Posted onOctober 25, 2018|Comments Off on Union Working Support (or Celebrities And Middle Class Actors Unite)
This week was another Union Working meeting and as always it was so informative and inspiring. Even if there aren’t action steps for me to take when I leave a meeting, I always leave wanting to do more and finding out more ways for me to help and be involved. I felt for a while that running the live stream of our meetings wasn’t enough to help, but now I realize that it is an important job and really appreciated by members who are in LA and cannot attend as well as members who live in other cities.
This meeting didn’t have as much of an agenda as some in the past have had, but we still had lots of things to go over.
There was a brief discussion about the W&W meetings that have been happening. I really have wanted to attend one, but the way my schedule works it’s not easy. And when I thought I could attend the last part of a meeting, something comes up that prevents me from going. I still have a few more chances to go, but there is a possibility that I won’t be able to make it to one and that’s a bit upsetting to me. I really planned on going because it is so important to be there. But I also know there will be more opportunities in the future when maybe my schedule isn’t as packed.
One of the big things we discussed at the meeting was our social media presence. We have got some great things up on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pages and we want everyone to subscribe to them if they are interested in supporting unions or knowing more about unions. Union Working isn’t just about the actor union, we support all unions. And if you’ve checked out any of our social media, you may have seen a lot of pictures like these.
And that’s because we have been reaching out to celebrities to see who wants to join Union Working in supporting our union, making our union stronger, and supporting all other unions. So many famous people have wanted to help us which is amazing. We know that there is strength in numbers, but there is added strength in having known people joining the cause. And I’m so grateful that so many people who have such busy schedules have taken time out to help us.
And we are continuing to look for celebrities who want to help us. Most of them remember what it was like to be a struggling actor or a middle class actor. And sadly, with so many projects becoming non-union, the idea of being a middle class actor is going away. People used to be able to support themselves by doing a few commercials a year. Now, that’s not happening. There is still a middle class of actors who support themselves but are not famous or known, but those numbers are getting smaller and smaller.
We need the help of those who can help us and I’m so happy that we have gotten some incredible people to join us in our fight for all union members! There are more videos about this on the Union Working YouTube page and more amazing videos are coming soon. I can’t wait until everyone can see what has been in the works and what we want the world to see.
One of the last things that was discussed was having more Union Working groups around the country. While LA is one of the biggest areas for actors, there are actors all over and some of the cities that used to be considered minor markets are now very busy with work. We know that we have the support of people outside of LA, we just want them to be able to keep building those communities of support like we have here. And one of the things we do for those other cities is the live stream that I run. I loved watching the comments on the live stream come in from people who don’t live in LA. And they can ask questions at our meetings as well since I can see those questions as they are posted and ask them on their behalf.
We will have one more Union Working meeting in November for this year and as soon as that information is finalized I’ll be sharing it on my social media so those who want to join us can do so. Then we’ll have the holidays off before getting back to our regular meetings in the new year. I’ve already done so much with this group in 2018, and I can’t wait to see what I’m able to accomplish next year when I’m sure I’ll get even more involved.
Posted onOctober 23, 2018|Comments Off on Being Social Outside Of Workouts (or Making OTF Friends)
Pretty much since the first Orangetheory location opened in Los Angeles in Brentwood, there have been social events for members. They want to make the studio feel like a community and I love that about Orangetheory. They have done hikes, beach days, yoga classes, and other fun things. I’ve only made it to the yoga class though.
A lot of the social events happen on Saturdays. The beach days and hikes have almost always been on a Saturday. While I could go after I’m done with work to the beach days (especially if I skip my workout that day), I could never make the hikes because I have to work. I guess I could use some of my banked hours to miss a shift, but since Saturdays are one of our busiest days I feel bad when I do that. And some of the other social events have been on a Friday evening. For me those were tough to go to because of my schedule and drive time. If I went after a workout on a Friday evening, I had 2 options. One would be to shower at Orangetheory, wait a few hours, and then be a part of whatever event was happening. The other would be to drive home (which sometimes took over 90 minutes), shower, drive back to where I was, and then be late for the event. Neither of those were good options for me so I never went.
But once the Culver City location opened, I knew that I’d have a better chance of going to one of the fun things they would be planning. Some of the events are the same ones that the Brentwood one does because they are regional events (like the hikes and beach days), so I had missed those. And they did do a wine tasting event at a bar near the studio, but since I’m not drinking right now I didn’t feel like paying for an event that I couldn’t really participate in.
But this past Friday, there was finally an event I could go to! It was hanging out at Rush St (where I seem to go all the time) and while that is a bar it wasn’t necessarily an alcohol event like a wine tasting. We had the back patio area reserved for Orangetheory for a few hours that evening and we could hang out, order food and drinks if we wanted to, and just have a fun time. And since I work out in the mornings, it was super easy to go to something that night!
I’ve joked to people that when someone from my workouts sees me in normal clothes, a lot of times they are shocked. I have long hair but since I have it in a top knot during a workout most people don’t realize that. Plus since my hair is so thin, the top knot doesn’t look like it’s holding a lot of hair. The first time people from the Brentwood studio saw me with my hair down, many of them couldn’t stop saying that I have long hair. I guess they weren’t expecting that. So I thought I might have the same situation with this event.
When I got there a couple of coaches as well as front desk staff were there. But I didn’t recognize anyone from class. I knew that there was a chance that even if I was next to someone who usually is in class with me, I might not recognize them. People do look different in normal clothes and I’m usually in my head and focusing on myself during workouts. I don’t really pay attention to others, but I think a lot of people are the same way. I tried to not be shy when I didn’t really know anyone there, and fortunately there were people who brought me into their conversations so I wasn’t there alone and looking awkward.
I had gotten there toward the beginning of the event and it wasn’t that packed when I arrived. But people were quickly showing up and before I knew it the patio area was packed and there were so many people hanging out! I still didn’t recognize anyone from class, but I didn’t mind it after a bit. Several of us said we should have written what class times we take on the name tags we had so we could tell who might have been in class with us. But since everyone was in the same situation with wondering who they have seen in class before, it wasn’t that weird. We all were joking about it whenever we were meeting someone knew.
Since I didn’t see anyone I knew from class (or if we had been in class before, it was only a few times), nobody was shocked by how I looked out of workout clothes. But when one of my coaches arrived an hour after it started, she took a look at me and couldn’t believe that I had long hair. It was funny seeing her shocked at my appearance, but I also think that it’s a good thing that I look very different in a workout compared to when I’m in normal clothes. I never look good during a workout because I don’t really care how I look, so I would hate it if I still looked the same when I make an effort.
I was at the bar for longer than I was planning on being there. I work on Saturday mornings so I usually am not out that late on a Friday night. But I was having such a great time meeting new people and getting to hang out with my coaches in a social setting that time just flew by. I met so many new people who go to Orangetheory, but many of them work out super early or in the afternoon or evenings so I won’t be seeing them in class. But many of us did exchange numbers so we can hang out another time. And many of them have never done Hell Week before so they wanted my advice on how I have done it in the past. I’m always happy to help out people who have questions about the workouts so I was just glad I could help a little bit.
So many people talk about how hard it is to make friends as an adult. I agree completely with that idea because it really isn’t easy. I work from home by myself so I don’t make friends at work. I have made friends from workouts, but those friendships usually take months to happen because most people there aren’t looking around to chat before or after a workout. I do make friends at parties or union events, but that’s not always the case. So to have a night out with people that I know have one big thing in common with me was such a great opportunity to make new friends. And I’m so glad that’s exactly what happened.
Posted onOctober 22, 2018|Comments Off on A Week Of Progress (or Feeling More Like Me)
Last week, I wrote about how I was hoping this past week of workouts wouldn’t be a week where I felt nauseous. It seemed like I would be feeling back to normal by Monday, and I really was optimistic. But it didn’t end up being that way. But with the issues I had, I found new ways to make progress and ended the week on a high note.
Monday’s workout was a power day, but I decided to stick with the bike again. I wasn’t feeling nauseous before the workout, but I was scared it might kick in during class. And I’m working on what I can do to help keep the nausea away when there is a chance I’ll have it but not experiencing it. And I think using the bike instead of the treadmill is one of those things that is a good option to do.
We had 5 blocks on cardio and they all had a similar pattern with a push pace, base pace, and ending with a push to all out pace. Each block the push pace before the all out got longer so it became a bit more challenging to do an all out after it. I was using my normal resistance levels for all the bike work but tried to do some faster pedaling with the push and all out paces. When we got to the longer push paces, I tried to do almost like my run/walk intervals with the pedaling. I would do some speedy pedaling and then recover a bit with pedaling slower but still being at the same resistance level. It was a new challenge and made working on the bike different and fun. And I did feel like I was working much harder!
On the floor, we had one long block with adding on exercises. Each round started with a row, but as we added on exercises the rows got shorter. The exercises included neutral full thrusters with weights, Y raises on the straps, bench tap squats, plank jacks to push ups, and lunges with weights. The rows were all pretty short starting with 300 meters and going down 50 meters each time, so I was able to do those easily and within my time goals. And the floor work was going well for the most part until I got to the plank jacks to push ups. When I’m nauseous I don’t do things that make me face down and parallel to the ground. I was feeling pretty good so I wasn’t thinking about that until I started the plank jacks. Then my nausea came back and it was lasting longer than I thought. So I had to switch to doing them with my hands on the bench to not be totally parallel to the floor. I made it through the lunges which was the last exercise just as the workout ended. There were bonus rounds I was hoping to get to, but I was happy just to finish everything that we were supposed to.
Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day. While my nausea was almost gone, I was dealing with a queasy stomach and was being extra cautious. I don’t know what caused the queasiness, but I was going to do what I do when I’m nauseous to make sure that I was going to be able to do the workout to the best of my ability.
I was on the bike for cardio and we had 3 blocks. The focus of all of the blocks was coming back to base pace after a push pace so most of the push paces were a minute or under. It was nice to not have all 3 minute push paces like we do sometimes for endurance days. I kept my resistance levels at the usual levels and I didn’t do the intervals like I did on Monday since the push paces were shorter. But I did try to keep pedaling faster to make up for the shorter segments. I did have a few moments of nausea hitting me when I had to stop on the bike to let it pass, but I was just so glad that it was even less frequent than Monday because it felt like my nausea was lasting forever this time.
On the floor, we had 2 regular blocks and 1 rowing block. The first floor block was all mini-band work. We had weighted squats, hip bridges, and weighted ab twists. I used 20lb weights for all the exercises which is normal for the squats and hip bridges but a bit heavier than I normally do for ab twists. I’ve struggled in the past with the mini-bands getting really twisted on my legs, but this time they stayed where they were placed so I didn’t have to waste time fixing them. The second block was weighted squats to upright rows, mountain climbers, and half get ups. I had to go to a lighter weight for this block for the squats and half get ups because I was dealing with some shoulder soreness that I’ve had from time to time the past month or so, but that also allowed me to be slower with my movements and in turn that made them feel harder.
The row block was an interesting one. It was using the rowing as the recovery but it didn’t feel like recovery. We had 3 rounds of doing 30 seconds of squats followed by 1 minute to do a 150 meter row. That row should take under 45 seconds, but you also have to consider the time it takes to get strapped into the rower. If you finish the row before the minute is done, then you get to have a full recovery. For me, I was finishing the row with maybe 5 seconds to go so it wasn’t really a recovery at all. The end of the rowing block was a 30 second push row to a 1 minute all out row. I did try to increase my wattage for the all out row, but it wasn’t easy with it being at the end of the workout. But I did my best and got the wattage up a tiny bit by the end.
Friday’s workout was really working in my favor. I was finally not nauseous, it was a power day, it was a switch day, and it was a 3 group workout. So I knew I could be on the treadmill and really do my best. I was never going to be on the treadmill for that long and there would be a lot of opportunities for me to work on my running. I had been craving running (even when I was nauseous) recently and I was so happy that I’d get to do that.
For the treadmill, the first and last block were the same and the middle one was different. The first and third block were really short and since I knew I’d be coming off the treadmill when the block was done I really went for it. Those blocks were a 45 second push pace, 45 second base pace, and a 30 second all out. For the first block I ran my push and all out at my normal running speed and walked my base pace. But for the last block I wanted to try to do more so I increased my speed for the all out and ran the fastest I’ve run in probably a year! The second block was a little longer with a set of 1 minute intervals with push paces, base paces, and all outs followed by a set of 30 second intervals doing the same. I was using my normal running speed for all the 1 minute push and all outs and for the 30 second push paces. But I increased my speed for the 30 second all out (which is what inspired me to do more in the last block) and I was just so happy.
On the rower, the first and third block were the same with 3 rounds of a 30 second all out pace followed by 15 seconds to recover. 15 seconds of recovery feels like nothing so it just felt like a few minutes of rowing. I wasn’t getting my wattage as high as I would have liked, but I tried. The middle block was rounds of rowing with lunges between each round. We started at a 100 meter row and went up 50 meters each time. My hips were feeling a bit tight when I was doing the lunges (probably due to the running), so I didn’t have the easiest time with them. But I used the rower for balance and almost used them more as stretches.
And on the floor, just like with the treadmill and rower, the first and third blocks were the same. We had timed exercises with squats with medicine ball presses, sit up with shoulder presses using the medicine ball, and atomic mountain climbers. Each exercise was for 30 seconds with 15 seconds of recovery between to get ready for the next exercise. The second block had good mornings to tricep kickbacks, single arm clean to press, bear steps, and singe arm chest presses. I used my normal weights for the weight work because I was getting a bit tired and didn’t want my form to suffer. But I could feel how hard I was working even though I didn’t use super heavy weights.
Saturday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power based and it ended up being the highlight of the week for me. I was feeling so great after running on Friday that I wanted to do it again. And I had a great opportunity to do that during the treadmill portion of class.
The first block was endurance based with a 3 minute push pace, 2 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, and 1 minute all out. I did the long push pace as 1 minute run/walk intervals, walked the base pace, and ran the last push and all out pace. 2 minutes of running felt long, but I felt awesome after doing it! The next block was focused on strength so we had incline work, and I walked for all of that. But we still ended with a 1 minute push pace to a 1 minute all out and I ran those 2 minutes again. And the last block just had 2 rounds of 1 minute push paces to 1 minute all out paces and I ran those too! The last few were tough and I think I might have overdone it a bit with the running, but I really just wanted to do it and I’m glad I did.
For the floor work, we started with a block on the rower. We had rounds of rowing with body weight exercises between each row. For the first 2 rounds, we had 100 meter rows. The next 2 rounds were 10 pulls on the rower. And the last round was 30 second rows. I only got through 1 of the 30 second rows. And between each row we had either squats or lunges. The next block was weighted work with lateral lunges and plank rows. And the last block was a partner core blast where one partner held a side plank while the other had bicycle crunches and leg raises. For some reason my heart rate was so high during this workout and it wasn’t coming back down like it normally does, so I was using the time I was supposed to be side planking as a little bit of a rest. I didn’t want to be slacking while I was doing the core work because my partner was waiting on me!
I’m so glad that this past week of workouts ended on a high note. I have needed this victory feeling and I’m feeling much more optimistic about my workouts than I was the week before. And I’m glad I’m in a better workout mindset because this week is the beginning of Hell Week! I’m doing 3 days of Hell Week this week and 2 days of it the week after, so I’ll be writing all about it over the next 2 weeks!
Posted onOctober 17, 2018|Comments Off on Self-Tape Saturday (or Turning A Video Shoot Into A Photo Shoot)
I’ve written about self-tapingauditions in the past. While I love going into an office for an audition and getting to work with a casting director or assistant directly, self-tape auditions are becoming more and more common. And they are even more common with auditioning for the smaller parts. Because they are more common, I’ve slowly been upgrading my self-tape set-up at home. I now have a tripod that I can use my iPad with (it’s not my best camera, but it’s close to the best one) and I have a backdrop that I can use on a wall in my house so that it looks more professional. So when I have an audition that calls for a self-tape, I feel pretty comfortable that I can do it.
The only thing I need to find is someone to help me tape the audition. It’s not too hard since most of my actors friends are willing to help out (because I would do the same for them), but I still usually have to ask around to find someone who is available when I am to be my reader. So when I found out about a self-tape audition I needed to do this weekend, I immediately started to text my friends to see who was free. And my birthday twin, Joanna, was not only free but she also had a self-tape audition that needed to be done!
She mentioned that she had a self-tape set-up at her house, so I was happy to go over there to work on our auditions. I had my tripod and iPad with me to use as a camera and I wasn’t totally sure what her set-up would be. I knew it would be fine, but I was so impressed when I walked into her house!
It was so professional looking! She not only had the backdrop and tripod, but she also had lights and a microphone! I knew this was going to be one of my best self-tape auditions as far as looks go. And I was really excited to get to spend an evening working on auditions with a friend.
Joanna was going to use her phone to record her auditions (it was just easiest for us each to record on our own devices) and since that was already set up she went first. We rehearsed her scene a few times so she was comfortable and I was familiar with the lines that I would be reading for her and then we started recording. We did a bunch of takes because I wanted Joanna to feel completely certain that she got the best take that she could do. And I was having fun being her reader and getting to have a little bit of silly acting before doing my audition.
Then we switched things up and it was my turn to do my audition. My audition had some unique rules about how they wanted everything to be done so even though my scene was significantly shorter than Joanna’s my audition was taking longer. But she had the same patience for me that I did for her and we did a bunch of takes until I felt like I had the audition that I wanted to submit.
After we were done doing our videos, we decided to take some silly photos. We both were going to post about spending our night self-taping auditions and we might as well have pictures to go along with it! We were doing pretty normal photos until Joanna discovered how cool it looks to have the iPad screen covering my face so you see my face on the screen.
And of course after she took that photo of me I made her get in front of the iPad so I could do the same for her. We were just having fun and being so silly after working on auditions and it made the night so much more fun. I love getting to hang out with a friend and getting to do any form of acting, but turning this into a photo shoot was an added bonus that made my night.
I started to edit my audition to cut out my best take the next day. Since my scenes were so short I told Joanna just to keep the camera running between takes. We had to pause sometimes because her neighbors slammed a door or there was a plane above us so the noise was distracting, but that’s just how things go. When we were pausing for noise she and I usually were talking about random things. And while watching my videos to find my best takes I was laughing at all the crazy faces I made while talking to Joanna just as me.
I don’t love to watch myself on camera, but the more often I do it the easier it gets. I found my best takes and got everything edited the way the casting director instructed us to do. I did have some problems submitting my audition on the website we needed to do it through, but fortunately my agent was able to do the submission for me so I didn’t miss the deadline. I did get things straightened out with the submission site the day after the deadline so hopefully I won’t have this problem again. But I was just grateful my agent could do it for me and wasn’t upset that I ran into trouble.
I’m so glad that things worked out so well for Joanna to help me with my audition. And I was so inspired by how awesome her self-tape set-up was as well! I’m now looking into some things that I can hopefully get in the future to make my self-tape set-up at my house as close to what she has. I know that when casting directors ask for self-tape auditions they don’t expect them to be super professional, but they shouldn’t look like they are completely amateur either. I want to find the perfect balance and I think adding a few more things to what I have will take things much closer to looking like they were done at a casting office.
Posted onOctober 16, 2018|Comments Off on A Stormy Night At Disneyland (or Trying To Have A Few Hours Of Fun)
It’s been a long time since I had been to Disneyland. I usually go as soon as my pass is good again at the end of the summer, but I just didn’t make it there this time. And somehow September went by without be going too! I still love Disneyland and my pass is totally worth it, but since I go with friends so often now I don’t really want to go alone. And my friends and I just haven’t been able to coordinate schedules lately to have one of our fun days there.
I don’t usually go after work to the parks since it’s driving in rush hour traffic, but sometimes it’s worth it and I do that. And last week, my friend Dani asked me if I wanted to go with her on a shopping adventure to IKEA which happens to be on the way to Disneyland. So we did a shopping trip first and then made our way down to Anaheim for a couple of hours before the parks closed.
We got there around 6:30 and the Disneyland side was going to be closing at 7 for one of their Halloween parties. We weren’t going to buy tickets for that because we didn’t need to go for a special ticketed event and we were hoping we could do maybe one ride on the Disneyland side before they closed. We might have been able to do that, but we decided to not stress ourselves out too much and we went just to the California Adventure side.
Since it was a Friday after work and the Disneyland side was for the party only, it was pretty crowded when we got there. All the ride had multi-hour waits and we were a bit surprised by that. But since Dani and I both have passes we also knew that if we just looked at the Halloween decorations and had some dinner, it would still be worth it.
When we arrived, there were clouds in the sky but the forecast said it wasn’t going to rain until after midnight. But the clouds helped to make everything look nice and spooky!
And while we were admiring the decorations near the entrance, it started to rain. It started as a drizzle but quickly became a decent rainstorm. We checked the weather on our phones and saw that a storm cell was passing over us. We waited it out until it slowed a bit and then we decided to go get some dinner while we waited for the rain to stop. Some of the rides we wanted to go on can’t run when it’s raining so we knew we’d have to wait it out if we wanted to ride them.
After dinner, the rain had stopped but the lightning was still happening. We had to make a change to our plans for what we wanted to ride and we decided to just be casual and easy about things. We went to the Turtle Talk with Crush show which is a really cute show. The jokes were funny and it was nice to just have some silly fun. We then walked over to Cars Land to see all the Halloween lights and decorations.
Every minute or so, the lightning was making the sky glow and it looked so perfectly Halloween themed! I was trying to get a photo of it and Dani had the brilliant idea for me to take a video so I could take a screen shot when I happened to catch a lightning bolt. And her idea worked! I got this amazing photo of 2 bolts in the sky!
It’s so rare to have lightning in Southern California and everyone seemed to be watching it. The rain still hadn’t returned while we were watching the storm, but we had a feeling it would be back soon. So we headed over to the one ride that we were going to do: Toy Story Mania.
When we got in line, the rain was slowly starting up again. But while we were riding, it turned into a real downpour. We knew that we were going to be soaked and there was no avoiding it. I wasn’t properly prepared for the rain (I was wearing jeans and sweatshirt and didn’t have an umbrella) but I wasn’t going to buy a poncho that I wouldn’t use again. So we just went for it and walked back toward the entrance of the park to head back to the car.
While it was packed when we arrived, the rain made so many people leave. It was nice and empty and if we were better prepared for the rain and it wasn’t as late we probably would have stayed later. But it was fun being in an empty park again and I loved seeing the reflections of the lights on the buildings in the puddles on the ground.
We had to park in the overflow parking near the hotels so we knew we’d be walking through Downtown Disney to get back there. But there is an entrance into the Grand Californian Hotel from the park as well as one from Downtown Disney. So we went through that for a bit of a shortcut as well as a break from the rain. By the time we were walking through the hotel, our clothes were dripping wet and I felt like a drowned rat.
Walking from Downtown Disney to the car ended up being a bit fun. We were both drenched and we knew it couldn’t get that much worse so we tried to enjoy it. We were laughing about how we were able to wring the sleeves and hoods of our sweatshirts and it was like a waterfall coming off us. We were also grateful that we didn’t have to worry about doing a ton of stuff in the park to make our evening worth it. We did some window shopping, had dinner, went to a little show, and did a ride. Considering we were only there a few hours, we got a lot done.
I was grateful to be back in the car to be out of the rain, but I was still soaked. As soon as I got home I hung up the clothes I wore to try to dry them before putting them in the laundry. I didn’t think about it when I did it, but when I woke up the next morning there were puddles on my floor from all the water that dripped off.
Even though we had a short time in the park and we didn’t do a ton of stuff, I still was so happy to be back at Disneyland. I had missed the magical feeling of the parks and I was so glad to get it for a few hours. But I’m hoping that it won’t be that long again before I’m back!
Posted onOctober 11, 2018|Comments Off on World Mental Health Day (or Seeing So Many People Be So Open)
Yesterday was World Mental Health Day. Throughout the day, I saw a lot of posts on social media with people sharing their stories of mental health struggles or trying to get treatment. And for the friends who don’t have personal experiences with mental health issues, they were sharing notes of support or saying that they could be there for anyone who needed it. It was really amazing to see it all.
For so many years, it seemed like nobody was talking about mental health. It was a private thing someone dealt with and a lot of time that also meant that there was shame as well. But people have been more and more open about their own issues and I feel like the stigma of mental health issues is not nearly what it used to be years ago. I know that some people still are embarrassed that they need help with something that others don’t think twice about, but almost everyone I know has said that things felt more normal when they shared their story and realized that so many people have the same issue.
I haven’t been shy to share my issues with mental health. I went through a long time of being misdiagnosed and I think that made my situation worse than what it was on its own. And now that I’m in a better place with treatment and working on self-care, I’m doing better than I ever remember feeling. But I also remember how dark it can feel when you feel alone or misunderstood. Or when you are being told you should be feeling better and you aren’t. I remember wondering what was wrong with me when I was being told that a medication would make me feel better but in fact it made me feel worse and more upset about the little things in life.
I try to be there for as many of my friends as possible. Sometimes that means just being a supportive ear and listening and sometimes that means forcing a friend to get help. I have learned that I can’t be there for my friends 24/7 because that actually makes things harder on me, but I try to be there as much as I can. My phone is always near me and I’ll pick it up in the middle of the night if someone calls and I hear my phone vibrating (I don’t leave it on to ring since that means all other notifications would make noise too). And if someone needed to come over to not be alone, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell them to come over.
I have put a bit too much pressure on myself to be there as much as I can be for others, but just like with other mental health issues as soon as I was public about that others told me that they had the same problem. That’s why I’ve been doing more self-care things and trying to prioritize myself. I’m still working on finding the balance between being there for those who need it and being there for myself, but it’s getting there. But I’ve also learned to help my friends find others who can be there just like I can and so many of them have created their own mini-support groups with different friends so they have a bunch of people they can reach out to when they need support of any kind.
I think that while it is still important to have a day like World Mental Health Day so that people are sharing their stories, since so many people talk about mental health year round that it feels like it’s just World Mental Health Day every day! And that’s the way it should be. People need help and support every day and it’s important that when that happens they don’t have to feel alone. So by sharing stories year round when they happen it will be helping someone out there who needs to hear that story that particular day.
The busy season at my day job should have started a few weeks ago. When it’s the slow season I might only have a few customers over an entire shift. But when the busy season kicks in, I can be on a phone call, have 2-3 customers in the chat system, and still be missing a call so I’ll have a voicemail to return later. When it’s the slow season, I feel bored sometimes and miss the craziness of the busy season. But when it’s busy, I can wish that it just would calm down so that I can catch my breath.
For some reason, we aren’t having the same busy season that we normally do. Ticket sales are similar to past seasons, but I think more customers are using the website and not calling in to ask things that are on the website. We do still get customers calling in and sometimes we get funny questions. My favorite recurring funny question is when a customer calls and says “I see the show this weekend is sold out. How many tickets left does that mean?”. There are only so many ways I can say a sold out show means that tickets are sold out. But I think more customers are realizing that our website is very accurate so they aren’t calling in to ask that as often or they see that our website has the menu and location so they don’t call us to ask.
It’s been a bit boring with the slow season continuing later than normal, but this week I’m actually grateful for it. I knew this week would be the week that I’d be nauseous, but it’s taking it out of me more than normal. My nausea isn’t necessarily worse than other months, but it’s affecting more parts of my life. I’m dealing with bloat which makes clothes not feel right and just makes me uncomfortable. And I’m very fatigued even though my sleep hasn’t changed from my normal schedule. I’m just feeling off and not like myself. So I’m happy that I don’t have to stay upbeat while juggling multiple customers.
I’ve gotten very into working on self-care lately and I have noticed so many positive changes in my life. But normally self-care feels like I’m doing something for myself like reading or doing different beauty routines. But right now, self-care for me is literally to do nothing. Being lazy and napping if necessary is my self-care this week. I don’t necessarily want to be in a habit of being lazy because I have worked hard to beat that in the past. But I also know that right now this is the right thing for me to do for my body and mind.
I know that I need to take advantage of this right now because any day the slow season can switch over to the busy season. I have noticed it has picked up a bit in the past week, but it is still much slower than I was prepared for. And hopefully I don’t need to be lazy for that long. I know when my nausea typically ends and I would expect these other issues to go away at the same time or sooner. I’d love it if I was only dealing with nausea by the end of the week. I never thought I would be hoping for nausea, but I guess it’s the lesser of two evils right now in my life.
I do have a bit of guilt because I know that I should be doing other things, but I’ve been working on understanding that maybe a bit of guilt is going to be a part of my self-care. I have other friends who struggle with self-care because they have that same feeling and knowing that has actually helped me. I thought it was a problem for just me and that maybe it meant that self-care wasn’t doing what it should be doing. But knowing that other friends feel the same way made me realize that it might just be something that many of us will deal with. Girls are raised to be accommodating and pleasant (which can bring up so many other issues), and taking time for yourself almost goes against that. But so many of us are retraining our minds to think differently about it.
So for now, my self-care practice will be a lot of doing nothing, and that’s absolutely fine and perfect with me.
Posted onOctober 9, 2018|Comments Off on Such An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend)
I usually write about the SAG-AFTRA Film Society at the beginning of the summer because that’s when the season usually starts each year. But this year, there were some delays with the theater and the season had to start late. But since we are going to have a shortened season, we also had reduced pricing so I’m not too mad about it! And finally this past weekend we had the first screening season!
The first weekend had 2 screenings but I was only able to make it to the first screening. And the first screening was “A Star Is Born” and I was so excited to see it! I had heard so many great things about it and the screening was going to be on opening weekend which is a rare treat!
More often than not, I go to screenings alone and that’s fine with me. But I always ask around to see if anyone wants to go with me because it’s always fun to see a movie with a friend. Plus, since I pay for the season, I like to invite friends so they can get a free movie! It’s one of the fun things I get to do and share with others and it always makes me happy when someone can come with me.
This time, my friend Dani wanted to come along. She has never been to one of these screenings before (although she has been to screenings through other ones) so I think she was excited to see what the Film Society is all about. We got there pretty early since the first screening weekend is usually crowded. The way they had us line up was different from the other years I’ve done it so it looked like there were so many people in line, but I reassured Dani that it always looks like that but then when you get inside the theater I can almost always find seats in the center.
While I still have moments of realizing that I’m talking to someone I recognize from tv or movies, it’s seeming more normal to me. But when Dani and I lined up for the movie, she had a look on her face like she was trying to place someone she thought she knew. She told me a bit later that a woman behind us in line was in one episode of “Friends” and she remembered her from that one episode. I love when friends get excited about stuff like that because it’s one of those “only in LA moments”.
When we got inside the theater, I was right and we were able to be seated almost exactly in the center of the theater. We had some time to kill before the movie started, but we used that time to catch up and discuss lots of random things.
My quick review of “A Star Is Born” is that is was amazing! The story is pretty similar to the past versions of it so nothing was super shocking or surprising. But it still seemed to feel new and fresh. And when it was one of the dramatic scenes toward the end (if you know the story you know what I’m talking about), I felt like I couldn’t breathe. And Bradley Cooper did a wonderful job directing it and making the film look beautiful. For his first time directing, he did an incredible job and I have a feeling there will be a lot of award nominations for the movie.
After the movie, Dani and I decided to get some dinner. We were looking at different restaurants near the theater and nothing seemed to be what we wanted. But then Dani asked if we could go to Pink’s Hot Dogs since it wasn’t too far away. She had never been there before and wanted to check it out. I really enjoy Pink’s and don’t go that often so that sounded perfect to me! I prepared her that there may be a huge line, but when we got there the line only had about 10 people in it! It was fate that we went there!
We both enjoyed our hot dogs and just hanging out and chatting. It was also such a nice night outside so it felt good to be sitting outside and not feeling too hot or like the humidity was stifling. Even though we just had hot dogs, Dani and I decided to continue our night out and get some dessert. We were trying to think of a very LA type of dessert and decided to go Milk which is an ice cream shop and a bakery. I had never been there before but had heard amazing things about it so we got in the car and headed over there.
So many of the things on the menu sounded great and neither Dani nor I could decide on what we wanted. So we decided to get 2 different ice cream sundaes so we could try a few types of ice cream plus the brownie and blondie.
Those desserts were so good, but they were so giant! We each tried both sundaes and I think we both agreed that the blondie was the better of the two. But even with us both eating that sundae it seemed like we didn’t even make a dent in it! But we were both so stuffed and the store was closing so we only finished a portion of each before heading back to my car to head back.
We joked that this night was such an LA/Hollywood night. We went to a screening, we went to Pink’s, and we went to an ice cream shop that is known for Instagramable foods. It was so silly but so awesome at the same time! Whenever I have these low-key hangouts with friends I always say how much fun they are, and this one was no different. And hopefully I’ll be able to have more nights out like this with some more of the screenings this season!
Posted onOctober 8, 2018|Comments Off on Working On Some New Challenges (or It’s A Partner Month)
This past week of workouts was a really good week for me. October has a lot of fun things happening at Orangetheory and I’m excited about them. Of course, there is HellWeek coming up at the end of the month. But there is also a triple buddy challenge happening for the entire month. I’m a part of a team of 3 and we need to complete 45 workouts this month as a group. I’m pretty sure this will happen no matter what with my group since we all go so often, but I also know not to slack off on things.
Monday’s workout was an endurance day with a benchmark challenge. It was the 12 minute run for distance and I knew that I couldn’t focus on the distance part of the challenge. In the past, I’ve been able to run the entire 12 minutes and that wasn’t going to be how this attempt went. But I tried to just focus on seeing what I could do and not what my distance was going to end up as.
For the 12 minute challenge, my original idea was to do 1 minute running/2 minutes walking intervals. I was able to do that for the first 4 minutes, but then I realized that running for a minute was just a bit too long for me. I was feeling a bit defeated because I did think that I was taking it easy, but my body was telling me that I was still going too hard. So I switched to 30 seconds running/90 seconds walking until the final minute. And for the last minute I ran and I knew that it was probably not the right choice but I still did it. Even though I told myself I wasn’t worried about the distance, I did have a goal in my head to try to be at least at .75 miles, and I was so happy and relieved that I was able to beat that.
Next I was on the floor where we had increasing rep counts. Our exercises were chest presses, tricep extensions, hip bridges with weight, crunches, and plank work. Since the rep counts were higher than what we had during the Orange X workout, I did go a bit lighter on my weights and used 25lb dumbbells.
Then it was back to cardio where technically it was a row challenge with running for distance when we were done. The idea was to take the distance we got on the treadmill and used that as our meters for the rower. And power walkers had to double theirs or they could do 1500 meters. Since 1500 meters was less than double my distance, that was what I was supposed to do. But we only had 7 minutes in that block so I was just on the rower the entire time. Very few people made it to the treadmill, but I think everyone was happy rowing after a tough treadmill challenge.
I ended my workout on the floor where we had decreasing rep count work. We had chest presses using the straps, plank alternating reaches, and more crunches. The 7 minutes for the floor work seemed to go by really quickly and I made it through 2 rounds before the workout was done.
Wednesday morning was a weird morning for me. I woke up to some texts from someone I didn’t care to hear from that really put me in a bad mood. I also slept funny and my shoulder was bugging me. I really wasn’t in the best mindset when walking into Orangetheory but I also knew a workout would help to improve my mood.
But because I was in a bad mood and a bit punchy, I didn’t want to use the treadmill. When I am in those moods, I know that sometimes I push myself too much to try to make something better in my day. So I did a bike day instead. It was a power based workout but it almost felt more like an endurance day. All of the blocks were either 4.5 or 5 minutes long. For cardio we did the same thing for the first and third block and then had the same thing for the second and fourth block. All the blocks had a push pace, base pace, all out pace, walking recovery, and all out pace; but the timing of the pushes and all outs changed between the 2 different formats. I stuck to my normal resistance levels on the bike but tried to increase how fast I was pedaling. I definitely felt like I was working hard and like I expected it did help to improve my mood.
The floor was also 4 blocks and they had an interesting format. Every block had 5 exercises. The second exercise in every block was always an ultimate burpee and the fourth exercise in every block was also a pop jack to squat. But the first, third, and fifth exercise (which was the same thing within a block) changed. In the first block that was a sumo squat, in the second block it was a pop jack, in the third block it was a plank jack, and in the last block it was a sprinter sit-up. I did have to do some modifications for several of these things. For the ultimate burpees, I started doing them the normal way but I never do the push-ups while holding the weights (I put my hands on the ground). By the third block, I switch to splitting up the moves so I did the burpees and then the bicep curl to shoulder press after. For the pop jack to squats, I started with them normally but switched to frogger squats after the first block. And instead of doing sprinter sit-ups, I did regular ones since the rotation is tough for me to do.
The floor work was tough and felt like we had endless burpees and squats, but I was glad to not have to worry about my should hurting too much. I did have to be careful with the shoulder presses, but the soreness and pressure I had in my shoulder wasn’t happening while working out. And I was right that being at the workout put me in a better mood for the rest of the day.
Friday’s workout was 3 partner workout. I got to work with one of the people from my triple buddy challenge and it was a really interesting workout. Even though there were 3 people in each group (one on the floor, one on the treadmill, and one on the rower), the pacer was always either the treadmill or rower. There was a distance to do on each and whoever finished first initiated the switch.
The treadmill distances were between .2 miles and .1 miles (each block got shorter) and the rower distances were between 650 meters and 350 meters (again, each block got shorter). When I was the person on the treadmill, I always finished before the rower person so I started the switch. And when I was on the rower, the treadmill person finished first so I never did the full row that we were supposed to do. But that’s ok because I was working so hard and didn’t mind missing a little bit of the distance on the rower.
On the floor, each block had its own exercises and we just worked through them whenever we were on the floor. The first block had lots of ab dolly work with push ups to knee tucks, rollouts, pikes, and hamstring work. The second block was mainly exercises on the straps with full body pull ups, tricep extensions, lunges into Y raises, jump squats. And the last block was mainly core work with double crunches, toe reaches, torso rotations, and plank pull throughs.
Even though the treadmill and rower distances were different each block, we seemed to pretty much do 2 rotations through all the stations for each block. These types of partner workouts are tough, but they are also so motivating because I don’t want to let my partners down. The only time I was taking breaks was on the floor, but I didn’t do that too often because I wanted to make sure I was doing as much of the floor work as possible to not slack off. Sometimes it’s annoying to do my workout and then be stuck sitting at my desk for several hours to work, but this time I was grateful for the break.
Saturday’s workout was a strength based class and I was feeling a little bit nauseous. I’m not sure if this was due to hormonal nausea or because I splurged a bit too much with food the day before, but whatever the cause was I knew that being on the bike was the better option. I think I’m starting to like doing strength based classes on the bike because I can do more work with the resistance levels than I can with inclines on the treadmill.
There were 3 blocks that all had similar patterns. We had some push and base paces at inclines (or higher resistance level for me) and some moments where everyone was a power walker with a really high incline. The first time everyone had that power walking moment, I decided to really go for it with the resistance on the bike. Normally I don’t go that much higher than level 10, but this time I went to 15. My legs felt like they were moving through jello, but I managed to do the work at that resistance. Each block the incline (or resistance) went down so I didn’t have to do anything that hard again. But I did still keep some of the minutes at higher resistance levels than I usually would use.
On the floor, we had the chance to do an interesting challenge. For the first 3 blocks, we had 2 exercises. The second exercise was always some type of core work. But for the first exercise we did it twice in a row. The first time, we only had 5 reps so we were encouraged to go really heavy with the weight. The second time, we had 15 reps and used a weight that we normally would use.
The first block was a hip hinge low row and I know that my challenge weight is usually 35lb. But when I do that, we have 10 reps so I went up to 40lb. It was really hard and I couldn’t do 5 in a row without taking a break, but I did it. And for the 15 reps I did 20lb. The next block was an overhead shoulder press, but because I’m dealing with some shoulder pain I just stuck with 20lb for 20 reps because I couldn’t go heavier without causing pain. And the third block was hammer curls and I went with 30lb for the 5 reps and 20lb for the 15 reps. The last block was just doing the 5 rep exercises over again and I kept the same weights I had used before.
I feel like this week of workouts gave me some fun opportunities to push and challenge myself and I really went for it! I also figured out when I might have been going a bit too hard, but understanding my limitations is a good thing too. I didn’t necessarily improve on all the challenges I had, but I did on many of them which is always nice. And I also know that I’ll have a chance to do these again and hopefully I’ll have improvement by that point.
Posted onOctober 5, 2018|Comments Off on A Bit Of A Brain Dump (or Not Much To Write About)
I usually have some really fun things to write about each week. It’s not necessarily every day, but I usually get some inspiration for the days I don’t have something awesome to write about. This week has been one that was pretty much figured out since last week with the exception of today’s post. That’s not unusual and I was expecting to have something figured out to write about. But that inspiration never came to me before I needed to get this done so I’m doing a bit of a brain dump.
I’m wondering if I haven’t been inspired because the political situation going on has been taking up too much brain power. I know that I’m probably paying attention to too much between podcasts, news online, and tv; but I also don’t want to be uninformed. I’ve said before how I’ve never been as politically involved as I am now and I do feel a bit of pride in that fact. But I also know that it has been overwhelming and affecting my mood a bit. I have been trying to add more frivolous podcasts in-between the political ones so my mind isn’t on politics 100%. And I’m doing the same thing with my reading. I have gotten some books from the library that are about politics but skipped reading them because I wanted to read chick-lit. I’ll eventually get back to those books, but I knew I needed to read something else at that time.
Another thing that I have been thinking about a lot is traveling. It’s been quite a while since I’ve traveled. And most of my traveling recently has been for family things. And I know that it counts as traveling, but it’s not the same as planning a trip and exploring a new place. The last time I was on a plane was 2 years ago to see my parents. I’ll be on a plane again next month to travel to Thanksgiving. And I know that not everyone gets to take a plane on a trip and that it is still a bit of a luxury, but it’s weird to think about for me. When I was growing up I traveled a lot with my family. I want to travel more and my list of places I want to go keeps growing. But I don’t have the money to travel (or the savings so I can take time off of work unpaid to travel), but there are some ideas I have that won’t be too expensive that might be able to happen next year. But I still wish I had the funds to do more exotic travel and to go to places I’ve been dreaming about going to.
It’s the fall tv season and I’m back into watching all the new shows. I don’t know if it’s because of all the time I’ve been spending on paying attention to politics, but I haven’t really been connecting to many of the new shows. I am trying to not make a decision if a show is going to be one that I watch regularly or not right now because I know that in a month I might feel differently about it. But it’s still something that is so weird to me because it seems like every other year I am overwhelmed by how many new shows I’m loving!
Since it seems like the previous 3 things in this brain dump aren’t the most positive things, I’ll end on a high note. I’ve been getting more and more comfortable with prioritizing my needs lately. I’ve been working on more self-care things even if I know they are silly. I have been using sheet masks regularly because they make me happy. I have no clue if they are helping my skin and I know they don’t benefit anyone but me, but they bring me joy so I do them. I’m also not worrying about attending every event or pleasing other people if it makes me stress too much. I don’t get mad if a friend can’t do something and I know that they feel the same if I can’t do something. But I still have always stressed on myself that I need to be more available to my friends and I know that it’s not the truth. I’ve been doing more nights at home reading or watching some tv and not feeling guilty or that I’m missing out. It’s nice to be comfortable with putting myself first, especially since that was a recent challenge of mine.
So that’s a bit of a brain dump for me of things that are taking up my thoughts. Sorry if this post wasn’t the most interesting one, but I hope to have some more fun posts about awesome things next week!
First Union Working Meeting Of 2018 (or Union Strong For All)
