It's been three weeks! What am I doing with my life?

In my last blog, I shared that I had left my job of 11 years.  My last day on the job was June 30.  Today marks three full weeks since leaving the job. What have I been doing with myself since then?
Not a damn thing. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. I have been out hiking in the hills and I've taken my bike out on a couple of rides on the beach and along the LA River. And I've been going to the gym.

And last week was spent in my hometown of Albany, NY visiting family, which means I went to Saratoga Race Track and Lake George.

Saratoga Race Track Opening Day

I have managed to roll over my retirement plan to an IRA and I have elected options for dental and eye care plans. But I still have not figured out the health care.  I did manage to go online to the Obamacare site and to the CA State site and look around at all the options. Its overwhelming! And as soon as I put in my personal information, my phone starts ringing off the hook with calls from sales reps trying to sell me insurance plans.  Within 5 minutes of putting in my info, the phone rang. And while I was on that call, the phone was ringing with another. I told the guy I wanted to research on the Internet and decide what I wanted. I hung up. Within the next 40 minutes, the phone rang several times. I continued getting calls every day through this past Friday. Today is the first weekday that it hasn't rung. Phew!


In the meantime, how is the acting career going? Well, I have the play I'm rehearsing. But we're off for the month of July so I'm on my own learning lines. Although I managed to get 2 of my 5 co-stars over to run lines one night. I'm interviewing for a directing job tonight. And I met the Artistic Director of another theater 10 days ago about directing and/or acting there next season.

But other than that...cricket. cricket. Hello? McFly?  Is anybody there? This is what happens. I take time off so I can have the freedom to go to more auditions and not a single audition since I left the job. My last one was two days before I left the job.

I have no income at this point. But I do have a savings account. And there is the IRA. And I rolled over my retirement plan into an IRA to make it easier to access the funds IF NEED BE. its only for emergencies. But its there. So I'm not panicking. At the same time, I am worried. Because, well...there's no income!! And I am a worrier. This is tough.  One of the reasons I've worked full time is because I need the daily structure in my life. Being freelance feels weird. Like I'm skipping school! "What's he doing home in the middle of the day?" "Why does that man have to time to be hiking during a work day?" Those are the voices in my head talking to me.

I've got a couple jobs I've applied for online. And I'll be spending the next couple weeks applying for more. Ideally looking for a couple of part time jobs to give me enough to live off of.  Till then, I'm writing and learning lines. And submitting myself for everything that sounds remotely possible for me.

Vacation and Awards

This is my first post in a few weeks because I was travelling out of the country on a two-week vacation to Sydney, Australia and New Zealand. I flew to Sydney for four days and then on to New Zealand, where I spent two days in Queenstown and two in Franz Josef, then two days in Wellington followed by two days in Auckland before returning home to Los Angeles.

It was quite a trip. Sydney is a great city with much to do and some very interesting beaches and wildlife, zoos etc within a relatively short distance. The weather was off and on. Some sun, some rain. It's early spring there so you never know. We didn't travel outside much except to go to Manly Beach one day and a wildlife park another day. We ate well. That's one thing for certain, No matter the weather, you can find an abundance of good food.

From there it was off to Queenstown, New Zealand which is a cute little tourist town on the south shore of Lake Wakatipu.

There's a great deal of winter sports and plenty for the thrill seeker (not me) and then this quiet little town has quite the nightlife for all those spending the day sporting. I took a boat ride through Milford Sound.

Mirror Lake on the way to Milford Sound

From there, we drove up to Franz Josef with a quick stop in Lake Wanaka and the National Transport and Toy Museum (what a treat!).

The Transport and Toy Museum where bears drive the vintage cars.

We took a helicopter ride to the Fox Glacier and liked up towards the top. Amazing!

Then drove up to Picton for a three-hour ferry ride across the strait to the North Island and the New Zealand Capital of Wellington. Here, the weather starts to turn on us. Not much sunlight from this point on. Rainy days and gloomy days. But again, plenty of restaurants to choose from. And we tried to choose different cuisines each night of our trip. And there was the National Museum (Te Papa) and the Parliament building to tour.

Auckland was last and while it was nice, it wasn't great. If the weather had been nicer, we would have ventured out to the shore or taken a ferry to Waiheke Island. But the weather was gloomy or rainy every day.

One goes to the hotel gym when it rains.

We ate well. Notice a theme?

And we did one day trip to the Waitomo Caves and Rotorua and the thermal pools. Nice.

While I was away, the Scenie Awards presented by Steven Stanley of Stage Scene LA were announced. Both shows I was in this year won multiple awards. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Glendale Centre Theatre won multiple awards including for Outstanding Ensemble Cast Lead Performance in a Musical - Larger Theatre (which includes me!). And The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee also won for Outstanding Production, and one for Musical (Intimate Theatre) Outstanding Ensemble Cast Performance, Musical (Intimate Theatre) (including me again)
So my Facebook page was lighting up with posts from friends and colleagues congratulating one another and giving thanks to Steven for those awards while I was in Sydney.

So thank you Steven Stanley!

Lastly, I booked a commercial while I was in New Zealand How did I do that? The audition was the morning of my flight to Sydney. Fortunately, I wasn't leaving until 11:00pm. So I auditioned that day. No callbacks. I found out I booked it 4 days into my trip. And shot it the day after I returned!