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 |   Nothing official here; just come chill! |
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Welcome! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Welcome to my little Den! Here you'll find all sorts of things- mostly blog challenges, but mixed in, you'll notice:  I'm a bit of a fangirl  My life is very busy I enjoy using emoticons  I don't tend to swear, but stuff happens. |
| I tried to write a post on my phone earlier but the device died and I lost it all. Anyways, hi, I'm alive. Yearly update time I guess. This is somewhat chronologically/topically organized, since I feel like either not much happened or everything happened at once. I left off in late September 2022, so my biggest news for October 2022 is, I was invited to be a Bar Method teacher on Halloween for my home (main) studio!!! I'm lucky/excited because the owner had come in to teach class that morning (it was a Monday, one of my usual 6:15am shifts) and at the end of class she came out and asked me if I wanted to teach. She preceded it with, "there's something I want to talk to you about, " and in my Lululemon days, that was never a good thing. I was a sitting ball of nerves for those next 45 minutes- I made sure to do my job *really well* that morning  She opened the conversation with "I've heard from multiple sources now that you want to teach," and then we discussed if I planned on staying local, moving out to LA, moving to Australia or planned to leave in general within the next year or so, and I reassured her I wanted to stay local. She listed a few teachers who she would be okay with training me, and I was excited when she named the family friend. (That friend and I have gotten close through bar method and she's said she'd train me if/when the time came) and naturally, that friend was the first person I texted about the news.  I also told my class and they spontaneously applauded for me! 8 year-olds are so sweet.  November was a blur, I was likely memorizing the warmup scripts madly and trying to commit them to memory. December was much of the same, and I went to Texas to see Child and Baby. One of the Zoom bar teachers from weho captured an adorable shot of me holding Baby while Child and I are doing a Bar move. I started formal training in January, went through the intensive corporate training shortly after my birthday in March, and then started teaching practice classes. In Mid-December, the physical studio space for bar weho burned down. It was on top of a restaurant and someone left a stove on overnight so everything went up in flames. I started committing more to my aerial practice since the two studios were right down the street from each other and I leveled up to beginner-intermediate (in my own rankings). I attended/participated in a sequencing workshop for aerial in April where I learned how to better connect my moves and tricks together. But on the last week of the workshop, I fell out of a pose and dislocated my shoulder.  Don't read this if you're prone to heebie jeebies . I now have relatively tight outer right triceps. If anyone is in PT or knows how long this is supposed to last, please enlighten me. I'm tired of it catching and feeling tight!A few weeks later Weho cut me from the zoom demo team. I was devastated, because of the suddenness of it. I missed a Sunday night email from the owner about no longer needing me, and on Monday I was unable to sign up for any more classes because they took my employee pass off. For a while I thought that it had expired, because that happened to me with my other studio, but when a friend helped me reinstate my pass, she got in trouble for doing it! Oops. That was when I saw the email, essentially thanking me for my work and bidding me good luck and goodbye . However, I've come out of the experience with some solid friendships with a few Weho teachers, and I'm extremely grateful to them. One of them, we were close acquaintances, but this experience solidified our friendship and we ended up talking on the phone for 3 hours that night, supporting each other and catching up. (Imagine that, ME, Talking, On A Phone, for 3 hours nonetheless at midnight on a Monday!) We've had many midnight calls since, talking about everything, and truly, it's so NICE to have IRL friends to talk with on a phone even if it's for 3 hours and at midnight. She's also very all-things-Hollywood,and was most recently in JungKook's music video for "Seven" (linked below  )I wrapped up my long-term subbing in March, a week before spring break. (Who comes back to teach 2 months before the school year ends anyways? I have thoughts on that!) After that, I subbed around. A Bar friend referred me to her principal for a middle school math position. He lik e what I had to offer, and her recommendation, but I don't have the right credential/certificate for the position so the district won't let me have the position. I took 6 units of math this summer and am signed up for another 14 in the fall. Fun times. Thankfully the 3-hour phone call friend LIKES math so we'll be doing a lot of it together this fall/she'll be helping me out if I'm struggling with concepts. She teaches on Tuesday nights so it's going to be our math night when I go take her class and then we math afterwards.  I've accepted that my Napa trip last year for the Bottlerock festival is likely going to be an annual thing. But It's Going To Be MY annual thing, as in I will not be taking friends along. I did that this year and they weren't a great travel partner. I got to see Jax, Lizzo, and Carly Rae Jepsen this year. Other concerts coming up: Delta in September, Pink in October, a country festival also in September. Delta fans are starting to mwk3 friendship bracelets to trade with each other, like Taylor Swift fans do/did, so I'll be jumping on that bandwagon too. I scored last minute, day-before tickets to Taylor Swift's opening night! Due to the last minute nature, I didn't make bracelets to trade but someone was still nice enough to give me one for "Enchanted" in the merch lines. I've started making some to sell for the 2nd leg of the US tour and I've learned my lesson here where I'm definitely making some for the Delta tour to trade! Annnnd I think my biggest news would be, I am OFFICIALLY a Bar Method teacher as of late May, right before I left for my Napa and the ensuing Australia trip. I found out the day before I left for Napa, a Friday. I returned to SoCal on Sunday, flew out to Australia for 2 weeks on Monday, and then started teaching my real classes after 2 weeks of no practice. Now I teach both the classic 60 minute format and the express, 45 minute format. My favorite is the express because I get to mix it up and kick butts! I taught one tonight and by the end everyone was red-faced and dying. That's how I know I did my job well.  I've grown so much (internally and somewhat externally) this year and I'm excited to see what happens next!  byeee [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
At this point you'll probably just be getting annual updates from me when I come back to assist with "October Novel Prep Challenge"  General highlights: I went to Australia and Napa Valley and met Delta Goodrem both times I made some good friends in Australia and can now say I have REAL Aussie friends.  Lots of concerts, I'm seeing Kelsea Ballerini next week at the Greek Theatre. School/Work: Finished student teaching, I started subbing around and working at a boba shop. Boba didn't last long because I quit over the summer from bad management decisions.  I'm finding that I learn more about myself with each job that I take on, though, so I am still glad for the experience. Started WORKING at Bar Method! My local studio where I started. I'm a front desk Dragon and take all the early morning (6:00) shifts  Got Covid in June. Felt totally fine, mild fever the first day, lost my smell a couple times and regained it with the orange peel hack. It lasted 10 days and I was miserable for being stuck at home, but not for being sick.  Got invited to work with Bar WeHo (W Hollywood) as a Zoom demonstrator! Now I get free classes across the board. Got certified as an aerial hammock instructor through the new Weho studio I found. Hurt my wrist back in March and this really agitated it so I haven't been back since.  Plus, school started and tutoring picked up so I have 15-16 hour days.Was invited for an interview as a long-term sub early this month. Interview was on a Tuesday, principal said they'd contact us on Friday (private interview, 5 candidates total including me) and they called me that afternoon because they loved me.  Now I'm a long-term sub for 3rd grade! And I'm writing this while the kids are at PE, and they come back in about 15 minutes, so I'm wrapping it up here. Biggest life update: I have another Child! Well, now Child is Child and second Child is Baby. |
| It's been a solid year-and-halfish since I've been on here. I decided to take the time and reprioritize the important things in my life. Unfortunately (Fortunately?), being online has pretty much taken a back burner. I've made a bunch of real, in-person friends through work and working out, and moving on to a new chapter in my life. I am close friends with multiple fitness instructors from various studios I attend classes, and student teaching in the local district that the kids of one of my instructor friends attends. I left the job I was so excited to have gotten 2 years ago- working as an "educator" (store associate) at the lululemon store in our local mall. I went from excited to scared, to loving it, to hating it. In summary, I underperformed my first 6 months, due to people anxiety and shyness, then Covid hit and because virtual work was essentially "homework"/"online school" but for work, I aced it and quickly became one of the top employees at the store. We shut down for about 3-4 months and then reopened with limited capacity in August/September, and through the holiday season. I rocked it as our "bouncer," telling people they had to wear a mask, and signing them up for our digital waitlist. As one of the more tech-savvy people in the store, this was my favorite job. Things started changing around May- the working pods we were in got dissolved and everyone was working as one team. It was a slow decline.. first I had applied for a leadership position within the store, and then got passed over, in favor of a seasonal hire who ended up staying on. It should've been a warning sign, honestly, but I kept applying to different positions and kept getting rejected. Ultimately, I applied for a full-time position, not leadership, and still got rejected. At that point, I was waiting on the results for another interview that I'd done (not surprisingly, also a no) and made up my mind that it was time to go. I worked through July and August- the 30th was my last day at the store, which made it 2 years and 1 month of employment with them. My final month, every shift was a drag, and time just seemed to never pass. As of right now, there's only 1 person still there who was around when I started- everyone else has left, and that person informed me today when I went to exchange some stuff, her last day is on the 18th. Honestly, after her departure, I'll have no reason to visit the store anymore. I also mentioned I'm student teaching in a local district- the school is about 10 minutes away and I'm in a 5th grade classroom. It's a far cry from kindergarten, which was my ideal grade, but I'm just happy I don't have to drive a half hour to get to school and then fight freeway traffic coming back. We had our first full week of school this week- lots of "extra" stuff built into their schedule, like PE twice a week (once with YMCA and once through the district), music class... supposedly it's to help give teachers planning time. My master/host teacher has been super awesome at showing me the ropes of the admin behind teaching and the various numerical codes and categories students get assigned. She's also been very welcoming of me- giving me leeway to do what I think is right in the moment. Typically, I help the kids with tech stuff- logging in to the internet, turning in an assignment, etc. I teach my first "real" lesson on Tuesday- it's Language Arts, about "state of being" verbs. We'll be diagramming sentences, and my host teacher's teacher friend (teaches 4th grade) has a song that goes to "Jingle Bells" with a list of "state of being" verbs. I'll be teaching them the song, having them diagram the sentence, and then going over it with them. I'm excited and nervous- especially since I'll be recording it for my credential and my university supervisor to grade. I still exercise multiple times a day, if I can squeeze them in at night or wake up early enough to catch it before school starts in the morning. Typically, I do barre in the early AM and aerial late at night. I've joined a second barre studio in West Hollywood (yes, it's far from me) but they do Zoom classes, so I'll get home, change into comfy workout clothes, and take a zoom class with them. It's great because with the camera on, it's like taking a regular class, but from the comfort of your own home; and nowadays, with covid happening, that's a really nice option to have! |
| I’m frustrated. And I’m writing it here because this is the only place I have where I don’t have work people on it too. One of our leaders, a White female, made a passing comment that our store had gotten feedback before about how guests wish there was more diversity in the hiring process. She agreed, but then qualified it with “but we can’t just hire someone because they speak Spanish, French, and/or Chinese- they actually have to be good workers.” That’s fair and all, but “good” is an adjective in itself, which means the threshold or requirements that make up “good” are relative at best, if not subjective and somewhat arbitrary. This company itself is headed by a White, middle-aged male. It was created (I believe) on a foundation of being a “yoga” brand. But when you truly think of it, when people think “yoga” nowadays, it’s a rich, white woman doing some pose on a mat in a studio with a hardwood floor. It’s not the spiritual practice that it started out as in ancient Hinduism. So going back to my point on “good”- who sets the definition of “good”? Right now, from what I see, it’s the White people sitting in their offices. They decide what the brand’s image should be, and what they want others to think when they hear the brand’s name. Our leadership bench at the store right now is probably about 2/3 White. We have a White person heading the diversity/inclusion aspect of the store. It’s all just very… White. Associates are somewhat expected to be the perky, bubbly “girl/guy next door” type of person towards customers. When you’re not, it’s seen as not taking initiative. *shrug* Consequently, when the company hires or looks for people to promote/who want promotions, it’s those people who fit the definition of “good”- and meet all those criteria the White people set out. And that is where we lose out on diversity. |
| [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] I feel like this song embodies my feelings about the music job. I mean, I love teaching the curriculum, it's just.... the admin stuff is so frustrating. I consulted my aunt, who's a lawyer, about the renewal contract. Long story short, I dug up the original contract, and it said we'd talk about renewal one month before the current contract ends. January is obviously not one month, unless she mistook my starting date to be in February, which it pretty obviously wasn't, if I went in for my mid-year review. And her knowing that.... well, that'd be a bit of a contradiction to say "oh I thought we started in February," if January was the mid-year review. Anyways, so my aunt asked a bunch of questions, and then concluded that if I felt strongly enough, I could probably build a case on duress, because of the (power) relationship between employer and employee, combined with the fact that I was there to discuss my past performance and future stability of the job. Granted, I really wasn't planning to renew the contract in the first place, and the $1 pay raise (from 14 to 15/hour) really doesn't make the extra work worth it. Problem here is, I do like the schools I teach in, so I would love to keep teaching in the schools if I could, though I also don't want to make the boss an enemy if I leave the company and decide to take on the schools myself.  I mean, I very much could do that with the new school, since I've only done a trial class with them- I could contact them and start teaching them myself. As long as I make sure the content is different enough to not be a music class that is the classic format of the company, I would be able to do that. The new contract also doesn't state anything about how it would work if I left the company but decided to keep teaching music classes at the schools. I'd need to find a new Hello song, sure, since that is definitely the property of the company (the boss, Calia, composed it herself), but otherwise, I'd probably be able to teach similar content, and maybe even make it more active, in the sense that they can do movements with their musical learning- like, hop a quarter note, jump an eighth note, etc. It'd be fun- and I might even try it with the kiddos at the school tomorrow, and see if that'll tire them out more and keep them stiller for storytime and the solfege. For March, I might introduce the concept of the keyboard's notes corresponding to the solfege as well- put colored stickers on the keyboard that correspond to the xylophone, and go from there. We also have solfege hand bells that I occasionally bring out, but the kids get too excited with them and start touching the inside bell part, so I have to take them back. As a quote from Taylor Swift, "This is why we can't have nice things..." because they break them! |
| [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] I absolutely love this song, as I also love Delta Goodrem. I recently re-added this to my Pandora as well- I randomly wondered if the app's streaming rights included Delta Goodrem, and they did! I was, of course, delighted. I switched from Spotify to Pandora because T-Mobile ended up giving me a free year of Pandora Premium services, so of course, I nabbed that. And then, too lazy to switch back to Spotify, I stayed with Pandora. So far, I can't complain too much. It has most of the music that I like- it's unfortunate that Kelsea Ballerini isn't covered in their services, but that's about it that I listen to, that Pandora doesn't have. Well, it's all I can think of so far that I want, and I can't have- Disney soundtracks aside. And now, I'm on a Delta Goodrem binge on Pandora, so my next couple songs may also end up being Delta Goodrem. You've been warned. I like this song because it's a departure from her sadder stuff she was writing back when this came out. It's also a single, and, I'm pretty sure, not attached to any album of hers. I love that it's different- and the melody of it is also super catchy. I feel like this is the perfect dancey song that you'd just jump around to if it came on and you were at a concert or in your room with nobody around. I definitely do the dance whenever I hear the song... and her outfit is GLAM.  I'm also pretty sure I've shared this one before, too, but eh. It's a song I love, and it's one I definitely haven't heard in a while! |
| [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] I have a mild obsession/fascination with The Voice live performances, especially when it comes to the judges' live performances. They're. so. good! And then, the CGI in this one is epic, too. These judges' performances have exposed me to new songs I otherwise wouldnt've went out to find myself. And since Mom and I play our own version of "Beat Shazam" in the car on longer drives, this definitely helps me. I've gotten this right before she can figure it out, on multiple occasions. Honestly, this song doesn't actually relate to my life much right now, I'd say... this is a very anticipatory song, and there isn't much in my life that's anticipatory right now. This performance is also quite powerful- I mean, Delta Goodrem and Kelly Rowland are two huge powerhouses, especially when you put their voices together. Both have amazing vocals, but put together, it's definitely mind-blowing. This performance was from 2019, 9 months ago, according to Youtube- and it also had Guy Sebastian- another artist whose voice I also really like. The previous year had Joe Jonas, whom I wasn't completely loving. I mean, he's good, but Guy Sebastian is good. Which reminds me of an incident after lunch today when the kids were going back to their classroom- a bunch of boys were discussing baseball, when another boy turns around and goes, "I don't play baseball. I play T-ball," in a somewhat derisive way.... guess he doesn't actually know which one is better. Or maybe he likes T-ball better because it's easier. |
| [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] I recently found out Pandora has the albums from The Next Step, so I added them all. Which was probably a mistake, because I don't actually remember a bunch of the songs.  This one, though, was pretty epic, and I'd say is one of the few dances that every time I hear the song, I can still kind of remember how the dance goes in my mind. It's also hands-down my favorite dance of the whole series, and I get chills when I watch it. I don't think I'd ever get sick of the song, and the choreography is amazing! It actually kind of makes me want to rewatch all the episodes that are available... though, practically speaking, it's not the best use of time... I've started watching Handmaid's Tale, I'm behind on SVU, and I have another episode of All Rise to watch. Hulu, unfortunately, doesn't allow downloading of episodes to watch offline, so I watch Netflix instead, and from Netflix, I recently finished Miss Americana (Taylor Swift documentary) and most of Next in Fashion. Going back to the song, it somewhat makes me want to get back into dance. I've taken up ice skating recently, and I love it- it's much cheaper than ballroom, which I'm not doing anymore (oh, yes, I used to do ballroom lessons, for like, 2 months? ). Maybe I'll get back into dance? I really don't know- I do love barre, and I love skating, and I love aerial stuffs in Australia- I still need to find a nicer, local studio to do aerial here, but I'm happy with barre and skating for now, though if I ever figure out how to balance 4 classes and 3 jobs (potentially 4, if tutoring becomes something consistent) and barre and skating all in one week.... It's alot. I never quite understood why people tell me to rest, and now that I list out all my commitments and such, I can see why. One of the barre instructors was saying that just hearing my schedule makes her tired as it is. And I kinda used to just laugh at it and joke it off, but yeah, I can see that now. I mean, my 4 classes- Math, Social Studies, Reading, and Language Arts- all have their own fieldwork and project assignments. Then, I work as Yard Duty at school, Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I do retail on Saturday and Sunday, and now some Mondays. Wednesdays, I teach music. Saturdays I skate. I barre every day- usually twice. On the bright side, though, I do sleep very well. |
| [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] You should know the chances of me doing a playlist, sans Hi-5, is pretty slim. I mostly picked this one, though, because I was scrambling to put the February music on my Google Drive for my music job, and it ended up not working. So I brought out the Hi-5 and put that on Google Drive for myself and did a bunch of Valentine's songs. Granted, "Friends Forever" isn't really Valentine's-y, but I explained it to the kiddos as, you show your love and appreciation for your friends and family. So, it works. And yes, I actually haven't really been listening to much Hi-5 recently, mostly because I haven't been in much of a mood for it. Plus, I don't have it on my Pandora- they only have Hi-5 as a radio choice, in which there's other, low-quality children's songs that tend to make people's ears bleed. And I'd like to not have to listen to that, because chances are, I'd just skip over it and get frustrated if it doesn't go back to Hi-5. The last Hi-5 I actively listened to (sought out) was their holiday stuff, back in December/late November. I would say I used 99% Hi-5 and maybe (if even) 1% other holiday music. I mean, they even have "Frosty the Snowman," "Jingle Bells," and "Rudolph", so what more do I really need in terms of Christmas carols? I chose this song because I used it for Freeze Dance with the new school I did a trial for on Wednesday, and they absolutely loved it! The teachers were grooving with the song, too. When I used "L.O.V.E," it actually didn't go over as well as this one did, so if I use a Hi-5 song, I'm using this one. This Wednesday is still February, so it'll still be Hi-5 friendship songs. I really only have 5 songs for February from Hi-5; I'm sure there's more that I could use, but I only use about 2-3 every session anyways, so 5 is fine. |
| [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] We're going to Australia soonish, like, the end of March, and I haven't been for about a year, now. Literally, the last time I went was Spring Break of last year, and the end of March is Spring Break of this year... I've chosen this song because I feel like I've changed since last year's Spring Break. I'm nervous about going back and seeing everyone again because it's been so long, and I also actually have hair this time, which Mom says there's a chance that I may have to shave it off if Grandfather deems it necessary. And, call me vain or whatever, but I really hope things won't come to that. I feel like I've finally kind of found some places I "belong" here away from uni- like barre, and the store, kinda. Thing is, both places have only known me with hair, and I'm a bit anxious about what would happen if I go in and all my hair is gone. The barre studio's clientele is a very rich one, and with money, typically comes a narrower world-view and a certain snootiness of people if they think you don't belong or you're strange. I already dislike big classes for that reason- it's intimidating to me, firstly, and secondly, there's the ladies who've been going for years and years, and yes, they're grown women, but there's still cliques, trust me. There's also a lady who sometimes attends the morning classes, whose daughter was in Sis's year, and she thinks the girl and Sis were good friends, but honestly, I've barely heard of the girl. Definitely not awkward at all, right? And she even tried to offer me half a banana before a 6 am class once. Needless to say, I politely declined, citing my stomach's sensitivity to eating and then exercising immediately afterwards. I can't really imagine what she'd say about it. And honestly, this never used to bother me when I was at school- ever. And even when I was in Australia, I got a little anxious over it after I shaved my head and went back to aerial yoga, but the instructor was super sweet about it and only commented on it once out of interest, to which I explained it was a religious thing. But in Australia, that was one instructor. Here, there's probably about 5-6 different instructors I like taking classes from, so that's explaining it 5-6 different times, and probably more, to other ladies at barre if they say something or assume it's cancer, which many people previously have. Also, there's school. Like, work-school. The kids are definitely going to say something. I mean, I'm not too fussed about what a bunch of 6 year olds say, because they say some pretty ridiculous stuff to begin with- we have a kid, who the dad says he enjoys making up stories about his life. There's always a "there was this one time when X happened to such-and-such family member," story he tells, and somehow it's related to what everyone is talking about. I commented on that in front of his dad on Friday, since the other Yard Duty and I were doing traffic and the kid was waiting in the truck with the dad, for his older brother- us adults were chatting about sports fees in high school and in general... and he said something about, "One time, I was doing X and Y happened," So I told him that he has a very exciting, eventful life. The dad said he likes to make things up, which explains alot. I mean, otherwise, how does a 6-year-old end up having such an eventful existence? Anyways, yeah, so I'm very apprehensive about my hair's future- to where I've been considering getting a bob cut, but there was someone I saw get a bob cut a few months ago, and it didn't look good on them, so I'm also kinda on the fence about that too. |
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