Medical Stability Is A Good Thing (or Yet Another Easy Check-Up)

Posted on January 24, 2023 | Comments Off on Medical Stability Is A Good Thing (or Yet Another Easy Check-Up)

I’ve been working with my dermatologist on a lot of different conditions over the past few years. Some have been ongoing conditions and some have been one-off discussions or resolved within a few appointments. I know I have said this before, but I’m lucky to have a doctor on my team who works with me to figure out solutions and listens to me and my concerns. I know not everyone has that experience or the ability to speak up for their concerns. But I made sure that the doctors I see worked with me and not just talked at me. Not all the doctors I’ve seen are like that, but if they don’t see us as a team I don’t go back to them.

This is so important with all my doctors, but especially when you are working with someone for an extended time. When it’s not just a few appointments and then you never see them again, you need to make sure that they really hear what you have to say. And I think the positive experiences I’ve had with doctors that I’ve had to see for years is because I am willing to say that I want to find a different doctor to work with. I probably should have done that sooner with other dermatologists I’ve seen in the past because I have wasted so much time trying solutions that weren’t working but I wanted to keep trying what they told me to do.

Even though I have a few different ongoing conditions I work on with my dermatologist, my appointments aren’t that frequent anymore. Most of the things I’ve working with him on are going to be things I have to deal with for the rest of my life. Or if they can go away, it might be years before that happens. With my autoimmune condition, I know the end goal is to be in some sort of remission. This isn’t always possible, but it can happen. But the things that can get you into remission can be more extreme than what I’m willing to do at this point. There is a surgery that I could have that would help me significantly, but the recovery process would be very lengthy and painful. Maybe one day I’ll get there, but it’s not what I want to do at this point.

I had another follow-up with my dermatologist this past week and I knew it would likely be an easy appointment. I’m not in remission with my autoimmune condition, but things have gotten so much better over the past few years. I think I’m in a lower stage of the condition than I have been in years. I still have quite a bit of pain to deal with, but it’s more manageable now and that’s something that I never thought could happen. I know my doctor would have liked to see more improvement with me, but I’m happy that things are just stable where they are and they aren’t getting worse. It used to be stable years ago before things started to get really bad. And now, it’s stable but in a good spot. Maybe I’ll have some more regression and it will stabilize at an even better spot, but I’m not too worried about that right now. My main focus is hoping that it just doesn’t get worse again.

And because things are stable, my plan with my doctor is stable too. I’m going to continue the same medications I’ve been taking since they clearly are doing something to help manage this condition. I also use certain body washes to help my skin and I just need to continue to use that as well.

Having boring follow-up appointments like this is becoming more common for me, and that’s a good thing. I’ve had so many ongoing medical conditions for so long and to have them stabilize is so awesome. The more stable things get, the more boring my appointments are. I never knew that I was hoping for boring appointments in my life, but it turns out that it’s one of the best things and something that I continue to hope will happen in the future.

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An Almost Normal Workout Week (or Happy To Be Able To Push Myself)

Posted on January 23, 2023 | Comments Off on An Almost Normal Workout Week (or Happy To Be Able To Push Myself)

I was so grateful to be feeling better this past week. I wasn’t feeling the best I can feel, but it was so much better than the week before. I had only a little bit of nausea left toward the beginning of the week, but it felt like a huge relief compared to the week before. I’m always so happy when I’m at this point in my monthly nausea because I know it normally means I’m about to have a good week soon.

Monday’s workout was a bit different from my usual because I had the day off work. I was able to go to a slightly later workout than normal, but I still went in the morning because I like to get my workout done before enjoying the rest of my day. And because I went to a different class time, I had a 2 group class instead of a 3 group one.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks. The first block was a push pace, base pace, and all-out. The second block was the same as the first plus a recovery after the all-out and then another all-out after. The third block added on another recovery and another all-out. And the last block again added on another recovery and all-out. But the push pace got shorter each block so that helped to make the all-outs a little easier to get through.

On the floor, we also had 4 blocks and it was a similar pattern to what we did on cardio. When cardio had its push pace, the floor had a row. And then we had timed exercises on the floor and we added on exercises each block. The first block had only front squats. The second block added on lateral lunges and plank knee drives. The third block added on low rows with weights. And the last block added on lateral hops. It was a lot on the floor with very little rest, but it was a good challenge and I was happy with having a little less rowing than normal.

I was back to my normal workout time on Tuesday and I was feeling even better than I had on Monday.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we started at a base and increased the speed/resistance level every 30 seconds, ending at an all-out. I just added one level to the resistance level each time and it perfectly ended at my normal all-out level. After those intervals, we had a minute to recover, and then we had a 3-minute distance challenge. For the second block, we started with the distance challenge and then did the progressive one after.

On the rower, we started with a 250-meter row. Then we rested as much as needed and did another 250-meter row, with the goal to beat the time from the first time. After the second row, we had overhead presses with the medicine ball. We repeated that pattern, but the row was decreased by 50 meters every time we did it. I wasn’t always able to do better on my second row for a certain distance, but I was always very close.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges, reverse flys, and leg raises. And the second block had step-ups, rows on the straps, and plank dips. I was able to do the step-ups since I lowered the bench, but even with the lower bench, they are still a challenge for me to do, especially with my balance issues. But I’ve been really trying to keep trying them even if they take me longer than a modification because I know it will help me in the long run.

Wednesday’s workout was a tornado workout and it was hard! I think it might have been one of the harder tornado classes we’ve had and I knew I had to pace myself. But I also wanted to push myself and finding that happy medium was tough.

On cardio, each block started with a 1-minute push pace. After that, in the first block, we had a 1-minute base and in the second block, we had a 30-second base. After that, we had a .1 mile (or .4 mile on the bike) all-out with recovery until a 30-second all-out at the end of the block. It was a lot each time and I didn’t have a lot of recovery time in any block.

On the rower, whenever cardio was in a push or base pace, we had a timed row. So they ranged between 2 minutes and 1 minute. Then we had front presses and overhead presses with a medicine ball before getting back on the rower and rowing until a 30-second all-out row at the end.

And on the floor, we started with timed exercises to go along with cardio and the rower. we had lunges and plank pops. And then for the rest of the block, we had squats, bicep curls, and upper cuts. And for the last 30 seconds of the block, we had crunch holds. I didn’t go too heavy with my weights because there wasn’t any rest in the block and I wanted to try to keep going until the block ended each time.

Thursday was tough too, and it felt like a lot after how tough Wednesday was. But I was up for seeing what I could do and I was so glad that I was doing these while feeling good.

We had 2 cardio blocks that had the same pattern. We had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 1-minute push pace at an incline, 1-minute base pace, and 90-second push pace at an incline. The inclines/resistance levels were higher for the first block than the second block, but they weren’t too high for either block and I didn’t feel too much of a difference compared to when I’m normally pushing myself. I think that was the idea of these low inclines to prove what we can really accomplish.

On the rower, we also had 2 blocks with the same pattern. We started with a 2-minute push row before having a series of 1-minute intervals. In each interval, we had to do 10 reps of an exercise, and then whatever time was left over was spent rowing. In the first block, we had front and back steps and in the second block, we had side-to-side crunches. Getting on and off the rower so frequently was tough for me and I usually only had about 10 seconds left to row each time, so I didn’t get a ton of rowing in outside of the first part of each block. But I was glad I did the exercises and didn’t just row because I wanted to see if I could do it.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 3 different anchor exercises and 3 normal exercises. We started with doing the first anchor before each of the normal exercises. The next round had the second anchor before each of the normal exercises. And so on. The anchor exercises were shoulder presses, reverse grip low rows, and chest presses. And the regular exercises were plank shoulder taps, back extensions, and crunches. I did have to do some modifications to the exercises, but they were minor compared to what I’ve done in the past.

Overall, I think this past week was one of my better workout weeks. I needed a good week to boost my confidence and this was exactly what I needed. And hopefully, this week will be another good week for me so I can continue to feel amazing about how I’m doing with my workouts!

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Making Sure All The Details Are Right (or Maybe This Is Actually The End)

Posted on January 20, 2023 | Comments Off on Making Sure All The Details Are Right (or Maybe This Is Actually The End)

The renovation of my condo has been a much longer process than I think anyone imagined. There were things that were out of our control that added to the timeline and there were things that needed to be adjusted or corrected that made things take longer. I’ve never really been directly involved in a renovation before, so I didn’t know what to expect going into this. But I know that things haven’t been as easy as they could have been. It’s been frustrating, especially when I was waiting for most of the work to be done so I could finally move in. I think the last 8 months since I lived here were easier since I wasn’t also dealing with the stress of a bad landlord and trying to get ready to move.

There were a few small things that were fixed in the fall and I was hoping at that time that would be the end of the work. But unfortunately, there were more issues that came up after that. Everything was pretty minor and didn’t necessarily affect my daily living, but they needed to be fixed. If this was a rental and it was a handyman fixing things, I wouldn’t be as picky. But since this is my home and we hired them to do specific work, I want everything to be right. For example, I found some cracks in the grout in my kitchen that I wanted to be fixed. This wasn’t going to cause any issues in my kitchen or become a bigger problem down the line, but I still wanted there to be no cracks in the grout.

Because of scheduling, the holidays, and other stuff happening; the contractor wasn’t able to get to my place until this past week. There were only a handful of things to fix, and they were all connected to tile work and things like grout and caulking. I was very specific with them about what needed to be fixed and how I wanted it to be completed (thanks to my parents who told me what needed to be done), and I know I was probably a little harsh and maybe rude when talking to them. But this has been a year-long process and I felt like things had taken long enough and I was ready for it to be done.

I think because there have been so many little fixes, they had a supervisor here as well to make sure that my concerns were being understood and addressed and they also explained some of the repairs that were being done a little differently than what I expected. I know I don’t know a lot about construction, but I still want to make sure that I understand why certain materials are being used and not others. For example, to fix some cracked grout, they didn’t use normal grout but something that was more like a grout and caulk hybrid so it would allow for movement that might happen from the unit above mine and would hopefully prevent any other cracks in the future. I appreciate that they took the time to go over those things with me so I felt a bit better about everything going on.

As far as I can tell, I think the work is finally done. We haven’t signed off on it yet because my parents want to see everything in person. They will be here in about a month, so they will go over everything in super detail to make sure there isn’t something missing or incomplete. But I have high hopes that maybe the work is finally done and I can feel like I’ve gotten past this phase of my new home. If it’s not, I guess there will be a bit more work to do before I can finally feel like that.

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I Might Have Picked The Wrong Monthly Challenge (or I Guess I Still Have Half Of The Month To Go)

Posted on January 19, 2023 | 1 comment

I try to really think about the monthly challenges that I set for myself before I decide which one to do that month. I usually have a few ideas that are very different and then I think about what I will get out of each one and try to pick the best option. For a while, I think I was doing a lot of challenges that would better myself in some way. But lately, I’ve been focused more on things that will better my environment or living situation.

That’s why when I picked my challenge for this month, I really thought it would be a good plan for feeling more settled in my place and just having a better routine and schedule. I know that things for me can feel like I’m in a rush to get them done or that I’m putting things off until the last minute without intending to do so. So if I could have an idea of what days are best to do certain things, I might feel a bit more stable when I’m trying to plan ahead.

But what I didn’t plan for were things that are out of my control and would affect what I could do and what I wanted to do. For example, with all the rain lately, I haven’t been wanting to run errands if I could avoid it because I don’t like to be out in the rain. Even if I had planned to go to the grocery store if the rain was coming down too hard I didn’t want to do it. I also don’t love driving in the rain and many other drivers seem to not be great at it either, so being off of the road seems like a smart choice. I wasn’t expecting to work extra hours this past week, so when I had things planned to do after work, that was affected by my later hours. And if I’m working until 8pm, I just don’t feel like going out to do other things after work. I’m ready to settle down for the evening.

On top of all this, I haven’t been feeling well and have been working through nausea for the first half of the month. Maybe if I was feeling ok, I would have been up for doing some of the things I had been putting off. But with all of that together, I just haven’t wanted to do a lot of anything. I know that if I had to go out and do something, I would. I had some errands I couldn’t avoid or do another way, so I went out and did them. I wasn’t always happy about it, but I got them done.

Maybe I’m just making excuses for myself because if there were things I had to do, I probably would have done them. But it’s easy to not go to the store and get groceries delivered or put off cleaning because nobody is going to see that my house is a little messy. And I’m aware that how I was feeling affected my mental state and that had a lot to do with things. I really set this challenge this month with the best intentions of getting it done and I’m wondering if I picked the right one. But I also think that maybe because of this struggle, this was exactly the challenge I needed to do and I need to step up my game.

I have used up half the month really not doing anything for this month’s challenge. Maybe I’ll be able to turn things around for these last 2 weeks and end the month feeling successful about what I got done. Or maybe the end of the month will come and I’ll be feeling down about what I picked for this month and wishing I did something different. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

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Having Less Of A Weekend (or Taking My Day Job Seriously)

Posted on January 18, 2023 | Comments Off on Having Less Of A Weekend (or Taking My Day Job Seriously)

Even though my main day job is still a day job, that doesn’t mean I don’t work hard at it. If anything, I think I work harder because I want to show my value in case I have to take time off for booking acting work. I’ve heard of so many friends who couldn’t get time off that they needed and still have their job, so they had to quit in order to take a role they were offered. I never want to be in that position, so I really want to make sure that I’m always working hard and making sure that I do all my work to the best of my ability.

In the 2 years that I’ve been at this job, things have changed quite a bit for me. I started working part-time and my responsibilities changed frequently as I got more and more familiar with the company. Then I became full-time and got more work. And my biggest and most recent change was transitioning out of direct customer care work and more administrative and systems-based work. While my background has always been in customer care work, I’m really happy with the new type of work that I’m doing and I feel like it’s a much better fit for me. I also like that I don’t have the same time restrictions as I did before to do deep dives to figure things out. It’s nice to be able to look really hard at all aspects of a problem you are trying to figure out and get a full picture. Then I can share my findings with my co-workers who do the direct work with customers so they can provide the best answers possible.

There have been people who have been hired and left in the 2 years I’ve been working. And now, I’m one of the most senior employees in my department. That’s a bit crazy to me because it feels at times that I’m still new at all this. But I also know that I am familiar with what I’m being asked to do, especially since many of our systems are things that I have designed or created for us. It still feels weird to be in charge or this high up, but I know that I’ve taken the steps to get there and I wouldn’t be thought of this way by our executive team if they questioned my abilities.

Because I have senior status, that also means I sometimes have to do more work. We had a bunch of changes that happened in the past week, and there was a lot of extra work that needed to be done in order to make sure we stayed on top of everything for the month. There were some nights I worked later than normal and I had to work over the weekend even though I have weekends off (and this was a holiday weekend). I was paid overtime for doing all this extra work, so I didn’t mind it too much. And I didn’t have any plans for the weekend so I wasn’t missing anything that I was looking forward to.

I know that putting in those extra hours was appreciated by the executive team. And I know I don’t have to prove myself to anyone, but I also know that this showed how seriously I take things even if this isn’t the career that I am working toward. I know that many people with day jobs aren’t as lucky and either don’t get a chance to prove themselves or it doesn’t help if they need to take time off in the future. But I’m grateful that I have been in a good job for these past 2 years. And if I have to give up a weekend once every few years, I think that’s worth it for everything that I’m getting in return.

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Hitting Some More Writer’s Block (or This Could Just Be A Temporary Thing)

Posted on January 17, 2023 | Comments Off on Hitting Some More Writer’s Block (or This Could Just Be A Temporary Thing)

Over the years I’ve written this blog, I’ve encountered writer’s block several times. It’s never a fun feeling, especially since I’ve been pretty dedicated to writing on here every weekday and have managed to keep that up since July 2012. But I also know that because I write on here so frequently, writer’s block is bound to happen from time to time.

Sometimes, it’s due to something happening either in my life or in the world. I remember at the beginning of the pandemic I questioned how frequently I would want to write here. I figured I would have nothing to say since nothing was going on in my life and I wasn’t planning on taking any crazy risks of being around other people. But looking back at those posts, I’m so glad that I have a record of my life during that time. Every stage of the pandemic has been different and I have a very good record of how I felt, what I was doing, and what the world seemed like to me. Not all of my moments of writer’s block feel like that or have a positive outcome when looking back at it, but that’s one that worked out really well for me.

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve had writer’s block, so I guess I was due to experience it again. And there could be a couple of reasons why it hit me this time. I’ve been feeling nauseous on and off for quite a while. I used to get time off from nausea, but the injections have made it continuous. Fortunately, I have learned that by injecting them into my leg instead of my stomach, I can tolerate them better. So now that I’m at the tail end of my regular nausea, hopefully I will finally get a break. It’s also been raining here for a while and I don’t enjoy being out in the rain. I haven’t been going out and doing much lately anyway, but when there’s rain I have even less motivation to attempt to make plans. So my life has been very routine and boring with very little difference from week to week. I know I need to keep rebuilding my social life, but I haven’t had the motivation to do that, especially since the start of the year when the storms started.

But I also wonder how long I’ll be keeping up with daily writing. I do still enjoy it, especially when I have things planned out that I want to write. But when I have nothing on my schedule for ideas (which is what I’m pretty much experiencing now), it’s hard to think that writing every day is still the right thing to do. I’m sure eventually I’ll cut back on writing, but I think it’s a hard transition to make. A lot of my friends who also still blog have been cutting back, so I know that it’s something common to do and more and more people have been making this choice. And one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place isn’t really a factor in my life anymore. I did want to see if I could turn this blog into a day job for me or at least make some extra income from it. I have made some money, but it’s never been enough for me to make up for what I spend on web hosting and other things needed to maintain this site. And I don’t know if I ever care to try to do that much in the future. It would be nice to have extra money, but I’m also in a much better financial state than I’ve been in the past so it’s not as much of a focus for me as it has been before. And I know that if I wanted to try for that, it would take away from time that I should be using to be more social and hang out with friends. So it’s not something I think about much or make much effort into now. And whenever I do make money from an affiliate link or something else like that, it is nice but it’s not a big deal since it’s rarely more than $10.

I have no clue what I’ll be writing about this week since I have no ideas or fun things happening that I know of. But I do plan on still writing every day this week since that’s what I have committed myself to. And if in the future I change my mind about that, I’ll make a very intentional plan to do so and not just because I’m experiencing some writer’s block.

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Getting Through A Tough Week (or Rain And Pain)

Posted on January 16, 2023 | Comments Off on Getting Through A Tough Week (or Rain And Pain)

I knew this past week of workouts would be tough on me since it would likely be a week of bad pain and nausea. I didn’t expect the extra pain because of all the rain, so that just added to the difficulty of the week. And as much as I wanted to challenge myself in my workouts, I knew I just had to do what I could and hope for the best.

On Monday, I wasn’t feeling too nauseous but I was having quite a bit of hip pain. So I had to work around that and make sure that I didn’t do anything that was too painful for me.

For cardio, we had a long block that had pretty short intervals. We did a push pace to base pace and the each push/base interval was the same amount of time. So it was a 30-second push pace and 30-second base pace for the first interval. And they went up by 15 seconds each time. At the end of the block, we had a 30-second all-out.

On the rower, we also had a long block. We started with squats to front presses with a medicine ball and then we had a 200-meter row. Then we had the medicine ball exercise plus lunges before a 400-meter row. Then those exercises plus shoulder presses and then a 600-meter row. I actually didn’t get beyond that because my rowing was so slow, but it was a decent amount of work for what I could do.

And on the floor, we had neutral grip rows, sumo squats to upright rows, squats, and high rows on the straps. None of the floor exercises were too hard for me with the hip pain, but I did have to take some time with the squats because those were starting to bother me a bit. I wasn’t in pain, but I can tell when an exercise just isn’t feeling right and I need to make sure I’m not having sloppy form or something else that could cause pain later.

Tuesday I was definitely feeling nauseous plus still had some hip pain, so again I had to go easy and listen to my body. I knew that both of these feelings were temporary and that soon I would feel better, but it doesn’t always make it easier.

We had 2 blocks for cardio and both blocks had some incline work in them. We alternated between a regular push pace and a push pace with an incline with a base pace in between. I did go higher on my resistance levels to do the incline work, but I know I wasn’t pedaling that fast for either of the cardio blocks.

On the rower, we did stroke drills for both blocks. In the first block, we did a 12 stroke drill, rested, and then repeated the drill with the goal to beat our distance from the first one. And after that second row we had squats before repeating the pattern again. In the second block, we did 15 stroke drills and had lunges instead of squats.

And on the floor, we had one long block that had cluster sets. We had 3 exercises to do as cluster sets and we did each one 3 times. We had chest presses, tap squats, and overhead tricep extensions. For the sets, the first time was supposed to be 6-10 reps and then the second time was just to do as many as possible.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark and I knew it wasn’t going to be a great one for me. My nausea was pretty bad and I just wasn’t in a good mood because of how I had been feeling all week. This time, the benchmark was the 1 mile challenge, and I knew I had done really well on it the last time. This time, I just wanted to get through it and see what happened.

Our entire cardio block was focused on the benchmark. I knew I would finish in under 10 minutes, but I wanted to see if I could maybe do it in under 9. I didn’t put the resistance level that high since this benchmark is all about speed. I also knew that it would make things a bit easier on me since it wouldn’t take as much effort to pedal. And somehow, I made it just under 9 minutes so I was very happy. It was far from my PR, but I hit the goal I had set for myself.

On the rower, we had different row distances and we were supposed to do jumping jacks between them, but I knew I couldn’t do that. So for the entire row block, I just rowed as long as I could and then rested when I needed to. I wasn’t worried about distances or anything like that, I just kept going to maximize my time on the rower.

And on the floor, we had circuit work. We had 2 rounds of each circuit and then we did them as one long block after that. We had single arm rows and chest flys for the first circuit and step-ups and deadlifts for the second circuit. I was able to lower the bench so I could do the step-ups, but they did take me a while since I had to make sure I stayed balanced.

My hip pain was finally starting to be done by Thursday, but my nausea really kicked in hard. Plus I was dealing with very intense cramps so I don’t think my lack of hip pain helped me too much. But I knew this would be my last workout of the week so I wanted to just try the best I could.

Every section of the room had 3 blocks for this workout. For cardio, the blocks were always a push pace, an all-out, a 1-minute recovery, a push pace, and an all-out. In the first block, the push and all-outs were 1-minute, in the second block they were 45-seconds, and in the last block they were 30-seconds.

On the rower, we were timed the same way as cardio so we had the push and all-out rows. But instead of a recovery, we had the minute to do 10 overhead presses with a medicine ball and then we could rest for any time that was left over. I usually didn’t have much time to rest, so I just got my feet back into the rower and had a few seconds to breathe before doing the next set of push and all-out rows.

And on the floor, we had 2 exercises for each block. In the first block we had goblet squats and then we were supposed to do jumps to shuffles. I did squats to calf raises instead of the jumps. The second block had lateral lunges and skater lunges. And the last block was all core work and I really struggled with it with all my pain so I just did crunches for that last block to make sure I did something close to what we were supposed to do.

Considering how bad this past week could have been, it wasn’t too bad. I’m hoping that this week isn’t bad either and at least the end of the week should hopefully be ok for me. And even though I won’t have another benchmark to do this week, I can still try to keep pushing myself and making sure that I work extra hard when I feel ok to make up for weeks like this past one.

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Default ThumbnailPRs and Pain (or Another Up and Down Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA Much Better Workout Week (or At Least This Time My Pain Was From Working Out) Default ThumbnailPRs and Pain (or A Very Up And Down Week) Default ThumbnailAnother Painful Workout Week (or Swapping One Pain For Another) Default ThumbnailPushing Through A Tough Workout Week (or At Least It’s What I’m Used To Dealing With) Default ThumbnailSwapping One Type Of Pain For Another (or I Feel Like This Happens More Often Than I’d Like)

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So Many Meetings (or I Can’t Do Everything)

Posted on January 13, 2023 | Comments Off on So Many Meetings (or I Can’t Do Everything)

Maybe it was because this week was the first full work week of the new year or maybe there’s no reason for it, but this week I had so many different meetings I was supposed to be a part of. Every single day, I had at least one meeting on my schedule. Some of these were for work, some were for acting, and I also had an HOA meeting. And because there were so many meetings and I had to make sure I didn’t neglect other parts of my life, I just couldn’t make it all work.

Of course, my work meetings took priority. There is a lot going on right now so I’ve been a part of various meetings to plan and discuss things. Some of these meetings were planned in advance and some were only planned a few minutes before it was supposed to start. I’m grateful my job is mindful of my time and when I put in my schedule when I’m not available, so these all worked within my regular work hours. I know that being a part of some of these meetings is a sign of trust that the executive team has in me and shows my seniority within the company, so I didn’t take it lightly when I was added to a meeting. I did a lot of listening and not as much talking since some of these meetings were mainly higher-ups and I was there to either add a little bit more information or just to hear what is coming ahead.

We also had our belated work holiday party which was a Zoom meeting this past week. That was fun and we had different competitions such as best cocktail/mocktail and best Zoom background. I did make a fun background, but I didn’t win this time. But that’s ok since I won for Thanksgiving.

Also on my schedule this week was an HOA meeting for my condo. This isn’t something I have to go to, but I want to attend as many as I can so I can know what’s going on. Since this meeting is in the evening after most people are done with work, I was easily able to add it to my schedule. And since we just changed HOA management companies recently, I really wanted to hear what everyone else was saying. I haven’t noticed a huge difference with the new management company, but I haven’t had to do much through them since the renovation. And it’s always good to hear what is happening with the HOA dues and what things are being considered. There wasn’t too much discussed in the meeting, but there are some things coming up that I’m aware of now. Mainly dealing with the recycling and upcoming compost (which is required now for us) as well as some possible changes to the equipment in the gym. They also discussed that the roof is in good condition which is important with all the rain. I wasn’t too worried about the roof, but it was good to hear that I really don’t need to worry.

But the meetings I had to be ok not attending were some union/acting meetings that I had on my schedule. I really was looking forward to these meetings and they had been on my calendar for a while, but then other things came up that I couldn’t get out of or had to prioritize such as my work meetings. I know that this is a normal thing that so many people deal with, but it was still frustrating when I worked hard to try to attend meetings that were planned in advance. But I know that people understand when something comes up like this or if someone had to miss a meeting due to an emergency or being sick. But I still didn’t like it.

Having a week like this past week isn’t normal for me and I’m glad it’s not since having so many meetings can be stressful and overwhelming. But I made it through the week with only a few missed meetings and I know for the next few weeks my meetings will be much more spread out so this won’t be something I should have to deal with again for a while.

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Default ThumbnailStill Learning More About Being A Homeowner (or Observing Another HOA Meeting) Default ThumbnailMissing Some Union Meetings (or Even Virtual Meetings Don’t Guarantee I Can Go) Default ThumbnailMore Virtual Union Meetings (or Hopefully We Will Be Back To In-Person Meetings Soon) Default ThumbnailMy First Real HOA Meeting (or This Felt Like A Union Meeting) Default ThumbnailMaking Sure I Make It To Union Meetings (or Sometimes I Can’t Help My Schedule) Default ThumbnailLots Of Virtual Meetings (or Virtual Union Meetings)

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So Much Rain (or At Least I’m Not Really Going Anywhere)

Posted on January 12, 2023 | Comments Off on So Much Rain (or At Least I’m Not Really Going Anywhere)

I think the rain happening in California has been in the news for everyone, no matter where in the country you are. Yes, we have needed rain and we need to get out of a drought, but this amount of rain isn’t what we really needed. Because of the multi-year drought and how quickly this rain is coming, so much of the rain is going out to the ocean since we can’t store it all. But it is better than no rain so at least something is happening.

But even though the rain is good for the state and helps a lot of things, it’s also causing a lot of issues. I’ve been lucky with my place because I haven’t really had any flood or water issues. I was worried about it since I am on the first floor and I do have a little backyard. But I think either the rain was flowing away from my door or it was not puddling up. I also didn’t have any issues by my front door, but that’s probably because there is a little overhang from the floor above me over where my door is. And I guess it’s good that I don’t have any leaking from my windows even though they are old and probably need to be replaced.

At the building I’m in, we’ve had some standing water issues because the drains were being overwhelmed. There was a lot of water in our parking garage because it’s below street level and the water was flowing in, but it wasn’t flooding like I had seen other people have problems with. I just had to be careful where I stepped so I didn’t step into a deep puddle of water and get my socks and shoes wet.

I know LA has been luckier than other parts of the state. In Santa Barbara, there have been evacuations and their airport had to shut down due to flooding. In the Bay Area, freeways were flooding and cars were getting stuck. I know we had some mudslides in LA County, but they have been in very different parts of the county compared to where I live.

But even though the rain wasn’t causing a lot of property damage, it was still tough for me to get around. Whenever it’s raining or the weather is similar to when it’s raining, my hip hurts much more. I have been in a lot of pain since these back-to-back storms have been happening and I really try to not go too many places because I’m just in that much pain. I also know that the rain and water on the ground make things more unstable for me and I don’t want to risk falling. I’m staying home except for going to my workouts or doing errands that I can’t avoid doing. But even for things like getting groceries, I’m doing grocery delivery to be able to stay home and not have to worry about the pain or slipping.

Right now, we have a break from the rain but the next few storms are supposed to start soon. I’m going to try to get out of my house a bit while we have this break, but once the next storm comes in I will be staying home as much as I can again. I know that this is a lot less rain than most of the country deals with, but I still can’t wait until we are back to our normal sunny weather and I don’t have to have all these other concerns while trying to be out in the world.

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Default ThumbnailJust Being Lazy In The Rain (or Not Much To Write About) Default ThumbnailPain Distracts From Other Pain (or The Rain Isn’t Too Bad This Time) Default ThumbnailOnly Knowing Some Of The News (or Several Rough Nights Of Sleep) Default Thumbnail5K #9 (or I Still Don’t Like The Rain) Default Thumbnail2 Floods in 11 Hours (or I’m Glad I Knew Where The Water Shut-Off Was) Default ThumbnailMy Hips Ruined Part Of My Weekend (or Maybe I Should Pay Attention To The Weather)

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Exactly The Musical I Needed To See (or I Wasn’t Expecting To Like This Show This Much)

Posted on January 11, 2023 | Comments Off on Exactly The Musical I Needed To See (or I Wasn’t Expecting To Like This Show This Much)

I’m about halfway through my musical season, which is surprising since it feels like it just started. But this season is split up with a few other shows, so I don’t have another show until this summer when we have 3 shows within 3 months. So I’ll be missing seeing shows for a little while, but I think that the show we got to see this past weekend will make up for that because I really loved the show we saw.

It’s always a tradition to go to Wood & Vine before the show, and we continued that again. We lucked out because we have been having a lot of storms here in LA and Sunday was a break from the rain. So we were able to sit outside and stay warm under a heat lamp. And it was nice to have some outside time when I feel like I’ve been cooped up inside for a while. As always, the food was so delicious and amazing. We ordered a lot of things that we had before, but they have all been favorites of ours.

I was also smarter before going out that night and didn’t eat too much for breakfast or lunch so I had room for all the good food. Everything was really fulfilling and perfect for the stormy weather we have been going through.

And our show that night was one that was supposed to be in the 2019-2020 season that was canceled. But I’m glad the show decided to set up a tour again and they were a part of this season.

I love the movie “Mean Girls” and I was excited to see how it was adapted into a musical. I’ve seen some adaptations that I loved and some that weren’t as great, but I had high hopes for this one. Plus, I knew that the show would be very high-energy and silly so I was looking forward to that.

But what I didn’t expect was how much I would love the show. I thought the cast was so talented and the songs were very funny. Even when there was a technical glitch and the show had to take a very long pause, they were able to come back with as much energy and enthusiasm as before. And you couldn’t tell that they had to make some last-minute staging changes to accommodate the technical issues.

The story is pretty much the same as the movie and there are also a lot of the same characters. But there is a new level to the story with the songs. And I feel like the songs were so many different genres so they almost felt like a collective or a mix tape than something written by a single person. I really loved that. And the sets were almost all using screens, which is something I normally don’t love but it really worked with the show. It allowed the staging to quickly switch from one location to another and it kept the show moving quickly.

I really needed to see a show like Mean Girls. It was so fun and a nice escape from everything else going on in the world and in my life. And that’s why I love having season tickets for musicals. Normally, they aren’t just entertaining but a way to remove myself from any stress and worries in my life and I can just enjoy that moment in time and be really connected to a show. It will be weird that I might not have another musical until the summer, but maybe I’ll find something else to go and check out in the meantime!

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Default ThumbnailAnother Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way) Default ThumbnailAnother Musical Season (or Enjoying A Repeat Musical) Default ThumbnailOne More Show At The Dolby (or Almost The End Of A Long Musical Season) Default ThumbnailMoulin Rouge! (or The Last Show Of An Extended Theater Season) Default ThumbnailKicking Off A Musical Season (or Seeing A Cartoon Brought To Life) Default ThumbnailNot Exactly A Musical Night (or Continuing To Be Spoiled With Our Pre-Show Dinners)

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