Tag Archives: anniversary

Happy Birthday To FMIB! (or 2 Years And Finally Taking Myself Seriously As A Writer)

Posted on July 16, 2014 | 4 comments

Today marks 2 years since I started blogging on here! I still can’t believe that I’ve been able to keep this up for so long. Even though there are plenty of days where I struggle thinking of what to post on here, I still have posted now every weekday for 2 entire years!

I really should stop being shocked at myself for being so consistent. And I’m also really working on taking myself seriously as a writer.

And that’s important to do now because I lost my one day job with steady hours.

So I’m down to 6 day jobs, but none of those have guaranteed hours. And some of them won’t have hours available to me until the end of August or beginning of September.

Since I haven’t been able to save any money lately (and I’m only able to make the minimum payments on my credit card), I’m desperately looking for new days jobs now.

I started applying for the usual types of jobs like receptionist/assistant/data entry type of work. But then some people encouraged me to pursue writing jobs. They said that I am a writer (I’m working on believing that myself). I have over 500 posts on here to prove that as well as over a year of monthly posts on two other blogs.

So I spent some time creating a new resume highlighting my writing experience (there really isn’t much yet) and started to apply for various blogging and copy writing jobs. I probably applied for about 50 or 60 jobs, but I have heard back from one already. They wanted to know my blogging background and I had to answer a dozen questions about how I would handle different job situations.

I’m so glad that when I responded, I could say proudly that I had been writing on here for about 2 years (I applied for the jobs earlier this week so my 2 year mark hadn’t hit yet and I wanted to be totally honest). I also was able to provide multiple writing samples about various subjects.

While the job hunt is getting me down a bit, I’m going to spend today in a celebratory mood. 2 years is a huge milestone! I should allow myself to be happy and proud!

And I know that there are a bunch of you who have been supporting and following me through the entire 2 year life of this blog so far and I have to say thank you! Every day I’m still amazed that there are people reading this and responding about things that are going on in my life! And if you are new to following me, thanks for all the support you’ve already given to me and I hope that my next 2 years on here will bring more fun posts to share with you all!

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Default Thumbnail4 Years (or Reflections On The Past) Default Thumbnail8 Years In (or Another Blog Anniversary) Default Thumbnail5 Years Old (or My Blog Is A Kindergartner) Default ThumbnailI Keep Hitting Little Moments Of Writer’s Block (or Not Sure What To Say) Default ThumbnailHappy 100th! (or Guess I Might Be A Writer) Default ThumbnailHappy Birthday Kate! (or Yay For My Friend Of 21 Years!)

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Work

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500 Posts! (or A Reason To Celebrate!)

Posted on June 13, 2014 | 6 comments

Today’s post is about a lot of good things that have happened lately.

First of all, like the title of this post says, this is my 500th post on Finding My Inner Bombshell! That’s so bonkers to me! I write 5 days a week so that means I’ve been writing for 100 weeks. So yes, that also means that my 2 year anniversary of the blog is coming up soon as well.

I’m still in shock how this blog really has become an important part of my life. When I started, I hoped I’d be able to keep it going. Now when I’m not writing on the weekends, I feel like something is missing. I’ve made new friends because of the blog and I’ve become closer to old friends because of my honesty here. It’s just awesome.

The next part of my awesome news is that my mom got her BRCA test results back and she doesn’t have the gene mutation! When my mom texted me with the news, I cried in relief. This is a weight lifted off my shoulders (and I’m sure the rest of my family feels this way). When I talked to my mom that day, she said that getting these results have allowed her to relax and she can go on and enjoy life. And for me, it means that while I still have a higher risk of getting breast cancer in my life because my mom had it, it’s not nearly as high of a risk if I had had the gene mutation.

I’m still going to be monitored much closer and I’ve already talked with my gynecologist about setting up a mammogram appointment after I see her (I’m sure I’ll be writing about that appointment when it happens because I’m still crazy nervous about it).

The third, and technically, final good news is that I’m finally starting to get back on track with losing weight. I’ve lost about 10% of what I had gained recently. It’s not a lot, but it’s totally a start. I’m working on my eating and I’ve been working out again. My journey is still going to be a long one, but I’m happy to be moving in the right direction again.

And in other celebratory things (but not technically good news), today is my friend Kate’s birthday! I’ll be seeing her next week, so we’ll get to celebrate her birthday then, but I wanted to acknowledge how amazing of a friend she is. She was the first person I talked to when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She kept the news a secret for a while until my mom was ready to go public with the news. And she was there to listen to me whenever I was freaking out or having a tough time. Not many friends would or could do that and I’m so insanely grateful that she was willing to be there for me.

So to recap: yay for 500 posts, yay for my mom not having the BRCA gene, yay for me losing some weight, and happy birthday to Kate!

I love how my life has become so wonderful and positive!

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Default ThumbnailBirthday Countdown (or Taking Suggestions On How To Celebrate) Default ThumbnailTime For A Celebration! (or A Pie Date) Default ThumbnailA Phone Call Can Change My Future (or Making Plans) Default ThumbnailFamily Day (or How A Broken Hip Allowed Me To Celebrate My Mom’s Birthday With Her) Default ThumbnailSocial Media Reminders (or Another Thing To Celebrate) Default Thumbnail1 Year Of Running (or A New Anniversary To Celebrate)

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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1 Year Of Awesomeness (or Congrats To Ms In The Biz)

Posted on May 23, 2014 | 1 comment

This past Monday, one of the blogs I freelance on, Ms In The Biz, celebrated its one year anniversary! Any blog making it one year is a huge deal and I’m so honored that I’ve been a part of it since day one (or even before day one since one of my posts went live before the site technically launched).

Helena, the creator of the blog, joined up with Film Break to have an amazing anniversary party. It was held at Vaucluse Lounge. Vaucluse had an incredible history. It used to be Charlie Chaplin’s house (the second floor is still owned by his estate). I had never been there before, but it’s close to some other bars on Sunset that I have been to so I was able to find some decently priced valet parking nearby.

The party was so much fun! My friend Robert arrived at the same time as me so we walked in together (and tried to mingle together as well). Our first stop was on the red carpet where I tried to have a cute pose.

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Next, we walked around trying to see if we knew anyone else at the party. I saw Helenna and grabbed her for a quick photo at the step and repeat.

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I also ran into some friends who I hadn’t seen in years! That’s one thing I love about events like this. It helps me reconnect with people who I haven’t seen in forever!

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I had such a great time at the party. I normally get a little panicky at events like this. I don’t like crowds and I’m always worried that I won’t know someone else there, but fortunately this event was so perfectly set up (and the timing of me running into my friends could not have been planned better if we had tried) that I never had to worry or panic at all.

So here’s to 1 year of Ms In The Biz and I look forward to being a part of it for many more years to come!

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Default ThumbnailOne Year (or Actually One Year And A Couple Of Days) Default ThumbnailMs. In The Biz Anniversary Party (or Having Fun In A Photo Booth) Default ThumbnailMy SoulCycle Anniversary (or 1 Year Of Spinning) Default ThumbnailIt’s The Most Social Time Of The Year (or I Wish There Were Two Of Me) Default ThumbnailNew Year’s Eve Fun (or Making Sure 2014 Is A Lucky Year) Default ThumbnailHappy Anniversary Mom And Dad (or Celebrating 32 Years Of Awesomeness)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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My SoulCycle Anniversary (or 1 Year Of Spinning)

Posted on January 10, 2014 | 2 comments

This week, SoulCycle Santa Monica is celebrating their 1 year anniversary. There will be some fun stuff in the studio on Saturday (if any of you want to try SoulCycle with me I’ll be going to the 4pm class).

I realized that if the studio is at their 1 year anniversary, I must be getting close to the 1 year mark of my first spin class. My friend Kate and I were trying to figure out when our first class was the other day. I finally scrolled back in my calendar on my phone and it said that my first class was on 1/9/13.

That didn’t seem right to either of us. We couldn’t think of how we could double-check this for sure until I realized that I could look at what day I wrote my first spin class blog post. And since that post came out on 1/10/13, I realized that January 9th was my SoulCycle anniversary!

And how did I celebrate my anniversary of spin?

By going to spin class of course!

I took Charlee’s class because I knew it would be an awesome anniversary class (and the time fit in perfectly with my work schedule). Right before the first song of class, the instructor normally asks if anyone is taking a SoulCycle class for the first time. After Charlee asked that she announced to everyone that this class marked my 1 year anniversary of SoulCycle! And she had everyone give me a round of applause!

That was so incredible (and totally unexpected). While I figure my friends would acknowledge the fact that I’ve stuck with this workout for so long, I didn’t think anyone at SoulCycle would think it’s a big deal. I’m sure people have done way bigger things than that.

After class, I thanked Charlee and told her how much I appreciated her caring about my accomplishment. Her shout out to me in the beginning of class really made my day.

Reflecting back on my 1 year of spin classes has been interesting. I’ve lost some weight in the past year (about 25 pounds), but it’s not as much as I would have thought with the new workout. But so much more about me has changed. I’m so much happier and more confident. I know that I can push my body so much harder than I ever expected. And I’ve stopped feeling like a victim due to my weight.

While I still have so many struggles with everything relating to my weight and eating disorder, I like knowing that whether I’ve lost weight, gained weight, or stayed the same; I can still kick some ass in spin class.

And of course, I have to share a day one and year one picture with you!

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Because of how the picture was taken, it’s hard to tell if I look like I’ve lost any weight between the two pictures. But the picture I’m more proud of from yesterday is the one I took right before I left SoulCycle to go to work (after I had showered and gotten ready there).

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The picture looks a little weird because I’m standing in front of a neon wall, but I think that I look more confident and happy with myself in this picture than in any other that I have taken recently.

One year of SoulCycle done. And I hope that I have a ton of years of SoulCycle ahead of me!

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Default Thumbnail1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations) Default ThumbnailStarting The Year Off Right (or Spinning Away) Default ThumbnailSpinning Machine (or Continuing My New Healthy Addiction) Default ThumbnailGetting Fly (or Spinning With Bloggers) Default ThumbnailAnother SoulCycle Day (or Maybe I Really Have Found My Workout Addiction) Default ThumbnailFeeling Like I’m Home (or My Return To Spinning)

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Weight Loss

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One Year (or Actually One Year And A Couple Of Days)

Posted on July 18, 2013 | 2 comments

I can’t believe that I actually missed the 1 year anniversary of me starting this blog! July 16, 2012 was my very first post.

In my defense, I didn’t mean to miss the anniversary, but life has been crazy lately! And for some reason, I had July 19th stuck in my head.

But here’s to me writing faithfully on here for an entire year! Holy moly!

Honestly, when I started the blog, I didn’t know how long I’d do it. I thought maybe a few people would read it (like my parents), but I didn’t think anything beyond that.

One year (and a few days) later, I have over 10,000 views from over 80 different countries!

I can see what search terms people use to stumble upon my blog, and two of the most common are Dirty Shirley and Stripper Penguin. I’m not sure what that says about the last year of my life, but I think it’s pretty awesome.

Since I started this, I’ve gotten a better control on my eating disorder. I think that coming clean was one of the best things I could have done for myself. And in the last year, I’ve lost just over 20 pounds! That may seem like not much (or a ton) to you, but to me it’s steady progress. I’m hoping to keep this trend up for the next year.

Finally, something that this blog has done for me that I haven’t shared yet. Before I had to write something fun on here every weekday, I lived a relatively boring life. Many days when I’d get home from work, I’d just crash on my couch or read until it was time to go to bed and do it all again. Having the pressure of coming up with posts every day has forced me to be more social and to step outside of my comfort zone a lot more. I’ve attended events that I wouldn’t have done before, and I’ll try crazy things just because I know that they will make an awesome post.

I hope that I’m able to keep all of this up for another year (and more years after that). In the next year, I have lots of big events! I’m turning 30 in less than a month (I’m getting old!) and my brother’s wedding is about 7 weeks away! And I’m sure there will be lots more to share that I don’t even know about yet!

But for now, here’s to the last 367 days! Thanks for following me on my journey so far, and I hope you stay with me to see where things go!

And to celebrate, I’m going to be enjoying this split of champagne with my dinner tonight!

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Default Thumbnail5 Years Old (or My Blog Is A Kindergartner) Default Thumbnail4 Years (or Reflections On The Past) Default Thumbnail1500 Posts (or This Really Is Just A Part Of My Life) Default ThumbnailMissed Milestone (or 1,009 Posts!) Default ThumbnailA Couple Of Days In San Diego (or Trying To Focus On The Good And Not The Sad) Default ThumbnailUnder 90 Days Left In The Year (or Doing A Bit Of Reflecting)

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7 Years (or Time Really Does Fly By)

Posted on July 8, 2013 | Comments Off on 7 Years (or Time Really Does Fly By)

Yesterday marked an anniversary for me. It had been 7 years since my hip surgery. I can’t believe it’s been that long!

The hip surgery had marked the end of a pretty long ordeal for me. Things started in September of 2005. I had collapsed in the Portland airport and had trouble walking. After that, I was misdiagnosed for several months. Finally, I got my proper diagnosis and had my surgery.

I can remember that day like it was yesterday. The nurse in pre-op hated me because I wanted my mom to be in pre-op with me with they put the IV in (I knew I had a high probability of fainting). I also remember having to sign my leg in pre-op to show that they had the correct leg to operate on. And I remember joking to a friend afterwards how I thought it was funny that I had to take a pre-surgery pregnancy test (it was negative, of course).

This had been my first surgery as an adult, so I was worried how I would react to the anesthesia. Turns out, I wake up very quickly and very lucid after surgery. In my surgery, they put my right foot in a boot to keep things stable. When I woke up, my foot was still in the boot and I asked my surgeon if they had screwed up my pedicure in the surgery (they didn’t).

Recovery was not as horrible as I thought it would be. I had been in so much pain before that I was so happy with the minimal pain I felt after. I’ve since discovered that I have a new type of pain, but again, it is significantly less than what I felt before.

I remember in one of my post-op appointments (after my surgeon discovered that I have the same defect in my left hip), that it was expected that my other hip would have to be corrected within 5 years. I’m pretty damn proud of myself that I’ve made it this long without needing surgery.

Even though my surgery wasn’t necessarily fun, I look back at it with happy memories. Both my mom and dad came to LA to take care of me (my dad took some of the only sick days he ever used in his 30+ years at his job to help me). While I was recovering, my mom and I went to Warner Bros. to take a tour (I used to be a tour guide there). And we took some fun pictures that I still love to look at.

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I still am in shock how many years ago the surgery was. It really feels like it was only maybe a year ago. And hopefully it will still be many more years before I have my other hip done.

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Default ThumbnailTen Years Ago (or Another Big Milestone) Default Thumbnail10 Years Later (or A Good Memory and A Bad Memory) Default ThumbnailMore Hip Problems (or Thinking Out Of Order) Default ThumbnailHip Surgery Anniversary (or This Feels Like A Milestone) Default ThumbnailMy Hips Ruined Part Of My Weekend (or Maybe I Should Pay Attention To The Weather) Default ThumbnailMy LA Anniversary! (or 13 Years Have Gone By Quickly)

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Posted in Family, Health, Tough Stuff

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