I love the month of June. Yes, I'm totally biased - my birthday is in June. In fact, my birthday falls on the longest day of the year (most years). I tend to celebrate my birthday all month long in little ways like buying myself ice cream, or treating myself to new clothes/shoes, etc. because I feel less guilty doing so when it's "for my birthday."
This year though, I wasn't looking forward to it much at first. Maybe because here in Southern California we have what is known as "June gloom" where the mornings are just gray and hazy until the afternoon sun can finally burn off the clouds. Or maybe it's because no one showed up for my birthday party last year (and when I say nobody, I really mean not a soul. It was a pretty low point in my life, yet I still smiled and told people it was a fun night when they later asked how it went). Or maybe it's because this year I'm turning 30 and feel like I haven't accomplished anything worthwhile.
My older sister, knowing it had been a rough year for me called me up in April to tell me that she had a birthday present for me - she was going to come out to Cali to spend my birthday with me! I'm excited! I get to celebrate with my best friend! Then the news got better; my little sister wanted to come join the festivities as well!
Don't get me wrong. I still think turning 30 bites. But I am looking forward to my sisters' week/end and am glad to know that at least this year for my birthday someone will show up for the "party."
Friday, May 31, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Levada Searsee
I received a phonecall today from someone asking for Levada Searsee. Now, I don't know who she is, or if I'm even spelling her name correctly, but it's not the first time I've received a phone call for her. When I first got my current phone number I would receive calls for her every week. I didn't mind much at first, because when you get a new number it's bound to be someone's old number.
But the calls continued coming, and from the sound of it these callers were probably not her friends. It sounded like she owed people money.
For a while I stopped answering calls from numbers I didn't recognize on the caller ID. Which probably wasn't beneficial for me or them; I'm sure many callers tried again and again thinking that I was Levada and trying to avoid them. I finally started taking the calls to let people know that I was not the gal they were trying to reach.
It worked. The calls started dying down, and eventually disappeared. For a bit. Then a new wave hit. by this time I was convinced that this Levada character was still giving out my phone number to people to get away with whatever she was doing. I talked the next wave of people down, and until today, I hadn't received a phone call for Levada in a very long time. This had better not be wave 3. I kind of want to track her real number down myself to pass on to those who call me.
For goodness sake, I've had my number for 5 1/2 years now.
But the calls continued coming, and from the sound of it these callers were probably not her friends. It sounded like she owed people money.
For a while I stopped answering calls from numbers I didn't recognize on the caller ID. Which probably wasn't beneficial for me or them; I'm sure many callers tried again and again thinking that I was Levada and trying to avoid them. I finally started taking the calls to let people know that I was not the gal they were trying to reach.
It worked. The calls started dying down, and eventually disappeared. For a bit. Then a new wave hit. by this time I was convinced that this Levada character was still giving out my phone number to people to get away with whatever she was doing. I talked the next wave of people down, and until today, I hadn't received a phone call for Levada in a very long time. This had better not be wave 3. I kind of want to track her real number down myself to pass on to those who call me.
For goodness sake, I've had my number for 5 1/2 years now.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Under the Big Top
Friday night a dream of mine came true. I GOT TO FLY ON A TRAPEZE RIG IN A CIRCUS TENT! Now let me give you the back story.
Monday afternoon I went to the Santa Monica pier for a flying trapeze class where I was introduced to Christina. Christina is a pro flyer who has been in Pop Circus in Japan, Circus Vargas, and is getting ready to leave for Orlando where she will be in Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. Monday however was not one of my better days flying (the pier isn't my favorite rig, and I felt a little stressed by present company) and I ended up embarrassed to do so poorly in front of a pro.
A few days later I met up with a friend for dinner to discuss a project that I agreed to help him with. Another friend, Krista, was also in attendance with Robert- another pro flyer who is currently a catcher for Circus Vargas. Robert invited us to come see them perform, to stay after the show was over to see their flying trapeze practice, and maybe, just maybe get a chance to fly on their rig!
So Friday I headed to Orange County and enjoyed the show- and noticed that Christina was flying. After the show Krista and I were invited to fly (yay!), and up the ladder we went.
The Vargas rig has two trapezes side by side, and is about 10 feet higher than the rig I fly on. I won't lie, I was intimidated. I stood up on the pedestal for a while watching the pros take their turns and could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I was nervous that I was going to fly as bad as I did on Monday. When my turn finally arrived I took off and gave it my best. I flew much better than I had anticipated and loved getting coached by the pros. Talking with Christina afterward she gave me some compliments, some advice, and commented on how different (aka-better) of a flyer I was when I wasn't attached to heavy safety lines or worried about who was flying with me. It was a fantastic night.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Working the Weekend
Right now I work three days a week. Yep - just three! This would be perfect if it was a super well-paying job, yet even though I still have to search out other sources of income throughout the month in order to survive, this schedule has it's perks. For example, since the three days I work are consecutive, I get a four day weekend. Every weekend! That's a lot of time to fill with whatever activities I want (insert slightly devilish grin here).
As this last Friday approached I had a basic idea of how my weekend was going to go:
Friday - go to the beach
Saturday - flying trapeze, help Caitlin (coworker/friend) with her friend's film/photo shoot for a couple of hours downtown
Sunday - church
Monday - help Elizabeth (friend/fellow aerialist) with her film shoot for school
Friday went as planned, I slept in and then got a light sunburn at Venice beach. The last couple of days however ended up being more jam-packed than I had thought!
Saturday I showed up to the studio for flying trapeze with some time to spare, so I went inside to check in with the owner (Ray) and buy a water bottle before heading to the rig in the back. Inside I found my friend Angel and a couple of cameramen setting up lights. I said hello and asked Angel what he was going to be filmed for, he told me it was for an aerial piece for a segment on Dancing With the Stars this upcoming Monday. During our conversation one of the cameramen walked up, introduced himself to me and asked if I would be able to help out - they wanted me to demonstrate the hammock routine that Angel was going to show to Derek Hough. I was unsure at first since Ray was expecting me in trapeze (and cancelling late results in paying for the class anyway), but Ray cleared the way by volunteering to take me out of the class and only sign me back up if we finished filming before class was over. So, suddenly I was filling out a release form to be filmed for television with Angel and Derek! I only wished I had put on makeup that morning. Sheesh. The shoot went quickly once Derek arrived, but since he took so long to get there I only managed to sneak in two swings with my trapeze buddies afterward. Luckily though, Ray let me do those for free.
After a stopover at home to clean up and eat some lunch I headed downtown to meet up with Caitlin's bunch. The film shoot ended up being for a look book for a European clothing line that's trying to grow their presence in the USA, and the shoot required us to sneak out of a 4th floor apartment window to climb up the fire escape ladder on the face of the building to access the roof. I'm sure it was a funny thing to see from the street. The original plan was to just do the rooftop shoot, but since their morning hadn't gone according to plan, they recruited me for a semi-impromptu drive up to the valley to do more filming at a carnival. By the time the shoot ended at 11pm I was exhausted and happy to be heading home.
On Sundays I usually sleep in since I have church at 2:15pm, but this week's schedule was different due to a conference, so we met at 10am. Before I left I received a text from Cynthia, my doubles hoop partner, saying she was going to be at the Taste of Hawthorne event all day with another aerial/yoga studio she teaches at, and that I should stop by if possible. She also told me to bring clothes I could play in. I changed in to some aerial friendly clothes after church and showed up to play around 1pm. Since I was with Cynthia they immediately ushered me to the rig and encouraged me to perform between their little shows. Little did I know that they were really going to put me to work! It didn't take long for the studio owner to ask if I would perform a routine in their next show, and by the end of the day I had performed my hammock routine three times without music (this was while I was playing around), twice with music during their shows, I helped teach paying customers (kids) some basic tissu and hoop skills, and performed my doubles hoop routine with Cynthia twice. We actually surprised ourselves by figuring out how to do our entire routine using a standard hoop - we had only ever performed our routine on a doubles hoop! Some moves were a little more squished, but overall it went really well!
Tomorrow (Monday) I'm still heading up to UCLA to help with Elizabeth's film shoot - but just found out a couple of hours ago that I'm not there to help behind the scenes like I thought; I am once again going to be in front of the camera! I'm supposed to be there 830am-2pm, then I've added even more to my schedule and will be heading to the Santa Monica Pier for their 4pm flying trapeze class with a friend who needs to use their groupon. I realized that this weekend has been a great opportunity to test my stamina as a performer - running from gig to gig and being able to put on a show (whether as an aerialist or an actor/what have you) on demand with little to no notice. Anyone who knows me should know that I didn't move out to California to live this kind of life, but it has been a fun experience this weekend! I'll let you know if I survive another day.
As this last Friday approached I had a basic idea of how my weekend was going to go:
Friday - go to the beach
Saturday - flying trapeze, help Caitlin (coworker/friend) with her friend's film/photo shoot for a couple of hours downtown
Sunday - church
Monday - help Elizabeth (friend/fellow aerialist) with her film shoot for school
Friday went as planned, I slept in and then got a light sunburn at Venice beach. The last couple of days however ended up being more jam-packed than I had thought!
Saturday I showed up to the studio for flying trapeze with some time to spare, so I went inside to check in with the owner (Ray) and buy a water bottle before heading to the rig in the back. Inside I found my friend Angel and a couple of cameramen setting up lights. I said hello and asked Angel what he was going to be filmed for, he told me it was for an aerial piece for a segment on Dancing With the Stars this upcoming Monday. During our conversation one of the cameramen walked up, introduced himself to me and asked if I would be able to help out - they wanted me to demonstrate the hammock routine that Angel was going to show to Derek Hough. I was unsure at first since Ray was expecting me in trapeze (and cancelling late results in paying for the class anyway), but Ray cleared the way by volunteering to take me out of the class and only sign me back up if we finished filming before class was over. So, suddenly I was filling out a release form to be filmed for television with Angel and Derek! I only wished I had put on makeup that morning. Sheesh. The shoot went quickly once Derek arrived, but since he took so long to get there I only managed to sneak in two swings with my trapeze buddies afterward. Luckily though, Ray let me do those for free.
After a stopover at home to clean up and eat some lunch I headed downtown to meet up with Caitlin's bunch. The film shoot ended up being for a look book for a European clothing line that's trying to grow their presence in the USA, and the shoot required us to sneak out of a 4th floor apartment window to climb up the fire escape ladder on the face of the building to access the roof. I'm sure it was a funny thing to see from the street. The original plan was to just do the rooftop shoot, but since their morning hadn't gone according to plan, they recruited me for a semi-impromptu drive up to the valley to do more filming at a carnival. By the time the shoot ended at 11pm I was exhausted and happy to be heading home.
On Sundays I usually sleep in since I have church at 2:15pm, but this week's schedule was different due to a conference, so we met at 10am. Before I left I received a text from Cynthia, my doubles hoop partner, saying she was going to be at the Taste of Hawthorne event all day with another aerial/yoga studio she teaches at, and that I should stop by if possible. She also told me to bring clothes I could play in. I changed in to some aerial friendly clothes after church and showed up to play around 1pm. Since I was with Cynthia they immediately ushered me to the rig and encouraged me to perform between their little shows. Little did I know that they were really going to put me to work! It didn't take long for the studio owner to ask if I would perform a routine in their next show, and by the end of the day I had performed my hammock routine three times without music (this was while I was playing around), twice with music during their shows, I helped teach paying customers (kids) some basic tissu and hoop skills, and performed my doubles hoop routine with Cynthia twice. We actually surprised ourselves by figuring out how to do our entire routine using a standard hoop - we had only ever performed our routine on a doubles hoop! Some moves were a little more squished, but overall it went really well!
Tomorrow (Monday) I'm still heading up to UCLA to help with Elizabeth's film shoot - but just found out a couple of hours ago that I'm not there to help behind the scenes like I thought; I am once again going to be in front of the camera! I'm supposed to be there 830am-2pm, then I've added even more to my schedule and will be heading to the Santa Monica Pier for their 4pm flying trapeze class with a friend who needs to use their groupon. I realized that this weekend has been a great opportunity to test my stamina as a performer - running from gig to gig and being able to put on a show (whether as an aerialist or an actor/what have you) on demand with little to no notice. Anyone who knows me should know that I didn't move out to California to live this kind of life, but it has been a fun experience this weekend! I'll let you know if I survive another day.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Being Friends With Married People
What a wonderful, hilarious but true blog post about the relationship between married folks and single people. Give it a read:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)