9:23 AM - Tues 10.27.20
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(Starting the Tiffany Haddish episode of "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction" on Netflix. FYI: I like this iteration of David Letterman a great deal.)

Again, coming in wondering what I'll write about, but feeling the importance of developing a "daily practice" (Or maybe an "every-other-daily practice"), particularly if I want to get to some imagined "next level" in my writing.

Got word yesterday on my next episode of Shameless (#1105, for those keeping score) - I'm shooting next Tuesday and Wednesday.

And "Yay!" for the two days...but I was slightly taken aback by our shooting on Election Day (Which as I've suggested before, doesn't strike me as just any, garden-variety Election Day, but maybe the most important one in my voting lifetime).

Granted, early voting is an option - and one I will, of course, avail myself of - but I realized some time back that I actually like voting on the day. It makes me feel more "a part of something" than just mailing in a ballot or wandering into a voting booth at some off-hour. I enjoy feeling like, "I'm doing this on the same day as people all over the country....".

Oh well...!

I don't want this to be entirely about the election, but it really is the big thing on my mind (Especially since nothing is happening to me/for me personally at present).

One potential up-side of shooting on Election Day? I imagine there will be many on-set conversations on the subject. And it might be nice to be among generally like-minded people on the day, instead of spending the day by myself, anxiously obsessing (There'll be time enough for that once we wrap, and I'm back home, watching the returns).

But speaking of Shameless...

My "One Year Ago" picture on FB today was of Me and Jane R. at last year's wrap-party.

Previously, I'd talked - To Jane, and to other people as well - how the final wrap party would really be something, that Showtime would really have to "do it up". With their biggest show ending its 11-season run, How could they not?

But now...?

I know people have had bigger losses during the pandemic than me not getting a show-ending wrap party for Shameless..but it's still a little sad (One of the last times I was on-set, I overheard Macy talking about this, seeming to suggest he might host something at his place, so we'll see what happens).

Anyway...

In my personal life, such as it is, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with myself.

Or maybe more to the point, how to do with myself.

(Turns out I can't watch TV and do this at the same time - I just end up doing both badly - so this first, then Tiffany Haddish and "My Next Guest"...)

I certainly have things I could do, and things I am doing, with the substantial amount of time I've been given via the pandemic - I can write in here, I can play/work on playing musical instruments, I can draw, I can exercise, I can read, I can make videos (TikTok and otherwise), I can podcast, etc - but I never feel like I'm doing enough, somehow.

And often, I feel I'm not doing it right; I draw, but never really get anywhere (I've done it on-and-off for decades), I noodle around on the guitar or keyboard but never really progress, etc.

(While writing this, Jane texted me saying this was probably the only time for us to talk if we were going to talk today, so I've been talking to her. But she just got a call from Seth, so I'm back, for the moment.)

And the issue, I think, is that I've never made any-of-this into "a daily practice", a "discipline".

And I realize, as I think along these lines, that I'm not quite sure how to do it...but the first thing has to be to just "do it a lot" (Hence the "daily" in "daily practice").

Other considerations seeming, at least in my mind, secondary to a basic "learn by doing" ethos.

Getting past fatigue, getting past not feeling "inspired", getting past frustration, and just doing something.

And on that note, I think I'm going to wrap this up, have lunch, cleanse myself, and maybe take a second trip to my new Target, since I'm now armed with a $5-off coupon.

(Yes folks, I am clearly "Living The Hollywood Dream".)

Till next time...

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