"Enough with the friggin camera, auntie!"

Well, there’s lots to say. I’m in San Diego right now, but I’m headed back to Seattle tomorrow. I’m here to help my sister out with her new baby (and my newest niece), Ruby Claire. She’s pretty much the most beautiful newborn I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve been taking literally hundreds of photographs, like any good aunt would. No trip would be complete (it would seem) without a serious case of strep throat, though, so I made sure to work that in. Regardless, I’ve enjoyed being here with the prettiest baby in the world.

Back in Seattle we’re going to pick up on our second week of filming Half Empty (working title). We were going to shoot three of my scenes next weekend, but they’ve been moved to next month due mostly to my unreliable health at this point. I’ll most likely be well by then, but I’m somewhat relieved that they’ve been postponed so I can recover from my three weeks of non-stop travel. I’ve been tweeting and blogging the production process over at oldloyalfilms.com if you want to follow along.

Me and Lyle Lovett

Before I came to San Diego I was on a Cayamo cruise and it was so much fun. I met some great people (hey Rob!) and listened to a lot of good music. It was absolutely amazing to get some serious sun. Of course I was sick with a cold, but nothing could have stopped me from getting out and soaking some sun up and rocking out to the bands.

Before I got really sick I was able to go meet up with a friend I met at Sundance several years ago. It was really great to see her, and we had a fun time over a great happy hour at Napa Valley Grille. We’ve been trading favors, so it’s pretty fun to get together and be excited about our respective projects. My non-LA actressness was apparent to her when I told her the plot of Half Empty and completely excluded my part in the plot. Heh. What can I say? I’m all about the project as a whole. It won’t matter if I’m great in the movie if the film is crap in the end… I really just want to make sure it’s the best it can be. I believe in the script, and I hope we can do it justice.

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First of all, I now have two movies listed on my IMDB page. I’m on my way, y’all! Related to that, the movie Half Empty is starting to ramp up and we’re going to be rehearsing in January and then filming will begin in February. I’ve been asked to pull double-duty and work as a PA on the project as well, I’ve decided to do it. So I’ll be on set for most of the shooting days, even when I’m not in the scenes. I’ll be documenting the behind the scenes kind of shiz for the movie blog and stuff.

I’m not sure why, all of a sudden, but I’ve decided to audition for a short film shooting in January. My audition is tomorrow. The people behind the film have worked on some pretty great things, so if I get it I think it could be pretty cool.

In February I’m going to go on a cruise with Kim Ruehl. It’s called Cayamo and it’s this cruise that leaves Miami, heads down to Belize, stops in Mexico and makes its way back to Miami, but the big deal about the cruise is the lineup. It’s all a bout music on Cayamo, and the number of amazing artists on the cruise is just nutz. Because of what Kim does, we’re getting this incredible discount and I just couldn’t pass up the experience. I got my tickets to Miami tonight.

My sister Amy will be having her first baby in March, and I volunteered to go down and help her out. I’ll be in San Diego for two weeks right after I get back from the cruise. Her husband will be busy with work, and they will have just refinished their home, so things are going to be crazy. I’m hoping I can be a big help there.

The General is just awesome. She’s just amazing at what she does and I’m in awe of her work ethic and drive. It’s pretty cool to watch her grind away at her special side-projects.

The holidays are in full swing! I’m loving it! I’m gathering all the stocking stuffers and wrapping all the presents, and making hot buttered rum. Yes! I’m also looking forward to the annual Caroling with Carollani event held some day before Christmas. The looks on the people’s faces is heartwarming and priceless.

Adam and his girlfriend are coming up for a visit, and I’m hoping to entice him into staying with us for a night or two while he’s here. I’m quite excited about that.

I’ve been skiing twice this year already at Crystal Mountain, and both times were superb conditions. The extra long drive is totally worth it. There’s never any wait for the lifts, and the runs are so long and fun. I am, however, looking forward to when The Summit is all open and running, because it sure is close. I can’t wait until I’m not completely sore the day after skiing.

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We flew in to Los Angeles on Friday and proceeded to get a little drunk at the hotel bar, but we started up early and made our way to Disneyland! Here we are (Steven, Logan, me, Laura, Brandon) in front of some random Halloween decked Disneyland cart.  Since it is Halloween time, the Haunted Mansion was full of Nightmare Before Christmas stuff.

Laura, Brandon and I soldiered on after Logan and Steven left to go to the beach.  The three of us stayed in the park until closing time. My favorite rides were the Screamer, the Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain (even though my jeans were soaked most of the day).

On Sunday we met up with Logan, Steven, Matt, David Jack, and Javier (aka Daddy) for brunch and then the main event: Kylie Minogue at the Hollywood Bowl.  David Jack split the front of his pants doing a cheerleader kick before the show… so that set the tone. Heh.  The concert was amazing! The graphics and set design were really phenomenal and Ms. Minogue was flawless. Leaving the show we saw Ongina from RuPaul’s Drag Race wearing a pretty great fake mustache. (Unfortunately, I left the lights on the rental car on so the car was dead when we returned to it, so our night took a turn. Luckily, a stranger finally helped us out. A big eff you to all of the people in the parking garage that lied and told me you didn’t have jumper cables, and a big THANK YOU to the awesome Mexican guy in a large pickup that eagerly saved our day in 5 minutes or less.)

We took Brandon to the airport and then we migrated South to San Diego. We met up with some of the boys again at Baja Betty’s in the Hillcrest neighborhood. Laura and I both wore purple so as to look like proper lookalike lesbians. J/k.

My sister, Amy, took Laura and I to SeaWorld where we saw…

Adorable penguins, and…

A walrus right up against the glass, and…

Frightening sharks swimming overhead, and…

A manatee pleasuring himself with his flippers, and…

Shamu the whale, and…

A whale tail, and…

A sea-turtle or tortoise… I’m not sure which, SeaWorld’s emphasis isn’t on education.

We spent some lovely lazy days at my sister and brother-in-law’s house in San Diego with the cutest dog known to man, Dexter.  We also met up with Kate and Nikolai and went boogie boarding at Coronado where Kate and Nikolai have the most amazing condo looking over all of San Diego and nearby Mexico.

On our last full day we met up with Laura’s aunt Linda who took us to the Mission for an amazing breakfast, and then to the zoo where we monkeyed around (har har).

I took advantage of a sleeping hippo.

We watched this female panda lumber around her habitat after splashing in the water for a bit.

This meerkat is showing off for the crowd, because he’s the only one that can climb the fake termite mound in the enclosure. He was pretty freaking cute.

What’s up giraffe? Say hello to your mother for me.

Laura’s aunt was like the orangutan whisperer. She was showing this curious orangutan the contents of her purse and he was very interested in all the family photos.  It was pretty neat to watch.

I instructed Linda and Laura to make a funny face and they did the exact same thing. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, eh? We had a fabulous time at the San Diego Zoo and learned some interesting things. After we finished we ate at Extraordinary Desserts and then picked up some delicious cheeses at Verissimo Cheese for a casual dinner.

On the day we had to fly back to Seattle we packed in one last big destination: the Wild Animal Park up near Escondido. We went on a really cool safari ride and then we rode the carousel to get closer to the animals. Laura pictured here riding an elephant.

Me on an okapi, which is kind of half giraffe and half zebra.

The sunset on the flight home was pretty spectacular and gave the whole trip a nice exclamation point.

We’re very glad to be home, but we’re miserably sick with colds. Gotta press on, The General’s birthday is on Friday!

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