This online journal began on December 18, 2003. It is intended to be a journal that talks about my life, my career, everyday and special events, good and bad, sweet and sour. Here goes: Welcome to my BLOG!

12/18/03

This is the first respite I've had for many, many months. One good thing about the holiday season, people get a little rest if they don't get nuts over the Christmas stuff. This year, we're avoiding the commercial and resting, taking a pleasant drive to another city, enjoying new sights and sounds, food and fun. The world will crank back up again soon enough! Enjoy your holiday season! All blessings!

March 9, 2004  Spring Break at my college. Blessed respite. We have a new GRANDSON--James Seitz--born February 22, 2004 at St. Vincent's Hospital in NYC to one of our three sons, Matt Zoller Seitz and wife, Jennifer Dawson Seitz.  We haven't seen the lil' fellow yet. Plan to take trip to NYC in May or June. Our thinking behind waiting to visit is two-fold: First, everything is 'difficult' when one has just brought a newborn home; additionally, a newborn isn't truly 'conscious' yet and so, we're waiting until James has a little more 'life-experience.'

Even though it's March in Texas, everything is dark green this year. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and sky is blue and pink, and the trees are sprouting a million buds. The white Irises have arisen. Spring has Sprung!!

I stopped smoking in early-December of last year. Feel so much better. Hard to believe I hurt my body so terribly with smoking for so many years. Even my mouth and face look and feel better!

It's May. Spring is here. The gardeners planted my flowerbeds and everything is dark green and gorgeous. Summer is just around the corner. We'll be vacationing this summer, several times, and I can hardly wait. I need the respite from the workday world. I want to start writing another audiobook too. This summer, I promise! Everyone has been asking me to write and record the sequel to my audiobook, Commercial$peak. I may do that.

July 1, 2004  After seven years teaching college, I'm not returning next fall to my college.  I will concentrate on my own voiceover career, and my voiceover and singing and acting coaching! Priorities! So important! I'm also enjoying every day as much as possible. Right now I am reading Barbara Bush's memoires, biographies of Harry Truman, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and stories by Black American Authors. I love reading!!!  I discovered reading at about age 3 and lived at the library on my grandmother's house's corner! I was a voracious reader throughout childhood and adulthood and that continues. Oh, the joy of books! I subscribe to so many magazines but so little time to read anything, it seems, in this busy world . . .

Happy July 4, all and GOD BLESS AMERICA! 
America certainly has changed, as has the entire world, since the horror of 9/11 in NYC!

TODAY IS APRIL 23, 2007--I am so lax in entering new data in this Blog. A busy life prevents it so many times. Just returned from New York's ice and snow in late-March teaching and consulting. I don't enjoy New York. It's difficult...Then home three days and on to Las Vegas, the VOICE-2007 International presented by visionaries James Alburger, Frank Frederick and team. Fabulous week of voiceover instruction from top pros and I was very honored to serve on the faculty! My session was teaching Audiobook Narration Techniques...a two hour slot...far too short but the participants rated me at "92 percent" out of 100 percent on student evaluations, with 8 percent non-responding, so I guess that means I did OK!!! Thanks everyone for your friendship, your interest in my work, and your comraderie. The great "voiceover god" Don LaFontaine and the cartoon voice guru Pat Fraley both were teaching alongside me and that was thrilling. AFTRA representatives from Los Angeles, Chris DeHaan and Marcus Dunn presented a lovely reception and brought literature they had prepared with quotes from me on the handouts. I've been a member of AFTRA and SAG 34 years now! Time flies! Gotta go...it's a busy Monday in my Dallas recording studio!

Today is February 28, 2008. All is well. Business is good in voiceover land. I have a new Dallas Agent, The TOMAS AGENCY and the new owner Jennifer Bajsel is a real pro and a go-getter. I am teaching in many cities nationwide now and enjoying it tremendously...meeting new people, experiencing new sights and changes of scene, renewal for me, and I'm teaching new students who say that the need me! What could be more wonderful? Life is good.

Today is May 10, 2008. All is well. Business is good in voiceover land. I'm traveling a lot now teaching in other cities. This began in earnest in 2007 and I love it. This summer  and fall, I'm teaching in Nashville, Tulsa, Hartford CT, and Denver. I am also looking forward to our son and two grandchildren being here in Dallas this summer in-between my travel. I am gardening and loving it. We're continuing to work on our home and I just purchased some gorgeous new living room furniture. A new car is next. Car shopping is always fun. Life is full and we're fine. For everyone who wonders...voiceovers and studio singing and teaching have made a wonderful life for me and my family. We're very blessed!

Today is June 1st, 2008. Hello summer and it's Texas hot! I'm excited about presenting workshops in Nashville and my voiceover workshop there, open to the public, is the evening of June 29th. Then, it's on to the University of Tulsa where I teach two voiceover seminars on July 13th. Next, I'm teaching in Denver at the conference of the Assoc. of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and also presenting an open enrollment workshop in Denver on August 3. After that, I hope it's home for me because I'll be weary of airports by that time. I am very much looking forward to meeting and making new friends in my travels. Drop me an email and say hello! And please pass the information to others if you can!

June 1st, 2008, no I will NOT be teaching at the Voice 2008 "do" in Los Angeles because the organizers are not paying teachers any salaries and expect teachers to pay all their own expenses! I responded in one simple word to that silly invitation..."RIDICULOUS."  It is a giant "trade show" in hotel ballrooms! That's not my idea of teaching!

2004 has begun. Time flies faster and faster every year, it seems. Texas has been unusually warm while the Northeast and East freezes! We are very excited about the birth of our second grandchild, a boy, in February. Matt and Jennifer, parents, live in NYC, so that means a visit to see our Sweet Baby James probably in March. I dread flying nowadays, though. Hate airports too. I would travel by train but the connections aren't good from Dallas. Too many stops and transfers!

Had a very bad fall in my kitchen. I'm bruised and not feeling up to snuff. This too will pass. The fall taught me not to take good health for granted! Tripped on a rug and hit my head on large oak cabinet. Ouch!! Bruises under both eyes, on my forehead, eyelids. I look a fright!!!!

POSTSCRIPT: It is now 2005 and believe it or not, those bruises described above took until APRIL of 2004 to go away completely from underneath my eyes. I was very embarrassed by them. And now, I believe my face looks different because of the bruising and the broken nose cartiledge. Oh well, I still am beautiful inside. My grandson James Seitz in NYC turns one year old February 22, 2005 and grandma has only seen him one time for about three days when he was about six months old. Bummer. I hate long-distance gramma living but what is to be done about it? Hannah Seitz, my grandchild, also in NYC, is eight years old. Wow. Time flies.

January 20th, 2004

January 10, 2004 I am teaching at two colleges now. It is enjoyable because I love teaching but stressful with so many students in my care. It is akin to being "mommy" to over 100 individuals. Awesome! Teaching is a very rewarding profession. I encourage those who have an aptitude for teaching to pursue it. You contribute to others' well-being and keep educating yourself at the same time!

May 28, 2004 My work as a voiceover professional and coach is more satisfying than ever. And the students who rely on me for guidance as a coach and audio producer awes me. When students travel from Maine and Colorado and Washington to study here in Dallas, I am honored and humbled. This is a huge responsibility being a teacher!

February 2005 A brand new year has come to pass and I turned one year older in January. How old? I'm not saying! Not on this webpage, at least! I am busy in my recording studio and happy to not be teaching college credit courses anymore. The new department head just 'did me in.' She was impossible to work with and I did not admire her as a person or a teacher...thus, no respect for her. She expected everyone to use her syllabus and teach 'her way.' What a silly useless woman. Glad to be rid of her in my life! Teachers have to do too much unpaid work outside of the classroom and it's just not fair. If I had wanted to devote my life to college teaching, I would have started to do so many decades ago. Instead, I chose my life and work as a freelance performer, singer and voiceover talent, writer and audio producer engineer, and I'm so glad I did. As long as I stay self-employed, no one can fire me but me!!!! Hey, that's pretty cool! The life of a college professor...well, I enjoyed it ONLY because it was not "my life." It would not have been enough to fill my life. Oh, no.

July 2004: The days are hovering at 100 degrees. The flowers are sitting in dusty beds by sunset without watering. I'm staying indoors, working on computer, sticking my head out of the front door now and then to remark how "blazing hot it is out there" and closing the door quickly to keep the AC inside. We just returned from a restful time in San Antonio Texas. The riverwalk is beautiful. One morning, very early, I took a nature walk, really looking at flora and fauna, noticing the birds. At one point on my walk, there was a beautiful tropical grotto on one side of the walk complete with moss, two ponds green with algea, palms and other tropical foliage, and there stood a long-legged white crane-like bird perched on one foot, staring at me for a long time. I was mesmerized. Later, I saw a family of rabbits. The babies were tiny. There were fish and more unsual flowers than I had ever seen. The morning was cool. The breeze was delightful. I was moved. Nothing takes the place of a nature walk when trying to relieve stress. I also read new books, lazy afternoons reading on sunlit patios around our gorgeous Marriott Hotel. I drank some wine, enjoyed good books, and laid back! That's what life is all about! Take time to smell the roses!

IN SWITZERLAND October 2007! Spectacular!