Monthly Archives: July 2015

Playing Catchup (or Recovering From The Beginning Of The Week)

After all the excitement on Monday, I’ve pretty much spent the rest of my week making up for everything I didn’t do because I was focused on both the live recording and after party.

Obviously, the first thing I had to make up were work hours. Fortunately, my box office job doesn’t have Monday hours so I didn’t have to worry about that. But with my research job, I had to make sure to work a few extra hours to make up for not doing anything Monday (or over the weekend).

The research job is still trucking along. Things are a bit slower than I’d like, but my boss is totally understanding. I think that once I get all the initial work done and it’s more about maintaining the data I’ve collected, things will be better. Now it just seems like a race against time.

Even though I got through all the festivities of Monday, the podcast team still needed to meet up on Tuesday. We met at Lyfe Kitchen and I think it’s pretty obvious that we all were pretty hungry going into the meeting.

Lyfe Kitchen

Some of the meeting was a debriefing of how things went the night before and what we could improve on for the next event. I think most of us were on the same page about things, but I think that I also kept some of the issues I encountered too quiet as nobody else on the team knew about them. In a way that is good because I was the only person stressed out. But I’m glad I got to share them because we can make changes to prevent those issues from happening again.

We also discussed the 300th episode. Yes, it’s about 2 years away. But I’ve got to top what we did for the 200th so I’m getting a head start. I can’t share any of the ideas we’ve been discussing just yet. But if things go the way we want them to, in 2 years you will all want to come join us for our 300th episode!

I also had a friend of mine ask me to write them a letter of recommendation for Women In Film! That was such an honor. I took my time and wrote several drafts before sending it to her to submit with her application. I’ve asked for letters of recommendations plenty of times. But I never knew until know how stressful it could be! Maybe I’m just so stressed because I know how great Women In Film is and I want all my amazing friends to be a part of it as well. I’ve got my fingers crossed that she gets in!

Finally, I just had to catch up on working on my happiness checklist. I’ve been neglecting some of the things that make me happy lately (although other things have been happening almost daily). I see my therapist in just over 2 weeks and I’m planning on bringing my checklist for him to see. I want him to see that I made a real effort in the homework he gave to me to do for 3 months. I really am taking this seriously and if I want to get my dosage of Vyvanse adjusted (which I’m pretty sure it needs to be), I have to work on the mental aspect of my recovery and not just getting the “quick fix” medication.

That’s a lot of work to get done on an already crazy week! I’m glad that this weekend is a holiday weekend and I get tomorrow off from my box office job!

200 Episodes (or We Managed To Throw An Amazing Event!)

This past Monday was the live recording of the 200th episode for Inside Acting. I still can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we did the 100th episode.

This time, we did another event at SAG Foundation. They are really awesome to work with and they are so helpful. We were able to set up at Q&A with the creative team from the show “Defiance”.

SAG Foundation:Inside Acting:Defiance

For the past month or so, I’ve been sending so many emails and texts trying to get this organized. I’m sure I panicked more than I needed to, but I’m a perfectionist with anxiety. I had to make sure that everything was going to be ok.

As soon as I got to SAG Foundation, I started to relax a little. We had a line of people waiting to get into the room for the Q&A! There were a bunch of listeners as well as several past podcast guests there to support us! While everyone took their seats I was hanging out in the green room with the panelists and hosts of the podcast. And before we knew it, it was their turn to head on to the stage!

200th Episode

During the live recording, I hung off to the side monitoring our twitter account to see if anyone was tweeting questions that they wanted to have Trevor and AJ ask the panel. And every so often, I glanced over to the audience and was so amazed at everyone who showed up to support us.

Audience

The recording went great and I think that the panel and the audience had an amazing time! And once we finished some technical stuff at SAG Foundation, we all headed over to the after party at The Parlor.

The after party was something that caused me a ton of anxiety. This was going to be set up without anyone from the podcast there. But we were fortunate that some great friends offered to get there early to set up and help our sponsors get their things set up as well.

And as soon as I got there, I breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was the after party exactly what I was hoping for, it beat my expectations so much! The place was packed and everyone was having an amazing time!

As soon as you walked into The Parlor, we had a photo booth/red carpet setup with photography from The Headshot Truck.

The Headshot Truck

I know that before the event some people wondered about if the red carpet and photo booth setup would be cool together. And I’m happy to report that everybody loved it! There were some traditional red carpet photos taken, but there were way more fun photo booth style photos taken with the props that The Headshot Truck had brought for us to use.

Photo Booth

I definitely enjoyed the photos. And since there was wifi at the venue, the photos were added to Facebook immediately (you can see all the photos on their page). I really feel like that having them there turned the party into an event!

We also had some amazing treats that Brandi from Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe made! We had some regular cookies that everyone was eating all night. But the coolest thing was the custom logo cookies that Brandi made for us!

Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe

I think those cookies were the most photographed thing at the party!

I spent a lot of time at the party running around making sure that everyone was having a good time. I wish I was able to relax a bit more, but that’s just not who I am. But from everything that I heard from everyone and that I read on social media, everyone had an amazing time.

I still can’t believe that we pulled this off. It really turned out better than I ever could have imagined. And because I feel like things need to continue to get bigger and better, I now have to top this for our 300th episode.

At least I’ve got about 2 years to plan it.

Seriously, I’m so incredibly lucky that I get to be a part of the Inside Acting Podcast team that has created an amazing community around it.

IAP Team

(we left a space in the middle because one of our team members was out of the country for the 200th episode)

Santa Barbara Engagement Party (or Sunburn and Rain)

Rayshell had her engagement party over the weekend! It was at her parents’ house again (where her birthday party was) so I knew it would be a great backyard party again. Plus, Rayshell and her mom are both wonderful party planners. I wish I could be as good at doing house parties as they both are!

I took that day off of work, and I’m glad I did. The drive is usually about an hour and a half, but the traffic was so horrible that day that my drive was twice that! I was a bit late for the party, but that was ok.

My first stop when I got there (after saying hello to everyone) was to get some food. Rayshell’s parents hired Gaby’s Tacos to do a taco/burrito/nacho station. They did the catering at her birthday party too and I had been looking forward to the delicious food again.

I decided to get carnitas nachos because it just looked too tempting not to get!

Carnitas Nachos

I sat down with a couple of friends and relaxed after my drive and enjoyed the wonderful food.

It was a nice and casual party. I actually pretty much stayed at that table chatting with friends the entire time I was there. There were also some wonderful desserts (I forgot to get a photo of those), but the company was what made the party for me.

Married, Single, Engaged

The only downsides were the weather. When I got there, it was really sunny and there wasn’t a shady spot left for me to sit in. So I ended up getting a little sunburnt (nothing like my past burns, but still some redness). Then, just as I was leaving the party, it started to rain! I know it’s supposed to be good luck if it rains on your wedding day. I wonder if it’s good luck to have it rain at an engagement party too?

I know that this probably isn’t the most exciting party recap, but to be honest it was just such a calm event. Sometimes I’m so focused on doing something really awesome that I forget that some of the best times are when you are just sitting around talking to awesome friends. And that’s exactly what I got to do for several hours this past Saturday. It was perfect and I’m so glad that not only I could take the time off of work but that I was invited to be a part of the celebration.

My drive back wasn’t nearly as bad as my drive in, but even if it was it would have been totally worth it! I love getting to celebrate my friends and their special moments like this. And I know that there will be more wedding events to look forward to leading up to their wedding in April. I can’t wait!