Long Time Gone

This post may not be a whole lot of fun, but it has been a long time coming.  Every time I sit down to write someone (P man) wakes up, or the internet is working, or the internet is working but I can't access my computer with my pictures on it.  Forgive me.  It's true, living at 1127 definitely has its perks, but it also has its fair share of trouble too.  I mean, what do you expect when there are 5 adults, 2 kids, & 2 dogs all living under the same roof?  Not to mention the bazillion people in and out and around of the house all day every day.  Throw in a toddler who won't sleep, dogs who are sick sick sick with the rest of the crazy that surrounds us and you can imagine that life is a little hectic here.  In a good kind of way.  Most of the time.

Milestones of our family that I may or may not have already told you all about:

P man: no longer uses a pacifier, and demands to sleep in a big boy bed.  I have two major goals to accomplish with him before this summer, potty training and riding his balance bike.  I haven't concluded yet which adventure will be easier to accomplish - depends on the day.

MLL:  almost 6 months old.  I probably won't be writing again until she actually is 6 months old, so I'm updating you now :)  She's a happy, easy going baby who rarely cries and is always smiling.  She especially smiles at her brother and when no one is looking he can be caught making funny faces in her direction.  Though he really hates it when she grabs a hold of his hair (who can resist!?) Speaking of P's hair - I have yet to go ANYWHERE since that kid was 9 months old without someone commenting on his hair.  And as far as I can tell, everyone had white blonde hair like his when they were young.  Thats the word on the street anyway.

We spend most of our days in the back yard or taking a very slow stroll around the lake close to my parents house.  Sometimes we only make it around the creek but it takes P an hour to do that and its mostly nice to get out in the sunshine.  We are also still swimming at least 3 times a week so I am thinking of putting the kids in swimming lessons (amend my goals to potty training, bike riding, and swimming).

Everyone is still busy adjusting and making friends.  We'll be church hopping soon to find a church home (suggestions??), I'm going to a Bible study, an occasional girls group, date nights, exploring parks with different friends and trying to be somewhat helpful in maintaining the house hold. Its a full time job.  P still loves to bake so we try to do that on occasion but he is less than helpful now that he has discovered that cookie dough tastes delicious.

I'm starting to get a bit anxious living in transition mode since most of my things are still packed away in storage.  BML saved some of my sanity by setting up a small little office space just for me that is far enough away from the action that it takes someone at least 3 minutes for someone to find me - so that's some good quiet time :)  I think we'll start to move our stuff into different storage with more access soon since it is on average 77 degrees here each day and I still have Annapolis winter clothe hanging in my closet.

Aunt T, LTD, MLL, and I are headed up to Pensacola Beach / Gulf Breeze this weekend for our cousins baptism and to see family.  We're looking forward to the time together, but we all will miss the boys!  Especially P...we'll miss everyone, but especially P. :)

I'm attaching some pictures of everyone from LTD's computer - is anyone out there on instagram?  we just started - i put pictures on there fairly often and would love to see some of yours!  Leave your name in the comments (ha, like anyone ever comments :) ) or search for us!


p.s.  how awesome is CMD for doing IMPROV!!??  I about wet my pants just thinking about it.  i could never do what he is doing....we're pretty proud!

p.s.  attaching pictures is frustrating me.  i will try again later.  maybe.

and so it begins...

1127 is quieter today.  BML is back to work, CMD left a week ago, RBD III just walked out the door, FTD has officially started full time school again, and RBD Jr. is back and forth from Jacksonville.  But it was so so so good while it lasted.  P man coined a new word in our family, dobie.  He usually used it when he was really, really happy.  P would walk around the house, most of the time in just a diaper, singing "dobie, dobie, dobie, dobie."  I think it is safe to say that we have all been "dobie" for the past 10 days or so.  But we have to go back.  Back to finding work negotiating contracts, finding work as an actor (know anyone???), providing blankets of freedom, learning, judging, and little person raising, and of course I can't neglect to mention LTD who does all the work holding us together.  We are a thankful bunch, we have many blessings. 

Over the holidays I have loved watching the aunts and uncles play and cuddle with my babies.  I don't know why, but there is something different about watching all of them interact than when someone else is with them.  They each have their own special things they do with the babies, and they are all so so loved and cherished.  So much that I have to tell P most of the day today that they are gone, but they will be back soon to play.  Back soon to watch him try to ride his bike, back soon for tickle fests, and copter, back soon for impromptu trips into the pool, they'll be back soon.  But we'll miss them while they are gone.

Here's a picture of us, minus the judge and BML (busy working.)  We're dobie. (it's about 60 degrees, P made us wear hats.)

Did we fail to mention RBD III is back!!??  He is, safe and sound.  We were too busy being dobie.

Baby girl....too big already for the bear suit.

Baking.  A favorite activity.  P makes great cookies! (apologies to Auntie Tess, who also loves to bake with P, I can't access pictures from NC yet...)

Tee ball.  Keep your hands and face clear!

Boating around sunset.

Copter!!  Uncle RBD III has perfected 2 full rotations of flying high...awesome, and heart pounding.  P always wants "more!"



 I love the uncles with the babies.  Adjusting hats, important piece of outer wear on our walk.

Thanks for keeping up with us during our hiatus!  In other news, both P man and sweet L have been sleeping at the same time for an HOUR!!! I wish they would have told me their plans, I would have taken a nap myself.  But then, you wouldn't get this post and we would lose all 16 of our faithful followers.

Every Rose Has It's Thorn

I seriously believe that I have a restless soul. My brain never stops moving, which is not always a good thing. I toss and turn, continually second guess decisions, and wonder what life would be like if I lived in City A, but maybe City B, or a combination of City A and City B with plenty of room to indulge in what I believe is the glamorous life of a gypsy. Only, without the negative aspects like stealing and living places illegally.

Since I have no idea how long I will be in a particular place, I try to make a serious effort to get out and find my own adventure, to make sure that I really live and indulge in the various activities of my new surroundings. That leads me to the subject of this blog post. One random Sunday, I decided that I was going to get up early, and walk down to the Marina District for a relaxing cup of coffee before hopping on MUNI to the parking lot of the Golden Gate Bridge. I'd take a leisurely stroll across the bridge, catch the MUNI over to Golden Gate Park as the fog rolled in to view the Picasso exhibit before heading home to walk and feed the dog. Sounds like a most perfect day doesn't it?

I should mention that I have a love/hate relationship with MUNI (the bus system). It gets me where I am going, but rarely in a timely, comfortable manner.

New York Times' Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

My morning didn't start out quite like I planned, because I forgot that I needed to make RBD3 some baked goods because LTD and LDL were going to be taking a break due to the impending arrival of MLL. See the previous post of me about my lack of baking equipment. It was quite the experiment. I followed the instructions perfectly, but they didn't tell me that I need to mix the dry ingredients together before mixing into the wet. I don't have a stand mixer, so my forearms had quite the work out. But at least the set-up was neat and tidy!

ALL these people were on my bus.

After messing up my cookies (waaaaay too floury), I walked to Fillmore to catch the sweet view from the top of the hill and grab the bus to the GG bridge. The bus is late. 20 minutes late. But it would be just my luck to head to catch another bus, or start walking, or just go get my car, and then my bus would show up. So me and about 20 foreigners are hanging out, waiting to get to the bridge. Pretty soon it becomes apparent that I live in the city (and I am by myself) so every single party asked me if MUNI was always unreliable. If someone would pick us up soon. We became friends. Good thing too, since when a non-full bus finally arrived (3 full ones passed without stopping) we crammed in like sardines. I took a picture of people exiting so you would have some idea of what the ride was like. OH! I forgot to mention that by the time the bus picked us up (waited for over an hour) the fog had started rolling in, covering bridge views.

After throwing myself out of the bus to prevent trampling, I headed to the bridge to start my walk. With 1,000 of my closest friends. Lucky for me - the Park Service is aware of heavy crowds. To make things even better, the west side of the bridge is closed, meaning that tourists pedestrians, tourist cyclists, leisure cyclists, leisure runners, and crazy people that ride 150 miles a day were all on one 8ft wide piece of concrete suspended in air. Plenty of crisis hot lines were around though. I politely asked the German next to me to take my picture. He took a long time and finally said "Oh. Is it just you?". Yes sir! Just me! Just take the picture already. It's a terrible picture of me. One of those - I shouldn't have to wear sunglasses because there is no sun, and yet I still squint - ugh.

Claustrophobes, turn back now!

Yes, I did this in August and am wearing a sweater.

So I walk the bridge. It gets much better after you make your way past the advertised "vista" where most people stop to shield themselves from the wind, take a picture, and turn around. Truthfully, it was very calming. I couldn't hear much but the tinnitus anyway, so the rush of the cars flying by was soothing. I took a few pictures along the way for your viewing pleasure. Side note: when I take pictures, I move to the side of the "trail" so that the cyclists, runners, and walkers can pass. Not everyone is aware of this piece of travel/picture etiquette. I find that young females are the biggest perpetrators of this rule. They seem to think that every one will think they are cute and funny, lining up their giants bikes across the entire span of the walkway. Yeah. Super cool. Cyclists rang their bells like crazy. Kind of funny.

Lookout for jumpers. Easy to do without fencing. 

Pretty cool right? Even covered in fog.

I enjoyed my walk. I can cross that off the "must do" list. I enjoyed it so much that I was tempted to walk all the way to Sausalito and have a tasty adult beverage (like a hot toddy - in August). But Picasso and his Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso Paris awaited. So I touched the other side of the bay (to say I completely crossed), turned around, and speed walked back to the parking lot to catch the next MUNI to Golden Gate Park and the  de Young Museum. In hindsight, I should have driven my own car, or ridden my bike but that's 20-20 right? Oh! I forgot to mention, that will I was trying to take a picture of the small window of no fog while waiting for the bus back, people just stepped right in front of me. I just I left too much space between me and the railing. Clearly, totally the fault of me and my personal space.

Really? All up in my "zoom" space

MUNI finally comes to pick me up at 4:00pm. I just discover (via my slow as molasses iPhone) that they stop selling tickets at 4:30 so that the museum can close at 5:30. What? On a week night? But I'm making decent time. I only waited for the bus for 20 minutes, stopped at 10 different places, and finally got off at Fulton. I immediately cross the street and start walking toward the de Young. Except I went the wrong way. I was supposed to be headed toward the Rose Garden and instead I'm headed to the polo fields. GG Park is ginormous.

I missed the last ticket sale. Even the Academy of Sciences had closed at that point. The only food left in the area was Indian (ew) and Blue Bottle Coffee (delicious, but I'm already sleeping funny). The Japanese tea Garden was still open. Everyone and their grandmother was headed over there and it was another entrance fee. So, I called it a day. Missed the 44 - decided to walk to the 1. Rode the bus for 5 minutes until it broke down and we had to transfer to a different bus. Finally got to my home stop, walked inside and discovered that Pax had thrown up in his crate. Awesome. At least I saw the rose garden! In August. Even though it feels like Winter.

If my main goal was to have an adventure in the place I currently call home, then mission accomplished.

hooray for the 4th of july -

it's hard to know where to begin.

as usual, there really is never a moment

of peace,

among the brothers & sisters.

i blogged about our heavy hearts last time,

so i'll work on keeping it light.

before we said "see you later RBDIII"

some of us celebrated the 4th the way you should,

at a Washington Nationals baseball game.

we met up to say hello to an old friend,

switched our allegiances dating back to a 1991

opening day game at Camden Yards

to the Nats.

we enjoyed the ball game, beer, hot dogs,

and ice cream.  we all know from this post

that p loves ice cream.

as in, i never get to eat any.

and p and uncle RBDIII got some good quality time.

p started out really enjoying his

shoulder ride -

and ended up acting more like a sack of potatoes.

it was fun.  a good 4th of July,

my favorite holiday, except for the whole deployment thing,

that sucks (totally an appropriate word for the occasion).

some other photos from the holiday weekend...

i've also been busy with some projects,

which i will post about that since this one is getting

a little long.

besides, maybe it will give some other contributers

time to contribute.

things i am excited about?

july 15; winnie-the-pooh in theaters.

a beach trip, o-town family celebration,

a little "sprinkle" for sprout # 2 (who has been named!!  initials MLL),

and then waiting...to be a family of four.









Stop The Bus

I heard Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on the radio in the car the other day. I never hear them while in the car. Part of this is probably because I don't drive that often anymore. Apparently that's part of the culture out here. Everyone loves their bikes, walking shoes and public transit. Well - that's an exaggeration. I don't know anyone that loves public transit as much as they love the idea of it. I'm one of those. Not driving to work is pretty awesome. Ideally, that's a whole 25 minutes you get to listen to news podcasts (I'm a fan of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Science Fridays) or read your new favorite book just plucked from the shelves of the public library. If you're careful, you can even drink your morning coffee on your commute, maybe do some morning meditation to prepare you for the day. Plus, if you're lucky like I am, you live a few blocks from the bus stop. This allows for some blood flow to start moving and gets you exercise in disguise. Ideally, it is 25 minutes of bliss before you put your noise to the grindstone and glue yourself to your non-ergonomic chair.

Ideally. You all caught that right? The adverb means –

1. In accordance with the ideal; perfectly

2. In theory or principle

3. In idea, thought or imagination

I'd like to call your attention to the word "imagination" which, when used as a noun is "the faculty or action of producing ideas, especially mental images of what is not present or has not been experienced".

My bus rides have never co-existed with the ideal. Usually I am squished between two large men and their briefcases or sharing oxygen with someone who hasn't ever seen a toothbrush. Once I was fortunate enough to listen to Justin Beiber for 30 minutes through the incredible decibel levels of a young man 3 rows behind me. the doors have been shut on me as people push for position, fights as to whether or not the line begins at this corner or that one, unsolicited conversation and sometimes an ab and leg workout from having to brace oneself against the various speeds and brake forces needed to combat the hills.

I swear I am going to ride my bike to work from now on. Oh wait. . .

Cyclists have a whole different set of issues to deal with during the morning commute. I can only guess that since most of these folks are smarter and more fit than I am, they've avoided rush hour and/or know routes that do not include the major arterials. Still, they try to turn and a bus runs them over. They stay in the bike lane and a car door opens and slams them to the ground. Cyclists are a different breed. I want to be like them. I want to ride with one pant leg up (just like I learned at Lee Middle) with a fancy messenger bag that lights up even in the day time. I want to wear those fancy clip-in shoes to help with the peddling without falling at a stop sign. Sigh. One day. One day I will be brave. For now I just have this idea that I would end up staring up at the crux of my route, whimpering like a lost puppy in the rain, begging for a time machine.

Pax and I walk a lot. So much so that when I told my trainer (the JCC gives you one free session probably hoping that you'll love it so much you'll sign on for eleven hundred hours of personal training.) that I walk probably4 miles a day he scoffed at me. I don't know if he thought I was over or under selling but I did not appreciate it. Anyway, walking is dangerous too but I got myself a neon windbreaker that is just as functional as it is cute (super functional and cute boys). The neon helps with visibility but it doesn't keep vehicles from creeping on me in the cross walk as if I should be sprinting across. Heaven forbid they have to wait to make their turn. I was walking the street the other day - not jay walking - and had a little white man light telling me that it was safe for me to cross. At the same time, oncoming traffic had a green arrow, signaling it was okay for them to make a left turn. Say What? Some one is going to lose that battle and it's me against 2,000 pounds of steel. I concede and am left in the median crossing my fingers for an especially thoughtful motorist to slow long enough to make like a gazelle.

Commuting. It's dangerous.

Never fail. Just Get Rejected.

This industry of mine is certainly an interesting one. I can't think of another line of work where getting rejected can be deemed as a success. Technically, I guess that's not really true here either, but it is certainly looked more positively on than most businesses. Basically the whole process is based on rejections that hopefully eventually lead to success. Let me explain.

The most basic of rejections pretty much comes before a word is spoken. More often than not(there are a few exceptions) if you do not fit exactly the physical characteristics envisioned, you don't get a chance to even read for the part. Now, this particular brand of rejection isn't that bad, because you generally don't hear about it. But every now and again you'll hear how you are too tall, short, thin, fat or have the wrong hair color, eye color, skin color (or hue), blah blah blah.

Next there is the first real level of rejection. Auditioning and getting a, "Thanks" and that's it. Never a real good sign. Other versions of this are,"Ok, thanks" "Great, thanks" "thanks for coming" etc. Sometimes its tough to tell if the powers that be like you at all. Sometimes they make it obvious enough. BUT, getting those first few auditions are also a success because it's better than not getting sent on them at all. That level of "success" fades fairly quickly.

You then get to the callbacks. This rejection level is a special kind of suck, because it means you were actually liked enough to get brought back, meaning you actually have a shot. Again, there is an element of success because you got out of the first round. This level of "success" sticks around, well, I don't really know because I haven't moved past thinking of it as a success yet, so maybe it never does fade.

Probably the most painful rejection notice is being on first refusal, then released. You were selected. You're the guy. You're in. Until you're not. Brutal.

Now, why am I torturing you with my Dante-esque levels of rejection? Well, I've experienced a good number of levels within the past few weeks.

In my last post, or thereabouts, I told you readers about my journey to Atlanta to be rejected. However, I later found out that the casting director called(or emailed or otherwise notified) my agent to say how much she liked me and looks forward to having me back. So, success? Kinda. There isn't really anything to show for it, but the rejection was less terrible.

I also submitted two taped auditions for feature films. One here locally in Orlando, and the other in LA. Didn't hear a word back from either. At all. So I really have no idea how much I sucked, or if I did at all and wasn't the right body type, blah blah blah, or they didn't like my shirt, or a million other things you(I) let run through your(my) head.

Now, I did submit a taped audition to a webseries thing that films in Jacksonville, which I was asked to then drive up for a callback. And ended up booking a part. Probably for free, but the experience/exposure will be good, right? And it's a SAG contract, so that'll be helpful when the inevitable LA move comes. Oh, and I got to kiss a girl (blushing).

Also am shooting a UCF film this week. And have a rehearsal for a "feature film" shooting semi-locally next month. I used quotes there because, we're really only shooting a 10 min promo now, and (fingers crossed) the feature later. And the dates have already been pushed back once. So we shall see.

This may have been a slightly long, rambling post, and for that I apologize. Maybe you'll be interested in why generally try and temper any sort of emotions about my journey, and sometimes(most times) am bad at answering any sort of questions.

Oh, and I went on an audition for a Sonny's BBQ commercial, and got a callback only to not hear back(which means no).

I try not to feel like a 16(or 30) year-old girl sitting by the phone waiting for the cute guy from English class(or the Lodge) to call.

Success to you all.

Or less sucky rejection.