Category Archives: Fun Stuff

An Easy Disney Day (or Another Eat All The Foods Adventure)

Posted on March 8, 2018 | 2 comments

I was at Disneyland pretty recently and didn’t really have plans for when I’d be back. But I knew I wanted to be back soon because the Food and Wine Festival was starting up again. So when I was randomly texting with my friend Michelle, I mentioned how we needed to go to have all the delicious foods again. And it turns out that we were both free on Monday (sadly our other Disney buddy Dani was not), so we made plans to have a fun day at the park.

We had our usual mid-day start and got to Disneyland around noon. And there wasn’t a line at the parking garage so we took that as a good sign. We ended up walking over to the park instead of taking the tram, but as soon as we were in California Adventure we immediately headed to a store to get our Sip and Savor Pass for the Food and Wine Festival.

The pass is a pretty great deal since it’s $45 and you get 8 food items for it. Most of the food is between $5-8, so you get your money’s worth. You can’t use it for alcohol, but since I’m not really drinking it’s not a big deal for me.

It was a really gorgeous day out and we were enjoying walking through the park to get to the food booths. And we noticed a PhotoPass photographer by the waterfall from the water ride and we decided to stop to get a photo. Since Michelle’s pass includes PhotoPass photos, we take advantage of these more often. We were both feeling a bit silly so we went with a silly pose.

When we got to the food booths, there were a few things we wanted to share and some things we each wanted. So we settled on us each getting one thing we wanted for ourselves and then 2 things we were going to share. We shared the caesar asparagus and grilled artichoke hearts. And I got the beef slider for myself and Michelle got the poke salad.

Everything was so delicious! I have had the slider before and I thought it was better this time than it was before. But I think my favorite thing we got was the asparagus. It was so good and not that heavy considering it was with a heavier dressing. I might start making caesar salads now with asparagus instead of lettuce occasionally!

After our lunch, we did a quick ride on the Little Mermaid ride since it was right there and then we headed over to Radiator Springs Racers. That’s one of my favorite rides but we hadn’t been on it for a while. So it was nice to get to go on it again!

We then went over to the Animation Academy to do some drawing and this time we were taught how to draw Zero from “Nightmare Before Christmas”. It ended up being the best character I’ve drawn so far and I think that both Michelle and I had drawings that looked pretty good.

Then it was time for our favorite ride at California Adventure: the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride! We are still hoping to get a song on the ride that we haven’t had yet, but this time we weren’t lucky enough for that. But I’ve been experiencing something on that ride for a while that we finally have a photo of. I had my seatbelt on the ride on pretty tight (my friends can verify this). But somehow, when the ride drops I fly so high up! Michelle jokes that she can see me floating toward the ceiling each time. And in this photo, you finally see it. I know it looks like I’m standing up (especially when you compare me to the other people seated in the back row), but I swear I’m not. I’m just floating up while the ride drops.

Even though we had a lot of food to try earlier, since the food isn’t huge portions we were feeling ready for a little dinner and we each got the tacos which they have had in the past. Again, they seemed better this year and I love that this is considered theme park food!

We also saw a PhotoPass photographer by the big backdrop and decided to do more photos. We got some fun ones, but I think this one is my favorite because it makes me think of a buddy cop movie poster!

After that, we headed over to the Disneyland side where we did a lap on the train. I love the train and it gave us a chance to look at some of the Star Wars land construction. When we finished our ride, we headed toward Space Mountain and saw that there was a pretty nice sunset.

We then had our ride of Space Mountain which went off without any emergency stops. We were kind of hoping it would happen again because it was so amazing to see the ride with the lights on, but we also know that we were just lucky to get to experience that once. Unfortunately you can’t really see us that well in our ride photo, but it’s still a funny one. We are just so used to being in the front of the ride car.

The parks were starting to get a bit more crowded with the after-work crowd, but we were able to do quick rides on Buzz Lightyear and the Haunted Mansion before we were both feeling ready to head back to the car to go back home. We were at Disneyland for about 7 hours and considering we wanted it to be a lazy day we accomplished a lot!

The Food and Wine Festival is going on for another 5 weeks and I know I’ll be back for it at least once more. I’ve got 5 more things I can get with my Sip and Savor pass so I want to make sure that I try some other new things!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, food, friends, rides, theme park

Oscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired)

Posted on March 7, 2018 | Comments Off

This past weekend was the Oscars and as usual I was at the party that my friends Marie and Chris do each year. This party is one of the best parties that they do because not only do they have amazing decorations but we get to watch the Oscars! I love seeing the awards being given out and I’m always happy to have an opportunity to figure out a fun costume.

I’ve been doing much more low-key costumes the past few years and this year that trend continued. I actually had this costume figured out last year when I saw “The Disaster Artist” for the first time. I had read the book first (which I recommend reading if you haven’t yet) and in the book as well as the movie the green screen almost became a character. It was so weird to create a green screen setup for a set that was right next to them. It makes no sense but that’s what they did. So I decided that I wanted to be the green screen from the movie as my costume.

I thought that there might be a chance someone else would get their costume inspiration from “The Disaster Artist”, but I was so excited to see that a friend dressed up as James Franco playing Tommy Wiseau so she could post the same way he is posed on my fake green screen!

And I loved the costumes that Marie and Chris wore (he was Pennywise and she was Tonya Harding).

And as more people arrived to the party, I was loving all the costumes. Some people went for costumes that made them look like characters from the movie (“Lady Bird”, “War For The Planet Of The Apes”, and “Get Out”) and others were more puns on the movie (the one with the name tags is “Call Me By Your Name”).

And before the show started, I also was checking out the decorations for the party. Marie and Chris had been posting online that they would be doing small this year and we all just figured that it was because they always go over-the-top and they needed a bit of a break. But it was more of a pun because they were inspired by the movie “Downsized” and did miniatures for all the decorations.

Once it was time for the Oscars to start, I hung out in the quiet room (where talking is only done during the commercials). More people hang out in the loud room, but I really do like to watch the awards and hear the speeches. I tried to go out of the quiet room during the commercials to socialize with people, but I pretty much stuck to my spot on the couch talking with the others in the quiet room between awards.

And since this was a live show, there was no way to forward through the commercials. Usually that bugs me, but this time we were noticing that the commercials were all pretty awesome. Most of them were about being creative and producing your own work. The commercials were very focused on inspiring those of us who were watching the Oscars from home but one day hope to be there. And they did inspire me. I was getting a little annoyed when we kept seeing the same commercials over and over again, but the inspiration I felt was more than the annoyance.

As far as predicting the winners, I didn’t do as well as I have in the past. I didn’t see as many of the nominated films as I hoped and I decided to guess the winners I wanted for some categories versus the winners that were more likely to happen. But that’s ok with me because there are some people at the party who take the guessing very seriously and do see pretty much everything that was nominated. I just like being around people who are as enthusiastic about watching the show as I am.

And most of the winners were what was predicted even if they weren’t necessarily the ones I picked. But it still made me so happy when I saw some of the winners like when Jordan Peele won for writing “Get Out”. That was one of my favorite movies of the year and I love how he has shared how hard it was for him to write it and how he quit so many times but just kept going. And I loved when the winners for live-action short film talked about how they got the money for their film by crowdsourcing. That’s something I’m familiar with and it’s a good reminder that as long as you have an idea, there is always a way to make it and you never know if it will win an Oscar.

After the show was done, everyone headed outside for the costume parade and voting. I knew I wasn’t going to win because there were so many amazing costumes, but I was hoping for at least a vote. And I did make it to the honorable mentions so that means someone voted for me (and it wasn’t me)! The winners all had amazing costumes and they totally deserved to win.

As soon as the winners for the costume contest were announced, I had to say goodbye so I could drive back home. I wish I could have stayed at the party longer, but I rarely can do that because of my schedule. But at least I got to spend Oscar Sunday with awesome friends and feeling like anything is possible!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged Academy Awards, acting, awards, friends, Oscars, party

Staying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds)

Posted on March 6, 2018 | Comments Off

Recently I was at a meeting with several of my friends who are involved in SAG-AFTRA. Most of them were people who were at the union convention with me last fall, and it was great to get to see people again since I hadn’t seen everyone since October. And I was so happy to have a meeting like this after a vacation because it helped to get me focused and out of vacation mode quickly. Sometimes it can take me more time to get back into my normal life after a trip and I was so glad to have a meeting like this to ground me and bring me back to what I should be focused on.

It’s not election season yet so we weren’t really discussing the election or the next convention. But just because the next election is still about a year and a half away it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot happening with the union that we should all be informed and up to date on.

One of the biggest things that has been happening lately is the plan to help to prevent sexual harassment and to have better ways for union members to report it. This has been a huge issue for a long time, but it is only getting the attention it should have been getting recently due to some brave women and men coming forward and sharing what happened. While sexual harassment was never allowed, now we have a clear code of conduct for our members to refer to. And this code of conduct has been shared with studios, directors, casting directors, agents, and managers so others in the industry are aware of what expectations we have as a union when we are on set.

There have also been meetings lately for members to attend to learn more about how we can report sexual harassment and panels for people to discuss what they’ve experienced or what they have questions on. It can be tough sometimes when you are doing an intimate scene to know what is appropriate and what is not. If you are in a nude scene, having a director touch you to move you into where they want you to be or to make sure the camera is seeing what it should be seeing is a gray area. In any other workplace, your superiors should not be around you when you aren’t clothed or touching your body. But in our industry, there are weird situations that need to be discussed so everyone is on the same page. As an actor, you could say you are ok with that or that you don’t want anyone to be near you until you have the chance to put a robe on.

It reminds me of a project I worked on years ago where I was in a bra and underwear for my scene. There were other actors in the same state of undress as I was and we all had different ideas of what was ok. Between takes, even though I had a dress I could put on to cover up, I really didn’t bother doing it. Nobody on the crew was looking at my body in a way that I felt uncomfortable and I really didn’t care since I felt like it covered the same that a bathing suit covered. There were other actors who rushed to cover up and didn’t want to be given direction until they felt more comfortable. We were all lucky on that set because the director and crew all respected us and none of us felt weird for having our own limitations. But not every actor gets that experience on set and we need to make sure that we work toward making that happen.

Another big topic that was discussed was the commercial recapturing initiative and the upcoming commercial contract negotiation. This is something I have been much more involved in lately between attending union meetings and being a part of the Union Working group. Not everyone at the meeting was aware of Union Working and I’m glad we were able to share more about the group and what they have been doing. I know we want more actors (both union and non-union) to be at the meetings so we can make sure that everyone understands what is being negotiated and the opportunities they have to speak at the union about what their concerns are. And if you are in LA and are a SAG-AFTRA member, there is a meeting of the Commercials Organizing & Recapturing Initiative coming up on the 12th that I would encourage everyone to attend!

There were also other issues that we discussed like the New Media contract and how we are trying to make it easier for actors to create their own work, the current plan with the IMDb age lawsuit where the ages of actors and other industry people are being posted on a site that many people use when considering if they will be hiring us or bringing us in for a meeting, and the MOVE committee and the events and union support for all unions that is happening right now.

I know I say this all the time, but my biggest takeaway of all union meetings that I go to is that we as union members need to make sure we are staying educated and we are educating others. I did spend my first few years in SAG-AFTRA not really understanding what is going on and not taking advantage of what was being offered. But I’m for sure making up for it now. And my goal is to help other actors become more educated as well since I know how much more empowered I feel when I understand what changes I can help to make and why certain rules and policies are in place. That is why I keep sharing on here each time I have a union event. I know that not all of you are actors, but for those of you who are I hope that you are learning something. And for the non-actors, hopefully you find all this behind the scenes stuff interesting. There is so much more to being an actor than just acting and I know that most people don’t realize that!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, education, SAG-AFTRA, union, union working

Getting Back To Stretching (or My Body Is Telling Me What Monthly Challenge To Do)

Posted on March 1, 2018 | 1 comment

The first two months of 2018, I had some abstract monthly challenges. I’m so glad that I did those challenges because they have been so beneficial for me. But I’m getting back to more concrete challenges now. But first, a quick recap on last month’s challenge.

In February, I challenged myself to work on not saying “sorry” as often, especially when there is usually a better and more appropriate thing to say since I don’t need to apologize. I normally say sorry instead of excuse me, like when I’m trying to get past someone at a store or when I am trying to get someone’s attention. It’s a habit that I have been wanting to break but it’s difficult because I’ve been doing it for so long.

I don’t know if I haven’t had as many opportunities when I usually would say sorry or if I haven’t been saying it as much for a while, but I was surprised when I noticed how easily this change was. I wasn’t finding myself saying sorry and then thinking I should have said something else that often. Mainly, I thought about it at stores trying to get past someone and I was very conscious of trying to say excuse me instead.

I’m sure that this will be something I need to think about a lot in the future to make sure I don’t slip into the habit again. But it just surprised me that I didn’t really have that many times that I said sorry in the past month. It was weird. But I also thought that it could have to do with my challenge from January when I worked on being a bit selfish. I’ve been putting myself first when I can and I think that has just given me more confidence. So maybe having that confidence stopped my habit of saying sorry earlier than I thought.

Since I have been focused on mental and abstract challenges, I really wanted to get back to a physical one for March. There were a few ideas that I was thinking about, but one thing was sticking out for me. I’ve always been a very flexible person, but I’ve noticed that my flexibility has been getting worse lately. I’m still more flexible than many people, but there is a noticeable difference. Also, I’ve been waking up with more muscle pain than I’m used to.

This could be attributed to a few things. I have been working out a lot and haven’t been doing the yoga that I was doing previously. Or it could be due to me getting older and needing to take more care of my body. Either way, I want to gain flexibility back and to help keep my body healthy.

I thought of a few things of what I could do to help gain my flexibility. I debated about doing another yoga challenge but that didn’t feel right to me. And I looked at a few different fitness related challenges but those didn’t seem to be what I needed. And finally, I found the idea of doing a stretching challenge and that seemed perfect to me! Stretching would be a good thing for me to do no matter what as it can help get my body moving throughout the day. I don’t move a ton while I’m working (I walk from my bed to my desk and then I’m sitting down) so getting in a stretch either before or after I’m done working would really help.

I looked into a few stretching ideas, and I found an app that I’m going to try out. It has 9 different stretches that it guides you through and each stretch lasts 30 seconds. So it will only take about 5 minutes for me to do the full circuit and that’s not too bad. And if that app doesn’t seem to be right, there are a ton of other options for me to find stretching routines to use. No matter what, I want to get stretching into my daily routine because I know my body needs it.

I’m not expecting this stretching to necessarily get my flexibility back. There are some specific things with flexibility that I know I want to work on and I will be working on those separately. I used to be able to do the splits easily. I can still do them, but I have to work much harder at it. I also can still reach my toes when I stretch, but in the past I could get my hands beyond my feet. That would be nice to be able to do again too. But for this month, I really want to work on general flexibility first and then start looking into more specific things. And even if I don’t regain all my flexibility back, I know that I will be helping my body and it will be good to have a little extra movement in my day when I know that it’s lacking.

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged challenge, fitness, health issues, volt planner

A Weekend With My Mom (or An Adventure In Palm Springs)

Posted on February 28, 2018 | 3 comments

I don’t get to take vacations that often. And when I do, more often than not they are for me to go somewhere to Thanksgiving or San Diego for my grandma (now I’ll be visiting her in Northern CA when I get a chance). While those are vacations, they don’t necessarily feel like one because they are usually for a family event or to help with family in some way. I also don’t really have the money to go on vacation, so when I get the chance to take one I jump at it!

My dad and brother were going on a ski trip together and my mom asked me if I wanted to go on a trip with her (she invited my sister-in-law but she ended up having to stay home). Of course I said yes! I’m not sure if everyone is the same, but I love traveling with my mom. Part of this is because she pays for the trip (which allows me to go), but she really is a great travel companion. We have similar taste in traveling and she’s great at planning. And for this trip, she wanted us to go to Palm Springs.

I had been to Palm Springs when I was a kid, but I don’t remember that trip. And the last time I was in Palm Springs was when I was a college freshman and we were actually outside of Palm Springs. So I was happy to get to go back since it’s not that far from LA and I haven’t been in forever.

I drove down after work and a workout on Saturday. I didn’t really think about other people going out-of-town in the afternoon, but I dealt with more traffic than expected. And by the time I got to Palm Springs, it was already dark so I couldn’t see too much. My mom had gotten there a few hours earlier and once I arrived we did a quick run to the grocery store for some stuff for the week and we spent the night relaxing at the house. Even though I didn’t go outside, I was already loving the house and the pool looked amazing in the dark!

The next morning when I woke up, the pool looked just as amazing in the daytime.

But we had no time to be lazy by the pool in the morning because we had plans to go to The Living Desert. The Living Desert is a zoo and garden that is all about the animals and plants of the deserts in North America and Africa. I had never been there before and I love going to zoos so I was excited to check it out. And fortunately, it was colder than normal in Palm Springs so we weren’t too hot while we walked around. And since it wasn’t too hot, the animals were out too. The giraffes were enjoying their breakfast when we got to their area.

And the warthogs were all spooning together in the sun (although one was spooning the wrong way).

And we were able to be at the cheetahs when they were doing their run demonstration and feeding.

We did a lot of walking around and we managed to cover the entire place. It’s a nice sized zoo that has a lot of offer. But it’s not too big that you can’t see everything in a day, especially on a day that isn’t unbearably hot like we had.

After The Living Desert, my mom and I headed back to the vacation house so we could relax by the pool and be lazy. The rental house also had a small putting area and I discovered that I totally suck at that! I haven’t played mini-golf in forever so I guess I couldn’t expect to be good at it.

The next day, my mom and I started the day with a walk around the neighborhood. We were checking out all the mid-century modern houses and how gorgeous the view of the mountains was.

Then my mom and I headed to the airport because one of my mom’s friends was flying in. My mom was going to be in Palm Springs for a week and I wasn’t going to be there for the last half. So my mom invited a friend to join her for the second half of the trip and we had a little bit of an overlay.

After the airport, we headed to the Palm Springs tram. It had been cold near where we were staying, but we knew it was going to be much colder at the top of the tram. So we bundled up and got on the tram headed up the mountain. I had been on the tram when I was little, but since I didn’t remember that I was excited to check this out. And since the last time I was on the tram (or my mom was on the tram), they had changed up the tram cars and now they are round and rotate while you are going up. So you will get to see all around as you are going up and can enjoy all the views.

Because there hasn’t been a lot of rain or snow, there wasn’t much snow on the top of the mountain. But it did smell like snow (or Tahoe) to me and it was freezing cold! While I was in the sun I felt fine, but in the shade or when the wind kicked up I was wishing I had gloves or hand heat warmers with me.

I didn’t end up doing the hike around (it was a very steep incline and my hips were a bit sore), so I just sat in the sun while my mom and her friend went on a mile and a half adventure that they enjoyed. But I was happy sitting in the sun and just looking at the view.

When they returned, we checked out the various movies and displays inside the mountain top building and then took one more look at the view before heading back down.

And we got to enjoy another lazy afternoon/evening at the rental house which was perfectly fine with me. I love going on adventures on vacation but also having time to relax too. And we did just that.

There’s still one more day of my Palm Springs vacation, but since that was a trip outside of Palm Springs that will come later!

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged California, family, mom, relaxation, trip, vacation

Tax Time Again! (or It’s A Taxes Miracle!)

Posted on February 27, 2018 | Comments Off

I’ve been getting my taxes done by Daphne at Sloan and Associates for a few years now. First of all, if you are in any creative field or have any type of nontraditional work life, I highly recommend going to Daphne or anyone else at the office for your taxes. The way she understands how to help me organize my taxes is amazing and I have learned so much from watching her work that has made me better at tracking my deductions.

Even though Daphne has been amazing with my taxes each year, I do still get nervous before going in because I never want to owe more than what I saved. And while I am pretty good with keeping track of expenses, somehow in 2017 things didn’t go exactly how I planned. I knew I screwed up a bit with my tracking of medical expenses in the beginning of the year. That’s because I was expecting to have surgery and I figured that I would hit my out-of-pocket maximum and that would be what I deducted on my taxes. But when I didn’t need surgery, I realized I didn’t track all my medical tests and things. Also, somehow I lost several receipts for meals I had that were business related. Even though those don’t add up to a ton, I like to be as perfect as possible.

So when I went to my appointment with Daphne last week, I was a bit scared that these little mistakes would cause me to owe a lot. I still felt confident that I would owe less than I saved, especially since I paid all my estimated taxes, but it’s always nice to have extra money to help with expenses (like my Pantages tickets which I just renewed). I had spent a few days before the appointment getting extra organized and making sure I had all my forms filled out to the best of my ability. Doing that makes Daphne’s job easier and that gives her time to see if there are any things I missed out on that I should be aware of for the next year. I always err on the side of caution, but because so much of doing taxes is being aware of what deductions I’m eligible for and making sure I do things right, I feel like it’s a game.

When I got to my appointment, I was pretty excited to see Daphne. She’s awesome and we always have fun, even when she’s doing my taxes. And I know she likes how organized I am and it always makes her happy that her job is easier. And just like she had the past few times, she showed me the worst-case scenario first before she put in my deductions so I could breathe a little easier knowing things would be ok. Although this year was the first year that the worst-case was actually higher than what I saved! But I knew it would be going down a lot. I had a lot of work expenses like liability insurance that I had to buy and my home office (which is usually a risky deduction, but in my work contracts it states my office is at my home).

While Daphne was entering in all my deductions and income, we also had fun chatting. She recently got a Disney pass so we were talking about how we want to have a Disney day once tax season is over. I know she’ll need some fun after doing everyone’s taxes! She’s also a musical person and I was telling her about the shows coming up. She can’t do season tickets, but she might join us for a show either this season or next.

It seemed like this year it was much quicker for Daphne to enter everything into the system for my taxes. I didn’t know if that was because I had fewer deductions than I did in the past or that things were just easier now. It did make me have a few moments of minor panic that I didn’t do a good enough job. But when she was done, she told me to look at the screen at what she was about to click on.

She was clicking on the button to say how I wanted my refund sent to me! I couldn’t believe I was getting a refund! I thought she was kidding at first and thought it was a joke, but she was totally serious! Between my estimated payments, my deductions, and the money I get back for overpaying my health insurance (my subsidy wasn’t at the right amount for my income level), I actually was getting a small refund! It was unbelievable but also proof that if I listened to what Daphne taught me each time that I could make sure that I don’t owe much (or anything) at tax time. Everyone is fearful of working 1099 jobs because you owe money at tax time, but if you do everything you are supposed to do it doesn’t have to be that way.

After everything for state and federal was done, I do technically owe a little bit. I owe $30 more in my state taxes than I am getting back in my federal refund. But even owing $30 is nothing compared to what I’ve owed in the past or what I was prepared to owe this time. I know a lot of it was because my estimated tax payments were so high, but paying it throughout the year is so much better than paying it all at once. And it saved me from owing a penalty on federal taxes as well! My estimated payments for 2018 are about what I paid in 2017, so I’m hopeful that I should be able to keep my tax bill at tax time next year low again. I don’t know if I’ll get it down so much that I get a refund (I probably won’t get the money back from healthcare as my subsidy was corrected and I shouldn’t have as much in healthcare expenses), but I am more confident in my ability to track the expenses for work so that what I save for tax time doesn’t all have to go to taxes.

I’m so happy that I do have some extra money that I wasn’t planning on. Some of it needs to go to things I have already gotten (like paying back for my Pantages tickets) and I will use some for bills and toward my credit card debt. But I do want to see if there is something else that is small but fun that I want. I’m not going to use a lot of that money, but maybe getting a purse I’ve been wanting that is not cheap or doing a fun spa day could be a nice reward for the hard work. But I might just put it all toward my debt because that is the more responsible thing to do and I want to get that number to 0 sooner rather than later.

But whatever I end up doing with the money that I have leftover from saving for taxes, I am just so glad that my hard work paid off and that I am understanding how to manage my taxes so much better now. I feel in control with taxes and understand so much more than I ever did. I know what I need to track and what expenses to be aware of. And I have Daphne to thank for that because she really took the time to make sure that when I leave each time that I don’t have any questions or confusion about why my taxes were the way they were. I know she was giving credit to me for working hard and doing all the right things last year on my taxes, but I give her the credit because she is the one who taught me how to do that.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Saving, Work

Tagged debt, finances, money, savings, taxes

Is This A Rut? (or Trying To Not Feel Stuck)

Posted on February 26, 2018 | Comments Off

For so long, my workout weeks were super exciting to me. I was constantly discovering new amazing exercises and I was surprising myself in what I was able to do. I never knew I could lift as heavy of weights as I did or that I could run. It seemed like each week there was something that seemed spectacular and it was so motivating. But lately, I’ve been struggling a bit to make sure that I don’t feel stuck. So this past week of workouts was another week where I really tried to find where I could improve so I could feel great about things again.

Monday’s workout was a tough morning for me. I had a lot of things working against me including a lack of sleep, having some back pain (I tweaked my back on Saturday), and my medications elevating my heart rate; but I was still in my positive mindset that I would be doing the best that I could and not thinking about what I should be doing better. It was a 3 group workout that morning and it was also a rowing benchmark class. And since I started on the rower that ended up being better than I expected.

The rowing benchmark was done in the first block where we had a 4 minute distance row. I knew what my PR was for it previously and I knew that I would not be hitting that in this class. But I did decide to set a goal to row for the entire 4 minutes without stopping. That’s not the biggest victory for me, but when I was having so many issues I knew it would be a big accomplishment. And I’m so happy that I was able to row those 4 minutes without stopping! Each of our row blocks had a timed distance row and the goal was to get at least half the distance of the previous distance row. And I did manage to do that! I did more than half of my 4 minute row in my 2 minute row and more than half of my 2 minute row in my 1 minute row. While none of these rows were PRs for me, I felt amazing for doing what I was able to do.

The treadmill work was a bit of a struggle and I thought about going onto the bike, but it felt good to walk and stretch my legs a bit after each of the row blocks. I stuck with my normal speed and for the first 2 blocks I did my normal inclines as well. But for the last block, I keep my push and all out pace inclines the same because I was getting tired. Each of the treadmill blocks was a pretty standard pattern and I’m so glad that they were shorter blocks because it did allow me to get through the treadmill time and I wasn’t struggling as much as I would have if it was a long block.

And the floor work was not my best time this workout. Of course on a day that I was having back pain the floor worked seemed to be very back heavy. The first block had good mornings to tricep presses, pullovers with weights, and knee tucks. This was my best block because I didn’t really feel any pain with any of the moves. I did end up doing sit-ups instead of knee tucks, but that was more due to knee tucks feeling super awkward for me and I just wanted to do something instead of struggling through one exercise. The second block was single arm presses with weights which were tough on my back but with a lower weight it was not too bad and I felt good. But the other move was pop jacks and my back was just not having those. The plank was hurting me and I ended up only doing the arm work that block. And the final block was lateral lunges with the BOSU which was fine but then we also had Y moves on the strap which again was back work that hurt. I ended up doing those by being far from the anchor point of the strap (the further you are the easier the move is) but I think it ended up being more of a stretch type move than an exercise. But since I knew I’d be making modifications to anything that involved my back, I was pretty happy I figured out a solution for the problems I was having.

Wednesday was a strength day and I was a bit worried going into the workout. I knew I wasn’t feeling totally great, but I was hoping a workout would make me feel a bit better. The treadmill was split into 3 blocks and each block had a similar format. When we had push paces, half of the time was a regular push pace and the other half was at an incline. For power walking, that meant that you increased from your push pace incline to one higher. So for each push pace I did the first half as my regular push pace incline and the second half at my all out pace incline. It wasn’t easy because the incline felt so much higher than normal, but I did my best to make it through. When we had the all out paces at the end of each block, I just stuck with my normal all out pace instead of trying to go a bit higher. Even though I had to take several breaks in the middle of each of the treadmill blocks, I felt much closer to normal than I had in a while. My heart rate wasn’t spiking as often and when it did the spikes weren’t as crazy as they have been. It was such a nice change from having crazy heart rate issues.

The floor work was one long block that had both rowing and work with weights. We started with a 500 meter row. Since I was still recovering from the treadmill, I didn’t really focus too much on what my time was for the row. It was probably close to what I normally do, but I’m not too sure. Then it was on to the weight work which was seated shoulder press to stands with weights, skier swings with weights, single arm rows with weights, plank work, and toe touches. Then it was back to the rower. We were decreasing the rows by 100 meters each time, but my coach wanted me to do things a bit differently. She wanted me to set my rower for a minute and 40 seconds to see how far I could get in that. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do 400 meters and told her that. But she wanted me to see what I would do.

I am so glad she set my rower that way because I ended up surprising myself! I was at 395 meters when the timer stopped and I honestly thought it would take me 2 minutes to do 400 meters! Then it was back to the floor and then back to the rower again. My coach had me do a 70 second row instead of 300 meters and this time I was at 298 meters. While it would have been nice to reach my rowing target in that time, I was more proud of myself for getting so close when I thought there was no way I could do that! The goal was to do enough rounds to get down to a 100 meter row, but I was only on the floor work after the 300 meter row when class ended.

After having an easier time on Wednesday, I was hoping that Friday would be the same. But of course nothing is predictable and I ended up having a bit of a rough day. It was a combination of my heart rate issues and some nausea that started right when I got to class. I started on the treadmill but after noticing during the warmup that I wasn’t feeling ok I moved over to the bike. The class was an endurance, strength, and power class and I decided to take the cardio blocks as seriously as I could on the bike.

During the endurance block, I was using the resistance on the bike that I had done the week before and I was paying much more attention to my cadence so I could make sure that I was doing more during the push and all out paces. I was definitely sweating a lot during this block and it wasn’t just because I wasn’t feeling ok. During the strength block I did work on increasing the resistance a bit more to replicate hills, but I wasn’t doing the resistance as high as I had before as I was focused on my speed. And during the power block I just focused on going as quick as I could to replicate doing an all out pace on the treadmill.

The floor work had 2 regular floor blocks and a row block. In the floor blocks we had single arm rows on the straps, upright rows with weights, side plank pendulums, deadlifts, low rows on the straps, and burpees. When we were supposed to be doing the burpees my nausea was kicking in a bit more so I ended up doing squats with calf raises instead. I didn’t love having to do something instead of burpees, but I knew it was necessary with how I was feeling. And for the row block, we were on the same pattern as the treadmill. Essentially it ended up being a 1 minute row, 90 second row, and 2 minute row. The goal was to be able to do at least 100 meters more each time and I was able to do just a bit better than that.

After the difficulty on Friday, I think I was much more mentally prepared for Saturday. I knew I’d be going on the bike again and I was excited to see how I could improve. The class was a power day and we did have some switching around. We only spent about 6 minutes at a time in one section of the room and we did 2 laps around. On the bike, I really was focused on my cadence and making sure I was getting it up higher for the push and all out paces. This class was the first one where I think I was above 100 RPM for all of the all out paces. It was tough, but it felt really great after because it finally gave me the sense of accomplishment that I think I needed. I’m still figuring how what distance I can do on the bike and how to improve on that, but I know that I’ve been getting slightly faster over the past few weeks.

On the rower, we kind of repeated things for the 2 times we were there. We started with a 90 second push pace and a 30 second all out pace on the rower. Then we had sprint distance rows with some rowing recovery in between. I wasn’t rowing as fast I could, but I was under all the times I usually try to be under so that was good. And on the floor, each time we were there we started with 30 second rounds of squats and plank work. Then we had other things like sit ups to squats on the bench, knee tucks, chest flys, and lunges. And by the time I was done with class, I was exhausted but in the best way.

Considering that going into this past week of workouts I was hoping to find some sense of accomplishment again, I think I’m finally getting closer to being there. I know there will still be struggles (although I’m hoping this will be ending sooner rather than later), but knowing that I can hit some new goals is encouraging me.

Comments Off on Is This A Rut? (or Trying To Not Feel Stuck)

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged accomplishment, challenge, fitness, Orangetheory, struggle, workout

Using Podcasts To Better Myself (or Continuing To Be A Podcast Addict)

Posted on February 22, 2018 | 3 comments

I wrote a long time ago about how much I love podcasts. I’ve been listening to podcasts for so many years that I can’t remember when I started. But because I don’t really listen to music, podcasts are my entertainment in my car (and while I’m blogging!). I just looked at my podcast app and I’m currently subscribed to 55 podcasts! There are some of them that don’t have new episodes or rarely have new episodes, but many of them are weekly and I have to work to stay caught up.

I listen to a lot of podcasts about the entertainment industry and about eating disorders/food. Those are great educational podcasts for me and it’s an easy way for me to stay informed. And there are lots of fun interview style podcasts I listen to as pure entertainment and those are great for when I’m just looking for a distraction. Every podcast I listen to is important to me for one reason or another, but I wanted to highlight 3 (technically 4) podcasts that are really changing my life right now.

The first one is one of the newer ones I’ve been listening to. It’s called Forever35.

I found this podcast because one of the hosts is on another podcast I listen to. Since I like what she has to say, I figured I’d listen to her on a second podcast and I am so glad that I did! This podcast is really about self-care. A lot of it is physical self-care like face serums, face masks, and other beauty things. And because self-care and allowing myself to be a bit more selfish was something I’ve been working on recently, this podcast came into my life at the perfect time!

While I’ve always tried to have a regular skin care routine, I’ve been making adjustments to it lately so it feels a bit more luxurious. I’m still doing things cheaply (thankfully Trader Joes has some amazing skin care products!) but it’s nice to add something that feels special into something you do every day. My new routine is still very new, but I do think I see a difference in my skin. It may just be that my skin is feeling pampered and I’m finally taking time to myself so I can work on it, but that still is a result! And I’m so glad that I felt encouraged by this podcast and the amazing Facebook group for fans of the podcast to work on taking care of myself.

The next podcast that has been helping me better myself is Unladylike.

This is another podcast I found out through another podcasts. The hosts of Unladylike used to host Stuff Mom Never Told You and I listened to them on that show. So when they created a new podcast I followed them there (I still listen to the other podcast with the new hosts) and I love this one! This podcast is about feminism and issues that women are concerned about. Topics have included the history of women and bikes, yoga and what is a yoga body, and abortion rights. I’m a feminist and have always been one, but I have been more and more involved in issues lately and I’m glad I’ve found a podcast that is adding to my education about the issues that I may not have thought about before.

And the final podcast is actually more of a podcast network. It’s Crooked Media and the podcasts that I listen to in that network are Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It.

I learned about Crooked Media from a friend of a friend I met at a party. I think at that time they only had Pod Save America but now there are 8 podcasts in their network (I think that number is correct, but they are always adding more). I’ll admit that I wasn’t the most involved person in politics in the past. Even though as a teenager I was on the city council for the city I grew up in on the youth committee and I’ve always voted, I was only aware of the most superficial issues. I know where I stand on gun control, abortion rights, healthcare, and other issues that I’m connected to and which politicians agree and disagree with me. But when Trump was elected, I knew that I needed to make a change.

The hosts of these podcasts use to work for the Obama administration so they are extremely knowledgable about political issues. But they are in their 30’s so they can relate to how those in my generation are experiencing things. They also know how to make politics more interesting and less like they are lecturing you. Each week they discuss the current issues in politics (although when an episode is released there may already be a new issue as that is the trend in the current administration) and while they are Democrats they are not afraid to call out Democrats when they are wrong.

Lovett or Leave It is a game show style political podcast where guests and audience members play games related to current events. The games are fun, but I still learn a lot from them. And because I listen to Pod Save America along with other political podcasts, I’m so excited when I am able to figure out the answers when I am listening to the episode. It proves how much information I’ve been picking up from listening to podcasts and how much more educated I am about issues that affect me and others.

If anyone is interested in more podcast recommendations on what I’m listening to that is educational, fun, or just entertaining; please let me know. I’m such a podcast junkie that I just want to share podcasts with everyone because I love them so much!

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3 Comments

Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged beauty, feminist, podcast, politics, self-care, selfish

It’s Giveaway Time! (or I Want You To Have An Amazing 2018!)

Posted on February 21, 2018 | 28 comments

If you’re been reading my blog for a while, you know that I love my planner from Ink+Volt! This is the 3rd year I’ve used a Volt Planner and I find it really helps me with my goal setting on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I have accomplished more in the past few years than I ever had and I know that it’s all because of the planner. I love setting aside time to work on my goals and reflecting on where I succeeded and failed because it allows me to keep working toward what I want and I am able to process it and move on. I don’t necessarily dwell on when I don’t accomplish something because I know there is another week to set that goal and hopefully I will be able to reach it then.

Well, all my posting about the planner got the attention of the team at Ink+Volt and I’m so excited to share with you all that they let me know they found an extra 2018 planner that I get to give to one lucky reader!

I am so excited that one of you will get to use a planner to make your 2018 as incredible as it can be! I have seen the proof of what can be done by following this planner and I’m always looking at more ways that I can maximize what I do with it. For some inspiration, Ink+Volt has some great guides on their website. They also have a blog and one of my favorite posts on it is all about ideas for the monthly challenges. I have that page saved because I know that from time to time I need inspiration on what I want my challenge to be (I’m already working on ideas for my challenges for the rest of the year). I really view the monthly challenges as the bonus challenges for me because they are separate from the goals I set each month and week. So I stretch myself with these challenges and I am always surprising myself in what I am able to do and what habits I can create just from doing one month of a challenge.

And while this planner is dated for 2018, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are missing out. Every week there are prompts to help inspire, encourage, and challenge you. You will have all the weekly prompts for the entire year and you can use them as soon as you win the giveaway! I bet working on one extra prompt a week would be amazing for self-discovery and reflection on the year so far!

There are so many things you can do with this planner. You can use it like a normal planner and use it for your appointments. You can just do the goal setting sections and leave the calendar blank or for drawing random doodles. You can turn the weekly calendar into something unique for yourself (I use mine for my daily gratitude lists). The possibilities are endless and I love that this planner allows you the freedom to decide what the best way for you to use it will be! And I’m always trying new things out and seeing what connects with me at that time. My planner changes throughout the year because my needs and wants change and this accommodates that so nicely!

This giveaway is open to readers in the US only (sorry international readers!). There a lots of entry options, but there are 3 that you are required to do in order to be in the giveaway. You must comment on this post, you must follow me on Instagram, and you must follow Ink+Volt on Instagram. You also have options for extra entries by tweeting about it each day! The giveaway ends on the 28th and I will be using random.org to select a winner from the qualified entries. I will be emailing the winner within 48 hours of the giveaway ending to get your address and I will mail your planner to you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I cannot wait for one of you to win this! I’m not exaggerating when I say this planner changed my life! I have become so much better in realizing what I am able to do and I have achieved so much just by making a plan for my goals and taking the steps needed to get there.

28 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, giveaway, goals, planning, volt planner

Doing A Transformation Challenge (or Maybe I Need To Change Things Up)

Posted on February 20, 2018 | 1 comment

I’m currently in the middle of a transformation challenge at Orangetheory. This time, the challenge is 8 weeks long instead of 6 weeks and it is the same as how the weight loss challenges worked. You have to work out a minimum of 3 days a week during the challenge and there are official weigh-ins at the beginning, middle, and end of the challenge. Sometimes the winners are based on fat percentage lost, but I think this challenge is based on weight loss (I’m not 100% sure).

I pretty much always sign up for challenges. Most of the time it’s pretty much what I would be doing normally and there is the potential to win. I was in 2nd place during one challenge. And I love having a goal in mind to work toward and having the support of others. Whenever there is a challenge there is always some camaraderie between those in the challenge and we encourage each other.

But this challenge things seem to be different for me. I still get the camaraderie between people in the challenge and I love to support others who are doing in. But my heart doesn’t seem to be in it this time.

I’m definitely struggling with food and weight loss right now. My new medication dosage is helping a lot, but there are other factors I have to consider now. I do still have binge episodes even though they are less severe and less frequent that before. But I also am not able to work out as hard as I used to because of the medication. Also, while I am adjusting to things I am being a bit easier on myself and indulging from time to time on foods I love. I’m not necessarily going crazy, but I’m not on a strict plan either like I have tried during other challenges.

I’m also dealing with massive weight fluctuations right now. I’m guessing these have to do with hormones but I had one week were my weight went up almost 20 pounds and then I went pretty much back down to where I was. That is frustrating when I am trying to see if I have made any progress. And when I try to use things that aren’t the scale to see progress, like clothing, I have issues when I am bloating and none of my clothes fit. I wanted to have a breakdown the other day when everything in my closet was too small even though I know it shouldn’t be that way. But then a few days later the bloat went away and everything fit again.

I don’t think it is bad for my mental health to be in this challenge, but it can’t be great that I am currently focused so much on the challenge. If I just tried my best and wasn’t focused on numbers and food, I think I would be a lot happier. And now that I’m halfway done with this challenge, I think that’s exactly what I’m going to try to do. I will still track food like I have in the past because the way I track food isn’t numbers-based. And I’m still going to make my best efforts to do what I know I should be doing.

But at the same time, I’m not going to be tracking my weight anymore. I’m taking a vacation from the scale. This will only be a temporary vacation because I do like having the scale to help keep me accountable, but right now I don’t think it is the best thing for me. If I feel like I need to step on the scale to see what it says, I will do it. But I’m not going to obsess about weighing myself every day and tracking it. Eventually I will be tracking my weight again, but I think I want to start over with a fresh slate on weight tracking so I don’t see the recent fluctuations.

I really doubt this plan will help me win the transformation challenge, but that’s not really a focus of mine. The only time I thought I might win is when I was doing the cleanse at the same time as the challenge. That was awesome and I’m glad I did it, but I can’t put myself into that same obsessive mindset again. There are so many other things I need to focus on right now outside of this challenge and I need the mental freedom to do so. And if I happen to place in this challenge, that would be awesome. But I think I’ll be much happier assuming I won’t place and just seeing what I can do over these last 4 weeks.

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, fitness, mental health, Orangetheory, transformation, weight loss

Category Archives: Fun Stuff

An Easy Disney Day (or Another Eat All The Foods Adventure)

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Oscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired)

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Staying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds)

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Getting Back To Stretching (or My Body Is Telling Me What Monthly Challenge To Do)

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A Weekend With My Mom (or An Adventure In Palm Springs)

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Tax Time Again! (or It’s A Taxes Miracle!)

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Is This A Rut? (or Trying To Not Feel Stuck)

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Using Podcasts To Better Myself (or Continuing To Be A Podcast Addict)

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It’s Giveaway Time! (or I Want You To Have An Amazing 2018!)

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Doing A Transformation Challenge (or Maybe I Need To Change Things Up)

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