More validation, perhaps.

To add onto Sunday evening's rant about validation...

An e-mail over the weekend from an old friend of mine...we'll call him "Fat Sammy"...reminded me of this other sort of phenomenom I've been experiencing lately. It's the congratulations I've been getting for "sticking with this acting thing" and really making a go of it all. I guess (and I think the numbers mostly support my assumptions) that as people get older, they tend to leave the general rigors of this "job" behind in favor of something a little more stable and less poverty-ensuring. So as I stare 37 square in the face, I'm seeing fewer guys my age at auditions than I did when I would go audition at age 27. Or 30. Or 33.

But it's the congratulations of people I respect who, for one reason or another, have decided to give up acting or whatever their artistic endeavor once was that means a lot. It also makes me wonder why I'm still rambling about this...

So the plan is to stick with this crazy business, I guess. At this rate, by the time I'm 84 I'll be getting all the work I can stand as one of a dozen active octogenerians still in Chicago's off-Loop theater scene.

Sweet!