Tiger looking THRILLED to have his cat-mama dress him up in holiday splendor. Hmmm, is this the equivalent of the crying kid Santa Photo?
Holidays are CRAZY busy!
OMG, my calendar is filled, filled, filled to the brim with events, shows, classes, meetups, dinners, friends, and other items of personal growth and holiday cheer. (I’ll let you GUESS what has fallen OFF the calendar – no, not the show, I still update THAT about once a month – it’s MY MORTIFYING DUSTY HOUSE OF HORRORS!. I just can’t seem to get my rear in gear to get the dust out of our house. Between Mark being sick, ME being sick, Mark being sick, and my preparation for tomorrow’s comedy show and various voice auditions, I am whacked and bushed!
I don’t even have kids (outside of the cat babies, and frankly, THEY are pretty easy in the gift department – can of food, extra pets, a good brushing – they’re set) and I’m STILL frantic with finding empty spots in the calendar.
Frantic Can Call the Robot Aliens
One way I can tell the frantic is on the rise, is the increasing gravitational pull of chips. Yes, BCs, I have been feeling ‘Chippy’ lately – and NOT because they are delicious! The drive to nosh on crunchy salty things is a big tell. LAURIE SLOW THE HECK DOWN!
So I slashed some events from the calendar, made room for my needed practice for tomorrow’s comedy show, eliminated some voice auditions, rescheduled some sessions and prioritized exactly which rooms in the Dusty House of Horrors would give me the most bang for the buck.
Let me tell you that extra gift of time was the best thing ever – to stop my frantic, perfectionistic insanity AND to ponder what our lives are really made of.
Time is the Coin of Life
So often we get caught up in distraction and busyness and wishing our time away.
“I can’t WAIT until I’m thin”
“I can’t WAIT until my vacation”
“I can’t WAIT until my scary comedy show is over”
Can’t wait for WHAT? Living?
I realized I was rushing through my life, even though I am retired. It’s so part of our culture. Immediate answers, immediate distraction from live events by i-devices, immediate feedback. Then there’s auto hotel check-in, auto bill-pay, auto email response – auto everything. Where is my mind and choice in all of this?
Besides the light speed of daily living, I further pondered that I was rushing MYSELF to make progress. I wasn’t happy with my comedy nor my acting nor my intuitive eating progress. I want everything right now! And if my progress isn’t at the new normal light speed, I feel I’m losing ground instead of gaining. And if I’m going to lose ground, why not just give up?
AHA! One of THOSE moments!
When I review where my acting is now vs. one year ago, I am LIGHT YEARS ahead in improvement and ability. But that took many classes, many tears, many days of practice and boring vocal exercises and getting used to well worn rejection. When I look at the set I’m going to perform tomorrow at a REAL LIVE COMEDY CLUB, it is so much more funny, and good, and my delivery is eons past my start, and I’m hopeful tomorrow’s show will be fun instead of terrifying. But that took days and days and weeks and weeks of daily writing, being brave enough to listen to the audio recordings of my class delivery and being willing to risk an open mic. It took being able to hear feedback and not wilt. Hard for me as my perfectionist voice still tries to protect me from rejection and proving myself unworthy. When I review my reaction to chips and Robot Aliens, I see that yes, I had a few chips. But I didn’t have bags of chips. And I took it to be a sign I needed to slow down and smell the success. I needed to celebrate this season with gratitude for all I have and all I’m willing to try in order to grow and encourage others and myself. My inner perfectionist is even impressed. I’m becoming a perfect imperfectionist – and THAT my dear BCs, really takes time!
Happy holidays, and don’t forget to call in or send audio for the Dec. update show. Fionna may provide a new song, Dawny has already sent in some great jokes, and I’m sure many BCs would love to hear from you if you’d like to be part of our holiday soiree.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Excellent job on recognizing the need to slow down and find some quiet time. It really is easy to WAY overschedule, and then feel so hectic that life is just passing you by in a flash of stress. I try, but it sure isn’t easy to do that! I wish you the best of luck on your show. I know you have worked hard, and you are incredibly brave to take that on. I hope you get lots of laughs!
Thanks Amy! I must say I’m shocked I’m not more terrified right now 🙂 How’s your holidays going? Get your Christmas break soon?
We aren’t decorating this year due to home remodeling, and I’m doing great on shopping, so the holidays are not causing stress right now. Thanks goodness! Break starts the 23rd, but I’ve got a couple of quilts to finish before then.
Thanks for asking 🙂
Ooooo, we aren’t decorating either – don’t have an excuse, just we can’t decide which one of us is more lazy these days. We’ll take a little Christmas jaunt again to see some decorations. I DO listen to my Christmas music and play my Christmas games on my phone though. I still LOVE my quilt, and I know yours will be appreciated by the lucky recipients. xoxoxoxox
You are NOT allowed to call yourself lazy! If you don’t feel like decorating, don’t! I’m glad that you are still enjoying your quilt.
XOXOXO
Absolutely purrrr-fect post! I could so identify with One way I can tell the frantic is on the rise, is the increasing gravitational pull of chips. I’ve really gotta take your example to heart and start carving out the time to do my morning pages journal every day. NOT doing it has been a mistake for me because so much has happened this year that I can’t process effectively on the blog. So I made up my mind yesterday that I WILL take that time to write three pages in Moodlings come hell or high water! Or dust!
You are so right about our culture. It demands such immediacy in our lives and, personally, I think it’s killing us. Add to that the background noise of terrorist news and political crap, and it’s amazing any of us are still able to go out of the house and function.
So proud of you for recognizing the need with the chips for what it was. And thanks for posting about it and reminding me because I nearly fell into that trap last night. Can’t wait to hear about the comedy club. Good luck!
Love & Hugs,
Cheryl
Hey GF! Hugs, Hugs, Hugs! It sounds like you have enjoyed the connections that blogging brought (as I enjoyed all of the interaction with BCs), but you are needing some time to focus on who you are alone, with only your own heart to ponder. Your plan sounds like a great mix. Moodlings in the morning and blogging when you can. The comedy show last night was SOoooo scary, but fun. My entire comedy class did great. I captured my set on my iPhone, so I will bleep out my F-word and either add it to the Dec. update or do a bonus – bonus show with my comedy debut. It kind of depends on my time at the moment. Today I head to voice acting coaching/singing, then meet with my scene partner from acting class to rehearse – and SOMEWHERE today I need to do SOMETHING in my dusty house of horrors. I feel sorry for those with jobs and or kids. If I’m so busy with just me and Mark, how in the heck do you all do it???? Chips are safely back in the bag, and even though from the awful angle, the photo my fake son Steve snapped of me on stage made me look BIG AS A WHALE, I am proud of myself that it stung for a second and then flew out of my head. My friends came to support me, I have PROOF I did comedy on the same stage that many name comics grace, so I can only smile that my bravery trumped body shame. I feel like I can do anything now! (And I didn’t brain freeze or stutter – hooray!) xoxoxoxoxox
I am so thrilled to hear it went well. But even more so that seeing the picture you didn’t particularly like did NOT send you into a tailspin. I can honestly say that over this last year I’ve struggled and struggled with that image thing. But it was no accident that Teal (a friend from WP who happens to be a child and family therapist) ended up posting on my blog. As I’ve gotten to know him he’s tackled that problem head on, and I’m more comfortable in my own skin now than I ever have been. Do I think I look great? Oh heck no! Especially in pictures that tend to flatten me out anyway. But I don’t feel like a phony in the girl department any more. He has managed to make me feel ok with that side of myself that wants to be girly. It’s been quite liberating, actually.
This has been a year of changes for both of us, hasn’t it! I nearly died when I read all you’re into. How do YOU keep going??? Hope you guys are on the mend and getting back to normal. Will be thinking about you. {{{Laurie}}}
I’m so glad you are learning to love your soul’s container! (me too) 😉 I got into regular acting to help my voice acting, that is where my true passion lies. And one of my Voice Acting buddies wanted me to come along to comedy class. This is the ULTIMATE in scary, so I decided to do it to increase my bravery on stage. After all of these, I no longer fear the mic in the sound booth. That’s a piece of cake. AND it helps me be braver in making acting choices. You can hear some of my latest voice demos at http://www.laurieweavervo.com I’m making progress there, and have gotten several auditions, and close to booking. Not yet, but someday. xoxoxoxoxox
OML! I just listened to your voice overs! I am freakin’ amazed that you got through that bead array one without stumbling on any words. How long did you have to practice?
I was impressed! You have a wide variety of expressions and sound as good as anything I’ve heard on TV or radio. The site is calming. Are you getting any bites?
LOL! Yes, Bead Array took the most work to say those words naturally. Cranston Fair was one take. Amazing! We also did a ton of work on Terrence Memorial – a lot of that you can hear in the good-bye show in the segment I’m working on that spot with David. We just the other day finished that one. Locally, Los Angeles is a very competitive market, and the online audition sites are FILLED with wonderful, experienced talent and also flooded with newbies. So if you aren’t a known quantity with 5 star reviews, you really are a needle in the haystack. Long story short, I’m still working on becoming skilled and versatile enough to get a professional commercial demo produced and directly approach agents and production houses.
In the meantime, David and I work on these segments to build my skill and use them as demos for the online audition space.
So you are hearing my progress my friend. The site is not designed yet. My goal with it right now was to be inoffensive and neutral as I’m researching professional web designers with voice actor page experience. It is important to be very professional in branding once I’m ready to send out demos. These are all my baby steps into the career.
And I am making progress with nibbles, and have short listed a few gigs, but haven’t booked yet. Believe me once I do, I’ll be shouting it out to you all! xoxoxoxoxox
Your continued learning & growing & being aware is so awwwwweeeeee inspiring miss Laurie. I’m so thankful to be a part of your life journey
Likewise Miss Dawny. Hope you are snuggled up and enjoying your Winter Wonderland up there! xoxoxox