Wednesday I went for a hike at Stough and saw a baby bunny at the top that made me happy.  I spied on it playing a little game, but when I drew closer it sensed me and darted away into the underbrush.  The weather was perfect low 70's.  Seeking a Friend for the End of the World came from Netflix.  I wanted to see it because my nephew Matt had recognized me in the scene I did with Steve Carell and Keira Knightley.  I saw myself making the treck down to the beach as the world was coming to an end, just as I remembered shooting it two years ago.  What a sad movie, sort of reminded me of Melancholia but a little more cheerful because Steve is on an adventure with Keira sort of putting off that the world is ending and still trying to accomplish one more thing.  I liked the ending that they found love where they did not expect it.

Thursday I was back in Zyla's school library being serenaded by some of the 3^rd grade boys who were obsessed with The Hobbit dwarf song Misty Mountains.  They checked out all of the copies of The Hobbit before library time was done.  Megan had wanted to do Sushi Dan for lunch with Alex and I; having a 2^nd team reunion from our Whitney days, but Alex forgot and was working on her band stuff, so just Megan and I made lunch.  Megan told me she had gone to the psychic faire and was told she was an incarnated fairy.  She believed I was an incarnated angel and gave me the book Earth Angels by Doreen Virtue.  I took it home and read it, but my test said I was a reincarnated Celtic High Priestess of the Goddess Adsullata ruler of purification solar magick and sacred hot springs.  Jessica's called me asking if I was interested in doing a SAG industrial commercial which could be a possible upgrade.  I said sure and had to send them in a picture of my hair from the back and front.  I used my laptop to take the pictures in photo booth, then emailed them over.  I booked the gig and production called me about my fitting for Monday.  Later that evening, Jessica's called again saying I was booked on Transcendence doing BG.  I said my file says Stand In or Photo double only this month and that I made an exception for the commercial but that's it.  So they took me off the call.  I then looked up the movie which did sound like a cool Sci-Fi adventure film starring Johnny Depp that may have been fun to work, but Ed was already scheduled to do another field trip with his school for Friday night and I didn't want to worry about figuring out how Zyla would be taken care of all night long if I worked BG on some movie.  Ed finally got home around 11pm after staying after school to shoot the Lacrosse game as well as film and perform in his school's Talent Show.  He scared some children when he dressed up and painted his face to perform his song Brown Recluse. 

Friday the temperatures had soared above 90 degrees so I opted out of hiking and stayed inside with my a/c.  While I had been working in the school library the day before I had noticed a new book called Conversations With God for Teens by Neal Donald Walsch.  It had a forward by Alanis Morissette whom I love.  She said she had read the original for adults while on a pilgrimage to India.  I wanted to read it too, so I went to check out Conversations with God book 1 from my local library.  The book felt inspired in some part, and more the authors own personal issues in others.  Obviously everyone has their own moments with God that others can relate to.  I enjoyed reading it, copying down some quotes into my quote journal.  Matt from production for my industrial/educational commercial on Monday called with more details.  I found out I was doing a piece for the Voices of Midway, a new exhibit at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego.  I would be playing Adelaide Wentworth aka Mrs. Waldron, the wife of the important Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron, a United States Navy aviator who led a squadron of torpedo bombers in WWII.  I was doing a photo shoot on Monday with two little girls playing my daughters.  Then the next week I would be shooting a hologram experience for the Battle of Midway Theater, located at the hanger deck of the museums entrance, which was scheduled to open in the fall of 2014.  Although this job was paying less than my usual BG rate on films and tv, SAG Industrial commercials do not pay that much, it was through Idell James, whom I had tried getting in with for years and I was hoping she would eventually book me on regular rate commercials.  I also found the topic quite interesting and personal considering my dad was a Lieutenant Commander in the USS Navy.  That night Ed had to chaperone another Crespi event, taking some of the kids to a comedy club.  After a tasty pizza from Dino's he took off, and Zyla and I did some karaoke, then I watched Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove.  Zyla thought it was boring and chose to play on her ipad instead of watch it.  I found the film, very slow as is Kubrick style, based off a book as is Kubrick style, a book I doubt I ever would have been into reading, very 1960esk, but thankfully not as long as the Kubrick usual and Peter Sellers made the experience tolerable.  It did pick up in the last half hour, but I think it is hard to hold my interest in long held shots of what used to be amazing special effects that fall short of today's standards of visually stunning cinema.

Saturday I did all my regular errands of dropping Zyla to gym and getting groceries, making lunch for everyone.  Then I visited a new bakery I found online that made rum balls.  I used to love rum balls when we lived in Florida, then we moved and I never found any place that made them the same way or at all for that matter.  Which seems odd considering cake balls are popular and isn't a rum ball pretty much the same thing?  I went to Paradise Bakery in Glendale to pick some up along with tons of other tasty chocolate treats for my friend Jason's BBQ, which my family was going to that evening.  Jason had moved up from Orange County to live closer to his work at Warner Brothers.  I had missed meeting his wife and child last summer when we were going to meet up at Disneyland but the plans got switched around.  Around 6pm Ed, Zyla and I arrived at their home and I met Jason's wife Jen and his little baby girl Teagan.  She was adorable and so much fun.  I had fun getting to know Jen and Teagan and hoped that Zyla would be able to babysit for them as a way to earn her volunteer service hours for Religion class, and give them a date night out in the future. 

Sunday, was Bat Day at the Fun Park!  It fell on Cinco De Mayo, but thankfully the parks were not crowded, the weather was amazingly perfect, overcast with a slight breeze mid 60 degrees.  Unlike last year, I did not really dress up, nor did Zyla.  Ed went a little more dressed up than last year and brought his video camera.  He shot more of the other Bats in the park too.  We entered the California Disney side first around 8am since we had done all the rides at Disney last time we came.  After getting a fast pass to Radiator Racers, we got on everything from Screamin twice, to Silly Swings, and Tower of Terror.  Then breakfast at Flo's V8 before heading over to Disneyland side. I got us fast passes to Space Mountain before we headed to Pirates Liar, aka Tom Sawyer Island.  I was happy the first cave/tunnel was open as it is my favorite.  Zyla and I played in all the secret tunnels until it was time to meet up with Ed for the Haunted Mansion.  Afterward we went to Space Mountain with our fast passes, then at noon out front of Cinderella's Castle for the photo op with all the Goth Bats in attendance.  I saw some new Bats as well as old favorites from last year.  Great costumes and pageantry and thankfully not too hot for all those 18^th century layers.  Unfortunately, it seemed no picture was taken and all of a sudden Bats were dispersing.  We found out on our way out of the park that the photo would be at 1pm, but our camera was dieing and we had fast passes to the Cars ride so we went back to the California side to ride that.  Grabbing up Jamba Juices we hopped on the tram back to our car and made it home by 2pm.  I was so exhausted I passed out for 3 hours! 

Monday, my fitting and photo shoot for the Voices of Midway location was changed from Playa Del Rey to down the street from my house.  I was so thankful because it was pouring rain and probably would have taken me two hours to get to Playa.  Instead it took me 20 mintues.  Originally I was told it was just a fitting, then production called saying they would also be squeezing in a photo shoot.  I explained that a photo shoot meant a full days pay even if they got us out under the 2 hour window of a fitting.  I hoped that they weren't trying to pull a fast one like CSI:NY had done years ago in the same type of situation.  The make-up artist had not been texted the new location and she went down to Playa Del Rey so production was held up for one hour waiting for her to drive back out to the Valley.  I loved what she did with my hair and make-up, I felt like I had stepped right out of the 1940's.  Wardrobe had a peach dress for me to wear to complete the look.  The two little girls playing my daughters were adorable.  We took our family portrait shots outside since the rain had finally let up and some sun was breaking through the clouds.  I was told I looked like Michelle Pfeiffer.  I finished in under 4 hours and was told to just sign an Exhibit G form.  It felt odd not leaving with a copy of a voucher, nor filling out any contract or voucher with my address, I-9 information, etc.  We were told they would contact us next Monday with our details for the video shoot portion that was taking place next Tuesday and fill out all necessary paperwork then.  I headed home in time to have dinner with my family.  Zyla did not like the 1940's look, she said the make-up made me look older, but Ed thought I had a classic look.  Zyla could not believe that women used to roll their hair up like the Victory Rolls Hairstyle mine was in.

Tuesday, I worked on getting Mother's Day cards out and reading more of Conversations with God book 2.  Enlightened had come from Netflix.  I love Laura Dern and found the HBO show entertaining but could see why it was cancelled after 2 seasons.  It seemed a little slow for an HBO show, but I did love the concept of a woman dealing with anger management issues, seeking therapy then trying to apply a more zen yoga approach to the bustle of everyday life.  Wednesday, I went for a hike at Stough, the air was so crisp and clean smelt amazing.  I saw a bunch of baby bunnies that were so cute.  I prayed my rosary thankful for my many blessing and the gift of seeing God move in my life.  I watched Kumare on Netflix instant.  I really liked this documentary of a regular New Jersey born Indian American who decided to do an experiment and become a guru in Arizona giving teachings about Eastern philosophy and meditations.  In the end his goal was to help enlighten others to the fact that we all have inside us what we need to be healthy and happy.  That we do not need to find it through anything outside ourselves, teachers, gurus, religion.  That we all are the guru inside.  It tied in to what I had been reading in Conversations with God, and I loved how my life felt in sync, with God continually speaking to me through many outlets, elevating my conscious to deeper understandings excited me. 

Thursday, I went to lunch with my friend Shanna, returning the rest of her Twilight books I had enjoyed.  Afterward, NBC announced the cancellation of Whitney.  It was expected and I was happy and blessed that I had been part of it all.  I felt the 2^nd season ended the series wonderfully with Whitney resolving her issues.  I was still waiting to hear if TBS would be picking up the pilot Do It Yourself/HomeTeam that I was really excited about working in the fall.  I spend Friday uploading my back chapters of my 2011 memoir to my website and planned to be posting more of 2012's memoir story soon.

Saturday, my family woke up very early at 4am to get ready for the Entertainment Industry Federation Revlon Run/Walk for Women's Cancer.  After dressing in our florescent green Volunteer T-shirts, I drove us down to the L.A. Coliseum, while Ed started filming us for a webisode of what life as a Volunteer for the Event meant.  Everything went smoothly, we arrived a bit before 6am, and found the volunteer parking.  After checking in at the Volunteer tent we waited for our Team Greeter Leader to tell us where to go next.  I had received an email from Leslie Slomka the night before saying she would be at tunnel 10 passing out shirts to Team SAG-AFTRA.  She still wanted Zyla to help her pass out the shirts, so I asked if my family could be Team Greeters of tunnel 10.  We were given the ok, so Ed, Zyla and I all entered the Coliseum and stood at the mouth of Tunnel 10 for about a half hour before Leslie arrived.  Then Zyla went with her into the main area of the Coliseum where the Teams met up before the race.  Zyla saw Halle Berry rehearsing for her performance she would give after the race.  Leslie was really cool and gave us all SAG-AFTRA t-shirts!  Ed kept filming all our antics of the morning and all the cool costumes and tributes of Team members.  Our job was all over by 9am, when the race started.  It was cool to watch the race on the big jumbo trons inside the Coliseum.  About 20 minutes later the first runner came running through the finish line on the lawn in the middle of the Coliseum.  We headed home, so Zyla could get ready to attend her school friend Mikee's Spa Day Birthday Party, while Ed and I had some private time to ourselves. 

Sunday was Mommy's Day and I had originally planned to head down to Disney to celebrate, but the temperatures were going from one extreme to the next and it was over 100 degrees.  The last thing I wanted was to be outside in that heat with thousands of people, so instead I opted on sleeping in, attending Mass, then going for lunch at Mexicali, which had the same yummy champagne with Elderflower liquor drink I was planning to get down at Disney.  We all shared Seared Ahi Tuna tacos and had the fresh made guacamole with chips.  Then we came home for karaoke.  I chose to sing a bunch of boy songs, like Welcome to the Jungle, Break on Through, The Beauty Underneath, along with my usual favorites from Adele, Avril, and Taylor Swift.  We watched the musical I Kissed a Vampire which was funny, I love Drew Seeley and Lucas Grabeel and the cartoon ParaNorman about how judgmental people can be when faced with someone different from them that they do not understand and how one brave boy brought awareness to his town. 

Monday, the temperatures were still sweltering, I could not go hiking, I could barely go outside.  I went to get groceries since I hadn't gotten around to it over the weekend, then made myself some lunch.  Read from Conversations with God book 3, beautiful series I was so blessed to have these books brought to my attention now.  It was not like the information was new, yet it was being told in a different way that I was open to expanding my awareness with it.  The heat made me exhausted so I ended up napping until it was time to get Zyla from school.  I got a call late afternoon that my video portion of the Voices of Midway shoot would still be happening on Tuesday, with my call time at 8am.  I was thankful it was so close to my house, so I wouldn't have to get up super early, and they were providing hair/make-up and wardrobe so there wasn't much I needed to do before I went to set.  Production emailed me the call sheet and I was happy to see my name listed in the Cast section, just like when I had worked as Principal actor on Whitney!  After dinner, we started a new family show Ugly Betty, which is about the fashion industry, a favorite of Zyla's so she was instantly hooked.

Tuesday, Ed took Zyla to school since it was in the opposite direction of where I was headed up the I-5 freeway to Digital Film Studios in Sun Valley.  I arrived early and met Akiko who set my hair in rollers and Cindy who did my make-up.  Neither of them had been at the photo shoot the week before, so they had to go by a picture provided to match that shot.  It all went beautifully.  The little girls Ella and Maya, showed up and we all went to set.  It was a black hologram stage with black walls all around.  We stood together holding hands, having a moment of laughter and gaiety.  We were supposed to be a memory that my set husband, Lt. Cmdr. Waldron was having.  Then we recorded our laughter without any movement.  The director Scott Levitta told me he had been the one to picture pick me for this job.  I thanked him.  Mark Totty was playing my husband and arrived to set for our last shot.  He read from the Midway Atoll Memorial, then we materialize next to him, I take his hand and we are all happy to be together again as a family and walk off into the darkness.  I also met another actor on the shoot Linc Hand, playing Ensign Gay.  He had worked the previous day out at San Diego in the Midway Harbor and had been in the ocean shooting his piece.  Cindy had been telling me the story of how insane it had all been working on the Naval ship, with all the stairs and sweltering temperatures below deck, along with motor boats invading production while Linc was in the water, a seal coming curiously close to see why he was in the choppy water, as well as helicopters over head.  I guess recently a surfer had been eaten by a shark near there, and Linc had been leery about the thought of bull sharks in the water, but thankfully it all played out perfectly.  Another actor I met was Charles C. Stevenson Jr, who was playing the older version of the character Linc played Lt. Cmdr. Gay.  He was funny, telling jokes and said that this shoot meant a lot to him, since he had four generations of his family in the military.  A behind the scenes videographer kept following me, filming me in hair and make-up as well on the stage.  I was told it would be for the DVD version of the movie, I assumed maybe the Museum would be selling.  I wrapped out by 12:30pm and signed my paperwork.  The 2^nd AD J.P. mentioned that I was a Day Player, but I did not think much of it until I was on my way home.  He then called me saying he forgot to get a picture of me holding my name on a white paper and asked if I could do it and email him.  I said sure and asked if I had in fact been upgraded to Day Player.  He confirmed that I was!  I was so happy and felt so blessed; I knew this job was a gift from my father.  They said my name would be in the credits of the film playing at the Museum.  That night Dexter Season 7 arrived from Netflix.  As always I was excited to enter my favorite serial killer's world.  We watched two episodes.  I found it interesting when Dexter was held accountable to work on his issue of being a serial killer once he was caught by his sister and how she tried to set up and be his support system that she patterned after AA. 

Wednesday I was supposed to go hiking with Joleen but it was too hot in Hollywood to do Runyon.  Outside my window, the fog was thick, with temperatures only in the 60's around 7am, so I opted to hike at Stough after dropping Zyla to school.  As I pulled up to the gate to the nature center parking lot, I saw something move in the bushes to my right and slowed my car to a stop.  An adult coyote turned and looked at me.  He then proceeded to walk across the street in front of my car, but then stopped and sat down in the street in to the left of my car and stared at me.  It was surreal, I had never seen a coyote do that before.  Then a few moments later he got up and trotted into the bushes on the left of the street.  I drove on up and parked.  I prayed my rosary as I walked up to the top to look out at the San Fernando Valley.  Unlike the base of the mountain, it was bright and sunny on the trail with the temperature quickly rising.  I was sweating by the time I returned to my car at 8:40am and went home to shower.

Friday I made it over to Hollywood to Joleen's for our hike up Runyon.  We managed to whip through the hike in an hour and a half, last time it had taken 2 hours.  After, we chilled back at her place watching the best of MTV Punk'd episodes before heading to Bossa Nova for some lunch.  She told me of a great deal offered by Six Flags Magic Mountain/ Hurricane Harbor and we made plans to get annual passes to those parks for the summer.  Ed and I watched more Dexter.  The 7^th season was great, with Dexter's new serial killer love interest, Russian mafia, his brushes with danger, death, while dodging the police who are figuring out what he has really been up to as his sister continues to cover for him, all while maintaining a healthy fatherly image to his son.  Just as exciting and entertaining as always, I love Dexter!

Saturday afternoon, Ed, Zyla and I went to our friend Andrew's College Doctorate Program Graduation Party.  It was at his sister Stefanie's house in Sun Valley.  I had never been before and found it funny that it was literally four blocks from the studio where I had just filmed the Voices of Midway film on Tuesday.  All of his hard work had paid off now that he was Dr. Andrew!  It was interesting meeting his entire family while sipping on margaritas, sangrias, and pina coladas.  Tons of catered food arrived as well as cakes from the amazing bakery in Glendale that Andrew always frequented.  Stef made vodka soaked gummy bears, which we all sucked down from shot glasses.  The sun intensified the alcohol so by the time we got home around 7pm, my little nap turned into me passing out for the rest of the evening.

Monday, I took Zyla to school, then came home to pick up Ed.  We drove down to Disneyland for our last day of our annual passes.  It was a beautiful date day together, riding all our favorite rides.  I enjoyed holding his hand and sitting next to him on all the rides, which was something we never got to do when Zyla came along.  She always wanted to be between us and never let us ride together on anything.  On Space Mountain we got the back seats.  The guy in front of me almost threw up and the picture taken at the end of the ride was hilarious.  I think it may have been his first time.  The bobsleds of the Matterhorn seemed slower than usual.  On Snow White, Ed and I got the Sneezy car with two bunnies on it. I thought that was cute.  Pirates and Haunted Mansion were cozy.  Ed got seated as the driver on Indiana Jones.  Toward the end of the ride it kept stopping yet the car would still be jiggling all over the place.  We had Bangel BBQ before going to the 100-Acre Woods of Winnie the Pooh.  Taking our pineapple Dole Whips we boarded the Mark Twain Steamboat to sale around the Rivers of America before calling it a day.  Good-bye Disneyland, I love you always, my home away from home and hope to return again some day.

The remainder of the week was uneventful.  All the usual things, helping Zyla with homework, running errands, hiking at Stough, tending to kids in the school library.  I finished reading Conversations with God Book 3 returning it to the library.  I found Paulo Coelho had a new book out, Manuscripts Found in Accra, but was not as taken with it as most of his stories.  It was a question and answer type book sort of in the same vein as the Conversation with God books, but I had wanted more of a story, like how awesome Aleph and his other full stories play out.  I finished it quickly and moved onto Peep Show by Joshua Braff, a random find on the library shelves.  This book was great!  Set in the early 70's about the time of my birth, in New Jersey and New York, it follows a boy whose parents are separated.  His life between his extremist Hasidic mother and a father who runs a burlesque theatre at the dawn of peep booths and porn taking over the scene.  I really loved the boy's introduction to the playground of adults, reminded me of when I first discovered sex shops when I was 18 years old.  I completely related to his relationship with his extremely religious mother, who was searching for purity from a past life she wanted to escape.  It just drove home the idea that we must love ourselves and not punish ourselves when others judge or view what we have done as wrong or evil.  We all live our own truths and God is in it all.  I know sometimes in the past I have had issues with where my life went, but am happier now accepting all of who I am with love.  We need to stop living in fear and embrace others and ourselves for uniqueness and the many expressions of God.  I watched the Swedish foreign film Kiss Me on Netflix.  I loved hearing the lilt of the language I grew up with whenever I would visit my Swedish relatives in San Diego on my dad's side.  My great grand mother who came to America at 17 years old from Sweden lived to be 104 years old.  She kept the language alive in her home and all her children spoke it fluently.  The acting and directing was beautifully played out.  The relationship between the two women felt very authentic every step of the way.  My favorite scene was when the two girls ran off into the forest one night and found a magical glen of deer.

Ed and I finished up Dexter Season 7.  I enjoyed the ride and looked forward to the last season coming out soon.  It was interesting how Dexter's secrets were coming out, how things do not stayed buried forever, and how his sister dealt with his truths.  True Blood Season 5 was released on Netflix, so I started getting those disks so Ed could catch up.  I had watched the entire season last summer at Jodi's house, but Ed had never gotten to see it yet, so I enjoyed re-watching it all over again with him.  For Memorial Day Weekend Ed, Zyla and I all went down to see my sister's family in Redondo Beach.  As we drove past Pacific Crest Cemetery I noticed all the flags waving in honor of the men and women who had served our country.  My dad was buried in there among them; I said a fond hello.  Picking up Debbie and Paul, we found parking a few blocks from the Manhattan Beach Pier and took a couple hours to walk along the strand.  My childhood home, such sweet memories, I loved the beach.  As we made our way toward Hermosa, enjoying the sights, sounds and sun glittering off the water, I found myself meditating on the beauty of the moment, happy to be here enjoying this with my family.  Afterward we had dinner at the Elephant Bar.  I had never been and was excited to try a new place.  The drink menu looked amazing and I ordered their version of the St. Germain Elderflower liquor with champagne but my waiter got it wrong and brought me some other drink.  Since I had not been here before I wasn't sure what theirs would look like and had no idea he brought the wrong one.  I could not taste the Elderflower and was disappointed, but the drink was still tasty.  When the bill came, it said he had brought me pomegranate champagne, so now I am determined to go back to the Elephant bar to get the drink I wanted!  

On Memorial Day, my family stayed low key mellow.  Ed finished editing and uploading the last of our web series Road Trip 2013 ‘Into the Desert'.  We went for an early morning hike up the Verdugo Mountains but by 9am, it was getting too hot to hike.  We BBQ'd up some steaks and watched House at the End of the Street.  I really enjoyed both Jennifer Lawrence and Max Theiriot's performances, very suspenseful!

The last week of May was uneventful.  I did call the payroll company of the SAG Industrial Voices of Midway, to check on my payment.  I was told that I had not been upgraded, so I then called the producer of Voices of Midway to find out what happened.  He assured me I was upgraded, as well as receiving an extra check for the behind the scenes footage that would be included on the DVD of the show.  He promised to call up the payroll company and resolve the issue immediately.  It was probably because I had checked the wrong box on my voucher and it had not been corrected before going to payroll.  I had checked the box for Background Player, not Day Player.  The checks were scheduled to be mailed by next week, so I was hoping there would be no further issues.  Back in Zyla's school library, I was kept busy checking in a mountain of books.  Since the library would be closing next week with the end of the school year approaching no more books could be checked out and students were flooding the desk with returns so their parents would not be charged for missing books.  Ed and I continued to enjoy watching True Blood Season 5, while Zyla's new favorite show was Ugly Betty which we all watched together as a family.