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.