On Acting and Other Adventures

One of my head shots

SO- you know those conversations that really spark you thinking about the life you have lived, and the times that have past?

The other night I engaged in one of these such conversations with my boyfriend's mother.

It turns out I had never before shared with her the story of my time spent acting in LA.

When I casually mentioned that I had worked on a show that she was watching,

How I Met Your Mother, to be exact,

she was understandably stunned.

The truth is that in my life I have had A LOT OF ADVENTURES.

I can't tell them all right now,

because I really doubt you would want to sit down and read my life story in one setting, 

full of all of its various twists and dizzying turns.

I will save the whole story for my book one day.

YES, I will write a book,

a few in fact :)

Allow me to begin this tale, about my adventures with acting,

in a far away land on the sunny West Coast.

I spent one semester's worth of time, 

after my BA was complete and before beginning my MA,

in California.

I worked as a background actress to begin with,

and got my way into SAG and AFTRA, two of the unions for working actors.

I took commercial classes, and was going to begin acting in commercials.

But then the time came- to make the decision if I would head back to West Virginia for graduate school studies in my beloved area of interest in Sociology,

or if I would stay and give acting more of a "long term try."

I opted to return to the East Coast, 

and move on with my academic life.

I have never for a second regretted that decision.

However,

sometimes it's fun to pull out stories from the ole acting days.

I took an Entertainment Law class last year, and the professor, knowing about my entertainment past, asked me to share some of my stories.

There were good days on set, boring days on set,

and the day on set that I got attacked in the elevator while leaving,

by an angry extra who claimed I stole all of her camera time.

There was my first apartment in Echo Park, in East LA.

The neighborhood was described as "up and coming",

and I quickly learned the reality of what that selling point sales description meant-

when my place was broken into my second week there.

I took up knitting to fill in the gaps between time called on set,

during long 12-15 hour work days.

I drove out to the desert to play a Mormon, on the compound,

in the HBO show Big Love.

It was HOT.

And we earned extra money for working through our lunch break.

I was in a scene for How I Met Your Mother,

where fake rain fell on us,

for hours.

I played the part of a middle school student in the movie Towelhead,

as a 20 something year old woman.

I spent my mornings gulping down coffee on my drive through terrible LA traffic,

to go to the studio of the day,

and my nights squeezing in a work out at my Burbank apartment complex gym when I could.

I feel IN LOVE with the Malibu  beach,

and made trips out there every weekend.

I grabbed a salad from the nearby salad bar, 

and sat on the beach with my toes digging in the sand,

contemplating my future life plans.

I found GOD,

by way of the Self-Realization Fellowship,

at the Pacific Palisades lake shrine,

after "accidently" ending up there one day.

I read all of the positive thinking material I could get my hands on,

took yoga classes as often as I could,

and begin building the healthy and happy life of my dreams.

~*~*~*~*~*

That was my first adventure to share with you-

about my time as a young 21 year old, recent college graduate,

taking some time out of her life plan to try out a little bit of a career deviation.

I have PLENTY of other adventures past,

that I will be sure to talk about with you too.

I can only hope that these adventures will be spun into oral history,

tales that will be lovingly passed down to my children, and tall tales will be created as their children tell their children.

The independent days of my single woman youth will always be a part of me.

I LOVE the idea that I was so free and unafraid,

to follow my heart and my desires,

on all sorts of great times.

LIFE IS A WILD RIDE.

I love my to-do lists and daily planner as much as the next person

[and probably, most certainly MORE],

but at the end of the day,

we all have to admit that adventures are a part of a healthy life.

Here's to all of the adventures past,

and the ones yet to come!