Social butterfly I am...

Although I seem to be going through some pretty heavy times lately, and the world around me is a friggin mess, and I'm trying my damdest to stay positive and share the love and stay compassionate, it's getting hard.  But one of the things that keeps a person going is friends and art.  I am lucky to have lots of both of these in my life.  I'm trying to get together a group that does photo play dates.  I'm nudging some fellow girlfriends to get a writers group going.  I'm trying to write/blog more as you've probably noticed lately.  I need art to breathe.  I also need friends.  So just a quick little recap of the past couple of weeks because I also blog for myself to remember.

One Sunday I had brunch with one of my favorite girlfriends whom I don't see enough of.  We had delicious yummies at C4 Deli.  I think we sat at the bar for the entire 10-2 brunch.  It was amazing and I love her.

Love me some Jules

A friend of ours from the OCC days (He's one of us actors who actually made it) is playing the troubled dane in Hamlet at OC Shakespeare.
A 5 some of us were planning to go one Friday night.  2 couples and the 5th wheel myself.  My gf from one of the couples had to back out last minute but the rest of us still met for dinner.  Our waitress quit.  Like for reals.  Like we ordered wine then our food.  We were super cool (We've all been servers) and there was a goof in the boys order.  We very nicely pointed out the error and she never returned.  Darcy and I finished our meals before the boys got theirs and it was getting weird.  A waiter came over and asked if we were the "Tri Tip People".  My god we had a name.  We were all a bit annoyed but amused at the oddity of the whole thing.  Again - we were like the nicest table you could have.  Finally the owner comes over super apologetic and freaking out.  We ask - where'd our waitress go?  "She left." the guy said.  WHAT?!  "Yeah, this was apparently her 1st and last shift".  WTF?!  We swore we didn't do anything and he was super cool and overly apologetic.  "Pick any dessert" he says.  Then he says he's covering our entire meal.  We try to earnestly protest, I mean it's not his fault but he insists.  So our dinner, drinks and dessert were comped.  A few times other waiters came by and joshingly teased us but seriously - what the hell happened to that chick?  Never in my life have I seen or heard of a server quitting during a shift!  So random and funny and I feel a little bad for the girl but apparently she can't handle real life.  It's a great place and major props to the owner for doing his best to apologize to us.  He went above and beyond.  Dougs is the name of the place.  We left a pile of cash for a tip on the table and headed to the show.

The 4 of us should never be only the 4 of us again

About 20 minutes into Hamlet the lights come up and the actors are told to go backstage.  A few minutes later the gal playing Gertrude tells us the lead actor (our friend!) is on his way to the hospital.  Dear David ate shit on the stairs running through the crowd and dislocated his shoulder.  We saw him go down and it looked bad but he popped up and ran off.  Apparently to injured to continue.  OMFG.  The 4 of us decided we can never go somewhere just the 4 of us again.

So - 2 weeks later we go again to see Hamlet, this time with Kristina who had to back out the 1st try.  We figured we were safe because now it was the original group and hopefully no one will break or quit.  No one did.  Hamlet was a little bit of a disappointment to me though.  David was great and I really enjoyed Hal Landon Jr. who played Polonious.  Tess Lina as Gertrude also did a good job and Alex Bodero as Horatio was lovely.  But that was it.  I really didn't care for the other performances.  They felt forced to me.  I was also bummed there wasn't really anything new done with the production.  But it was great to see David and our friend Marky had a couple of smaller roles which of course he rocked.  And no one hurt themselves!  (Although everytime someone ran up the stairs it made me nervous!)

Last weekend I took part in a private reading for my friend Aurelio who was one of us Rude Guerilla folks.  He wrote a really beautiful full length that's being commissioned.  He asked a handful of us actors he's worked with in the past to come to his lovely home and have it read then discussed about afterwards.  It was awesome to see all these folks again and even more awesome to do something theatrical, even it was just a reading.

Lot of talent in this pic!

The 3 main chickies

Trina!

Aurelio the amazing playwright and his hubs Anthony also an amazing artist!

Later that night I had a lovely girls night with some of my besties.

It was Robins bday celebration so they brought her giant cotton candy

When Bohemian Rhapsody comes on you must sing and rock along

Known these girls a lifetime

The pic that got posted was the one I'm blinking in.  I swear I'm not stoned.

It's been a rough year, I'm not going to lie.  It seems 2016 has just been bringing the deaths, violence, political disasters, etc.  It also doesn't seem to be stopping.  I'm not ready to get to into this via blogging yet because I'm having a hard time dealing with everything.  But I will say - friends and art and family can help you through it.