A move in the right direction.

Saturday morning I got up early and went to an audition right before I left for Rhode Island. It was a tight fit in my schedule but it worked! I had sent out my resume and headshot to a theatre that was participating in a One-Act Festival with an original One-Act play called, "One Good Thing." They called me in to read for a couple different roles. The audition was Saturday at 11:15am and my bus for Rhode Island left at 12:30pm. Thankfully the bus depot was only two blocks from the audition site.

The actual audition went well. They had me stick around longer to read more for the character "Rita." She's an interesting character: young lady trapped in a dead end marriage. I could relate to her wit so I think they liked that I had the timing for it. Right after I finished reading I hustled up the street to hop on the bus.

I had a heck of a time finding where I was supposed to catch the bus, however. The station is huge and it has hundreds of departure gates and very few signs to tell you where to go. I asked a couple Greyhound employees (of the few I could find) for help with directions. They were rude to me right off the bat and I thought, "Wow. This is going to be a fun trip."

When I finally found my gate, I had made it with 20 minutes to spare, thankfully. I set my backpack and pillow down and got my tickets out to board. To save time, I came to the station on Friday night and printed my tickets out. The tickets, receipt and itinerary all came in one long strip of paper so I detached my departure ticket and got ready to board. When I handed over my ticket to the driver he yelled at me for detaching the ticket from the other papers. I was so embarrassed because he treated me like a fool and screamed at me in front of the other passengers. I had NO IDEA that I wasn't supposed to detach my tickets. What the hell kind of sense does that make??? Moral of the story: if you should make the unfortunate decision to ride Greyhound do not, DO NOT detach your tickets, itinerary, and receipt unless you wish to be harassed and treated like an idiot.

The trip itself took over 6 hours. My itinerary said I was going to be in Providence, RI at 4:55pm. I didn't arrive until after 6pm. No reason for the delay, just another reason not to ride Greyhound. We had scheduled stops along the way at two different Indian reservation casinos in New Jersey and Connecticut and in New London, CT. It was funny to see all the weekend getaway travelers making their way to the mega casino resorts.

When I got to Providence I had a phone message from the director of the One-Act I had auditioned for earlier. They wanted to call me back to read for the part of "Rita" again. The only problem was that they wanted me to come in on Sunday morning. I was not going to be back from RI until Sunday night. I called her back and apologized (even though I warned her before I auditioned that I wouldn't be able to make the callback). She didn't answer so I left her a message. I think that was the end of it because I haven't heard back from her. Oh well.

I called Pattie and she came and found me near the bus station. She took me back to the restaurant where she and Megan were eating dinner. It was an Irish Pub called "Ri Ra's," and we at some dinner. We got to catch up for a while before Pattie had to go get ready for her show.

At 8pm I saw Pattie perform in Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real." It was put on by all the second year MFA actors at Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. The play is one of Williams' more abstract plays and was a little hard to follow. I thought the group did a commendable job tackling the tough script. It was great to see Pattie on stage again after I hadn't seen her in so long.

After the show Pattie, Megan, and I went to the Trinity Brewhouse with the other cast members and had a drink. I really liked the pub it was very homey and reminded me of a McMenamins spot. I got to meet a lot of the cast members and other Brown/Trinity Rep students. It was really fun to get to hear about their experiences in the MFA program at Brown because it is such a famous program.

For the rest of the night (and well into the morning) Pattie, Megan, and I stayed up and had a slumber party. It was so fun to be around those girls again. I sure missed them. We stayed over at Pattie's apartment in Providence. I really liked her apartment. Pattie has put a lot of work into it and it is very cozy.

Sunday morning I said goodbye to Pattie because she had to get back to her busy MFA actor life. Megan and I walked around Providence a bit. We got to see some of the Brown campus and the surrounding area. We ate lunch at a restaurant called "The Meeting Street Cafe." It was very busy and smelled great inside. It reminded me of the smell of Thanksgiving Dinner. Aptly I ordered the Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich. It was a huge sandwich that they put stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce, tomato and lettuce on. It was probably the best sandwich I've ever had. It was so big I had leftovers, just like after Thanksgiving. haha

Megan and I walked around some more and visited the Brown University Bookstore. I promptly bought $10 worth of postcards. I'm a total nerd but it was worth it to me. Rhode Island is very pretty. I also liked the Brown shirts that said, "This is my Brown shirt" on them.

Pretty soon it was time to go downtown to the bus station and head back to NYC. Megan and I grabbed some Starbucks and I got on my bus and she got on her train and headed back to Boston. I think I'll go visit her next.

One obnoxiously long bus ride later I was back in NYC. On the way back we stopped at the casinos again, picking up the gamblers and their dough (or lack their of). I also got to enjoy my leftover turkey sandwich that was delicious, again.

When I got back to the Port Authority bus depot I ran to the subway and jetted back to Astoria. I was supposed to meet up with a potential roommate. I got back late but got to meet her anyway. She was very nice and I think I wouldn't mind sharing a room with her. I didn't want to make a decision that night though and I was exhausted from the trip. I reorganized myself for the week and went to bed.

On Monday morning I got up early and dropped off my timesheet at my temp agency so I could get paid. At 11am I had my third and final interview at Sephora. I met with the store director and it went very well. They're looking at me for a makeup artist position. I think it sounds like fun!

After my interview I went uptown to audition for Disney Cruiselines. They posted an open audition for performers of all ethnicities so I thought I'd give it a shot. Because of my interview I had to sign up later for the audition. That basically meant that I had to sit around all afternoon. What's new?

I finally got to sing my 16 bars. I thought it went quite well probably because I had all afternoon to warm up. I jumped around to all the empty rooms at the studio warming my voice up. I finished my audition and found out that they were only calling back people with an "ethnic look." They didn't specify that in their posting and then didn't tell us at the audition. So tons of white kids sat around all afternoon, sang their best, and had not a single chance of getting called back. I was a little peeved. Hopefully it wasn't a total waste of time, they do have my info on file now. Misleading casting notices are more common than I care to think about.

Monday night I went to the gym, talked on the phone to some friends, did some work around the new apartment, and enjoyed the rest of Columbus Day. haha.

Tuesday morning I had a job at Church Pension Group through my temp agency. I was working reception for the entire NY branch of the company which is over 300 employees. Heavy call volume. I sounded like a broken record but it was fun. I got calls from all over the US and some of them were hilarious. I swear some people still don't know what a phone is and what it does. I liked how the company had their phones set up. I got to wear a headset and all the calls where run through computer software called "Softconsole". When a phone call came in it beeped in my ear, I clicked on the call on the computer screen, talked to them, and then typed in where to transfer them to. All on the computer! I had fun doing that for the day but I can see how it might get a little old after years of doing it. That's why I like temp agencies.

Tuesday night I ran a ton of errands. I needed more headshot/resume combos so I hit up the Kinko's next to Bryant Park. Bryant Park is where they have Fashion Week and the big Project Runway finales. I always like thinking of that when I walk by the park. I did some banking and made a bunch of phone calls.

I had a message from a lady from the New York Dinner Theatre. When I called her back she offered me my first paying theatre gig in the city. I officially have a job in the theatre!!! I'm so excited. She offered me two roles in two shows she produces. One is called "The Soapranos" and it's a spoof on the Sopranos TV show. It's hilarious and she wants me to play the part of Mama Soaprano. (That's the part I read for in auditions). The other part is in a murder mystery called "Let's Kill the Boss." I get to play a librarian who's been married 10 times. (Another funny one). We start rehearsals really soon and I'll be performing in both shows on and off between now and December 31st. The shows will be in varying locations in NYC and nearby New Jersey. A lot of times we'll get a booking to come to an office party event and we'll take the show on the road. I'm excited because I'll be reimbursed for any traveling I have to do and I am getting paid per show on top of that. It's a pretty cool deal for a first job in the city.

Later on in the evening I had another potential roommate come check out the room. It turned out to be a waste of time because she failed to read the ad for the room and didn't realize it was a room to share. Duh. I made it really clear in the ad, and I'm totally annoyed to have my time wasted by someone who's too irresponsible to read.

When she left I went to the gym then came back and talked to mom and dad. That's about all for Tuesday.

Wednesday I spent the entire day painting and cleaning my room. I bought some primer and went over most of the room. I also spent over an hour cleaning the blinds. Apparently no one has cleaned them since the beginning of time and a smoker lived in the room. They were absolutely disgusting. I scrubbed them like crazy and now I have clean blinds. Ok, I have one set of clean blinds. I still have one more to clean. My windows look like a "before and after" shot. I was surprised to find out that they are white under all that crap.

In the midst of my fixin' up I had yet another potential roommate come by. She seemed very nice. I think I'm done looking for roommates now. I have a tough decision to make.

While I was working all day, I felt like my phone was ringing off the hook. Random. I had calls from Sephora, NY Dinner Theatre, Mom, a random guy who wanted me to babysit, my temp agency, friends. I felt so popular. haha. I think all the calls I've been making finally got returned. All in one day. Have you ever had that happen? Definitely makes you feel special.

Sephora finally got a hold of my references and left me a message that they would like to hire me. I'm gonna call them today and find out what they want to "offer me." I am so blessed. I'll let you know what happens.

Finally, after a long day's work in my room, I was excited to see it taking shape. I cleaned up my mess, propped open my windows, and went to bed.

Today,(Thursday), I'm working at Juice Pharma Advertising again. That's all for now!