Memory Lane Monday: It's Still Monday, right?

Hi.
Remember Memory Lane Monday? Remember when it used to actually be posted on Monday? Me neither.

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I'm stuck in some sort of calendar vortex right now, or at least that's what being awake for nearly 36 hours with 1 hour of sleep will make you feel like. I'm not 100% sure what day it actually is right now. Lemme splain:

I had the good fortune to book acting gigs on 2 consecutive days this week- something that has never happened for me before. Yay.  Gig #1 was on Monday and my call time (the time I had to be there) was 12:30pm, which is a very late call for a Monday shoot. I was playing an upscale charity auction attendee on the show Person of Interest. After I arrived at Holding (the place where everyone who doesn't have a trailer waits until they're needed on set) got checked in, got my hair and makeup done, got into costume, and then I waited. And waited. I waited for 8 hours until I was called to set. 8. Hours. This is not uncommon. Seriously.  Anyone who thinks working in production is glamorous and super fun 100% of the time, is silly. Working on TV or film is mostly a process of hurry up and wait, then do some stuff, then redo it, redo it again, stop, wait, wait, wait, redo it again, stop, go wait, etc. All day. But I love it...most of the time. 

Luckily, my friend Lincoln was also cast in this episode and so we got to hang out all day when one or both of us weren't on set. Yay! We read, listened to podcasts, and mostly just shot the shit, which was nice. We also got silly and took an "awkward prom photo" in our costumes.

Copyright Jessica Ayers

But, the best part of the shoot was during the climax of the particular scene we were in, I got to sit next to Jim Caviezel. JESUS. I got to sit next to Jesus* you guys!!! This was awesome for a couple of reasons:
1) I was sitting next to Jim Caviezel who is a very impressive presence and actor, and B) It most likely means that my awesome face was on camera and will be coming to a television screen near you sometime this fall. This experience alone made the whole day worth it.

Now, I come to the down side of production work, aside from all that waiting. I didn't get home until 1am and I had a call time for my second shoot at 6:30am. So on top of getting home at 1am, I had to shower all the shellac off of me that the makeup and hair departments sprayed on me plus I had to get my wardrobe/costume stuff together for the second shoot. Needless to say, I slept for approximately 1 hour before I had to wake up and go downtown to do it all over again for gig #2. 

Bright and early Tuesday morning, I worked on an episode of a new police drama entitled  Golden Boy. I don't know much about the show even though I have now worked on it twice. I do know that the crew is a wonderful group of people who are fun to work with and I'd like to work on the show again. Even so, Tuesday morning was rough. As soon as I was all checked in, in costume and given my prop, I had to go to set. No time for breakfast or coffee.  Boo. Also, we were shooting outside and it was a disaster scene taking place in late summer. No coats, and lots of running. Oh, yeah, and it was 40 degrees outside and most of the women were in heels or boots. Joy. The wardrobe department was kind enough to provide everyone with hand, toe, and body warmers, but the warmers don't do much when you're only wearing linen and standing in the shade on a cold clear morning in the middle of winter near the river. Brr.  It was so cold, I thought I'd never be warm again.

Tuesday was a looooong day to say the least. We did finally get to eat after 7 hours of shooting, but not before I felt like my entire body weighed 1000 pounds and I had the sensation that I was sinking into the slowest moving whirlpool ever. Sleep deprivation is a bitch, you guys.  On the plus side, Chi McBride was very generous and bought everyone really good coffee. That man is a class act.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I got to go home. I was home by 5:30pm and made it my goal to stay awake until at least 8:30pm so that my sleep schedule wouldn't be thrown off any more than it already was. I decided to play video games to keep my mind engaged enough to stay awake. After playing games for what felt like hours, I looked at the clock. It was 6:45pm. My head almost exploded.  I lasted another 30 minutes before I couldn't take it anymore and my body screamed at me to go to bed.  You know you are sleep deprived when even your favorite video games can't make you stay awake.

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It is currently 9:30pm. I've been awake for 7-ish hours today. I think. It's like the strangest hangover ever.  And that's why Wednesday is the new Monday.



*I've never actually seen The Passion of the Christ. But Jesus, you guys. JE. SUS.