Category Archives: Work

Fitting It All In (or Getting Better At Time Management)

Posted on May 17, 2013 | Comments Off on Fitting It All In (or Getting Better At Time Management)

I’m settling back into my work routine. The next few weeks are a bit odd because I’m working weird hours due to a show at my work, but I’d say about 80% of my schedule is what it should be.

I’m still not great at managing all my time (including my one day off), but I’m getting better. And I’ve finally figured out a plan that allows me to work and fit in my SoulCycle classes.

Right now, my days for spinning classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays. On those days, I don’t start work until noon (it might be pushed back to 12:30 soon which works in my favor). On those days, I get up at 7am, as I do every day. I leave my house for spin class by 7:50, take an 8:30 class, and get home by 10. Then I have enough time to shower, get dressed, and eat some late breakfast before heading out to work.

On those days, I’m at work until 8:30pm (and have to be back at work by 9am the next morning), so working out at nighttime is not an option. Also, there aren’t any spin classes that late at the studio.

I’d like to try to add in a class on the weekend as well, but the classes on Saturday don’t exactly work well with my work schedule. The class that’s closest to the time I leave work is 2 hours after my shift. I wouldn’t drive home, but I’d need to find something to do (and make sure I eat a light meal before class). And on Sundays, I’m so busy doing everything else that needs to get done that I’m not sure where to fit in spin class.

I’m glad that I figured out how to still do the workout I love while I’m working 6 days a week. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but honestly, nothing in my life is easy. It would probably freak me out if it was easy.

And knowing that I’m working at doing something that I love does make me happy. It can be a little overwhelming and depressing knowing that I’m working at a job 6 days a week (that isn’t my career). I’m glad I’ve found something good for me that makes me so happy.

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Default ThumbnailScheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is) Default ThumbnailNew Routine Time (or Time Management At Home) Default ThumbnailMissing Out On Some Fun (or Flexible Time Management) Default ThumbnailA Smile In Spin Class (or Sometimes The Little Things Are Big) Default ThumbnailFitting In My Workouts (or Planning For The End Of The Year) Default ThumbnailFirst Week of Workouts After The Challenge (or Weird Workout Times)

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

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Relearning Old Habits (or Seriously, This Again?!?)

Posted on May 8, 2013 | Comments Off on Relearning Old Habits (or Seriously, This Again?!?)

I’ve been back at my day job for a few weeks. But most of the weeks haven’t been typical ones. I was in San Francisco 2 weekends ago which involved me missing 2 days of work. The week prior to that I worked a weird shift on Thursday to work late, a split shift on Friday, and a partial shift on Saturday. And this week I’m taking Saturday off to do another 5k.

All of this has made it tough for me to get back on track with scheduling. I know, I know; I’m always complaining about scheduling. But when you go from working 6 days a week to working no days a week to working 6 days a week again it’s weird.

I’m trying to stay on top of my time off and not waste it. When I was unemployed, if I didn’t get an errand done one day, I could do it the next. That’s not really possible now. If I don’t get it done on Sunday, it’s likely that Friday will be my next chance.

So I’m making sure that I’m writing up lists for my time off. This was the one I used on Sunday.

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It wasn’t everything that I need to do, but a good portion of it. And as I did my errands, when I thought of something new, I added it to the list.

I’m proud to say that at the end of the day on Sunday, my list had 13 items and I got 12 done (I didn’t get a new alarm clock, but that’s a story for another post).

I did, however, forget to include cleaning my house on the list, and sadly that didn’t get done. So my house is a little messier than I’d like, but I’m trying to do little bits of cleaning before and after work.

I’m glad that my list-making has been helping me, because it can feel a bit overwhelming trying to get everything done in a day. But when it’s written out, somehow it doesn’t seem as daunting.

Next, I need to work on scheduling my mornings better. When I don’t start work until noon, I have some time in the mornings to get things done. I don’t like doing errands then because I feel rushed, but I can do a lot more in my house those days than I’m doing now.

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Default ThumbnailWorking On Figuring It Out (or I Wish This Was Easier) Default ThumbnailFitting It All In (or Getting Better At Time Management) Default ThumbnailReadjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule) Default ThumbnailBack To Real Life (or One Week Of Normalcy) Default ThumbnailEarly Days (or 2 Weeks Of Long Shifts) Default ThumbnailI’m Tired (or The Day to Day Struggles)

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Setting Myself Up To Win (or More Preparation)

Posted on April 24, 2013 | Comments Off on Setting Myself Up To Win (or More Preparation)

I do a lot of things to try to make my life easier. When I have late shifts at work, I try to get some extra sleep (because I really do function better on more than 5 hours a night). I know that when I don’t remember to prepare a lunch or a dinner one day, I can always find something at Subway or some salad places near my house. And I try to get things done on my day off so I don’t have to try to squeeze them in before or after an 8 hour work day.

But just because these things are easier doesn’t mean that they are good for me. I’m trying to look at things now as better options, not easier options.

One thing that I’ve been able to do is figure out when I can fit in spin class into my work schedule. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a shift that starts at noon. In the past, I used the late start to catch up on sleep. On Monday nights, there are times that I don’t get home until 10pm and then I still need to have dinner and get work done. But now I’m making going to an 8:30am spin class a priority. I know that this won’t happen every Tuesday/Thursday (yet), but I’m working towards it.

Also, I’m trying (again) to be better at having food prepared so I don’t have to think about what I’m going to do for lunch or dinner. I’ll admit that this week I haven’t been good. I’m going out-of-town this weekend and didn’t want to go to the grocery store if I didn’t have to before my trip. But no matter what I eat, I am tracking all my calories on my app on my phone. I’m holding myself accountable for my good and bad choices.

Finally, I’m allowing myself to make mistakes. I really am an all or nothing sort of person. I didn’t want to start this blog until I knew I could maintain doing it 5 days a week (there’s no way to get yourself ready for that). So when I’ve had slip ups in the past, I’ve allowed myself then to continue slipping up until a determined date/time that I was going to “start over”. There’s no starting over in this now, just continuing on. I’m not letting a speed bump stop me completely.

I’m hoping with this new mindset not only will I be moving towards my goals a bit faster, but I’m hoping that I will not feel so over worked and stressed about being at my day job 6 days a week. I need to allow myself time to have a life and do things that are good for me and I enjoy. I didn’t allow myself that freedom last year.

Of course, I could completely change my mind about all of this next month, but I’m giving it a shot for now.

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

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Readjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule)

Posted on April 18, 2013 | Comments Off on Readjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule)

I’ve been back at work for a few days now. At first, it was really nice. I got to see my co-workers, I was making money, and I like feeling like I have a purpose.

But the honeymoon stage of working again wore off pretty quickly. And it’s the little things that bother me. I miss knowing that I can go to spin class whenever I want. I’m trying out going to a class this morning, but I’m worried I won’t have enough time to get ready to go to work after. I hate eating dinner at 9 or 9:30 at night, but if I don’t have some sort of dinner, I’m too hungry after work (and it’s hard to eat while I’m working on the phone). And I don’t like being limited in when I can go run errands. Just last night, I was supposed to have dinner and hang out with a friend, but it had to be cut very short because I needed to go to the grocery store and get gas for my car.

I know that I’m whining, but this is honestly how I feel. And I’m not going to look for a different job since this one pays well and my boss is cool with me going to auditions (which is incredibly hard to find). I’m also just surprised that the schedule shocked me so much since this was exactly what I was doing 6 weeks ago before my unemployment started.

So to fix my feelings, I’m trying to get better (again) at planning. Like I said, today I’m testing if I have time to go to a morning spin class before work (I have a late start time today since I have to work until 10pm so there is room in case I take longer getting ready than I hope to). I’m working on re-doing my food plan again so I could get away with only having a light snack at night instead of a meal. But that’s tough because I get up at 7am, have a little something in the morning, eat my breakfast at 11am, and have my lunch break at 4pm. If I stop eating for the day at 4pm, I get very hungry when I’m trying to fall asleep.

Again, these are all things I need to work on getting adjusted to again. It wasn’t easy when I started this job a year ago. I was just leaving a job where I worked 8-4:30 3 days a week (but the job made me very unhappy so I didn’t want to stay there). Getting used to being at work 6 days a week is not easy. And it’s not any easier this time because I’m also trying to have a life this time around.

I remember reading somewhere that it takes 21 days to create a habit. So I’m hoping that on my 21st day of work this season, things will start to get easier. And if they don’t, I might just have to plaster a smile on my face and pretend that everything is great until I do something like win the lottery or book a tv series.

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Comedy in Babysitting (or Surviving An Afternoon With A Crying 2 Year Old)

Posted on March 21, 2013 | Comments Off on Comedy in Babysitting (or Surviving An Afternoon With A Crying 2 Year Old)

Yesterday, I was babysitting for a friend of mine, and the afternoon was something crazy. I was watching her 2-year-old (who I’ve watched since he was born), and he was full of drama!

Right when my friend was getting ready to leave, her son jumped into his stroller. He wanted to go for a walk, which was fine with me since it would distract him from his mom leaving and he might take a nap in the stroller.

First of all, I do want to talk about the stroller. I’m not a mom, so I’m not a stroller expert, but my friend had a Bob stroller, and that thing was amazing! Super easy to push and the handle was at a good level for me. I know that those are supposed to be expensive strollers, but that thing was great!

So I’m pushing the stroller out the door with my friend’s son, and all of a sudden he realizes that his mom isn’t walking with him. He starts screaming “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” at the top of his lungs and I just kept going. My friend drove right by where I was walking and she encouraged me to keep going (I think she also thought he’d fall asleep quickly).

Well, he didn’t.

I pushed him around for about 20 minutes with him screaming every second. Other people in the neighborhood were starting to look at me like I was a kidnapper or something! Finally I decided that he wasn’t going to fall asleep and I headed back to my friend’s house.

The kid was so excited to get back home, because he thought his mom would be in the house. And once he searched everywhere and realized she wasn’t there, he had a nice crying temper tantrum.

He was shrieking and crying and flinging himself across the room. Occasionally, he would lie on the ground with his arms crossed in front of his head and sigh really loudly. Then he’d look at me and see if I would react. When I didn’t, the tears came again.

Eventually, he fell asleep on the couch and stayed asleep until my friend got home.

Honestly, the whole thing was pretty funny. I just feel horrible letting the kid cry it out (but that’s what I need to do). I’ll be back there babysitting again tonight, so I’m hoping to not have a repeat performance from yesterday.

But you know what makes babysitting totally worth it? When the kid, completely unprompted, yells out “Bye bye Jen!” as I’m leaving.

Totally cute.

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Busy Unemployment (or Maybe I Over Scheduled)

Posted on March 7, 2013 | Comments Off on Busy Unemployment (or Maybe I Over Scheduled)

I’ve been unemployed for less than a week (I’m still waiting on my unemployment to be approved by the state of California), and I have to say that I’ve almost never been busier.

Some of the things keeping me busy were unexpected. I had a plumbing issue in my house that took me 3 hours to fix (but I did it on my own and didn’t have to call my landlord). I also had an incident with my Pur water filter where I broke it and water went all over and under my refrigerator. So I spent a decent amount of time cleaning up everything (and then going to a couple of different stores before being able to find a new one).

But most of what I’ve been keeping busy with are meetings and appointments that I set up in advance to make sure I wouldn’t be bored without work 6 days a week.

And being bored isn’t something I’ve been worried about at all. It’s nice to be so busy, but I do with that at least some of this busyness was making me some money. Since my unemployment hasn’t been approved yet (they say it takes 10 days), I’m not bringing in money right now. And even though I have plenty of time before my rent is due again, I am worried about having the money to pay for it.

I know that somehow something will work out. Maybe I’ll get a bunch of substitute teaching jobs. Maybe I’ll book a great acting job. Maybe my unemployment will be approved quickly and will be more than I was expecting.

But I can’t focus on that yet. Right now, for the next week, I have to make sure I don’t forget to do anything that I already scheduled. I’m setting alarms for all my appointments because it is easy to forget something.

I’m too busy with life when I’m unemployed, I don’t get to have a life when I’m employed. The grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it?

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What To Do? (or Day 1 of Unemployment)

Posted on March 1, 2013 | Comments Off on What To Do? (or Day 1 of Unemployment)

Today is the first day of my unemployment. It doesn’t feel like I’m unemployed, and I have no idea if it will ever feel that way.

I’ve got a busy day planned for myself. I’ve already filed my unemployment paperwork online (much better than the last time when I had to mail it in) so now I just have to wait to make sure I’m approved.

I need to go to the school district I sub for and get a parking pass and make sure I don’t need to do a new TB test before they let me sub.

I need to get my car fixed (oil change, tire rotation, new wiper blade, brake light is out), which has needed to be done for a while. But since most shops aren’t open on Sundays, I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t want to have to take a day off to do it.

I have plans with a friend tonight to go to happy hour and catch up.

And I want to get a workout in (although probably not a spin class since my favorite teacher isn’t teaching until tomorrow).

The plan has always been to keep myself busy during unemployment, and based on my schedule for the first day, I think I’m doing ok so far. This weekend, I’m going to print out the calendars for Women in Film, SAG Foundation, and The Actor’s Network and pick out all the lectures/speakers that I want to go to next month. I’m so overwhelmed by all my options, but I’m pretty excited too.

Most of all, I want to spend this time focusing on me. I’m not where I’d like to be in my life, and I need to work on taking the steps to get there. And there is no better time to focus on yourself than when you don’t have to go to work 6 days a week every week!

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Scheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment)

Posted on February 22, 2013 | 3 comments

Less than a week to go before my unemployment starts. I’m preparing to get to do some really fun things while I’m not working 6 days a week like go to San Diego to visit my grandparents, take advantage of my Disneyland pass, and of course focus on my acting career as much of the day as possible.

But I really want to make sure I keep a schedule even on days where I have nothing planned. Right now, I get up at the same time 7 days a week (that’s supposed to be good for your sleep) and I know that if I’m not doing something by a certain time I’ll be running late. I know when I wash my hair before work, if I don’t start to blow dry it by 10:30 I won’t have enough time to do everything I want to do before leaving for work.

Having that sort of schedule really helps to keep my day moving. I don’t have time to sit on my butt and read or watch tv as long as I’d like. And I don’t want to be doing that while I’m unemployed either. I need to maximize those hours of the day.

I’m not exactly sure how I will do this, so I’m open to suggestions. I know that I’ll keep my alarm schedule the same so I won’t be sleeping away the day. I’m trying to plan at least 1 time sensitive activity every day that I’m unemployed. It might be something like going to Disneyland, seeing a speaker at The Actors’ Network or Women in Film, or even just meeting a friend for lunch or dinner.

That way, I’ll have something to use as a finish line so I can work backwards and schedule all the other things I want to do (like maybe take more than 1 class a week at SoulCycle).

I’m also looking into seeing if I can get some writing jobs. I’m currently contributing to The Pet Matchmaker (it doesn’t pay but it’s great experience), and I’ve just found another blog that I want to be a contributor for as well. Maybe I can find a way to get some paid writing gigs and I could use that money to help pay down my credit card debit.

Anything is possible, I just have to make sure I don’t get lazy with all the free time.

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Default ThumbnailMaking Up A Schedule (or What To Do With My New Free Time) Default ThumbnailWhat To Do? (or Day 1 of Unemployment) Default ThumbnailUnemployment Issues (or I Shouldn’t Stay Quiet) Default ThumbnailBusy Unemployment (or Maybe I Over Scheduled) Default ThumbnailBusy Time (or Scheduling Again) Default ThumbnailScheduling Conflicts (or Maybe I Should Stop Planning)

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Having Something To Celebrate (or Another Bodega Happy Hour)

Posted on February 21, 2013 | Comments Off on Having Something To Celebrate (or Another Bodega Happy Hour)

Yesterday, my friend Rayshell and I had a happy hour hangout. We hadn’t seen each other in forever (I’m pretty sure the last time was at her New Year’s party). And since it was my early day at work, a happy hour adventure fit in perfectly with our schedules.

We met at Bodega, which is right down the street from my work and one of my favorite happy hour spots.

And it worked out perfectly to meet up today, because I had something to celebrate.

After all the craziness at my work with not shutting down like we thought we would, it was finally decided that we were going to have a temporary shut down in March. So as of right now (and this will probably change 100 times), next Thursday is my last day at my current day job until possibly sometime in April.

I’m so beyond excited for this! I will be filing for unemployment benefits so I will have a little money to get me through this time, and I’m hoping to get some substitute teaching jobs next month as well.

So after I told Rayshell my fun news, we got down to ordering some great happy hour foods!

We had the bruschetta (which is one of my favorite things at Bodega).

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And we also split the grilled cheese and bbq sliders based on the recommendation of our server, Wade. He was totally right on the recommendations (and decided to be in this picture of our food).

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Overall, it was another wonderful happy hour adventure with a wonderful friend.

Now I get to spend the next week preparing for my unemployment. This includes getting my paperwork filed for my benefits, trying to see if there are any substitute teaching jobs at my old job for me, and cleaning out my desk at work (I am a post-it fiend and need to start tossing some out).

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff, Work

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Changes (or I’m Sorry If You Had Trouble Finding The Blog)

Posted on February 18, 2013 | 1 comment

This past weekend, I spent quite a bit of time working on this blog.

I know you might not see it, but I took a huge step. I went from being hosted on WordPress to being self-hosted (technically hosted by BlueHost).

I know not everything is exactly what it used to be, and I’m working on getting all you email subscribers subscribed on here without you having to do anything, but over the next few days hopefully this blog will look just like my old one!

I have to give a huge thank you to Brian Janes who sat with with while I worked on the transfer and answered my million dumb questions.

But the main thing for all you readers to know is now when you want to come to my blog, all you have to type is www.findingmyinnerbombshell.com (I’m working on getting the old WordPress site to transfer, but it seems a little glitchy at times).

I’m really excited for this change. Mainly because I can start customizing things on here a lot more than I could before. As soon as the music video I was in is released, I can hopefully imbed it in here so you won’t have to click on a link.

Sorry for the short post today. I spent so much time sitting at my computer that I need a bit of a break today. I have an unexpected day off from work (which I wasn’t happy about because I could use the money), so I’m hoping to go on some sort of adventure outdoors.

I might just end up at the beach and read in the sand for a while. Something fun to help me recharge my batteries and get ready to kick some butt in the next few days!

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