Home Sweet Home?

Though Paul and I have been married for almost eight and a half years now, we just bought our first house a year ago. Prior to that, we were living in cheap campus housing, moderately priced apartments, or – in the last three years before buying our house – in an expense-free Resident Director’s apartment on a small college campus. I don’t know if it’s those last three years that made the shock of owning a home particularly, um, shocking, but it has really been eye-opening. Here are some things I’ve learned about myself in the last year:

- I despise yard work. We live in a neighborhood that requires us to maintain a certain level of exterior upkeep. But even if our HOA didn’t demand it, my desperately-needs-to-be-good-at-everything-perfectionistic tendencies would. I wish that I enjoyed working out there. I envy people who enjoy yard work and are good at it…it seems like a great way to relieve stress and achieve a great sense of accomplishment when living things thrive under your care. I’m just not one of those people. Every time I have to water the lawn or plant something, I just resent it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m better than the work…I just don’t enjoy it. At all.

- I feel trapped by my mortgage. I’ve heard that some people find comfort in knowing they have a stable place that’s all their own, but I really feel more like, “well, even if you want to leave, you can’t.” Especially in this market. Not that I even want to leave. I’m not even thinking in that direction right now. But the knowledge that I couldn’t be up and outta here in 30 days if I really wanted to suffocates me.

- I don’t need to be in a neighborhood to be part of a community. Even if my family didn’t live in the same house, I get plenty of interaction with friends at church and here in town. It’s nice to have people right next door to turn to if an emergency comes up, but I can totally see how living out in the country where the house closest to yours is more than 10 feet away could also be appealing.

Maybe the American Dream just isn’t for me. Upon examination, I think we bought a house because that’s what we’d always been told we should do. Buy a house…build up equity! But Paul and I have always been really good at saving money for a rainy day. If we didn’t have to deal with the yard work and other responsibilities of owning your own home and had the freedom to move around whenever the mood struck us, AND live more frugally so we had a nice, cushy savings account into our old age…I just feel like that might be the better way for us. I know people say renting is flushing your money down the toilet, but I don’t know that I agree with that anymore.

I have no idea what the future holds for us – or where we’ll eventually end up – but I’m not nearly as sold on this whole homeowner thing as I once was. And I definitely feel like this is more a case of knowing myself better rather than discontentment with my circumstances.

Hmmm…

Peace. Out.

Debrief…

So, I’m home from LA. Settling in…and by that, I mean, I’ve dumped my suitcase in my closet, but haven’t actually unpacked anything yet. Most of the last 24 hours have been spent hanging with Paul, which has been lovely. I also came straight back to work with an 8 a.m. call time this morning. Yeah, I’d been on the West Coast just long enough for that to feel like 5. Awesome. :)

I feel like I’m still processing everything that happened over the last week. In many ways, it was just another shoot – good times, bad times, sore feet, not enough sleep or water, inside jokes. In other ways, it was completely unique. All of it is rolling around in my still-sleep-deprived brain, so it may take a while to sort through it all.

The coolest thing is that I was invited (encouraged, begged, bribed!) to come back in a few weeks and I’m officially a member of Team Jesus People (I can see the tee shirts now…). An amazing deal on flights was released today through American Airlines that allowed Paul and me to both get tickets to LA and back for about the same price as a single ticket would cost normally. So, I’m going out for the shoot and Paul will join me a few days in. We’ll have some time to sightsee a bit afterward, which will be so fun. California in October…sounds like a dream!

Peace. Out.

My LA story…

I finally have one. :) Last night I met up with my friend Brad whom I met a few years ago at the Cannes Film Festival. We were planning to go to the art walk in Brad’s downtown LA neighborhood, but about an hour before we were supposed to meet, Brad called with a change of plans. Brad’s a photographer here in LA and does a lot of headshots for actors around town. He had been doing a session with David “Bud Bundy” Faustino yesterday afternoon and David wanted to hang out for a bit after the shoot. Brad called to see if I was okay with changing the plan a little and meeting up in West Hollywood instead. Of couse, I was just fine with that.

I met Brad, his girlfriend Rachel, David, and several others at Barney’s Beanery off Santa Monica Blvd just after work. Of course, with traffic, a less-than-20-mile drive ended up taking an hour and a half…insane! We grabbed a bite and hung out for a bit, then David invited us to his house to chill and watch a project he’s working on. The clip he showed us was absolutely hilarious and he was a super gracious host. I met several people who work around town in movies and TV, and it’s just so cool to be talking to people who’ve “broken into” this town.

So, I can now say I hung out at a celebrity’s house and it totally rocked. :)

The purpose of my trip has never been to break into the LA scene (though I’m not completely opposed to the idea…). It has honestly just been completely amazing to work on a project I’m passionate about with people I connect with on professional and personal levels. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…it should be illegal to have this much fun at work.

Peace. Out.

Where I’m supposed to be…

Though I absolutely believe God arranges certain things in our lives, I sort of generally operate under the belief that we mostly make our own choices and God jumps in from time to time. There have been very few moments in my life where I thought “Yeah. I’m absolutely supposed to be right here right now.”

I believed that about being at Emmanuel. I believe it about going to Renovatus. And I believe it about working on this movie. I was overwhelmed yesterday afternoon by the feeling that – whatever comes of this, whether it be great friendships, a career shift, or simply a bank full of good memories – this is where I am supposed to be this week. It’s a very, very, very cool feeling.

Peace. Out.

From the set…

It’s not even 9:30 a.m. here in LA and we already have several hours of shooting under our belts. It’s our third day and things are going pretty well. We’ve had some major reshifting to work around some scheduling conflicts with the actors and church, but it’s working out.

I’m having SO much fun, it should be illegal. I always enjoy being on set, whether it’s in a studio or on a remote. And working here on Jesus People is sort of combining those two things. We’re in one primary location, so it’s a fairly controlled environment, but because we’re in someone else’s space (we’re at a church), little problems come up all the time that need solving…and that’s where I step in.

Okay, not just me, it’s a team effort, but the writers Dan and Rajeev, and the director Jason have welcomed me with wide open arms and have really let me jump right in and be part of what’s happening. What an honor.

There are so many funny things that happen every hour, it’s impossible to keep up with them here. I’ll have to do a Top Quotes post at the end of the week!

If you haven’t already, check out www.jesuspeople.tv to watch the online series.

Peace. Out.