2019- WOW!

That year flew by. I say this every year, I know. Don’t we all? But this year was so jam-packed, I literally feel like I remember it being February, then I blinked, and BOOM!- it’s December!

One of my big goals this year was to spend time and energy on this blog turning into what I really want it to be, which is an open and honest account of my experience living in (and celebrating) my city of LA while navigating the entertainment industry (sharing fun behind the scenes, “what’s it really like?” details) while also managing depression, anxiety, bipolar II, an eating disorder, etc.

I also wanted to start speaking with other artists and creatives who deal with various mental illnesses about their experiences.

However, as is life, 2019 took me over. I’m not complaining, I’m actually extremely grateful. Some of it was personal- we bought a beautiful new house in Michigan last summer, and anyone who has ever moved knows what that process is like! The searching, buying, moving, filling with furniture, decorating, setting up every new account, changing addresses- whew! It’s a LOT. We are so grateful to have that end of our two-state operation semi-permanently settled, however, after 8 years of moving around a LOT with three kids!

I spent a lot of time and energy getting our LA place in shape, redoing it, buying furniture to fit properly, etc, to make our small space work best for all our needs. Creating dedicated space for two people who often work from home (with my work bringing ever-changing needs from writing space to a self-tape area), for a comfortable guest room, a workout space (dedicating myself to getting super healthy the right way for the first time in my life!), proper entertaining spaces, and organizing everything to streamline our hectic lives, all within a 2 bedroom condo was quite the challenge. We also spent some time and energy “smartening” it up a bit- I’m determined to have a robot home! But it’s 95% finished and I could not be happier with the results!

Huge shout out to husbands who show up and say “what projects do you have for me?” with a great attitude, over and over for months on end. ❤

We also had some awesome travel. There was a trip to Dubai- my first time ever in the Middle East! It was absolutely amazing, even if I did almost die of heatstroke stubbornly insisting we go to the beach in the crazy heat. Ah, crazy white tourists. The water was warmer than the air- I felt like a lobster in a pot! It was one of those places I was already excited to return to the minute I left- I’ll be sure to post a blog with more pics and details of our little adventure!

A beautiful place to stubbornly try to die

We made it to Vegas three times this year- the most recent a few weeks ago to see Mariah’s holiday concert! Such a dream come true. We also went to check out the Tim Burton exhibit at the Neon Boneyard. Highly recommend going to see it if you are a fan of his work at all, or a fan of cool art, or a fan of old Vegas! I happen to be a fan of all three and I was totally enthralled. Go at night!

There is a lot more, of course, travel, events, parties, a wedding, time “up north”, etc. I got LASIK- again. We worked our way through almost every property in the first 3 phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not to brag (lol). Suffice it to say we packed a lot in and stayed busy!

On the career front, there was a lot of “setting up” for next steps. After a brief time at Groundlings, which I wanted to check out to learn comedy from a new angle, I’m back at UCB. I’ll expound on this in another blog, but Groundlings, while a fine program, just wasn’t a good fit for me. I’ve jumped back in at UCB with loads of joy and it feels like home! Very excited to be neck-deep in improv in 2020, and to be back on that stage at the UCB Franklin theatre as soon as next week for a grad show! My heart is so into this type of comedy, it just totally lights me up.

There was also the setting up of a new production company and some new projects. A Little Bit is my dearest baby here- a sketch series coming out early next year on Instagram where every sketch is 1 minute or less, and most are essentially blackout ideas. (You can follow at @alittlebitsketch if you want to be there as they are released!)

One of the things I’m most excited about was the ADR Looping training I did with the fabulous Johnny Gidcomb. I can’t recommend his workshop enough if you’re interested in working in Looping. (If you don’t know what ADR Looping is, I’m going to definitely be covering it in another blog!) I can’t believe I didn’t know about this super fun (union day player contract!) job as an actor! Plus, our class took place in the sound studio where Titanic was looped, so I was crazy inspired in front of that mic. Titanic was a huge part of my film inspiration in childhood!

There is also a possible podcast in the works inspired by the ideas that created this blog…. stay tuned….

Now we are cruising toward the holidays, award season (aka screener time), and the beautiful fresh and clean slate that the new year brings. I love this time of year! I love a fresh sheet of paper and a newly sharpened pencil, if you know what I mean. And I’m very excited to have time and focus to bring to my writing again, especially this blog! I love sharing my experiences and hearing about yours. I have a bunch of new ideas for post series, and am excited to finally get to work on the ones I’ve been meaning to write since I started this thing.

My big takeaway from this year is to enjoy the journey. Most of the things I accomplished in 2019 were completely different from the goals I laid out for myself 12 months ago. I didn’t know the opportunities that were going to pop up, but I’m really glad I said yes to them! I didn’t start an Etsy shop (which I’m dying to do!) I didn’t complete my feature film script, or start playing piano again, or read a book a week. (I did read a lot more than last year, though! I’ll definitely share some of my favorite book picks from 2019!) But I made a ton of personal progress, I set up some pins to knock down at the start of 2020, and I feel the best I’ve felt about myself in my entire life. I feel strong and sure and confident in the coolest way!

Plus, my marriage just gets better and better, and even though we faced some outside challenges to our family this year, it’s so cool to see how things that would have shaken us years ago are easily dealt with today. My husband and I are truly a united front, two strong teammates readjusting as needed to do what we need to do. Being married is one of those adventures I never really planned for my life, and yet again life surprises me! I’m forever grateful for a kind, loving partner who truly supports me no matter what. Being long-distance for years on end is no joke, but we are learning to navigate this crazy life as smoothly as possible. The trick seems to involve truly marrying your best friend and then loving the crap out of them.

(Man, that’s poetic. I should put that in a greeting card…)

Ok, so. Moral of the story? Cool busy year. Don’t get hung up on what you didn’t do, but celebrate what you did do! And…. that I’ll be blogging more. Woohoo! “See you” all a lot more very soon!