8:57 am - Thurs 3/24/05
A Shotgun Blast Of Happiness

Wednesday 3/23/05 (11:21 p.m.)

Happy to report double-barrelled good news today...

The first "barrel"--Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, turns out I passed the Notary test!

(I checked the results online this afternoon.)

It wasn't exactly by a dazzling score--I got a 78--but since 70 is passing, it's good enough. And actually, considering that my class wasn't that good, and my "test prep"was a little more perfunctory than it should have been, I'm kind of impressed with myself

And I'm going to have all kinds of time to "bone up on the particulars" in the weeks and months ahead. I don't know exactly how long it's going to take, to get from this point to getting jobs, but I have to have a fingerprint scan/background check, I have to go to the Secretary of State (Or County Commissioner, or some such place) to get the license, I have to order my supplies, I have to get business cards, and there's probably at least five other steps in the process I can't think of right now.

In other words, it's gonna take a little while to get rolling.

But the next order of business, once I get my official confirmation in the mail, will be to get the background check going.

But before I get lost in what has yet to be done, a big "Yay!" for me--I'm actually doing it, kids. Instead of just crying about my life, I'm actually doing something about it.

The initial audition was last Thursday.

I thought it had gone well, but when I didn't get a callback call later that day or on Friday (The callback was supposed to be Monday), I assumed it probably wasn't gonna happen.

But the callback ended up being yesterday morning (I got the call about it Monday afternoon).

The callback also went really well (A little different than the first audition, but still the same premise. I was sleazy magician pulling $2 bills out of a hat). It was my second audition yesterday morning--The other was for Napster--and within two hours, JS called to say I was "on avail".

(For the uninitiated, being "on avail" means that, while you don't necessarily have the gig, you should plan on keeping any potential shoot days open, just in case.)

"Avails" can go either way, really�Sometimes you actually book them, sometimes you don't�so when I didn't hear later in the day yesterday, or this morning, I once again assumed it wasn't going to happen, and was feeling a "close, but no cigar" sense of disappointment.

Anyway, I haven't gotten called by the production agency yet, so all I know is that it shoots on Saturday.

It's non-union, and the pay is pretty crappy, but it's me on a set (Instead of being at work), getting paid to be an actor.

I was going to post something I'd written offline, before these two happy bits of news happened, but I think I'll just be content to say "I wasn't feeling very good about things for a couple days there", and let it go at that.

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