Improvalicious

Last night I performed in an improv show. There were four people in the audience. Whoop whoop!! They were the four people in the group going up after us.

Eh, I didn't care. It was fun just to perform. I played a wild west gunslinger whose long standing rivalry with arch nemesis "Rascal" played out on the carnival grounds in a cutthroat game of "shoot water into the clown's mouth until the balloon explodes".



Fun times!



I just finished Level 3 at Improv Olympic and am excited about starting Level 4 in January. A year ago today I would have never thought I'd be doing this and loving it. Thanks to Katie for encouraging me to try it out!

Seasonal Icons

Okay, so in honor of Jesus Day, I have decided to go with the snowman pic.




What the heck is the origin of Frosty the Snowman, anyway? And why is he associated with Christmas? Yeah, yeah, he's made of snow, which is associated with winter, which is around the holidays. But it's a cheap shot, if you ask me. Him piggybacking on Jesus and all.


Wait. Have you ever noticed this?


Winter has Frosty.




Spring has the Easter Bunny and chicks.





Autumn has Turkeys.




Summer has....









Exactly. Nothing.


Why hasn't anyone created a legend or something about a dancing, loveable air conditioner? Or an animated egg frying on the sidewalk?


(If I had more time, I'd sketch up these friendly creatures and post them on this site. Maybe I'll get around to that.)


I'm just saying, summer gets gipped.

Thought vs. Behavior

There are a lot of things I want to do. I have an incredible fantasy going on in my head that I'm working diligently on my novel, that I'm writing a marketable screenplay, that I'm making a decent living teaching college classes, that I'm painting fabulous pictures in my free time, and that I'm exercising super hard every day.

In reality, things don't quite measure up.

Needless to say, I'm often disappointed in myself.

I always want to be doing and accomplishing so much more than I am.







Yes, I need to learn to step back and appreciate what I do have more often, but honestly, a lot of these things would be quite possible if I got off my butt and did them. Know what I mean?





I spend too much time thinking and not enough time doing. It's a spiritual law or something: Action is the only thing that manifests dreams.


But what happens is I get all overwhelmed at the thought of ALL these things I want to accomplish. And I say to myself, "Holy crap, that's a lot of stuff you want to accomplish. Too much! It's impossible to accomplish ALL that stuff!" So I don't do any of it.


See, when I feel overwhelmed, I retreat. I watch TV even though I have an internal voice that constantly says, "You should be writing you should be writing you should be writing."


This makes me all frustrated because I can't ever enjoy relaxing. Relaxation is always tinged with guilt and disappointment because I haven't done enough to deserve to relax.


Point being, I need to do stuff that contributes to the realization of my fantasy life. Fiddling around on Myspace and crap doesn't cut it!


The action I'm going to take today is this: I will (I'm tempted to list about ten things, but I know that will overwhelm me, so...) write for two hours.


Yes!



******



PS - Which new pic do you think I should put up on my myspace??

Oh Christmas Tree...

Steve and I got a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.



It is so dry now that the needles snap in half when I touch them.

I gave it water, but it hasn't been drinking it. I don't know why it's resisting. It's like trying to feed a fussy baby. Except that babies spit out unwanted food. And their limbs don't dry up and snap.

Cacophony and Earthquakes

The dryers downstairs have recently been serviced. Well, actually the wall of the laundry room was serviced because the lint exhaust tube was blowing into the wall instead of out into the parking lot.








All the moist lint (or whatever it is that comes out of those tubes) has been building up inside the wall for years. Eventually, part of the wall crumbled. So, someone came in and rebuilt the wall.


Apparently, in doing so, the workers gave voice to the dryer tubes which had been stifled for years.






Meaning, now there is a high pitched ringing that pierces the air every time people are drying their clothes.


It drives me crazy.


I can't block it out even if I close my windows.

It doesn't help that I've been having migraines all the time and am sensitive to light and sounds.




The landlord looked into the problem and promptly determined there is nothing that can be done about it. So, the plan is to close the laundry room from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. I appreciate her coming up with some semblance of a solution, but I'm not sure why I bothered to agree with it seeing as I sleep with earplugs in, so I wouldn't hear it between those hours anyway, and really, who wants to the be the tenant responsible for limiting the laundry room?

I really think I need to start looking for a new apartment.


I don't think I can live with this continual irritation.


Not to mention the fact that I have no faith that this ill-maintained second story apartment will hold up in the event of a major earthquake. I mean seriously, a crumbly wall? Did I mention the wall is below our apartment? There are only a few walls holding us up here!


Sometimes I imagine where I would end up if there were an earthquake this very moment and our apartment collapsed. Frequently, I envision ending up in the dumpster because it's below the bathroom and that's often where I ponder life, death, and disaster. (There's not much else to do while brushing one's teeth.)





I'm not eager to move, though, because there is no guarantee in finding a place that is annoyance free. Just because I would get away from the dryer, the guy who hacks up mucus every morning, the woman who sings along with her R&B cds at top volume, and the child who screams as if his hair is being torn out, does not mean that I won't have to endure other oddities.


*****

(In looking for pictures online, I've discovered people like to take pictures of their children in dryers.)

How I've Grown!

I've been cleaning my apartment all day today. One reason this takes so long is because I easily get caught up in rediscovering things I forgot I had. Like old journals.

Today I came across the journal I was keeping around November 2003. I was working for an event planning company and had just decided to apply to grad school. I was living alone in a studio apartment in Mar Vista. It was a period of time in my life that doesn't seem to have existed. When I recollect where I've been and what I've done in my 28 years, 2003 doesn't even come to mind.

Here's a little excerpt from my journal at that time: Life in LA has been weird. I don't really like it, aside from being with Steve and playing softball. I just feel so lost. Like something major is missing from my life. I don't know what will fix that... I want to act... I want to make enough money that I don't have to worry about the necessities and can afford some extras. I want to get back in shape. I want friends. I want to have more fun.

A lot was missing from my life then. I felt lonely and on the wrong path. But, as I read those words now, I feel very proud of myself because in the past three years, I've trusted my desires and followed them and have thus brought back many missing pieces.

I have so many wonderful friends in LA now.




I have a job that I enjoy.




I have gotten back in shape.




I have moved to a more pleasant part of town.




I'm performing again.




I had the courage to dump a crappy job and pursue my creativity.





I don't mean to toot my own horn here; it's just not that often that I honor who I am, where I've come from, and what I've accomplished. :)