4 Day Weekend

So where the last weekend involved a lot of me sitting on my ass, this past one involved barely

sitting on it at all.

I had a blast with K. We went to most of the places on the list I had made for us and then some. There are still lots of LA things that we can do the next time. I continue to be really on the fence about this whole 3 years of long distance thing but as it stands I dont think my heart is ready to let go of us just yet...

So here's the list of what we did and where we went:

-The weekend started off with K. arriving at the Sony lot and getting to meet Jorge Garcia(aka Hurley from Lost), checking out the stages and my job and all that good stuff.

-Thur. morning we ran down the street a ways to Good and enjoyed some delicious brun

ch which was, delicious as always though I have to say I think I found myself a Good replacement that's closer to home.

-Then it was driving through downtown and back home only to...

-Take the subway to Hollywood and Highland where we did the walk of stars and Kodak Theatre and Graumann's Chinese..

- We walked back to the house making pitstops and Sunset and Vine and Amoeba music

- Shortly followed by driving over to Scoops and enjoying some beer inspired ice cream

- All in the same day we then ate over at Red Corner Asia and I had a delicious coconut beverage that Im absolutely in love with now (which btw K. said tasted like mold).

-And the day ended with a trip by subway again to the Arclight Cinerama Dome screening of The Social Network. K. loved the theatre and the movie.

-Fri morning: Cafe 101 around the corner from my house for delicious breakfast. This is when the fog flew into town so the rest of the weekend was enveloped in it.

-Then it was off to the Getty for the rest of the day, where we looked at so much cool shit. The coolest for me was probably the Bouguereau painting "A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros" since after all I LOVE his paintings and this was the first time I got to see one. My second favorite and Kellen's first was the Engaged Observers photography exhibit which we probably spent the longest time on.

-The rest of the evening was spent at home watching Thelma and Louise.

-Sat morning: Noah's Bagels early on then off to geocache at Griffith Park as well as a visit to the observatory.

- Then a ride down to Beverly Hills to pick up some Sprinkles cupcakes and go to Noodle Planet for Udon over near UCLA. Then back home to eat cupcakes, Mochi ice cream and watch Leaving Las Vegas.

- Sun morning: My Good replacement: Fred 62! I loved it! They played Queens of the Stone Age and Modest Mouse and served me a great freakin waffle and a great freakin breakfast sandwich with goat cheese on it to K. The coffee was great, the orange juice was real and the price was totally fair. V. excited about this find.

-And then K. was off to the airport. We said our goodbyes and I drove off only to get a call as soon as I got home from him about how the airline was offering 300$ to 5 people who were willing to wait 3 hours til the next flight since they overbooked. So booo I could have hung out with him longer but yay cause he basically flew to LA for free!

-So that was it...and it was great. I needed some good fun. Not saying Im not any less confused about my situation but it was a nice break from feeling sad and lonely.

Now its Wed and its been raining all week. We started shooting on location and ran really late so now everyday we go into the night and our call times are all pushed but I still have to get up freakin early to avoid traffic and sleep in my car. So basically Im exhausted, wet, and most of the time cold. Also base camp is hellishly far from set so most of my day is spent with hearing static on the walkie and nothing sucks more than that. I have no idea what's going on most of the time.

This weekend...another seminar...so even on Sat not much of sleeping in will happen. I plan on buying myself a PC this weekend for playing the Sims and maybe? finding myself a Halloween costume. Im so tired Im thinking about just wearing this wig I got instead of putting forth the effort of actually finding an entire costume.

3 Day Weekend

The week has certainly felt eventful. Last week went crazy fast whereas this week has felt like a dragging hellish month. I can't even remember Monday.

It rained for two days, it was cold, at one point it rained so hard that it rained INTO our stage and onto our set. I was wearing raingear and hauling as through like 6 inches of water. Bizarre for LA. Perhaps we can call that our "welcome" to fall/winter.

I welcome the hiatus next week and K's visit. Hopefully the DGA doesn't deem it an opportunity to day play me on anything. Sleep in a warm bed is what Im really looking forward to. I've been so cold at night; as if the chill has seeped into my bones.

I feel things on set felt off this week. Communication and personalities, things of that nature. I have so much to work on. As a person, as an AD...its tough because you want to impress people or meet their expectations but often their expectations or demands arent what you want for yourself and from yourself. Never has Emerson rang truer:

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of a crowd keeps with perfect sweetnesss the independence of solitude." ~Emerson~

I hope that the amount of evaluation of self that I've been doing recently is something I can maintain. There are qualities that I want to fashion and mold and grow within myself and while I want to meet the expectations of my supervisors I don't want to forget or replace the goals I have for myself and the person I want to be.

My biggest goal: A calmer me, someone who doesn't take every pitfall as a giant canyon that must be hurdled. Call it me cultivating an inner zen. It's probably the hardest thing I'm going to face but I think if I can even slightly touch this state my life will improve tenfold. This goal includes within it less complaining. While I think Ive been achieving really well not griping while on set I think I continue to go home and feel sorry for myself and that has got to be cut down. OK so its fine to feel shitty about your situation sometimes but "poor me, poor me" is only getting me so far. Im cutting that shit out STARTING NOW.

So its hard and Im sad and I feel alone- externalizing that is not helping me ameliorate it either.

So with this weekend coming up lets take a look at some things I hope to achieve:

-Furniture shopping! I could really use a coffee table and tv stand and an end table for the living room. Perhaps a comfy chair. This weekend Im hitting up the stores to try and spruce up the digs before K's visit.

-Watching Two Towers. Have been trying to get to this for 2 weeks now! I plan on sitting on the couch or bed, drinking tea and going nowhere. If I had a cat- he'd be right there with me.

-Buying some new clothes for work.

Christmas Tickets Booked

I'm incredibly pleased with myself because I went for it and bit the bullet and bought those tickets to go home for Christmas. I have no guarantees that I won't be called upon by the DGA so I may end up being out some money but I just can't imagine how I might feel if I don't spend the holidays with my family. For the first time the longing to go home is unbelievable and the joy I experienced after paying for those tickets was definitely something.

So yes, 440$ (WOW! I thought Id be spending at least 200 more) I have flight to Tampa and 10 days in Florida to spend with my rents.

The weekend went well. Overall it felt like a blink of the eye, what with the 8 hour seminar and all. After 8 hours of learning the NEW methods (not that different really...) Im now First Aid and CPR certified. Not that it will really make that big of a difference since I dont think anyone will actually let me touch them on set anyways since there's a medic just about anywhere you go.

Oh and guess who could have used that medic this morning? Thats right ME. It was all misty and foggy this morning (now its actually RAINING) and I freakin slipped on the wardrobe stairs and hit my back (as in my spine) on the top stair then slid down on my ass all the way to the bottom. All this pretty much directly in front of all of transpo. So now like an idiot my back hurts and I feel like I should probably log it on the DPR.

Oh and my Thai massage was pretty good. I dont know if I would go ahead and pay 45 dollars for it normally I think Im fully satisfied with my foot/shoulder/back massage for 25. Im going to be looking into the cost of yoga classes near my apartment to add to my weekend regiment.

More to add on this weekend at a further time...

Grrrr

I just realized that the lovely weekend I've been looking forward to will be eaten up by a DGA Seminar on First Aid and CPR. The seminars don't really bother me when they teach me things I don't already know but as a former R.A of 3 years I have been through enough First Aid and CPR training sessions to keep me medically trained for the next long while. BALLS! I do NOT want to spend my Saturday morning breathing into a mannequin. I want to lounge in bed and watch Don Draper damn it. Oh well...there's not much I can do about it I guess.

Weekend plans include but are not limited to:

-getting the Thai massage I bought for 22 bucks from one of those Groupon things

-hanging out with Kimby and friends and playing board games on Saturday night

-going shopping for new pants, work shirts and socks at the Buffalo Exchange

-buying Pandemic to play on Saturday night (less likely to happen now that we have that dumbass seminar)

-watching The Two Towers

-buying my ticket to fly home for Christmas (eish that is gonna be a lot of money!)

Oh and K. bought a ticket to come and see me! So in less than 2 weeks from now he'll be here!

Fun Times...Dumb List

So just to maintain my blogging of LA-ness here's my list (as far as I can remember it of famous people I've seen. The (M's) are for one's I've actually met.

John Corbett (Parenthood)

Betty White (Hot In Cleveland)

George Costanza (Seinfeld)

Lauren Graham (Parenthood)

Diane Lane (Cinema Verite)

Courtney Cox (Cougartown)

David Boreanaz (Bones)

Hugh Laurie (House)

Tim Robbins (Cinema Verite)

Simon Baker (The Mentalist)

Melissa McCarthy (Mike and Molly--aka Sookie from Gilmore Girls)

Matthew Perry (Mr. Sunshine) -M

Allison Janney (Mr. Sunshine) - M

Nate Torrence (Mr. Sunshine) - M

Kathy Najimy (Mr. Sunshine) - M

Nick Jonas (Mr. Sunshine) - M

Cher (was filming Burlesque)

Adam Sandler (filming Jack and Jill)

Justin Timberlake (who knows)

Fred Savage - M

Lizzy Caplan - M

Fran Kranz (Topher from Dollhouse)

Jimmy Connors(Mr. Sunshine)-M

James Taylor(Mr. Sunshine)- M

Jorge Garcia (Mr. Sunshine)- M

Fun times. Apparently Adam Sandler's trailer will be right next to ours! He seems like a really nice guy; he drove on the lot today and rolled down his window to wave at some tourists.

Week 1 as a Trainee

While tiring and trying week was certainly educational and fun. There were moments of doubt and exhaustion but here I am, arrived at the weekend, and using it to relax and rejuvenate like I said I would be.

Running basecamp is certainly something I am far from mastering but I feel confident in my ability to do it. I think step 1 will be to gain confidence in myself. Once I believe in myself the rest will follow so therefore this next week the focus is on thinking of basecamp as my own set that I have to manage and run same as a 1st.

The second thing to work on is managing my stress level in front of actors. Currently I know Im letting it show too much.

Keeping the complaining down, as per How to Win Friends... I have all the chapter guidelines written out and I try to glance at them from now and then. Also keeping my mouth shut as much as possible, especially when the conversation pertains to other people.

The days are long, but could be longer. The first three days were particularly difficult on the backs of my knees (the muscles there were killing me). And now that the weekend came I found a place (so close that I can walk to it!) that does massage. Foot massage for 60 min with a shoulder and back massage at the beginning for only 25$! With tip it was 35$ and Im so happy I went. Its going to be a thing of mine now every weekend. They even do full body for 45$.

Now Im peacefully hanging out in my bed watching The Fellowship of the Ring. Good day so far certainly.

WORK!

I've been placed! Yay!

On a show called Mr. Sunshine with Matthew Perry and Allison Janney that's being filmed on the Sony lot.

There they are- our lovely first team who I get the joy of wrangling starting Monday!

I'm super psyched. I worked yesterday on a prep day and our production team is awesome. I think I'm going to learn tons.

So far no real contact with Matthew; he did say hi to me in the production office.

My spirits have considerably lifted since I found out I'll be working. Its amazing the effect that having something to do with yourself can do. Don't have too many more details than that right now, will update probably next weekend.