Category Archives: Fun Stuff

Another OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar)

Posted on December 11, 2018 | Comments Off on Another OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar)

There have been so many organized outings coordinated by Orangetheory that I haven’t been able to go to over the years. For a long time, it was just tough for me to go to anything organized by the Brentwood studio since I didn’t drive over to Brentwood other than my workouts. I didn’t want to go there to work out, drive home to shower and change, and then go back that way for a happy hour. It was sad I never really could make it, but I knew that it just wasn’t meant to be for those.

But since the Culver City studio opened, I’ve been making more of an effort to attend the different events that they do. And I have felt such a part of the community at that studio that I am more motivated to try to go. I’ve been able to make friends at the Culver City studio much faster than I could in Brentwood, but I think that is mostly because of how comfortable I am in the workouts. I’m not so terrified or feeling out of place that I can’t focus on who is in class with me. I’m still in my own head a lot and don’t notice who is always in class with me, but I’m trying to get better about it.

So when I found out there was going to be a fun Saturday evening hangout at a wine bar for the Culver City studio, I put it on my calendar. The day of, I was feeling a bit nauseous and debating about not going. But one of my workout friends texted me about an hour before to ask if I was going to go. Since she was going to be there, I decided that I could do my best to ignore how yucky I was feeling because it was going to be worth it to be hanging out with people I usually only see in workout clothes.

This hangout was held at Stanley’s Wet Goods, which I hadn’t been to before. My favorite wine bar in Culver City closed a little while ago and I hadn’t found a new place to go. So when I saw that this was a wine bar, I was excited to see what they had to offer (even if I really don’t drink). 

When I got there, I was a little bit confused at first. The space looks like a wine store with a side section with tables where you can order wine. I didn’t recognize anyone at first, but everyone else was looking as confused as I was and we realized we were all there for the Orangetheory hangout. Then we found out that there was a back room that was reserved for us so we all got our things to head back there. And just as we were going to the back room, my friend arrived. So I was feeling much better about knowing people and not feeling alone.

Once we got to the back room, we all sat down at the tables there. We were trying to figure out if we were in the same classes or not (I really think the name tags we get need to include a section for us to write down when we go to class). I always feel bad when someone recognizes me from class and I don’t recognize them, but everyone seems to understand that when you are super focused on your workout you aren’t always looking to see if you see the same faces each week in your class. But it didn’t really matter if I recognized someone or not because everyone was introducing themselves to each other and I never had to feel embarrassed that I didn’t know someone that I should have.

For most of the evening, I was sitting at the same table because it was pretty central in the room. I was sometimes sitting the people seated on the other side of the table and sometimes I turned so I could face the other table. It wasn’t a huge room so it never felt like I was really missing seeing anyone. And I was getting pretty involved in a couple of different conversations so I wasn’t really thinking that I had to find other people to talk to. It was nice not having moments of feeling left out or wondering who else I could talk to. I always felt very much in the middle of conversations and I loved all the randomness that we were all talking about.

We talked about coaches we love, people were asking me about the Brentwood studio since many of them haven’t been there before, we talked about people we see in class and don’t know their names (and they weren’t at the bar), and as it seems like so many conversations go to we talked about dating in LA. It was funny to hear the crazy stories that other OTF people have had dating and of course I had to share a couple of my best crazy ones.  It’s nice to have people to talk to who are going through the same issues with dating that I have because it helps me not feel like some of the issues I’ve encountered are due to me. It might be due to being in LA or the guys that we are meeting here, but it’s not something I’m bringing onto myself.

By the time I was heading back home, the room we were in cleared out. I didn’t realize so many other people had left already because I was focused on who I was talking to. But it did help me feel a bit less guilty for leaving because it seemed like the night was winding down.

I’ve said this before, but it’s so hard to make friends as an adult. There aren’t as many opportunities to make new friends once you are done with school, so I am always grateful for events like this that help me meet people I already have something in common with. And hopefully I’ll start recognizing more people in class with me (or they will remind me we met at the outing) so I can have even more friends with me in class.

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Default ThumbnailNot Drinking At A Bar (or A Birthday Party At Neat) Default ThumbnailThe Best Birthday Party! (or Wine Bar and Breakfast Bar) Default ThumbnailAnother OTF Hangout (or Having Fun Being Social In Normal Clothes) Default ThumbnailHaving Water At A Wine Bar (or Getting A Temporary Job) Default ThumbnailBar Food Hangout (or A Quick Friend Catch Up) Default ThumbnailWine, Wine, Wine, Wine, and Champagne (or Part Of My Weekend In Napa)

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

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“Life…In A Word” (or A Wonderful Holiday Giveaway)

Posted on December 7, 2018 | 4 comments

I’ve written about my friend Kevin E. West before on here regarding the amazing actor group he created, The Actors’ Network. When I started at The Actors’ Network, I didn’t know Kevin but I got to know him over the years that I’ve been a member of the group. We had become friends and our friendship has only grown stronger over the years. He is one of the leaders of Union Working so we have continued to work together through that group (and I’m an admin for the Facebook group for The Actors’ Network). He is such an amazing friend and I love that we can be brutally honest with each other and I know that the honesty comes from a place of love.

Kevin has written some books on acting in the past and they have always been very helpful and full of great knowledge. I always recommend them to actors or people looking to buy books for actors. But more recently, Kevin has written a book that is not about acting and I highly recommend for everyone!

“Life…In A Word” is an amazing book that is like a dictionary for a selection of words. Each page is a different word with a short story that is an example of the meaning or definition. I loved that the stories weren’t a straightforward example and you sometimes had to read the entire short story to understand how it relates to the word. It made the book feel like a journey and exploration of what words really mean.

I love books like this that I can open up and just read a section of when I need inspiration or a mood booster. It’s something that I can turn to when I need a quick pick me up or want to escape whatever is happening and be in another universe, even if it’s just for a moment. And I can see this book being a wonderful conversation starter or self-help tool. I knew that Kevin is an amazing and insightful person, but this book really brought that to a new level for me. It really was an incredible read and my only wish was that it was longer (but I do believe there will be more books like this coming from him in the future).

And I’m so excited to share that I have a copy of “Life…In A Word” to give away to one reader on here! Not only do I have a copy of the book to give away, but it’s a signed copy!

As with my other giveaways on here, you can enter to win through the Rafflecopter section below. The required things to enter are to comment on this post if you want this book for you or if you want this book to give as a gift to someone else, to follow me on Twitter, and to follow Kevin on Twitter. You can also earn extra entries for follows on social media as well as bonus daily entries for tweeting about the giveaway!

I can’t wait for one of you to win this book! I’m sure you will love it as much as I do and I hope that for those of you who don’t win that you go to buy a copy of the book. It really is something I think everyone should read and that everyone will love it. There is so much variety in the book that everyone will find something that they connect with and will make it such a special addition to their personal library.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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My Dad Is A Trendsetter! (or A Martha Stewart Menorah)

Posted on December 6, 2018 | Comments Off on My Dad Is A Trendsetter! (or A Martha Stewart Menorah)

My dad is a very crafty person. I’m not sure how long he has been making things, but it’s been as long as I can remember. I remember when I was little my dad made ski boot holders for us out of PVC pipe and they all were customized with our names (I still have it). He has also built planters for me out of bark, made a special shelf to cover the sink in my utility room that doesn’t work (so now I have a counter there to store things), and has helped me build countless things that we have gotten from furniture stores.

I try to be as crafty as my dad, but he’s just really good at seeing something and finding a new way to use them. For example, after a project he did years ago, he had lots of paintbrushes that weren’t going to be used again. Instead of throwing them out, he dipped them in pain and put them upside down in a flower pot. Now the paintbrushes look like flowers! I’m not inspired like that, but I do try to recreate things I see online even if I’m not successful all the time.

Most of the things that my dad has made have been very unique and I’ve never seen them anywhere else, but earlier this week I was shocked to see one of my dad’s crafts on tv!

I was watching Martha Stewart on the Ellen Show and she was doing some holiday drinks and decorations. I wasn’t paying too much attention because I was also going through my mail, but all of a sudden I had to stop what I was doing and looked up at the screen. Martha Stewart was making a menorah out of a branch. She painted it and added holes to put the candles in before decorating it. I know this isn’t the best picture of it, but you get an idea of what the finished product looked like.

Well, I guess my dad is a trendsetter because the custom menorah that he made for me 3 years ago looks very similar!

Mine isn’t painted or as decorated as the one Martha Stewart made, but it’s pretty close! I know that there’s probably other people who have done the same thing, but it was still the first time I had seen one of my dad’s projects made by someone else.

Of course, I had to tell my dad all about it. I didn’t want to just take a screenshot or video and send it to him. So I made a FaceTime call to him so I could play him the clip of the menorah being made. And I think he was just as surprised as I was that his menorah was being made by Martha Stewart. And of course, we both agree that mine is better. I like that you see the wood pattern on mine and that it looks very natural. The painted white look is nice too, but it’s not the style of most things I have so it wouldn’t fit in with my decor.

My dad and I got a really good laugh out of watching the clip and joking how Martha Stewart somehow stole his idea. I called him a trendsetter and we were wondering how many people might make a custom menorah now that they have seen it done on tv. I’m sure a bunch of people will do it, but I doubt any will look like mine. And I love that I have something so special and one of a kind that was made for me.

Now I’m wondering what other crafts that my dad has made are crafts that other people have made and posted instructions for online. There are too many things for me to try to search for them, but maybe I’ll discover something else on tv or randomly online that matches something my dad has done. And I’m sure if that happens, my dad and I will get just as much enjoyment out of it as we did from watching this Ellen Show clip.

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A Hanukkah Dinner (or Sharing Some Traditions With A Friend)

Posted on December 5, 2018 | Comments Off on A Hanukkah Dinner (or Sharing Some Traditions With A Friend)

I’m Jewish, but I’m not really religious or celebrate most Jewish holidays. That’s just how I was raised and it’s not something I think about much. When I was little my family did do Hanukkah and sometimes Passover, but we really didn’t do other holidays or celebrate every year. When people ask me about being Jewish, I say that I’m much more culturally Jewish and religious. But whenever a friend wants to celebrate a Jewish holiday with me I’m always happy to share what limited knowledge I have about the holiday.

My friend Christopher (who wrote the short film we starred in together) asked me very early this year if I wanted to have a night of Hanukkah with his family. They are not Jewish, but they wanted to celebrate it and to have their kids learn about holidays that other religions celebrate. I loved that he asked me very early so I could put it on my calendar before other events were filling up my time. So of course, I said yes and we figured we’d talk more about what they wanted to do closer to the date.

Christopher started to text me questions about Hanukkah because he wanted to make it exactly how I would celebrate it. I told him that I don’t really celebrate, but I let him know different things that I think of when I thought of Hanukkah. I told him that latkes or donuts are traditional foods since you usually eat things that have been fried in oil. And I gave him my mom’s brisket recipe since he was asking for a good main dish options, but I knew that since that recipe takes a long time to be made that he probably would just save that one for another day.

Christopher also did a bunch of research on his own and decided to make dreidels for his kids! I was just going to buy some at the store, but he’s really great at making things so he took a look at some and made plans on how to make them from scrap wood. I was very impressed when he sent me a text with a photo on how they came out!

I also wanted to bring things with me to help celebrate Hanukkah. I was going to bring the menorah my dad made for me but I also wanted to bring little gifts for the kids. I went to Party City where I was super surprised by how many Hanukkah things they had! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a wide selection of Hanukkah stuff. Even though it’s still a fraction of the Christmas stuff, it’s still a big improvement over what I’ve seen in the past.

I went over earlier this week to celebrate with Christopher and his family. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get to their house at sundown (when you are supposed to light the menorah), but since this was a casual thing I was fine with it and told Christopher that it didn’t matter if we were doing things the traditional way. I got there just in time for dinner and that worked perfectly.

Christopher went all out with the food he made! He got brisket from a BBQ place (which was delicious), but that’s because he made 3 types of latkes and 2 types of donuts! He made traditional latkes, sweet potato latkes, and French onion latkes along with sour cream and applesauce on the side (I’m partial to sour cream on my latkes).  And he made regular donuts and blueberry filled donuts. I wish I had taken a photo of the food, but we were all enjoying it and I wasn’t thinking about documenting it all. But I think that’s a good thing since I don’t want to live my life through my phone, I want to be more in the moment.

One of the biggest memories I have about Hanukkah as a kid is what the holiday smells like, because it always smells like oil. I don’t make latkes at my house because it would make everything smell like oil and my house is so small that all my clothes in my closet would smell that way too. But when I walked into their house, one of the first things I said was how much it smelled like Hanukkah and I think they loved it. And I’m so happy that not only did it smell like the holiday but it tasted like it too!

After we were done with the food, the kids started to play with the dreidels and I was teaching them how to spin them. We didn’t play the game with chocolate or pennies, but I did bring them some Hanukkah gelt to enjoy anyway. I just didn’t want to complicate things with them on trying to teach them how to play when they were just enjoying trying to spin them. And while the original plan was to light the candles on my menorah, it was getting late and Christopher and his wife found a wood menorah with stickers to look like candles. So I showed them what order the candles go in so they could “light” it properly.

And of course, the kids had to open the gift I brought for them. I tried to find little things they could share so I got some Hanukkah stickers, temporary tattoos, and a puzzle (which is a bit more of a family gift since it’s not a super easy puzzle). And whenever you give kids temporary tattoos, you know that you are going to have at least one of them on your skin.

By the way, I discovered that nail polish remover does a great job at removing temporary tattoos!

After the kids went to bed, I had time to chat with Christopher and his wife. It was fun getting to chat and catch up and talk about all the randomness in life. They are doing a holiday party soon that I am hoping to attend, but I know at parties like that it’s not always easy to talk to the people hosting it. So it was fun getting time to talk when they weren’t worried about being good party hosts or they were distracted by tons of different things.

Time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was much later than I was planning on being there. I wanted to get home at a decent hour to get some sleep before my early work shift and it was already pushing that time. So I said goodbye and headed back home.

I don’t know if I’ll really be doing any other nights of Hanukkah this year. I’ll probably light my menorah at least once, but I’m not planning on doing anything big like I did at this dinner. So it was nice to have one night feel special and like I was celebrating it instead of just acknowledging the holiday and not doing anything for it.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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Recapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself)

Posted on December 4, 2018 | Comments Off on Recapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself)

I usually would just be doing my monthly challenge recap in this post and then announce my next monthly challenge, but I’m going to do things a bit differently this time. I’m going to recap 2 challenges I had last month and that will lead into what my challenge will be for this month.

First, last month I challenged myself to work on getting back to feeling like myself. I knew that I was feeling a bit lost and not like myself and I wanted to find what I needed to do in order to feel that way again. It was another challenge that wasn’t easy to track so I looked at it as a goal for the month versus a challenge.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that in the middle of the month I actually forgot what my challenge was. It wasn’t something I had to think about every day or had a reminder to do, so it was easy to forget about it. I tried to put a positive spin on it and say that I must be back to myself if I wasn’t focused on doing that anymore. And I do feel like I’m back to being me and I’m very happy about that. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I really didn’t have to do much for this challenge and it really was kind of a wash.

I also had a challenge last month to participate in NaNoWriMo again and to get up to date on all my online dating stories. I hadn’t done a lot of work on the book since last year and I had a lot of stories to add. I started off on a great note with getting chapter names for all the new stories, writing a few of the stories down that I hadn’t done yet, and updating the few stories that have had changes or new updates. I knew that I wasn’t going to hit the word count goal for NaNoWriMo since my stories aren’t necessarily that long, but I wanted to work on the book until I was current on it.

But after that initial motivation and got a few things done, I did nothing else with it last month. I am glad that I wrote down the stories that I want to write because there were a few that I had forgotten about. I plan on writing more stories than I probably would actually have in a book so I have options. It’s better to have to edit a book and stories down than to need to find more to add because it’s too short. There’s no real good excuse for why I didn’t work on my book more other than I was lazy and just didn’t do it. I had the time between my customers at work on work on them and it wouldn’t have taken that much time. I just didn’t do it and I am a bit upset with myself that I just let that go and didn’t work on it like I planned to do.

From both the book and my monthly challenges being kind of a fail and I went easy on myself for not really doing much, I knew I needed to make a change. My monthly challenges used to be real challenges that pushed me and made me work toward a change in my life. I haven’t kept all of the monthly challenges as a part of my life, but many of them are still daily habits that I enjoy and know benefit me.

So technically my challenge for this month is another one that will be easy to slack on, but it will be better for me in the long run. My challenge this month is to plan my monthly challenges for 2019. I would love to have a list of at least 16 challenges so I have some options to use next year. I want to pick things that can be tracked and measured so I am held accountable to them. And I want to pick things that will truly challenge me and hopefully make me a better version of myself. I’m hoping I can find a good mix of physical challenges (like stretching and yoga), educational challenges (like how I’m working on learning French), and mental challenges (like my meditation challenge that I’m over 900 days into). I know having a mix will be the best thing for me and will help me not feel too overwhelmed.

I know that this month is another challenge I can slack on and not make an effort every day toward, but it’s the first step in making sure that I break this bad habit and have some amazing challenges in the new year!

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Back To My Normal Workouts (or Another Challenge Switch)

Posted on December 3, 2018 | Comments Off on Back To My Normal Workouts (or Another Challenge Switch)

After having a shorter workout week the week before, I was happy to be back to my normal workout schedule this past week. My workouts are one of the few super routine and regular parts of my life and when things switch up it feels weird. I know that normally happens around the holidays, but I’m still not used to it. So getting back to my regular schedule was really nice.

Monday’s workout was a strength day, but the inclines on the treadmill were going to be pretty limited so I was going to use the treadmill. I had such a great running day on Saturday the week before and I was excited to keep that going. But I don’t know if it was being of my great running day, the heavy weights I used for squats, or something else but I was seriously struggling on the treadmill. My legs felt like they were so heavy and I had a hard time moving as quickly as I needed to. So I jumped off the treadmill right after the warmup (when I was taking breaks every 30 seconds of so) and went to the bike.

All of our blocks had push paces at no added incline/resistance, push paces at added incline/resistance, and all out paces with no incline for the treadmills with base paces in between. For the base, push, and all out paces with no added incline I used my regular resistance levels on the bike. But for all the incline work, I went to the new higher resistance levels that I had been using recently. Even though we had recovery between all of the all outs, this felt almost like an endurance workout and I was working hard!

On the floor, we had 1 long block but we also had rowing. When we started, we had a 250 meter row and then went to the floor to work on skier swings, uppercuts, deadlifts, high rows using the straps, bicep curls, and plank low rows. The exercises were grouped into 3 mini-blocks each with 2 exercises and we did 3 rounds of each mini-block before moving on. But every time the treadmill had an all out we went back to the rower for another 250 meter row so we did a total of 1,000 meters in the workout. I was using medium heavy weights for all the weighted work and made it through all the exercises by the time class was done so I was very happy with my floor work. Plus, I was able to get my 250 meter row faster every time I did it.

Wednesday’s workout was a signature workout. It’s called Go Row and it is all about timed rowing. Even though I started on the treadmill for my warmup, my group went to the floor first. But since it was a switch class I didn’t feel too weird doing my rowing and treadmill work second with each block.

For the rowing/treadmill blocks, we started on the rower every time. The first block was a 4 minute row, the second block a 2 minute row, and the last block a 1 minute row. The goal was to do at least half of what you did the previous row, and I did much better than half every time. After the rows we went to the treadmill for a quick treadmill workout. The first block was just a push to an all out, the second block was a longer push to a base to an all out, and the last block was another longer push to a base to an all out. I walked my base and push paces but did run all of the all outs. There was so little time on the treadmill that I did want to maximize my time on there so I’m glad I got some running done.

On the floor we had a lot of work using the Bosu. The first block was supposed to be plank leg lifts and knee tucks using the Bosu and I tried doing those at first but it wasn’t working for me. So I did my plank leg lifts on the ground and did sit-ups on the Bosu instead of knee tucks. The second block was running men, hip hinge tricep kickbacks, and single leg V ups on the Bosu. I switched the single leg V ups to sit-ups again due to my hips. And the last block was lateral shoulder raises while kneeling on the Bosu and back extensions on the Bosu and I was able to do both of those exactly how we were coached to do them.

Friday’s workout was another strength day, but it was a 3 group class and the format looked like a good one to do on the treadmill so I skipped using the bike. On the treadmill, we had 3 blocks and they all had a push pace that was supposed to be at an incline and then an all out pace on a flat incline. So I decided to do all the push pace incline work as a power walker and the all out paces as a runner. The 1 minute all out paces did feel a bit long to me, but they were doable. And not worrying about using incline work while running was helpful. Even though I have done a lot of 3 group classes, this seemed to be the quickest 3 group treadmill block I’ve ever had.

On the rower, we had 3 blocks as well and each block started with a distance row. The first block was 200 meters, the second block was 400 meters, and the last block was 600 meters. After the row we had squats using the medicine ball and then we rowed until the block ended. I did make it back to the rower every time and did about a minute of rowing at the end of each block. It was a lot of rowing which was helpful to finish my Orange Voyage challenge (I ended up rowing 24,854 meters in November).

And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks which focused a lot on lower body and abs. The first block had lunges, sit-ups, crunches, and leg raises. The second block added deadlifts to the exercises from the first block. And the last block skipped the abs but we added weighted squats to the lunges and deadlifts. The number of reps for each exercise was pretty low so we were encouraged to go very heavy with the weights. I didn’t go as heavy as I knew I could go because the heavy weight that I usually use for deadlifts was being used by other people and I didn’t want to go even heavier than I’ve ever done.

Saturday’s workout was a power day and the treadmill half of class was really fun! It started as a run/body weight exercise and then switched to a run/row. And it gave me a lot of opportunities to work on my running!

The first round was a .1 mile run and then squats. I ran the entire thing (even though it’s a bit longer than I have been running lately) and that felt awesome. The next round would have been a .2 mile run, but I did it as a run/walk with 45 second intervals and split the difference between the run distance and the walk distance. Then there were more squats. Next was another round where I did it as a run/walk and split the difference between the run and walk distances with more squats after it. Then the distance got longer and I switched to power walking only. After that round we had more squats and then the longest distance we had on the treadmill followed by 200 meters on the rower. I made it back to the treadmill to work on the next distance, but we switched before I finished the distance. I did 3 rounds of running (or run/walking) and 3 rounds of walking which felt pretty good!

On the floor, we had a very unique format. The first 12 days of December are a new challenge with themed workouts at Orangetheory and this one was all about working our way down from 12 reps to 1 rep. We had 4 blocks and each block had 2 exercises. We did exercise 1 for 12 reps, exercise 2 for 11 reps, exercise 1 for 10 reps, and so on. If we made it all the way down to 1 rep, we then held a plank until the block ended. The first block was plank shoulder taps and pop jacks. The second block was squats and hip hinge reverse flys. The third block was lunges and weighted triceps. And the last block was palms to elbows (which I did as plank shoulder taps) and sit-ups. I made it to doing the plank at the end for the second, third, and fourth blocks which is much more than I expected!

I’m excited for this week to see what the challenges will be in the workouts. I know they will be tough, but they aren’t as bad as Hell Week so I know I can do whatever they are!

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Default ThumbnailLearning To Love The Rower (or Creating My Own Challenge) Default Thumbnail3 Workouts In A Row (or Using Fitness To Beat A Cold) Default ThumbnailJust A Normal Workout Week (or Being Ok With Being Ok) Default ThumbnailNormal But Still Hard (or Having My Own Workout Challenge This Time) Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Normal Workouts (or Balancing Hard Work And Taking It Easy) Default ThumbnailEasing My Way Back Into My Normal Workouts (or Not Being Upset I’m Slow)

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The First Holiday Party Of The Season (or A Meeting And A Mixer)

Posted on November 30, 2018 | 2 comments

This week was the last Union Working meeting of 2018. With the holiday season starting, it’s tough to plan for a meeting in December because so many people have travel plans or other events to go to. And this meeting wasn’t a regular meeting, it was part meeting and part holiday mixer. But it was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season and the parties I’ll be going to.

I got to the meeting early so I could set up the Facebook Live things. I know that the team at Union Working appreciate that I do this for the meetings, but I always feel like I should be doing more because it’s not that hard for me to do. But if that’s what they need me to do, I’m glad I can do it! When I got there, a lot of the things for the party were already set up. There was a table full of amazing food and a bar area set up and I know that we were expecting a lot of people to be there (actors love free food and drinks!).

People arrived in waves since it was more of a party so I felt like I was always seeing someone I knew and getting to say hi and catch up with them. It was nice to not have to worry about getting everything ready for a meeting to start and to just enjoy time with those who were there.

About an hour into the party, the meeting portion of the evening happened so I got the Facebook Live video ready. It was a very brief meeting with the premiere of a new video that will be released soon regarding keeping the union strong, some notes about how we have merchandise for sale for those interested in representing Union Working with a hat or key chain, and then the leaders of the group were sharing their appreciation for everyone else. It was really nice to see how passionate the leaders of the group are about working hard for all actors. We see that passion when they are running the meetings, but seeing them be grateful for what we have accomplished was a different type of passion and it made me even more proud to be a member of the group.

After that was done, it was back to the party. I kept the Facebook Live running because we wanted to give people the opportunity to come over and say things to those watching in other parts of the country. A few people did come over to say thank you to those in other markets for working hard, but most of the time I was running it there was nobody there and I was just looking at the step and repeat.

Even though people weren’t coming over to talk on the video, I wasn’t by myself at the party. Friends were coming over to hang out and talk with me throughout the evening. And it actually worked out a bit better since where I was wasn’t as crowded as the area by the food where most people were hanging out. I liked having my own party area so I didn’t feel as overwhelmed or like I was in the middle of a crowd. I did go over and get some food (which was delicious!), but most of my time was over by the step and repeat.

And even though I always tell myself that I want to get a picture in front of the step and repeat, it usually is taken down before I remember or get a chance to do it. This time I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass so I finally got a fun selfie in front of it.

Most people were taking advantage of the step and repeat being out of the way and available and were taking photos too. There were so many selfies taken and a lot of fun group photos. I thought about doing some group photos with my friends in front of the step and repeat, but because so many people were busy talking I didn’t want to interrupt them. And I loved watching everyone talk because there were lots of conversations about union related issues and lots of new people meeting each other and becoming friends. It was kind of fun being able to sit back and just enjoy the people watching.

But since everyone has a camera and was taking photos, I did get one group photo with my friends when the party was winding down. It’s not in front of the step and repeat, but at least I got one photo that proves I was there with other people!

I got everything from the Facebook Live cleaned up before the party was done so when cleanup was happening I asked if I could help in any other way. We had some amazing volunteers who were doing the cleanup and they didn’t need me. And that was ok since it was getting late and I had to work early the next morning. So I made my rounds of goodbyes to my friends and headed home.

Even with being over by the Facebook Live setup for most of the party, I never felt like I was alone or separate from everything going on. I loved having my own area to talk with my friends and to meet new people at the meeting. I know that next year is a big one for our union with elections happening again along with contract negotiations, so it’s going to be more important than ever to be as involved as I can with Union Working. And that’s exactly what I plan on doing!

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Default ThumbnailA SAG-AFTRA Party (or Finally Getting Photos With My Friends) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA Holiday Party (or Getting Ready For Elections Again) Default ThumbnailUnion Working Holiday Party (or Just Enjoying Being Around Good People) Default ThumbnailUnion Holiday Party (or Seeing A Lot Of People In A Little Time) Default ThumbnailFirst Halloween Party Of The Season (or At Least I Made An Appearance) Default ThumbnailA NextGen Mixer (or Just Having Fun With My Friends)

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Finding The Perfect Gifts (or A Gift A Year In The Making)

Posted on November 28, 2018 | 1 comment

I wrote recently about how excited I was to bring my family’s Hanukkah gifts to Thanksgiving. I love giving gifts and working on figuring out the perfect gift to get people. I don’t do a ton of gifts for the holidays, but I do get something for my parents, my brother, and sister-in-law. And I usually do one gift for my parents and one gift for my brother and sister-in-law for a few reasons. First, I do have to consider how much money I have to spend on gifts. But also, I love getting something that is more of a group gift for Hanukkah because I do something more personal for birthdays.

I take a lot of pride in finding the perfect gift for people and I have a tab on my web browser just for gift ideas. I know that I have to get gifts each year so when I see something that is perfect I save it because I know I’ll eventually buy it for someone. And the Hanukkah gifts I gave this year were something I found a year ago at Thanksgiving last year. And it’s been crazy to keep it a secret for a year because I was so excited about it!

I saw on social media that someone I follow got a custom pet portrait done and thought it was so cute! I looked at a couple of different companies online and they all seemed to be out of my budget. I was disappointed by that but determined to keep looking to see if I could figure out a way to make it happen. I ended up finding a company that was a bit out of my budget, but they usually had sales so I saved the link and was planning on ordering them in September.

I had a setback with the ordering because I placed my order and then the company wasn’t getting back to me. I was supposed to hear from them within 72 hours and gave them over a week before I reached out to them. They weren’t responding to emails or private messages on social media and I was so upset. I disputed the charges and got the money back, but then had to search again for a company to help me out (I finally heard from the original company and they said there was a glitch that caused them not to get my order or messages).

I contacted several stores on Etsy and found ZK Portraits. While the portraits I wanted to have done weren’t exactly what they usually do, they were willing to work with me and we started emailing back and forth so they could find out what I wanted. And they were even cheaper than the original company that I was going to go with!

I knew that for my brother and sister-in-law that I wanted a portrait of their cat as a doctor. But for my parents, I was on the fence with a few ideas. I knew I wanted something that was about Tahoe but I couldn’t decide if I wanted Tucker as a skier, hiker, or kayaker. As much as I wanted to keep this a surprise for my parents, I knew I needed help so I asked my dad for advice. He told me that having Tucker as a skier was the best one and he was so excited that I was going to be doing these portraits. I know that he probably would have loved to have been surprised, but I think he also enjoyed being in on the gift planning too.

Within a week of ordering the portraits, I got the proofs via email to approve. And I couldn’t have asked for anything more amazing than these!

I was smiling so much when I saw these and emailed the artist back to say they were perfect! I was getting the portraits as high-resolution digital images so I had to figure out how I wanted to present them. There are so many options for artwork like these and I didn’t know if they would want them on canvas, metal, acrylic, or photo paper nor did I know what size they would want them. So I had them printed out as 8×10 photos and figured I’d give them the full size image after they opened the gifts so they could do something different if they wanted to.

Sometimes my family does all of our gifts at the same time, but this time we ended up doing them each day. I gave my family their gifts on Wednesday even though they were going to do their gifts the next day. I just couldn’t wait any longer!

My mom opened theirs first (my dad already had seen a preview so he let her open it) and I wish I took a video of her reaction! She was so excited and shocked and was laughing so hard about how amazing the portrait was. She never would have thought of doing something like that herself and loved that I got them a portrait. My brother and sister-in-law started to ask questions about it and I told them they needed to open their present first. That clued them in that I got them something similar and I think they loved that I got a portrait of their cat like a doctor. My brother posted it on the Instagram they created for their cat right away.

The next day I got an Amazon gift card from my brother and sister-in-law and my parents got me a nice down jacket and a beanie that has a hole in the top so I can wear it when I have my hair in a ponytail or top knot! Both gifts will be put to good use (I actually wore the hat when I flew home since it was cold out) and I loved them! I’m still picking out what fun things I want to get on Amazon with the gift card since I don’t want to just use it on something boring like vitamins or printer paper.

It’s almost a joke in my family now that I always try to top the gifts I’ve done in the past, but it’s true. I really want to find the perfect thing and when I find them months before I’m going to give them that just gives me so much time to build up anticipation on how the recipient will react to it. And I’ve actually found something that I might do as Hanukkah gifts for next year, but I don’t think I can top the pet portraits for a while. It really was the perfect gift and I’m so glad they were a big hit!

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Recapping My Thanksgiving (or A Few Days In Sacramento)

Posted on November 27, 2018 | Comments Off on Recapping My Thanksgiving (or A Few Days In Sacramento)

I’ve already written a bit about my trip for Thanksgiving, but I haven’t really said more than my flight there and my workout on Thanksgiving Day. I wasn’t in Sacramento that long (I got there late Tuesday night and left Friday afternoon), but I managed to pack quite a bit into my trip!

When I arrived, I got there so late that all I did was get to the hotel and go to bed. And the next morning, I had to work a few hours (it is nice to work remotely so I could work from the hotel) and the original plan was to try to make it to Tahoe so I could see the house. I haven’t been there in quite a while so I was excited to see what the house looks like all done. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t that great so we decided to try for a Tahoe adventure on Friday when we were hoping it wouldn’t be as bad.

Since I had finished with work early because we only had a half shift the day before Thanksgiving, we had a lot of free time. So my parents and I went to visit my grandma. She lives in an assisted living facility there and I wanted to see where she was living now. I had seen her home in San Diego (both in independent living and assisted living) so many times and it was weird to think my grandma was living somewhere for almost a year and I hadn’t seen it yet.

She had just moved to a new room recently so I never got to see the first room she had. But I still wanted to see where she was living and what amenities the new facility had. When my parents and I got there, my mom had to ask the staff something about my grandma’s mail (the birthday card I mailed to her was never delivered) so my dad gave me a quick tour. This place is significantly smaller than where she was living in San Diego so it was easy to see the various places there that my grandma uses. I got to see the hair salon, the library, and the living room area. We looked at the courtyard too, but since it was raining we didn’t go out there.

Then we went to where my grandma is. She was out in a common room when we got there so my parents took me to see her room first. I really liked her room and it felt much more spacious than where she was living in San Diego. I’m glad I got to see it so I can picture where she is when I call her and we talk on the phone. Then we found my grandma sitting with a bunch of other residents and I got to take some time to talk to her. My grandma isn’t as chatty as she used to be and it can be tough to see her be confused and not how I remember her, but there are still lots of moments where she seems like herself and we can have some fun conversations. We were there for maybe an hour or so before heading back to the hotel because my brother and sister-in-law were arriving.

Thanksgiving Day started with the family workout and then we all went back to the hotel to get dressed and ready. My grandma was going to be picked up later than the rest of us arrived at my aunt and uncle’s (we didn’t want to exhaust her too much) so when we got there the cooking was happening and I tried to stay out of the way the best I could. My mom brought family movies to watch and it was really fun to see movies from when my grandma was growing up. And when my grandma arrived, we had started watching movies that had 3 generations of us in it (my cousin’s kids were the only generation not in the movies) and my grandma was really enjoying watching them and commenting on random things. She made a really great joke about how my dad looked weird because he had hair in the videos and he’s bald now.

When dinner was ready, we had a pretty incredible spread.

I had a little bit of everything except the mashed potatoes and cranberry sauces. And it was all really delicious! I probably ate too much food, but I think that’s a pretty common thing on Thanksgiving. And my family was having a great time sitting at the table enjoying all the random conversations we were having.

After dinner, we tried to get a family photo. My uncle was using his nice camera but the self timer didn’t seem to want to work. He ended up also setting his phone to video so we could see if we could get a good still shot on it while he attempted to make his camera work. We didn’t really get a great photo, but when he sent me the video I found some amazing moments that I love more than a staged, smiling photo. This one is from one of the last times he attempted to use his self timer and it went off before he could get in place.

I love how we are all laughing, even if I don’t love how I look in the photo. But it’s an honest and genuine moment from all of us and I think that makes it so special.

The day after Thanksgiving I had to work, but I had made an arrangement to work limited hours so I could spend time with my family. My parents and I were trying to get to Tahoe, but again the weather didn’t work in our favor so we didn’t make it. Hopefully I’ll get out there next year because I want to see the house and spend time with my family. So I ended up working my entire work shift (plus an extra hour because I mixed up what day it was) and then we headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house for some leftovers before I had to get to the airport.

It was nice to have some more family time even if it wasn’t that much time. But I don’t usually get that very often so I value whatever time I do get with my extended family. And after spending a few hours with my family it was time to head back to the airport for my flight back home.

I did have a few panic attacks on my flight back to LA, but they were pretty minor compared to the attacks I had on the way to Sacramento and they weren’t as frequent or as long. So I’m guessing my panic attacks were brought on by not flying for a long time and not that my panic disorder is back when I thought it was gone. And before I knew it, I was back in LA and back to my normal life.

My trip to Sacramento was quick, but it was filled with lots of great things. Even though I had to work 2 of the days I was there, that’s pretty routine for me for Thanksgiving and it didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. My parents were hanging out with me while I was working so I wasn’t alone. And work was slow enough that most of the time I was working was really just talking to my parents, helping them with random computer things, or helping my dad find some great deals online for new shoes.

I won’t get to see my extended family like this again until next Thanksgiving, but I will hopefully see them randomly throughout the year. I might be seeing my aunt in March and my cousin and her daughter in February. And there’s always time to plan for more in the coming year.

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Default ThumbnailOne More San Diego Day (or I Don’t Know When I’ll Be Doing This Again) Default ThumbnailSan Diego Day (or Some More Family Time) Default ThumbnailGrandma’s Birthday Dinner (or One Of Our Thanksgiving Traditions) Default ThumbnailThe First Half Of Thanksgiving (or My Pre-Thanksgiving Activities) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Trip (or Being With My Family In San Diego) Default ThumbnailFamily Thanksgiving (or Relaxing In San Diego)

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A Short Workout Week (or 3 Workouts In 3 Different Locations)

Posted on November 26, 2018 | 1 comment

This past week of workouts was a short workout week for me, but it was also a really amazing week. I technically worked out in 3 different cities (2 of them being my regular LA studios) but I also had my traditional family workout in Sacramento! It was so fun getting to have my family workout in the middle of my workouts this past week and I loved that we were able to continue our tradition.

Monday’s class was at the Brentwood studio (where I go on Mondays) and it was an endurance day, but it was a unique format so it didn’t feel as tough as most endurance days have been in the past for me. We had regular treadmill and floor blocks, but we also had run/floor blocks and row/run blocks. Things were switching up every block so it kept things very interesting and challenging!

I started on the treadmill and the first block was the run/floor block. We started with a 6 minute run for distance and I did run/walk intervals. I did 1 minute of running with 90 seconds of walking. The running was a bit tough because I had been on the bike the week before, but I’m glad I did it. I pushed myself but I didn’t push myself too much. After the run for distance, we moved to the floor where we had work on the Bosu. We had single arm chest presses while laying on the Bosu, crunches, and hip bridges with our feet on the Bosu.

After that, I switched to the rower side where we had our row/run. We started with a 1000 meter row and then had a minute of recovery before going back to rowing to get the meters to 2000 meters. The first 1000 meters were tough, but I only needed 1 break in the middle to catch my breath. The second 1000 meters were much harder and I was taking a lot of breaks. But I got it done and then it was time to be on the treadmill for a 3 minute distance run. After that there was more rowing and distance runs, but the block ended while I was working on the 3 minute distance run so I didn’t get to do that.

Then I was back on the treadmill for 2 more distance runs. The first was 3 minutes and the second was 90 seconds. I wanted to try to run but my legs were tired so I did those both as power walks. And I finished on the floor with a block that had a lot of plank work including side plank rotations, side plank crunches, plank hip dips, and back extensions. The back extensions were tough for me because I had a little nausea and queasiness while doing them, but I pushed through and was fine by the end of class.

I didn’t work out on Wednesday because of being out of town, but I had my Thursday Thanksgiving workout! For the past 4 years (since we started this tradition), we have always done the workout at the La Jolla studio since that is where we went for Thanksgiving. Now that we were in Folsom, we worked out at the studio there. It was so easy to get there because it was right across the street from the hotel we were staying at! So for the first time, I was able to walk to my workout!

Since this was a new studio for us all, we got there early to get things figured out. And as soon as we walked in, we felt super welcome from how amazing the staff was and from the sign they had welcoming my family!

Technically we are the Fry family (this family is my mom’s side), but over half of us in my family in the class have the last name Levin so it worked.

This workout was a 3 group workout that was all partner based. There were 7 of us in my family in the workout, but since I am so used to the workouts I let my family form 2 groups and I partnered with 2 people from the class that I didn’t know. Technically the rower was the pacer, but the floor and treadmill people paced things as well.

The rower started with a 1600 meter row. Every time the rower was back on the rower they went down 400 meters (my group only got through the 1600 and 1200 meter rows). While they were rowing, the people on the treadmill and floor were switching back and forth on their own. The treadmill person had a .25 mile run (I walked) and in the second round it went down to .2 miles. And the floor person had ground to presses, burpees, plank jacks, and high rows using the straps. Whoever finished first between the treadmill and floor initiated the switch between them. And when the rower person was done, someone else went to the rower and the new treadmill and floor person switched between themselves.

It probably sounds more complicated than it was, but fortunately it wasn’t too tough to follow. Some people in my family had some confusion, but it didn’t really matter since they still were working out for the entire class and they had a great time! Some of my family were a bit sore from the workout, but they weren’t used to rowing or some of the floor exercises. Everyone was so happy we could continue this tradition and of course we had to get a photo to add to the collection of Thanksgiving workouts!

I didn’t workout on Friday because I was traveling back home, but I was back at the Culver City studio for my Saturday workout. It was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was the perfect way to get back into being in my normal routine. Plus, the workout had a lot of great chances for me to run which was an added bonus!

On the treadmill we had 3 blocks. They all had a push to an all out pace, a walking recovery, 2 rounds of a push pace to a base pace, and then ending with another push to an all out pace. All of the all outs were 30 seconds so I knew I could run all of those but the push and base paces changed with each block. The first block had 1 minute intervals and I did all of them as a power walk. But the second block was 45 seconds and the third block was 30 seconds so I was able to run the push paces in those blocks.

On the floor, we had 1 long block. Every round started with a row, starting with 100 meters and going up 100 meters each round. Then we had clean to presses, sumo squats using weights, double crunches with weights, and mountain climbers on the floor. I tried going heavy with my weights, but I could only do that with the sumo squats. For the rowing, since they were short rows I tried to go as hard as possible. But I might have gone a bit too hard on my 200 meter row because I was so exhausted after that and had to take a bit of time on the floor to catch my breath. But I made it through 3 rounds on the floor so I was happy about that.

Even though this past week of workouts was a shorter one than I’m used to now, it was such a great week. I loved the things I was able to do and I always love working out with my family. My dad and I like to compete against each other with these family workouts, but it’s all in good fun. But when I said goodbye to my parents before flying home I did remind my dad that he’s only got a year to train for next year’s family workout. And I can’t wait until it’s next year and we can do this again. But at least I don’t have to wait a year to do another Orangetheory workout since I’m back to my normal routine this week.

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