Monthly Archives: May 2019

Sharing My Union With A Friend (or Continuing To Be Inspired And Involved)

Posted on May 3, 2019 | Comments Off on Sharing My Union With A Friend (or Continuing To Be Inspired And Involved)

I’ve been a proud member of my union for over 7 years now. I have worked hard to educate myself about union issues and trying to be involved in different aspects of it. I cannot control when I get to work, but I can control what I understand about the union and staying involved. It has given me a sense of control in an out-of-control career path.

I have felt very lucky to be involved with the union the ways that I am and a big part of that was how I started my union involvement. The first event I attended was before I actually joined SAG-AFTRA. I was invited to an event that was supporting the merger of SAG and AFTRA (which were different unions until the merger). I felt a little out of place when I went to the event, but I was so grateful that I went. I met amazing people and learned so much. It was overwhelming, but it helped me learn that being a union actor isn’t just a job title, it is being a part of a bigger movement. And I have tried to keep that idea in my head ever since.

I have always appreciated my friend who brought me to that event before I joined the union and I have wanted to pay it forward ever since. I have tried to bring friends of mine who are eligible to join to the events that are open to non-members when I can. Some of them appreciate learning about the union like I did and some just get bombarded with so much information that they aren’t able to take it in. But I always love when actors who haven’t joined yet come to check things out because that is a big step and it can feel scary.

I was lucky enough to get to bring one of my workout friends to a union related event recently. We are getting ready for election season again and there will be more opportunities to bring new people in to events like this one. I warned my friend that there would be a lot of things said that she wouldn’t get and that she should be prepared to be overwhelmed, but she would also get to meet a lot of amazing people and hopefully she would be inspired a bit by what has been happening within the union lately.

And that’s exactly what happened. She told me after that she was definitely confused at points and I tried to clarify things when I could so she could understand them. But she also got to hear amazing accomplishments that we’ve had in the past year or two and how it will benefit her when she does join (which hopefully will be soon!). And she also did get to meet some of the most incredible people. I hope that I will always have these little “pinch me” moments where I’m shocked that these actors are my peers and that they know me. I had a lot of those moments at this event and my friend really enjoyed getting to meet actors that she knows from film and tv.

And it wasn’t just great watching my friend experience her first union event like how I did so many years ago. I got a lot out of it too. Every time I get to meet with actors who want to be involved in the union and to continue to strengthen it I leave on a high. I feel inspired to do more and a push to make sure other actors understand what is going on with the union. Sometimes it feels like the union is a different entity than the actors who are a part of it, but the union is us and we need to remember that. If we want there to be a change, we are in charge of that.

And of course, I love getting to see people who I don’t always get to see. There are other actors that I only get to see around election season and it’s like a big family reunion. Everyone is so kind and generous. I could go on and on about how I feel so lucky to be a part of a group like this, but it’s going to sound mushy and like I’m under some sort of spell. But that’s honestly how I feel getting to be around these other members. There’s just something magical when you get to be around the people who want to see our union be the best it can be and they really work hard for everyone else.

I will have more and more union events coming up soon because of election season. I will be running with my slate again and I know that there will be events to get the slate together so we can all make sure we know each other and we can coordinate different campaign events. We also still have general union meetings coming up regarding the various contact negotiations (one just ended and another will be starting up soon). I am trying to make it a priority to attend a variety of events so I can be knowledgeable about different issues, but I also don’t want to risk burnout if I do too much. And I know with election season starting that the risk of burnout is high. I just have to find the balance with it just like everything else.

But even with the risk of burnout, I will keep going to events and bringing new people in. And I think getting to see someone else be inspired the same way that I am inspired will also help me not get too overwhelmed and burned out with all the events happening. Getting to watch a friend have the same excitement about things as me really does make me feel even more encouraged to keep doing what I’ve been doing.

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Default ThumbnailA Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing) Default ThumbnailUnion Working (or Connecting With My Fellow Actors) Default ThumbnailFinal Union Working Meeting For 2017 (or A Commercial Roundtable) Default ThumbnailStaying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck) Default ThumbnailA MOVE Mixer (or Learning More About What I Can Be Involved In This Year)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

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Revisiting Old Characters and Stories (Or A Journey Of Re-Reading Books)

Posted on May 2, 2019 | Comments Off on Revisiting Old Characters and Stories (Or A Journey Of Re-Reading Books)

I have always loved to read. I learned to read at an early age and I was a voracious reader as a kid. I remember reading in bed when I was probably 4 or 5 years old and having a pile of books next to me that I had read that night. I briefly didn’t do much fun reading when I was in college, but I’ve become a huge reader again as an adult. I’m so lucky that the library has free Kindle books because I could easily spend thousands of dollars a year in books.

One of my favorite things is when I discover an author I didn’t know before and I learn that they had an entire book series already or have written lots of books. I love when I find someone new to me and there is an entire collection of books I can work through. It’s so fun when I know the next 5 or 6 books I’ll be reading because I want to read everything that someone has written.

I also love when an author I already know and enjoy has a new book coming out. I usually recommend the books to the library so I will be one of the first ones on the wait list for it. There are a few authors where I buy their books instead of getting them from the library, but I try to limit how many books I buy since they can add up quickly. I know I should support authors I love by buying their books, but I at least am recommending that my library buys the books and I also am supporting the public library system. One day, if I don’t have to worry about money, I will buy all the books I want and I’ll probably go back and buy the books I have already loved. But that isn’t my financial situation right now.

And I have also always enjoyed re-reading books. I like going back to a book I’ve already read and see if there is something different that I pick up that I didn’t notice the first time around. Or I like to see how it connects to me at this point in my life versus when I read it before. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a book you can open to any page and just start reading and know everything you need to know about the story to that point.

Most of the books I read over and over again are books that I read for the first time as an adult. I sometimes will re-read a book within a year and sometimes I wait a bit longer. Sometimes I will read something again just because I don’t have anything else to read at the time, but more often than not I will pick to re-read something and it’s not the only option.

But lately I have gotten into a kick of reading books that I read for the first time when I was younger. They are mainly books that I read as a teenager although there are a few that I think I read for the first time when I was 11 or 12. It’s been a really fun journey going back to these books that I haven’t read in a decade or longer and seeing what I remember. Some books feel so familiar to me that it’s hard to believe that the first time I read them was over half my life ago. It’s crazy how much I remember from those books and how quickly the stories come back to me. It doesn’t bother me that I remember the stories because there are always parts that I forgot about that give me little surprises as I read. And some books have been updated to be more modern and I have to look online to confirm that they have changed the story a bit since the last time I read it.

I’m sure there is something that can be psychoanalyzed about me re-reading books I read when I was growing up. Maybe it is giving me a sense of control because I know what will be coming in the story. Maybe I am wanting to go back to a different version of myself. I know I have changed a lot in the past few years and I am not the same person that I was before. Sometimes it does surprise me how much I’ve changed but I feel like it has all been for the better. But that doesn’t mean that deep down in my mind I am hoping to go back to the old me.

Whatever the reason, I’m getting something out of revisiting these books and stories and it is filling my soul with something that I’ve needed. And thank goodness for the library having all these e-books because it really has made doing this so much easier!

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Doing More Tracking (or Finding Out Some Data Is Just Too Emotional)

Posted on May 1, 2019 | Comments Off on Doing More Tracking (or Finding Out Some Data Is Just Too Emotional)

Last month, I had a goal to work on tracking a few things in my life. I knew that things were getting a bit out of control and tracking is a way to gain control again. All of the things I was planning on tracking were things I have tracked before so I figured it should be a relatively easy challenge. And of course, since I thought it would be easy it wasn’t.

It was easy for me to track my spending and income. This was a habit that I had been doing for a while and it was pretty easy to get back into it. There were a few moments where I forgot to track something or had to spend more time than I would have liked double checking things, but it’s been relatively easy. It helps that right now I have more money coming in than I’m used to so I’m not seeing everything in red. But I want to get this habit back to where it was so I’m ready when things aren’t as great.

I also wanted to do accurate tracking of my weight and food. And this is where I struggled last month. Tracking my weight wasn’t too horrible, but I’ve realized that it’s not something I want to keep up as regularly as I was. I have some big weight fluctuations due to hormones and even when I know that my weight gain isn’t real it feels that way. It’s not easy when the scale says you are up 10 pounds overnight and all your clothes don’t fit. I know that it’s due to swelling and water weight, but I still hate seeing that. I need to figure out a better way to track weight because I need to do it, but I can’t do it as often right now. I’m not sure if weekly would be right and mostly doesn’t seem often enough, so this is something I will have to play with.

And tracking my food was kind of a disaster. Food tracking is such an emotional thing for me and I thought doing tracking would help take that away a bit. But instead, it made it more emotional and I could sense my moods being affected if I had a good day or bad day. I know I do need to do some tracking, but I’m not sure how to do it without the emotional tug I was feeling. It may have just been harder for me this time because of where I am in my life and outside factors, but whatever it was I know I failed at tracking food last month.

And for this month, I have another tracking related challenge. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I am not sleeping enough. I have had several days of only getting 4 hours of sleep. Part of this problem is how well I have trained myself to get up at the same time every day. Even if I go to bed really late, I’m still up at 7. If I sleep in, it’s only until 7:30 or 8 and that’s not that late if I get to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning. It’s not always that I am out late, sometimes I am in bed at a reasonable time and I stay up reading. Before I know it, it’s 2am and I’m still awake.

I know in a perfect world I would be asleep by 11pm so that I will get at least 7 hours of sleep even if I wake up in the middle of the night. That’s not totally realistic since there are some times that I’m just getting home at 11. But I think setting a goal to be in bed by midnight on those late nights and by 11:30 on not late nights isn’t too hard. And I need to set a limit on my nighttime reading to make sure that my lights are being turned off by midnight. It probably sounds weird to have to limit how much I read at night, but sometimes I just get so into a book that I forget that I need to put it down.

I think working on having a set bedtime also relates to better time management in general. I don’t have to get everything done in the evenings that I make myself do. I can save some for the next day or if I was better with how I use my time I could probably get them done during the day. Procrastination is my enemy when trying to get better about when I go to sleep.

I know that some people have alarms to remind them to go to sleep, and I’m going to look into those options. I might just add something to my daily reminders to remind me that I need to start winding down. I already have my phone and computer set to reduce the blue light I see in the evening, but I don’t have that for my tv. I know that they have blue light blocking glasses so those might be a good investment for me (I just don’t know how they would work if I was also wearing my regular glasses if I took my contacts out). I also am going to look at what parts of my evening routine I can do earlier so that it’s not a lot of self-care work at the end of the day and I’m tired.

I’m ready to not feel as tired anymore. This has been a problem I’ve been dealing with for a while but it has gotten significantly worse in the past few months. I know that getting more sleep will benefit so many aspects of my life and I can’t wait to see those benefits. And hopefully it will have some benefits I’m not expecting and my life will be even better when I’m well-rested a majority of the time.

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