Recharge...

I did something amazing last night that I've not done in years.  I slept.  A lot.  Several hours in a row.  I don't know exactly how many but I will say that I got in bed around 10:30pm, also something I haven't done in years, and I got out of bed around 9:30am the next morning.  Somewhere in the middle, I did wake up, but I refused to get out of bed for at least a half hour, mainly because the bathroom here is up a flight of stairs.  I'm currently at my sister's house in Virginia, hanging with her family.  Basically recharging for a weekend.  And man, am I recharging, or what?  I actually took a nap a few hours ago, one from which I awoke to hear my niece yelling about zombies (she was playing Minecraft across the kitchen from me).  So far, the only other thing I've done today besides eating that was mildly productive was win a game of Magic the Gathering, a game I've never really played, against my brother in law and my oldest nephew.

Yesterday, I took the train to DC from New York and had my cousin pick me up at Union Station.  We spent some time driving around DC and ended up at Jones Point Lighthouse because he wanted to see one of the old DC boundary stones, actually the first to be laid.  It exists under the lighthouse and you actually have to look under the porch in front of the lighthouse to see it.  Check out my photos.   My cousin then took me to Alexandria to meet an old friend for dinner, one I haven't seen in 13 years.  We caught up over gluten free pizza and then she drove me to Potomac Mills where my sister picked me up.

It occurred to me that all day today, I have not even once put shoes on and gone outside.  So a little bit ago, I stepped out on the back porch and looked up at the moon.  I haven't had a day this lazy in a very very long time.

So, I'm going to feel great by the time I get back to NYC.  I'm at a standstill with the workload anyway because I just sent in the finished mixes of the long and short versions of "Another Day in the Life," and am waiting for the director's input.  Plus, the piano theme for the other short film hasn't been touched in weeks because that director hasn't contacted me yet.  I'm also going to be diving back into some voice over things next week.  I put the agent search on hold while I focused on my other projects but next Wednesday, my coach has put together a VO practice session at the studio where I've been doing my coaching.  There should be a couple of other VO talents there and we'll just run through whatever scripts we bring or whatever Sylvia has there.  Should be lots of fun.  I've been needing something like this for a while.  I lost two good auditions in the past week and then got a reminder of a client who was wildly underpaying me last year when the same guy contacted me to do a few scripts for the same amount of money.  I turned him down.

Anyway, I spent the remainder of my evening eating a fabulous meal (gluten free Yorkshire pudding prepared by my brother-in-law), playing with the kids' remote control helicopters and sucking horribly at rock band even though I'm a musician with two degrees.  Tomorrow, my train back to the city doesn't leave until 845pm so I'll have another nice long day with the kids.  I heard something about a hay ride and a pumpkin patch.  Sounds fun!

Hopefully, soon I'll hear some feedback and Amanda's song for "The Life."  Meanwhile, it's back to work work on Monday.  First week back on the regular schedule.  I'm really hoping that the work at TruTV will not dry up anytime soon, because I've made a big life decision to finally travel next year and, following a few signs from the universe, have already picked a yoga retreat in Belize that will happen in April right around my birthday.  It's not terribly cheap and I'm probably picking the first option that has presented itself rather than finding something as affordable as possible, but a yoga retreat and a Central American/Caribbean destination has been on my mind for quite some time.  I've never been further south than the airport in Miami, FL.  So here's to that.  If I stick to my budget over the next few months and if a few small miracles occur, then I can pull this off.

For now, I'm going to get to sleep, early again but NYC has left me with the need to recharge and I plan to take full advantage of that.  Talk soon.