So here I sit after a long night of waiting tables, well worth it, though, because I walked with over $100. My knee is throbbing. I don't know if any of you remember how I messed it up during Chicago. They thought that I tore my meniscus, that they would do an MRI if it didn't calm down. Well, the show closed and it seemed to be doing okay, so I decided to let it be. I believe, however, that I have somehow irritated it enough to warrant another doctor's visit. You know when you get a sunburn and your skin feels stretched over your bones? That's how my knee feels; nice and swollen. Which is awesome since all I day to pay my bills is wait tables or stand in high heels.

But there is good news: J booked a project, which is very exciting. He's doing a staged reading of a musical that they hope to take to Broadway. Supposedly, it's already had very successful runs in Europe, and they're trying to find backers to take it to Broadway, which is where this cast comes in. The most exciting part about, it I think, is that they rehearse at the Kodak theatre, which is a beautiful space. It only takes up a week of his time and could be very fruitful in the long run, so we'll see how it ultimately pans out.

I wish I could fill you all with exciting stories of living in the big city, but the bummer part about living in a big city is that you pay big city rent, so I don't have a lot of extra income. We are boring people. We occasionally eat out, we pack our lunches, we haven't been to a movie in like a month. Sigh. But we do have DVR now and lots of movie channels, which is very exciting! Those of you who don't have DVR, you must get it. You can record everything and then fast forward through all the stupid parts. Highly recommended.

I guess that's about it. I would ice my knee but I have no ice pack. I would go to the drugstore but that would mean losing my parking space three blocks away. C'mon, you know you want to live here.

Vonnegut dead

Man, I'm bummed. Really bummed. I got a very early text message from the baby bro about Kurt Vonnegut dying. I knew that already, I read it last night on the internet. There are many reasons that this bums me out, but mostly because we've lost another satirical, say-it-like-it-is voice. Anyone read Slaughterhouse Five? Read it. It's about prisoners of war and the bombing of Dresden (he actually was a prisoner of war). "So it goes."

It's unsettling how our rights are being surrepticiously taken away. It's no secret how I feel about Dictator Bush, so I won't insult those of you who don't hate him. Did you know that we can no longer come and go as we please? You have to have a passport now to get into Canada, for heaven's sake, the most peace loving country ever put on the map. It doesn't even matter to make Mexicans have a passport, because if they want to get in badly enough they will. Same with anyone from any country. Vonnegut was a voice for those things. He gave sound to otherwise tacit thoughts. And he was not writing as some political pundit with something to gain or lose from the publishing of his books (except for money of course, but there was no political footage to be had).

We, as a society and culture are failing to keep strong voices aloft. We are losing great authors, great musicians, poets, choreographers, artists. The list goes on and on. No one has yet to replace the great writing duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein, or George and Ira Gershwin. Nor should they be replaced, per se, but there should be someone equally as groundbreaking as the writers of Oklahoma, South Pacific, The Sound of Music (come on, is there anyone that doesn't know "doe, a dear, a female dear, ray, a drop of golden sun")? Or how about "you say tomato, and I say tomato?" EVERY ONE does. The only thing that anyone can say with certainty today is "Can you hear me now? Good." Two great musical theatre writers are out there still; Stephen Sondheim and Adam Guettel. Sondheim is in his 70's, and Adam Guettel, who wrote Light in the Piazza, is fortunately young. In his 40's. Not so coincidentally, both Sondheim and Guettel have ties to the great Rodgers and Hammerstein: Sondheim apprenticed with Hammerstein, and Guettel is the grandson of Rodgers.

This is my point: These things must be perpetuated. It is not acceptable anymore to steer kids away from art, drama, music, dancing, writing, or even the gym class. It is even more unacceptable to allow our government and our school boards to slash funds from these programs We are not being encouraged to give higher forms equal footing. We are raising test-takers. I tutor test takers, and it is not about being smart. It is about knowing how to take a test. That is not going to be an accurate evaluation of how you are going to contribute to society.

If any of you watch American Idol (guilty), you will know this poor, talentless kid Sanjaya. He is terrible. He can barely keep a pitch and has little stage presence. He is out-sung and out-performed in an embarrassing manner every week. The only thing keeping him on the show is Vote for the Worst.dot com. Anyone ever heard of it? It's a campaign to keep talent-free, completely unviable talent in the competition, and at the expense of those who have a legitimate shot at obtaining the top prize. This is what Americans are concerned with: Keeping Sanjaya on this competition. 35 million Americans voted last week for American Idol. That is more than the number that votes for President. If 35 million Americans wrote their senators about keeping arts funding, about keeping phys-ed in our schools, about rescinding the Patriotic Act, about abandoning the Kyoto Treaty, then maybe we could get something done.

Hmmm, but I guess everyone's too busy shopping at Wal-Mart.

Back from Oregon

I love Portland! The traffic was mellow, it hardly rained the whole week I was there, they have hiking and culture. Needless to say, it was really great to get the hell out of crazy land, er, I mean, LA. J's brother, his wife and daughter are about the nicest people one could ever hope to meet. They fed us extravagant meals and took all of our money playing poker. They even let us play with their puppy, a yellow labrador retriever named Malone. It was a very welcome respite. I don't want to try to write the name of the waterfall above because I can't remember how it's spelled and I don't want any angry former Oregonians sending me hate mail. Needless to say, it was very beautiful.

Sorry about the lack of artistry on the picture placement. I'm no Keli when it comes to the blog.
In other news: Tomorrow and Sunday I shoot a short film. I will post stuff on it when I have more information myself. And I have two jobs now (well, I guess three if you count tutoring), one waiting tables, and the other working as a hostess at a hoity-toity country club. The money is good, let's just put it that way. I start the serving job on Monday and the country club on Saturday, and somewhere in between I have to find time to tutor my student. Ugh!

Blame it on Mom

This is how lucky I am. This is homemade sushi, made by sweet J. Hand-rolled, painstakingly wrapped and cut. Notice the super cute sushi set and our fabulous dishes from Pier One. For those of you who don't know, J spent two years performing in Japan. He loves sushi. Being a Hiatt and someone who relies heavily on condiments, I was a little skeptical at first to be sure. But truthfully, I like raw salmon better than I like it cooked. I had tried a california roll and didn't think much of it, simply because it's the most basic roll you can get.

The picture above is how unlucky J is. Notice how wonderfully burnt they are. It takes skill to murder sweet potato fries that badly, and I did it with aplomb, I must say. See, it's a New Year's resolution of mine to read the directions on things. I never do simply because it seems like a waste of time. "Yeah, yeah, " I think, "Put them in the oven at blahblahblah. I get it." Now, sweet potato fries don't come with directions, but I did look it up online. And in my defense, I did do what was asked. Maybe it's the lack of altitude, or perhaps my lack of domestic skills, or the rapidity of gas cooking. Who knows? Now, I named this posting after Mom with love in my heart. Keli and I, at the very least, are the first people to admit that our thoughtful partners are WAAAAAY better cooks than we are. Dad, as we know, is more likely to be found behind the counter than Mom, fingers deep in some kind of red meat.

What else? Hmmmmm, I spent the day at some state school slightly east of here doing tutor recruiting. I still work for that place, but I am currently in hot pursuit of something that actually pays bills. But it was very nice today to be out in the sunshine, talking to people. These two cute boys (and I mean boys....like 20) who just moved to LA from Washington state took a shine to me and hung around my table all day. One is represented by Ford Models, and the other looked like a much cuter version of Frankie Munoz. I think the want me to be their mom...or big sister at least. But they helped the day go by quickly and moved my table when I was done! All in all a great day!

I am a bad and lazy person

I have no excuse for being such a bad blogger, other than minutae. I get sucked into the vortex of everyday living: I sit in traffic for what feels like an interminable amount of time (can anyone say 14 miles in an hour and forty minutes?), work at a lame job, tutor a little bit, and teach a few modeling classes. In between I go to an audition or two. The audition situation here simply does not work the same way. You cover a lot more ground with an agent, the end. And what do I not have? An agent.

About three weeks ago I sent out an agency mailer, which is just your heashot and resume, in the hopes of getting some bites on representation. And on Friday last, just as I was about to pull in my lure, I got two agency interviews. Hooray! One for theatrical at a really great (although big) agency, the other for commercial representation. That is pretty exciting news. Joey has been going out like crazy for auditions, and I've been playing the piano more helping him learn all these new songs. Needless to say, I was starting to get a little antsy. So, I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to audition for them and just ask for the best possible outcome.

I'm having a difficult time finding a job that I don't completely despise. Here's the job line-up (for those of you keeping count): Monday-Friday at a work at a place as a tutor recruiter, calling people who have submitted resumes on job search sites on the internet. This may change however, as they recently offered me a promotion covering for a girl who is in Paris for a month. I work there approximately 30 hours a week, but seriously, nobody knows what's going on over there. I'm a temp in a temp position. I literally come and go as I please. The next job is every other Sunday, teaching in Santa Maria for a modeling agency. The pay is good, and they pay for all of my transportation, my room, plus food. I am not sure however, if this one will last, because she asked for a long-term commitment, and if I book a show, I'm outty! Last but not least, I have a couple of students that I am tutoring for the verbal section of the SAT. That's only 3 hours a week right now, but it could be more, depending on how many students I get.

Whew! Everyone get that? Someone quick, tell me where I work Monday through Friday!

Me and the Monkee!

Am I the only girl in the fam who really loved the Monkees? Well, I had an interesting and special opportunity the other night. My old roomie Shane was in CA on the Pippin tour. I called him and he got me and J comps. So we drove down to Costa Mesa (2 hours plus change during traffic, 30 minutes post-traffic) to see what turned out to be a pretty terrible show. Shane was great. I was also totally, jaw-droppingly surprised to see my old college friend Andre as the leading player. He looked and sounded amazing. The best part of the show by far.

I digress. Also in the company was Micky Dolenz of "hey, hey, we're the Monkees fame." He played Charlemagne. That's all I'll say about that. Shane, J, and I all went to this bar by his hotel to grab some food and catch up. And who walks in? That's right...the Monkee. I did get a little excited because I really did love that show. I listened to their music all through high school. I can, to this day, sing all of the songs on their greatest hits album by memory. So, when Shane offered to introduce me and Joey offered to take our picture, I couldn't resist.

When asked what he thought about being on the show, he replied, "I've been told it was great. It was the 60's, you know. All I knew was 'oooh, look at the colors.'" He was a genuinely nice guy and I was really happy to meet him. In all of my NY restaurant, theatrical, and film work, I've met about a billion celebs, but this is my first actual picture with one. So enjoy!

That's clever

Juli's last blog posting was clever: "Ding Dong the despot's dead." I liked it. When the munchkins sang that in the Wizard of Oz it was indeed a celebration; it was the death of fear. Death is always symbolic. It is more a time of transformation than an actual ending (other than for the person who actually died). Death is for the living. We are the ones who have to survive it.

When I turned on my computer that morning, I was kind of surprised. I had only heard snippets about it on NPR, and thought absently that it still must be months away. After all, how long did it take us to get Slobodan Milosovic in prison for his crimes against humanity? What about the Rwandan genocide, and the leaders of the tsutsis and hutus, who fed young men full of drugs and sent them out to commit genocide with machetes? Anyone seen Blood Diamond? Go. They trained children to gun down women and children with automatic weapons. And last but not least, Darfur.

Juli is right. He is not alone. This planet is full of fearful people who do incredibly evil things to protect themselves from change. But like death, it is inevitable. And like death, it will transform. I saw the article and cried. Not because I feel that what he did was right. It is despicable. We must use his death as a call to create peace in our own lives. Like attracts like, and peace has no choice but to follow.