Houston Day 477 - a list!

I'm reading The Happiness Project, lent to me by Ashley.  The woman who wrote the book is a list-maker almost to the point of making me suspect she has OCD.  Her lists often have really fun titles, like "Splendid Truths" and "Secrets of Adulthood", which reminded me of Janet's habit of creating mental lists titled "These Things I Know to Be True", and inspired me to write my own list today.  (It also reminded me of when I shared a flat with my friend Jana and I posted on the cupboard a list of "Small Things that Make Amy Happy".  This had the lovely results of Jana knowing how to cheer me up and people giving me small thoughtful gifts!)  Some of these items are things I have discovered myself, some of them are things repeated to me by my parents or friends I look up to.  One of them was the best piece of practical advice someone gave me about making life in Houston comfortable...can you guess which one?

"Advice Amy Attempts to Live By"

If it is not a finite resource, don't treat it as one.

Suspend your judgement.

Do not buy or accept for free clothes that do not fit perfectly.

Advice is sought much less often than it is given.

Money changes situations and people.

If you understand how the public transport system works, you can own the city.

Always carry a sweater in your handbag.

Most people are doing the best they can most of the time.

If you're someone's guest, you don't have the right to complain about how they do things.

Look behind you when you leave.

If it's mine, it's yours.

"No day but today."

Anything is possible.

What do you think? What advice you do attempt to live by?

Houston Day 476 - chit-chat catch-up

So apologies on the slowing down of the blog posts. I get distracted. Also, I write other stuff: check out my latest post on the Hope Stone blog!

Have also been rehearsing for Awesome America, taking a Meisner class with Kim Tobin which is freaking blowing my mind, redoing my audition portfolios, and watching copious amounts of Doctor Who. We are discovering that ExxonMobil really mean it when they boast about their super work-life balance options, so because America moves in to the theatre this week, making me busy every evening, he went in to work late this morning and will work later while I'm out this evening, and he'll do the same on Thursday. Hope Stone classes started again last week, and my dear friend Leslie is my intern, which is great.

In other exciting news, Joel & Heidi from Stone Stoup are coming to visit soon, AND....WE BOOKED OUR TICKETS TO AUSTRALIA! We arrive Christmas Day.

 Ciao for now!

Houston Day 465 - Hurricane Isaac

So registering as an Australian living abroad has its benefits.  I just got an email from DFAT reminding me that there's a hurricane coming to the U.S.  Not quite the same as Julia Gillard flying here in a superhero cape to personally put me on a QANTAS flight home if I was in danger, as I had hoped.  Or maybe she would do that if the hurricane ends up being terrible and I were in Lousiana.  But still, nice to know that the system works.
In order to assure you folks back in Aus., we're not in the path of the hurricane - it's headed toward Louisiana.  The official warning covers Louisiana and east to the Alabama-Florida border.  If your geography's not up to the task of picturing that, have a look at this map.  You will see that Houston is west of the area under concern, which is spanned by the blue line. And my thoughts are with those guys who are in the area of concern.  I heard on the radio the other day that all the government money funnelled into New Orleans after Katrina has done a lot of good, and that the city will be much more able to withstand the storm.      Of course, if you're living outside the city, like the people in that movie I saw the other day (Beasts of the Southern Wild), it'll be a struggle.
And on a different but related note, we are indeed registered with DFAT so if we are struck by any enormous disasters or our telephones stop working, give them a call to see if they know where we are.  Their response will no doubt be, "No worries, Mrs Garner, the PM's just getting on her cape to go get them now."

Houston Day 461 - blues and brownies, and more about biscuits

I am ever so slowly climbing my way out of the post-show blues.  Running around Houston's gorgeous Hermann Park with Ashley is helping.  And I find that, as I did last time I was in this emotional place and I discovered I can make bread, I have this urge to bake.  There's something lovely about holding something hot and fragrant and yummy and knowing I achieved it, because it's at this time that I suddenly question my ability to do pretty much everything.  And baking (at the level at which I do it) is only slightly challenging and doesn't take too much mental acuity (e.g., I can drink while I do it!) and doesn't break anyone's heart, least of all mine, if I screw it up.  So I've made brownies, and biscuits (the American kind: see my English Around the World page!) and right now there's a banana loaf in the oven.  So the post-show blues are slowly being replaced by delicious baked goods.  And frustration that I can't find my electric beater.

Houston Day 436 - time differences rear their ugly heads

Just realized I hadn't thought about the time difference and so my flight to London leaves a whole day earlier than I had thought.  Glad I picked up on that minor detail now and not at the airport.  I mean, if I'd thought about it for two seconds I would have realized that arriving in London Wednesday morning means leaving Houston Tuesday night, but I haven't really been in the space to think about anything for two seconds.  Shows closing always messes with my head.

Houston Day 429 - manic at midnight

I was asleep, and then I woke up and I suddenly felt all buzzy and like I had to go for a run or something.  I won't, because it's midnight, although running is something I do these days, a couple of times a week, with my friend Ashley.  So now I'm up, and blogging, and not really sure what's going on.  I think it is the steroids (Mum, I know you'll ask....not a high dosage but forgot to take some earlier today so took them at night and that's why I'm a bit crazy).  Asthma has been playing up....body is a little burnt out from the month.  But on the mend now.
Also, body is a little burnt out from the Pink cast party on Friday night....yes, a little odd to have a cast party before the season's over but some people couldn't do it the final weekend.  I very rarely get super-drunk and party all night but a great cast party is one of the few times I do.  However, I am officially too old to do that and just bounce back the next day :) although I do get super-woman points for delivering two excellent shows on about the same number of hours' sleep.
On a completely different subject, Lucas' new obsession is the game Magic - the Gathering.  It's a thing he did when he was a nerdy teenager and our friend James brought it back into his life at his birthday party last year.  Now a whole bunch of them who play are getting together, and I play it too (although perhaps a little more than I would if Lucas wasn't into it.  No wait, make that way more.)  It's fun, but I'm rubbish at strategy games.  So Lucas slaughtered me with his army of zombies before we went to bed tonight.
Umm, what else is going on....rehearsed today with Express for the Hilltop shows this week.  As always, they're disorganised but a whole lot of fun.  Also had lunch with Adrianna from Pink.  One of those beautiful, long, wide-ranging, honest conversations that left us both feeling refreshed in our souls.  I'm almost sad that she doesn't live in Houston all the time (from a small town in East Texas, and moving to New York in the fall), but that would mean I'm not super excited to see what her journey is.  Also, people keep saying we look alike, so she'd be beating me out for roles all the time if she lived here :)
Speaking of roles, something on my to-do list for when life calms down post-Pink and post-England-trip is redo my audition portfolios.  Which means I'm thinking about what work suits me, what kind of work I'm going for, what are my go-to audition pieces.  I just sent out an email to a whole bunch of people I've worked with in Houston to get their perspective on me, but if you, oh blog readers, would like to do the same, please answer the following questions in short, snappy, incomplete sentences made only of keywords:

1) what roles would you cast me in based purely on my physical type?
2) what subject matter do I communicate really effectively?
3) what colours/flavours/tones do I emit?

I'm sitting in my newly set up home office where I've just put up some photos of some of the shows I've done since moving to Houston.  So if you were going to answer question 1 with reindeer, nun, German-Texan abolitionist or stay-at-home mom who dons pink princess dresses and tiaras in moments of epiphany, thanks but I already have visual reminders that I know how to do those :)

Houston Day 424 - on storms, allergies, old houses, and my current work situation

Well, this summer is totally different to last summer.  Last summer was unusually dry and record-hot.  This summer is still pretty bloody hot (Mum barely went outside at all the whole time she visited us recently!) but it is storming almost every afternoon.  Storms here are something else.  They're more regular, more dramatic, and more likely to end up in flash flooding and even (apparently, although we haven't seen this yet) tornadoes.  I got my first experience of being trapped by water this weekend just gone, when I called my stage manager in a panic because I had tried several roads and couldn't make it to the theatre.  He had other things to worry about, though, because although there was water everywhere there was no running water in the building.  That was an interesting show :) I found a road that was clear, made it to the theatre, and just had to hold on to my pee for several hours until I could get home to a functioning toilet.
We survived the two sixteen-show weeks at Pink, although barely, because I got sick a few days after it stopped.  My doctor tells me I need to consider the possibility that like most people in Houston I suffer from hayfever (usually just generically called "allergies" here) and that until that's under control I'm going to get sick pretty often.  But neither sickness nor work stopped me from enjoying some good QT with Mum...she just came to the show three times so she could see me!
I now have the lovely problem of too much work to allow me to fully rest.  Have had a couple of big auditions in the last couple of days (am still keeping my "Auditions" page updated, for my records, and your interest), and was called in by Express to perform in their Children's Hilltop Theatre Festival at the Miller Outdoor Theatre next week.  Plus Pink goes til the end of the month.  So today I am taking advantage of nothing on my schedule to rest and learn lines for Hilltop.
Lucas and I are enjoying our new house.  It's a bit smaller than our old house (and also older than our old house, if that makes sense).  It's a good size - we like it that it's smaller but has more rooms.  So I get my own office :) and it feels cozier.  Because it's older it has lots more things wrong with it, but I'm trying to pretend that there's no chance of any serious flooding because this house would absolutely not stand it.  Which is, of course, a blatant, breezy lie, but never mind.

Well, back to it.  I leave you with a photo of a doorknob from the Capitol Building in Austin, which Mum and I visited last week.  You will note (because I told you to) the Lone Star on said doorknob.  And if anyone can explain to me why Capitol is spelt with an "o" I would appreciate that.  Cheers.