Five Years at Abbey Place

Five years ago today Angela and I moved to Los Angeles, into this house on Abbey Place where I sit typing this blog, looking out the window at the blue moon, tonight.

Five years ago today.

It seems completely impossible. Where did those years, months, weeks, days, hours go? How did we get here from there? How are we still in the same house? On the same street?

Impossible.

Five years.

When I was younger, I knew there was this place called Hollywood. This place where it was sunny all the time and there were palm trees and where actors and actresses roller skated (yeah, I'm old, whatever) down the beach boardwalk. I knew of this place but I never, not even once, imagined I'd go there. I thought it was way too far away (kinda like I think of Australia now, I know it exists but I doubt I'll ever get there) and too exotic. I couldn't roller skate (the very last time I had skates on at the Roller Rama when I was in middle school, I fell going over the metal entrance to the skating rink and bruised my tailbone, that was the end for me!) and I surely did not look like anyone in the movies or on TV (this must've been pre-Roseanne or maybe when the only thing I was watching was Beverly Hills 90210).

And yet...here I am. Five years ago my dad drove our U-Haul into the driveway right out front and we unloaded and made our little home in this house that has shady window screens, no air conditioning, assorted animals and bugs, and a washer/dryer. All of my Hollywood dreams were about to come true!

Fast forward 1826 days. Have all of those dreams come true? Well...

Angela has this little picture frame in her room that says, "Sometimes on the way to one dream, you find another." I love that. (Yes, I bought it for her...) I love how one dream can spawn a hundred thousand more and some you never even saw dreaming.

I came to Los Angeles wanting to be a screenwriter. I had already written a movie script and three-quarters of a novel. I enrolled in film school. I read hundreds of screenplays, watched hundreds of movies and then...realized maybe I was interested in the medium that had stolen my heart before the movies. TV.

So I took a class, then another. And bam! Another dream. To be a television writer. But not just a writer. A showrunner. A creator.

Along the way I realized maybe I'd want to act (tried it, hated it) or direct (that I could get behind). I also found my passion for teaching college again (and a paycheck).

So there are new dreams now. And some of the old ones still lingering around. I've also discovered new passions, met new people, realized how important it is to live a life while pursuing a career. Each of us is granted only so many days and it's important to remember that and to make sure each counts.

Has each of the past 1826 days counted? Hell yes. And then some.

So here's to five more years. Here's to what's next. Happy Anniversary, me! (And Angela!)