Gotta break the seal on April, right? Right??

One Verizon commercial turned into four.

The first one was a longish day down in Whittier on a golf course. We extras (that massive network you see roaming around behind the guy in the glasses) got stacked up on the green, giving the putter aiming advice. Then we ate lunch. Then we got stacked up on another green, waiting for just the right moment to leap in [almost] unison to bump the poor man's ball from the lip of the cup to the bottom of the cup. Pretty clever application of a classic golf joke, if you ask me.

Tuesday was a day off.

Wednesday I got on a pilot called The Eastmans which, apparently, Donald Sutherland is in. He was not on location. The location, as it turned out, was a massive cemetery in Pasadena. It was just a little strange to be dressed as earthmoving/greens crew for a fictitious funeral...standing around in the midst of real graves. It's not that I'm particularly creeped out by cemeteries, I think shooting in a cemetery is just one of those things that draws a specifically sharp distinction between the make-believe and the real.
The distinction was drawn even more crisply when, toward the end of the brief shoot, a real funeral procession came in for an interment on the other end of the grounds. It was all peppered in surreal.

While at the cemetery on Wednesday, I got a call about more Verizon. A lot more. Three days of shooting, Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Well how's your father? That was a nice way to seal up the week with work.

On top of that, Thursday and Friday were both really short days. Like, 1330 call, 1830 done days. Monday promises to be similar.

I had a surprise audition waiting in my inbox on Thursday evening, which I was able to squeeze in before Friday's Verizon call. The writing was great, the premise is interesting, the writer/director was fun, and I got to go to USC for the first time. They have a ridiculous cinema arts building.

Saturday was a little more on the interesting side. We wound up applying for a new apartment at a different complex...a really nice 2 bedroom place. There's a slight hitch, though...it's a teensy bit out of our current price range. Like, we should probably be aiming for something about $200/month cheaper than this...but everything seemed to make sense. It had all the things we were looking for in a bigger place, it kept us in the city we want to stay in, there was a unit coming available in the middle of next month, etc., etc. All this on the day I happened to stop by. That has all the markings of the proverbial "God Thing". However, moving into a place that we can't guarantee the ability to pay for also has all the markings of the traditional "Brings Out all of the Latent Stress, Insecurity, and Doubt about the Career Thing" too. Oh the fun that that engenders. Made me feel like an idiot, anyway. It's a classic human story. It seems like the right thing to do, until you do it, realize you've done it, and begin to digest the practical implications of what you have to believe God will do for you.

Granted, the complex hasn't let us in yet. That's the final litmus. If they approve us, I'll take it as and indication that God intends to provide the necessary means to pay the rent. It's not impossible to expect, especially in the entertainment industry...it just can't be guaranteed...and if that's not a fight starter in this house (because of yours truly, of course) nothing is.

PS - Upon further reflection (read: proofing by the wife) it's not so much the higher rent that's the issue at the May rent here, 2/3 May rent there, and then June rent there...So, like triple rent in the space of a month. My bad.