The Winter Solstice is a good day to reflect on the year that has past, and look forward to the coming one. Seeing as I don’t celebrate the religious aspects of Christmas (just the presents part), it’s a good a day as any for me to celebrate the year that was.

2010 was definitely a year that I challenged myself to do more with my life. Although I didn’t achieve all the goals I had set this year, I am really proud of everything I have done and I know that all my struggles have prepared me for anything that might come my way in the future, both good and bad.

Just to prove to myself that I did get a lot done this year, I did a little count of  all the films, shows and gigs I had in 2010:

5 short films

4 TV show episodes (as background or featured guest)

1 short play

32 Coyote Love gigs

Not bad, considering I also fit in three different day jobs to pay the bills!

I’m hoping to improve on these numbers next year and add some feature films into the list – my ultimate goal is to be cast in a feature in 2011, one that pays me and that has a theatrical release. I am writing it in my blog as a way to spur me forwards whenever I think it’s not going to happen – if I told everyone about it, I’d better do it, right? It’s written on my altar as well and I’m starting a big chanting campaign to move my goals along. Like a lot of things in my life, I struggle with consistency in my daily buddhist practice, but I know that as long as I determine each day to do my best, I will always win out in the end.

As part of my Consistency Campaign of 2011, I’m setting myself another challenge – to write a blog post every day. This one’s going to be hard, I can already tell. However I really want to keep at it, even if I slip up or don’t have much to talk about – I just want to record each day of next year in some way. It’ll be interesting to look back at this time next year and read a full twelve months of my daily life – the exciting, the joyful, the sad, the boring. Either you, my dear reader(s), will find this insightful and fascinating, or you’ll be bored shitless and give up on me by February 1. Either way, I’m going to persevere till the very end and see how it all turns out.

Happy Christmahannukwanzasolsticemas!

I am very grateful to be working this week. I had a great time over Thanksgiving with Vince and my mum, who came to visit for a few days, but thanks to both the holiday and me wanting to take a little break, I didn’t really work for about a week. I was planning on only being off on Thanksgiving itself, the day after (although I did run a private pub crawl with Eric) and the following Monday, but the fates conspired against me and I lost a three-day confirmed temp job 5 minutes before it was due to start. ARGH. I recovered one of those days somewhere else, and spent the week after Thanksgiving trying to be productive with my enforced holiday. This did mean that my finances took a hit and once again I’ll be scrambling to put enough in the bank to pay the bills on January 1st. Never mind that it’s nearly Christmas and I have to buy presents.

Rather than feeling depressed or despairing, though, I have a sense of deep appreciation for where I am right now. I am doing what I always wished for: pursuing a career as an artist and actually making it work. Vince, who didn’t bat an eyelid when I told him of my foolish plans to send us to the poorhouse, has supported me in so many ways, many of which are unseen by everyone else. He deserves a lot of love, people. Despite the many challenges to my financial situation, I’ve managed to pull it out of the bag every month and pay my share of the bills. I’m not in debt and refuse to get into debt (other than, you know, the mortgage). I’m busy and challenged creatively. I get to be in films and play in a band. Being a bit poor is nothing. I have an awesome life.

And so here I sit, at a temp job that will save my financial bacon this week, bored shitless. But grateful to be getting paid $22 an hour to be bored shitless. It means I get to have the aforesaid awesome life.