What's your excuse?

No Smoking

I'm having a hard time quiting smoking since I've been back from Europe. I now quit last Monday, and having a difficult time. Come people, show me some support, and encourage to continue giving up smoking!

Working

In case you're wondering what I've been doing since I've been back from Europe (already a month now)...I've been working...a lot. And I never thought I would feel this way, but when I came back and didn't have work yet, I was really looking forward to work. I started with extra work on TV shows, and had my last day so far on Thursday of last week, cause on Friday I started training for my new full time job as a Host for a very high end restaurant in a very prestigious and nice hotel, close to where I live. So not had a day off in a while and hopefully I will find some extra work on my next day of, tomorrow and Friday.

I like my new job as a host, cause I'm meeting many interesting and famous people (especially this last Emmy weekend), and most of my co-workers are nice. It is just standing and walking though, and my feet hurt at the end of a shift, but I'll get used to that again. The only thing I'm a little worried about is my knee, but we'll see how this will play out over the next couple of months.

P. has been amazing with supporting me by helping me with Sierra, getting me groceries, cooking for me, and even doing my laundry. I'm a lucky guy!

Last week I worked on the WB lot for the first time, and this lot has so much history dating back to the early 1930s. Felt really good and nostalgic to stand in front of the stages where James Dean filmed Giant, and East of Eden, or being on the same Stage where Casablanca was taped. I took a couple of pictures. Picture of the week though, was taken on location at the back of the restrooms trailer, while working on Vanished.

Oh my...

I just checked my Visitors Stats, and even though I hadn't posted since August 9th, today I had 1031 visitors to my blog so far, which I think must be a record for me. Thank you to all of you who come to check out my blog!

Today:	1031
In the last hour:	8

Random picture I took today

Vegas Baby!

The last three weeks I've been spending 4 to 5 days a week in a casino. A really real looking casino at Culver City Studios where the TV show Las Vegas is shot. When I came back from Europe, I started working as a background actor on this show, and I've been doing that ever since. It's very surreal to be inside a fake casino all day, holding a fake drink. It made me poor a drink every time I got home from set! I also felt like I needed to smoke, cause that's what you do in Vegas: you drink and smoke... Yeah, I know it's bad, now leave me alone!

Friday was my last day on the show. I really enjoyed working on this show for these 3 week, cause they used pretty much the same group of extras, so some of them became pretty good friends. It's nice to have the same people around you on set to fool around with and who ask you how your weekend was. It was also very exciting to be on the same set as James Caan, the legendary actor who's been acting for over 40 years ago, and acted in the 3 Godfather movies. The days were very long though (14 hours) which is good because you only make good money when overtime kicks in, but Thursday and Friday really wore me down. I was suppose to be on set again this morning at 6am, but I had an NBC promo auditions at the NBC Studios in Burbank, so I had to cancel what would have been my last Vegas day. The audition went okay, not great, but you always know the better way of doing it when your in your car after the audition. I had 2 auditions last week, funny enough, both for casinos, one in Vegas, and one in Arizona. After no auditions in a long time, it's finally starting to roll with my new agent!

While I was working on set, I've also been busy looking for a more permanent job, and after 4 (!) interviews at The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, I got hired as Host for the highly rated Gardens Restaurant! I first interviewed with the HR Director, then the Assistant Dir. of F&B, then the Director of F&B, and the last one with the General Manager. I'm starting this Friday. Tomorrow I booked another day as an extra on CSI:NY (as a NYPD cop), and Wednesday on the new show Studio 60 at the Warner Brother lot. The WB studios are one of the oldest in LA, and I'm very excited to be finally working on this lot!

On the picture you see Christina, who played my wife on the set of Las Vegas:)! We were always picked to walk together, and to get through the day, I would always make up stories and build relationships. I think I went through 3 wives, 2 mistresses, and one brother.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

No, this title is not the beginning of a WHAM song, even though it is. I'm just so happy to be working! Who would have thought? Thanks to my new friends Chris and Mick at CC, and my friend Chad, I've been making long days on a set of a popular TV show. Just did three days, and have three more days booked, and hopefully there are more to follow. There are about 120 background talents (don't wanna call them actors, cause most of them aren't), and I'm having a lot of fun on set. They are long days, but I don't mind. Today was from 10am till 1015pm, and tomorrow call time is at 830am. That's why I'm now chillin' with my 2nd glass of white wine, before I'm going to sleep. I'm so happy I'm working with such fun people, a cool crew, and making money to pay rent for me and Sierra! Btw, Sierra was so happy to be back home last Friday after 6 weeks in Arkansas! She's been sleeping and drinking water the entire weekend, and is just now getting back to her normal self. I'm so happy to have her back! Okay, glass is empty...gotta refill!

It's Friday!

In less then two hours my dog Sierra will land at LAX! I'm so excited to have her back! Today is my first day working though, so I can't pick her up, so Peter is going to leave work to pick her up, and bring her to my place. He's the best!  I'm doing background work, and have to be on set at 1:30pm, so I won't see her till very late tonight, probably early morning. I'm very happy to be working today, cause I haven't been back for a week yet, and I'll be already working. I dropped my resume all over town, so hopefully something will come out, but I'd rather do background work full time, so I hope that will happen...

I made some cash yesterday, and will make some more today by selling my CD collection! Everything is on my computer and IPod anyway, so no need for the physical CD's. You get very creative when you're out of money (Peter actually got me on the idea of selling CD's), cause I'm going to bring all my chance to one of those machines, and my roommate drinks lots of soda, so I'm collecting the cans to bring them to a recycle center. I think I'm doing pretty much everything I can to get cash. The only thing I can still think of is selling my body, but after a month in Europe I'm not in good shape, so I'll have to wait for that.

Have a good weekend!

Good things come out of bad stuff

I was a little stressed and everything went wrong on Tuesday, but Wednesday was a very good day. First of all I was able to hook up my laptop to my desktop monitor, so I have no regular access to all my files! I dropped of a shit load of resumes and filled out many applications for jobs yesterday. So far I applied at 3 Trader Joe's, The Four Seasons, The Roosevelt Hotel, The Abbey, East/West, O-Bar, Hamburger Mary's, and I-Candy. I might have left something out, I can't remember all. And...I have work for Friday and Monday! Doing background work those two days! I feel I'm doing all that I can do to get work asap, and that's all I can do. I also went hiking yesterday, and did the easy way up and the same way down, and my knee could handle it, so I will go more often to loose some of the extra vacation pounds I gained. Surgery to my knee is scheduled for October 5th, but I might postpone it until later till I'm financially more stable. Oh, Sierra might come home tomorrow or Saturday!

Some more vacation pics:

Carrie arrived in Athens a few hours after us, so we waited for her on the doorsteps of the hotel with beer and cigarettes

Sunset on Paros, Greece       

Sunset at Gisele's rooftop

At the pool by Gisele's parents house

We never had dinner inside, cause the weather was awesome and it's light till 11pm. This is outside with friends (Audra, Jack, Gaby, Peter, Simone and myself) at a Spanish Tapas place in Amsterdam

P. with Gaby & Maaike

Our last night in Amsterdam, we rented a boot with a group of friends and cruised the canals of Amsterdam for about 4 hours with food and lots of drink on board!

Kaline, me & a huge Bonsai plant Audra gave her for letting her stay at Kaline's apartment

Kut!

I was already having a shitty day yesterday looking for jobs (filled out three applications though, two for Trader Joe's and one for Borders bookstore), but things got worse when I got home around 7pm. I tripped over the power cord from my laptop, and the laptop fell on the floor, screen first. Yep, now the screen is messed up! There's no crack in the screen, and the computer starts up normally, but the screen is fucked up. Luckily, so I thought, I have a desktop in my room, because I was just checking some very important work related email. This desktop used to work fine, but now it starts up, asking me to log-in to the Shoah Foundation network (my old computer from work), but of course I can't, and  don't know how to make this desktop work now. Great! Luckily, my roommate has a computer so I could respond to the person who might be able to get me work as early as this week (BIG THANKS shout out to CHAD, for helping me!). So last night I just had it! P. was very sweet and was there for me through these hours of despair ("bleh, I don't have a job, sniff, I don't have money, bleh, my computers broke, bleeeehhhhh"), and Big Brother was on to take my mind of my own life, and focusing it on strangers stuck in a house.

Now I'm off to do some more job hunting. Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Heatwave

Sierra could not fly out of Arkansas today, because it's to hot in Atlanta, her stopover. I'm very sad, cause I miss my dog:(... It's has been 6 weeks now that I haven't seen her, and I want her back home. Luckily she is at a happy place at the farm in Arkansas, with two other dogs, and the loving care of Peter's parents. The heat in Arkansas is getting to her though, as you can see on the picture below.

I'm searching Craigslist for jobs, and so far I have written down stuff ranging from Jamba Juice to Grocery Driver, Host at Cheesecake factory and a hotel restaurant, Trader Joe's, Alaska Airlines, etc...

Any help in finding me a job asap is appreciated!