Walk in the Woods

Pax and I were playing in the Presidio the other day and my mind started wandering back to my very first trip into the park when we first moved to SF. Generally when I move to a new city, or even a new block, I like to get the lay of the land by putting Pax on a leash (or not) and just cruising the neighborhood. I never really worried about getting lost or being late for anything. I'm the new kid in town, had very few appointments to keep. I also was equipped with a handy iPhone that could tell me driving, walking, transit, and biking directions from my "current location" (in case I wasn't sure where that was) to "home". It was a super helpful feature until I upgraded the operating system without upgrading the phone. Don't do that.

Anyway, as it began to get dark and Pax pulled his typical not-ready-to-go-home-yet roll in the grass, I had to laugh about how hard it was for me to initially find an entrance into the Presidio. I'll give away the ending now - there is a street called Presidio that has an entrance. Yes. I thought the best (and more entertaining) way to show you my initial failures would be a series of map illustrations. -update: there will be one map. I can only get away with SO much my last week of work. . .

ATTEMPT 1 - failure - see red line
Maps are awesome - love them. Before heading out on this walking adventure, I glanced at a map to see what cross street I needed to find. That quick glance told me that if I just walk up my street to Pacific, I'd then be walking along the park. I failed to use the "Terrain" version of the map and also, apparently, failed to look up past a few blocks. Otherwise, I would have realized that this route included walking up a hill steeper than an intermediate slope in Breckenridge. Kind of reminded me of when I lived on top of a mountain. Sledding to work. . . nostalgia will be for another post. Anyway, after hiking up the giant hill with sea-level legs and lungs, I reach the street that runs alongside the park. Surrounded with a wall. A WALL??!? I'm annoyed. Pax is confused. We jump the wall, walk around a bit, miss the many trail heads, signs, placards and head home unsatisfied.

ATTEMPT 2 - less of a failure - good for a post work walk - cyan line
I will not be deterred. I can see that this awesome space is wooded and yet safe. Mountainous and beachy. Perfection in a city. Pax and I head out again, this time finding an entrance at the intersection of Lyon and Presidio (go figure). This trip we walk down Lover's Lane, past Inspiration Point, and find ourselves at an exit. Medium success - lets go home before we get lost.

ATTEMPT 3 - mild success - Magenta line
WOW! Look at all this - if I walk past the golf course, around Mountain Lake, over US-1, through the woods (no p, I am not on a bear hunt) I reach the cemetery, an incredible view of the bridge, and a steep but accessible trail to crissy field. Pax is in heaven romping in the waves after suffering through my habit of getting lost.

ATTEMPT 4 - Local Knowledge - Yellow
This place is heavenly. I'm never lost in here. The beach, lakes, bay are all directional aides. More trails in here than you can find in any city. All safe for Pax to run nekkid with reckless abandon. It is my most favorite place in SF. I'm pretty sure it is Pax's favorite too. Every time I leash him up to start the walk home, he acts like an old dog, limping and sulking all the way home until dinner.

For those of you who don't know the band America -
Lyrics to Walk In The Woods :

Would it matter to you
If we just took a walk
To see where this path leads to
Maybe stop in awhile
Lay down, see you smile
Looking up at those clouds in view

It doesn't matter that the sky isn't blue
A walk in the woods will do
Sometimes it's better just being alone
Being alone with you

With the snow in your hair
A crystal halo you wear
While the chill winter air streams through
Amid the birch and the oak
Smell the fireplace smoke
And the warmth we will go home to

It doesn't matter that the sky isn't blue
A walk in the woods will do
Sometimes it's better just being alone
Being alone with you

Oh whoa ...

It doesn't matter that the sky isn't blue
A walk in the woods will do
Sometimes it's better just being alone
Being alone with you
Being alone with you

cha-cha-cha-changes!

i have decided to not blog in that centering form anymore.  i saw it somewhere else on someone else's blog and it seemed clever and so i copied.  but it's not me really.  i like to write without capitalizing ( i don't know why) and most of the time i write in run on sentences and so it got hard to decide where and when to hit the return key.  plus i am sure this person i stole it from was writing in iambic pentameter or something like that and well, i hit my writing peak in 11th grade with Ms. Parrish (a much deserved capitalization right (write) there).  i'm pretty sure i can safely say all of us brothers and sisters learned our best stuff in the 11th grade.  then we went on to enginerding - except CMD who pretty much went 180 degrees away from nerdom.  into his own kind of acting nerdom.  and there (and here) is a sentence fragment.

at any rate, i know you all come here for pictures and stories of the babies.  truly, sometimes i wish i had more to post about than babies.  the little ones take up all of my time though, and so about them i write.  there are lots of stories it seems, but i can't remember any of them.  so i'm just going to post some pictures and hopefully tell you about those events.

sweet p is getting used to little l being around.  he likes to give her the paci when she cries (did i already post that?) and lately he has been trying to share his toys.  thankfully he has learned, mostly, not to throw them and tries to gently place them in her hand.  he gets frustrated when she won't grab them so he rests them on her belly.  one of p's favorite games before l was for me to balance his animals on his belly, given the size of that thing, it was no small feat.  he decided to pass this game on down to little l, with dads help.

sweet p LOVES animals.  and loves to match his animals to the ones he sees in books and on tv.  so we took him to a fall festival to kick the pumpkins around (ball!!!  ouch.) and see the animals.  he clung to my leg the entire time, except when he was reaching up for the hand sanitizer which he found more appealing than the huge pig, sheep, and the hoards of kids and their obnoxious picturing taking parents shoving him out of the way.  how we managed a picture i just don't know, we certainly aren't those types of parents :) .

then we took a little family trip to the park under the naval academy bridge ( i forget the name...).  it was pretty chilly, but not terrible.  the water was cold.  it did not stop sweet p from immediately throwing his ball in the water and then charging after it.  i, of course, had to accompany him.  so we rolled up our pants and trudged in.  obviously i did not have extra diapers or clothes, duh.



little l got her first bath...oops, it only took us until her one month birthday to get this task completed.   and her brother assisted in lotioning (a favorite activity of his) and changing a diaper.  yuck - his words exactly.

(isn't she beautiful??)

lets see...we are also trying to get back into the routine of sending RBDIII a package a week, including some homemade baked goods.  p has started to participate and only recently discovered that cookie dough tastes delicious!  uncle RBDIII - eat with caution!

other adventures include...swiffering, searching for bugs ( a new word - bu! bu! bu!) with dad, and taking a quick rest in little l's sleeping basket.  complete with her hat, on his head...placed by him and him alone.  he thought he was hilarious.

this mostly gets us all caught up until about now - there are more pictures on phones and cameras of our fall adventures, but that will have to wait until another post.  BML spent the day yesterday at Gettysburg and so now we are watching the movie until we pass out from exhaustion.  yay yay! is here for a visit so there is lots of fun going on, adventures we are having etc.  we're also beginning the moving stages so if you know of anyone moving to Annapolis by Jan. 1 who needs a townhouse - we know some people!

hopefully we'll be back sooner rather than later.  until then, FTD should have something for you.  and really, since FTD and CMD get all the writing compliments around here, they should do some more posting with all of their free time.  :)  





Fake Actor Laugh

If you listen to the Scott Van Pelt show on ESPN, which you probably don't, but maybe you do (who am I to judge your radio listening preferences) you would know something he calls "the fake media laugh." The FML (caps to avoid any confusion with a different, less appropriate acronym) is when a coach/player/owner says something in a press conference or interview that is mildly funny (or not funny at all) but gets quite the reaction from the press corps or interviewer. It happens a lot and it is pretty obvious.

Now I'm sure there are more instances of this, but in my recent sojourn into the acting world of LA, the Fake Actor Laugh is just as, if not more, prevalent and is exceedingly annoying. Listen folks, it was an OK joke. You can smile and give a "hah" or even a shake of the head, but a full-on belly laugh is not appropriate or acceptable. Please stop. You are not getting in the door because you laughed at dudes joke. Thanks for comin' out.

Why, you ask, does this bother me enough to constitute an entire blog post? Well it doesn't, BUT, I have been to a few things here recently where these flies laugh at everything an important person has to say (sometimes when it's not really even a joke, and then I laugh at them, which is funny- to me at least).

On my continuing "networking" journey, I signed up to do a charity walk with a big time agency. I had met the Head of the Commercial Department of this agency before at a seminar, and "tweeted" them a few times. This agent had put out there in the twitter-verse that any actor could sign up for the AIDS Walk and walk with the agency's team. At first I balked at this, thinking, "there are probably going to be a bunch of actors swarming all over the agent trying to prove how cool they are and annoying the junk out of him that he no longer will want to have a conversation with a normal person (me, of course)." Well, he tweeted again, later, that hardly any actors had signed up, and that he couldn't really understand why. I then said, to myself, "hey, you know what, I will sign up and just see how it goes." So, I did. I made a (very) modest donation and signed up.

I showed up the morning of the walk at the meet-up spot when it dawned on me: I don't know anyone that I'm supposed to meet, and there are no signs, how am I going to meet these people, I can't believe I woke up early to get here and end up walking 6 miles by myself through the streets of LA. Then I remembered, well, you know what the agent you met looks like, so just look for him. I did, no luck. Panic again. Finally, there was a sign with the agencies name on it lifted high, seemingly glowing, beckoning me to join the group. I do. There are way less people than I expected. Then the agent whom I had met shows up. I introduce myself. He recognizes me/my name from the seminar/twitter/submission. So, I felt pretty good about that. I mean, he didn't say, "oh, hey, I recognize you." But, it was pretty clear that he did.

Quick semi-sidebar: I had submitted my headshot/résumé to him after meeting at the seminar, which I ironically received a call about the day I signed up for the walk. Well, the call, which came about an hour after I had signed up, was from his assistant informing me that he wasn't interested at this time. Which I totally expected, and was pretty cool with it. Still, it's one of those things where, you're like, "I know this won't happen, but how cool would it be if it did" type things. Like when you buy a lottery ticket, or a scratch off, or get super-size fries for the monopoly pieces. Anyway, the assistant was super nice, and I was right back to him. And I much prefer getting a "no" response than no response at all. I find it very cool when people do that.

Back to the "story". I really don't want to be a fly and insert myself into this guy's world as someone who is annoying or boring or clearly just trying to talk for the sake of talking etc etc. So, I strike up a quite conversation about sports(he is a Chicago fan). We chat briefly, get interrupted, which I take in stride (literally) and move on to introducing myself to some of the other people walking (some of whom I later regret introducing myself to- really only one person, but that was a brutal 20 minute conversation). The walk continues, and I stroll in and out of conversations, a lot of which are set up by the agent saying, "Hey, have you met MD? He's only been here 6 weeks." Which led to a lot of the same conversations, but still, I felt like I had cemented myself into dude's brain. I felt good about that. I chatted for a while with his wife, and with other commercial agents who worked for him and while none of it was meeting-esque, I left with a general sense of accomplishment with the "networking" I had done. I had spent well over half the time speaking with (often one-on-one) either the head guy, or someone else who worked there. The Fake Actor Laugh came up often during the walk, which led me to chuckle to myself. Maybe everyone else is thinking "look at that fly" when I was talking to him, but I have enough confidence in my conversation ability to know that I was better at being a normal person than they were. Mainly because I'm normal, so there is that.

The walk was this past Sunday, and there was another seminar that my agent "friend" was putting on, this time with casting director Rick Pagano. Rick (we're not really on first name basis, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't read coastalbs) has cast a number of awesome things, one of which is Franklin and Bash. It's a show on TNT that I love. You can go to imdb.com and check out Rick's credits (by searching his name) and you will see, it's pretty valuable to hear what this guy has to say. While you are on imdb you can search for me, and click on my name and raise my "star meter". "Star Meter" ranks who's hot right now type of thing, and it's pretty pointless because if your ranking is high enough to matter, people already know who you are, but a lot of people really try and move their meter. Whatever. Rick Pagano.

I am pretty paranoid about being late because traffic is always bad, but you never really know how bad. So I get there about 45 minutes before the scheduled start time. My agent friend is there with his wife. I walk in, and he greets me. "Hey M, good to see you again, you remember my wife, J." I respond, "Mark, how are you? Glad to be here, of course I remember J, it was a pleasure talking with you during the walk." I then walk away and take my seat. I probably could have stayed and chatted for a while, since there were only like 4 other people there, but I didn't want to push it, and thought I'd stop while I was ahead, or at least not behind.

So, the seminar goes on, which I won't go into detail on, since the info doesn't really mean anything to you. There are some good questions, bad questions, questions that no one really knows what is being asked. Lots of FAL. It ends, I am sitting in the front, so I get up, go shake Rick's hand, saying, "Hi, Rick. I'm MD, and I just wanted to say thanks for your time and your insights, I look forward to seeing you again in the future." Boom, done. The line is already everyone long, and each person wants to have an actual conversation with the guy. I will never get that. Just say hey, thanks, and move along. I say bye and thanks to this other guy who helps put the seminars on, then move on to Mark (agent). "Mark, great seeing you again, thanks for putting these on, see you next time." I'm pretty annoyed with most everyone in the room, but seek out a couple people I had met on the walk to say hello, then exit the room feeling pretty good about my networking.

I generally do not like "networking" at all. I hate inserting myself into someones world under the guise of wanting to have a conversation, when really I am just looking for something from you. I am, however, finding a way, I think, to actually have a conversation, brief as it may be, and be memorable without being the thing that I hate. It is certainly a learning process, but I think I am okay at it now, and continue to get better at it. I just don't want to be a fly. No one likes a fly. No one.

Domino Effect

Hello Dear Readers.

I know you are all dying to know just how things are going on the Gold Coast. Well, I'd say they are going fairly well. Life-wise things are great, work-wise they are OK. Not bad, but obviously could always be better.

When I moved out to LA, I had never seen the house I would be living in, nor had I met my future roommates face-to-face. Now, one of the guys, CS, is a friend of a good friend and I had spoken to him on the phone a number of times, but still I really didn't know how the whole living together thing would go. The other guy, JJ, I had never met or spoken to, and would be out of town when I arrived.

I arrived on Wednesday, August 31 and took CS to the airport on Friday. He was gone for about 10 days. So my first 10 days were pretty much (completely) on my own. I took some time to check out the town, to see whats what and all. I called or emailed all of the "contacts" I had to set up lunches or coffee or what have you. It was all fine and dandy.

CS arrived back in town, and the two of us started to hang out. He introduced me to his friends, and told me about some classes etc. We get along pretty great, and I really couldn't have asked for a better person to live with, so that ended up working out perfectly.

I am enjoying the city more than I thought I would, which I find interesting. Not for really any reason that I can put my finger on, but I guess maybe I didn't think I would like the city at all, only to find out that I do, so it seems I like it that much more. Follow?

As far as the acting stuff goes, I wish I had more to report, but I don't. I will, however, tell you what little I have been up to. I started taking some classes with a well known studio not far from my house (which is awesome, because it meets at 7 and traffic is not awesome around that time). It is interesting, and sorta intense. It can be a little...intimidating from time to time. But, I think it is beneficial, so I go nonetheless. I have also signed up for a website called LA Casting, which people put casting calls up, and you submit yourself, and if they like you, they bring you in for an audition. Most of these things are either student films of short independent films, but still, any experience is good experience. I have submitted, and auditioned, for a number of student films, but have not yet booked anything. I'm pretty okay with that. Still trying to get back into the groove and everything.

Starting this Thursday, I am attending workshops that Casting Directors put on. It's always good to get in front of these folks, especially while they are actively casting. There are some people who think this is a waste of money (idiots) because, yes, you do have to pay, and no, there isn't any sort of guarantee that you will ever book anything as a direct result. But, as everyone says out here (much like any other business in the universe) booking is really all about relationships. So, the more opportunities you have to build relationships, the more likely you are to move forward. I'm in the early stages of relationship building mode. If you know of anyone out here that would like a free cup of coffee, well, I'm buyin. I can't believe I have started to drink coffee, but I have (if one cup every few days counts, and the stuff they have at The Oaks is actually pretty good with some milk and a sugar).

I don't have any sort of representation yet, and I don't really have any idea when that will come. Again with the relationship building. I'm not overly concerned about it, but obviously with pilot season around the corner, that would be a pretty big thing to have. I did, however, manage to get a referral to a commercial agent (there are separate agents for commercial and theatrical out here) from a casting director who is friends with a producer who worked on a commercial I did right before I moved here. See how that works? Anyway, that agent has been out of town, so hopefully my submission will arrive on her desk when she gets back. That's the plan anyway.

So, again, life is pretty good out here. Work could be better, but, still learning all the ropes and whatnot, so I guess patience and persistence are the name(s) of the game. Here is the commercial I mentioned that set off the chain reaction to the referral. Hopefully more news to come soon.

not waving but drowning

ok.  so things aren't as dreary as my heading would suggest.

i managed to keep my head about water today -

but there are several things i did NOT manage to do.

read on, 16 readers.

Sunday was departure day for Granddad,

and yesterday LDL / Yay Yay! headed back to the

Sunshine State.

Neither of them are feeling bright sunshiney.

i was told on multiple occasions i wasn't allowed to cry.

pretty sure they were talking to themselves.

so here we are -

day one.  parenting two.  alone.

lovely little L thought she'd spice things up a bit

by deciding not to sleep last night.

at all.

sweet P played along and woke up at 6am.

seriously?

he went back to sleep - something's going right.

in short -

we went to the dr. for a sick visit for little L.

her belly button hasn't quite healed, but not to worry,

all is well. 

except it was during naptime,

and P woke up the second we walked back in the door.

L also refused to sleep so I ran from one kid to the other

from about 2p - 330p when P decided he wanted to go outside.

it's nice.  no problem

L is in her swing attempting to sleep.

P and I go out.

we get up to the lawn and I hear L wake up.

go get her. put her in the sling.

p does not like this, but seems to realize

 he has the advantage in a footrace.

our sidewalk has been recently repaved.

as in, the last 30 minutes.

P has no shoes on.

but before we get to that....i know, cliffhanger.

P falls down in the field, and comes up with a wad of

DOG POOP on his behind.

Seriously?  Pick up the poop!  i do enough pooper scooping.

we have to go inside.  he refuses, i don't care.

it's nice out here.

except he decides to take off running

down the freshly tarred pavement.

my little barefoot tar baby.

p gets a time out for not listening,

his butt covered in dog poop,

his feet completely black with tar.

and his little pitter patters can now been seen by all in the neighborhood.

its now 4pm.

we all watch Ellen.

thank goodness for a 6pm bedtime.

they sure are good looking kids though!

New Kid in Town

MLL is here!! I traveled across the county (again) to visit LDL and her growing family. Plus, I was very anxious to meet my favorite niece little l. I was tempted to bring my laptop and work while the kiddos were sleeping. That way I wouldn't have to take too many hours off of work. LDL and LTD laughed at me but I thought that I was being very resourceful. Not only did I not have time to get any work done, I wanted to nap more often than the kids. I do not know how my sister does it. LTD picked me up from the airport at midnight and told me that l was sleeping much better than her older brother p ever did. Wahoo! So, about how many hours is she sleeping now? Through the night? Uh. . . . 3 hours in a row. Clearly I am not ready to be a parent. Thank goodness.

I can't possibly cover all the activities of my week in a single blog post and keep our readers, so I'll just post a recent email describing 2 hours of a single week:

Act One - Ball in the Street

Me: Peter, don't kick that ball in the street. 

P looks at me and grins his chipped tooth smile as he kicks the ball toward the street.

Me: Peter. . . . 

P runs to get the ball as it sails on the sidewalk, down the hill, toward the parking lot and into the street. 

I think to myself, this is not good. Do I have to stop being the fun aunt and put him in time out?

His "sprint" is broken as he trips over his wet crocs and slams into the concrete. 

P: Uh oh! Ah! 

Me: That's what you get for trying to chase that ball into the street. You've got an owie. Want me to  kiss it and make it better?

P grins wide, gets his still bleeding knee as close to my mouth as possible for a kiss. Gross. 

Me: Do we need to go get a band-aid?

P notices the ball has made it's way to the gutter.

P: Uh-Oh!! as he reaches for my hand so he can go get the ball that is in the street. 

Me: Fine, we'll go get your soccer ball, but then we are going inside to clean up this mess. Plus, I am covered in mosquito bites. 

Scene ends with me and Peter "washing up" in the sink while listening to Lady Gaga's "Beautiful and Dirty Rich"

For the rest of the day, P walks around singing "bang bang!"

Act Two - Climbing Trees
Peter runs toward tree in neighbors yard

P: Up! Teeee! Up! Up! Up!

Me: You want to climb this tree? Is this allowed? We don't really care if it's allowed do we?

P: ah! up! up! 

He reaches his arms above his head and leans his belly into my knees, stretching as high as his little body will go.

I pick him up and set him on the branch above our heads. He swings his legs around and gets comfortable. Clearly, he has done this before. 

P: up! up! 

Me: You are up. I think it's time you learned how to say "down"

Peter puts his hands on the next branch higher and just hangs, again, grinning ear to ear with the shark teeth smile. Just as I am grabbing him to steady, a hand slips and he lightly scraps his face on the tree branch. Owie #2

Me: What do you say we keep that adventure between the two of us?

Act 3 - Farm Animals and Hammers

P: Teeeeeeeeee!

Pats the floor next to him and his farm toys. He is not at all happy that I am holding his new sister

Me: Peter, I am holding Lucy right now so I can't come sit next to you. But I can watch you play from here.

P: Ah! Teeeee! 

Continues to pat the floor next to him, but with a smaller grin and more force. Also picks up his toy hammer in the free hand. 

Me: Okay sweet Pete. Give me a minute to put your sister in her swing. 

P gets up and walks over to me and grabs my hand, pulling me toward the floor with all his might. I put Lucy in her car seat, since that's the closest "safe place" for her while P has his hammer. 

P: Ahh! yayayayayaya! 

Me: I'm going to stack some blocks while you play with your animals. 

Distructo won't let my stack of blocks reach higher than 5 and kicks it as hard as he can and then cackles with laughter. 

P works on matching his farm animals with those from Noah's Ark.

P: oooh! Oooh! (monkey noises) Moooooooo. Meow. Oink! Squeaaaaaaaal! Bang Bang!

Lucy cries, P walks over to inspect the cause of the noise. 

Me: She's okay Peter. I think she's just waking herself up. Want to give her the paci back?

P hands her the paci and tries to stick it back in. This boy is loving, but not gentle at all. Leans in for a kiss, unaware that his 30 lb frame is capable of making little Lucy cry louder and harder. 

Me: Good job peter! Thanks for giving Lucy back her paci! You are such a great big brother for sharing. 

P gets his hammer and tries to "share" with his sister. 

Me: Peter, that's not sweet. Lucy is too little for your hammer and you need to be gentle. 

P is visably angry that he does not get kudos for trying to share the hammer and throws it in exchange for a ball. here comes the chipped tooth grin and. . . . . . . chucks the ball at Lucy's face. 

Me: Okay Peter. You have to go to time out for that. You may not throw the ball at your sister. Go to time out for one minute.

P walks over to the time out corner by himself. He is wearing a green cloth diaper and a t-shirt. Cutest little bottom I have ever seen. Thank goodness TO's are only for one minute. I can't take it any longer. 

Me: Can you tell me you are sorry and give your sister a kiss?

Full compliance. 

My pictures don't go well with the story - but LDL tells me that's a good thing, since it would appear negligent if I was taking pictures while the kid hurt himself. Still, we here at coastalbs know what our readers want. 

P has zero interest in taking a picture with L

In case soccer as USNA doesn't work out. . . 

See? I love her! I can be sweet! Give me a chance!