Tag Archives: party

A Very Low-Key NYE (or I’m Glad I Don’t Have To Impress My Friends)

Posted on January 7, 2020 | Comments Off

I have written several posts about how I’m so excited to start a new year and what I think the new year will bring. And I am excited about it being a new year and feeling like there is a fresh start (even though that fresh start isn’t really real). I love the idea of a clean slate and feeling like I have a new chance to do something amazing.

But despite all those things I love about a new year, I’m really not the biggest fan of going out for New Year’s Eve.

I might have been a bit more excited about NYE when I was younger. And even in more recent years, I think I was a bit more enthusiastic about it. Maybe having my car die on NYE has made things a bit more serious for me. I don’t worry about my car breaking down on my drive home, but I am reminded about it each year. It’s hard to forget when it was a pretty big deal.

But there are other factors that make me not as excited about NYE. I don’t want to go out somewhere that is going to be really crowded and will be very expensive to go to. If you go out to dinner, it is overpriced and they seem like they want to rush you so they can get to the next seating. I don’t want to be out late because I don’t want to be on the road when people are leaving bars. Hopefully, people wouldn’t be driving drunk (especially with all the rideshare options in LA), but it’s still something I worry about. And I usually don’t sleep in on New Year’s Day because I have a lot to get done.

I’m lucky that I’ve got a group of friends that usually get together for NYE that I can hang out with. And it’s nothing fancy or extravagant so I don’t have to feel like it’s a big deal. And hanging out with my friends is exactly what I did this year.

It was a smaller group than normal because my friends have a dog that is a bit skittish. So it was mainly people that they knew their dog was familiar with. But it was still a good-sized crowd. And there were some people who did dress up, but that wasn’t necessary and there were plenty of people who didn’t dress fancy. I was one of the people who dressed pretty casually. I figured if I was going to be out late, I might as well be comfortable. And I know my friends don’t necessarily care how I dress so I didn’t feel like I had to impress them or meet a certain standard.

I didn’t take any pictures at the party, but that was deliberate. I wanted to focus on being with my friends and not trying to take photos or make sure I have things I can post on social media. But also, I didn’t do anything too crazy. I spent a lot of time hanging outside in the backyard with my friends just chatting about lots of random things. And when it got too cold for me, I went inside and hung out on a couch with other friends.

I usually don’t stay up too late, so I had to do something to keep me awake and alert. I thought it was close to midnight at one point and then looked at my watch only to discover that it was only about 10 pm. I think a lot of us were starting to feel that way, but we didn’t want to leave before midnight since we did want to celebrate together. We decided to play a game and we went with Cards Against Humanity. We started with a small group, but as people were coming inside to get out of the cold more would join us. It was a pretty fluid game with the group size changing often, but we were just playing for fun and we weren’t going to figure out an overall winner when we were done.

Finally, it was almost midnight and everyone was in the living room with us for the countdown to midnight. And once it was the new year, we all celebrated together. Everyone usually goes around to make sure they hug everyone to say happy new year. It’s a nice tradition because you don’t feel left out if you don’t have someone to kiss at midnight or to celebrate with. Everyone celebrates together and I like that.

And right after midnight, I went around to say my goodbyes to my friends. I was so tired and I really wanted to get home before it got too late. I think my friend group understands me wanting to leave early since I have one of the longer drives back. And since everyone was gathered in the living room, it was pretty fast to say goodbye to everyone and to get into my car to head home.

I was home and in bed before 1 am and that was perfect. I did get to celebrate the new year, but I didn’t have to do anything fancy or crazy. Nobody cared that I was dressed in comfortable clothes or that I left so quickly after midnight. And I love that nobody cared about those things because getting together was more about being with friends and not impressing anyone. Plus, we realized that the Oscars are coming up really soon so we’ll all be together again before we know it.

Honestly, it was the perfect way for me to ring in 2020 and I couldn’t have asked for anything else.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged 2020, friends, New Years, party

Another Union Holiday Celebration (or Being Social And Working Social Media)

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Comments Off

One of the holiday parties I try to make it to every year is the SAG-AFTRA party. I haven’t been able to make it every year, but I do make an effort and know that even if I’m not feeling up for it that I will have a great time. I didn’t think I was slacking on sending in my RSVP for the party, but I guess I did because I was originally on the waitlist. I was a little sad that I might not get into the party, but I knew that it was my mistake for not sending it in the day I got it. But the day before the party, I got another email saying I was officially on the list and that improved my day a lot!

I was starting to deal with nausea on the day of the party, but I knew that I needed to go. I wasn’t planning on staying out too late, but I wanted to see my friends and I was excited about that. I arrived at the union early because I knew we would be lining up to get inside. I was in line standing right by the big tree in the lobby and I took advantage of that. I wasn’t feeling like having pictures taken of me, but I wanted to get some good photos of other people to put on my slate’s social media. I have been trying to work on improving the quality of the photos and I knew this tree was a great photo op.

I first got an amazing picture of my friend Shea (who had holiday decorations in his beard) with our union president, Gabrielle Carteris.

Then I realized that with so many of the union leaders being at the party, it was a great opportunity to get a photo of them for our main Instagram page. I usually am posting in our slate’s Instagram stories instead of the page, but I wanted to work on finding something new to post on our feed. And I think this one came out pretty good.

I only realized after I had posted it on all our social media channels that it looks like there are horns coming out of their heads. But fortunately, they found it funny so I was able to leave the photo up and not have to run around to try to take another one.

Once I was inside the party, I got some food to eat and then found a table to sit at with my friends. We didn’t take up all the seats at the table so we got to meet some members that we didn’t know before. Getting time to meet members and talk about how we are involved in the union is one of the great things about social events like this. There were no politics involved, there wasn’t any arguing, and there weren’t any stressful or tense moments like there can be at other union events. This was all about having fun and enjoying ourselves.

I did get one photo taken with some of my friends while I was there, but I really didn’t think about taking any others of me.

I spent most of my time at the party talking to friends of mine, but I did try to also introduce myself to people I didn’t know. But since I wasn’t feeling my best, I knew that I wouldn’t be making the best first impression.

When I was getting ready to leave, my friends said they were headed over to the photo booth area to take some photos. I figured I could wait a bit longer before leaving and went to take some photos with them. But we didn’t expect that there would be such a huge line and that it would move slowly. I’m sure it felt worse for me because of how I was feeling, but after waiting 30 minutes I realized I wasn’t going to make it much longer. Plus, when I’m really nauseous I break out in a sweat and I didn’t want to take a photo like that.

I decided to head home before getting that photo done and it was a little disappointing. But I knew it was for the best for me and my friends understood I wasn’t feeling great. I haven’t seen how the photo turned out yet (they are supposed to be posted online in the next day or so), but I’m sure it would look amazing and I’ll feel a bit sad that I wasn’t in it. But I also remember how relieved I felt when I got home and could work on feeling a bit better.

I was only at the party for about 2 hours, but I feel like I got a lot done. I was able to hang out with a lot of my friends, I got some amazing photos for social media that I really needed, and I got to feel like I did something social when I would have been laying on my couch otherwise. I think that was a big win for me and I’m glad that not only did I get into the party but that I made the choice to go. And I know that when they announce the party next year, I’m going to RSVP right away!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, holidays, party, SAG-AFTRA, union

Union Working Holiday Party (or Just Enjoying Being Around Good People)

Posted on December 6, 2019 | Comments Off

Because Thanksgiving was so late this year, it doesn’t really feel like we have much of a gap between then and Hanukkah and Christmas. Holiday parties are already starting and Thanksgiving was just last week! I’m making sure I don’t try to go to too many parties because I don’t want to overdo it, but I’m also excited to see so many friends in a festive mood.

The first holiday party of the season was the Union Working mixer. It has been a while since there was a Union Working event because so many of the leaders of the group are involved in union politics. So they have been busy with the election and then the convention. But hopefully, soon we will be back to our regular meetings in the new year.

This mixer was much more of a holiday party with a little bit of information thrown in. I didn’t have to run a live-stream because the things discussed were mainly about how we will be back to our meetings in the new year, that we have been able to accomplish a lot this year, and we have a lot to accomplish coming up. There wasn’t much information shared outside of things specific to the group. It only took a few minutes for that to be discussed and the rest of the mixer was a party.

I hadn’t seen some of these friends since the convention so it was nice to get to see everyone. And there were a lot of new people at the mixer that I hadn’t met yet. It’s always good to see fresh faces at union events because that means more people are getting involved and taking some ownership of the union. One of the most important and common things that people say is that the union is us. So if you are upset with the union, you need to take action. You can’t blame a different entity because members make up the union governance. So we hold the power and can make sure that our voices are heard. So whenever I see new people, I feel like they understand that concept and want to make sure the union is the best and strongest it can be. That’s one of my motivations for being so active in the union and it’s really encouraging to see others do the same.

I was bouncing around the party talking to different groups of friends. I probably looked a bit crazy because I wanted to make sure I had a chance to talk to everyone that I wanted to. I was feeling good, in a good mood, and had nothing else to do but be social. I have to take advantage of those moments and I definitely did that during the mixer. And I had every intention of taking lots of pictures in front of the step and repeat, but I kept getting distracted by talking to friends. I only managed to get one photo the entire night.

It was so nice to be at a union event that had minimal discussion about politics. There were some people there who I know are a part of the other slate or don’t agree with my slate or union politics, but that wasn’t brought up at all. There was a little discussion about how there is so much blame going around that isn’t true, but that wasn’t blaming either slate for what was happening. It was more about why this blame is being put on anyone when it’s not something accurate. Nobody talked about the election or the results and there was no discussion about why things would be better or worse if they were different. It was just about people coming together for an awesome holiday party that all happen to be very passionate about our union.

My plan was to not stay at the mixer too late. I knew I had an early morning and I was driving a rental car that I didn’t love driving (my car had a minor mechanical issue and was at the shop for several days). So I didn’t want to drive home too late so I could sleep and I didn’t have to drive the rental when some people might be driving home a bit crazy from parties. I joked to a friend when I said goodbye that I was starting my rounds of goodbyes and hopefully I would be out of there within the hour. I ended up getting into so many different conversations and before I knew it the entire event was over and it was almost 2 hours after I said I was trying to say my goodbyes. But I guess that’s a sign of a really good party and that I was having a fun time. It was worth being out later than I wanted to because of that.

I’m glad the holiday party season kicked off with such a great party. And it was really nice having a union-related event that was just fun and didn’t feel like work. I definitely need more events like that in my life.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, friends, holidays, party, union, union working

A Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me)

Posted on November 6, 2019 | Comments Off

With Halloween being on a Thursday, I knew the party that I go to wouldn’t be on Halloween night. But because I have to be up early most mornings, I figured that it would be a night that I couldn’t be out late. And when the party was scheduled to be the day after Halloween, I saw I was right. I work early on Saturdays, so I rarely am out late on a Friday night. It also didn’t help that I was already tired from my week. But I was determined to have a fun time at the party even if I was tired.

I try to be fun and clever with my costumes, but I also want to be very comfortable. And this year, I thought of a fun costume that wouldn’t be too hard to make about a month before. I had to make a run to Staples to buy some supplies, but I didn’t have to get too much and I knew I could make it the week of. I ended up having some time right after work the day before Halloween and spent about 20 minutes making this (it took longer than expected because I wanted to make it look good).

I took some paper borders and covered them with white duct tape. And then I added some letter stickers for my name and had to tape some pens on the back for stability. But I made a pretty awesome looking photo frame. And with my name on it, I made a frame for a headshot!

When I get my headshots taken, I usually dress super comfortable on the bottom since you only see the top half of my body. So I dressed in yoga pants and flip flops on the bottom and a nice sweater with full hair and makeup on top. When I got to the party, I could hold up my homemade frame and I went to the party as my headshot!

I was so happy with how my costume turned out and everyone at the party seemed to love it too! When I wasn’t holding up the frame, some people were confused with what I was dressed as, but most of them understood what it was as soon as I held it up.

The party was themed as The Ghosts of Halloweens Past and the backyard had a mix of decorations from old parties and collections of photos from the past several years. I found a few of my old costumes in the photos and loved looking at all the other photos that were decorating the party.

Because I was so tired while at the party, I knew I wasn’t going to make it too long. I hated that I felt this way, but I also didn’t want to force myself to be there late and then feel really bad over the weekend. But I did stay there for a few hours and got to have some great time hanging out with my friends. I loved their costumes and seeing how clever they were. There were a few costumes that I didn’t know what they were, but once I found out they made so much sense. I love seeing how creative all my friends are and I always wonder if I’ll have a costume as impressive as theirs.

Even though I was so proud of my costume and was hoping I might get votes in the costume contest, I wasn’t able to stay out that late. I found out a few days later that the costume contest was much later than it normally is and even if I wasn’t tired I probably would have had to leave before it happened. That made me feel a bit better. And the costumes that won were much better than mine so I know I wouldn’t have won. But it would have been fun to see if I did get votes.

I really had some high expectations for Halloween outings this year, and they ended up not being exactly what I thought they would be due to me being tired so often. It’s frustrating when I know it’s my fault that I’m not able to be as social as I want to be, but I’m always so grateful that I have amazing friends who understand why I can’t make it out or have to go home early. And I did still have a lot of fun even if it wasn’t what I planned it to be. I love going out and seeing the costumes that other people thought of and just spending time with people that I love to be around.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged costumes, friends, Halloween, party

First Halloween Party Of The Season (or At Least I Made An Appearance)

Posted on October 24, 2019 | Comments Off

There has been a lot of Halloween party invites lately and so many of them are happening on the same nights. As much as I want to attend everything, I know I can’t and I know if I did that I’d be feeling overwhelmed. So I had to be selective a bit with which parties I would be going to. I didn’t think about how I’d be feeling the days of the parties, and unfortunately for the first Halloween party I attended I was dealing with nausea.

The party was for SAG-AFTRA NextGen Performers. I do love going to NGP events because they are always so fun. Even though I was feeling rotten, I knew I’d find a way to make it. I would have loved to have figured out a costume to wear to the party, but I hadn’t had a chance to figure out what to be. And I also was struggling enough getting dressed and getting out of the house, so even if I had a costume I don’t know if I would have worn it.

I’m glad the party wasn’t too far from my house, so I didn’t have to worry about driving over there and traffic. And the party was only supposed to be about 2 hours long, so I decided I would try to make it for an hour before heading home. I didn’t take any photos while I was there, but it was a really good turnout. There were so many people at the event and lots of amazing costumes. Even if I had figured out a costume and felt good enough to wear it, I wouldn’t have come close to placing in the costume contest.

Right when I arrived, I found several of my friends. The entire time I was at the party was spent socializing and catching up. Even though I just saw most of these people at the convention, we didn’t really get to socialize too much then. If I had been feeling better, I probably would have spent time meeting people who were at their first NGP event and seeing who else was there, but I was feeling like just chatting with my friends. It wasn’t the best thing to do, but I was just proud of myself for pulling things together enough to go out and not just sit on my couch. Some of my friends were in charge of helping to judge the costume contest, so I walked around with them and got to see more of the costumes that people wore. There were a lot of awesome photo opportunities like a step and repeat and a photo booth, but I didn’t do either of those. I did end up being in a few of the photos the photographers took while they walked around, but I haven’t seen them posted online yet so I can’t share them.

Just when I was starting to feel really bad, I realized that I had been there for an hour so I didn’t feel bad that I was going to leave. My goal was an hour and I didn’t feel like I needed to push myself more than that. Plus, I was starting to get more nauseous and when that happens I get sweaty and tend to look sick. So I knew that it wasn’t going to be my best look.

I worked on making my rounds around the room to say goodbye to my friends. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to everyone, but my friends knew I wasn’t feeling well and knew that I might leave before I saw them again. Driving back home after the party was tough and I was glad when I got home and could lie down on my bed to let the nausea waves end. It was also time for me to take medications again, so I took those and waited for them to kick in.

I know that the first Halloween party I attended was a bit of a bust. I didn’t do much and I didn’t talk to too many people. But for me, when I feel as sick as I did, just leaving my house is a victory. I have bailed on so many plans because of my nausea and I’m trying to push through that as much as I can. It’s not always possible, but I also know that if I don’t take chances than I won’t know how much I can do. And I was proud of myself for taking the chance and finding out that I was able to at least do a little something. And the nausea is getting better now so hopefully I’ll be fine for the other parties I will be going to.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, Halloween, party, SAG-AFTRA

Another Pumpkin Party (or A Day Discussing All Things Creepy)

Posted on October 8, 2019 | Comments Off

My friend Anne hosts an awesome pumpkin decorating party before Halloween each year. I’ve only been able to make it once because of scheduling conflicts. I was afraid that this year I would have a conflict due to the convention, but I was so excited when I got the invitation and saw it was before the convention so I’d be able to make it! I’m not the craftiest person, but I like trying to see what I can create. Plus, Anne and her friends are extremely artistic and crafty so I always am inspired when I see what they create.

I haven’t decided if I would be decorating this year for Halloween, but I knew that if I was going to that I would want my pumpkin to go along with the ones I did at the last party. I didn’t have a design in mind, but I knew that Anne would have a lot of crafting supplies at the party and I was going to see what was there and what seemed right.

When I got to the party, as expected it was set up beautifully. Anne really is an amazing host and she had everything set up for all of us to decorate our pumpkins however we wanted. There was also some amazing food, but I forgot to take a photo of that.

When I got to the party, I was one of the first people there. I got to meet her other friends who were there (I didn’t know anyone except for Anne) and we also did some catching up. Anne and I hadn’t seen each other in person for a while, and even though we stay in touch through social media, it’s not the same. So having some time to fill each other in on what has been happening in our lives was nice.

And then I decided to take a look at the various craft supplies to see what I wanted to use. I knew I didn’t want anything covered in glitter or paint because that would make it messy to get back home. I wanted something fun, but I am also aware of my limitations with art. I was looking through a collection of drawer pulls in a bowl and saw this awesome keyhole one. And that kicked off the inspiration for my pumpkin.

My other pumpkins have a lot of black, so I was going to go with that for this one too. I had a slightly more elaborate plan when I started, but once I got to working on it things simplified. I used the hot glue to attach several pieces of ribbon going down the pumpkin and then used regular glue to attach some gems to the ribbon. And I managed to fit 2 of the gems into the keyhole and tape them in there so it almost looks like it’s glowing from inside. I know it wasn’t anything fancy or super creative, but I’m really happy with how it turned out!

I didn’t have a specific design inspiration outside of the keyhole piece, but I realized after I was done that it reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland! It has similar colors to the ride, and I guess that’s perfect since the other pumpkins I made have Disney elements to them as well.

Even though the main point of the party was to decorate pumpkins, of course, it was also all about hanging out and meeting new people. All the people that Anne invited were amazing. It turns out I have a bunch of mutual friends with several of them, and it’s almost weird that our paths haven’t crossed yet. And not only were they awesome people, but we all also had something in common that became a huge part of our socializing: being into true crime stories.

I thought I was really into true crime. I listen to podcasts about it, have read books about it, and watch lots of tv shows about it. But it turns out, I knew nothing compared to everyone else at the party. They all are way more informed than I am about different true crime stories and watch lots of shows that I don’t. I got some great podcast recommendations from hearing what everyone else likes and was able to share one podcast that I listen to that the others in the group hadn’t heard of. But since everyone else was more into true crime than I am, I ended up sitting back and listening to the conversation a lot. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to or feel like I could participate. I was just more in awe realizing that I was in a group of people who are so similar to me and loving hearing what they had to say.

We joked about how it was a bit odd that we were all into true crime as much as we are. But it also seemed very fitting to discuss serial killers while doing a Halloween craft. And since we all were into it, I think that made it even less odd.

I would have loved to have stayed at the party longer than I did, but Anne has a cat and I’m severely allergic to cats. I was surprised I lasted as long as I did because I usually start to have a reaction after an hour. But her cat was hiding the entire time and she cleaned a lot before we all came over. So I think that combination helped to keep my allergies from kicking in as fast as they normally do. I was really enjoying hanging out with everyone and having so much fun discussing true crime and serial killers, so it was sad when I was starting to have some breathing issues and the rash and hives I get from my allergies were starting. I wanted to leave before things got too bad for me.

I’m so glad I was able to make it to the party this year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it next year as well because it really is a fun Halloween event to go to. And it gives me an opportunity to try to be crafty when I don’t usually do that.

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Posted in Crafts, Fun Stuff

Tagged crafts, friends, Halloween, party

A Special Birthday For A Special Friend (or Celebrating A “College” Friend)

Posted on July 30, 2019 | Comments Off

I’ve written about my amazing friend Marie on here so many times. She is the one who hosts the parties I usually go to for the Oscars, Halloween, New Year’s Eve, and the 4th of July. There have also been so many random parties that she has hosted over the years, plus her wedding and bachelorette party! I’ve had so many adventures with Marie over the years, so when she was celebrating her birthday this past weekend, I knew I had to be there.

It wasn’t a huge gathering, but every single person who was there loves Marie as much as I do and we all consider each other family. It’s the most incredible group of people and I am always so grateful to be considered to be a part of them.

I think the reason I feel so grateful to be a part of this group is because of my history with this group and how I became friends with them. I met Marie and most of this group 17 years ago. I just joined an improv group and was taking classes and doing shows. I wasn’t the youngest person in the group, but I was close to the youngest. And I seemed to be the youngest out of the group that I was hanging out with. Most of the people in the group I would hang out with after class or shows were in their late 20s or their 30s, and I was still a teenager. This did occasionally cause issues when we were trying to hang out in a bar at night, but besides that, I was never looked down at or was considered something like the annoying little sibling.

Of course, I looked up to everyone like they were my older siblings. And I looked up to them even more because they treated me like one of their peers. Having that respect really made me feel special and like an adult. I think that was part of the reason I didn’t get along with people at my college too much. I was used to being in an adult world and I wasn’t related to my fellow students as much. In the last 2 years of college, I hung out with my improv friends more than the students in my classes. So I started to joke that these friends were my real college friends even though they all finished school quite a while ago. I even used my improv friends as the actors in different projects I had in class so they felt like a real part of my college experience.

If I had only been friends with everyone while I was in college, that would have been special enough. I was about a decade younger than most of the group and that was unique. But the fact that we’ve maintained this friendship for 17 years is just amazing. In a little over a year, I will have been friends with this group for half of my life. There aren’t that many people that I’ve known for half my life, and this is a big group! Again, it’s so special to me and I appreciate it all the time.

Marie’s birthday party was a very fun and relaxing hangout. It was a potluck and there was a ton of food! Everyone was hanging out and having fun celebrating Marie. It was hot out, but their backyard has shade and there was a bit of a breeze there. I don’t love the heat, but I was managing it the best I could with drinking lots of water and staying out of the sun as much as I could.

And of course, there was a birthday cake. Our friend Mandi, who also made a cake for Chris and Marie’s wedding, made an amazing cake for Marie’s birthday. It had 2 different cakes, a lemon cake and a chocolate peanut butter cake. And it was decorated with things all about Marie and things that we love about her.

After enjoying some cake, I started to get a bit exhausted (a combination of lack of sleep, a long day, and the heat), so I made my way around to say my goodbyes to my friends there. But I took my time talking with Marie because I really wanted her to know how much I love her and appreciate her friendship.

She is the glue that holds this friendship group together. I know that she is the one responsible for making this group as strong as we are and making sure we are as connected as we are. We can all turn to her when we need something and she is always there for us. I only can hope that we do the same for her, but honestly, I don’t know if I do even a fraction. To have a friend like Marie is one of the biggest gifts and I don’t know how to even express how lucky I am (which is one reason why I’m writing this post).

I have so much to be grateful for with this group of friends, and the center of this group is Marie. Everything that I have with this group is because of her and I am so lucky. I think I can speak for the entire group when I say that we feel this way and that every time we get to hang out with Marie we feel more and more grateful for this friendship. I know that every time I see the group I feel like I have a boost in my life that I didn’t know I needed. It’s the best feeling and I only hope that everyone has someone in their life that makes them feel that way.

I love that Marie and I have been friends for almost half my life. That means that almost half my life has been blessed by her friendship and awesomeness. That’s amazing. There’s a bit of time before we will have been friends for half of her life, but hopefully, when we get there I will be able to make her feel as lucky as I feel.

Marie, I know you are reading this, so I just wanted to say again how much I love you and am so grateful for you and everything that you do for the Mammoth Lodge group. We are all so lucky to have you as the center of the group and I don’t know how we could ever repay what you have done for us to you. Happy Birthday and I can’t wait to keep celebrating birthday, holidays, Oscars, and randomness with you!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, birthday party, friends, party

New Year’s Eve In PJs (or I Think This Is Finally My Last NYE Post)

Posted on January 8, 2019 | Comments Off

I’ve been writing about the new year for forever now! I’ve had a lot that I wanted to cover and I didn’t want to cram things into a single post. I like having the time to allow myself to reflect on the past year and be excited about the year to come. But I think I’m finally at my last post about the new year.

For the past few years, I’ve spent New Year’s Eve with my friends at a party. It was driving home from that party 2 years ago that my car died and I ended up getting a new (used) car. I love going to that party for so many reasons. Of course, I love getting to spend time with my friends. Any opportunities I get to hang out with amazing people is something I want to do. I also love the party because it’s very low-key and casual. I don’t have to dress up or be super social. I just get to hang out with my friends and it’s perfect.

This year, that party wasn’t going to happen. My friends do so many parties all the time, so we all understood they couldn’t host one. Plus, they have a puppy and the dog isn’t really used to be crowds yet. So if they had a party they would have had to board their dog at a dog hotel and they wanted to ring in the new year with their puppy. All completely understandable things.

I had been invited to a few other parties, but I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go out. I had been feeling a bit lazy and I knew any of the other parties I was invited to would be much less casual than what I was hoping to do. I did message a couple of friends to see if anyone wanted to come over and watch movies and order pizza, but I think everyone was feeling the same as I was. Nobody was really the motivated to leave their house and be social. It was kind of funny that we all felt the same, but it also made it easier when we all decided not to really do much.

So I spent my New Year’s Eve alone at my house. I ordered some food and watched movies on tv. I had been dressed in workout clothes earlier that day for my workout, but after I showered and got dressed I spent the rest of the day in my pjs. I did stay up until midnight, but I was in bed ready to go to sleep when the clock stuck midnight. And pretty soon after that I was asleep.

I know that in the past I probably would have been upset about spending the night alone, especially after asking friends if they wanted to come over. But I was actually very happy and excited about how I spent my night. I could have made an effort and gone to a party, but I really didn’t want to and I wasn’t going to force myself to do that. And I didn’t feel bad that my friends didn’t want to come over because I was doing the same thing to them. This wasn’t anything against me or a reason to think my friends are against me. It was just what it was and there are no feelings about it.

I feel like that is a huge sign of growth. I didn’t overthink things or stress out about why it happened. I knew what I wanted to do with my evening and I didn’t let anyone make me feel like I should do any different. And I didn’t make my friends feel like they should do something different from what they wanted to do. Of course I would have loved to have been with my friends to celebrate 2019, but that’s not what was meant to be.

Of course, just because I enjoyed spending my New Year’s Eve alone doesn’t mean that I won’t be planning a lot of adventures with my friends this year. I hope that the year will be filled with so much fun with as many friends as possible and I can’t wait to see what the year brings!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged 2019, friends, New Years, party

A SAG-AFTRA Party (or Finally Getting Photos With My Friends)

Posted on December 14, 2018 | Comments Off

The SAG-AFTRA Holiday Party is an event that I love. I haven’t always gone to it, but I’ve tried to go every year the past few years. It’s not often I get to attend a union event that is all about being social and not about various union politics or issues. While you can’t always avoid discussing those things even at a party, the holiday party really is a time to relax and have fun.

And this party isn’t just a hangout. The LA Host Committee does an amazing job having a nice buffet meal, entertainment, and a photo booth. I usually don’t eat while I’m there and I don’t know if I’ve ever taken advantage of the photo booth, but I have always appreciated the options to have fun and I know that it makes so many people happy.

This year, even though the party fell on a nausea/pain day, I wasn’t feeling too bad when I got there. I was a bit tired from having a long day, but I perked up when I arrived and saw a friend of mine in line. She was nice enough to let me join her in line and that gave us a chance to catch up! Once the party officially started, the check in line went pretty quickly and we were inside within a few minutes!

Our first stop was to get some food and this year I was going to be enjoying it too! There was a really nice spread with lots of options. I had some salad, chicken teriyaki, shrimp ceviche, pot stickers, and prime rib! And there was a dessert spread too with cookies, brownies, and cake (I got some cake that had really delicious frosting!). After we all got our plates we found a table to stand at so we could eat without worrying about holding our plates.

The party was a bit crowded, but that is to be expected. And I was constantly running into friends and people I knew! I really felt amazing when I realized how many people in the union I do know. Sometimes it feels like I don’t know anyone or there are too many people there, but this year it didn’t feel like that. And even though I didn’t get to spend too much time catching up with many of my friends, I did make an effort to do my best. And I also tried to get photos with a couple of people too since I usually forget to do that!

Where we were standing to eat ended up being right next to where the quick speeches were going to be, so that worked out well for us! There was a quick speech to thank the LA Host Committee for doing such a great job with the party and to thank those of us who made it for attending. Then there was a short speech about the current strike we have with BBH. BBH is an ad agency that has declared that they no longer have to follow our union agreement and we as a union are not ok with that. They have an agreement to do union commercials and they should abide by that. So we are on strike until an agreement can be made. It’s an important issue for the union and I’m glad that they took some time to talk about it at the party so everyone there could be up-to-date on what is happening. They also had signs for us to take photos with to show our support for our union, and of course I took advantage of that!

The party was only 2 hours long as I was planning on leaving before it was over because my tiredness was starting to kick in. But of course I kept running into people I knew and got caught up into different conversations. I think I ended up leaving about an hour after I started to say goodbye, but that’s normal for events like this. I always end up finding people I know and hadn’t talked to yet and I don’t want to leave without at least saying hello and goodbye. And I was also helping a friend get an Instagram account set up and didn’t want to leave them until they had everything ready and knew how to post photos.

I’m so glad that I took a bit of a rest day earlier this week so that I could be at the SAG-AFTRA party. Even though I was still a bit tired, I think that had more to do with my early morning workout and maybe not getting enough sleep and not because of feeling overwhelmed and burnt out from too many events. I still have some more holiday parties to go to, but I am evaluating which ones are the most important so I can prioritize them if necessary. I want to make sure that I can have as much fun at any other parties as I did at the SAG-AFTRA one!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, friends, holidays, party, SAG-AFTRA, union

Trying To Avoid Holiday Burnout (or Staying Home For Self-Care)

Posted on December 13, 2018 | 1 comment

I’ve written about laziness being self-care for me sometimes. I can be very obsessed with getting things done sometimes and I know that it can lead to burnout for me. And when that happens, it usually takes me a while to get back to normal and I’m in this endless cycle of making up for lost time with being busy and being lazy. Finding the balance is a struggle that many of us have and I know a lot of us have been working on it for years.

While I don’t think I have the balance figured out, I had a small victory for me in finding it. This is the season of holiday parties and it can be very overwhelming. If I went to all the parties that I was invited to, between last Saturday and this Sunday I would be at 12 different events. This is not me bragging that I’m invited to a lot of things because many of them are with a lot of the same people or just something casual. But because they aren’t big events, I feel like I should make more of an effort to attend them. When it’s not a big deal, I can feel like I don’t have as many excuses to stay home.

I was supposed to attend a holiday party for an organization I’m a part of earlier this week. I had been looking forward to it and it was on a night that I didn’t have anything else so I thought I’d have no reason not to go. Of course, life never goes the way I expect it to go and this week is the week that I have my worst nausea and pain. And while I know I can push through it and will be doing that other nights this week, I had to prioritize myself and realize that staying home would be the best thing for me.

While I don’t love missing out on an event because it’s always a great opportunity to meet new people (especially now when I really need to find a new job!), I also know that if I go and I’m not feeling my best that I won’t make the best impression either. There would have been a chance that I would have driven to the event and already feeling like I’m ready to go home. Then the entire time that I would be there, I would be watching the time and wondering when I had been there long enough to feel like I had been social so I could go home. And that’s just not what I want to have as the impression that people would have of me.

So I stayed home instead of going out to this event. I didn’t do much at home besides catching up on podcasts and job hunting, but it was exactly what I needed to do for myself. Sometimes being anti-social is more important than being social in order to take care of yourself. And I think I’m not feeling too guilty about staying home because I have so many other events happening this week and weekend. I did not stay home from the only event I had this week and the rest of the week I’ll be bored and wishing I had plans. I found a balance and had to pick which events were a bit more important for me to go to than others. And while I could have picked a different event to skip and gone to the one I missed, I also know that I should be feeling better as the week goes on and that played a factor in the decision too.

I know that holiday burnout is a real thing and I see it happening to so many friends as well as myself. There’s no need for me to put so much pressure on myself to do it all when I know that nobody is expecting me to do that. And with self-care being a very important thing for many people right now, I imagine that if anyone wondered where I was and asked me about it, they would understand if I said I needed to do some self-care and stay home. I’m working on self-care being more than just things I do for myself but also including doing nothing when I know that is the best thing for me at that time.

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged friends, holidays, party, scheduling, self-care

Tag Archives: party

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