LA November 2023 Day 1 & 2
I just got back from spending the long weekend with Tiff and Val in LA (where Tiff lives)!
When we parted ways in July we weren’t expecting to all be together again until February so I’m absolutely thrilled this trip came together! I really cherish my time with them – I can be 100% myself and know they completely accept me as I am. It feels weird to point that out, but spending time with them made me realize I can’t always do that and how draining it is when I can’t*. So, thank you for that, Tiff & Val! It means more to me than I can coherently explain.
We didn’t have many plans for our time there. I’ve been so go go go lately that I really wanted to have downtime with them to chat and paint (and eat!!!). The ONE thing on my list was redoing a trip to the Griffith Observatory since it was so foggy when Steven and I went in March. And we had plans to meet up with a rock painting friend Saturday (more on that in the next post).
Val and I arrived at LAX late Thursday afternoon, and Tiff picked us up and drove us to her neighborhood, where her lovely neighbor let us stay in their home and watch their cats while they were away. Val and I were stoked to have kitty time – we miss our cats when we’re away! And I was excited to save money on housing, ha ha.
Bowie & Roxie. Bowie would hang out a bit and slept with me each night, Roxie was shy and didn’t show up much but slept with me the last night and let me pet her!
Thursday night was chill. We hung out at Tiff’s house and had burgers (from Burgerlords) and painted.
I’m teaching a rock painting class this Friday night at my gym so I focused on positive affirmation rocks.
On Friday we walked down to Cal State and got drinks (chai for me) and wandered campus for a bit. Tiff’s husband and their kids came down a bit later and joined us. I adore her family and loved our time with them. Her husband is kind, welcoming, so chill, and hilarious, and the kids are so sweet.
After our walk we painted,
and Tiff’s close friend Trudy came over to join us for the day. Val and I have heard so much about Trudy and really wanted to meet her, and we’re both so glad she joined us for the day! She had amazing energy and was so fun to talk to. It made me feel good knowing Tiff has such an amazing friend close by that she gets to see often!
We ordered from Cena, a vegan Mexican place, for lunch and HOLY COW they gave us so much food. I ordered a torta to try and loaded fries to share with Val (who let me try her tacos). I had NO idea how big tortas were! I ate 1/3 then worked on it a bit that night and the next day and maybe left 1/3 of it behind? Ha, I did my best. It was ALL delish. Steven would have loved it.
After eating all that food we were properly fueled (ha ha) for our Griffith hike and headed out! The hike to the observatory itself was just under a mile, and we got to see the Hollywood sign on the way up (and for most of the hike). I felt a bit bummed seeing it because I knew Steven wanted to when he was here, and we were right there but it was just too foggy. He’ll get another chance, I’m sure.
After we went by the observatory it was another 1.5 miles to an overlook where we could see a lot of the city.
I’m so happy Tiff took me there and that I got to see the city from that view. We had beautiful weather and it was pretty clear (for LA) – we could even see the ocean!
And I loved all that time the four of us had together to chat and goof around. Trudy definitely matched our silly vibes!
We hiked back down then went home to clean up, and decided to get ice cream for dinner. Ha. Everyone was still pretty full from lunch but we needed a little something so we went to Magpies Softserve which has vegan ice cream pies, and that was one of the most amazing things I’ve EVER eaten (I got the Cookie Butter Softserve Pie). Steven would have loved that place too!
We stopped in one shop then went back to Tiff’s to watch part of The Californians (a ridiculous SNL skit about Californians talking about traffic) and Center Stage, while painting. A great end to a great day!
Ha, that night, while I was sleeping, I heard some meowing in a dream, then woke up and realized the meowing was outside. It was Roxie, outside of the screen window of the room I was in, asking to be let in! Bowie and Roxie are indoor/outdoor cats and we closed their door at dusk each night as instructed but since Roxie was so shy we never knew if she was in when we closed it! (She was the first night, not on the second, then was on the third. Silly girl.)
*during the trip, before, and after. Some people make me so anxious to be around that it affects me for weeks before and after seeing them!
Seventeen Year Runniversary!
On yesterday’s run I remembered today is my Runniversary! I started running on this day in 2006! 🥳
I’m in such a different place with running this year than I was compared to the past couple of years, and I’m so happy for it. I went to my blog and searched “runniversary” and the post that popped up was from two years ago. In it I talked about running not being as enjoyable and getting injured more often because of my weight. And I joked that rock painting would take over as my new obsessive hobby.
It totally did. And the social media that went along with it. (It’s not the only reason why but) I didn’t focus on my health.
This year, I reprioritized. I took December – February off running (good timing, right? ha) to focus on walking and my eating habits, and I started running again in March. I took it very slow – I took a few months to train for a 5K in June, then got half marathon ready for a half I didn’t do in mid August (I ran one last month and felt great though!), and have kept my double distance mileage up since then.
I stopped tracking my overall mileage and how many days a week I ran. I stopped caring how far I ran and stopping my watch on a .00. I rarely ran with pace on my Garmin screen before, and still don’t now – it just shows the time of day and beeps at each mile.
In a year that’s been so chaotic (mostly in good ways!), I’ve somehow been able to develop a balanced (for me) approach to running. Maybe out of necessity from the chaos? It feels good though. It feels like a much healthier relationship. I absolutely love running, but am fine to go a day (or days) without it. I’m not obsessing over stats. I’m not hurting myself. I’m proud that I’ve been so careful in my return to running, and respectful of my body.
I hope I am writing something similar next year on November 10th!
I am eyeing the Denver Marathon next May. I know it’s possible to be this casual about running and successfully train for a marathon (that I’ll be running for fun). I will keep myself in check though. I don’t want to go back to my old obsessive ways! (and again, the chaos likely won’t let me!)
Random Thoughts Thursday 429
- My INR appointments have been going well, and at this week’s we scheduled my next one for 4 weeks out. That’s the longest I’ve gone between appointments and I’m excited we’ve gotten to this point (and hope to stay here)!
- Part I of the vegan whole turkey reel I made this weekend did really well on Instagram and that made me feel so good! I work hard on these and we usually don’t get much interaction or many views. The Instagram feedback was very positive (YouTube, not so much – which I expected).
View this post on Instagram
- I thought it would be fun to rent My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 and enjoy views of Greece and a cheesy story, but it was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. I’ll be thinking about how bad it was for some time. Ha. (Mostly, the story was very weak and disjointed – it was almost like they had AI write it. The editing was bizarre and confusing. The acting was meh and the actors all looked bizarre (maybe they were trying to cover up their aging?). Most of the jokes were repeats and the only ones that made me legit laugh were from Aunt Voula. Do NOT recommend. This review from the LA Times nails it.)
I was so optimistic when I took this
- More media complaining. I am annoyed with the show Silo. At first I liked seeing the book series come alive but I quickly felt annoyed with how much they changed and added and are dragging things out. I wonder if I’d like it better if I hadn’t read the series.
- I don’t have a photo of this, but Snow Jr ate out of a food tube I was holding last weekend! He is becoming more and more comfortable with me.
- OMG the one RAVE from this post. I tried a new-to-me Ben & Jerry’s vegan flavor – Americone Dream – it’s it’s amazing. They describe it as “Vanilla Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert With Fudge-Covered Waffle Cone Pieces & A Caramel Swirl.” Steven said it may be his fave from them!
Reading Update (2023 #59-61)
[59] House Moms by Jen Lancaster
Fiction / Women?, Amazon First Reads Book, Kindle
Synopsis: Three women are attempting to reinvent themselves in a small town university in rural Indiana. Janelle is hiding from the mob – she literally has a new identity and made up past, CeCe’s glam life came tumbling down when her husband ran away after embezzling funds and she is looking for a place to stay and way to survive, and her daughter Hayden is attempting to be independent. Janelle and CeCe end up as sorority house moms, and Hayden works at a local coffee shop and takes graduate classes.
Review: Well, if my half-assed synopsis didn’t give it away, I didn’t love this book. It was kind of bizarrely disjointed. The writing was really casual, but not in a fun way. I didn’t care about 2 of the 3 stories, and barely cared about the third. Why did I even finish this? Meh.
Recommend? No
[60] Pageboy by Elliot Page
Biography & Autobiography / LGBTQ, saw in “Available Now” on Libby, audiobook
TW: homophobic slurs
Synopsis: Elliot Page shares snippets of his life story from childhood to current day.
Review: Y’all, this is an emotional listen. Prepare to feel lots of feelings when you take it in. Page did an excellent job describing the angst and hatred he felt toward his body and the person others wanted him to be. Honestly, the book made me feel like absolute shit until he got top surgery and finally felt like himself. And I think that’s a good thing – for the reader to feel how hard that is. But whoa, it’s intense.
A lot of reviewers complain that the book is not chronological and reads like poetry. It didn’t bother me as much listening to it, but I can see me putting the book down had I been reading it. Elliot’s monotone did annoy me at times though, ha.
Recommend? Yes, if you are ready to feel all the feelings
[61] A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey
Fiction / Family Life / Siblings, saw in “Available Now” on Libby, audiobook
Synopsis: Natalie hasn’t spoken to her two siblings in fifteen years, since she was 18 and got them both arrested and sent to jail. She also hasn’t been home to Santa Cruz since – she went to college in Boston and never returned. But she hears from a lawyer that her mother passed and left her historic Victorian mansion to the three siblings if and only if the three of them show up at the house together. Natalie treks back to California to see if she can get her two siblings to show up.
Review: This book was interesting and kept me engaged. I appreciated the reveal of why the siblings went to jail early on in chapter 5 and not making us wait until the near end of the book. And I liked all the sub stories going on – Natalie’s work and boyfriend issues and trying to find herself, Natalie making new friends and love interests, what’s been going on with Natalie’s siblings. They were all characters I felt invested in.
I do have to say though, the narrator bugged me. I hated how she did men’s voices, and she kind of talked like Holly Hunter, ugh. And Natalie is a bit frustrating. She makes poor choices, is a meddler, and her cat was lost for half the book and her level of worry was too low for me, ha. But at the same time, I found myself getting defensive of Natalie and worried about certain situations, so even though she frustrated me, I was rooting for her.
It tied up a bit rapidly and neatly, but whatever, at least they didn’t leave me hanging.
Recommend? Sure!
Making myself paint
Ha, I said this back in May and it’s still true – when I’m not painting after dinner, I’m snacking or thinking I need second portions (while scrolling my phone and not paying attention to whatever we have on the TV).
It’s gotta stop.
Even though I don’t feel the urge to paint, I need to do something with my hands after dinner that does not involve eating or my phone.
So I got the paint out last night.
These aren’t my best rocks, but at least I painted! I hadn’t since I did with William on October 15th. And before that I hadn’t since September 17th.
Like I said, I just don’t feel the urge or desire to paint as much anymore. That’s probably a good thing – I was obsessive about it for a couple years and felt like I needed to paint most days and definitely have something new to post on my rock Instagram account each day.
It feels good to be broken away from that way of thinking.
And at the same time it felt good to paint again. Ha.
An extra hour
What did everyone do with their extra hour yesterday?
I had to work a bit this weekend (cooking, and filming and editing reels for Fake Meats – lasagna Saturday, vegan turkey yesterday) so I like to think I used that hour for work and still have time for me! If that makes ANY sense.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if our days were always 25 hours long? Not in the sense that our earth got so off orbit that that happened, just if we somehow had an extra hour each day, but we weren’t used to that extra hour, so every day felt longer. Or maybe not everyone wants the days to feel longer. Ha.
Side note: it’s hard to make all this food for my part time job and not overeat, womp womp
What if…
… I had the right gear (and bike) to cycle through the winter?
It was 32°F when I started my ride this morning. My toes (socks too thin) and thumbs were cold.
This is the crazy thought that entered my head just after mile 10 of this morning’s ride, which is when I always stop to hide a rock and fuel. At this point I’ve warmed up, I’ve lightened my load (today’s rock was HEAVY), I’ve got some sugar in my system, and I’ve just gone down a hill and turned on to a road in the full daylight and felt the sun warming me up.
Basically, no decisions should be made at that point.
But what if…
Holiday spirit
What’s your stance on holiday (Christmas) music?
I’m Team Play it November 1st. But I know some people fall into Team Never, Team December Only, & Team Christmas Day Only.
On October 22nd I was at Kohl and they were playing Christmas music. I text my mom and snis about it and I loved that my snis responded “here for it.”
It was too early for me, but I love that it wasn’t for her. And that’s really what I came here to say – I love how much my mom and snis love the holiday season, and that the three of us share that*. I mean, it makes sense we do – we got it from my mom, but still, I get a lot of joy out of it. It feels good knowing that when I see something Christmassy that makes me feel happy that they’ll be just as excited when I share it with them.
Christmas 2022
But gosh, my brain does still feel like it’s way too early to be thinking about the holidays. My brain is stuck in September or something.
*I still feel very lazy about doing any prep for it, but I greatly enjoy the season
Choosing time off
I had my annual review* this week and decided to choose time off instead of a monetary bonus for my individual performance award (the monetary bonus = what you’d get paid for the time off).
I thought about this decision for a while, compared to my usual “go with your gut” decision making process. I just booked our Europe trip and it was $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, and the holidays are coming up and I’ll be spending money on gifts. And in December I start to get 4 more hours of leave a month (which equates to 5.33~ more days off a year).
BUT! I saved for that Europe trip and have the money to pay it off. I can charge holiday gifts and pay them off before the charge is due. And even though I will start getting more leave this month, I have LOTS of ideas in my head for travel next year, and want the cushion to be able to take a day off to relax when we get back if I want. And I want to take random days and chunks of time of here and there. Right now I get 17.33 days off a year + federal holidays + every other Friday (+ separate sick leave that always rolls over). Next year I should have 23.11 days + 4.88 days + federal holidays + every other Friday = about 10.66 extra days.
Woo hoo!
Really I’m just coming here to say I am getting PUMPED about 2024. And I hope talking about it now doesn’t jinx it! Eek! Here’s my tentative travel list:
January: nada
February: Atlanta Olympic Marathon Trials?, [location unplanned] Trip with Tiff & Val
March: NC (to see Caitlin & Joe)
April: Europe – the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium (the only trip that is planned and paid for)
May: Denver, CO (see Val/run Marathon)
June: Vail, CO (see Val & Steve)
July: Guttenberg, Iowa River & RAGBRAI (hopefully with Tiff and Val and their fams!), 40th Birthday Trip #2
August: Guttenberg, Iowa Abel Island Fly-In (Steven will have his certificate and we can actually rent a plane and fly in!!!)
September: nada
October: Girls’ Trip with Christina & Ella
November: nada
December: nada
Christina and Ella and I did not repeat our girls’ trip this year (in 2022 we went to LA). We intended to go to a new location, then life got too busy for all of us (especially Ella), so we talked about making it biennial. We just picked a weekend for next year, yay!
*I’m always surprised when I score high in the Leadership category and my supervisor calls me a natural proactive leader *insert face holding back tears emoji* I’m NEVER surprised when I score “successful” (and not higher) in the analysis category. I HATE analyzing things. But, uh, I better get better at it since it’s part of my job.
Pretty much unrelated (also, TW: body size and weight), I was getting ready to delete all of the October 2022 photos off my computer (I keep photos on my computer for a year then remove them – they’re all backed up in two locations) and I opened up one and saw this photo of me, Ella, and Christina on October 30th last year.
First of all, Ella you are two cute with that silly face. Second, my snis looks gorg, and third, just wow. My face. I look so much bigger than I do now:
That’s the three of us on October 16th this year.
It’s odd. When I’m overweight like I am in the first photo I never feel upset with myself. I try to buy clothes that fit and do the best I can. Sure, I knew I was overweight and not taking care of myself at all, but… it didn’t bug me every day. I didn’t hate on myself. I accepted me. I wasn’t upset when I saw photos of myself. I thought that was a cute photo of us three at the time.
But now? Now I look at it and don’t even see the same person! Which feels odd to me, like… why didn’t you notice the difference then, Kim? I suppose because I wasn’t looking at photos of myself at a smaller size, because that would make me feel crappy.
Ha! That reminds me of someone who used to often send me photos of myself at a much smaller size and it did always make me feel like sh*t.
So I guess I was avoiding seeing it.
In the same vein that I don’t notice it as much on myself unless I compare photos, I don’t really notice weight loss/gain on other people either (unless it’s drastic, I guess?).
People notice it on me though. I get lots of comments on my public Instagram account on it when I post my weekly hiding reels, which feature my body each day of the year. The comments are all very nice and no one has gotten weird, which I appreciate. Everyone is encouraging and cheering me on. And I have said a few times over there that I am focusing on my health this year, so it’s not a secret.
I suppose I am just surprised people notice since I don’t tend to notice on others.
Oh! Then there was one person who said “Stop losing weight! You’re going to disappear. Seriously, I am getting nervous 💙 “. Ha. My snis left the best comment, which I screenshot for prosperity (and am glad I did because they deleted their comment):
Anyone who knows Kim knows that she does things the correct way. Nothing about her health journey should be alarming you, and she is very proud of the progress she’s worked so hard for, as are those who support and love her. This comment is not helpful, and discounts all her efforts. 👎
You probably won’t see this, but I love you snis!
Gosh, this post went down a long rambly path. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
Random Thoughts Thursday 428
- Here’s the mani I got from Lorena last week!
- Pretty soon I’ll be doing holiday manis, which just blows my mind. I’m excited about the winter holidays, but feel so burned out I don’t want to devote any headspace to planning or decorating. I just want to show up to things with a gift magically in my hands.
- I have the weirdest AI story to tell. I was having a hard time finding some info about a company I was writing at article on for my parttime job, so I asked AI to do some research for me and it came back with a name and founding year of the company. I was shocked because I didn’t find either when I looked for them. So I asked AI for the source for both and it was basically like “my bad, I made those up.” Ha. WTF! This is why I fact check everything I get from AI, and just use it for a framework. Maybe I needed to tell it to only give me factual information.
- The acupuncture place never called me back about whether they accept my insurance. I called and they said they were still waiting, then got a EOB for well over what I paid. So… I am guessing they do not? Womp womp.
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
