Tag Archives: celebration

A Bridal Shower Celebration (or My Morning In Santa Barbara)

Posted on January 19, 2016 | Comments Off on A Bridal Shower Celebration (or My Morning In Santa Barbara)

With my friend Rayshell’s wedding coming up in a few months, there are a couple of different wedding related celebrations that I get to attend! This past weekend was her bridal shower, and I was so excited to get to go!

It was held in Santa Barbara so it was a little bit of a drive for me. But fortunately, there wasn’t any traffic so I got there early. I hung out in my car listening to podcasts until it was time for the party to start (I found out later that it would have been fine for me to show up early).

The party had a Paris theme to it and all the decorations were so cute!

Decoration

Each guest had a champagne glass with their name on it to use for drinks. They had champagne, wine, water, and a couple of different juices. I think most people had a mimosa, but I decided to go with orange juice because I need to limit my alcohol since I am on Vyvanse.

Party Favor

Rayshell’s bridesmaids did an amazing job putting together this party. They had a really nice brunch set up. I had some fruit and veggies and quiche. It was very yummy but casual so we all could enjoy hanging out with each other. I’ve been to other bridal showers where things are over scheduled or a bit too fancy (none of those have been written about on here), but I loved that this shower was relaxing and allowed us all to have a nice time.

There were two games that we played. One was where we all wore a fake diamond ring and if we said Rayshell’s name we had to give our ring to the person who caught us doing that. I was doing ok for a bit, but I said her name and my friend Sarah was the one who got my ring. I’m glad she got it because she ended up winning the ring game!

The other game we played was naming the movie that different movie quotes came from.

Movie Quotes

We all thought these were pretty tough and I only got 2 of them. The winner got 3, so I didn’t feel too bad.

After games and food, it was time for Rayshell to open her presents. Everyone got her really nice stuff. Some of it was stuff off of her registry, and some of it was just fun stuff that they knew she’d like. I asked Rayshell what on her registry she wanted now instead of waiting until her wedding to get and she said that there was an entry way rug she wanted. I ordered it off of her registry and it arrived right before the shower. So she had sent me a text when she got it showing me how nice it looked in her house.

Rayshell's gift

While it was a super practical gift and not the most fun or silly thing to buy, I’m glad I was able to get her something that she (and her fiancée) really wanted to have for their apartment now.

After gifts, it was time to start wrapping things up. I talked with a bunch of the other girls there about details for Rayshell’s bachelorette party which is coming up in a month. It will be a really fun time and I’m excited to get to have a fun night out with everyone. And in a few more months, it will be Rayshell’s wedding which I know is going to be fabulous! I have seen what the venue looks like (and I was there when she got her dress) so I know that it’s going to be an incredible wedding.

While I know that some of my single friends don’t love going to weddings or participating in wedding related events, I don’t mind it at all. I love getting to celebrate my friends and all the wonderful things happening in their lives right now. Eventually, it will be my turn and I know that they will all be there to celebrate me then. But for now, I’m just so excited for Rayshell to get married so she can have her happily ever after!

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Default ThumbnailA Happy Hour Celebration (or Looking Forward To Another Wedding) Default ThumbnailWedding Season (or A Bridal Shower For Another Jen) Default ThumbnailSanta Barbara Wedding (or Dancing The Night Away) Default ThumbnailSanta Barbara Weekend (or Family and Friends Time) Default ThumbnailSanta Barbara Engagement Party (or Sunburn and Rain) Default ThumbnailA Little More Time In Santa Barbara (or Hanging Out With My Sister-In-Law)

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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200 Episodes (or We Managed To Throw An Amazing Event!)

Posted on July 2, 2015 | 3 comments

This past Monday was the live recording of the 200th episode for Inside Acting. I still can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we did the 100th episode.

This time, we did another event at SAG Foundation. They are really awesome to work with and they are so helpful. We were able to set up at Q&A with the creative team from the show “Defiance”.

SAG Foundation:Inside Acting:Defiance

For the past month or so, I’ve been sending so many emails and texts trying to get this organized. I’m sure I panicked more than I needed to, but I’m a perfectionist with anxiety. I had to make sure that everything was going to be ok.

As soon as I got to SAG Foundation, I started to relax a little. We had a line of people waiting to get into the room for the Q&A! There were a bunch of listeners as well as several past podcast guests there to support us! While everyone took their seats I was hanging out in the green room with the panelists and hosts of the podcast. And before we knew it, it was their turn to head on to the stage!

200th Episode

During the live recording, I hung off to the side monitoring our twitter account to see if anyone was tweeting questions that they wanted to have Trevor and AJ ask the panel. And every so often, I glanced over to the audience and was so amazed at everyone who showed up to support us.

Audience

The recording went great and I think that the panel and the audience had an amazing time! And once we finished some technical stuff at SAG Foundation, we all headed over to the after party at The Parlor.

The after party was something that caused me a ton of anxiety. This was going to be set up without anyone from the podcast there. But we were fortunate that some great friends offered to get there early to set up and help our sponsors get their things set up as well.

And as soon as I got there, I breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was the after party exactly what I was hoping for, it beat my expectations so much! The place was packed and everyone was having an amazing time!

As soon as you walked into The Parlor, we had a photo booth/red carpet setup with photography from The Headshot Truck.

The Headshot Truck

I know that before the event some people wondered about if the red carpet and photo booth setup would be cool together. And I’m happy to report that everybody loved it! There were some traditional red carpet photos taken, but there were way more fun photo booth style photos taken with the props that The Headshot Truck had brought for us to use.

Photo Booth

I definitely enjoyed the photos. And since there was wifi at the venue, the photos were added to Facebook immediately (you can see all the photos on their page). I really feel like that having them there turned the party into an event!

We also had some amazing treats that Brandi from Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe made! We had some regular cookies that everyone was eating all night. But the coolest thing was the custom logo cookies that Brandi made for us!

Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe

I think those cookies were the most photographed thing at the party!

I spent a lot of time at the party running around making sure that everyone was having a good time. I wish I was able to relax a bit more, but that’s just not who I am. But from everything that I heard from everyone and that I read on social media, everyone had an amazing time.

I still can’t believe that we pulled this off. It really turned out better than I ever could have imagined. And because I feel like things need to continue to get bigger and better, I now have to top this for our 300th episode.

At least I’ve got about 2 years to plan it.

Seriously, I’m so incredibly lucky that I get to be a part of the Inside Acting Podcast team that has created an amazing community around it.

IAP Team

(we left a space in the middle because one of our team members was out of the country for the 200th episode)

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Default ThumbnailMs. In The Biz Anniversary Party (or Having Fun In A Photo Booth) Default ThumbnailCelebrating 300 Episodes (or We Had Another Amazing Party) Default ThumbnailAnother IAP Hangout (or The Entire Team In One Place) Default ThumbnailCelebrating 200 Episodes Of The Podcast (or Come and Celebrate With Me!) Default ThumbnailExpress Headshot Day (or Another Fun Podcast Event) Default ThumbnailAnna Faris Is Unqualified (or Listening To A Live Event)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations)

Posted on June 8, 2015 | Comments Off on 1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations)

I was headed to my Orangetheory workout on Monday when I got a notification of an email from Orangetheory. My first thought was that maybe class was cancelled due to some weird reason or the parking garage was closed and they were giving us a heads up.

But instead, this is what it said:

1 Year Of OTF

It’s true, June 1st marked 1 year since my very first Orangetheory workout! One year ago I did a workout that made it tough for me to walk for several days after! I wondered at the time if I would ever do the workout again or if I could even do it on a semi-regular basis. But I decided to take a chance and see what could happen.

One year and over 150 workouts later, I’m much stronger and healthier. When I started I was using mainly 8 or 10 pound weights. Now, I’m using 15 pounds weights for most things (and 20 pound weights for deadlifts and occasionally squats). When I started I was going 3.0 miles an hour. I remember when I started going 3.1 miles an hour and how proud I was of myself because that meant that I could do a 5K in an hour again. Now, I’m at 3.4 miles an hour on the treadmill and I’m hoping that within a month I will start doing 3.5 miles an hour a little bit in my workout.

I can’t believe that a year has passed since that first workout. In one way, it seems like just a month or so ago that I struggled through that workout. But at the same time, it’s hard remembering what life was like where I didn’t spend almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday working out.

I was on a high for my Monday workout knowing that it was my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory. I really wanted to try getting my treadmill faster for that workout, but my body just wasn’t having it. But I was just happy to spend my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory doing a workout there. That seemed right to me.

Not only was it my 1 year anniversary with Orangetheory, Friday marked 1 year since the grand opening of the location I go to (I started before the grand opening since I went to a pre-opening bloggers event)!

All day on Friday they had special things at the studio to celebrate.

OTF Party

Since I was working during the day, I missed out on the taco truck. But they did have snacks and drinks after my 4pm workout. And during my workout they had a live DJ doing the music for the class (the DJ classes are a pretty regular thing but they usually aren’t at the times that I go).

Everyone was in a very festive mood at the workout and that helped make the workout go by a little faster.

And since this week started off my second year at Orangetheory, I figured I should get 4 workouts in for the week instead of 3. I’m hoping that 4 workouts will soon be the norm and I’m working on finding exactly when in my schedule I can do them. But this past week it worked out well to go on Saturday after my box office shift was done.

The Saturday workout was a bit tough, but that was mainly because we didn’t rotate between the treadmill and the floor until the halfway point. Even though I’m more used to the extended treadmill time, I still don’t love having 24 minutes on the treadmill without a break on the floor doing weights (or when it’s a run/row and you break up the treadmill time with rowing).

I think that my 4 workout week was a great way to start my 2nd year at Orangetheory. I’m impressed that I got over 150 workouts in for my first year (especially since I wasn’t doing 4 workouts a week until a few months in). My goal for 2015 is to do 175 workouts, and I am on track for that. But maybe I can beat that goal for year 2 of Orangetheory!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

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Mother’s Day (or Another Day Trip To San Diego)

Posted on May 15, 2013 | 1 comment

The past few years I’ve been going to San Diego to see my grandparents for Mother’s Day. In the past, my dad did the Revlon 5K with me and then he and I would drive to San Diego together (my mom would drive while we were doing the 5K).

This year, my parents were on a trip and were already in San Diego on Mother’s Day. So on Sunday, I drove down alone to see my parents and grandparents.

My grandma has been doing really well since her hip surgery. The Friday before Mother’s Day she was able to leave the skilled nursing care and return home, so that was very exciting!

It took me exactly 2 hours to get from my house to my grandparents’ place, and it was actually a really nice drive.

IMG_1814

Most of the day was spent visiting. My grandma got to FaceTime with my cousin’s brand new baby boy, Hudson.

IMG_1809 IMG_1808

It was really cool to get to see the baby. I don’t know when I’m going to get to meet him in person, so FaceTime is a good substitute. I also got to talk with my cousin’s other two kids, who are super adorable (I didn’t get a chance to try to take screenshots then).

I gave my mom and grandma their presents. I got my mom a purse hook, but since I had to order it online, I printed a picture of it and put it in her card.

And I got my grandma some new slippers she could wear inside her house (so she doesn’t slip again).

IMG_1813

My mom made a great brisket dinner. Seriously, I can never make brisket as good as she does. We also had homemade meringues with strawberries for dessert.

About 7 hours after I got there, I had to start my drive back home so I could go to bed at a decent hour. I’m not sure if I’m going to get to see my grandparents before Thanksgiving, but maybe when my work calms down in the fall I can do another day trip. I’ll be seeing my parents again in August when we celebrate my 30th birthday.

I’m so happy that I live close enough to my grandparents to see them a lot. I’ve now had the time to make the drive there and back 3 times in the past 3 months. That’s pretty awesome!

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Default ThumbnailSan Diego Day (or Hanging Out With Family On My Day Off) Default ThumbnailAnother San Diego Day Trip (or 3 Generations and A Dog) Default ThumbnailSan Diego Day Trip (or The Backgammon Witch) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Trip (or Being With My Family In San Diego) Default ThumbnailDay Trip To San Diego (or Driving Disasters) Default ThumbnailA Day In San Diego (or Celebrating An Anniversary And A Birthday)

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Birthday Hangover (or I Feel So Loved)

Posted on August 10, 2012 | 1 comment

I had a fabulous birthday yesterday! Even though I had to work an 8 hour shift, I still had time to enjoy it.

Thank you to everyone who posted on my Facebook wall, who tweeted at me, and who texted me!

Thank you to my family for getting me such awesome cards. Thank you to my parents for my awesome flowers. And thank you to my brother and future sister-in-law for my AppleTV.

Also, thank you to my boss who got a yummy ice cream cake for everyone at my work to enjoy (birthday calories don’t count, right?).

;

I still have a few more birthday adventures coming up such as going to the Hollywood Bowl to see Liza Minnelli, dinner at Benihana (you get $30 there for your birthday), and eventually another trip to Medieval Times.

But for now, I’m getting back on track with food and finances!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food

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