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?)