Category Archives: Travel

Fake Thanksgiving Weekend (or A Few Days With My Family)

Posted on November 17, 2022 | Comments Off on Fake Thanksgiving Weekend (or A Few Days With My Family)

This past weekend was my family’s Fake Thanksgiving. As I have mentioned before, this was up in Portland and I was there from Friday until Sunday. I was only able to be there for part of Friday since that was a holiday and I didn’t have work. But it worked out so I was there for dinner on Friday through around lunchtime on Sunday.

After taking the train to meet my parents on Friday, we immediately went to my aunt’s house for a casual dinner. Almost everyone who would be at our Thanksgiving was there for Friday except one cousin who was coming the next day. But it was nice to have a casual dinner with everyone and catch up since I hadn’t seen most of the people there since last year. It was crazy to see how tall my cousin’s kids had gotten since the last time I saw them they were all shorter than me. But one is now taller than me and another will probably be taller than me very soon. I tried to do my best with being social, but I wasn’t feeling great that evening. I know a lot of it was due to the anxiety from flying still affecting me. But being around my family was a good distraction from that feeling.

On Saturday, I had a very chill morning. And it was very clear that my parents’ dog had missed me because he spent his morning leaning against the couch to sit with me (he can’t sit on the furniture, but he can butt up to it and lean).

Then a bit later in the morning, we had our family Orangetheory workout. This was the 9th year we had a Thanksgiving workout (although in 2020 we all did workouts in our homes) and it was only my dad and me this time. Some of my family have been dealing with medical things that prevented them from working out. And since nobody else does Orangetheory regularly, doing just one workout when they have been having medical issues isn’t the smartest choice. But at least my dad and I were able to keep up the tradition!

I went a bit easy in the workout since it was my 5th workout in the week. But we still both had a great time and I love that this tradition helps to make me feel a bit more productive on a day that I know can feel a bit sluggish with all the food.

I’m sure at some point, I will have to make the collage multiple images, but at least for now, we can still put all 9 photos in one to celebrate this tradition.

After the workout, we had a bit of time before we had to head over to my cousin’s house for dinner. I didn’t get a ton of photos during dinner, but that just means that I was focused on enjoying the time with my family. But it was a fun night. I had never seen my cousin’s house before and it was really cool! Their basement has a small basketball court in it and they have added different mats and springy floors so you can bounce around and do gymnastics and stuff like that on there. We all had a lot of fun hanging out in the basement and goofing off.

And when we were all upstairs in the main living area, it was awesome to see different things that were my grandparents’ in my cousin’s house. The dining room table my grandparents had is now my cousin’s. And there were also little things like vases or decor that I recognized. I think pretty much all of us have random things from my grandparents and it’s cool to see how each of us has incorporated them into our homes.

And of course, we had to do a family photo. But with so many of us (including my niece and nephew who are still little), it’s not easy to get one photo where everyone looks good. I got the photos we took and used the photo stickers you can do through iPhone and was able to do that to photoshop people into the photo and make sure we got one where we all looked ok. And the photo above the fireplace was originally of my cousin’s immediate family, and I changed that to be a photo of my grandparents. I think the end result looks pretty good considering I don’t have real Photoshop.

My last day with my family was on Sunday, and I had to be dropped off at the light rail around 1pm in order to get to the airport on time. That morning, I went with my parents to take the dog for a walk and explore the neighborhood we stayed in. And then my friend Dani, who lives in Portland, came over to the rental house to hang out for a bit. Even though we had just seen each other recently when she had to stay at my place, it was nice to have a hangout that was much more chill.

And that’s pretty much it for my Fake Thanksgiving weekend. I got to spend a good amount of time with my family and have a lot of the traditions that our family has had for a while. I think we are going to continue doing Fake Thanksgiving since it is a lot cheaper to travel when it’s not the holiday. And it doesn’t really matter if we celebrate a few weeks early as long as we still get to have our traditions.

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Default ThumbnailNot Quite Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Time (or A Full Family Day) Default ThumbnailThe Rest Of Thanksgiving (or Getting In Lots Of Family Time) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Week (or Lots Of Family Time) Default ThumbnailFamily Zoom Time (or Thanksgiving After Thanksgiving) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Trip (or Being With My Family In San Diego) Default ThumbnailRecapping My Thanksgiving (or A Few Days In Sacramento)

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

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My Travel Experience (or I Hate That This Isn’t Always Easy)

Posted on November 16, 2022 | Comments Off on My Travel Experience (or I Hate That This Isn’t Always Easy)

I’m going to write about my trip to Portland in tomorrow’s post, but I wanted to share my travel experience first. I had a few parts to my trip going to and from Portland. The easy part was driving to LAX and parking my car. I use the same parking lot whenever I park there. It’s not the cheapest one, but it feels safe and is easy to get to. So I just use that. I’m a bit annoyed that I realized I lost all my loyalty points because I hadn’t flown in a while because I wanted to use those for my parking. But that was a minor inconvenience to deal with and at least this was a relatively simple part of my trip.

I had been very nervous about flying for a while leading up to my trip. I don’t love flying and have had panic attacks on planes before. I also didn’t like the idea of being in such a small space with a lot of people who might not be wearing masks. I knew I’d wear a mask for the entire flight, but that might not be enough for me. I also knew both my flights were sold out, so it would be a full flight with people all around me. And I also was nervous about just being in a plane seat. Plane seats are tiny for everyone. I’ve never needed to have a seatbelt extender or an extra seat, but it’s still something I’m afraid will happen. I have flown at heavier weights than I am now, so there was no reason why I would need something different this time. But I was still scared something would happen.

My flight to Portland wasn’t too bad. The people seated next to me weren’t wearing masks, but they were sleeping through the entire flight and turned away from me. So at least they weren’t always breathing in my face. And I fit into my seat just fine. I know that’s not something everyone worries about going on to a plane, but until I was seated and had the seatbelt on me, I was scared something would be different and I didn’t want to know what that could mean. I did have some moments when I thought I might have a panic attack, but it never got that bad. I was anxious the entire flight, but that’s normal so I’m not bothered by that.

My flight home was decent as well. It was a newer plane, so the seats were a little nicer. And for this flight, I had a pretty view during takeoff.

For both flights, I just tried to stay distracted the entire time so I didn’t feel too anxious. I spent most of my time reading and that helped to pass the time without me constantly looking at my watch or trying to figure out how much longer I had left. And since I didn’t check bags, I didn’t have any fears about losing my luggage or anything like that.

And I got to and from the Portland airport via light rail. The train that has a stop right outside the airport also had a stop near where I was staying with my family. It saved my parents from having to drive to the airport to get me so they could enjoy more of their time and not have to be in traffic. It was about an hour each way for me, and just like on the plane, I spent most of my time reading. It was interesting to see the different parts of Portland on the train since it did go through a lot of the downtown area. And fortunately, it never was too crowded on the train for either trip. There were a few moments on the ride back to the airport at the end of the trip when there were a few people who were making me nervous and hanging out very close to my suitcase when there were a lot of other open spaces on the train. But everything was fine and I was probably just a bit paranoid.

Considering that this was the first time I had done any sort of traveling other than driving to Santa Barbara since Thanksgiving 2019, I’m pretty happy with how things went. I still have the same fears that I had before the pandemic, and I expected that to be the case. But at least nothing was that much worse than before and I was able to make the traveling experience as smooth as possible for myself. And the travel was just a few hours each way bookending my trip so most of my weekend was spent enjoying myself with my family and not focused on traveling.

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Finally Having A Trip Planned (or It’s Been A Long Time Since I’ve Been Away From LA)

Posted on September 23, 2022 | Comments Off on Finally Having A Trip Planned (or It’s Been A Long Time Since I’ve Been Away From LA)

I know I’ve written about this before, but I haven’t really gone too far from LA for almost 3 years now. Since November 2019, I have not been further from my home than Santa Barbara. And I do know that doing day trips up there does count as being away from home, but it’s not really the same. It’s a 90-minute drive to get up there and I haven’t been gone for more than a day trip. The last time I was further was when I went to Thanksgiving in Sacramento.

I know that a lot of people didn’t travel anywhere in 2020 due to the pandemic. But since then, so many people have traveled. Some people have gone to places they can drive to but they were there for a weekend. Others have flown out of state or out of the country and have gone on a real vacation. I was due for a vacation before the pandemic. Now I feel like I am very overdue for a trip and getting to explore a new place.

It will probably still be a while before I plan a trip somewhere I haven’t been before. I have ideas of places I’d like to go, but I am still a bit anxious about traveling. I know that if I do get sick, I might not be too sick because I have been vaccinated and gotten the newest booster, but it still makes me nervous. I also don’t love the idea of being on a crowded plane with a lot of other people.

I might not have a big trip planned just yet, but I will be on a plane in about a month and a half. My family is continuing our new tradition of doing Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving because it is less expensive to travel then and it’s usually easier to find places to stay. Last year, we did this in Santa Barbara and I was just up there for the day and drove home after dinner. I originally was going to stay longer, but it is easier just to sleep at my own place when I know I’d be driving home early the next morning. But this year, our early Thanksgiving will be up in Portland so I’ll be flying up there for a weekend in November!

I haven’t been to Portland in a long time. I’ve been up there to visit friends who used to live up there and I’ve been there to be with family. But it’s been a very long time since my last trip up there. We have been trying to do Thanksgiving in Portland a few times, but it just didn’t work out before either because of travel issues or the pandemic. Even though I’ll only be there for about 48 hours, it will be nice to get away from home and see my family. And at least I’ll be hanging out with my family longer than I did last year when I was in Santa Barbara for less than a day.

I am still anxious about getting on a plane, both for my normal reason of not liking to fly and because of being around so many other people in a tiny space. I know that masks aren’t required on planes anymore, but I will be wearing one for sure on my flights. When I was looking at flights, I picked ones that were non-stop, so I only have to be on one plane and I don’t have to worry about making a connection. So that should help make my anxiety a little bit less. But I know I’ll still be very nervous flying and I’m just hoping that it’s not too overwhelming like some panic attacks have been for me in the past.

I still want to do a lot more traveling. It’s something that I have said so many times that I want to prioritize again in my life. I usually don’t have the time or money, but I feel like there are ways I could work around it. Some of the things I want to do aren’t that cheap, but I could find alternative trips that I could take. I’m still working on figuring out the perfect budgeting system, and I know I’m spending less and making more than I did before so I probably could afford a trip soon. Maybe this short weekend away to Portland in November will help kick off getting things together so I can go on a trip. But even if it doesn’t, I’m glad I have a little trip planned so I can have a break from my day-to-day life and have some fun away from where I spend pretty much all my time.

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Feeling The Need To Travel Again (or I Really Haven’t Left LA In A While)

Posted on August 24, 2022 | Comments Off on Feeling The Need To Travel Again (or I Really Haven’t Left LA In A While)

Growing up, I used to travel pretty regularly. We would go to Tahoe in the winter for a week or two and then again in the summer. My parents usually planned a big summer trip for us each year as well. Sometimes we did a driving trip where we went to a bunch of states and national parks. Sometimes it was a trip out of the country on a big adventure. And a few times a year, we would go down to San Diego to see my grandparents. I didn’t travel as much once I was in high school, since missing school was harder. So I didn’t always go to Tahoe the entire time my family was there, but I still had big family trips each summer.

Once I moved to LA, I didn’t do as much travel since I was occupied with college. I did go back to the Bay Area or to Tahoe sometimes. And I did little random road trips to Palm Dessert, San Diego, or Las Vegas. And after I was done with college, I cut back on traveling even more. I have done a few random trips here and there, but outside of traveling to be with family, I didn’t always travel every year.

And I’m aware that I’m coming from a place of privilege and most people don’t have opportunities to travel. Either they can’t miss work or they don’t have the extra money to spend, so if they go on a trip, it’s either something they have saved up for a long time or done locally or inexpensively. And for a lot of my adult life, unless my family was helping me with paying for a trip, that was the same situation for me. But even if I was just getting out of LA to see family, I usually went somewhere every year or every other year.

But since Thanksgiving 2019, the furthest I’ve been from LA has been Santa Barbara. That’s about a 90-minute drive each way, so it’s not super close but also not really that far either. I wasn’t going to travel during the pandemic, although I did think about driving to be with my parents in Tahoe (I wasn’t going to fly). But it made more sense for me to stay in LA since during 2020 there was so much uncertainty with work and I didn’t want to have to rush back home for some reason. And I wasn’t going to travel somewhere else since I was basically trying to avoid other people. I know that things are better now, but I just haven’t had the chance to travel.

But I’m feeling more and more of an urge to plan a trip. I don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to travel with, but I just want to have some sort of an adventure that isn’t in my bubble here. I am still worried about Covid and other things, but as I’ve watched more and more of my friends and family go on really great vacations, I’d like to have one too. And I think I’m in such a routine or rut that I could use something that would break me out of it. I know exactly what I’ll be doing every day and it’s pretty much the same pattern every week. I could use some variety, and having a vacation would totally change things up.

I don’t exactly have the money saved for a big trip, but I am doing better financially than I have before. My expenses are similar to what they were before, but I’m making more money than I was even earlier this year. I don’t have vacation days or paid time off right now, but because of some changes with the main job I have, I know that there will be a policy for that soon. Once I know what the PTO policy is like and how many days I might have already (I don’t know if we will all start at 0 or if they will count them back to when we all started working), then maybe I will start seeing if I can find a friend to travel with. I still don’t think I’d like to travel alone, even though I know a lot of my friends have done that for the first time recently and loved it. But I would rather have someone to go on adventures with so I don’t feel isolated while traveling.

I have no idea when I’ll be able to get out of LA for a trip that I plan. I know that as of right now, I will be headed up to Oregon in November to do an early Thanksgiving with family, so at least that will be something. But I want to plan something that is more about exploring the world and hopefully getting to see a place I have never been to before.

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Missing A Trip (or I Know There Will Be More Chances In The Future)

Posted on March 11, 2022 | Comments Off on Missing A Trip (or I Know There Will Be More Chances In The Future)

This weekend, I was supposed to go on a trip. This was going to be my first trip in quite a long time. I don’t get to travel that often to begin with, but for the past 2 years, the furthest I’ve been from LA has been Santa Barbara. And this was a trip that I had been looking forward to for a while.

I’ve written about the Movie Club I started at the beginning of the pandemic with a Facebook group that I’m in and how a small group of us have gotten very close. Even though I have been chatting and texting with this group for about 2 years, we have never met in person. And this weekend, we planned a trip to finally get to meet each other.

One person in the group is housesitting at a farm where there is enough room for all of us to go there. And I was so excited for this trip and really was doing my best to try to find any way to be there. But the biggest issue for me was trying to make it there. Everyone in the group except me is on the east coast. And this weekend was going to be on the east coast of Canada. I wasn’t as worried about getting into Canada even with the different travel protocols. But getting to the east coast quickly looked impossible.

The first setback I hit was finding flights I could take. I know that getting on a plane is not the safest thing to do, but I wanted to make it as safe as I could. So I was only looking at flights that wouldn’t require a stop or a layover. Those turned out to be pretty limited. And when I opened my search to ones that did have stops, so many had stops in cities I didn’t want a layover in (mostly due to weather) or they had extremely long layovers. If I was going away just for a weekend, I didn’t want to spend 10 hours traveling when I could do it in 5. I looked at flights into other airports that would be cheaper, but then that still made my travel day extra long because I would be flying for 5 hours and then driving for 2 or 3.

As much as I could tolerate the idea of traveling for so long just for a weekend to finally meet my friends, the thing that stopped me was looking at ticket prices. Even the cheapest options were going to be close to $1000 for me. That’s a lot of money for a weekend and I have had a lot of expenses lately that made me hesitate to spend that much on another thing. I was checking flights every day for over a month, but I finally had to admit defeat and tell the group that there is no way for me to make it this weekend.

Everyone understood, especially since I was the one who was traveling the furthest. And I know they wish I could be there but it just isn’t possible. There is one other person from the group who won’t be able to make it due to a work conflict, and while I’m glad we have each other to talk to about how sad we are that we are missing out, I wish there was a way that all of us could be there.

I’m trying to not be too down on myself about this all because there just wasn’t a good way to make it happen. And the group is already planning a trip to come to LA, so that will obviously be easier for me to plan out. But it’s tough when this is something I have been looking forward to for a while. I’m trying to make the best of this weekend at home when I was thinking I’d be away and I’m already working on planning what we will do when the group comes to LA. Even though I am missing this first group trip, I know it’s only the first of many and I will have so many other opportunities in the future to travel with them.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Travel

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Finding Some Crossover With My Skills (or A New Way To Use Self-Tape Skills)

Posted on June 11, 2021 | Comments Off on Finding Some Crossover With My Skills (or A New Way To Use Self-Tape Skills)

There are a lot of skills I have gained in life that are really only good for the reason I originally learned them for. For example, I used to work in credit card disputes and I gained a lot of skills on how to complete and win the disputes for the company side. I guess technically I can use these skills in understanding how disputes work for other aspects of my life, but so much of what I learned there was specific to that job. It’s the same with a lot of my acting skills. Some I can use for other things, like becoming good at memorization, but many don’t have a purpose outside of acting, like breaking down a script into beats.

But occasionally, I will discover that a random skill that I have learned at some point in my life works for something else. This doesn’t happen too often, but it’s really fun when it does. And I had that happen the other day when I was preparing to renew my passport.

I didn’t realize my passport was going to expire this year until I was doing something and happened to look at it. This was the 3rd passport I’ve had, and sadly it was the first one that had no stamps in it. My last international trip was in the beginning of 2005. I do want to travel again and have ideas of countries I want to visit, but I have no clue when that will happen. Now, it’s not as much of an issue of money (since I have money saved up), but it’s an issue of the world being safe again for traveling. I hope this won’t be much longer, but I am in no rush either. I just hope that by the time I have to renew my passport in 10 years, the one I’ll be getting soon will have at least 1 stamp in it.

Even though I have no plans to travel internationally right now, it’s important for me to have a valid passport. If I do make plans to travel, that’s one less thing for me to worry about. Also, one of the things most actors have is a valid passport because you never know when you might book a job that is out of the country. And since it can take time to get the new passport, having a valid one is the easiest way to be prepared.

The passport renewal process is pretty simple. I was able to complete my application online and print it out. I have my old passport that is about to expire so that eliminates some of the work I’d have to do too. The only thing that I really had to do was to get a new passport photo.

Every other time I’ve gotten a passport photo, I’ve gone somewhere to do it. I don’t remember if my past ones were at AAA or a drugstore like CVS, but I do remember getting them done and having them printed out. I’ve had a few good passport photos, but I have always hated my most recent one. So I was happy to be getting a new passport with a new photo. But I didn’t necessarily want to go somewhere to get it done, and I know some places that used to do passport photos have put them on hold for now.

But I did remember I had some photo paper that I’ve never used so I decided to do it at home. So I set things up just like I did for taking a self-tape audition in my dining room. I already knew how make sure I had good lighting and had a ring light available if I needed it. I also have gotten pretty good at setting up my phone or iPad on a tripod for self-tapes so I am in the frame the way I want and I know I’ll be in focus. I thought about doing a video first and taking a screenshot from it for my photo, but it ended up being easy enough for me to set the timer to take photos. I took a few photos, looked at them, changed my setup a bit, took some more, and repeated that process until I was happy with how my photo looked. And that was a nice benefit of doing my own passport photo. I could make sure it would be a photo I’m ok with for the next 10 years.

There is also a guide on the government website for passport renewals where you can upload your photo to make sure it has the right dimensions. I know there is still a small chance it won’t be perfect, but I did use that tool online to have the site crop my photo and make sure it has the dimensions around my face (it’s not just the size of the photo, you have to have a certain amount of space from the edge to the top of your head). I’m hoping for the best and that I won’t get something back saying my application has been rejected for my photo. But I feel like enough people print out photos at home that it should be fine. Not everyone probably uses a ruler to confirm everything like I do.

I don’t know how many other ways I will use my self-tape skills to use for something else, but it was nice to find a new way to use them. And it got something accomplished that I needed to do, so that’s a win too. And hopefully, renewing my passport is a sign that maybe I will be traveling again soon.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Travel

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The Rest Of Thanksgiving (or Getting In Lots Of Family Time)

Posted on December 4, 2019 | Comments Off on The Rest Of Thanksgiving (or Getting In Lots Of Family Time)

I have already posted about the first half of my Thanksgiving trip. That time was mainly spent with my parents or my immediate family. But Thanksgiving Day was all about all of my family that was together for the holiday. We had 16 people (plus 2 dogs) this year in one place. And there was a bit of sadness as this was the first Thanksgiving since my grandma passed away, but we were all so grateful to be together with everyone in those 3 generations in one place.

Thanksgiving morning started with the family workout at Orangetheory. I love that we have that tradition now in the family and it was a great way to start the day. Even though the studio was really close to the hotel, it was really cold out so we ended up driving over to the workout. I made sure I worked out a little extra hard to make up for us having to drive over. But it was fine.

After the workout, we had some time at the hotel to shower and get ready plus some time to relax. There was no rush to get over to my aunt and uncle’s house and it was nice having time to read and not stress out about getting ready and leaving by a certain time. We were still over there a few hours before dinner, so we had a lot of family time. But we didn’t feel stressed that we had to get there by at a specific time and we didn’t have to worry about if we were going to miss anything.

Thanksgiving was originally planned for Sacramento because that’s where my grandma was (and she couldn’t travel). We knew that she wouldn’t be able to be at dinner, so I was prepared already for her not being there. But I had made plans that I was going to visit her before dinner so it did feel a bit like we forgot to do something. Starting next year my family will be rotating where we do Thanksgiving (which is what we used to do every year), so I think it won’t feel like we missed something. But it worked out fine for Thanksgiving to be in Sacramento and since all of us live on the west coast, it’s not too difficult to travel there. It was so awesome having everyone at dinner this year. We haven’t had the entire family together in a few years and I know how lucky we are that we can do this.

We were all hanging out in the kitchen and living room spending time together. A lot of the cooking was done in advance, so there wasn’t a lot of craziness in the kitchen. It felt very relaxed compared to some of the past Thanksgivings and I liked that. And it gave us time to enjoy things like the gorgeous sunset that we had that evening.

Also, I convinced my brother and my cousins that we should try to recreate a photo that was taken in 1988. This photo wasn’t from Thanksgiving that year, but it’s the first photo I think of when I think of a photo of all of us when we were little. I actually don’t love the photo, but it’s still the first one that comes to mind. My cousin Stephie was excited to do the recreation too, so she helped me get the guys together for it. And my cousin John even tried to match the pose from the original photo. I think it looks awesome!

I think that everyone loved the photos once I combined them and that they agree it was a good choice to take it. The 5 of us aren’t always together at Thanksgiving, so I am glad I took advantage of that. I remember the last time we were all together that we took a photo and it was only after we left that I was upset we didn’t match the old one. Now, I finally got to do what I regret not doing a few years ago.

Thanksgiving dinner was awesome as always. We had all the usual things that my family has and they are always delicious. My favorites are the green beans and the corn casserole, but everything that I had on my plate was so good!

After we had dinner, we did go around the table talking about our favorite memories of my grandma. Some people included memories of my grandpa too, but my memories were all grandma ones. She was very particular about her hair and makeup and always looked perfect. I remember when I was little that my grandma went on an amusement park ride and somehow she was the only one out of us that got wet. That was so funny. I also remember a Thanksgiving when we were young that my cousin convinced my grandma to try his rollerblades and she got on them inside the house and my cousin helped her stay up. I loved the memories that everyone else shared too and I’m glad that for the most part that was an upbeat thing. I was worried that it would be sad, but there was only one time that I cried. The rest of the time was all about smiling and reminding each other of these random memories that we loved.

After dinner, we had to get a family photo. And while I loved the one we had last year of all of us laughing, this one was a bit more normal. But I do love the dogs looking at each other.

Overall, it was a really great Thanksgiving and we had some amazing family time. And my concern about being sad while I was there didn’t come true. There was so much joy and happiness in being together and sharing memories that the sadness was minimal. And I’m so glad about that.

The day after Thanksgiving was pretty low-key. I had to work that morning so I worked in the hotel room. My brother and sister-in-law left that morning but they stopped by the room before driving home. And while I was working my parents took the dog for a long walk. I was fine being alone because it made me feel a bit better about having to work. When I work around all my family, it is fun because I’m a part of everything happening. But I also feel a bit guilty when I ask everyone to be quiet or when I can’t participate in a conversation or have to end talking to work with a customer.

When I was done with work, we headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house for some leftovers and a bit more family time. Unfortunately, I had to leave before some of my family was able to get there because I had to catch my flight home. But hopefully, the family that didn’t get to see me understood that I needed to be at the airport on time.

My flight home was much calmer than my flight there. There wasn’t as much turbulence so I was able to relax a little. I still don’t love flying, but this was much more normal and I only had my normal anxiety. And once we landed, it was pretty quick for me to get back to where I parked my car so I could get home. It was a bit weird when I was unpacked and everything felt normal when I was just with my family a few hours before.

Next year, we’ll be somewhere else for Thanksgiving. But I know we are going to have so many of the same traditions happening wherever we are. And I’m so glad that we all agreed as a family that our annual Thanksgiving gatherings are important to us so we are going to keep them going. I can’t wait for next year!

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Default ThumbnailGrandma’s Birthday Dinner (or One Of Our Thanksgiving Traditions) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Week (or Lots Of Family Time) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Trip (or Being With My Family In San Diego) Default ThumbnailThe Rest Of My Maryland Trip (or More Family Time) Default ThumbnailA Family-Filled Thanksgiving (or 4 Generations In One Place) Default ThumbnailFamily Thanksgiving (or Relaxing In San Diego)

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff, Travel

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The First Half Of Thanksgiving (or My Pre-Thanksgiving Activities)

Posted on November 29, 2019 | Comments Off on The First Half Of Thanksgiving (or My Pre-Thanksgiving Activities)

My Thanksgiving trip felt like it was split into 2. What I did before Thanksgiving Day and what happened on Thanksgiving Day and after. So I figured I should split my posts into 2 as well. And this is the first part of my Thanksgiving trip.

As I previously mentioned, I was anxious about flying for Thanksgiving for several reasons. This has been an issue for me for most of my life, and I just have to work through it whenever I travel. I guess it is a good thing that I don’t travel that often. And while most of my fears I wrote about weren’t an issue, my flight for my trip wasn’t the easiest.

It was a totally full flight, which wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. I wasn’t too squished in my seat, and I think the new seats that Southwest did help. Even though the seats are probably smaller, the armrests are up a bit higher so that makes it more comfortable for me. I do fit in the seats either way, but it’s nice to feel better about it.

The flight itself was one of the bumpiest I’ve been on. It was pretty horrible. The turbulence was constant and there were so many stomach-dropping moments. I really wished that I had some panic meds with me because that would have been the time to take them. But I just tried to focus on breathing and I listened to podcasts during the flight instead of reading so I could zone out a bit more. And we did land safely, which is what is important.

And all that stressful travel was worth it because I go to see my family’s dog again for the first time in a year!

The day before Thanksgiving was mainly family time with my immediate family. I had to work that morning and my cousin and her kids came over to the hotel to say hi to me and my parents. My brother and sister-in-law were driving up to us that day, so that afternoon was just my parents and me.

A few days earlier, we were trying to figure out what to do that afternoon because it was supposed to be pouring rain. My mom saw that “Stomp” was playing at a theater very close to the hotel so she got the 3 of us tickets. My parents have seen the show twice and I technically have seen it before (but I was 4 or 5 so I don’t remember it), so we were all very excited to check it out!

My mom got us great seats and we were close enough to see everything but far enough that we weren’t able to see the entire stage at once.

And the show was really awesome! The performers were so talented and what they were able to do was fun to watch. And they were all able to show personality with their characters even though they never spoke a single word. There were a few moments that were Thanksgiving themed, but those might be always in the show. But I liked those touches and everyone in the audience was enjoying it.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel where my brother and sister-in-law were waiting. Their drive wasn’t too bad, so they got to us with plenty of time to spare before we went out to dinner. We hung out in our hotel room and caught up plus we did our Hanukkah presents. I gave my brother and sister-in-law a candle that is supposed to smell like San Francisco (where they lived before) and I got my parents these really cute wooden tiles painted to look like Scrabble tiles that spell out SNOW. I know the gifts weren’t as good as the custom pet portraits, but they were still good.

After presents, the 5 of us headed out to dinner. We went out for Chinese food and it was a nice and casual meal. And even though it wasn’t that late, after dinner we were all pretty tired so we headed back to our hotel rooms to get some sleep before a big day the next day.

Even though the start of my trip got off to a rocky start (literally), I’m glad the first half of Thanksgiving was what I hoped for. I got to hang out with my family, go do some fun things, and enjoy a little break from my everyday life.

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Default Thumbnail3 Cities 1 Day (or My Christmas Adventure) Default ThumbnailGrandma’s Birthday Dinner (or One Of Our Thanksgiving Traditions) Default ThumbnailMore Family Time (or Seeing All My Immediate Family Last Week) Default ThumbnailPre-Burning Thanksgiving Calories (or Working Out In LA and San Diego) Default ThumbnailFirst Half Of Thanksgiving (or Hanukkah Gifts And Birthdays) Default ThumbnailPre-Thanksgiving Pampering (or Trying To Get Everything Done)

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Getting Ready For Thanksgiving (or I Wish Flying Was Easier)

Posted on November 27, 2019 | Comments Off on Getting Ready For Thanksgiving (or I Wish Flying Was Easier)

I’m traveling to Sacramento again this year for Thanksgiving. Our family Thanksgiving was originally planned to be there since my grandma couldn’t travel. Since she passed away recently, we didn’t change the plans for our family. But starting next year, I think my family is going to go back to switching up where we have Thanksgiving each year.

I was so used to going to San Diego each year for a while and I have to admit that I liked Thanksgiving being there. I know that it wasn’t easy for most people in my family to get there, but it was easy for me. I didn’t necessarily love the drive down there because it could take a lot longer than normal, but driving is so much easier for me than flying. I miss it when I could just pack up my car and go without thinking too much about it. Flying takes so much more effort and planning for me.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful that I get to fly to be with my family for Thanksgiving. I’m really grateful that my parents are able to help me out with getting a ticket (since I don’t have the money for it) and that I get to spend the holiday with so many members of my family. But flying really does stress me out so much. My panic attacks with flying have gotten better to the point I don’t have to be medicated while flying, but I do still deal with a lot of panic and anxiety when I have to get on a plane.

Maybe this is because I don’t fly that often. The last time I was on a plane was a year ago for Thanksgiving last year. Maybe if I flew all the time it would feel routine for me. Or maybe it would be just as bad as it always is for me. I don’t know and I doubt I will ever fly enough to figure it out.

Before I fly, I have stress and a bit of panic with packing. When I drove to Thanksgiving, I didn’t have to think about how much I packed or how it was packed. I didn’t necessarily overpack, but I wasn’t as organized when I could put lots of things in my car. I always had a suitcase for my clothes and toiletries, but I didn’t pack everything for my trip in a suitcase. I sometimes would have a different bag for shoes because I would have a few different pairs depending on the weather and what we were going to do. I would have a bag just for my work stuff since that can take up a lot of room. I would pack presents for my family in a separate bag so they were safe and easy to get to when we exchanged presents. And I usually helped out by making some food for Thanksgiving so I would have a bag for that too. Plus my everyday purse with my normal day to day things like my wallet and what I would need when I was out and about.

There is no way I can do all that for a trip where I’m flying. I have just one carryon and one large purse that can fit my computer plus a few other personal things. I have to be very selective with what I pack for clothes, including my shoes. Fortunately, I have found a few ways I can reduce what I need to have with me to work without affecting my ability to do my job. And I have to find a way to basically fit everything into one bag that used to only be one part of what I bring with me. It’s such a dumb thing to stress me out, but it does. I’m just glad that I have it figured out and everything does fit in the suitcase I have with me. I just have to be ok with maybe not having the best outfits with me or not having all the toiletries and makeup that I’d want to bring. I guess the one positive is that my suitcase home will be easier to pack because the presents I have for my family take up a big part of the bag.

And then the entire ordeal of flying is something that stresses me out. I worry that I won’t be able to get to the airport on time. I worry that the security line will be so long that I will miss my flight. And the thing that stresses me out so much, that somehow for some reason I won’t fit in the airplane seat. This has never been an issue for me and I have flown when I weighed more than I do now. So there is no reason for me to think that somehow I won’t fit. The seats aren’t comfortable, but I don’t think most people find them comfortable. I know I will be fine flying and that I won’t have issues like not being able to get into a seat, but for some reason, this fear doesn’t go away until I am off the plane at the end of my trip. So this will be a fear I have in the back of my head the entire time I’m in Sacramento. This fear isn’t something that is determined just by my weight. When I was at my skinniest, I still had the same fear. I’m guessing this is a part of my body dysmorphia and that it will be something I will always deal with, at least a little bit.

By the time you are all reading this, I will have made it through the flight there so my packing and some of my flying stress will be done. And I’m hoping that the remaining stress and fear will be able to be pushed aside so I can enjoy the few days that I get to spend with my family and I don’t waste that time worrying about unnecessary things.

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Part 2 Of Catalina (or Outdoor Adventuring)

Posted on March 8, 2019 | 1 comment

The second (and last) full day we had in Catalina was another day of exploring the island. The original plan was to take a jeep tour that was going to take us around the island and we were hopefully going to see some of the wildlife that lives there. We also were going to get to the airport and the isthmus. Even though it wasn’t a private tour, since we filled one jeep it was going to be just us on the tour.

But because of all the rain that they have been getting recently, we had been warned that the tour might not go exactly as planned. First, some of the roads have been closed due to the mud. They were hoping some might reopen by the time we got there, but there was a chance that we wouldn’t be able to make it out to the isthmus. Also, we might not see any animals on the tour. Normally, they hang out by the water reservoirs because that is the main source of water for them. But the rain made the entire island an opportunity for them to find water, so they might not be in their normal hangouts. Even with those possible issues with the tour, we were all excited to get to drive around and see what we could.

We started with going up the hill on the side of the island that we were staying on. When we got to the top, we had an amazing view of Avalon.

When we got down, we drove through Avalon to get toward the other side of the island. The beginning of that side was sections of the hillside that we saw in our tour the day before. But when we were on that tour we saw a road and the guide told us that it was a restricted area. But we had access to get up there and we continued up the hillside to get toward the airport.

Even though the rain was restricting some of what we could do on this tour, it did make the entire island look really green and lush. We all were saying how much this felt like we were in Hawaii.

We got to another hilltop where we could see toward the airport and where we were heading. And it was so clear out as well so the mainland was in view.

We got to the airport which is at the top of a hill and we were informed there that the road to get to the isthmus was not going to open that day. They were just so overwhelmed by the rain and the mud was more than the roads could handle. We already had a plan to stop at the airport and it gave us a good chance to warm up. It was already cold out, but being in an open air jeep made us even colder.

One thing that I was hoping to get to do on this trip was to recreate a photo that I have from my 16th birthday. My friends and I posed on a bench while on that trip and it’s one of the few photos I have from my birthday. It’s one of my favorite photos and I was hoping to find the same bench. But it was on the side of the island that we couldn’t get to, so I had to use a bench at the airport and do the best I could without the exact same bench (and missing my friends).

Since we couldn’t go as far on the tour as we expected, we were back at our rental house mid-day. We had the entire afternoon before we were going to get dinner and because the sun was finally out we went on a glass bottom boat to see the fish.

We were hoping the sun would be out so we could do the boat because when it’s cloudy you can’t see as much. The boat was pretty empty with just 2 other small groups besides us. It was nice not to be packed in there and it was a relaxing boat ride as we got out to where the protected area where most the fish would be.

The driver of the boat fed the fish and then the boat went over the area where he threw the food. Whenever he did that, the windows below us were filled with fish. It was so fun to see it and we definitely saw a lot of fish while we were out there.

The driver also told us once before he threw the food so we could watch outside the boat for all the fish jumping around. I tried my best to capture that in a photo, but it doesn’t do it justice. As soon as the food was in the water, it was really a feeding frenzy!

We were out in the protected area for about 30 minutes before the ride back to the dock. I spent some of the time watching the windows to see if we could see anything fun. But I also kept kneeling up on the seat to look at the view outside because it really was just so gorgeous outside and we all have had so much rain lately.

That evening we relaxed at the house and went out to dinner. And the next morning, we had another morning of sun while we got packed up and ready to head back to the boat back to the mainland.

We knew that it was supposed to start raining again that day, but we were hoping to not have to deal with it too much. And the timing of the rain was almost perfect because it started just as we boarded the boat to go home.

The drive back to LA was easy since it was the middle of the day between morning and afternoon rush hour. Everyone else had a much longer drive home than I did and they did encounter some rain and crazy storms. But I think we all agreed that it was so much better to have the storm happen then than when we were trying to enjoy our vacation.

I love this tradition of our trips when my dad and brother do their skiing adventure. They will probably go on another trip next year so hopefully we will do one as well. It’s one of the few trips I do each year since I can’t really afford to travel. We did talk about a few ideas of where we could travel to next year. We’ve got some that would be very extravagant, but maybe we could do it. Since my mom pays for me to travel with her on these weekends, I know that it’s up to her where we are going to go. But wherever we go next year, I know it will be another amazing trip that I will have the best memories from!

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Default ThumbnailThe First Half Of Our Catalina Adventure (or Exploring And Touring) Default ThumbnailExploring West Maui (or My Dad Found A Coconut With Jesus On It) Default ThumbnailGetting In The Ocean (or My Final Day In Maui) Default Thumbnail10 Years Later (or A Good Memory and A Bad Memory) Default ThumbnailThe Rest Of My Maryland Trip (or More Family Time) Default ThumbnailA Weekend With My Mom (or An Adventure In Palm Springs)

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