Anyway, the good folks at SportsNetLA got wind of my Dodgers podcast, Second Base, and correctly deduced Diamond & I needed to be at their Dodgers Blogger Day. The network holds one every season for key Dodgers media to experience what it’s like to produce a live Dodgers game, meet and interview on-air talent, take a studio tour, and watch a Dodgers game. This was the 4th year it’s been held, and the first time they’ve held it during a day game. It was an incredible opportunity for us, especially being so new in the market. Diamond and I were actually the only 2 newbies in the mix; everyone else already knew each other.

It was a small crew, but I was very happy to see Diamond & I weren’t the only women present. I was, however, the only girl not wearing blue. You know ya girl had to show up in fuchsia platforms and a tropical print jumpsuit, because I was out there tryna force summer weather to come through. And to be totally honest, I don’t actually own any Dodgers gear or I would have worn it for sure. Yes, this seems like an obvious oversight in my wardrobe, but Dodgers merch ain’t cheap, ya know? It’s like, do I buy a shirt or do I buy myself a ticket to a game instead? You know which one wins there, every single time.

Back to Dodgers Blogger Day: if you’re not familiar with, SportsNetLA is the exclusive television home of the Dodgers, available only through Spectrum. It’s basically the only way you can watch Dodgers games from the comfort of your own home (and more importantly, watch Backstage Dodgers, which is like “Behind the Music” for the Dodgers but with less drugs and more fun). Visiting the studio was especially amazing because not so deep down, I am a huge broadcasting nerd. I always wanted to get into that field, perhaps as a news anchor, but life took me elsewhere so being in a TV studio was a really special experience for me.

While at SNLA, I watched a live recording of Access SportsNet Dodgers (the pre-game show), hung out with and interviewed on-air talent, and took a studio tour. And no, I didn’t steal any bobbleheads during that tour (I didn’t see a Joe Kelly one, or I might have actually been tempted). The tour did not include a visit to the hair and makeup room, but I did sneak like 17 glances of it. Hey, that’s my mecca, and I always like to know what products are being used. Unforch, I wasn’t there for beauty, at least not this time around. Next time, maybe.

The most interesting part of the day was a Q&A sesh with the VP of Marketing at Spectrum, who is kinda dreamy and goes by the name Jared. Honestly, I could’ve skipped the rest of the day and talked to him for 34 hours straight about baseball, Dodgers programming, and cable access. I didn’t get to though because, humble brag, had to go watch the Dodgers game with the Silver Fox himself, Chase Utley.

If you’re not familiar with Chase Utley, here are the basics: He is a World Series winner and has a storied career in baseball, spending most of his career with the Phillies. He played his last season in 2018 with the Dodgers, and announced his retirement in early 2019. He’s now moonlighting as an analyst for SportsNetLA. Casually watching a Dodgers game with a former player is kind of a big deal, know what I mean? It’s def a thing I didn’t even know was on my bucket list until it was happening, and then I was like, Damn, let me cross this off my bucket list. Done and done!

Diamond and I did also get the opportunity to interview Chase, along with former Dodgers player and World Series winner Jerry Hairston Jr and SNLA anchor John Hartung. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to ask any of them about their hair or skincare routines, but I did show Chase this epic gif of himself, which he had never seen before:

To listen to the interview, which I highly recommend because everything from tacos to Wayne’s World is mentioned, click here for links to the show on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher. The interview is in Episode 9, and we cover more deets about our day in Episode 10.

Thank you so much to Spectrum, SportsNetLA, and Stacey Mitch for the invitation and especially for the support! Second Base was barely a fully formed idea 4 months ago, and to see it thriving and garnering opportunities like this so quickly, especially having a limited background in sports, has been an actual dream come true. I can’t wait for the next Dodgers Blogger Day!

xoxo
Bren

I love the Dodgers, and I couldn’t really find any sort of media outlet that covered the things I’m actually interested in about the team and baseball in general. MLB’s sassy little brother burner account, Cut4, comes close, but they don’t focus on just the Dodgers (honestly, so rude). Most sports podcasts and traditional media sources cover borings things like stats, which is short for statistics, which is just another way of saying math. And you know what? I HATE MATH. I never, ever, ever want to talk about math or listen to people talking about math.

Since I couldn’t find an outlet covering what I was looking for (or one that wasn’t insanely misogynistic), I decided to start my own. I knew I needed a partner and co-host that loved the Dodgers just as much as I do, so naturally I thought of Diamond, who I actually met at a Dodgers batting practice press event back in 2012. Before you ask: yes, I was invited because of OMG, Bren!, and yes, I was the only beauty blogger there. HUMBLE BRAG.

That said, taking on sports, even in the cheeky, sassy irreverent way you can expect just knowing my aesthetic, has been quite the undertaking. It’s fun, it’s hard, it’s overwhelming, it’s so different from beauty or anything else I’m familiar with and I’m learning so, so much and meeting so many cool people. It’s also definitely changed how I watch and experience baseball, which is cool to notice happening in real-time.

More than that, the podcast is actually catching on and building a solid fan base, which is a surprise. Well, I’m not surprised people love it; I’m surprised people already know about it, since we’re so new. And to be quite frank, I was not expecting such a positive reaction in a field (no pun intended) filled with angry old white men. Luckily, they aren’t our target audience, and we’ve had nothing but awesome feedback.

I’m also stoked to announce that Los Angeles Magazine recently did a write-up on us, and I would love if you could take the time to read it. Diamond and I give a little more insight into why we started, what we cover, and why we love the Dodgers. Thank you x1000 to Brittany Martin & LA Mag for the press!

You can listen and subscribe to Second Base on Spotify, iTunes, and Stitcher, and you can also rate and review us on the latter two. For more deets on episodes, visit secondbasepod.com or follow us on Twitter.

COME GET TO SECOND BASE WITH ME ALREADY.

I’m guilty of it too; I abandoned my beauty blog. It wasn’t a conscious decision, at least not to begin with. It started off as a lack of excitement about what was happening in first in my life, and on a larger scale, the beauty world. I was bored with my life, with myself, with beauty. I was feeling uninspired, guilty, unworthy, and a whole fuckin’ mess of other feelings that didn’t serve me. And if they weren’t serving me, they sure as shit weren’t going to serve anyone else either. I just didn’t feel right talking about beauty when I wasn’t celebrating or even practicing it in my own life. It isn’t in me to feign excitement.

Obviously, the boredom was inevitable. I started my first version of a blog way back in February 2009. It’s been a decade of trying to stay relevant, whatever that means, in the beauty world. It gets exhausting. But for me, it was more than just burnout.

It maybe started that way, and feeling like I had nothing to say, but eventually, I didn’t have anything that I wanted to share. My life got flipped turned upside down, and quite frankly, beauty took a backseat. I had to make some major changes in my life and really focus on my mental health. Maintaining a blog, or even pretending to, was causing way more stress than it was worth.

My life became this trainwreck of trauma, heartbreak, grief, change, anxiety, and depression. Oh God, so much depression. I won’t get into the specifics here (and if you really want the hot goss, this article I wrote for NYLON in 2016 can probably give you some insight). Basically: everything in my life imploded. I was freaked out, high-strung AF, scared to go online, crying all the time, and barely able to get out of bed. I was a shell of a person.

Luckily, I recognized that I wasn’t coping well with the situation and sought professional help. Getting myself to the appointments forced me to get it together enough to survive, but that’s all I could do. SURVIVE. There was no room for beauty. I dragged myself out of bed and into weekly therapy sessions with dirty hair, greasy skin, and bleeding, chewed-up cuticles.

I felt like shit, and so I looked like shit.

When you’re tits-deep in depression, it’s hard to give a fuck about your hair, or find the energy to put makeup on, or even bother washing your face every night. It’s also difficult to afford the upkeep of a beauty routine when you’re unemployed because you’re too depressed to look for — or keep — a job. My hair grew out, got long, faded into its natural hair color because I simply couldn’t afford to get it done. That’s a super hard and embarrassing thing to admit, but it’s true. There was no “beauty on a budget” because I didn’t even have a budget. I was practicing only the very basics of personal hygiene, without experimenting or celebrating or expressing myself with makeup.

That was hard in and of itself. Makeup has always made me feel seen, but for a long time, I just wanted to be invisible. I thought if I didn’t put on makeup, I could disappear for awhile. So that’s what I did.

Depression isn’t exactly Instagrammable. I wasn’t ashamed, nor did I feel stigmatized. I just became very protective of my energy and my information. I definitely didn’t feel like posting photos of my face all over the Internet either, that’s for sure. Blogging, especially about beauty, takes a thick skin, and my newly diagnosed panic disorder had stretched my skin so thin and tight any little thing could (and did) send me into a spiral.

Eventually, with medications and therapy, I was able to get my shit together enough to wash my fucking face, and comb my fucking hair. I was trying to live out my favorite piece of advice: Love yourself enough to give a shit about what you look like. I wanted that back: I wanted to fucking celebrate my face, because I am goddamn gorgeous, and for too long, depression took that feeling away from me. I’m still working on it. Right now, beauty and makeup are less about creativity and expression and more about self-care for me. There are days when I avoid wearing makeup simply because I know I’ll be too tired to properly remove it that night. I’m also older now, which means I am tired all the fucking time, and most days I will pick an extra 20 minutes of sleep over removing makeup at night. And yet, some days I think it’s less about being tired and more about being lazy.

That’s the perfect word to describe my current beauty aesthetic: lazy, but like, in a deliberate way. When I sit down to actually do my makeup or hair, my force of habit leans me into grabbing the same colors and products. I know them so well that I can apply them quickly and with little effort. It takes the thought out of it, and not having to think about what makeup I’m gonna wear or how I’m gonna comb my hair makes it easier for me to actually do it. It might be boring to some (hell, it’s boring to me) but right now, boring works for me.

Most of the time, anyway. But I miss beauty. I miss talking about beauty. I miss being so in love with beauty that I absolutely had to write and talk about it. For too long, beauty has felt like work. As I slowly fall back in love with it, it is slowly feeling less like work and becoming fun again, and beauty should be fun! I want it to be fun! I mean, I’m the kinda gal who gets major FOMO when I think about how much fun I’m missing out on by not trying new beauty trends, like gold mascara and metallic liquid lipsticks and weird new shades of highlighter. I’ve gotten too used to ignoring new products for the comfort and ease of familiar, tried-and-true products. That’s a habit I desperately want to break, and I can think of no better way to do that than by blogging again.

Blogging has also been more rewarding than not, in every way I can think of. It has provided me a creative outlet, given me some of the most amazing experiences of my life, presented me with countless opportunities, and most importantly, has introduced me to some of my closest, most treasured friends.

Is it ill-advised to start a blog in 2019, when blogs are barely a thing and everything is an Instagram post or a video? Probably. Am I gonna do it anyway? Definitely. So I’m back, ready to share my opinions, enthusiasm, and 15 years of experience about makeup, hair care, and skincare with you. I’m also covering more lifestyle topics this time around: things to do in LA, culture, food, dating, mental health… Anything. Everything. Whatever inspires me to write. That’s the important part.