Tag Archives: Hollywood

A Week Until Race Day (or Helping Out My Friend’s Place)

Posted on October 30, 2015 | 1 comment

The 3rd Hard Rock Cafe 5K is just over a week away. I’m excited for the race to see if I’ve made any improvement since my last 5K. And my best friend is coming to town to do the race with me! I’m also nervous because I know that my calf injury isn’t totally healed (it’s super close!) and I don’t want to hurt myself during the race.

There’s not much I can really do about how my calf (or my hip) will feel during the race. I know that I’m not going to push myself as much as I might have just to be careful. And I am going to time out my workouts leading up to the race to make sure I have rest days right before.

Since I can’t do much about dealing with injuries at the race, I’m trying to focus on something else. Last year, I got to tour My Friend’s Place, which is the official charity of the Hard Rock Cafe race. I’m so glad that I had that opportunity because I never really thought about homeless youth in Los Angeles. I’ve helped at shelters for homeless adults, but youth have very different needs. After touring My Friend’s Place, I knew that I wanted to help out with donations in the future.

I hadn’t really been able to donate in the past year, but My Friend’s Place was always on my mind. Whenever someone mentioned having things to donate, if they were things on the wish list, I’d recommend they donate there.

Then, at the SAG-AFTRA Convention, one of my fellow delegates mentioned how AFTRA used to do donations at their conventions (this was before the two unions merged). Many delegates come from out-of-town and stay at the host hotel, and we know that most people don’t use the toiletries that the hotel provides in the bathroom. So at the AFTRA conventions, they would collect these toiletries and donate them to a place that could use them.

I connected with the delegate who brought up the donation idea (and got it all started) and said that if she didn’t have a charity in mind that I’d love to donate them to My Friend’s Place. So all of our donations (about 5 bags full) went to My Friend’s Place recently and we know that they will be going to good use.

I’ve also told my parents to bring all of the dog supplies that were Dante’s or Tucker’s that Tucker is too big for because My Friend’s Place allows the youth to bring their pets there and they need collars, leashes, and other pet supplies. So I will be doing that donation after Thanksgiving when I get them.

And the other day, a box showed up at my house. Somehow, I am on a baby/pregnancy mailing list (I’m not pregnant) and lots of baby related coupons have been arriving at my door. But this day, there were two cans of powdered baby formula inside!

So I will be adding those to my post-Thanksgiving donation and several of my friends with kids will be giving me baby clothes that their kids have outgrown, the leftover diapers in a box that their baby has sized out of, and other baby supplies that are on the wish list. I’m really excited to have another nice size donation that I will be bringing to My Friend’s Place soon.

If any of you are in Los Angeles, I highly recommend donating to My Friend’s Place if you can. They are so happy for any donations they can get and I know that they are working on helping the homeless youth find jobs and homes so that they don’t have to sleep on the streets as adults. I know that I haven’t made a lot of donations in the past there, but I’m hoping to fix that now and to make donating there a somewhat regular thing.

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, charity, donations, Hollywood, race, SAG-AFTRA

The Rest Of ENMNCon (or Learning How To Improve My Blog)

Posted on September 16, 2015 | 4 comments

While going to KOA and having an adventure day was fun, the main point of ENMNCon was to learn about blogging and how to make the best blog you can. When I won my tickets, that was the part that I was most excited about. While I have been blogging for a couple of years now, I still consider myself a newbie blogger. There are so many things that I don’t know how to do (or don’t know that I should do) and I want to learn as much as I can!

I’ve already talked about the first session that we had while we had lunch at KOA. The other session that we had on Thursday was in the evening at the PJ party we had at Dave & Busters at Hollywood and Highland. I’ve only been to a Dave & Busters once (I think) and I didn’t have time to check this one out too much, but I have it on my list of things I want to do around LA!

At the PJ party, Genevieve Goings (from Choo Choo Soul) taught us how to do a 5 minute face. I’m totally not a makeup person (I really wish I was!), but the instructions that she gave were pretty simple so I think I might be able to manage it! We also got some really great stuff from Pur Makeup!

The next day was a pretty full day of sessions. We were at the Hard Rock Cafe at CityWalk and I was there so early that CityWalk was basically empty (I’ve never seen it like that before!).

It was so nice of the Hard Rock to open up early just for our group! We had the entire upstairs to us and it was nice and quiet so we could hear all the speakers.

I learned so much that day! We heard from some people who work with affiliate marketing. I haven’t really ever done that before but I think it might be something great to add to here. I’d love to be able to share with you all products and businesses that I love and think you would all love too!

We also heard from some bloggers who have gone the next step with their blog. One woman has sold her blog (don’t worry, I don’t plan on selling Finding My Inner Bombshell any time soon!), another has created her own conference and has worked with legislatures, and the last one has written a book!

We also learned even more about travel blogging (I really need to look more into that!) and finally there was an expo where we got to meet with some vendors who want to work with us bloggers! I think I’m going to have some great things to share with you all very soon about some of these vendors!

The last day of ENMNCon was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood and Highland (where I was for the Hard Rock 5K event last year). I didn’t get a ton of pictures because I was so busy with my note taking! There’s one speaker we had that I’m going to be sharing with you tomorrow (you don’t want to miss it because I’ve got something special for you all!), but everyone who spoke was awesome! My friends Leah and Helenna were there as part of one panel so I got a quick photo with them between sessions.

After all the sessions were done, there was a tour with Starline of filming locations. I ended up missing that part, but I heard from my fellow attendees that it was amazing!

But even though I missed the last activity of the conference, my afternoon wasn’t spent sitting around doing nothing. First, I hung out at Hard Rock Cafe with some new and not-so-new friends. We had drinks and dessert (and maybe over-ordered desserts) and discussed our blogs and things that we learned over the past few days.

I also got to hang out with my new blogging buddy Jana at the host hotel. We hung out at the pool and planned to have an epic adventure the next time she comes to LA!

Overall, I’d say that my first blogging conference experience was a huge success! I learned so much and made a ton of new friends! I don’t know how many conferences I could afford to attend (especially if they aren’t local) and right now my job isn’t the most flexible one. But hopefully I will be able to do more and more of these in the near future and continue on working on bringing you all the best Finding My Inner Bombshell that I can!

Thank you again so much to the Entertainment New Media Network (especially Erica and Margaret) for putting this all together! Thanks Ventura Ranch KOA, Dave & Busters Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe CityWalk, and Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood for hosting us! And thanks to all the sponsors who helped to make sure that we all had the most amazing time those days!

4 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged blogging, event, Hollywood, Los Angeles

I Can’t Believe My Race Time (or A 5K With My TIU Friends)

Posted on April 14, 2015 | 3 comments

This past Saturday was the Hollywood Half 5K. This was my third year doing this race, and you might remember that last year the race didn’t go so well for me.

Even though I’ve been doing lots of treadmill training (and it showed in my last 5K), I was still so nervous going into this race. I knew that the hills that were added last year would still be there and those hills were the worst part of the race for me last year.

But I tried to stay positive. Lots of my new friends from my Tone It Up group were doing the race as well and we had plans to meet up before and after the race.

The day before the race, I went to go pick up my race number and other race things. I did meet up with one TIU friend, so that make the craziness of the expo a bit more fun. And as I always do, I took a selfie in my car with my race number.

With an early wake up time in the morning (4am), I made sure I put together my race bag the night before. I don’t think I’ve shared what’s in my race bag in the past, so here it is.

I attach my race number to the hip pack. In one pocket, I have my sunglasses, house/car keys, chapstick, and ID/money/credit card. In the other pocket, I have my headphones and phone (the phone isn’t in the picture since I used it to take a picture). I’m looking into upgrading to a race belt, but right now they are all too small for me.

As soon as my alarm went off at 4am, I was up and ready to go. I carpooled to the race with a TIU friend and we met a bunch of our other TIU friends near the start line.

A few minutes before the race was supposed to start, we split up to go into our corrals. There was 1 friend in a corral with me, so I got her to take a quick pre-race photo for me.

Since the race starts in waves and we were in corral 10, we had about 20 minutes between when the race started and when we actually started. By the time we got up to the start line, the sun was coming out.

My friend in my corral with me had planned to stick with me during the race. It was her first 5K and she wasn’t sure how fast she would go. But she was really fast! We were only together for the first half of a block and then I didn’t see her again until we met up at the finish line!

The race started pretty ok for me. The first part of the race has a slight decline and then you turn around and go up a slight hill. My hips were feeling it right away, but I kept on going. And I noticed that while I was getting passed a lot, I was also doing some of the passing.

I had set my phone to track my race time and it gave me a little notification when it claimed I had gone a mile (it’s a bit off so I was about 40 feet from the first mile marker). But even with the app being a bit off, my mile time was a lot faster than I expected it to be. I tried to not get too excited and kept focusing on the race.

Toward the halfway point of the race, there was the big hill of the race. This hill was one that I was swearing under my breath during last year. But this year there was a distinct different. I’m guessing it’s because of my treadmill training at Orangetheory. I’m used to doing crazy inclines on the treadmill without being allowed to slow down. So on the big hill, most walkers around me were slowing down but I was maintaining my pace (and passing them!).

Before I knew it, I was getting ready to take the final turn before the finish line. I grabbed my phone out of my bag so I could stop the clock on my phone to see my unofficial time. And I glanced at the phone and all I remembered was that it was saying 53 minutes and some number of seconds.

I crossed the finish line, stopped my clock on my phone, and something happened because the time was erased from my phone!

I couldn’t do anything to bring the time back on the app, so I knew I’d have to wait until the official times were posted. So I walked to where my group was meeting so we could take a post race photo.

And of course I needed a photo with my new race bling!

After taking our photos and chatting about how our races went, we went over to the timing board to see the official times. Everyone in my group had a PR! And when I looked at my time, I thought I was imagining things.

My time was 53:52.8! My time at the Hard Rock Cafe 5K (my previous PR) was 56:52.9! I can’t believe that I had a 3 minute improvement over the past few months! Honestly, I still can’t believe I did that.

My ultimate 5K goal is to get below a 16 minute mile. That’s the requirement for races at Disneyland. And while I don’t know if I will ever do a 10K or a half marathon, I’d love to do a 5K at Disneyland one day.

After we all celebrated our PRs, the TIU ladies and I went out to breakfast. I figured such an awesome race meant that I could splurge a little on breakfast.

Over breakfast, I just kept thinking how grateful I am that I have these awesome ladies in my life. They are such great motivators and I know that they will help push me to my next 5K goal. I’m hoping a bunch of them will do the Hard Rock Cafe 5K with me this fall.

And as soon as I got home, I had to add my latest addition to my medal wall.

My wall is starting to look full now, but I bet I can fit at least 4 or 5 more medals on there before I need to build an extension (or more likely, have my dad build an extension).

Overall, I’m so glad that I didn’t let my nerves get in the way of me having an amazing race. And now that I have my new PR in my head, I can focus on the steps I need to take to get another PR in the fall!

3 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, Hollywood, medals, progress, race, walking

Hollywood Half 5K (or Not Starting Off My 2014 5Ks In The Best Way)

Posted on April 7, 2014 | Comments Off

My first 5K of the year was this past Saturday. I had been looking forward to this for a while, but it ended up not being so great.

It started out on Thursday when I went to go pick up my bib number. I didn’t get my number for last year’s race because my friend Kate was doing the 5K as well and got both of our packets for us. So I didn’t know quite what to expect at the expo. Well, it was crazy! It took me about an hour to find parking, and once I got inside, there were so many vendor booths. I’m used to just going to a place where you pick up your number and that’s pretty much all that’s there. But this place had a ton of people inside and so many things for sale. I tried to get my number and shirt quickly and head out (I had parked at a meter and didn’t pay for a lot of time). Of course, as soon as I got back in my car, I had to get a selfie with my race number.

On Friday night, I tried to go to bed early and I set multiple alarms to make sure I would get up in time.

Fortunately, I woke up about 2 minutes before the first alarm, so that was pretty awesome. I hate waking up to the jarring sound of an alarm clock! I had a little bit of chocolate milk before leaving (I found that that’s easy enough on my stomach and I need to have a little something so I could take my painkillers) and I headed out the door.

Getting to the recommended parking lot wasn’t so great. They actually ended up blocking off the street right before you could turn into the lot. But I followed some other cars, made a couple of legally questionable u-turns, and was finally able to make it into the parking lot (I have no idea why they told us to park there if you couldn’t legally drive into the lot).

I got to the start line at about 5am. The race was set to start at 6 and it was very clear on the website that nobody was allowed to start after 6:15 so I wanted to make sure I was there nice and early.

I hung out around the start line for a bit.

And then I saw a friend of mine (who is also a blogger) who was going to be a course angel for the 1/2 marathon.

As a course angel, she raced to mile 9 and they stayed there and cheered on all the runners as they passed her. Then, after the last runner went by, she continued running her race.

After chatting with my friend for a minute, I realized that it was 5:40 and I should head back to my corral. I somehow moved up a couple of corrals compared to last year, but since I figured there might be runners behind me, I made sure I was on the very side (so I would be out of the way).

6am came, and nothing seemed to happen. For the next 20 minutes, my corral never moved forward. We had no idea if the race had even started. All that standing around was starting to hurt me, but I tried not to focus on that.

Finally, we started to move up. At 6:30am, we still hadn’t started yet.

That was my best attempt of getting a picture of my watch (saying 6:29) and showing how far away we still were from the start line. We finally started around 6:35am and as soon as we got going, I realized that the course had been changed.

Last year the course was out and back (although the start and finish line were not in the same place). According to the website a few days before the race, that’s exactly what the race was supposed to be this year.

But as soon as we started, we turned a corner and walked down a side street (it was a slight downhill incline so we had to do the uphill to go back to Hollywood Blvd.). We ended up doing a couple of those side streets and all of them had at least a little elevation.

I was definitely not happy about this. Right when I started, my right hip (the one that has already had one surgery on it) started to hurt. The elevation changes did not help at all. But I pushed through. It was not a pretty race for me at all. I did enjoy some of the cool costumes, though. This one was the absolute best.

I crossed the finish line in 1:03.36. That’s about 6 minutes slower than what I was doing toward the end of last year. While I was happy that I finished, I was pretty pissed that I was over the 1 hour mark again.

But I was very happy to get my medal and loved that it was a new color this year.

After the race, I took the subway back to the start line (so I could get my car) and starting chatting with a few of the other racers. A bunch of people were unhappy about the side streets and their elevation changes. And people thought the race seemed long this year.

I went home and looked to see if the new course had been put on the website, and it had through Map My Run.

This is almost what we did (except it’s missing 1 of the side streets we had to walk up and back on ). Even with it missing the street, it’s still longer than a 5K. With that missing street added on, I bet it was closer to 3.3 miles. That would help to explain my longer time.

While it wasn’t my best race, I still did it. I’m not doing as many 5Ks this year, so I’m being pretty selective about which races I sign up for. Right now, I’m unsure if I’ll do this one again next year. I’ll probably end up signing up for it because it is a fun event and people there are pretty nice.

My next 5K is a charity walk for the March of Dimes. And today happens to be the 5 year anniversary of Heather and Mike Spohr’s daughter, Maddie, passing away. I’m walking in memory of Maddie for this 5K and I’m hoping to raise some money for this event. If any of you could donate anything, I know that it would go a long way. And if you are in the LA area and want to join us, please feel free to join the team. All that information is on this link.

Comments Off on Hollywood Half 5K (or Not Starting Off My 2014 5Ks In The Best Way)

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged 5K, charity, hip, hip issues, Hollywood, March of Dimes, race

5K #7 (or I Was Prepared For The Worst And Got The Best)

Posted on November 5, 2013 | 4 comments

This past Saturday was 5K #7, the first annual Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood 5K.

But before I talk about the 5K, I want to come clean about something on here. I’ve been posting about 5Ks for a while now, but I’ve never discussed my times on here. I’ve only mentioned if I got a better time than I did previously. That’s because I’ve been embarrassed about how long it takes me to do a 5K. I have lots of friends who do 5Ks and they talk about how they want to get under 30 minutes or 25 minutes.

Well, I’ve been dreaming about getting a 5K under 1 hour. I haven’t had a 5K under an hour in a very long time (possibly 4 or 5 years). Most of my 5Ks this year have been around 1:01 or 1:02, so I’ve been close (5K #6 was at 1:03:15 with all the hills).

Now that I’ve come clean about my race times, back to my race recap!

I had signed up for this race a while ago because it sounded fun and had almost of the same race course as the Hollywood Half 5K (which I really enjoyed). But the week before the race, I noticed in an email that they had sent to me that there was a 18 minute mile pace requirement! Based on my past 5Ks, I’m closer to a 20.5 minute or 21 minute mile. I’ve seen the sweeper vans pick people up from the course on other races, but it’s never happened to me before. But now I was terrified that I was going to be disqualified due to my slow time at this race. I tried to forget about it, but I was seriously having nightmares about it.

On Friday after work, I went down to Hollywood and Highland to pick up my race number and shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe. I had a chance to talk to one of the race organizers, and she reassured me that they would not have a sweeper van coming to pick up slow racers. I didn’t have to worry about the 18 minute mile pace time. As long as I could finish within 2 hours I was ok.

I was much happier after hearing that and was starting to get excited again for the race.

The race had a 7am start time, plus I needed to give myself enough time to drive over and park, so I was planning on getting up pretty early (at least for me). I was terrified that I was going to oversleep, so my alarm looked like this.

Fortunately, when the 5:00am alarm went off, I jumped out of bed. I was still a bit nervous for the race, but I kept reminding myself that I didn’t have to worry about pace time.

I drove to Hollywood and Highland again for the race while it was still very dark out. But many of the buildings on Hollywood Blvd. were lit up so that was pretty cool.

I got a pre-race photo (I look so red because I am illuminated from the Hard Rock Cafe sign).

And before I knew it, we were lining up at the start line to start the race. Just before the start gun went off, the sun started to come up.

It was actually really nice! A majority of the racers were runners, so pretty much everyone was either in front of me or passed me as some point. Since the race was an out and back one, I watched people as they flew past me headed toward the finish line (the guy who got 1st in this race did it in under 15 minutes).

I focused on keeping a steady pace and not stressing about my time. I was so focused that I actually missed seeing the 1 mile marker! I like to check my time around then just to get an idea of my pace. But when I saw the turn around point, I checked my time. And shockingly, I was on pace to be at just under an hour!

I didn’t want to get too excited, but I focused on maintaining the pace that I had done the first half with. I just paid attention to my music and kept putting one foot in front of the other.

All of the sudden, I thought I saw the finish line coming up ahead of me. I checked my watch out of curiosity, and I was still on pace to be under an hour! Somehow, I sped up in the last part (maybe because of the excitement), and I crossed the finish line. The official clock was somewhere in the range of 59 minutes, so I knew I had done it in under an hour for sure. My watch said 58:34, but I wanted to seem my official time.

First, I had to get my super awesome medal.

Best medal I’ve ever gotten!

Finally, I headed over to the board with all the official times on it. And when I found my name, I knew that my time was amazing!

I did this 5K in 58:32! That’s almost 5 minutes faster than the 5K I had done 6 days earlier!

I’m still in shock that I got my 5K under an hour! I have another 5K this upcoming Sunday, but since it’s the weSPARK walk with the crazy hill, I’m not too focused on what my time will be (I’m still hoping to get closer to my fundraising goal if any of you can donate a dollar or two).

I was so prepared to be disqualified for this race and it ended up being the best race I’ve done in a very long time! I’m so happy that this was a positive experience and I plan on doing this race again next year!

5K #7 is done!

4 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, Hard Rock Cafe, Hollywood

LA Wine Fest (or A Fun After Work Activity)

Posted on June 11, 2013 | 1 comment

This past weekend, it was LA Wine Fest. I like wine, but I’m not a wine lover like some people. But I saw some half priced tickets online, so I invited my friend Kate. And her roommate Beth came as our designated driver (she had an early training run the next morning and didn’t really want to drink).

So on Saturday right after I was done with work, the three of us headed out. The fest was held at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. I’ve been there a couple of times in the past, but this was the first big event I had gone to there.

First, we all had to get wristbands. Since Beth was the designated driver, she got a bright one that let everyone know to not let her drink.

Then we were off to see what wines were out there. After Kate and I grabbed our first tastes, we decided to take a quick before picture.

While Kate likes most wines, I pretty much only drink sparkling or white wines. Kate was on the lookout for me for all sparkling wines, and I tried a couple of interesting ones. There was a sparkling wine that was infused with raspberry. It was really sweet, but I liked it. I tried a couple of rose sparkling wines that were pretty awesome too.

Then there was one called Pink Panda. Of course I had to try it! And it tasted exactly how I image a cartoon character would taste (it was pretty much like liquid cotton candy). I didn’t like that one at all. I made Kate try it too, and she wasn’t a fan as well.

Besides all the wine, there were food booths. Beth and I tried a couple of fancy cheeses. And all three of us really liked the balsamic vinegar and olive oil tastings. We all ended up buying some (I got some fancy balsamic as well as olive oil infused with basil, garlic, and parmesan cheese).

After drinking all the tastings, Kate and I wanted to get some food in our stomachs. So Kate, Beth, and I headed over to the food truck area. We saw a truck for Sweet Arleen Cupcakes and decided to split a couple.

The dark one is a cookies and cream cupcake and the light one is a lemon raspberry one. They were both delicious and really hit the spot!

After being at LA Wine Fest for about 2 hours, we decided to head home. It was really hot and crowded and we had checked out all the wineries we wanted to taste.

Of course, we got an after photo as well (this time, Beth was in it too!).

Overall, it was a great event! I got to try a bunch of new wines that I don’t know if I would have tried otherwise. And I have a new wine glass to add to my collection. If I see half price tickets again next year, I’ll probably check it out again.

Thanks Kate for being my wine guide at the event! And thanks Beth for driving so we didn’t have to pay for a cab!

PS: Today is the last day to enter my Food Should Taste Good giveaway! Make sure you comment before midnight to enter!

1 Comment

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged Hollywood, wine

Hollywood Mixer (or Ms. In The Biz Is Almost Here!)

Posted on May 3, 2013 | Comments Off

This week, Ms. In The Biz launched the sneak peek of the site. As I mentioned before, I’m a writer for the site (in fact, 2 of my articles are on there right now!).

To celebrate the sneak peek (and the official launch which is coming up soon), Ms. In The Biz partnered up with Film Break for a really great mixer event.

It was held at the Tropicana Bar at the Roosevelt in Hollywood. I’ve lived in LA for almost 12 years (my LA-nniversary is in August), and this was the very first time that I’ve been to the Roosevelt.

I got a bit lost in there, but I realized I entered from the back entrance (the one on Hollywood Blvd). But once I got out to the pool area, it was gorgeous!

We were right next to the pool, which was all lit up.

I got there on the early side (because I didn’t want to stay out late), and immediately ran into some friends and fellow Ms. In The Biz writers.

But it quickly got very crowded there, and I tried to keep finding places to mingle that weren’t full of people (I had a fear that somehow I’d get pushed into the pool in the crowd!).

Even with that set back, I met so many amazing creative people. And for the first time at a mixer event, I think being an actor was in the minority. I’m used to the LA Actors Tweetup where it seems like everyone is an actor (and that’s awesome). But at this event, I met directors, film critics, make up artists, sound mixers, and writers. It’s nice being around all these creative types that do different things than you!

Thank goodness for business cards because with all the noise, I didn’t quite get everyone’s name.

After being there about 2 hours, I decided it was time to head home so I could be up early the next morning to get errands done before work. Based on tweets and FB posts I’ve seen, the party went on quite a bit more! I’m a little sad I didn’t stay longer, but I know that I’d be miserable at work the next day if I didn’t get sleep!

If you haven’t already checked out the Ms. In The Biz site, please do! It’s an amazing project that I’m so proud to be a part of! Make sure to sure to sign up for the newsletter so you know when the new posts are up.

I believe there will be an official launch party for the site in the next month or so, and if it’s open to everyone, I’ll make sure to post the info on here!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged bar, blogging, event, Hollywood, mixer

Hollywood Half 5K (or 5K #2 For The Year!)

Posted on April 9, 2013 | 3 comments

A while back, I saw a notice on Facebook for the Hollywood Half marathon. I’m in no way prepared (or motivated enough right now) for a half marathon, but I noticed that they also had a 5K available.

Since I set a goal of doing at least 5 5Ks this year (and have only done 1 so far), I signed up. And my friend Kate signed up too (but I knew ahead of time that she would be running it).

I wasn’t able to go to the expo to pick up my bib number, so Kate grabbed it for me. But I was super excited when I got it from her and noticed that my name was on it (a first for me)!

The 5K started at 6am, which meant a VERY early start for me. I was so terrified that I’d sleep in that I set my alarm like this.

Getting to the 5K was a bit of an adventure. The start and finish line were just under a mile apart. No free parking (most lots would have cost about $25). But we noticed that there were subway stations near both the start and finish line (and we had both taken the subway to Hollywood before). However, the light rail that we’d have to take to the subway did not start early enough in the morning.

Spa Night Out to the rescue! I noticed that we got this in the swag bag:

It was a $20 credit to Uber, which is basically a very fancy taxi service (if you are interested, you can use this link to get your own $10 credit). So we ended up going to the start line in a Town Car. Seemed fitting for a Hollywood event.

It was so cold that early in the morning that we hung out in the subway station to keep warm.

Finally, it was time to line up at the start line.

While waiting, we made a new friend with the girl behind us. Her name is Krystle and she was doing her very first 10K. And it was weird enough that her first name is the same as my brother’s fiancée (same spelling too), but it turns out her last name is the same too (we looked up at the race results to see how fast our new friend finished).

And when we started, Kate was off and running, and I just focused on walking and not stopping at all. I had my iPhone going with a good workout mix, so I was pretty happy.

The race had an out and back sort of set up, so I watched people going past me the opposite direction for a good portion of the race. And just around the 1 mile marker, I saw Kate running at full speed towards me. We gave each other a high-five and cheered each other on.

Eventually, I crossed the finish line. It wasn’t my best time, but it was about 8 minutes faster than the 5K I did at Universal Studios, so I’m super excited about that!

I also loved that there was a step and repeat at the finish line!

I met up with Kate at the finish line (who turns out ran so fast that she placed 3rd in our age group!) and we headed down to the subway. And we were pleasantly surprised by how cool it looked down there in the station!

I’m so excited that I got my 2nd 5K of the year done! I’m almost 1/2 way to my goal. And I’ve just signed up for 2 more 5Ks for next month. First up will be the Revlon Run/Walk which I have done twice before. That one is actually a 5.6K (according to their website). So I’m not going to stress if my time isn’t great for that one. And then at the end of May I’m going to be doing the Firefly 5K, which is a 5K at nighttime (it will be a first for me).

Looks like my goal might have to be changed to be more than 5 5Ks, but right now, I’m super excited that I’ve done 2 so far (and got this bad ass medal)!

3 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, Hollywood, race, uber, walking

Hollywood Superbowl (or Where I Was For The Oscars)

Posted on February 26, 2013 | 1 comment

Oscar Sunday is pretty much a holiday here in LA. And as a holiday, you want to spend it with those you love at some sort of gathering.

Probably for the past 10 years, I’ve always spent it at a party at my friend Marie‘s house. And her parties are always awesome!

First of all, it’s a costume party. You are supposed to come dressed as a character from a movie in the past year.

I’ve had some great costumes in the past.

I’ve been Edna from “The Incredibles”. No capes!!

I’ve been a drunk bridesmaid from “Wedding Crashers”.

I’ve also had some not-so-great costumes. One year, I just wore jeans and a top, and on one pockets I had a bunch of pictures of international destinations and on the other pocket I had a bunch of different sorority letters (I was the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”).

This year, I didn’t have a fabulous costume, but it wasn’t horrible either.

I was a citizen of The Capitol from “The Hunger Games”. And yes, that is my wig from The Color Run.

Marie (and her husband Chris) really do a great job throwing this party. They have a red carpet.

And two different screening areas. One is in the living room around the tv and in that room, it is considered the chatty room. The other is in the garage where they project the show on a wall. In the garage, that’s where the serious watchers watch (and that includes me).

Overall, I think the show was pretty good. I didn’t love Seth MacFarlane as a host, but I was expecting it to be much worse. The opening was way too long (if that was cut down it might have ended almost on time).

I didn’t do too great with guessing the winners. I got 16 right, but I guessed a few of the major categories incorrectly (I picked Tommy Lee Jones for supporting actor and Steven Spielberg as director). I thought all the speeches were pretty amazing, especially Ben Affleck. I loved the end of his speech.

He said, “It doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life; that’s going to happen. All that matters is you’ve got to get up”. That advice is great for an acting career, and even better for life in general.

After the show ended (just over 3 1/2 hours later), I headed home where I got my stuff together to prepare for my last week of work for a while.

Thanks again to the hosts, Marie and Chris, for throwing another awesome party!

And in case you are wondering, Marie is dressed as Lincoln, Vampire Hunter and Chris is Fix-It Felix.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Academy Awards, costumes, Hollywood, Oscars, party, winner

Oscar Prep (or A Hollywood Adventure)

Posted on February 25, 2013 | Comments Off

This past Friday, I was done with work at 1pm, so my friend Kate and I decided to take a bit of an adventure and go to Hollywood and Highland to see all the prep work being done for the Oscars.

There were a ton of streets closed in the area, so we tried taking the Expo Line (light rail) to the Red Line (subway) to get there.

On the map, we went from one end of the light blue line to connect to the red line and got off at the Hollywood/Highland stop.

The light rail wasn’t bad. I had taken it once before with my dad. But I had never taken the subway in LA before. It wasn’t bad, but it was really crowded. On the ride out, Kate and I both ended up standing (it was like a core workout when the subway stopped and started). But it took 50 minutes to get from my place to Hollywood, which isn’t too bad.

Once we got off the subway, we checked out the prep going on on Hollywood Blvd.

It was pretty crazy. And while we were walking down the street, we ran into my friend Daniel (who works for a show that tapes right where the Oscar prep was going on), and he told us to go into the lobby of the Dolby Theater. You were able to walk on the red carpet (while it was cover by plastic).

So we headed straight over there, and I have to admit, it was pretty awesome!

(the last picture shows the red carpet under the layers of plastic)

Kate and I were people watching for a while. There were a couple of categories of people. Those who were regular tourists, those who wanted to see where the Oscars were happening, those who were working for the event and were just trying to get stuff done, those who just wanted to shop at the Hollywood and Highland center, and then the oddballs (included 3 Spidermen and a woman dressed as an astronaut with a white wig).

After checking things out for a bit, we headed back down to the subway (the station was pretty cool looking), and headed home.

Seeing everything in person really made me even more excited to watch the show this year! And being in that environment had such an exciting energy that it made me smile for a couple of days.

Tomorrow’s post will be my recap of the award show (and showing off my costume from my friend’s party!).

Comments Off on Oscar Prep (or A Hollywood Adventure)

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Academy Awards, Hollywood, Oscars, red carpet, subway

Tag Archives: Hollywood

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