Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. I've always loved Halloween. Maybe that's a small part of why I became an actor; so I could pretend that it's Halloween even when it's not. But Halloween has gotten weird for me in recent years. I'm usually doing a show at Halloween time, so I don't really get to do Halloweeny things. And my theater friends from college do a Haunted House so they throw their Halloween party in September. So in a strange way, I had my Halloween a month ago. Meh.

We've got one more show to do tonight and then a little shin-dig at the theater afterwards. I won't be staying long, though, partially because I feel like crap and partially because I start my new job tomorrow morning. Yes, I got a job. It's a part-time temporary kind of thing, with the potential to turn into more, but I don't feel like I'm selling out or anything by taking this job. Hell, I might even get the opportunity somewhere down the line to teach someone some of the skills I've aquired in my lifetime as part of this job. My boss is totally cool and there are dogs in the office (it's a home office) and it's just a couple hours each morning. Except this afternoon when I'm going in to fill out my paperwork. But I'm excited. I think this job could be a lot of fun and could even make my dendrites grow a little. Yay dendritic growth!

So happy Halloween everybody! Eat lots of junk food and be safe as best you can.

There are days when I wonder if I'm really good at what I do. Really good or just passable good? And who would honestly tell me I wasn't? I know you guys are my friends so you're going to be supportive no matter what and I love you for that. But there are some days when I honestly wish someone would say to me, "You know what? You're good, but in this business you gotta be great." Or something along those lines. Just so I'd know, you know? I'm not saying a comment like that would stop me from doing what I'm doing; on the contrary, it would probably push me to try harder. I dunno. I guess I could just use some honest feedback every now and again. A barometer against which I could judge my own progress.

So if this whole "finding other musicians to play with me" thing doesn't work out, what if I just went DIY and made an album with GarageBand? I can do some pretty cool stuff in there 'cuz it is a pretty amazing program. Not industry standard by any means, but still. I could make some cool stuff. And then send that out to labels and then when they come to sign me, they can hook me up with their studio musicians and stuff.

Just an idea to play around with.

My house smells like tofurkey.

Mmm...tofurkey...

I know I've said it before, but I'm gonna say it again. I really like being vegan. Even if it does kind of alienate me from a certain segment of the population, I really like being vegan. The food is excellent and I can live knowing nothing else had to die to make that possible. Well, plants, but really, who likes plants anyway?

Kidding. I love plants. I'll just stop eating anything. Except tofurkey...with veggies...and the occasional Twizzler...

So financially speaking, I'm just about at the point where I told myself I'd get a day job again. I'm so not looking forward to that. The thought of going back to work in the service industry or worse, corporate America, kind of makes me sick to my stomach.

And then there's the fact that there is so much exciting stuff in the works! If that phone call comes through or that decision is made, I might not need a day job and I can continue to be a working artist. But I don't know when that call will come or if that decision will go the way I want it to. I have no control over those things. So do I throw in the towel, so to speak, and get a day job again, knowing full well that I may have to quit in a matter of months, or do I keep on keepin' on and wait until I'm in serious financial trouble to get a day job? Should I be proactive and safe or have faith and take the chance that something big could happen any day now?

I know it'll happen for me. I just don't know when.

I have heat.

I have a working phone line.

Trader Joe's has lentils again.

Pretty soon, I'm going to start to feel spoiled...

I'm cold.

I'm tired.

I'm tired of being cold. Which is a bad omen since we're only halfway through October...

Sweet jebus, we're halfway through October already. When did that happen?

But yeah. Quick thanks to John at UIC Radio for having me on the show yesterday. That was a lot of fun.

Quick note to say the band I play with has a big show coming up this Saturday night. Go to their website if you want more info.

Quick note to say my theater company's Halloween show opens tomorrow night. It's really funny. Campy, gorey, raunchy and wrong in so many ways, but so much fun. Go to their website for more info if you want it. Or to buy tickets online. We can do the online ticketing thing now. We're turning into a real theater company.

But yeah. Trying to take it easy and rest up today so my headshot shoot goes well tomorrow and I look purdy. I love being a redhead again. I don't like the upkeep of dying one's hair, but I do love having the red hair. Here's hoping this shoot goes well and I get some nice new headshots out of it. Wish me luck!

Mercy to none!

*burp*

Update: The heat came on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Don't think it's been on since then, but it's not as bad in here as it once was. Thank you for all the warm wishes and offers for a place to crash. I love you guys.

Now on to more important things.

You can say "god" on the radio or television, and you can say "damn," but you can't say "god damn." You can say "ass," and you can say "hole," but you can't say "asshole." Discuss.

Day three.

No heat.

FUCKING MISERABLE.

Sorry, let me amend.

Apparently, the heat was on for "a couple of hours" last night, but by the time I got home at 2am after rehearsal, I couldn't really tell. And it didn't come back on this morning at all because apparently, "there are big problems with it." They're working on it, but have no idea when it will come on. Supposedly, the maintenance guy will be calling me this afternoon with an update. I don't know if that will help or not because he mumbles so I could only get about half of what he was saying. He was also completely oblivious to the fact that I was asking questions; he just spat out the little bit of almost completely unhelpful information as quickly as he could. Hopefully so he could get off the phone and get back to work.

I'm sorry to be so bitchy, but I'm so cold in my apartment, I'm getting panicky. My fingers are numb as I'm typing this, it's that cold. And I know I can go out (and I do) to places that are warmer (the reason I'm not bitching about the fact that I was at the theater until 2am), but I've developed this hacking cough and some annoying congestion because I've had to sleep in an unheated apartment for...well, April. Granted, it wasn't so bad over the summer, but it's been 32 degrees Farenheit (0 degrees Celsius) at night for four or five nights in a row now and to not have heat and to not have storm windows even...it's fucking freezing inside, too. And while I can (and do) leave, my cat can't. He has to live here and try to stay warm. I pile blankets on him and hold him as much as I can to get the body heat thing going. But my musical equipment has no body heat and I'm guessing it's not so good for a tube amp to be exposed to this kind of cold, much less an acoustic guitar.

I'd bitch more but I'm shivering and I have to get ready for work. Please send happy vibes that the boilers are fixed soon and we can get some heat in here. I don't know how much longer I can put up with this.

It's snowing outside.

Snowing.

October 12 and it's snowing.

The worst part is that the heat in my building is not on. Has not come on. It's friggin' cold in here.

I like to sew. I like to make things.

Yeah.

And I'm looking forward to my hair appointment on Thursday. It's fun to update the look, you know?

I'm all kinds of busy now with this Halloween show of ours and I love it. I forget sometimes how much I love acting, too. I get so focused on the music. But I really do love doing theater. Hopefully this new haircut and new headshot combo will help me be able to do more of that.

Okay, I'd like to make one thing perfectly clear. Out of the 26 major league baseball teams, not ONE uses the color pink as part of their uniforms. Yes, a couple use purple and the Rockies even had teal for a while there, but NONE of them use pink. So if you're such a fair weather fan of your "favorite team" that you'll only buy their apparel if it comes in pink, just don't even pretend to like sports, okay? You like a team, you wear their colors. No mutilating of the logo just so you can look girly.

(The one possible exception to this is clothing for children under the age of 12. But once you hit 12, either give up the sports or give up the pink. You can't have both. There is no pink in baseball.)

That, and I hate the Cardinals. Cardinals vs. Mets. As a Cubs fan, I've got nobody to cheer for.

My friend gave me a ninja. That kind of looks like a monkey. I think more monkeys should be ninjas.

Now if only I had a coin-operated boy...

I just got a phone call that I'm having a little trouble digesting. It was, in a lot of ways, a really good phone call. But what it all boiled down to is that if I want to get an agent, I have to get new headshots. I just got new headshots. I kind of thought something like this might be what was going on and it's a little discouraging, but I'm glad somebody said something, you know? I appreciate the constructive criticism. Mostly, it's a matter of having to put out more money and having to sit for another heashot photo shoot. I hate headshot photo shoots. I'm not a big fan of having pictures taken of me. If the picture is being taken for a purpose or when I'm in costume or playing a character, I can handle that. But just pictures of me that I'll spend the next year hoping someone likes when I really don't have many parameters to work with as far as what they might like...I'm not a fan of getting headshots done. But it was kind of a "we like your resume and think you have potential...if you got new pictures" phone call. That's encouraging. It's nice to know that I have potential and that my resume is impressive. I know it is and I do, but it's nice to hear that from someone else who, you know, is in the industry and knows. I just really don't like getting headshots taken.

But if this is what I want to do with my life...it's a necessary evil and it's an investment in my future, right? Right. Now if only I could pick up a couple more gigs somewhere to pay for it...

So Dusty is gone. He seemed like a really nice guy, so I'm kind of sad to see him go. But by the same token, I didn't always like his managerial choices, so maybe it's best in the long run. I'm interested to see who they'll get to replace him. I'm also kind of thinking that this means next season will be a good one for our boys. Traditionally, the first season with a new manager is a good one 'cuz he's really busy trying to prove himself. But I guess a lot of that will have to do with who they get to play for him. This should make for an interesting off season.

And in other news, it's been raining a lot lately. Big, icky, scary thunderstorms where you hope your windows hold up. It's kind of exciting in a way, just because any big weather activity is exciting, but it's also kind of a pain in the neck when you're at rehearsal a half mile from home and you're finished rehearsing and you have to walk home and the heavens have opened up and are pouring down the wrath of God in water form. Fortunately, I was able to borrow an umbrella from the theater last night and I wore my shoes that don't have holes in the soles, so I stayed relatively dry.

Anyway, off to enjoy what could be the last nice day of the season. Have a good day!

Happy October!

And just like that, it's over. Six more months until I can watch another Cubs game. I'd been trying not to watch the last week or so, to kind of ween myself off of baseball, but now that the season is officially over for my boys in blue, I'm kind of sad. Really sad, actually. It's nice knowing that there's a game on, even if I can't watch it. And it does make me happy that we won the last game of the season. We're playing 1000 baseball in October!

I'll miss you over the winter, my boys.

So yeah, the president of the Cubs resigned. Here's hoping the new guy does a good job. And we'll find out about Dusty tomorrow. I'm torn on that one. He seems like a nice guy, but I don't necessarily like some of the choices he's made about who to play and when. But I would like to say that through the off season, I hope we keep Lee, Ramirez, Zambrano, Barrett, Pierre, Howry, and maybe Murton. I wish we could get Todd Walker back. Hell, while we're at it, why not bring back Banks and Sandburg and Sutcliff and Dawson and Dunston and Santo? I have the feeling I'll be paying a lot more attention to the off season goings on than I normally do, and I think I'm okay with that.

Oh, and on another note, I had band practice with a bassist and a drummer today. I'm starting to get excited. We'll see how things pan out. Keep your fingers crossed!