Coming Home

I just got done with a summer contract working as an Actor/Educator for Compass Creative Dramatics.  The tour took me to Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and gave me an awesome opportunity to engage young actors and introduce them to acting in theater.  I had an awesome time out on the road, but I am glad to be back home.

My old home, the one I grew up in.  

I moved out of my apartment in Chicago at the end of June.  I had lived at Clark and Wellington in Lake View with Walter, my cat Charlotte, and a rotating third roommate for over five years - the longest I've lived anywhere other than my parents' house. 

My Mom bought this house in Countryside in the late 70's, Dad moved in around 1984 and they married.  After living in my mother's womb for the standard nine months, I emerged in mid-January 1985.  My sister Megan popped out in September 1986.  The four of us lived here, with intermittent guests like my older half-sister Sharleen, our Polish nannies (Yasha, Helen, and Helen), our dogs (Yasha, and then Daisy), and our cats (Bruno, Monique, Rocky, Adrian, Onyx, and now Charlotte), until 2003 when I left for college in Normal, IL.

Meg then went to college, Mom and Dad got a dog, Daisy, I moved back for a year after college, I moved out, Meg moved back in, Meg moved out, and things went like that until Mom passed away in October 2015.  Shortly after, Meg and her cat Onyx moved back in to help Dad cope, Meg and Onyx moved out, Dad went to Florida for winter, Meg and Onyx moved in and out, earlier this year Dad's new girlfriend moved in, and now Dad's moved in to his girlfriend's new house.  

The original plan was that I would move in to the house with my Dad, and we would live together for the periods when I was not out on tour with Compass, but now I have the opportunity to live in this house alone for the first time.  Well, me and my cat Charlotte.  I've taken my Dad's office and repurposed it into a studio and office for my acting career - the first time I've ever had an office that wasn't also my bedroom.  I now have a bedroom that is just my bedroom, a kitchen with counter space and a big dining table, and three bathrooms all to myself.

I'm establishing a new rhythm, focusing on my goals, and aiming to achieve them one by one.  I already booked one contract in first audition since coming home from tour, and I've got several auditions already lined up.  I'm working on my voiceover studio, and am looking to start submitting voice auditions next week.  I'm recommitting to my chosen profession and am working my butt off.

It feels pretty cool to do that in the first place I ever called home.