A week of driving around in Los Angeles after episodic season has gotten back into full swing at the end of Mercury Retrograde will remind you (even if you don’t buy into the planetary factor) that everyone needs to just sloooooow down.

There are millions of us rushing around trying to get across town for this session or that class or this meeting or that location shoot. Add to that millions more going to and from events unrelated to our li’l industry. It’s just intense, at best. Throw in a text message, a phone call, a distracted moment at the radio dial (I’ve even seen people shaving while driving! Or eating with a knife and fork!), and there’s opportunity for disaster all around.

I bring this up because a few days ago, Regina Virk, the tech goddess who manages all things web for us was in a serious car accident and — after doing some hospital time — she’s home and recovering in a way that requires being woken up every hour and being visited only by immediate family. Major changes ahead in her life after just the blink of an eye on the freeway.

Sure, people are in serious car accidents daily. Far more serious, many times. And what this has to do with acting is only this: You’re of no value to anyone if you get yourself dead or badly injured with all the running around required as you operate your business (which involves intense commuting, here). We need to all just take a breath and slow down.

I work most of the time from my home office in Santa Monica. Several times per week, I’m crossing the 405 for what I call a “day trip” to attend meetings on the other side of town. It sounds like I’m being silly about how much time it takes for me to go anywhere, but I actually do treat my trips to Hollywood, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, all of it, as “day trips.” I pack a lunch, I put great music or books on tape together on the iPod, I bring “lap work” with me so that if I’m very early (which I often am, very early), I may find a spot to curl up on a comfy couch to get a head start on a future week’s column, refine a cast list, or play a few rounds of Words With Friends.

I arrive with no stress about where I’m going to park because I have an abundance of time to do it. I don’t worry about finding a new suite in a building I’ve visited long ago because I have loads of time to figure it all out. Yeah, it’s not every time, every meeting, every day that provides for such windows of time for my commute. Sometimes meetings just are scheduled back-to-back and across town from one another. And there’s more grace with which to handle the commute on those meetings when the commute on the meetings I can control are given loads more time.

If you’re running late, we all understand. We’ve all been there (but, “There was more traffic than I expected,” is an excuse we never like to hear from anyone who’s been in Los Angeles longer than a month. We know. We all know. Most plan for it. Parking’s tough too. We know. We all know. Most plan for it) and we generally will understand if we hear from you before you’re late. Meaning, don’t call at 2:05pm to say you’re going to be late for your 2pm meeting. No duh. Call at 1:45pm when you’re already very well aware you’re not going to make it on time. And pull over to make that call. Please. Unless you’re dealing with a Bluetooth or hands-free speakerphone setup in your car, please just pull over for the 30 seconds we’re talking about. Thank you.

Tying this back to acting (thanks for bearing with me, here): I got to producer sessions for a project I was casting last month and one of the producers was complaining about traffic and parking and all that jazz. We predicted there would be some latecomers for the day’s sessions due to alternate-side street sweeping in the area. One producer had seen an exchange of road rage over a parking spot, coming in. I decided to share a story about how I got over a road rage-prone personality glitch of my own in my 20s.

I would always imagine that the person who cut me off, who took “my” parking spot, who tailgated me as if my personal space was his or her own was the person I was heading out to meet. Back when I was an actor, that meant the person was the session runner, the camera operator, the casting director, perhaps even the producer — someone whose fickle opinion could dictate whether I got hired, if I were being remembered not as a wonderful actor but as a raving lunatic with a quick-triggered middle finger. Nowadays, that person whose driving doesn’t make me happy is the next producer who will hire me to cast a film, a development exec who will buy my show concept, the head of a college’s film department who will not only buy cases of my book for her students but also invite me in as a guest professor.

This mindset suddenly changes my whole outlook on traffic and the crazymaking moments involved in crisscrossing around town and dealing with so many hassles that are beyond our control.

Whatever mind trick you use, please, arrive feeling good, relaxed, and ready to take on the world, folks. And get well soon, Regina. We need you healthy!

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001237.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.