Onstage...kind of...

This last weekend I had the honor of playing the lead in my dear friend Brenda's Staged Play Reading of Daughter of Genius.

You read that right...Genius.  I was the genius.  HA HA HA HA HA HA!  At least I'm a good actor.  This took place as part of the Page to Stage (And that's what she said...) Festival.  It took place at Curtis Theater which is a really cool spot.

I was actually quite nervous for this, even though it was a staged reading, the fact that I had so many lines and most of those lines were talking about math and words I didn't even know how to pronounce or what they friggin meant!  Pat helped me with a lot of the math stuff.  I Google Pronounced a lot.  And the cast helped keep me on track.  We only had 2 rehearsals and good lord I could have used a couple more to get those damn lines down.  (I mean there were lines like infinitesimal and Themestoclea and Pythagoras....WTF!)

But once the performance was up I was told I did fantastic!  Sounded like I actually knew what I was talking about!  Yay!!  Brenda seemed super happy with it and the crowd really enjoyed it.

Right before we headed out

Back in the lights!

Worked with some really great actors!

The director set it up as a classic staged reading, so we weren't blocked out like some of the others. 

The theater also had a Barbie Box!

Heather is the one that puts this whole thing together!

Look I'm a Barbie!

Theatre has been interesting for me lately.  About a month ago I was asked to audition for the title role of this really great show.  I was super flattered to be asked.  And honestly - I would have killed it.  But I just couldn't do it.  That many lines, Irish accent, I just don't have it in me right now.  After this damn hemorrhage it does seem my brain is a little wonked.  I was super crushed and found myself crying as if I lost a friend.  I talked to my friend Amber who was very empathetic and validated how I was feeling.  I realized this was the 1st time a really great opportunity presented itself in something I used to love doing so much and I had to say no.  But then another show popped up - looked fun.  Physical comedy!  Right up my alley!  Plus it was an ensemble piece.  I researched the show and realized there was a perfect part for me.  Less of a line load but all kinds of funny stuff to do onstage.  I went out to audition and when I got there realized the role I wanted was basically already cast.  I almost left, but thought I should still audition just to exercise that muscle. I wasn't feeling 100% that night unfortunately and pretty much knowing I didn't have the role made it a bit of a rough night, but it actually felt good to be onstage again - at least trying.  I truly do miss theatre so much and I hope another show like this one pops up again that I can audition for.  

This reading followed right after, so it does seem the Universe wants me back out there.  Now if I can just get the chance...

Artists Way Week 6...(Re-Do)

This week was Recovering a Sense of Abundance.

Seems to be a money theme these last two weeks.  The only writing task we had this time was there was a list of fill ins.  Some examples:

People with money are...

Money is...

If I had money I'd...

 

Like 20 of them.  The jist in my answers was basically if you have money you're comfortable.  I don't come from money.  I've been broke basically my whole life.  I'm a bit more financially stable now, but that's thanks to my husband mostly.  And yeah - if I was rich I'd friggin retire and travel.

 

I mean who doesn't want money.  I think I recall Week 5 & 6 must have been my least favorite because yeah...who the hell doesn't want money?!  LOL

I do like the little "to-do's" this week though.  One is collect 5 interesting or pretty rocks.  I actually didn't get around to this but I recall when I did this before, I lived across the street from hiking trails so I grabbed a bunch.  It ended up being a habit of mine to pick up cool rocks then I'd paint them.  I got Pat & the kid to help sometimes too.  I've since painted all my extra rocks, so this makes me realize I need to re-stock and paint some more!

Another is pick flowers or leaves and press them.  I'm not much into pressing flowers which is what I said last time, but interestingly enough an article popped up on my feed about this very thing.  I read it - and maybe it could be cool.  I do like the idea of pressing flowers into notecards or something and mailing them since I love to send people random mail.  So maybe?

Bake Something.  Now I bake and cook on the reg, so this wasn't something different for me.  I didn't bake anything this week because it's hot as balls, but I did have a girlfriend come over last week who doesn't eat meat (except smoked salmon) and made us a yummy little lunch spread that I was quite proud of and it was quite delicious! 

 

Get in mah belly!

 

Mail 5 postcards to friends.  This one tied into my Artists Date!  I ordered a book of "Punny" Postcards to send out, because I don't think I did this last time and really wanted to this time.  It's a book of 30 so I certainly just plan to mail these randomly when I feel like it, but 5 went out in the mail this week!

 

Add to your Image File which I finally whipped out and did just that!

 

There are other exercises to do, but these are already a part of my regular life (getting rid of old clothes, clearing space, etc).  Also re-reading a bunch of things which I'm terrible at.

I missed two morning of morning pages.  One was after a late night rehearsal and the other was after drinking too much wine.  But only missing two I think is pretty good!

For my Artists Date this week I was planning a picnic in the park and to write my 5 postcards.  When the day arrived I didn't have the right food to bring along really,  so was just going to go wander and write.  Well on my way to the park I passed the cemetery I did for my Artists Date a few weeks back.  I thought - "you know what?  I'm going to chill in that beautiful cemetery under that pretty tree and write my postcards!  And find that geocache I couldn't find last time now that I have a hint".  So that's exactly what I did and it was just peaceful and lovely!

Can you see it?!  No wonder it was so hard to find

Really good camo

Pretty sun streams

I watched this man in a work truck pull up.  I was thinking they were going to start working right by me and I'd have to move, but instead this man got out and knelt by this grave.  He stayed like that for awhile then left.  I found myself wondering who was he visiting?  It was such a simple sweet sad human moment I felt honored to witness.

Sun stream Selfie

My 5 postcards written and ready to be mailed!

The oak tree that provided me solitude today.

I'll be checking in with Justin this weekend after not chatting last week, so I'm sure we'll have a lot to catch up on!  This is the half way point!  I'm really enjoying this journey again and so glad I picked it back up!

 

 

Cooking Class and an Adventure Lab...

 As a birthday gift to Pat I gifted us a cooking class!  He'd been wanting to learn how to make ravioli or pasta or something of the like, so we landed with ClassPop.  We signed up for Chef Derrick's Pasta and Pesto Class.  It was so much fun!

It was in a private area at a restaurant and he showed us how to make pasta and pesto from scratch.  He did do the Pasta in a food processor which was a little disappointing because I was hoping to learn the flour volcano way, but we had a ball and learned a lot! Like don't use Extra Virgin Olive Oil to cook.  Or if you get 00 flour you don't have to sift it.  He had a kitchen maid with attachments that made the pasta.  It was so cool!  Pat & I will probably just get the hand pasta maker, but man do I want a kitchen aid now!  It was a little better than our last class because it was just 6 of us and we didn't make as much so we got to eat a bit sooner.  So much fun!

What we're makin!

Pat was excited to jump in

Another tip was take the pasta and put it right into the pesto then mix.

So delicious!

Random Storm Troopers on the way out

I do love me some cooking classes!

Another fun adventure this weekend was another Adventure Lab!  It's hard to find folks interested in doing this with me (I don't know why!) but my mom was like - I wanna try it!  And she loved it.  Looks like I finally have an Adventure Lab buddy.  I knew her 1st one had to be a good one so there was a Floral Park House one in Santa Ana I knew she'd love.  So much fun!

1st one!

FYI - Floral Park is basically a neighborhood of friggin rad houses. 

Nope - not Halloween decor

Poe loves his Gramma

The roof on this one was legit!

Oh if I had a yard...

Poe helping clean up the street

Love this!  I'm thinking of doing something like this on my porch

So cool thing about this house - it was bought by the Maharaja of Indore. (Like richest dude in the world) He wanted a safe place for his 5 year old daughter.  Princess Usha.  Well - my Papa (Grandfather) was her bodyguard!!!  How rad is that.

Cool little garden in their front yard

Yup - her dad - my Papa used to be a bodyguard here!

We finished!

So there was no bonus cache with this Adventure Lab but I did notice a geocache at this little park we passed - so we headed back there and found it!  It's this really cute little memorial park.

Poe is like...geocaching again mom?

Poe and Gramma

I love this tree!  It's a memorial tree in honor of this dudes parents

Look at all these little memorial hearts!

My mom loved this

So there you have!  Two fun adventures of two things I love to do!

Artists Way Week 5 (Re-Do)...

Well it seems like it wasn't just COVID that crapped on my Artists Way journey last time, but also the big move in with my boyfriend (now hubs).  I basically skipped week 5 entirely last time.  LOL

Not this time!

This chapter was Recovering a sense of possibility.

Lots tasks/questions/quizzes this week.

One of the things they do is the "Virtue Trap Quiz".  Not much of note here but there is still that "me" time yearning.

There's a 10 things I want to do but "not allowed" to do.  I mean...I basically do what I want but almost all of them are money related - like if I had unlimited money I'd do them.  Get more tattoos, dye my hair red (and maintain it), join more wine clubs, etc.  Not much of note here either except who doesn't want more money right?

Then you do a speed wish list - I wish....19 of em.  Ones that jumped out: I wish I was better at a lot of things.  I really want the struggles with the kid to get better and they be ok and we have a normal life.  I'm  still very self conscious.  Interesting but I suppose not surprising.

We list grievances.  A lot of mine were about others I worry about.

Then we do the "If I had money..." one.  Um - so many things.  The big one is traveling.  I'd love to take my mom on a road trip across the US.  We'd always talked about doing the 127 Yard Sale.  I want to travel more - that's a definite realization I've had so far during this process.  Also taking fun classes.  

We have our negatives - how we're mean to ourselves. None of these are news.

Then we have things we'd like to own.  (Like does this chapter just suggest we all go get super rich?)  Also no news here.  Art Room.  Wine Cellar.  A Travel Van - this got me realizing I would like to get something like this in the future if we could.  Like I don't want an RV - too big.  But like a travel van would be cool.  Something we could easily travel around in and mostly stay at places but every now and again maybe stop at campgrounds ya know?  Something easily drive-able and can go anywhere but can be like a camper when we need it to.  Something like this:

It's interesting to me how travel is coming up so much more lately.  Oh to have money rain from the sky...

I did my morning pages all but one day.  Realizing the day after a late night rehearsal (I'm in a staged play reading!) and have to work the next day calls for all the sleep I can get.

I do think I experienced some synchronicity this week!  Pat is out of town for a few days, so I took Friday and Monday off work to give myself a little mini stay-cation.  Now I have the dog to deal with, but still - 4 days to myself.  I was going back and forth on what I want to do for my Artists Date.  So many options!  But I have of course built in a busy social calendar this weekend so I was like ...hmmm...when.  I found it silly to be stressing over it.  I was going to go on a hike in the morning, I could do a picnic in the park, what can I do?  I even chatted with Justin about doing a spa night to myself - but it's so damn hot.  So Friday morning I was up early - since Pat was as well as he headed off to Utah - I told Poe we're going to do a good walk this morning around the park.

So off we went.  As I was walking I thought to myself - well this right here is a nice Artists Date.  And you know what - I'm basically having a bunch of mini Artists Dates all weekend!  I also found myself thinking "Shoot, I should have brought a pen.  There's a new geocache over here in this park I've been wanting to look for.  Oh well, next walk I suppose".  Walking along enjoying the humid morning when I glanced down and noticed a pencil.  I kept walking right by it, then I thought "JAMI!  THAT'S THE UNIVERSE GIVING YOU A PENCIL!".  Then I thought "No it's not, plus those people ahead of me see me and Poe speed walking and are going to think I'm weird if I turn around and go pick something up off the ground".  I keep walking.  BUT WHEN HAVE I EVER SEEN A PERFECTLY GOOD PENCIL JUST LAYING ON THE GROUND?!.  Kept walking.  Nope dammit I'm listening!  I turned around and went back - the pencil wasn't broken.  It was in perfect condition.  I scooped it up and whipped out my phone and turned on the geocaching app.  BOOM.

My Synchronicity Pencil!

Hello new geocache!

Poe and I finished our walk and I was giddy.  Synchronicity! I hope this happens again and I don't end up chalking this up as a coincidence!  I headed out on an errand, picked myself up some delicious sushi for lunch and napped.  Talk about a great Artists Date!  I'm so glad I took Friday off!

So Week 5 is in the books!

Let's hope for some more cool shit in the upcoming weeks!