DVDs, Weekends, And Separation Anxiety

We've just received A BUNCH of DVDs from the SAG Awards Committee, as we always do this time of year.
But this year we seem to have gotten more than in previous years.
And I haven't watched a single one.
Hubby watched The Revenant.  I did not.  Too violent for my taste.

But at least he has an excuse, between work and rehearsal.  I have ZERO excuses.
Other than the fact that I'm not particularly interested in most of them.
OK, except for "Straight Outta Compton."  But I want to watch it with Hubby.
I don't know why, but I don't have much interest in the others.
(Well, OK, I'll watch "Spotlight", since I know all the characters. My dad wrote for The Boston Globe, and Mike Rezendes, the title character, was his protege.)

I think my attention span is getting even worse.

Or maybe I just don't want to spend time on things that don't interest me anymore.

Anyway, here we are, on a lovely Sunday afternoon.  It is a rare sunny day here.  We've been getting lots and lots of rain, although we are still in a drought.  And, fortunately, we are not on the east coast, so the freezing temperatures and seemingly endless snowfall are not affecting us.
However, it is still quite wet, so it's hard to take the kids anywhere.
And if we DID go out, we'd probably have to take the dog with us.  :)
She has separation anxiety, poor thing.  She's only been with us for 4 weeks, and I think she still doesn't trust that we will come back after we leave.  I've been teaching this past week, and leaving her home has been a bit rough.  Luckily, my in-laws have been here.
But she's my little shadow.  Follows me everywhere.  :)  I think, in time, she'll feel more secure.  I hope so. In the meantime, she is my nearly-constant companion.  Which is nice.

I think I may have found a 2-week summer camp for LG.  It's in Palo Alto, and is fairly pricey, but I'm supposed to have some money coming in for some consulting work I did.  It sounds like a perfect program for him, and 2 weeks is probably just the right amount of time.  It'd be nice for him to be around other kids in the summer, and not just me.
And maybe WG can go, sometime.

Now, if I may revert to my geek girl status for a moment, there is news.  For one thing, "The X-Files" returns tonight.  Woo-hoo! I want to believe!!!!!!!

"Doctor Who" will begin filming in May, so no new episodes until NEXT spring (aside from the Christmas special).  I was a little bummed when I read that, until I remembered that "Sherlock" only appears once every 2 years (season 4 will begin filming in April, BTW), and if it sees its shadow, we get 3 episodes.
Or something like that.
And Steven Moffat will be stepping down from Who after the next season, to be replaced by Chris Chibnall. No word on whether Peter Capaldi will stay or go. The fangirl in me wants him to stay, but the fellow actor/human/family person/knee pain sufferer completely understands why he may not want to.

Time will tell.
No pun intended.

Meanwhile, there's lots to do.  I'm subbing for the next 2 weeks, and then...we shall see!  Hopefully more consulting work, some time for museums and yoga, and possibly a show in May.

Stay tuned...

I Have Come to a Momentous Decision!

OK, not really MOMENTOUS...
But I have finally decided what to do about my Equity (stage union) status.
Nothing.
Nada.
Zip.
Zilch.

I spent YEARS working towards my union membership, and was a very proud member for a number of years.  Then the kids came along, followed by the autism diagnoses and full-on burnout, and, well, you probably know the rest.  2 staged readings in the past 13 years is all I've done onstage.

I've decided it is definitely time to get back into the game, and that I am ready.
But on my own terms, this time.
As a non-professional.
For the time being, anyway.

The truth is, I'm not entirely sure what, exactly, my Equity status IS.  I haven't paid my dues in years.  I think it's similar to my friend's situation; she also stopped paying for a while, but was able to get back into the union by paying her past dues.

But I'm not going to.  At least, not yet.  I'm going to, in a way, start at the bottom.  Not quite from the beginning (which, in my case, was at the age of 9 doing kids' theater), but close to it.  Build my confidence (and my resume) back up.  And, for the first time since my teens, NOT worry about the professional side of things.  I just want to have fun and do what I love, what I'm good at.  And not always be worried about when the next job will come along.

It may be that Equity will come calling and say, hey, this isn't kosher; technically you're still in the union and you cannot do non-union work.  In which case, cool!
If not, I will continue on.

Who knows what may happen in the future?  Perhaps I will, once again, turn pro.  Maybe, just maybe, I can start working again in the regional theaters and get paid well.
Or not.
I just want to perform.

I'm working on letting go of how I WANT things to be and accepting them for what they ARE.  This includes myself. I'm not a Hollywood leading lady, or a Broadway star.  I will never be the Doctor's companion.  Or Sherlock's pal or nemesis.  I'm no Judy Dench, Helen Mirren, or Maggie Smith.

I'm not even a working actor.  And I haven't been for quite some time.

I will probably never meet my heroes.  (This one stings the most, but what can I do?)  Meaning I will certainly not get to work with them.

I have to stop waiting for impossible things to happen, and start making other, possible, things happen.

And mourn the loss of the things I cannot have.

Because maybe, just maybe, there will be even better things to come.

I Know, I Know...

I suck.  I'm sorry!  I was out of the country, and then run ragged over the holidays.  Then my entire family got a stomach virus, from which WG and I are still recovering.

The past few weeks have been a mix of awful and great.  Along with the shared virus, we also had to put our beloved pit bull down just before Christmas.  He'd had some tumors removed in September, but they came back (and then some).  During the week I was away, he lost a lot of weight.  Eventually he was at the point where he couldn't hold anything down, even water, and he couldn't stop scratching.  He was in pain, and it wasn't fair to try and keep him with us.  He went very peacefully, but we miss him terribly.

However, in his honor, we went to the shelter and adopted another pup.  She is a beagle/basset hound mix, and very sweet.  She'd been through a lot, so it feels good to be able to give her a forever home. And we adore her!

So, yes, I went to London for a week.  And it was fabulous!  I even took a day trip to Cardiff (in Wales) to see The Doctor Who Experience.  So I can scratch that off my bucket list.  And since they weren't filming, we were able to go down the street to the BBC Cymru studios and take a tour of the TARDIS set.  It's  BEAUTIFUL!  A full 360 degrees and 3 levels.  As I stood on the top step, I though to myself "I could totally be on this show!"
And then proceeded to trip on the bottom stair.
But, apparently, I'm in good company.  Matt Smith tripped on that same stair repeatedly.
We also got to see the TARDIS painted in memory of Clara, as well as the inside of a Dalek.  And I'll say this; whatever those Dalek operators are being paid, it couldn't possibly be enough!

Back in London, I met up with my friend who lives there, and some of HER friends.  All of whom are fellow artsy types, American, and living in London.  Well, except one.  She lives in San Francisco.  We joked about how we had to travel 5,000 miles to meet each other when we live about 30 miles apart.  :)  We went to dinner one night, then met up a few nights later to see the holiday light displays at Kew Gardens.

I stayed in South Kensington this time, which is a great neighborhood.  And I did lots of exploring, including a trip to a cool North London neighborhood called Crouch End.  I needed to get out of Central London on the day of the Santa pub crawl, lol! so I googled London neighborhoods, and this one came up.  And it's a great area!  With a nice library.  Can't go wrong in a place that has a good library, IMHO.

I hope to go back again this year.  If I travel off-season, I can get a flight/hotel package at a very good price.  This one was through British Airways, and it was perfect.  I hope to stay at the same hotel again.

But I'm back home, and happy to be with Hubby and the kids.  Even with this stupid virus.
And I'm REALLY glad the holidays are over!  I don't know about you, but I always end up overextended and exhausted. It's good to be (almost) back to a regular schedule.

And now, I need a bit of a nap.  Getting this thing out of one's system is exhausting!

I'll post soon.  Promise!