7:08 AM - Weds 12.24.20
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(I've got less than 90 minutes to do this, which is not really long enough. But I'm gonna try.)

On my podcast - that's something I do now, if you didn't know - I've said that this holiday season isn't seeming like much of a holiday season; nothing depressing, nothing negative, just not much of anything.

But I'm feeling relatively merry today.

I've gotten things, I've given things.

I've "Merry Xmas-ed and been "Merry Xmas"-ed on Facebook.

And shortly, I'll be heading to Santa Clarita to spend the day with Cary and Kay.

I think if nothing happened - If I didn't do anything, and nothing was done to me/for me for the holidays, I might feel a tad bereft.

But these days, it doesn't seem to take a lot of Xmas to satisfy me.

Typically, one of the things that can make the holidays kinda depressing for me is that "The Business" slows to a stop (I've had some years where the entire month of December was a wash).

But, interestingly, the pandemic might have helped me in that regard - If not for Covid, we would have been shooting the show in March and would have wrapped around August or September.

But since the Pandemic shut everything down, we didn't start shooting till late in the year, and I had Shameless stuff to do (An episode, a special "clip show" thing, and a table read for the episode shooting in January) throughout the month of December.

That's been nice.

And while I didn't quite make it, I almost booked a commercial right there at the end - As I often say, I always want to book things, but that desire becomes particularly strong as the year starts winding down, the natural urge to rack up one more "win" before the year's over.

(I got "availed" for two commercials. And while I didn't book either of them, the last people wanted to hire me as the "COVID back-up"...which would have been nice - Not as nice as actually booking the gig, but still, a payday for, in all likelihood, just sitting around my apartment doing shit like this - but it ended up conflicting with Shameless. Which led to a very uncomfortable situation with my commercial agent and that commercial's casting director...which in turn made me, as the "monkey in the middle", quite unhappy. But anyway...)

So I got to close out the month feeling pretty "viable". Which, again, is always a feeling I want to have but was particularly important to me during this time where everything has gone remote.

It was a relief to, if not actually book any jobs, at least do well enough with these remote auditions to be "in the mix" (As I've told Jane R. - And as I've probably already communicated in here - getting the "avails", and now being offered the "backup" thing, makes me feel like booking something under these conditions is "just a matter of time").

Though now there's a big concern about whether things are going to shut down again - Things are not going well in LA at all vis-a-vis "The Rona", so some restrictions that had been relaxed were put back in place - and at a time when I'm especially concerned about qualifying for health insurance and unemployment (Somehow, I thought this was a concern that was all my own, but it was definitely a topic-of-conversation last time I was on-set).

Honestly, I don't know if "The Business" has even fully come back from the intial shut-down, or what would happen if we got shut down before finishing the final episodes.

But, on that last front, I'd prefer not to find out.

In big news on the non-acting front, Jane R. has decided to maintain a place here in LA year-round.

I think there are probably multiple reasons she's come to this decision - Being readily available when things start jumping-off with the documentary (Kimberly, her Co-Producer, is here. And of course, I'M here), it actually being fairly cost-effective (compared to the price of hotels and constant restaurant meals), falling in love with LA (And wanting to hang out more with me socially), etc.

But I think the main reason - and this is just me speculating here - is that she's spent just about all her adult life as part of a couple and she wants a taste of "life on her own", coming and going as she wants, having total control over her environs, and seeing what happens for her as an artist in a place she's started to identify as "a second home".

I'm excited for her. And to be honest, a little jealous - I wish I had the means to maintain separate digs (Back in Lansing, perhaps. Or - thinking of my career - maybe in New York).

But first she has to get past a little medical situation...

Which I'm not gonna get into, because that's more "speculating" than I wanna do, and I'm just about out of time anyway - I have to start cleaning myself up to head to Santa Clarita.

I have no idea how many people read this - I know a few people do, but I have no solid numbers - but whoever you are and however many you are, I wish you the happiest of holidays.

Till next time...

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