(#6) Tree Musketeers (February 26, 2014) – Part 1 (Choosing An Environmental Activity)

March 27, 2014

Aurora De Lucia throwing a dead tree out of the back of a Tree Musketeers truckOkay, this part is an intro not having to do with the day. Skip to the little dashed lines to go straight to Tree Musketeers talk.

I know between talking about the marathon and my new job, some volunteer activities have come and gone.

There is just too much to blog about sometimes… I still have a whole list of stories/subjects I’ve started but haven’t finished yet – e.g. Groundlings, the story of how I started/moved up in my television career (my day (and sometimes night) job), tying to give a kidney, the last few posts wrapping up 52 half marathons)… Eesh! Sorry.

So, let’s start catching up on these volunteer activities, and then we’ll work our way back around to the other stuff.

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Aurora De Lucia stomping a shovel into the ground while helping excavate with Tree MuskateersSo, Tree Musketeers!

I’ll confess, part of the reason I worked with Tree Musketeers is because they have such a freaking awesome name. I mean, really. Bravo, people who named it that.

Another reason I decided to volunteer with Tree Musketeers is because I wanted to push myself a little. I believe in taking care of our environment. I think I should learn more about and maybe be a little more respectful of nature.

But, I am not a super outdoorsy person. I have my moments and all, but if it were up to me, I’d basically always be inside… (unless I’m walking around in Boston or New York City, because I’m surrounded by buildings and it’s gorgeous, and the air feels wonderful).

So, I thought, “Okay, Aurora. If you think the environment is an important cause, you better do at least one environmental thing” – which led me to this.

The confirmation email I got said if you have any questions, feel free to ask. so I totally wrote ahead of time to ask about the dog situation – if anyone would be around. (My strong dislike/fear of animals is the main reason I pretty much stay away from nature.)

Aurora De Lucia working on shoveling out a dead tree while working with Tree MusketeersThe person in the office wrote back that no one brings their dogs. Little did she know that when I got there, someone in the neighborhood across the street would be walking her (really terrifying) dog without a leash!

Honestly, dog people in California, what’s with you? I know you don’t all do it… But it truly is a ridiculous number of people who do and who have absolutely no regard for safety. And this is why I don’t like to go outside! (Well, that and the harsh, harsh sun.)

Thankfully, though we were safe from the dog waiting in the official Tree Musketeers pick-up truck. So, thank goodness for that.

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

 

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 11 (The Finish)

March 20, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

In the last mile, I thought, “it’s time to let it all go.” So, I listened to “Let It Go” (from Frozen (and written by my favorite musical theater writer), and I felt empowered!

I haven’t seen the movie yet. (I know, I’m the worst.) So, the song means basically whatever I want it to mean right now. And I walked faster, stood straighter, and felt amazing as I thought about letting it all go.

As I got closer to the finish line, I started jogging again. Sure, I was tired, hot, and in need of some electrolytes. But I didn’t want to walk anywhere near that line. So, I jogged it out to the finish, leaving any problems or anything else on the course.

I did not get anywhere even close to that 6:30 I was kind of aiming for – but here’s the thing. I wanted a 6:30 so they wouldn’t close the course on me. And they didn’t close the course on me. So, what did I care? All I really wanted was to beat my previous marathon time…

I mean, I would’ve preferred to totally obliterate it, but just beating it is fine enough. I finished in 6:49:57 – a 13:51 improvement over my 7:03:48 in Disney World. So, yay me? Maybe. A little bit. Eh, it was an improvement, not a full out win. But, I’ll take it. (What other choice do I have, right?)

My dad was there and greeted me as I was in line for a massage. (Is there anything better than having your dad at the finish line?)

After the race, we went out to P.F. Chang’s with one of my dad’s friends who’s known me since I was just a tiny little adorable baby (’cause we lived out here back then).

I’d say overall it was a great day. And I look forward to the next marathon!

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 10 (Some Cool Pick-Me-Ups & A Struggle To The Last Mile)

March 18, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

Hot, hot, hot. Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.

At mile 22, I wanted to cry because people had cupcakes and they seemed like basically the most amazing things in the world at that point.

I stopped by the table and thanked them profusely. They said they do it every year, and earlier that day they practically had a smorgasbord with pizza and more… but everything but the cupcakes had been eaten.

I asked, “Who are you? What group are you with?”

They said they weren’t with any group – that I could just think of them as the “mile 22 givers.”

I adore them.

Speaking of things that were cool, there were these digital boards where your friends and family could leave messages for you. All the boards were set by timing mats. That way, the board would know when someone had crossed the mat and that person’s family’s message would show up.

How amazing and super cool is that?! I didn’t spread that link around and beg everyone I know to send me some love… but seeing how cool it looked to see friends making videos for their runners… I am all about doing that if I ever do this race again!

(And I am all about putting that in if I ever plan a race, because that is freaking awesome.)

At some point within the 2nd half, I realized most likely a 6:30 is not happening. I’d only picked 6:30 as my goal because there were warnings from the L.A. Marathon that if you ran slower than that, they’d start taking the course down around you.

You could still finish – as the finish line was open for 8 hours – but you wouldn’t have any support. (Of course, this seemed less threatening since there wasn’t any Gatorade for the whole race anyway… :-P)

But still, I get lost everywhere I go. And I did not want to be roaming Los Angeles trying to find the finish without the help of the official course.

But thankfully, the course never got taken down around me. And I still did get a personal record – just not as big of one as I wanted.

In the beginning of this story, I talked about how any anger or frustration I had was being used to push through that first half. And while I think it’s so awesome to use running as an outlet for that, I don’t want any grudges or anything taking up my normal brain space on a day-to-day basis. So, I knew that I had to get all of that completely off of me before the end of the race.

This is where I’ll pick up in two days (after a TPiR anniversary post tomorrow).

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 9 (Struggling Through The Second Half)

March 17, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

Once I got to mile 14, though, I realized, “Wait a second! I’m tired. Oh so tired. And hot. Oh my goodness. I still have 12 miles.”

I took a necessary short breather, stretching a bit on the side of the road. I was hoping to run a 6:30 marathon, and I knew a 3:30 half wasn’t hard. So, I was going to just try to walk that out. But I knew I didn’t want to waste too many minutes stretching.

After about 4, I got back on the course… and continued struggling through the next mile.

It was rough.

At mile 15, I saw a Starbucks with a grocery store inside. Tons of people were running in to use the bathroom, or pick up things. I was really wishing I’d brought a few dollars so I could buy a Gatorade. But alas, I hadn’t.

However, I did go up to the Starbucks and say, “may I please have the biggest glass of ice water you’ll give me?” In true awesome customer-service-centered Starbucks fashion, they gave me a Venti.

I must not have looked all the great. The barista asked, “Are you okay? Are you gonna finish?”

Well, obviously I’m gonna finish. Let’s not get silly here – which was basically what I told him with a smile. It’s just really hot. I thanks him oh so much for the water, and got back out there.

I continued walking, but I was just walking too slowly. If I kept sauntering along at 19, 20 minute miles, I was never join to finish!

At some point, I put on some musical theater and just started basically acting my way through the race.

As the crowd was thinning out, it wasn’t so such an obtrusive thing to make a few small hand gestures here and there in front of my body. And if I just put my facial expressions on, and had great forward-moving songs, my legs would just take me.

I probably looked like a crazy person. But I didn’t care. As long as I wasn’t in anyone’s way, I just wanted Idina Menzel’s characters to keep me moving forward.

I saw so many exhausted people stopping off to the sides to stretch or sit for a bit (which I will admit I did a second time). The sun was tough, and without Gatorade, it was an even bigger struggle!

But we were all making it. And the people cheering along the course were certainly helpful in getting that morale up – even if they did just see me mainly singing to myself instead of really giving them high-5s or anything (sorry, I still appreciated you).

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 8 (Accomplishing My Fastest Half Ever)

March 16, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, off cranky topics and back to basically chronological storytelling –

At the Mile 7 marker, I realized I would probably hit my precious 3 hours. Though, I started running out of steam right after hitting 7. (I know I said we were away from cranky topics, but that’s about when I was really starting to want some Gatorade.)

Mile 8 felt slow. It was filled with Shot Blok eating, tons of water drinking, and feeling generally slushy and hot.

But, once I hit mile marker 8, it was back to the races.

Jump forward to mile marker 13 in my sights. I still had something like 20 minutes when I could see it far in the distance, but just being able to see it made me confident I’d hit it in the time I’d allotted myself.

Sure enough, I crossed mile 13 at 2:53! I felt incredible. It was practically impossible that I wouldn’t hit that .1 in the next 7 minutes.

My fastest unofficial half ever was just a training run before my first half in 2009. I did it in 2:58. So, I figured I’d even beat that!

I started jogging, looking for that last point 1. I even passed up the water station without stopping. I thought there was a halfway timing mat (though I was incorrect). Once I didn’t see it, as minutes of jogging went by, I started practically sprinting.

Once I was around 2:59, somehow sense was knocked into me, and I realized there was no way I hadn’t made it to 13.1. I turned around and mile marker 13 was nowhere to be seen. Being that it was out of eyesight, I was definitely more than .1 miles away.

So, since there was no official 13.1 on the course, I can’t say my exact time, but based on smart guessing, I’m pretty sure I was under 2:55 (especially because after the New Year’s Race debacle, I made absolutely sure to start my timing app before I crossed the start line.

So, successful 1st half. Yay!

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 7 (When Everything Made Aurora Cranky – Part 2 (Dogs And Spectators))

March 15, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

And more things that I’m annoyed with… So, there was this man I saw a couple of times on the course (once I got slower and wasn’t in a sea that was quite so packed as before) who was walking his Dalmatian!

The guy didn’t have a race bib or anything. He just seemed to be some dude wandering around walking his dog.

Guess what, dog dude? A marathon is not the place to take your dog out for a stroll. I don’t even need to elaborate on that, because that sentence makes so much sense.

And, the guy took things from our aid stations! I saw him try to figure out what Gu was and try some… If non-runners are taking things from aid stations, this could be one of the reasons we don’t have any Gatorade!

Finally, as if I haven’t called out everyone already…

Spectators, I love you. I really love you. It means the world to me that you take time out of your day to fight closed streets, traffic, and all that jazz – and you make these sweet, wonderful signs supporting us.

So, I’m sorry to call you out, but when the sun starts shining brighter and brighter and parts of the field are getting slower and more thinned out… I understand that you want to be close enough to be able to give us high-5s and all that fun stuff.

And when the field isn’t as packed, it’s easy to start to sneak in closer and closer to us on the road so you can reach us and such…

However, when you come in too deep to the road, to the point where you’re sort of at the edge of the shade – do you realize that that takes away our shaded area?

We don’t have room to be in the precious, precious shade that we oh so desperately need, because you are there. And when there’s a big enough line of enough of you, you’re almost like a makeshift barricade. So it’s hard to run around you and basically we get pushed into the sun.

I love you. I’m just saying, share the shade if you can, please.

I’ll pick up with less cranky things tomorrow.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 6 (When Everything Made Aurora Cranky – Part 1 (Gatorade, Runners, & Even Volunteers))

March 14, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

I definitely felt cranky in the middle of the race. So, let’s just get that all out now.

There was supposed to be Gatorade starting at mile 3 and at every odd mile marker thereafter. I never saw Gatorade – not once.

At mile 3, I thought, “Well, I must’ve just read things wrong. Maybe it doesn’t start ’til 5.” At mile 5, I thought, “Uh, seriously, what is going on here?” And at mile 7, I thought, “What sort of cruel joke is this?!”

(I mean, come on, LA Marathon, prevent hyponatremia, much?

Never in the entire race did I get Gatorade, which made me very sad. Around halfway through, I tweeted, “I would have your baby for some Gatorade. #LAMarathon.” Only one person favorited it. (Thanks, Janine!) I sort of thought it might be worth a few more favorites , but you win some, you lose some.

The incredible lack of Gatorade is why those Clif Shot Bloks saved me! So, again thank goodness Clif was at the expo. Huge hugs to you, Clif company.

Speaking of the water stops, I sometimes get a little annoyed with the runners. And I think the only solution is for me to just get faster so I can be in the area where people care more and are more aware. Because I saw so many runners just leisurely walk along the water tables.

But psst, runners, when you do that, you’re not really leaving room for other people to get in and out. My understanding is when you approach a water stop, stay center-ish – not dead center, ’cause that’s for fast people bypassing the stop altogether with no slow-down. But stay center enough that there’s plenty of room by the people giving out water. Swerve in, grab your cup, and swerve out! That’s the important part – the out-swerve, so then more people have space and can also get their drinks.

Also, this was the first race where at two of my stops, I ended up getting water from volunteers not really paying attention. I greatly appreciate that they’re out there in the sun, getting up so early on a weekend and not getting paid. Totally understand all of that and am very grateful for it.

But, maybe, if you’re going a little nuts, perhaps just take a break? Because twice, I was about to grab a cup from someone who just started basically swinging his (and her) body around exaggeratedly. One seemed to do it because he was bored. One seemed like she saw a baby and was interested in looking at it.

Both times, I took a step back to get toward their swinging hand – and almost caused a collision.

Oh man, I’ve written enough words for the day, but believe it or not – there’s still more to be cranky about! Let’s get to it tomorrow.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 5 (Having A Grand Ol’ Time)

March 13, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I picked up any stress I had from my life. I’m starting a new job soon, and I had to pick between two job offers. And it’s always impossible to know if you picked the “right” one. And just you know, blah blah, whatever, any random life stress. I piled it all on at the start line so I could run it all off of me.

And, boy did I ever.

Usually, in races I like to take in the atmosphere and just enjoy myself, but I wasn’t in that space today. And that’s a-okay with me. I popped on those headphone, cranked up Alanis, CeeLo, and my other various run-it-out musicians on that playlist. And I ran it all out!

In the first few miles, every time I thought about walking a single step, I thought to myself, “This is your only time to be angry. Any anger or frustration you have with anybody including yourself – you gotta get it out right now.” And then I wouldn’t walk. Because I needed to run.

I was dying to finally reach that sub 3-hour half. As I started to get closer and closer to the mile 7 mile marker, I saw that I might make it to mile-7 in sub-1:30. I figured if I could do that, I’d be pretty golden.

Sure, enough, I crossed under the mile 7 arch at 1:29:10. This sub-3 is mine!

I did try to tell myself, “Don’t be too terribly focused on the half, because you’re in a full marathon.” But then I kept thinking, “Get your half, girl!” And “that sun is going to be so killer as the day wears on. So get all the running done you can right now.”

As we ran through Hollywood, first, I was shocked at how it felt so much closer to downtown than it ever had before. “How is it before noon and I’ve already run from farther than my house to an area where I hang a lot, and I’m not even really all that tired yet?”

“I should do this run all the time!” (In the moment that made so much sense, but seems ridiculous now and will almost certainly never happen again outside of the LA Marathon.)

One thing I loved was the message from Book of Mormon, which is playing at the Pantages. As we ran by the theater, they’re scrolling marquee said, “Marathoners, you’re doing something incredible!”

“Something incredible” is repeated in a song from that musical. I smiled so big! (That cast recording is actually a total work out jam of mine, and was very helpful through the race.)

So, everything is sunshine and roses. I’m running out toxins (figuratively and literally), I’m on track for my sub-3 half, one of my favorite musicals is in marathoning spirit.

And tomorrow, I’ll talk about the crankypants parts.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 4 (My Strategy)

March 12, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

My strategy – which you can (of course) feel free to ridicule and/or disagree with as much as you’d like, though I stand by it – was to basically obliterate* the first half while the heat was under control… and to finally put this disappointment behind me. (Right?!)

*By obliterate, again, I mean by my standards… which amount to a walk in the park for most runners.

(Spoiler alert: I finally did a sub-2:58 half marathon! (More on that later.))

So, how would I accomplish this sub-2:58, you ask? This is going to sound like a little tangent, but stay with me (if you want).

Over the past year, I like to think I’ve generally become a better person. There are two pieces of wisdom I’ve heard that really stuck with me, and I try to incorporate all of the time. Those things are:

1) “When angry, be kind. When sad, be kind. When frustrated or criticized, be kind. Whenever possible, be kind. And it is always possible.” (Cory Booker does various versions of that idea on his twitter. So, that’s the pieced together version that I think covers it.

2) When asked how he stays happy all the time, Drew Carey responded, “constant forgiveness for me and everyone I meet.” And I really try to live by that one, because it’s fantastic advice. I think it’s implied, but one of the most important parts about it to me is to give forgiveness without the other person ever even having to ask for it.

Now, it’s possible I’ve had some minor annoyances in my life the past couple of weeks. I don’t want to get into everything here, because the details are unimportant. But, hypothetically, if I’d been feeling a little forgotten by a close friend of mine, and possibly slightly annoyed that he didn’t wish me luck in the marathon, knowing it was really important to me, I might want to run that out!

In real life, I would reflect about how he’s been so unbelievably amazing to me, remembering all the things about my life, and the only reason I’m so surprised I didn’t hear good wishes is because I’ve been so spoiled by his kindness.

And I’d think about the fact that he is really busy with a big new project of his that had a huge day that coincided with the marathon. So, he was kind of completely buried by that and probably a little dead to the whole world.

But! That’s real life. That’s understanding, happy, content Aurora. And while I think that’s healthy and lovely and I like living that way, kicking-butt-and-taking-names marathoner Aurora is allowed to dwell a little, be angry, run stuff out – do whatever she wants basically.

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 3 (Going To The Start Line)

March 11, 2014

Uncle Fester at the LA Marathon
(saw this guy at the starting line)

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I’d prepped like a boss. Now it’s time to do this thing! I got up with plenty of time to spare, methodically got ready, and headed for the shuttle.

Even with prepping everything beforehand, and leaving myself plenty of time, I still get that nagging feeling… “Do I have absolutely everything I need for this run (and that I need to successfully get there and back home)?”

I did.

But it’s nerve-wracking going out on the course, you know? You could have a really miserable race if you forget the wrong thing. I’ve even forgotten my hat(!) before. So, I know. You can forget things that you’d think you never would. (And then the race is oh so rough.)

Let’s pause here for a humongous round of applause for Clif products, though. Without them at the expo, I would not have had everything I ended up desperately needing. It’s been over a year since my last marathon. It just kind of slipped my mind that I love to have Clif Shot Blocks with me for any race longer than a half marathon.

Thankfully, Clif was at the expo. I’ve been to expos before where the company said they weren’t selling any product – just sampling, but at this one they were selling, baby! I bought those Shot Bloks, and they totally saved me. (But more on that soon enough.)

So, I catch the shuttle to the start, sitting next to this lovely man doing his first big city marathon. (He’d done one very small marathon before.) His excitement was exciting.

But let’s get real, I was excited too! While I have done a very large marathon before (at Disney) this was actually my first big city marathon!

I got in the open corral at the back (because I’m nice and slow). Some interesting people were around  – Uncle Fester included.

As we all waited for the race to begin, the sun slowly started coming up. I gotta say, I know I hate getting up early and all, but let’s maybe just start every marathon from here on out at around 4:30am, sound good?

It was a bit disheartening to see the sun come up before we even took our first steps onto the course. It had been established it was most likely going to be a hot day. (It is L.A. after all.) I wanted to keep that heat at bay for as long as possible. Oh well, at least we got that precious extra hour of darkness. Thank you, Daylight Saving Time!

Also, since I was so wildly prepared, I not only had sunscreen applied – I had little packets of sunscreen in my pockets! Yeah, babe! (Spoiler alert: This will not save me later.)

This is where we’ll pick up tomorrow.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 2 (Prepping Like A Boss)

March 10, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

Cue up the Rocky Theme Song (“Gonna Fly Now”), because I was a total champ in the prep work for this race.

Knowing that I already had to wake up really early in the morning to get the shuttle to Dodger Stadium, and that on top of that Daylight Saving Time began on the day of the race, I acted like sleeping was my job leading up to race day.

Thankfully, my actual job that pays the bills didn’t start until the day after the race. So, I had all the time in the world to go to bed at 5pm each day if my heart so desired. On race morning, I even got up naturally 10 minutes before my alarm. It was lovely!

I hydrated like a boss. I upped my calories an appropriate amount. I had cut-off times for the day before the race of when I would slow it down on that water (so as to not have to pee while on the course), and to stop eating (so I wouldn’t have an upset stomach or be too full to run it out, baby).

I will say probably the one sort of mistake I made was that I’ve been avoiding Luna protein bars for a couple months because they have so very much sugar in them. However, I was out of my new favorite protein bars (which they don’t sell at any stores close to me).

And I did always feel properly fueled with the Luna bars. And honestly, I was a little afraid to change anything I’d done before other races (which was silly I had stopped using them in training). So, I ate the last 4 I had lying around in the two days before the race.

4 in two days was too many. I could kind of feel the sugar, and my face broke out like crazy. Eesh. But this was nothing that I think ultimately truly affected my run in any way (unless the pimples show up in the photos…)

I also got my packet on Friday instead of Saturday. Even though the wait at the convention center seemed long – and Friday felt like an eternity (since I basically had nothing to do) – I still stand by that glorious decision because I had no worries on Saturday, and got to just stay off my feet.

So, all the work was in place… For the most part. I’ll admit I trained more for speed* in the first half than truly training for the distance, but I trained enough that I knew I could handle the 26.2 – even if not evenly.

*By speed, I mean speed for me – not actual speed in real life, because I’m still totally slow.

And I’ll pick up with race morning tomorrow.

Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 1 (Only Read This Chapter If You Want To Hear All About My Outfit)

March 9, 2014

Going to bed the night before the LA Marathon, I had this vision in my head that when I woke up, things were going to be the same way they’d been for the Goofy Challenge – that even though I knew exactly what I was going to wear, I’d change my mind 400 times that morning, changing outfits and shoes over and over.

However, when I woke up, I got dressed with purpose and didn’t change once. I guess this is what happens when you become a big time race veteran, which obviously I am now – being on my 2nd road half marathon and all. (Hardy, hardy, har.)

I will say though, that my choice of outfit did change throughout the week. Originally, I wanted to go with some of my most comfortable clothing – the new maternity pants, and probably my Indy 500 half marathon shirt – or possibly any tech shirt with my Cory Booker t-shirt on overtop of it.

But as the day got closer, and it became very clear we were going to have a hot race, I just thought, “forget it!” In half marathons I want to be cute. (I always want to be cute.) But full marathons are no joke, my friend! Just as I gave up cuteness for comfort in Orlando, I would do it here. While we all can agree I’m obviously super vain, I’m not vain enough to sacrifice my best chance at a successful marathon.

(Though, I cannot ever envision a race in which I wear shorts or don’t wear long sleeves. I mean, come on. Sure, I’ll sacrifice some cuteness, but I’m not gonna go nuts and let me legs just hang out there all race long. That’d be preposterous.)

So, ultimately, I chose pants that were a little less thick (and actually fit a little bit nicer – actually staying on me without needing to be pulled up occasionally during a run. And I chose a shirt that really doesn’t fit me all that super well. It sort of makes me look fat.

But the material is so thin! SO thin. It is probably the absolute lightest and most breathable shirt I have! It was really the only one that made sense to wear in super hot weather. And, it even has a zipper pocket! I don’t like to carry a lot while racing, but that was an extremely convenient place to store some Clif Shot Blocks.

I just decided to hope that once I put the bib on, that’d cover up that the shirt fits me sort of weird, and it’d distract everyone from noticing I look sort of fat in it.

And I think that actually worked out sort of okay.

Quite honestly, because of the incredible comfort and convenience of that outfit, that might be my official marathoning outfit for a while… until I hopefully shrink out of it at some point.

I’ll continue with the marathon tomorrow.

LA Marathon Expo

March 8, 2014

It’s happening, y’all!

The lead up to this marathon has been… I don’t think stressful is the right word, because I think stress is way more intense than just some marathon training. True stress is reserved for creative stuff and career stuff, I think.

And I wouldn’t necessarily say it was frightening either, because that’s reserved more, again, for career stuff, also probably image stuff (like when I have to get Botox someday, that’ll be scary)… or maybe for episodes of criminal minds.

But, think the vein of those emotions (just less so, of course). Because I want to shave 1/2 an hour off my old marathon time.

Granted, I’m really slow. Any real runners out there are cracking up at the idea of having to work hard just to get a 6:30. But for me, I’ve been working really hard to make it happen!

So, I’ve been living in this world of prep – tapering down my training, figuring out the best times to try to eat certain things, all that jazz. Because I’ve been living in this world of “you’ve gotta go to sleep at 6pm every night this week!” and practically all my thoughts being consumed by the marathon, I forgot about the fun that running events bring.

And the expo was fun.

Well, first I had to wait almost an hour to get in, because the line was absolute insanity… And we had to wait outdoors because of how long the line was. And we all know how much I hate the sun. But, it was all fine. I’ve waited for things before. I feel like I have patience. Plus, I got to be really melodramatic on twitter and instagram. So, that was fun.

I can tell I haven’t been as up on the California running community lately because there are two – that’s right two races I didn’t even know existed!One is the Ventura Marathon, and one is Folsom Blues Breakout race.

The Ventura one had awesome looking shirts, really cool medals, nice people running the booth. I was practically ready to sign up right there! But how could I know what I’ll be doing in September? Come on.

I also met Marie at her booth touting the Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon… I do fantasize sometimes about doing a marathon around Kilimanjaro, but when I’ve looked it up dreamily at night, there are so many! How am I supposed to know which one’s the best?!

(I don’t plan on doing it anytime soon though. I don’t even have my passport!) So, I have time to weigh pros and cons first.

There was also a Dunkin’ Donuts booth, which flabbergasted me. I thought we didn’t even have Dunkin’ Donuts! I wondered if I were back in Boston for a moment. And, they gave out rocking bags. Bravo, Dunkin’ Donuts.

There was also a really sweet Arrowhead Water display where you could take things off the wall. (And the company even started following me on instagram, so obviously, we’re best friends forever now.

At one booth, I met this poor guy who’s lived in LA for 13 years. He came from New York. He hates every single thing about LA. It was weird talking to the decade-in-the-future version of myself. 😛

And that sums up the expo! The excitement was there. I’m ready… Is it time to do this thing yet?!

(#5) Western Justice Center’s Peer Mediation Invitational (February 25, 2014) – Part 5 (Feedback Talks & Tour Of Courthouse)

March 6, 2014

Aurora De Lucia posing as a judge at the courthouse
Judge Aurora De Lucia will see you now

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I had a fun leading a little focus group of the high schoolers. You could tell they were tired after a long day and that lunch. I threatened that I was going to make them do more improv warm-ups such as that one where they had to stand up, be silly, and pretend to mush and eat bananas (that had been done earlier in the day).

It took a little effort to get the energy of the group up. (I did not ask them to do any theater warm-ups of any type.) But, I found that two things helped. 1) When I called people out by name, and looked them in the eye, specifically asking of her or his engagement, people obviously responded more because they can’t fade into the crowd.

(Of course, I called on every high schooler in my group at least once so no one felt left out.)

Another thing that helped was when I sort of riffed a little on the questions. I kept it all right in the vein of what was being asked. But for instance, if the question on the paper (that I then asked) was “what do other social media networks do that keep you coming back”… and then no one said anything, I’d say something like, “Let’s start with instagram. What makes you need to open instagram on your phone?” And then we went from there and covered other social media networks. So, specifics helped a bit.

After that talk was over, everyone who’d led a mini-focus group went into the hall so we could all talk about the ideas (and complaints and such) we’d just heard (which the high schoolers got certificates for their participation in the day).

And that was the end of our day. But then, they let us stick around for a tour of the courthouse, which was really cool.

The extremely nice Judge Paez took us all around, talking about our legal system, the history of the building, his career (and becoming a federal judge appointed by President Clinton), and everything in between.

When we were in the biggest courtroom, I thought about how fun it would be to go sit on the judge’s bench (there were 11 spots behind the bench in that courtroom). But I didn’t say anything, because I don’t want to be the crazy person disrupting a tour flow and asking to play pretend…

But! As if he could read our minds, he said we should all go sit up there. The 3 adult chaperones did not go up, but I was all about it! (By that point, everyone but 10 high schoolers had left, so there was a place for me!)

After the tour, the women of the Western Justice Center were very inviting and we hung out and talked at a table for a bit. The conversation went to pets and of course I have nothing at all to add to that due to my fear of basically practically every animal on our planet.

But nonetheless, it was a fun and riveting day. And I’m glad so many high schoolers were interested in learning techniques to bring about peaceful conflict resolutions.

(#5) Western Justice Center’s Peer Mediation Invitational (February 25, 2014) – Part 4 (Talking About A New Social Media Network)

March 5, 2014

Aurora laughing with high schoolers sitting around a table at the Western Justice Center's Peer Mediation invitationalPicking up from yesterday –

Basically our only job during mock mediations was to warn the mediators when they had 30 minutes left and 5 minutes left. As someone who’s stage managed before, I felt right at home giving the 30 minute call.

When it was time to go to lunch, I was ready to say, “places!” (But I didn’t.)

We walked back over (just a couple of doors down) from the courthouse to the Western Justice Center and had some food from El Cholo. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Judge Judy (no, not the one from TV).

She’d done a fellowship at the Supreme Court. She was the judge on a case in which Elizabeth Warren testified in front of her. We talked about Hilary Clinton, Cory Booker, and more. At the beginning of the day, I’d felt a little uncool because I was surrounded by all these awesome lawyers. And who am I? Not a lawyer – that’s who.

But, I felt so comfortable with Judge Judy. Perhaps this was just because she was interesting and brilliant. So, I could get by with a lot of listening and without having to know too much (lol). But I knew enough to keep conversation going (I think, at least). It was definitely fun (for me). She has such a positive attitude, I assume everything is fun for her.

Also, around the middle of the day, one of the volunteers got her email that she was accepted into law school! So, that’s a random aside, I know. But, it was so nice to see someone experience such surprised and pure joy!

After lunch, we all took a short walk back over to the courthouse, and the high schoolers watched a presentation on a new social media network. I won’t give anything away about it in case it’s secret. But it was related to what they’d been studying (in case any of you are thinking, “uh, what? Did the day just take a weird turn?”)

After the presentation, we got to break into groups and talk with the kids about their thoughts on this social media network vs. other ones. And oh my goodness, I could talk about social media all day long (as I’m sure you know)!

Musicals, television shows (sitcoms, dramas, & game shows), politics, and social media – I would talk about all these things forever with you if you wanted.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(#5) Western Justice Center’s Peer Mediation Invitational (February 25, 2014) – Part 3 (Learning About Mock Mediations)

March 4, 2014

Aurora talking to high schoolers sitting around a table at the Western Justice Center's Peer Mediation invitational
talking with a group of students

Picking up from yesterday –

I actually learned a lot about the rules for successful mediations, that I had no clue about before. Perhaps some of these could come in handy in day-to-day life.

Prescriptive words (such as “should”) shouldn’t be used. The process is all about asking questions – “What do you think would’ve made this situation better?” “What do you want to be able to move forward?” etc. – as opposed to, “You should have done [insert thing] to resolve the situation.

Also, if you declare something like “it seems like a misunderstanding,” that may be minimizing the problem for someone, making them feel unheard – even if you’re saying it to try to defuse the situation.

Also, the mediator teaching the high schoolers said not to use any blaming language during the talks or while writing out the agreement.

I could see how those were all good rules to try to get people to cooperate with the process.

Another thing I found interesting was the answer to the question, “Do I have to be here?” (if one of the parties being mediated asked).

You’re never supposed to make someone feel forced to do something… You just tell them their options. For example, “No, you don’t have to be here. You can be here, or you can go to the dean’s office, [or whatever choices the school offered].”

I think this might come in helpful with all sorts of people – even with myself. If I don’t necessarily feel like running on a certain day, or if I don’t feel like writing, or whatever – instead of forcing myself into one thing or another, just gently laying out options for myself.

But, I also think if you’re trying to help someone train for a marathon, or if you’re working with kids, or even co-workers, or perhaps if you’re just talking with a friend reluctant to apologize or do something else that’s probably ultimately good for her or his life – I just like the idea of, “No. You don’t have to do anything. The options are this, this, or this.”

It seems like common sense. Yet, obviously the phrase ‘because I said so’ exists, so this idea of explaining why we need to do certain things obviously doesn’t exist everywhere.

Another thing that I thought was interesting (though perhaps less applicable to normal life situations) is the idea that the mediator stressed that mediators are only supposed to be in control of the process, and the parties are in control of the agreement itself.

As a mediator, it’s only your job to facilitate communication. You shouldn’t be trying to push an agreement in one way or another.

Some interesting ideas, for sure.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

 

(#5) Western Justice Center’s Peer Mediation Invitational (February 25, 2014) – Part 2 (Beginning Of Mock Mediations)

March 3, 2014

slips of paper with mock mediations written on them
some mock mediations the high schoolers are led through

Picking up from yesterday –

For the record, they did incorporate peer mediation into the improvisation with various games improv games that they put in mock peer mediation situations.

After the welcoming part was done, the volunteers were supposed to lead groups to their respective places to do their mock mediations. So, they called the volunteers to the front of the room and assigned us a group.

Now, we had been given maps. So, everything was cool… except of course for the fact that I am horrible – absolutely horrendous – at finding my way anywhere ever. My hippocampus has to be the size of a penny (or some small object of your choice that you like better).

I’m pretty sure I didn’t even smile and introduce myself to the mediator in charge of the group because I was so nervous that I was going to get everybody lost.

I focused in so intently on the map. Once we got down the stairs, we were almost to the front desk. I knew we were on the opposite side of the building from that desk, so off we went.

Thankfully, we were in one of the largest rooms – that was right next to the largest room. So, I found it without any problems. Can you believe it?! I led them in, but then we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights.

a handwritten sign that says US Marshals only taped to the back of a folding chair
a super legit sign labeling the US Marshals’ official-looking chair.

So, I ran to the front desk. They called the guy who knows how to do everything. I got the answer and ran back…

Even though I’d said I was going for an answer, and I ran to get one, the mediator had just sent someone else to try to find the answer. I can’t blame her. I know she wants light and wants to use all her available time. But man, life is rough when you’re going fast and it’s still not fast enough. (This transported me back to my days as a PA.)

So, I got there in time that the newest information fetcher didn’t need to go find out how to turn on the lights. We had to go out the back door of the room into a little hallway, and that’s where the light-switches lived. It never dawned on me that the lights in a courtroom were controlled outside of the courtroom.

Then, the mock mediations began. The students from the arts high school played out various scenarios, and the peer mediators in training tried to help the parties come to an agreement.

Part of me wanted to jump in – to either side! I love acting – especially when the student actors got pretty complete characters and scenarios given to them. And after a while, I felt as though I was really picking up on all the peer mediator rules, so I sort of thought I could do that too.

But alas, instead, I had to just be an adult and sit in the back and cheer them on. But I was happy for the kids, and you could actually see people improving in their mediation skills as the day went on which was really cool.

I’ll pick up here tomorrow.

(#5) Western Justice Center’s Peer Mediation Invitational (February 25, 2014) – Part 1 (Welcoming Presentation)

March 2, 2014

cute judge figurines at the Western Justice Center in Pasadena
Some cool figurines in the Western Justice Center

I love the Western Justice Center.

They’re so organized there. Everyone there is so kind. This place is great.

From their website, their mission is to “increase the opportunity for peaceful conflict resolution and displace the power of violence in our society. [They] design, implement, evaluate and promote innovative methods of conflict prevention and resolution for children, communities, and courts.”

They held their annual Peer Mediation Invitational. And it was for students who were peer mediators.

The day began simply enough. We were offered breakfast. Then the students began to arrive and we helped facilitate registration/their breakfast.

Then, it was time to go over for the beginning of the day. One thing Western Justice Center did that I thought was really cool was to work with the Los Angeles County School for the Arts. There was a group there in a service learning class that was working on using art to help the community.

The group from the arts high school tried to start the day out on an energetic, light note. They did improv games revolving around peer mediation. They started with one we did at the Groundlings, and my stomach started tying in knots at the thought of doing that specific game again (3-headed expert – or whatever we called it).

clipboard from the Western Justice Center
cool clipboard the Western Justice Center gifted to all volunteers

However, the high schoolers seemed really into it! Good for them for doing something that boosts their confidence and ability to think on their feet. Really, bravo, arts school.

The student actors also made us get up and move a bit (while we pretend to eat a banana), just to try to wake everybody up. (I only mention this, ’cause I’m gonna bring it back at the end of the day.)

Two things were pretty interesting to me about the improv part. For one thing, the teacher asked, “How many people have seen improv live before?” And barely anyone raised their hands! I guess it’s maybe not that weird. But I think just because I went through a period where I was seeing so much improv that it’s weird to think people don’t go to shows. I sort of think all high school kids should have to take it to help with the life skills it works on. But, I digress.

Another thing I found interesting was when they started the game in which a team of actors work together to be an expert in something, the first subject the teacher came up with was movies. He said, “ask any questions about movies that you’ve ever wanted to know – how they’re made, etc.”

Not a single person raised his or her hands. Oh, Los Angeles – where everybody knows everything about the entertainment biz, and everybody’s so over it. I adore you, high school kids, who then had plenty of questions to ask when he changed the subject to the universe.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(#4) Running Cameras At SCaLE (Southern California Linux Expo) (February 23, 2014) – Part 2 (Actual Volunteering Part)

March 1, 2014

Aurora De Lucia working on live recordings at SCaLE (Southern California Linux Expo)Picking up from yesterday –

So, this wasn’t a totally huge deal. But I’m a perfectionist. So, anytime I make mistakes it bothers me. I want to go back in time and undo them. But alas, I can’t.

Two things happened that were mistake-y.

So, the guy working next to me – he’d been working there for 3 and a half days. I figured he totally knew what was up.

There was one big room that had a table and chairs next to the podium. I asked him if I needed to get that whole table. He very confidently said no. It wasn’t a panel. People would take turns standing at the microphone to give their parts of the presentation.

But sure enough, as we started watching, people were totally talking from their seated positions. (And because there were other rooms we were also watching, I did not even notice this immediately.)

The good news is, is that the table wasn’t completely full. (There were empty chairs.) And even with only trying to get the podium, the part of the table that had people was still in the frame. I mean, it wasn’t framed up the way it would’ve been if you’d been specifically trying to get the table. But it was fine. And it was fixed when we realized it.

I’m not at all blaming that volunteer. I just almost always defer when I’m new to a place. And perhaps it should be a lesson to me to double check things more or defer less, or I’m not totally sure. But I only mention it because I think there may be a lesson in there for me…

cool looking job board at SCaLE (Southern California Linux Expo)
a job board in the lobby I thought looked kind of cool

Secondly, someone else in the room pointed out to me that they were watching in 4:3, and they couldn’t see the speakers in one of the rooms. So, I learned (the hard way) that I needed to give more space on the sides than originally thought. But no one told me that other people were watching in different aspect ratios! I’d just been told to zoom in. And I thought if I could see the person on my screen, then the person could be seen… But apparently not.

So, that was also fixed. But the point is, in my first of 3 rounds of talks, I think some speakers were not on screen for entirety of her or his talk.

The good news is, the conference is going to edit in the slides to the talk. So, with a little editing magic, just spend some more time on a few slides and maybe it won’t be so noticeable that the person wasn’t in the frame.

Also, I listened to this podcast recently and heard the story of the guy who filmed on the jib for the (very expensive) Let’s Make a Deal opening. He accidentally got record and stop mixed up somehow, and thought he was recording when he was stopping and vice versa. I didn’t do that. So… yay?

(#4) Running Cameras At SCaLE (Southern California Linux Expo) (February 23, 2014) – Part 1 (Intro)

February 28, 2014

Aurora De Lucia running cameras at the Southern California Linux Expo
Trying to give me “I’m a serious camera operator” face, but I think it just came out looking bored. Tyra Banks would not be pleased….

Well, we’re only 4 in, and I had my first sort of struggle…

We’ll get into that in a second.

So, I don’t know anything about Linux. But the conference was looking for people who had experience making videos or television or what have you. And that’s what I do for a living. So, I thought it’d be fun to try to stretch my skills in that a little.

They were looking for people to run camera and/or sound equipment and I thought that’d be a great experience instead of sitting in an edit bay. Plus, I thought I may pick up some computer knowledge through osmosis or something.

(As you can tell, this was more of a selfish endeavor on my part where I was thinking about me, me, me – which is probably not the best attitude to have when it comes to volunteer activities. I mean, I did like the idea of being a part of furthering people’s computer education. My understanding of open source is it fosters teamwork and innovation. So, there’s that.)

Anyway, I came in to the convention. And it was a little fascinating to see people all around the lobby so engrossed in their devices. I know we live in a world in which that’s the norm – but this was extreme even by 2014 standards. Even the people who weren’t on devices didn’t seem all that super into eye contact. This was a new, interesting crowd of people I don’t see all the time.

So, I went up to the area where volunteers check in. Lan, the volunteer coordinator was so nice. In fact, everyone was so nice! All the workers and volunteers really made me feel right at home. I got a tour of the place. I got a free t-shirt. Even for someone with an apparently selfish attitude (as has been established), I felt as though I was getting a whole lot for really not much work.

This is my view of different rooms at once.
This is my view of different rooms at once.

Then came the time to do real work. They let me run the cameras, which was sweet! Originally, I thought maybe they’d have a person running the cameras in each room (a la the way we used to do it for America’s Got Talent auditions).

But no. We sat in the control room and ran 8 or so cameras at once. Now, there wasn’t a ton happening. So, it was all good. It was mainly just about trying to keep people in the frame. You kind of just framed ’em up and let ’em go for the most part (unless they had a tendency to move around a whole lot, which most people didn’t).

So, there was this guy next to me whose job was to watch the screen showing all the rooms, and he listened in headphones to make sure the sound didn’t go out in any of the rooms.

Honestly, because the cameras didn’t really move once they were set, my job and his job could’ve easily been done by the same person. I sort of understand why it was two people. It doesn’t hurt to have two sets of eyes on things.

Also, I’m sure it’s much better to overbook than to under-book volunteers – in case people don’t show up and such… But if everyone shows up, what do you do with all those extra hands? Well, you break up one job into two, I suppose.

Tomorrow we’ll get into how I slightly struggled.

(#3) Do Good Bus (Renovating A High School Library In Watts) – Part 6 (End Of Working Day & Ride Home)

February 27, 2014

Aurora De Lucia playing a game on the Do Good Bus
from the game we played on the way home – can you tell if I’m lying or telling the truth?

Picking up from yesterday –

So, we finished tearing apart the room. We didn’t get to help build anything, which is too bad. But I suppose if you have a bunch of random people of all different skill levels, it’s easier to get them to tear things apart than make this interesting innovation center place.

When it was just about time to head out, Rebecca gathered us for a few little closing remarks. She said that one thing she really hoped we took away from the day is that everything goes faster when we do it together. She said she hoped that we could use this in our daily lives – if we saw a neighbor raking leaves, or a co-worker struggling with a project at work – that it will all go more efficiently (and somewhat easily) if we all just pitch in and work together.

Btw, does this or does this not sound like something Cory Booker would eat up?! Somebody get this bus to Jersey, right?! I volunteer to run it if anyone actually wants to expand!

On the way home, we played one last game. Those cards we’d turned in, with stories of our lives – Rebecca had 3 different people stand up. Then she’d read the story. Everyone on the bus would have a chance to ask follow up questions to the person. (Basically, I think this was a lot like that old game show – To Tell The Truth. Then, you’d have to decide who was telling the truth.

I was in the first group. It was actually my story (that I’d seen *Nsync in concert 22 times in elementary & middle school). The other two girls didn’t seem wildly into it. One just repeated my answers and one just kind of mumbled and trailed off responses. So, every person knew it was me. I’d hoped to be one of the pretenders, ’cause I think on many subjects I could come up with details on the spot (it’d be sort of like an improv game). But, being the person whose actual story it was, was pretty fun too. Since I didn’t really have to do any thinking.

In the next round, someone had won a chicken nuggets eating contest. There was one really confident-sounding, funny guy who was part of the group and practically everyone thought it was him. However, I knew it wasn’t him because of one fatal answer. I asked how he prepared for the contest. He said he drank. Funny answer with funny delivery… But I don’t know many people who fill their stomach up with fluid before eating contests. I felt so good about being one of the very few to guess correctly in that round. Ba-bam!

In the final round, I didn’t even vote,  ’cause it was really hard to tell. One girl seemed really confident in the story. Everybody thought it was her. However, a girl in the back of the bus seemed really like “uh, I dunno, I guess this?” to every answer. And to me, she was almost doing that attitude so hard that I thought it had to be an act. However, I’d met her earlier in the day. I knew she was a pretty quiet and somewhat sophisticated-seeming doctor. So, maybe a grown up doctor really isn’t all that into this game.

Girl, was a I wrong though. This is why I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (or occupation)… and why I should be more confident in things. I had a feeling it was her! And if only I’d guessed her, I would’ve been the only person to get it right! Rargh, rargh, rargh. Oh well.

That was the end of the day! I hope to ride this bus again!

(#3) Do Good Bus (Renovating A High School Library In Watts) – Part 5 (Demolition Time – Part 2)

February 26, 2014

group from the Do Good Bus smiling
one more group pic with everyone smiling this time

Picking up from yesterday –

During lunch, index cards were passed out to us. We were supposed to write an interesting story from our life and not tell anyone what it was. These were used for a game on the way home, which we’ll get to later.

It was a leisurely lunch, and once it was over, it was back to work.

For the latter half of our demolition time, it was all about removing the carpet and… styrofoam-ish/stucco/whatever stuff was on the wall?

One of the walls had had the white tiles removed earlier. Once people realized that was a job, a lot of people clamored to it. I’d really wanted to do it. (It just seemed like a fun job. And I love ladders.) But there was a whole group begging for the tool and the ladder. So, I let them have it.

However, once we came back from lunch, I don’t know if people forgot about the other wall or what, but there was no clamouring. So, I got in there nice and stealth, grabbed my tool and ladder, and went to town.

speed pictionary being played on the Do Good Bus
speed dictionary being played across from me on the way there

My height again proved to be a tiny issue here. But I’m great on ladders. So, I stretched up and got all the tiles down from my wall. *Does a little dance*

Also, I’m trying to get at least one photo from each of these events to just kind of document my project and such. I asked someone who had a free moment if he could take a picture of me while I was on the ladder. And can I just tell you, he did an exceptional job? He got interesting shots from good angles, and even did one in a square so I could put it straight on instagram!

Unfortunately, he wasn’t with our group on the Do Good Bus. (He was either with the little filming crew, or from one of the organizations we were working with.) Unfortunately, I didn’t get his name. But thank you, stranger, for giving me good photos for instagram and the blog. I appreciate you!

Back to the actual work part of it all, I also had a quick little stint on helping to pull up carpet, but it was short lived. There were so many people helping with that – and there’s only so much space for people to hold on to a carpet piece.

The day wound down so quickly. I couldn’t believe how fast it all went. This was really a fabulous way to spend a Saturday – and one in which your whole day wasn’t taken up at all. I got home with ample time to work out, or see a show, or really just do whatever the heck I wanted on a Saturday night.

Tomorrow I’ll finish out with the end of the working day and bus ride home.

(#3) Do Good Bus (Renovating A High School Library In Watts) – Part 4 (Demolition Time – Part 1)

February 25, 2014

Aurora De Lucia on a ladder pulling wall tiles off the wall during a public high school's library renovation with The Do Good Bus and No Right Brain Left BehindPicking up from yesterday –

We got to work tearing apart the room.

I felt some ebbs and flows here and there, because sometimes there were more things to do than others. I always felt a little awkward whenever a few of us would be standing around. Whenever I felt myself standing around, it was almost like a game to see how quickly I could spot something to help with.

Not only did I want to make sure I got the most out of the experience, but let’s get real here, we were being documented for the other companies. Two women were taking pictures and video the whole time. I certainly didn’t want to be recorded as the super lazy one. I know how editing works. Catch me at the wrong time 3 times, and I’m whatever you want me to be.

(I realize that good causes aren’t going to make people look bad. I’m just trying to make a slight joke since I’m extra cynical and paranoid since I work in the game of reality television. :-P)

The first half of our time there was spent dismantling the shelved and getting all the wood (and screws) out of there. Some people grabbed tools and went to work. I realized most of the tools (and spots that required tools) were spoken for. So, I started taking trips delivering the wood to the theater.

As of now, the theater is being used for storage of all the stuff from the library. Let’s hope that changes soon. Honestly, it makes me a lot more sad to think about a perfectly good theater going to waste than a library (though I know they’re closely related since both use your imagination, and you hope to experience good writing in both).

So, I did trips of wood. Once we’d gotten all the wood over to the library, I started just picking up screws anywhere I could find them. At one point, I thought I was going to be able to help unscrew the tops of a shelf… and then once I climbed on the chair, I realized I couldn’t see the top because I’m short. Wah wah.

After almost all the shelves (except a few along a short wall) were out of the room, we broke for lunch. You could have elected during your registration to buy a lunch they had delivered. They did tell you which restaurant it’d be from. However, I’ve been trying to be really good about counting all my calories, so I didn’t want to chance it. I just brought my lunch instead.

Many people actually brought their own lunch. It’s not that surprising since it is L.A. and everyone has a food thing out here – whether it’s wanting to eat food from her or his own garden, or being gluten-free, or vegan, etc. – for so many (including me for now), it’s easier to just be in complete control of your own food.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(#3) Do Good Bus (Renovating A High School Library In Watts) – Part 3 (What’s The Project?)

February 24, 2014

Aurora pulling tiles off the wall during a library renovation with the Do Good BusPicking up from yesterday –

So, we got went into the library to hear a little introductory talk given by Victor from No Right Brain Left Behind and Tay from Green Dot Schools.

Green Dot took over the school back in 2007. Tay said at the time there was a 80 – 90% dropout rate. So, Green Dot’s been working to get the graduation up (and the dropout rate down). One of the things they believe will help in doing that is partnering with No Right Brain Left Behind for this project.

The school’s library closed down about 5 years ago due to budget cuts. They had to let go of the librarian. Without a librarian to supervise the books and the students, they just didn’t allow kids to use the library space. But, it’s a perfectly good room being wasted. So, No Right Brain Left Behind wants to turn it into an innovative, usable space.

NRBLB’s goal is to get more creativity in education (which I can totally get behind). So, they’re going to set up a space where people can learn and create, and where educators can bring in special projects and get high schoolers working hands-on, on things.

Victor told us that 140 public school libraries had been shut down in December due to budget cuts. I’d had no idea that so many libraries were going by the wayside. I guess I understand it with iPads and things. But I was still surprised.

So, Victor said he wanted to make this project scalable to other schools. He told us one of the goals was to make less than 5% of the school’s square footage inspire, activate, and engage the rest of the school. And in this space, they would try to elevate creative thinking.

The week before us, a private Do Good Bus done by Starbucks partners (I believe that’s the term for Starbucks employees) had removed all of the books from the library and started taking down some of the shelves.

Out job was to finish completely stripping the room so all the actual renovating stuff could begin.

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(#3) Do Good Bus (Renovating A High School Library In Watts) – Part 2 (The Bus Ride)

February 23, 2014

Aurora and her group from the Do Good Bus pulling up carpet during a renovation
Some of us working on pulling up some carpet

Picking up from yesterday –

So, we all got on the bus, bonded over childhood and what we dreamed we’d be, and then Rebecca – the leader of the bus – stood up to give us a little talk.

She said the main 3 goals of the Do Good Bus are:
1) Raise awareness for issues people may otherwise not know about
2) Help to build a strong community
3) Encourage people to get back out there and volunteer again somewhere.

Then she said it was time for some bus activities to get to know each other better. 1st we shuffled up and had to sit next to someone we didn’t know. When you meet someone new on the Do Good Bus, you greet them with a high-5.

After a few more introductions all around the bus, and high-5s happening ever, it was time for a game!

We played speed pictionary in which the bus was split between front of the bus and back of the bus. Rebecca worked with the group in the back. Adrienne (the Do Good intern) worked with us up front. We passed around a little dry erase board drawing pictures… well, you know how pictionary works.

Each person got a turn, and the contest was to see which area of the bus could finish the whole stack of clues first. Once your group was finished with the stack, everyone had to do basically silly jazz hands by the side of their heads while making funny sounds (sort of as though they were underwater). Otherwise, your win didn’t count.

My group won. *Dusts off shoulders.* Before you knew it, it was time for our day’s activity to be revealed (since we were almost there). Rebecca told us we’d be going to a high school in Watts to help re-imagine its library.

When we got there, of course, we started by playing another game as we got off the bus. It was a variation of rock, paper, scissors – elves, dragons, wizards. You got to use your whole body and pose instead of just your hands. I totally dominated my match.

Then, she said for the final round, we’d just pose as anything we wanted in the world, and then figure out who beat whom. I posed as a tree. My reasoning behind that was that even if I were destroyed by a tank or something, I wanted to know that I’d given life while on the earth – and sustaining life I also thought was a pretty powerful power in itself.

However, this was really horrible reasoning because the person across from me was a ninja or something intense like that, and the consensus was that she could definitely destroy a tree.

After this, we started doing actual helpful things. So tomorrow, I’ll leave the games behind and talk about the (fun, still) work of the day.

(#3) Do Good Bus (Renovating A High School Library In Watts) – Part 1 (Getting On The Bus)

February 22, 2014

Aurora and her group from the Do Good Bus - making faces with their tools
We’re all making faces sort of acting out what we did that day

This was absolutely incredible!

Although, when I try to explain it in conversation, many people have pointed out that this concept sounds sort of creepy. Here’s why.

You meet a group of strangers in a parking lot and get on a bus. They take you away someplace, but don’t tell you where you’re going.

I sort of understand how that could sound a bit creepy. But it’s actually really cool. It’s a legitimate group that takes you to an actual charitable event. It’s not elaborate kidnapping scheme.

Before the day, you’re given one of 5 categories. You’re either going to help with adults, children, animals, the earth, or your hands. (That hands one is for project where it’s mainly about building/making things.)

I’d never heard of this bus until I started this 52 volunteer activities project. Once I’d heard about it, I knew I had to give it a try! Mystery, adventure, new friends and overly-excitable people – this is so up my alley, [insert great metaphor and/or punchline-ish thing here – feel free to leave good ideas in the comments].

I saw February’s event fell under the category “Good Hands.” This sounded wonderful because I love working with my hands and being crafty.

So, I show up to the parking lot (which was actually at a Metro center – doesn’t get much more convenient than that!).

They actually had a little welcome mat set up with the check-in table. All the little details were in place to make us feel right at home.

Aurora and other women from the Do Good Bus making a "who's bad" face while holding their tools
These are the ladies posing with the attitude of “Who’s Bad?”

Even on our name tags, they had little conversation starters set up. On the bottom of our name tags, it had a blank space for what, as kids, we dreamed of being when we grew up.

I have yet to achieve all the things I wanted as a kid. So, I didn’t get too literal with it, ’cause I didn’t want to get into a million conversations about still struggling in Hollywood (although, let’s get real, chances are everyone you meet out here is struggling to live a dream (assuming you’re not chilling with high up execs and movie stars). Otherwise, why would you live in this town, amirite?

Anyway, I put that I thought I’d be Michael Jackson’s best friend, because that was a totally true answer. However, that also got so quickly into sad conversations. Bringing up a dead legend as your icebreaker really brings down the mood of things. So, I wouldn’t recommend it. Though, when Billie Jean came on at the end of the day, a group of people did look at me and dancing ensued. So, there’s that. (Also, while everyone is sad about Michael Jackson, we did all talk about how exceptional he was. So that was sort of a nice bonding experience. But, moving on…)

Some people put cute little answers – that they thought they’d be a mermaid or a dolphin. Some people had sort of funny ones, such as thinking they’d be J. Lo. Of course there were the people in the bunch who wanted to be entertainers. (Again, why else live out here?) And while they then did set themselves up for those awkward conversations of “What have you done? What are you doing now?” etc., at least they were being super true to themselves.)

Oh goodness, a whole post and we’re not even on the bus yet. I’ll pick up here tomorrow.

(#2) Passing Out Hygiene Kits To Senior Citizens

February 21, 2014

Aurora De Lucia with group posing with supplies when they passed out hygiene kits to senior citizensThis morning I went to an assisted living facility to pass out hygiene kits for seniors.

It was an incredibly easy gig. The hygiene packets were already neatly assembled. All we had to do was hand them out. And it was a pretty small facility, so it didn’t even take that long. Volunteering – it’s fun and quick, baby!

Senior citizens are so freaking cool. I don’t want to generalize too much, but man I love older people. Older people are just so interesting! They have so much life experience, and knowledge, and such.

One woman was watching The Price is Right when I came to her room. We obviously were best friends right away.

One man had his door wide open, inviting people to come visit with him. He was so organized! It was as though I were visiting a library or something. He had shelves full of DVDs and CDs – but all very neatly labeled and sorted. He told me a bit about his passion for music and movies.

He was very artistic too. He’d made a colorful awesome-looking rug that he told me about. He was just super cool.

There was one woman, walking very briskly down the halls. I can’t even tell you how many laps she did while I was there. I admired her for working on her fitness, and I secretly hoped she was training for a running event… I also hoped that I’ll be like her when I’m older.

Aurora with hygiene group posing in a hallway
Doing a weird pose in the hallway because… why not?

Also, there was a woman who had bracelets on. One of the volunteers said her bracelets were beautiful and asked where she’d gotten them. And the women – the elderly woman in the assisted living facility – answered, “my Daddy.” Her face lit up as she told us about her father whom she loved so dearly.

I thought it was the cutest thing.

Both the volunteer coordinator (from the charity that goes to many senior centers), and the woman she was working with (who was employed at the actual facility itself) were very nice to me and invited me to come back in the future.

The woman from the facility said I should run a game night sometime. She said the men there would really love to see me around, which I thought was hilarious – but maybe it was just the way she said it, ’cause I don’t think it translates in as funny of a way when I write it down.

The volunteer co-ordinator complimented me for being “good with the seniors,” which I appreciated – though I think that basically just means “good with people,” ’cause I treated them how I’d treat any new friend. But, you know, I’ll take a compliment, baby!

I’ll be volunteering with the group again (Volunteer Action For Aging) at a future Beauty Day for Senior Citizens because seniors rock. That covers it.

(#1) Being An Art Docent At Lerata’s Skyline

February 20, 2014

Aurora De Lucia volunteering as an art docent at Skyline in downtown Los Angeles1st volunteer activity of 52 in 52 weeks!

I volunteered with a group called Lerata. It’s the laboratory for experimentation and research in art, technology, and architecture.

Skyline is an annual free event held right in downtown L.A. that I had no idea existed! It’s a “10-day art & architecture event that showcases site specific, experimental, interactive installations that embrace Los Angeles’ ever-evolving cultural landscape.” (I got that from their website.)

One of the goals of Lerata is “to uncover gems in cities often unseen or unused by the public; and provide a means for residents and tourists alike to see and learn about their cities in a new and unique way.”

I think that’s really cool. I know I don’t soak up L.A. nearly as much as I could, and I appreciate this group taking steps to make us appreciate not only our city, but also art, architecture, and maybe even beauty in ways  we hadn’t before. So, that’s cool.

I was assigned to the Cocoon exhibit. (In case that link breaks, this is the firm that did it.)

I was a little scared, because I really don’t know all that much about art & architecture. I’d like to pretend that I do and that I’m super cultured and all that jazz, but I don’t really – which is part of why I was stretching myself with this.

I read the little blurbs about the exhibit and watched the video we had on loop. I had a good amount of time to familiarize myself with everything since no one came for the first 45 minutes or so.

The first group that trickled in were totally new best friends of mine. They were so fun and seemed really cultured. I was a little intimidated. But the next little group that came in later seemed to think I was pretty cool and smart just because I could tell them what their little map could’ve told them… but because I said it, I was obviously smart and cultured. Yay me!

This absolutely adorable older couple came in at one point. I’m not sure how long they’d been together, but they’d talked about living in Los Angeles together for 40(!) years. So, a log time is how long they’d been together. Yet they treated each other with so much care and wonder, like they were on a 9th date or something. (I chose 9th at random, assuming that’d perhaps be an okay number to where the “trying to impress people” factor had settled down, but the cool-newness was still there.

Aurora De Lucia volunteering as an art docent at Skyline in downtown Los AngelesWhen she was looking at something away from him and he wanted her attention, he sweetly said, “Darling” to get it. I wanted to put them in my pocket and just take them around with me. They were so cute!

One woman did bring her dog in! To an art exhibit. It wasn’t like she was coming in from the street just to see what’s up. She had a map! She was obviously looking at the exhibits. What is with people in Los Angeles and their dogs?

Throughout the night, I met all these cool, interesting people with cool, interesting jobs. I’m constantly saying no one lives out here unless they’re in the entertainment industry, but I learned there are plenty of other artsy or money-making industries people participate in out here.

I met a pilot of private jets, a banker, people involved in fashion design, art, and architecture (makes sense at this event). And I know it’s weird for me to say it, but I thought, “downtown Los Angles is really pretty cool, huh?”

So much cool stuff happens downtown and I really should be more present in my cool community. Whether I actually will or not remains to be seen. But hey, at least I know this thing exists now! And I met some cool people and had a great time – all with only having to walk a few blocks away from my house. I’d say the project is off to a great start!

52 Volunteer Activities In 52 Weeks!

February 19, 2014

Boom! New project. Here we go, y’all!

As you can tell by the title, I plan to do 52 volunteer activities in 52 weeks.

So, what does that mean? What are my rules and guidelines here?

Well, I won’t stick exclusively to 501(c)(3)s. Sure, I plan on doing a good amount of work for straight up charities. However, I’ll be happy to volunteer for some races (which, while they do usually do give money to charities, they are also often profitable). I’d also be happy to give time to political candidates I believe in.

And I’ll be doing other various things that I find fun, interesting, or worthwhile – even if they aren’t related specifically to an official charity.

I’m a member of two unions, and I hate to admit, I’m not very active in either. So, I’d be happy to volunteer at some I.A.T.S.E. or Equity event. I also should really try to be more involved in MENSA (especially since I am on the board of the Los Angeles chapter).

The point is, there are plenty of things I can get involved with, without having to focus solely on charities. But hopefully, the plan is that everything I volunteer for gives at least some good to the community.

I will also try to change up my activities as much as I can. Because I’m aiming to do 52 of these bad boys throughout the year, I may end up repeating some things. But even if I technically repeat, I’ll try to change it up within the repeating… If I volunteer for multiple races, I may try to work a water stop at one, and the finish line at another – or something like that.

I’m going to try to have as many cool/different/new experiences as possible. So, there shouldn’t be tons of repeating. But I’m not going to be a stickler about every experience needing to be with a different organization, or done using a completely different skill-set than the previous activity because I think that’s getting to rule-y for what I want to accomplish here.

In 2012, I did a project that was very much about me. Sure, I raised money for an awesome charity that I very much believe in, in the process, which was great. But my overall project was very much about me returning to running, and there was tons of selfishness in it. I got tons of help from strangers. People gave me rides, vouchers for plane tickets, and other lovely helpful gestures.

It’s time for me to give back. I don’t mean just give back because I feel like I owe it to people, the universe, or whomever because of kindness received during my 52 half marathons. I mean I want to give back because we are all interdependent upon one another.

I don’t live in a bubble where I should just get to expect everything I want and need without being part of the whole system of helping others. I want to give back, give forward – just generally put good things out there. After all, if I don’t stand up to do it, who will?

I feel like it’s so easy to get wrapped up in everything else going on in life. How could we possibly make time to volunteer for things when we have all this other life stuff going on (day jobs, marathons, creative projects, friendships, social media accounts, the freelance hustling game, and on and on and on)?

But, I’m pretty sure the time is in fact there, as long as we are willing to give it.

I know that sometimes it seems in order to volunteer for things, you need to give a huge time commitment, or if not a huge one, at least a small one for a long time (therefore making it somewhat huge after all). But in researching this project, I’ve learned that there are a number of easy one-offs you can do just whenever you have the time.

It’s often so hard for me to commit to anything since my schedule changes a lot, depending on my job. My hope is that through this project, I can be shown that volunteering can be possible under practically any circumstances. Let’s see if it is! My first volunteer activity is tomorrow night!

It’s Time For Another Project!

February 18, 2014

I know I have just a few more things I want to say re: wrapping 52 half marathons in 52 weeks up in a tidy little bow.

However, my next project gets underway this week. So, I need to tell you about it and we’ll just finish up the half marathon talk sometime along the way whenever we can.

As you’ll notice, it’s been over a year since my last project. You may be wondering why I waited to so long to do another one… Or you may be wondering why I’m tackling another one at all.

So, I’ll address both of those wonderings here in this post.

Some of the reasons I’d like to do another project:
– I gained a good amount from my last project, and look forward to learning new things and growing in new ways.

– I feel like the year went slower with the 52 half marathons. With a numbered project, it made it sort of easier to savor time. By the end of 2013, I wondered, “where has the year gone?” But at the end of 2012, I had a blog chock full of tons of new experiences. I’d known exactly where the year went.

– I’ve complained on this blog before that perhaps I don’t give enough time to my creative pursuits – that perhaps I don’t spend enough time writing, following my dreams, and all of that great stuff. I used to think that maybe that meant I need to buckle down and spend more time in my apartment writing (which of course would be a component to creating great stuff).

However, after thinking on it more, I believe that I work better when I have at least some things going on. When I have nothing going on, it can get sort of easy sometimes to let my whole day melt away because I can always get around to something later. However, when I have other commitments, that makes my time seem more precious to me and I need to be better at using it.

I don’t know if that’s a silly hypothesis. I don’t know if that makes sense. But it’s what I think is true. Of course, there still is something to be said for not overextending yourself. But, I think with this project I’m hopefully hitting the sweet spot of keeping me busy enough to know I need to work when I have the chance, but not so busy that I never give myself time to work.

Now, onto the other question I addressed –

Why did I wait so long to do another project?

Well, for one thing, I was pretty sure I was going to give a kidney to a stranger, which was going to be a pretty big project in itself. However, that sort of blew up in my face (and I realize I have a many-part series telling you all about it that I totally owe you, and I promise we will get to it).

Anyway, it took a while to go through the process, even if it didn’t end with me having only one kidney (yet). So, that’s one reason I didn’t take on a bigger project.

Plus, I was sort of doing the “year of responsibility.” It was small. It was less structured than 52 half marathons in 52 weeks. But I have to say that taking time to focus on some that stuff was really helpful for me. In being more present about my eating and fitness and such, I’ve lost about 25 pounds. I also feel less cluttered in my mind and space. (And I learned a pretty good amount about social media.)

Is there still plenty of room to grow in all departments of my life? You bet there is! My eating is much improved, but can still be better. (I also can still stand to lose more weight.) My room and computer could both be better organized still. (I’ll admit, I’m still not at inbox zero for the time being.)

But, I made a lot of progress. And I’ll continue to work on that stuff as I do this next project (and probably for the rest of my life, ’cause no one has everything completely perfect, right?).

Anyway, let’s stop with this huge preamble and get to the juicy stuff – the cool new project!… Which we will talk about tomorrow.

How Much Time Do You Think Magic Johnson Spends In His Trophy Room?

February 8, 2014

So, I know we’ve been talking mainly about the 52 half marathons and such, wrapping all that up in a nice little bow. However, I must take a break from that to tell you about the most wonderful thing!

Pharrell made this wonderful thing called “24 hours of Happy.” In fact, that’s exactly where you can find it – 24HoursOfHappy.com. It’s touted as the world’s first 24-hour music video.

My curiosity was definitely piqued. “A 24-hour music video? What in the world is this?” Well, the song plays over and over and over for 24 hours with different people doing a take on it each time.

This may sound a little monotonous when explained in words. But, being that the song is incredibly catchy and some of the takes on it are really fun, I would say it’s actually quite cool. I saw on twitter that some people are actually trying to watch all 24-hours… I’m not sure I’d necessarily want to do that. Although, the people who watch the whole thing will certainly find things (probably some great things) I didn’t.

When you open the video, it starts for you at whatever time of day it is. But, you can actually move a dial to get to whatever time of day you want. And thanks to twitter (quite possibly the greatest thing in the universe), I believe I’ve found the very best part of the video.

I saw in a tweet that at 5:36am during the Happy video, Magic Johnson dances around his trophy room!

It. is. awesome.

First off, I feel like Magic Johnson has this positive attitude that totally exudes off him. His happiness is contagious. I want to be his friend.

Secondly, his trophy room is probably the coolest place in all of Los Angeles. Here’s my favorite part: he has a room full of his jerseys from each team he’s been on. And he has drawings on the floor of mascots and things that correspond with where the jerseys are on the wall.

So, if you look down from his Laker jersey to a corresponding spot on the floor, it has the official lettering of the Los Angles Lakers and lists the years they won the championships (while he was on the team). He has the for the Olympics and it says “gold medalist.”

But get this. He also has one for college that says “National Champions” (and gives the year). He has one for high school that says “State Champions.” And this is the best part… He has one from middle school that says “City Champs.”

I found that to be unbelievably, exceptionally cute. It said to me not only does he care about his biggest successes that he’s most known for. He doesn’t purely care about being famous or the end result of his hard work… He cares about basketball – really, really cares.

I understand that he was a pro, so of course he cares about basketball. But I feel like it might be easy to get caught up in the fame and all that and forget about the love for the game. But I don’t think he has. That makes me love him.

His trophy room is incredible and as this title asked, I wonder how much time he spends in there. I feel like I’d go in and just revel in my life at least once a week. Right? Would you?

Quilt Story on NBC4 Columbus – Part 3 (The Interview)

February 7, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, we did the interview. I’ll admit, I was a bit rusty. It’s been a year since I really talked about all the half marathons and everything. I still remembered some of the main stories of the year – the half marathon on crutches, the Goofy Challenge and such.

But in general, I felt a bit rusty answering the questions. Trying to tell the story again sort of re-awakened me to how long it’s been since a) all the heart stuff happened b) all the racing happened! I don’t know that I ever really had it all down to a science on how to give concise, hopefully interesting, answers that made sense… but anything I did have sort of flew out the window and unraveled into something way less tight now.

Oh well. I’m sure they’ll work their editing magic, and everything will be fine.

Another thing that happened during the interview – Janet stood to the side and signed along with what I was saying so that all the employees could understand as it went along. I thought that was super cool and wonderful. However, I have to admit, I never realized how hard it was to keep focus while speaking when someone is signing in your peripheral.

I’ve never actually seen a speaker get thrown by this before. So I didn’t even realize it could be an issue. But I felt that it actually threw me a little. So, you learn something new I suppose everyday.

By the way, I’m not a spoiled little princess in a bubble (even if I acted like I was when I waved while coming down the stairs (*shakes head at self*)). So I’m not trying to say, “ahem, ahem, all elements were not 100% perfect, therefore I was not on my game…  I’m just saying I had a new experience I’d never thought about before.

After the interview is over, they tape a segment of me hugging the seamstresses. It was actually extremely sweet. Janet was interpreting all these lovely messages people were saying to me.

I know my interview couldn’t have been all that bad because people were coming over saying they were inspired, and just generally telling me kind, sweet messages. I even met a woman whose son had Wolff-Parkinson-White and was going to have his first (and hopefully only) ablation next month. So, that was really sweet and nice.

The interview will air sometime this upcoming week, and I will make sure to let you know when it does!

Quilt Story on NBC4 Columbus – Part 2 (Includes An Embarrassing Side Story)

February 6, 2014

Picking up rom yesterday –

So, my dad drives me over to Bexley to Keepsake Theme Quilts. The people who work there are so lovely, adorable, and excited.

Right as my dad and I get there, Buzz, the very nice cameraman shows up. He tells us that he wants to get some b-roll of me jogging.

My dad goes to work taking behind the scenes photos for my blog. (Did I, or did I not say he’s such a lovely makeshift publicist?) Buzz asks me to jog a bit around the neighborhood. He gets shots of me running. He gets some shots of just my feet as well. It’s fun being taped.

Perhaps I should’ve tried to run faster since I only had to go a short distance… But I’m sure it all looks fine.

After the b-roll, it was time to go back inside. I felt like a mini-celebrity with Janet from Keepsake Theme Quilts asking if I wanted any water and such.

My dad and I palled around with Buzz and Janet until Cabot arrived. Cabot, Buzz, and Janet got to go in the super secret special room without us since they wanted to set up for the reveal of my quilt before I saw it.

Before you knew it, it was time for me to see the beautiful masterpiece.

The quilt is huge, beautiful, soft, and all-around wonderful. I love it.

We talked in front of the quilt for a while. We talked about me, my health issues, my races, and all that jazz.

Embarrassing mini-side-story: When I walked in the room, almost all of the people who worked there were standing around to greet me. Because they are deaf, they applauded by doing that hand wave thing. Now, intellectually, I knew they were applauding. I believe the correct response would’ve been to make the sign for “thank you.”

However, instinctively, I just reacted by sort of waving back… I felt like I was coming off as some sort of pretentious little princess or something waving to her adoring fans – especially because I was walking down an open stairwell into the room.

Aye, aye, aye.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Quilt Story on NBC4 Columbus – Part 1 (The Hair Story)

February 5, 2014

Leave it to my dad to
a) be my makeshift publicist &
b) get stuff done

My dad seems to be friends with everyone, always. Sure enough, one day he comes in with the news that he’s talked to Cabot Rea – a local Columbus newscaster – at a restaurant. Sure enough, yesterday, we taped a story on my quilt & half marathons.

First, let’s take a moment to talk about the disaster that was my hair. I got my hair dyed because it seemed to be getting lighter and that was no good. So, I brought it back down to a shade below my normal brown color. Well, my hair-line on my right side ended up looking weird – like a total straight line instead of an even semi-natural hairline.

In order to try to make this problem less noticeable, I tried getting as much dye as possible off my skin in that area. That meant I washed my hair 3 times in 24 hours. Then I exfoliated the heck out of that spot. (Now I have one wildly dry space on the side of my face. Dandruff galore in that little area. It is rough, baby!

I guess the point of this story is just to say that I wore my hair down for the interview/b-roll. I planned to be cute and wear it in a ponytail to suggest I’m a semi-athlete. But some super covering up business had to be done about my wild hairline/dryness/craziness.

We’ll pick up with how the rest of it went tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The T-Shirts? – Part 5 (Some Reasons Keepsake Quilts Is Awesome)

February 4, 2014

Picking up from last time – as if Keepsake Theme Quilts didn’t already sound awesome enough, on of the things I love about it is its social mission. The company was started by a woman who’d never met a deaf person until she had two deaf children. She ended up starting Deaf Initiatives – a 501(c)(3).

Keepsake Quilts is a part of that charity, and its mission is: “to hire, promote and train Deaf and hard of hearing individuals in a work environment free from communication barriers.”

Not only that, but it was sort of hard for me to let go of my precious race shirts. However, it was made so much easier when I learned that the leftover fabric not used in the quilt is given to places that need it.

Keepsake Theme Quilts donates to My Very Own Blanket, the local women’s prison, and local painters.

Beside the great social conscience, the business also has great communication skills. As your quilt is being made, you’re kept up to date on the process – when your quilt is moving into production and so on.

You’re even emailed a picture with your squares on the wall to make sure they’re exactly how you want them before they start into making the quilt.

Mine is actually done now! There’s even a news story to go along with the reveal. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The T-Shirts? – Part 4 (Picking the Finishing Touches & Leaving My Quilt in Good Hands)

February 3, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I picked the main color of my quilt. (They call that the sashing.) I opted to not have little squares of color between my t-shirt squares after all, because after talking it over with Janet and seeing pictures of other quilts, I learned that that looks best on small quilts with a small amount of t-shirt squares. The pops of color help kind of fill out the look of the quilt.

I picked burgundy for the binding to get a bit of my red fix in, but still have something not overwhelming that goes well with purple.

My understanding is that a lot of people do the sashing and backing the same color, but I decided I wanted them to be different. So, I picked a royal blue for the back. I think it’ll go well with the front (if it ever gets folded over). It goes will with the binding. And I feel it’ll break things up nicely instead of having one color all over my quilt.

Then, I got to write in what I wanted on my lines of embroidery. I’d actually written it down ahead of time on my phone so I had it. (I wanted to be absolutely sure I got the dates right.)

The embroidery will say:

Aurora De Lucia
52 Half Marathons In 52 Weeks
January 15, 2012 – January 13, 2013

Before you knew it, everything was done. I handed over my sample packet. (I wanted to make sure I brought it back since I have no idea how many they lose over the course of mailing them to who knows how many people).

I left with my empty suitcase. It was so weird, feeling like I’d come in with all that stuff, and poof! Now it was gone.

I know earlier I said it was a little bittersweet getting rid of everything, but walking out without it all, knowing it was going to be transformed into one beautiful piece was actually pretty freeing and awesome!

I’m glad I got to take a filed trip to Keepsake Theme Quilt‘s shop. But, I wouldn’t feel nervous at all sending things in from Los Angeles, because they completely know what they’re doing over there. I totally trust the people there and know they would’ve made it look great, even if I wouldn’t have been there in person.

They make small paper squares you can cut out so you can tag your own shirts from home. Keepsake Theme Quilts tries to make things as easy as possible while giving the customer complete control. They’re definitely quite awesome, and someday when I do a marathon in all 50 states, I’m sure I’ll be going back to them.

I’ll talk more about their awesome company tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The T-Shirts? – Part 3 (Picking Colors for My Quilt)

February 2, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, we tagged all my shirts. Then, it was time to pick the colors.

Keepsake Theme Quilts will actually awesomely send you color samples so you can see and feel everything in your own hands to really get a sense of what you want.

They’d done this for me. Originally, when I just looked at the samples without thinking about all the shirts and the big picture of the quilt, I was thinking red would be really nice because I love red.

I was thinking red for the overall color, purple for little squares in between the shirts, burgundy for the binding, and blue flannel for the back.

Then, after I got to Ohio and started looking at the colors next to my shirts, I started to realize that as much as I love and adore red, it was going to overwhelm the shirts – which of course are the whole point of the quilt.

Plus, red is such a bold color that it didn’t totally go with some of the shirts in the quilt… I mean, I have a fair amount of colors of shirts in the quilt. So I don’t know of anything, other than maybe black, that would actually go with every shirt.

I’m actually totally okay with that. As long as it looks good overall, I don’t really care if my main color looks slightly off when it’s next to my one or two deep red shirts or my couple of neon shirts… For the most part, it just needs to look good with blue and white since those are definitely the main shirt colors.

I thought about burgundy for a while since I could still keep the idea of red but not have it be quite so in-your-face (as much as I do love stuff that is in your face)… I even went into the quilt place thinking burgundy.

But looking at it one that time, that seemed a little too grown-up of a quilt for me. I’m not sophisticated enough for a burgundy quilt. So I finally landed on purple. I think it’s a beautiful color. I think it goes well with the majority of my shirts. I think it’s still semi-bold without being overwhelming. I like the choice a lot.

Plus, I ran for marriage equality, and purple is often used as a color to stand for equal rights. So, I thought it worked out perfectly all around.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The T-Shirts? – Part 2 (Laying Out The Quilt With The Awesome Quilt Professionals)

February 1, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I got to Ohio. And I took a little field trip to Bexley, since that’s where Keepsake Theme Quilts is located.

They have such an adorable, lovely business. I had a really fun time taking a visit. Before going, we’d washed all my t-shirts, and stuffed them in a suitcase. Upon arriving, super friendly/nice Janet took me to the basement to lay out all my quilts on their huge work table.

Since I was getting the “Runner’s Delight” quilt (the biggest one offered, holding 49 t-shirts), my squares needed to be 12 inches instead of the normal 15. They had plastic squares in both sizes so you could hold them up right over your t-shirts and see how much design you could use from each one.

(Side note: I did a few smaller/cheaper races with no t-shirts. So, 49 spaces worked perfectly!)

I had a good idea going in there of what parts of each t-shirt I wanted, but I felt even better going over it with a quilting professional who knew what would look great.

My original assumption before going over all the shirts was that I’d probably just want the front of each one. However, a surprising amount of shirts had the coolest stuff on the back. A lot of Rock ‘n’ Roll series shirts have cool stuff on the back. Big Sur marathon had something nice on the back.

Plus, some shirts had cool things on the sleeves. One of the things that’s great about Keepsake Theme Quilts is that they can take part of the front and back or things from the sleeves and put it all into one square so you get all the best parts of the shirts together.

For instance, the Halloween themed race I did in L.A. (Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles) had all the main information on the front, but this really cool-looking witch on the back. Boom. Keepsake Quilts put ’em together in the same square. Ba-bam!

So, we went though and Janet tagged each one as we talked about it, so we had everything in numerical order and the instructions were explicitly clear about which parts went in the square.

There was something slightly bittersweet about knowing all these great shirts were about to be cut up. There was a slightly stressed voice in the back of my head saying “Are you sure you got all the very best parts of every shirt?!” But I’m confident we got what we needed.

Also, I have duplicates of my very favorite shirts. I decided mid-way through the year that a quilt was something I definitely wanted. So I started trying to track down/buy extras of the shirts I adored (such as from the Indy mini).

(I’m actually wearing that one even as I type this to you – even though I’ve already given up my shirts for the quilt. Neat, huh? ;))

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The T-Shirts? – Part 1 (An Offer From a Quilt Place I Love!)

January 31, 2014

When I ran the Nationwide Children’s Columbus Half as part of my 52 half marathons in 52 weeks (in October 2012), I saw the coolest quilt place at the expo.

I wanted so badly to get a quilt from Keepsake Theme Quilts! But alas, I wasn’t done with the project. So, I took a business card and held onto it tightly until the end of my 52 half marathons.

But once that came around, I sort of got distracted (both money and time-wise) ordering photos from all the races. I also needed a week or two to kind of just decompress from the awesome year-long adventure. Plus then I did other stuff (such as The Price is Right).

I really wanted that quilt, but it kept going to the back burner. The quilt could always be made as long as I had the shirts. The photos would eventually expire. With only so much money to go around, I kept pushing off the quilt.

Then one day… as I was approaching the 1-year anniversary of the end of the 52 half marathons and really dying to wrap everything up once and for all before starting my next project… I got a tweet from Keepsake Quilts!

I kid you not. I didn’t reach out to them. They just appeared in my timeline.

Granted, I’d been thinking about them, for sure. I’d been looking at their website a bunch, trying to imagine what colors I’d want and what special features I’d need… I was thinking about them kind of a lot. Maybe my brainwaves made it across the country to them…

They tweeted me saying they heard my story and loved it and wanted to talk about making me a quilt!

I emailed them, and we had a great exchange. Sure enough, they set things up to give me a quilt I was beside myself with how serendipitously everything was working out.

I’d actually sent all my race t-shirts to my parents’ house while I was cleaning out my room so we could put them aside for the quilt. After all, the quilt place was in Ohio (which is where my parents are). And my parents have more room in a house than I do in my apartment. So they were willing to store them.

I called my parents and asked if they could tag the shirts for me. My dad kept saying “just come visit and you can tag them.”

I could see that in the end the only way my shirts were getting tagged was if I came by to do them. So, I hopped on a plane. This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The Medals? – Part 4 (Laying It Out, Picking the Colors & Such)

January 30, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, we’d decided to go with Michaels. (By “we,” I mean me and my parents who bought this for me as an awesome, wonderful Christmas present.)

When we first got the quote from Michaels, we didn’t go nuts with laying everything out, because I’d learned my lesson from last time, and didn’t want to take up another framer’s time…

We just did enough so she’d be able to give us the estimate.

Then, I took the medals back to my parent’s house, and laid them out in the shape of a 52 in chronological order. I measured it to make sure it’d fit in the 40″ x 60″ frame. Then I took a bunch of pictures so we’d all remember what it should look like.

While talking with Andrea when getting the quote, she had a great idea that we could put the actual race medals in the 52 and surround it with the 18 bonus medals.

In the end, the 52 barely fits in the frame. So, the bonus medals couldn’t surround it unless we made everything look very squished. Her recommendation (which I really liked) to fix that problem is to have two smaller frames (separate pieces) – one on each side of the big, huge 52 frame.

So, that’s the plan. As of now, we’ve only taken in the big 52 for framing. That was a big chunk of change in itself and we’re gonna see how it goes first. Assuming it turns out beautifully, then we’ll probably take the leap to finish the last two frames and be all done with it.

We laid everything out agin in the frame shop so Andrea could take her own pictures. Most of the ribbons on the medals are going to be hidden behind the mat. But we picked out some to kind of shape around the 52, so some of the more beautiful ones can be visible (and so the medals look cooler and fuller).

As far as picking out the mat, it was sort of hard to pick a background color. I generally like bold colors, but we needed to pick something at least somewhat muted to be able to show off all the medals.

I really enjoyed a purple color… and then realized it didn’t come in our huge mat size. There was a pink I loved that had the same problem. Then I landed on a dark blue. It actually goes great with the pink. So, the plan is to have the pink matting in the smaller bonus medal frames.

Also, I gave Andrea my bibs so she could cut them and line the inside of the shadowbox with them! I’m so glad I found a place for the bibs! I knew I wanted to save them, but had no idea where to put them. Now, voilà!

The frame should be coming back pretty soon. So, more on that when it’s finished. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the t-shirts and the awesome quilt.

What Did I Do With All The Medals? – Part 3 (Now Comparing Stores in Person)

January 29, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

I went to a custom framing store… The girl I’d actually gotten the quote from didn’t even work there anymore – that’s how long I’d waited.

I remember loving her on the phone. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the lovely women currently working there. But it didn’t feel the same as the fun girl from the phone.

The women seemed interested in the prospect of making a 52 with the medals and they were rendering ideas on the computer of how they’d do it. But, by the time I’d met them, I’d already been to Michaels.

Michaels is a chain arts and crafts store. Before going there, I wondered how some big retail giant could ever be as a good as a little custom framing shop. But once I got to Michaels, I met Andrea – the framing expert there.

She was amazing. She seemed so very passionate and open to ideas. Almost anything seemed possible with her. She seemed really excited about the project. I had this wonderful feeling about her. It would’ve been hard for anyone to match (or overtake) that.

So, I went to the other custom framing shop and no one could out-do Andrea.

I will say that at the custom frame shop, they said they could do two mats and shape one into a 52, then put the medals on that one. Whereas, they didn’t have the equipment needed at Michaels to shape a mat into a giant 52. But I think I actually like the idea better of just the medals themselves being the shape. So, that’s fine.

In the end, Michaels was even cheaper than the custom framing place. So, Michaels it is.

I will say my only true qualm is that the only shadowbox option (that was deep enough and could be made big enough) was a black wood frame… And I don’t really like the textured look of the frame. I mean, maybe I could’ve tried to push that harder or something. But if they don’t have any other options, then they don’t have any other options.

There was a nice smooth shadowbox frame that would fit everything… But they only had the corner of it. She called multiple places, and apparently it’s not even being made anymore?

So, it is what it is. I’m sure it still look good. I’m so excited about every single other detail about it. So I’m sure I’ll barely even notice the textured frame.

More on the layout and process of picking the mat and such tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The Medals? – Part 2 (Continuing to Call Around & Get Quotes)

January 28, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

I have 72 medals and my expensive $2,500 quote.

When I told someone who knew way more about framing than I did that it was going to cost $2,500, she said she was positive I could call around and find a better deal. Sure enough, she was right.

First, I called other places in Los Angeles. Many were still very expensive. Then I expanded my search.

My parents live in Ohio, and so many things often seem cheaper out there. So, I started calling Columbus shops. Sure enough, they were much cheaper! Ultimately, we got a quote for about $800.

It was interesting talking to different framing shops. Some seemed like they thought the project would be too hard. Some thought it would be possible with some restrictions. And some seemed excited about the challenge/possibility of such a cool, big display.

Originally, I’d said I wanted the medals in the shape of a 52. I thought that’d be cool. I dropped that idea after the first frame shop (back in L.A.) said it wasn’t feasible. But somehow that option worked its way back into my life – which I’m really happy about, because it was ultimately what I wanted.

I felt bad about dropping the old framing place after spending so much time with them. I didn’t actually commit to anything. But still, time is money. However, when I found places for 1/3 of the price excited about working on it, I had to move on.

I actually called around for estimations back in March-ish of last year (soon after the half marathons were completed). I don’t like to leave boxes of stuff (including medals) just sitting around… But, I always found other uses for money. So, it just kept getting pushed back and back.

Finally, I decided to visit Ohio this month to once and for all take care of the shirts and medals. It’s been a year since this project ended. It’s time to officially (metaphorically) tie it in a bow and put it to rest.

So, I came to Ohio and met with a couple of framers who gave the best quotes.

Before going into the stores, I thought I was going to want to go with an actual frame shop, that specialized only in framing…

But then I learned that as with oh so many things, I think framing has to do more with the people doing it than the place where that person happens to be.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

What Did I Do With All The Medals? – Part 1 (Looking Into the Framing)

January 27, 2014

Keeping the theme of talking about all the stuff from the 52 half marathons – what did I do with so many medals?

First, I took them to a frame shop in Los Angeles. And I learned a fair amount about framing there… I learned about museum glass and that the largest size a mat comes in is 60″ by 40″. So, if you don’t want any splicing in your frame, you gotta fit it in there.

I felt really, really bad because I liked that frame shop a lot. They were really nice there, and honestly spent a good deal of time with me and my medals sort of laying them out and giving ideas of how they could be displayed… And I really thought I would go with them. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t.)

Their quote was about $2,500 to frame all 72 medals in the same huge frame.

Sure, that seems steep. But when you think about it, you have to use a shadowbox frame because of the thickness of some of the medals. And you have to make so very many cuts. So the labor cost is high… I understood how it could be that expensive.

If you’re wondering on the math how I got 72 medals… In the end, I ran 55 races because I did that bonus celebration race the weekend after 52. Plus I did 2 extra throughout the year because in one I got lost and in one I started late due to a daylight savings mixup. Since I couldn’t count either of those, I had a couple extra races in there. That brings us to 55 races.

However, I elected not to put my Goofy Challenge medals in there because this medal display is going to be a behemoth! I don’t know where I’m going to move in the future or if I’m always going to have 5 feet of wall space (over 3 feet high) just hanging out where I can hang this. So I want the Goofy medals in their own frame, because that was race #52. And I should always be able to find a place to hang that. So, I’ll get the same idea without 1/2 a wall being dedicated to medals from one year of racing.

Also, the Goofy Challenge medals were so beautiful and so special that I don’t want them getting lost in the mess of all the other medals. So, I want them separate.

Mathematically, we’ve now gone from 55 races to 54 medals (since I’m keeping that Disney half separate). Then I had 18 bonus medals. (9 from the Rock ‘n’ Roll series, plus 9 other ones.) That brings us to 72. So, a lot…

How in the world are we going to frame all of them? This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

The Expenses of 52 Half Marathons – Part 6 (Was It Worth It?)

January 26, 2014

I thought that before I moved on, after so much talk of money, I should re-visit the question, “Was it worth it?”

And the answer is, I don’t know. I think you could argue either case…

Obviously, when we did the math, this whole thing cost many thousands of dollars.

Would it have been better to try and go back to Berklee, and pay for a semester of school? Would it have been better to take a ton of dance classes? (I miss dance so much!) Would it have been better to go to Tanzania, climb Kilimanjaro, and go on a safari?

Most importantly, would it have been better to use that money to try and move to New York? After all, I do talk all the time about my dreams of living on the east coast again…

So, you could make the argument that there’s a lot of other things I could’ve done with that money.

But, in the argument for the 52 half marathons…
It was a project that lasted all year. That trip to Africa would’ve been incredible. But this was a year-long adventure. So, we should take that into account.

Also, thousands of dollars were raised for a good cause through this project. Embarrassingly, and unfortunately we didn’t even raise as much as I spent. They do have thousands of dollars they wouldn’t have had otherwise. But you could make the argument they’d have been better off if I’d have just donated the money it cost to do this project…

But, there’s an argument to be made for awareness too. Many people hadn’t heard of Broadway Impact until I started doing my fundraising…

Another thing in the pro-this-project camp: I know that I learned a good deal from this project.

Plus, I definitely got catapulted back into enjoying running and healthy living. Hopefully now I’m in this habit for life, and this project was helpful in getting there.

Also, I’d never been into journaling before this. And I love that I’m finally keeping some kind of record of my life. It’s nice for me to be able to read about things I loved and remember them more vividly.

I love how many cool people I met. I love how many cool places I saw. I had a truly amazing time, and I will never forget that year of my life.

Also, here’s one more thing to think about when asking if I should’ve spent that money on something else. It wasn’t like I actually just had many thousands of dollars just sitting around thinking, “what should I do with this?” I just started the races, not planning out the expenses, and I tried to make ’em work.

A good amount of that was just put on credit cards. If it weren’t for the Price is Right, I’d still be paying them off! And I think one of the reasons I got on Price is Right is ’cause I had sort of story/hook. Maybe I would’ve made it on without that. But we’ll never really know.

So, if I was only able to afford the races, really, because of Price is Right – and I only got on Price is right because of the races – that becomes a loop for how it all works together…

So, I don’t know… The question of whether it was worth it doesn’t even necessarily need to be asked because it happened. It’s over. Everybody survived. It was great and fun. So, there you have it.

The Expenses of 52 Half Marathons – Part 5 (And Then There Are Photos and Medal Mounts and Such – More Expenses I Didn’t Think About)

January 25, 2014

Aurora jumping in the air at Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas 2012
Yes, it cost a lot of money to have these photos – but… not to get all Mastercard commercial here… but the memories (when seeing them) are priceless

So, it was already expensive just to make it through the races.

But what I never thought about while thinking of all the costs of travel and registrations was all the other things that weren’t totally necessary (but would be great) that would come up.

Think about the photos!!!

I barely bought any of the pro photos during the year, ’cause I just didn’t have the extra money to go around… or even really the time to worry about them. By the time they’d come out, it’d be on to the next race.

But then, once the year was over, it was a race to get to the photos before they all expired. If I did this huge project, I’d love to have a lot of documentation of it.

And of course, I did with personal photos and blog entries and such. But there’s something nice about having the pro ones too.

Between 52 races, I’m sure at least over $2,000 was spent on photos. I believe 6 of the races did free photos. Some had very cheap options. I ended up waiting for sales on some of the races, which was very helpful. My family bought me some as Christmas presents – also very helpful.

But the money adds up so quickly. For most races, I tried to just pick one or maybe a few that did the trick. But for races that really mattered (my dad’s first half, the Goofy Challenge), or races where there were just a bunch of pictures I liked, I got the whole shebang. That can be over $100 in some instances (though usually I think it’s more around $60 – 80).

Aurora, wearing a lai, jumping at the finish line of the Malibu Half Marathon 2012
(Well, if I paid to have all these pictures, might as well post another one here, huh?)

But for most races, even if you just want one photo you’re gonna end up spending about $30, because that’s the price of one digital download (their way of trying to convince you more is a better deal – which totally worked on me more than once).

You can get prints, which are cheaper. But a) you’re adding a hassle to your life. I went with prints sometimes. But they never look as good scanned in. And you have to get them all scanned in, and it’s a whole thing… Digital is way better when you can afford it (in my opinion).

b) You still have to pay shipping and handling, my friend!

So, there was that big expense.

There’s also the expense of what you’re gonna do with the stuff! Are you gonna frame your medals? Are you gonna quilt your t-shirts? I feel like just taking care of the stuff becomes expensive in itself. But since this next bit of time is dedicated to talking all about what I did with all that stuff, we will get into that soon enough, my friends!

The Expenses of 52 Half Marathons – Part 4 (Lovely People Helping Me Out (Thanks!))

January 24, 2014

Aurora with a big smile holding up her medal at Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans 2012
Amazing Wendy and Marty paid for a hotel room here, helping to make it possible for me to happily experience New Orleans – where I’d never been before!

I do just want to give one big shout out to everyone who helped me during this project.

As I looked at my little spreadsheet while writing this post, I saw a couple names that warmed my heart because of how much I adore the people.

In places where people drove me or let me stay with them, I put their name instead of a dollar amount. And even going back to the very beginning and my awesome friend Taylor, I thought, “I adore her! I couldn’t be happier that this project started with her…

And then I was sad ’cause now she lives even farther away from me. But such is life, I suppose.

I almost feel bad since I just talked (yesterday) about some of the money was foolishly spent.

I even forgot about a wasted race entry – which didn’t count toward my total – after I registered for Providence and didn’t make it with my buddy pass… Should I have tried to go to the airport a day earlier? Questions I ask myself when resources get sort of wasted… Granted, I did totally use that buddy pass for Denver. But I bought an extra race entry in the process (and missed out on Providence). *exhales at my choices from the year*… But even though I can pick it apart… Again, I reiterate, I made it through. So, yay for that! Right?

I like to believe that when people are helping me that I’m smartly using the resources they’re offering. So, when I make bad decisions on some races when it comes to money, it makes me feel bad.

But, everyone who did help me had a really open heart about it and I appreciate each one of them so much. And every time I see the people’s names if I ever look back on this spreadsheet of blog posts, I can’t imagine a time when it won’t make me smile. So, huge props to everyone who did help me.

(And if it makes you feel any better, even though I have a couple of instances of foolish money spending, I have a lot more of good money spending. There were just some forehead-palm (like in the V8 commercial) moments. But we’ve covered them. They’re over. And I like the think they stick out ’cause they were different – not the norm.

I have one more post tomorrow.

The Expenses of 52 Half Marathons – Part 3 (Some Expensive Trips (and Some Foolish Travel Mistakes))

January 23, 2014

Aurora jumping with ocean in the background at the Big Sur half marathon 2012
Tripped up on this race – spending too much with some poor planning/last-second-decision-making… But at least it was an incredibly fun race (and expo!). I don’t regret doing this one at all… Just wish I woulda done it cheaper. (Next time!)

Picking up from yesterday –

I was picking out a couple of specific trips to talk about.

My second most expensive trip was surprisingly the Seattle Quadzilla. Between the rental car and expensive plane tickets, that trip cost about $1,000! (And I even had a free place to stay on that trip!) So, that definitely surprised me when I saw that amount.

Of course, I did do 4 races that weekend. So, if you average that out, it’s not so bad after all…

The race where I most foolishly spent money was Big Sur. It cost $521.86. But I think I picked the wrong hotel, because while I got one that was close, you couldn’t actually walk to the start because of a highway or something. And even though I had a rental car, there was not a ton of parking around there. So I sort of think I may have taken a cab… I’ll have to go back and read the post. But I definitely didn’t pick the right hotel…

But way more importantly than that, I decided to fly all the way to San Francisco. But the drive down in my rental car was so far that I realized it would’ve made more sense to just drive up, which would’ve saved me a round trip plane ticket.

Everything worked out and it was fine. But that trip could’ve absolutely been less expensive.

Another foolish race was the North Carolina half. I had a wonderful time. Because of that, perhaps it wasn’t foolish. However, there was another race in New York (which is where I was staying at the time) that very same weekend. Why did I spend over $300 for lodging and plane tickets to North Carolina when I could’ve done the one in New York?

Aurora in the finisher area of the North Carolina Half Marathon 2012, holding up her finisher medal with a big open mouth smile
I didn’t need to go to North Carolina – but I did meet some wonderful people, and get an incredibly sweet medal. So, it was pretty great, and kinda worth the money to me…

At the time, I hand’t really mapped out all the expenses. I’d recently gotten my tax refund and felt I could splurge. I really wanted that sweet medal that lights up and has moving parts.

Also, the New York race was part of a series. And I didn’t want to do that because I felt, “What’s the point of doing one if I’m not going to finish the series? And I don’t want to travel 4 more times to make not traveling this once worth it.”

Of course, in real life, I could’ve done it and not done the series. But that wasn’t my thinking at the time…

So, that’s where some foolish mistakes were made. But, then I cut corners later. (Some cutting might’ve actually been a bit foolish too, because it leaves you tired and stuff. But obviously I made it through. So doing it without spending as much money as I did in the ones I just mentioned, I would say overall was a good choice.

And I’ll talk more about the expenses tomorrow.

The Expenses of 52 Half Marathons – Part 2 (There Was Some Food, Shoes & Lodging Too – (and I Didn’t Need to Travel Quite So Much… But I Loved That I Did! ;)))

January 22, 2014

Aurora jumping in the air by the start/finish line of the Atlantic City April Fool's Half 2012
almost all the way across the country – at the April Fools’ half in Atlantic City

Picking up from yesterday –

So, we’ve got the race registrations and the plane tickets. Add in some rental cars, bus trips, and such and you’ve seen why the transportation ended up costing more than the registrations.

Although, I will admit – especially for someone whose base was in SoCal, I didn’t need to travel that much.

I did it because I loved getting away, and I loved experiencing new things. Also, I figured if I was already doing that many races, I might as well get as many bonus medals as possible. So, that involved a number of out-of-state Rock ‘n’ Roll races. Also, there was the trip to Florida for Disney Princess.

Plus, I wanted to be at my dad’s first half marathon – which meant flying more than halfway across the country to do so. So, there was a lot of traveling that I didn’t have to do – though I loved doing it…

The other main cost would be lodging. I was lucky and often stayed with friends or had a couple people gift me hotel rooms. So, that could’ve been a way worse number. But that’s the other main expense you’d need to factor in if you were to plan an adventure like this.

There’s also the cost of food and shoes… Food didn’t really seem to be that much more or less expensive than if I’d just been at home. Plus, you can bring a lot of nutrition bars and such from home. Not to mention, that a lot of expos actually give out some free food. Many finish lines give you enough free food that you could basically make it through lunch that day.

Aurora kissing her dad on the cheek at the finish of the Indianapolis Mini Marathon 2012
It was so important to me to be at my dad’s first half marathon (and totally worth the cost to fly to the Midwest)

So, as far as I could tell, the cost of food wasn’t a huge issue for me. (Food became a little hard while I was on a vegan challenge because you have to be so specific. But, for a non-restricted diet, there didn’t seem to be any big problems.)

As far as the shoes were concerned, I probably only rotated through about 3 – 4 pairs throughout the year, which many normal runners to anyway. So that also wasn’t a huge deal.

My most expensive trip, not surprisingly was the Goofy Challenge. I got a great deal on our Disney resort. Nonetheless, between the expensive registration, many nights in a Disney resort, and the flight across the country, I spent about $1,400 on that trip.

(And my dad even bought all the food! So none of that expensive Disney food is factored in. Also, I didn’t even go to the parks (outside of the races). So no park tickets are factored in either.)

I’ll talk about a couple more specific trips tomorrow.

The Expenses of 52 Half Marathons – Part 1 (Whoa – Looking at the Expenses of Registrations & Travel)

January 21, 2014

Aurora running in a red shirt with her hands up on a fairly empty street at Run Montecito-Summerland
Run Montecito-Summerland gave me a free entry. (And I’m oh so grateful!)

One of the questions I get most often is “how much did that cost?!”

After some thought, I’ve decided it’s probably not smart to divulge so much personal financial information as to put up an entire spreadsheet with every cost. But since people are so curious and possibly want to do this themselves, I’ll happily give you a little larger window into the cost of everything.

The total cost of all the registrations was $5,354.42. I estimated that it was probably an average of $100/race, which is actually a little lower than what it came out to.

In the end, I actually ran 55 because I threw in 3 extra – one because of a late start due to a daylight savings phone setting malfunction (so I ended up cutting part of the course and can’t count that as an official race), one because I got lost on the course on a small race and accidentally cut a bit out, and one because I started with Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona and thought it would be nice to end there. The following year it fell one week later, so it couldn’t be my final race. But I still did it as a “celebration race.”

Also, just for the record, I did get one comped entry and one half price entry. If you factor that in, we’re basically right at $5,500, which is what I assumed it would end up coming out to. Though, the Goofy Challenge is included in that. So, there was a fun extra full marathon I’m not taking into account in the equation of 55 half marathons.

So, that was the cost of the registrations alone. The cost of transportation outdid the cost of just the registrations. Flights alone totaled over 3/4 of what I spent on race registrations. (And I even used points for one of them!) I didn’t realize I flew so much or that it was so expensive until I looked at it for this post.

I don’t know if I waited too long in many instances here to buy my ticket, or if it cost more because I was flying in for big marathon weekends… Of course, sometimes it just cost a lot because I flew far distances. I flew all the way to the other side of the country (Florida) twice(!)

Aurora De Lucia posing in a very excited way after the finish of the Seattle Half Marathon 2012
at least Seattle was incredibly fun – even if it was expensive

I was still surprised to see my money spend on flights was in the thousands… To go up to Seattle for the Quadzuki (4 half marathons in 4 days), it cost $513.20. Just to go to Seattle! Of course, that was flying in the day before Thanksgiving and leaving at the end of the holiday weekend. So, there you have it, I suppose.

I didn’t even believe I actually spend that until I went back and looked at the receipt. Sure enough, it truly was that expensive.

My most expensive flight was actually for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Half Marathon. It cost $328.60 just for the CMH > LAX part! I don’t remember why in the world that weekend was so expensive…

So, if I wondered for a moment how in the world I spent thousands of dollars on flights, it quickly became apparent when those two weekends (Seattle & Columbus) totaled over $1,000 just by themselves. Throw in two trips to Florida (from Los Angeles), an additional trip or two to the midwest/east coast, plus some trips to pretty close states (either that surround me, or that were close to states I was already in (e.g. when I flew to North Carolina from New York)) and I see how it quickly escalates to over four grand.

Whew! We’ll talk more tomorrow about which trips all in were most expensive and some costs I didn’t really think about until I did it…

Wrapping Up 52 Half Marathons

January 20, 2014

Wow, it’s been a whole year since I finished running 52 half marathons in 52 weeks.

A year ago today, I flew home from my bonus, celebratory 53rd race in Arizona.

It’s time to finally tie this all up in a bow and move on to another fun project. So, let’s hit anything we haven’t already… We’ll delve a bit more into the money aspect. I’ll talk about how surprisingly hard it was to keep track of/sort all the photos. We’ll talk about what I did with the medals, t-shirts, & bibs. And I’ll talk a bit about what I learned.

So, that’s what we’ll be talking about here until the end of the month. If you have any questions about the 52 half marathons, now would be a perfect time to ask them. (Of course, you’re welcome to ask them anytime. But now would be lovely…)

Looking forward to talking about all this with you tomorrow!

New Year’s Race 2014 – Part 4

January 8, 2014

(Here's a picture from the expo while I wait for the pro pics to come out.)
(Here’s a picture from the expo while I wait for the pro pics to come out.)

Picking up from yesterday –

After my phone went flying out of my pocket, I just left it there! That was probably wildly stupid because, you know, it’s an iPhone. But I was like “meh, it’s backed up. It’s locked with a passcode. I have ‘find my iPhone.’ I’m upgrading in a week anyway. I have to finish this race under 3 hours!”

So I just keep running, not even breaking my stride. I cross the finish and I just every so slightly want to throw up a little. (I know that’s ridiculous for such a slow half marathon time, but for me, I was working really hard!) But don’t worry. I did not throw up at all.

I tried to keep it together as much as possible. If for no other reason, because people were watching. And I’ve heard from people who watching runners accomplish a half or full marathon is what makes them want to try it, because seeing all those excited finishers is so inspiring. But I heard from one person that they went to a finish and saw everyone throwing up and breaking down and it made them never want to do it. And I can’t be the vision in someone’s mind that makes them not want to run.

Not to mention, even if I had wanted to vomit, there was no time for that! I turned around immediately, walking outside the finish line, and I went and grabbed my phone (which thankfully was still there). Then I went back to the finish, grabbed some water, and got focused on finding the results booth. I was so ready to see that I had done it. I knew I had to be close!

I looked at the results that had been posted. Some around 3 hours had already been posted. There was a person in the booth who checked for people if the person’s results weren’t up yet. I asked about mine. She told me 3 hours and 44 seconds.

(I’ve been saying everywhere that I was 44 seconds off because that number stuck so hard in my mind and hurt so much. But technically, since I wanted to beat 3 hours, I was actually 45 seconds off for those of you keeping score at home.)

I don’t know if I started my app at the wrong time, or if it malfunctioned ’cause I have a very old phone on it’s last leg (that I’m upgrading soon). But the point is, I didn’t make it in time.

I took some upset pictures in the parking lot, then went home and jumped in the shower pretty much groaning the whole time. Who really knows whether it was because my body was sore or because I kept hearing “44 seconds” over and over in my head?

I did go on to realize later that I improved my time on this race from last year by over 46 minutes. (And everyone seems to agree the course changes made this year tougher.) So, that’s good. But keep in mind, last year, I was saving myself for the Goofy Challenge happening the following week. So, it’s not like I’m actually comparing the same amount of effort…

And while we’re talking about my failures with this race, I also totally mucked up social media-wise. Totally didn’t check in on Foursquare (because I always forget to check in, always – which we will talk about later this week). I also was talking to this guy in my corral before we started. I said that I still wasn’t totally getting the hang of instagram and that only one person had liked my pre-race photo.

He was all, “Did you use the official hashtag?” And I hadn’t! I’m a twitter nut. I’m all about hashtags. Why didn’t I think they’d be important on instagram?! But the difference between twitter and instagram is that I could just go comment a hashtag, and it still works. So, we fixed that up. And my pre-race photo ultimately got 17 likes! 🙂

(My post-race one got 37!)

So, onward we trek. Even though I failed this time around, the good news is I definitely see and feel improvement, and all this race really was, was a way to check in with my L.A. Marathon training. Based on these results, I’d say I’m pretty confident in my March goals!

New Year’s Race 2014 – Part 3 (From Dodger Stadium to the Finish)

January 7, 2014

Lying in the parking lot after being 44 seconds off. (This will have to do until the pro photos come out.)
Lying in the parking lot after being 44 seconds off. (This will have to do until the pro photos come out.)

Picking up from yesterday –

At the mile 9 mile marker, according to the running app I was using, I was at 2 hours and 2 minutes. I almost shed a tear because I was seeing how possible 3 hours was.

The tough uphills were finished and I was just going to do my best to jog out most of the rest of the race.

I was fading a bit. So, I did do a mix of speed-walking/jogging in a couple of those miles. But I just kept trying to push.

I will say that I can absolutely see my improvement. I was definitely able to push more and feel less fatigued than in previous halfs – which is especially awesome because of the challenging nature of this course!

Nonetheless, it was getting somewhat hard…

I get to mile marker 12. All I have to do is keep a pace of slightly under a 14-minute mile for this last 1.1, and I am golden!

I’m running along. I keep telling myself, “Whatever you do, do not walk a single step in this last 1.1. It is only one and one-tenth of a mile. You can easily do that without walking. Do not walk one single step here, Aurora.

And I don’t! I jog the whole way. As I’m getting closer to the finish, I check my running app. I see I only have 4 minutes left to make my goal. So I put on the incredibly inspiring “The World’s Greatest” by R. Kelly. That song is my jam!

Yeah, R. Kelly! I am a mountain! I am a tall tree! I am the world’s greatest. Sing it to me!

That song is 3 minutes and 41 seconds long. I knew if I finished before that song ended, I had to be golden.

One of the amazing things about doing a race right in my neighborhood is that I actually knew where I was. I barely ever have any sense of direction or how close things are. But once we turned on 11th and started hitting Grand and Olive and all of that, I knew where Flower was! So I could actually sort of gauge how things were going.

I hit mile marker 13 with 2 minutes to spare! I only need to do .1 miles in 2 minutes?! This is mine!

I turn the corner on Flower going toward 12th. I see the finish line! R. Kelly isn’t even to that repeat-y part of the song toward the end. I’m still in the verses. This is mine.

I am really tired at this point. I want to walk just a couple of steps, but I have promised myself that I will not! So I don’t. I just put my eyes up to the finish line. And I tell myself to just keep looking right at that point. It’s gonna get closer and closer and once you go underneath it, you can walk if you want.

At this point, not far at all from the finish, my phone flies out of my pocket!

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

New Year’s Race 2014 – Part 2

January 6, 2014

Aurora smiling for her special event aheadPicking up from yesterday –

Mile one was crowded! I wondered, “Is this race much bigger than I thought, and are we gonna be packed in here for another few miles still? But as soon as we got to the 5k turnaround, the field thinned immediately.

As far as the idea that maybe I’d even out my pace a bit in mile two… I kept up a somewhat quick (for me) and consistent with the first mile pace. I was feeling good. So, let’s just see what happens. As we went on, we started going uphill. I tried speed-walking the uphills and jogging everything else.

There were SO very many inclines. I’d think, “this has to be the last hill for a while.” But then we’d turn a corner, and wouldn’t you know it? There’s another one.

I probably looked like a crazy person to the people running in the opposite direction in every turnaround because I just put on my best popstar face and tried to act like I was in very dramatic music videos to keep me going up those hills as fast as possible.

People think L.A. is flat. (Mainly it does seem that way.) But boy oh boy, go to the right areas of downtown and it feels like I’m prepping for Kilimanjaro!

So, we get to Dodger Stadium. I’m slowing down a bit on that uphill on the way in, but a 3 hour half still seems in my grasp.

Side note to the planners of the New Year’s Race if they ever read this post: I saw a bunch of people stop on the way into the parking lot of Dodger Stadium turn around right underneath that sign that says, “Welcome to Dodger Stadium” – to be clear again, the one welcoming you to the parking lot (and you can see the stadium uphill in the background) as opposed to the stadium itself – practically everyone by me turned around under that sign and stopped to get a picture of her or himself underneath it…

But here’s the thing. We run around and come out underneath the same sign. So, if you had a photographer right there, no one would stop on the way into the parking lot, knowing the photographer was gonna capture their moment under that sign on the way out…

Also, while I’m talking about perhaps possible improvements from a runner’s perspective (sorry, not to be too judge-y about it) – there were multiple water stops in which the tables were set up on the opposite side of the road than the one you’d be on if you were correctly running all your tangents. So, I’d recommend thinking about the placement of those tables – or it might work out nicely to have them on both sides of the street instead of just one. So, that’s my two cents.

Getting back to my race, somewhere around the Dodger Stadium secret behind-the-parking-lot place, I saw the 3:00 pacer. He was still far enough behind me that I felt comfortable-ish (’cause I saw him coming the other way on the turnaround…) But nonetheless, I saw him. So, I sped up.

I ran through the stadium, which was cool. Everyone was stopping to take pictures in there. But people were good about getting as close to the sides as possible so those who wanted to run through could continue doing so.

All I was doing was focusing, “don’t slow down!” I wanted to catch the 2:50 pacer and I wanted to exit that stadium before 3:00 entered it. (Thankfully, I got out of there before he got in. And I caught up with 2:50 in the parking lot.) I was so intent, I didn’t even notice they had professional photographers in the stadium. So, good positioning there! Thanks for getting those photos (and staying out of runners’ ways in such a tight space!).

I’ll pick up here tomorrow.

New Year’s Race 2014 – Part 1 (Ow)

January 5, 2014

Ow. Oh, the pain of missing my goal.
Ow. Oh, the pain of missing my goal.

Let’s rip the band-aid off and get to the tough part first.

I wanted to finally do my first sub 3-hour after having open-heart surgery. (Yeah, yeah. I know it was almost 4 years ago and I should be doing ultra-marathons and such now… I’m working on it!)

So, I wanted to finally do a sub 3. Time: 3 hours and 44 seconds!!!

Ouch.

Okay, now let’s talk about the race. (Let me just mention, that I thought I made it in under 3. So, I’m gonna tell the story from my perspective, and you can come along disappointment trail with me! :-))

I did everything right leading up to this. I’ve been training a lot, and seeing improvement. It’s slow, but it’s forward-moving. Overall, I think that’s what matters.

I got a great night’s sleep before the race. I’ve been generally restricting my calories, because I’m trying to lose weight. But the day before the race, I bumped them up to store some extra energy. I thought I gave myself a good mix of mainly carbs, but throwing protein in there.

I drank a bit of pickle juice before the race, ’cause I noticed that helps my endurance on longer runs. (I think that’s due to the sodium.)

I stretched out great – not over-doing it, but totally limber and ready for a long run. I got to the start line with enough time to spare so that I wasn’t rushed, but not so early that I was just standing around forever.

I prepped that a real half-marathoner! And I was ready, baby!

Aurora crying out why in pain of being 44 seconds offI started in the same corral as the 2:50 pacer. My goal was to keep her in my sights as long as I possibly could and to always keep the 3 hour pacer in my rearview. As far as I was concerned in this race, he was something I just wanted to run away from. It was as if a big giant dog was holding that 3:00 sign. (Obviously, with my huge fear of dogs, if a dog catches up to me, I die. So this was serious business.)

I kept the 2:50 girl in my sights almost ’til we hit mile 9. A bit after mile 8, I caught up to running alongside of her. Anyone who had been running with her fell off a while ago. So, she was just running basically alone at this point. (Though it did look like a friend she knew came over to say hi at one point.)

Anyway, I ran up beside her and said, “I know no one’s running with you anymore. But just know, I’ve been watching you this whole time and having you in my sights has helped immensely. So, thank you!” She seemed really happy about that.

But let’s back up again to the beginning of the race.

Before the race, I wondered, should I just try to stick with the 3-hour pacer, or should I go it alone? Obviously, I ultimately decided to go it alone – which I don’t regret at all. We could make an argument that maybe he could’ve gotten me there. But there were lots of hills in this race. And because the incline was constantly changing, I liked being totally in control of my pace.

But in the very first mile, I went out fast (for me). I was only a bit over 11 minutes. And I thought, “Did I make a huge mistake not running with a pacer because I’m going out so fast?!” But then I thought, “I train all the time. I know what I’m doing. Everything is fine. Let’s see if I can be slightly more controlled in mile 2.

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

New Year’s Race 2014 Expo

January 4, 2014

Aurora holding bib upside down at expoAs it was last year, this seems to be one of the smallest expos around.

I suppose that makes sense ’cause it’s a pretty small race…

Covered California – our state health insurance exchange was out in droves! They had two different booths set up and additional people in other places handing out flyers… They really, really, really want us to get some health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, baby.

I thought it was nice that they sent so many real people to answer questions about health insurance. And I hope some people got some health insurance!

Also, there was this organic fruit/vegetable delivery service straight from local farmers that seemed cool. But then I read reviews online and it said the food comes with tons of bugs in it/everywhere around it. And I thought, “I get that it’s pesticide free and stuff. But I don’t want an insect invasion in my house, and I’m pretty sure my roommate doesn’t either.”

The OC Marathon/Half Marathon booth was there. I told the race director I’d done his race in 2012 – the day after flying in from the Indy 500 Festival. He said he’d heard that was one of the best half marathons in the country. Then I felt sort of bad because my face lit up ’cause I completely agree with that sentiment. It is SUCH a good race! But you don’t want to be flaunting that to some other race director.

I did tell him that I loved about the mile markers in his race, with all the reasons why people run. He said I had a great memory for recalling that. (I do like to think I have a good memory, but it also helped that I blogged about it and recently finished sorting all my pictures from those races…)

The one thing that was almost exciting was that the announcer guy on the stage was giving away something to whomever’s birthday was closed to June 22. (I have no idea why they picked that random day.) I went over and said I was June 25… But someone else was the 20th. Agh! Just barely missed it.

Then I found out they were just giving away some protein shakes I’d never heard of. So, I was fine with it.

They played awesome music at the expo. Every song that came on was basically my jam.

So, a quick expo. Then it was time to get ready for the run which we’ll talk about tomorrow.

Oklahoma City Kindness

December 18, 2013

Aurora excited and happy with a snowballI mentioned how kind people in Oklahoma City are in the last post. But really, the kindness and politeness is to such a ridiculous level, that it must get its own post.

I just can’t even… There are no examples I can write that are going to truly give you an idea of what it feels like to be in that city. Get on a plane and go experience it yourself. Really. Go now. It might just change who you are.

Every single person we met was overly kind and thoughtful. We walked through the convention center to get to/from the game just so we could walk in a warm area. Lots of people did this. So, it was fairly crowded. And some random man starting holding the door open (even though that meant he stood in the cold for longer) just because, you know, it’s Oklahoma City.

When the people next to me at the game got up to grab a snack, the man very kindly asked (re: my awesome (mostly eaten) baked potato that they sell at super cool Chesapeake Arena), “Would you like me to throw that away for you?”

At the airport, leaving, my flight was delayed by hours. My dad and I went to the airport early, ’cause he said if possible I should try and get on another flight to make sure I wasn’t late for work on Monday. As I was talking to the ticketing agent, my dad was returning the rental car. She said a flight left in half an hour. I mentioned, “Oh, I’ll have to run… I wanted to say goodbye to my dad.”

And in true Oklahoma City fashion, she sweetly said, “I’ll print off an extra copy of your itinerary and give it to him when he comes up here so he knows where you are.” It was so cute! Like I was 17 or something and my dad would still worry about me. (Of course, I’m pretty sure my dad still does sometimes worry about me just as much as he did back then (if not more).)

Even on the plane, when I was going home… since I was one of the last to be booked on that flight, I was in the C group to board. All that was left were middle seats. I hate asking people if I can sit in the center seat because you know how people like to have as much room as possible on planes. But when I asked the two guys in that row, the kind older gentleman in the aisle said, “We’d be honored!” He jumped up from his seat and immediately asked if he could help me put anything in the overhead bin.

(I have 2 pictures loving the snow... because I really, really loved it.)
(I have 2 pictures loving the snow… because I really, really loved it.)

I looked at him and said, “You’re from here, aren’t you?” He said, “How did you know?” I can tell! He’s got that Oklahoma City feeling!

Backing up to when I was checking out of the hotel, the guy at the desk was all, “Are you a Starwood Rewards member?” I said no. And he was all, “Oh, we’ve gotta change that right now! We can take your wi-fi off the bill.” (I get that that’s just awesome customer service that you may be able to find elsewhere… But still. It seemed in the same OKC kindness vein to me.

Also, at the hotel desk, he asked “Did you enjoy your stay?” I said, “Psh! Enjoy is an understatement! This has been one of the best trips of my life!”

We also ended up talking a bit about the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon they have at the end of every April. (I found out about it with all the marathoning stuff in the gift shop in the museum.) I said I was going to have to do that race. He said, “We’re the host hotel for that race!”

Of course you are. Of course the dopest hotel in the dopest city (well, besides NYC, but that goes without saying) is the host hotel for what’s almost certainly one of the dopest marathons.

Suffice it to say, I will absolutely be back. (I may or may not have snuck a peek at some apartments online.)

When I arrived back at LAX, immediately I saw people shoving each other, not paying any attention to anyone around them, smoking cigarettes in crowds with absolutely no regard for other human beings. Ah, home sweet home.

Pacers vs. Thunder Game

December 17, 2013

Daddy and me posing at the gameI can’t very well talk at such length about the yearly Daddy/daughter trip without mentioning the main event.

We got totally trounced. The Pacers lost. By kind of a lot. Which is a bummer, because we rolled into that arena as the best team in the league so far in the year…

But, let’s talk about all the fun parts of the game. First off, I won’t get into this too much now because there’s a post on it tomorrow. But, everyone was SO nice.

My dad was joking about how when we went to New York, the fans would be screaming things such as “We will murder you! Then we will rip apart your body and feed you to the rats in the subway!”

And in Oklahoma City everyone has the attitude more of, “We sincerely hope that we win so we can show off our pride for this great city. But you know what, you’re a worthy opponent and honestly we’re just hoping for a great game.”

Even though I had my Pacers hat on, the crowd took us in as though we were one of their own. The guy next to my dad randomly picked up snacks for us when he went to the concession stand. The guy behind us was dying to catch a t-shirt. I was so happy for him when he finally did. And when I turned around to give him a little applause and wink of approval, he tried to hand it to me!

I was all, “Oh no. I couldn’t.” And his dad(?) said, “Young lady, this is a gift of friendship! Don’t turn away that gift.” Well, okay then. If you insist!

Oh, and backing up to the beginning of the game, two things happened here that my dad and I hadn’t yet seen in our decade and a half of visiting different arenas. For one thing, the game started with a prayer! (A prayer. In a public basketball arena.) I was honestly flabbergasted. I literally cannot imagine them starting something at the Staples Center with a prayer. I’m not judging Oklahoma City for doing it. I’m just saying I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Then, once the game started, the entire crowd stayed standing until the Thunder scored their first basket! (They do that at every game in OKC.) That’s how much the fans want to show their solidarity to the team. I loved it!

What a sweet, sweet city. Even if our team lost (by a lot), it was still an incredibly fun game.

And I’ll finish out talking about Oklahoma City tomorrow.

Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

December 13, 2013

NY's with OKC (and Seinfeld's in the background)In OKC, there is a memorial and museum re: the Oklahoma City bombing from the early ’90s. When I asked around as to what we should do on our vacation, everyone said we had to go there. Even at the hotel when my dad was inquiring what we should do, everyone said that was a spot we had to hit.

At first I thought, “Do I really want to go to a museum about a bombing, because that sounds really sad and serious and not vacation-y.” But, finally we were convinced and we went.

Now, we were all about picture-taking and memory-making on this trip. So, when we got there, my dad asked if I wanted my picture next to the main entrance. But I have learned from the internet! You never take photos at serious places because if you do, you will wind up being mercilessly ridiculed on tumblr.

But, we did take some photos of the memorabilia (as you can see in this post). I actually knew nothing about the bombing because (though I think it’s rude to bring attention to my youth, it’s just a fact that) I wasn’t news aware when I was just a child. (And for whatever reason, I never went back and read about it as an adult…)

So, it was interesting for me to learn a story I did not know.

Also, the museum was very engaging because they way they set everything up, you really felt like you were being transported back to 1995 when it happened. It led you through the events of the day. They even have you start by going in a room where they play a meeting that was happening in that building at 9am – 2 minutes before the bombing. Then a sound occurs and the lights flickr as though you’re actually in the meeting. So, I feel like that kind of helps open your eyes and set the tone for the rest of the museum.

Medal of ValorAt the end of the museum, there were all these glass boxes – 1 for each victim. And in each box/case, it had a photo at the back. And the case was filled with whatever else the family decided to fill it with. And I imagined trying to define people by one case. How do you fit someone’s whole life into basically a square foot? Can you imagine trying to be the family member doing that?

There were some cases where I thought, “This was this person’s life?” For instance, one just had glasses. I had no idea how glasses could define a person. But, there was a computer with the stories of all the victims and why their family chose the pieces they chose. The man with the glasses had been a government undercover agent for many years and that was part of one of his favorite disguises. It’s amazing what little things can mean when you get the story behind them.

I could tell my dad was really moved by the museum as well. He’s not one who’s much for souvenirs, or really any extra stuff in his life. But he bought us both t-shirts. Mine says, “live, laugh, love.” I think that’s one of the messages the museum was really trying to impart. You never know what’s going to happen. So, in the now, make sure you live, laugh, and love.

National Cowboy Museum

December 12, 2013

Daddy and Aurora outside the front statue at National Cowboy MuseumOn day two of the annual Daddy/daughter trip, we headed to the National Cowboy Museum!

When you’re in Oklahoma City, how can you not?

Things I learned at the museum:

– Cowboys in some areas wore special extra protection around their feet while riding horses. (I had no idea.) There was a special name for those things… Daddy, do you remember what it is?

– People pay a LOT of money for art. The paintings in some of the galleries were for sale, and many had the bought dot. Someone paid over $40,000 for a painting.

The best part of the museum was this place called “Prosperity Junction.” It was SO cool! In fact, that was the tip I left on foursquare – that you must check out prosperity junction. (And, dearest reader, if you don’t follow me on foursquare, you can click that link and do it. I would love you even more than I already do, which I know seems barely possible.)

So, Prosperity Junction is this crazy super realistic life-like display of an early 1900s town. There are fake life-size horses. There’s a church you can go into. You can go in the photo studio and other places. And there are real sounds coming out of everything! There are a bunch of creepy sounds coming from the back of the train yard. It all sounds (and therefore feels) so real!

We also got a bunch of really fun pictures with statues. (If you want to see them all, you can check out my album either on flickr or Facebook – whichever is your network of choice).

Then we went to another museum, which I will talk about tomorrow.

Santa’s Adventures… (Or Not!)

December 11, 2013

Aurora in the limo 2After our amazing trip to Leo’s BBQ, I my dad and I headed out for Santa’s Adventures!

Earlier in the week, I’d been looking up stuff to do in Oklahoma City, and I couldn’t stop taking about the santa thing after I’d found it.

What are Santa’s Adventures, you ask? Well, there’s Santa ziplining – while ziplining, you try to drop a present into a chimney!

There’s the North Pole Climb – you climb up on SandRidge Sky Trail, then go down a 72-foot slide.

There’s the Candy Cane Rock Wall. It’s basically just a normal indoor rock wall, but Christmas-y, and you get a candy cane if you reach the top.

There are a couple more things. You can read about them in the link…

So, how amazingly fun was all of that adventure-y awesomeness? Well, I can’t tell you because it was CLOSED!

My dad and I went down to the lobby to grab a cab. The concierge was all, “We can call a cab or you can jump in this limo because the driver is doing rides for gratuities only.” What? Count us in!

sleeping at 645 pmSo, we jumped in our limo like Oklahoma City ballers just to get there and be told that all of Santa’s Adventures were closed due to weather. There was also awesome snow-tubing nearby, but the woman at Santa’s Adventures said that was closed too.

We sadly went back to the hotel, and I fell asleep almost immediately (since I’m on a crazy sleep schedule and being awake all day had been rough…) My dad took a picture to make fun of me going to bed at 6:45pm. It was like we were at the Goofy Challenge all over again!

While we were bummed about Santa’s Adventures, there were more adventures to be had the next day, which we will talk about tomorrow.

Leo’s BBQ

December 10, 2013

Aurora and Daddy posing at Leo's BBQ tableI could never do as much justice to this story as my dad can. I wish I had a tape of my dad’s impression of the waitress – better yet, I wish I had a tape of our actual waitress.

Anyway, our waitress was hilarious because while she was extremely kind and lovely, she was so straight and to the point. When we got there and asked her what to get, she told us we needed to get this platter that had the different meats on there and she’d throw in an extra slice of cake. And that was the end of the discussion. She basically just walked away and got that for us.

Later, when we were talking about Leo and the restaurant. Apparently, Leo’s dead because she told us so straightforward and matter-of-factly, “Leo’s dead.” Again, I can’t really explain this interesting woman without being able to do the inflections. Just call my dad. He’ll do it for it you.

It was an interesting little place because it seemed like a pretty small, not fancy building. I don’t know that it would’ve caught my eye. But my dad had looked for places to eat in OKC and heard about this from one of his friends. I loved that he knew sort of an Oklahoma City secret. We got to eat like super cool locals.

Food = delicious. Service = hilarious & awesome. Great restaurant choice, Daddy.

The Flight to OKC

December 9, 2013

Aurora hugging daddy at the airportThis weekend was our annual Daddy/daughter trip. Why not start from the beginning – the flight there.

On my flight to Denver (layover), I sat next to this very interesting woman. She was going through a divorce after over 20 years of marriage.

You could tell the news was still new and pretty raw, ’cause she was still going through a lot of different emotions about it.

But she was so real, I really like her. And she is ready to go out and do some living! Sure, she’s really upset. But she’s gonna leave California (get it, girl). And she’s gonna adventure. I wish she had a blog so I could check in on what she decides to do.

I love the Denver airport. It’s spacious, well decorated, and I learn some cool new facts about history and/or aviation – such as the story of John L “Jack” Swigert Jr. He’s from Denver. He was the one who famously said, “Houston we have a problem here.” Then he helped get everyone back safely to Earth. Did you know he was originally rejected by NASA ,then went and got two master’s degrees, re-applied, and got accepted to that mission? Did you also know he was elected to Congress (but died from cancer days before assuming office)? Well, if you didn’t know, you would learn it at the Denver airport.

After learning and snacking, I went to wait at my dad’s gate because we had a layover in the same place! Isn’t that serendipitous?

He finally landed (a little late) and we rushed to our next gate where we got to fly into OKC together – for the absolutely epic 2013/2014 Daddy/daughter trip – which is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Still Curious How To Be A Price Is Right Contestant?

December 5, 2013

I’ve said before that I don’t have official information, but I have my strategies and ideas… Well, if you want official information straight from the source – Emmy winning producer Stan Blitz – who’s in charge of picking the contestants – was on the most recent episode of the awesome podcast by TPiR exec producer Mike Richards.

If you can’t listen, I think one of the big takeaways was “It’s not what you say. It’s how you say it.” But if you do have a chance to listen (and are interested in game shows and such), give it a try. It’s a nice podcast.

(There’s even an episode with awesome super celebrity whom I adore – Ken Jennings (which is how I found the podcast in the first place).)

The Fateful Mistake People Make In “Lucky 7” on Price is Right

November 23, 2013

man playing lucky 7 for a dream car
This was the person who narrowly missed out on Dream Car week.
(Photo courtesy @PriceIsRight twitter.)

“Don’t you understand how math works?!” I feel myself constantly screaming at the TV during The Price is Right.

So, this past week was Dream Car week. We’ve already been over how the 1st woman should’ve definitely won her car.

And now we’ve got another person should’ve won.

Look, I know there’s luck involved in most of The Price is Right games. And some numbers are basically arbitrary. (Seriously, how should I know if some trip or some car ends in 30-something dollars or 70-something dollars… You can kind of sort of reason and strategize that out, but not enough that you’re gonna win even close to every time.)

However! There are some mistakes that are just straight math mistakes. And that’s when it gets infuriating. I mean, come on, people! This is your chance! You’ve been given the gift of being on The Price is Right. Please don’t squander it.

And I sort of get it. Because when I was on 1 vs. 100, I made some really, really idiotic mistakes. I sat at home watching my square go read, thinking “What?! I didn’t get that right?! (Whatever that happened to be.)” So, I get it. With the lights and the pressure and all that. I understand if it’s your first game show appearance how you might make a fatal mistake without fully thinking it through.

But, honestly. You have to keep your head about you. You just have to. In most Price is Right games, you are not timed! So take a breath. (I know, I know. I’ve said that before, but it’s so unbelievably true.)

Anyway, back to math. We’ve already discussed the travesty that usually is “Pay The Rent.” But here’s another thing that gets me every time – when people make a fatal mistake with the last number in Lucky 7.

A random shot from the internet from an episode in which I don't know what happened with the car...
A random shot from the internet from an episode in which I don’t know what happened with the car…

In case you don’t know how you play Lucky Seven: Drew hands you $7. You must have $1 remaining at the end of the game to “buy” the car. The first number of the car is revealed for you. Then you guess each of the next numbers before it’s revealed. For every number you’re off, you pay a dollar. (For example, if you guessed the 2nd number in the price was an 8, but it was a 7, you pay $1. If you guessed a 9 in that scenario, you’d pay $2.)

So on dream car week – for a car worth over $80,000 – a guy gets all the way to the final number… and he still has $3 left to spend! Not a perfect scenario, but at least you have breathing room.

Now, I’ve seen this same type of scenario before during Lucky 7. People get to the end, they get nervous, and just guess a lucky number or a 9 since people think car numbers always end in 9. But here’s the thing… You no longer need to worry about saving any dollars (except of course the one to buy the car)! You need to give yourself as wide of a range as you possibly can.

So, in this dream car week instance – when you have 3 dollars left to lose (in addition to the dollar you need to save), you should never guess anything under the number 4. (Guessing 4 already automatically gives you 1, 2, & 3 since you have a $3 buffer (and there are no 0s in this game.) And you should never guess anything over 6 for the same reason.

Now, if you guess 4, 5, or 6 and you’re still off, then okay. Sucks for you. The last number is sort of arbitrary. What can you really do about it?

But if you guess 7, then the world is going to be screaming at you!

The man guessed 7. And the worst part – the last number in the car was 3!(!!!)

I was yelling at the TV to guess 6 because I feel like cars often do end in 9, 5, or 0. (And 0 isn’t an option in this game.) So, I thought 6 would be the safest bet… And it was a safe bet. But one the guy didn’t take.

And this is a mistake in Lucky 7 that’s been made multiple times!

So, not to be mean to the people who I know are under pressure, many of whom have probably never been on a game show. But I just have to ask again – Do you not know how math works?

Did You See Today’s Gut-Wrenching, Heart-Breaking Price is Right?

November 18, 2013

*spoiler alert*

I love watching part of The Price is Right when I eat breakfast every morning. (That’s not the spoiler, by the way.)

This morning, I literally almost cried for the woman. So, it’s Dream Car week on TPiR. She was playing for a Porsche – a car worth over $90,000!

She was playing this game called Temptation. I don’t know if you watch Price is Right. But in the game Temptation, they bring out 4 prizes that are just yours to keep if you so choose. In each of those prizes there are only two distinct numbers. (Example: something worth $2112.) You choose from those two numbers which one goes in the next number of the price of the car.

The temptation of the game is that you can just take your prizes and call it a day, or play for the car. If you choose to play for the car and you get it, then you also get your prizes. But if you miss any numbers, you lose everything.

On a normal day with a normal car, to me, it seems like it’s all about what the prizes are. Generally, they only total about $4,000. So, I think most of the time it’s worth it to try to go for the car. But every once in a while, you’ll get all pretty useful and cool stuff (like cash, a new bicycle, and some iPads). When loot like that comes up, I’m sort of like, “eh. Enjoy your stuff. The chances of randomly picking these somewhat arbitrary numbers of the car aren’t excellent.”

But when a Porsche is on the line(!) In the words of Michael Jackson, cha’ mone, man. Cha’ mone!

The prizes weren’t even that great. It was like $2,000 in cash, a karaoke machine, a crappy non-Mac laptop and something else that obviously isn’t even memorable. Who wants that crap? What are you going to do with that laptop?!

But the sweet older woman was like, “Drew, I’ve been watching this show forever. I’m so happy to be here. I want to go home with something. I’m taking the prizes.”

He tried to convince her. “You sure you want to just take $4,000 worth of prizes and not go for the $90,000 car?”

She turned to the audience. Of course everyone was screaming at her to go for the car. But she played it safe…

I was in disbelief. Before, I’d been rooting for all of her numbers to be right so she could win. But now I was hoping beyond hope that at least one was wrong – otherwise this would be devastating.

As he revealed each correct number, the audience response got bigger and bigger. (My response did too at home. My mouth got wider and my back got stiffer with each one.) Finally, there was only one more number to be revealed. And she had it RIGHT!

I literally screamed because I could not even believe it in that moment. She had tears welling in her eyes. It was AWFUL. So very, very awful…

Um, How Did I Even Do Those 52 Half Marathons?

November 16, 2013

This morning, I was lying in bed thinking about how if this were last year, I would’ve been getting to a start line in about 3 hours for something around race #44. What?!

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been working out a ton lately. (Yeah, marathon training!) So, I’m not surprised that I love running (and walking) and wanted to do it every week.

But seriously?! All those early mornings. All that traveling.

At the time it just seemed normal. I mean, it seemed somewhat tiring now and again. But generally, it just seemed like “Of course I’m going to a race. This is my project this year. And that’s what happening.” I sometimes wondered why people thought it was a big deal. I was all, “Yeah, it’s cool and all. But it seems somewhat normal to me.”

But now that my life has kind of settled, and I’m not doing anything crazy like that this year, I’m like, “How in the heck did that year happen?” It just seems so tiring! And I’m a bit in disbelief in this moment that it happened.

Although, I’ll admit, it was super fun. And I would do something like it all over again in a heartbeat.

Maybe You Actually Can Strategize The Wheel?

November 11, 2013

Aurora De Lucia smiling at the wheel on Price is RightI’ve said before that the Price is Wheel is mainly just luck/fate/what have you – that you could spin all day and potentially never spin $1.

But I think that actually might not be true.

Sometimes I watch The Price is Right and some wheel scenario will happen. For instance, someone will end up doing two spins that add up to a dollar – but in their second spin you’ll be able to tell they ended almost halfway around the wheel from where they started.

Then, in their bonus spin, if they know the last spin they did took them to the other half of the wheel, they should spin differently to try and make it so they land in the dollar area. That may mean spinning much less hard, trying to finesse the wheel. Or it may mean spinning a good amount harder to try and get back to the dollar area. But either way, if you’ve seen you end up all the way on the other side of the wheel, maybe a different spin strategy is in order if you need to try to get back to where you started.

Now, of course it’s not gonna be an exact science since you haven’t gotten to practice with the wheel beforehand. But you can still make an educated guess to improve your odds.

I don’t know about you, but I’d never really thought about that before. I always thought about my “lucky spin” – the way I’d spin the wheel if I ever got on the show – how many clicks I’d go up before I went down (3), and all that jazz. But I never thought, “Okay, watch the 1st spin. See where you start and end and judge if you want to do that approximate distance again… And if not, change up your spin.

But as a viewer who sees that all the time now (of course everything looks more simple at home), I think there is at least maybe a way to semi-strategize the wheel. (That’s assuming you need a second or bonus spin. For the first one, all I can say is good luck.)

One Reason I Love Older Music

November 7, 2013

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons posing together
photo credit: Last FM

As if I even need a special reason since older music is freaking awesome.

But today on the elliptical, I was listening to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. And one of the things I really love about music from a certain era is that they leave the mistakes!

There’s this part toward about 30 seconds in where the boys are singing “who says they don’t cry,” but one person kind of forgets where he is and starts to sing “that’s just an alibi.” And they just left it.

Nowadays we play with every single part of the song and record each track individually. Perfection is fun and cool in its own way. I don’t dislike music of today or think it’s worse than older music. But there’s something fun about hearing the mistakes and the takes just as is.

(I first made this revelation of love at Berklee, and thought about it today and thought I would share.)

And That’s Why You Always Bid One Dollar Over!

November 3, 2013

Aurora De Lucia freaking out in contestants' row on The Price is RightThe other day, I watched an episode of The Price is Right on my DVR.

You know how I never realized until I went on the show how much disdain there was for people who dare bid $1 over someone in contestants’ row – but I’ve always been on the side of the person doing it…

Well, I saw an episode where the 3rd woman to bid said $500. The last woman to bid said $510. The actual retail price was $503!

That my friends is why you ALWAYS bid only $1 over. Seriously. I don’t care who thinks it’s “nice” or “fair” or whatever. It’s plenty fair because of the way they do the rotation and because that’s just smart gameplay strategy.

Does it suck to have someone bid $1 over you? Yes. I know because it happened to me in my first round down there! But I was totally fine with it, ’cause that’s how you play The Price is Right. That’s how it works.

I’m down with those bidding only $1 over. Learn from the mistake of Ms. $510. Be smart and strategic in contestants’ row. You only get a shot in contestants’ row once every 10 years (if you’re lucky). Make it count.

Dressing As Wendy Davis – Part 2

November 1, 2013

Picking up from yesterday –

I like my hairdresser a lot. She’s funny and kind. And my hair is back to brown now and looking dope because of her. However, in an effort to save me money (which was sweet of her), she recommended I only do partial highlights instead of full. Now, not only did we do partial highlights, but we did all over color. So, I figured all over I’d be blonde but in the highlighted part, I’d just be more blonde.

Well, the under part of my hair still turned out looking dark – it seemed almost the same as just my natural color (which looked pretty darn dark in comparison to that super Wendy David blonde. Granted, in the right angles you couldn’t tell. However, my hair was floating all over the place. So, some pictures looked awesome. Some it looked like I had two completely different heads of hair that got mushed together on me.

Of course, it’s nothing a little photo-editing wouldn’t be able to fix. But I guess the lesson is if you’re going blonde, you need all them highlights, baby!

If the outfit and the hair were both a bit of a mess, that means practically the whole thing was a mess…

Also, when I first decided as whom I wanted to dress, I thought, Wendy Davis will be perfect! It’ll be this huge change, ’cause I’ll be blonde. So, that’ll look costume-y. Not to mention, she wore these great running shoes. Running shoes are part of the costume! How perfect is that for a half marathon?

Well, what I learned is when everyone is wearing cool running shoes, no one realizes they are part of your costume. When the defining piece is something everyone overlooks, it does not a good costume make.

Not to mention, none of the strangers knew that I didn’t used to be blonde! So, that also didn’t help anything.

Also, in general, way fewer people knew who she was than I expected. No one recognized me as her (though granted, I’ve said my costume was no good). And even when I said, “I’m running as Wendy Davis,” everyone was all “who’s Wendy Davis?”

Also, I didn’t do a good job anytime I had to do any posing, ’cause I’d always trying to be posing cutesy to try and wrap my legs to make them look skinner. But Wendy Davis doesn’t have to act cutesy. She’s a strong woman who just exudes confidence. And she’s gorgeous without acting cutesy. So, I didn’t feel like I embodied her at all – especially when I’m running with my butt practically hanging out.

Basically, it seemed like my idea which I thought was super great ended up being a total bust. So, sorry Wendy Davis. Sorry creative people of the world who could’ve executed this better. Let’s hope next year goes better.

Dressing As Wendy Davis – Part 1

October 31, 2013

I was super duper stoked to dress as Wendy Davis for this half marathon.

But alas, I didn’t do the best job.

Let’s break down all the problems. Oh boy, oh boy. Where to even begin.

Well, let’s get to the biggest problem first.

I don’t love that for some reason all women’s Halloween costumes have to end up being the sexy version of whatever they are.

So, I wanted to go as this inspiring, strong, wonderful woman. Yet somehow I ended up as sexy Wendy Davis (as if she could be any sexier than she already is).

I looked around for a Wendy Davis costume online but couldn’t find one. I looked for one of those “get her look for cheap” articles about what she wore during her filibuster. But again, I couldn’t find one. Gah.

So, I called the wonderful woman who used to do my costumes in high school. Unfortunately, she wasn’t available to make this one. Well, without her, I’m totally lost. I put the task up on Task Rabbit ’cause I didn’t know what else to do. Of course, later I remembered I’ve worked with wonderful professional costumers. So, how I forgot about that, who knows?

Anyway, I just went with the one person who bid on making the costume. She was incredibly nice. However, the costume didn’t fit me all that well. It was really loose at the top of my stomach and really tight at my hips. It was also too short – especially for a running outfit, ’cause you know it’s gonna ride up.

She said she’d alter it. The night before the race, she left it for me outside my door. She didn’t even ring the bell or call or anything to let me know she was here. She just waited ’til the last minute, left it, and ran away. I’m thinking it’s because she ended up not adding the extra inches of fabric she said she would.

At that point, I almost didn’t want to wear it. I didn’t want to go as slutty Wendy Davis! But then I thought, I’m already in this, y’all. Hair’s dyed. Shoes are bought. I’m freaking doing this. (This is why I wore pants for the majority of the race.)

Also, the jacket didn’t really seem to be the right fabric, and on Wendy’s there looked to be grey in there. Not on mine. I dunno. It wasn’t perfect is the point.

And I didn’t leave enough time to order one of the orange buttons Wendy Davis had worn. The girl who made my costume said she’d make one – but in the end, she didn’t. So, I ended up just writing the words (stop the war on Texas women) on orange construction paper and taping it to a button. Janky.

Besides the outfit, I also had problems with the hair.

That’s where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Dressing In Costume For A Distance Race

October 30, 2013

Oh boy, oh boy.

This was the first time I’d dressed in costume for a distance race. As with most new experiences, I feel like I learned a few things. So, I thought today I’d share some general ideas/advice. But tomorrow I’ll talk more specifically about my costume.

I really wanted to dress as Wendy Davis because she’s awesome. However, this costume run was basically the last thing on my priority list with other life stuff going on. (It’s been a busy time at work.)

I felt like I kind of left things to the last minute. This is something I do not recommend. If possible, you should have time to run around in your costume for a bit of time. I got my costume at my door the night before the race. So, if it wasn’t perfect (which it totally wasn’t), I just had to deal and go.

Also, it’s smart to think your costume through, y’all. I saw someone running by with ET. He carried an ET doll in a crate for 13 freaking miles. (Or at least, I assume I did. I think it was around 6 when I saw him and he looked tired. I would’ve looked tired too! I do not have the kind of upper body strength to carry a little crate around for 13 miles. Uh huh. No way.

I also saw a few different people who had make up covering their entire face because they were mimes or rag dolls or what have you. These people looked pretty miserable around mile 7, with many wiping the color all around and off their face.

I’m sure these costumes were great ideas in theory. But don’t forget – you’re gonna sweat.

Granted, I saw a couple people who went all freaking out who looked great. If you can rock a green mask and a wig and whatever else you need for 13.1 miles, please, by all means, do it to it.

But for the rest of us mere mortals my piece of advice for myself and others in future years – do something easy to run in, practice in it early, and stay away from make up that’s gonna melt all over you.

Good luck, get creative, and please let me know your tips!

Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles (2013) – Part 3

October 29, 2013

Your ghoul today is the finishPicking up from yesterday –

So, I kind of kept my head down and sort of got in a bit of a zone. I wanted to keep as close to 15-minute miles as I could this race. I know that’s not fast. But recently I’ve been working more on speed for short distances and I haven’t done a ton of distance training. So, I basically just wanted to keep a great walking pace up, comfortably getting all 13.1 miles in without hurting myself.

I held on to approx. 15-minute miles for almost the entire race. There’s a huge incline somewhere around mile 9 or 10. I slowed down a fair amount for that. That mile felt more like a mile and a half. But I just kept on pushing through.

I really loved the fun Halloween punned signs such as “your ghoul today is the finish line.” Cute, right?

I also loved this cheerleading squad that had painted faces. That’s some determination, man. Cheering in super full makeup for hours.

Once I reached mile 13 (with only .1 to go), I veered off the course and ran up to my apartment!

I thought, “Hey man, if you’re gonna dress in costume and live in a super convenient place, you might as well finish looking as sharp as possible.”

My roommate was like “uh, are you even allowed to do this?” Valid question. ‘Cause we’re actually probably not supposed to go off the course. But I figured if I exited and entered at the same place, not cutting off any mileage, that it was basically the same as if I were to stop to high five my family or get a drink or take a stretch break of something. I just went a little farther off course than I usually would.

So, I went into my apartment, took off the hat, put the pearl necklace back on, ripped off my pants.

(Don’t fret too much. I had shorts on under my dress – not comfortable running shorts, by the way, that for some strange terrible reason I decided to wear under my pants the entire race as if I couldn’t spare 5 extra seconds to put them on after I took my pants of in my own apartment. Oh no, no, no. They had to just be on me the whole time. (Stupid last minute morning decisions – this is why you should always practice in your running costume so you figure this stuff out!)

I then proceeded to put on mascara and throw on a bit of foundation. (That would be all the make-up I own in this world.) I took my pigtails down then headed back out for my last .1 stretch of photos ops.

Boy was that dress short! Sorry, Wendy Davis.

Anyway, successful race. Somewhat successful photo ops – even if I unfortunately did dress a bit like slutty Wendy Davis. (Here’s the explanation of all that.)

Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles (2013) – Part 2

October 28, 2013

man in silly costume at Rock n Roll Los Angeles half marathon 2013
The silly (fun) men who took a picture of themselves on my phone.

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I took my photos to tweet. Another person took some individual shots of me. Then he put a picture on my phone of him and his buddy. I told him I’d tweet it to him. He was excited, but said he didn’t really use twitter. He told me his handle was @LarryRich, but when I went to tweet him I found out that handle didn’t exist. Come on people, learn your twitter handles, ’cause twitter’s the greatest thing in the world. (Sorry if I sound slightly harsh on this guy, ’cause he was really nice.)

After I had some pictures of me in the Wendy Davis garb, I went back over to my apartment to modify my costume for the actual running of the race. I put on pants. (Again, we’ll get to why later… I’m realizing I probably should’ve started with the costume post, but it’s too late now, people!) I took off the pearl necklace so it wasn’t jingle-jangling. I put my hair in pigtails, and grabbed a hat (a special “I Stand With Wendy Davis” hat that I got just for this).

Then I made sure Joy was up. (I don’t know if you remember Joy from last year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego. But now we’re buds and she came to stay with me as every person who ever does this race should do.)

We went down after the race had already started. Even still, there was plenty of time to wait in the farther back corral I was in.

The one thing I really dislike about this race is that the proceeds go to ASPCA. Oh boy. Here we go with the whole not liking animals thing where I’m sure I lose some of you. But when the proceeds are going to an animal charity, we get all these animal lovers and tons of people wait by the start with dogs – big dogs! The number of people who wait with dogs seems to go way up for an ASPCA race. Blegh.

I just stayed to the middle and hoped for the best. I didn’t die from any creatures. So, point 1 me.

The weather was perfect! It was sort of overcast and for once wasn’t hot in Los Angeles. I couldn’t believe it!

I wished I were still hanging with my fun lawyer buds from last year, but I have no idea if they ran the again.

I basically kept my headphones on and sort of kept to myself running some, walking some. But during the walking parts I tried to keep a pretty good pace. I’ve been working out a lot lately. So, I want to actually start pushing a bit as opposed to flittering around the courses for fun. (That can be fun too. But it’s time to at least begin to focus on improvement.)

And I’ll finish up here tomorrow.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles (2013) – Part 1

October 27, 2013

zombie dancers dancing to Thriller at Rock 'n' Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon 2013If a race is gonna happen right outside your window, you might as well do it. One way or another you’re waking up to blaring music. And if you don’t go run it, you just get to watch everyone else finish for hours. So, I can’t foresee a time when I live here that I don’t run this race.

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided this year to run in costume. I’m going to devote a whole post to what that’s like. So, we’ll get there.

For now, let me start with the most awesome thing ever. There was a group of people who dressed up in awesome zombie costumes and danced to Thriller along the side of the course. They did this for hours. The Thriller dance over and over and over again. There were a fair amount of loops on this course. I saw them when I came by the first time. I saw them when I came back around again. As far as I know they did it from when the first runner passed them ’til the last runner did.

My new dream for next year is to be in that group. Please Thriller people, if you read this blog, let me dance with you! 🙂

Now that we’ve started on a positive note, let me backtrack a little to a more complain-y attitude and say, have you ever wondered if blondes have more fun? Well, in my first full day (in a looong time) as a blonde I’m gonna have to go with no.

When I left my apartment in the morning in my blonde glory and costume (which granted, was too short, but we’ll get to that), a man yelled out, “Hey sweetie!” I ignored him because I ignore all men who yell out any variation on that. (And I hate being called sweetie. It sounds so demeaning. Blegh. (However, for some reason sweetheart is fine for those of you keeping score at home – but only from people I like. Never from strangers.))

Then he said, “You doing the walk of shame, baby?” Ignore again. ‘Cause really, I don’t care.

He waits for me to respond. Nothing. So he follows up with, “You going to Denny’s, girl?”

That’s the point where I whip around and say, “No. I’m running the half marathon this morning. I have running shoes on and this race number, and I’m walking toward the start line like everyone else to go do my 13 miles.”

I definitely caught him off guard. He seemed pretty shocked that I was on my way to a race. I guess I get it since I was wearing a dress. Still. No need to hassle me like that outside my apartment, yo.

I walked over to the race and took a few pictures. When I was thinking in my head what might be some good stuff to tweet, I thought, “You know, it might be nice if I found a group of superheroes and said something like “lots of people going as their favorite superheroes. I’m mine – @WendyDavisTexas.”

Surprisingly, the first people I saw were a group of superheroes totally up for a photo. What luck.

Granted, I only got 1 retweet – but that retweet was Joel Burns. So that’s nice.

I’ll pick up here tomorrow.

Expo & Prep – Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles

October 26, 2013

Sneak peak of me with my new blond hair and pink Mizunos!
Sneak peak of me with my new blond hair and pink Mizunos!

I usually like to talk all about the expos to my races – though I’m sorry to report I basically have nothing new with this one.

L.A. is my home turf so I’m pretty familiar with all the races we do out here. Going to the expo was basically just walking through saying “done it, done it, etc.”

As soon as I turned the corner to get to the L.A. marathon booth, I said, “Let’s do it!” I immediately signed up. I’ve been running a ton lately.

(I’ve been a little stressed/busy, so I’ve been feeling like Forrest Gump since that’s the only way I know how to deal with things – run ’em out.)

Between all my running (making me confident in my ability to do another marathon in March), and my goal to do at least one marathon a year for the rest of my life, I was ready! So, I am officially signed up for the L.A. Marathon on March 9th.

But let’s get to that blond picture of me because that was the real news from today.

Since this is a Halloween themed race, lots of runners dress in costume. Last year, I didn’t do it because I don’t know… I remember when I trained for my first half back in 2009, I was somewhat serious about it. I wasn’t crazy fast, but I wanted to take it seriously and do my best.

I wore the running clothes I felt the best in. And while I’ve run many races that didn’t feel as serious to me, I think the clothes thing just stuck.

Plus, I just feel like I want to look as cute as possible while running. I’m always in pants and long sleeves a) to protect me from the awful, horrible sun. b) because I don’t want my legs and arms jiggling around while I’m out there running. Oof. Uncomfortable.

However, this year, I am throwing caution to the wind! My legs aren’t that jiggly (I don’t think – though I suppose we’ll see tomorrow).

I decided I’d go ahead and dress up this year. What was the best Halloween costume I could think of? Well, that would be Wendy Davis from her filibuster!

I got her pink Mizunos. I dyed my hair blond. (Yes, I could’ve worn a wig. But a wig… for 13 miles? Forget it.)

I even had someone make a similar Wendy Davis dress and jacket. (How does Halloween costume not just exist as something I can buy?) The clothes are not perfect, but I think you can tell what I was going for. (It didn’t dawn on me until I’d already put the task on task rabbit that I’ve worked on television shows where we had phenomenal professional costumers who would’ve totally helped me out… But next year…)

So, that’s my story! Wendy Davis, baby. We’ll see how it shakes out tomorrow morning!

The Game Show Hustle – The Time Rules

September 6, 2013

I mentioned yesterday that if you’re really going for optimal game show appearances, you might want to try for shows that are more individual than pair-oriented.

But why did I say that? Could you just do a pair one and then an individual one if it happened to come up later?

Well, not exactly.

Did you know that many people have a list of game shows they want to go on – in the order the want to go on them?

For instance, with Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, and Price is Right, you can’t have been on 3 game shows in the past 10 years. Therefore, you’d have to do those 3 first since one you’ve hit 3, you’ve gotta wait ’til your decade’s over.

With Let’s Make a Deal, you can’t have been on 4. So, that would have to be next.

(Additionally, with TPiR, they now have a rule that you can go on once every 10 years… So if you need to redeem yourself (or for any other reason you want to return), now you can after a decade. (It used to be only once in a lifetime.) I believe the same rule applies with Let’s Make A Deal now as well. Wheel is one and done.)

With most others, it just can’t have been a year since you were on a game show in general.

But many people don’t know about all those little rules. I doubt some of these things will matter to the majority of us, but I thought I’d throw them out there. These are well known rules in the little game show world, but I didn’t know if the great big world knew about them.

With almost every single game show you go on, you must wait a year since your last game show appearance.

I’ve actually been emailed (since I’m in people’s files) about trying out for 3 different things since Price, but each time, I’ve said, “Well, I was on TPiR in March. Does that matter?” And they’ve each said, “We’ll see you again in 2014.”

As I mentioned in my other post, I’ve had so many close calls that if history repeats itself, I very easily could audition all year (or longer) and still not actually get booked on anything. But, rules are rules, baby. Gotta cool my heels on trying out for stuff.

(Though I think you can probably start trying for many things out a month or two before your year is up, because for most shows you’re not gonna make it to try out to tape to air in such a short window.)

For the record, even though I, and others, might have the dream scenario of what game shows we’d love to go on, and in what order – I am a total game show adorer. And I would be ecstatic to go on anything anytime.

So, even though I’m pointing out that you can only go on one a year, and that technically the best ones offer big prizes and let you play individually – if I got the offer to be on any game show, I can’t imagine ever turning one down saying, “This isn’t what I want my one chance for the year to be.”

It’s rare to be invited on one. And I’d be extremely lucky if I actually did get one a year! If we start with the first year I was on one, I’m averaging about one every 3 years.

So, let’s keep our fingers crossed for Wheel of Fortune in 2014. 😉

The Game Show Hustle – The Auditions

September 5, 2013

So, talking about these two game shows, I probably sound pretty lucky.

And I won’t fight that.

But you should know that for every game show I get on, there were more I didn’t.

I adore game shows. They’re totally my jam. So, I try out for them basically any time I can.

I find out about them by network websites, Craigslist, word of mouth. I also follow two casting directors on twitter. Now that I’ve been in L.A. for a bit now, I’m actually just on some random lists in some places.

I got a call the other day saying they’d seen me in 2010, asking me if I still lived in Los Angeles! So, those lists seem to last forever. On the one hand this is wonderful. On the other, let’s hope I don’t ever screw anything up in case that’d last forever as well.

By the way, the one who called me said, “We gave you a practically perfect rating when you auditioned for Minute to Win It. So, I had to call. Did we use you on the show, by the way?” He mentioned twice how highly I was rated and how he felt that meant he had to call me. No, you didn’t use me on Minute to Win it. But thanks for rubbing it in that you should’ve!

(In all seriousness, though, no hard feelings at all. I don’t know that Minute To Win It is really my kind of game show anyway. It’s not one for which you can study at home and figure out your strategies. That one seems to be more coordination based (which still could be fun) rather than mind/puzzle-based.)

I tried out for syndicated Deal or No Deal. I got to the final callback where you open the case and everything. (In the syndicated version, possible future contestants were also the models.) I thought it went well, but alas, nothing happened with it.

I tried out for that show (that I think only lasted a season), where you fall through holes in the ground when you get things wrong. I made it all the way to having to fill out practically a book of paperwork with medical waivers and stuff. Yet, they never called me for a tape date.

(That’s actually probably good, because you don’t necessarily want to waste your game show shot on something that has so many people vying for a not huge prize. I think it’s better if you get to play a more individual game. But more on this in a second.)

I tried out for “Oh Sit!” and even got invited to come play a practice game (’cause this is when they were still coming up with the show). At the time, I was in Florida at the Disney Princess Half Marathon week.

It didn’t seem smart to interrupt my 52 half marathons like that (especially when I would’ve just had to fly right back for the next one), especially for a practice game. I was still delighted to be invited, and had I been home would’ve been over the moon for a practice game. But I didn’t want to cut the trip short over one.

(Side note: It’s better I didn’t get on that show, ’cause had I gotten on, I wouldn’t have been able to do Price is Right for a few more months. More on that tomorrow.)

I tried out for Millionaire, but didn’t even past the test. (Yikes.)

I did get to help producers as they were building Million Second Quiz. I came in and played trivia for a couple of hours, which was wildly fun. (I was just on a casting person’s list from some past tryouts, and they invited me.)

Though I’ll admit, I was nervous, ’cause they said the game was very “serious,” and “Don’t have too much fun/be too lively.” And I just thought, “I am SO the wrong person for this. But I’m up for the challenge!”

I’ve been emailed about a few new game shows here and there that didn’t pan out either because I wasn’t in the city at the time of the audition, or I couldn’t secure a partner, or whatever.

Anyway, I just thought I should point out that if you think I have some kind of amazing luck because I’ve been on two game shows – it’s a whole little world out here. I’ve gone in for plenty of things that came oh so close within grasp, but in the end I did not get. So, yes, I am lucky for sure. But I’m also definitely not batting anywhere close to 1000.

My Appearance In The 1 vs. 100 Mob – Part 3 (The Tapings (& More Questions))

September 4, 2013

Shocked. (I'm in box #9 in bottom right.)
Shocked. (I’m in box #9 in bottom right.)

Picking up from yesterday

– and feeling that I was messing up a bunch of the questions –

There were some questions that I would’ve gotten wrong even if I’d had all the time in the world.

Specifically, the biggest shocker to me was who had more followers worldwide Jesus or Buddha. I was SO sure it was going to be Buddha.

I’d thought Lisa had said on The Simpsons once that there were more Buddhists than Christians. And obviously if it was on The Simpsons, it has to be true.

However, it’s possible that there actually are more Buddhists than Christians, but when you add in Catholics and other stuff you get more followers of Jesus.

Or perhaps I just misunderstood The Simpsons. (I certainly couldn’t entertain the fact that Lisa would ever be wrong.)

Anyway, I was SO sure it it was Buddha, I was beyond shocked when the answer was Jesus. (And I was with the majority of the mob!)

In case you’re wondering what happened next, they guy got out on Obama’s Secret Service code name (which I knew from The Daily Show.) Blergh. (p.s. He guessed “sweetness,” by the way, but it was Renegade.)

Anyway, getting to the taping part of it all, and the parts I can share in a public forum –

(Aren’t we special with our secrets. Oh-la-la.)

Carrie (the host) would say we were all coming in on webcams – which was true. However, if you were under the impression that we were chilling out at home or something (which probably no one was, since our backgrounds matched and most people don’t have green screens) – we were not skyping in from our own locations.

We were totally under the watchful eye of those lawyers/standards and practices/whoever else those special stealth people were all the time.

There was a monitor next to my webcam backstage so that I could see the whole mob and I could see myself. And I was always so proud of myself whenever I looked to be looking up at the question or over toward another mob member. ‘Cause I was seeing like a mirror image – or some kind of image that made thought go into it.

I think when people are watching, they don’t think about the fact that to look over at someone, you didn’t just look, you had to think about where they were sitting in the web cam puzzle and which direction you had to look (not the way you think you did) to make it look like you were in fact looking that way.

So, let me just pat myself on the back a little for that. *Bows, accepts roses* Thanks very much.

They definitely took great care of us with snacks, water, even people who touched up our hair and make-up for us.

We got lunch vouchers good for a certain amount of money to be used in the commissary, and we’d play games to see who could get their lunch to come closest to the value of the voucher. (Get game show lovers in one place and apparently we make games out of our downtime between the parts of the actual game we’re playing.)

Just like all game shows, we weren’t allowed to have cell phones (or anything with internet capability) anywhere near us at any time. (I just left mine at home that day.)

Just as it was at TPiR, it was very freeing to not be tethered, and just 100% enjoy the company you’re with.

I met a bunch of really fun people on the show – some of whom I’m friends with to this day. (One of whom went on to be on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Another person recently tapes a Wheel of Fortune, which will be airing later this year.

So, we’re keeping up with game shows. And we’re keeping up with each other.

I’m incredibly happy I got to play on 1 vs 100.

My Appearance In The 1 vs. 100 Mob – Part 2 (The Questions)

September 3, 2013

Aurora's glasses posePicking up from yesterday –

I’m not allowed to say all the super secret inner-workings stuff, but I can say this much. I think I only worked a total of maybe 3 or 4 days to get all those episodes in.

We got those shows done, baby! *snaps* Places to go, people to see. We got a ton done in a day.

You know how when it comes to Price is Right, I’m constantly talking about how incredibly important it is to remember to breathe and to remember that there is no time limit? That’s because I learned the hard way from being on this show the game show stress gets to you.

Three seconds is not enough time sometimes – especially by the end of the day. By that point, I’d answered so many questions in such a high-stress environment. I felt like I didn’t even know my own name anymore.

Some of it blurred together, and things surprised me when I watched at home. I’d scream answers I was practically sure of at the television, just to see my square light up red, signifying I’d gotten it wrong.

What? How could I have missed that?

There was at least one time where I just literally accidentally pressed the wrong thing. And once you press it, it’s too late.

There was also at least one time when I put in an answer thinking it was right, just to realize immediately after that I’d mis-thought out the answer and was wrong. Ugh. That never feels good.

There were some questions I definitely over thought because I was so nervous about the idea of the trick question. I remember one specifically. It asked who was an Oscar Winner. The choices were “a former vice president,” “Jennifer Garner’s husband,” or some schmuck that it definitely wasn’t.

glasses pose #2I knew for a fact An Inconvenient Truth had won for Best Documentary Feature. But did Al Gore receive it? (He didn’t. David Guggenheim did. Though, I didn’t know that at the time.) I definitely knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ben Affleck is an Oscar winner. But is he married to Jennifer Garner, or are they just domestic partners?

I thought the trick question part must be that legally Ben’s not married to Jennifer after all – because we all know he’s an Oscar winner! So, you must be thinking we’re gonna guess him – when really we should be guessing Al Gore, now shouldn’t we?

No. No we shouldn’t. Because Ben Affleck really is married to Jennifer Garner and I totally got that question wrong.

So, if you ever go through my old episodes, please, I beg of you not to judge me too harshly when my square lights up red. Some of that stuff I truly didn’t know. But some really was just over-thinking, exhausted brain, and stupid mistakes.

But the idea of talking all the time you have and not letting yourself feel so rushed that you mess up is a lesson I’m happy to have learned. It did help me on TPiR. And I assume it will help me in other things in life.

My Appearance In The 1 vs. 100 Mob – Part 1 (Getting Cast)

September 2, 2013

1vs100

Did you know I was actually on another game show before I was on Price is Right?

I was in the mob of 1 vs 100 on Game Show Network – for 37 episodes. I won a grand total of $40.15.

In 2010, when I was out here working on America’s Got Talent, I made it onto the GSN version of 1 vs. 100.

1 vs 100 was a show I’d really liked a lot on NBC. So, I was excited to hear they were bringing it back on the Game Show Network.

I tried out, but didn’t hold my breath. Just living my life not thinking about it. My sublet I was staying in ended when AGT ended (in the middle of the month).

My next sublet wasn’t starting until the beginning of the following month, so I went up to Seattle and stayed with my uncle to ride out that in between time – enjoying some nice relaxing time with family after a long summer.

I don’t remember exact times frames, but I think it was after about a week and a half in Seattle, 1 vs 100 called me way sooner than I ever expected and asked if I could come in the next day.

“Uh, what?!”

They were so sweet and made it sound like they really wanted me. At first, I actually declined. “I’m sorry. I’m not coming home for another 5 days or so. It’ll be expensive to change my plane ticket. I just don’t think it’s a smart idea.”

(If I’d been the contestant who gets to be the one, I would’ve done it in a heartbeat, assuming I would’ve made enough money to make it worth it. But being in mob, you’re in a lot less control and have a lot less possible money available to you.)

But after calling a couple of people to relay the phone call that had just happened, I was easily convinced that it’s not everyday you get invited on a game show. (Thank goodness there were people there to talk sense into me.)

I had to throw caution to the wind and do it.

We weren’t guaranteed a certain number of episodes. And I knew that with the top prize going down from a million to $50,000 since we were moving to cable –

and me being in the mob instead of an individual player –

it very likely was not going to be a big money-making opportunity.

But I just did it anyway, because I adore game shows.

Though I do remember feeling every so slightly bummed, thinking, “Why wasn’t I special enough to be the one? What is it about me that makes them think I should be in the 100 instead of being the star?”

But, a lot goes into casting. And since I had a group (I was in the Mensa group), I might’ve just been a puzzle piece they needed.

Speaking of my group, it was funny. We had to totally dress the (somewhat stereotypical, though I totally understand it) part. They asked me to wear glasses even though they knew I don’t wear glasses, even to read or for any reason.

But if you see me on that show, I’m wearing glasses and some smart person sweater – which I do not mind in the least. I love playing dress up and acting. So, I was more than happy to go along with it and play their little Mensa nerd. And I actually thought I looked kind of cute in glasses (maybe not in that photo specifically, but sometimes), if I do say so myself.

And on that conceited note, I’ll leave off and pick up tomorrow.

The Secret Time Between Tape Date And Air Date

September 1, 2013

laughing with DrewI’ve found it funny that more than taxes or anything else, it seems like the thing that surprises people the most is that you have to keep your win secret (usually for months) until your show airs.

I guess that concept is something some people don’t really want to wrap their minds around.

Some people have been asking how secretive you really have to be, which is why I did this post.

To me, this secret stuff is all just part of life. If I have a friend who is on a game show that hasn’t aired yet, I don’t ask what they won. Even when I was telling my friends in the industry to DVR my show, not a single one asked what I’d won.

Before I’d even said finished my sentence, everyone was all, “Don’t say another word. Just in case. I know you must’ve signed a confidentially agreement. Can’t wait to see what happens.”

Even if I was sort of giddy – “But I want so badly to say something. Can I just give you a hint or a tiny piece without saying what happened?”

“You better not say a single word! You never know who overhears you or how things travel. I’ll find out soon enough,” my smart, responsible friends would answer.

That’s really the best way to be with a game show winner. When you’re begging us to know more, we want to tell you! So make it easier on us, since we can’t.

I know Price is Right is one of the harder wins to keep secret. With the other shows, when you definitively know you will be on ahead of time, you can get everyone to come be in the audience. Then you don’t have to worry about keeping a secret from your circle, because they will have seen it all before their very eyes.

one over

With TPiR, you don’t know you’re a contestant until the moment it happens. (Of course, that’s also a lovely thing in my opinion.)

Now, exactly how secret do you have to be about it?

I would not go posting on social media that you won anything. Sometimes Price is Right tweets stuff about the upcoming contestants who’ve made it onstage.

I’d defer to TPiR. Unless they specifically tweeted about me, I’d be pretty vague.

Personally, I did tweet out that people should DVR TPiR, but I didn’t give away any spoilers.

That’s not to say that literally no one knew anything. Audience members for the next show saw me with my Price is Right winner’s license plate holder when I walked out. Already my super secret was sort of out of the bag to these strangers.

(But they were all in the area where they weren’t allowed to have phones, and none of them knew me. So what did it matter?)

(I’m sure word  generally gets around families or friend circles, because whoever did go with you didn’t sign any confidentiality things (as far as I remember) – you’re the one who signed one when you were filling out the paperwork for your prizes.)

I desperately wanted to immediately tell my dad everything. But I didn’t. When you’re a grown up dealing with important stuff, sometimes you just can’t tell your loved ones everything.

Just pretend you’re in the CIA or some other super secret organization. (Makes the secret more fun, right?) Think of it as protecting your loved ones from the stress of keeping your game show secret.

Aurora stressed

(Of course, telling people that you can’t say anything, but that they should watch, makes their imaginations go wild, and everyone thinks you won a double showcase… Oof.)

Now, if it’s getting pretty close to your air date and you end up telling an extremely close friend who works with cars for a living, ’cause you want to know the best way to sell it…

Or if you let your dad in because you need grown up insurance advice or whatever – I don’t think Price is Right is NSAing you.

Even Ken Jennings told his boss when he was winning a million Jeopardy episodes, ’cause Ken had to say why he kept missing work.

My guess is you’d tell your significant other or possibly parents or someone heavily involved in your life, so y’all can figure out how your household plans to accept your prizes.

However, all that being said, please note that I am not officially advising you to tell a single soul. If you tell someone and get in trouble, don’t blame me. ‘Cause my official stance is to tell no one.

*Men in black light*.

What Did I Do With My Price is Right Prizes? – Part 2 (Camcorders & Cash)

August 31, 2013

with the TPiR $96 check!
with the TPiR $96 check!

So, I’ve talked about the car.

As far as the camcorders… When I was on the show, they seemed so cool. “3D camcorders?! It’s the future in the present! I’m gonna start taking more home movies.”

Then I read a bunch of reviews online, and basically couldn’t find a positive one.

I never saw the camcorders being sold anywhere for anything even close to the suggested retail price.

There are only instructions to work with PCs, not macs. The camcorders are known as not mac-compatible. Although, I guess technically they are, if you go through extra steps and such.

But no one wants to buy a camcorder they need to struggle to get to work with a mac – when they could just go buy a camcorder made to work with one.

I put the camcorders on Facebook, Craigslist, and Ebay (and told everyone I know that I wanted to sell those camcorders).

Nothing.

No one wanted them – no one in the world wanted these cameras. I had a couple friends who said they wouldn’t even take them for free. No one felt they’d use them.

Well, okay then.

Finally, after literally not even being able to give them away to some people (and certainly not being able to sell them for even half the suggested price to anybody), I just donated them to charity, hoping that at least that write off will help with my large tax bill.

My old roommate works closely with a charity that has the goal to use creativity to help heal people who’ve had traumatic experiences. He said they’d make good use out of the camcorders.

So, I said, great. Take them.

If I would’ve known more about the camcorders, I probably would’ve just forfeited them so they’re not taken into account in my prize total when it comes to taxes.

So, I should’ve looked into that right after the show taped. I forget how much time you have to forfeit something, but I believe you do have a few days to decide.

(I'm sorry. I've just exhausted all my TPiR photos and love this one.)
(I’m sorry. I’ve just exhausted all my TPiR photos and love this one.)

I really don’t want to sound ungrateful in the least. I LOVE The Price is Right and everything they’ve done for me. I’m just saying the reality of the situation. (And warning you to really think about each prize and whether you want to accept it if you’re a TPiR winner.)

As far as the $96, I’d like to do something special with that money. I got rid of everything I received from the day (the camcorders and car). So, I’d love to buy something with that prize money that helps me remember it, whether it be a TPiR mug or sweatshirt or even something non-TPiR related that’s just a lovely prize. But I haven’t landed on anything yet.

I’d really love to make one jewelry splurge. I don’t own a single piece of jewelry. But I would love to own something from the Caliber Collection – which is made from pieces of illegal guns, and proceeds go to fund gun buyback programs.

So, I’d love, love, love to buy myself a little splurge-y gift and think, “This is my physical Price is Right prize.” But the cheapest cuff option (and actually the one I want) is $150. And I really wanted something that was $96 or less, so I could say I won it with my Price is Right money.

(Yes, i know I made thousands off the car, but it feels like different money to me for some reason.)

I did win $40.15 on another game show (which I’ll talk about very soon). And I got paid $50 to help producers try out a new game show (Million Second Quiz). So, if you put all that together, I have more than enough to pay for a cuff and call it my “game show bracelet.”

I don’t know if that’s what I’m going to do or not. But I just really wanted to have some sort of physical representation – and have it be something I loved – that came from that TPiR $96. And if you have any ideas, please let me know!

Taxes Aren’t The Only Expense With A Car

August 29, 2013

Just a reminder, if you read yesterday’s post in email form, I accidentally sent you an earlier draft, in which I hadn’t yet turned it into two posts. Therefore, this will be VERY familiar, as it’s just the 2nd half of yesterday’s (if that makes sense).

Okay, this is the last money (as it pertains to the car) post that I plan on doing, ’cause it’s all basically been said. And who wants to talk about money all the time anyway. Right?

However, just to try to solidify my position that selling the car was the right choice (and hopefully convince anyone who’s somehow still on the fence) –

If we forget about how much I wanted to pay off my debt, I’ve already mentioned that taxes made it very cost-prohibitive to keep the car. But taxes aren’t the only reason to sell it.

Not only would I have had to get over paying the taxes, I would’ve had to re-do my entire budget to keep up with the costs of having a car in general.

I got quotes for car insurance for the semi-young person I am, who hasn’t had insurance in over 3 years (which is the time frame all the companies ask about), who lives in downtown Los Angeles – and needs collision coverage on a brand new car.

My quotes were over $200/month.

I could’ve possibly tried to finagle it more or kept pushing options down to have the very, very bare minimum coverage. But how would that have really helped if I’d gotten in an accident. (Which let’s get real, with my driving in L.A. was practically bound to happen.)

So, that’s just insurance. Add gas (a lot). Add parking ($100/month just for a spot in my own building, not to mention you have to park at meters or in garages out here which all adds up).

It was going to be over $500/month to keep this car. $500/month I’m not currently paying. Sure, I wouldn’t have to pay $90/month for a Metro pass. So, that’s something. (Though in reality, I’m sure I’d still take it sometimes.)

And I could’ve tried to change everything around. But to me, it didn’t seem worth it to sacrifice in other areas so I could drive. What? Am I gonna stop traveling, going to Cory Booker fundraisers, and do whatever other fun things I like to do – just so I can drive instead of take public transport? (Am I gonna try to take out fun to not even replace it with other fun, but with the stress that comes from driving?)

I am SO thankful for my Price is Right car. Seriously. I know in rationalizing getting rid of it, it maybe doesn’t read that way. But it was a beyond-words incredible experience. And I am really glad it’s in the family. ‘Cause in non-LA, I don’t mind driving so terribly much.

Going on the show, a car was what I’d always dreamed of winning. To me, that is the American Dream – having the Price is Right announcer (currently George Gray) tell you you’re going to play for a brand new car!

I wanted the car because a) I think those are generally the most exciting games, b) the net amount you walk away with, with the car, is more than the amount you’re likely to walk away in most of the straight money games. (Yes, I know there are anomalies in the cash money games. Technically, in Plinko you could win $50,000 – but really, when does that ever happen?) c) as I said, to me it’s the American dream (or at least one of them – the American Price is Right dream).

(As far as any other options besides a car or money go – what would I have done with a dining room set or a hot tub?)

I am beyond pleased that my total Price is Right dream came true. But I knew before I even walked in the building I’d be selling it. And I think that was definitely the smart choice.

What Did I Do With My Price is Right Prizes? – Part 1 (The Car)

August 28, 2013

I’ve already mentioned in multiple places that I sold the car. So, I don’t think any of you are on the edge of your seats.

I’d decided in the Price is Right line before I even went on the show that if somehow I won a car, I’d sell it. While killing time, my friends and I were discussing hypotheticals.

In the scenario in which I’d win a car, I was all, “I will just see a big pile of cash on the stage. That’s all a car will be to me.”

And that’s basically all it was.

I looked into a few options. Carmax seemed like the safest one. Cars on Craigslist or Ebay… I heard too many meh stories to make me think those might not be the greatest ideas. (But I have no personal experience selling a car through those channels, so what do I know?)

Why chance it when Carmax would be simple, fast, and fair (from everything I’d heard about it)?

As I mentioned, you’d have to hold onto the car for about two weeks anyway (or however long it takes you to get the title in the mail). Well before the end of two weeks (or even two hours), I learned I didn’t need to sell it to Carmax

Within minutes of my show airing, my mom and grandparents were already starting in with, “We have to keep the Price is Right car in the family!”

About a week after my show aired, my mom and sister flew out to California and drove the car back to the midwest.

The car was titled in a family member’s name as soon as I had the title to transfer. It’s no longer registered in California. So, it’s definitely and officially not at all my car now.

But, it’s nice that I can still drive it on occasion when I visit.

In case I haven’t convinced you already that selling the car was a good idea – I have one more post tomorrow about taxes not being the only expense with a new car.

(I know it’s not my job to convince you, but I also know many people think I’m crazy for selling the car. So I just want to make the decision as understandable as possible.)

Again, I want to reiterate in every post I can that this was a dream come true and in no way am I at all ungrateful. I’m just making what I believe to be smart (and maybe even responsible, you’d say) decisions for my specific situation. (For others, keeping the car might be the perfect way to go…)

Price Is Right Contestant Strategies – Part 4 (The Wheel & The Showcase)

August 27, 2013

shock of seeing it almost on 95Picking up from yesterday –

I have no advice when it comes to spinning the wheel. I went over. And I don’t know that that’s something you could strategize on without being able to practice on it.

If we all lived at the Bob Barker studio, we probably could spin it enough to understand the right amount of uumph needed, and get to the point where we could spin a dollar, or close to it, often.

But, we don’t live there. Or at least I don’t. If you do, kudos, and go get practicing!

I never made it to the showcase. So, I don’t know that I’m qualified to give advice for that. However, I’d assume it’s the same exact advice that I’d give for contestants’ row and your onstage game.

Really, really listen. Ask for anything you need repeated. (You get at most one chance on Price is Right every 10 years. So don’t waste it, ’cause you’re too embarrassed to ask. They’ll edit it out if you have something repeated and it bores the audience.)

Listen to the person beside you and how they bid.

If you know they’re way over, bid $1 (or at least pretty conservatively).

If you have the incredible good fortune of being able to pick whether you’d like to bid or pass – unless you are a boat enthusiast, I’d say just bid on your showcase if you have a car in it.

stress of it being almost 95

One showcase almost always has a car. The other one – sure, it may have another car or an SUV, or it may be all trips. And all those things are lovely.

(Although taxes on a showcase full of trips unfortunately might make it too cost prohibitive to take those trips.)

But the other choice that second showcase could be is a water themed one.

From what I’ve heard, boats and those things are SO much harder to sell than cars. Personally, I wouldn’t take my chances. Perhaps you’re a bigger gambler than I am.

If so, go for it and when you get an even better car, come laugh and gloat here in the comments.

Also, if you do happen to bid first – I know it’s incredibly important not to overbid, however, don’t underbid too much either. I saw a girl bid $18,000 for a showcase with a car, $3,500 cash and an iPad.

Even if you don’t know the price of everything. Take a moment and do a little math in your head. If you know for a fact there’s $3,500 in your showcase, that means you think that car is less than a $14,500 car. (And that’s assuming the iPad is worth nothing.)

I have never seen a car (in modern times) on The Price is Right go for under $16,000.

The girl lost her showcase by $12. ($12!) And that’s why when you’re a contestant on TPiR, I literally cannot stress enough, you have all the time in the world!

I mean, they’re on a schedule and I’m sure at some point Drew will ask you to make a decision. But talk it out if you have to. Do the math. Take a deep breath. Don’t just pull a random number for your showcase out of thin air. Think about how much you think each item costs, and how they all fit together.

I don’t know if any of the advice of the past 4 days has been helpful to any of you. But if it does help you, please let me know that it did (once you’re allowed to).

Side note: I saw someone on twitter the other day tweet to over 1,000 followers(!) that he’d just won a car but to keep it secret.

Uh, what? It’s twitter. If it’s gotta be secret, don’t tweet it. So, I suppose that’s my last piece of advice. They can take away your prizes if word gets out in the world. Don’t take that chance. Just be patient. (It’s a virtue.)

Price Is Right Contestant Strategies – Part 3 (Take Control Of Non-Luck Parts)

August 26, 2013

laughing on Price is Right stagePicking up from yesterday –

So, I’m going on an on with games I didn’t even play, because as I said, I could talk about Price is Right all day.

Let me make it clear that I know there is tons of luck involved. Heck, even in the game I played – first, I guessed that it was about a twenty-thousand dollar car. So, picking 19 made sense.

When it came to the last two numbers, I picked 96 thinking that whole thing of companies charging very close to the next hundred without actually charging it so that psychologically you think it’s cheaper than it actually is.

Then I picked 52 because it just felt right. It was just in my lucky spot on the board and seemed like something I want to pick.

I later learned that that’s also a tactic companies use – numbers falling at the end of the price to make it seem lower. (The 5 was lower than the 6 in the hundreds column before it, the 2 was lower than the 5.)

laughing with Drew

(Some strategies that people that in the game I played (The Money Game) include: if one of the pairs starts with 0, pick it. Bob Barker called that “el cheapo.” That’s how often it got people – he ended up making a special name for it…

Or, many people think the two correct squares are often actually next to each other on the board. Though, I have no stats on that to back it up.)

Another strategy on a different car game that I’ve heard people should use, but never really see implemented is to purposely get the first number of the car wrong in Cover Up to try to get yourself an extra turn at the board. (Of course if you also happen to get every single other number in the price wrong on that first turn, then you’ve totally screwed yourself.)

Anyway, moving back toward the point – I’ll totally admit I’m not some guru who knows everything when it comes to pricing. Luck definitely played into it for me (and probably for many people), and I’ll never act like it didn’t.

All I am saying is that even though big parts of your Price is Right appearance can be attributed to luck (especially any of the games that involve rolling dice or racing rats), you should do everything you can to control the parts that have to do with your decisions and thought processes.

running back to Drew

So, bid smart in contestants’ row. Keep your head and breathe onstage. Really, nothing is more important than keeping your head.

If you remember nothing else, remember this incredibly important thing: In the majority of the games, you are not timed!

Take an extra breath.

If you watch my appearance, it may look rushed to you, and like it goes quickly, but that was me really taking my time.

In your head, you may feel like you’re taking years to think it all out, but in real life it’s only a few extra seconds. And it makes all the difference in the world.

I’ll finish this out tomorrow –

Price Is Right Contestant Strategies – Part 2 (Know About The Gameplay)

August 25, 2013

I really have no idea in contestant's rowPicking up from yesterday –

You’re not always going to know what the price of something is.

Sure, there are psychological pricing strategies companies use.

And that kind of stuff might be helpful to you if you need to guess the exact price of a car, which can get sort of muddled and hard – especially when it comes to the last 3 numbers.

But really, those 3 numbers could basically be anything.

Sometimes I think you just need luck.

Then there are some things that are used over and over again on Price is Right. How many times have I seen Gold Bond lotion used? I feel like it’s used in practically every grocery game.

So, if you’re going to The Price is Right, maybe learn how much that costs. (Heads up: Sometimes they use the regular formula and sometimes the diabetic one – which have two different prices.)

That’s another thing – sometimes there will be slightly different versions of things they use. I’ve seen Chevy Cruzes with fewer features for less money. Unless you practically live Price is Right, you’re probably not going to be able to know all the ins and outs of every grocery product, car, and trip they might ask you about.

But, they use a lot of the same cars, and a lot of the same grocery items. (Watch the Price is Right for a couple of weeks, and you’ll see what those things are.)

So, even though things may be changed up a little, you should be able to usually make a somewhat educated guess. (Though of course I know there are curveballs, and there are always items even I as a frequent watcher do not recognize. Good luck with those.)

19!

Knowing strategy can be just as important as knowing the prices.

For one game specifically – please, if you go to Price is Right, understand the main idea behind how to play Pay the Rent.

There is nothing more frustrating while watching the show than to see someone waste a chance at $100,000 by putting the lowest price grocery item in the mailbox.

This video explains how you’re supposed to play that game.

Basically, to sum it up in case you don’t want to watch that video (or don’t know the game), you have to place prizes in a house so that each level adds up to more than what’s on the level before. There are 4 levels, with each of the middle levels having 2 spots.

So, the 2nd level must be more than the 1st – but the first only has one spot for an item. The 2nd level has two spots.

Why would you waste your least expensive item on the 1st level (in the mailbox), when you could get rid of a more mid-level priced item, still easily being able to outspend it when adding two grocery items together on the next level?

That way, you save your least expensive item to be paired with one more on the expensive end to keep your middle levels low – which will help you leave space for the most expensive item, which must stand alone in the attic.

it's getting serious now

Price is Right actually has played some versions now where you could place the items from least to most expensive and still win.

(I think they eased up that game a bit because no one was playing with the correct strategy, therefore no one was winning.

The game came out in Sept. 2010. In April 2013 someone finally won. The person won by going from least to most expensive grocery items, ’cause I think Price is Right was ready to just have someone win.)

The chances of you playing Pay the Rent are very small. So, don’t sweat it too much. Just please if you do play it, don’t put the ramen noodles in the mailbox. ‘Cause really, why do that?

I’ll pick up here tomorrow.

Price Is Right Contestant Strategies – Part 1 (You Have All The Time You Need)

August 24, 2013

Aurora De Lucia in line at The Price is RightIf you’re looking for ideas on how to become a contestant on Price is Right, go to this post.

For what to do after your name is called, stay here. since Price is Right has recently been brought up all over again, people have been asking me if I have any advice for people once they’ve made it down to contestants’ row.

I could talk Price is Right games and strategies all day long. I’m a total game show fanatic. But I’m boiling it down to 4 posts (which yes, I realize is still a lot).

Be smart and listen in contestants’ row. When the last person to bid places her or his bid in some crazy out of the blue place, I just think “What are you doing?! You’ve already been given these great parameters by everyone else. So, do you think it’s below everyone, above everyone, or in between a range that’s been established? Bid accordingly.”

Some people don’t believe in bidding $1 over someone else. To me, that’s just not smart game play. If you were playing Monopoly and landed on Park Place, would you not buy it because you felt bad that your opponents didn’t have the same luck with the dice that you did?

Would you stick yourself with 15 extra points in Phase 10, because you refuse to use a skip card since that’s too mean?

headerWhenever we play any games, some amount of luck is involved. You receiving some luck means that during certain times you’ll have advantages over other players in the game. I don’t think it’s mean to use those advantages. I think it’s smart.

I know I’ve already talked on that subject before, so I won’t keep belaboring the point. Just seems silly to me not to use what you got.

And if you don’t use strategy while bidding, most of us viewers at home will be yelling at you. But, do what you want. I’m not the boss of you.

So, contestants’ row. Really pay attention. Sometimes when I watch the show, it seems like some people aren’t listening at all, and they’re just grabbing random numbers they thought of when the prize was revealed.

If you’re first to bid, you don’t have much choice other than to do that. But everyone else should be listening.

I know it is crazy at Price is Right. Tension is high Nerves are running wild. And it truly is hard to hear in there.

If you can’t hear what’s going on, just ask! Ask Drew if he can remind you what’s just been bid, and he will.

bidding in contestant's rowIt’s better to feel like you look a little silly, or to feel a little stupid for asking, than to miss out on an opportunity to get onstage – just because you’re scared.

Now let’s say you get onstage.

My biggest piece of advice to myself that really helped me: “You have all the time in the world.”

I just kept reminding myself of that.

It’s easy on game shows to feel rushed, but that’s where you make stupid mistakes. Some of the games are timed on Price is Right, but most of them are not.

Take an extra breath and really ask yourself, “What do I honestly think this costs? Even if I don’t know the cost of that specific prize, do I have any field of reference at all that can help me?”

Or “What should be my strategy for this game?” (Although you should’ve already thought about the answer to the second question on many games at home/in line.)

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

“Wah, wah, The Poor Game Show Winners” (aka Taxes On Price Is Right Prizes)

August 20, 2013

about to hug in contestants rowIf you just came here for the numbers and breakdown, scroll down a little until you hit the words in bold (where I say “Let’s break it down a little.”)

Sorry to anyone invested for interrupting my series on breaking into working in television.

In case you haven’t heard, I got linked from Yahoo! Shine yesterday, and now I’m getting thousands of hits. (*Bows to applause*) Yes, thank you, thank you.

I’ve been getting a fair amount of comments/emails and such. So, let me take a post to talk about the taxes – since that seems to be the big issue.

The night I won, I started googling information on what the taxes would be like on my prizes. I saw so many comments by people with this angry attitude toward game shows winners. “How dare you complain about taxes when it’s all just a bonus to you?!”

Some people did it in a nice way. “A brand new car, and I only have to pay the taxes?! Sign me up!”

I didn’t get involved in any of those discussions, because really. Why? But now that everyone is talking about it with me, let’s go for it.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful in the least. I adore game shows, and anything I win truly is a lovely bonus. (I do agree with that part of the sentiment from the above comments I mentioned.)

However, I also think it’s a little silly how people marginalize the taxes for game shows winners.

bidding in contestant's row

As I said, there’s this “‘wah wah, poor me’ – Hey, buck up, you won on a game show!” attitude all around the internet if any past winner even dare utter the word “taxes.”

But, taxes are very real. Taxes definitely prohibit many people from keeping prizes they win (or going on trips they win).

Let’s break it down a little.

To be clear, you are taxed on the value of whatever you win. Of my $21,008 in winnings, only $96 of that was actual money. So, I will be taxed on an extra $21,0008 of “income,” but obviously I can’t just take the thousands of dollars of taxes out of physical, non-cash-money-prizes  – unless I sell the stuff I won (which I did).

To understand all the taxes involved:

First, we start with sales tax. I paid $2,067 just to pick up the car.

Then, let’s estimate federal.

I don’t know what bracket everyone’s going to be in. For argument’s sake, let’s go with the median income in Los Angeles. Page 3 of this document states the median income for a single person in Los Angeles – $43,200.

happy side faceThat would mean your game show earnings would be taxed at the 25% rate. So, with this example, we’re up to paying $5,250 in federal taxes.

Then, you have California state tax. There, you’d be in the 8% bracket and pay $1680 to the state.

Add those estimations together:
Sales – $2,067
Fed – $5250
State – $1680
TOTAL: $8997(!)

(Again, those are just assumptions. This would easily be more for someone in a higher income bracket – or for someone who wins a more expensive car and goes on to win a big showcase, therefore getting pushed into a higher tax bracket.)

(And, I will concede it could be less if someone has enough deductions, credits, etc. And I’ve heard the sales tax part of it could, in some circumstances, count as some sort of deduction or something. (I’m not a tax professional, nor have I done taxes for my Price is Right year yet, since we are still in it.))

Anyway, in a pretty safe-ish hypothetical range, you’re paying about $9,000 for your car. But that’s starting to get toward the price for which you could actually buy a car in the first place.

So this idea that “only having to pay the taxes still leaves you with a practically free car”… I don’t know how other people feel, but to me $9,000 is not practically free.

freaking out with head backAgain, I’m very thankful. And even after selling the car for a depreciated price (since it had previously been owned by me – even if only for double digit miles), I still made thousands of dollars (even after the tax bill).

I will say that in our scenario, though, the government could easily come out the same or ahead of the winner on the actual net winnings after selling prizes for depreciated values and such.

I’m very happy and extremely thankful for my day on The Price is Right, but I’ll never stop thinking it’s funny that people trivialize a tax bill of $9,000ish as though it’s totally nothing (and that everyone could still easily keep this new car) – just because it’s a bill from something fun as opposed to traditional income.

(If you have nine grand to drop on a car, go out and buy yourself a car!)

One Wonderful Female Role Model

June 29, 2013

At first, I wasn’t going to say “female” because she’s a great role model in general.

But, then I thought about how truly necessary and wonderful it is to have these incredibly strong female  models in a still male-dominated (sorry, but its true) world. And I thought about how thankful I am that I  have  my personal, real-life (well, real in my life) Hillary Clinton (who is real, but I’ve never interacted with her).

My high school theater teacher – let’s call her B – is this amazing, incredibly strong woman/mentor/role model who’s been very much in my life for many years now.

I went to see B in a reading on Wednesday, and she was phenomenal.

There are a number of things I adore about her. One story that I think illustrates how much we all adore her:

I was out to dinner with a friend of mine from high school. And I said, “You know what’s great about B?” And he gave me this look like, “Are you kidding me? You know you’re gonna have to be a little more specific, right?”

We burst into laughter, saying there were so many things we’d have to sit around for 4 days of non-stop talking ’til we even got close to exhausting all of the wonderful things about her.

But, I’m gonna pick out a couple of things for this entry.

For one: She’s incredibly confident. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen doubt in her eyes. She carries herself in a way I hope to carry myself someday. I really don’t know how to elaborate other than to say she’s wonderfully confident.

Two: Related to confidence – she’s been teaching for 40 years. So, she’s older than some people. I don’t deal with aging well. I know a lot of people who don’t deal with aging well.

(An interesting idea from Sarah Silverman in Comedians In Cars Drinking Coffee was that some of these women from the Real Housewives shows are so concerned with youth and just trying to look/be as youthful as possible that they’re not giving their daughters any reason to get excited about aging.

Of course, she said it better than I am, but I found it to be an interesting thought…)

So, my teacher – Again, she just seems very confident in her skin. She didn’t run out and get a bunch of Botox (like you know I’m gonna do). She never thinks she’s too old for anything. She is the kind of woman who makes me believe good things can come with age.

Oh boy, I could list a million more things.

But, here is just one more wonderful thing about her. She’s incredibly strong while being incredibly supportive.

I feel like as a woman, if I’ve ever had to wonder, “What’s the right way to walk that line of being incredibly strong so that no person ever walks over you and you are always respected, but so human and caring that everyone feels uplifted/supported by you and generally better when you’re around?” – B is that line.

She does it perfectly.

I don’t know how she does it. But I would never let her down (or at least I will always strive not to). I will always work to my fullest potential for her. Yet, I’m never afraid of her. (Okay, maybe just a little scared of her – but in a totally acceptable way).

SkyRobics (June 25, 2013’s Something New)

June 28, 2013

Aurora De Lucia attempting a tuck jump at SkyRobics
attempting a tuck jump

Every year I do something new on my birthday. (I’ll expand on that later).

This year, I happen to be visiting my family. (There’s a very important party in Ohio this weekend. More on that later as well.)

As seems to be the pattern, I waited until the last minute to decide what new thing I wanted to try. I searched for new things to do in Ohio. (Side note: Since I happen to be in Ohio, I wanted to go to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. (Can you believe I lived in Ohio for all those years, and never went to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame?) But my dad couldn’t get the day off work. I knew it would be more fun to do something with him. So, alas, some other time.

As I was searching for new things to do, I found this awesome blog – which I definitely think anyone should reference when she wants to do something fun in Ohio. From the blog, I got the fabulous idea for SkyRobics.

What is SkyRobics, you ask? Well, it’s aerobics in the sky (well, partly in the sky – on trampolines).

We went to this big trampoline park where 12 trampolines are put together with tilted trampoline walls and pads between the trampolines. Then an instructor leads the class.

One of the very first things we did was walk over to the foam pit. We had to do 2 laps walking around the foam pit!

Aurora De Lucia posing with her trampoline shoes
Getting ready for class, posing with the nifty trampoline shoes

I cannot get across to you how difficult it was to walk around the pit! You may think it would be easy. “Oh, it’s just some light foam, how hard can it be to frolic in it?”

Well, the problem with it being just some light foam, is that it’s just some light foam! You’re trying to maneuver yourself through this cloud basically. So you just sink in so easily. So, it’s like this constant climbing out of this thing that’s sucking you in.

While out of breath, I said that least I’m getting a glimpse of, and a little practice for, what it will be like if I’m ever in an avalanche. As my dad was disappearing below the foam, he said now he knew he’d just die in one.

Somehow we all made it out of there and went back to the main trampoline area.

I think the hardest part about SkyRobics was not the cardio, but the balance! I like to think I have pretty good balance. I studied musical theater. So, I did my share of dance in the day. Of course balance is important in that.

But balance on a trampoline felt totally different to me than balance on the ground. It’s hard!

The teacher had us do suicides (quickly running down to the end and back, then 3/4 of the way and back, 1/2 and back, 1/4 and back.). We had to shuffle side to side (again, way harder on a trampoline than on the ground).

Then, he set up different exercises in 4 corners – different kinds of jumps and leg and arm work. You’d do your exercise in your corner for 30 seconds. The teacher would yell, “switch!” And then you’d run as quickly as you could to the other corner and do the new exercise.

How my dad felt after class.
How my dad felt after class.

And you did the rotation 3 times!

Toward the end, we even did a running thing where we were supposed to bounce off the wall(!), then run to the other end, bounce off that wall, repeat, repeat, and on and on.

In the last 10 minutes or so, we ended with some dodgeball.

My dad and I had the very best time.

He’d been a little hesitant at first. But, he was ready to go back after it was over.

It was a tough (and awesome!) workout, and I’d love to do it again! It cost less than $5! And I’m pretty sure that would get me in some very cool shape with fun new skills.

The Last Thing Michael Jackson Did For Me Was Save My Life

June 25, 2013

great Michael Jackson photoI guess it’s fitting that since it’s my birthday (which falls on the same day as the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death), I write this post.

I know I talk about Michael Jackson kind of a lot on this blog. And that each time I do, I sound like a complete and total crazy person. Probably because I am a crazy person when it comes to Michael Jackson (and maybe at other times..).

Unfortunately, I never met Michael Jackson. You would think that since I never met the man, he couldn’t have a very big impact on my life – but he very much influenced it.

He inspired me. Most of all, the thing I loved the about Michael Jackson was that he was hope when there was no hope. No matter what was going on in your life or in the world… even if things seemed awful, no matter what they were, they were never awful enough that Michael Jackson couldn’t take you away from them.

I know his messages are bigger than a man, and that when he died hope (and tolerance, passion, kindness, and all the other great things he was spreading) did not die with him. But for a little while, it felt like they did.

Michael Jackson gave me so much over the course of my life. His music, his speeches, his dreams – they enriched my life. But, the very last thing he gave me was my life. As if he hadn’t given me enough already, in death he saved my life.

As you know, if you’ve read the very long story about my time in and out of the hospital after finding out I had a congenital heart defect, you know that at that time, I was not taking great care of myself. At all. I just didn’t know how.

As I said, he was hope to me. I didn’t realize how much I relied on, or sort of got life force from him – how much he embodied the ideas of “keep moving forward.”

I was intense and awesome in high school and college, working ’round the clock, never settling, constantly striving toward goals. I had no idea that when Michael Jackson died it was going to feel like the ground completely fell from under my feet. I didn’t know how much I kind of relied on his presence – even though he was nowhere close to me.

When I was brought into the ER at Mass General, I straight up admitted to the doctors and nurses that I’d been a total mess. I could’ve easily (and quite possibly that was the case) passed out purely because I wasn’t eating or sleeping, and I was exercising too much. I knew it was irresponsible to take such poor care of myself. (And I feel bad about that. It’s a waste of time and resources.) But, I was a wreck.

It was out in the open that my body shutting down might mot have anything to do with my heart. But my new medical buds told me it didn’t really matter how I ended up in the ER – whether my heart problem caused me to pass out or not. No matter what brought me in, there was a problem with my heart that most likely would not have been found otherwise.

I had a ticking time bomb in my chest. Doctors at Massachusetts General were convinced that had we not found it, I would’ve absolutely been dead before I hit 30.

(Of course, you never really know if something will happen until it does. Would it have? We’ll never know. Heck, I’m not at 30. So, who knows what kind of crazy stuff could happen between now and then.)

I can’t imagine a scenario in which I would’ve gotten an EKG – other than the way it happened. I would’ve never randomly gotten my heart checked at a physical. And by the estimations of some of the best doctors in the country, I wouldn’t have lived to see my 3rd decade of life.

So, even in death Michael Jackson was giving me hope, and pushing me forward.

And on this day when I close out another year of my life and look forward to the next one, I can only hope that in some small way, at some point, I can pass along some of the hope and inspiration he gave me to someone else.

I’m On The Rendezvous Show Podcast!

June 13, 2013

logo for The Rendezvous Show with Brian Katala

So, please, if you would, check it out!

Then tweet me, or comment there or here – just somewhere, say something and let me know if you liked it, please. Thanks!

If you want to know a little more than just me telling you to listen – we talk about my time in the hospital with my heart stuff, running 52 half marathons, running Disney races, and The Price is Right. (That’s in part 1 – which is the link above).

In part 2, we talk about The Price is Right story, kidneys, and equality. When I listened, it sound like a bit got cut out here and there around the talk regarding equality and Broadway Impact. I know we had a couple of technical issues (as we mentioned at the beginning of part 1). So, it might’ve been that.

Either way, I think you get the gist of what I was saying. But, if it sounds a little wonky, it’s ’cause I think there are hiccups/jumps in there.

(Within the 2-part podcast, I also make the embarrassing admission that I’ve never seen MASH! (And I accidentally misuse was vs were at one point – just pretend like you don’t notice.))

(Not to bring attention to all my faults, but I also say that my dad “just did the 5k.” I’d get a very stern talking to from my high school theater teacher who taught me the very important lesson to never use “just” when talking about people’s accomplishments. There is no just. Everything we do is intertwined and important.)

(Also, I said something like “young people don’t usually get EKGs. Most people don’t get EKGs until they’re over 50” – which kind of implied 50 is old. And I really don’t think it is. I was sort of just regurgitating the sentences the doctors had said when I was in the hospital. I’m sorry for implying 50’s old, which isn’t true.)

But, enough with apologies and picking apart what I said. Moving on:

Apart from what we talked about, if you’re interested in how the podcast came about – I met this really nice, cool guy – Brian Katala – at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Vegas night race while I was live tweeting. We’ve been friends ever since. (Thanks, twitter (as always making my life better)!)

He emailed me and asked if I wanted to do his podcast. Of course I said yes! I like to think I’m game for pretty much anything (in case any of you want to invite me on your podcasts.) Also, who wouldn’t want to spend time talking with Brian? (Especially when it’s time talking about herself.)

We had talked for about 1/2 an hour when the iPad died on us, and we lost everything we’d done thus far. We tried to do it all over again for you as if nothing had gone wrong. It’s a weird feeling when you know you’re repeating yourself, but you know the audience doesn’t know it.

We took some new tangents on the second go ’round. Even though it wasn’t precisely the same, hopefully you don’t feel any bits are missing that you didn’t hear from the first take (that we ended up not repeating). Hopefully you enjoy any new stuff that did come out (even though you may not know what’s new and what’s repeated). And hopefully you don’t feel like I sound any less enthused or more confused while repeating things.

I guess the main point is, I really hope you like it!

If you haven’t listened already, don’t forget to listen here for part 1 and here for part 2.

Scott Robinson’s Last Day On The Price is Right

May 28, 2013

I don’t know if you remember from my millions of Price is Right posts, but I’d talked about this amazingly energetic, super guy at The Price is Right.

I didn’t know his name or his title. But I certainly knew that it seemed like he breathed his job. He was so fun to watch on stage. He was the one who excitedly revealed my name from a poster board, and I just adored him every moment I saw him onstage (even before he was a participant in making my dreams come true).

Well, the other day, I learned that his name is Scott Robinson. How did I find out? Because it was his last day on the show. And his send off was so emotional. You watch it, and possibly get a bit choked up.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wW24zuEfYo?rel=0]

(If for whatever reason the embedded player doesn’t work, the link is here.)

In case you were wondering, it seems like he did in fact live and breathe his job. He was very active on the main Price is Right fan forum. (You can’t search by name unless you’re a member. But in case you are, he posts under the name MSTieScott.)

He seemed so happy throughout so many years. And I’m so happy for him!

I don’t know why he left, and I still don’t know exactly what his job was when he left. But I do know that from the little I do know, it is so lovely to see someone who worked at their dream show for such a long time – and did it from starting at the bottom. (He mentioned his days as a page on the CBS lot.)

I find that so incredibly heartwarming and impressive. Huge kudos to Scott Robinson. I tip my hat to you, sir.

I hope he has many more successes ahead of him, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

The Ben And Jerry’s Truck Visited Us At Work!

May 19, 2013

Free OMGBenAndJerrys West truck stopping at our offices
(Yep, I got to pose in the truck!)

Twitter makes the day better again!

I know I’m always talking about how awesome twitter is, but that’s because twitter is awesome.

So, I’m sitting at work before the morning people come in. As I’m winding down, I give a little check into what’s going on, on twitter. The Ben and Jerry’s West Truck tweeted out that they’d be around L.A. giving out free Ben and Jerry’s!

I tweeted telling them to come on over and hang out on Sunset Boulevard ’cause we were hungry at TNT.

They didn’t say anything back. I didn’t think anything of it. I was sure they got tons of tweets. So, the morning people got there. I talked with them a bit, then went out to run an errand down the street.

As I was leaving the office down the street about to go home for the day (my night), I got a direct message from the Ben and Jerry’s truck! They asked for my number, then called to ask me if I’d like them to come by.

Heck yes, I would!

When would anyone ever say no to one of her favorite companies offering to come by with a truck full of free food?

The awesome Jana and Dan of Ben and Jerry's truck fame.
The awesome Jana and Dan of Ben and Jerry’s truck fame.

They said they’d be there around noon, and I headed on back to work. I told my boss, co-workers, and basically everyone around that free Ben and Jerry’s would be coming. And I felt really popular and loved.

While waiting for the truck (since my shift was over, but everyone else still had to work (boring, right?)), I hung out in the break room, had a great phone conversation with my friend Jon Rankin – super cool Olympian (I know, amazing, right?), and most importantly, founder of The Run Project. We had a great time catching up. And before you knew it, it was time for the Ben and Jerry’s truck!

Jana and Dan called to tell me they were there. I ran outside to help them decide where to park. Then I ran inside back to tell everyone they were here. We watched out the window as the parked, and we all ran outside for some free Greek Yogurt (which was delicious if I might add).

I was so happy I got to try the new Liz Lemon flavor! I’d read about it, but hadn’t been bold enough to buy a pint. (I guess that’s why the truck is roaming around.)

Not only did they give us free frozen goodness – they gave everybody free Ben and Jerry’s sunglasses!

Then they took some great pictures and tweeted about us! What a day – to be fed and famous!

Cap City Half Marathon – Part 2

May 6, 2013

I love White Castle
I love White Castle

Picking up from yesterday –

So, the energy was incredible. I was ready to do this race, by golly! I went out a little faster than I intended, and had to tell myself to pull back.

(Those of you who regularly read the blog know I’m a very slow half marathoner. I didn’t do a single one under 3 hours last year – and I did a few over 4 (a couple even over 5 hours – granted, one was on crutches and one was in a weekend with 4 races).)

I went in thinking I’d aim for around 3:30 in this race. I haven’t built up a ton of speed. I’m just kind of getting back into the groove after taking a bit of time to decompress from the 52 in 52.

Well, at the first mile marker, I think I was going faster than the 2:50 pacer. Pull it back, Aurora! 

I slowed it down and jogged along, letting the 2:50 group pass me. 

Somewhere in the first few miles, there was an open lane of traffic – stopped traffic – beside us. I bet those people were not happy. But what was hilarious about it was around the time I saw those cars, I got a call from my high school theater teacher (aka totally my bff, and one of the most amazing women on the face of the planet)!

I didn’t answer ’cause I was still working fairly hard and didn’t want to have a conversation with her while huffing and puffing away in a loud place. But when I listed to her message, she told me she was on her way to Dayton for a baby shower, and got stuck in horrible race traffic – when she saw me jogging past!

I thought that was hilarious and awesome.

Speaking of high school, later in the race, one of my friends from high school was cheering on the sidelines. She exclaimed, “Aurora?!” as she was already basically mid-hugging me. She walked with me for a bit before she had to turn around and keep on cheering for others.

This group seemed kinda weird in a sort of awesome way. Mud Ninja. Seems like it's probably pretty fun.
This group seemed kinda weird in a sort of awesome way. Mud Ninja. Seems like it’s probably pretty fun.

There were some fun signs at this race – “You can’t quit… You’re not the pope!” “Smile, you are having fun.” (I love that someone decided they needed to remind the runners of that in declarative sentence form.) We had a “May the 4th be with you.” (And who doesn’t love things Star Wars themed?) Two girls even came out in comfy looking chairs with a sign for a shortcut (which of course no one took (I assume) but was still funny.

I also love that the staff at a White Castle came out and cheered us on – with a white castle mascot and everything! (Now, if only they had free sliders on the table instead of free water… but you can’t have everything.)

And very close to the end (with finish line in sight), there was someone who had a sign that said, “You’re actually almost there.” (I think at the beginning I also saw a sign that said something like, “You’re not even close to being there.) I so appreciate signs making fun of people’s tendency to constantly say “you’re almost there” when you are so not even close to being there. 

My dad came and met me in the last while, walking along the side of the race route for a bit. He ran into two people from work in the 10 minutes that I spent with him. (My dad kind of seems Ohio famous. He pretty much knows everyone in Columbus as far as I can tell.)

I ran it out to the finish. They announced my name, making me sound special since I was “all the way from Los Angeles, California.” I did make it in under my 3:30 expected time (not much under – around 3:28). Then, I had a delicious brunch with my dad, and that was the end of the morning. 

But in the afternoon, we were guests in the Ohio Health (sponsor of the half marathon) suite at the Columbus Crew game. (How did I get that honor? Mainly through twitter (one of the greatest things ever – I’d love if you’d follow me there if you don’t already.)

I will talk about the soccer game tomorrow. 

Cap City Half Marathon – Part 1

May 5, 2013

As I’ve said all the time – sleep is everything.

I’m used to working 7pm – 5am… in California (so 10pm – 8am Ohio time). It was actually a very hard choice to know if I should try to sleep during the day, stay up all night, and treat the half marathon as a workout before bed – or just do my best to sleep at night and wake up in the morning.

I went for sleep at night, knowing I’d feel better rested. I went to bed around 9pm, woke up around 11pm. I laid awake, doing my best to fall asleep – looking at the clock about every hour until I ended up going to sleep somewhere in the 3 o’clock hour.

Basically, all that to say sleeping like a normal person = so rough. But, I woke up and the adrenaline/excitement was enough to make it work.

I’d won an entry to this race, so I used it as a great excuse to visit my family. My dad drove me to the race. (It’s always nice to be chauffeured – especially by your dad.)

As I waited for the race to start, I saw that the trash cans along the starting road had all be saran-wrapped off hardcore with signs that they were temporarily out of service. (If people come across this post years from now and don’t know what that’s about – there was a bomb by a trash can at the Boston Marathon less than a month ago.)

Security was out and about in full force. I even saw a guy with gear that said bomb squad. I tried to take a picture of him, but he was too fast for me! He was walking along the sidewalks, being super alert, talking to people on his walkie.

The Cap City half was incredibly serious about security. There are almost always a lot of police officers at races, plus a big medical staff. But there was so many police officers, firefighters, and medics – I felt like I was the President of the United States running this race.

Before the start of the race, we took a moment of silence for the victims of the Boston Marathon, and then they played Sweet Caroline, which I thought was a really nice touch.

And the crowd was riled up! As we started, I heard people chanting “USA! USA!” I also heard some people say, “We are not afraid!”

The energy was absolutely incredible. And I felt a little emotional with all of that going on. Intellectually, I know that just running a race isn’t doing anything for the people of Boston (not unless you’re fundraising for them while doing it, which I wasn’t (though I did donate to 6 fundraising pages)).

Even though I knew that it wasn’t going to personally affect any Boston people to run this race – I still felt the energy of “We are doing this, remembering those of you who can’t right now.” And, “We are doing this to continue to show your strength and that we are not afraid!”

(Even though the Boston tragedy is really not all that super personal to me since I wasn’t there, it will always feel a little personal, since I lived there 3 years ago – right there, only about 2 blocks away. And I loved seeing the runners. I even complained the day before the Boston Marathon this year of how badly I wished I were staying in my old apartment, walking over to the finish. I walked in the spot of the bombing almost every day when I lived there. And I had so many friends in the city, or involved in the race. So, even though it didn’t directly affect my life, it, of course, hurts my heart. Back Bay will always feel a little bit like home, as will marathon-running. So, the whole thing is just…(no words))

But back to our race at hand – and the insane energy of the runners and the crowd! The people on the sidelines were absolutely incredible. I even saw a bunch of people in Boston gear. It felt very much like a really loving, strong, fearless, awesome community out there. And I appreciate every spectator so much!

And I will pick up here tomorrow.

Cap City Half Expo

May 4, 2013

Aurora in front of banner

(I know I’m playing a bit of catch up. So, in your mind, transport yourself back to last week.)

Prepare yourself for a riveting blog entry!

I’m kidding, ’cause I basically have nothing to say.

My dad took me to this expo. The theme seems to be “United we run (with Boston).”

Got my bib, got my cool shirt. And we got yet another free shirt from the Ohio Health Expo. Those shirts were bundled with ribbons, which was cute.

I ran into Darris Blackford – race director of the Columbus Half (and full) that I’d done last year. He was working the booth for that race and was cool as always.

Other than that, it was basically same ol’ same ol’ – races I’d seen mentioned at other expos in Ohio last year, and a bunch of nice Ohio people. And it’s on to the race tomorrow!

The Rest of My San Francisco Vacation

May 2, 2013

Aurora in front of Full House houses copyAfter the incredible Cory Booker reception, I had a lovely couple of days with my friends Jaime and Carlos.

I stayed in their awesome apartment. We went walking all along the great hills of San Francisco.

I saw the exterior of the Full House house. We went to Fisherman’s Wharf and took a boat tour quite close to a heck of a lot of sea lions.

I also had the greatest coffee I’ve ever had (sorry, Starbucks) at this place called Biscoff Coffee Corner at Fisherman’s Wharf. I tried a Snickers Latte. It is incredible. It’s a must get the next time I’m in San Francisco!

We played in an arcade like children – and got matching friendship rings with our tickets.

I don’t think I have any specific mind-blowing things to say about the weekend. We just ate a lot of great food, did a lot of wonderful walking, and had a grand ol’ time.