Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Reflection (or I’m Totally Living My Dream)

Posted on March 18, 2016 | 1 comment

The other night, I went out to dinner with my friend Erin. Erin is pretty amazing (she’s created a spoof series/rock opera) and she and I have been hanging out lately. First, we started hanging out because of our mutual love of “X-Files” (and me having a DVR when she doesn’t have cable), but we also are now working on putting together a project together. After we had an official meeting, we went to dinner to kill time during rush hour before she went home.

It’s seriously so inspirational to have friends who are really living their dream and doing exactly what they want to do with life. Sometimes I feel like I’m the farthest away from doing that, but nobody makes me feel less than or puts down the fact that I’m working multiple day jobs.

During our dinner, we did talk about what our ultimate dreams are (for me, it’s a series regular role on a sitcom-style tv show). And I really started to think about where I am in my life and how far I’ve come.

Yes, I’m still working multiple day jobs and I don’t make a living by being an actor. But honestly, I’m living everything that I dreamed of from when I decided to be an actor.

I moved to LA when I was 18 (to attend college) and have never moved away. In a couple of years, I will have lived in LA longer than I lived in the Bay Area. I have a really cool house that I rent and I’m able to afford my rent and bills. I have a working car and it gets me everywhere I need to go. I can go to the beach, see the Hollywood sign, and go to famous landmarks whenever I have the time if I want.

I am pursing acting. I have amazing agents who I love, casting directors who believe in me, and a community of fellow actors who are super supportive. I don’t audition as often as others may, but the auditions I get are usually for higher level parts than I would expect (series regulars versus auditioning for a 1 line part). I have acting coaches who I can work with when I need to prepare for a big audition. I’ve taking acting classes with amazing teachers and have more classes that I want to take. I have headshots that represent me and get me into auditions that are right for me and my type.

I have amazing friends in LA and in other parts of the country. There was a time when I wondered if I was going to be friendless for a long time (and it did feel like a really long time before I really built up my friends circle), but fortunately that changed. My friends are actors and non-actors, but everyone is equally supportive. I have friends who support me at my workouts, friends who support me at my auditions, friends who are helping me creating acting work, and friends who support me when times are tough. I know that if I needed something or someone that I could find a friend who would come to help me anytime day or night (and I would do the same for any of my friends).

I get to go on a bunch of fun adventures. A lot of adventures are local, but all of them are amazing. I can go to Disneyland whenever I have free time, I’ve been to secret clubs in LA, and I get invited to screenings year-round. When I do get to go out-of-town, there’s always something really awesome planned. While I’m hoping to be able to travel internationally again in the near future, there’s enough great stuff in California alone to keep me happy.

While I’m still battling my eating disorder, I’m now viewing it as a battle and not something completely out of my control. I know that one day this will be in my past and those demons will be gone from my life. But thinking of it as a battle has helped me make more progress this past year than I have in my entire life. And the fact that I have a regular workout routine is helping me in my battle and the workouts are making me so happy. I feel like I’m taking control of my health and that is awesome.

When I was hanging out with Erin, we talked about some of these things. Sometimes, I do have to remind myself that this is my life. There are times that I meet celebrities that I was obsessed with as a teenager at an event and get to chat with them for a bit. If the 14-year-old me knew that this was in my future, I’m sure that I would have been much less stressed about school. Honestly, things have happened in my life that I never would have believed would happen to me. It’s awesome that this has been my life so far, and I know that it’s only going to get better.

I already know that this year is going to be better than last year. I have some really amazing things coming up and in the works and I know that they will lead to bigger and better things. And with this year only being about a quarter of the way done, I’ve got plenty of time to make this year even more awesome!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, adventure, friends, Los Angeles

A Night Of Magic (or Not Quite A Musical)

Posted on March 9, 2016 | Comments Off

Even though I got a really great Black Friday deal on tickets for the Pantages (and already got my 2016-2017 season tickets), I’m always on the lookout for good deals for shows I don’t have tickets for. It’s so funny that I’m seeing so many shows now since before my season tickets last season for Pantages I hadn’t been there since I moved to LA in August 2001. It’s almost like I’m making up for lost time. I’m not able to see everything I want because of money issues, but fortunately lots of shows do random deals and my season tickets were a bit cheaper than expected so I had a little extra money.

Most of the runs at the Pantages are longish runs. Some shows are there for a couple of weeks, and some shows are there for a few months (when “Hamilton” is here next year, they will be here for 5 months). But sometimes they have shows that are here for a week or two and they can be tough to get into because there aren’t as many shows to go to.

I had seen that one of the short runs at the Pantages this year is a show called “The Illusionists”, which is a magic show that was on Broadway. The show is with 7 different magicians each with a different speciality or theme. I love magic (I’m hoping to get back to the Magic Castle soon!), but my friend Dani who did the Black Friday deal with me didn’t want to see that show. So we didn’t put it as a part of our season and I let it go.

But a few months ago, my friend Sarah mentioned that she and her husband wanted to see the show. So we agreed to be on the lookout for cheap seats and we’d go together. Sarah ended up finding $45 seats and was supposed to get the tickets, but things came up and she couldn’t do it. But it worked out for the best for us because I got an email a few days later offering $30 seats! So I got our 3 tickets and ended up getting us seats pretty close to center in the first row of the balcony!

We saw the show this past week and it was so much fun! Our seats were pretty amazing and I’m glad that we were able to get in the balcony because it was probably better to see the show from up there instead of in the back of the orchestra.

The Illusionists

The show was broken up by magician and each person would do an illusion or two before the next magician came out (each magician did a couple of different segments). It was a little like seeing a bunch of little shows and even though it didn’t quite flow together it was still great. And a couple of the magicians also did some comedy so it became like a mix of standup and magic.

I’ve seen a lot of behind the scenes magician specials so I do know how some of the illusions are done. But that didn’t ruin any of the fun for me. And there were plenty of illusions that I have no clue how they were done and they shocked me! I wish that I could watch videos of them because I want to see them over and over again!

While I do feel like it was a really fun show and I’d encourage people to get tickets, there were a couple of things that weren’t so fabulous. The sound quality was pretty off and some of the music was so loud that we were starting to get headaches. Also, it was very showy and lots of parts of the show could have sped up to make it more fun (we didn’t need to spend several minutes watching a magician prepare for one trick with no music or other things happening). And some of the jokes were a bit off to me, but that could be just my sensitivities. If we had paid the full price of tickets for where we sat, I might be a bit more picky. But for $30 seats it was a great evening out!

This show really did make me want to get to the Magic Castle again soon. The magic there is so amazing because you are up close to the performers and it’s very toned down and basic. They don’t have music, effects, and a huge stage to hide behind or to hide what they are doing. Everything is right in front of you and you feel very connected to the show. That wasn’t the case with “The Illusionists” since we weren’t in the areas where they got volunteers and had to watch a lot of stuff on a screen since we couldn’t see from that far away without it. But that’s what happens when you go to see a magic show in a large venue.

I don’t know if there are any additional shows coming up that I’ll be buying tickets for outside of my Black Friday deal this season or my season tickets next season. I think I’ve got tickets for everything that I want and unless someone offers me free tickets I don’t know if I’ll have the money for it. But I’m getting to see a lot right now and I’m so grateful to have entertainment like this close enough to my house and within my budget!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged Broadway, friends, Hollywood, Los Angeles, magic, Pantages Theater, show

A Dinner Hangout (or Seeing My Sister-In-Law in LA)

Posted on March 2, 2016 | Comments Off

Even though my schedule the past week was crazy (I haven’t even covered the craziness of my past weekend), I still tried to have fun when I could. So when my sister-in-law Krystle sent me a text saying that she was going to me in LA on Friday, I knew I had to hang out with her! Since she and my brother moved to Santa Barbara, she and I haven’t really hung out in LA too much. She’s come over to my house for a quick visit, but it’s usually just a stop on their drive back from San Diego.

While I couldn’t hang out with Krystle and Ross while they were exploring LA (I was working then), I was able to join Krystle for dinner after she dropped my brother off at a friend’s house and before she and a friend went to a concert.

Since she was dropping my brother off in Brentwood, it worked out really well for me. I was working out at Orangetheory at 4pm, so we made plans to get dinner around 5:30/6. As soon as my workout was done, I showered and changed there (they have really nice shower facilities but I usually go home to shower after class). We were meeting for dinner at a burger place across the street from Orangetheory. But because Orangetheory is valet parking (we get 90 minutes for free), I moved my car across the street to cheaper parking.

I had never been to Barneys Hamburgers before, but I usually don’t hang out in Brentwood. I just go there for my workout and then go home. But this place seemed really cute and the menu seemed awesome when I looked online, so I was excited to check it out.

Krystle and her friend had gotten a table before I arrived, but they only beat me by a few minutes. Of course, she and I tried to catch up right away. But since they had a concert to go to, we knew we needed to order food first so they could leave on time.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the menu at first, and I didn’t want to eat anything too crazy since I had just worked out. But then I realized that it was ok to splurge a bit and found a couple of burgers that looked pretty awesome to me. I figured I’d have to go back another time soon to try another burger, so I chose one that looked good but not too crazy. It had cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce on it. It wasn’t the healthiest thing on the menu, but it was far from the worst. We also ordered truffle fries for the table (even though Krystle doesn’t like truffle fries, her friend and I do so I’m grateful that she let us get something to share even if it isn’t her favorite).

Post Workout Burger

The burger was really great! I don’t eat burgers like most people do. I tend to take the top off of it and then cut into it with a fork and knife. It’s a weird habit that I’ve had for a while, but it works for me and it keeps me from getting hamburger from falling out of the bun and onto my clothes.

While we were eating, Krystle was telling me about some upcoming trips that she and my brother are taking and how her wedding planning business is going. I’ll be seeing her in Santa Barbara next month when I’m there for Rayshell’s wedding, so we also talked about what we want to do while I’m there (my parents are going to be in Santa Barbara then too so it will be lots of family time).

We also got to talk a bit about the next trip that she and I take together. We though it would be a fun weekend in Las Vegas, but life got in the way and if we are going to do that it will have to wait until the fall or winter because we don’t want to be there in the heat of the summer. But this coming winter is when we also thought we’d go back to New York, so we have to decide which trip we want to take. Either one will be awesome and I’m super excited to get to spend more time with Krystle soon on an adventure.

We only got to hang out at dinner for about an hour before Krystle and her friend had to leave to get to the concert. Even though it was a fast hangout, it was seriously so much fun! I hope that Krystle can come down to LA every so often so she and I can do stuff here. There’s so much fun stuff in LA that she hasn’t done, so I’m hoping she can join me when I find out about a cool event.

After I said goodbye to Krystle and her friend, I headed home to get ready for my crazy weekend. But more on that in tomorrow’s post…

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Posted in Family, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, fun, hangout, Los Angeles, sister-in-law

Marathon Viewings (or Olympic Trials and Workout Friends)

Posted on February 17, 2016 | 2 comments

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, the main reason my friend Kate came to visit was to watch the Olympic marathon trials. To be honest, until Kate had mentioned she wanted to come to town for the trials, I had no clue that they were happening now nor that they were happening in LA. So I’m grateful that Kate was coming to watch them because I learned about them too!

The Olympic trials took place in downtown LA (they had to do a bunch of laps on the course to complete the marathon), and since I had to work in the morning Kate took the light rail there and told me where she was so I could meet her later. Fortunately for Kate, the course was only about a block away from the train station, so it was pretty easy for her to get there. She gave me a heads up where she was watching and as soon as I was done with work I got in my car to try to join her.

It wasn’t easy to try to get to the course. A couple of streets were closed, there were lots of confused drivers, and it didn’t help that the LA Marathon packet pickup was taking place in the same area at the same time so there were even more people getting stuck on the roads. I thought that I’d have to either keep circling the area or stay in my car when I was parked in a semi-legal spot. But after parking in a questionably legal parking space and sitting in my car, I saw someone move a cone blocking a street so he could get onto the street (it was a street a block away from the course). I found a parking spot at a meter and the meter had already been paid for! So I parked my car and walked over to meet Kate.

By the time I had gotten to the course, the top finishing men had already passed by for the final time. So I never got to see them, but there were still lots of men working on finishing the course (it wasn’t easy in the heat so many runners either had to go slow or were at risk of passing out). But I was there with plenty of time to see the top women come by one more time. Kate had a runner that she was rooting for and had seen online that she wasn’t in the top 3 (only the top 3 get to go to the Olympics), but we were still excited to see her.

While I have no desire to ever do a marathon, it was still pretty awesome to see these amazing athletes running by me. And when the top 3 women came by, the entire crowd was shouting and cheering for them. It was so cool to be there to witness that. And the woman who Kate was rooting for was in 4th and the crowd was just as excited to see her go by as they were for the top 3.

Olympic Trials

We left a little bit after watching the leaders run by since Kate had to get to LAX for her flight home. I was able to watch the marathon trials for about an hour. And while I did wish that I had the chance to be there longer, I’m grateful that I was able to watch even a little bit.

The next day was the LA Marathon. I had gone out to the course in the past to cheer on the marathoners and was planning on doing the same thing again. I had a couple of friends running and I asked them all to tell me their average mile time so I could try to get out to the course in time to see them go by.

It was much easier to get to the course than the Olympic trials course, but it was still a bit difficult to park. I found parking after about 20 minutes, but sadly I missed the first person that I wanted to see running by at mile 19. But I still had a few other friends to be on the lookout for. So I double checked their posts on social media so I could see what they were wearing (it makes it easier to find them when I know what outfits to look for).

While I was waiting to see my friends come by, I cheered on the other marathoners. It was another hot day and the runners were having a tough time. I know that every person who was racing earned every mile that they went and some of them had to battle for every step. But even in the heat, so many people were still running with a smile. And of course, there were some pretty awesome costumes too. With it being on Valentine’s Day, there were some Valentine themed costumes like Cupid or wearing all red. I even saw one guy wearing a full tuxedo. And then there were the fun costumes like Forrest Gump and someone in a Gumby outfit (they must have been dying in the heat inside of that thing!).

I kept checking my watch for the time because I knew approximately when my friends should be coming by. I was terrified that I missed seeing them all (sadly, I missed 3 of my friends but I think one of them might have been faster than they expected). But after being out on the course for a little over an hour, I finally saw some familiar faces!

LA Marathon Friends

Jonathan (who is the business manager of Orangetheory) and Jordan (aka The Balanced Blonde) were running together. This was Jordan’s first marathon and Jonathan was staying with her. I was so excited to see them come by me and I know that they both heard me cheering them on. They both looked pretty happy and were looking strong at mile 19 (which is amazing to me!).

I stuck around for a little bit longer looking for my other friends, but after realizing that they would have had to do their miles 4 minutes slower than expected to still be on the course, I realized that I missed the rest of them and went home.

Even though I never want to do a marathon, I love getting out to the course to cheer people on. It’s such a huge accomplishment and you never know if you cheering someone on will give them the encouragement to ignore the pain or negative thoughts in their head and help them keep going. I know that there have been people on the 5K courses who have been that person for me. So I just want to make sure that I pay it forward.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, Los Angeles, marathon, Olympics, Orangetheory

A Speedy Friend Visit (or Making The Most Of 24 Hours)

Posted on February 16, 2016 | 1 comment

When my friend Kate stayed with me the last time, she mentioned that she might be coming to town in February to watch the Olympic marathon trials. I set the date aside in my calendar and was really excited when Kate told me that she had booked her flights and that she wanted to stay at my place again. But because of her work and the varying costs of flights, Kate was only able to be here for 24 hours (almost exactly). So I was planning out how to make this the most awesome 24 hour visit ever!

Kate got here on Friday afternoon (which is why I couldn’t work out on Friday). I picked her up at LAX and I was super excited to see her. I miss having her live in LA, so even when her visits are super speedy it makes me so happy to have her in the same city as me. It’s funny that it’s such a big deal because since we graduated high school, we’ve lived in the same city for a very limited time. But since she moved to LA briefly I am even more excited when she comes back!

I had gotten an email from the SAG-AFTRA Film Society earlier that week that there was going to be a screening of “Hail, Caesar!” at the DGA that evening. So I asked Kate if she wanted to go to that and she did. It was actually her first time going to a screening with me (for some reason we could never coordinate schedules with the screening schedules when she lived here). But this time it worked out pretty nicely so as soon as I had picked Kate up we headed over to the DGA.

Since the screening wasn’t until 6:30, we had some time to grab dinner before the movie. We walked across the street to The Counter (I love that place!) for burgers and some catch up time. Kate filled me in on her work and her cats and I filled her in on the craziness of everything and my workouts. We had to eat pretty quickly to make it to the screening, but it worked out fine.

I really enjoyed “Hail, Caesar!”! It was really funny and even though some of the jokes were very much about the entertainment industry, I think that enough of the movie isn’t insider stuff that everyone should be able to enjoy it. I was laughing quite a bit through the movie and I think that the entire cast was amazing!

After the screening, Kate and I walked over to the West Hollywood Orangetheory location. I don’t work out at that location, but I wanted to show it to Kate because there is a Orangetheory near where she lives and she’s thinking about checking it out. Even though the studio was closed, the manager (who I’ve met several times and he knows me) was there and he let us in. I showed Kate the various equipment inside and I chatted with the manager about the crazy workout from Thursday (where there was 22 minutes on the floor straight). We didn’t want to keep him there too long after hours, so Kate and I headed out and headed back to my house.

The next day was the main event that Kate came to town for: the Olympic trials. I’ll share more about this tomorrow but Kate went early in the morning and I was able to join her there after I was done with work. Even though I missed most of it, I got to see a little bit.

After we were done watching the racers, we headed over to my side of town to get some lunch at one of my favorite places, Lyfe Kitchen. Even though they have so many good things on their menu, I tend to get the same things each time. I love their BBQ chicken flatbread but instead of fries (since I had some the night before), I got a side of steam veggies with my food.

Lyfe Kitchen

After lunch we only had a little bit of time left before Kate needed to be back at LAX for her flight home, so we were trying to figure out what to do. We finally decided on doing a bit of random searching in the car for new wine bars. My favorite local wine bar, Bottle Rock, closed down right after the last time I was there so I was on the search for a new place. I knew that any new place I found wouldn’t be walking distance like Bottle Rock was, but I still wanted to see what other places were out there.

I had randomly seen a wine bar driving around a few weeks ago, so we headed over there first. Sadly, the place wasn’t open yet for the day. But we were able to see a menu online and it looked promising. After checking out that place, we did a search on Google Maps for other wine bars in the area and we set off on an adventure! We ended up checking out 2 other wine bars (one that looked good and one that didn’t) and then it was time to go to LAX.

Considering that this was all done in 24 hours, I think we succeeded in maximizing the limited time that Kate had in town. She kept saying that this wasn’t really a friend visit since she was coming here for the Olympic trials, but I lucked out because she was staying at my house. So I wanted to make sure that Kate had a fun time in LA and didn’t just feel like she was flying in, sleeping at my house, watching the Olympic trials, and flying out.

I’m just glad that Kate was just as up for going on as many adventures as we could like I was.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged adventure, friends, Los Angeles, marathon, SAG-AFTRA, screening, travel

Mamma Mia (or The Best Black Friday Deal Ever!)

Posted on January 28, 2016 | 3 comments

I loved having season tickets for the Pantages last year and getting to see a bunch of amazing musicals. It was the best thing I splurged on and it brought me so much happiness. But when the season for this year was announced, I couldn’t justify splurging on the full season when there were only a few shows I really wanted to see. So I figured that I’d try to catch a show or two if I found a good deal.

Then, right before Thanksgiving I got an email from Pantages saying that they were running a Black Friday deal! You could get tickets for 4 shows on Tuesdays for $99! That’s basically $25 a show (it’s usually about $100 per show on average). I emailed my friend Dani about it and asked if she wanted to get 4 shows. I’m so glad that not only did she say yes, but she said that she could do the ticket order (the deal started at midnight and I knew I’d be at a movie with my cousin then).

We got the 4 shows we wanted and Dani said that she just chose to have the best seats available. When I took a look at our order, I realized that we were almost always exactly centered in the theater and only a few rows farther back than our season tickets had been! That’s pretty amazing and I know that we scored on that deal.

Our first show of 4 was this week and it was Mamma Mia. I’ve seen the movie before and had enjoyed the plot and the music. So I was pretty happy that we were going to see the musical. Two of our other friends, Sarah and Ali, got tickets for that show (they didn’t want to do the 4 show deal) so we all got a quick dinner at the W Hotel (across the street from the theater) before it was showtime.

I know that Sarah and Ali tried to get tickets near us, but it wasn’t possible. So we split up in the lobby (Ali and Sarah went to the balcony and Dani and I went to the orchestra), but it was ok with us that we weren’t sitting together. We were all just glad that we were getting to see the show!

Mamma Mia

I really enjoyed the show! It was similar to the movie, but there were a couple of songs that weren’t in the movie or were in different places in the play. It was fun and you could tell that the actors were having a great time performing! There was no way you couldn’t smile during the show (and in Dani’s case, there was no way not to sing and dance by the end of the show).

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I told my parents about it and they decided to get tickets for when the show will be touring near them this summer! My parents don’t go to a lot of musicals, but they seem to have similar tastes for shows that I do. So I have a good feeling that they will love it (and I helped them find some really great seats!).

Of our 4 shows that we got in our Black Friday deal, the rest of them are in the summer so we’ve got a few months before the next one (although there is one show not in our deal that I might try to see if I can find a random deal for). But I’m ok waiting because I will have a lot of musicals to see this year and next year!

On Tuesday morning the Pantages announced their 2016-2017 season and it looks incredible! As soon as I saw it, I checked to see if Dani wanted to get season tickets. I knew I’d be seeing her that night for Mamma Mia, but I wanted to arrange our season tickets ASAP. She did, and same with a few other friends (including my Disneyland buddy June!). So yesterday we got our season tickets arranged for the season and we will be seeing 7 shows between November this year and August next year! We couldn’t get the exact seats that we wanted, but we got 6th and 7th row seats off to the side and we have the opportunity to move them in another month or two if we’d like.

It is another splurge and I’m taking money from what I’ve been saving to get a new computer to afford it. But it’s so worth it to me. I said that I want to go on more adventures with my friends, and going to shows are always adventures!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged Broadway, friends, Hollywood, Los Angeles, musical, Pantages Theater, play

Another Try At The Fit Expo (or Finding My Place)

Posted on January 26, 2016 | 1 comment

I’ve written about the Fit Expo that I went to over the summer. I think it was pretty well understood that I felt so out-of-place while I was there and I didn’t really have a great time. I know that there were a lot of things working against me at that event. It was a bit of a drive to get there. Parking was not cheap. I had the torn calf and was in a lot of pain. And I’m sure that all of those things combined put me in a pretty bad mood.

So when I was given the opportunity to go to the Fit Expo and Evolution Fitness Conference in Los Angeles, I knew I had to give it another chance. I actually knew a lot of people who were going to be going. The women behind Tone It Up were going to be leading a class and a lot of the friends I’ve met through that workout program were going to see them. But since I had worked out with Tone It Up before, I decided to see what else I could try.

I went through all the class offerings and while there were a lot of things that sounded awesome, only a couple of things worked around my work schedule. So I decided to pick the 2 classes that sounded the best to me. One of those two classes was a POUND workout class. And my Disneyland buddy June happens to be working toward becoming a POUND instructor! So I sent her a message to see if she wanted to come with me, and she bought a ticket so she could join me for the classes!

Since the event was downtown, June and I took the light rail there. It was so much better than the drive I had to do to Anaheim before (and it was much cheaper than the parking near the convention center). June and I were at the check in table less than 30 minutes after we left!

The first thing we did was walk around the expo. It was just as crowded and overwhelming as it was last time. I think that I’m just not an expo type person. We did walk around and check out a bunch of different booths (I found some of my favorite water bottles there!) and we got a couple of food samples. We even ran into the Tone It Up trainers as we were walking in (they were hurrying over to take photos at their booth so we didn’t say hello). I really wanted to learn lots of stuff at the expo, but the noise and crowds didn’t make that easy for us.

So after doing a lap or so around the expo, it was time for us to take our POUND class. We actually saw 2 of the POUND instructors heading over to the class area, so we followed them so we wouldn’t get lost. It was nice walking over to the class area with them because they got to know us a bit (and find out that it would be my first POUND class and that June is in training for becoming an instructor), so by the time we were at the room for the class I was feeling better and less nervous.

They handed us our Ripstix and we had to wait for the class to start. Of course, we took a pre-class non-sweaty photo.

Pound Class

The class was really great! It had some elements that reminded me of SoulCycle (like how all the movements were to the beats in the music). June was next to me in class, so she was there in case I needed her. But fortunately, we got spots toward the front of the room so I was able to see the instructors really easily (there aren’t verbal cues in class, just visual).

It was a great workout, but it was a bit tough on my hips for me. There were a lot of sustained squats and lunges, and those aren’t the easiest for me. But I was sweating, having fun, and time flew by! I’m so glad that we went to that class because to be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. But now I know that I want to take some classes from time to time. There is a class near my house, but I am thinking about maybe getting the at-home kit so that I can do the workout when it’s a good time for me.

After the POUND class, June and I got some lunch (nothing too healthy because we stayed inside the convention center) and then headed to our next class: The Roll Model. I had signed up for this class because I used to do foam rolling, but I’ve definitely fallen off the foam rolling wagon. This class wasn’t necessarily foam rolling, but it had a lot of the same benefits and I was curious what would be said.

We all got a set of the rubber balls that we were going to use in the class when we walked in.

The Roll Model

Of course in my head, I said that I wouldn’t be buying them but that was before we took the class. The class was definitely designed for trainers and coaches, so some of the technical things were a bit confusing. But I don’t need to know the muscular system and the technical benefits to rolling to be able to do it.

The instructor guided us through the different ways we can use the balls and the reasons why some of them are better than others. And within the first few minutes of the class, I turned to June and said that I knew that I had to buy these because my body was feeling so great after using them! We did some work on our gluten as an example and then were told to walk around. I was shocked to find out that my hips felt more aligned than they had in a long time and my stride was much more normal! I couldn’t believe that doing this made that much of a difference, but there was no denying it!

After the class was done (it was about 90 minutes so we got a lot of rolling work done), I got in line to buy the set of balls we used so that I could do this work at home. I’ve already been doing it at home and I wish I had known about this sooner! My pain is not gone, but it’s different in a good way. Hopefully over time things will just keep improving!

After The Roll Model class, we were ready to head home. We had been at the event for several hours and we were both tired and relaxed after the classes we took. So we walked back to the light rail station and headed back to our side of town.

I’m so glad that I was offered the chance to go to the Fit Expo and Evolution Fitness Conference again! Clearly, my second experience was significantly better than my first! I’ve learned that while I might not be an expo type person, the classes were so wonderful and I wish that my schedule would have allowed me to do more of them. Maybe next year, I’ll be able to go both days and do 4 or 5 classes over the weekend!

Thanks again to the Evolution Fitness Conference for inviting me to the Los Angeles event. You have changed my mind on what these events are all about and how so many people can benefit from attending!

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged class, fitness, Los Angeles, workout

Helping People Help Others (or A Drop Off At My Friend’s Place)

Posted on December 11, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve gotten to work with My Friend’s Place a couple of times in the past. It’s such an amazing organization and they really can use all the help they can get. And unlike other organizations, I know that they use everything that is donated and pretty much everything goes directly to the youth that needs it (some things like office supplies goes toward running the organization).

I wish that I could donate more to charity, but right now in my life I can’t. But I’ve had the chance over the past month to do some collections so I could do a wonderful drop off at My Friend’s Place.

Somehow I got on a mailing list for pregnant women. I have no clue how that happened on what list I’m on to be taken off it. Most of the things I get just go into the trash because they are ads or promotions if I start a baby registry or buy things that I wouldn’t buy. But one box was actually 2 cans of baby formula. When I got that, I knew in a heartbeat that I would be bringing that with me to My Friend’s Place for their parenting program.

I posted online that it’s weird I’m getting baby stuff but I’m glad I did so I could donate it. From that post, several friends reached out to me asking how they could help too. I explained about My Friend’s Place and told them how they could drop things off. But then I realized that might not be easy for my friends with babies to do so I offered to do a drop off for them.

I’ve been getting things from friends since the end of October. And my parents had things for me to donate too when I saw them at Thanksgiving. They had pet supplies that Tucker is too big for and my dad had a small collection of hotel shampoos and conditioners that he doesn’t need anymore.

I put all of my friend’s and family’s donations together and was able to make a stop at My Friend’s Place after my class this week (it’s only a few blocks from my class so that was easy). My trunk was pretty filled with everything that people gave me (plus the 2 cans of formula that I got in the mail).

Donations

When I dropped off all the donations, I could tell right away that the staff was so grateful. I wish I could have taken credit for what I was dropping off, but really it was all due to the generosity of my friends and family.

I think I’m going to try to run donations drives again in the future. I think a lot of people don’t donate things because of the hassle to drive to where you have to drop it off. Or they don’t think about it and forget later. But if someone is reminding them to do it or is making it something easy, they have no excuse not to do so.

If you are local to LA and want to donate to My Friend’s Place, they have a wish list on their website. Anything on the list (even if you only have one of something) really can make the difference in someone’s life and will be appreciated.

This is the season for giving, and let’s try to work together to give to those who might not usually have someone giving them a gift.

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged charity, donations, Hollywood, homeless, Los Angeles

SAG-AFTRA National Convention (or I Had No Idea It Would Be Like This)

Posted on October 6, 2015 | 4 comments

I’m going to split my recap of the SAG-AFTRA Convention into two posts. Today will be about a majority of the 4 days I spent at Convention and tomorrow I’ll write about the gala.

I’ve mentioned this on here before, but when I ran for my delegate seat I wasn’t 100% sure what I was in for. I knew that it would involve attending the National Convention, but that’s pretty much all I knew. I have been wanting to get more involved in the union for a while, so this was jumping in with both feet.

With National Convention coming closer, all the delegates got lots of emails with schedules and things that we would need to be aware of. The Convention website (and later the app they created) had all the amendments and resolutions that we would be voting on during Convention. Some of these things made sense to me, but many confused me. Fortunately, I have friends who know more about the union than I do that I can trust and they explained things to me and helped me understand which way I was wanting to vote on each thing.

The first day of Convention was Thursday evening for the delegate party. I don’t have any pictures of this because I had to run an unexpected errand right before the party and ended up arriving an hour late (the party was only 2 hours). I checked in and got my delegate badge and bag filled with information for the weekend.

I got to see a bunch of my delegate friends at the party. But since I knew the next morning would be a very early morning for me, I didn’t stay too long.

The next morning was the first day of “real” Convention activities. We voted on the Executive Vice President as an entire group and then we divided up to vote on Vice Presidents for our regions or categories. The voting took time, but I appreciated that because on Friday (and again on Saturday) I was working my box office day job from Convention. I got permission to do chats only and not phone calls, but I still had to focus on my customers. So while the voting was being done or counted, I sat at my table and worked (most of the other delegates used that time to talk to friends or meet new people from other parts of the country).

We also spent a lot of time at Convention voting on the amendments and resolutions that we had been sent prior to Convention. I really can’t say too much about what happened during that voting. But I do want to say that while during the elections over the summer there was very much an attitude of one side versus the other, at Convention everyone came together as one and we all worked to make sure that what we chose to do is in the best interest of all performers, recording artists, and broadcasters in the union.

We also got to hear from our National Executive Director, David White, about what is coming for the union and what he wants us to accomplish. I’ve met David White briefly before, but getting to hear his report was so inspiring and I’m so happy that he is our NED and helping us make the union the best that it can be. Again, I’m not able to share a ton of what was discussed, but there are some really great plans for the future that should be announced in the next few months.

At one point during Saturday, we got to split up and chose a workshop to attend. There were a couple of different options and it was tough to choose one, but some of my fellow delegates and I decided to all try to attend different ones so we could share what we learned. It was interesting hearing the issues that members of the union face and learn what we can do to fix things, whether or not we are personally affected.

While a lot of the business was work, the staff (who did an amazing job putting together and coordinating Convention) did try to make things fun for us too. Every morning there was a breakfast (I only took advantage of that on Sunday when they had some eggs, bacon, hash browns, and fruit) and on Friday and Saturday there was lunch provided. Friday lunch was good, but nothing too special. But Saturday lunch was provided by several food trucks!

I got to enjoy some tacos and ice cream before heading back into the Convention room to get back to work. The food truck lunch was a highlight for many of us and a much appreciated break from working so hard on getting things done.

We heard speeches from our President, Executive Vice President, and Secretary/Treasurer to hear what their plans and goals are for the next 2 years (when the next election and convention will be). There have been so many things done in the past 2 years and I know the next 2 will be just as productive, if not more so.

I know this sounds like a lot of information. It is. I’m still a bit overwhelmed on everything I experienced. A friend of mine asked me to explain why I thought that Convention was so beneficial for me as an actor. The best thing I came up with was that before it was like I was a tourist of my union. Now I’m a citizen or resident of the union. I had no idea about the issues that the broadcasters or recording artists deal with, but since we are one union it is important for all performers to help them with their fight. I learned so much about what I can do when I see things that aren’t on the up and up and how to properly report them to the union (I haven’t done that properly in the past). I learned about how there are so many things in the works for the union that can’t be announced publicly yet because that puts those things at risk for not being able for being done. But most importantly, I became more proud of being a SAG-AFTRA member than ever before and want all my fellow union members to feel that same pride.

I hope that this is just the beginning of my political career with SAG-AFTRA. I know 100% for sure that I will be running as a delegate again in 2 years. I don’t know if I’d want to be a board member yet, but I’ve got plenty of time to learn more about that position and to decide.

But for now, I’m taking the inspiration that I feel from Convention and making sure that I keep this feeling and momentum going and share it with you all.

4 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, Los Angeles, SAG-AFTRA, union, vote

My First Official SAG-AFTRA Duty (or Learning What’s In Store)

Posted on September 24, 2015 | 1 comment

After winning my delegate seat in the SAG-AFTRA election, my first question was “what’s next?”. I knew that I would get to attend the convention this year, but so much of what I could do or get to do was a mystery to me.

Fortunately, not only do I have some amazing mentors through Unite For Strength but the union has been sending emails with lots of information for us! And with the convention coming up next week, the Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA local decided to have a sort of orientation for all elected delegates.

The orientation was this week with a dinner first, followed by an opportunity to observe the local board meeting, and then finishing with the orientation. I got there nice and early so I could check in and make sure there wasn’t anything else I had to do before the official things started for the evening.

The dinner was fun. It was very nice of them to have food for us and we all had a great time getting to chat with our friends. We had a minor snafu when the fire alarm went off, but we were back inside pretty quickly.

Next, all the board members took their seats for the board meeting and then all the delegates got to follow inside to find a seat. I found a seat pretty close to the front and was very excited to see what would happen at the board meeting.

This was my first time getting to see a local board meeting for SAG-AFTRA and while we didn’t get to have the agenda and other paperwork that the board members had, they put the agenda up on a screen for us to follow along with. There was some housekeeping stuff to take care of since this was the first board meeting since the election. But there was also some new business and discussion about committees and other things that the local board will be doing soon.

It was really fun to see the process that goes on in the room. There are rules to follow and ways that you can and cannot bring up information or concerns. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to observe more board meetings in the future because it really was cool to see how things that affect me and my fellow actors are decided and debated on. And maybe one day I’ll run for local board and I want to make sure I understand what it’s all about before running.

When we had our delegate orientation, there was a lot of information to cover. With convention being next week, they wanted to make sure that all of our questions were answered and we were ready to go. Since the convention is in LA, we are the host local and we want to be able to help any of the other locals who are traveling to LA with questions they might have.

The convention is going to be a couple of very full days. I’ll be working my day job from the convention (just the chat customer service work since I won’t be able to answer the phone) so I know that each day will be tiring. But there are some fun things involved too. There is a gala that you had to buy a ticket for (I did) that will be held on the backlot of Warner Bros. That should be pretty awesome. There will also be a food truck lunch one day, but if it’s on Friday I will have to miss out on it because I will be in the convention room working my day job during lunch. But maybe someone can bring me food.

No matter how full the days will be or how stressed out I might get trying to balance out my schedule, I know that this is going to be great. I’ve been wanting to get more involved in the union and now is my chance to start! I’m excited to represent my fellow Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA members with the voting that will be happening next week and I hope that what is decided continues to make us a stronger and more unified union.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, election, Los Angeles, meeting, SAG-AFTRA, union

Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Reflection (or I’m Totally Living My Dream)

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Another Try At The Fit Expo (or Finding My Place)

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Helping People Help Others (or A Drop Off At My Friend’s Place)

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SAG-AFTRA National Convention (or I Had No Idea It Would Be Like This)

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My First Official SAG-AFTRA Duty (or Learning What’s In Store)

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