Category Archives: Fun Stuff

Holiday Workouts (or Making Myself Enjoy The Bike)

Posted on December 31, 2018 | Comments Off on Holiday Workouts (or Making Myself Enjoy The Bike)

This past week was my last full week of workouts for 2018, and I have to say I think they went pretty well! I had some random issues, but I also had some victories over issues that I have been dealing with for a while. And as always, I enjoyed having a bit of holiday fun during my workouts too.

Monday’s workout was the traditional Christmas Eve workout with the Present and Coal cards. We drew cards out of a Santa hat that had different workout assignments. Some were easy (the Presents) and some were hard (the Coal). I’ve had a mixed bag with what workouts I’ve gotten in the past and I figured I’d have the same this time.

I started on cardio with the bike. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with enjoying the bike more often, but I was glad I used it for this workout.  I did 3 different cards and they were all Presents. The first and third cards that I drew were 3 rounds of .15 miles (which was .6 on the bike) with 30 seconds of recovery in between each round. Each round took me about 90 seconds to complete so it was a 90 second push pace for me. I forgot what the second card said exactly, but it was shorter than the other card. I think it might have been 3 rounds of .1 miles (.4 on the bike) but I’m not totally sure. But again, I did it as a push pace and I was using my new push pace resistance level on the bike.

I was on the rower next and I only drew one card, and it was a Coal card. I had 2 rounds of an 800 meter row with 50 squats using a medicine ball between the rows. The first row wasn’t too bad and I was able to do it in a decent time without stopping. But the 50 squats were a killer! I thought I could do them with only 1 break in the middle, but I had to rest every 5-10 squats. I was so happy to be back on the rower for my second 800 meter row even though I did it slowly and needed breaks. I was just finishing it when that block was done and I went to the floor.

I’m not sure if I was just normal tired or tired from the workout, but I got really confused when reading the card. We had 6 different exercises on the floor (low rows on the straps, sumo squats to presses, crunches, burpees, squats, and plank work) and the first card I drew said Exercise 4 x 25. I thought that meant 4 rounds of 25 reps of everything and started working on them. But after the second exercise, I realized that had to be wrong and I checked with my coach. The card meant I only had to do the 4th exercise (which was the burpees) for 25 reps. All the cards I got on the floor only had been doing some of the exercises, but by the end of the block I had done all 6 of them pretty equally.

I have a tradition of getting a photo with my coach Bruce before Christmas with him wearing a Santa hat, but I knew this year it might not happen. I don’t take his class anymore and I rarely see him. So I had to do some creative photo editing to make it happen this year.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength day, and I was on the bike again. We had 3 blocks with cardio and 3 blocks on the floor, but the cardio work seemed extra tough to me that morning.

The cardio was a similar pattern with a regular push pace, a hill, and ending with an all out with base paces in between everything. The push pace and hill work were 2 minutes each for the first block, 90 seconds each for the second block, and 1 minute each for the last block. And the hill work was 2 different inclines/resistance levels each time so we went higher and harder halfway through each hill. I was using my new base and push resistance levels and kept my hill work around what my all out resistance level is at now. I had Chinese food the night before and I think having that the night before an early workout did affect me because it felt so much harder than it had felt in a long time. I struggled a bit with the hill work, but I tried to not think about keeping my cadence the same and just focused on moving. The one really good thing was that my new base pace resistance level is feeling much easier and such a relief when I get to come back to it after higher resistance levels.

On the floor, we got to pick our own work for each block. We had 3 different row distances and 6 different exercises. For each block we picked 1 row distance and 2 exercises and by the end of 3 blocks we did them all. The rows were 200, 300, and 400 meters and the exercises were hip hinge low rows, double crunches, shoulder presses, single arm fly, pullovers, and toe reaches. I decided to do the longest row first and go down with each block. And I didn’t have a plan with the exercises more than I was going to do 1 and 3 for the first block, 2 and 4 for the second, and 5 and 6 for the last. We were told not to do the double crunches and pullovers in the same block since they were the same movement, and for some reason the way I split things up made the most sense to me. I wasn’t using the heaviest weights I could because there is a small chance I have a pinched nerve in my right arm (I’ve got some recurring pain and weakness in my hand) so I wanted to be careful. But using light weights really did help me see my progress since those weights were ones I would have used for those exercises toward the beginning of the year and they felt very easy to me in this workout.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was a workout that made me happy to be on the bike. For cardio, we had a mix of progressive pushes and incline work. And neither of those are things that are easy to do on the treadmill. So being on the bike really was the best option and it made me appreciate knowing I can do some good work on there.

We had 2 blocks and each block started with a 4 minute progressive push and ended with 4 all outs using different inclines. For the progressive pushes, I increased my bike resistance by 1 level each time starting at the resistance level between my base and push. And for the incline work I did high resistance levels starting at my all out level and going higher from there. As it’s been since I increased my base, push, and all out resistance levels; it was really tough but felt really great. The base resistance level is feeling so much more normal even if the other levels are feeling much tougher than I’m used to.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks as well and they all had rowing plus regular floor work. The first block started with a 100 meter row and then we had 1 round of lateral raises, single arm snatches, and bench hop overs. Then we had a 200 meter row and 2 rounds of the exercises. The block ended with a 400 meter row and doing the exercises again. The second block was a similar pattern but started with the highest row and moved down. And the exercises were Y raises on the straps, plank rows, and sit-ups.

Saturday’s workout was a power day and it would have been a perfect day for me to work on my running. But I’m working on being happier with the bike so I tried to reframe my thinking and look at it as the perfect day to work on being faster on the bike.

There were 5 blocks for cardio and 5 blocks for the floor. The first and last blocks were 2 minutes, the second and fourth blocks were 3.5 minutes, and the third block was 5.5 minutes. For cardio, it was a run/row format. The first and last blocks were a .1 mile run (.4 on the bike) and then row until time was done. The second and fourth blocks were .2 miles (.8 on the bike) and then row until time was done. And the third block was .3 miles (1.2 on the bike) and then row until the block was done. I was able to get through the bike work pretty quickly and had a decent amount of time on the rower each block. But I was never on the rower more than 2.5 minutes which was nice. I felt pretty great about my biking speed and my rowing for all of the blocks and also felt like I had worked harder on the bike than I would have on the treadmill.

The floor blocks were the same amount of time as the cardio blocks. The first and fifth blocks had push-ups and sit-ups, the second and fourth blocks had tricep extensions with weights and chest presses with weights, and the third block had tricep extensions on the straps, plank shoulder touches, and toe touch sit-ups. I tried to not go too quickly with the exercises so I could keep my form the best I could, so I didn’t do too many rounds each block. But that’s ok.

Overall, I’m happy with how my feelings about the bike were at the end of this past week. I was looking at it more positively and started to think of ideas of challenges for 2019 for the bike (more on that soon). I’ve got just today’s workout left for 2018 and then it’s time to start working on my 2019 fitness goals!

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Default ThumbnailStill Testing Things Out (or Finding Another Advantage With The Bike) Default ThumbnailHaving Some Realizations About My Workouts (or Still Adjusting My Thinking) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Bike Work (or Working Through Nausea and Pain) Default ThumbnailWorking Hard (or Some Normal But Tough Workouts) Default ThumbnailAlmost End Of The Year Workouts (or Hitting A Milestone And Debating A New Plan) Default ThumbnailHoliday Workouts (or Getting Some Confidence Back)

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An Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals)

Posted on December 28, 2018 | 1 comment

I know there are still a few more days left in the year, but I wanted to get my end of the year recap done before the new year started. I feel like it’s a nice transition to have a clean break from year to year and I didn’t necessarily want to spend the beginning of the new year going through the past. So I figured with a few days left I would have a good idea on where I would stand with my goals by the end of the year.

My first goal I had this year was to do 199 Orangetheory workouts. That one I accomplished and I’ll finish out the year with a few more! I should be at 206 workouts by the last day of the year unless something happens that prevents me from going to one of my planned workouts. But even if I didn’t go for those classes, I will still be ahead of the goal! I did 4 workouts a week almost every week which made it easy to make it to over 199. I thought I’d have more 3 workout weeks over the year but I didn’t have that many. I tried to look back at my schedule and I don’t think I had any 5 workout weeks (I could be wrong) which is what I thought I’d need to do a few times to make sure I made it to my goal. I’m so glad that this goal ended up being relatively easy to accomplish since it seemed like one that would be tough for me.

And I’m lucky that first goal was easy for me to accomplish because it ended up being the only goal I really did accomplish that I had set for myself. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but for some of these goals I didn’t meet there is a reason. But I still need to hold myself accountable for why I didn’t do what I was hoping to do.

The next 2 goals I had are somewhat related. I wanted to find a 5K race to do and I wanted to get a new PR on my mile time. Neither of those happened and if I’m being totally honest I really don’t care too much that they didn’t happen. Doing 5K races was a big part of my life for a long time, but that was also a while ago. I didn’t have Orangetheory when I did a bunch of races every year and I think having a regular workout has made me not feel as motivated to find races. I had a few races that I kept doing, but once they stopped having races each year I didn’t try to find a replacement. And with wanting to get a new mile PR time, I really thought I’d be able to do much more running this year than I have been able to do. This is due to multiple factors like getting sick, my hormonal nausea, and other things that have prevented me from using the treadmill as much as I wanted to do. Getting a new mile PR used to be so important to me and a sign of my progress, but I’ve had to learn new ways to measure my progress and the mile time has lost some of the importance it used to have.

The next goal I failed on is one that I feel like I have the most excuses for. I had a number in my head that I wanted to get my debt below. I was making real progress toward this for the first part of the year and I was so excited about it. But then I didn’t have as many hours with one of my jobs as I thought I would have and then that job wasn’t able to offer me a new contract like we expected. Being down one job meant that I didn’t have the money to put toward paying my credit card that I used to and I had to start using my credit card for more things than I would have liked to. Losing a job and using my credit card to pay for regular expenses is how I got into debt. I’m trying to stop this before it gets as bad as it did before (and I’ll have more on that in my 2019 goals), but it did increase how much I owed on the card. It’s unfortunate, but it’s my reality. I wasn’t expecting to lose a job and I don’t make enough money right now to really have savings to cover a job loss. I know this is bad and I want to fix this, but for now I have to just focus on finding a new job so I can get back to paying down my debt.

And my last goal I had for 2018 was to keep doing what I’ve been doing with my eating disorder recovery. While I wouldn’t say I necessarily failed at accomplishing this, but it didn’t go the way I planned it would. I did keep doing what I was doing and I’ve found new things that do work for me and I’ve dropped things that I found weren’t working for me anymore. I had the hope that I would feel like I made more progress by this point, but I also know that recovery is a weird journey and it’s not always easy to judge progress.

Even though I really only accomplished one of my goals I set for the year, I don’t see that necessarily as a bad thing. Instead, I feel like I had a minor failure to plan with my goals which is a newer issue for me. I think I need to allow myself to alter and change my goals throughout the year. If I had that as the plan, I would have switched out my running related goals before the year was half over to something else that was fitness related. Maybe I would have had a goal to be able to use a certain weight for an exercise or I would have changed it to a goal on the rower or bike. But I felt like my goals were set for the year and I didn’t want to alter them. That is something I will be changing as well as adding to my monthly challenge planning reminder to look back at my goals for the year to see what steps I need to make and if there are any changes that should happen.

It’s so funny to think about how happy I am to have goals I failed at because it has given me a lot of insight into myself and how I can make the next year even better. And I’ve got some interesting goals in mind for 2019 that I’ll be sharing next week that have been inspired by me not reaching my goals. Sometimes you need a setback to help you think clearly and I think that’s exactly what I had this year.

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Thinking About My Relationships (or Starting My 2018 Reflection)

Posted on December 27, 2018 | Comments Off on Thinking About My Relationships (or Starting My 2018 Reflection)

As I mentioned yesterday in my post, I spent time on Christmas being alone and reflecting on some things. I think reflecting back on the year that was is a pretty common thing to do and I’ve been doing it more and more each year. I think having posts on here regarding goals and monthly challenges has helped me think more about what happened over the past 12 months. And I usually can put things into a single post when reflecting back. But I feel like this year had too much and I wanted to split things up. So over the next few posts, I will be doing reflections of the year that was and goal setting for the year coming up. And I’m starting with the relationships I had this year.

I know many people think of relationships as romantic and dating ones. That wasn’t what came to my mind originally, but it is a part of what happened. And since it is the smaller portion of the relationships I wanted to reflect on, I’m going to start with those.

I continued my crazy journey of online dating this year. I would have loved to have ended this journey during the year, but that wasn’t the case for me. Fortunately, even though I had a ton of bad dates, they were bad dates that were funny. I left so many dates filled with stories to tell my friends about how bad the date was, but I was telling them with a smile on my face. I also learned to be a bit pickier about who I met in person and how to stand up for myself better so I think that the idiots and creeps I encountered online were easier to deal with. I didn’t hesitate to end a conversation that made me second guess things even if it was going fine before that moment. I also set the new rule/restriction that I didn’t give out my phone number until I met someone in person. Somehow that seemed to help me filter out guys I met and I didn’t have to worry about the scammers getting my number.

But while most of the relationships I had with guys this year weren’t bad, there were some situations that hurt me. I felt betrayed by some guys and that’s not easy to get over. I tried to think about how I didn’t do anything wrong and it didn’t really have to do with me, but that’s not the easiest thing to keep in mind. But as the year went on I got better about dealing with it and it is hurting a bit less each time I feel hurt or blindsided. I don’t necessarily want that feeling to go away completely since I do want to still keep my heart open to the possibility of meeting someone amazing. And when your heart is open you are at risk for feeling hurt.

I’m still staying as active as I can with online dating and trying to be more thoughtful about staying active and trying to get beyond messaging on the app and going out for a drink or something with the guys I meet on there. And while that didn’t result in me meeting anyone incredible this past year, I am trying to stay optimistic that doing it again for the coming year will bring better results.

While finding a romantic relationship is important to me, while reflecting back on the year I realized that I had the biggest and best gains in my relationships with my friends. I thought from time to time that I might be a bad friend and I let some friendships drop for one reason or another. But when I thought about it more over the past few days, I discovered that while I might have turned some friends into acquaintances the friendships I kept grew so much stronger.

Building and strengthening friendships can come out of the good times, but I had so much growth out of the more difficult times. When my friend told me he wanted to kill himself and I was able to convince him on the phone to go to a hospital, I had to be ok with the idea that my friend might want to end his friendship with me. I am so grateful that not only did they want to stay friends but I feel like our friendship has grown quite a bit. We have been able to be more open and honest with each other and that is incredible. I was worried about telling my friend things in our friendship that were hard on me, but they listened to me and we were able to fix things and make our friendship even more mutually beneficial than it ever has been.

I’ve had multiple friends go through the end of romantic relationships this year and their breakups weirdly brought us closer. I think when they thought about having to date again, they came to me asking for my advice and stories about online dating. I don’t want to scare anyone off, but I was honest and shared my tips and how I stay safe. And putting that honesty out there helped to make my friendships with those people more honest in other ways too.

But of course, I was also able to build my friendships from fun things that I do in my life too. Even just going to a movie with a friend gives time for us to talk one to one without the distractions of other people trying to get our attention. Having those 15-20 minutes before a movies starts can be better than 3-4 hours at a party where there are so many other people. I’ve been trying to be better about doing fun things with other people instead of just going alone so I have those chances to talk to someone and have a real catching up talk.

I thought this past year was really a year of me being selfish. There were several monthly challenges that were all about me and putting myself first and I thought that meant some of my relationships would not be able to grow. It was such a nice surprise for me when I was reflecting back and realized that I was wrong with that assumption and that I really did have growth with my friends over the past year.

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A Solitary Christmas (or Just Enjoying Being Alone)

Posted on December 26, 2018 | 1 comment

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas doing whatever you were doing. My traditional plans are to watch movies and get Chinese food, and that’s exactly what I did.

There have been a few times where I have done something different on Christmas, but I really do like my tradition. I was invited to a few different orphan Christmas dinners (and my sister-in-law said I could drive to Santa Barbara to join them for dinner), but I really just wanted to do what I planned. And I sometimes go out for Chinese food or a movie, but this year I really had no motivation to do that.

There have been a bunch of movies on my list to watch that I could find on various streaming services, so I spent time watching those. I also have access to some of my SAG Award screeners so I had even more movie options. I haven’t gotten any of my DVDs but a majority of the screeners are digital screeners that you watch on different websites. So I had instant access to them and have been watching them since we got all the passwords and links. I’m determined to watch everything and I don’t want to feel rushed closer to when voting is due, so I’m glad I’ve been able to start early.

I spent Christmas completely alone. The only person I saw was the food delivery guy. But that actually was perfect to me. I could have invited people over for movies or dinner and I did mention it to a friend or two, but honestly I’m kind of glad I was on my own for the day. There are some days I hate being alone and feel lonely and sad, but Christmas wasn’t like that at all. I made a choice to be alone and I was happy with that. I spent the day in my new Disney leggings with my hair back in a claw clip with no makeup on. I made no effort to look presentable and that made me happy.

I actually had some opportunities to have dates on Christmas just because it was a day that some guys who don’t celebrate the holiday were free, but I made the choice to turn down those dates. Hopefully I’ll be able to go out with those guys another time, but if I don’t then clearly it wasn’t meant to be. Again, I had the plan in my head to be lazy and do nothing and I really didn’t want to change up my plans or have to make myself look cute.

Being alone had other benefits other than not needing to make an effort in my appearance. I really had time to do exactly what I wanted to do. I spent the morning in bed reading, watched whatever movies I wanted to watch, and ordered exactly what I wanted to eat. I didn’t have to worry about what other people wanted to do and that was nice. I gave myself the gift of being selfish and didn’t feel guilty about it at all.

I also had some time to do some reflection with the end of the year coming up. It doesn’t feel like the year will be done in less than a week, but it will be and I wanted to think about some ideas for 2019. I didn’t get as much done with that planning as I thought I would, but it was a starting off point and I’ll keep working on it the rest of the week and I know I’ll have it done by the first of the year.

I really don’t have much else to say about my Christmas. It was boring, but it was perfect and exactly what I wanted to do with my day off. All I can ask for is to do what I wanted to do and I accomplished that. And hopefully you all got to do whatever you planned and feel the same about your Christmas as I do.

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Another After Work Disney Adventure (or Holiday Time And Random Fun)

Posted on December 21, 2018 | Comments Off on Another After Work Disney Adventure (or Holiday Time And Random Fun)

I haven’t been going to Disneyland as often as I used to. I still am getting my money’s worth on my pass and I still love to go, but I just haven’t been there as much as I would like to. I used to go by myself all the time, but now I just don’t feel like doing that. I miss having my friends with me if I’m there alone, but maybe I’ll work on doing that from time to time in the future.

But since my pass is about to be blacked out for the holidays, I wanted to make it one more time before the end of the year. And my friend Dani was able to join me after work earlier this week so we decided to do another afternoon and evening in the parks. Fortunately, the weather did not predict rain like the last time we were there, so we knew we’d be able to do a few more rides. But we also mainly wanted to go to the parks to see the decorations and have some fun so we weren’t too focused on getting a lot of rides done.

The drive down to Disneyland was a bit longer than normal due to traffic, but we got there with plenty of time left in the day to have some fun. We knew that in California Adventure they were doing the Festival of Holidays, so we decided to see the offerings and decide if we wanted to do one of the food passes. As soon as we got into California Adventure, I was just so happy to see all the holiday decorations and how festive the park looked!

We weren’t too excited by the food options at the different stands, so we just got 2 things on their own instead of getting the food pass. We got a turkey tamale and bagel chip nachos (the nachos were much better) but I didn’t get a photo of them. We needed to get some real food for dinner so we went to the sourdough place to get bread bowls (I had broccoli cheddar soup and again forgot to take a photo).

After food, it was time for a few rides in California Adventure. I had to go on the Incredicoaster since I couldn’t go on it the last time I was there. While it is the same ride as before, they added some theming and a new soundtrack. And I really liked how the updated version looked especially with it all lit up at night!

And we also rode the Guardians ride since that one is really one of my favorites. I still have one version of the ride to do and this time it was another repeat song. But one day I’ll get that last song!

We were in the California Adventure side for a few hours and even though we didn’t ride that many rides, we just enjoyed walking around the park. We both thought it would be much more crowded, and while there were a lot of people, it wasn’t that bad. There were areas where things got a busy, but in general it nice to not feel packed between everyone. And since we weren’t squished, we could take time to appreciate how pretty things looked.

Then we headed over to the Disneyland side. And just like California Adventure it was decorated so nicely for the holidays.

We knew we wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion to see it decorated for the holidays, but we had to make a quick stop first. We knew that there was going to be a new quick service restaurant opening near the Tiki Room, but we didn’t know if it would be open when we were there. But it turns out that they were starting to do a soft opening that day so we had to check it out!

It’s called the Tropical Hideaway and they have some really amazing offerings. They had 3 different types of bao buns and some other savory options. But what Dani and I were most excited for were the Dole Whip flavors!

They have the regular pineapple one as well as orange and raspberry. You can do one flavor or swirl 2 of them and there may be new flavors coming in the future. I hate pineapple yet I love Dole Whips, but I was so excited to try new flavors! I got an orange and raspberry swirl and Dani got the pineapple and raspberry swirl.

It was so good! I loved the orange and it tasted like a creamsicle! And the combination of orange and raspberry was perfect! Dani also got some of the bao buns and I tried a little bit of one and they were really good too. I know this is totally going to be one of our new favorite snack places to get something savory and something sweet. I can’t wait to go back another time so we can try more of the savory foods!

After riding the Haunted Mansion, we were feeling ready to head home. We were in the parks for over 5 hours and we did a ton of walking! But it helped me get my Disney fix in now so I don’t miss it too much while my pass isn’t good.

But one of the best parts of our Disney outing was actually something that happened toward the beginning. We both love to look through the different stores to see what new merchandise is for sale. Disney has really been stepping up their game in getting fun and cute new things. I rarely buy things since I can’t afford them (especially now), but I love to look and dream of things I’d love to get.

In one of the first stores we went into, Dani grabbed me because she saw something amazing: Disney is selling really cute and soft leggings! In the store they had a castle pattern, Disney cat pattern, and Disney dog pattern. I feel in love with the dog leggings and was debating if I should just get them and figure out money later. They were so awesome and I was so sad when I had to be responsible and decide that I just couldn’t spend the money. But that’s when Dani said that she wanted to buy them for me for Hanukkah!

I was totally not expecting her to say that and I told her she didn’t have to, but she wanted to and I am so grateful that she did! As soon as I got home after being in the parks, I changed and put them on. They are so comfortable and the perfect lounging leggings!

I don’t know if I’d wear them out and about, but I really just wanted them for being in my house or for sleeping in. And these are seriously just so perfect! I still can’t believe that Dani got them for me and I have thanked her over and over for her generosity!

All in all, this was a really successful Disney adventure. We got to do a few rides, we got to each some food, we checked out a new restaurant, and we got new Disney swag! I couldn’t ask for anything more!

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Spreading Some Holiday Cheer (or Finding Cheaper Ways To Make People Smile)

Posted on December 20, 2018 | Comments Off on Spreading Some Holiday Cheer (or Finding Cheaper Ways To Make People Smile)

With it being the holiday season, so many people do things to try to make others smile. I love seeing the happiness and cheer this time of year and I try to participate however I can. If money wasn’t an issue, I would do so much for friends and strangers alike. That’s not the case for me so I do have to find out how to do things for less money.

I don’t have to worry about buying too many presents which does help with spending. I really only get presents for my immediate family and I already did those gifts. I work hard on those gifts and try to find the best things that I can afford. Fortunately, the gifts I’ve done the past few years have been less expensive than they appear to be so that helps. And since I get one gift for my parents and one gift for my brother and sister-in-law, that helps too. I don’t have to worry about getting 4 presents and can focus on 2 really good ones.

The only other gift I had to do this year was for the Reddit Secret Santa. I’ve done a few of these Reddit gift exchanges before and they have always been fun. Again, I would love to spend way more money than the suggested amount to get everything the person I got matched with asked for. But I have to read into what they want and really try to find the best thing that I can afford. This year, the person I got mentioned how they wanted to learn more about the science of cooking and they love popcorn. So I found a great book all about cooking and why things happen with different preparations as well as some fancy popcorn salt. The person I matched with posted online about how they loved the gifts and they fit exactly what they were looking for. So even though I couldn’t spend a ton of money, I got them something they liked and appreciated.

My presents from my Reddit Secret Santa have been coming in a few different boxes. There is still one more box coming and I don’t know what is in it, but I’ve gotten 2 presents so far. Just like the person I matched with, in my profile I mentioned I love popcorn and my Secret Santa got me a variety of gourmet microwave popcorn flavors! I also mentioned I like historical fiction books and they got me a box set of books that are about female pirates. I have no idea what the last box will contain, but I’m excited to see what they got me since these gifts have been so cool so far!

Another holiday thing that I’ve done the past few years is to do holiday cards. I don’t do anything with my photo since it seems weird to do that when I don’t have my own family (or a pet), so I can buy just regular cards in a store or online. For a few years, I did cards with envelopes and those were easy enough to do. But to save money as my holiday card list has grown, I did postcards last year and am doing the same this year. Postcard stamps are about half the cost of regular stamps so that is a pretty significant savings for me. And since the cards are always pretty simple ones, it’s not a big deal for me to do postcards instead of cards in envelopes.

I’ve been a bit slow with getting my postcards out this year. Normally I have them out toward the beginning of the month, but this time I’m still working on finishing them. I’m hoping to get them to the post office by tomorrow, but I’m not sure if I’ll make that deadline. But it’s ok if they arrive after Christmas since they aren’t specific to any holiday. And I know that since most people don’t get things in the mail, it will make them happy even if they arrive in January. No matter when they get them, it will be something special and not just boring bills in their mailbox.

I’m also starting to get holiday cards from my friends which makes me so happy too. I do get a lot of joy out of doing things for other people, but I also enjoy getting things myself. I always feel special that someone has included me in their holiday card list and I love seeing the fun cards that people send out. A lot of my friends that send cards have kids so it’s also a nice treat to get to see what pictures of their kids that they have on the cards.

It hasn’t been the easiest holiday season for me due to stress and worries, but I’m glad that it hasn’t stopped me from still finding ways to celebrate the holidays and to do special things. I know I don’t do a lot, but it’s something and I’m glad that the people who get things from me appreciate even the little things I can do.

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Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Gift Giving Time! (or Excited To Finally Give A Present) Default ThumbnailFinding Little Things To Make Me Happy (or Shopping And Text Groups) Default ThumbnailUnion Holiday Party (or Seeing A Lot Of People In A Little Time) Default ThumbnailUnion Working Holiday Party (or Just Enjoying Being Around Good People) Default ThumbnailFinding New Ways To Be Creative (or Almost As Good As Acting) Default ThumbnailShort Workout Week (or Finding Ways To Fit It All In)

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Just A Simple Dinner Out (or A Union Working Hangout)

Posted on December 18, 2018 | Comments Off on Just A Simple Dinner Out (or A Union Working Hangout)

I’ve been helping out with the Union Working group for a while now. For me, it seems so easy to run the FB live and it’s not a big deal. But I know that for the core members/leaders of the group, it is a big deal because that is one less thing that they have to worry about. And they really don’t have to worry about anything because I come to the meetings with all the equipment needed to run it and I set things up without needing any help. And with our new location for the meetings, we have WiFi so it’s even easier to run the live stream.

I know how hard the core members/leaders of the group work to run Union Working, so when they invited me out to a hangout to celebrate an awesome year as a group I was really honored! I am friends with some of those leaders, but others are people who I don’t know that well and I was excited to get to hang out with them in a casual setting and get to know them better. When we are at the meetings, I don’t want to bother them since they are so focused and working on running the meeting. So this was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

The hangout was at a brewery that is near where we have our meetings. I got there early and had a chance to hang out with a friend of mine who is one of the leaders before other members arrived. We found a big table that would fit us all and people started arriving pretty quickly once we were sitting down. A bunch of people were ordering drinks, but fortunately the brewery had a nice food menu too so I got a grilled cheese (which was delicious!).

Most of the time we were there we were just talking about random things. Some of them were acting related, some of them were just normal every day things. The conversation never stopped and there were times that 2 or 3 different conversations were happening at the same time. I was seated at the middle of the table so I was able to be a part of it all, but sometimes I just sat back and enjoyed listening to everyone else. It was pretty entertaining when some people got a bit silly and I just had fun watching it all happen.

There were some moments where the group and the accomplishments of the past year were mentioned and each of us were singled out for what we were able to do. When it came to me, they thanked me for taking over the FB live and for just jumping in and helping. They also thanked me for keeping them on task and bringing new ideas. It just reminded me of how something that might not be a big deal to me is really appreciated by others and I should accept their thanks instead of playing it off. When it’s a big deal to someone, I should acknowledge that and allow them to thank me however they feel appropriate. I don’t have to play it down and try to be modest that I’m not doing much. It’s not an easy thing for me to do because I don’t like feeling like I’m getting credit I don’t deserve, but I did deserve the credit from their perspective.

As it goes with so many events like this, I had every intention of leaving at a reasonable hour so I could get home and to sleep, but that didn’t happen. I was just having too much fun hanging out with everyone and I didn’t want to leave. But I couldn’t stay too late since I did have a bit of a drive home and had an early workout the next morning. But I was there for a few hours before I said my goodbyes and headed back to my car.

I left the hangout really feeling like I had made friends out of more of these core members/leaders. While I’m sure they were always my friends before, I really got to know them when we weren’t worried about working and I feel much more a part of the group now. I’m happy just doing my FB live work, but if they want more I know that I am willing to do that because I want to help however I can. And I’m much more comfortable now asking for help from those leaders if I need it because I know them better now.

We’ve got some amazing things happening with Union Working in the new year and some things that will still be happening this year. I can’t wait to get to share them when I can because they are really cool. I love getting to be a part of this group and every time I meet with them I appreciate the group more and more.

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A SAG-AFTRA Party (or Finally Getting Photos With My Friends)

Posted on December 14, 2018 | Comments Off on A SAG-AFTRA Party (or Finally Getting Photos With My Friends)

The SAG-AFTRA Holiday Party is an event that I love. I haven’t always gone to it, but I’ve tried to go every year the past few years. It’s not often I get to attend a union event that is all about being social and not about various union politics or issues. While you can’t always avoid discussing those things even at a party, the holiday party really is a time to relax and have fun.

And this party isn’t just a hangout. The LA Host Committee does an amazing job having a nice buffet meal, entertainment, and a photo booth. I usually don’t eat while I’m there and I don’t know if I’ve ever taken advantage of the photo booth, but I have always appreciated the options to have fun and I know that it makes so many people happy.

This year, even though the party fell on a nausea/pain day, I wasn’t feeling too bad when I got there. I was a bit tired from having a long day, but I perked up when I arrived and saw a friend of mine in line. She was nice enough to let me join her in line and that gave us a chance to catch up! Once the party officially started, the check in line went pretty quickly and we were inside within a few minutes!

Our first stop was to get some food and this year I was going to be enjoying it too! There was a really nice spread with lots of options. I had some salad, chicken teriyaki, shrimp ceviche, pot stickers, and prime rib! And there was a dessert spread too with cookies, brownies, and cake (I got some cake that had really delicious frosting!). After we all got our plates we found a table to stand at so we could eat without worrying about holding our plates.

The party was a bit crowded, but that is to be expected. And I was constantly running into friends and people I knew! I really felt amazing when I realized how many people in the union I do know. Sometimes it feels like I don’t know anyone or there are too many people there, but this year it didn’t feel like that. And even though I didn’t get to spend too much time catching up with many of my friends, I did make an effort to do my best. And I also tried to get photos with a couple of people too since I usually forget to do that!

Where we were standing to eat ended up being right next to where the quick speeches were going to be, so that worked out well for us! There was a quick speech to thank the LA Host Committee for doing such a great job with the party and to thank those of us who made it for attending. Then there was a short speech about the current strike we have with BBH. BBH is an ad agency that has declared that they no longer have to follow our union agreement and we as a union are not ok with that. They have an agreement to do union commercials and they should abide by that. So we are on strike until an agreement can be made. It’s an important issue for the union and I’m glad that they took some time to talk about it at the party so everyone there could be up-to-date on what is happening. They also had signs for us to take photos with to show our support for our union, and of course I took advantage of that!

The party was only 2 hours long as I was planning on leaving before it was over because my tiredness was starting to kick in. But of course I kept running into people I knew and got caught up into different conversations. I think I ended up leaving about an hour after I started to say goodbye, but that’s normal for events like this. I always end up finding people I know and hadn’t talked to yet and I don’t want to leave without at least saying hello and goodbye. And I was also helping a friend get an Instagram account set up and didn’t want to leave them until they had everything ready and knew how to post photos.

I’m so glad that I took a bit of a rest day earlier this week so that I could be at the SAG-AFTRA party. Even though I was still a bit tired, I think that had more to do with my early morning workout and maybe not getting enough sleep and not because of feeling overwhelmed and burnt out from too many events. I still have some more holiday parties to go to, but I am evaluating which ones are the most important so I can prioritize them if necessary. I want to make sure that I can have as much fun at any other parties as I did at the SAG-AFTRA one!

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Trying To Avoid Holiday Burnout (or Staying Home For Self-Care)

Posted on December 13, 2018 | 1 comment

I’ve written about laziness being self-care for me sometimes. I can be very obsessed with getting things done sometimes and I know that it can lead to burnout for me. And when that happens, it usually takes me a while to get back to normal and I’m in this endless cycle of making up for lost time with being busy and being lazy. Finding the balance is a struggle that many of us have and I know a lot of us have been working on it for years.

While I don’t think I have the balance figured out, I had a small victory for me in finding it. This is the season of holiday parties and it can be very overwhelming. If I went to all the parties that I was invited to, between last Saturday and this Sunday I would be at 12 different events. This is not me bragging that I’m invited to a lot of things because many of them are with a lot of the same people or just something casual. But because they aren’t big events, I feel like I should make more of an effort to attend them. When it’s not a big deal, I can feel like I don’t have as many excuses to stay home.

I was supposed to attend a holiday party for an organization I’m a part of earlier this week. I had been looking forward to it and it was on a night that I didn’t have anything else so I thought I’d have no reason not to go. Of course, life never goes the way I expect it to go and this week is the week that I have my worst nausea and pain. And while I know I can push through it and will be doing that other nights this week, I had to prioritize myself and realize that staying home would be the best thing for me.

While I don’t love missing out on an event because it’s always a great opportunity to meet new people (especially now when I really need to find a new job!), I also know that if I go and I’m not feeling my best that I won’t make the best impression either. There would have been a chance that I would have driven to the event and already feeling like I’m ready to go home. Then the entire time that I would be there, I would be watching the time and wondering when I had been there long enough to feel like I had been social so I could go home. And that’s just not what I want to have as the impression that people would have of me.

So I stayed home instead of going out to this event. I didn’t do much at home besides catching up on podcasts and job hunting, but it was exactly what I needed to do for myself. Sometimes being anti-social is more important than being social in order to take care of yourself. And I think I’m not feeling too guilty about staying home because I have so many other events happening this week and weekend. I did not stay home from the only event I had this week and the rest of the week I’ll be bored and wishing I had plans. I found a balance and had to pick which events were a bit more important for me to go to than others. And while I could have picked a different event to skip and gone to the one I missed, I also know that I should be feeling better as the week goes on and that played a factor in the decision too.

I know that holiday burnout is a real thing and I see it happening to so many friends as well as myself. There’s no need for me to put so much pressure on myself to do it all when I know that nobody is expecting me to do that. And with self-care being a very important thing for many people right now, I imagine that if anyone wondered where I was and asked me about it, they would understand if I said I needed to do some self-care and stay home. I’m working on self-care being more than just things I do for myself but also including doing nothing when I know that is the best thing for me at that time. 

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Another Wicked Night Out (or Seeing A Show From Up High)

Posted on December 12, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Wicked Night Out (or Seeing A Show From Up High)

With this season at the Pantages, I’ve mentioned that there are a bunch of shows that I have seen before. It’s still a novelty to me to see a show more than once so it’s exciting to see shows again. I can pay attention to different details when I’m more familiar with they show and it always brings a new meaning to it. And while I love when something in a show surprises me, I love it just as much when those surprises are now expected and I can enjoy other aspects of the show.

This past week was another repeat show for me when we had tickets for “Wicked”. It didn’t seem that long ago that I had that show as a part of my season, but when I looked back at my blog post about it I realized it was almost 4 years ago! I couldn’t believe it’s been that long since that season, but I guess I’ve been doing season tickets for a lot longer than I feel like I have. All of us in my group were excited to see the show and I love when we are all as enthusiastic about a show as everyone else.

But because of holiday stuff and travel schedules, it was tough for all 4 of us to get together for the show. We can change our dates on our tickets, but we can’t always get them in the same price section as the original tickets. So sometimes if we change the date we have to pay a little bit. Since I could keep my original date and didn’t want to spend a bit more on tickets, I decided to go the night we were scheduled to be there. And Grace decided to keep her ticket the same too so it was the 2 of us out at the show that night.

Even though these tickets were a part of our current season tickets, they were an add-on show so we weren’t in our normal seats. While I love our normal seats and being so close to the stage, it can be fun to watch a show I’ve already seen from a different viewpoint. We were up in the balcony this time, but we were the first row behind the aisle so it felt like we didn’t have to be right behind a bunch of other people.

Grace had mentioned to me before the show started that she hadn’t seen the show before, and I was so excited for her to see it. But I didn’t realize she didn’t know the story that well and she had a bunch of funny moments where she was very surprised by how characters in the show connected to characters from the “Wizard of Oz” movie. I tried not to laugh when she was totally shocked, but we both had a good giggle when she was blown away by a plot point. It’s so fun to get to watch a friend experience a show for the first time and see their reactions. 

The show was just as good as I remembered it. The songs are always fun songs and the actors were amazing. The woman who played Elphaba has played the role on Broadway and currently is the actor who has played the role the longest. The Glinda we were supposed to see was also from the Broadway cast, but we saw the understudy that night. Being an understudy is a tough job since you don’t get to rehearse the part as often as you’d like, but the understudy did an incredible job. She was so fun to watch and made the role her own. And all of the rest of the cast was just as impressive.

I did miss being so close to the stage and being able to see more reactions on the actors’ faces, but being further back let me see the show as an entire piece and not just a part that I focused on. I got to see the show framed by the stage in a different way and it was interesting to see that. I’ve only sat in the balcony a few times compared to the dozens of times I’ve been in the orchestra. So I tried to enjoy the experience for what it was and enjoy having a new view of the show.

The one advantage of our seats in the balcony was that it was much faster to get out of the theater than it is from our normal seats. So within minutes of the show ending, Grace and I were outside and saying goodbye so I could drive home and she could catch the subway back to her place. But I had to take one more look back at the theater because it was so beautiful being decorated for the holidays.

Our next show is next month and I’m hoping all 4 of us can attend the show together. So far, for the 3 shows we’ve had, we haven’t all been able to be there together. I understand that all of us have slightly crazy schedules and it can be tough to coordinate things. But one of the things I love about having season tickets with my friends is getting to be with my friends. We’ve still got a bunch of shows this season to make that happen, and I know it will.

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