Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Pt. 1 - Work)

It's been a while and I've been busier than the news trying to cover all of Trump's asinine tweets. In the spirit of catching everyone up, let me break it down for you.

WORK

I still have my "normal" 9-5 day job as a Quality Control manager. However, there have been several more developments since I last wrote.

At the beginning of the year, I asked my boss for a raise, since it's been around 5 years since my last one. He denied my raise due to it having "not been a good year" for the other departments. I was expressing my frustration to my friend, who said that my work was never going to have a "good year" again, due to us being tied to the production of DVDs and Blu-rays (dying formats in this digital age). A light bulb went off in me. As difficult as it was to hear, I hadn't thought of it that way, only that I wasn't being valued. I continued to hear the epiphany bells, and I realized that I had to shift my focus away from getting a raise and toward new ventures.

My friend asked me what else I would like doing for work (besides acting) and I mentioned teaching fitness classes. I was taking tons of classes at the gym already, so why not get paid for it? One day, after kickboxing class, I asked my teacher at LA Fitness what one needed to do, or be certified in, to teach there. She was super excited that I was interested because they were currently looking for new instructors. I was called in to audition several days later, and the following week I found myself teaching both kickboxing and Zumba, plus a few other formats I hadn't even thought of.

Here I was, a complete newbie, teaching several different classes at multiple locations. Nervous and floundering at first, I eventually got into a groove and acquired a nice following, especially in one of my strength-training classes, of all things. So much so that one of my students suggested I apply to the just-opening Crunch that she also belonged to. She brought me to Crunch one weekend, where we met with the general manager, I handed him my resume, and got asked to come audition the following day. I came back, auditioned, and immediately got hired at Crunch for even more class formats - with the caveat that I had to get CPR certified and pass my AFAA exam.

I buckled down for months studying and ended up passing my AFAA exam, two days early, with a 98%! Now, I was teaching at LA Fitness and Crunch, with potentially more opportunities in the works. I enjoy it immensely. First, it helps get my butt to the gym when I don't feel like going. Second, teaching rejuvenates me, especially when I can tell that the class is having a good (or challenging) time. Third, I've been able to meet a good number of new people, such as my student that opened the door to Crunch, as well as a gal in my own apartment complex!

My Zumba class at Crunch

In addition to the gyms and my office job, a friend referred me to his friend's website (media-geeks.com) and said I should do event reviews for them. Since Halloween was coming up, I decided to take him up on the offer and I started writing reviews for escape rooms, haunted houses, immersive theater, among other things. Not only did I get in free to the events via press passes, but I also got a nice stipend from the website from ad revenue. I was already going to do as many Halloween events as I could, but now I get in to some (not all) for free, plus possibly get some pocket cash at the end of the month! I went a little crazy during October trying to do EVERYTHING, but things have slowed down a bit, thankfully. Now, I'm gearing up for a few more escape rooms and some fun holiday events.

You can read all my event reviews here: http://media-geeks.com/author/laceyrae/

That's it for Part 1 of my updates! More coming soon.