Posts Tagged ‘career tips’

living the dream…

Volunteering in the ER is Icky-Sticky.  A plethora of Private Parts in Private Matters with Doctors asking questions — that trust me, I don’t need to hear. Curtains fly open as bare-assed Patients bend over in a Peep Show — that trust me, I don’t need to see! Bodily Fluids and Functions are F-ing embarrassing — even when they’re coming from someone else’s body.  Especially when they’re coming from someone else’s body.  It’s a lot to deal with…

Things Get Awkward When You —

• Chaperone a pelvic exam and the doctor says, “Spread your legs.”
• Feel nauseous as a Patient throws up in the emesis basin you just handed him.
• Ask a Transvestite if he/she prefers to be entered in the computer as a male or female.
• Hand over an ice bag to a doctor you’re trying to help and the cap comes off spilling ice all over him.
• Ask an Old Geezer if he needs help getting undressed and he says, “Yes.”
• Accidentally offer to dispose of a big bag of hypodermic needles, and then realize there’s no safe place to put them.
• Hit your head on the cabinet in the Patient’s Room and realize you’re bleeding more than the patient is.
• Have to tell a Patient you’re not a Nurse after she’s described her medical condition in embarrassing detail.
• Must pretend like you don’t smell anything, when it’s an obvious “Code Brown” situation.
• Enter an exam room just as you overhear a Man’s Voice say, “You’re about to feel a prick.”

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go!

It’s another Monday-Monday, so let’s start off this week half-glass full! K?

1. Get-up, gulp, and go for it!
2. Appreciate each step forward!
3. Do a lot better!
4. Push yourself more, more, more!
5. Focus on the good, the goofy and the giggles!
6. Laugh before you leap!
7. Deep breath — now jump off the old, land in the new!
8. Think creatively!
9. Be your own wand — make your own magic!
10. Find the funny, even when it hurts!
11. Embrace your stick-to-itiveness!
12. Believe it will happen!

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Dear Jason Katims:

Though we’ve never met, I feel like I kinda know you – at least your inner warm and fuzzy, touchy-feely parts.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and PARENTHOOD, are amongst my faves-forever and your newest, ABOUT A BOY is worming its way into my heart.

I don’t know how you do it, but with every episode you manage to make me laugh-cry or cry-laugh as I empathize with your lovingly-flawed, fully fleshed-out characters. They’re all so heart-achingly honest and really, really, real — especially the tough-but-tender. So no matter how many times they fall, I’m there waiting with a net.

And don’t get me started on the Bravermans. I mean, I feel like they’re Family I love them all so much! Julia, Sarah and Kristina are my soul-sisters. Adam’s the big brother I wish I’d had. Camille’s my mom (if she’d lived longer). Though some of the situations may feel too-close-for-comfort (like family members with cancer or letting go of someone you love) you show me that we do get through it, no matter how hard it feels.

And ABOUT A BOY just keeps getting better and better. I now know that at the end of every episode there’s gonna be a lump-in-my-throat moment, whether the scene takes place on a diving board or toilet. Marcus and Will are 2014’s “Odd Couple.” They’re delicious! When it comes to characters, you know all the best flavors.

Marcus and Will

Your taste in casting is impeccable. I fell-in-love-at-first-sight with Tim Riggins, Vince Howard, Crosby B. and Will Freeman — I mean, you had me before they said “hello”. Read the rest of this entry »

OMG if one more Actor moves to L.A….

Full of opportunity, “Pilotzilla” (PILOT SEASON 2014) is frustrating, exhilarating, intimidating…

Casting choices are ridiculously unexplainable at times with hush-hush agendas happening behind the scenes. More and more and more and MORE it’s about getting names, Names, NAMES!

Not Meant-To-Be

After totally nailing an audition I was completely right for – (based on beyond-enthusiastic feedback from Producers and Casting) I lost out to another Actress who happened to be the daughter of famous Actress the Producers were trying to woo as the character’s mother. Things like that are so out of my control… Sigh… MOVE ON…

PILOT SEASON is its own Dystopian Universe

Odds are so stacked up against Actors, it’s almost like winning the Lottery! First you’ve gotta be on the list of acceptable actors the particular Network or Studio is willing to work with. Then you’ve gotta get through Auditions. You’ll read for the Casting Director (sometimes I’m lucky enough to bypass this step) and then if you get the Callback nod, you get to do it again in front of Producers —  Read the rest of this entry »

try it, you might like it : )

OMG I’m an Actor! So why is “Acting” NORMAL the hardest acting job in the universe? Why does it feel so out-of-body the moment I walk into “The Room?” I can be charismatic at the cleaners, where Mr. Chin thinks I’m hilarious; I’m totally in sync with Julio who makes the best Ice Blendeds at Starbucks;  but when I see a Casting Director in an AUDITION, it’s like I experience “white coat syndrome” only it’s with “deciders”, not doctors!  Seriously, my pulse goes bananas and I just wanna split.

Niles, my hairstylist/bff/therapist/family surrogate has been helping me un-psyche-myself-out  — I don’t need to worry about my performance, according to my kindest critic, because I always have that down.  BUT I need to WOW them with my confidence and charisma — specifically during my entrance and exit into “The Room.” (Can someone please just write those lines for me? — Is there a Coach for that? Or something I can Google?)

So…last week my Agent Josh sent me sides for a guest part on a family cable show — for a hottie, late 20’s, who’s trying to seduce someone’s Dad  (I know-I know,  that’s what they call “Family Entertainment” these days)…  Anyway, after I coached for the Audition, I called Niles for moral support and he said — Read the rest of this entry »

(but moving forward…)

Uh-oh! We’re five days into 2014 and I’m still thinking about my list of New Year’s Resolutions. So in a never-ending effort to stop procrastinating (which should be my #1) — I’m addressing it now. Not tomorrow, not next week – NOW!

DO UNTO OTHERS…

As I contemplate my list, my wandering mind heads over to what bugs me in others and what I’d write on their list:

• My “Dr. McCrush” (master of mixed-messages) over-analyzes pros and cons of anything remotely personal. He’s so freaked-out about moving in the wrong direction, he makes no moves at all! Not only is it frustrating from my P.O.V., I realize it can’t be healthy for him to be in constant stress-mode. What’s weird is that he has no problem making decisions professionally – he’s always focused and forthright and has an awesome bedside manner. But personally he’s a total basket case. Obviously there’s a whole lotta baggage in his history. (C’mon, Dr. A – pack it up already and let’s get going.)
• My Agent Josh is big on conversation these days, but not great at delivering. I realize his hands are tied by some of my inconvenient spur-of-the-moment decisions — and now that I’m on the lower steps of a ladder, it’s harder to get back up — but I’d rather he didn’t say something and get my hopes up than not say it at all. (But I don’t want to lose all hope…)
• My frenemy, Briana weirds me out on a regular basis, with her passive-aggressive behavior, the fleeting moments when things seem like they always used to and her bitchy flare-ups when I least expect them. Why does she hold onto the past, when there’s the possibility of a positive future? (Enough with the Dr. Jekyll and Hyde-ness!)
• My Volunteer Supervisior, Charlayne would get a lot more outta me if she’d show a little appreciation, ugh. It’s not a sign of weakness, Charlayne to act human occasionally. (“Honeychild,” didn’t they teach you in Southern school that you get a lot more flies with honey — not that I’m a fly – I hate flies, almost as much as moths who eat away at the vintage designer sweaters my mom left me.) Read the rest of this entry »

Phew!

Sometimes when I’m lucky I wake up in an unexplainably good mood and the whole day smiles with possibility. But other times (like last night) my brain storms overtime with thunderous worrywart issues that get bigger and BIGGER — I can’t budge from bed, but I can’t go back to sleep either. It’s a nightmarish, paralyzing, painful state where I’m stuck worrying about relationships (or the lack thereof), or escalating credit card bills, or an audition I blew, or something I said and now wish I hadn’t.

FAUX PAS and PROBLEMS Echo in My Ears —

And — even though I know my problems are small compared to the ones I see in the ER, or watch on the news or read in my email alerts, they’re on my mind, magnified and they belong to me —  not someone I don’t know. Emotional DRAMA zaps my common sense, causing me to act CRAZY — making things even worse than they were before. Ugh! Read the rest of this entry »