Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

Just getting off of a two week job spoils me I have to say. I got back from Vancouver and I was ready to book the next job! I've been back for a week and a day and I haven't gone out on a single audition. :( I just did a postcard mailing yesterday announcing my pilot booking, so hopefully that will generate some auditions. I'm back to subbing, after a "vacation". And I like being a working actor much better than a working substitute teacher. But to be honest - and positive, WORKING period is better than NOT working! So I'm grateful for that!

1st pic: getting my hair flipped fo rmy last night of shooting, 2nd pic: The ferry that took me to Granville Island, 3rd pic: the view while walking in Stanely Park, 4th pic: ME!!! :), 5th pic: Chinese Garden in Vancouver's Chinatown, 6th pic: locals giving away free hugs in downtown Vancouver

1st pic: taking a break from my hike around STanley Park, 2nd pic: Me and "the Mistress" Lorena on my last night of shooting, 3rd pic: The ladies of "The Virgin of Akron Ohio hit the town! Actually, just having dinner by the water :) from left to right: Jill Latiano, Lorena Segura, ME, Chelah Horsdal I'm Back!!! YAY!!!! I can't tell you how much I missed the sunshine! Talk about not knowing what you have until its gone! I'm so happy to be home! I had a GREAT time working in Vancouver, but I have to say, I was really looking forward to coming home. I'm not sure why - that just meant I'd be unemployed again! But I missed sunny California! I was actually sick from Monday until Wedneday morning. Some kind of stomach flu which kept me in bed for my last couple of days off from shooting. Thankfully I was feeling better for my last night of work. I flew in this afternoon. I took lots of pictures, but I didn't think I should post all 75! So here are a fe...

1st pic: Me (with my new short haircut) and my "friends" (played by background artists), 2nd pic: Me and my "husband" Mauricio Mendoza (his character was in a car accident - thus the make-up), 3rd pic: the CAST WALL - I LOVE seeing my picture on one of these!!!! :) Well, it’s been a week now and I can really get used to this! Why, oh why, do I have to go back to being unemployed after this?? Hopefully not for too long! :) Vancouver is really nice! It’s been raining and cold the entire time I’ve been here, with the exception of yesterday – which was beautiful. And it’s so exciting to be working with such great and positive people. Every night, after we wrap for the day, the director and writer come around and give us all hugs while telling us what a great job we did! It’s been great!! Ok, let me back up a bit and give you a play by play… I was flown in last Sunday and went through a 2 hour hell at immigration when I arrived, since I didn’t have my passport yet. But ...

My first "LA" headshot 6 years ago! Time sure does fly! I just realized this morning that TODAY is my 6th year anniversay here in LA! Talk about having a great way to celebrate! Nothing like booking a pilot that takes you to VANCOUVER for 10 days to make you feel like all the hard work over the past 6 years have been worth it! It hasn't always been easy, or fun - but I have learned a lot about myself and this business over these past few years. Here's to future years of great bookings and experiences!! :)

That's the only way to describe how I'm feeling right now. Wow. Things move pretty fast out here in LA LA land. So I found out last night at around 6pm that I booked the pilot! It's a "top of show guest star" role and I'm SUPER excited about it! Then, I find out that it's shooting in....Vancouver! Canada!! Even cooler! YAY! THEN, I find out that they are flying me out there TOMORROW morning for 10 days! Wow. Crazy how things happen so fast! So while they are telling me about the "car" that's picking me up first thing Sunday morning to take me to LAX so I can get on my firtst class flight to Vancouver....it dawns on me that hel-lo - I have yet to get a passport! Whoops! My manager Jean Marc has been on me about this for a few years now, and the possibility that I will work out the country someday soon seemed so far-fetched to me that I just kept putting it off until "later". It seems like "later" ended up ...

I got a call at 10:15am this morning, while I was teaching, telling me that I had a last minute callback for the pilot " The Virgin of Akron, Ohio " at 1pm. This is the emotional rollercoaster part that I went in for last Friday. So I headed over during lunch and saw that they were seeing a few girls for a different role - but no one there for mine. I did see one other girl who was up for the role of "Gina" - the woman who my husband cheats with, there and no one else for her role either. Hmmm...interesting.... They had us wait a little because the casting director wanted to work with us on it. I thought this was a "producer's session" - so I thought I would be walking into a room full of people, like it normally is on a callback. But this time it was just the CD, myself, and her assistant working the camera. She basically directed both scenes for me until I did it perfectly how she wanted it. She asked if I could put the script down during the scene ...