Of television and coffee shops

My Monday on set went well. Got there early enough to go through the line quickly, had some yummy breakfast, and got quite a bit of reading done before we even started working. Things got interesting when we were lined up in groups of 16 and assigned a "counselor." And then the A.D. just had a blast making as many references to summer camp as he could come up with.

My team was the Bravo squad, in case anyone was wondering. And we were the best team.

So the whole scenario yesterday was that a pilot currently filming in L.A. needed footage of a full stadium, hence our meeting at Petco Park. For about four hours we basically ran from section to section, filling the place up slowly but surely. Somehow the cameras will be able to piece it all together to show a full stadum, which absolutely amazes me, because there were a total of only 150 background used.

It may sound boring (and tiring), but it was actually pretty amusing. The A.D.'s and assistant A.D.'s kept reminding us to mingle with different people, don't sit with the same person from the last shot, etc. They yelled at us to think of it as speed dating, to get out there and make new friends, occasionally shouting, "Hey, this guy's got no friends! Who's going to befriend this guy!"

I met some new people, sat with some kids I remember from the Ex List, ran into a guy named Paul who'd apparently been on set a lot with me, but we'd never run into each other. Then I sat next to this one guy who happened to catch me discreetly trying to get a picture of myself with the rest of the stadium and people behind me (to send to Andy with a "Wish you were here!" sentiment). We struck up a conversation about Rent since it was just here, and we eventually ran out of conversation, and I went back to my book.

I could see he wanted to keep the conversation going, but he wasn't saying anything, so I kept reading.

Then he spoke up.

"Have you ever heard of Spring Awakening?"

Bam! That was my book hitting the concrete and sliding down to the next row. Conversation on! Sadly, we had only a minute and a half to discuss the amazingness that is Spring Awakening, before we were on to our next "speed dates."

Four hours, 65 pages, and hundreds of steps later, the first A.D. yelled "Wrapped!" Everyone cheered and booked it for the exit. With 150 people working that day, check out could take up to an hour and a half. 

Luckily (and possibly selfishly), I'm okay with speed walking to the front of the group, and New Friend Paul and I made it out of there as number 3 and number 4 to exit. Then we slapped high five and headed to our respective cars. It was a good day.

I didn't realize how exhausted, hungry, and, apparently, dehydrated I was until halfway to Andy and Ryan's apartment. Stopped and got a Subway sandwich and some water, crashed on their couch with more water, and contentedly watched Jeapordy and NCIS for three hours with Andy, while intermittently falling in and out of a nap. What a great afternoon.

After that we went to Andy's going-away-for-a-month party at Chevy's ($3 margaritas at happy hour!), then back to the guys' place to meet Chris for How I Met Your Mother. Then a couple episodes of Lost which they want to hook me on, and I'm finally succumbing to since everyone and their mother watches it.

And now it's Tuesday night and the OSF and I are at the usual Starbucks haunt. I got my 1,000 words done early enough to mess around on facebook and Word Challenge it up. Don't know what he's doing, but I'm sure he's being equally productive. :)