New Year In Gear

Here in L.A. everyone skips town for the last two weeks of December. It's like the baby Jesus is a neutron bomb that hits L.A. once a year and clears the place out.

And then on the day after New Year's the grown-up Jesus resurrects everyone and makes them work on tv shows again.

I think he does just to see if they'll get it right this time.

I managed to head home over New Year's for an all-too-brief but satisfying trip. Here are some quick highlights:

• Ms.Sega Dreamcast agreed to go along, but only on the condition that there be snow. Friday night was foggy and damp, but fortunately Mother Nature (or possibly the radioactive baby Jesus) took pity on me and dumped six inches of snow across the state on Sunday. It was pretty.
• By "pretty" I mean: "pretty awful to drive in."
• Saturday my cousin got married and apart from the gorgeous nuptials (Tell me that doesn't sound dirty somehow) it was great to see my extended family. Maybe being so far away makes me appreciate them more, but they're good people and we all had a really good time at the whole event.
• New Year's was spent at the historic Minneapolis Depot which was really nice, apart from the fact that our neighbors in the adjoining suite seemed to think we were sharing rooms. They left their door open all the time. Errrrr... thanks, but no thanks.
• The last hours of 2006 were spent taking in the holiday show at the Brave New Workshop. This was one of the best Xmas shows I've seen there, and it's running through Jan. 27th so catch it if you have a chance. There's no nuclear-powered baby Jesus but there are some excellent bits about UPS and Wal-Mart.
• As a special treat, the improv set at the end of the night included BNW alum Mo Collins. Rarely have I seen Butch Roy get tongue-tied by an improv partner, but she managed to do it.
• The last full day of the trip we got to hang out with my family, play games, eat waffles, and snuggle the new puppies at my brother's house. It was like visiting a day spa run by Norman Rockwell: the massage chairs all have flannel sheets and instead of hot stones they hand you 4-week old black Labs.

Now things are cranking back up. I've had three commercial auditions already, classes are resuming, and I'm working on producing an original project with some friends of mine.

Quick aside - we met yesterday at a coffee shop in Hollywood and just as we were walking out, John Krasinski and Rashida Jones from The Office came strolling in.

Ok, now even I'm tired of my own hyperlinks.

-Tom, whose highlights are never quick.