I want to say thank you...

More love for Homer.

Life Lessons From My Dog

Homer

Six Life Lessons Homer Taught Me

Live In The Moment

The present moment is all that matters, nothing in the world lives this way quite like dogs and Homer rocked that out hard.

He jumped off our bed each morning ready and eager for the day. He never held a grudge or was stuck in the past. When Lori or I came into the house, whether we’d been gone five minutes, five hours or five days, Homer was waiting at the door. Tail wagging, face radiating, absolutely thrilled to see us again. He greeted every moment like it was a long lost friend.

Treat Everything Like It's Your First Time

Each meal, each treat, each walk, each person was met by Homer with such vigor, excitement and fun. His energy and enthusiasm was infectious. Everything was a celebration. Homer had a lust for life unlike any other dog I’ve met.

Ask For What You Want

Homer was a master manifester. He would sit, whine, stare, drool, beg… whatever it took to get what he wanted. It never failed to work. His perseverance and tenacity was amazing. People always gave in and gave him a treat, pet, hug…whatever it was that Homer wanted.

Unconditional Love

Give and receive it. Be a conduit of love. Homer enjoyed other dogs but he loved people. He lived to sniff, snort, and smell people, and nothing made his eyes light up like being pat by a stranger when he was out for a walk. 

Homer loved and protected our kitten, Marge, to such an extent that when Marge became fully grown and would lunge at Homer and smack him in the face with her paws, he wouldn’t even bark at her. He just took it, because he loved Marge.

Don’t Judge

Don’t judge yourself or others. Most of the time Homer was a Zen Master - so sweet, easy going and relaxed. Once, a neighbor's dog bit Homer in the cheek. Homey just stood there shocked, like “What’s your problem, man?" But when thunder or fireworks struck; lookout! He would be a shaking mess and bolt for a spot in the basement without any windows to ride the storm out. It was his own personal panic room. He didn’t care what I thought, what you thought, and he didn’t cast judgment on himself for his anxieties, his many anxieties. He was also the rare dog that hated car rides. He would start drooling and trembling just seeing us pack luggage. The back seat of our car would be a lake even after a short drive with Homer in the car.

Leave An Impact

Homer was hit by a car and died Friday Jan 4, 2013 at the age of 9 1/2. The outpouring of love and support from friends, family and neighbors has astounded me. Homer gave nothing but love and has left a sad hole.

The sky seemed duller when I first opened my eyes this morning. The house too quiet. Life itself seems stiller, emptier.

It hurts to wake up and not have him laying at my feet.

It hurts to look out any window and not see him in the yard.

It hurts to see his tracks in the snow, knowing their won’t be anymore.

It hurts to not hear his many sighs and moans; he was like an old Jewish man.

It hurts to not to have my living alarm clock wake me up to get him breakfast.

It hurts to put on my socks and shoes without him coming to sit beside me.

It hurts to walk into each room and find it empty.

It hurts to not hear his early warning system when anyone comes down our driveway.

It hurts to not put my used dish on the floor for my heavy breathing dishwasher.

It hurts to see each toy, knowing it won’t be played with again.

It all hurts because there was so much love and joy.

Now it has moved on. We were spoiled.

2012: That's A Wrap!

The year that was, what a year it was. This was the year I did more than I ever thought possible. Instead of assuming I didn’t have time for things, I decided to find out how many things I could do with my time. There was some sadness, sickness and death, but overall 2012 was outstanding.

It was by far the best year for my acting career. I worked multiple days on four feature films with such stars as Tom Hanks, Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock and Steve Carell, one TV movie and the web series Cheerleaders vs Redneck Zombies with included a fun filled day and night for our premiere at Six Flags New England in October.

Saw some great movies that lots of others did too; Hunger Games, The Avengers, Ted, Django Unchained and some of my favorites that it seems almost nobody else went to: Cabin In The Woods and Looper top that list.

Didn’t make it to a lot of concerts, but the clear highlight of the year, if not the decade and possibly my life was Metallica’s Orion Music and More Festival. At the two-day extravaganza in Atlantic City Lori and I both got to be in the snake pit for night 2 when they played the Black Album in its entirety. There was also my dream lineup on The Tour - Motley Crue and Kiss, plus Tesla, Scorpions, and System of A Down.

In the world of fun, I drove a Lamborghini and Lori drove a Ferrari on her birthday. And of course there was another trip of a lifetime as we visited the Galapagos Islands in December. That was an awesome trip, I love visiting places where animals have no fear of man. There aren’t many such spots left in the world. We enjoyed outstanding weather, scenes, activities, animals and people and I now love snorkeling.

I don’t think I’ve ever attended more courses, classes and live training events. The list includes Reiki, Photo Reading, Project Management, Positive Psychology Certificate, Social Media Expos, Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy and High Performance Academy, Product Launch Formula… JJ Virgin turned my food world upside down and I enjoyed a full year of Group Power and Centergy exercise classes. At a time when many people are setting weight loss resolutions once again, I’m weighing less than I have in over twenty years.

I became officially certified as an Enwaken Coach and had more energy coaching clients than ever with NavitasCoach.com and I joined forces with other energy coaches at EssenceCoaches.com, I also taught my first live workshop and had my first paid speaking engagement. I tried cranial sacral massage, reflexology, got certified in Reiki level II, got a new tattoo, took part in multiple master mind groups and did Holotropic Breathwork for my sixth time.

This was the first year without Patriots tickets after 10 years of sitting at Gillette Stadium, and surprisingly I never wished I still had them. And I was once again thrilled that I sold my Super Bowl tickets instead of witnessing a Pats loss in person.

What is 2013 bringing….
More learning, teaching, and growing. More concerts (Lady Gaga and another round of Orion are definite), acting, and the goal travel destination is Antarctica. Lori and I have been talking about speaking together for a while, it is actually happening January 12 when we’ll both talk to a local NAMI group. I’m preparing more Larry The Lizard books, my own book, live workshops and an online course. And whatever else catches my eye in the next twelve months. Bring it on!

Guest Blogging and Positive Psychology

I've had the pleasure of being a guest blogger on a couple sites this week.

I invite you to check out "Keep The Good Going: The Choice Is Yours" on the NAMI Mass blog. NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness and I spoke at the Massachusetts convention last October.

The other blog post is at EssenceCoaches.com, a new group of energy coaches I'm part of. I'm a featured coach this week and wrote a short piece on Transformation. I was also interviewed along with two other coaches on the Meet The Coaches Blog Talk Radio program Monday night. Check out my bio page to learn more about essence energy work.

Both posts were greatly influenced by the Certificate in Positive Psychology program I'm currently taking. It is being taught by professor and author, Tal Ben-Shahar and has been outstanding so far. Earlier this month I spent an immersion week at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires of Western Mass as part of the program. It was an amazing week of lectures, exercises, new friends and many things I don't normally do, like yoga every morning and dance yoga with a hundred people. It made for quite a strange transition going from Kripalu to working on Cheerleaders vs. Redneck Zombies!

I've visited Kriplau a couple times before for Holotropic Breathwork, but had never been there for a full week or had time to explore their many offerings. This time I tried Cranial Sacral Therapy, Reflexology and Neuromuscular Therapy.

Cranial Sacral was not at all what I expected! I thought it was some sort of head massage but it was a full-body, slow-motion wrestling sort of thing. I was twisted into all sorts of shapes and positions that I was surprised I could be in, yet I was so calm and relaxed I could have fallen asleep. And it definitely put me in altered state - swear I was seeing sound waves at dinner after my session, and it felt like I was on a major delay from someone asking me a question and me having any clue that I should respond. Very, very trippy. My altered state only lasted for an hour or so (I think) and I will definitely try this again.

I've heard of Reflexology for many years but this was my first experience with it. It was quite cool and relaxing. Nothing near as trippy as Cranial Sacral. It was wild to have so many sensations in my feet which I thought had two options; ticklish and numb. Bizarre to have my lip twitch or an arm jolt due to touching one point on a foot.

Neuromuscular Therapy, which is the most painful thing I've ever experienced, was much more than a traditional massage. I was so close to screaming STOP! Great practice for going to my happy place and breathing into pain. Whoever created this must be a big fan of banging his head against the wall because it feels good when you stop.

I get to do it all again in April when we have another immersion week. Already looking forward to it.

Cheerleaders vs Redneck Zombies

It has been a banner time for my extra work, or background performances as snotty people might say. This year I've been in scenes with Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, and Steve Carell to name but a few. Three cheers for being blurry bits in the background!


Zombies and Cheerleaders in a gentler time.
AF Grant with Meredith Prunty

For the second time in my illustrious career I get to play a zombie. Not just any zombie, but a redneck zombie! What might that mean for a zombie? You'll have to wait a bit until this web series premieres later this fall to find out. Ever since I got into the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 2008, I've only gotten extra work, but on this project I'm a featured human once again. At least before becoming a zombie. Most actors rush to review a script for how many lines they have or try to figure out how much screen time they'll end up with. I prefer to see how much killin' I get to do or how grisly my death is. This project covers both criteria nicely.

Zombies love making new friends.
With Emmy March and Taylor Kudalis

Last weekend was publicity day and most of the cast and crew got together for some video and stills mayhem. The real production will be in September and episode one should hit the web around Halloween.

You can actually be a part of it by making contributions to the project. You can give as little as a dollar, but giving more will get you some goodies, all the way up to being an executive producer. How sweet is that? You can buy yourself a title, just like in Hollywood. So if you want to see me kill some cheerleaders, or if for some reason you want them to survive, consider a contribution.


Check out the official site. You can also follow along on Facebook.



Stand back. It's a slap fight!

The CvsRZ cast and crew.

Part of the zombie horde.
With Savannah Reinitzer and Mark Burzenski.