I've Got a Golden Ticket

I got it! I won the Lilly Teacher Endowment grant. My wife has been checking the mail down the block everyday for the last two weeks. She returned today with a huge smile on her face as she handed me the large envelope.  "They wouldn't put a rejection letter in such a big envelope, would they?," she said.

We sent the kids to the basement so we could have a little quiet, and focus on this moment...I slowly opened the envelope like Charlie does with his Wonka Bar...and BOOM! There was my golden ticket inside.  "Congratulations" was the only word I saw as I looked at her and said, "I got it." She jumped up and down cheering. I just sat there staring at here with this smile on my face.

She was acting like I do when the Colts make a big play. For years, she endured watching sports with me mainly to see me react with crazy outbursts. Needless to say, there have been moments in our years together that I've lost my composure and went nuts (she has video of me doing this somewhere) while watching sports...like IU's victory over #1 Duke  in their run to the Final Four in the 2002 NCAA tourney ...

...or while watching Christian Watford's amazing shot to beat #1 Kentucky in 2012 with my dad in my basement (one of the greatest moments of my life...sports-wise, of course).  Funny story, my daughter had been watching most of the game with us, but then my wife came home, so my kid went upstairs oblivious to the historic magic that was about to befall Hoosier Nation...and missed one of the greatest moments in college basketball history that will forever be etched in my memory. I am completely biased of course.

...or even this past NFL postseason, the Colts were down HUGE to Kansas City in the playoffs and they (improbably) made a miraculous 28-point comeback. One of the defining moments was when Andrew Luck picked up a fumble near the endzone (5:54), and instead of falling on it like 99.9% of the other QBs would have done, he picked it up and DOVE into the endzone. Headfirst! He dove! It is a play I'll forever remember.

My family was watching that game with me...well, I was watching, and they were reading, or playing with LEGOS. When I jumped off the couch and got into my pre-screaming and dancing stance, I heard my wife say to my kids, "Here it comes."  And then I started going nuts, and I heard them all giggling. So, I now know after watching my wife do her little screaming dance of her own what they see in me several times a year through sports.  

I've been planning to go out to Hollywood to dip my toes in the acting world for over sixteen months. While finishing the performance run of the play A Few Good Men at the Fort Wayne Civic Theatre, my wife approached me with the idea of me going out to Hollywood and dipping my toes in the acting waters. I've received positive/encouraging reactions to my recent acting endeavors, which are always humbling.  Yes, it was her idea. And, yes, my wife is awesome!

A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin (FW Civic Theatre, Fall '12)

So, for the last sixteen months, I've been saving my pennies. I made it my mission to fund my own way out there. I didn't want to spend a penny of the family budget on my personal excursion. That was very important to me. Not knowing what to expect, and not wanting it to be a complete waste of money, I determined that if it was going to be a waste of someone's money...then it would be my money, and not take a hit against the family budget. I didn't want to put us in debt for going out to California and experimenting/playing/discovering.  So, I have been accruing a nice sized bankroll through my poker winnings, and I've been donating plasma too.  I don't know why they call it donating when you get paid, but whatever, it's all in the phrasing I suppose.  The process hasn't changed too much since I "donated" in college, but it's a much more professional and business-like experience than what I remember from my Bloomington days.

Before the grant, I was prepared to live a pauper life while out there, which I do have some experience doing. A few years back, my sister and I traveled up the east coast of Australia for a few weeks in the summer, and we lived in little more than a converted VW-sized camper van. We did that on a measly budget, and I expected to do that again this summer with, or without, the grant, and without the camper van. It was going to be a frugal few weeks out there before the grant, and then the letter arrived and a huge weight was lifted from my mind.

Being awarded this grant has afforded me a little extra luxury that I wasn't going to have. It will allow me to: afford an acting/improvisational workshop with The Groundlings, where some of the greatest comedian's have received training; tour several different movie and entertainment venues like Universal Studios and Disney; attend the world's largest comic book convention, Comic Con in San Diego; and finally, it will allow me to tour the world's largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the world, Rancho Obi Wan . All things that I wouldn't/couldn't have afforded in the first place. The $10,000 will be a nice, refreshing addition to improving my California experience this summer.

This experience is going to a very rewarding (and renewing) experience. This blog will chronicle my life over the next several weeks, and it will document the behind-the-scenes lifestyle of a beginning actor as he (i.e. me) overcomes the cultural and social hurdles that thousands of people do every year by relocating to SoCal.