Confessions of a G-List Actress-Summer Time, and it is a long, winding road on the path of constant gig employment.

A question, is there a word or a term for the fact that when you get an acting job everyone suddenly needs you every day? You want to prepare for a life in acting. Learn this phrase: "You want fries with that?" Yeah, it is a joke but it is based in a serious reality. Most actors have a day job, usually waiting tables or bartending. You have to because acting is expensive and inflation is not slowing down. Some teach acting or singing. Many film actors work on crews as costumers, grips, or makeup artists. Some will step into other sectors because it is nice to not have to work a 14-hour day and then come back and tape five auditions. I have two jobs right now other than acting, technically three but I am waiting for a few CPR classes to pop up. Talent only gets you so far, yadda, yadda...

I do often wonder why it is, whenever I am about to go off to work for any amount of time, that is when everyone needs me to work. All hands on deck. We need you for the next five weeks. You can't ask for time off. This is also why so many actors get jobs they can easily leave. Because acting always is the most important.

A month ago I signed a contract to perform at Crane River in Kearney, Nebraska. Their summer season includes one of my favorite shows, God of Carnage. Seriously, I adore this show. It is funny, irreverent, and fast-paced. I get to perform as Annette, a role made famous on Broadway by Hope Davis. I am so excited to be a part of this. 

So the planning begins. 

I need to get to Nebraska. Kearney, Nebraska. Exactly 1,126 miles from my front door. No big. I will just fly, right? I hate flying personally but am willing to get a valium and get on a plane to fly into town. However, after looking at my options, Kearney only has two airlines that fly into town and a round trip plane ticket runs at almost $800 per person. Seems a bit high a month out.

Yay for a driving weekend. I get meditative when I drive. I have my audiobooks and podcasts. I have my script to memorize on an app that can help me memorize. I like watching the scenery go by. If I need to get off the road and stretch my legs, I can. It is a long drive, but I have done thirteen hours before, what's another five?

Sure, it is the week that both my parents and my in-laws decided to take a summer beach vacation at different beaches in NC. This travel weekend also happens to be when two theaters I have worked for before are having their season in-person auditions. Thank goodness for taped auditions. And the following weekend five more theaters are having in-person auditions. Once again, yay taping! I could actually write an entire thesis on this, I will call it the theory of competitive scheduling.

Crane River is taking care of my housing. Summer stock is good that way. I have my own apartment and I am looking so forward to having a few weeks of acting. It resets me and balances things. Like meditation, but for an artist. I still have to have places to stay along the way so I plan for a few places to stay over the trip. I find it odd that particular weekend is so expensive, but I let that go. $300 for a hotel room in a 2-star hotel? What is going on?

I get a copy of the script and start to cram all the words into my brain. Wow, she speaks in non-sequitur. We only have two and a half weeks of rehearsal and the show is four people on stage almost the entire time talking over one another. I start a list of what I want to take with me. General planning.

Then, present life takes completely over. For an entire month, I am working every single day of the week. If I am not at the bar or PCOM GA (Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Georgia) I am in a meeting for the World Water Short Film Festival, which by the way, you need to check out. Or I am doing acting coaching for a friend's short film. 

Something to know about me: I over-extend myself a lot, something I am constantly working on. So other than working on my lines every free second I don't really get to relax and pack. It's unfortunate.

Sunday, my phone died. This stinks because I had business in NC on Monday, which I now have to reschedule to Friday morning since I have no other morning available. I get up on Monday, get a new phone, and drive to work. Next day, work all day. Next day, work all day. The next day...you get the point. 

By Friday, I am exhausted. I have slept, but I can't sleep well if I know I have an alarm ready to go off. I get up, drive an hour and a half to NC, take care of business, and drive back to Atlanta just in time for my husband to drive us to PCOM, where we work. Once we are finished we head back to the apartment and I grab my bags, which I had packed very hastily the night before.

I give my husband a hug, I hate leaving him this long, but he is going to the beach and I get to act.  We both get to do things we love doing.  I climb into my car and drive.  

The drive for Friday is really short.  I am just going to Chattanooga, TN.  A mere two hours away, but I want to get a few hours under my belt, and that still puts me at having been in a car for over six hours, just on Friday.  I get to my destination, the Crash Pad.  Technically, it's a hostel.  I have stayed in one before.  It's like being in a sleep-away camp.  

I get a queen-size upper bunk with privacy curtains and access to the internet.  The girl staying below me is amiable.  She's been there for a week.  I am too hungry and tired to talk.  I run next door to the Flying Squirrel and grab some quick dinner.

I am so tired I barely eat anything, but there is a fridge in the kitchen and so I write my name on the top and go to my bunk.  I watch the most recent episode of Under the Banner of Heaven and fall asleep.

The next morning I wake up at 8:30am.  No surprise since I fell asleep at 9:30pm.  That was a hard sleep.  I didn't move once I fell asleep.  

I grab all my things and start the drive from Chattanooga.  I text my husband, he is checking in and will be checking throughout the day.  

I know I have to make it to Kansas City, MO.  I am excited to get into St Louis.  I have always wanted to see the arch and I really want to go up to the top and take pictures.  On this day I will pass through Georgia(for some reason the freeway from Chattanooga temporarily goes south), Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri.  Five states in one day. Here we go.

I can salvage my food from the night before so I throw it away and opt for a coffee and protein box from Starbucks.  The drive through Tennessee is the most grueling.  You change time zones in Tennessee before even getting to Kentucky.  Somewhere in the middle of the state, the change occurs and suddenly time reverses.  

It takes forever to get to Nashville, and that city is one big traffic jam.   It takes an extra hour to get through, at 1:00pm on a Saturday.  

I get to Kentucky.  I have been trying to collect screenshots of the Google Characters that welcome you to each state and I totally miss it.  Kentucky, on my route, is all farmland.  Rolling farmland with huge billboards selling bourbon.  Do you what you know.

It's actually a really pleasant drive.  I have currently listened to "God of Carnage" twice for lines and finished up "Going Poastal" by Terry Pratchett.  I am ready for Illinois when it comes up and get my little Welcome Icon.

Illinois surprises me.  I think of the state and think Chicago, but my route is even more desolate with fewer gas stations than in Kentucky.

I don't see a city until I reach St Louis, MO.  once again I miss my welcome icon between running lines and looking for the Arch.  This was the thing I have wanted to see all day.

I see it looming and it is actually smaller than I thought it would be.  The Statue of Liberty looms at 305 feet and the Arch is 630 feet for some reason, surrounded by the buildings, it looks smaller.  Parking is hard, but I find it and walk through the beautiful park to the monument.  I try to buy a ticket and they inform me they are sold out for the day.  Annoying, I will catch it on my way back.  There are tons of exhibits to look at in the free museum on the bottom floor and so I can be on my feet for at least an hour to stretch and read about Louis and Clark.  

It really is amazing how it was built.  The history is fascinating and the size of the pods they use to take you to the top is TINY.  I stepped into the out-of-commission pod they have in the entrance and I couldn't stretch my neck straight.  They are small pods.

You don't really realize how tall this monument is until you are underneath it.  It has a certain sparkle to it.

I am starting to feel the road.  My internal clock thinks it is 7:00 and it is actually 6:00pm.  I look at the map and I still have an almost four-hour drive to Kansas City.  I figure it is worth the loss of funds to try and get a closer hotel so I start driving.  A friend of mine calls and we chat for about an hour.  Then my parents call and we chat.  

Then, my phone dies...

...in the Ozarks.  

I really didn't know exactly where the Ozarks were.  But I found them. 

Thankfully Kansas City was a straight shot.  The charger had apparently broken in the day and so I pull over and grab a drink and seat at a Mcdonald's and let my phone charge.  Once it charges enough I turn it on and immediately it starts ringing.  

It's my husband, checking in.  He's at the beach.  LUCKY! 

I like hearing his voice.  It always feels odd when he is so far away.

There is a hotel in the same parking lot as the McDonald's.  I might as well see if they have a room, so I go in and ask, and they are fully booked.  I figure I will keep driving, another one...totally booked.

"What is going on?"  I ask after the fourth hotel I call says they have no room.

Apparently, Graduation, Concert, and ballgame are the answers.  There is not another hotel room in this state.  This explains why a hotel room at the Days Inn, which is normally $60 a night, is going for nearly $300.  

In a frenzy, I call my hotel and tell them I am on my way since it is 8:00pm and I don't want them to give my room away.  I give them my confirmation and they tell me they are sorry but they overbooked and are willing to give me a refund.  At that point, I lost it.  I apologize to the person on the other end of the line and they manage to get me a room at a sister hotel a little further down my road.

I get in, message my husband and my parents that I am safe, and fall asleep at 11:00pm CST.  

My brain wakes me up at 6:00am on Sunday.  Less than five hours to go and I will be at my temporary home for the next few weeks.  

I find a gas station and a Starbucks.  Tank up, drive on.  Of course today there will be storms and I am ready for the worst since I will be skirting Kansas.  Thankfully, the worst that happens is my car gets a good wash.  

Two hours later I am in Iowa.  Iowa is pretty, lightly rolling, and filled with farmland.  Under the Banner of Heaven is entertaining me in-between bouts of memorizing lines.  It reminds me of a very flat Avery County.

One left turn, a bridge, and a hill and I am in...NEBRASKA!!

It is flat and repetitive.  I seriously thought I passed the same rest stop four times going completely straight.  Lincoln, NE is barely a blip.

I pass under the Arch at exactly 11:56am.  FINALLY!  

But I do not get to move into my apartment just yet.  Graduation is still in full swing this weekend and the students haven't moved out of the apartments we are staying in, so we get to stay in a Best Western for 24 hours.  Check in is at 3pm.

I take one of the girls from another show to a Target and grab a smoothie.  Back to the hotel.  Check in.  Shower.  By the way, that was an amazing shower after a day on the road.  Find "Anything Goes" starring Sutton Foster on PBS.  Fall asleep for half an hour.  Get up.  Put on make up.  FIx my hair.  Barbeque at 6:00pm.  Chat a little with the locals.  Meet one of my fellow actors.  Walk around the park.  Stuff my face with way too much junk food.  It is wonderful.  Go back to the hotel.  Wash the makeup off my face.  Lay down.  Turn on TV.  Find Seinfeld.  Laugh at George.  Fall asleep at 9:00 pm.  

Next morning.  Wake up at 10:00am.  Check out.  Drive to housing.  Move in.  Clean out car.  Drive to rehearsal.  Do a read through.  Go back to housing.  Falls asleep.

I love this crazy acting life.