Golden Years

A couple of years before she died, my mom gave me this thick and heavy 18 ct gold necklace.  Her father had given it to her many years before.  Since she had been through the ringer with my sister, she gave it to me... or maybe she just wanted me to have it. She gave me other jewelry...pearls, her mother's ring and a really unique smoky topaz ring.

In any case, I'm not a big gold person.  I really like the smoky topaz ring even though it's gold.  I had it resized a few years ago and wear it often.  The rest, though... not really my style.  I could see me one day wearing the pearls but that gold necklace has been sitting in a drawer since I moved here..and before that, it was in another drawer...and before that, another one...

I knew it was worth something.  It had been appraised at 2,000 in the 80's but that was based more on design and not the value of gold.  This would simply be bought for its gold value and melted down.  I went to a pawn shop on Monday to sell it... I expected it would pay for at least half of my voiceover demo.  I was surprised that they offered me considerably more than I expected.  The lady asked me if I wanted to sell it.  I told her yes.  She asked me for my ID and, next thing I knew I was in tears.  I told her it was my mom's who passed away a few years ago and I just realized I wasn't ready to sell it.

Then I got home and kicked myself.  The pawn shop is in Santa Rosa which is a bit of a drive for me (considering I hate driving and I rarely stray far from a 15 mile radius).  I started monitoring the price of gold and it has dropped every day since Monday.

I want to do this voiceover demo.  I will continue to check the price of gold online and as soon as it jumps back up to what it was (and hopefully over), I will go back to the pawn shop and sell it.  My mom would want me to be happy.  I don't want to live my life wondering what would've happened if I had pursued my aspirations to do voiceover work.

I emailed a friend of mine in LA who does VO to pick his brain.  He said his agent does very little and he has to hustle for most of his work.  That doesn't seem too different from the acting world...

My agent was useless.  I remember I was taking this acting class.  One night I did a scene.  I had to leave early so as soon as the scene was over, I left.  As I was walking out the door, someone grabbed my arm and called my name.  He told me that I did great work and he was glad to see me.  I thanked him and sort of looked at him blankly.  He said, "I'm Steve." (blank).  "Your agent?".  That's how often I saw him...

He sent me on an audition here and an audition there but most of the work I got in the ten years I lived in LA, I got on my own.