I am an actor. I have had really great parts before. I have been paid to sing in musicals. I have even had lines on television. But in this business we call "show", there are peaks and valleys and I am most assuredly in a very very deep, dark and bitter valley. I am currently playing a recycling container at various trash and compost sites around New York City. That's right, people. I put on a big green garbage can costume and let people take their picture with me just so I can call myself an actor. I don't talk while in the can and it gives me a lot of time to think. I have thought a lot about my life and the state of my career. And when I say career, I mean I don't have one. Sometimes when I am having my photo taken I imagine that I am not really in a big green costume. That is not a Polaroid camera I see before me with a Department of Sanitation worker behind it taking pictures of me with people who think it's silly fun to take a photo with a recycling can. No, it's a member of the paparazzi who caught me having dinner with a friend at the latest hot spot. I smile and wave. Click. Click. I am a star! Oh, wait the baby next to me is scared of the big eyes on my costume and I am forced to reality. I am in a trash can costume.

My next appearance is at a hardware store near you to promote recycling leaves for compost. And then look for me in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.