KC Christmas

Me representing in my Missouri sweatshirt.

My Dad Hal

My Mom Iris

Me and my brother Luke

My sister Jessica

Bear opening his presents back in Salt Lake

I went home to Kansas City, Missouri this past week to celebrate Christmas with my family. We were celebrating a little late or very early depending on how you looked at it, but things were still very traditional. Our Christmas lights were on. Our tree was up. We did last minute shopping and wrapping on the 24th. We opened presents on the 25th. We had a huge dinner with friends and family that evening. It was so familiar, it was easy to forget it wasn't December and we were the only ones Christmasing.

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I don't know if it is my cold heart or my chilly personality, but freezing temperatures seem to follow me. It was 64 degrees in KC the day before I flew in and 8 degrees when I arrived. Now that I have left, it has warmed back up. The same thing happened when I went to California in December. I swear I could travel to Arizona and it would snow. Now I know how Winnie the Pooh felt with his little black rain cloud. Oh well... it was still fun, too short, but fun. Next time I'll make my trip longer, bring my husband and opt for Christmas in July.

What's that Annie?

The sun will come out tomorrow. I sure hope so. It's been about a week since I've posted. This time it wasn't because I was too busy. I've actually been extremely unbusy this last week. I just haven't had anything nice to say and well... we all remember Bambi.

The horrible inversion hasn't helped my mood. I keep going for walks and coming back with a headache and an itchy throat, instead of rested and invigorated. I read a book. It was good, informative and ultimately not all that life changing. I tried to read people's blogs and status updates to cheer me up, but they were all political and that is just not my favorite subject right now. However, I did laugh out loud when I opened an email full of actual mug shots and all the people in them were wearing Obama tee shirts. Come on... no matter your political affiliation, you can see the irony in that one. Well maybe not.

Enough moaning and groaning. I have two days of work standing between me and going to Kansas City this weekend for Christmas! We're always a little behind when it comes to deadlines in my family. Whoohoo! I can make it through two days.

FYI... I was told they decided to cast ethnic for the roll I auditioned for. Disney always does that. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but I am saying if you are ethnic and even have an inkling of desire to act... UTAH is the state for you. High demand, little competition=$$$$ for you. Take advantage. I, on the other hand, will be moving to Tokyo where blonds are all the rage.

Take Two

In acting, as with everything in life, sometimes you just want a do-over. Today was one of those days for me. Now I'm a great actor, if I didn't believe that I wouldn't keep torturing myself with this profession. However, I am only an average auditioner. I would rather be a great actor than a great auditioner. We are called actors, not auditioners after all... but I do wonder if I'd get more work the other way around. Anyway, to make a long story short, I blew an audition today. Actually, it was a call-back. It was a small part for a small Disney Channel movie, but when you live in SLC and the auditions are few and far between, everything feels like a bigger deal.

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Here's the juice. I had two lines. The audition started with my line. I directed my line to the guy I had read with in the first audition. Unfortunately, since this was a call back, the main casting director had become my reader. I didn't know this till he responded to my line. Now I realized my mistake, got flustered, looked at the camera (which was halfway between the guy I was reading to and the guy I was supposed to read to) and stared for a few seconds while I tried to remember my next line. Did I mention I only had two? Then I finally mumbled out some semblance of my last line DIRECTLY TO THE CAMERA! For those of you who don't know, this is a huge no, no. It is written in film acting doctrine. Thou shalt not look directly at the camera or thou shalt forever be labeled a rookie!

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This incident caused me to reflect on other people that have blown it. Kim Zmeskal's beam routine came to mind, the USA relay team dropping the baton and the hurdler who was killing everyone and then tripped on the last hurdle. Just like me, they had done something a million times and inexplicably something went wrong. I guess we'll all want a re-do at some point. At the end of the day, I just hope everyone who blows it has something sweet to come home to.

I know I do!

The Perks

There are lots of perks to being an actor. For example we can write-off our movie tickets at the end of the year and we don't have to feel guilty for watching television... it's called research when you are an actor.

Of course the drawbacks are being 30 and living in a one bedroom apartment with hand me down furniture, but what are you going to do?

Anyway, I have to cast my vote for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and I'm not quite sure whether this is a perk or not. It's fun having a say in who wins and it's really fun getting free screeners in the mail. (By the way, I'm more likely to vote for your movie if you send me a free screener.) The downside is I don't get a say in who gets nominated in the first place and I'm not always happy with the list I have to choose from. I would love to vote for Pushing Daisies as best Ensemble Cast in a Comedy Series, but no... I'm stuck with choosing between a bunch of shows I don't watch, because I don't have cable and probably wouldn't watch even if I did.

So this is how you decide who to vote for if you are me. Hmmm... Mark Walberg produces Entourage and he's cute. Plus he seems sweet and I don't want crusty Alec Baldwin or holier than thou Tina Fey to win for 30 Rock. Check.

I'm not sure I should vote for anything that makes serial killers look cool, but Dexter is on HBO so I don't have to be annoyed by their commercials unlike the other shows in this category. Check.

Oops... I meant to vote for Kate Winslet for The Reader, not Revolutionary Road. Too late. Double check.

Conundrum... Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder or Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight. I loved both performances. I think both parts were very unique and challenging. Hmmm... oh free screener of The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger it is. Check.

Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button... well duh! You had me at A River Runs Through It. Check and double check!

And now you know how the winners are picked. It's all very technical, unbiased and professional.

My Word For 2009

Apparently a list of resolutions is sooo 2008. Now you only have to pick one word. Maybe this way I'll be more successful. Maybe not. I'm picking a really hard word for me.

Drum roll please.

My word for 2009 is... ENERGY!!!

And not the artificial, short-lived kind of energy that comes in a can, but the boundless energy that comes from sleeping at appropriate times, eating some vegetables, getting a little vitamin D from the sun and most importantly being enthusiastic about all that you do.

The people that know me are now laughing hysterically that I would torture myself by choosing this word. Up till now it has been my nemesis and people like Melanie and Candice, whose wells of energy are always bubbling over, have been a mystery to me... But that is all over now! I am literally doing jumping jacks as I write this post.

Or maybe I just want to win a necklace from Tip Junkie?

In The Last Week We

Opened Christmas presents...


Toasted a New Year...

Made birthday wishes...

Enjoyed our gifts...

Really enjoyed them.

What about you?