Arrived

My life in progress seems to have yet again under gone some new developments. Having worked an all night video shoot for a pop diva at The Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, I picked up my brother on the way out of town Mon morning on just an hour's sleep. Not so good for a 1000 mile road trip. Adam, being a new Dad and all suggested perhaps "extending" our stay in Vegas over night. You know... to rest up.

We had a great time there and our losses were minimal. However, within our first hour there, I experienced two firsts. I stopped at a Washington Mutual on the way to the hotel and promptly found myself at the tail end of a robbery. The thief walked right past me as I was filling out a deposit slip. After speaking briefly to the Las Vegas police, Adam and I proceeded to the Luxor and he decided we should each put a dollar into a dollar slot and pull at the same time; a sort of ritual style entry to Sin city gambling. Ok. I hit 3 blazing 7's on a progressive machine. The jackpot: 2.2 million dollars. That is if you bet max ($3). For my single dollar pull I was awarded the opportunity alone to tell you how I almost won 2.2 million dollars. That's it. So there you go. A robbery and an almost of mega proportions.

After trekking through sweaty dessert, endless Utah, and an oddly wet and snowy Rocky Mountains we arrived at 2am. The true highlight from the road was when it started raining and we had the top down. Adam was less than thrilled to be driving wet mountain highways with no roof and try and find the wipers. Good times. Now I am back in Denver for the 3rd time in a month. I love it and don't feel like this is too much at all. I have an audition here Fri for some possible work and a plane ticket to Chicago the same day. Work here being a potential acting job. Work in Chicago just being good pay. Just when I thought I had it finally all sorted out.

At least I got to hang with Baby Vicious (a.k.a. my niece Sydney) for her first Halloween. She was an Eskimo with a less than cooperative Husky. Me, I was just plain chicken.





Happy Halloween!

Having a John Denver moment...

All bags really are packed and I am ready to go... That's about where the analogy ends though. I have decided to take a break from LA while I am between both jobs and homes. I hit the road Mon morning with Adam (my brother) for Denver. From there I am still deciding, but that will be my jumping off place for further plans. I am looking forward to this. I have felt a tad blah lately, so I am glad to get a chance to recharge. Till next city...

Gettin' exciting now...

Sitting here in the bright morning sunlight in my folks kitchen, all seems well. There is a wealth of good music coming from my speakers and I am enjoying the crisp, cool Colorado air. All seems well. I can not believe how much will be different by this point next week.

I spent the last week or so since Cody took off painting and packing my apartment on Beachwood. I was aiming to be 100% done by the time I flew out here on Wed. realizing I might hit 80%. That I did. I have a sizable stack in my livingroom, ready to go to the storage unit being held for me on Sunset. By "sizable," I of course am referring to the fact that I originally got to LA by Metro. While Tiff used her car too, she took most of that load with her back to Chicago. Most of it. I still inheritted some odd shaped stuff. I now have a bed, not a leaky air matress. Ah progress... nicer stuff, bigger storage units.

I now have 3 major options before me for the 2 months I have to get by till an apartment opens up I want. I have the option to work in Chicago, Denver, or stay in LA hoping work picks up. My major employers have gone on a 2 month vacation as well so my phone has gotten pretty quiet.

I am figguring out the last details here this weekend as to what will make the most sense, but reality is also starting to become more real.
All those little routines are about to get locked up on Sunset also. The little things, like the coffee maker. It's habit. It's going away for a bit. I look forward to this, but it's tough to not get a little nervous putting everything away for a short time.

I have had a bunch of people come forward and extend their time, help, support, and even one or two couches. That is amazing. I am so entirely blown away by that sort of friendship, it means a lot. For now, I am enjoying Colorado. I am still amused to be here at such an odd time. How often have you been packing to move and right at the critical push you wished you could just walk away for a while? Well, by way of Mom's big birthday I got to do just that.

Happy birthday Mom and thank you!

Rockies are World Series Bound

That's it, just excited!

Fresh Coat of Faith

I am fond of airing my grief with the lack of rain in LA and how I find it tough to be inspired to paint out here because of it. Well, the universe has a sense of humor. It rained on Fri and I got to paint... my entire apartment white again. Not exactly what I had in mind. Next time I'll be a tad more specific. Plus, our ceiling leaks badly and wrecked some valuable stuff. It's not like Tiff and I have not told the management company. We've told them all 3 times it rained in the last 15 months. Grrr.The deadline to leave the Hollywood bungalow is October 26th. I have so little time to get everything done. So far I am staying positive that the direction to go will become more clear but I am reminded of a joke I heard once. It goes like so:

A man of tremendous faith found himself and his home in the path of a great flood. Authorities said it would wipe out everything in its path and evacuations were ordered and the trucks came. The man would not leave. He said simply, "I believe in God, he will save me."

The rain came and flooded the streets up to his house. A rescue boat came down his street and he would not leave. "I believe in God, he will save me."

The waters overtook his house and he retreated to the roof, just above water. A helicopter came, but he would not go. He shouted, "I believe in God, he will save me." He could almost make out the pilot mouthing "idiot" before the roof went.

Lo and behold he next found himself at the pearly gates, soaking wet. He sloshed right up to God and said, " I believed in you and you still let me drown?!" God handed him a towel and said, " I sent you a truck, a boat, and a helicopter. What else did you want?"
Now, I believe in signs and messengers (ie Eskimos). Have I been sent my truck and boat already? I don't know. I am entertaining a couple ideas. Oh, I need to explain something else. I have a line on a good apt. for a great price. It's available Jan though. The price makes it worth the wait. I also am in a bind with my main employers going on vacation for a couple months. Basically I am on my own for 2 months. Denver? Chicago? Couch surfing galore in LA? I don't know. As I said before though... this is a friggin' awsome problem to have! Stay tuned. Oh and by the by, my painting ensemble in the picture above is my new favorite outfit. I will probably be wearing it next time we see each other.

Go Rockies!

Back to business, sorta...

The song had it so correct; it really is "sweet home Chicago."

I truly cannot describe how good it felt to be back there. It felt as if no time had passed. That was until I came across a new skyscraper. It was a great weekend in the Windy City. Just like Denver, I found myself fantasizing about coming back. It just felt good. I decided at the last minute to put out a feeler to see if anyone wanted to get together at Four Moon on Sat night. It was a great turnout. College friends, theatre friends, pirates... It was fucking great!

And we got Tiffany settled as she could be for a bit. Her move back to Chicago has been a subject I have shied away from talking much about. I still don't really feel like delving into its details. It just seemed like it was unavoidable. Let me just say, we are together and trying something different. Each of us are trying to accomplish something right now. It just happens to be in different cities. She seemed much more relaxed instantly in Chicago, but I do have to say she seemed pretty happy in Denver too (ahem). That was when she wasn't running at a mile above sea level. Stupid hill! ;)


Now I am back. My Caveman friend extraordinaire, Cody Lyman, ironically picked me up from the airport and stayed with me a couple days. I worked a White Stripes video the first two days. Finally free, we hit The Griddle for breakfast on Wed and then over to Universal. It was fun just being goofy with a close friend. It helped me not get too melancholy about my changing home.

Due to a raise in the rent I am not keeping my Hollywood apartment. Alone it would have been rough, but that was the final straw. It has yet to be determined where I am going from here just yet, but I have a couple ideas. They mostly involve some travel and get by work for a couple months. Well see.

The Rockies are winning thus far in the first game against Arizona. It's funny; I really got into watching them this year. By June I was hooked on watching the gamecast from ESPN.com. Now it's October and the Rockies are still playing! That has been a nice release; it has nothing to do with acting.



Speaking of which, I am now a CARD CARRYING member of the Screen Actor's Guild!



"You are the party and I am a school night"

From Colorado

Tiff and I have been enjoying all that is Colorado for the last few days. We hit Vegas for a night and had a truly wonderful time. Our room at the Golden Nugget (old Vegas is kinda fun) was upgraded to a suite. I am not kidding when I say it was the nicest room I had ever had. It was a two story, two bath room with floor to ceiling windows. The room had 5 sinks for crying out loud. After a win like that, we pretty much hung out in the room. It was so worth it.


We got to Denver late, late Thur night and have been enjoying my family's hospitality ever since. My niece, Sydney is getting cuter everytime I see her. It's also wierd but Jen and my brother are turning into ninja, pit-crew parents. They deploy baby gear in a blink of an eye when we get anywhere. Plus they are the cool type of parents that keep an eye on their baby. Sydney is usually pretty happy and quiet, but when she does decide to add some yelling to any restaurants atmosphere, they are all over it. I am so proud. They are all three doing so well.

Denver itself has been doing a fairly good job this trip too. Everyone that reads this is aware of my affinity for my home state and interest in long-term returning here.
With my 30 day notice to vacate my Hollywood apt. and a true wandering impulse taking root, the enchanting call of Colorado is stronger this time. I got to see two different friends for coffee this trip who could not be more different and they each felt the same way I am right now. Hell, even Tiffany is talking about how great it could be here. I even found a dog I liked yesterday. I was told it was one of their "lucky Westies" as he was born on 7/7/07. Tell me that wouldn't mess with your head a little if you felt yourself trying to get direction?


Then there was the infamous "Tie Breaker" game at Coors Field I bought tickets to. Watching a near Disney game play out between the Rockies and the Padres with downtown lookin on and the mountains out beyond was pretty magical. Tiff and I got to celebrate with 48,000 of our closest friends. It was amazing. I have never been to a better baseball game.

Today we hit the road for Chicago. I am truly excited to see it again as I have not been back since I left with her June, last year. I entertain ideas of taking a short job there for the holiday season. A chance to get away from LA briefly and also get some spirit rekindling. It would be great to see snow again, or even just a good storm. That would wake the painting muse, to be sure.

In any case, I know I have a lot floating around my head right now, and a lot to do. I am adhering to the when in doubt pause and wait for direction. I am also grateful as hell to have so many places that I enjoy being. I have a slew of options I want to try. For guy like me, that is pretty friggin' awsome.