet that an old roommate purchased that we used in the entryway of my old apartment. When I moved into my house, I took the doors off of the cabinet and my dad helped me cut the back so the cables had a place to go. It’s worked for a while, but it felt flimsy and I have been wanting to get something nicer for a while.

The problem with wanting something nicer is that they usually cost a lot of money, and I didn’t have that. But when my parents were in town, my mom and I did some online shopping to see what we could find. We also discovered that a lot of TV stands were very low to the ground because most people have huge TVs.  I don’t and I needed something taller. We did a lot of searching online and finally found the perfect thing that also happened to be on clearance. It wouldn’t be delivered until after my parents left, but I’ve put together lots of furniture before so I knew I could it.

When the box arrived, it was huge! It was almost taller than me and it weighed a ton! Getting the box into my house took forever and it probably looked pretty funny. And once I got the box in my house and open, it took up a big chunk of my living room.

I asked a few friends if they could come over to help me, and my friend Andie was able to. But the night before she came over, I decided to work on unpacking the box and trying to put together what I could. A lot of pieces were huge, but there were little things I could do like building the drawers and putting handles on things. When I went to bed, my house felt like a huge disaster.

When Andie came over, I was hoping we would be able to put things together quickly because I had done a lot of the work ahead of time. I was wrong. Some of the issues we had were because the pieces weren’t fitting together perfectly. We were able to make them fit, but sometimes it took a little bit of force (and once it took my rubber mallet). Andie helped me for a few hours, but she had something she had to do that evening so I was finishing things up on my own. And then I hit what would be the biggest setback for building the cabinet.

For some reason, I couldn’t get the drawers to go in. I know I was exhausted, tired of working on the cabinet, and needed to eat some dinner; but I wanted to get this done. I FaceTimed my dad and he was trying to help me figure it out too. Neither of us could figure out the instructions or how they were supposed to work. I’m sure if my dad was here, he could have done it. But virtual help didn’t help me. I eventually went to bed with the drawers on the ground and decided to work on it the next day.

In the morning, my friend Dani came over because I was giving her my DVD towers. She needed something for her house and I was so happy that I was able to find someone who could use them (another friend needed the TV cabinet and I gave it to her). When Dani was over, she was checking out the new cabinet and I was telling her about the disaster of putting it together. And I explained that I couldn’t get the drawers to work and gave up on them.

Well, Dani must be a miracle worker because it only took her a minute or two and she had it figured out! I was ready to cry from happiness that she helped me because I didn’t want to work on building the cabinet for more than 3 days (seriously, 3 days was long enough). And once it was done, I could finally start organizing things and deciding how I’m going to decorate the space. Right now, I’m still playing around with what I’ll do, but this is what it looks like.

I think it’s a huge improvement over what I had before and it makes the space look so much bigger and nicer!

And even though I spent 3 days building it, I was ready the next day to build another thing. I had a replacement for my defective desk chair on the way and it arrived. I got the box inside, opened it up, and realized they only sent me about 25% of the parts needed. It was so bizarre that it was funny. They only sent me the wheels, bottom cushion, and armrests. No base, no back, no hardware to attach things. I honestly couldn’t believe it.

I did call the company that sent me the chair and asked if there was another box coming, and they said everything should have been in that one box. So they sent me another box with the rest of it. That hasn’t arrived yet, but as soon as it gets here I’ll be building something else. I’m tired of sitting on my dining room chair for 8 hours because they aren’t the most comfortable chairs for multiple hours. But I guess it did give me a break between crazy furniture builds and hopefully once the rest of the chair arrives I’ll be ready to build it and be done!

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Default ThumbnailA Bookcase Makeover (or A Free Upgrade To My Space) Default ThumbnailOrganization Time (or Seeing A Bit Of A Mess) Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailMinor Remodeling (or Putting My Parents To Work On Their Vacation) Default ThumbnailRehearsal Pro (or Help Build An Amazing App!) Default ThumbnailAnother Small Upgrade (or Making Things Easier To Watch)

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Finally Having Our Brunch (or Almost All The Mentees Together Again)

Posted on September 19, 2019 | Comments Off on Finally Having Our Brunch (or Almost All The Mentees Together Again)

I am the one who organizes the meetings/brunches for my mentoring group. I used to be very on top of organizing them, but as the years have gone on I have gotten a bit worse at coordinating. Fortunately, the group understands that things come up and that’s why we have stopped doing our brunches every other month and now try to do them 3 or 4 times a year. But I still feel a bit guilty when our brunches are overdue and I haven’t been able to coordinate it.

This time, the brunch would have happened right in the middle of the election, so I knew it was going to have to be pushed back. Everyone else had conflicts in August, so that delay was for the best. When we were trying to figure out what dates would work in September, there was one date that seemed to work for almost all of us. So it was easy to pick which date we would end up meeting. We ended up having 5 out of the 6 people in our group there that day.

We went to our usual brunch place, Rush St., which has been a good place for us to meet over the years. But it is a sports bar/restaurant, and since it is football season there were a lot of people inside watching the game. We had a reservation for the group and they were able to seat us on the patio, so it was much quieter for us. We usually sit outside, so it was also a nice change from our routine and we got to enjoy the nice day we were having.

As our meetings usually go, we all went around and took turns sharing what we had been up to since our last meeting. Since it had been a while, we all had a lot to share. We don’t always share work-related things as the group has become close friends. But a lot of things we shared were about our careers. And as always, I was so inspired hearing what everyone else had been up to. It’s so interesting to be able to watch someone’s career grow over the years and see what is behind the idea of an overnight success story.

When it was my turn, I mainly shared things about the election. Since most of the group are not actors, they weren’t seeing the stories that I had been seeing every day. So I also filled them in on some of the crazy things that happened as well. I think they were all pretty shocked about how things went and the stories that came out. But at least now being past the election things are a bit funnier and not as stressful for me. I also shared about the little things I had been doing for my career, but they all understood that the election dominated my time and I hadn’t had time to do much else.

Even with all the things we had to share among the group, we still had plenty of time to be silly and socialize. And I think we have found a great way to balance out the point of these meetings and making them more of a hangout. Once we finished going over our individual updates, it just naturally turns into a hangout and it’s so nice that we can do that. And sometimes someone will add a career update or ask for advice while we are doing more socializing, but that’s fine. We have reached a comfort level with each other that we don’t have to feel as strict with how our meetings go. When we started out, we also have more people and we had to make sure that the meetings didn’t last for hours. Now with only 6 of us in the group, it’s easier.

We ended up being at brunch for longer than expected, but I think we all missed each other and we wanted to take advantage of being together. And to have 5 of us at the meeting is hard to coordinate so we wanted to make sure we spent time together. Maybe one day we will be able to figure out a day and time that works out for all of us, but with everyone having such busy lives it’s not easy. But we try our best to make it and it makes me so happy to see everyone else being as committed to maintaining these meetings as I am.

At the rate we’ve been going, I don’t know if we’ll have another brunch before the end of the year. Maybe we could figure something out in December, but it’s so hard with the holidays. So if this is the last mentee meeting of the year, we ended on a high note. And if we have one more, I know it will be just as great as this meeting was.

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Default ThumbnailLast Mentoring Group Brunch For The Year (or Switching Things Up For Next Year) Default Thumbnail4 Years Of My Mentoring Circle (or Celebrating With Brunch) Default ThumbnailAnother Evening Of Mentees (or Advice and Socializing) Default ThumbnailFinally Seeing My Mentoring Group Again (or Our First Brunch Of 2020) Default ThumbnailAnother Delayed Brunch (or I Wish I Had More Accomplishments) Default ThumbnailAnother Business Brunch (or A Delayed Mentoring Circle Meeting)

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Another Night At The Bowl (or My Parents Got To Rock Out)

Posted on September 18, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Night At The Bowl (or My Parents Got To Rock Out)

The timing for my parents’ trip was determined by a few things. First, they had hotel reservations in Catalina so I knew they’d be coming to LA either before they went to Catalina or after. But my parents and I also wanted to try to find a show at the Bowl that we could go to together. We had a lot of fun when we saw the Beatles celebration there, and we wanted to see another show. We had been trying for a few years to find a show that worked with their schedule that they wanted to see, but nothing was working until this season.

As soon as the Bowl announced their season, I shared it with my parents so they could pick out what looked good and what they would want to see. I had a few things that I suggested could be fun, but I wanted my parents to pick what they wanted and not just go to something that I thought they would enjoy. And when we looked at the season this year, my parents knew exactly what looked good to them: Earth, Wind & Fire.

I had heard of the band before, but since I’m not a big music person I don’t always know what songs are done by which bands. But it looked like it would be a fun show, plus it was going to have fireworks. And I knew that at the show I would recognize songs even if I didn’t know they were their songs before seeing them.

I tried to get us box seats for the Bowl so we could have an extra special evening, but I think because there were fireworks with the show, a lot of people wanted tickets. I was in the virtual line online hours before they went on sale, but I still couldn’t get us a box. But I did get us seats that were closer than I normally sit and we figured we could eat at our seats or try to find a picnic area.

On the day of the show, my dad and I worked out in the morning and then I had work. While I was working, my parents came over for a while because they were going to help me with a few things. My parents got me a Ring doorbell camera for my birthday (I have been wanting one) so my dad and I had to install it. And there were a few other small house projects for us to work on, but nothing too crazy. My parents left before I was done with work and we decided we were going to get food from Tender Greens to bring with us to the show.

We dealt with more rush hour traffic while on the Bowl Bus, but we were at the Bowl with plenty of time to eat before the show started. We didn’t luck out finding a picnic spot, so we went to our seats and ate there. Since we were early enough, the other people in our row weren’t there so we were able to spread out a bit. And since we were just eating salads, it wasn’t too hard to eat at the seats.

After eating, we waited for showtime. We had much better seats than we had when we went for the show before (when they were slightly obstructed seats). This time, we were more centered than before and had a great view of the stage.

The show was sold out so our row started to fill in before the show. Not everyone got there before the show started, and we were seated at the end of the row, so for the first part of the show, we were getting up and down a bit. A lot of the people seated around us were standing for the show, but we stayed seated (I was tired) and we could still see the stage and the large video screens so it was fine.

And as I expected, for a majority of the songs that they played I recognized them once they started playing. I knew them from various movies or random snippits I’ve heard on the radio but I just didn’t know who the band was. That’s how most concerts are for me and it’s always a fun surprise when I learn that a band I’m seeing is behind songs that I’ve randomly known for years.

But my parents knew all of the songs and they seemed very excited every time a new song started. I haven’t been to many concerts with them, so I’ve never seen them really get into a show. But there is no question they were into this show. I had a great time watching them have a great time. That might have been better for me than enjoying the show myself. My parents worked so hard and I love seeing them get to enjoy retirement. And their retirement has been them getting to do so much and discover new things they are into. They have done so many adventures since my dad retired and I am glad I got to be a small part of their adventure this time.

And, as I said, this was a show with fireworks. It’s rare to get to see fireworks at a show, but it is so spectacular.

When the show was done, we headed back to the bus and were able to get on one without having to wait. The drive back was much easier than the drive there, and I was glad we were back sooner because it had been a very full day. I was tired and I had an early morning the next morning. But the show was the end to my parents visiting me so it was a little bit of a downer. I will see them again in a little over 2 months for Thanksgiving, so that’s not too far from now.

Considering my parents were in LA for 2 days, we really packed a lot in. We had 2 shows, 1 workout, some fun meals, work around my house, and a little bit of relaxing time in there. Hopefully, they don’t need a vacation from their vacation now.

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Default ThumbnailA Night At The Bowl (or Movie Music With Friends) Default ThumbnailA Night At The Bowl (or Combining Several Of My Favorite Things) Default ThumbnailLast Minute Bowl Adventure (or A Very Hot And Humid Night Out) Default ThumbnailA Perfect Night At The Bowl (or Checking Some Things Off My List) Default ThumbnailAnother Bowl Night (or Not Letting Rude People Ruin My Fun) Default ThumbnailSaturday Evening With My Parents (or I’m Posting A Little Out Of Order About My Weekend)

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Part 1 Of A Family Visit (or Letting My Parents Relax A Bit)

Posted on September 17, 2019 | Comments Off on Part 1 Of A Family Visit (or Letting My Parents Relax A Bit)

My parents were visiting me for two days last week. Their stop in LA was the end of their vacation, but it was timed that way for a show that we had tickets for (that I’ll be writing about tomorrow). They had visited my brother and sister-in-law for the beginning of their trip and then they were in Catalina for several days. Their trip to Catalina was a bit more adventurous than the trip I did earlier this year. They did a lot of hiking, kayaking, and exploring while they were there. So I wanted to make their LA stop as relaxing as possible.

They got to LA on Thursday afternoon while I was still working. Even though they could have come over to my house while I was working, they took a bit of time to themselves to check in to their hotel and do a walk around Culver City. They came over when I was done, which was probably for the best since work has been picking up a lot lately.

Before my parents came, I had asked them what they wanted to do the night they arrived. We didn’t plan anything for that night and I knew that just sitting around and doing nothing wouldn’t be the best option. They asked me what I usually like to do in the evenings, but I knew my typically after work stuff wouldn’t be right. We weren’t going to go to Disneyland for a few hours, I wasn’t going to bring them to a union event, and I already knew being lazy wasn’t the right thing. So I started looking around for shows that we could potentially go to.

My parents don’t go to plays or musicals that often, but they do enjoy them. Unfortunately, it seemed like last week was between the seasons for so many places. But I did remember that a friend of mine sent me information regarding free preview tickets for the Mark Taper, so I took a look at that and my parents agreed it would be something interesting and different to do.

We also made dinner reservations downtown so we could just drive there and stay there. Of course, we were driving during rush hour traffic and it took us a long time to get there, but we gave ourselves plenty of time to drive so it was fine. We parked at the theater and made it to the restaurant right at the time of our reservation.

Sorry for not having any dinner pictures, but I was more focused on spending time with my parents. Even though I talk to them all the time, it’s different when you get to spend time in person. They were asking me things about the election and the upcoming convention. This is my 3rd convention, but it’s still a weird concept to even union members who aren’t a part of it. And I know even more now than I did before so I could explain what happens more. And my parents had seen some of the news about the election and I could update them on some of the craziness.

After dinner, we went up to the theater. My mom hadn’t been to the Mark Taper since she lived in LA (so at least 50 years ago) and my dad had never been there. It was cool to get to introduce and re-introduce my parents somewhere. And we were at the theater early enough to get to spend time on the patio in front talking more and enjoying the view of downtown LA.

The show that we went to was “A Play Is A Poem”. It is not a full play but actually 5 different 1 act shows that aren’t directly connected. The only thing they have in common is that all the 1 act shows take place in America.

We didn’t know much about the show and sometimes that is a good thing. I figured I would just be enjoying the different plays and hopefully my parents would enjoy them too.

This was the second night of previews for the show, so I don’t know if anything will be changing before it officially premieres. I did enjoy the show overall, but I didn’t love all the 1 acts. There were 2 that I thought were really great and would actually like to see as a full-length show, 2 that were good but not my favorite, and 1 that I didn’t enjoy. My parents felt the same and from listening to people leaving the theater, many people had the same opinion. I’m still glad we went because I love going to the theater, I just wish that it was a show that we all loved and were super enthusiastic about.

After the show, my parents drove me back (which was significantly faster than our drive there) and then they headed back to their hotel which was only a few minutes from my house. They had a busy travel day and I knew they were probably tired because I was exhausted. And my dad and I had an early morning the next morning for our workout.

Plus, we were all excited and wanting to get some sleep for our exciting outing the next day. But I’ll be writing about that tomorrow.

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Default ThumbnailLA Staycation (or Hanging Out With Family and Friends) Default ThumbnailSan Diego Day (or Some More Family Time) Default ThumbnailQuick Family Visit (or My Extra Long Lunch From Work) Default ThumbnailWork Time Family Visit (or Already Preparing To Renew My Disneyland Pass) Default Thumbnail24 Hour Visit Home (or Another Cancer Patient In The Family) Default ThumbnailMore Family Time (or Seeing All My Immediate Family Last Week)

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This Felt Like Hell Week (or An Unexpected But Fun Workout Week)

Posted on September 16, 2019 | Comments Off on This Felt Like Hell Week (or An Unexpected But Fun Workout Week)

This past week of workouts was so tough. I wasn’t the only one who said that, so many people felt like this past week was getting us prepared for Hell Week. And I went into the workouts planning on working hard anyway so they felt even harder for me. But they were great workouts and I had some reasons to have even more fun with them.

Monday’s class was endurance based and it was a weird one for me. Not because the class was weird, but I went earlier than I would normally go. I originally had a meeting on Monday that would have prevented me from going to my normal class at the Brentwood studio, and even my early class in Culver would have been too late. So I went to an even earlier class and went at 6:20 am! I’m not used to working out that early so I think it felt harder because of that.

For cardio, we had push to base pace intervals. Half of them were 90-second intervals and half of them were 30-second intervals. But the push and base paces always matched. I was using the different resistance levels for the 90-second intervals, but for the 30-second ones, it was hard to switch back and forth. So I just kept the resistance level at my base and increased my speed.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row for distance. Then we had medicine ball lunges which I modified to be medicine ball squats. Then we took 200 meters off of our 3-minute row and did the medicine ball work again. We repeated that for the first half. Then, we followed the pattern of the treadmill with the 30 second intervals of push and base paces. The rowing for the second half was a lot, but it was good.

And on the floor, we had a lot of lower body work. We had goblet lunges (I modified them because we were supposed to use the Bosu), swing lunges (which I modified by using the straps for stability), sit-ups on the Bosu, lateral lunges into bicep curls with weights, and crunches on the Bosu. My legs were so tired after the workout and I was actually glad the meeting I was supposed to have was canceled so I could recover a bit at home before I had to go out to do other things that day.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, but it almost felt more like an endurance day. Another hard class that felt like a Hell Week class to me.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a 90-second push pace, 90-second base pace, and 1 minute all out. Then we repeated that but with 30-second intervals. The second block was almost the day, but when we were doing the 30-second intervals we took out the base pace. I was working with the resistance levels when we had 90-second intervals, but I skipped them for the 30-second intervals. It’s just too hard to reach down to adjust the resistance level when there is so little time to work.

On the rower, we started with 3 rounds of 100-meter rows. Then we had 2 rounds of 150 meters and 1 round of 300 meters. Between the rowing, we were supposed to do lunges but I did squats instead. The second block had the same rowing plan but with squats instead of lunges so I guess I got double squats. On the floor, we had sumo squats to high rows with weights, sit-ups, plank work, toe reaches with weights, and rollouts on the straps. It was a lot of work work and a lot of getting up and down.

Friday’s workout was a power day and also Friday the 13th themed. But it was a workout I had been looking forward to for a while because my dad was joining me for it! My dad doesn’t go to Orangetheory that often. Normally it’s just for the family Thanksgiving workout. He’s also been to the Brentwood studio for 2 classes (once when I started at OTF and once when I didn’t need my liver surgery). But this would be his first time at the Culver studio and also the earliest workout he’s done with me.

I warned my dad it would be a hard workout and I was right! For cardio, we had 13 rounds of all outs to walking recoveries. All of the all outs were 30 seconds and the first 6 recoveries were 30 seconds before increasing to 45 seconds. My dad kicked butt doing the all outs on the treadmill and he was increasing his speed throughout the block. I was on the bike and skipped increasing the resistance but worked even harder than normal with trying to pedal faster. I think having my dad there motivated me to try more.

On the rower, we had rounds of 130-meter rows. We started with 13 squats to overhead reaches with the medicine ball between the rowing and decreased the number of squats each round. My dad and I raced for the first 130-meter row, and I think I beat him by a fraction of a second. But we didn’t race for the other rowing since we were both going at our own pace.

And on the floor, the theme of 13 continued. All the exercises were reps of 13. And a few times during the floor work, the screen went black and white and we were supposed to do 13 burpees. The regular floor work had ground to presses with weights, calf raises with weights, Y raises on the straps, crunches, and knee tucks and hamstring curls on the ab dolly (I modified the hamstring curls to be weighted hip bridges). It was a lot of work and really hard, but I was having so much fun having my dad in class with me. Having family in class is a real treat for me, and of course, my dad and I had to take a sweaty post-OTF photo with my Friday coach.

On Saturday, we had a strength day. I was a bit sore from Friday’s workout (and from doing other things on Friday), but I knew I had to finish the week strong. And I had been taking it easy with the resistance levels on the bike, so a strength day was the perfect thing.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with a 3-minute hill. The resistance level for the first block was between my push and all out and for the second block was my push level. After the hills, we had base pace with no incline/added resistance before a push and all out. And the all out was supposed to be on a hill so I set the resistance higher than normal for me. It was hard and I was moving slowly, but it felt good to do it.

On the rower, we had slow pulls only. That means that we count for a specific number of strokes but the goal is to go super slow on the rower. We were told to try to wait until the water tank wasn’t moving as much before pulling the handle again. Doing slow pulls is hard and takes patience, but it really helps with rowing form. The first set was 4 rounds of 20 slow pulls with squats between each round. The second set was 15 slow pulls with squats between, but I only got 1 round of those in before the block was done. I focused a lot of going as slow as I could and I think I did much better with my form than normal.

And on the floor, we had a lot of upper body work. We had bicep curls, pullovers, uppercuts, chest fly, and hip hinge upright rows. All of the work was with weights and I tried to go heavy since it was a strength day. I was glad it wasn’t lower body work because my lower body really did need that break.

Even though these workouts were really hard, I really loved them. I was also having a good week without pain or nausea affecting the workouts which helped. This week might be a bit tougher for me, but I’m ready for it.

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Default ThumbnailA Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself) Default ThumbnailAnother Short Workout Week (or Still Can’t Believe My Milestone) Default ThumbnailHell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another) Default ThumbnailThis Wasn’t Going To Be A 4 Workout Week (or Some Pleasant Surprises) Default ThumbnailFinishing Up 12 Days of Fitness (or This Felt Like A Long Hell Week) Default ThumbnailA Fun And Unique Workout Week (or Not Letting Setbacks Set Me Back)

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A Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize)

Posted on September 13, 2019 | Comments Off on A Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize)

I hate that so many things in my life were affected by election season, but it really did take over my life. I’m finally feeling like things are normal again for me, but I’m still dealing with what happened when I let other things in my life slide because I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with them.

When things aren’t normal, it’s stressful in so many ways. But one way that I was stressed was by the lack of cleaning I had done in my house. While I’m not the cleanest person I know, I still do daily cleaning and try to do weekly deep cleaning. I thought with having a small house that it wouldn’t be as hard to clean, but I feel like having a small house actually can make things worse. Dirt and dust seem to appear so quickly, but that’s probably because there’s less surface area for them to land on. And clutter is definitely a problem with a small house. I try my best to limit what I bring into my house, but last month things just started to pile up.

I was avoiding doing the cleaning I needed to for a little while. I want to claim that I needed some downtime to recover before getting back to things, but honestly, it was just being lazy. But this week, I had to get my act in gear. First, the messiness was starting to really bother me and I could feel that I wasn’t in the best headspace. But also, my parents are in town now and I want to have a clean house for them. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind if my house was a little messy, but I don’t like having it that way. And it’s not as clean as I would like it to be, but it’s significantly better than it was before.

Besides doing all the cleaning, I had to get my house back in order. I’m still working on the organization part, but I was able to get a lot done this week. And in that organization, I started to get rid of things. There are so many things I was holding on to for no good reason that I just needed to toss or add to a donation pile. I know that most of those things had some sentimental reason at one point, but it’s been so long that they are now meaningless junk. And there is no reason to keep them in my house and taking up the limited space I have. Maybe if I was in a bigger house, I’d find a way to keep them. But it’s probably better that I have a little space so I am forced into a more minimalistic lifestyle.

I did try to work on the cleaning and organizing a little bit each day for the beginning of the week. I didn’t want to get overwhelmed in the middle of working on it and making things more of a mess. I actually managed to figure out a good schedule because I never felt like I was trying to do too much. In fact, many days I actually felt motivated to do a bit more than I planned to do. It helped to make things go by and I was able to do almost everything I wanted to do with organizing and getting rid of things.

I still have a few more organizing projects that I want to work on, but I didn’t worry about them this week. They can wait and things don’t look too messy while they aren’t done. But I do want to get more of my house feeling as put together as the main spaces do. It’s been a huge relief to feel like things are clean and nice looking and I want to make even more of my house feel like that. Those extra projects require purchasing some things to help me and I haven’t found the perfect things to use yet. For example, I need new drawer organizers and I haven’t found a set I like. The ones I am using are cheap ones I got and I realized that while they worked I never loved them. I kept them until they started to fall apart (about 4 years) so it’s time to find a replacement that I want to have. But since there’s no urgency to get that done, I can take the time to find the perfect thing instead of spending money on something I don’t really like.

Even though I’m not totally done with my organizing, I got a huge chunk of it done and I feel so accomplished. And hopefully, I’m able to keep things up and not let my house get back to how it was just a week ago.

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Appreciating Some Laziness (or Finally Having Time To Play Catchup)

Posted on September 6, 2019 | Comments Off on Appreciating Some Laziness (or Finally Having Time To Play Catchup)

With all the craziness of my schedule lately, I haven’t been able to do some of the things I usually get to do every day that make me happy. I don’t know if I realized how little I was doing until I finally had time to get back to a more normal schedule. But I’ve finally had some time over the past week to really do nothing that I had to do and could do things I wanted to do.

I knew I was stressed and that it was getting to me. But I don’t think I realized how much it was affecting me until I finally had the time to decompress. And while I wanted to spend time hanging out with my friends and catching up on the life I missed, I realized that it was more important for me to catch up on my own life. That’s part of the reason I created the challenge I set for this month.

Since most of the tv shows I watch are during the fall and spring, I didn’t have much tv to catch up on. I did watch the few random things I recorded on my DVR, but I didn’t have a huge list of shows I hadn’t watched that I needed to get through. That was probably good because I think having a list like that would have added to my stress. And while I try not to watch tv mindlessly and usually only watch shows I record or the news, I did take some time to zone out watching tv from time to time. I also took some time to look at my DVR and see what shows I could take off the recording schedule. I do watch a lot of tv, but I don’t want it to take over my free time. I need to find a balance and I know that with the new tv season starting up that I will be adding new shows. So a few old ones needed to go. But that’s something I usually have to do each year so it was nice to have some time to do it.

Without having tv, I did spend a lot of time doing other things that make me happy. Mainly, I have been doing a lot of reading. Reading is almost a daily thing for me. I really can’t remember the last day that I didn’t read at all. But I hate it when I only have time to read when I’m going to bed. I usually fall asleep quickly and there have been a few times that I dropped my Kindle on my face while falling asleep reading (and getting an impressive bruise because of it). I took some time over the weekend to go through my wish list at the library to get some new e-books or put things on hold. And I did some research online to see what new books I could add to my lists. There are a few books that I’m re-reading because they are the book equivalent of comfort food for me. And I’ve been getting through those books quickly since they are easy reads. There have been several afternoons that I just spent hours reading and not worrying about anything else. It has been so nice to get to do that.

I know I can’t be lazy like this forever, so I’m taking advantage of this week when I can do that. I know my schedule will be picking back up soon and I won’t be able to spend my time relaxing as much as I have been. I won’t be as crazy as I was recently, so it should feel a bit more balanced. And besides my schedule picking up, there are a few other things that I want to work on adding to my life and schedule and I need to see what free time I will have each day.

But for now, I’m really enjoying this time that I can be home doing nothing if that’s what I want. I can do as much reading as I can fit into a day and not have to worry about any other plans I have later. And I’ll probably get to do that through this weekend so I’m already looking forward to seeing what other books I can read, shows I can watch, and other lazy activities that I can get done.

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Another OTF Hangout (or Having Fun Being Social In Normal Clothes)

Posted on September 4, 2019 | Comments Off on Another OTF Hangout (or Having Fun Being Social In Normal Clothes)

I feel like since the Culver City Orangetheory location opened, I’ve really been taking advantage of the different social events and hangouts. While the Brentwood location was not far from my house, I didn’t want to drive back over there after I went home after a workout. And if the hangout was a day I wasn’t over on that side of LA already, I usually didn’t feel motivated to go over there. But now that most of the Culver City hangouts are within minutes of my house, I try to make it to them as long as they fit into my schedule.

There have been a few different events like hikes that take place on Saturdays when I am working, so I can’t go to those. But there have also been beach days and happy hours that either are after I’m done with work or a long enough event that I can go after work. I have never been a part of a workout community like I am a part of at OTF. I have made some great friends in class since I take the same classes each week, but also just having the general community around the workouts has been special. It’s always fun getting to hang out with workout people outside of workouts. I especially get a kick out of it because people seem to always be surprised that I have long hair. I guess I hide that well by putting my hair up for the workouts.

This past Saturday was another Culver City OTF hangout. This was at Kay’n’Daves which is pretty close to my house. Even though it’s near my house, I haven’t eaten there at that location before. They had a location near an old job of mine over 10 years ago and I remember having it once then. But it still felt like a new place for me. We had the back patio reserved for us, which was nice because we knew everyone back there was a part of OTF and we didn’t have to wonder if we were bothering someone who was just at the restaurant on their own.

I got there before the event was supposed to start because my friend Andie was there early because she had to leave for work soon after it started. But that worked for me because we were able to sit at a table right in the center of the patio and enjoy people watching while others arrived. And some of the staff arrived right after we sat down so it didn’t feel like we were there before things started.

Kay’n’Daves was pretty awesome and allowed us to order from their happy hour menu while we were there. I didn’t order anything (I wasn’t that hungry and I didn’t want to spend money if I didn’t have to), so I just had water and chips. But everything that everyone else ordered looked so good and it was tempting. But I’ll just have to go back another time to try things.

The patio quickly filled up with OTF people. There were some that I recognized from class, but I also don’t know that many people who are in different class times. If they are in much earlier classes I take or the afternoon and evening classes, I don’t see them. But that’s one of the benefits of going to these hangouts. I get to know people who are a part of the community even if I don’t see them in class. And it’s nice to have that because there are random times I have to take a class that is a different time than I’m used to. And hopefully, I’ll know at least one person in class that I met at a happy hour event.

It was also fun getting to hang out with one of my coaches there. Even though our coaches get to know us well since they see us every week, it’s different when you get to spend real time chatting and getting to know them. Again, anything that builds up the community feels like a real benefit to me.

I stayed at the happy hour later than I was planning on staying. I had some work things I still had to finish doing so I knew I couldn’t stay forever. But I was there for about 3 hours which allowed me to relax and spend lots of time getting to talk to the people who were there. I got to know the people I know from class better and I met so many new people. It really was the perfect event and I felt even more connected to OTF when I left.

I know there will be more social events coming up and this gives me more motivation to keep trying to make it to as many as I can.

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Default ThumbnailA Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing) Default ThumbnailA Quick Happy Hour (or Making Myself Be Social) Default ThumbnailBeing Social Outside Of Workouts (or Making OTF Friends) Default ThumbnailSaying Goodbye To A Workout Buddy (or Hanging Out In Normal Clothes) Default ThumbnailAnother OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar) Default ThumbnailAnother NextGen Mixer (or A Fun Post-Election Hangout)

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Taking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge)

Posted on September 3, 2019 | Comments Off on Taking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge)

Last month, I challenged myself to celebrate more often. That made sense since August is my birthday month, but it didn’t quite go the way I expected it to go. A lot of things didn’t go the way I expected them to go because of how much energy the election took. I did try to celebrate as much as I could and appreciate the little things in life, but I really had a bigger expectation of what I was going to accomplish.

I thought I’d be celebrating my birthday and bigger things like that. I ended up celebrating nights that I was in bed before midnight or didn’t wake up multiple times to get more work done. And I celebrated when I had the rare moments last month that I wasn’t nauseous. Those are still things to celebrate, but not exactly what I thought of when I originally started the month. But I guess I have to allow myself to be flexible and I did celebrate how I was able to do so. But like many of my challenges, this is one that I want to continue and remember that it’s important to celebrate even the little stupid things sometimes.

Because of how crazy and hectic August ended up being for me (and because I know that October is going to have a bit of craziness too), I wanted to figure out a good monthly challenge for September. I had a list of ideas that I created before the beginning of the year, but nothing really felt right to me. I wanted to find a way to be centered again and not feel like I am living from stressful moment to stressful moment. I also can feel burnout creeping up on me and I want to do what I can to stop it.

So I had to let go of the challenge ideas that I had because none of them would really accomplish what I want to do. Some of them might have ended up stressing me out even more because it would be adding something else to my life or only having me focus on one part of my life. I had to rethink about what the monthly challenge could look like for me. I realized I needed less of a challenge for September and more of a goal and plan.

So for September, my “challenge” is to reset my life back to normal. I have been doing horribly with some parts of my life that I know need to be regulated like sleep and my eating schedule. I need to spend this month getting back to a healthy place with things like that because if I don’t it’s going to be even more stressful for me. I need to work on getting to bed on time and not worrying about not being reachable in the middle of the night. I probably need to set alarms again to remind myself to eat because there were several days last month that I forgot one or more meals in a day. I know there are more parts to my life that I want to reset, but sleep and food are the big ones.

I also want to reset my free time scheduling and use it productively. I haven’t had a lot of free time lately so when I have it I usually nap or spend it doing as little as possible. I want to be productive and maximize each day. I want to get my spending and budgeting back on track because I haven’t been tracking it the way I need to. And I even realized that some of my self-care practices took a backseat last month and I want to get back to the regular routines that I have had in the recent past. Making sure I take care of my skin and appearance isn’t the most important thing, but it helps me feel better about myself.

Hopefully, by taking this month to get back to what I know to be my normal, I will feel less stressed soon. And maybe I’ll discover new habits I want to add to my day or old habits that I can drop or do more efficiently. While it’s not a challenge like most of the challenges are or what I want them to be, I am still excited to see what happens by the end of the month.

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