The Haps

(You know, the things that be going on.)

Tim Askew started a blog!

I found a $170 check I'd forgotten about from working on set. It was like when you find $5 in your pocket, only 34 times better. 

Yesterday on set was weird. I don't think I'll be going on the days they're in OB anymore, because the people down there are literally crazy. One old guy walked around screaming about how we shouldn't vote for Obama (hmmm... maybe he's not so crazy) and followed up his political views with a few racist jokes (which this one ridiculous girl kept laughing at, which just spurred him on), and a woman shouted at one of our security guards who had done absolutely nothing to her, then yelled that we'd all be dead by midnight when she caught a few people glancing her way. They're a lovely bunch down there.

Pies are $6.99 at Marie Calendar's right now. Sounds like Pie Date Night should be reinstated.

Due to the dryness of fall and my hypersensitivity to it, I have been shocking and getting shocked right and left. The down blankets on my bed are constantly filled with static electricity, and I swear at least twice a night I can bring up an actual, visible electric charge by touching them. I'M NOT KIDDING. Scared me to death the first time with the fear that I would set my blankets on fire in my sleep, but now it's just kind of cool (but still painful). With some practice, I should be able to give anyone who crosses me a controlled zap, just like our favorite blonde villain and former VM star on Heroes. ("Hey, you mess with the bull..." ~ Veronica Mars)

My roommate gave me this awesome shirt. I told her not to be offended that it would be a sleep shirt and not a shirt I would actually wear out in public. (Because let's be honest; I'm a nerd, but I'm not that kind of nerd.)

I finally finished my college blanket, started summer 2007 when Sara and Tyler were still around. (I miss you guys!) Yes, it took me more than a year to finish it. But the bulk of it's been done awhile; I just had to get up the courage to sew on the backing, which ended up fantastic, especially for my first time every trying a project like this. 

Right now my poor blanket is taking its first ride in the washer. :( Is it sad that I've been praying for its safety in there?

Conversations From Set

October 24, 2008

Around 7pm:

Danny (background setter along with Scott) to me: "Feels just like any other Friday night at the bar, huh?"

Me: "Yeah, I was just about to pull out my book. Just like every Friday night at the bar."

Danny: (laughs)

Set designer, mixing fake drinks behind us: (Deadpans) "I totally went to the bar to read in college."

Danny: "Well, yeah, depending on the book, it's a great conversation starter; 'So what are you reading there?' It's gold. (To set designer) What books did you take to the bar?"

Set designer: "Microbiology."

End scene.

Around 8pm:

Scott, in a moment of exhausted delirium, or perhaps boredom, takes a fake piece of lettuce from a fake plate of food and puts it on his head as a yamaka.

Brad: "Mazal tov."

Background girl I don't know: "Oh, my gosh! Are you Jewish?"

Brad: (Bewildered) No... I just watched Wedding Crashers."

End scene.

At 9:15pm

Background guy: (pulls out a tiny device of some sort which he uses to tune in to the currently airing episode of The Ex List.)

Everyone else: (crowds around to shamelessly scan the background of scenes for themselves.)

End scene.

Around 10pm:

Set designer: "So what are you reading?"

Me: (Holds up new Karen Kingsbury book to his blank stare) "It's a girly book. I'm sure you haven't heard of it."

Set designer's blank stare: (continues)

Me: "I mean, it's no microbiology."

Set designer: (Feigns insult) "Hey, I enjoyed that book."

End scene.

Around 10:30pm:

While in holding, Brad instructs us in his views on educational reform (with ideas that actually sound good).

Set girl who I know but have never learned her name: "Brad, you should be president!"

Me: "Yeah! Brad for president! We should make posters!"

Another girl: "All this downtime is perfect for that!"

Me: "I'll bring the markers next time!"

(And in case anyone's wondering, last night's episode coincides with this post from September 3.)

Weekend Recap: Black and White Event

Sarah and Adam threw a barefoot black and white event at the Burmeister's on Saturday night. Right after I got home from my first shooting lesson, Katelyn burst in the door shouting about only an hour to get ready. I stared at her blankly. Then I remembered the myspace invitation I'd gotten a month before. Thus begun the rush to get two girls fancy looking before Brian came around to pick us up.

The black and white affair was quite charming. It's always fun seeing camp people whom you've seen in the dirtiest of dirt all snazzy looking. There was dinner and dancing, sparkling cider and homemade raspberry cake. So elegant.

Awww... how cute.

The table decorations outside.

Brian.

More decor.

The birthday boy with some camp folks.

Katelyn and I.

Toasts.

That Jordan River is just hilarious for pictures.

See what I mean? No shame, that one.

Keener! I'm glad she's around again... although I don't really see her any more than when she was in Virginia....

Weekend Recap: The Shoot

Midway through my self-taught class on deviled eggs, Trent and Brittany offered a free round of shooting. All I had to do was ride in the back of Trent's jeep and wear funny glasses at the range. Deal. I've never fired a gun before, despite the company I generally keep (I'm looking at you, Jenafer, Justin, Jesse and Jarrod), so this was sure to be interesting.

Trent teaches Gun Basics 101. I try to keep the protective gear from digging permanent indents behind my ears.

See the three holes in his face? I did that.

Apparently mostly good isn't good enough for Trent.

Don't worry- This paper guy definitely had it coming.

Final analysis? It was a good experience, but I'm not thrilled. I don't like that you can't easily see where you hit on the target- if it's too far back you can't see at all. What's the use of that? I need the instant satisfaction of knowing I shot the paper guy's ear off. I think I'll stick to Halo.

Weekend Recap: Movie Night, FCC World Famous Rummage Sale, and Deviled Eggs

Cedric Digory + fall scrapbook kit + boring Friday night = sister bonding time.

(I thought the lace added a nice masculine touch to this page of our new neighbors. Yes, they do look like familiar characters, don't they?"

This year's rummage sale was a bit of a letdown compared to last year's when Sonia and I spent an hour browsing the book section alone. But I was able to come out with a few gems: The Westing Game to add to my Newbery collection, a Dee Henderson book I don't yet have, the Christian Writer's Market from 2006, and, finally to complete my Narnia collection, Prince Caspian.

I started collecting Narnia books at a yard sale when I was ten. I got a complete set- minutes Prince Caspian- for 75 cents. Since then I've added probably 20 more versions of Narnia books to the shelf, including some British versions. But a Prince Caspian at a yard sale? Never happened until last weekend. Too bad it doesn't fit with any of my other sets- it's one of the stupid movie versions.

With the rest of the day ahead of me I decided to learn something. How to make deviled eggs, to be specific.

And wonder of wonders they came out right! On my first try!

I think that's the first time that's ever happened to me before.

October 22, 2008: In which I flashback to the 90's and get pulled over for the first. time. ever.

Today was flashback day on set. I have never been a part of a flashback. I wasn't sure what it entailed, but I had visions of flashbacks in Friends, with Monica in her fat suit, Rachel with her old nose, and everyone's hair and clothes looking waaaay too ridiculous.

I was not looking forward to it.

But you know what? It turned out just peachy.

First, since the flashback was 1998, the clothes weren't terrible. I got a nice polk a dot dress and the only issue I had with it was that it was really tight around the lung area, so breathing deeply was impossible for about five hours.

Second, since it was a "period" scene, the girls got to hit hair and make up. Which is awesome. We sat our butts in the same seats as the stars and had their hairdressers playing with our tresses, and it was a beautiful thing. When I was on the makeup side, guess who was in the chair just a foot to my right? None other than the star, Elizabeth Reaser herself.

That was kind of cool.

Also cool? The hairdresser picked me to be the "Phoebe" hair-do, the Lisa Kudrow look from Friends. I didn't even know my hair was capable of staying up that long, but I guess 50 hairpins and a bottle of spray can hold anything.

I made Andy take a picture of the back of my head at lunch:

Then I tried to get a self-portrait of the front, but it doesn't look so great:

Then I took a picture of Andy:

Fun things on set today:

Awesome snacks: Goldfish and cheese popcorn. Gene, how did you know these are my favoritest snacks ever?!

Chillin' in hair and makeup like a real star.

Working in Coronado at night, while crowds gathered around the perimeter to ooh and ahh and ask us questions.

Totally ruining the end of a scene when we got sent across later than normal and ended up walking parallel right next to the actors as they vacated the scene. But really, it was not our fault.

The Russians. See, there were these three Russian boys on set who normally work in LA, but came down here for the day. At one point, they started their lap right after me and they guy I was walking with so they were right behind us for quite awhile. So I joked they were stalking us and clutched my purse tightly to me and gave them a suspicious eye. Best line of the night comes from Russian #2: "They make us to be stalker." Then the Russians went into some weird zombie mode and joked that it would be funny if they followed me down the street like that.

The end.

Or is it?

As I was driving home, rocking out to my Spring Awakening soundtrack, remembering I had a load of laundry to do still, even though it was eleven p.m., suddenly something happened that had never happened before.

A cop got behind me and turned on his sirens.

Busted! But I didn't know what for! And I was starting to freak out inside my head while retaining a relatively calm, yet nervous exterior. I'd always figured I'd be the type to start crying at her first ticket, and this thought was not helping.

So I kept my hands on the wheel (I remember that from "What to do if you get pulled over 101") until he came over. He was a friendly guy, probably my age, and didn't seem to mind one bit that I was completely flustered as I searched for my driver's license and registration, which weren't really in their right places thanks to being on set all day and my dad tinkering with my car and in my glove box. Finally I'd handed it all to him, he asks about my address, he looks at my ID, and he says:

"You went to Shadow Mountain, huh?"

And it all changed in an instant. This was no foe! This was friend! A shadow mountain friend! A Christian brother. I was immediately at ease, and quite incredulous that he would remember my name from the days I did go to Shadow, which were the Awana years, which is where he remembered me from. Then he kindly warns me about sliding through stop signs (my apparent crime, though to be honest I couldn't even remember the stop sign he was referring to, so I probably really did drift through it), and goes on his merry way.

And 30 seconds later, when the shock has worn off, I realize I forgot to ask his name. Because if he remembered me, chances were I would know his name, too. Names from the past are my specialty. Alas, I did not, and now I feel sad that I'll never know who he was, this awesome cop who made my first pullover quite a pleasant experience.

So if you're out there, Mr. Patrols the Helix High La Mesa area at 11:00 on Wednesday Nights Police Officer, thanks. (And what's your name?)

Weekend Recap: Announcing Christmas

After Heather's baby shower on Sunday afternoon (which had the most amazing caesar salad I've ever eaten in my life, by the way), it was time for a much anticipated event: The October Christmas Announcement party. It's just something we do.

It's great fun.

The Christmas Announcement Party means we have a turkey dinner with all kinds of interesting somewhat Christmasy/ somewhat party-ish side dishes (deviled eggs anyone...? I just taught myself to make them...), we watch a Christmas movie, and of course the gift exchange (in the form of the game affectionately known as 'White Elephant' by Pam Beesley, and 'Nasty Christmas' by Jim Halpert).

The Best family... all four of them.

Gwen amuses herself amongst all the adults with drawings.

Christmas Pictionary was a hit this year.

Ryan Poole came up with Christmas themed phrases. (Like 'lamp leg')

Sometimes Pictionary makes Mikey excitable.

David with mini David minus the freckles (aka Caleb).

Ryan got so creative with some of the phrases that some people didn't know what the heck he was talking about.

Genesee takes a break from shouting guesses to smile for Lizzie, the current camera holder because....

I've got this beautiful little kiddo for the next hour. Forget pictionary. Everybody's finally distracted enough that I get the baby all to myself.

Two of my favorite people ever. Just ignore Justin's slightly metro stance. He doesn't normally stand like that, you know.

I have no idea what he drew just by looking at it, but apparently somebody else got it right.

Cute! As! A! Button!

(And so snuggly.)

Jarrod shows off his gift exchange winnings.

Jessica picks my gift... which I purposely bought with the intention that either Gwen or I would take it home... because it's scrapbooking stickers, you see.

I play dirty at White Elephant Gift Exchange.

After this picture, Jessica yelled at me that I can't force my recreational activities on others through this game. Silly. She should've been listening when Gwen and I conspired earlier on for Gwen to pick that gift. But it worked out. I stole it from Jess, and Gwen stole it from me, so I stole some Japanese plant from Jarrod for Jenafer, so Justin stole some bath and body works goodies for me.

Did you get all that? There's a quiz at the end.

Okay, maybe not.

Cuz this is the end.

What a Weekend

Brief recap:

A weekend that had no plans until Sunday sure became busy fast. Among other things to be expounded on later...

Harry Potter movie night with the lil' sis, in which I pulled out the scrapbook stuff after way too long and created beautiful things.

Rummage sale.

Teaching myself to cook something new... and being successful.

Home, home on the range... the shooting range, that is.

A black and white affair to remember.

Turtle theme baby shower extravaganza.

Christmas Announcement Party '08... in which there is much screaming during pictionary and I get Baby Lucy for an hour long snuggle.

Pictures to come (of course).

October 10, 2008: In which I catch myself up with everyone's favorite Heroes

So I'm two episodes through, two go to to catch up. In true Heroes style, there've been twists and turns, and loops and spins, and things just keep getting crazier. Nicki's alive but forgotten who she is? Mohinder's gone literally crazy with the power- when did he ever show any interest in becoming one of them? Where's the Micah/Monica storyline? And Francis Capra's guest starring as fake Peter? What is this, a CW reunion? Sylar's the Petrelli's half brother? Never saw that one coming, unlike the future Peter coming back to be the one to shoot Nathan and Nathan staying alive. I should've put money on that guess.

Recommendations: More Elle. Less stupid new villains. Less Linderman (didn't he die two seasons ago? Why can't this show just leave the dead alone?) More Claire. More West. (What? No more West?)

EDITED ten minutes later: Ah, crap. I've lost my power to tell apart DL from the Haitian.

EDITED five minutes later: So what's the deal? When they die they get second chances? Some keep their bodies, some keep their memories, and some keep their abilities but end up stuck in Africa painting on rocks? I totally was getting the Isaac vibe from African dude long before he played the fogged eyes card. PS- I love Zachary Quinto. PPS- Haitian.

Hostage

Another appropriate title for this post: Fling the tomato.

I'm in kind of a bad mood right now. But I'm trying not to be, because I'm not usually a bad mood person. It usually requires quite a few prerequisites to put me in such a dark place. 1) Lack of sleep (check), 2) Wasted money or time (check, check), 3) Unreasonable people (CHECK), 4) Gloomy weather to match (ehh, we'll check it off- it's definitely not as warm out as it's been).

The short story:
(If Justin Aubrey were here, he'd laugh at those words. But trust me- I could make stories much longer.)

Brittany and I went to set yesterday. Originally told we'd have an early day, we were a little saddened to learn 10 pm would be a more reasonable expectation. As I had an ultimate frisbee game at 9:40, this was greatly distressing. (I'd already missed the first two games of the season; we only get like 8 games total.) Then the rumor that some would get wrapped early went around. Brittany and I presented our case that, should this be true, we would like to be among the group to leave. (Usually on set there's a good split of people who want to stay and want to leave when the choice comes; usually I'm on the want to stay side, so I do not feel selfish in this action at all- sometimes you want to leave early, I'm cool when others feel that way.) So Hugh, our faithful wrangler friend, said no promises but took it into consideration.

Then Billy (name changed to protect the not-innocent) came in. And Billy chose who would leave. And Billy, knowing about our request, looked right over us and picked 8 other people. And then we protested. AND HE LAUGHED AT US, and said he's not taking requests tonight.

So basically he was an arrogant jerk, didn't ask if anybody had a preference of staying or going, wrapped several people who wanted to stay, purposely ignored the people who wanted to go, and in the process ended up picking one girl who had to wait for her ride (another extra) anyway and ended up sitting there with us not getting paid the whole time because Billy had wrapped her. While some of us sat there wanting to go.

This is where arrogance leads, my friends. Down the road of idiocy where people start putting you on their lists. Billy is now on our lists.

Here's the thing about Billy. He's usually really laid back. He's ALWAYS complaining about people in power who treat others like dirt and use their power for evil, blah blah blah. And the thing was, by not letting us go, he wasn't trying to be a jerk. I'm pretty sure he thought he was just being funny.

Ha, ha, Billy. Great joke. We all dislike you now because you let power go to your head, instead of, you know, doing things rationally.

We didn't get wrapped until two in the morning. Which was fine with me past 10:40 anyway. My game was already over. I could have stayed all night, racking up more overtime and not cared in the slightest. In fact, if that were the end of the story, I probably wouldn't be blogging it at all. Billy would have been forgotten as soon as my head hit the pillow.

However, the story picks up when my head raised from said pillow. And Brittany, from her pillow, asked if I was still parked on the street from Wednesday night. Yes, I was. It's street sweeping day. Crap.

So now I have my first parking ticket and a $35 fine to go with it. And yeah, I know technically it's my fault for not remembering it was the second Friday, but really you're not thinking about Friday when you park on the street on Wednesday. I was supposed to have gone to my frisbee game, where I would have returned late Thursday night and parked in our space in the back. But I didn't go to my game, therefore I didn't drive my car last night, therefore it was still there this morning when the street sweeping ticket enforcers were out. So, yeah, it was my responsibility and I goofed.

But Billy is still totally getting the blame.

So. Now that I feel a little bit of a catharsis after my rant, I'll list eight things related to these incidents that shall remind me how blessed I am and how a $35 donation to the city (that makes it sound better, yeah?) really isn't that big of a deal, if you think about it.

1) The fact that I have a car with the ability to get ticketed. Most people in the world don't have a car.
2) The fact that I usually have a parking space in back.
3) Clean(ish) streets.
4) The fact that parking tickets don't go on your record, so I'm still clean.
5) Getting the special treatment on set last night (we were allowed to partake of the 'snack table' which had pizza for a snack in the afternoon, and In'n'out burgers for snack at midnight.)
6) Andy, my loyal compadre, who brought me, not one coke over the course of the day, but three, to keep me properly caffeinated. And an apple to keep me nutrition-ized.
7) Getting to be on set with Alan Matthews for real this time. Up close and personal.
8) Getting to be in my first scene with under 5 background. It was nice and mellow for that forty-five minutes.

Now. About that tomato flinging. After we finally got wrapped I went and got me one of those in'n'out burgers for the road. So we're cruising down Ruffin Road on a Trent-search (don't ask), and I realize with the first bite there are tomatos on this burger. So I roll down the window and politely ask Britt if she minds if I fling the tomato onto the side of the road (because I would like to be asked before someone flung something from my truck, just in case). She says nope, and I tell her to get as close to the sidewalk as possible so I can aim for some bushes. But the bushes stop, and we're coming up on a bus stop, so I have to wait, and the lane is ending, and Brittany's yelling, "Fling the tomato!" So I do (past the bus stop), and we're good to go, until I take my second bite and discover a second tomator that must have been hidden under the first. And we repeat. Thus, the phrase, "Fling the tomato!" became extremely funny to us at 2am on Ruffin Road after a full day on set.

Sigh. I feel better now. I think I'll spend the rest of the evening catching of the last four episodes of Heroes and scrapbooking up to wazoo. I love Friday nights of three day weekends. :)

Bomb Things (At the Moment)

This guy's blog.

Quote from David Wiesner (three time winner of the Caldecott Medal): "... the truth is that the imagination needs no outside stimulus."

Inspiring words from Jo March:
There's a lifeThat I am meant to lead
A life like nothing I have known
I can feel it
And it's far from here
I've got to find it on my own
Even now I feel it's heat upon my skin.
A life of passion that pulls me from within,
A life that I am making to begin.
There must be somewhere I can be
Astonishing

Bomb book of the week: This is Just to Say.... Ever read that William Carlos Williams poem? The one where he steals the plums from the icebox and leaves a note in prosetry (just that made that up- nice, right?) for his wife explaining that he just couldn't help himself. And somehow those 12 lines made ol' WCW famous. (Maybe he wrote other things, too, who knows?) So this book is a collection of kids' poems written from the perspective of various members of a sixth grade class in the style of WCW. Ingenius idea, I tell you. And I'm beginning to find, just like last month with that buddy of mine September, that I'm turning over a new leaf when it comes to poetry. Turns out when I'm not forced to read and analyze sixteenth century rhyme, I can actually get into the contemporary stuff. Huh.
Also, I like Mandy's poems.

The 'week in the life of' project here. I'm about half done with my week in pictures and words.

Five Days

Thursday

Another long day on set, but today we were in O.B. We spent most of the morning and afternoon in this parking lot: 

It was one of those days where there were so many different angles to shoot from that continuity in background was thrown out the window pretty quick. So there'll be times when we're walking into the store, and walking behind the actors, and pushing a cart across the parking lot, probably all within the same forty-five seconds of TV time. Excellent. Anyway, much fun in this parking lot. One of the grips gave me a lesson in lighting while we waited for action. I now know that extra lighting is necessary both on cloudy days and sunny days, and you can actually get a sunburn from standing in front of the light for too long. (I stepped off to the side of the screen at that little fun fact.)

After the parking lot, they kept 20 of us to head two blocks south to the exterior of the house. (Remember the fake exterior from Tuesday?) Here's Brittany and I (and there's Andy standing in for boyfriend #7) out on Narragansett Avenue.

Finished off the night with ultimate frisbee at 11 freaking pm. We got our shirts tonight. In keeping with a long standing tradition that all my intramural shirts are either red or green, here is my 2008 tee:

Friday: Ex List premiere. It's kind of a stupid show, really. But the commenters on line seemed to like it okay, so I'm weird, I guess. But Brittany and I both made it into the pilot. Not bad for only being on set a few hours in march. 1 for 1!

Saturday:

In which winter hits us hard and fast and we try to live it up at Octoberfest. Jenna and I decided to embrace the October winter and decked out in hats, scarves, and Uggs. Aaron was wearing flip flops, so I think we over did it. Anyway, the fest was a dud and it started pouring halfway through so we all came back, changed into pj's (well, the girls did), and watched Juno, my latest Netflix conquest (wasn't as good as I anticipated).

Andy and Britt at the antique shop we ducked into to avoid the rain:
Jenna was really excited with the antique shop:

They totally had beanie babies. Like, the real ones. Aaron says this is the only beanie baby he ever had as a child. They even had the Peace bear there. Remember that one? It was rare. I convinced my dad to buy it for me at the swap meet for $35 when I was twelve. The antique shop was selling it for $5. I am never buying my kids stupid fad collectibles. 

Here's a good shot of Octoberfest happening behind Jenna:

We stopped in at Cosmos where Brian was playing the drums. This is him saying hi:

I spent most of Saturday at home, while my dad fixed my car. Something about water and fluid leaking... there was some kind of belt involved... I'm really not sure of the particulars. But my heater wasn't working and my dad said I was lucky my engine didn't explode, so I guess it was a big deal. He also changed the oil while I was there. Between fixing my car and buying me $35 swapmeet crap, he's pretty cool.

And this is one of our dogs.

Sunday

After church I met up with some Jarrod and some other peeps at, where else, Octoberfest. By the time I found them though they'd already hit everything, so we just kind of lurked at the end and sat up on the blockades. And took pictures.


After church I headed home to take some pictures of my dad's truck for craigslist. He's in love with selling and buying on CL. I think that's where he got the last two stereos for my car. (Seriously, my dad rocks.)

Awesome self portrait:

Monday:

Hey, I'm caught up! Work, lunch, made some cool cover design templates, trip to Office Depot, quick stop at the El Cajon library, and then off to hang out with these kiddos. 
I almost gave up hope of finding a good DVD at the library, but lo and behold (what does that even mean?) my last quick scan showed me a little thing called Shrek the Third. Perfect for youth venture. Here's Jamie fighting the system (the Playstation system) and trying to get the darn DVD to work. Porter and Alex are in the back discussing cell phones.
This is one of the many reasons I love Office Depot: right now they have bins of back to school junk for 20 cents. And by junk I mean awesome notebooks, folders, glue sticks, and dividers, all of which probably retail around $3 normally. 20 cents. And I had an ink cartridge to recycle which gave me an extra $3 off. I actually had to go buy a regular priced item or Office Depot would have owed me money. So here's all my great loot:
The end!