Balls in the air

What up gees.

February is closing out. I'm not sorry about that. I'm ringing in March and Mardi Gras by drinking a lot and dancing to live music at my friendly neighborhood Southern bar. Can't wait.

I had five auditions last weekend, four of which I made it to, and two of which I felt good about. Haven't heard anything. Le sigh. Such is the life of the actor. I had another one today that went well, and she said she'd call me tomorrow. We shall see.

Just checking in. Don't really have much to say. Peace.

Day 4 of unnaturalness

I've refrained from blogging about the master cleanse/diet because I didn't want this to be a blog about the master cleanse/diet. Let's just say that my body has...er...produced things I didn't know were possible, I miss eating food, and I'm super excited about drinking fresh orange juice tomorrow morning to start the tapering off phase. Extenuating circumstances necessitate me eating on Sunday (those extenuating circumstances may or may not be the Oscars and the party we are hosting), so I'm starting to come off tomorrow. I set out to do five days, and I have done that. Not to say that I was steadfast - I almost broke Tuesday night, but was safe thanks to Xan asking "Do you really want to do that?" when I called him and asked if he wanted to go to Souplantation for dinner. (Have you been there? It's amazing. Soup and salad bar with awesome vegetarian soups and fresh bread and foccacia and desserts and A SOFT-SERVE MACHINE. Call me Southern, but I sure do love a good buffet. Especially when it has A SOFT-SERVE MACHINE.)

So that's the what about this thing that I'm doing. Oh...this is an acting blog you say? I'm supposed to be talking about that? Oh yeah. Well -

Last night I did another casting director workshop with a CD who saw me in the Cricket Feet Showcase. I really can't say if it went well or not, because I was so frustrated by other factors (the guy who runs these particular workshops is a buffoon, we started reeeeally late, and there was an odd number of folks so I didn't have a scene partner) that by the end of the night I really just wanted to be done and get home. But I liked her, she had good things to say, and I think I did alright. Nothing to write home about. But I really do need to figure out how to put aside frustrations and aggravations and distractions and still do my best every time. Until I learn how to do that, I'm just adding yet another obstacle for me to hurdle.

And, finally, I just wanted to share that I've really had New Orleans on my mind lately. This is the first year in two years that Xan and I aren't scheduled to go (yet! staying positive!), and it's where we got together, and I love it...if anyone wants to have a ridiculously good time, they should go to the French Quarter Festival April 17-19 and take us with you. We dance on command. What's more fun than that?

Cute dog ridiculousness

Yep. Xan and I went to the Haute Dog Bulldog Beauty Contest yesterday in Long Beach, and this was just some of the awesomeness. I have a borderline ridiculous love for pugs. I will own one, someday. (I found out about the contest by looking for pug rescue places, which I was thrilled to find out exist! In SoCal! I can get a pug and be socially responsible! Yay!)

Here's one more for your enjoyment, and then I'll stop. The rest are viewable at my Flickr page.



And I'm hiding this down here under the cute pictures of dogs because I'm a little ashamed and I'm not really sure why except for the fact that it makes me a hypocrite but here goes I'm admitting it - I'm doing the master cleanse/lemonade diet. It's day one. I'm doing okay, but I am a little hungry. Also there are strawberries and Sprinkles cupcakes in the kitchen. But I will stay strong. More on this later, I'm sure, when I'm so grumpy from hunger that I'll have to share it with you all.

My first 12 of 12!

So the "12 of 12" is a cool thing started by a guy named Chad Darnell that I heard about through Bonnie Gillespie...thought I'd try my hand. The idea is you take 12 pictures on the 12th of each month and post them...you know, for fun.


1 of 12 - 8:06 am: Commutage clusterfuckage. See the green light? And the truck blocking everything? Yep. That was within the first four blocks of our drive. But all was made good by boyfriend, coffee and the Dr. Horrible soundtrack. (Don't worry, I wasn't driving and taking pictures at the same time.)


2 of 12 - 8:40 am: Cubicle time. I was a little late today...only 8 hours and 50 minutes to go...sigh.


3 of 12 - 10:54 am: Looking at the headshots from my shoot with a friend last weekend...I hate the looking at a million variations of my face part.


4 of 12 - 11:08 am: Snack and Bonk. Love the book, but given the context, the snack is pretty amusing.


5 of 12 - 12:50 pm: Lunch. Veggie chili from Fresh & Easy with Ak-Mok crackers. Crackers not pictured. I'm sorry.


6 of 12 - 1:15 pm: Freedom! Sunshine! Artsy-ness!


7 of 12 - 1:47 pm: Call me immature, but this definitely made me look twice and then laugh. Hard.


8 of 12 - 3:15 pm: Walk to visit Marilyn. She resides in the cemetery behind my office building.


9 of 12 - 4:57 pm: Self portrait and view from the window that I don't sit anywhere near.


10 of 12 - 8:15ish pm: Myself and some other lovely folks in Bonnie's business of the business class - I'm stealing one of her 12 of 12 pics! Has a 12 of 12 crosspost ever been done before!? I'm an innovator! (Or thief!)


11 of 12 - 11:40 pm: I came home to find a wonderful Valentine's Day package from my momma - replete with cookies, a card, and a AAA Bail Bond Certificate. Seriously. My mom has a more exciting idea of my life than is realistic.


12 of 12 - 12:10 am: Bedtime with my two boys. Good night!

This is hard.

Waa waa waa. Acting is haaaard. There's so much to leaaaarn. It's pilot season and I'm not going ouuuut. Waaaaaa.

Whining is done. I just whined to prove that the title of the post isn't whining. Cause I'm not going to whine. I'm going to say something shocking:

It's pilot season in LA, and I'm glad I haven't been sent out.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?" you may say. "Whyyyy?" you may ask.

It's simple: I ain't ready.

I am in a fantastic audition technique class right now, and every week the value of it is re-affirmed because I make HUGE mistakes.

Last night, we worked on auditioning for co-stars, roles where the whole part consists of somewhere between two and ten lines. The first sides were from a sitcom. A situational comedy. A COMEDY. And in my first read, I was not funny. Neither were my classmates. The scene was a nurse talking to a guy who got beat up, and we all read it like we were auditioning for Grey's Anatomy. Our teacher, who is also a casting director, pointed out that no one in an audition situation is going to say "That was good, but can you do it again and be funny?" They're going to say "Thank you, Next!"

Last week, we spent the evening working on one-liners. I must admit that of all the things I have worked on in acting classes, nothing has made me hate myself and want to quit quite like one-liners. They're HARD. You have ONE LINE to nail it. And it's HARD.

Okay, sorry. That was close to whining. But I'm not, I promise.

I'm learning a lot. I'm glad of it. My ability to kick ass is getting stronger every week. But man it's hard to realize all the things you have to learn and all the mistakes you have been making. But that's what class is for. And I won't make those mistakes again.

That's why I'm glad I'm not going out right now for pilot season. Because I would probably do something stupid and shoot myself in the foot, or make some common green-actor new-to-LA mistake that would result in a very quick "Thank you, Next!"

So, Dear Agent, now that I know everything and have learned all the mistakes I was making, feel free to send me out for pilot season. K thanks.

Mondays need rainbows and unicorns

...so here you go. Glorious. Just click the button. Just do it. Then do it again.



That did nothing but make me smile and wonder where my old Lisa Frank sticker collection is.

A Poem of Boredom in Honor of my 70th Post

my eyeballs prick
sticky and toxic as flypaper
from staring at a computer screen

the fluorescent lights of doom illuminate my cubicle
growing nothing but derision
with a sprinkling of jadedness
as the flower of my soul wilts

my creativity is siphoned off by a void that even facebook cannot fill
or perhaps creates

the world at my fingertips
oh wait, that's just the internet
not the same thing

what i would give for a window!
a mere shaft of sunlight!
an incandescent bulb!
(the kind that hurts the environment)

my refuge is the bathroom
with two stalls and one dripping faucet
i look in the mirror to make sure i'm still here
and my office building presence is woefully confirmed

then i return to my computer
window to the world
i compose a melodramatic and terrible poem

and laugh at myself.

Trader Joe's Just Mango Slices Are Truly Amazing.

Seriously. They are. Have you tried them? You must. Ingredients: Unsulfured, unsweetened dried mangos; deliciousness. That's it. They have all the positive aspects of candy and crack with none of the draggy side-effects.

But I really just needed a title.

Things are good. Last night I saw one of the casting directors for "Grey's Anatomy" for the second time, and it went well. He also remembered me, which was exciting. I also saw a woman from "House" last weekend, which did not go as well... This workshop place gives you the sides ahead of time, which is great, because you can memorize and do some character work. But I find that the longer I have the scene, the longer I have to stress about it and feel bad about it if it isn't where I feel like it should be and I get in my head and blah blah blah. It's silly. So I'm working on that.

I heard from both shows that they don't hire non-union at all, just SAG-Eligible and SAG. I knew that was usually the case, but hearing that they are very definitive about it reminded me that I really need to get my third voucher. I have this optimistic unrealistic idealism that SAG eligibility is going to fall into my lap because someone is going to discover how amazing I am and how I am the Only One Who Can Do This One Thing and I won't have to do any more extra work (not that there is anything wrong with that) and it's just going to magically happen.

It may be time to move past that. I'm one voucher away. I should go do some more extra work.

I also had my first commercial audition this week, for a Zyrtec print ad. It was the best sort of first commercial audition, because it really and truly had nothing to do with my ability whatsoever. Based on looks. Can't do anything about 'em. I was totally fine. The role was for "curvy/chubby jogger." Let me tell you how much I loved that. Trying to focus on the "curvy" part. I also thought it was sort of funny that that was the first thing my new agent sent me on.

Oh! Yeah! I got an agent!!! So the meeting went well. He is going to send me out commercially for now. I asked about theatrical and he said he can't really send me out until I'm SAG-Eligible or on IMDB, which I understand, especially after the latest round of CD workshops. Hmm. Maybe I should go do some more extra work. Both SAG-e and IMDB were already goals for this year. So I'm working on that.

I had a callback today for a student film. I was reading for the lead girl and this guy leaned over and whispered to the director. She had me read for the friend, they re-directed, and then she was pretty funny: "Wow. That was - you took that direction really well. I'm going to call you. Would you mind playing the friend? I'm definitely going to call you." I thought it was sort of funny. I'll believe it when she calls, but it was fun.

Final thing in this Ridiculously Long Post Because I Forgot I Have Things To Talk About: I had lunch with a friend from Macalester who happens to be an agent-in-training at a huge (Top 5) agency. It was fun to re-connect and power lunch in Beverly Hills. I'm excited to have another friend in LA and excited to have another industry connection.

It's been a great January.

Industrial shoot! Agent meeting!

It's fun to have things to talk about. :)

The industrial shoot was very fun. Three person crew, all were pleasant and personable. We were joking a lot, which was imperative since my co-star was my diaphram. Also our cat, Luna, jumped in and worked for some of the shots. During the others I relegated him to his trailer (our bathroom). I just did what I was told and changed clothes a lot. Super easy money. The shoot ended with me and Xan kissing, which was a first. (I mean to film it. Not to kiss. We have done that a few times.) Aside from me being awkward when they were leaving and not riding down in the elevator with them, it was a success.

My agent meeting this morning went well...I think. I was in there for all of 13 minutes, but I think we hit it off. The first part was pleasant small talk, then he asked if I had been going out a lot lately. I told him I shot something yesterday and talked about that casting person and knowing Bonnie from the showcase. He asked if I had met with any other agents lately, and I said "No, not lately..." (Which is not a lie!) And then that was it! It ended so abruptly that I was totally taken by surprise and I didn't get a chance to tell him who knew my work, that I am one voucher away from SAG eligible, who I'm meeting in the next few weeks... He said he would look at the rest of my pics on actors access and then give me a call tomorrow to "get me set up." I'm being cautiously optimistic that that means I'm in, I'm just not sure in what capacity. The only thing that made me doubt it being a good meeting was its shortness. Brevity is the soul of...a good agent meeting? Hopefully. I'll let you know.

Regardless, I felt immense joy driving down Sepulveda with the windows rolled down singing Dixie Chicks at the top of my lungs on another beautiful and ridiculously warm day in Los Angeles.

My Diaphram Got Me a Job

Can't wait to see the hits that blog title brings.

I just booked a women's health industrial based on my headshot, having a boyfriend, and my ownership of a diaphram. (I don't use it. Does that push this whole post more or less toward TMI?)

We're shooting in my apartment, which is a little weird, but the woman sent me a website to see their other work and it seems pretty legit. I'll let you know.

Watch the internet and your local OB-GYN office to catch me, Xan, and my diaphram. In a totally non-sexual way, I promise. Or else I'll have a really interesting post for tomorrow...

Tomorrow is my agent meeting! Fingers crossed!