Ohhhhhhhhh shih tzu. We have new pillows. Three of them. To match our new mattress. And they are so friggin comfy right now as I sit in bed, writing this journal entry number one thousand one hundred thirty-one.

This mattress has been a long time coming, yo. We were on that thing for…twelve years. Well, *we* were on that mattress for ten years. I think it pre-dated little ol’ me by two. And I think the Ho hardly used it for those first two years. Even so…it was getting slouchy. And no amount of turning it this way and that was helping. Liz says she slept well on it last night, which was great to hear. She is definitely the more fickle sleeper of the two of us.

I worked today. Work work work. I know. Same old same old. Liz was at work, too, which was finally announced to the world today – she’s on a sitcom called Disjointed. Pretty sure I’ve already written about that on this here blog, but it finally was in the trades today, and so she’s gotten a lot of happy well-wishers and such. I’ll be going to see her tape these next two episodes before the holidays. Couldn’t be happier or more proud of her. Honestly. Those two feelings, happiness and pride, overflow inside me when I think about her being a series regular on a picked-up show.

The truth, kids, about acting is that the hard work never stops. It really doesn’t. Ever. As long as you’re an actor…or any creative person, for that matter, the hard work never stops. A lot of people have dreams of “making it” and then having all these wonderful things come to them and living the good life and happily ever after…it just doesn’t go down that way. Which, *genuinely*, doesn’t mean that acting is all shit all the time. It’s definitely not. Not at all. Acting can be immensely satisfying, in the short-term and the long term. I know many happy, working actors.

BUT…it’s always hard work. It’s never easy. Ever. Getting the audition, getting the job, acting the job, keeping the job, finding the next job once that one finishes, and so on, and so on, ad infinitum. All of it is hard work. That makes my wife one of the hardest working people I know, and I mean that. We’ve lived through all of that together. I know exactly how much work it is to be an actor, and it’s so much more than you think. It’s so much more than even I ever thought it was.

That makes me think of my novel, actually. There’s a parallel there; it’s so much more hard work to write a novel than I ever thought it was going to be. So much more. But…I like work. We all know this to be true; look at how much I write about it on this blog. I like working. I like doing things, making things. So…I guess my takeaway is that I feel naive for thinking my novel writing would be easier, or take less time…but knowing that it’s harder and will take more time is okay, because I don’t mind working. In fact, I like it.

That’s all for now. Writing tomorrow first thing, has to be first thing I’m learning for the fucking millionth time in my life…and then more editing. Didn’t finish my project today because we went out a saw some acting classmates of Liz’s – it was a premiere of their web series. Tons of fun.

Night!

Artwork tonight is from Mike Winkelmann.