Tag Archives: summer

Feeling Like The Summer Is Slipping Away (or Trying To Make A List Of Things To Do)

Posted on July 14, 2022 | Comments Off on Feeling Like The Summer Is Slipping Away (or Trying To Make A List Of Things To Do)

There are so many things that I love to do around LA. Not everything is specific to certain times of the year or seasons, but there are a few things that can only happen during the summer for example. And I usually have been good about making plans to be able to do at least of few of these. But the past few summers haven’t really been that way.

The summer of 2020 was really spent being at home and making sure I don’t get sick. Yes, I missed out on doing a lot of things that I love, but it was more important for me to stay safe and not get sick. Last summer, I did a few things that I usually try to do, but I was still being very cautious about where I went and who I was around. I also didn’t get out as much because so many of my friends had moved away from LA. It’s tough when you are used to doing certain things with specific friends, and I wasn’t doing a very good job about just asking around to see who was free and wanted to go do something.

This summer, I’ve just been busy. Moving and getting settled into my condo has taken up a lot of my time, although that is something that I’m glad I have been doing because I want to make my condo feel like home. I have also been busy with work. I am still getting used to working more hours than I did before the pandemic. And I am enjoying the work that I’m doing now, especially since I have created my own new position at the company, but it still is taking up more hours than I am used to having for work. For example, I no longer have Mondays off, which used to be the day that I went out and did a lot of fun things. Now, unless I take a day off of work, my only day without work is on Sunday. And I usually spend a lot of Sunday getting things ready for the week.

But I know that saying I’m working more can also be an excuse. I do have a lot of things in the evenings, but that’s not every evening. And I do work on Saturdays, but that’s only in the morning so I can plan for more things mid-day or later in the day. And I know that if I can more fun things to my schedule, it won’t feel as tiring as adding more work hours to my schedule. If anything, it might be a little refreshing to have more time with friends and to get out of the rut that I tend to be in during the week.

So I have been making an effort to make a plan for the second half of the summer. I know that I won’t be able to do everything that I would like to do, but if I could do a few things I know that it will be a benefit to my life. I’ve been looking back at things that I have enjoyed doing and seeing what is possible with my schedule and finances. For example, looking at the schedule at the Bowl or seeing movies at the Hollywood Forever cemetery. Those are a bit more time-specific, but if I find something that I want to see, then I can try to fit it into my schedule. And I’m also working on reaching out to more friends to see who would like to go do things with me. I’m rebuilding friendships that were more like acquaintances in the recent past and that’s been a really great thing for me.

I know that the summer will be over before we know it. Time always seems to move quicker every year and I know that if I don’t make an effort that summer will be done and some of the things I want to do won’t be options until next summer. If I don’t make it to anything that I would like to do, I want to make sure that I at least try. And maybe if I can’t get things done this year, it will help remind me to make plans for next summer so I don’t miss out on that time again.

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Default ThumbnailTime Is Flying By (or How Is Summer Already Halfway Over?) Default ThumbnailA Busy Summer (or Realizing I Have A Lot To Look Forward Too) Default ThumbnailWorking On Planning My Summer (or Really Hoping Things Continue To Get Better) Default ThumbnailAn At-Home Labor Day (or The Unofficial End To A Weird Summer) Default ThumbnailUnemployed Again (or Trying To Not Make It Feel Like Summer Break) Default ThumbnailDisneyland Bucket List (or One Last Visit Before The Summer Blackout)

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

Posted on September 9, 2021 | Comments Off on A Night At The Bowl (or It Finally Feels Like Summer To Me)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More Heatwave Annoyances (or I Hate That This Seems To Always Surprise Me)

Posted on June 18, 2021 | Comments Off on More Heatwave Annoyances (or I Hate That This Seems To Always Surprise Me)

I have written multiple posts about being annoyed with the heat. It used to be much worse in my house when I didn’t have my window a/c unit. Back then, I was getting very sick from the heat and I didn’t have a great way to escape it other than to be in my car. With my a/c, it’s not perfect in my house, but it’s significantly better. And considering how many hours a day I am in my house at my computer, I’m so grateful that I can make it tolerable in my house. But since it is still warm, I do still deal with the side effect of the heat.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to me. I’ve been experiencing this for as long as I can remember. But it always does shock me when it’s hot out and my body is having weird reactions. And right now, we are in a big heatwave and my body reacted immediately.

I’m so much more irritated right now than I normally am. The heat makes it hard for me to sleep and I know that I’m also less hydrated than normal (but I’m not really dehydrated since I drink so much water every day). I also just feel uncomfortable in general between the air feeling heavy and feeling a bit gross because I get sweaty. And the worst side effect from the heat is having my body swell up. I know others have it worse than I do and I’m lucky that most of my swelling isn’t extreme. But it’s so frustrating and annoying when the swelling makes it so my clothes either don’t fit or don’t fit the way I am used to.

I think the swelling also probably adds to my irritation, but overall the swelling is the reaction or side effect I hate the most. I hate the feeling like I’ve gained weight overnight without knowing when it might be better (unlike PMS swelling which is somewhat predictable). It really messes with my mind and puts me in a really negative headspace with recovery efforts. I feel like I’ve screwed up somehow and that all the efforts I’ve made so far are worthless. I know in reality that isn’t true, but it’s hard to convince myself of that sometimes.

I don’t think there is much I can do about the swelling. Even if I had a better a/c unit, I think whenever I would leave my house I would experience it. I am looking at maybe getting a little fan or a mini a/c unit to put on my desk because that might help to make me a little more comfortable while I’m working. I also have cooling towels that I could put on me while I work if I need to. But I don’t think it will do much more than provide comfort. For the other issues, I just have to wait until it cools down a bit.

And I know it will cool down eventually and hopefully things will be a bit easier on me for a bit before the next heatwave. And I’m sure there will be at least one more big heatwave this summer since summer has only begun. Hopefully, at the next heatwave, I won’t be as surprised when this all happens to me or I have a better way to manage it and react.

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Working On Planning My Summer (or Really Hoping Things Continue To Get Better)

Posted on June 8, 2021 | Comments Off on Working On Planning My Summer (or Really Hoping Things Continue To Get Better)

Whenever things seem to be getting better with the pandemic, I’m a little worried that the improvements will lead to another uptick. We’ve slowly been opening up more and more in California (and in LA) and fortunately, the numbers haven’t been getting much worse. I think we are lucky here because so many people are vaccinated or almost fully vaccinated. So as we have more opening up, the risk factor isn’t that much worse.

I know we aren’t out of this just yet, but it continues to improve and seems hopeful. We do have a big change coming up in a week when things are supposed to be opening up 100% and masks are not always going to be required (although individual stores and businesses can still require them) and knowing that is about to happen does make me nervous. But I’m trying to stay in a positive mindset that everyone has been doing what they need to do so we can safely reopen. And I know other states have reopened already, and while they did have an uptick at first things have calmed down as people are vaccinated.

And since things are looking good, I’m finally starting to try to plan for my summer. Last summer was spent isolated for so much of it and I spent so much time in fear of getting sick. And while I’m still cautious and will probably continue to feel that way at least through this year, I am starting to see what is open and what I want to take advantage of and do.

There is the small downside of having fewer friends living in LA now than there was a year ago. So many people that I would have made plans with are no longer local and I either need to find others to hang out with or be ok with doing things alone. And I think I will be doing a mix of that. There is nothing wrong with doing things alone and there are plenty of things that I have done alone for years. But I also want to take advantage of being able to be around others again.

There are some things I want to do that aren’t necessarily time-specific for the summer. I want to go to the beach at least once. I don’t always go to the beach every summer since I need to be careful in the sun, but I also can be careful so hopefully, I won’t get that sunburnt. I also want to look at some easy hikes/walks around LA that either I haven’t done in a while or have never done. I want to do more things outdoors, even though I know that I will likely never be a big hiker. But I want to take advantage of what there is around me because I know I haven’t been doing that. And once I feel safe to go to the movies again, I want to see movies in the theaters. This one might take me a bit longer to be ready to do, but I think I will have a better sense of how I feel about this once masks aren’t required everywhere and we can see how the numbers look.

And there are things that either I want to do with others or don’t like to do alone. I want to be going out for more meals with friends. I have only been to 2 restaurants to eat there since last year. Both times I ate outdoors and it felt pretty safe to be there. I don’t know about eating inside just yet, but again, I have to see how the numbers look as more and more people are out and potentially not wearing masks. I also might want to go to Disneyland. I usually don’t go in the summer since my pass hasn’t been good over the summer, but now that there are no passes, I have to buy a ticket whenever I want to go. I know it will probably be very crowded, so I have to decide if I might want to wait until the fall when things might be a bit less crazy. But I also miss Disneyland so much and really want to have a fun day there with friends.

And one of my favorite summer things to do, going to the Hollywood Bowl, is already on my schedule! The Bowl has announced they were opening for this summer and I took a look at the schedule as soon as it was posted. I found a few shows that I want to go to and discussed summer plans with my parents. And they decided to come to LA for a few days to see me and one of the shows I thought they’d like is the weekend that they are here! I bought tickets the day they went on sale because I wasn’t sure how quickly things would sell out. And I didn’t get exactly the seats I wanted, but I did get us the first row of a section which is my favorite since you have a better view and the barrier to use as a table for whatever snacks we bring with us.

And of course, I’m sure there will be some random friend hangouts that I won’t plan since that’s how things naturally go. It will be nice to be able to be spontaneous again and not have to worry if someone has been around others or what the risks would be to see each other. I don’t know if there will be any BBQs or other things planned since so many of us are being careful and waiting to make sure things don’t take a turn before we plan anything. But the more time that goes on, the better we all have been feeling about it.

Hopefully, I can have a summer that has a lot of fun stuff happening. I don’t plan on going too crazy since I know then I will hit burnout, but I want to make up for lost time from the past year. And I can’t wait to see what adventures I get to have this summer and what traditions I get to have again and what new things I might want to turn into traditions.

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Another Virtual Friend Hangout (or Trying Not To Miss A Summer Tradition Too Much)

Posted on July 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Virtual Friend Hangout (or Trying Not To Miss A Summer Tradition Too Much)

I remember before this year started, people were so excited when they saw that the 4th of July would be on a Saturday. I was excited too because I knew that meant I wouldn’t have an early morning the next morning. I love the 4th of July BBQs that I go to that Chris and Marie host.

When the pandemic started, I don’t think any of us expected it to last this long. When Memorial Day happened and we had a virtual hangout, I think we all assumed we would be together again soon. Even some of the reports were saying that LA might be able to reopen by the 4th of July. I knew that just because things could reopen didn’t mean that having a party would be safe. But I was using the date as a goal for the future and hoping that things would be starting to get back to how they were before by then.

But that didn’t happen. Cases are growing. We are lucky the death rate isn’t rising at the same speed, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t dangerous. We have no clue what the long-term health effects will be on someone who had COVID. I know people are tired of being home and want to go out and be social, but we just can’t do that now if we want this to be over soon. If more people stayed home and wore masks when they went out, we would be in a better position right now. But because of the actions of others, we cannot have things open and we need to stay home and away from others.

So as much as my friend group wanted to see each other for the 4th of July, it wasn’t possible. None of us wanted to risk the health of others by having a party. Plus, gatherings weren’t really allowed. But since we had already done one virtual holiday hangout, we were prepared to do another one. And that’s exactly what we did.

I wasn’t able to stay on our Zoom hangout as long as I would have liked to, but I was able to be on there for a while and see a lot of my friends. Everyone was so happy to see each other and we were all saying how much we missed being together in person. Some people had some really fun and creative Zoom backgrounds (even background videos) and that made us all laugh. Most of the conversation was just catching up with each other and making sure we are all doing ok. It wasn’t that different from how we spend parties catching up in person, but it felt extra nice to have people checking in on me and making sure everything was going ok.

Many of us live alone, so having some social interaction was really needed. I know I needed it. I still have some days where isolation is a huge struggle for me. I feel like I’m on my own little planet and there is nobody else out there that understands what I’m feeling. I know that isn’t true, but it’s hard to not feel that way. But I have noticed being more open about my struggle has helped as other friends have said they feel the same. Even though we all feel like we are on our own planets, at least we are starting to feel like we aren’t the only one out there feeling like that.

Because of something else I had scheduled on the 4th, I was only able to stay on Zoom for about an hour. But honestly, that hour meant so much to me. I needed that time with my friends. I needed that sense of almost normalcy. I needed to have more than just text messages or social media. I know that I could use some face to face time with friends more, but that’s not an option yet. I have to take what I can, and I need to take advantage of the moments I can get with friends. I felt so much better after just that hour and felt like I could handle things for a bit longer.

The next party that we would all be having together would be Labor Day, but I don’t think any of us are expecting to be able to be together then. It would be amazing if we could, but I think we are all hoping to be together again for Halloween. And we all know the costumes will probably be some of the best yet because it would be our big reunion as a group. I am trying to stay hopeful that by October we can safely be together. But if we can’t I guess we can do a Zoom Halloween party and share our costumes over video.

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A Perfect Night At The Bowl (or Checking Some Things Off My List)

Posted on July 31, 2019 | Comments Off on A Perfect Night At The Bowl (or Checking Some Things Off My List)

As I mentioned in my post about the end of my Pantages season, I wasn’t completely done with musicals for the summer. I still had one more show left (at least one more that I knew about). And that was the musical that was being done at the Hollywood Bowl. I’ve gone to the musicals at the Bowl several times and they are usually very fun experiences. This year, they did “Into The Woods” which I have seen a few times and really like. And since we went to the show on Sunday, we were still able to get good seats even though we didn’t do them right when they went on sale.

Besides being excited to be going to the Bowl (which I already love) and seeing a musical (which is one of my favorite things), I had some extra things to be excited about. Some of the stars of the show are actors that I have dreamed of seeing live. I have a list of shows that I’ve always wanted to see and actors I’ve always wanted to see. And I’ve been so lucky to be able to check shows and actors off my lists over the years. And this show had a lot of the actors I’ve been wanting to see in it so I was beyond thrilled. The top 2 actors I have wanted to see live are Sutton Foster and Laura Osnes and Sutton Foster was starring as the Baker’s Wife in the show. I was so excited and couldn’t wait.

When we got to the Bowl, we were all already excited. We were at a show we were excited to see, the weather was nice, and we had a lot of great food with us for dinner. We decided to see if there was any chance we could find a table to sit down at to eat, and by some miracle, we found one! There were some guys upset that another table wouldn’t give them their chairs (they needed the chairs for their family so they didn’t want to give them to the other group), so they left and we were able to take their table. It worked out really well and I was thinking about how we were having the best luck ever.

But things got even better.

We were eating and I was looking at a group sitting on the ground next to our table when I saw someone who looked familiar. When they got up, I realized that it was Laura Osnes, the other actor at the top of my dream list of actors to see! She was there to see the show and she had been sitting right next to us! I didn’t want to bother her as she was there with her husband and friends, but it was so random and cool that an actor that I’ve dreamed of seeing perform was at a show that had another actor on my dream list. Hopefully one day I’ll get to see her perform too.

After we finished our dinner, we headed to our seats. We had bought 4 tickets but there were only 3 of us at the show. But because the bench seats are so packed, it actually was really nice to have the extra seat so we didn’t feel squished on the bench. We were closer to the stage that I feel like I normally am, which was a nice treat. I guess since it was a Sunday show we were able to do a better section for the same price as our cheaper seats on a Saturday.

The other thing about the show being on a Sunday was that it started a bit earlier. This was a good thing since it is a long show and we still were there late, but it was still light out when the show started. That was different, but not bad.

The show was just as good as I thought it would be. I love the story already and I knew I loved the actors. The combination was just perfect. The sets were minimal as they usually are with the Bowl shows, but they didn’t need much. And they used projections around the stage to add things that couldn’t really be done with set pieces. There were lots of funny little moments that were a bit of breaking the 4th wall or making fun of the stage or situation. All of those things make a show special and unique and they make me so happy.

One of the things that is so funny about “Into The Woods” is how it seems like the story is wrapping up when it’s really coming to the intermission. Some of the people seated near us were packing up their things and getting ready to leave thinking the show was done. I’m glad I told them that it was only intermission so they didn’t miss the second half.

Even though the show did end a bit later than I would have liked, I was so glad that we got tickets. It was such a perfect night out and I don’t think we could have planned a better night at the Bowl. It was a great show, had a cast that I had been wanting to see, we had a great picnic dinner at a table we lucked into getting, and we had a bunch of different celebrity spottings. It really was the best night and I just continue to feel so lucky and grateful that I get to have nights like that one.

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I Wasn’t Expecting To Write About The Heat Again (or Lazy Days)

Posted on July 12, 2018 | Comments Off on I Wasn’t Expecting To Write About The Heat Again (or Lazy Days)

I just wrote about the heat and how it had been affecting me lately. Fortunately since I wrote that post, it has been a bit better. It’s still very hot, but it’s much more tolerable. My little a/c unit can finally get my house below 80 degrees at night and I’m not feeling as heat sick.

But just because it’s better now doesn’t mean that this entire week has been affected by how it was earlier. I wrote about how I hadn’t been sleeping that well. I’m not the best sleeper, but I can usually get 6 hours of sleep when I’m in bed for 7-8 hours (I do toss and turn a lot). With this heat, I had been averaging about half of that. Over the weekend (when I wrote the earlier post), it hadn’t really affected me too much. I was tired, but I was still able to get things done during the day.

But by Monday, this lack of sleep really caught up with me. I was supposed to attend a union event on Monday evening that I had been looking forward to for about a week. It was about the commercial contracts and I knew that there was going to be a lot of information shared that I wanted to know about. And I knew that a bunch of my friends would be there and I love having a chance to catch up with friends at different events.

I didn’t have work on Monday but I did have some things I needed to do that morning and afternoon. I got those things done and went home to decompress a bit before getting dressed and leaving my house to go to the meeting. The next thing I knew, it was a few hours later. I ended up taking a nap but it felt more like passing out for several hours because I don’t even remember laying down on my couch.

I figured that after that on Monday, maybe I’d be doing better. I slept better Monday night to Tuesday morning but within an hour of starting work I was feeling ready to go back to sleep. I couldn’t ever remember being that tired before and I felt awful that I might not be pulling my weight at work. I fought to stay awake during my 7 hours of work (I may have fallen asleep briefly a few times while working) and as soon as I was done with work I went to lay down on my bed to try to nap again.

I woke up almost 4 hours later! I ate some dinner when I woke up and tried to stay awake for a few more hours and then went to bed at my normal time. I was worried I might not be able to sleep because of taking such a long and late nap. I did struggle a bit falling asleep but I was asleep within maybe 30 minutes of trying to sleep. And I woke up my normal time on Wednesday morning feeling so much more refreshed.

I know they say that if you don’t sleep that you can’t catch up on sleep by sleeping in another day. But I honestly finally feel like I got the sleep that I didn’t get over the weekend. Maybe because I had such a severe sleep deficit and that it was during such a short time period that somehow I did make up the time I lost. I usually so good about going to bed and waking up at the same times every day. Even when I stay up late, I’m almost always up at the same time (which can be annoying at times). But I think these past few days really affected me more than I expected and I really just want to be back to normal.

I know that it’s not a bad thing to have lazy days every now and then. But I feel like I had just gotten over being sick and all the lazy days that I had when I was not feeling well. I also hate that I’ve been lazy because it makes for boring posts on here! I was really hoping to be able to write about the union meeting that I didn’t make it to. And I really haven’t been doing much this week because of feeling off and I don’t know what I’ll be writing about tomorrow yet. I’m sure I’ll think up something, but I really prefer it when my life is interesting so I know I have some good content for you all to read!

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Another Post About The Heat (or I’m Not Getting As Upset This Time)

Posted on July 10, 2018 | 1 comment

I know the entire country has pretty much been through a massive heat wave lately. It’s been brutal here in LA and I know that I don’t have it as badly as other people have had it. In LA, so many people were without power and when the temperature at night is still in the 90s that can be pretty miserable to sleep. I’m glad that I’ve had power this entire time (so far) and that I have a bunch of fans and my window a/c unit to keep things tolerable.

Even though my house is tiny, the window a/c doesn’t cool down my entire place. But it makes it much better. This heat wave is so much worse than what we’ve had before so it’s extremely rare to get my house below 80 degrees.

The past few days I’ve been running the a/c almost from the time I get up until I go to bed (I feel weird about running it while I’m sleeping) unless I’m not inside my house. And because the evenings are still hot I haven’t been able to open up my house at night to try to get some fresh air and cool things down more. It’s a bit claustrophobic when everything is closed up all day so I can cool down my house, but I know this is temporary.

Sleeping has been rough for me lately because of the heat. My house is still usually around 85 when I’m going to bed and my bedroom is a bit warmer than that because of how the sun goes through the windows. I’ve got a fan next to my bed and I have a cooling towel that I put on me while I try to sleep. I end up waking up once or twice a night to get some cold water to drink and to get the cooling towel wet again so I can try to stay cool. But I do toss and turn a lot at night when it’s this hot and my sleep has been suffering.

The other thing that has been affected by the heat is when I eat. I am not getting hungry until really late and that is not a good thing. I hate eating that late and I have been trying to make myself eat dinner at a more reasonable hour, but I’m just not able to do it. Usually when I should be having dinner I’m on my bed or couch with the fan pointed at me and just trying to stop sweating. This issue is also affecting my sleep because when I eat right before going to bed I get heartburn and that is never fun.

And as always, my body is super swollen in the heat. I know that most people have this issue, but it always hits me hard when none of my clothes fit me. I have a very limited wardrobe that I can wear in the heat and that I would want to wear when it’s this hot out. I’m pretty much sticking to yoga capris and tank tops. They are feeling tight on my body (and my workout clothes feel 2 sizes too small), but I know this is a temporary thing and has nothing to do with my weight loss efforts.

This is something I battle with every time we have a heat wave. But even with the extra issues with sleep and food, I think I’m dealing with the heat swelling so much better this year than I have in the past. I knew this was going to happen and I decided to not look at the scale and plan what clothes I could wear when things would feel tight. Planning for feeling this way has been helping me even if I have some moments where I’m so frustrated that things aren’t fitting or that it’s a struggle to fit into something that normally is so easy to wear.

The temperature here in LA is supposed to be getting better every day and in a week it should be normal or even a little cooler than normal. As much as I hate being super cold in my house, that is a bit better than feeling this heat sick. But feeling this way is usually very limited and I know that in a few days I should be over it and won’t have to keep complaining about it.

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A Friend-Filled Fourth (or Just Enjoying Being Around Awesome People)

Posted on July 6, 2018 | 1 comment

As you might have been able to tell from my post on the 4th of July, I was having some mixed feelings about celebrating. A lot of people I knew felt the same way and I think many people had the same conflicting feeling about what they should do and what would feel almost disrespectful. Even though I had that feeling, my friends were hosting their 4th of July BBQ on the 4th (instead of doing it the weekend before) and I knew I’d be going there for sure.

I arrived right after the party started and there were a few people there. We were all sitting in the shade since it was hot and we all were having the same feelings. In a way, it helped to be around people who were feeling the same since I didn’t have to feel like a total downer for not being in a celebratory mood. While we did try to not talk politics too much, it did come up and we were trying to keep the conversation more toward actions steps we can take and not just complaining about the situation.

Once more people showed up, the party started to be more social and more like all the other parties they throw. There was a ton of food (I made Drunk Fruit again) and the BBQ was going with hot dogs, veggie dogs, and corn on the cob. It was a good classic summer BBQ and that’s exactly what I needed to have in my life, even if I was hesitant about being in a celebratory mood.

And of course, I had to get my friends together for our traditional photo. 4 years ago we took a photo while running through the sprinklers. Even though the sprinklers haven’t been on since that party, we have recreated that photo every year. We did 2 runs through the lawn just being silly and ridiculous, and we got some really great photos like this one.

But I went with a different photo that fit a bit better into the collage I was making to celebrate 5 years of taking this photo.

It’s a silly thing that we do, but I think all 4 of us agree that this photo is something that makes us happy. After I make the collage I show the others and I can tell that seeing all the photos together over the years makes them smile as much as I do. We’ve all agreed that this tradition can’t end anytime soon and we want to make it at least to 10 years of photos. We are halfway there already!

I spent most of the party trying to move around and talk to as many of my friends there as possible. Since I don’t see many of them outside of these parties, I want to take advantage of the time I do have with them. And I think that’s how everyone else feels too. The time at the parties always feels special and a bit precious because it’s a time we are all together and can just relax around each other. For me, celebrating the holidays I celebrate at these parties is all about the people I get to be around. It’s the most important thing to me and I’m glad I have so many amazing people to be with on these days.

The entire day people had been setting off fireworks, but you can’t see anything until it gets dark (I don’t understand why people are setting them off at 11am). Once the sun went down, we started noticing the various fireworks shows that were happening all around us. You could look almost any direction and see fireworks in the sky. Several people went up on the roof, but I stuck with being on the ground this year.

One day I’ll learn how to take better pictures of fireworks, but until then I am grateful to friends who can take awesome photos and are willing to let me use them on here.

I ended up staying at the party later than I was planning on doing. When I was trying to say goodbye to people, I just kept getting into more intense conversations and it took me about 45 minutes from the time I said I was going to leave until I was walking out to my car. But that’s ok. I was still out of there at a decent time before too many people were leaving parties and being on the road. And I was home a bit later than I would have liked, but I still got enough sleep before having to get up for work the next morning.

The next party with my friends should be toward the end of the summer and I know that there is a chance I won’t get to see many of these friends until then. As much as we all want to see each other more often, between living far apart (by LA standards since in rush hour some of these friends live 2.5 hours from me) and all having busy lives, we know that it’s not necessarily going to happen. But that’s what makes these parties so important and special to me. This is a time that we set aside in our crazy schedules to come together and have fun. This isn’t something that everyone gets to experience and I’m so lucky that I have a group like these friends who appreciate it as much as I do.

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I Hate Complaining About The Heat (or Can It Be Fall Now?)

Posted on October 26, 2017 | 1 comment

If you don’t live in LA, you might not know we are going through a pretty bad heat wave right now. It’s hopefully going to end soon, but it’s been miserable. I know that we have had some heat waves in October in the past, but this is much worse than normal. It has been hotter now than it was over the summer when we had heat waves. Just the other day, this was the temperature by my house (where it rarely gets to 100 degrees).

I know that I’m luckier than others. I do have a little window a/c unit that I can use. And my a/c is pretty energy-efficient so when I use it my electricity bill doesn’t double or triple like some a/c units do for my friends. But even though it isn’t expensive to run, I try to limit how often I run it because I don’t want to get dependent on it and use it more than I can afford. But it’s nice to now that I have it there so that I’m not dealing with nights where it is still over 90 degrees inside my house when I’m trying to sleep.

Over the past few days, I’ve had just fans on for the first part of the day and then when I get home from a workout or whatever I did that afternoon I have to run my a/c until I go to bed. Then I can usually get my house down to a reasonable temperature to sleep in. But it’s still not fun to be stuck in the heat, especially when it heats up my computer while I’m working too. I haven’t resorted to sitting on ice packs like I did in the past, but I’m getting pretty close to that. I also got these cooling towels over the summer to help me sleep when it was too hot inside my house at nighttime. I have been using those around my neck or on my back while working to keep things more comfortable.

I really hope that it cools down soon. I want to feel more comfortable in my house and I hate what the heat does to my body. I’ve been working hard at getting things back on track but now it’s tough to tell if it’s working or not. All of my clothes feel way too tight on me but I know that my body is swollen from heat because nothing fits including shoes (which isn’t affected by weight loss or gain for me). Fortunately, workout clothes have a lot of stretch in them so I’ve been wearing those a lot. But I want to know that my efforts to get things back to how they should be are working and the best way to tell that is how my clothes feel on me. And having everything feel too tight does mess with my head a bit.

I’m sure it’s annoying to complain about the heat. But honestly that is occupying a lot of my mind right now. There are other things that have been bugging or annoying me, and having it be ridiculously hot doesn’t make things any better. But I am trying to make the best of things right now. I’m grateful for my workouts because there is really great a/c at Orangetheory. And it does motivate me to get out of my house more to relax somewhere else. It’s nice to have something breaking up the day when I have been working from home for 7 hours. I hate staying home all day so a post-work errand or adventure is good and now it has the added bonus of hopefully being a place that is cooler than my house.

I do wonder if the heat is really that bad or my negative attitude about other things is making is worse. Either way, it’s not fun and I keep checking the weather report to see when things will be getting better. If things are accurate, today will be about 20 degrees cooler than yesterday (but it will still be warm) and it will drop another 20 degrees by next week. To have it go down 40 degrees in a week is proof on how hot it is right now!

So for now, I’m just going to keep working and doing what I’m doing since there really isn’t anything that I can do to fix this. And before I know it, I hope that I’ll be complaining about how cold it is. Although I do prefer that sometimes since I can always add more clothes to warm up.

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