Category Archives: Shopping

Wedding Dress Outing (or Helping A Friend Find The Perfect Dress)

Posted on July 28, 2015 | 2 comments

When Rayshell and I had dinner recently, one of the topics we talked about was her wedding planning. She’s actually gotten a ton of planning done already. The venue is set and they’ve got the caterer and hotel blocks done. But the one thing she was having trouble with was finding the perfect wedding dress.

She had found a couple of dresses that she liked, but didn’t really love. And one dress that she almost loved, but it was way over her budget.

As we were talking, I remembered how years ago I had gone wedding dress shopping with a friend. She was looking for a very particular dress (she is very religious and needed it to cover from neck to the ground and have long sleeves), so we had gone to a handful of store together. The only one that I really remembered was Alfred Angelo. So while Rayshell and I were at dinner, we pulled up their website and checked out some of their dresses. There were a couple that she liked (and were in her budget), so Rayshell made an appointment and invited me to go dress shopping with her!

We got to the store about 10 minutes before the appointment, so we sat down and looked at some of the dresses in the store and in some of the catalogs they gave us.

Alfred Angelo

Rayshell found several dresses that she wanted to try on while we were waiting for someone to come and help her pull dresses. When the stylists came over, we showed them the ones that Rayshell liked, and then we got the bad news. Most of the dresses that she liked are discontinued and not in the store. But one of the ones that she liked was still there, but there was only one dress left and the stylist wasn’t sure if it was in her size.

So we started wandering through the store together pulling dresses. We found the one that was on the list that Rayshell liked, and luckily it was in Rayshell’s size! So we grabbed that one. Rayshell and the stylist pulled a couple of other dresses and while Rayshell and I were looking we pulled that original dress again two more times!

Finally it was time for Rayshell to go into the dressing room and start trying the dresses on.

Wedding Dresses

The first dress Rayshell tried one was pretty, but it seemed not quite right (and Rayshell seemed to think the same thing). The second dress looked too much like a costume to me.

Finally it was time for the third dress which was the one that we had selected 3 separate times. And when Rayshell came out of the dressing room, I knew instantly that that was her dress!

She was glowing and smiling and it was exactly what she had described to me as her dream dress! It was the only one in the store like that because it was discontinued the day that the sample arrived so nobody else would have that same dress. I felt that it was fate that the only one of that dress was in the size and color she needed!

Of course, Rayshell had to walk around and see how the dress looked in sunlight (versus the store lighting) and I took tons of pictures so she could see how it looked from every angle. I can’t share the pictures of the dress with you (because then her fiancée might see them), but I did get permission from Rayshell to show you one detail from the dress.

Rayshell's Dress!

That detail doesn’t even do it justice. That dress is so incredible and so perfect for Rayshell! After Rayshell was pretty sure that it was the dress, she Facetimed her mom (I held up the phone) so she could show her mom the dress too. After her mom approved, it was settled that Rayshell had found her dress!

I felt so lucky that Rayshell invited me to go dress shopping with her. It was a really fun and special afternoon. And it was a nice added bonus that I got to be there when she found her dress. I haven’t had that opportunity before so it was really cool for me to do that. For most weddings I’ve gone to, I only get to see the dress at the wedding (or maybe a picture of it from a website). With my sister-in-law, I got to see the dress at the fitting, but that’s different from getting to go shopping for it together.

Rayshell’s wedding is still months away, but I’m even more excited for it now because I can’t wait to see how she looks in the dress when it’s all fitted and accessorized!

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Default ThumbnailMaking My Friend Try On Wedding Dresses (or I’m So Glad She Found The Perfect Dress!) Default ThumbnailRenting A Dress (or Testing Out Gwynnie Bee) Default ThumbnailSanta Barbara Wedding (or Dancing The Night Away) Default ThumbnailA Happy Hour Celebration (or Looking Forward To Another Wedding) Default ThumbnailBrunch and Shopping (or Helping A Friend Make Some Upgrades) Default ThumbnailBeautiful Wedding For A Beautiful Friend (or I’m Glad I Wore Waterproof Mascara)

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Shopping

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A Week Of Workout Wins (Or 3 Days Of Awesomeness)

Posted on July 27, 2015 | Comments Off on A Week Of Workout Wins (Or 3 Days Of Awesomeness)

I might have only had 3 workouts this week (I’m not trying to make 3 workout weeks a habit but my schedule is tough right now), but I really had 3 amazing workouts. And it wasn’t just what I got done in the class, it was a bunch of other things too.

To start with my wins in the workout, I did continue to push myself on the treadmill a bit more. I was able to do more on Monday than on Wednesday or Friday because I started the increased dosage of Vyvanse on Wednesday (so I had to be careful with my heart rate). I wasn’t able to push myself with the weights as much as I would have liked, but I did experiment with a heavier weight and heavier medicine ball for a bit. I wasn’t able to do it all with the heavier things, but at least I tried.

Now for the things that totally made my workout week.

On Monday I was hanging out in the lobby waiting for the last class to end so I could go into the room and get my treadmill (I’m particular about what treadmill I use). I noticed that there was a guy who looked familiar in the room, but I couldn’t get a good look at him. But I looked up at the heart rate monitor screen above the treadmills and saw my friend Sean’s name up there! Sean and I worked together at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios years ago and I haven’t seen him in forever!

After his class ended, I went up to him to say hi and he seemed pretty happy to see me too!

HHN OTF

He actually was talking to people in the lobby during my class so when my class ended he and I got to catch up for a bit. That really made my day on Monday!

Then on Wednesday I got to Orangetheory and signed in. The manager said that she had something for me. She brought out a box that had old ink cartridges in it! I had mentioned a few weeks ago to the owner that I recycle ink to help pay for my Disneyland pass and he saved their inks for me! That was so awesome and made me feel so special! Now I have another $10 toward my pass (and they said that they would continue to save inks for me).

OTF Ink

And finally, on Friday I had a non-scale victory (which I needed because I haven’t had a lot of victories on the scale lately). I’ve gotten all of my workout clothes from Old Navy. They really seem to be the only company that has cute workout clothes in my size (and workout pants that don’t look like diapers on me). I’ve mainly bought workout pants in black so they go with any of the tank tops I own. I’ve gotten a couple of pairs of patterned workout pants but have never looked how they looked on me.

I recently took advantage of a promo code at Old Navy that you could use on clearance clothes. I was able to get workout pants for about $10 each! I got some basic black ones and another pair of patterned ones. And this past Friday, I finally felt comfortable enough to wear them to my workout!

Old Navy Pants

I’m kind of in love with those pants. They were so comfortable and I think they looked really cute too! I’m thinking about trying the other patterned ones that I have and have only worn at home again. Maybe now I can be confident enough to wear them in workouts (which is why I bought them).

I love that this past week of workouts were so positive for me. I haven’t really been in a workout slump but I did hit a bit of a personal slump lately. I working on getting out of that as quickly as possible. Hopefully with my workout being so awesome it can now spread to other things being awesome as well!

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Working on Budgeting (or Spending Money To Save Money)

Posted on July 15, 2015 | 4 comments

I’ve been trying to find a way to help make paying my credit card debt easier. And at the same time, I’ve been working on figuring out the best way to create a budget.

I’ve been able to make a really basic budget by listing all the expenses that I know that I have every month (rent, utilities, online subscriptions). So I know what the minimum I need to make each month in order to survive (I’m almost there). But knowing how much money I need to make to pay essential bills doesn’t really help me for budgeting things that change from month to month like groceries, shopping, gas, and other expenses. Those seem really tough for me to budget for because I try my best to set aside a certain amount for it but things come up and then my entire budget falls apart. My system doesn’t allow for flexibility and unexpected expenses.

And I’ve tried lots of budgeting ideas and systems in the past. The big problem that I’ve found with almost all systems is that they were designed for someone with steady income. That’s not something that I have. While my box office job is pretty steady with my weekly pay (that would only change if I’m missing lots of hours that I can’t make up), my research job and babysitting work is not as stable. So I needed to figure out how freelancers budget (even though I’m not a freelancer).

I was searching around online and happened to come across You Need A Budget. This is totally going to sound like I’m being paid to say all this, but I swear that this is all my opinion and I’m not getting anything out of it (unless YNAB would like to give me a copy of the software for free!).

I’m in the middle of a free trial, but so far I’m loving this budgeting system. It really works for someone who has more random income. Basically every single purchase and deposit is recorded. You set aside how much you’d like to spend in categories like bill, savings, debt, and anything else you want and then you put in how much you have spent of each one. The idea is that while you may start out by using this month’s pay to pay this month’s bills, eventually the money you make one month will be going toward the bills you will have in the future (which will end the paycheck to paycheck lifestyle).

This might not really be helping me pay down my credit card debt, but it is helping me work on a budget and figure out where I can spend money that makes sense. And hopefully one day I can start working toward putting money away for the future and other things like vacations. But for now, the main plan for me is to figure out a realistic budget and to see if there is more money that I can be putting toward my debt and not toward things that really aren’t needed.

Like I said, right now, I’m doing a free trial of this system. But I’m pretty sure that I’ll be paying for it when my trial ends (I think it’s about $60). But I’d love to hear from any of you who also use You Need A Budget so I can figure out more tricks and tips to maximize the system and really get serious about figuring out my money situation.

Update: Since posting this blog, I have decided to spend the money to keep the YNAB software after the free trial. It’s really awesome. If you want to buy it, you can use this link for 10% off!

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Posted in Saving, Shopping, Tough Stuff

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Workout Clothes Addict (or Didn’t I Used To Complain About Workout Clothes?)

Posted on June 18, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve talked about my love/hate relationship with workout clothes on here before. I’m still super annoyed that a majority of workout clothes do not come in my size (or even close to my size). I’m always seeing really cute workout clothes and they claim they come in larger sizes. But more often than not, those “larger” sizes are up to size 12.

That’s just stupid.

Fortunately, Old Navy still continues to make workout clothes in my size. And they are getting more and more options for workout clothes. So my workout clothes collection is getting pretty decent.

Workout Clothes

And of course, Old Navy was doing a pretty awesome online sale over the weekend so I ordered a bunch of new workout clothes. I’m trying to find more bottoms that are something other than black. I do have one pair of printed workout capris, but I don’t have a top that goes with it. So I also ordered a plain white workout top so that I can wear that with the patterned pants.

I have had to expand my workout clothes collection in the past because I was working out more and more. When I only had 3 pairs of workout pants, I couldn’t work out 4 days in a week unless I wanted to do an extra load of laundry in the middle of the week.

I’m also finding that I’m wearing my workout clothes more often than “normal” clothes. On the days that I work out in the afternoon, I wear my workout clothes for the day. When I wake up, I put on my workout clothes and wear those while I’m working. Then I go and work out and when I get home I shower and put on pajamas for the evening. So I don’t wear regular clothes then. And on my off days, I’m usually in workout pants and a shirt because I’m just going to be sitting at my desk for several hours. Also, being in workout clothes makes it easier for me to get in my steps for the day (usually done while standing in front of the tv or computer).

I never thought I’d be the person who lives in yoga pants, but I really am becoming that person. Some of it is due to laziness, but honestly I feel more confident and happier in my workout clothes (or at least my workout capris/pants) than I do in my regular clothes. I know that this should be a bad thing, but my workout clothes don’t make me feel like I have fat or skinny days in my clothes. I know that some people say you shouldn’t live in stretchy pants because you won’t notice when you gain weight, but for me I need to not notice those little changes. It can be due to so many things and I don’t want a weight gain due to salt or something make me think I’ve screwed it all up and then eat a bunch of food. These pants almost help me feel a sense of normalcy.

Obviously there are plenty of times I have to get dressed in real clothes and go out into the world. But I really don’t see a problem with being in clothes that are both comfortable and make me feel good. Soon, my workout clothes will overtake regular clothes in my closet, and I’m good with that.

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Upgrading My Self-Tape Set Up (or 2 Auditions In 30 Minutes)

Posted on June 10, 2015 | Comments Off on Upgrading My Self-Tape Set Up (or 2 Auditions In 30 Minutes)

I’ve done self-taping in the past, but I’ve always kind of figured out last-minute how to set things up at my house. I’ve used a towel or blanket as my backdrop and just had a friend come and run the camera for me. Most of the time, casting directors understand that when you self-tape, it’s not going to look as nice as when you go into a casting office so it’s ok if it’s not perfect.

But this week I had 2 different self-tape auditions that I needed to do so I decided that this was the time to take things a bit more seriously.

First step was getting a nice backdrop for my auditions. I knew that I wanted a blue backdrop (it’s a nice flattering color) and I figured getting a king sized sheet would be the easiest way to do it. So I headed to Bed Bath & Beyond (with a 20% off coupon) and went hunting for the cheapest blue sheet I could find.

Self-Tape Backdrop

I’ll admit that it wasn’t as easy as I thought to find just a flat sheet and not a sheet set. I looked at curtains as well, but those were pretty pricey and weren’t that wide. But I ended up finding the perfect king flat sheet and got that (and saved my receipt since this is a tax write-off).

My two auditions were pretty different. One was for a web series and had 4 different scenes each with a line or two. I submitted for that role through Actors Access (an online casting service) and instead of getting an audition request they sent me a self-tape request.

The second audition was for the ABC Diversity Showcase. This was similar to the NBC Showcase I self-taped for last year. This time, they had a couple of different scene options online and we could do whatever scene we felt best represented us.

I put a request online to my friends to see who would be able to help me self-tape, and my friend (and fellow mentee) Melissa was happy to help. She had just done her audition for the ABC Showcase as well and had a nice camera that we could use.

I ended up wearing the same outfit for both auditions (I didn’t plan on that but it ended up working out that way) and I think my outfit looked great against my new backdrop.

Self-Tape

Melissa helped me with the web series audition first. We did 2 different takes and I was very happy with the second one.

The ABC Diversity Showcase audition took a few more takes. First, we did the introduction part of the audition. I had to say my first name, hometown, and answer one of the questions they posted on the website (I answered what superpower I’d like to have).

Then we moved on to the audition. As much as I tried to be memorized, having 2 totally different auditions in the same day threw me a bit. I wasn’t totally memorized, but I was pretty close. The audition was about 4 pages long and we went through it quite a few times. Many times, I didn’t get through the entire scene before I decided to stop. I think we only made it through the entire scene twice before I felt good about it.

We managed to knock out 2 auditions in just under 30 minutes. My brain was working overtime and as soon as we finished I relaxed and was able to think about what I just did. I was still feeling happy about my auditions so we decided that we were done.

Melissa took the memory card home with her and she emailed me the edited auditions pretty soon after we finished recording. And I was able to email both of my auditions to the respective casting directors that evening.

I’m pretty happy with the new backdrop I bought for self-taping auditions. It will be much nicer to use than a towel or blanket. And hopefully I’ll have more self-tape auditions in the future. They are becoming more common since you could even use your phone to record an audition. I will still use my regular camera or have a friend use their nicer camera for any auditions I have to do on my own. It’s nicer than an iPhone and I’d rather try to have things look as nice as possible without going crazy.

But having things more ready for self-taping (and having friends who are willing and able to help) are great steps toward being prepared for having more and more auditions come my way!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Shopping

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Upgrading My House (or Feeling Lucky)

Posted on May 13, 2015 | 1 comment

Monday was a pretty exciting day at my house. It was the day that my house felt like it was completely refreshed!

First, a little back story.

My grandma switched apartments recently (since my grandpa passed away she didn’t need such a big space). Her old apartment had a guest bedroom with a really nice mattress (my mom picked it out based on what she would prefer to sleep on). Over the few years in that apartment the guest room was used pretty rarely, so the mattress was almost new.

With the move, my family had to think of what to do with the surplus furniture. The original idea was to donate the guest bedroom mattress because that was easiest. But my mom remembered that I had been saying for a while that I wanted a new mattress and was hoping to save up for one. So my mom called me and asked if I wanted the guest room mattress.

I said of course and tried to figure out how to get a mattress from San Diego to LA. In the end, my parents had to hire movers for some stuff for them so they hired movers for my mattress (they gave my parents a pretty great deal). So my parents told me that I should be getting a phone call sometime this week to schedule the mattress delivery.

I had found someone who needed a mattress and was going to take my old mattress and box spring from me, but they weren’t going to take it until my new mattress was here. So we were all just waiting on the delivery guys to call me.

Monday morning, I get a call from the movers. They were parked in front of my house and wanted to know if I needed them to carry the mattress for me! I had no call prior to that to arrange for delivery and they were lucky that I happened to be home when they called. There were a couple of moments of stress, but in the end I had the movers move my old mattress into my garage and then move the new mattress into my house. And since they arrived with no notice, I wasn’t able to tip them (didn’t have time to go to the bank). But they seemed to understand and my parents agreed that it was ok since no delivery time was told to me.

Even with the craziness and stress, I have to admit that having a wonderful new mattress in my room makes me so happy!

New Mattress

And I slept pretty well the first night on it. It’s a much nicer mattress than I can afford and it had a pillow topper mattress pad. So I pretty much feel like my bed is something you would find in a hotel now!

Besides the new mattress, I got another upgrade in my house on Monday. The day I moved into my house (over 5 years ago) there was a small chip in the laminate floor near where I ended up putting my desk. My landlord said that he would fix it but asked me if I wouldn’t mind waiting on the fix. I was fine with that until the hole continued to get bigger and bigger. I covered up the hole the best that I could and waited for it to be fixed.

I reminded my landlord about it a few times, but I was not dealing with annual rent raises so I kind of stayed quiet. But after my recent rent raise, I said something again to my landlord.

There were a couple of issues with fixing my floors. Mainly, the flooring that I have isn’t manufactured anymore so there was no way to match it. After some ideas, we finally came to the conclusion that the flooring could be removed from my closet and put in my living room. Then the mismatched floor could be inside my closet (where it doesn’t really matter how it looks).

The construction was pretty loud and took a few hours, but as you can see from the before and after it was worth it.

Floor Before and After

So in one day I got a new mattress and some new flooring! And my old mattress went to its new home so someone else got a new (used) mattress on Monday. I love win-win situations like that!

Sometimes when you are renting a place it can always feel like a rental and not like home, but I’ve worked really hard to make sure that my place feels like home. And the new mattress and perfect floors really helps!

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Speedy Shoes (or Props To Zappos For Saving My Workout)

Posted on January 21, 2015 | Comments Off on Speedy Shoes (or Props To Zappos For Saving My Workout)

When my shoes died during my workout last week, my first thought was that I needed to get my new shoes before my workout on Monday. I have certain shoes by Merrell that I love and I know that they are always available on Zappos.

I’ve been a big fan of Zappos for a while. My very first order with them went pretty badly (the shoes were lost and never found). But their customer service was so amazing! They sent new shoes to me overnight and upgrading my Zappos membership to VIP status for life! Any company that goes that above and beyond is awesome in my book.

By the time I was able to order new shoes, it was about 7pm on Friday. And with Monday being a holiday, I had no idea if my free next business day shipping would get my shoes to me on time.

I ended up contacting them directly to see if there was anything else I could do (or pay) to get them to me by Monday. The representative I spoke to said that there wasn’t really much that could be done. The next day guarantee is only for orders placed by 1pm. But they were looking at where my shoes were coming from and where they were being delivered and thought that there was a chance I would get the shoes on Monday (I didn’t know that UPS delivered on holidays).

When I got my shipping tracking information, it said that the shoes were supposed to arrive Monday by 3pm. I have to leave for my workouts by 3:30pm, so it was going to cut it close.

All day on Monday I was on high alert. And around 1pm, the UPS guy came to my door and dropped this off!

IMG_4486

I put the shoes on right away to try to break them in a little before my workout. And while they weren’t super comfortable right away, they were so much better to wear than the broken shoes.

Yes, this entire post is about how much I love Zappos. But I’ve learned that when you find companies that are awesome, you really want to share it with the world.

So thank you Zappos for rushing my shoes to me so my workout wouldn’t be affected by busted shoes. Now I just need to order a backup pair of shoes so when these break I can have new ones waiting for me in my closet.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Health, Saving, Shopping

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Going To The Limit (or How To Work Out With A Broken Shoe)

Posted on January 19, 2015 | 1 comment

The past week of workouts have been insanely tough! I only got 3 workouts in for the week, even though I wanted 4. Since everyone wants to get into better shape in the new year, it’s been crazy crowded. I have to schedule my classes weeks in advance to make sure that I can get in. And when I didn’t do that for last Saturday, I wasn’t able to work out. Sadly, it looks like I might have the same issue Saturday, but I’m working on it.

Anyway, back to the workout recaps!

Monday’s workout wasn’t horrible, but what got to me was the Monday Challenge. First of all, I was the only person in the entire class to do the challenge after class ended. That made me a bit scared and intimidated, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from doing it.

The challenge was a mini Dri-Tri. So it was .08 miles on the treadmill (I don’t remember what incline it was at, but it was high) to start. Then, 20 burpees. Burpees are still a killer for me and not only do they hurt my hips, I get really dizzy doing them. After I finished the burpees (I had to take a few breathing breaks to do them all), it was a 100 meter row on the rowing machine.

My time was over 3 minutes and I was nowhere near getting on the top 5 board. But I completed it and that’s what I have to remember.

Wednesday was another crazy day where I was doing insane incline work on the treadmill. Since I have issues getting my speed up, to get my heart rate up higher I have to add on more incline than I used to. I’m getting to the point where for most of the push paces I can do the walk at 10% incline. When the push pace is for 3 minutes, that’s when it’s a bit tough for me. But considering that I used to do all my push paces at 6%, it’s a massive improvement. I’m hoping that soon I can start increasing my speed without pain, but until then, it’s nice to know that I can still push myself on the treadmill with incline.

Friday was one of those days for me where the workout was so tough that I didn’t believe that I could really do it all. The treadmill portion was a 21 minute block (many classes have 7 or 8 minute blocks and then you switch between cardio and strength a few times to get all the blocks in). It was a treadmill block that was mainly push paces. And for some reason, my heart rate didn’t want to go up to where it needed to be, so I had to keep pushing myself more and more.

Then, when we did the strength portion, I had what I could have considered a set-back. While I was doing running man on the ground (it’s a move similar to mountain climbers), my foot slid out from underneath me. I thought that maybe the floor was just slick, but I couldn’t get my footing again. I just powered through and for the rest of the workout, I had a crazy tough time doing the running man.

When we were stretching, I took a look at my shoe and realized that a chunk of the bottom of my shoe (where all the grippy things are) was flapping in the air. I had taken off pretty much all the grips off of the bottom of my shoe during the workout!

This photo gives you an idea of the damage, but the blue rubber on my shoe was also coming off.

IMG_4457

I can’t believe I worked out for about 10 minutes with a busted shoe! And I can’t believe that when it happened I just pretty much ignored it.

After class, I showed the trainer what had happened and she cracked up. She wanted a picture of the fact that her workout busted my shoe and then she posted that along with a picture of the 2 of us online and named me the MVP of class (each trainer gets to name an MVP for each of their classes now).

As soon as I got home, I ordered some new shoes online. They are supposed to get here today before my workout, but if they don’t I’ll have to figure out something to do with my broken shoe. I’ve got an emergency pair of sneakers, but they are a little busted too.

Now that I’m on the cleanse, my workouts this week are making me pretty nervous. I’m going to do the best that I can and understand that I might not be able to push myself like I usually do. I’ll let you all know how it goes next week!

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Default ThumbnailGetting Closer To The Leaderboard (or I’m Almost In The Top 5) Default ThumbnailBack To Back Workouts (or It’s Hell Week) Default ThumbnailSecond Week Of My Orangetheory Challenge (or I Guess I’m Tougher Than I Thought I Was) Default ThumbnailSweating Away 2014 And Into 2015 (or Starting The Year Off The Right Way) Default ThumbnailFinal Days Of The Nike Challenge (or How To Work Out When You Can’t Breathe Through Your Nose) Default ThumbnailMy 2nd MVP (or Kicking Butt In My Workouts)

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

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Amazing Customer Service (or I Love Sharing Positive Stories On Here!)

Posted on December 30, 2014 | Comments Off on Amazing Customer Service (or I Love Sharing Positive Stories On Here!)

I’ve shared some pretty horrible customer service stories on here in the past. I don’t like doing that and I don’t want to turn my blog into a place where I call out companies that treat customers poorly. But when bad customer service truly affects my life (like those times mentioned on the blog did), then I feel like I have to share it.

But I’d much rather celebrate some amazing customer service stories on here and help you all find stores/companies that you should support. Recently, I had 2 great customer service experiences and I wanted to let you all know about them.

First of all was an experience that I had at the Nike Store in Beverly Hills. I went there because I knew that I won the Nike ID Challenge at Orangetheory and I wanted to find out what size Nikes I needed to get (I don’t typically wear Nikes).

I was nervous going into the store for 2 reasons. One was that I’m not completely comfortable going into sporting goods or fitness stores. I still feel judged and I’ve had some experiences with employees not helping me as quickly as they would help other guests. The second reason was I knew that I wasn’t going to be buying anything while I was in the store. I wanted to be upfront with the salesperson so they understood that they wouldn’t make a commission off of me, and that could affect how they treated me.

But as soon as I walked into the store, all my fears disappeared. There was a wall of shoes that could be Nike ID customer shoes in front of me.

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A saleswoman (whose name I sadly have forgotten) came over to help me right away. I explained that I had won some Nike IDs and needed to find out my size before I collected my prize, and she was really excited to help me. She knew that I wasn’t purchasing anything that day, but she went above and beyond to make sure I found the perfect fit with the shoe that I’m going to be getting.

She even was asking me all about Orangetheory because she thought it was awesome that a fitness studio gave away Nikes. She took my information so she could join me for a workout at some point.

As someone who works in customer service and used to work for commission, I understand the frustration that this saleswoman probably felt but she never let it show. I hope that with me being so laid back and in no rush to try on shoes (so she could help other customers) that I made it a little easier on her.

We haven’t designed our custom Nike ID shoes yet at Orangetheory, but at least now I know exactly what size I need (and how to stretch them out to fit me a bit better).

My second amazing customer service experience that I’ve had recently was with the Hanukkah gift that my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, and I got for my dad. I found this amazing chair and footstool made out of old skis by doing a search online and as a group we decided to order it for my dad.

I called Green Mountain Ski Furniture to get a bit of clarification on some of the pricing options, but I never heard back. I followed up with an email explaining that I had previously called and left a message and got an email back very quickly from the owner. He apologized for not getting back to me and answered all of my questions to help me complete the order.

He sent me another email as soon as I ordered confirming everything. And when he shipped out the chair, I got 2 emails from the owner. One was the tracking information and the other was a personal email saying how happy he was with how the chair turned out and how he was making sure that the chair would get to my dad before Christmas (even though that didn’t matter it was nice that he made that effort).

The chair got to my parents the day before Christmas and my dad put it together right away. And it looks amazing!

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This chair is going to live up in Tahoe and my parents will bring it up there on one of their next few trips to the mountains.

While almost all customer service experiences that I have are good, I feel like these 2 recently have gone above and beyond. So if you live in LA and need anything from Nike, you should definitely go to the store in Beverly Hills. And if you want anything made out of old skis or snowboards, you have to go with Green Mountain Ski Furniture for your gift!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Shopping

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Final Days Of The Nike Challenge (or How To Work Out When You Can’t Breathe Through Your Nose)

Posted on December 22, 2014 | 1 comment

The Nike ID Challenge at Orangetheory ended this past week. But I ended up having a new challenge during the week because I got sick.

Monday was workout #15 for me for the Nike ID Challenge, so after that workout, I knew that I was going to be winning the shoes. I went to a morning workout that day because of the Tweetup that evening, and it felt very different to me than an evening workout. I’m so used to going at 4:15 that when I work out early, it is a little confusing to me. I’m used to going home after a workout and starting to decompress from my day. This time instead, I went home and got ready for my day.

On Wednesday, I was definitely sick. I felt a little better than the day before, but I was still taking lots of medicine to help me feel better. I tried my very best at the workout, but since I was feeling off, I didn’t do nearly as much as I normally can do. But as my dad always says, it’s all about being consistent in working out, not always having the best workout ever. So by going while I was sick, I was making sure I stayed consistent.

Another fun thing that happened on Wednesday was I got some workout gloves. My workout friend, Sarah, has been using them for a while and loves them. And since I’ve been getting some blisters on my hands from the weights, rowing, and TRX work; I figured I should get some gloves too. They were a little weird to use at first, but I quickly got used to them. And they do make a big difference in how strongly I can grip during my workouts. I’m hoping when I’m feeling better that with this better grip I can use some heavier weights.

Friday was my last workout of the week. Since the Nike ID Challenge was officially over then, I had to go in a bit early to have all of my challenge tasks to be verified. I came prepared with my checklist that I made.

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Everything was fine, so I know for sure now that I am one of the winners and I’ll be getting my free shoes! I can’t wait until we get to design them so I can see what they look like.

Friday’s workout was very similar to Wednesday’s. It turns out the worst day of my cold was Thursday, so by Friday I was finally starting to feel a bit better. But even though I was getting better, I still was coughing a lot and having trouble breathing through my nose. So I tried to take it easy. It’s not simple to do that when I’m really trying to push myself, but I tried. It was a run/row day and I tried to take a little break between the run segments and the row segments (instead of racing from one to the other). After the workout, I was exhausted, but I was so glad that I went.

Now that the Nike ID Challenge is over, I have another challenge to look forward to. There will be a national weight loss challenge and there will be 1 winner out of all the Orangetheory locations participating (the last weight loss challenge was just for the location I go to). I’m totally going to enter the new challenge, but it’s going to be really tough when I can’t see my competitors in my workouts with me. But I know a lot of people at my Orangetheory are hoping that I’ll be able to place in the top 3 and I don’t want to let them down.

But until that challenge starts (I think it begins in a month), I’m just going to focus on getting over this cold and doing everything I can to end 2014 in the best shape I’ve been in for a long time.

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