An Endsummer Night's Dream

Hey Honey Boo Boo Children,

So Labor Day sort of marks the end of the summer season, socially speaking. Sure, "summer" ends on September 21st or what not, but truly, tomorrow (September 4th) for most people means a lot less play and a lot more work -- I can tell by the number of emails that started rolling in from tutoring clients around 5 pm today that were ridden with back to school anxiety. If you live in LA you can continue to wear white (or at least I will, and I carry the authority to give you permission to as well because I am a proud Vogue subscriber who purchased said subscription through Groupon on a whim), and though I've painted my nails a gorgeous shade of onyx in preparation for autumn, my favorite season (cute hats, scarves, pumpkin spice lattes, my birthday, a general feeling of productiveness, September issue of Vogue, etc.), for tonight, we can still revel in the fact that it is summer!!

This has been quite a roller coaster of a summer for yours truly. My travel plans kept changing due to bookings and on-avails and on-holds (this is a good thing -- note: I am in no way, shape, or form complaining), I was far away from my boyfriend and dogs, my sister went off to college, my 20-year-old cat passed away, I learned how to ride a bike at 23 (seriously), invested in some permanent wearable art, got an awesome traffic ticket, got realllly into Game of Thrones (and this takes up a lot of mental and emotional energy) -- in short, there were very few dull moments. Mainly, this was the first period of time when I was really pursuing acting full time without a regular day job, meaning that I had to live off ye olde actor wages (that is not a saying, I just made it up). I have to say, it was very fulfilling to prove to myself -- and the naysayers, be they who they will be! -- that I could do it! 

Normally I wait to post on this blog until I have adequate footage and fun pictures to give you a visceral  sense of what I'm up to, but I'm just gonna go with a list right now because I don't want anyone getting antsy. That way, you can already be in-the-know whenever I post the footage and pictures later on, ya know? Also, just because something doesn't have pictures doesn't mean it isn't cool. Don't you remember how exciting it was to move on to chapter books from picture books (sorry I've been tutoring elementary school students lately). Plus, whenever I click on a blog post it tends to have a list included, you know, like "25 Things to do Before You Turn 25" or "How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days" or "10 Things I Hate About You" -- oh wait, the last two aren't blog posts but spectacular films. But you get the point. 

In college, my curriculum was molded around Barnard College's "Nine Ways of Knowing." In honor of my sister starting her first day of classes as a first year there tomorrow, here are the "Nine Booking Highlights of Gilli's Summer" (by the way, if you're a grammar freak who is like, why is she writing some numbers as digits and others as words, just know that any number greater than or equal to 10 should be written as a digit -- 10 not ten -- and anything below as a word -- hence nine not 9. Just letting you know that I self-edit these posts in case you were worried).

Nine Booking Highlights of Gilli's Summer

1. Filmed four national commercial spots for Hasbro with Neil Patrick Harris -- watch as they start to air!! You can see behind-the-scenes stuff HERE
2. Shot an industrial for Toyota in which my character buys a brand-new candy apple red 2012 Camry -- how I wish life could imitate art
3. Did some print work for Sketchers and the amazing photographer Mark Scott
4. Acted as a 1920's flapper girl named "Doll Face" in a kick starter campaign for the new children's series Buddy Bear
5. Continued my saga as a video girl and acted in Tegan and Sara's latest music video for the song "Closer." My friend Jett had to cut me a music video reel because I'm just so into being in music videos. Oh ya, that reminds me that in the beginning of the summer I did a music video for the band Lawson. Okay, #5 on this list is officially the stream of consciousness bullet point about music videos.
6. Auditioned for and was cast in the film If We Were Adults  which shoots in late September
7. Update my website with my mom-ager Chana Messer
8. Auditioned and passed into the first level of Groundlings...now I need to sign up for class!
9. Last but not least, had some great close calls. Being on hold for roles is always a win in my book, and I had a lot of little wins this summer

Well, it's almost midnight, so drink up those last summer hours!

Until next time,

Gilli