Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

on the set of ER, of course! :) It was pretty awesome! Aside from the fact that it had to be the most unflattering wardrobe I ever had to wear for a job - it was still pretty cool to be on the set of a long running hit show. What's funny is, I remember when I did extra work on ER back when I first moved into town. And here I am, just under 7 years later, and I'm "in my own trailer" and working with John Stamos! haha Pretty funny stuff! Everyone was so nice! I didn't get to work with or see Mekhi Pfifer, but I did see Parminder Nagra and say hello to her, as well as Maura Tierney . The episode is called "Atonement" - so be sure to keep an eye out for it. It should air towards the end of January 2008.

Talk about FAST! I thought I would shoot sometime within the next couple of weeks. At least, that's what I was told originally! Now, I find out I'm shooting tomorrow! I went in for my wardrobe fitting today. Since the show is set in chicago, it's supposed to appear as if it's freezing cold out there. So they bundled me up in a turtle neck under my uniform and a big puffy jacket! I look like the younger kid from A Christmas Story! "I can't put my arms down!" :) (I love that movie!) I'll be sure to take my camera and snap as many pics as I can of John Stamos and Mekhi Pfifer ! :)

Well, let me first start with my commercial callback yesterday. It went well, despite my voice was still a little hoarse. And a big part of the commercial is a voiceover so they had asked me to just say the lines while they listened to my voice. nice. Hopefully they like the "Demi Moore sound"! :) I had my audition for ER this morning. I got there SO early, just to make up for being so late to that audition with John Levey last time . I noticed that there were just a couple of other women there for my role. That's always nice to see. ER only has producer's sessions, they don't normally have pre-reads, so no wonder it takes a while to get called into that office! Ever since I moved out here, for seven years , I have wanted to audition for this show!Well, they called me up on deck, and as I was sitting there waiting to go in, I look to my right, and I see a 2007 calender with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and right in between them, my friend Angel Oquendo . ...

Sorry I haven't posted in a week. I have been sick with larangitis! For the past 4 days I have been without a voice! :( I didn't even know it was contagious until I spent Thanksgiving at my friend's place and she called me the next day without a voice too! Oops! Sorry! I hope I didn't get anyone else sick. I have been laying low, trying not to talk much this weekend - mainly because I CAN'T! So far it's gotten better. Now its a low raspy sound instead of just air. I need my voice! I have a commercial callback on Monday and an audition for ER on Tuesday! So I need to be able to say my lines! I'm drinking lots of hot tea with lemon so hopefully it will be back to normal by tomorrow!

The Good News....The writers are scheduled to resume "talks" on Friday of next week. Hopefully they can come to a better deal and we can all get back to work! :) It has been pretty dead for me this past week. I did go out on ONE commercial audition. Oh well... The BAD news....I woke up sick this morning. :( Or at least, almost sick. It's not full blown - about 75% - but it's enough to have me taking medicine all day and being a complete bum indoors. I want it to go away by tomorrow! Tomorrow I have a screening for the film " Margot at the Wedding ". There will be a Q&A with Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh afterwards.

TR Knight, Kathi Griffin, Andy Richter, and many others gathered in support of the writer's strike at Universal Studios today. ok, I attempted to help out on the picket lines today, but I got there around 10 til 2pm and they were just wrapping up! :( I stayed until around 2:30pm and everyone was turning in their picket signs. :( Oh well - now that I know they are there around 6am until 2pm daily - I'll be sure to get there earlier - on a day when I'm off! Today was "Actor Day", where they asked some "celebrity names" to show their support for the writers. I was so excited to meet TR Knight since I'm a huge fan of Grey's Anatomy! I actually took a picture with him - but I came out so horribly - that I thought it would be best just to show him alone! haha!

I saw my friend Jennifer 's film " LOOK " at the AFI Film Festival this past Thursday. It was a really cool film about surveillance cameras and it makes you think about just how many times we are captured on camera each day! And not to mention my friend's performance was SO FREAKIN' AWESOME! She's great and the film is doing well on the festival circuit. She's currently in Fort Worth being given the red carpet treatment for being part of the film that won the special jury prize!!! I'm very happy for her! She deserves all of this success and more! :)

I spent my afternoon getting my new 8x10 pictures ready for reproduction. Between my manager and agent, I'm getting 6 headshots done! wow - that's a lot! Then, I came home and got a few autographed pictures signed for a few "fans" that contacted me this week. :) That's always nice! I'm mailing them out tomorrow. :) My beautiful futon was delivered yesterday for my home office and I'm expecting my new desk next week. My place is almost done! And I can't believe the holidays are right around the corner. Makes me feel silly for purchasing things for my home - like a futon for the office - when it's not a necessity. I guess I could've waited until the beginning of next year, AFTER the holidays, to buy it - but my impatient nature wants everything to be done and ready NOW! Oh well - I love it - so there! haha Day 3 of the strike... Check it out - and support: UnitedHollywood.com

My manager called me today and started off with "Spielberg's office called for you today". Wow - can we hang up and let me hear that again? PLEASE??!!!! :) They are doing a new DVD called "Spielberg on Spielberg", I guess where he talks about his movies. They are showing a clip with me in it, not sure which one, but they called to "book" me for that - meaning PAY me for using my image! Nice! I hope I get a copy of the DVD! And I wish they use one of the clips that was left on the cutting room floor! I did a few more close ups that didn't make it to the final film! One where I even did a "stunt" and I hopped the Burger King counter and went running and yelling down the food court! We'll see which one they use! And hopefully all of you - EVERYONE - buys a copy of this DVD! :)

The Dirt audition went well yesterday. I was the last one they saw for the role. (that day). He asked me to do it three different times, and the last one he wanted "more accent". hmmm...of course! UGH! Always an accent! My question (in my head) was MORE???? Didn't know I actually HAD an accent, but I think it's because the last word in my line was a spanish curse word. We'll see what happens... The writer's strike started today. I saw a few people walking the picket like outside of NBC studios when I passed by there today. I think they only thing directly affected by the strike right this moment, is sitcoms. They need writers every five minutes to tweak an episode before they film it. Hopefully the strike won't go too long! I'd like to book more work before the enbd of the year! :)

I had two auditions this past Wednesday. One for October Road , playing a cop, and the other was for a sci-fi feature film called Supermarket . The film audition was really fun. My character was actually possessed by an alien who they try to kill by blowing me up. I have never heard the compliment "You died very well" before! :) Thursday I took the day off of subbing and helped out for a couple of hours at my manager's office with submissions. I have an audition on Sunday (yes, SUNDAY) for the FX show Dirt . It's happening on Sunday because everyone is getting ready for the Writer's strike that should begin on Monday. Commercials and features will probably not be affected, and episodics (tv shows) might not be affected for a couple of months....so we'll see what happens here. Either way, I want to show my support so I may look into walking the picket line with them.