My trip to Los Angeles was without a hitch. I had a fantastic interview with The London Hotel, found a condo in my budget that I really like (after looking at trash for about two hours), and even got to have dinner at Ketchup with Leshelle, a great friend of mine from college.

But over the last few days my "plan" of working full-time in the events industry and then transitioning into acting after about a year has changed. Why? Well, my job interview was one of the best interviews I've ever had. I hit it off with all three of my interviewers and walked away feeling like I had it in the bag! The next day I sent them all thank-you notes (a small detail that many people overlook for some reason) and received this reply later that day...

"Thank you so much for your kind email. I really enjoyed meeting you and getting to know more about you as well. I really felt you had a great energy and are very passionate about what you do. I believe everyone else enjoyed meeting you as well as they all had very positive feedback. I wanted to let you know however, that while your energy was great and we all found you to have a great personality, we feel that our opening requires someone who has been in the field a little longer. Thus, we have decided to proceed with another candidate whose qualifications better match our current needs."

Wow! That was my response after reading as I was in complete shock. I wasn't mad that I didn't get it, rather surprised and disappointed. The rest of the day dragged on with me feeling sad & sorry for myself but when I woke up the next morning I updated my twitter/facebook pages with the following...

Ever feel like your career is NO WHERE NEAR where you feel it should be? That's how I felt yesterday...now it's time for an ACTION PLAN.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I keep applying for these full-time jobs that I'm totally qualified for but can't seem to land, there must be a reason why. And I truly believe that reason is that I'm not moving to LA to work a regular job, I'm moving there to become an actress, so I have to find a position that will allow me to act! This means there has to be flexibility with the days & hours I work as auditions can come up at the last minute and to be honest, none of the jobs I've applied for so far could offer that.

So here I am now starting from scratch and on a time crunch (as our lease is up at the end of this month). My ever-changing plan is to look for a part-time or full-time flex position as an assistant to a Wedding/Event Planner in the LA area whose planning/coordinating style is similar to my own. Since I love planning weddings & parties I figure I may as well continue doing something that I enjoy but will still allow me the freedom to make my acting career a priority.

So now it's time for me to do some research and start sending out my resume. I don't plan to jump headfirst into the acting scene as soon as I get out there but I also know I can't pay for classes, headshots, workshops, etc. without first having a J-O-B!