Tag Archives: christmas

Lazy Christmas (or Cleaning And Chinese Food)

Posted on December 26, 2014 | 2 comments

I hope that you all got to celebrate Christmas exactly how you wanted to yesterday!

I spent the day at home by myself, which was fine with me. Spending time with my family on Christmas isn’t something that usually happens and last year was the first time that I was there on Christmas in possibly 10 years.

My day started off by sleeping in. This is something that I rarely get to do, so it was very nice to sleep in past 7am (I was still up by 8, but that’s an extra hour of sleep).

My entire day was unplanned, so I just relaxed. I started by hanging out reading on my couch. After a minute, I realized that one of the tv stations has the fake fireplace airing during Christmas morning, so I put that on and pretended to be reading by the fire.

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After reading a couple of chapters, I decided to work on doing a big clean up of my house. It wasn’t necessarily dirty, but to do a good cleaning job takes time, and I usually don’t have the uninterrupted time to do it.

After cleaning, I went through my kitchen to do some rearranging. While doing that, I realized that I had way too many water bottles. I get them a lot in swag bags and I have just been storing them. I counted 27 water bottles when I really only use 2 of them. So I bagged the extra ones up and will be making a stop to donate them (along with some other items) next week.

After cleaning, I decided to work on some decorating ideas. My parents gave me a teak tray back in August. They have had it for a long time but don’t use it. And I figured I could do something cool with it. When my parents were here for their layover visit, they bought me a cube ottoman and the tray has been living on that ever since.

But it had been empty since I had no idea what to do. But yesterday, I was inspired. I put some candles on there along with a driftwood candle holder my dad made and the pine branch bouquet I made at the event at the mall. I want to replace the pine branches with some flowers (the branches are dying and dropping needles everywhere), but I think that it looks pretty good so far!

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After all of that housework, I spent the rest of my day watching movies and tv shows on Netflix. I didn’t really feel like driving anywhere and was just happy spending a day being super lazy.

And of course, for dinner I ordered some Chinese food from my favorite place. It’s a big calorie splurge for me, but I think that on special occasions it is worth it!

All in all, it was the absolutely perfect Christmas for me!

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Getting “Wicked” (or Santa, A Sunset, And A Perfect Show)

Posted on December 24, 2014 | Comments Off on Getting “Wicked” (or Santa, A Sunset, And A Perfect Show)

This past Sunday was the next show in my season at The Pantages. I was finally seeing “Wicked”!

“Wicked” had been in LA several times before, and sometimes for very long runs. I always wanted to go and see it, but there was always an issue. Tickets were pretty expensive so I wanted to enter the ticket lottery. But there never seemed to be a good day to do it. And when my sister-in-law and I went to NYC, I already knew that “Wicked” was part of my Pantages season so we didn’t see it there.

The group of us going to the show decided to go early to meet up for dinner first. On my drive, there was a ton of traffic. I couldn’t figure out why until I pulled up next to this vehicle.

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Santa and one of his elves were riding on the back of a truck blasting Christmas music! It was pretty crazy to see but made my drive entertaining.

I got to dinner a bit early so I hung out outside the restaurant waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. While waiting, we had another epic LA sunset.

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When we finally went inside to eat, I ran into someone who grew up down the street from me! I hadn’t seen her since I moved to LA and while we each knew the other lived in LA, we hadn’t seen each other. It was so crazy to see her and great to catch up!

After our quick dinner, my group walked over to The Pantages for our show. I’m loving having season tickets since our seats are in the same place for every show.

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We are pretty close to the stage and even though we are off to the side we don’t miss too much of what is on stage.

I know the story of “Wicked” and I’ve heard most if not all of the songs in the show. But even knowing as much as I did I was super impressed by it! The actors were all so amazing and the show was really really good! I’m even considering trying to go see the show another time while they are still in LA (they are here for a couple of months) if someone wants to go with me..

After the show when I got home, I went through my Kindle and found my e-book of Wicked. I bought it a while ago but never felt motivated to read it. But now that’s I’ve seen the show, I want to read the book that the show is based on.

I’m so happy that I’ve seen “Wicked” now. And it’s probably better that it took me this long to see it. If I had seen it before, I probably would have gone to see it at least once every time it was in town. That’s a lot of money on tickets or a lot of lottery attempts.

Since “Wicked” has a longer LA run, my next show at The Pantages isn’t until April. That’s a while to wait for another musical but I’m super excited for the next few shows in the season!

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“Into The Woods” (or Christmas Came Early For Me This Year)

Posted on December 4, 2014 | Comments Off on “Into The Woods” (or Christmas Came Early For Me This Year)

On Monday evening, I got an email from Women In Film letting me know that people who are a part of the mentoring circles have been invited to an advanced screening of “Into The Woods”.

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“Into The Woods” is one of my favorite musicals. I saw it for the first time at a small production in Santa Barbara and have owned a DVD of the musical for a long time (and watch it pretty frequently).

When I first heard that the musical was being turned into a film, I was pretty nervous. Historically, the movies haven’t been my favorites and they seem to miss a lot of what I feel makes the musicals special. But even though I was scared I would hate the movie, it was one that I had been looking forward to seeing. And since it was opening on Christmas, my plan was to see it that morning.

But when I got the invitation to see it this week, I jumped at the chance. I emailed my RSVP quickly and hoped that I would get it. And wouldn’t you know it, I did!

The screening was held at CAA. If you aren’t in the entertainment industry, you might not know about CAA. They are the biggest agency in town representing the biggest and most famous actors out there. Pretty much, they are the top of the top of the agency game.

The invitation said that there was valet parking provided (since there really isn’t any street parking near CAA), and since it was raining I tried to get there early. But even with being there on the very early side, the line to valet park was a little crazy.

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Once I got out of my car, there was almost no line to check in. I grabbed a program and followed a CAA employee to the front desk to have my parking validated. Then she led me and 2 other ladies into the screening room.

She told us that we could sit anywhere that it said reserved, and I chose to stick with the 2 ladies who walked in with me. The 3 of us found seats pretty much in the exact center of the room.

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The screening room was amazing and very nice! I had previously seen the screening room at UTA (another agency) when I had one of my mentoring meetings. But this might have been a little nicer.

I started to talk with the ladies I sat next to and found out that one of them is a member of the Academy (as in the Academy Awards). This screening was an Academy screening so the members could view the film and decide if they would like to nominate it for any Oscars!

I believe a majority of the audience was Academy members and I felt very lucky and honored to be invited to such a cool event.

Jane Lynch (from “Glee”) was one of the people responsible for the screening, so prior to the movie starting she said a few words about how much she was looking forward to the movie.

Then, it was time for the movie to start.

For those of you who know the musical, you will not be disappointed. It stays very true to the original material and in some cases, I think the format of it being in a movie actually improves it. I was smiling pretty much the entire time that I was watching it. The performances were incredible and I think that the costumes and makeup were impeccable. I would be shocked if this didn’t get a ton of nominations for various awards.

The highlight of the movie for me was the song “Agony”. I think this is the funniest I’ve ever seen it done. And Chris Pine did a great job singing (I didn’t realize he was a singer).

Overall, this was so much fun to watch and I highly recommend it for everyone! I can’t wait until it comes out (or I get a screener for it) so I can watch it over and over again!

After the screening, there was a reception upstairs. I followed my seat mates (and new friends) to check out the reception (I wasn’t planning on staying, but how many times will I get this chance?).

The reception was held on the top floor of the building, and I just couldn’t get over how beautiful the building was!

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I didn’t eat or drink anything at the reception (the lines were long), but I got to chat with some very nice people and even had the chance to thank Jane Lynch for putting on this event. She was very gracious and when I was saying goodbye I said my usual thing I say to industry people (pretty much along the lines of “I’m sure we will see each other again in the future”) and she said something that rally made my day. She said that she was sure that we would see each other again because our careers are following the same path. That meant so much to me.

I left the reception on cloud 9 after that!

Sometimes, I really have to stop and pinch myself because I never could have imagined that this would be my life. I have so many amazing opportunities and I really do see my career taking steps forward. If I couldn’t imagine this a few years ago, I can’t wait to see what my life will have in store for me in the next few years!

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3 Cities 1 Day (or My Christmas Adventure)

Posted on December 26, 2013 | 2 comments

Christmas ended up being a pretty busy day for me and my family. First, we had a nice breakfast at home. I made a bacon and cheese bread pudding (I’ll post the recipe soon) and it was delicious.

Then we headed up to San Francisco to see my brother, sister-in-law, and sister-in-law’s family. My brother and sister-in-law live about an hour away from my parents but since there was no traffic, we got there pretty quickly.

While my family doesn’t really celebrate Christmas, my sister-in-law’s family does. So we did give gifts to each other. I had already given my parents their gifts when they visited me for lunch, but I brought my brother and sister-in-law’s gifts with me. I got them each a SoulCycle gift card good for their first class (and shoe rental). SoulCycle just opened up a studio about 6 blocks away from their house. So I figured it would be something awesome to share with them. And they seemed to like it!

I got some gifts too! My brother and sister-in-law got me a SodaStream (it’s being shipped to my house and I should have it in a week). I’ve been wanting one for a while. Even though I haven’t had a soda in almost a year, I do enjoy sparkling water. But it gets expensive to keep buying them at the grocery store. So I’m excited to be able to make it at home soon! And my sister-in-law’s parents got me a really nice scented candle (I felt bad because I didn’t get them anything).

After presents, we took a walk down to the marina. It was a gorgeous day in San Francisco and was surprisingly warm.

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Before we knew it, we had to head home so I could catch my flight back to LA. We said goodbye to everyone and my parents and I started the drive back. We had just enough time to stop at my parents’ house for me to get all my stuff ready before I headed to the airport.

The airport and my flight were pretty crowded. I expected it to be empty since it was Christmas, but maybe that’s what everyone else thought too.

My flight was fine. I’m having an easier time flying now because I can keep myself distracted with my podcasts or e-reader during takeoff and landing (I’m so glad the ban on electronics during those parts of the flight ended).

Once I landed at LAX, I headed home in a cab and ordered some delivery Chinese food for dinner (it’s a Jewish tradition) while in the cab. Fortunately, the cab and I beat the delivery driver home, so the timing worked out perfectly.

I spent the rest of the evening enjoying my dinner and catching up on my DVR.

Overall, it was a pretty exciting day for me. Lots of fun and family and maybe we started some new traditions as well.

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What Will Happen In A Week (or Why I’m Excited And Scared To Go Home)

Posted on December 13, 2013 | Comments Off on What Will Happen In A Week (or Why I’m Excited And Scared To Go Home)

Next week I’m going home for a few days. I have some time off of work so I figured it would be a good time for a trip home. When this was planned, I didn’t know that I would be going home for a quick visit in November, so it would have been a long time since I was home (I think the last time I was home was last year for Thanksgiving).

I’m excited to get to spend some time with my parents. While I got to see them for a little bit last week, this time I’ll have a few days so we won’t feel rushed. We don’t really have any plans for my visit, so it should be relaxing. I’m also hoping to get to see my brother and sister-in-law. I have their Hanukkah presents and would love to give them to them in person. I’m not sure when or if I’ll get to see them, but we are working on scheduling now.

I also might get to see a friend or two from high school. I haven’t really stayed in touch with too many people from high school (not counting FB of course), but my friend Jackie is trying to come over with her little boy for a visit. That would be great since I haven’t seen either of them in a long time.

But I’m nervous about going home because of my dog. He’s not doing so well right now. He seemed fine last week, but according to my parents he went downhill pretty quickly. He’s still happy, enjoying eating people food, and playing with other dogs and that’s important to me. But he’s also sleeping a lot and you can see the tumor on his leg growing.

We don’t know how much more time we have with Dante, but it’s seeming like it’s pretty limited at this point. But as long as he’s happy, I’m happy.

But I’m scared of two different scenarios.

First, if Dante dies before I come home, I won’t get to see him again. My last time to see him will be those few hours last week. And I don’t know how I will react if I go home and Dante wasn’t there to greet me at the door. Or to hear him playing with his favorite toys. Or to take him out on his walks. I don’t know if I could handle that or if I want to handle that (and yes, I understand that it will be so much harder on my parents than on me since they are with him every single day).

But if Dante doesn’t die before I go home, I’ll get to see him again. And I’m totally looking forward to that. But if he’s acting sick or not like himself, I know that will upset me. It was tough when I was home for the 24 hour visit and he was acting off. I’m pretty sure the pain pills were making him act funny, but it was very upsetting to see him acting loopy and confused.

Either way, I’m excited to get to go home and see everyone that I love. And with either scenario with my dog, I know that I need to be there for my parents.

I’m just focusing on the positives with my upcoming visit and knowing that my dog, while sick, is still enjoying his life to the fullest every day. And I should follow his example.

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Merry Christmas! (or Happy Movies and Chinese Food Day!)

Posted on December 25, 2012 | Comments Off on Merry Christmas! (or Happy Movies and Chinese Food Day!)

Just a quick post to say that I hope you are spending today with those you love and doing whatever happens to be your tradition.

I’m not spending time with my family today, but that’s the norm for me. My brother is with his fiancé, my parents are driving home from Tahoe, and I’ll be hanging out with friends.

I’m planning on having a day filled with going to movies (including a free screening of “Lincoln”) and ordering Chinese food from my favorite place. That’s exactly how I want to spend my day!

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