Tag Archives: family

A Night At The Bowl (or It Finally Feels Like Summer To Me)

Posted on September 9, 2021 | Comments Off

There are a lot of things I do each year in LA that feel like traditions now. And one of those things for a long time has been to go to a show at the Hollywood Bowl. I’ve been going to shows at the Bowl most summers since I moved to LA. Some summers I’ve gone to a bunch of shows and sometimes I only go to one. But I try to go each summer if I can.

Of course, last summer wasn’t normal and there weren’t any Bowl shows. I remember when they announced that they wouldn’t be open for the summer, it felt like a gut punch. Going to the Bowl is such a big part of what makes it feel like summer in LA to me. And to know it was closed made the pandemic hit me even harder. Also, a year ago, I think so many of us were hopeful that things would be normal again by the summer, and knowing the Bowl wouldn’t be open was a sign that we were going to have to wait longer for normal (if only we knew then how long it would be).

So this summer, when the Bowl announced they’d be back, I knew I had to get tickets to something. Before tickets went on sale, my parents were planning their trip to LA but they didn’t have a date set yet. So we were going to see what shows were happening when and they could try to plan their trip around it and we could go to a show together. Things didn’t exactly happen that way, but it worked out perfectly. I found the show I wanted to go to with my parents and called my mom and she said they ended up booking their trip already based on the availability of other things they were planning. And it happened to be over the weekend of the show I wanted to take them to! So things fell into place perfectly.

And the show I picked for us to go to was the John Williams show. This is a show that I have tried to see each year and it’s really so much fun. I knew my parents wouldn’t know all the movies, but I thought they’d like how it all comes together. I tried to get us tickets in the front section with the tables and chairs, but that was all sold out when it was time to buy tickets. So I found some bench seats toward the center that were the front row of the section (which is my favorite because you have the most legroom).

So this past Sunday, my mom, dad, and I headed to the Bowl. And for the first time, we drove there. Normally I take the bus, but we felt it wasn’t the best option for us. I knew the parking around the Bowl was stacked parking, but we figured it would be ok and we didn’t mind if it took some time to get out of there. And we were able to park in one of the close lots to the entrance and headed up to our seats.

I loved where we were sitting. Of course, sitting closer would have been cool, but we were in the center and had the front of our section to put our drinks and stuff. It’s so much nicer being in the first row so you have that extra space.

The first half of the show was with another conductor leading the LA Philharmonic, but it was still having the music that is the score to movies being played live. I love hearing the music live, and they did some fun movies like “The Godfather” this year. And in the first section, it was mainly older movies and my parents knew all of them. So it felt like the perfect way to introduce them to the show.

And in the second half, John Williams came out to conduct. He’s like a rockstar and the entire place went wild when he walked out. And you can tell he loves doing this show and seeing how excited people are to see him. Everyone was waiting for him to play music from “Star Wars”, but I knew it would be toward the end of the evening since that’s one of those things that is just so special and magical. And just like every other year, as soon as those familiar notes started to play, hundreds of people got their lightsabers out and conducted along to the music.

I started to get a bit emotional seeing this in front of me. I think seeing it made me realize how much I missed this last year and how much I needed to do something familiar to me again. My parents and I did talk about what we were going to do to stay safe while we were at the Bowl. We were masked the entire time and at least it’s outdoors. And most people who go to shows are locals and we have a decently high vaccination rate. But it still felt a bit overwhelming to be around so many people. I have multiple panic attacks while I was there, but I tried to focus on the positive and how much I was enjoying the show. And seeing a show that I’ve seen so many times before really helped me focus on things other than my panic attack.

I think my parents really enjoyed the show too. It’s not something they would have picked out for themselves, but they liked seeing something that I love so much. Plus, it was something new and different for them and they like to see different things when they come to visit me. So overall, I consider it a success!

Seeing this show with my parents was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. And it did make me think if I should try to go to another show before the summer is done. I’m not sure about that because there are only a few things I might want to go see and the people I normally go to shows with aren’t living in LA anymore. I don’t think I’d want to go alone, but I have to think about it more. I enjoyed the night so much, that maybe I can overcome the feeling of not wanting to go solo. Or, I’ll just go to shows again next summer.

Either way, I’m just so happy I got to do something I had missed so much and that I got to share the experience with my parents.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged concert, family, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, show, summer

Enjoying A Family Weekend (or Adventuring Around LA)

Posted on September 8, 2021 | Comments Off

This past weekend, my parents were visiting me in LA. This trip had been planned for a little while, but the timing ended up being a bit perfect (more on that in a bit). My parents planned a trip to Southern California to go to Catalina first, then to see me, and finally to see my brother and his family. I didn’t plan a lot for when they would be here, but there was one thing I had planned and I’ll write more about that tomorrow. But the plan for my parents’ visit was pretty low-key leading up to their arrival.

And then before their trip, I got the news about my place and how it will be listed to be sold soon. And of course, I had talked to my parents about how stressed I was about the idea of moving and how I didn’t think I wanted to wait to see if maybe I could stay in my house once it’s sold. I wanted to act quickly and not waste time since finding a new place could take time. Even though I don’t have to rush to find a new place, it’s better to give myself the most amount of time possible. And after talking with my parents, we decided to also explore the options of buying a condo. I can’t buy a place alone, but I can if I have some help from family and then pay them back. So we decided to reach out to a realtor we worked with before to see if we could see some condos when my parents were in town.

The day my parents arrived, they got here in the late afternoon and I went over to their hotel for dinner and to hang out. It’s always nice to have family visits that are relaxing and not packed with things we have to do the entire day. The next day, we spent the morning looking at condos with the realtor. We didn’t find the perfect place for me, but it was a very informative time. We got a better idea of the options out there and what we might want to have on our list of what we would like to find. I am trying to limit what is on my list since I would not be the only person making this purchase, but there are a few things that I do want and a few things I would like to have. It would have been amazing to find the perfect place that day and so convenient, but it wasn’t meant to be and I didn’t want to rush into anything because this is a huge thing.

And on the last day of my parents visiting me, we had nothing planned yet for that day and we were figuring out what to do that morning. It was Labor Day, so we wanted to try to avoid crowds as much as we could. So I looked online for options and came across The Huntington Library. I’ve only been one time before, so I thought it could be a really fun thing to do. Plus my mom had been wanting to go there. We knew there were quite a few things closed there, but we figured we would see what we could and we got to see a lot of the gardens when we walked around.

However, it was extremely hot there and I knew I was already a bit dehydrated, which is very unlike me. And while walking around in the sun and the heat, I was sweating a lot which made the dehydration worse. I was starting to feel a bit sick and we ended up taking some breaks in the shade before getting to the little cafe where we could buy some water. I also was starting to experience some really horrible nausea, and I know the heat was making that worse. So we ended up leaving without exploring everything I think we wanted to see, but my parents understood I wasn’t feeling good.

And we were supposed to get dinner that evening, but because of how I was feeling we didn’t get dinner together. My parents hung out at my house for a bit, but then they headed back to their hotel so they could have dinner there (I ended up eating much later and was just picking at food because my stomach was still very unsettled). It was unfortunate that the end of their visit was a bit of a downer with how I was feeling, but I’m glad we got a lot done while they were here and had a lot of fun.

And what I feel was the highlight of their visit was something I was so excited to do. And I’ll be writing about that tomorrow!

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, Los Angeles, parents

An Unexpected Family Visit (or Making Plans, Canceling Them, And Making Plans Again)

Posted on July 8, 2021 | Comments Off

Like I said yesterday, the end of my 3 day weekend ended up being a bit unexpected. But that’s actually not the full story. It was something I had planned for, then had to cancel, and then was able to do again.

A month or two ago, my parents mentioned to me that they would be coming down to Santa Barbara to be with my brother and his family and they wanted to see if I could come up to visit. And I thought at first that it would work out perfectly because I had Monday off of work. If I didn’t have that day off, it would have been difficult to go because I would have left after work and would be driving in rush hour traffic. So I said I’d see them on my day off and thought that was that. But it turned out, I misunderstood some information and my parents were not going to be in Santa Barbara until later that day and I didn’t want to have to drive home in traffic after the holiday weekend. So I had to tell them that I didn’t think I would make it. But I knew I’d be seeing them in September so I was ok.

Then on Monday morning, I called my dad after my workout to tell him something random and my parents mentioned they were already driving down and about halfway to Santa Barbara! I wasn’t expecting them to leave until later, so I mentioned to them that if they were going to have the afternoon free, I could come up and see everyone for a bit. I knew it wouldn’t be that long of a visit because I would still want to leave before the traffic got really bad, but seeing my family for a few hours would be better than not seeing them at all. So my parents confirmed with my brother and sister-in-law that they would be hanging around their house in the afternoon and I quickly went home to shower and change after my workout. I was able to start my drive only about an hour after I talked to my parents and fortunately the traffic wasn’t too bad. I made it to Santa Barbara in just over 2 hours instead of the 90 minutes it usually takes me.

I didn’t take any photos while I was there since we were more focused on just being together as a family for the few hours I was able to be there. It had been 3 months since I had seen my niece and nephew and they both grew so much! Rory wasn’t walking when I was there last time and now he’s walking all over the place and almost running! And Presley was a newborn when I was there and she spent almost the entire time asleep. Now she looks much more like a baby, has a ton of hair, and was awake and alert. It’s crazy to see how much they both grew when it seems like I was just there.

It was also nice to just get to relax and talk with my family. Even though we are connected all the time either via text or on the phone, it’s always better to be together in person. Just like with my niece and nephew, it had been 3 months since I had seen my parents in person. I had a few things for them that I was going to save until September, but I was able to bring them with me (my parents have stuff for me too, but since they were already driving when we figured out I’d see them, that stuff will have to wait a few more months). Nothing was urgent to get to them, but it’s always nice to be able to give them things I was holding onto.

I was only in Santa Barbara for a little over 2 hours before I headed home. Traffic was not horrible and I knew it was going to get worse, plus my niece and nephew were about to take naps. So it seemed like a natural time for me to say goodbye and start my drive home.

It’s crazy how it all worked out this week. Even though I would have been ok not seeing my family, it made my weekend that much better that I got to be with them. And I am just so grateful that it all worked out perfectly and I had the time to drive up and back without too much stress.

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, nephew, niece, parents, Santa Barbara

A Big Family Day! (or A Birthday Party and Meeting Presley)

Posted on April 6, 2021 | Comments Off

This past weekend was my nephew Rory’s first birthday! It’s so crazy to think that it’s already been a year since he was born, but then again it was one of the craziest years of almost anyone’s life with the pandemic. But even with the pandemic, I knew that there would be a small party for Rory to celebrate his birthday. Plus, we had to celebrate my niece Presley being born!

The birthday party was just going to be family. My parents and my sister-in-law’s parents have all been vaccinated. The day of the party was going to be 1 day before I was considered fully vaccinated (which is pretty close to being there). And my brother was vaccinated at the end of last year. So even though we all still have to be careful and cautious, this was a pretty safe gathering since everyone except my sister-in-law and the babies would be vaccinated.

I got to Santa Barbara as Rory was opening his gifts. He got a lot of really adorable things. I got him a set of fabric tents and tunnels that can be used by themselves or combined to make a bunch of different things. He seemed curious about them, but I’m sure the gift will be a bigger hit with him when he’s a little older. I think his favorite gift was the kid cleaning kit that my sister-in-law found for him!

I hadn’t seen Rory in a while, so I had no clue if he’d remember me or not. And he takes some time to warm up to people, so I knew that he might not want me to be super near him. And my guess was correct. He wasn’t upset by me being there, but he didn’t want me to hold him or help him with toys. But that was ok because I had my new niece to hold!

Presley is about 6 weeks old and she’s very tiny! And she stayed asleep almost the entire time I was there, so she was calm and quiet. I think she looks a little like Rory did when he was born. She’s got the same long fingers as Rory, so I wonder if they will both be piano players one day. And I thought she was super cute and adorable. Hopefully, the next time I’m in Santa Barbara she will be a bit more awake and alert. And I can’t wait to see what her little personality will be like.

The birthday party was a very low-key day. After Rory was done opening presents, my brother cooked burgers on the grill and we all ate lunch outside. It was fun getting to hang out with my family and I hadn’t seen my sister-in-law’s parents in a while. I was supposed to see them this past November, but I missed that trip to see everyone since that’s when I got vertigo. I haven’t had a lot of social time with people lately, so any meals I get to have with someone is great. And having it be with family makes it that much better!

And of course, Rory had to have a birthday cake. I joked that he was going to act like their cat and push the cake over the edge of his highchair tray. And that’s exactly what he tried to do! I don’t know if he was trying to get more frosting or what, but it was really silly. And of course, we all took a ton of photos of him with frosting all over his face. The cake wasn’t Cookie Monster themed, but I joked that the photos looked like he ate Cookie Monster.

And of course, I had to get a photo of Rory with my brother and sister-in-law.

After he was done smashing his cake and eating some of it, Rory was having a bit of a sugar crash and it was time for him to take a nap. Since he was going to be sleeping and Presley was still asleep, that pretty much was the end of the party. So I went with my parents over to the rental house they were staying at so I could see Tucker since he was at the house during the party.

Tucker was as silly and goofy as always. He is finally recovered from his knee surgeries, so it was great to see him running and bouncing around without him being in pain. But he also looked a lot older this time because he now has a ton of white fur on his face. It’s like he became an old man overnight! But he still has so much energy and he was so happy to see me there.

I spent some time hanging out with my parents and the dog outside before I headed out. I actually had something else to do that afternoon in Santa Barbara (more about that tomorrow).

I only spent a few hours with my family that day, but it was one of the best days I’ve had in a while. I don’t know how much more often I would be seeing everyone if we didn’t have a pandemic, but this past year has made me appreciate any family time I get at all. And I appreciate having anything to celebrate right now as well. So having 2 things to celebrate with my family really made the day that much better!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, birthday party, celebration, family, nephew, niece, party, Santa Barbara

I’m An Aunt Again! (or Welcome To The World Presley!)

Posted on February 24, 2021 | Comments Off

At the beginning of the pandemic, I became an aunt to my nephew Rory. When my sister-in-law was pregnant, my family had planned on being in Santa Barbara when my nephew arrived (not necessarily at the hospital, but nearby so we could meet him after he was born). Everything changed so fast and obviously, we couldn’t be there when Rory was born. And when my sister-in-law told me that she was pregnant again, I had hoped the pandemic would be done by the time the baby was born, but I had no clue if that would be possible.

I only got to see my family a few times since my nephew was born. And there weren’t any of the traditional celebration things for a new baby coming. There wasn’t a baby shower this time (although, that’s not always done for a second kid). But I did get my niece similar gifts to what I got my nephew (a few books and I custom made some bookplates). I wish we all could have celebrated my niece before she was born, but that’s just not the world we are currently in. But I still tried to celebrate virtually however I could.

As much as I would like to say that my niece was born at the end of the pandemic so they would be bookends of this weird time, I’m not sure this is exactly the end. But either way, my niece arrived last week! And it’s so exciting that she’s here!

She was born a little earlier than we all expected, but since my family knew we couldn’t be there when she was born, it was ok. My sister-in-law’s parents live near them, so they watched my nephew when my niece was born. And I guess I’m used to becoming an aunt during a pandemic because it seems very normal to me now that I won’t be meeting her for a little while. I should be able to meet her around my nephew’s first birthday (my family will be together again then), so I just have to be ok with the photos that are texted in my family text group. And I have to say that my niece Presley is super adorable!

I can’t wait to see Rory and Presley together and to see them bond as siblings. I’m sure there will be some adjustment time for Rory since he’s used to having all the attention. But soon, having a younger sibling will be all that Rory really knows and he will forget the first year of his life when he was an only child.

It’s crazy to me that a year ago, I technically wasn’t an aunt yet. And now, I have both a niece and a nephew! And while there hasn’t been much I could do with my nephew before (both because of the pandemic and because he was so little), I can’t wait until Rory and Presley are older and I can do some fun things with them. I already want to help be a part of their first trip to Disneyland and get them some cute Disney ears to wear! And I can’t wait to see what their personalities are like as they grow up. It’s going to be so fun to watch them get older, especially when it will be easier to see them and my family will be able to get together more often.

So many people in my life have had kids in the past year, and it’s been a bit weird to think they are being parents and I haven’t met their kids yet. It’s another element of the isolation of this pandemic that is hard to remember at times. I know I will get to meet all the babies eventually and will be used to my friends and family being parents, but for now, I don’t know if it’s totally hit me yet. But even if it doesn’t always feel real, I’m always so excited to hear someone else had their baby. And knowing that baby is my niece is just that much more exciting!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged aunt, baby, family, niece

Another Hangout Day With My Parents (or At Least I Wasn’t Dizzy This Time)

Posted on February 17, 2021 | Comments Off

When my parents visited me in November, it was right after I was hit with vertigo. They weren’t originally supposed to come to LA to see me. I was going to go to Santa Barbara to see my parents as well as my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. But because of my vertigo, I was stuck at home. And I’m so grateful that my parents took a day and drove down to see me so I didn’t completely miss spending time with them. But because I was so dizzy when they were here, we didn’t really do much. I spent most of the time on the couch trying to make the room stop spinning.

When they left, I wasn’t sure when I’d see them again. I knew I’d see them around the beginning of April when they will be in Santa Barbara again for my nephew’s birthday (and I’m planning on going up for that too). But I didn’t know if there would be another time they would be down this way before that. But they decided to go to Santa Barbara again this month because they wanted to spend time with my nephew (I don’t blame them!). They asked me if I wanted to come up for a day to see everyone, but now that I’m working again I can’t really do that. I could technically drive after work, but I wouldn’t have that much time before I would have to drive back home. So my parents said they’d come down to me again for an afternoon!

I really appreciate my parents making the drive to see me. While I’m close to Santa Barbara, it’s still not super close. It’s about 90 minutes of driving each way. And I know that when they come that also means it’s one less day that they get to spend with my nephew. I know they want to see me too, but it’s easier to stay in touch with me since I can be on the phone. So I just always am grateful when they take time out of their trip to Santa Barbara to come to LA. Plus, I know they don’t really love LA, so it’s even more special that they come here for me.

This time, they came after I was done with work so I didn’t have to worry about being too distracted when they arrived. We didn’t have much planned for the afternoon, but as always my dad and I had a few projects we wanted to work on. For example, there was an automatic light timer we installed when I moved into my house 11 years ago that no longer worked. But because it was hard-wired into my light switch, my dad didn’t want me to do anything on my own. So he helped me turn off my electricity and change the switch back to the standard one. There was also a cleaning tool holder I wanted to hang up and I knew we’d have to drill into my walls. And this decorative letter holder/key hanger I had by my front door happened to fall off right before their visit and because I used foam tape on it, it took some of my wall with it when it fell. So I had to get some stuff to fill in the walls.

Fortunately, most of the projects around my house went smoothly. We had a few glitches and issues, but nothing that was too difficult to fix. We also took some time between projects to all go for a walk around my neighborhood. My mom has gone for some walks around my neighborhood with the dog before (the dog wasn’t with them for this trip), but she usually goes a different way than I do when I take walks. So I took them on my route that I like to do and it was a nice and relaxing way to spend some time.

We also ordered dinner to be delivered and got a nice family meal from Tender Greens. It was a pretty huge meal with 2 giant salads and a lot of steak. But it was delicious and nice to have a family dinner together. I usually don’t have a lot of people over for dinner, so it was a rare moment that I had 3 people eating at my dining room table. But it was nice to do that and spend some time together as a family.

And getting to catch up was really good. Even though I don’t have a ton happening in my life, things have changed since they were here in November. I do have a new job and some new things coming up with my old jobs. I will be starting some new work with my data entry job very soon so I was updating them on that. And I’ve gotten a few updates about my box office job and the potential of that coming back in the next month or two. And I did get to tell them a bit more about my new job and what I do with each part of my job. And we talked about some medical stuff happening with me and how hopefully I’ll be able to get the vaccine soon (because of their age, both of my parents were able to be vaccinated already which makes me so happy).

I didn’t want my parents to stay at my house too late because they had to drive back to Santa Barbara that night and then they were driving home the next day. But I got to spend several hours with them and accomplish everything that we had on our list. Of course, it would have been amazing if we could have done more outside of my house, but that’s not really the best thing to do right now. But maybe by the next time they come to LA to see me, things will be different and we can do more out and about.

But even with being stuck inside my house most of the time and my parents only being able to be here for a few hours, I can’t explain how wonderful it was to have them spend time with me. I rarely see anyone these days. And the few people I do see tend to be employees at the few stores I go to. I almost had the most social week in a year between getting my hair done and seeing my parents. And while spending time with people does make me miss what life was like before, I also have learned to appreciate any moment I get to spend with people I love. And I hope that appreciation is something I remember for the rest of my life.

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, hangout, visit

Maybe I’m Too Good At Figuring Out Gifts (or At Least I Didn’t Already Buy It)

Posted on January 29, 2021 | Comments Off

I’ve said it a few times before on here, but I love buying gifts for people. If I had more money, I would buy more gifts. I love figuring out the perfect thing to get someone. And I usually end up planning gifts almost a year in advance. I keep a running list of websites in a favorites tab of all the gifts that I want to get for people. And I get so much joy out of seeing someone’s face when I get them a gift that ends up being perfect for them.

A lot of the time, perfect gifts also end up not being the most expensive things. But I would like to be able to buy more extravagant things when I see gifts that are more expensive. But maybe because I have to work on a budget, that’s why I work so hard on finding gifts and feel so good when the recipient ends up loving them.

I tend to be better at buying gifts for people I’ve known longer, but that’s not really possible with my nephew. Then again, he’s a baby so he doesn’t have a ton of likes and dislikes. So I just have to find good baby gifts. I’m still so happy with the busy board that my dad and I built for him for his Hanukkah present. And as soon as my dad and I finished that project, I realized I needed to start working on what I was going to get him for his first birthday.

And I figured out the perfect gift right after that last visit. I wanted to get Rory a ball pit! I had seen a kiddie ball pit on someone else’s Instagram and they had posted where they bought it. I didn’t need to buy it right away, but I found the shop online and saved it to buy later.

I had told my parents what I was planning on getting for Rory and they loved the idea too. The ball pit had a bunch of color options and I discussed which ones I thought would be best and they agreed with me. I was so excited to find this gift and couldn’t wait to buy it and see his face when I gave it to him.

I was getting ready to purchase it because I knew it would take some time to get to me. I had it in my cart and ready to purchase, but I was going to finish the purchase a little later. And then I got a text from my brother and sister-in-law of Rory playing that day while it was raining outside.

They got him the exact same ball pit in the same colors that I was about to order! I couldn’t believe it! I was a little disappointed because I was so excited to Rory this gift. But also, it was so cute to see how much he was already enjoying it. And I took it as a sign that I was on the right track for what types of gifts would work well for him. But I obviously knew that I needed to work on finding a new gift for his first birthday.

I think I’ve figured out what I’m going to get Rory instead. I’m still super excited about the gift and I think it’s something that he will love. I also have been working on presents for my niece because she will be born in about a month! I’m getting my niece almost the same present that I got Rory when he was born. I’m finding some great books and also making custom bookplates. My brother and sister-in-law know that I’m getting my niece these as gifts, so my sister-in-law helped me decide on a few things for the bookplates so they match what her nursery will look like.

I think I’m going to see Rory around his first birthday, so I should be able to give him his gift in person. And hopefully he likes it as much as he enjoys the ball pit!

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, gift

Making The Month A Little Less Lonely (or Still Trying To Find Challenges To Do While Isolated)

Posted on January 6, 2021 | Comments Off

I got another Volt Planner for 2021, so I’ll be doing another year full of goal setting! I love using this planner for setting weekly, monthly, and annual goals as well as monthly challenges. I also use it to track my daily intentions and my gratitude list. It is a planner so I can track other things, but that’s what I mainly use it for. When I was able to work out at the Orangetheory studios, I would also use it for some workout tracking. But since I’ve been working out at home, I don’t really do that.

It really is the perfect planner for me and I’ve been using them for several years now. I keep all my old planners because it’s interesting to see what I’ve accomplished and how far I’ve come. My collection is pretty decent so far.

My monthly challenges used to be much more excited. But since we’ve had to isolate at home, they are not as grand and much more personal. For December, my challenge was to get myself ready for 2021. And I did a fair amount of preparation with things I wanted to do like getting different parts of my house organized. But the plan to prep was sidetracked a bit by getting a new job. I think that’s a very good excuse to be sidetracked. And in a way, getting a new job was preparing me for this year. I needed a new job so I wouldn’t be struggling as much. But there was some other stuff I wanted to do that I didn’t get a chance to, like doing some rearranging of things in my kitchen. But nothing I didn’t do was urgent so I can get them done this month.

And for this month’s challenge, I was a bit inspired by the idea of how we’ve all been isolated for so long. And being isolated at home doesn’t have to mean being completely isolated from the people you love. I know that I have been isolating myself more than I’d like to, but it’s what happened to me when I was feeling low. It’s so much easier for me to ask a friend to get dinner or hang out if I’m lonely compared to asking if we could have some sort of virtual hangout. But virtual hangouts are really all we can do (with few exceptions).

So my challenge for this month is to not isolate myself from my friends completely and to make sure that I connect with someone that I care about every day. This means I can’t go run an errand like go get groceries and count seeing people in the store or talking to the cashier as a connection. This has to be with a friend or family member.

And I know there are different levels of being able to connect with someone. Right now, the thing that would make me happiest is seeing someone in person (outdoors and keeping a distance between us). This isn’t the easiest thing to do, and also not necessarily the safest for now. If I can make this happen, awesome. But I also understand that for now, I might not be able to do this at all this month. But it’s something to hope for. Next, would be doing a video call. These are totally safe, but so many people have Zoom/video chat fatigue. I get that. Then I would put phone calls next on my list and texts/message groups last.

My goal is to not just do texts every day with friends, but I know that there will be days where texts are the best I can do. I hopefully can have more phone and video calls with friends and family this month and continue that beyond this month until we can all safely meet in person.

I’ve been isolated at home for almost 10 months now, and it’s really getting to me. It’s easy to avoid people, but I know that it’s not the best thing for me to do. So hopefully this challenge this month will get me back to being more social in whatever ways I can and I can feel much better about the current situation. I need to figure out how to be happier while I wait for things to be safer. And I know having time with friends and family will help do that.

Comments Off on Making The Month A Little Less Lonely (or Still Trying To Find Challenges To Do While Isolated)

Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged challenge, family, friends, isolation, social life, volt planner

Family Zoom Time (or Thanksgiving After Thanksgiving)

Posted on December 3, 2020 | Comments Off

On Thanksgiving Day, I spent the day alone. I knew this was going to be how I spent the day. While I didn’t love it, I had accepted that would be my holiday and made it the best that I could. Cooking gave me something to focus on and I’m glad I wasn’t too focused on missing my family. But there was no way not to miss everyone. When you do something every year of your life, it’s weird to not have it happen.

About a month ago, my family started to discuss what we could do as a family for Thanksgiving since we wouldn’t be together. We had decided to do a Zoom hangout and had to plan when everyone would be available. Not everyone was going to be free on Thanksgiving Day, so we planned the Zoom to be on the Saturday after. I knew that I would only have an hour before I had to run the Netflix Party group that I have, but we were planning on trying to keep it under an hour. So it would work out perfectly for me!

On Saturday, I decided to try to look a little nicer than normal. I put makeup on and moved my computer to a place in my house that has better lighting. Even though my family wouldn’t care if I was backlit, I wanted to try to look nice. This was us trying to celebrate, so I should make an effort. And I logged into Zoom a few minutes before we were supposed to be on there and a few other people from my family had already joined in.

Once we were all there, it was almost everyone in my family. One of my cousins was working so he couldn’t be there. But everyone else was able to be online. And that included everyone showing off their pets (we have a few cats and a few dogs in the family). I tried to get a good screenshot of the family, and I think this one is cute. But the pets weren’t in this particular shot.

For a lot of my family, this was their first time getting to see Rory outside of pictures posted online. And occasionally, he seemed to be really into what was happening on screen and I think he recognized my voice and my parents’ voices. I’m still sad I didn’t get to see him again in person a few weeks ago, but I know I’ll get to see him again in a few months.

This was the first time we were all on a Zoom together. We tried to use the time to catch up on what everyone has been up to. That’s usually what we do when we are together at Thanksgiving, so that seemed normal. And a lot of people did have things to update us about. One of my cousins moved and bought a new house. Another cousin moved right before the pandemic and she was telling us about what they’ve been doing to their house and her kids were telling us about online school. And of course, Ross and Krystle had updates on Rory and Krystle’s pregnancy. I didn’t have much to update everyone on since I’m not doing much. But I liked hearing everyone else and feeling connected to my family. That was something I missed from my Thanksgiving and I’m glad I didn’t miss it completely.

I wish I didn’t have a time constraint, but I really did have to log off after an hour. I stayed on as long as I could, but I had to leave before everyone else did. But they all knew that I was running a Netflix Party so they understood. And from what my parents told me, everyone else logged off only a minute or two later. They were just all saying goodbye to each other.

I am very grateful for technology because it allowed us to be together virtually. It’s not as good as being together in person, but it’s better than having nothing at all. I can’t imagine what this time would be like if we couldn’t be together on Zoom. I can’t imagine how I’d be dealing with things if I didn’t have my virtual hangouts. But at the same time, I hope this is the only time we have to do Thanksgiving this way. I want to believe that by next Thanksgiving, it will be safe to travel and be together. I know we will be ok if we had to do another virtual Thanksgiving next year, but I’m hoping this was a one-time thing.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, hangout, Thanksgiving

Not My Usual Thanksgiving Week Workouts (or Trying To Keep The Tradition Going)

Posted on November 30, 2020 | Comments Off

This post is mainly going to be about my Thanksgiving workout. But I did have my 4 workouts this past week. I changed up my schedule a bit to work around Thanksgiving, but I still got the 4 in. I’m still dealing with vertigo a bit and have to modify things, but I’m noticing that it is getting easier each workout.

I’m still trying to push myself so that I can start doing outdoor workouts soon, but I’m also starting to wonder if I should do them. I know they are doing everything they can to keep things safe, but cases are increasing and I have to keep that in mind. Also, things are starting to lock down here again, so I’m not sure if that means outdoor workouts will have to close. Right now, it seems like they can stay open. So keeping the idea of going to an outdoor workout as a goal is a good one. Even if I don’t end up doing one for a while, it still will help me push myself.

But my 3 non-Thanksgiving workouts this past week were pretty normal for me. Or at least as normal as things have been lately. So that’s good.

And my workout on Thanksgiving Day was the one that was special.

Ever since I started at Orangetheory, my family has had a new tradition to do an OTF workout on Thanksgiving morning. It’s not always the same members of my family at each workout, but we always have a few of us there. This year, when the pandemic started, I was hoping that we would still be able to continue the tradition. But as time went on, I knew that there was no way that we would be together for Thanksgiving. So we wouldn’t have our workout as a family.

But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I was still determined to do something connected to our tradition. I knew that I would be doing a workout on Thanksgiving Day on my own. My plan was to do the OTF At Home workout like I normally do. But I tried to see if there was another option that maybe would allow my family to work out together. But because we all had very different schedules, coordinating a workout wasn’t possible. So I asked everyone in my family to send me photos of their workout that day and I would do something with it.

Some of us did video workouts, some went skiing, some did chores that doubled as cardio, and some just made sure they got out and moving. I love the photos I got from everyone. And an added bonus to us doing workouts on our own was that 2 dogs got to be in the photos too! Tucker was “helping” my mom shovel snow and Graham decided to be a part of my Aunt Cindy’s video workout.

It’s not what our post-workout photo usually looks like, but I think it’s perfect to represent what our 2020 Thanksgiving workouts were like. We weren’t together, but we were still keeping a tradition alive on our own. And of course, I had to add this photo to the collage with all of our workouts.

If nothing else, we will never forget what this year was like for us. It will be the one oddball photo in the collage for as long as we are able to keep this tradition going. And while I know I would have preferred for us all to be together and to have a photo that fits in with the others, it still makes me happy that we didn’t give up on something that we love to do and we have something to represent this year.

I hope that by next year, it will be safe for us to be together. I missed being with my family this year (more on that later this week). I missed our traditional workout. I’m glad we had something, but it’s not the same as working out as a family. Just like how working out at home isn’t like being at the studio in class. I missed how much fun we have at our family workout. I missed the competitiveness between me and my dad (it seems to mainly be between us). I missed feeling like we did something special together. But as I’ve said several times about things this year, we had to stay apart and stay safe this year so we can be together for so many more years in the future.

Comments Off on Not My Usual Thanksgiving Week Workouts (or Trying To Keep The Tradition Going)

Posted in Family, Fitness

Tagged family, fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Tag Archives: family

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Family Zoom Time (or Thanksgiving After Thanksgiving)

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Not My Usual Thanksgiving Week Workouts (or Trying To Keep The Tradition Going)

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