Sometimes It Feels Good To Be Busy...

... Sometimes it feels good to sit on your ass and do nothing.

This past weekend I opened a show - Tracers. Filmed a clean energy commercial. (Stay tuned for more details.) Auditioned for a show. Then started off the week with 2 days of double shifts, splitting time between my 2 jobs.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. I am off. I have a callback for the audition in the evening, and I may go in to the restaurant tomorrow to take my 'Server Test' so I can start making some money but other than that I'm free. Oh, and we have to clean the house since we'll be hosting Thanksgiving this year, plus my 2 year Wedding Anniversary is next week and I should try and plan something special...

I need a nap.

Tracers' Opening Night!

Tonight Is Opening Night! 7 actors will step out onto the stage, brave the spotlight and try to transport the audience back to the Vietnam Conflict! It's been a rough rehearsal process. We lost a soldier early on, and fought many small battles along the way. Tonight we'll see what happens!
'All right, get with your team leader. Team leader'll keep you alive, you keep him alive. We all come home alive. Lock and load! Let's get outta here and do this thing.'

A Good Day To Be Sad!

It was a beautiful day - a bit chilly in the morning but as the sun rose over Washington DC the day warmed up a little. I was downtown with my family participating in the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation's 'Race To End Women's Cancer'.
It's been 4 months since my mother passed away from Ovarian Cancer. It's hard to believe that it's only be 4 months. She had planned on walking in the event; she liked to plan ahead. My family went down and walked in her memory, along with several of her friends, and colleagues. We were all members of 'Team Sue'.

It was a beautiful day. There were many smiles, many tears, and too many hugs to count. We walked the 3K and then milled around the plaza sharing memories, taking pictures, and eating bananas. It was a day that I knew my mother would've enjoyed. There were many times during the course of the day when I longed to hear her laugh. Many times during the day when I know she would've been laughing, smiling and enjoying the event.

It's the combination of the grief and the happiness that often gets to me. Yesterday Sara, Bert and I walked around the city. We ate lunch, and had a few cocktails and then walked around the National Mall. We visited the monuments and the memorials. We had a good time but it made me think of visiting DC as a child and having my mother with us. We, the family, went out for dinner last night with my Aunt Anne, Mom's sister, and we had a good meal and enjoyed ourselves. I missed having my Mom at the table with us. Even as we were enjoying ourselves we were missing her. At the race today as people were talking to me about her we all smiled, and laughed but the tears were there, too.

It was a good day to walk the race. It was a good day to be with family. It was a good day to remember my mother. It was, indeed, a good day to be sad.

Oldladyphobia!

Okay, so it's not very PC of me! It's honest.

Old ladies skeeve me out sometimes! It's true. Now I'm not talking about younger vibrant yoga '60 is the new 50' women, I mean the witch ladies. Old, crabby, self-entitled, moth-ball smelling cranks! Old men I'm fine with; maybe because one day I'll be one and can identify on some level but I'm just bothered by old biddies!

I just am. Sorry if that offends but it's mostly true. There are exceptions, of course. I know several older women who do not curdle milk when they walk into a room. They smile, hug, and show genuine affection. There are those though that give me goosebumps, and cause the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end, however. They glower! They skulk! They demand! They condescend! That's what gets me the most, I think.

I deal with old ladies everyday at the part time job I have. They come in and haggle over prices, suspiciously eye me when I offer assistance, and then demand special treatment. The other day there was a woman in a wheelchair - a manual deal - and she was parked in front of the entrance to the stockroom where I needed to go. She was in my way but was annoyed with me when I asked to get by. Then she was muttering to herself as she backed up, and I tried to reassure her by saying, 'You're doing pretty good.'

'Well. I'm doing pretty Well!'

REALLY? I was offering you some reassurance as you back up, trying to be positive with you, and supportive as you maneuver out of the traffic jam you have caused and you correct my grammar? My grammar? You're going to correct my grammar as I stand here holding boxes of product waiting for you to quit causing a fire hazard! Then you'll look at me with a twinkle in your eye as if to say, 'Did you hear what I did? I corrected your grammar, you young scalawag! That's my right, as a senior citizen!'

The goosebumps appear, the neck hair rises, and I grit my teeth. Mrs. Heckleman! I think maybe I can trace it to a teacher I had as a child. She was capital M Mean! She was harsh, gravelly-voiced, and I now realize she smelled of cigarettes and scotch, I believe. She terrorized me that year and ever since then if I see an old lady with a walker, or a couple grannies shuffling down the sidewalk I quickly cross the street, and lower my head.

Life's Little Surprises

I once claimed on a Facebook survey that I had seen every single episode of M+A+S+H! I was wrong! (My father was always a big fan of the show, and I remember always watching it with him. Pleasant memories.) Tonight, after a discouraging day of job searching, and rehearsal I returned home to enjoy an episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas and a glass or two of Seagrams 7: straight up.

M+A+S+H was on the guide, and I always check the episode info. This particular episode was entitled simply: 'Hawkeye'. Alan Alda's character, after a jeep crash, seeks shelter with a Korean farmer and his family. He spends the entire episode delivering a monologue to ward off a concussion. The Korean farmer & his family can only look on in wonder.

Hawkeye talks about everything from the bones of the skull, Yankee Doodle Dandee, whitefish, South Pacific: The Musical, and the wonders of the human thumb. The Roman Caesars could decide your fate with a flick; your dead or I'll see you at the orgy later! The only other language spoken in the episode besides his monologue, for the most part, wass Korean.

I was in awe of Alan Alda's performance. Now some people feel that he 'ruined M+A+S+H in the later years, I know, but I have always been a big fan. I even enjoyed his memoir about stuffing a dead dog. (It's a book, people.) Some people might not have liked the episode. According to shareranks.com it was #6 in the top M+A+S+H episodes. To me it was just a pleasant surprise to watch an episode for the first time.

Does A Drill Sergeant Poop In The Woods?

5 Vietnam Vets walk into the woods - Let me start over. 5 guys playing American soldiers in Vietnam decided to go camping as a cast bonding exercise. Western Maryland in October is a far cry from the jungles of Vietnam but a night of roughing it in the woods appealed to the motley crew.

So we packed up our gear, the beer and drove out to the Green Ridge State Forest. It was a fun trip. We bottomed out 1 of the 2 cars on a back country road before even reaching our camp ground. Then we spent hours in the woods telling tales, playing games, and drinking beer. After an excessive amount of beer was imbibed we all crawled off into the tent and curled up in our sleeping bags.

It was not a good night for me. I couldn't get comfortable sleeping on the tent's floor. I couldn't get warm in the borrowed sleeping bag I used. My tent mates were also snorers in a big way. I tossed and turned and shivered all night. Around 6 AM still awake with a swollen bladder and a pounding headache I stumbled from the tent, relieved myself on the side of a tree and climbed into the front seat of my car to sleep in relative peace and comfort.

We woke, stoked up the fire, cooked breakfast (I made scotch eggs) and cleaned up our area. It was clear that some of us were ready to hit the road pretty early. Others wanted to linger on a bit longer and enjoy the brisk morning. I just wanted to sit next to the fire and nurse my hangover but the coffee all boiled away!

So we packed up the cars. Barely made it back to Annapolis in 1 piece; the 1 car still suffering from the bit of off-roading. I bid adieu to my cast mates, came home and slept under 3 blankets! I couldn't even hear myself snore.

Kinda Creepy

The email claimed to be from my Aunt. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, she had gone to the Philippines on business. While there a bus she was traveling on had suffered a mechanical failure and crashed into a produce supply truck. She was lucky to escape from the inferno with only second degree burns, but had lost her passport and cell phone in the fire. My Aunt's email then went on to ask for assistance with her two thousand dollar medical bills that resulted from her ordeal.

I was immediately suspicious of the email. First of all, who would come to me for financial assistance? Anyone who is acquainted with me would know that they were barking up the wrong tree if they were coming to me for a loan. Also, my Aunt does travel but going to the Philippines on 'business' didn't seem feasible because she's self employed. Then there's the fact that the email didn't list any contact info. It just asked for a 'Immediate Response Needed'.

So I called my Aunt and left a voice mail, explaining the situation, and then called my Father to see if he'd heard anything. I was convinced it was a hoax, spam, whatever but I needed to be sure.

It was a hoax. Someone had hacked into my Aunt's email - never give your email to anyone. She fixed everything with her email server, and sent out an apologetic email to everyone who was concerned. She joked about being worth more than the two thousand dollars the bogus email was asking for. I was relieved.

Then my Mom's ring tone sounds on my cell phone. 'M! O! M! Mom! M! O! M! Mom!' It was my father returning my call from his home phone. I haven't changed my ring tone for their home number, or her cell phone which my dad sometimes uses since her passing. I leave my cell phone on vibrate most of the time and this is the first time I've heard her ring tone since she died in July. It was the perfect kinda creepy ending to the whole weird ordeal.

Annoyed!

I'm working part time, but still looking for something else - hopefully something full time or at least with benefits maybe. I've applied for several jobs but nothing seems to be panning out for me. I've even followed up on a few applications; trying to take some initiative. One particular job I've called 3 times and the manager was always in a 'meeting'. I emailed and got no response. I stopped in... manager was in a meeting. I called again and talked to a manager x who told me to call back after 5 and ask for manager y who couldn't even be bothered to take my call. The hostess after leaving me on hold finally informed me, 'He said to say the positions have been filled.'

Now I understand it's nothing personal. Business is business, after all, but when I've given my name, been told I'd receive a call, not received the call and can't even talk with the hiring manager I begin to feel frustrated. I can't help but feel that had I gotten a chance to meet with someone I would've had a better chance of getting hired.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Maybe I'm Just Lazy

The conversation went something like this!

"How was the triathlon?"

"It was good. It was hard. The guy that won beat me by 12 hours."

"12 hours?! How long was the event?"

"I finished in 31 hours."

"!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

At this point I almost laughed in my buddy's face. He competed for 31 hours in a triathlon. At 1 point during the race he was falling asleep while running so they forced him to take a nap so he wouldn't hurt himself. Swam for 5 miles, biked for 224 miles and ran for 52 all within 31 hours.

Now that sounds fun! (This last comment should be read with an overabundance of sarcasm!)

The Results Are In...

'A Much Needed Change', a short film that I wrote, and my friend Dean directed won the runner up award at the CAmm Slamm 2009 48 Hour Film Festival here in Baltimore. 48 hours is not a lot of time to work on a film and the submitted projects usually all would benefit from some further polishing but it's a fun, whirlwind of a ride. This was the 3rd time Running Storm Productions took part in the 48 Hour Film festival, and the first time we placed.

This time around Dean allowed me to write the script, and I came up with a screenplay about a small argument between a married couple that spirals out of control. There's more to it then that but I don't want to spoil any surprises on the off chance that you, the reader, may one day become a viewer.

Some highlights from the shoot include 2 hours of turkey meatloaf take after take after take, and running a half block of the Baltimore Marathon. I am very proud of this project and it's 2nd place finish. I am happy to have been able to see my script come together for the screening. Hopefully, this one may see some more festival time in the future.
*Cast & Crew of 'A Much Needed Change' at CAmm Slamm 2009.