Sunday, March 25, 2007

Goals/Deadlines

I got confirmation from Moscow this week about my audition. I'll be in Cambridge Monday, July 9th until Thursday, July 12th. I don't need that many days, I'm sure, but I haven't been in two years, and I want the chance to go back and enjoy myself. Any of you Stanislavskians (most especially the Stanisomniacs) who can be there that week has a drink on me.

That's A drink. One. I love you, but I'm poor.

Furthermore, being back in Taekwondo has been amazing. I feel the changes, the discipline and control within myself that first made me love the artform. On Thursday, April 5th at 6:00 p.m., I have my first belt test in more than two years. It's Chung's Taekwondo, at the corner of Marsh and Trinity Mills in Carrollton. All are invited to watch me kick a little ass.

A note on my birthday; it's two months away, true, but I got my present all worked out. Six years ago, I got my first tattoo--now I'm ready to finish it. Anyone who wishes to get me anything at all can help me pay for my ink. My sister, who is a piercer at a tattoo shop, has me connected with an artist already.

Let's do this. I'm a cashew.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Hurdle

So I wrote to the dean of the MXAT school in Moscow to make certain I'm still on track to join them in August. He wrote me back with a polite "Who are you again?"

Reminding him wasn't difficult, but he faced me with a new hurdle. There's a new master instructor, which is to say one who doesn't know who I am. In short, I have to fly to Cambridge MA this July to audition for him (any Stanislavskians up for a reunion?)

It was frustrating, because it says to me I no longer have a guaranteed shot at this school, as I have believed for the last year and change. Indeed, I won't know before July if I'm even actually going at all, and then, if I'm accepted, I leave for points East a month later. And there's still the selling of my things and loans to be obtained during that month.

At first, MXAT was chasing me. As time has passed, it became more a case of me not only chasing them, but having to remind them who I am each time I catch up.

When I got the news, I panicked a little, and considered my options as I will should I not pass the audition, or discover that I can't get the money together. I have Heather in my life now, who happens to be also leaving Dallas in August. She's going to Chicago, a city I fell in love with from the first time I visited there--a place I have wanted to end up since I was 17.

Going to Chicago wouldn't be a bad idea--not one iota--even if Heather weren't in the picture. But after much soul-searching and important conversations, I decided NOT to give up on Moscow just because the road got difficult. If I'm not going, it won't be because of my own decisions. It will be because it's not possible.

And if it's not possible, I have no problem starting my career in the city I love with the woman I love. And I'll get to keep all of my stuff. Well, most of it. Probably.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Growth

Well, I didn't find out if I got the part with FUNimation; in this case, no news is bad news. They usually start recording less than a week after the audition, so whoever got the part(s) has surely laid down an episode or two by now.

Eh, whatever. Life is one long string of rejections and failures, accented by the occasional victory. Besides, it wasn't the only thing going on in my life.

Yesterday, I had the kind of day at work that makes me both proud and sad. Proud because I felt like a superstar--my tables and the tables around me loved me so much, every word I said was gold to these people. It was the kind of experience that makes me happy to be doing what I do. I gave several dozen people an amazing experience, and I had so much fun doing it that I felt better about not having my career yet. At least I'm entertaining people, and I made great money doing it.

On the other hand, it's that kind of complacency that keeps me from pressing my carreer, and a few years down the line I'll get depressed again for the fact that I haven't been pressing my career. But I guess as long as I realize my mistakes, I'm less likely to continue to make them . . . . right?

At any rate, I came home from work to find that Heather had put away my laundry and cooked me yummy dinner. Pasta and broccoli and shrimp and cheesy goodness. I even got a backrub, not for the first time.

Mark Happy.

In other news . . . .

Last July, I found out my older sister was pregnant again.

Last Monday (ten days past his due date, mind you), I found out my older sister was no longer pregnant again. Three days before his older brother's birthday, and three days after his mother's birthday, Matthew Ryan Nelson was born at 8 lbs 2 oz.

These pictures were taken just a few hours after his birth--the youngest baby I've ever held.