It's international week at Pike's Place Market. Actually, every week is. For the past month, though, most of the tourists have been British or Canadian. Lately there have been fewer, but more Eastern Europeans, and French and Germans. Sunday morning I waited tables on a lovely French couple who spoke almost no English. So, gamely, I walked up to the table and asked "Qu'est-ce que vous voulez?" (Which, anymore, I'm not sure if it's rude, or incorrect, or just plain bad, but it got the point across at least) "Deux cafes. Noirs, et granola avec le fruit." "Oui. D'accord." "Merci." And then the woman told me (I think) that my accent was good, I just needed to practice. Which was nice of her, since in conversation I told her that "I study french in University but I don't speak well now today." This would be a passable sentence in Khmer, which only has one verb tense, but it's annoying that I can't think of how to say "I studied."

Europeans are great customers. Once they order. Taking their order is a melange of waters without ice, lattes, juice, meals, fruits, breads, and finally a double espresso to finish off the meal. Which usually lasts upwards of an hour. It takes a tremendous effort to get everything to fit on the table, but on the plus side, if you forget to put their order in for twenty minutes, they're fine. They think food comes to quickly anyway.

New Yorkers are by far the worst people to wait on here. Seattle is a pretty laid back town. Except in our coffee ordering we're generally pretty chill with whatever shows up, so long as it won't kill us. And if the wrong thing comes, we're game for the adventure. New Yorkers must exist in an entire ordering culture of exceptions. Every single woman I've waited on that MUST be from there, accent alone, much less the shoes, wants a half-caff vanilla soy latte with a dollop of foam, and can I bring one regular sugar and one splenda. Then a water with three ice cubes, a juice with no pulp and NO ice cubes, and an egg-whites only, vegetarian omelet with no onions, extra bell peppers, and do you have bacon? No? Well then add a sausage patty. Is it pork or beef sausage? Organic? And can I have a side of salsa, no potatoes, and if I don't get fruit can I add avacado to the omelet? One slice wheat toast and one slice white, extra crisp, and can I have one extra pat butter. And can you just "warm up" my latte with drip coffee?

I heard an Eastern European lady explain tipping to her friends like this: "Well you pay for the food, and then if the service is really good you leave a little extra." Hmm. Someone needs to give her a ballpark figure. She left me $6 on a $70 tab. Actually, with most Europeans, if they remember to leave anything at all, I'm impressed. If I go to Europe someday, I'll probably offend waiters in a trail all over the continent because I'll be petrified NOT to leave 20% at the table.

I have yet to meet any Cambodian tourists. As a whole, I suppose the country really isn't up to foreign vacations quite yet, but I'm aching to practice my fading Khmer on somebody.

The only downside to waiting tables - and I mostly love the industry - realizing my hair smells like breakfast.

And here is the link to another film screening at the SIFF that I may have made a brief appearance in. Acting with my eyes.

Here is the link to the short film I costumed when first I moved to Seattle. It won Best Actress at the 168 Film Festival in L.A., and is now screening at the Seattle International Film Festival. That cape was a character all by itself.

So, in other news, I have accepted one more of the roles I was offered. I will be playing Judith Claudel in a live reading of a play about the life of Rodin. Judith was his assistant. It will be a project with minimal rehearsals, since there is no blocking, but I will have to work on a French accent of some sort. I'm quite excited to get a play and a musical on my resume in the same summer, and hope the project will go well. If one of my friends who was at the audition got cast, I hope I can beg her to give me accent coaching. She learned her French accent studying in London.

I'm still waiting to hear whether my scheduling will be too tight to take on the third project, which runs the weekend before tech rehearsals start for Oklahoma. I did have to turn down the fourth.

I'm off to bed. Waitressing tomorrow at the crack of dawn. I hope this storm blows itself out by then.

So, I'm Laurie in Oklahoma! for sure. I may be able to futz two of the other three offers into my schedule also, if all the rehearsal and performance dates work out.

I've done all but two of my scheduled auditions. I felt good about Village. The 5th wasn't great. I prepared, and then ran the audition this morning before work and nailed it each time. I dried out waiting for my audition though, and didn't make it through the high Eb I've been doing solidly for a month. Disappointing.

Perhaps my acting will make up for the singing. I actually belted better than I did the legit song. It was a very backwards audition. Wierd. But I have one or two more to do in the next week, then I'm done for the season. All in all I felt very good about my auditions this spring. I'm well prepared, choosing better material, and having fun doing them. I've found monologues and learned how to perform them well - which was always a weakness for me. Now I've got some good upcoming projects to do. And if I don't get a callback for the 5th this year, I'm going to take this song, work on it for a year, and nail it next time around.

So there.

I'm down to two jobs now. Hurrah! I didn't know how I was going to maintain the three job schedule for two months more. Nannying came to an early end, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. I still have retail and waitressing.

I've been auditioning like mad the past few weeks. Partly as preparation for my big auditions: Village, The 5th Ave and Seattle Children's. Partly because I'm hoping to spend the next few months getting either some good roles or really interesting pieces on my resume. I've gone out for a show at a winery that has a global warming theme, a pirate show, and an unstaged reading of a new play of the life of Rodin. Also Oklahoma! and The Music Man. So far I've been offered roles in The Last Magician and The Pirate Show, and have a callback tonight for Laurie in Oklahoma! Monday is my audition at the 5th, and next week is Portland Center Stage (if I decide to go) and Seattle Children's is halfway through the month. Soon I should be able to make some decisions about my summer.

I've been dog-sitting all weekend, and only home in brief fits and spurts to change my clothes. Yesterday I ran out of time, and had to pull together an outfit of things-I-have-sitting-in-the-backseat-of-my-car. It was very colorful - pink skirt, lavender blouse, cream sweater, and a multicolored polkadotted scarf to tie it all together - but it worked.

I'm hoping as my hours ease up to get really cranking on some Lachellybelly items. I've got a few more things started in my spare hours and minutes, but I'd love a chance to pull quantities together.

Last night Carrie Fisher threw glitter all over me.

No, not some weird Star Wars themed dream. Wouldn't need Carrie Fisher for that one, as I'm ALWAYS Princess Leia in those dreams. I went last night to see Wishful Drinking at Seattle Rep.

It was a two hour tell-all of her life's story. Accompanied by toys, props, a Princess Leia life size doll, several tumblers of Coke, and copious amounts of glitter. I was lucky enough to get a seat in the front and center, so during the opening number of "Happy Days Are Here Again," she walked up and down the front row throwing handfuls of tinsel, and I'm still brushing it out of my hair.

It was a very good evening. Lots of great speeches, and her usual gift at alliterative sentences and witty reworkings of old folk sayings. There was plenty of audience participation during a gameshow called "Are They Related?" (Chronicling the twisted Hollywood Intermarriage rate, can Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynold's granddaughter date Elizabeth Taylor's grandson?) And lots of dishy stories about Carrie Fisher's life and scandals.

I wasn't called on for anything, which was a relief. Except for when she was talking about how her second husband came out of the closet, leaving her blindsided, and later how a grief counselor told her, "I can't even imagine what you're going through." Having had a rather similar dating history, and a therapist see me come in the room, settle back in her chair, and tell me my life story was her "own personal episode of Will and Grace" (All she needed was some popcorn) I could have related, if she'd asked me to. And, in sheer numbers, I have her beat. Though, I was never married to any of mine.

Alright, I'd love to type more, but several jobs are calling my name. My feet are in terrible shape. I would tell you how bad, from constant walking while both waitressing and in retail, but the words were too scary on paper. Suffice it to say, I need a pedicure. If I can ever find some spare time.

A very old friend is back.

Long ago, when I was actually MAKING money, I had a friend who went everywhere with me. I'd check in with it everyday, find out where I stood, move numbers around and retotal everything.

It was my faithful,trusty 12-column ledger.

It went by the wayside once my student loans and my car were paid off. I tried to start it again when I started acting, but it was simply too depressing to have no money to move around, and simply talley overdraft fees from time to time as my bank accounts (once again) cascaded out of control because someone decided not to pay me on time.

But now. For the first time in over a year, I'm making more money than I know what to do with. I've bought some clothes. Replaced some makup. Bought new headshots. And this morning, upon deposit of my retail paycheck, I paid off one of my (two) credit cards.

I still have one more to pay off, with a much larger balance than the first. So out came my trusty rusty ledger. I dusted him off, made columns for each credit card and bank account. Colored over the SUM TOTAL and NET WORTH columns, and (just for fun) used my old colored pencils to draw vines of flowers in the header - for decoration. I don't know why getting to color in my ledger makes doing finances more fun, but it TOTALLY does.

And for those of you who thought my color coded dayplanner was the geekiest thing I'm capable of - welcome to a whole new level of fun!

An unexpected morning off. Well, an hour. One of the girls I nanny is sick, so Dad came home, and I got a few minutes to myself.

The film I costumed last Winter has been chosen by the Seattle International Film Festival. It's an Oscar nominating venue, and two very big directors will be coming to watch. Spike Lee is one, and I forget the other.

I'm working 60-65 hours a week, and trying to get more Lachellybelly items done, as well as prepping for auditions, practicing tap dancing, and sleeping. I can't do all of those in the same day, though.

The ledger is back as a new incentive to pay off my debts and get back into the black for next year. I'm so glad to have the opportunity to catch up for a change.

And I'm deciding whether or not a corset counts as a "layering piece" as per BR standards of apparel.

Not much time.

I'm pretty much working around the clock right now. It's lovely to be making money again. Enough to pay bills, buy groceries, replace things that are wearing out, and even plan how to pay down my debts for next fall when I'm certainly going to be acting again.

I have 8 auditions in the next month, four in one week. Several generals and a few plays and musicals.

Yesterday I waitressed all morning. Of course on the day that I have a 4:40 audition in West Seattle, we get slammed with no hope of closing on time. By 4:10 I was panicking, waiting for the other waitress to drop her bank, wondering how I was going to get to the bus in negative time. Well, stripping down and changing into my skirt happened behind the counter, I put on my blouse and makeup and fixed my hair on the bus, to the amusement of all the people sitting around me. The bus let me off one stop too late, and I ran in heels dragging my little suitcase (I had too much to carry for a shoulder bag, back three blocks, only to find the doors locked. I thought I'd missed it, and was really mad because I'd had to miss a callback for an experimental play to come to this audition. Then they came to fetch me, gave me a moment to catch my breath, and I auditioned.

Next I bussed back to downtown, bussed home, grabbed some mini burgers from Jack in the Box on my way off the bus, jumped into my car and went to work retail.

Afterwards my LOD and I went out for a drink - two for him, plus half of mine, and half for me. I have the lowest alcohol tolerance in the world. Still had to drink three glasses of water to drive.

And now I'm off to waitress. Then. HOME. FINALLY.