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.

Another day, another audition.

I'm going to have to find another heading for these days, since I have quite a few auditions in the next few weeks.

Tonight I auditioned for a new work at a local theater. They told us we could bring in any monologue in any genre, and I had a new one I wanted to test out. Actually, upon reading the sides, I'm quite interested in the production. My monologue went really well, thanks to coaching by Nicole, and they asked me to read some sides as also.

5th Ave told us that we should audition for everything we can to improve our auditioning skills. I'm glad I went to this one. Next up, The Music Man audition on Saturday.

This week has more breathing room than last. I don't have all the extra shifts I picked up last week, and waitressing has settled, so I have free chunks of hours here and there. I've been so busy all spring, I found myself with three solid hours free and no earthly idea what to do with them. I'd already taken a nap.

Now that I've paid off my library fine, I can check out new reading material, prepare for auditions, and make the next batch of dresses for Emma Jeans.

We'll see how productive I end up.

The Latest

The original tablecloth was coffee-dyed and separated. I used half of the oval to make the skirt, then cut the bodice and waist from the more heavily embroidered center sections. The dress is backless with a zipper closure center back and hooks to close the halter neck.

I hate telling people what I do.

It always leaks out, here and there, and anytime I'm in a new place I hear the impression they gather from the bits and pieces that come out in normal "getting to know you" conversation, and it doesn't feel like a reflection of myself at all.

I sound WAY flakier than I am, or way cooler.

Today, for example. Imagine the answers to these questions:
Where did you go to school?
What did you study?
And are you still using it?
Oh, when did you live in Asia?
What area code is 805?
So you just moved here recently?

See what I mean? Flakey. Or extremely artsy and bohemian. And then I pull out my dayplanner...

Twinkle Toes

And now for the exciting news of the week - I am picking up a new skill set! TAP DANCING!!

I've always wanted to learn, plus I need to spruce up my resume, plus get more dance experience before general auditions that include On The Town and 42nd Street. (Of course I won't be good enough to REALLY be a dancer by a month from now, but it may put me in the running for singing chorus if I can at least move my feet with tap shoes on them)

Tuesday I flailed around trying to Shu-ffle. Step. F-lap. Step. I've been practicing and I can do it fairly regularly but very slowly.

I feel very uncoordinated in class, but I'm screwing up with a big smile on my face. It's so much fun. I can't wait to be good.

Day tripping to Yakima. Not as exciting as friends of mine who are currently taking a road trip around the country, but a nice break in the routine of working (finally!) way too much.

I'm on my way to take the dogs home. And hopefully put the watch back in for repair that I repaired two years ago, spent a year trying to get back to Yakima to pick it up, finally had Mom and Dad pay the balance and give it to me as a birthday present, got it at Christmas, only to find that the watch was mis-repaired and picks up five minutes on the hour. I'd take it to a new place, but it cost so much to fix (it's a wind up watch - beautiful) that I want them to try to redo it before I pay someone else more to.

Banana wants to up my hours. Waitressing wants me all three days I'm available, and nannying continues with a four chapter reading of Hatchet each morning.

I'm preparing for my many upcoming auditions. I've pretty much settled on one song for sure - freakish high notes, bubbly acting, and flirting all in two verses of a song. I'm going with that one. I found a monologue for my Oklahoma audition that can be played Southern Belle, several other monologues for general use, and am still looking for the perfect Lloyd Webber belt song that's in my range. Drea gave me more suggestions from obscure shows, and I may just pick something meant for a tenor, since most of his belt ballads are for altos. I can SORT of sing them, but no way does it show me in the best light. I can bellow well, but belting is beyond me.

And trying desperately to get the last of my next batch of Emma Jeans consignments done. I've got 5 projects going, one finished, in an effort to keep going when I'm tired by switching project. I wanted to be done by last weekend, but kept picking up shifts and training, and had less time than I imagined to sew. And no capacity for creativity after a three job day.

I'm off to run some errands, then over the pass I go.

Suddenly, I'm working.

After several months of barely enough hours, begging for more if possible, and sweating it out whenever a school holiday interrupted my nannying schedule, I've gotten a third job. And as soon as I did, my other job starts asking me to pick up extra shifts as well.

It never rains...

I have a few more minutes of leisure, then I'm back to the sweat shop to make another round of clothing for Emma Jeans. I have five partial projects, and I just need to finish them so I can take them over tomorrow.

I'm hoping with my new waitressing job to be able to pay down the debt, and maybe even buy some clothes. On sale, of course. And junk food. I've been aching for chips and chocolate!

Emotionally I'm a bit fragile right now - with money stress, my car window having to be fixed, and recent audition letdown, I've been feeling a bit lost. But we have a sunny week ahead of us, and that always makes everything cheerful.

Another week of highs and lows.

Yesterday was quite the day. I'm housesitting two sets of dogs, one for ten days, and one set on both weekends around spring break. Banana has upped my hours some. And last night I attended a workshop at 5th Avenue Theatre on "How to Audition for Musical Theatre."

It was a great workshop. There was a lot of good information given. Some things I've been doing recently to prepare for the next round of generals I found were exactly what I should be doing. And then there were great suggestions for ways to improve the parts I'm weak.

Some things I'm doing right:
1. Wearing one dress to every audition - my new pink Banana Republic one.
2. Practicing Cold Reading skills - reading to the girls counts in a major way!
3. Critique each audition as a performance, not based on whether you "got
the job" or not.
4. Go to as many auditions as you possibly can to improve your audition skills.

Some things I need to improve:
1. Acting is more important than beautiful singing (I tend to focus more on
musicality than acting, though I'm really good at both in performance.)
2. Constantly take dance classes regardless of skill level.
3. Assume everything they say to each other or write down is POSITIVE.

So that part was great, and I'm so glad I went.

After that I met a friend from work for drinks (well, one drink for me, and that was still enough to make me stumble a bit), then back to his place for a rowdy musical theatre sing along - just for fun, since we can't very well bust into song at work.

Afterwards, he walked me to my car, only to find that someone had broken a window out of my car. Nothin was stolen, just someone having highjinks. So my $5 musical theatre workshop suddenly costs more than a class at Freehold.

Sigh.

Yesterday I was called into the office by my favorite LOD. I, thinking I was in trouble, followed him in with a hangdog expression, wondering what else I don't know how to do.

Instead I was told I'm the number 5 salesperson in the store, and up for a bonus if I can make X amount by a certain date. Handy!

So, suddenly, work is a much more interesting venture.