It’s 6 a.m. and the wind is howling outside my window and I’m sitting here wrapped in two bathrobes wearing “kitten” slipper socks on the wrong feet. This is the coldest winter in Washington that I can remember. I can’t seem to get warm. Must remember to put food out for the birds and squirrels when it gets light.

This is actually the third time I’ve tried to start this blog. I’d spend hours making it sound like an essay – as in complete sentences – and then look at it and think, Who is this person and why is she taking so long to write such crap?

Last night I searched the Internet for Acting Blogs. Twenty-somethings writing breathlessly about me, me, me!! “I’ve been on the phone with my agent!!” “I just had a U5 (under 5 lines) part in a TV episode!!” “I’ve been called back to do a commercial for the local cable channel!!” I’m here, there and everywhere!! I’m sooooooo busy!! I have fans!!

All this from a rather interchangeable blonde who claims she’s been in the business for 25 years although she doesn’t look older than 27, I don’t recognize her face or name, and her most recent U5 was playing a florist. Talk about discouraging.

Last night my husband and I watched Julie & Julia on DVD, and I started thinking that maybe I needed to channel some famous actress (er, actor) to write this blog, but I’m not a twenty-something (Hell, I’m not even a thirty-something.) so most current famous actors are younger than my kid and those that aren’t are dead. Jessica Tandy (dead). Beulah Bondi (dead). Vanessa Redgrave and Joan Plowright (almost dead).

I thought maybe I’d channel Alec Guinness (also dead), but although he wrote a charming book I’m not sure he’d be much of a hoot to have lunch with.

So I’ll just write. I have almost no experience in front of the camera and no experience at all on the stage (not even in high school). I have a thimbleful of talent and when I do a scene I get a knot in my stomach the size of my fist. I know that starting late and in Washington, DC, the odds are stacked against me. But I also know this: all my life I’ve had a face that strangers seem to remember and I’m going to be an actor.

And this I’ve learned: Play nice. You’re not the only kid in the sandbox.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t take more than an hour to write this, so I’m getting up now to get myself a cup of tea. God, I look like death. (Quick! Get the camera and take a “character” shot!)