Frida Libre!

Okay once again I've waited entirely too long to update my blog. I have many recipes to share and even more exciting news about my big girl life. Try not to judge me as I am sure to write far too much in this entry, if not add a second entry just for all the food I've been making over the past month.

I'm still working at Banana Republic which has managed to fill up my daily schedule quite a bit. I've been yoga-ing less, unfortunately, and feeling a need for the yogi strength and wisdom. But standing for essentially 4-6 hours straight can wear a girl down!  I finally got myself to a late night yoga class day before last and it was quite possibly the best thing I could have done for myself. I have been over eating a tinge since Thanksgiving (but then again who hasn't) and feeling the need to mentally and physically detox. During the class I found myself in a twisting reverse warrior pose, and while exhaling through it I literally felt like I was wringing the gunk out of my internal organs. This may sound strange, but I felt like all the sugar and junk I had been eating was finally being processed out of my system. Dear yoga, I never thought I'd say this; but you are my soulmate. Love Cami

In other news, I landed my very first professional theater job!! The show is called Frida Libre. It is a new children's musical being produced in conjunction with the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego that will tour San Diego county schools. I start rehearsals in San Diego January 11th 2011 (can you believe 2010 is almost over?!) and will be performing from February through early April! I got the news while I was driving up Hwy 5 to visit my fam in Northern California. My caller ID was blinking my agent's number and I just was praying they were going to tell me I had gotten the job, and I did! As soon as I hung up the phone, still driving, I literally began to weep. I have never been so overcome with emotion so instantly. Since graduation I cannot begin to count how many times I have sat down and thought to myself "what the hell are you doing?! You can't do this, this isn't real." But finally landing a job gave mt the validation I needed to remind myself that I'm actually good at what I do, and I love it enough to keep trying no matter what. Holy crap it was a good feeling.

I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of the successes my peers have been fortunate enough to have in these short six months since graduation. I was talking to the amazing Angelica Richie, whose blog can be accessed here, about this today and it truly is fantastic. To think that so many of my friends are working in New York, Los Angeles and all over the county is ridiculous. (To tune into the UCLA c/o 2010 progress click here.) The life we have all chosen to lead is by no means an easy one. We have given ourselves over to the theater and entertainment gods in hopes of finding just a tiny bit of gold at the end of our long and difficult rainbow. Scary thought right? And yet, as idealistic or perhaps egotistical as it may sound I feel that we all belong here. I feel that through the hard work, blood, sweat and many, many tears that we all put in everything will work out in the just the way it is meant to. There were many jobs I was not have been cast in that caused me a lot of heartbreak, but all of those previous jobs would have made me ineligible for Frida. And from what I understand, this is going to be an opportunity to create a title character role in a new musical that will be performed for kids, which we all know are my favorite people! I hate to say that everyone was right when they said the right projects will come along, but in this case I think they were.

I've got lots of recipes to share since it is officially that gluttonous time of year and I've already started cooking and baking up a storm, but I am choosing to put them in a separate post merely for the sake of brevity (and my tummy is rumbling for dinner so I need to take a quick typing break to feed my appetite.)

More fun to come!

Mommy Wow! I'm a Big Girl Now

Hello Friends!

Although it has been quite a while since I've posted I thought it was about time to catch up on some of the grown-up things I've been up to lately.

I have finally managed to wrangle a big girl, day job. Starting Saturday I will be working as a cashier at Banana Republic! Try not to get too jealous, I know it's a deeply coveted and highly prestigious position that only us chosen few can have, but apparently I had what they were looking for. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out, I've worked for the company twice before and when looking for extra holiday employees experience reigns supreme. And I like to think I gave a stunning interview in my chic, well thought out, Banana Republic outfit. As part of my holiday employment I have been told I will essentially get very few days off in the months of November and December. I won't be going home for Thanksgiving for the first time EVER. If that's not a sign of growing up then I don't know what is. The company apparently has "blackout dates" where any request for time off will not be taken, these dates are essentially from November 26th through New Years. I'm really hoping I can manage to get home for more than a few days during Christmas time, but I'll have to get a feel for the managers and all that before I know for sure.

Another fun milestone in my road to adulthood was filling out my absentee ballot for the election next week. I was assuming I wouldn't be voting since I am still registered in Richmond, but apparently I thought ahead and registered for an absentee ballot which my mom brought to me during her visit this past weekend. For the first time I sat down and researched all the propositions on the ballot, the main races, and the measures on the ballot specific to Richmond. It took a solid 2 hours, but I did it and was so happy I did. I dropped my ballot in the mail this afternoon and have officially submitted my vote for this election. 'Mommy wow! I'm a big girl now!'

In other news I've OF COURSE been cooking a lot. I just got the November issue of Cooking Light Magazine and I must say I have dog-eared WAY too many recipes for my tummy to hold. I'm currently taking applications to be my human vacuum cleaner and taste tester so that I will not turn into an obese cat lady making epic meals for 7 and eating them by myself.

Here's a lil dish I created on my own that I've literally made 10 times in the past 2 weeks. It's easy and super delicious. The base of the bowl is just brown rice with boiled broccoli and asparagus. The kicker though, is the tomatoes on top. I saute red onions in olive oil, throw in sesame oil and halved baby tomatoes (mine are from the farmers market. Literally as sweet as candy). Let those get warm and puffy, then just add some 'soyaki' sauce from Trader Joes, a ton of fresh garlic and basil and viola! I pour the whole mixture on top of the rice, broccoli, and asparagus and it's AMAZING!

These bad boys were something I whipped up while I was bored last week. I hadn't used my kitchen aid mixer for a while and he was feeling lonely. They are sugar cookie sandwiches that I thankfully was able to pawn off on some friends because eating more than one of these would produce insane sugar highs and perhaps give someone diabetes. Seriously, they're all sugar. I used a basic sugar cookie recipe, rolled each cookie ball in sugar sprinkles, and once cooled I added the filling which is a butter frosting made of confectioner's sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla extract. If that's not enough to make you drool and want to hop on a treadmill simultaneously, then I don't know what will. How many times can I say 'sugar' while describing one dessert? Here it's six. Holy sugar rush!

I've made some other fun dishes but failed to take pictures so I'll have to divulge those recipes at a later date.

More soon!

Kashi Adventures

"Kashi cereal has as much protein as an egg!"

This was the phrase of the day as I broke the seal of my LA, post school, acting career and shot my very first commercial! The initial audition was last week, one of the five I went on during my week of insanity, and the call back was this last Tuesday. I got the final word that I had been cast on Wednesday, and now here I am on Sunday night with a sunburned face and my first commercial under my belt. The whole experience was very different than I had imagined but still tons of fun. And I'm not gunna lie, getting paid to stand outside in beautiful weather by the water, cheer on marathon runners and talk about Kashi cereal...not too bad. Sure I had to pee for about 3 hours before we got a break, I was in a long sleeve shirt in 75 or 80 degree weather and I walked away with a tomato red face but I'm gunna venture to say there are way worse ways I could have spent my Sunday.

We made the trip up to San Luis Obispo where we would be shooting Saturday afternoon, checked into our hotel and had then entire evening to roam the town. I instantly clicked with a few people and we found ourselves at the Central Coast Brewery sampling their 5 beers for 5 dollars. A perfectly wonderful way to spend a Saturday evening with some new people in a new place. After the brewery we made our way farther into town for dinner. I've never been to San Luis Obispo, but it reminded me a lot of Berkeley or Westwood only cleaner and with a little more of a small town feel. Westwood is always bustling but SLO had an easier, calmer feel to it. After being sufficiently stuffed by 1000 pounds of sushi we headed back to our rooms to hang for a while and eventually tried to crash early because our call time was 5:30 AM this morning!

When I woke up not only did it feel like I hadn't really gone to sleep, the TV still on and playing infomercials for things like the shake weight, total home gym, and any other awkward product endorsed by Chuck Norris. I dragged myself into the shower and met the rest of my dazed and sleepy Kashi friends for our craft services breakfast which was being served essentially in total darkness because it was 5:30 in the morning and apparently no one thought to bring some lights to help us out.

This upcoming week promises to be one with a little more free time, although whenever I say that I end up eating my words. Tomorrow I'll be hitting up the Laugh Factory to see my friend's Comedy/Improv/Music group perform as part of an MTV event. I wish I knew more about it but I helped choreograph a small segment in one of the videos they will be playing and felt it appropriate I go out and support. The group is called The Waitist and their videos are pretty funny so if you haven't seen them I'd suggest giving them a gander, I choreographed their Slumdog Millionaire spoof and was so pumped they asked me to come back and choreograph another.

Essentially it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I will write more soon, but for now I am off to dreamland because I am absolutely POOPED!

More Rain Dancing

In recent years I have become very well acclimated with this phrase:

"When it rains it pours."

Literally that should be my mantra, or at least the working title of the made for TV movie about my life. It seems that I am so rarely in any kind of in-between place. I go back and forth from feeling complacent, and tired, and useless to over worked, over booked and frantic in a matter of seconds. When I am feeling overwhelmed it is never a slight itch of a feeling. It is one of those moods when you think the world is going to end, the tears will not stop flowing, and nothing you do is right. When I am feeling great I want to shout it from the rooftops, start a dance party and have everyone join in. Maybe I'm bipolar, or maybe this is a part of getting older? Maybe having so much alone time suddenly forces you to discover the multidimensional, and slightly psychotic person you've always been? Who knows. Two weeks ago I was averaging one or two auditions per week. I was spending a lot of time reading and watching netflix, going to yoga, of course searching for a day job and cooking with all my fresh farmer's market finds. At that point it was pouring normalcy all over my big girl life. I had time to kill during the day which until recently was a complete rarity in my life.

This week however I have been on 5 auditions spanning from mainstream commercials to reality shows, to theater and student films. Suddenly it's raining cats and dogs all over my potentially professional performer life. I have another audition tomorrow, my dad's coming into town AND I have a concert to perform in on Saturday night. Oye! Did I mention there's a female chorus piece from Verdi's Macbeth in the concert sung entirely in ITALIAN? Yah, that's real and not easy. Also I am singing the soprano part which unfortunately for my neighbors sounds like a strangled cat when I am trying to learn it off of my old school tape recorder in the middle of the day. For my wonderfully grumpy neighbor who yelled at me to shut up; I'll stop singing at 2 in the afternoon when you stop yelling and laughing with your roommate as loud as possible at 2am. Thanks.

In other news, UCLA started school last week. I was surprised when I made the personal realization that I am so beyond happy NOT to be in school. I thought that come September I would be sad and nostalgic about everyone else starting their classes, and my friends and the comfort of knowing what I would be doing just about every hour of every day. But, I've realized quite the opposite is true. Sure, not knowing what I'll be doing day to day can be terrifying. Not having a day job stresses me out, and of course as a 20-something, single female, I'm looking for a boy. But when it comes down to it I know I am so lucky to be where I am. So this week was crazy, next week may be the opposite, but at least I can find solace in things like yoga and cooking to pass the time between these days of panic and madness. I really can't even believe this is the life I live.

I am beyond excited for my dad to come down this weekend. Although I feel bad for dragging him to all my obligations this weekend it will be nice to have a driving buddy, not to mention some one to make me mickey mouse pancakes in the morning. I thought I had more to write but I guess this is it for now.

As always there will be more soon and hopefully fun stories to follow.

Panic Be Gone!

Okay been a while since I've written on this piece. Fail.

The last week has been quite a whirlwind. I can't believe it's already Friday again. Living life on a day to day schedule that never looks the same makes the days flow remarkably fast. Since last writing I've gone from feeling incredibly high, to insanely low and back up to my happy balanced self.

I've pulled myself out of the production of Pippin. (Cue gasps of shock here). In school we're constantly taught that we should take every opportunity to perform no matter what it is. Experience is experience...right? After spending a lot of hours stressing over the decision I woke up yesterday with some sort of clarity, thank you to whoever sent that my way, and realized I could not commit the time and money to the project that it warranted. Although I didn't get the dance teaching job (sad face) I feel that there are more things in store for me, not to mention even without that job I'm still working in Malibu once and week, Playa Del Rey 1-2 days a week, and auditioning all over town. It adds up to A LOT of gas, time, and money therefore I decided I couldn't afford to be driving an hour EVERY NIGHT to rehearsals out in the Valley. It's just too much.

I couldn't help but feel an insane amount of relief after officially sending the email about having to depart from the production. By nature I worry a lot about every one else and how my actions will make them feel and often forget to take my own well being, sanity, or feelings. For the first time I made a decision based on what I felt I really needed, without being selfish, and it felt damn good. Not to mention this weekend without being tied to those rehearsals still brings me a full load of commitments.

I think I've said this before but I think I am the busiest unemployed person ever. I guess technically I'm teaching my dance classes and working at Pepperdine, but still, those don't quite add up to a full day job. Tomorrow I will be driving down to Vista (near San Diego) to audition to assist in choreography for the Miss California USA pageant. I'm actually super stoked. I already made up my minute of super girlie, 'stancer' choreography to Katy Perry's California Girls (their song choice not mine, but quite fitting for the project). Then on Sunday I'll be heading back to UCLA to help put some numbers from Cabaret back together with whoever is in town to be presented at Orientation on Monday morning. Talk about insta-choreo. Hopefully I still have everyone's spacing written down in my original binder from the show, we shall see. After that rehearsal I head all the way down to Fullerton for a vocal rehearsal for a concert I've been cast in. I'm excited for the rehearsal but I just downloaded all the group songs they wanted us to learn and it's A LOT. Gotta find time to learn those before Sunday afternoon.

Phew, I'm tired just thinking about the next few days. But I'm approaching it with an open mind and with a smile. I've learned from yoga that no matter how difficult things get physically, if you keep your mind light and a slight smile on your face, everything just gets easier. Something my yoga teacher often says at the end of class is "no matter how difficult warrior 3, or the crow pose can be, it's a thousand times easier that what you'll encounter in your day to day life." But if we keep breathing and releasing eventually things will get easier. I had my share of panic moments this week, but I've learned from the practice that these moments never last long. It's your life, and it's too short to remain in a state of fear, stress, anger, and tension. I guess it's easy for my to say this now that my panic has passed. But I know it will be back sometime trying to pull me into the darkness of self doubt. Force me to ask the questions like "what the hell am I doing with my life?!...who are you kidding, you'll never make it...you call yourself an artist?!" Thankfully I can lay in savasana and push all of those thoughts away from my mind and make room for the universe to fill me with wisdom and guidance.

Good things are coming my way, even if I have to wait for a little while. I'll be here, trying to make the most of this life. Cooking good food, enjoying the company of friends and trying to make sense of this real life I've only begun to enter.

Dancing Off Beat and In The Rain

Happy Labor Day Weekend Friends!

I must say mine has been relaxing and fun for the most part. I spent today at my roommates house with her family soaking up some rays and eating delicious bbq. I spent yesterday walking to the farmers market, impulsively buying canvas and paints to play with outdoors in the sunshine, and sharing a delicious meal of eggplant/tomato stir fry over rice (made from scratch by yours truly) with a dear friend. You should be jealous of the scrumptiousness that has entered my tummy over the last 48 hours. Oh yah, and my roommate made homemade banana bread with her mom Saturday which I've been eating for breakfast all weekend. Like I said, be jealous.

Things in general have begun to pick up. Although I am still lacking the official day job I'm hoping to get a hook up at a dance studio from a new friend, I've been cast in some random one day singing concert, I've been cast in what seems to be a low-budget potentially okay production of Pippin (details to follow), I've got a reading at the end of the month and may be choreographing a theatrical dance piece at Pepperdine for a former teacher of mine. Oh yah, plus random auditions, yoga with my favorite teacher whenever possible, and teaching ballet at a high school once or twice a week starting relatively soon. Now this is the schedule I'm used to juggling!

Speaking of auditions though I have some truly wonderful stories to share from my auditions over the last week or so. The best story comes from my Pippin dance call, so once I become friends with people in the cast (or the creative team) I may have to delete this portion of my post but here it goes for now:

Anyone who knows ANYTHING about Pippin will have to agree with me that it has little to nothing in common with Andrew Lippa's Wild Party, specifically the song "Raise The Roof," which is what our dance call was choreographed to. But "why?" you may ask...the answer? I have no idea. Although I'm sure Bob Fosse loved himself some samba steps I can state with confidence that he did not include it in his original Pippin choreography, just a hunch. SO I'm at the dance call which is not being taught by the choreographer (she was not present) but instead by the associate producer who not only couldn't count the music, but managed to demonstrate a chasse frankenstein-style using the same arm as leg. Oh yes, at this very official (sarcasm) dance call he gave us two chasse's on no particular count using the same arm as leg. It was fantastic. What really put the cherry on the sundae that was this dance combo was that he also decided to belt out Queenie's lyrics while we danced over the track, it helped us dance and hear the non-existent counts better, duh!

There ended up being another dance call back with the actual choreographer who was a girl no older than me which was also not to a song from the show and also started with a Samba step. Again, not sure where the logic was on that one. BUT I apparently had what they were looking for and got cast! Rehearsals start tomorrow. I'm mildly terrified but also just excited to be working on a show again, regardless of the production value.

Another fun story comes from an audition out in Hollywood for a tiny theater I had never really known existed. The play had to do with the major sins and would feature vignettes about each one. By the time the owner and director of the theater had finished describing the theater and the show I knew it wasn't something I had any desire to do, but the guy had my headshot already and I felt it bad juju to just bail. SO the audition went as such. Lots of awkward people in a holding room waiting to go in 3 at a time. When it's our turn to audition here are our instructions: You will come through the door and see a box, the lights will be blue and you will be drawn to the box. You're not sure what it is but you're intrigued by it. You can do this however you want, as yourself, as Indiana Jones, doesn't matter. Then when the lights turn red (here's the best part) you have suddenly become possessed by whatever evil you have chosen is in the box. Now GO!

Dear director man, I am not going to go crazy and turn into the chick from the exorcism for you. And what's best? The whole thing lasted less than 20 seconds. Oye it was awful. Note to self, be more wary of what you submit yourself for, specifically small scale theater in Hollywood, it's scary.

All this aside though I have been having a lot of fun over the past week. I made a new friend at the Pippin dance call who is fantastic, and like I said have felt things picking up speed. It's exciting. I had mentioned to my mom that August might have been the calm before the storm, and if things keep progressing as they have been the past few days I may have been right. We shall see. I'm excited to get my creative juices flowing. I was literally thinking on my drive home today that I really wanted an outlet for my choreography and only a few hours later I got a offer to come choreograph at Pepperdine. Ask and you shall receieve? I think so. Thank you for that universe.

Since this post has become much longer than intended I will leave you with another nugget that stuck with me from my yoga teacher last week. He said "wouldn't it be great if instead of learning to just weather the storm we learned to dance in the rain?" I'm dancin all right and I hope to keep dancing straight through the storm and to the rainbow on the other side.

More soon.

Twenty-Something

I read an article recently about the current twenty-something age group. This collection of young people that I am a part of that are in the limbo phase between adulthood and adolescence; or perhaps the phase of diving head first into the real world while still longing for our parents to make us Mickey Mouse pancakes on Saturday mornings. It's a strange place to live in. This particular article argued that my generation is putting off growing up, so to speak, or rather just taking their sweet time in doing so. People are moving back in with their parents, getting married later in life, living in multiple apartments with multiple roommates before ever thinking about buying a house.

In our teen years we are aching to be free of our parents control. But now, post college, having my mom visit brightens up my week and brings some much needed order to my chaotic and unscheduled new life. It is officially September and for the first time since I was 5 I am not going out to buy the newest and coolest back pack, pencil box, or school gadget. WEIRD. This can' be real. Going through what needs to get accomplished in the next few days I have no homework, no summer reading to catch up on, in reality very few things with any kind of due date other than a short bio for a concert I will be singing in next month. I have traded in papers and textbooks to write emails to various people regarding job opportunities, rehearsal conflicts, auditions and headshots. I have to schedule in my yoga and dance classes, run basic errands such as grocery shopping and CVS trips because I am out of shampoo and running low on my favorite cereal. And while all this sounds easy and mundane I am somehow busy and mildly overwhelmed by the newness of it all.

In school the priorities are clear, black and white. 'I cannot go to that audition because I have class and if I miss class I get in trouble'. Simple, annoying at times, but nonetheless easy to understand and abide by. Now it is not so easy. I must make up the rules on my own. It's all of a sudden not so clear as to what projects, jobs, etc are the wisest choices. Priorities and scheduling changes at the drop of a hat and I have to be ready to do anything at anytime. Talk about living in the present and taking it one day and one breath at a time!

My yoga teacher at the beginning of this week said something which has stuck with me. He was talking about the practice of yoga and how, although it is a physical workout, it is also a spiritual and mental process. Learning to calm the mind, focus on breathing and leave everything that may be causing stress or worry outside while committing to the practice for however long it is. He said that finding a calmness in your daily life is essential; citing that in a natural disaster it is often those who are able to stay calm that survive. And this particular phrase has survived with me all week: "Sometimes life can feel like a natural disaster, but if we can stay calm and breathe through it, we will be okay."

Pretty groovy if you ask me. I'm becoming a more of a yogi everyday. :-)