Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas times!


Home sweet home. A couple of weeks ago, I contemplated whether or not my "home" was starting to change. For the longest time, I continually told myself that Virginia was my home. It was where I grew up, where my family is, and where I became an adult, and while I'll still call it home it's not where my life is. Near the end of the week for the first time, I actually wanted to head back to Los Angeles. It wasn't because I have grown to love this city at all, but more for the fact that this is where I can and will make my dreams a reality. These past couple of months have proven it. Opportunities are opening up to take advantage of and so this is where I'm supposed to be. Like I said at Thanksgiving, I have a good group of friends to help protect me from the fakeness and greed of this town.

The Holmes' again opened up there home this morning and allowed me to spend Christmas morning with their family and Danielle. It was enough like home to satisfy me. They truly have become an integral part of my life, and I can never repay the debt I owe to them. Also, the egg dish I had this morning was glorious, and I'll be adding that recipe to my repetoire of breakfast dishes!

Kimmi, of course, is my ever faithful beer or coffee drinking friend (whichever is needed at the moment), and Aroma and Timmy Nolan's have become a Cheers of sorts for us. I never walk away from those two watering holes regretting going. Luckily Kimmi puts up with all my weirdnesses and idiosyncracies, at least enough to get through a couple of beers. It's definitely become a staple of my life.

Ben and Kiel are life savers and I owe them all that I am.

And there a plethora of other people in my life that have created a "home" here in Los Angeles. Like my previous home, this one is tied to people not a place as it should be, and again my adult life has gathered a group of true friends to help me through this thing called life.

Anyway, enough sentiment.

My week at home was a blast. I saw so many people over the week, that I swear I added a year's worth of miles on my parent's car while I was home last week. I was up, down, left, and right. I was all over the great state of Virginia. I was able to get down to Virginia Beach for a day and visit all my old pal's at GEICO. It was definitely a homecoming of sorts, though there are so many new faces that I had to stop for a second and make sure I was in the right place. Seeing Bill and my "nephew" Nathan was great too. I miss not having them more in my life.

Meeting up with Noah and Chris was awesome. I had seen neither for many years, and it felt like we picked up right where we left off. It's good to know some friendships aren't harmed by time! Also, seeing Tommy and Michelle was so good. Their happiness in each other is easy to be around and makes me happy to be around them. I'm always sad that I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like with them. It was also good to connect with a bunch of people from FCS that I haven't seen since graduation. Good times were had!

Well, this is getting longer, so I'll end it with a promise that I'll have more than just sappy moments gracing my page soon!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Museums, Coffee, Voiceovers, and Nixon!

Life has gotten around to being great. No, I haven't "made it" as an actor yet, but yet somehow I feel energized and ready to face the coming new year. The past two months have been molded and seem to fit my goals and dreams. While I still have a lot to accomplish, the overwhelming feeling I get is gone. While still daunting, I feel like it is something that can and will be handled.

It's been like this for the last couple of months. The new promotion at work helped desperately with my utter hatred for work, and while I don't love work, I don't mind going to work anymore which makes those forty hours of my life a lot easier to stand! It is still a means to an end, but I can enjoy it while I'm there.

The major thing is that my voiceover demo is up and ready! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, finally after many months, my demo is done and ready to be shown to the world! I'm very excited with this new step forward and plans have already formed to capitalize on it. A year ago, I would never have put this much effort into voiceovers, but seeing opportunities and potential for a career in this side of acting my focus has extended to include this side of the business. While I've already gotten work from voiceovers already, I now know that I am on my way to being able to get more opportunities to join in on this side of the business. My love for on-camera work hasn't waned, but voiceovers have become a secondary goal that I desire to achieve.

While I would never say my life has become routine, I am glad that there are some constants that have made life very enjoyable. I have my watering hole of choice, Timmy Nolan's, which has become my Cheers of sorts. Then there's the great coffee shop off Tujunga, Aroma, that gets better every time I visit. And who can leave out the Sunday football sports bar that makes waking up for football worth it? While I am still in a love/hate relationship with Los Angeles, I am beginning to collect my gems that have become a part of my life and things I would consider "homish". If this keeps up the unthinkable may happen...LA may feel like home at some point. I doubt that highly, but I can see the threads that lead to that point. While my head screams out no with that idea, I don't know if my heart is so completely against it anymore. There is still a lot I hate about LA, but the good is bleeding through.

Anyway, I was able to visit the Getty Center again yesterday and see the Carleton Watkins Dialogue Among Giants exhibit. Some of his photographs of Yosemite are awesome and I can see why his work is heralded. He has a great eye for the construction of his shots and make them quite visually interesting. I would definitely suggest visiting if you are in the area, before they close down the exhibit in the next month.

Also, I was able to see Frost/Nixon early, and I must say it was a great movie! Frank Langella did an awesome job as Nixon, even though he doesn't really look or sound like him too much but I completely believed the character. The pacing was good, and there was some good laughing moments. This is one movie that I would have paid to see, but was even more jazzed that I didn't have too! Living in this city really has it advantages some time.