… And we’re back

I apologize for my impromptu and unannounced hiatus from the blog. It wasn’t planned but born of too much to do in too little time. So many people sent me messages or told me in person how much they like my blog and that really meant a lot to me. So I’m back.

And that brings me to the subject of today’s blog: our almighty busy-ness.

First, let me brag: the show I work on, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, won a Critics’ Choice Award yesterday. Sure, we tied with Hoarders from A&E and no doubt they’re going to keep those accolades, but it’s pretty awesome to win an award, especially on a Monday afternoon. If you’re into that sort of thing, you can watch the ceremony on Reelz Channel (wait, where now?) on Wednesday, June 22.

Actually, the Housewives are an example of what I want to talk about today. If you watched Season 1 then you know that the women all make a point of making sure everyone knows how busy they are. In fact, a bit of a brouhaha erupted when one housewife, Camille Grammer, declared herself to be 30% busier than the other women in some sort of mathematical calculation that will forever remain a mystery.

No one wants to be considered idle, let alone ‘idle rich’, or undeserving of their opulent wealth. Our society bestows value and importance on people based on how few hours they have in a day to do anything for themselves. And in the last year I have found myself increasingly ‘important’ and married to a super-‘important’ man and I can’t say it’s really a good thing.

So here we are, locked into the rat race, chasing that increasingly elusive dollar hour after hour and thinking we’re a big cheese because we believed the hype and now we exist in a self-imposed land of endless sleep deprivation and a never-shrinking to-do list.

I don’t mean to sound bitter. Things are actually good. I have a great job as a story producer on a hit show, I’m a grad student learning something incredibly amazing and helpful to humanity and an actor, and a writer, and a cat owner, and… I mean, really. Sometimes it’s a big deal if I remember to brush my teeth at the end of the day.

I have to say, though, that important as I obviously am, I am missing out on those quiet, introspective and all important meditative moments in life. I don’t have time for them. I’m lucky I ever see any of my friends at all. My husband is sometimes lucky if he gets to see my smiling face for a waking hour a day.

And if I want to get any of that new-fangled ‘exercise’ I have to get up at 5:00 a.m., often after four or five hours of sleep. Some days I fantasize about my bed. I imagine myself laying in it, sleeping. It’s pretty hot.

I’m always looking for ways to simplify, to bring it down a notch and when I do that, I find subtle and consistent resistance. If I want to stay home and spend a Sunday on my couch I am somehow less than everyone else. I think I’m just less busy, but really it’s just less than, apparently.

The point is, folks, WHAT THE HEY-NOW ARE WE DOING TO OURSELVES? How did we come to sell ourselves into a form of indentured servitude to our social and corporate masters in exchange for an iPhone and some hot shoes? Keeping up with ourselves has become a Herculean task and we’re but mere mortals hopped up on caffeine and determination.

I’d like to forge a society where we relax and enjoy our lives with a bit less stress and get-out-there and get ’em attitude. More of a ‘let’s all share the land’-ness, with lovely afternoon naps. I’m going to go ask Spain how that’s working out for them. Oh, wait…

Well, I don’t have an answer. Cuz if I did I’d have had a lot more time to write this blog. But until we can squeeze answer hunting into our busy schedules, I hope we can all remember to take deep breaths, notice the world around us and appreciate the moments so our lives don’t pass us by.

The future looks cloudy with a chance of doom

This week I’m going to let someone else do the talking.

Whether you like him or you don’t, Keith Olbermann did predict many of the things that have happened in this country since this January 2010 broadcast and his further predictions are altogether frightening. I have no doubt these things are in store for us unless we stand up and say, “Enough”.

So instead of giving you my point of view I’m going to give you Keith’s commentary on what could lie ahead. Keep in mind he said these things before anyone outside of Wisconsin had ever heard of Scott Walker and before the recent vote to end net neutrality. Obama may veto that bill this time but what about the president after him?

My Husband the Doctor

A year ago my husband started studying for a degree in Oriental Medicine.

He was drawn to the practice after acupuncture cured a herniated disk in his spine and saved him from needing surgery.

His four year master’s program includes acupuncture, herbology and, in the U.S., covers a comprehensive understanding of western medicine’s terminology, treatment and philosophy.

Yesterday he began his first rotation in the clinic, observing more advanced students as they treat patients under a supervisor’s care.

To say that I am proud of him would be an understatement. Did I also mention that he works full time while studying more than full time? And he still finds time to play video games. He is extremely organized that way.

And, he looks damn good in a lab coat.

See?

Due to a possible change in the title of acupuncturists in California my husband will most likely be known as Doctor of Oriental Medicine when he graduates because a doctor is in fact what he will be. The educational process not only covers eastern and western medical subjects but includes more intense study of some subjects western medical students gloss over only briefly in many schools, like nutrition.

Some people are dismissive or Oriental Medical school (known as OM school), saying that it’s not really medicine when in fact it is the oldest form of medicine humans have. It’s just not the kind that makes really rich doctors.

Conor has a great passion for acupuncture and a very natural feel for it. He knows where people feel their pain and how to make it better. It’s very impressive.

When I start feeling overwhelmed with all I have on my plate all I have to do is look at all that Conor is doing and then I know that I can take care of my to-do list too. It’s all about time management. Or unrealistic optimism.

Either way, as my cousin Rob says, ‘Git ‘er done.’

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A week with my Cousin

My mother has a brother. He has five sons. They are my only first cousins on either side of my family (though we have a great extended family of slightly further removed cousins on both sides as well). Due to a bit of a geographic divide and a small age gap my sisters and I didn’t really know our cousins well while we were growing up.

my mom, her brother Bob and their father

Once my sisters and I were grown up and into doing fun things like getting married and throwing birthday parties for our grandfather my cousin Rob came down from Canada for our family events, no matter how far flung they were.

Grandpa and some of his grandkids at his 90th birthday party

Rob’s always the hit of the party. People in my husband’s family remember him as the Dancing Cowboy at our wedding because he’s a fantastic dancer and he was dressed in this awesome outfit:

My cousin Rob with my sister Danielle at my wedding 2005

Rob raises a toast at our wedding

Recently Rob came down to Los Angeles to spend a week with us and I had no idea what kind of week I was in for.

It was as much a vacation for us as it was for him. We did some things we never do even though we live here. We drove up to the central California wine country and did some wine tasting which I am never opposed to but never get around to doing.

Our first stop - Bridlewood Winery

We descend upon the wineries without warning

We brought a little wine home from our trip

Rob found cute shoes for his wine glass

The rest of the week we visited Beverly Hills and Venice Beach among other fun LA sights. We had some amazing dinners, some we cooked, like this one:

Rob was worried Farmer's Market grub would be weird but he loved it once he tried it. Here: multi-colored carrots, a variety of colored roasted potatoes and bison steaks

and some we ate out, including an incredible dinner at one of our favorite places, Marino’s Italian Restaurant in Hollywood. Rob and Mario, the owner, conspired to put even more fantastic wine on our palates. And still I was not opposed.

Despite all that good time jolly stuff and great food and wine we managed to enjoy ourselves. Rob reminded us of something we know but don’t always remember (I blame traffic and stressful stuff like jobs): that everything in life can be and should be fun. Rob has one of the most positive outlooks of anyone I know and everywhere he goes he makes friends. Even among the sometimes jaded LA folk it is futile to attempt to deny his charms, even as he tells pretty ladies to ‘git ‘er done’.

After a long night of beer pong at Big Wangs in Hollywood and a wide variety of beverage consumption it was time for Rob to go. I admit that I was exhausted as we drove him to the airport worn out and hungover. And as soon as he was gone we missed him, even the nearly non-stop choo choo train whistle that signaled his incoming text messages. I still hear that damn sound in my dreams. Rob is a popular guy.

I hope he comes back to visit again soon.

Back in San Francisco

Several moons ago I lived in the fine city of San Francisco while still a young whippersnapper. My dad and I shared a great little place on Cathedral Hill and I spent my days working and going to school in the city which, to me, was a lot of fun.

Our apartment building in San Francisco

I’ve come back to visit the city many times since I pulled up stakes and hauled my cookies to Los Angeles. Though my dad no longer lives here I have a sister who does and so I always have a good reason to stop by.

A few years ago I spent a short time in town working on a television show and those days were quite possibly the coldest the planet has seen since the last ice age. I called my sister and begged her to let me borrow all of her ski clothes and then I put them all on at once and hoped to ward off frostbite. Yep, it was that cold in sunny ol’ Northern California in the lovely month of April.

It’s been a year since I last visited and being back in San Francisco reminds me of a few very important things:

1. Shopping is always better when you’re passing through a great city like this one. I may go months or years without finding things I want to buy when looking for clothes, but coming to San Francisco with limited trunk space has led me to find all manner of great fashion available. Its like Murphy’s Law but it looks good in my closet.

2. The city’s gentle breezes can slap you in the face with icy fingers without warning, like an angry mother who’s just heard you swear. This does not happen in Los Angeles – a sunny day doesn’t usually reach out to tickle you with frigid air. That is one of the reasons I moved there in the first place.

3. Its an incredibly beautiful, bustling and lively city with fantastic architecture and lots of great stuff to do, but it is not convenient. Last night as my husband I walked the city enjoying the nightlife we talked about how it might be cool to live here again. But despite its good points this is not an easy city to live in, and I’m not just talking about the sheer expensiveness of it or the way driving is a challenge (as is parking, which costs more money than the average ransom). San Francisco does have fantastic public transportation but that’s not convenient if, say, you’ve just bought a metric ton of stuff at Costco.

So I think I’ll enjoy my brief vacation and return home to rainy old LA. Everyone there may be complaining about the rain (though I love it) but at least they can count on the fact that there will be more bright, sunny and warm days in the very near future.

The Aftermath

Well, I finally finished my tables and not a moment too soon.

My cousin Rob has arrived from Canada for a week’s vacation in sunny Southern California, a welcome respite from the epic snow and wintery winterness of Western Canada. I’m very glad that I have some grown up furniture to impress him with so he doesn’t think that I am some sort of weirdo 30-something still living like a college student.

Now that I’ve completed my carpentry project for the year (or CarpentryWatch 2011!!) I have a little more free time to pursue interests that don’t leave me with a snootful of sawdust at the end of the day. So, what to do? Today we are going wine tasting in the ‘wine country’ of central California. If you saw the movie Sideways, you’ve seen where we’re going.

I’m going to keep this post short today for that reason – much wine must be consumed in order to properly judge the grapes involved and this isn’t going to happen if I stay busy tippity typing on my computer. I’ll update you next week on our debauchery. In the meantime, cheers to you!

Sooooooooo Close

I’ve tried to be winning all the time ever since Charlie made clear that anyone with a pulse can do it. And so in the, “Duh, winning” category this week I bring you the near completion of my new tables.

The top coffee table

Sure, I said ‘near completion’ rather than ‘successful completion’, but as I learned from my good pal Charlie Sheen (and by good pal I mean we’ve never met and he has no clue I exist) there is no need to have actually won at anything to be winning. All you need is the intention and belief that you are, in fact, winning.

Duh... winning.

Since you and I last discussed the topic of my recent foray back into DIY carpentry and home decor design, I finished building and trimming my tables, I stained them… BUT THEN – (cue dramatic music sting followed by the gasp of some woman in the audience) – RAIN HAPPENED!!!

Like the good Girl Scout I once was, I try to be prepared for any eventuality. I’ve had weather.com up on my browser and refreshed it regularly throughout the process and I was a step ahead of the weather at all times until CoffeeTableGate happened. Wednesday night of last week, the day the staining was completed, was supposed to be cloudy and DRY. The wind came up, the sun disappeared and I went outside to make sure all was right with the world. To my horror I found MIST sliding down through the atmosphere and landing on my damp tables. Naturally I screamed like a little girl who realizes that someone has eaten her dessert while she was changing her Barbie doll’s outfit.

The small coffee table (or bottom table)

I covered the tables in plastic moments before the mist became a deluge and waited impatiently for my husband to get home so we could carry the pieces inside (now that they’re built most of them are not a one person moving job). Once he was home and we’d gotten everything inside and wiped down I felt much better. Deeeep sigh.

Over the weekend I waited for the stain to dry completely so that today, YAY, FINALLY!, I can put the top coat on them and stick a fork in ’em, cuz they’ll be done.

One night stand

And then I’ll really be winning. Luckily I don’t need to wait for the actual accomplishment to proclaim myself the second most winningest rock star from Mars.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together, Part 1

(The Beforemath)

First, let me be clear: the plan has not yet come together. The plan is to build some stuff and at the end of the process it should look good and not like it was pounded together by baby monkeys flailing about with tools.

Two years ago I found myself the proud owner of 4 chairs and no table. I’d been watching many hours of HGTV during this time so the solution seemed obvious to me and I set out to build a table so I would finally have somewhere to sit. You can read about the process here.

That experience turned out rather well so I thought to myself, “Self, why not do all this again, but this time do 4 times as much work?” I know, I know,  I’m a genius.

Here’s what I’m building this time: nesting coffee tables (which just means 2 coffee tables that stack), 2 nightstands and a table for my front door area. That’s a wee mite more than one table. But all this furniture is necessary.

Recently Conor and I unloaded much of our college era, mis-matched Ikea-ish ‘furniture’ – the stuff we brought with us when we shacked up six years ago because we occasionally consider ourselves adult-like and want more of a look that might be considered ‘decor’. So I’m attempting to create this out of some sticks, duct tape and some Fruit Stripe gum, MacGuyver-style.

Here is documentation of the work in progress.

My cut list

The raw materials. At this point there is no way to know how much work this pile of wood is going to become.

After 42,000 woman-hours of sanding I arrived at this.

Can you see the finish line yet?

How about now?

Tables!

All tucked in for the night.

Next week – success! (I hope) – The completed masterpieces.

Back when I was Dating Weakly

This week I bring you something fun because there is nothing better in the world than improvised videos which star me! (and ice cream, that’s good too).  😉

Here are two videos from a comedy project I worked on a while ago called Dating Weakly. Dating Weakly is a service which hooks the people no one wants to date up with other people no one wants to date, thus creating high functioning and happy relationships.

The first is the dating video of a character named Kelly Cricka.

The second is a video testimonial from two people who were matched with each other with stellar results.

The other actor in the video is the fabulous Charlie Farrell. The videos were edited by Miranda Shade.

Have a great week!