Love

I have a lot to write about.  Insights from the Parenthood panel, my whirlwind day yesterday from audition to The Tonight Show, my audition that I have today....but I'm going to hold off.  I'm going to take a short departure from the theme of this blog to ask a favor:

I'm going to ask that you take a moment from your day and tell the person you love how much they mean to you.  Give your family a call, hold your loved ones close and say a prayer for John and Cat Goddard.  I found out about this amazing couple because one of their friends is a friend of mine.  And she posted a link to Cat's blog a few months ago.  I have been reading ever since, grieving and relating to their struggles and their love.  John has cancer and they have reached the point where treatment is no longer an option.  They are my age.  Knowing how hard it is to feel helpless as the one you love is sick...my heart breaks for John and Cat.  There really are no words but somehow Cat is able to capture some of what they are going through.  Beautifully eloquent in her pain, her love, her hope, her sadness, her gratitude.

Celebrate love today.  Celebrate life.

Brief

Audition streak is back on!  Have another commercial audition this morning and I am running a bit behind today.  Can't wait to tell you about the Parenthood panel last night - really fun, funny and insightful.  Will tell you more when the dust settles....

A World of Dreams

Well the audition streak has been broken.  4 days in a row and, gosh darn it, I'm not going out today. Yet!  You never know if a last minute appointment will roll in.  That is the fun of this business - always on your toes.  My day is pretty full though. I have my second to last improv class today - I can't believe it is already been 7 weeks.  And after that I am headed to the SAG Conversations series with the cast from Parenthood. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about how much I love that show before so, clearly, I am a bit excited to go tonight.

Started up The Artist's Way yesterday with F. and last night I sat down to read over the first week's chapter.  This quote stood out to me:

We have been taught to believe that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic. - Susan Jeffers

It is so easy to get lost in the negative that comes along with choosing to live an artist's life.  There are very real challenges of sustainability and incredible odds to be faced.  But focusing on the negative can often make you turn away from what will make you truly happy.  Being unreasonable, being unrealistic - any dreamer can attest that the rewards will often outweigh the struggles.  In fact, many of us face a kind of bittersweet victory when goals are met - because the journey to get there is over.  But, then again, that just means a new one is about to begin....

This world is built on dreams.

Tidbits

We are on a bit of an audition roll.  The commercial world is cranking up and I've had an audition everyday since last Thursday.  Including yesterday and today.  Not a bad way to start a week.  Thank you to my awesome agents for getting me out there!

In other news, meeting with F. today to start our Artists Way journey.  So very excited to see where these next twelve weeks will take us.

In even more important news, the election is a week from today and I have a lot of catching up to do.  Need to read carefully through my election guide and make some decisions.  A lot of "props" to learn more about...

Festival!

If you've been following along at home, then you may remember a short film I did earlier this year called TRUE LOVE.  I was the romantic lead and had a blast shooting it.  The quality of the film is top notch and I've been waiting to see which festivals it would show at.  Well, our first one has been announced!  We will be headlining one of three shorts programs at the Olympia Film Festival!  Really proud of my director/writer and everyone involved.  I'm going to see if I can figure out a way to get up to Washington to represent it.  I would love to be there and see how its received.  Even if I don't get to go, this is hopefully the first of many festivals!

Focus

Another commercial audition today!  A great way to ring in the weekend.  I gotta tell you, I slept for about ten hours last night.  I think I was more exhausted than I realized after Wednesday's marathon day.  But I'm feeling refreshed and ready to kick this day off the right way.  Feeling pretty excited about a new venture I'm starting next week with F.  We are going to do The Artist's Way together and meet once a week to discuss and keep on track.  I've been feeling lots of creative impulses lately without the real notion of where I want to exert my energies.  I want to write...but write what?  A short story?  A screenplay?  A novel?  Not sure.  Not even sure what I want to write about.  I want to paint but haven't.  I feel like there is a lot I want to do that is just bubbling around inside.  I'm thinking that doing this 12 weeks again will help me to focus.  In fact, I only did 9 weeks of the 12 the last time I attempted this.  In 2007.  I've been writing my morning pages on and off though since 2004.  When I first got the book.  This has been a bit of a journey and this will be the first time I attempt it with a friend.  There is a guide in the back for "creative clusters" - doing this program with other people.  The author says,

We all start out the same way - rich in dreams and nothing more.  If we are lucky, we find friends to believe in our dreams with us.  When we do, that creative cluster becomes a magnet to attract our good.

I'm ready to be a magnet.  I'm excited that this will bring us into the new year with a different perspective and interested to see where it takes us.  

Feel Goodiness

My mind is all over the place, jumping from fun memory to fun memory - all that were created yesterday.  I was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune and had such a great time!  My episode airs 1/5/11 so go ahead and mark your calendars...if you have your 2011 calendar already.   Don't worry, I'll remind you as it gets closer - it will be fun to watch!  Plus, I can't tell you how it went so you'll be able to find out then!  

After my fun day at Wheel, I had some of my amazing girlfriends over for a pumpkin party that was so deliciously good.  It was so great to get all the ladies together, catching up, laughing, sharing wine and pumpkin goodness.  I feel so lucky having all of them in my life and I find myself feeling very full today.  Full of thanks and love and blessings.

And on top of all that feel-goodiness is a commercial audition today!  Not a bad 24 hours.  Not bad at all.

Environment

Switching things up today. Usually I'm blogging from home, eating breakfast and getting ready for the day.  And I look like this:

Today I've ventured out of my abode and sought out a bagel and coffee, a place with free wi-fi and plenty of people watching:

Sometimes switching up an environment is the little jolt I need to get juices flowing differently.  I know it is so cliche to go to a coffee shop and write in LA but I used to do it a lot in NY too.  Writers in coffee shops...it's what we do.  I plan on getting lost for a bit, sketching a story - maybe from memories, maybe from the people I see walking by.  Nothing and no one is safe when observed by a writer.  There was a coffee shop I used to go to in NY on 24th and 6th.  My husband would leave for work and I would head to my favorite spot.  It was always crowded with a long line that moved quickly.  You'd have to fight for a table and I'd usually "reserve" mine by tossing my notebook and free Metro and AM New York papers on it.  The everything bagel was plump and they didn't scrimp on the cream cheese.  And the coffee was delicious.  And I would just write freehand in my notebook, watch the characters that drifted in and out and feel fulfilled.  I'd made NY my own.  There is a definite sense of pride that is associated with that memory.  I've talked before about how "making it" may mean a collection of milestones along the way.  If that is true, then my morning ritual at the NY coffee shop is included in my making-it-road-map.  I was livin' the dream.  I still am.

Running

Good Monday to you.  I have a cup of pumpkin spice coffee keeping me company as I type and a damp, cool day outside my window.  I already went for my run this morning.  Gotta start running on a more regular basis because we are doing a 5K in a few weeks.  I want to feel more than capable when the race rolls around.  This morning I felt like I was going to puke.  I blame the too many layers of clothes that I was wearing, due to the damp, cool day.  I overestimated the amount of insulation that I needed.

While I was running, I was thinking.  I was thinking about how much I don't like running.  How I dread getting up in the morning to run and how I make up many an excuse to not do it.  But how, once I'm actually out there, it is really not that bad.  How I'm always glad I did it.  And how it is so much easier to run when I am not focusing on running.  If I'm thinking about what I plan on getting done with my day or if I'm running lines for an audition or if I'm just really into the song that comes up on my iPod, suddenly my run will be coming to an end and I think, That was easy.

And then I started thinking about how lately I've been putting all of my thoughts into acting.  What more can I be doing?   Who should I be meeting with?  How can I make the most out of the rest of the year?  And I'm starting to feel a bit nutty.  Not unlike when I'm running and I start thinking, Gosh, I still have another mile to go and I'm already feeling winded...maybe I could just walk it.  I have yet to give into that thought - I keep running.  I just force myself to think about something else.  So how can I feel less nutty when it comes to acting?  I think it is time to start thinking about something else.  I have been itchin' to write lately.  I'm having a fun get together with my girlfriends this week.  I am going to start trusting more that the balls that I already threw into the ring throughout the year are still being tossed around.  "Hollywood Time," baby.  I know it is tickin'.

Friday Funny

For your dose of funny on this Friday, here is Daily Conversations with a Borderline Celebrity:  The Client/Agent Relationship written by Richard Ruccolo.  (Disclaimer: there is some adult language, so if my nieces are reading, this is not appropriate for children under the age of 12)

Bookmark

Yay for auditions!  I have a commercial audition today and I just submitted for a few projects on LA Casting.  Also, I'm loving this muy comprehensive list of casting directors that Marci Liroff found and posted on Facebook.  It is literally an international list of casting directors that have websites.  Actor friends, bookmark the link so that when projects come up that you're right for, you can submit.  Thank you, WonderfulCow, for putting it together!

A Penny for Your Thoughts

They changed the layout and look of IMDB...have you seen it yet?  Feel free to check out my imdb page and tell me what you think.

In other news, JJ Abrams has another pilot that they are casting series regular roles for right now.  Hi, JJ.  I'm Meagan.  I'm awesome.  You should give me a whirl.  I know every other actress in Hollywood and beyond is saying the same thing.  But, seriously.  Think about it.

Free to Love

Yesterday was National Coming Out Day and many people updated their statuses on facebook and twitter in support of the GLBT community. As a straight ally, I feel very close to this movement and so saddened that anyone would be made to feel "less than" because of who they love.  There needs to be a change in perception, in judgement and in attitude.

Celebrations and Goals

You have permission to coast and relax for awhile.  You deserve a nice long break.  - Yahoo horoscope today

Oh, Yahoo horoscopes, you're at it again - quit playing games with my heart.

I am a bit tired today as yesterday ended my month-long-wedding-whirlwind.  We had my husband's best friend's wedding, my best friend's wedding a week later, a week off and then my cousin's wedding this past weekend.  All in different states.  A lot of traveling.  A lot of wine consumed.  A lot of amazing memories made.  A lot of dancing.  A lot of love celebrated.  And now, a lot of sleep to catch up on.

I think that is why it has been a bit difficult these past few weeks to come up with topics to write about that are about acting. I have been consumed with all of this life-goodness that I've been surrounded with.  Surely the past few weeks will ultimately contribute to my craft - in both acting and writing - but right now I'm just marinating in it and letting the dust settle.  There has got to be a screenplay hiding somewhere within this last month of my life.

I'm kind of blown away that October is coming to its midway point.  Only  twelve more weeks of 2010 left to explore.  I still have certain goals that I want to reach by the year's end and hopefully they will come to fruition.  Bonnie's column this week about The Upset is a good one.  She compares college football to this industry, noting how sometimes unexpected losses and victories in the world of football can raise other teams' stocks, even if they had nothing to do with it - which happens in Hollywood all the time. You'll have to read it to understand it a bit better but I was just describing to someone this past weekend something similar...

...The idea that when living and working in Hollywood, you are on "Hollywood Time":  Things can seem slow or frustrating but you never know where and when the seeds you have planted have started to take root.  You may feel like you're hitting a wall when, in reality, in some casting room across town they are talking about you at that very moment.  Someone is coming across your picture, someone is remembering a great audition you had for a part you weren't right for.  Someone is fighting to give you a chance.  You never know when the phone is going to ring and that opportunity you have been waiting for is going to present itself.  All we can do as actors is control what we can control - staying in class so we are prepared, surrounding ourselves with a supportive community, staying fit and eating healthy.  Bonnie talks about this in The Upset:

Athletes are constantly training, studying a playbook, researching their opponents, and watching footage from previous games. The parallel for actors is clear: Control the things you do control like training constantly so that when you get your shot, you are awesome; doing your research on the buyers you are targeting so that you know as much as possible about every project and every person you encounter in this industry; and staying focused not only on your "big" goals but the little steps along the way that help you get there. 

Twelve more weeks of this year...here's to making them count.

Tweets and Pizza

Tweeted it up at the tweet up last night.  C. and I stopped in at the LA Actors Tweet Up last night.  Saw some people I met the last time, met some new people and saw some old friends that I didn't know would be there.  Always a good time.

Other than that, I've been struggling with a topic to write about today so instead I will leave you with this, in case you haven't seen it yet:

Practicing

"You can make the worst day a great day if you remain grateful for what you have."  

Ok.  So maybe that quote is from my Yahoo horoscope but that doesn't make the sentiment less true.  I've spoken about being grateful on here before and this year has been a constant lesson on the practice of gratitude.  Today I am beyond grateful for the love that is so present in my life.  From my husband and my family and my friends.  I am grateful for my audition that I had on Friday and grateful for my commercial that is running.  I'm grateful for the cool, overcast weather that is outside my window - a stark contrast from last Monday's record heat.  I'm grateful for health.  Mine and my family's.  I'm grateful for the opportunities each day brings.  And I'm grateful that I could go on and on about what I am grateful for.   So now it's your turn...what are you grateful for?  Reflecting on gratitude was a nice way to start my day...I hope it can make your day better too.

Starting the day right

Love starting the day off with an audition!  Going in for a soap this morning, so we shall see how that goes.  I'm really looking forward to this weekend of not doing much at all.  I have been going pretty strong these past few weeks and it is time for some relaxation.  My big plans involve sitting on the couch Saturday, with a plate of wings, cheering on my Gators.  As far as the rest of today goes, I'm meeting up with K. to catch up and talk a bit about Girl Parts.  In case you've been curious about when we are finally going to shoot the rest of the season, we had planned on doing that this month.  But our potential producer connection fell through, which means we are now on the hunt for financial backers.  I think right now we can hope to shoot at the beginning of next year. Luckily, K. has been cast in an exciting webseries that shoots this month and I think the experience she gains on that set will help us out when we finally get to shoot, especially if we end up producing this sucker on our own.

And on that note, gotta go get ready!  Have a great weekend :)