Tag Archives: hangout

An Evening Of Cheesecake (or Just A Calm Dinner With My Birthday Twin)

Posted on January 15, 2019 | Comments Off

With my birthday twin Joanna, we have 2 traditions. The first is to do our free (or almost free) birthday meal. We’ve been going that for pretty much as long as we’ve been friends. The other tradition is to get cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory. We try to do this around the end of December or beginning of January since that is almost around our half birthdays. Sometimes that cheesecake dinner is a bit later, but we try our best to do it around the new year.

We usually go to the Cheesecake Factory at the Grove which can be crazy around the holidays. We tolerate the crowds since we made the choice to go there, but it’s always nice when it’s not as bad as we expect. And since we delayed our cheesecake dinner until this past week, we were hopeful that the crowds would be much less than they are when the Grove is still decorated for the holidays.

We planned on an early dinner to avoid the dinner rush and I got to the Grove first so I went to put our names on the list. We are used to having to wait 30 minutes or an hour, so whoever gets their first puts their name down and we know that we will have time to kill. Usually, we use that time for a lot of our catch up since we are just sitting there. I got there first this time and I was shocked when the host told me it was only a 5 minute wait! I texted Joanna and she said she was parking, but I still managed to be seated before she got there!

Joanna arrived only a few minutes after I sat at our table, and we decided to focus on our food first and then our catch up. I went with my usual salad and Joanna got a salad as well. We figure that we should save room for the cheesecake we knew we’d be getting. Then it was time for our catchup.

I had seen Joanna somewhat recently when we were doing our self-tape auditions, so it wasn’t as big of a catchup as they have been in the past. But of course we both still had a lot to talk about. I was updating her on my job situation and the random stories I have from online dating. She’s been taking a break from online dating and I totally get it. It can be really depressing and demoralizing when you meet so many bad guys or keep getting ghosted or stood up. I think the thing that is saving my sanity is thinking of all the bad dates as good stories for my book. My stories are usually pretty entertaining and I was messaging with someone while I was at dinner, so she was getting a play by play of what was going on.

Joanna updated me on a really amazing acting class that she is currently in plus her trips to see her family. Even though she and I are very similar people, we have had very different journeys and our lives are in different places right now so it’s always fun to see the randomness that she has been involved in. I know my life is random and crazy, and so is Joanna’s. But I think that is part of what makes life fun and exciting at times. I wish that some of the randomness regarding work would calm down for me, but I’m working on it.

And even though getting to hang out with an awesome friend is one of the main reasons we do this dinner every year, the highlight for us is the cheesecake! And ever since we learned they can cut each piece of cheesecake in half for us, we’ve loved it even more! We always get 2 slices cut in half (so we each get half of each slice) and it’s become a tradition to get the red velvet cheesecake as one of them. For the other slice, we change things up a bit. I recently had seen a silly quiz online that said it would tell you what flavor of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory you were. I sent it to Joanna and told her it told me I was Dulce de Leche cheesecake. We decided that had to be the other piece that we got.

Even though we ate light with our salads, we were so full after cheesecake. But it was worth it! We walked around and looked at some shops around the Grove after dinner, but it was more just to window shop than to actually look for things we want to buy. I think we both needed some time walking around before getting back into our cars with how full we were.

But after a little window shopping, it was time to head to the parking garage. I know that we both had such a fun time for dinner and I love how chill and relaxed this dinner is. Traditions don’t have to be stressful or over the top. Sometimes just a nice dinner is exactly what you want to help keep your friendship strong.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday twin, cheesecake, dinner, friends, hangout

Just A Simple Dinner Out (or A Union Working Hangout)

Posted on December 18, 2018 | Comments Off

I’ve been helping out with the Union Working group for a while now. For me, it seems so easy to run the FB live and it’s not a big deal. But I know that for the core members/leaders of the group, it is a big deal because that is one less thing that they have to worry about. And they really don’t have to worry about anything because I come to the meetings with all the equipment needed to run it and I set things up without needing any help. And with our new location for the meetings, we have WiFi so it’s even easier to run the live stream.

I know how hard the core members/leaders of the group work to run Union Working, so when they invited me out to a hangout to celebrate an awesome year as a group I was really honored! I am friends with some of those leaders, but others are people who I don’t know that well and I was excited to get to hang out with them in a casual setting and get to know them better. When we are at the meetings, I don’t want to bother them since they are so focused and working on running the meeting. So this was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

The hangout was at a brewery that is near where we have our meetings. I got there early and had a chance to hang out with a friend of mine who is one of the leaders before other members arrived. We found a big table that would fit us all and people started arriving pretty quickly once we were sitting down. A bunch of people were ordering drinks, but fortunately the brewery had a nice food menu too so I got a grilled cheese (which was delicious!).

Most of the time we were there we were just talking about random things. Some of them were acting related, some of them were just normal every day things. The conversation never stopped and there were times that 2 or 3 different conversations were happening at the same time. I was seated at the middle of the table so I was able to be a part of it all, but sometimes I just sat back and enjoyed listening to everyone else. It was pretty entertaining when some people got a bit silly and I just had fun watching it all happen.

There were some moments where the group and the accomplishments of the past year were mentioned and each of us were singled out for what we were able to do. When it came to me, they thanked me for taking over the FB live and for just jumping in and helping. They also thanked me for keeping them on task and bringing new ideas. It just reminded me of how something that might not be a big deal to me is really appreciated by others and I should accept their thanks instead of playing it off. When it’s a big deal to someone, I should acknowledge that and allow them to thank me however they feel appropriate. I don’t have to play it down and try to be modest that I’m not doing much. It’s not an easy thing for me to do because I don’t like feeling like I’m getting credit I don’t deserve, but I did deserve the credit from their perspective.

As it goes with so many events like this, I had every intention of leaving at a reasonable hour so I could get home and to sleep, but that didn’t happen. I was just having too much fun hanging out with everyone and I didn’t want to leave. But I couldn’t stay too late since I did have a bit of a drive home and had an early workout the next morning. But I was there for a few hours before I said my goodbyes and headed back to my car.

I left the hangout really feeling like I had made friends out of more of these core members/leaders. While I’m sure they were always my friends before, I really got to know them when we weren’t worried about working and I feel much more a part of the group now. I’m happy just doing my FB live work, but if they want more I know that I am willing to do that because I want to help however I can. And I’m much more comfortable now asking for help from those leaders if I need it because I know them better now.

We’ve got some amazing things happening with Union Working in the new year and some things that will still be happening this year. I can’t wait to get to share them when I can because they are really cool. I love getting to be a part of this group and every time I meet with them I appreciate the group more and more.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, friends, hangout, SAG-AFTRA, union, union working

Another OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar)

Posted on December 11, 2018 | Comments Off

There have been so many organized outings coordinated by Orangetheory that I haven’t been able to go to over the years. For a long time, it was just tough for me to go to anything organized by the Brentwood studio since I didn’t drive over to Brentwood other than my workouts. I didn’t want to go there to work out, drive home to shower and change, and then go back that way for a happy hour. It was sad I never really could make it, but I knew that it just wasn’t meant to be for those.

But since the Culver City studio opened, I’ve been making more of an effort to attend the different events that they do. And I have felt such a part of the community at that studio that I am more motivated to try to go. I’ve been able to make friends at the Culver City studio much faster than I could in Brentwood, but I think that is mostly because of how comfortable I am in the workouts. I’m not so terrified or feeling out of place that I can’t focus on who is in class with me. I’m still in my own head a lot and don’t notice who is always in class with me, but I’m trying to get better about it.

So when I found out there was going to be a fun Saturday evening hangout at a wine bar for the Culver City studio, I put it on my calendar. The day of, I was feeling a bit nauseous and debating about not going. But one of my workout friends texted me about an hour before to ask if I was going to go. Since she was going to be there, I decided that I could do my best to ignore how yucky I was feeling because it was going to be worth it to be hanging out with people I usually only see in workout clothes.

This hangout was held at Stanley’s Wet Goods, which I hadn’t been to before. My favorite wine bar in Culver City closed a little while ago and I hadn’t found a new place to go. So when I saw that this was a wine bar, I was excited to see what they had to offer (even if I really don’t drink).

When I got there, I was a little bit confused at first. The space looks like a wine store with a side section with tables where you can order wine. I didn’t recognize anyone at first, but everyone else was looking as confused as I was and we realized we were all there for the Orangetheory hangout. Then we found out that there was a back room that was reserved for us so we all got our things to head back there. And just as we were going to the back room, my friend arrived. So I was feeling much better about knowing people and not feeling alone.

Once we got to the back room, we all sat down at the tables there. We were trying to figure out if we were in the same classes or not (I really think the name tags we get need to include a section for us to write down when we go to class). I always feel bad when someone recognizes me from class and I don’t recognize them, but everyone seems to understand that when you are super focused on your workout you aren’t always looking to see if you see the same faces each week in your class. But it didn’t really matter if I recognized someone or not because everyone was introducing themselves to each other and I never had to feel embarrassed that I didn’t know someone that I should have.

For most of the evening, I was sitting at the same table because it was pretty central in the room. I was sometimes sitting the people seated on the other side of the table and sometimes I turned so I could face the other table. It wasn’t a huge room so it never felt like I was really missing seeing anyone. And I was getting pretty involved in a couple of different conversations so I wasn’t really thinking that I had to find other people to talk to. It was nice not having moments of feeling left out or wondering who else I could talk to. I always felt very much in the middle of conversations and I loved all the randomness that we were all talking about.

We talked about coaches we love, people were asking me about the Brentwood studio since many of them haven’t been there before, we talked about people we see in class and don’t know their names (and they weren’t at the bar), and as it seems like so many conversations go to we talked about dating in LA. It was funny to hear the crazy stories that other OTF people have had dating and of course I had to share a couple of my best crazy ones. It’s nice to have people to talk to who are going through the same issues with dating that I have because it helps me not feel like some of the issues I’ve encountered are due to me. It might be due to being in LA or the guys that we are meeting here, but it’s not something I’m bringing onto myself.

By the time I was heading back home, the room we were in cleared out. I didn’t realize so many other people had left already because I was focused on who I was talking to. But it did help me feel a bit less guilty for leaving because it seemed like the night was winding down.

I’ve said this before, but it’s so hard to make friends as an adult. There aren’t as many opportunities to make new friends once you are done with school, so I am always grateful for events like this that help me meet people I already have something in common with. And hopefully I’ll start recognizing more people in class with me (or they will remind me we met at the outing) so I can have even more friends with me in class.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, hangout, Orangetheory, wine

Being Social Outside Of Workouts (or Making OTF Friends)

Posted on October 23, 2018 | Comments Off

Pretty much since the first Orangetheory location opened in Los Angeles in Brentwood, there have been social events for members. They want to make the studio feel like a community and I love that about Orangetheory. They have done hikes, beach days, yoga classes, and other fun things. I’ve only made it to the yoga class though.

A lot of the social events happen on Saturdays. The beach days and hikes have almost always been on a Saturday. While I could go after I’m done with work to the beach days (especially if I skip my workout that day), I could never make the hikes because I have to work. I guess I could use some of my banked hours to miss a shift, but since Saturdays are one of our busiest days I feel bad when I do that. And some of the other social events have been on a Friday evening. For me those were tough to go to because of my schedule and drive time. If I went after a workout on a Friday evening, I had 2 options. One would be to shower at Orangetheory, wait a few hours, and then be a part of whatever event was happening. The other would be to drive home (which sometimes took over 90 minutes), shower, drive back to where I was, and then be late for the event. Neither of those were good options for me so I never went.

But once the Culver City location opened, I knew that I’d have a better chance of going to one of the fun things they would be planning. Some of the events are the same ones that the Brentwood one does because they are regional events (like the hikes and beach days), so I had missed those. And they did do a wine tasting event at a bar near the studio, but since I’m not drinking right now I didn’t feel like paying for an event that I couldn’t really participate in.

But this past Friday, there was finally an event I could go to! It was hanging out at Rush St (where I seem to go all the time) and while that is a bar it wasn’t necessarily an alcohol event like a wine tasting. We had the back patio area reserved for Orangetheory for a few hours that evening and we could hang out, order food and drinks if we wanted to, and just have a fun time. And since I work out in the mornings, it was super easy to go to something that night!

I’ve joked to people that when someone from my workouts sees me in normal clothes, a lot of times they are shocked. I have long hair but since I have it in a top knot during a workout most people don’t realize that. Plus since my hair is so thin, the top knot doesn’t look like it’s holding a lot of hair. The first time people from the Brentwood studio saw me with my hair down, many of them couldn’t stop saying that I have long hair. I guess they weren’t expecting that. So I thought I might have the same situation with this event.

When I got there a couple of coaches as well as front desk staff were there. But I didn’t recognize anyone from class. I knew that there was a chance that even if I was next to someone who usually is in class with me, I might not recognize them. People do look different in normal clothes and I’m usually in my head and focusing on myself during workouts. I don’t really pay attention to others, but I think a lot of people are the same way. I tried to not be shy when I didn’t really know anyone there, and fortunately there were people who brought me into their conversations so I wasn’t there alone and looking awkward.

I had gotten there toward the beginning of the event and it wasn’t that packed when I arrived. But people were quickly showing up and before I knew it the patio area was packed and there were so many people hanging out! I still didn’t recognize anyone from class, but I didn’t mind it after a bit. Several of us said we should have written what class times we take on the name tags we had so we could tell who might have been in class with us. But since everyone was in the same situation with wondering who they have seen in class before, it wasn’t that weird. We all were joking about it whenever we were meeting someone knew.

Since I didn’t see anyone I knew from class (or if we had been in class before, it was only a few times), nobody was shocked by how I looked out of workout clothes. But when one of my coaches arrived an hour after it started, she took a look at me and couldn’t believe that I had long hair. It was funny seeing her shocked at my appearance, but I also think that it’s a good thing that I look very different in a workout compared to when I’m in normal clothes. I never look good during a workout because I don’t really care how I look, so I would hate it if I still looked the same when I make an effort.

I was at the bar for longer than I was planning on being there. I work on Saturday mornings so I usually am not out that late on a Friday night. But I was having such a great time meeting new people and getting to hang out with my coaches in a social setting that time just flew by. I met so many new people who go to Orangetheory, but many of them work out super early or in the afternoon or evenings so I won’t be seeing them in class. But many of us did exchange numbers so we can hang out another time. And many of them have never done Hell Week before so they wanted my advice on how I have done it in the past. I’m always happy to help out people who have questions about the workouts so I was just glad I could help a little bit.

So many people talk about how hard it is to make friends as an adult. I agree completely with that idea because it really isn’t easy. I work from home by myself so I don’t make friends at work. I have made friends from workouts, but those friendships usually take months to happen because most people there aren’t looking around to chat before or after a workout. I do make friends at parties or union events, but that’s not always the case. So to have a night out with people that I know have one big thing in common with me was such a great opportunity to make new friends. And I’m so glad that’s exactly what happened.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged fitness, friends, hangout, Orangetheory, social

Remembering To See My Friends (or Actually Scheduling Hangouts)

Posted on September 20, 2018 | Comments Off

It can seem like I see my friends a lot more often than I actually do. Some of my friends are people I see at my workouts, some I see at union events, and some I have scheduled fun things like the musicals with. I love that I have friends who are a part of regular things I do in my life, but I also know that I have been relying on those way more often than I should. Everyone is very busy so I’m not the only person guilty of doing this, but I also know that I need to be active in fixing it when I realize this has become a regular problem.

The problem with fixing it is that it’s never easy to schedule hangouts. With all of our schedules being very different and not everyone having a steady schedule from week to week, it can take a month or longer to actually find a time that I can see certain friends. I know that it really isn’t something that can be fixed because we all have random jobs. The life of being a creative person means you usually end up jobs that have nontraditional schedules. I’m lucky that very few of my friends work late nights or graveyard shifts, but some of them do. And even with my friends that work “normal” hours, they don’t always have time after work because they usually have to make dinner, do errands, workout, and many of them have classes after work since that’s the only time they can fit it in.

So when I can make a plan quickly with a friend to hang out, it’s such a special treat. And I had that this week with a good friend of mine. We had seen each other at the Union Working meeting and were texting after the meeting discussing different union related issues. Our texts were becoming very long and we realized it would be easier to have this conversation in person. And by some miracle, we were able to find a time only a few days later that we could meet up to talk!

My friend came over to my side of town (which can be a pretty big deal in LA) and we met at a Starbucks near my house. Starbucks might not be the most interesting place to meet, but it was convenient and there is free parking (a rarity in LA). We met up after I was done with work that day and I was able to get there a bit early so we could have a table to sit at inside.

I honestly can’t remember the last time this friend and I had hung out outside of events we were both at. It easily has been years since that happened. And we did talk about a few life things going on with both of us but the majority of our hangout was discussing union related issues. My friend has some big concerns that they haven’t been able to get answers to and many of them are things that I had not considered. While some things weren’t the most positive things to hear, I’m glad they shared them with me because it’s important to know what other union members are thinking. There are some things they shared that are concerns of mine as well, and that got me thinking about being more active in trying to get answers or fix things.

One of the biggest things that is shared at the Union Working meetings is that we cannot complain about the union if we aren’t going to try to fix it. We are the union and we have the power to make it what we want it to be. I don’t have as much power to change things as other people do, but I still have a voice and a say in what happens. Even union members who aren’t elected in any way to serve have the ability to speak up. Many of them don’t because either they are scared or they don’t know how they can do it. And I do try to share with people how they can be more involved (like going to the W&W meetings we have next month about our commercial contract).

It didn’t feel like we were talking that long, but by the time my friend and I looked at the time about over 2 hours had passed! I guess that’s what happens when you hang out with someone awesome. And even though we were debating and disagreeing on many issues, we left the hangout with no hard feelings and we both respect each other just as much or more than we did before. That’s another sign of having an amazing friend. You don’t always have to think the same thing to get along.

Sometimes I feel like when I am trying to schedule a hangout with a friend I feel like it has to be something more than it really needs to be. Just going to Starbucks and having coffee together can be enough to strengthen a friendship and to be able to continue connecting with the people I love. I just need to be better about remembering to do it more often.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, hangout

Remembering To Have Some Fun (or Hangouts Don’t Always Have To Be Events)

Posted on July 25, 2018 | 1 comment

For a while I’ve been working on making more of an effort to see my friends. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in work, or I get sick, or life just takes over and I neglect some of my friendships. I know that I’m not the only person guilty of doing this, but I also know that I can be better about making plans and not letting too much time go by between hanging out with friends.

But at the same time, I feel like I see some of my friends a lot because of things that I have scheduled to do with them. When I have parties to go to, musicals that I have tickets for, or Disney days in the calendar those are events and I make the time to go to them. Those events are usually in my calendar for a while so I don’t really feel like I’ve been making plans. I just am going to something I knew about and they are really fun things I get to do.

But not all of my friend hangouts need to be events like that and big awesome days. I have forgotten about just going to hang out with my friends or doing something easy and casual with them. This may be because I do try to save time for dates and am trying to keep myself available and open, but that is no excuse. My friends should always be a priority to me whether or not I’m dating someone.

So after the last musical I went to, my friends and I were saying that we needed to do a fun dinner or something soon. Normally our dinners out are before the show or at Disneyland and they are a part of a bigger day. It’s so easy to forget that we can just go out and have a dinner and maybe go see a movie or something. I always think that hangouts have to be something amazing and awesome and forget that what makes them amazing and awesome is usually the company that I’m with. So this week we decided to do a dinner and movie hangout.

We had a bit of a snafu with our original dinner idea. We picked a restaurant that normally would be easy to park at with street and neighborhood parking. But the neighborhood parking ended at 6pm and the street parking was a rush-hour tow zone until 7pm. And of course we were trying to eat at 6. So we made a quick decision to switch restaurants and picked one in the same shopping center as the movie we were going to. This worked out fine and I really love the food at the restaurant we went to. I was planning on having a cheeseburger at the original restaurant and got one at the one we ate at.

Dinner was a little rushed so we could make it to the movie, but we still had time to catch up on life. I’ve been struggling with some things lately (more on that later this week) and I really did need to talk some things out. It’s so nice to have friends who relate to what I’m going through and have advice to give. And they aren’t afraid to ask the hard questions or bring up things that I might not want to hear but need to. And I try to do the same for them when they are struggling.

After dinner we went to the movie which was something we were all looking forward to seeing. I’m not going to share what movie it was because I didn’t really love it, but it was fun to go to a movie with friends. I’m so used to going to screenings alone that it is a rare treat to go to a movie with someone else. And it’s pretty rare for me to see a movie that is in a regular theater and it is a different feeling compared to a screening venue. I think that because I go to so many screenings I forget about going to movies with friends. My friends both have MoviePass which I have debated getting. I’m still not totally sold on getting it because I don’t know if I’d use it enough, but it’s something I know I could get one day if I do end up going to more movies that aren’t screenings.

Seeing a movie with friends was so fun. We were chatting about what we liked and didn’t like after it was done and we all had pretty different opinions. One friend loved it, one friend didn’t, and I was mixed (as I put it to my friends, “I have thoughts about it.”). But it didn’t matter that I didn’t love the movie, it was nice just talking to them about it after the movie was done. When I go alone, I don’t get that experience.

I’ve said this a million times (and will probably say it a million more), but I am working on being better at seeing my friends. But this dinner and a movie out was a good reminder that I can do things that don’t take much planning or effort to see my friends and still have a great time.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, friends, hangout, movies

Another Friend Happy Hour (or We Both Know We Need To Do This More Often)

Posted on March 9, 2018 | Comments Off

I’ve definitely been focusing on trying to have more time with my friends lately. I’m aware how crazy all of our schedules are and when we can figure out a time to meet I make it a priority. My friend Rayshell and I had made a few attempts to have a happy hour dinner, and things just kept happening to make us reschedule our plans. I was probably more at fault because of schedule changes and then being out-of-town. But we both understand that neither of us are rescheduling because we want to. Life just gets in the way. But fortunately, we were able to figure out a time to meet up this week.

I originally offered to drive to the valley because we try to alternate which side of town we meet on. But Rayshell offered to stay on my side of town after work and we went to Westside Tavern. We both were having a craving for the food there so that was fine with me! I had some time after work before meeting her there, but I underestimated how crazy traffic would be in my neighborhood and ended up meeting Rayshell a bit late.

Since I had been craving Westside Tavern I had been checking out the menu and picked out a few things that sounded good to me. And Rayshell had looked at the menu before I got there and picked out some things too. Somehow, we both picked the same things! We ended up splitting the burrata to start, I had a chicken sandwich (Rayshell got a burger which was something else I was thinking about getting), and even though we were a bit full we split apple bread pudding for dessert.

It was a lot of food, but it was so delicious! But as with all our hangouts, even though the food was awesome the company was even better! Both of us have had a lot of things and a lot of nothing happening in our lives. It’s weird, but it made a funny hangout with us each remembering random things to update each other on.

Rayshell is one of my friends who loves to hear all the craziness going on with online dating. She asked me about a story that I posted on social media about a guy who basically stood me up. He never showed up where we were supposed to meet and when I texted him he told me he was home which was just around the corner from the coffee shop we were supposed to meet at. I told him no and left because I knew something was fishy about the situation. Rayshell and I were joking about how he probably was some sort of weirdo and would wear my skin or something. I know it’s not good to joke about things like that, but I’m pretty careful with my safety so I know I wouldn’t be put in an unsafe situation.

I also have gone out with a few new guys lately and have had some good and some bad stories about them. A lot of it is about self-discovery and me allowing myself to express my opinion and not feel the need to conform to what someone else wants me to be. It’s a weird thing, but I think all of my friends get a kick out of hearing about the random guys I’ve met and the weird profiles I’ve found online.

Rayshell was telling me about the series that she produced that is currently in post-production. I can relate to wanting something to be done in post-production quickly when you don’t have control over it. I just hope that her project is completed soon because I really want to watch it! And Rayshell is also now a regular OTF person (but she works out at the studio by her), so we were talking a lot about our workouts and what we’ve been enjoying about them.

We were at dinner for a good chunk of time before we decided we should head out so she could get back to her side of town. It was just so nice to have a couple of hours to hang out with a friend one on one and be able to focus on them. We both agreed that we will do another happy hour dinner soon, but we also both know that even with the best intentions that doesn’t always happen. But at least we both put in an effort to make it happen and when it does we always have an amazing time!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, friends, hangout, happy hour

Doubling Up On Friend Time (or It Feels Like We Just Saw Each Other)

Posted on January 25, 2018 | Comments Off

I’m always so grateful when I have friends who are still in my life even if I haven’t seen them in a while. I wrote about a friend like this recently, but I got to experience more of that this week.

After doing the drop-off at My Friend’s Place, I went to meet a friend for a late lunch. This friend is someone who was in UCB classes with me and I don’t think I had seen her since our last class. But we stayed in touch through social media and this past weekend asked me if I had any free time coming up. She recently had surgery and wanted to meet up. And it worked out so perfectly that I was free after the donation drop-off and that it happened to be in the same neighborhood that she lives in!

We ended up meeting at Mel’s Diner which is always fun. We were spending so much time starting to catch up that we had to stop so we could decide on what food we wanted. We quickly decided so we could get back to our catch up time. The surgery that she had was very similar to the surgery I had on my hip. She didn’t have to have her cartilage removed like I did and her injury was caused by the shape of her hip socket and not bone spurs, but it was pretty much the same issue. And I was shocked by how fantastic she was doing! She was only a few weeks post-op and was already walking around and looking amazing! At that point when I had surgery, I was still on crutches and taking painkillers.

Besides our surgery talk, we also talked about acting. She has been wanting to get back into acting (she took a bit of a break) and I think that it’s a fantastic idea. I remember from when we were in class thinking that she was really talented. And I know that she has taken a lot of great acting classes so I think that she would be ready to go with auditions pretty quickly. She just needs to get some of the business stuff done and she’d be ready to go. It’s always exciting to watch someone talk about a career that they love to do. And when she was telling me about acting I could tell that it was what she is passionate about.

She’s also a Disney person like me! So of course we had to talk about different rides and things that we love in the parks. She has an annual pass so we were saying that when she is more recovered from her surgery and could walk a bit more that we need to have an adventure at the parks. I’m really looking forward to that because I can always use more Disney friends!

And while getting to have this catch up with a friend was awesome, it was a double friend day because of us going to Mel’s. A friend of mine works there and she happened to be working while we were there! It was just luck that it happened that way but I’m so glad it did! I love getting to catch up with her too (even though we do stay in touch over social media, it’s not the same). She is also an actor and we met working on a project together. We occasionally audition for the same parts, but we have slightly different looks so we don’t always see each other at auditions. So getting to catch up even briefly while I was at her work was a nice treat!

My friend and I ended up being at our lunch for a few hours before I needed to head home to do some errands. But getting to see her as well as my other friend really revitalized me. Being around great friends is one of the self-care things that I know I don’t do enough. Sometimes I forget how much it boosts my mental health when I get a few hours to sit down and talk to a friend. And not just talk to anyone, but someone who listens and is able to give great advice. That is something I am so grateful to have in my life and I need to remember to do this more often.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, fun, hangout

Childhood Friend Hangout (or I Don’t Think We Look 18 Years Older)

Posted on December 19, 2017 | 1 comment

I’ve always considered myself lucky that I make friends easily. When I go to a party where I know nobody, somehow I will leave that party with a new friend. But the problem with fast friends like that is that the friendship can be fast too. I’ve had so many instant friends who aren’t really my friends a few months later. That’s fine, but it’s always nice when you have a friend that you’ve known for a long time.

My friend Abby is one of my first friends. We met when we were 2 or 3 years old and even though we weren’t in school together growing up we still saw each other from time to time. Abby is the friend who introduced me to my friend Kate (and it’s weird to think of a 9-year-old introducing other 9 year olds to each other). While we weren’t friends who saw each other every day or every week, we were always friends.

We aren’t 100% sure of this, but we think the last time we saw each other in person was when Abby came to my high school homecoming dance my sophomore year. We went as a group that year and she was a party of it. That would have been when we were 15 and we looked like this.

I don’t exactly know how we stayed in touch during college (social media wasn’t a thing then) but somehow we did. And since social media existed we’ve stayed in touch mainly through Facebook. We’ll message each other from time to time. I got her hooked on Old Navy workout clothes and whenever we see a good sale we’ll let the other know about it. And we’ve said that we wanted to get together but it never worked out (she lives in the Bay Area near where we grew up).

But this past week, she was in Southern California for a work convention and she ended up having a little bit of free time during a dinner break on Saturday evening. So I got into my car and drove down to the Anaheim Convention Center (which is so close to Disneyland but my pass was blacked out) to meet up with her. I was so excited to get to see Abby again and realized that we had gone over half of our lives without seeing each other!

We went to dinner at a restaurant near the convention center (but not too close since all of those were so crowded with convention attendees) and finally got a chance to catch up in person! We both remarked about how amazing it is that our friendship has stood the test of time even though we hadn’t seen each other in 18 years. It takes a really special friendship to accomplish that. And it wasn’t weird at all catching up. I think that being in touch on social media helps so we knew what each other had been up to.

She told me about the house that she and her husband bought earlier this year and caught me up on what her family is up to. I told her more of my crazy online dating stories and other bits of randomness that has been going on in my life. But what was the greatest thing about this dinner was how totally normal this was. It felt like we were catching up after not seeing each other for a few months, not years!

Unfortunately, our dinner was quick because Abby had to get back to the last session of the conference she was attending. But of course, we had to get a photo to prove that we hung out together!

But when I put the last photo I know we were in together with this new one, I really can’t believe that there is an 18 year difference in them! I don’t think I look 18 years older in the photo than the old one and neither does Abby. Maybe I’m not a good judge of how old we look, but it doesn’t look that different to me.

When I dropped Abby off at the convention center again, we told each other that we couldn’t let 18 years go by before we see each other again. I know that we can’t promise that it won’t, but we are both really going to make an effort to make sure that doesn’t happen. But if somehow that does happen, I know that our friendship will last and when we do hang out again that it’s not going to seem like that much time has passed (but seriously Abby, we can’t let 18 years go by!).

I feel so lucky to have amazing friends like Abby in my life. I know that not everyone is as lucky as this and don’t have friends that have known them for over 30 years. While it’s nice to be able to make friends quickly like I can, I am so much more grateful for the lifetime friends (or the new friends who will last a lifetime).

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, friends, hangout

Trivia Night (or An Unexpected Friend Hangout)

Posted on October 19, 2017 | 1 comment

Since I’ve been trying to be more involved in SAG-AFTRA events, I’m trying to not say no to things when they fit into my schedule. So when the NextGen Performers committee posted that they’d be doing a trivia night on Tuesday I figured that I should go. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone to an organized trivia night before but it sounded fun. I tried to get some friends to come with me, but nobody seemed to be able to so I planned on just being there on my own.

But right after I arrived, my friend Rayshell walked in! I hadn’t texted her since she lives on the other side of town and usually can’t come over to my side of town after work, but she heard about the trivia night and also wants to be more involved in the union so she made the effort to go. It was so exciting to see each other there when we weren’t expecting it!

And I’m glad she was there (and had a friend with her) because it turned out that this trivia night was a team event. We ended up with a group of 4 and named our group The Misfits. There were lots of really clever names, but we were rushed to come up with a name because we missed that part of the instructions so we didn’t have any funny puns with ours.

At first, the trivia night seemed a bit complicated but I think that’s because we missed some of the instructions. But we picked up the idea pretty quickly. There were 4 rounds that each had 4 questions plus a bonus question. You bet a certain number of points for each question based on how you feel about your answer. And in the first round, we got all the questions right and were in 2nd place!

But after that amazing first round, we hit a slump. Rounds 2 and 3 didn’t go that great for us but it seemed like other groups were struggling too. And after the last round but before the last bonus question, we were all updated on how the scores looked. We were pretty close to the middle of the pack and the last bonus question was one where you could bet up to 20 points, but you risked losing those points if you got the answer wrong.

We figured we had nothing to lose so we bet 20 points and tried hard to think of the answer for the last bonus question. The question was which movie was the only one where Harrison Ford was nominated for an Oscar. All of us immediately thought “The Fugitive” but we weren’t rushing to answer. But then one member of our group remembered that he was in the movie “Witness” and that was probably the answer. So we put that down, turned our answer in, and hoped for the best.

Once everything was done, the MC was announcing the scores starting with last place. Once he got through half the groups we were so excited to know we were in the top half of the groups. Then he announced the 3rd place winner and that still wasn’t us so we knew we were in the top 2! We couldn’t believe it, but somehow we came back from the middle to end up in second place!

There was a basket of prizes to choose from and I got a SAG-AFTRA key chain. A lot of the stuff in the basket was similar to what we got in our swag bags at the convention so I didn’t really care too much on what I got. But just knowing that we got second place was awesome enough for me! I really wasn’t thinking we’d do that well and I think the entire group was shocked when we realized that we were in the top 2.

Even though winning second place in trivia was amazing, what was even better was getting to hang out with Rayshell again. Neither of us knew the other would be there, but fortunately there was a lot of downtime between trivia questions for us to catch up. It was like one of our happy hour hangouts! And this time there was free food since the NextGen Performers events have free food (actors always love free stuff!). We will still do another happy hour hangout soon, but at least we won’t feel as guilty about how much time will pass since we got to see each other this week.

After trivia was done, I had to get home. I’m still getting over being sick and I wanted to get home to get some sleep. But most people were leaving once the winners were announced. This mixer was more of a trivia night than a hangout night, but that was ok with me. It was something new for me and I had a great time. And even though it wasn’t the most actor related event, it was still a great night out with my union friends and that is always a win for me.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, hangout, SAG-AFTRA

Tag Archives: hangout

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Trivia Night (or An Unexpected Friend Hangout)

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