Day 3 of captivity.  Time is starting to drag now, my days and nights determined by the sunlight peeking through the clouds. The men keeping me captive walk the halls of this stripped and soggy building, talking loudly to each other in a language I don't understand.  The machines they use are grinding a low hum- worse than constant laundry- somehow bigger, reminding me that we are the only people living on this floor.  The 6 surrounding units evacuated, us left unscathed by the flood we are punished by being left here alone.  The men entering units while knocking, forget this unit is still occupied.  And me who likes to write in my pajamas, yelling: "Hold on!", scaring my sickly cell mate, who wants to sleep all day and cry all night.  It's been days since I felt at ease... I like ease. No man shall be left behind, but I gotta get outta here.  The animal paces when she awakes, banging into walls, door frames and getting caught on corners. There is an eeriness to her gait, the sad and familiar tinker toes with the gruesome cone snags and bangs.  Her pile of blankets twisted into a sad and smelly nest.  
  The phone has been quiet, no word from the outside world.  Except the get better texts, no work, no auditions, no play dates.  I think the world knows we're in quarantine, on total lockdown.  In an effort to feel less captive, and more stay-cation-ey, I gave my self an at home spa day... well, let's just say, at home disaster day.  An intensive hair reconstruction treatment- that left my hair heavy and looking like I groom with a combination of seal blubber oil and adolescent insecurity.  I soaked, trimmed, shaped and buffed my nails to an appropriate ukulele length (though it may be a few more days until I play as my pupparoo is always sleeping*insert air strum).  This didn't go well.  I cut my thumb, pointer and middle finger nails WAY too low and split the pinky one, and my cuticles are uber-dry from the change in seasons and lack of attention! As for my feet? Les sigh.  These tender tootsies have been in winter boots with bamboo socks that give me splinters, so I again soaked, trimmed, buffed and shaped them- taking extra care to work off those calluses.  Oh wait, only to walk the 10 steps my dog can take and stub my big toe- fracturing my big toe nail and maiming me. 
  My mother says there's never a dull moment with our family, and when things get overwhelming she's right.  But when we're on a roll, I mean when we're really cooking, it's hard to stop us.  I guess the tough thing about being a juggernaut is that it doesn't matter what direction you're going in- cause you're going all the way.  I remember the sunny days, and I know I will see them again soon.  I will get to snuggle Jilly, who will have grown all her hair back, in a building that has no water damage, with shiny, healthy hair and fingers and toes that belong in a spa magazine, oh yes, the time will come.  But for now, I must wait for the damn machines in the hallway to stop screaming and be a quiet and vigilante cell mate, planning our escape.  Leaving no man behind, except maybe hubby, he's normally a home body.
 
Dear Opportunity,
  I heard you were here and I missed you. I am sad to say that I was looking forward to catching up,  it seems like so long since I've seen or even heard from you.  There are so many things I wanted to tell you, for example, have you heard that I started a blog? It's not very good yet, but I am hoping that if I actually just started doing it I would get better.  This opinion could be horribly wrong and it probably is, but I keep telling other people that they should just shut up and do it, so that's what I am going to do. Well, not the shutting up part, the doing it part.  
   The uke playing is coming along nicely, it is such a dainty little demon in my hands.  Strumming Betty (to which I lovingly refer her) creates a sense of an island vacation, though sometimes it sounds like it's screaming as it hurtles down a flight of antique stairs, but that's because it's old. Not that I'm ageist, but poor Betty is a senior citizen, a crotchety old woman, who is equal parts stubborn and rewarding.  
   Onto Jilly, she's still asleep since the last time we spoke.  Somehow, that beast manages to bury herself in a cavern of our stacked pillows.  Burrowing deeper into sleep, and weaving her fur into the soft fabric of our bedding creating a prickly night time canine-reminder, as though her snoring and deep sleep chases aren't enough.  Lucy is good. She has taken up asylum underneath my dresser, which has been recently excavated, which brings me to spring cleaning.
  Here we go! Oh dust, dirt and animal hair, I find you it every corner of our tiny Toronto abode.  Jammed into corners,  woven into rugs and saturating blankets.  Making fresh washed socks look like wooly 7 day dust bunnies, but the swiffer and dyson seem up to the task of apartment shaving, when I am.  Spring cleaning this year includes culling my wardrobe, and removing the surprising amount of shirts and pants with various stains on them, that I was apparently saving "to paint in", though I have no idea what I thought I would be painting and for how long, I can only imagine from this extensive wardrobe that it would be Sistine-like.  Also, joining my painting clothes are the "garage towels"- for what condo-car-port calamity was I saving them? What projects did I think I would undertake that I would require a wrecked wardrobe of such magnitude?  Regardless, it is a gift to be able to close my dresser drawers.  The dresser excavation is another story, I retired 2 pairs of boots, one bright but leaky and another dark and split open, sending them to a better place* hopefully with a new sealant.  I will "miss" them all but I think it will be a smoother track for my drawers to glide, and ease is something I should strive towards.
  Opportunity, I would now like to take this chance to invite you back for a visit.  I know I have made progress and you promised if I kept my head down and worked hard, you would come and see me again soon.  I look forward to it, though I can no longer help you paint your living room, is that gonna be a problem?


xoxo
Melicious
 
In another of my occassional day job, I act. Well, I act in my day to day life, I act like a goof or a bitch, a ukulele player and I act on my instinct.  Today, I acted like a nurse, correction a cyborg nurse from the future.  With a whopping two lines and 3 takes I think that cyborg nurse is going to take the modern and futuristic world by storm.  Okay not storm, perhaps more like a slight breeze, can you take the world by slight breeze?  Well, regardless a bit a good karma never hurt anyone and if playing a cyborg nurse for a student film isn't good for my karma, I don't know what is.  Cyborg nurse, a truly inspired 2 lines! Beep-boop-beep = Rave reviews and film festivals in cyborg-ese.
 
Two weeks ago, I was sitting curled up, sipping on a glass of tequila, reading The Huff Post Guide to Blogging.  As I sat there I wondered what my first blog would be about.  When the warmth of the tequila spread across my chest as only tequila can. I realized that this was my first blog. Then I got procrastinaty and "forgot" write it.  So 2 weeks later here we go for a real start without the tequila.

Although I am behind on all fonts*wink, I have been training my brain and my fingers.  With the new addition of the ukulele, Lil'Betty to my schedule this January aswell as this blog, a vlog, a one woman show, a stand up routine, fitness program and a few tv series pitches.  I am getting new calluses everywhere and feeling procrastinaty again, but I should be able to do all that in a year? Right?