New Vegan At Universal Studios CA Instagram Account & Blog/First Universal Studios Hollywood Vegan Meal Highlighted

As a vegan since 2009, I recently noticed that although there are several Instagram accounts highlighting vegan food at Disneyland, there's no account (that I could find) focusing on Universal Studios in California. Having said this, I've created a new Instagram account called "veganatuniversalstudiosca" with the goal to discover & highlight vegan food options at Universal Studios Hollywood & Universal Studios CityWalk. Here's the logo for the new Instagram account.

In addition to the Instagram account, I've also created a new blog  which can be found at www.veganatuniversalstudiosca.blogspot.com.

Below is the first vegan item highlighted on my new Instagram page which is the asparagus platter from the Three Broomsticks Restaurant inside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. For $16, you receive seared asparagus with mashed potatoes (swap for roasted potatoes,) cabbage, and minted peas garnished with a roasted plum tomato. This was cooked very well and looks better than described online.

I'm excited about discovering & highlighting vegan options at Universal Studios Hollywood as well as Universal Studios CityWalk and hope that this account will lead more vegans visiting the theme park as well as the culinary staff making more vegan options. As I add more photos to the Instagram account, I plan to update them to this blog as well so subscribe to read about all the vegan food options I discover!

 

Celebrating Our 15th Wedding Anniversary (with Less COVID Restrictions)

 On June 26, marked me and my hubby celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married for fifteen years and together as a couple for 23 years! Here's a collage of photos from various times in our relationship. 

Since we're both practical people, the anniversary gifts we exchanged were items we could used or items we could both enjoy together. Having said this, I received a new vegan wallet made of wax leather and hubby received an Amazon fire stick.

To celebrate our anniversary, we decided to keep things simple and treated ourselves to seeing the new Fast & Furious 9 aka F9 in an actual movie theater. It was great going to a movie theater in person again and the new COVID-19 rules in place are that in you're fully vaccinated (which we both are) you don't have to wear masks inside most buildings anymore. After watching the movie, we went to cinnaholic for a vegan cinnamon roll and vegan banana bread. 

After seeing the movie and enjoying desserts from Cinnaholic, we ended our anniversary day by completing a tropical painting provided by my job for our adult summer reading club. Here are photos of the blank canvas followed by the completed painting by me and hubby. 

Overall, our anniversary was a great day and a wonderful celebration of our life as a couple. 

Settling into New Job and Discovering New Vegan Food in the Inland Empire

I'm excited to be settling into my new job as adult services librarian at the Beaumont Library District. I am happy to have recently received my official work badge which is shown below. I have also settled into having a mid-week off day since the library is closed on Wednesday and like that I'm able to go places which cost less to visit since it's not during the weekend.

Besides work, I've enjoyed discovering new vegan foods in the area such as Vegan or Nah food pop up, Just Vegana pop up in Fontana and Munchies Vegan Diner in Santa Ana. Below are photos from my recent food adventures.

Chickun slider and cajun fries 

Chickun and fries

Chickun and waffles

Just Vegana Food Pop Up - Fontana

Vegan Shrimp Quesadilla

Munchies Vegan Diner - Santa Ana

Human style fries

Santa Ana Slam

Cheesy Papas

VcGriddle sausage sandwich

 

Learning How To Relax (Kinda)

 As a person who tends to constantly be busy doing something, I have recently come to the realization that my reason for being busy constantly is that I have seen from a very early age that to not be busy is to unproductive and lazy.

I am working towards finding a balance between working and relaxing and below are a few things I've discovered that help me relax:

Practicing Meditation on a Daily Basis

In an effort to begin my day in a more positive way, I've begun to use the free Soothing Pod app every morning. I love this app because the meditations are short and because meditations are grouped by similar topics. Soothing Pod app also offers other things such as bedtime stories, music and sounds to help the user relax. 

Writing hotel gym reviews on Hotel Gym Rater.com website

As someone who exercises daily, hotel gyms have been a godsent as me and hubby get settled into our new life in southern California. Since I post my daily workout on Instagram, I was surprised when I was contacted by a gym named Christian from Denmark regarding his new website rating hotel gyms.

Since this sort of thing is right up my alley, I created a profile and have already submitted a hotel gym review for the place where we're currently staying. By writing reviews whenever we stay at a hotel, this helps me to help others know where the best hotel gyms are as well as ones to stay away from.

Engage in more body inclusive workouts

As I wrote earlier, I exercise daily and I do a combination of using exercise equipment (when available) and YouTube workouts. My new favorite YouTube workout channel (as well as website and free app) is Joyn which provides body inclusive workouts. So far, I've enjoyed a workout using a pillow (called pillow fight) as well as a 90's dance workout. I love Joyn because the workout instructors a plus size and are moving the bodies that they have now versus waiting until they hit a number on the scale. Seeing the instructors on Joyn help me to accept the body I have now as well as learn that I don't need to exercise for a long duration each day to improve me fitness. 

Continue with goal of completing two reading challenges

As I mentioned earlier this year, I am currently particpating in two online reading challenges: the 2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge and the 52 Book Club's 2021 Reading Challenge. So far, I've completed 20/50 books for the Popsugar Reading Challenge and 20/52 books for The 52 Book club's 2021 Reading Challenge. You can follow my on Instagram to see what books I've read for each of the  challenges.

Relaxing by journaling

I have kept a journal since I was in middle school and have often used my journal as a way to express feelings and emotions I don't feel comfortable speaking aloud. Although there have been time periods when I have stopped regularly journaling, as life has changed due to COVID-19 as well as me leaving my old job and starting a new job, I have resumed journaling and find that it helps provide clarity and insight on my feelings. Currently I also use my journal as a way to clear my mind after work or word out situations occurring in my life presently or in the future. 

Learn to not work when not at work (and during lunch breaks)

One of the hardest things for me to do is to disconnect from work and not work on my off days. At my last job, since I was the digital services librarian, at a small rural library system, I felt like I was on call and never got a chance to rest when our buildings closed due to COVID in  March 2020 which lead to a higher number of usage of our ematerials (eaudiobooks, eBooks, streaming video, etc.) Due the building closures, my boss was texting me constantly with things to post that she found from other library Facebook account she follows online.

Eventually, I started to have daily anxiety towards words regarding having to create, edit and delete content on a daily basis for six Facebook pages, one Twitter page, and one YouTube channel. In addition to my digital librarian job duties, I was also branch supervisor for two library branches as well as project lead for our Zip Books program and our Career Online High School program. If this sounds like a lot, that's because it was a lot. 

Having been at my new job for almost a month, I can say that my anxiety less is much less and I feel this is due to it being a different library set up with two locations ( 1 building and 1 bookmobile) and that fact that the staff at my new job are super chill. I'm slowly but surely learning to be less regimented and less in a rush and more go with the flow which I'm starting to see is not necessarily a bad thing. 

Although learning to relax is something that doesn't come naturally to me, I feel that the more effort I make on a daily basis to relax, the easier it will become. 

Starting a New Chapter

     After six years as digital services librarian at the Kings County Library, I've accepted a position as Senior Librarian-Adult Services Librarian at the Beaumont Library District in Beaumont, California starting on Monday, April 19th. As I finished my last workday on Friday, April 16th, I felt grateful to have been able to work with such great people and will miss all of my co-workers very much! Here are photos from my last my last workday. 

 

     

My First Race Since COVID-19 & Race Recap: Havasu Half Marathon

      This past Saturday, I completed by first in person running event in a year which was the Havasu Half Marathon the took place in Lake Havasu, Arizona. I was excited to run this race since this was my first in person running event in a year and it was also this provided me with an opportunity to run in a new state and get closer to run a half marathon in all fifty states.

     I was bummed when the race was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 and was glad that since vaccines are now available, the race was able to be held this year with safety precautions. A few weeks before race day, I received an email from the race director clearly explaining the ways in which he was working to make the race a safe experience for all runners.

     The first safety precaution was that all runners were assigned a specific time to attend the race expo. The expo was held outside and everyone was required to wear a mask when attending the expo. When I arrived at the race expo, I was greeted by two masked volunteers who took my temperature before I was able to enter the expo. Each runner was given twenty minutes to pick up their bib and race shirt from the expo. 

     The second big safety precaution was that runners were assigned to a specific start time on race day and were distanced by number safety cones leading up ti the start line. The third safety precaution is that all runners were required to wear a mask when crossing the start line as well as when crossing the finish line. After crossing the start line, since runners tend to run at a distance, runners could take their masks off. Below are photos from race day.  

Waiting at start/finish line

Mural on race route

Dune buggy on race route

Landscape during the race

Me at halfway marker

Sidewalk smiley face on race route 

Patriotic supporter on race route 

     One of the coolest things about the Havasu Half is that some of the race is run on the London Bridge which is actually a portion of the London Bridge which was purchased by someone in Arizona and then moved from London to Lake Havasu.

Running towards London Bridge

The view of London Bridge

Me with Lake Havasu Half medal

     

     Overall, this was a very enjoyable race and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to run my first person race as well as check off a new state to have run in. I also think that a new part of racing in the COVID-19 era is that in addition to giving out race medals, race companies will also provide branded racing event face mask as a souvenir of the running event. 

Havasu Half medal and event souvenir facemask

Light at the End of the COVID-19 Tunnel

     It's hard to believe that it's been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. It's sobering to think of how man lives have been lost due to this horrible virus. Last week, I received an email at work saying that library workers were now eligible to receive that COVID-19 vaccine aka the Facui Ouchie.  After making our appointments online, we were able to get our first of two shots yesterday at the local health department. Below is a photo of me and hubby after getting our first shots holding of vaccine cards. 

 

     Our second and final dose is scheduled on April 7 which I is timely since my 42nd birthday will be the next day on April 8.I feel happy, grateful, and blessed to be able to get the vaccine and hope that this is the first step in ending the COVID-19 pandemic.