Just ignore that beverage I’m holding. It’s the toast that counts!

I’ve noted before the bloat to this blog (and, no, for a change of pace I am not talking about beer today), which truly goes against all the “good advice” most blogosphere wonks shell out. I made a conscientious effort to loop in all my various writing efforts, because the scattered approach simply wasn’t working for me.

My biggest worry was scaring off (or—worse—boring to death) my followers who were interested in one arena of my life and not so keen on others. I get it. This is not a beer blog. After a month of solid hits (my best days this month, which were among my best ever: February 4-5 when I wrote about losing weight, raising a child actor, and a reblog of a friend of mine who runs a classical theater company in NYC, respectively), my numbers really dropped off. The difference? Not a pint to toast among those three days of blog posts! Versus all-beer-all-the-time this week.

However, I am actually paid to write about beer (and drink, as it so happens). Right now it is NYC Beer Week, and the people who were in charge of running and publicizing this week may have done okay on the former but completely failed on the latter. I saw where things were heading about two weeks ago, and I’ve been working my keister off to get the word out about events that I’m covering. For the record, my efforts have helped; most of my events are approaching sell-out.

So, to those among you who miss my pithy commentary, I both thank you for wading through all the beer mash this week and I apologize for not having the time to post about non-beer topics.

To paraphrase a commercial brand I don’t drink… this blog’s for you!

So, allow me to revisit the three posts earlier this month that resonated so well with my followers (casual and subscribed). On February 4th, I weighed in. Literally. I admitted I was 45 pounds overweight and I was ready to “get serious” about losing it. I had a great deal of support from friends and strangers to do this thing. The problem, of course, with losing weight seriously is that your life pretty much has to revolve around it. As a writer, I spend more time tied to a desk than doing laps around a bunch of elementary school students, for example. I truly have to force myself to stop what I’m doing and work out. Add in cold (often icy) weather and getting outdoors for a run is pretty much impossible. I was on track for about 10 days and I had dropped seven pounds in that time. I had a blow to my psyche on the 13th (when I learned my book was passed over for a writing contest in which I really thought I could contend), and I really felt, WTF. I stopped exercising, started eating more and didn’t care if I was drinking or not. The good news is, I’ve kept off five of those seven pounds, so maybe once I get through the massive beer week (hopefully without becoming likewise), I will get back on track. Again!

On February 5th, I wrote about how difficult it is to guide your child into the trenches of acting professionally. Well, aside from being three W2s shy of a tax return (I really need to track them down, but between the Presidents Day holiday and the aforementioned beer publicity, being on hold with Universal City was not on my short list… next week… oops! I digress…), my daughter just booked a small role in a big feature film. While she is ecstatic to be working again (she hasn’t been in front of a camera since June, largely living off residuals and voiceover spots), the route to this part is yet another cautionary tale of why acting is such a difficult career choice. The director loved loved loved her. Yippee!! But she looked too much like the main lead to be offered the second lead role. However, he thought she was so good in her audition, that he wanted to give her something to do in his film. She’ll be shooting two days, and the (originally unnamed) character she is playing will be given a name and she will get invited to the premiere. In short, this is akin to being handed one of those mini-cupcakes with icing and sprinkles on top. The entire cake—or full slice thereof—is yet to be served. This is the reality of working actors.

Finally, on February 6th, I reblogged a piece from The Drunken Odyssey because it featured a friend of mine. The pingback netted me a new friend: The Drunken Odysseus himself, one John King, reached out to have me be on his show! It makes up for the crash and burn I felt not getting into the writing competition. I’m getting to know John; he’s getting to know me (I even accepted his Facebook friend request, something I rarely do when I’m involved with someone professionally). I can’t wait to do his podcast.

Even if that comes after a few more posts about beer!