The Mileiest Stone Yet

Well Friends, as of yesterday evening, I have officially been in Los Angeles for ONE WEEK.  Pretty crazy, I know.  Strangely enough, a lot has happened in those seven short days.  Let's go down the laundry list:


-PA'd for a short film
-Checked out an apartment in Burbank
-Went grocery shopping
-Made new LA friends on the Book of Faces
-Went out to a bar in Hollywood for St. Paddy's day
-Got a job interview
-PA'd on another short film
-Will shortly be appearing as Cult Member #5 in said film 



So yeah.  All in all, a pretty productive week, I'd say.  Now there are a few things I feel I need to expound upon.  Firstly, grocery shopping.  I mean, come on!  That was pretty much the highlight of, jeeze, ever.  I think.  


Moreover, I managed to find some of the people who worked on the film last weekend on facebook, and they at least pretended to remember me.  So I count that as a win.  Also, my friend Adam mentioned that they were going to go to Capitol City Bar in le Holly de Wood for the festivities Thursday night.  Since my options were between that and sitting on his couch watching Scrubs on DVD (which I did consider), I figured this was probably the more social alternative.  Adam said they would be there from 7pm onwards, so I figured I would show up around 9:30, with Adam and his lady-friend getting there at 10 after their Karaté class.  So 8:30 rolls around and I start moseying on over to the subway (yes, they actually have one of those here), get into Hollywood right on time and walk on over to the bar.  It's pretty hoppin', so I walk around to find the group.  After two or three increasingly awkward laps around the establishment, I come to the conclusion that no one I know is there.  So I call Adam.  He doesn't answer.  Fortunately, I have the number of the girl (I guess she's a woman, but that sounds weird to me); girl/woman/female human being who is organizing the shindig, and find out that her dog was sick and couldn't make it.  And apparently she was the fulcrum on which this potential night of carousing and carrying on rested, because no one else decided to come either.  


So I decide that I'll have two drinks and if no one has shown up by then, I'll peace out.  Lo and behold, as I'm finishing the second, Adam calls and says they got held up in class and will be there right away.  30 minutes later, he and his lady-friend walk in and inform me that people are actually at another bar a little ways down the road.  So we go there, and I am immediately struck, not by how many people are there, but by how many tents and booths are set up OUTSIDE.  For a second, I thought I was at Ribfest or The Heritage Festival.  But then I saw the Gravitron wasn't there.  There goes that theory.  So we walk through this small town summer-fest from another dimension where there are no rides and no vendors in any of the booths.  Then we decide to go inside to find our people, and it is in line where I had my first quintessential LOS ANGELES MOMENT.  


So we're standing in line and the girl behind me strikes up a conversation about...something.  I think it had something to do with the weather.  That's not important.  What is important is that she was interesting to talk to, and seemed fairly intelligent.  So we talked about her master's program in Bio-tech up in Seattle, and I was never really sure why she was down here in the first place, but we seemed to be hitting it off.  Then we got to the front of the line.  The bouncer let Adam, his lady-friend, myself, and the Mystery Girl in.  As soon as we passed the little rope, Mystery Girl veers off with this other dude who seemingly appeared out of a rift in space-time that I'm convinced all other taller, more attractive men pop out of at inopportune moments.  So she goes with Mr. Tall Guy through this hidden door to the left, which could only have lead to the actual bar that cool people get to go to, not the facade they threw up to fool regular folk like me.  It happened so quickly I didn't even have time to say anything.  All I could do was think "Waaaaiiiiit, my name is Eriiiiiiic..."  *sigh*


Fortunately I was able to get over that turn of events and enjoy the rest of the otherwise uneventful night.


So indeed, Thursday was followed by Friday, as this lovely song lets us know.

So on Thursday, a friend had let me know that a position was opening up in the after-school program at her school.  Friday she e-mailed me to inform me that they wanted someone to start on Monday, and I needed to call the woman in charge of hiring IMMEDIATELY.  So I did, and we had a lovely chat, and I sent them my application, and lo and behold, I have an appointment to go see the school on Monday (which I thought was a bit odd, since that's the day they wanted someone to start), which is awesome!  


And Friday night I went back up to the desert to PA on another short film.  This time around, the movie has a budget of $40,000, and I'm getting $20 for gas, so I am clearly heading up the ladder already, considering last weekend I offered my services for free. Huzzah!  I am also going to be an extra in the film, which is based on the events of the Heaven's Gate cult.  If you're not familiar, they were a bunch of people who believed aliens were going to come take them away, and the only way to free their souls was to end their lives.  Thusly, they all wore Nikes, covered themselves in purple shrouds and ate poisoned apple sauce.  So I get to be Cult Member #5 (or if I'm really lucky, maybe #3.  Keepin' my fingers crossed).


And that was my week.


Post-Script: Due to some miscommunication on set last night, I ended up driving down to Orange County this morning at 6 am, and actually discovered some clouds and rain on my way.  It was cool, but I'm afraid I used up my yearly allotment of cloud cover and precipitation way too soon.  I was hoping to keep it at least for a few months and bring it out when I'm starting to lose it from the ever-present sun.  Oh well.  Such is life.






A Ponderance: Never having done this blog-thing before, I'm not sure how long they're supposed to be, and I'm not sure if this is so long that no one will read the whole thing, but if you made it to the end, congratulations!  You win a hug from me next time we see each other!