Hot Fun in the Summertime

4:30 am Sunday

I am currently writing to you from the set of the Spike TV reality documentary called "Surviving Disaster". I was on this show back in February for the pilot episode, and I got a call this week to be in another episode for a mall siege. Sweeeet!

I've been working on a few shows, doing TONS of catering work and just trying to keep work coming, which isn't always the easiest thing. The catering events gig has been pretty fun lately; I've been working a bunch of private home parties for random wealthy people around L.A. and am on about a dozen or so request lists for Paramount Studios, the LA Convention Center and some other humongo establishments.

The new apartment is faaaantastic. We're all moved in and only lacking a couch for the living room. We have a kickin new-to-us fridge and a free 32' tv (thanks to our roommate Matt). Joey is settled in and its like he's never lived anywhere else. I scored a free 2 story cat condo from craigslist, and he jumps all over it and uses it like a throne to look out the front window.

Gotta go on set!

8:30am Sunday

Just wrapped from the set of Surviving Disaster... quite a night. We were shot at, bombed and dusted with cork debris. Good times. Now it's home to bed.

2:30pm Sunday

Tim and Matt and I are headed to see Transformers 2... aaaaand then we are skipping into The Hangover.

7pm Sunday

Holy crap, T2 was fabulous! I didn't read the comics much when I was a kid, so I loved it. Hangover was hilarious; I'd definitely recommend it if you're in the mood for a fun, bawdy comedy!

Monday and Tuesday

Working on a show called Raising the Bar. I'm a background District Attorney... Episode will be out in a couple months... I'll let you know! The episode is called "Beating a Dead Horse"



Since my last blog, Tim and I flew to NC for Chris' HS graduation for a week, which was a blast.

All the lovely Lewantowicz ladies flew to L.A. for our annual girls weekend. All was going swimmingly; trips to the beach, sushi, hiking, movies, gabbing... until a bunch of us got a nasty stomach flu. Only lasted a couple days, but there's nothing like vomiting to bring an abrupt halt to a good time. On top of that, my blackberry (or, according to Ciocia Halina my "blue"berry) was stolen (side note: henceforth, I lost all my contacts, so an email with your number would be most appreciated). I worked a show called Californication and mom took me shopping and spoiled me with fun new stuff for the apartment!

Tim and I worked for a week on Iron Man 2 (going to be a great movie from what we saw!), had a bangin housewarming party for our new apartment and got bumped from the feature film we were supposed to start working on (the guy writing the checks is in the hospital with some mysterious illness so we have no idea when filming will start now... ugh).

So, it's nose to the grindstone, as always. Luckily, SAG agreed on a contract and the strike is over, so work should start free flowing not too long from now. Cross yhour fingers!

Finally...

It's been a good week. I had a lot of work this week, finally. I was fully approved for my car loan, finally. Aaaaand we found an awesome apartment! Finally!

Tim, our roommate Matt, and I have been apartment hunting for a few months now and we finally found a sweet little place with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, pool, sauna, gym, fireplace and all kinds of fun stuff. The management is really accomodating and friendly. They allow pets so I can finally bring Joey to CA to live!! (I can hear my mom whooping and rejoycing from here). The rooms are big, the bathrooms are new and the closet is huge! What more could a girl ask for?

Aside from that, I've been on a constant job hunt to make sure I have stuff lined up since nothing I do is constant or permanent or guaranteed... Not stressful or anything...!!

Tim and I booked our plane tickets home for Chris' graduation, finally. We got a good deal from SouthWest and are staying for a little over a week. Should be a good time!

So, that's pretty much that for now :o)

I forgot!!

The other good thing about this week was that I submitted for and was accepted into a casting agency!

I'm on their website as featured talent!

Click me!

Will the real Queen of Sheba please stand up

So, it's been a decent week. 

I bought a car! Tim and I went to the town next to us, Glendale, to check out a few dealerships there just for fun and we spotted a cute little Nissan Sentra... So I test drove it... Loved it... Decided to "run some numbers"... and it ended up being a good deal, so I bought it! 

Ok, there was a little more to it than that... like the half hour of haggling I went through to get the guy down to my number. He started out at $331/month and I got him down as close to my $250/month payment as humanly possible, landing on $259.

It's definitely going to be weird having a car payment after years of the luxury of having a car that's paid off, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

The job front is also looking up. This Wed and Thurs, I worked on a music video. Now, before you think "oh cool!". Stop. It was cool, but only as cool as it can be in a living hell. 

Ok, maybe it wasnt that bad, but it was pretty close. The writer/producer/talent for this music video is a woman named Victoria. But that's not even her whole name...

Are you ready?

Her full name is Queen Victoria of Sheba. 

You see, Victoria believes God has granted her the "power of the angels" and that she is the risen Queen of Sheba. Her mission in life is to spread peace and love and her music all over the world. A good mission, to be sure... The only problems being she has no concept of what it takes to produce film, set a realistic budget and stay on key while singing. 

Bless her heart for her mission and passion, but this is the stuff movies are made of. I hesitate to explain further because I don't want to come off as ungrateful for 2 days work, or a jerk for thinking badly of a woman on such a passionate mission, but this woman is whacko.

So, instead of that, I'll let you decide for yourself. This is a link to her website. To hear the song we filmed for the music video, click on the "albums" star and choose track #4, "Peace No War" to hear an audio sampling...

Please, please, please read her bio.

On the positive side, I had work for most of the days this week and I gained a lot of production experience. On Thursday, I acually was the queens personal assistant, which was an experience all in itself. In all honesty, it wasn't too horrible. She just needs very much to be reassured that the chices she makes are good ones. So I made a ton of positive comments on her hair (which really is beautiful), choice of jewelry, makeup, filming location choice (a gorgeous multi-million dollar home in Beverly Hills), etc. I didn't lie to her, but I didn't always answer the exact question she asked...

At any rate, I give her major props for living her dream and getting herself out there, doing what she loves.

So, I added that to my resume this afternoon and submitted for a few jobs within the realms of production, which I have come to love and enjoy. Turns out, I'm really good at bossing people around! I knew being one of the oldest kids on the house would come in handy...

May... really?

This is the color I want my new car to be... ORANGE!

But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

Going back to when I last blogged, I had just gotten home from Christmas and my birthday was quickly arriving. Here's the quick and dirty version of my life from then until this moment...

Came home from NC...

Tim and I decided to start dating...

Was in Park City, UT for 24 hours working my tail off as load out crew for the SlamDance Film Festival...

Had an UHmazing 26th birthday at DisneyLand with Tim...

Moved out of Trip and Marilynn's and in with Tim...

Tim and I got hired for a new job as a sales rep for in store product demos...

Got in a car accident...

Totaled my car...

Had high hopes for the job...

Started car hunting...

Began to hate the job...

Started apartment hunting...

Stuck it out with the soul sucking job for 2 months...

Had a fantastical Easter with the Allain family...

Quit the job...

Now we're back on the hunt for production work and basically anything we can get our hands on!

That job is most of the reason why I've been so out of touch... it's hard to come home and want to blog when you've driven 70 miles one way to work for a job that you were told would only be 30 hours a week, and ends up actually being 40+ hours some weeks with not much to show for it. When I put over 1,000 miles on my car in less than 2 weeks, I knew it was time to reconsider.

During which time I got in a car accident that totaled my car. The car is still driveable; it was totaled due to the age and the price of parts and labor being more than the car is worth. So, Geico wrote me a check and sent me on my merry way, allowing me to keep the car (which I still drive until I get another, hopefully orange, one).

So now I'm back to doing extra work and whatever else I can get my hands on. I just closed a show called "Girlesque" which was my LA stage debut! It was non paying, but really fun. I came on board towards the end of the rehearsal process as the Madame of a burlesque troop. I got to sing and have fun and met some really fun ladies. I also just got signed with a casting agency, yay! I'm meeting with the woman who owns it on Friday to take my pictures for the database and we'll see where that goes! 

I went to Phoenix this weekend for Grandad's 83rd birthday, which was a whirlwind last minute idea. Closing night of the show was Sat nite, and the bday was Sunday so I got up at 530am on Sunday and drove the 6 hours to Phoenix for a lovely birthday with Grandad and Grandma Barb and the whole Arizona crew. 

This afternoon Grandma and I had lunch at Mimi's cafe before I hit the road for LA and tonight's book club meeting. 

Other than that, things have been pretty usual and low key. We do the beach when we can, rock climbing, black light mini golf (my birthday eve treat!) and movies (research, you know).

Life is not too shabby here in sunny SoCal...

Update on my Grey's Anatomy Cameo!

After careful perusal of the latest episode, here's the lowdown. I was on a total of three times, and each time it was pretty much the side of my head, lol! If you're interested in seeing my hair on TV, here's where to look:

First, I know I said I'm in green scrubs... That's a lie. I'm in blue scrubs. My bad.

The first place I show up is when Derek and his mom and walking down the hall. Look down the hall; I'm walking past with a clipboard. You'll have to look really quick, though, it's not a long shot. Start looking after the first commercial break at 9min 38seconds.

The second time I show up, I'm a fuzzy torso and side of the head at 10min 18seconds.

After that, I'm a quick head shot at 10min 27seconds...

Happy hunting!

Here's the site: http://fep.abc.go.com/fep/player?src=abccomjs&show=93515

New Year... Same game plan...

What a wonderful holiday season! I was able to go home for nearly three weeks! It was a blast hanging out with friends and family; my good friend Kate came down from NYC to hang with her sister, Aisha (whose daughter, Abby, I nannied for this summer) and her new baby, Amelia. I got to hang out with my friend Jody, rocked it out with Alex and Chris on Rock Band (I'm hopeless, but they're kind to their sister and let her play). Alex and I even went over to Mal's (our pastor) to play Guitar Hero (at which I am again a miserable band member). Mom and I did some after Christmas sale shopping, Dad and I watched football, Deb and I had yummy lunch, everybody and their grandkids came over for a New Year's murder mystery dinner... it was a good time, fo sho!

Of course, as soon as I got home, I hit the ground running, nose the grindstone and all that bit. Wednesday night I worked the People's Choice awards for the party staffing company I'm with. It was pretty nice, low key but elegant. It was a buffet setting, so not too much work to be done. There were a few big stars there, but mostly behind the scenes people and young hopefuls. I did see Paris Hilton (what is she even famous for, by the way??), Kid Rock, Dr. Bailey from Grey's Anatomy (I don't know her real name...) and a couple other big-ish stars that you always see in movies, but never know their names. The party went til about midnight, and I got just a few hours of sleep before having to get up and make a 6:45am call time to be on a show called Kath and Kim (with Molly Shannon and Selma Blair). I was counting on a normal 7 or 8 hour day, but ohhh no! Sixteen hours later, we were wrapped and sent home. The good news is, we got killer overtime!

Some other good news: I'm pretty positive that the episode of Grey's Anatomy I was in will be airing this Thursday night, 15 January!! The episode tagline said Derek's (Patrick Dempsey) mother, Caroline (Tyne Daly) visits and meets Meredith for the first time. So, if you're not busy on Thursday night arount 9/8c, turn on ABC and maybe you'll see fuzzy me in the background! The scene I'm in is the one where Tyne Daly walks in with her suitcase and taps Derek on the shoulder. I'm wearing pale green scrubs and my hair is down... Then I'm in the scene a bit later when Izzy (Katherine Heigl) and Alex (Justin Chambers) are chatting. I walk behind them to get a folder (right behind Denny, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and then walk back again. So, if I'm not edited out, framed out, blurred out or anything else, look for me!

No news on the other shows I might be a fuzzy blob on, but I'll let you know!