Change of pace

The finished area that we did.

Lower East Side flavor, color in garden design.

Planting beautiful color in the garden.

Coleus, one of my favorite plants.

The end result? a beautiful garden enjoyed by neighborhood.

Still in thoughts about the fellow BGer's funeral, I decided to get out of the house if I couldn't get out of my mind and distract myself by going to see a movie. It was close to 10 pm as I headed out on my spur of the moment decision, after watching the sun go down. I had refused to turn on a light but had to in order to change out of my mourning clothes and into a pair of jeans and a more lively color of dark pink for the blouse and headed out in sneakers to midtown manhattan to catch the last showing of the evening. At the last second, I decided to go with Angels and Demons instead of Star Trek. The movie was pretty faithful to the book although I may have to re-read the last couple chapters of the book on some of the sequences that the professor, I thought, was supposed to be doing or had done and it was slightly tweaked for someone else. I don't want to give too much away, but I had thought the professor did not succeed in saving any of the hostages' lives. It moved pretty fast, a bit jumbly, jaunty. And I didn't like the professor too much in this one -- he seemed a bit too haughty and big for his britches which was not there before. There was a lot of explaining at the beginning of the movie for those who are slow to follow or for the five people who haven't read the book all these years.

Dan Brown's latest Professor L. book gets released sometime this September. I may read it.

Today I went to go to my latest volunteer project -- working in community gardens. I went to pull weeds, dig, plant petunias, begonias, and various other plants and flowers, plus add mulch and water. The earth felt good in my gloved hands and smelled rich and dark. They use organic soil (what else is there I wondered inwardly). As the day progressed, we took a break and went to another garden two blocks away to mow its lawn with this new electrical mower which had power and did the job with less noise and was light as a feather being mostly plastic, which to me was impressive.

We got a lot done considering it was only three people. Got a free lunch and plenty of water and gatorade to quench my thirst in the hot sun. You could feel the steam coming off the soil after watering it and the sun warming the soil. I had fun, got my mind cleared a bit, and enjoyed the day despite the hard work. I felt I got something accomplished and helped make something more beautiful. I will be back to volunteer on this again.

Technical glitches

My computer died....turns out the hard drive needs to be replaced. Okey-doke. Of course, I'm thankful that I've been dutifully paying every month each installment on my card, so I was able to order a 'new' (read refurbished) drive that'll come in a couple of days.

Now to find the money to make up for this latest expense.

Speaking of which...

Went to an audition today. It was pretty interesting. I had to improv with another actor, which was fun, except that the guy was clueless on direction. He was told by the director that he had to play the gullible goof that gets 'talked' into offing his roommate by his roommate's girlfriend who is scheming to get her hands on her boyfriend's money. He totally flipped it and made it that he already knew the deal and was like, okay, we gotta figure out a way to get this guy's money.

So that kind of crashed and burned. The second scenario was me playing the cop and him being the junkie who found a gun but ended up selling it for dope but is telling me he 'forgot' where the gun is. So I have to interrogate him. That went a LOT better.

So I think, believe it or not, that the guy will be called back. What was interesting was what came up because of it. The guy had ... some body issues. Odor, exactly. How do you work with someone who obviously needs some cleaning up and some good oral hygiene to boot?

I wonder how other actors deal with someone who isn't at their 'freshest' or 'best'. How do they get around it or how do they work with it. My choice was to ignore it and get through the audition/improv session. It was about ten minutes long. Then we were done, we shook the director's hand, and we went out the door to get our pictures taken and sign off on a release form. The office was pleasant enough to look at, looked like a converted space from a former apartment. Outside these buildings the midtown west have a lot of character but inside they are destroyed by lots of those fake walls. I thought, this stairwell could have been replaced with something nicer and more in character with the building and the fake walls could have been just...painted something dark because it just did not reflect its outer packaging. Am I making sense? Drywall, yes.

In any case, I got to drop off my headshot to both the director and the director's partner, and I didn't have to memorize a monologue which was nice. I also didn't have to deal with an early morning call at the crack of you gotta be kidding me because I had come back from out of town and was not going to make an early morning call for anybody.

I had to cancel another gig simply because I couldn't make it back for a 5:30 call, and I'm not regretting the decision. Sometimes a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do.

What was interesting was after the audition, I was feeling good, light. Enjoying the walk in the sun back towards the train station. And a man, a Hasidic older man, walked by me and greeted me good morning. I smiled and said good morning. Beautiful day, he said. I agreed. We talked a little bit as we headed down the avenue. We parted at Times Square and we say good day to each other. It was a pleasant, lovely little New York moment. That's why I love New York.

Lovely warm day. My little container herbal garden is already sprouting seedlings of sage, lemon, sweet and thai basil, and lavender. Not bad.

Got a headsup for a potential two day gig. Psyched!

Gardening time!

Finally got the basil (three types - sweet, genovese and thai) are planted. Lavender is planted. Sage is planted.

I have yet to plant -- rosemary, mugwort, mint, chive, parsley (flat italian), cilantro and some more basil. I have not yet figured out HOW to get all these plants in the window. Wish I had a more stable set-up in the window.

But spring is here at last!

mingling

This week is starting off beautifully. Gorgeous weather, temps warming up, and longer hours of sun. I bought soil this weekend to start my container garden, and today's the day it's going to be in place. Yesterday I was treated to scents of basil and garlic, and yearned to get my garden started.

What to plant? Basil, chive, sage, and flat parsley. I still have my lavender which I may have to repot, it's looking a bit skinny and I have to remember to keep proper drainage for it.

Meanwhile, several of my colleagues are working a gig today which I have not been called for. I wonder and wait about the three day gig I have sent my interest on not once but twice. I started a writing exercise this morning, I wonder if it'll be the first of many. I do have a story to tell that's been trying to be told for some time.

Checking job posts and looking for work, as usual. No phone calls from the HR reps I've talked to prior. I guess it's just as well. Another sign I'm really moving in the right direction.

Quiet day but productive

I had been promising myself to pick up some soil to start the herbal container garden. I finally pushed myself out the door today and kept my focus, despite the grey and rain, to pick up fresh soil from the store. Got a check in the mail today from my 'non-work' on Mercy. Fast check, despite the disappointment.

After finishing off my errands, I got home to check my email and phone and then wandered onto IMDB and updated my page, it's been some time since I've done so. This brought me some positive feelings, because I felt a sense of accomplishment on all the background work I've done. I updated several pages, so I'm feeling good now.

Tomorrow I have Easter Sunday dinner with friends and family. I count myself lucky and blessed to be able to do so. I'm also bringing over a couple of bottles of wine, so it'll be all good.

I've been cheating a bit with my diet but will end my vacation from it starting Monday. Summer's just around the corner and I'm looking to be more marketable.