Day 57: Hate to admit it but I took Saturday off and did absolutely nothing career-related. I did, however, enjoy Jayden's basketball game. At his age you're rooting for everyone to do well, even the other team.

Day 56: In order to take advantage of Argentum's 2 for 1 Pilot Season Special before it ends on Monday I took some new headshots. This was my first paid headshot session since we moved here and it was WELL worth it. I'd been wanting to shoot with Bradford Rogne of Photos LA for awhile now so I asked him to squeeze me in at the last minute and he did. Though the entire day and night was a rainy mess which caused traffic to be at a standstill, he not only accommodated my tardiness but the entire time I felt like I was in such great hands. He did my makeup flawlessly {it seriously convinced me to take a few classes at the MAC store} yet it still looked very natural and fresh. Though I scheduled a 2 look session we got each look with both my natural hair and what I call my "glam hair" AND he even threw in a few shots of a third outfit right at the end, love it!!


















Pardon the photo overload but the hardest part of all of this will be choosing which ones to use! As you can probably tell I'm way more comfortable smiling and laughing then looking all sullen and serious but all I need is one theatrical shot so I'm good to go. If you're thinking of getting new headshots I can't recommend Bradford enough.

Day 55: Drove around the westside with the homie Tara T. doing commercial drop-offs. This was my first time ever doing drop-offs and it wasn't as nearly as scary as I thought it might be. The cd's {who were there} were friendly enough and those who weren't there had drop boxes for us to leave our pictures. Since this was a joint effort with classmates from Class Rules we had 8 photos for each office that we were dropping off and 6 of those were of women. Gives you a bit of perspective on the lopsided female to male actor ratio out here. The only thing we didn't do that we should have done was research each office before leaving. As a result we went to a few offices who had moved so that was a waste of our gas and more importantly, our time, lesson learned!

Day 54: Slow day on the acting front. Nothing here but Actors Access and LA Casting submissions, which is still something but it feels like nothing because all it requires is for me to click & submit.

Day 53: Started reading Bitch is the New Black, the Helena Andrews written Shonda Rhimes produced book-turned-film project I've been  following very closely since I first heard about it a few months ago. So far it's an interesting read but I wonder if older people who read it really get it because it's written in a conversational tone that a lot of us social media driven young folks use. I'm only 3 chapters in but so far so good. I see a lot of my friends and a lot of myself {pre-marriage} in this book.

Day 52: Monday was Funday as we spent this day on set cracking up the whole time. Funny folks Ben Whitehair, Che Landon, Pilar Kuhn, Caroline Grace and Eric Goldrich who are all in episode 4 kept us in stitches. The whole day was really a great example of how fun it can be working with actors who are good at improv and how much they can add to your writing when they get an opportunity to play.

Effing Cheapskates!

Badass Barista

Making sure everything looks just right

In between takes she was literally a one-woman show.

So excited to be getting married!

This will be a match made in Heaven... or so Khristy thinks.

Day 51: On Sunday we shot episodes 3 and 5 of Diary of a Wedding Planner and had a blast! It was a long 12 hour day but so worth it because we got a lot done. The apartment we shot in was so colorful and had so much character that there were very few items we had to bring in for production design. And we all breathed a sigh of relief once the sun came out because it had been raining so hard the night before but there was no sign of it on Saturday so yay for Mother Nature smiling on us!

Who doesn't love a good cupcake? Thanks Nikki Hayden aka Rachel the Roomie.

I said it wasn't rainy. I didn't say it wasn't chilly!

Best. Roomie. Ever. This chick is seriously hilarious!

Who do we have here? Why our fearless director Allison Vanore, that's who!

Can someone say cray-cray?!?

She loves me. She loves me not. Guess which one doesn't want to hire me.

Has Khristy's turn finally come?

Aww, love sweet love.

Day 50: Spent most of the day driving around in the rain to handle all the last-minute details for the shoot. First I went shopping at Michaels for some of the wedding props then to Ralph's to get snacks for craft services {that's the snack table for film/tv shoots for my family who's wondering}. I had to stop by our cafe location to pay to rent it out and I also decided to buy some shirts for my wardrobe since I needed bright colors and didn't have a great selection already. Once I finally arrived home I gathered everything together- wardrobe, props, paperwork, etc. and around 11:30 pm I passed out with one of the scripts in hand.

Day 49: Met with some of the actors in the next 3 episodes of DWP to have them complete their paperwork needed for SAG including the New Media Contract and the taft-hartley reports. Called Station 12 to make sure they were all cleared to work.

Day 48: Met with a publicist to receive a few wardrobe pieces that a client of hers has sponsored for our upcoming DWP shoot. We talked out about my marketing and pr goals for the show and she had some really cool ideas that I'd like to implement after the next episode is released. I decided I'll be retaining her services for the last 3 episodes since there are a few items I have on my wish list that I'd really like to have sponsored by local businesses.

My Neck! My Back! My Neck & My Back!

So for the last week I've been at home with little Stevie trying to get this car mess sorted out as well as prepare for our upcoming DWP shoot. I have continued to submit to projects on Actors Access and LA Casting but I'm being extremely selective because right now I'm sharing a car with Stephen. Since I have to drop him & Jayden off in the morning, pick Jayden up in the afternoon, pick Stephen up in the early evening and go to work myself at 7pm I don't have a flexible schedule for auditions right now. Plus my back is still in pain, not the I can't walk kind of pain but definitely the I'd-prefer-to-lay-down-instead-of-sit kind of pain and working my night job where I have to sit for 6-8 hours at a time is not helping at all. So yeah, I'm clicking submit to projects that I'm right for AND that have an audition date & time listed that I know I can make.

The Dunkin Donuts commercial is shooting today, sadly it's without me. :-( Oh well, on to the next one!

In the DWP arena, we've finally got a location for our cafe and are gearing up for our shoot. I still have to pick up a few props from Michaels over the weekend but other than that we're good to go!

P.S.- If you don't know where the above picture comes from you need to rent the movie Friday. Seriously! It will have you in stitches.

Being car-less in LA sucks.

That is all.

Day 38: *Met with my friend Desiree, the one who I helped produce the pilot episode of her webseries Millie's 101 Things, for coffee to talk about the next phase: marketing, film festivals and getting it on IMDb.

*Class: Wasn't as prepared as I should have been with my comedic monologue so I only got about halfway through it before I completely tuned out. Got some nice notes though on a few adjustments that Dustin wants me to make before I come back next week to do it again.

Day 39: Driving on the 110 for my BET audition singing Katy Perry's "Firework" in the car when BAM, somebody rear ends me!!! He was driving so fast that my car fishtails and as I tried to swerve out of the way of the car in front of me I ended up crossing two lanes and running into the cement block just a few yards away from where oncoming cars merge onto the freeway. AGH!!!!! I didn't see it coming at all and I've never been so scared in my life! In that moment of losing complete control of my vehicle I was scared to death that someone else would come smashing into me. Thank God that didn't happen!

So what's a girl to do when in an accident on a busy freeway?
First: I thanked the Lord right then and there for protecting me.
Second: I called 911.
Third: I called the casting director's emergency line to leave him a voicemail as to why I wouldn't be able to make it.
Fourth: I called my husband.

Yep, I called my husband after calling the CD because I knew he would be worried and would keep me on the phone until I was out of harm's way so I had to make sure the CD knew I wasn't being a flake by not showing up.

Once we were escorted off the freeway by cops and a tow truck we were able to give our report to the officer. Since my car was still operative I opted to drive it home rather than pay for a tow. But first I was determined to make it to my audition. After all, this would be my first TV co-star credit if I booked it and I already knew that this was the only day they were casting and that they would not accept tape. I could either go or not be in the running, and I wasn't cool with not being in the running so I went. I took the streets and drove 25-30 mph from downtown to North Hollywood with my hazard lights on. I'm sure I looked like a sorry mess to the other drivers since my bumper and padding were scraping the ground as I chugged along but I had to do what I had to do. Stephen wasn't totally happy with this decision but at least he understood. Once I got there I did my thing. The CD was surprised that I had come and called me dedicated. Dedicated for driving up Laurel Canyon with half a car? Absolutely! Foolish for driving up Laurel Canyon with half a car? Quite possibly.

After the audition I played it safe and went home. I notified both the agency and the cd's office where I intern on Tuesdays about what happened and they both told me not to worry but to take care of myself. I ended up going to an urgent care once Stephen got home since I was in a lot of back pain and they gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory and recommended physical therapy. I'm not complaining in the least though because not only did I not have any cuts or bruises but I walked away without anything being broken AND my boys weren't with me at that time so for those reasons I'm incredibly thankful.

Day 35: Researched a few headshot retouchers before deciding on Jessica with Now That's You. Great quality, fantastic price, can't wait to see how my pictures look when she's done with them.

Day 36: Took my husband to see The Mechanic and we both loved it! Technically this was for pleasure and not business but I can make the argument that whenever I watch Ben Foster perform I'm auditing a master class in acting. I really believe he's one of the most underrated actors on the scene and I hope he continues to get bigger and better roles as his career progresses.

Day 37: Finally bought Bitch Is The New Black. This book that will one day become a film is something that I really really want to be a part of for more reasons than one. Gonna dive in this week and let the role research begin. Oh and I had a callback for Dunkin Donuts in the morning which was followed by being placed on avail in the afternoon. Heeeeey!

Day 34: It's 5:36 in the morning and I'm just getting off work. I'M SO TIRED I FEEL DELIRIOUS and I'll probably have to blast some rap music on the way home in order to make sure I stay awake on the road.  As you can tell today was a looooooooooooooong day. It started off with a commercial audition at Digital Dogs Casting for Dunkin Donuts. This was a "real people" audition, thus no headshots were needed. In fact, at these auditions they're actually discouraged since actors aren't considered real people. Crazy I know but it is what it is. This was super quick and easy and will probably just come down to whether or not I have enough of the "East Coast Vibe" they're going for.

After my commercial audition I had sushi with my pal Tara who was the one who tipped me off about the audition in the first place. Afterwards I was supposed to head out to a short film audition but my gut told me not to go.  Why? The audition was being held at a studio in a residence. Now I know that everyone who holds an audition in/connected-to their house is not a crazy rapist or serial killer but with a place like CAZT where everyone can hold a casting session for free I just don't see the need to take that chance. Maybe I would've felt differently if the producer who called me in was a woman and not a man but probably not. I've learned from mistakes in the past to LISTEN to my first mind and trust my gut and even if the audition was fully legit I'm happy to be better safe than sorry.

There was more to my day {definitely want to tell ya'll what happened in class} but right now I'm too tired to write so I'll come back to that later. Heading home now...

Day 32: Busy day! Interviewed with the Executive Assistant at a talent agency for a pilot season internship and while waiting to be seen I ran into the lovely Allison Volk, hey girl! Interview was quick and easy. The Assistant basically wanted to know why I wanted to intern there {Answer: This is my year of learning as much as I can about the business so I'd love to see how things work during the craziness of pilot season} and told me to start next week. Went from there to the casting office for my first day as an intern there and it was a pretty easy day since they weren't running a casting session. I mainly looked at the agency submissions on the breakdown they had just released and took pitches over the phone from agents and moreso from managers who want to get their clients seen. Fun stuff!


Day 33: Started off with a coffee date with Courtney Richards, an actor very new to town who's already got his SAG-eligibility from being cast in a webseries. He wanted to pick my brain about a few things so of course we went to my favorite cafe Bricks & Scones where I was treated to the lovely snack shown above. It looked so pretty that I had to snap a quick pic with my phone. It was nice to learn that Courtney is married with 2 small kids and I mean really small, we're talking his youngest is only 2 weeks! Sounds like a double date will be in the works once his wife has had a chance to recuperate.

After coffee I went to the Complex Theatre for a short film audition. What was that I said about not usually needing a monologue for auditions? Well scratch that. This CD wanted us to perform one of a handful of monologues that he'd written so I chose "Dana The Pleader" and it went well. Finally, as I left that audition to pick Jayden up from school I got a call from someone in the valley. Whenever I'm driving and get a call from an unknown number I let my voicemail get it so that I don't have to pull over to write down pertinent information. I saw that I had a message and figured I'd check it once I got to Jayden's school. In the meantime I got a facebook comment from CD Billy DaMota telling me to check my voicemail so I went ahead and pulled over. To my pleasant surprise he was calling to tell me to submit to a breakdown he had released this morning for a show on BET. He said I was right for two of the parts he was casting and he'd love to bring me in. Having a CD actually call me to tell me to submit for something, how awesome is that?!? It just about made my day! I just met Billy two weeks ago at Thirsty Third Thursdays, a monthly networking mixer that I went to as a part of Class Rules! and he'd seen the clip that Tara & I did a few days ago so it was nice to know that he thought of me when the time was right.

Off to work friends. Have a great night!

Really?!?

Role Role Type Gender/Age/Ethnicities Description/Note Contestant Other Female / 18 to 40 / All Ethnicities Must have a good figure to enter. Winner will have a great bottom and loads of talent. The not so talented will still get good exposure. Must be comfortable being judged not only on your talent but also on your appearance and bottom. **PLEASE ONLY SUBMIT IF THIS IS SOMETHING YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH** **PLEASE NOTE YOUR INTEREST IN THIS PROJECT**

I wonder who in the world submits to shows like this? I hope they're getting paid a boatload of money to make it an easier pill to swallow when they look back years later and wonder what the hell they were thinking.

Day 31: Scoured the web for a contemporary comedic monologue that isn't overdone and wound up finding a few that I'd consider dramedies that would still work well for me. I'll have to tweak them for each individual audition when needed {which is rare since 99% of the auditions I go on have sides} but for now they will serve as good material for class.

And if you're wondering why I'm posting this at 3:51 in the morning it's because I was recently hired back by the production company where I work as a night logger, this time for a much longer stint. Yay for a paycheck!