I had a nice weekend. Mostly, for at least part of it, I took it easy. The Professor fed me. A lot. Then he took me to the botanical garden in Atlanta. I had it easy as this frog amid the mosaic plant.

Then Sunday I did freelance work. Then today I came to Athens and worked a lot at work against crazy schedules then came home to work a lot on freelance work, with a break to go to court for the sentencing for the boy who broke into my house. Now I feel more like this fly.

So we watched 21 last night. Hmmm. On the one hand, I thought the performances were good, with the exception of one of the most tight-lipped screen kisses that I have ever seen. Setting that aside though, the plot left a little something to be desired. Maybe I'm more deviant than I thought, but it just seemed like there were a million better ways to run the scam (essentially a team approach to counting cards during blackjack). And perhaps the main problem was that these students were from MIT and hence, supposed to be uber-smart, that I kept saying out loud, "Why are they not switching up the cities they're in?" "Why are they winning big every time? They have got to lose sometimes (opportunity costs) so they don't. get. caught." "Why go for the super-big win that's going to draw attention when you could just go smaller & totally be less conspicuous."

And then it came out that Kevin Spacey's character was skimming 50% off the top & I was like, "For MIT students, y'all are dumbasses." I would've gotten rid of him long, long before. Because 50%? That's crazy.

Anyway, enough about that...today was a five-star day because I finished a new paper and got it submitted. Whoop! whoop! Am going out with my bff for a celebratory dinner, yay! As for the rest of the weekend, I'm hoping to hit the farmer's market in the morning & see Vicky Christina Barcelona later in the weekend.

Happy weekend!

Phew! Okay, so.

I have been working on the edits for the 3rd edition of Self-Management for Actors since August began. I got my first seven chapters to proofers on August 4th. The book has 46 chapters. I continued to get chapters to my awesome proofers daily through the 15th and had all of their feedback by the 18th.

I've been entering changes and trying to cut content (the book was originally going to be 368 pages but looked like it would be 630+ pages as of the 15th) since then and--today--the 520-page *near-final* manuscript was FedExed to the final team of proofers who do the cover-to-cover read and get notes to me by the 29th.

And then this lovely book hits the printer on September 1st. And will be in stores everywhere by Thanksgiving (if not sooner).

Our international distributor tells us we've already sold 800 copies. Yay! But also: Oops. The book is now 150 pages longer than originally listed (and it's now also eight bucks more per book). Wow.

It was the last couple of days that were the most intense. I woke up at 6am Wednesday and said, "Today is the day I call failure on my SMFA3 goals." I just knew there was no way I would have everything ready in time. No way. But when I went to bed at 5am Thursday, I had logged in 22 hours of work on the book, 45 minutes nap time, and 10 minutes on Wii Fit.

I slept for four hours this morning and then finished up everything to have Keith take the manuscript to Kinko's to copy and then FedEx out. I was back in bed at 4pm and up at 7pm. So, my sleep patterns are wonky (and the heat works well with that... bleh) and now I'm feeling all buzzed and antsy. I've found that opening three weeks' worth of mail and paying a few bills has helped calm me down. Soon, I will listen to at least a week's worth of voicemails, as I've not even had the phone volume UP for at least that long. Book mode is serious focus, y'all.

In other news, the breakdown for the November 2008 Cricket Feet Showcase went out on Monday. Submission deadline is the 25th. Auditions will be held on September 8th. I'm so looking forward to meeting our new cast!! And to working with Chil and Eitan and Tamika and Keith again, as always.

I can't believe what a great couple of years it's been, doing this showcase. Just awesome.

I'm being interviewed by Spun Gold TV next week. This will mark my third televised UK interview in 18 months. First was for BBC Breakfast. Second was for UTV in Ireland. This is another London-based outfit and they're sending an actor to Hollywood and following her as she meets with people. Apparently, it is now known in the UK that I give good, "cheeky" TV in a very fun, biz-savvy manner. Cool. That'll help when we're ready to take the roadshow abroad.

News on that: We're going to try and do some LA-adjacent tours and speaking engagements in the last two months of 2008, and then we'll head to other cities and states (and countries?) in 2009. Very much looking forward to this. Haven't been on the road in a long time.

Saturday is my 20th high school reunion. I will not be there. Two main reasons: 1. August. 2. Atlanta.

I mean, c'mon! October, I could do. But Atlanta in August? Dunwoody Country Club in August? In formalwear? Really? Nah. I'll have more fun hearing the stories, I'm sure.

Let's see... what else?

The four-week class I was supposed to teach at the Hayworth got pushed to November.

I've lost 40 pounds since Christmas. (And five inches off my waist, thankyouverymuch.)

I get to hang out with the director of Another Harvest Moon next week and catch up on all the tales from the set and plans from here.

I can only imagine the tales will be outstanding (the ones I've already heard are hilarious and touching and inspiring).

And that the plans for this film are... big. I got chills looking through the photos at the website just now. Dear GAWD, this film is going to be amazing.

I still need to read a script that's been sent to me for a casting bid. It's a $2M thriller and looks good from quick skim of a couple of pages. (Honestly, I've been so busy with the book, there's been no time to do other stuff.)

I've learned I'm really good at compartmentalizing. (I mean, I knew that already, but it's become VERY clear with all of this work on the book this month.) When I go into book mode, I'm a machine. It has been nearly three years since I've had this experience, but it really is like riding a bike. It all comes back to you and hopefully you've given yourself enough empty road to not bump into anything at first.

As with the 2nd edition, I have both the HUGE worry that I've messed up whatever was good about the book by making changes to it AND the certainty that it might possibly be the best book for actors ever written.

This "sure you suck" and "sure you rock" simultaneous opinion is pretty tough to maintain, but somehow I find a way. ;)

Okay. Not sure what's next. So much got set aside in the past three weeks that I just need to start on something... but I also need to just CHILL. Perhaps I'll play computer solitaire for about five hours straight. That'll be fun. And maybe a walk to the beach when Keith gets home, just to remember what that's like. Oooh! Or a midnight trip to the gym. A good sweat in an over-air-conditioned facility might feel REALLY good right about now.

Or maybe I need to just sit here for a minute. :) Just be.

OH!!!!! HUGE thanks to the actor who sent me free passes to the Magic Castle (I've never been!!) and also to the actor who sent me half-off passes to Glen Ivy Hot Springs (I've definitely been!!) as encouragement for working so hard on the book. :) I love you guys. Also love my friends who made me take playdate breaks once a week or so while all of this was going on.

Man, I've got it so damn good it's just ridiculous.

I hope you can say the same, everyone. I've missed keeping up with you all. Catch me up! What's going on in your world?

XO

So, like many of you, I have been enthralled with the Olympics. I totally resisted it, but I do enjoy the Olympics (remind me to share an article from the Nation about what a mean sum bitch Bela Karoli is), but I digress. I was watching Bob Costas and Cris Collingworth do their thang and thinking to myself that the latter seemed totally high, but also wondering who is this guy? So, I turned to the Wikipedia and found the following:

Early years

He moved to Titusville, Florida as a member of the communist youth council. He played quarterback and ran sprints at Cosmonaut High School in Titusville, where he was the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 3A 100 yard dash state champion in 1976. However, as a collegian at the University of Florida Collinsworth was converted to Anti-Americanism and made the Chinese Football All Anti-America Team as a senior comrade. During his career at Florida, he caught 120 passes for 1,977 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also scoring 2 rushing touchdowns.[1]

Hmmmmmmm. I'm assuming that this is a funny piece of culture-jamming, which I totally support, but it does serve to remind us that the Wikipedia is not to be completely trusted.

Sadly, not literally...

Work these days has been pretty busy, and that juggling metaphor seems more & more true. I guess that's what it means to be on the tenure-track. It's actually a very good thing, because it makes the days fly by and it means that I have a lot to pick from when I'm trying to figure out what I want to do each day. There's some big stuff that's getting geared up this fall...I'm on a committee at the College-level, which appears to be pretty prestigious. I'm not sure how much about that I should say on the Interwebs, so I'll stop there. It's gonna be a big time commitment but will be great for building relationships with people in other departments. And I'm doing a women's leadership program that is a campus-wide thing. We're retreat-ing next month, so that should be interesting. And there's the small matter of being involved in five different research projects. (Or is it six? Give me a minute...Well, five big ones and one little grant....) And yesterday was the first day of class, so I got to see my students again. They just rock my socks. So smart and so funny--they are gonna be great doctors one day. AND, I'm designing a new course, so I've spent a bunch of time this week pulling together parts of a syllabus.

When I type it all out, I'm no longer confused about why I get tired by 5...

Oh! And I just got invited to be on a planning committee for a conference that will be out in San Francisco next year. (Gotta return that phone call tomorrow...)

But it's all good stuff. Makes every day different, yep, yep, yep!

Not much non-work stuff going on though. Cooking has been up & down this week--seared some lovely scallops last night, after doing a grilled veggie salad to start. That was an up. But will also admit to buying a rotisserie chicken the other night when I was too wiped out to cook. Oh! And I finally made a hamburger unsupervised! A small feat, I realize, but it turned out good (95% lean ground sirloin, into which I had added some onions & garlic that had been sauteed in olive oil). YUM.

Watched The Kite Runner, which was beautiful in that totally devastating kind of way. Lost track of how many times it made me cry. But good. I'm also caught up on Saving Grace, only to find out there's just one eppy left. GRRR. We did not get enough episodes!!! (I fear this is the aftermath of the writer's strike, perhaps?)

And now, I'm off to tidy up the house....a local friend is coming to stay for a night or two until the paint fumes are more manageable in her house. Slumber party!

I have been worried about Corabelle. She hasn't laid eggs for weeks. She is frightfully light and skinny. And now she is losing feathers. I'm afraid she's wasting away.

It's possible she is molting, but if she is, it's many months earlier than last year, brought on by malnutrition.

She is still eating and drinking and pretty lively, but I am worried. So I have spent a lot of time on the Backyard Chickens forum hunting solutions and reading all the many various and horrible things that can go wrong with a chicken and freaking out. (Like to be frightened and grossed out? Here's just one horror--canker. Poor hen.) I'm extremely grateful the forum is there, because it is so hard to find a vet to treat a chicken. Not just here, everywhere. I've contacted the vet school again and I hope this time they will respond. It's such a helpless feeling not to be able to do something to help a sick pet. Many folks on the forum have been giving me advice on how to help Corabelle. And I've tried the pumpkin seeds and the apple cider vinegar and removing the hay and daily sanitation and and electrolytes in their water and spreading around lots of food-grade diatomaceous earth and a new wormer (Valbazen) and everything else, including giving them buttermilk.

The truth is, the concept of chickens as pets is new. And to the average person who hasn't played with chickens and seen their distinct personalities, insane. So there aren't that many vets who treat them, and there aren't that many medicines available or approved for them, because it's not economically viable to research or test or tend them. The usual treatment for a sick chicken is to cull it, which usually means to kill it.

So how do you euthanize a pet chicken? If you're lucky you can find a vet to put it down. An injection that is peaceful and quick. That's pretty rare. So the most common advice on the forum is to quickly and humanely cut off the bird's head. For baby chicks, scissors are recommended. It is fast, and it causes the least stress and pain on the bird. But how can you cut off your pet's head? I don't mean the mechanics of it--that I know. But how do you do it? I honestly don't think I could. Another option is to put a bird in a smallish container, soak a rag in starter fluid (not lighter fluid, starter fluid--it's supposed to contain ether), and put it in the container. The bird will fall asleep from the ether and eventually pass away in its sleep. Less gruesome for the pet owner, but perhaps not so peaceful for the bird. I also read about freezing them. Nothing sounds like something I could ever do. I hope I never have to.

Meanwhile, I'm building them a new tractor, which in theory should prevent worm reinfestations, though there's no guarantee with free-range birds. The tractor will be their permanent coop and range, but it can be moved periodically, and it should be strong enough to keep out raccoons and possums and other predators. The assembly will go a lot faster when I borrow a circular saw from Daddy or the Professor.

So far I have the base done.

Honestly, I don't think this will make much difference at this point, but I have to feel like there's something I'm doing to help. Maybe old Corabelle will pull through this too. She's been hanging in there a long while, almost as feisty as ever, still the head hen. Not at all faint of heart like me.

I have no idea, but for some reason I feel compelled to read at least some of the comments posted on any given blog, article, etc... that I read on the internet. This usually serves only to infuriate me and all this fury is bottled up since I never bother posting a comment myself...mostly b/c somehow all the brilliant quips in my head usually sound pretty dumb once committed to paper (screen). But today I just had to share my thoughts on a comment. I've been mindlessly surfing the internet and I was watching the trailer for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. The comments were the usual hate keanu/ love keanu, new one sux/ no, no, the old one sux. But then one comment read, "does anyone know where I can get a copy of the original movie?" And I was just struck, confounded, then, finally, I felt compelled to comment myself (albeit here rather than on youtube): who is this person that has the ability to watch movie trailers and post comments on the internet, but doesn't know how to rent or buy a classic film? I am extremely disturbed by such cluelessness. It reminds me of one time when I was in Five Star about a week after the 9-11 attacks. This townie woman comes in. She knows the guy behind the counter, they haven't seen each other in a while so it's the usual "hey, how have you been?" Anyway, after the niceties she says in this sort of semi-stoned type voice, "hey, have you heard what happened in New York?" And everyone looks up because of course we're thinking that something else must have happened while we were all blissfully enjoying our lunch. No. she informed everyone that two planes had hit the world trade center...last week. You know, it would be one thing that she had just heard. I'm all for living off the grid and unplugging. But couldn't you have at least enough societal awareness to know that you are the only person in America who just found out. Wow. I've been bugged by that for 7 years. I feel better now.

There's been a lot happening lately. Freelance work. Recovering from immersion in freelance work. Regular work. Then throwing a party for these two, cause they're getting hitched.

We had a lot of really amazing food. Stephanie went to Alon's, I baked, and we got the Velvet Elvis cake from Cake Babies, and it was so so so so good.

The party theme was Cakewalk and Cocktails. Dr. Idea, aka my friend Pat, told me to dip martini glasses in clear gelatin then in red sugar for the perfect cosmos. (I made vegetarian versions with cranberry juice and the sugar, though they didn't stick as well. The Professor taught me that you can write on glassware with a Sharpie and it comes right off, so I put a little V on the base of the vegetarian glasses.)

The drinks were pretty awesome. I got a little tight. I recall Mike telling me that I am a funny drunk.

The drinks helped dull the fact that my house was over eighty degrees, because my less-than-three-year-old air conditioner chose to break a couple of hours before the party. Yay. People were very understanding. Thank heavens for a relatively cool night.

How many cameras are in this frame? I don't know, but you can see more photos over on Beth's Flickr page.

Many fabulous prizes were awarded. Natalie got the grand prize caramel cake. Chip and Beth got lots of cool gifts, including the TARDIS ice bucket pictured above. Most of all, it was great to see everyone and catch up.

Now, sleep please. Tomorrow, AC repair please.

That's about what it feels like in my house right now. I counted, and I currently have seven kinds of tomatoes in my kitchen. I can't really tell you the exact names of them, but there are regular cherry, orange cherry, a red heirloom, a yellow heirloom, a slicing, and then two kinds that are bigger than grape tomatoes but smaller than romas.

I just made a sweet tomato puree from a Claudia Roden cookbook, which I can't remember if I've blogged about this before. It ends up being kinda sweet but also just really different because of the cinnamon. Anyway, you boil a big pot of water & add 2 pounds of tomatoes that you've pieced the skin of; let them sit the water for a minute & then pull them out. The skins should come right off. Then chop them. Heat a decent sized pot over medium high heat, add 2 TBSP olive oil, the tomatoes, a TBSP of sugar, and some salt. Basically you let it simmer for 45 minutes until almost all the liquid has cooked off. When it's "jammy" (her words, not mine...but accurate, trust me), add 1 TBSP honey & 1/4 tsp. cinnamon. Cook for a minute more & then it's done.

I plan to eat mine on bread that I get from the farmer's market tomorrow, but the creator also says you can serve it hot over chicken or meat.

Happy weekend!

Reading:

Latest installment of Buffy Season 8, which ended with a total whooooooa moment. I'm still working at learning how to read comics, which sounds silly, but it's very different from just about anything else. Plus, the gap of a month between issues means that I never remember anything, but that just means I have to go back at least an issue to re-read. It totally makes me appreciate how smart Chip must be to hold all those different comics series in his head.

Also: Some book that Oprah recommended called by Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. There are parts that make me roll my eyes, but conceptually I am on-board with the need to quit obsessing about the past & the future and just get on with the living right. now. And the stuff about how fear is paralyzing (for no. good. reason.) also resonates with me. But honestly, I can only do about 6-8 pages a day before I'm ready to do something else. (I like my spiritual enlightenment in small chunk...)

Watching:

A little bit of the Olympics. I dunno. I'm just not that into it. I kinda hate how the coverage is so focused on just specific athletes rather than on specific events. I'm the kind of dork that, if I'm going to watch, I want to see the prelim races and then the final so I see how it all shakes down. Not just the last five seconds when an American wins something. Also, I hate the new gymnastics scoring system, and when exactly did the team competition get boiled down to just 3 gymnasts per country? I much prefer collegiate gymnastics (go Gymdogs!) with 6 per team. Three just feels so rushed And it might've been nice to actually see all four countries, rather than just us and China. I'm just sayin'...

Last night, went to Mamma Mia. First off, how much do I love that there's a theater near my house that is just five bucks? LOVE. Two things: It made me want to run away to some Greek island. So pretty. Also, yes, it is total cheese, but if you just embrace the cheese factor, it is FUN. I kinda dug that nobody dances particularly well, because in truth, most of us don't--but we might like to shimmy and wiggle every once in a while. And I love the fact that Meryl Streep wanted to just do this totally fun, silly movie. And finally: Lily Kane! (Okay, she would probably prefer to be called her real name, but that character from Veronica Mars was so awesome that I may not really ever be able to name her properly.)

On dvd: Blood Diamond. I'd give it a solid B. Leo's accent comes & goes, but I found the story compelling. It was really, really violent though (to be expected I know, what with the civil war business). It is one of those movies where it gives me a little perspective though--we may think things suck here, but duuuuuuuuude. It could be so much worse. We don't even know.

Eating:

Lots of grilled things. The weather's been awesome this week, so I've been firing up the grill a lot. I can eat mountains of veggies if they've been tossed with olive oil & grilled. This week: corn, okra, eggplant, zucchini, onions, and yellow bell pepper from the Tuesday farmer's market. I've been on the road so much lately that I haven't been able to pick up for CSA box for a few weeks--I'm stoked for tomorrow & am planning to do the Saturday market for coffee, bread, and if I'm lucky, goat cheese.

Alrighty, back to the paper I'm working on. I finished one paper this week (a mountain of revisions that nearly pushed me over the edge) and am trying to complete a first draft of another one. Feels good to get the decks cleared a bit before my research grants starts in October. Whee!

Don't know what 12 of 12 is? Visit Chad Darnell for all the info.

It remains a good life, here. Hope yours is too. :)

Thanks, Chad, for another wonderful 12 of 12 experience. Always good fun!! :) Kiss, kiss!

And now, it's the opposite end of the spectrum. I fly home tomorrow night, so now I feel like I should be counting down...

But that's the wrong attitude. Let's instead focus on the fun stuff like...

Waking up naturally, rather than by an alarm. YAY!

Pretty maniucred toes and chair-massages that get the worst of the kinks out of your neck.

Johnny's Pizza.

Hugs from friends that aren't just that courtesy hug, but are the kind of hug that lasts several seconds--y'know, that kind of hug.

Getting to spend time with your very first real friend from Athens. Plus Gyro Wrap. Plus going shopping for comics books and stopping by Junkman's whatever...

Which means you are now caught up on Buffy Season 8. (And note to self: Check on the big float frames as a possible framing scheme...)

Cornhole. And good friends. And good wine. (Although perhaps the Athens vernacular is "throwing bags." I heard that tonight, to which I was like "huh?" when people started to get moving. I was so very confused. Finally the translation of "cornhole" was offered and then I knew exactly what was going on.)

Getting to have Corey cook dinner. I got so spoiled when he & Yancey lived with me because Corey was chef every night. Tonight felt like those days.

Imaginiff...(I think I spelled that right.) Seriously, that is a really fun game to play with people.

Rocky road ice cream. Yum.

And the most important thing is: I'll be back again next month.

This morning, in my long robe meant to deflect mosquitoes and in my Crocs meant to tread in chicken poo, I climbed atop the chicken coop to reach some giant ripe figs. I threw one--about three inches in diameter--to the hens in their tractor and went inside to get my camera. When I came back, just this little sliver of flesh was left.

I threw the other two figs into the coop, and when the girls returned, they went straight to pecking those away. I'm glad the figs aren't going to waste this year. There have been more of them due to the rain, but they usually ripen one every few days, not enough to make preserves, and besides, I just don't care for figs. The chickens are happy to dispose of them, and I am happy observing their gusto.

Oh, how I love Athens, let me count the ways...

1. The bridgeclub sandwich at Mama's Boy, with pimento cheese from scratch, heirloom tomatoes, and some kind of cucumber pickles...with sweet potato bisque and side caesar...yum...

2. Thinking I wasn't going to get to see a friend because of supposedly at-odds travel schedules, and being wrong. Getting to see that friend at the former-office, and then again at dinner, and then at game night.

3. Carolina bbq, collards, and fried green tomatoes at Five Star Day Cafe. What is that sauce that comes on the fried green tomatoes? It is SO good. It tasted even better because I was with friends.

4. Game night! Love Imaginiff. Also: Ami! Someday, I am making him show me India. He doesn't know this yet, but it is part of my master plan. (insert mwah, ha ha here)

5. Watching the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance with my boys. We watched season 2 together when they lived with me (I never saw season 1...somehow didn't even know it existed before the second season). Katee was frakkin' robbed, but I can live with Joshua as the winner. I loved seeing some of the routines from the early part of the season because the dancers are so much more confident and so much more commanding on-stage. Awesome.

I'm sure my list will get longer tomorrow. There is good stuff planned. Yip, yip!

Taking a very quick (2/3 of the day's work done) break from edits on SMFA3 to post two things.

One, I've found if I approach my writing/editing work with the same mindset I approach Wii Fit and iTunes playlists, I get a LOT done. I look at a master list of tasks and see where I'm under-performing and start there, build up, beat my last score, play what's not been played enough, and then go back to the master list to see what needs to be done next. Only when I've gotten two hard things done am I given a treat of an easy thing.

(No, that does not mean that I only value success unless it's part of a struggle, like I wrote about in this week's column. Although, I appreciate your concern. ;) Believe me, I'm much healthier now. In many ways.)

It's just an interesting pattern of my process. I tackle the hard stuff. Hit it hard. Work it over. Get it looking manageable. And then I get to PLAY with an easy one, with one I'm good at, with one I OWN. ;)

(Keith mentioned last night that it makes him sad to see me get frustrated when something doesn't work the way my brain thinks it should. For instance, we were playing this ridiculous bull-run game on Wii and the way you have to turn the controller in order to steer your... well, steer... is just beyond the way my brain can comprehend moving a game controller. I am sooo Atari 2600 generation, y'all. Anyway, I told him not to be too sad, seeing that, as it's my DRIVE. It's the same way I learned to play the piano as a child. I'd mess up my fingering, slam my fists on the keys, and then take a breath and start again until I got it exactly right. Which I always, eventually, would. Same approach, decades later. I don't mind it.)

ANYWAY...

So, I'm enjoying seeing the similarity in the way I approach my work-work *and* my play-work, as well as my workouts. Very interesting and revealing.

And, it would seem, efficient.

20 chapters in the hands of proofers already (and the first ones only went over on Monday). I am right on schedule with this book (assuming no days off between now and the 15th, when the last three chapters go to the proofer patrol and I begin entering changes based on their feedback).

Woo!

(Oh, and the bull-run game left me in a pool of TEARS from laughing so hard, last night. It really is silly and fun and stupid and hilarious. Especially when I body-check Keith's bull with my bull's butt.)

Okay, so now for the second thing.

HOW CUTE ARE WE?!?

This is me with Rockstar Intern Julie at Showcaser Karaoke on July 27th. CLEARLY, we are up to something and someone doesn't want us caught at it. (But Kimberly caught us anyway. She's good like that.)

HOWL!

This photo just says SO MUCH and I love it all! :)

Okay, back to work!