FRIDAY I did yoga in my mom’s living room with all of cast. Well, most of them, Patrick was in the kitchen helping my mom make one of the greatest dinners I’ve ever had. And then we ate. And ate and ate and ate and ate. And ate some more. There was so much food! I love my mom so much!

SATURDAY morning started with P90X Legs and Back. I did so many pullups my fingers bruised my palms. Awesome. Then some truly wonderful friends from college came to see the show in Smithfield. What up Mary and Andrew and David and Charli and Maddison and Jake and Scott and Brandon and Jeffrey!! We had a late drive that night to Huntsville, AL. Which brings us to…

SUNDAY morning rain is falling. I spent Sunday with Moy’s family! Her nephew, Alex, is so adorable! I slept in Moy’s room. It was great to see how she lived not too long ago. Explains a lot.

After MONDAY’s show we had some delicious Mexican food at Rosie’s and then we were off to Memphis. We stayed at a garbage hotel. I hung out on Beale Street that night with Zach, Brandon, and Shaina. BBQ! Beale Street reminded me of New Orleans Lite. It was nice. I can’t wait to go back.

TUESDAY, today, we had more BBQ at Leonard’s, a small little joint that Elvis used to close down back in the day. We had all you can eat BBQ for $10. That’s right. All you can eat. $10.

This long weekend was nothing short of spectacular.

I got my temporary Equity card yesterday! My permanent card should arrive in the mail within the next 30 days!

Sorry this video is on it’s side… I shot it landscape on my iPhone then uploaded it straight to YouTube…

Do I really have to make a joke here? I don’t think it’s necessary. I mean, have you seen this commercial? No joke necessary. Seriously. I’m going to take the high road on this one. I’m going to be the bigger man. 2 ½ lbs. bigger. I’m sure this commercial has already been a handful. A real load to bear. A real, warm load to bear. But, hey, no batteries required. There is one thing I’m skeptical about: only six minutes a day? Ladies, trust me on this one, the more time you put in, the better the results. But, seriously, I won’t make any penis jokes. JOKES. Any jokes.

It’s taken me a good long time to write this post, but resolutions are a big deal. I’m publicly declaring my flaws and shortcomings (some of them) and I’m detailing my plans to buff them out and measure up. I don’t think it’s necessary to wait until January 1 to start thinking about being a better person or about living a more fulfilled life, but according to a Marist poll taken in December now is the time that 48% of Americans adults start to rethink how they’re living. I’m taking some advice from Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training blog. He recommends writing down three short-term and three long-term goals per category. I did my best, but I’m not making resolutions for the sake of having three for now and three for later. Some of these resolutions came straight from a Men’s Health list entitled 14 Resolutions that Make You a Better Man.

Health & Fitness

Short-Term Resolutions

1. I will eat better. I will do this by eating more fruits and veggies and by munching on more whole grains. I’m going to increase my number of meals from 3 or 4 medium-sized meals to 5 or 6 smaller meals per day, and I’m going to cut out carbs after 8 p.m. What else? Vitamin supplements (Go! Go! Gadget Gummies!) and lots of water.
2. I will to go to bed after Conan, not just because Jimmy Fallon sucks, but because sleep is very important. Let’s be honest, nothing happens late at night that you can’t watch/read/listen to/deal with/whatever in the morning.
3. I don’t drink often, but when I do I will cut down by one drink per session. According to Men’s Health I’ll save 150 calories (if I’m drinking beer) and up to $5 a night. I have plans for that 5-spot. “Ten fewer beers a month means a yearly 5 pounds off your gut and an extra $600 in your wallet.”

Long-Term Resolutions

1. I will get my 6-pack back. I listed this under my long-term goals because this is really about changing my lifestyle. I’ve got the muscle, I just need to get on the right diet to shed the rolls and rolls of blubber that are keeping me warm.
2. Once I get right physically, I will get my weight back up to 175-180 lbs. with a body fat percentage of 6% or less. I’m a little worried about living on the road away from the gym for so long, but I’ve put together a great bodyweight routine that’s based on the 300 Workout. I’m in pretty good shape and I think I can handle this workout 3 maybe 4 days a week.

Personal Growth & Interests

Short-Term Resolutions

1. I will update blog more frequently. My goal is 2 or more updates each week. It took me a while to get it updated on the regular, which is good and all, but the regular has a tendency to look something like an update every week and a half. How exactly am I going to do this?
2. I will to write something every day. I keep a running list of ideas on my computer that I’m constantly adding to. It’s a list of monologues, scenes, lyrics, beats, everything. The idea is to write down these ideas before I forget them and to develop them further when I get the chance. The problem is I rarely develop them. Now I have a list of 450+ ideas, all of which I thought were killer ideas at one time, but now I’m having trouble remember what I thought was so good about them to begin with.
3. I will practice Spanish. You lose it if you don’t use it.

Long-Term Resolutions

1. How long have I had a guitar? And how long have I been less than mediocre on it? Far too long. And for that matter, I’ve had a keyboard in my room for years that I still can’t play. Well that’s all about to change. I will learn to play them like I learned to play my sax.
2. I’ve never been a big reader, but I will read 50 books this year. This is ambitious for me, but I’ll be done before I know it. One book at a time.
3. I will travel abroad. I don’t know where or when or if I’ll be able to afford to this year, but I’m putting this out there into the universe. I will travel abroad.

Personal Finance

Short-Term Resolutions

1. I blow a lot of money on iTunes every month and that just has to stop. I will set myself a $30/month limit on mint.com. That should help me get my spending under control.
2. A while back I found a blog post about a $5 savings plan. It couldn’t be easier: stash away a Lincoln every time you get one, and take a trip to the bank every $50. I did it before, I can do it again.

Long-Term Resolutions

1. I will put $5,000 away in the bank. I can do this if I stick to the $5 savings plan and I deposit one weekly paycheck a month (assuming that I find good work after my tour). Watch me do this. Watch me.

Career, Education, & Training

Long-Term Resolutions

1. I’ve been meaning to get back into voice lessons for a while. I can afford them now that I’m working again. And, you know what? While I’m at it I’ll get some dance lessons too. I will learn to sing and dance like Timberlake and Usher.
2. I will audition more. I have all the resources I need, I just have to make my calendar.

Family & Relationships

Short-Term Resolutions

1. I will to call my family more often. I need to deal with the phone and just call them.
2. This is from Men’s Health: “Every great thing has it’s golden age. Often that age is right now. Live there, not in some glorious past you’re probably misremembering.” Ain’t that the truth? I won’t be alive forever. Time to start living here and now.
3. I will make more plans with my friends and family. They won’t be alive forever, either.

Long-Term Resolutions

1. I will learn more about my parents. Now that I’m older and I know that my parents are people too, I want to know more about them.
2. I will strengthen a number of relationships in my life. Again, the people around me won’t be around me forever.

My friend Dalto showed me a great app called Freestyle last night at the Wooorthington holiday party. It’s perfect for all you rhymers out there. I suggest you download the app with the quickness. It’s free now, but it won’t be free for long.

So let me break it down for you. Freestyle keeps a catalog of all your rhymes. You can create new ones, delete dumb ones, tweak the ones with promise, you know, the stuff you’d expect. But wait! There’s more! Ever get hung up of the edge of a really great line? Or maybe you’re looking to take your rhyme in a different direction? You can double tap a word and look up some rhymes. Need more? There’s a built-in rhyming dictionary with some really creative solutions. But the best part? The beats. That’s right. Freestyle comes with 13 high quality, fully produced beats that you can flow over while recording your entire session.

Freestyle is the newest addition to my iPhone and it’s on the fast track to becoming one of my all-time favorites.

I was sitting on the couch the other day watching The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien when my phone rang. It was a number I didn’t recognize, so I didn’t pick up. I silenced the ring and went back to laughing at Conan. “You should get that, it’s a New York number,” said Moy, “It might be important. It might be someone calling to offer you a job.” Then they’ll leave a message, right? They didn’t leave a message and I didn’t call them back.

I’m weird when it comes to the phone, I know this, but I need you to know this too, which is why I’m putting this out there in the universe so you can respect and understand me for who I am when it comes to the phone.

1. I don’t like talking on the phone. I used to think I had some strange phobia, but I’ve come to accept the fact that I just hate to do it. This aversion stems from my childhood when my mother would force me to talk on the phone without telling me who I was talking to. Seems silly, but one too many awkward phone conversations with nothing to say to relatives I didn’t remember has turned me off to talking on the phone with people in general.
2. If a number but not a name appears on my screen, I won’t pick up. I promise. If you meant to call me but you neglected to leave a message, I won’t call you back. I promise.
3. I’ll listen to your message if you leave one, but I probably won’t call you back. I honestly don’t know why. Yes, I know how pathetic that is, but it’s true.
4. If you call me AND the planets align AND karma’s on your side AND a name appears on my screen AND I pick up, I will subconsciously find a reason to get off the phone as quickly as possible. Please believe me it has nothing to do with you. It all stems back to those terrible childhood phone calls.
5. I won’t call you. I’m embarrassed to say that, but it’s true. It’s everything I can do to stay in touch with my family, and I drop that ball week after week after week.

So what do you do? How can we stay in touch with each other? Simple. Text me. I don’t miss texts the way I miss voicemail. My phone programmed to chime every five minutes when I receive a text. It also displays the text on the screen when I wake it up and automatically directs me to the text when I unlock it. My phone is always nearby and I have no qualms whatsoever with texting. I can also say with full confidence that, unless my phone or the network botches up, I will text you back.

I know this isn’t perfect but this is how I operate. I am trying to be better about remembering to check voicemail and making regular phone calls, but until I get there, text me. Or Facebook me. Or hit me up on Twitter. Or send me a link to your blog.

It’s official. I signed my TheatreWorks contract and I’m going on tour January 16! I’m playing the narrator, Gander, Uncle, and a smattering of other fun cameo characters in Charlotte’s Web. I’ve never done children’s theatre, but everyone tells me this is one of TheatreWorks most popular shows and that all the kids love it.

I’m moving out of my apartment so I don’t have to worry about dealing with a sub-leaser while I’m gone. There is a small chance that Ami, Dane, and Eric will move into the place, but that’s really up to the landlord, and he hasn’t mentioned anything to me or Moy about it. In the event that he doesn’t rent to them, I’ll have to move my stuff into storage. So today I’m going to clean up my room so that I have a better idea of what I should keep and what I should store. The plan is to cut my already meager collection of things in half. And then I guess I’ll pack half of what’s left for the tour and store the other somewhere in the city? I really have no idea how to pack for six months. Layers, basics, things you can mix and match, sure, but how often will I have access to a washing machine? Should I pack gym clothes? I really don’t know. If you’re reading this and you’re experienced in living out of a suitcase for extended periods of time, please offer up some advice. I need it.

I also have to find an affordable storage space. I’ll probably go back to American Self Storage in LIC. They’re in the middle of nowhere which makes it a pain to move in and out of there, but they hooked me up the last time I had to leave some things there, maybe they’ll cut me another deal.

I was gone for a minute, but I’m back again. I was busy doing a lot of nothing, but in between a lot of the nothing I was actually quite productive. I signed my TheatreWorks contact (details are on the way), I turned my Mac into a GameBoy (you know details are on the way!), and I started coding my friend Nancy’s website, The Art of Babysitting. That’s a screenshot of what you can expect. I’m still making tweaks here and there, and the site has absolutely no meaningful content yet, but all of that is just around the corner. Check it out! It’s slow, I know; it’s repetitive, I know; it’s rough, I know! But it’s a work in progress. Cut me some slack. I haven’t given it the works yet. I have optimized it yet. But I still like it.

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea that I’d be auditioning for Nickelodeon executives, and I have two key people to thank: my friend Anna for passing the audition information on to me, and my agent Ron for getting me on the inside and setting up the appointment.

It all started yesterday. I got to Chelsea Studios early so I could have a moment to relax before I went in for the Nickelodeon Presents: Storytime Live! audition. I sang Those Magic Changes from GREASE! and Endless Night from The Lion King. They liked my voice so they gave me some sides to look over. They called me back in after a few minutes of pacing and mumbling awkwardly to myself in the hall. I read the sides, took the director’s notes (always take the motes!), re-read the sides and then they invited me to stay for the dance call. I foolishly left all my dance gear (I say it like I actually have dance gear) at home and I didn’t have enough time to run back and get it, so I danced in my audition clothes. You ever hear of that old theatre adage “fake it til you make it”? It works. I am not a dancer. But dammit I looked good last night. My bare feet weren’t always doing the right thing and my technique was definitely lacking, but my face proved otherwise and the lines and stage pictures I hit put me over the edge. They emailed me later that night and asked me to come in the following day.

When I went in today I did the exact same audition. Twice. They gave me one new side to look at (My name is Moose A. Moose. But you can just call me Moose.) and after I read it they sent me home. I’m trying to email my agent the whole way home, but sometimes my phone acts up when I’m at Chelsea Studios, and then I was underground on the train, so whatever. I get home, to take my stuff off, pour a bowl of cereal (my first meal of the day), and I get a voicemail from Ron. They wanted me back at Chelsea Studios as soon as possible to read for another part so I raced back and read. While waiting in the hall the director comes out and tells us that we’re it. He’s seen so many people and we made it all the way. He’s casting from those of us chillin out in the hall and that we’ve made his job “very, very difficult.” Then he tells us that over the next few minutes or so the room is going to fill up with a bunch of people from Nickelodeon. He assures us that the audition is over, that we are the cream of the crop, and that the Nickelodeons don’t have any say over who does and who doesn’t get cast, but that they just need to see us for themselves. So we all go back in, one by one, and audition. I mean, seriously? I don’t care what he says. We were singing and reading sides in front of Nickelodeon execs and they were talking about us behind closed doors. It was an audition.

I wish I’d worn a tie.

I went to LensCrafters today and finally got some glasses! I really wanna “ooo OOO!!” about it, but they were so fucking expensive! I really need some insurance!

I went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. It’s always good to see the family, especially my mom. I haven’t seen her since Christmas 08! The trip was a blast. We went to a high school football game and watched my cousin’s team defend their undefeated record. I learned how to prepare a number of soul food dishes, including my favorite dessert, sweet potato pie. I killed a squirrel. Oops! We went black friday shopping and I bought a sweet tv. I played Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare with my uncle. And went through a hellish runaround before I finally boarded a bus back home. I also got to spend some time with Lissette, which, as many of you know, is a really really REALLY good thing. Really good. Very.

That’s right. I’m off on the road to New Jersey for Thanksgiving dinner. There’s really not much more to report than that… More to come later..?

I called my grandma the other day and got a few of her top secret recipes. Who knew it would be a simple as asking? Eating her food makes me feel like being a kid again. It’s not quite the same, of course, because c’mon, I’m not a grandmother cooking with love and experience for her grandchild, but it is delicious.

I whipped up a batch of grandma’s super secret cornbread this evening for a Thanksgiving party. Well, ok, I didn’t whip anything up, it actually took me nearly 2 hours to make… because I am incapable of baking… but the cornbread muffins turned out pretty good. Cooking for this party really has me thinking about holiday traditions. I can’t wait to start a few of my own! Thanksgiving, Christmas, National Talk Like A Pirate Day, there are just so many great holidays out there and everyone has their own way of celebrating them. Many of you are jetting off back home this week for Thanksgiving. What are some of the traditions that you and your family share? And, just to make things interesting, what’s the worse Thanksgiving you’ve ever had? My worst? Definitely the year I shot my uncle in the back of his leg with my new BB gun. Whoo-wee! Thanksgiving in Kentucky!

I just got cast in Charlotte’s Web by TheatreWorks USA. Rehearsals start January 4, and we open January 16. I’m playing the Narrator, Gander, and Uncle. Oh! And the best part is I’ll be AEA at the end of the tour! I’ll keep everyone posted on the details as they come.

I had some friends over the house the other night and we carved pumpkins! The video is pretty self explanatory.

I’ve always loved museums, and here I get to see some of the coolest gems in the history of the world. Currently on display is Lucy, the oldest known and best preserved early human ancestor who was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, and relics and artifacts from the unsinkable Titanic. And soon, King Tut.

I’m updating from my broken iPhone. Thank you 3G!

So, you see, I haven’t been neglecting my blogging duties, nor will I. I’ll keep posting even if I have to do it on my phone. But right now I gotta get to bed. I’m opening tomorrow (this is the job you will soon find out about!).

I was lonely and bored this evening so I made a quick video.

I know I’ve been a bad blogger lately, but I’ve been looking for a job! I’ve scoured the depths of Craig’s List and littered many inboxes with my cover letter and résumé (and even a few with my picture..), but alas, still no job. I took a break today from the grind and found some footage on my hard drive from Actors Theatre of Louisville.

ATL peeps! Remember the Christmas Breakfast? Remember the auction between Michael and Amy dancing dirty (gender reversed, mind you!) and Nick Dent dressing in holiday garb and sitting in the box office with a smile? Remember when Jeff Rodgers matched every dime the apprentices put up? I remember. But just in case you don’t, here’s a little video for you.