Sunday, December 28, 2014

Episode 17: 361 Days Until Christmas

Another great month in the books.  All or at least most of my friends know that Christmas is my favorite time of the year. This might be blasphemy but I don't look at Christmas as the birth of Jesus, even though it is, it's much more than that. "It's... it's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we... we... we smile a little easier, we... w-w-we... we... we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be!"


Sure, Christmas is "commercialized" but that's a damn excuse!  That doesn't stop you from going out and doing something nice for someone else.  Whether it be opening the door for people passing by, giving a friend a call that you haven't seen the past year, or even just making someone smile.  It's that time of the year you put other's before yourself in hopes that you carry that through the new year.  I love Christmas.

November was a terrific month and it just rolled into December and I dare say that this Christmas has been the best Christmas I've had.  I started it off meeting with a bunch of friends and many of them are into their career's or have started a family and It's really cool to see everyone with this new found confidence as in you can tell that they've had some experiences and they've all matured in different ways. We're all growing up.

THE ULTIMATE BAR CRAWL
That following Saturday was the night of the Ultimate Bar Crawl.  I don't even know...  That day was just amazing, from beginning to end.  From bar to bar we accumulated more and more friends and finally at the last bar we just took over the entire dance floor.  I'm not going to even try to put this experience into words because you just had to be there!

THE DISC EXCHANGE
One of MANY Christmas Miracles that happened this past week was my meeting with a Lauren Mestitz.  Our story began on January 15th, 2012 when I stumbled upon a disc at an ultimate tournament called Leiout.  On the back of the disc was a name, Lauren Mestitz, and the next day I contacted Lauren through Facebook to let her know she left her disc at Leiout; to her surprise, and my own, she had never been to the tournament before, so someone must have stolen her disc and left it in Los Angeles.  Luckily she was working/living around the Chicago area and I was returning in August for the Huizenga wedding BUT I got a little distracted and forgot... for two plus years... BUT ANYWAY on December 19th I messaged her back and was determined to reunite her with her long lost disc. FINALLY on December 22nd,  I met up with her at Fair Game, a friends board game shop in Downers Grove.
This is exactly what happened.
CHRISTMAS/ CHRISTMAS EVE
Before we get into Christmas Eve I MUST mention that my brother and his girlfriend, Becca, are now ENGAGED! It has definitely been a long time coming, they have been going out for almost a decade.  For the past few years we have started going to Becca's house for Christmas Eve, before going to Christmas Eve service, and they've had the same awesome food every year; which is something I look forward too. 

After Christmas Eve service we went to pick up my mom from work but were a few hours early so we went into a break room and learned one of the board games I bought for my cousins kids, Angie and Maria, to prepare for Christmas festivities the next day.  I've bought my cousins kids presents in the past and I try to make them themed.  This year is board games.  For the younger Aiden and Andie I got them the german game Der Schwarze Pirat (The Black Pirate) and for the older Angie and Maria I got them the game Smash Up (click on the game titles to see reviews and game play if you're interested).  Once buying their games I opened and learned how to play them before giving them their presents so they could go home with something they knew how to play.

I knew when I was little the last thing I wanted to do was read, let alone read rules to a game. UGH...


This Christmas was particularly special since three cousins that we normally don't get to see brought they're families out.  I can't remember when it was the last time we've all been together.  Sure we were missing one cousin that went to Dublin but I guess that's a valid excuse.  I just hope that it becomes a new Christmas tradition.



FILM STUFF
For all the awesome stuff that has happened, I'm ready to get back to LA to get some work done.  I'm as motivated as ever; go big or go home. 

I've officially pushing straight forward with the Lyft gig since I couldn't think of any other option that would allow me to have a flexible schedule as Lyft would allow me.  I've been stalling to transfer everything to California but the more and more I think about it the more I know that this is the right decision.  I'm on the final stretch to get my car insurance (thanks to everyone for your suggestions, it's really helped a lot), I have my title and the day after I get back I have an appointment at the DMV to get my car registered or at least find out where I can register my car.  Hopefully I'll have that all done before New Years hit's so I can work that night.

I also am almost done with my demo reel.  I really need one or two more different scenes for me to post it online before I start fully committing to submitting myself for auditions. See you soon LA.


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