Tuesday, August 20, 2013

THEN AND NOW




THEN
My son turned 18 this weekend.  How is this possible?  Where did the years go?  It’s not fair.  I want those years back.  They seem so care free and wonderful now.  What happened to my sweet baby?  

Hi friends!
You know, the one in the bassinet beside my bed?  

 My whole family traveled miles to see him.
Laura, Dad, me . Wish you were here.
One morning at 3 AM, he woke me and I reluctantly pried my heavy eyelids open as I turned to check on the little form lying beside me.  I will never forget what I saw next.  It was definitely worth waking up at 3 AM.  I was greeted with the biggest, happiest toothless grin I have ever seen.  His whole face beamed with joy at seeing me.  I basked in the glow of this image for a long time before drifting back off to sleep. It's one of my happiest memories.



 
 His older sister was a little uncertain about bringing him home from the hospital.

What's your name again?
But then she decided he could stay.
Don't sleep!  Let's play!

 

He became quite a ladies man
How you doin?

And a fun playmate
You say the funniest things, Krista!




Hey!  Who's driving??

He was always happy and a joy to have around
Put your shades on, Kyle!


























OK!
When he first started talking, he had an Italian accent.  Carrying him through the shark exhibit in Sea World, he startled me by asking, “Mommy, dose shawks bite-a my face?”
Sometimes I couldn’t understand his baby/Italian talk.  One day he pointed at a keychain hanging on the wall and said, “Diddle Bawbie!”  It took me a few seconds for my mommy translator to kick in.   He was referring to the tiny Barbie doll hanging on the key chain (little Barbie.  Duh). 

At first, he thought Krista's name was Kyle too.  We went to a friend's beach house and when Krista stepped off the deck onto the sand, it was like she had stepped off the edge of the planet.  He was very upset, and with tears streaming down his face, he turned to me and yelled, "Look at Kyle!  Look at Kyle!"

I'm Kyle and so is she!


His sister taught him to dance
Mom's going to embarrass me with this photo one day

Note the lamby coat

Had fun with his cousin, Mitch
Best Buds

You're supposed to smile!


He learned to play guitar ... really well, I might add.
You should hear me play Led Zeppellin

When he was four, he called me his "Love-Love".
When he was five, he had his first crush on a cute little blond girl in Kindergarten.  He was telling me about her with great fondness, and I looked at him curiously and asked, “Kyle, do you like her?”  He turned his face up to me, his eyes squinting in the morning sun, a huge grin spreading from ear to ear.  I was crushed, but tried to act nonchalant as I fought with the screaming voice in my head:  “Another girl has won his heart!  That’s not supposed to happen yet! Not now! Or ever!”  I pushed the screaming maniac out and away from me, leaving her sobbing  and pounding her fists on the sidewalk.  She always finds her way back to me, though.  Don't tell anyone.
Hi Handsome Boy

I cherish all these memories, especially now when he barely lets me hug him, making sure his face is out of reach in case, God forbid, I should try to kiss his cheek.


Now he is 18.   


Smile!
 In Europe and Costa Rica he's old enough to drink


He can vote.   

He’s a man!

Life is bittersweet.  Have you noticed that?  I am proud of my handsome grown up son, and my beautiful daughter, but I would time travel back to the happy days of their childhood in an instant if I could.  I guess that’s what I’m doing now.

Hey Mom, can I borrow the car?

Thursday, August 15, 2013

THAT'S A WRAP





So I just finished acting in a fantastic, creative, fun filled film project called 48 Hours.  What’s that?  You want my autograph?  Well, if you insist...
This was one of the ultimate highlights of my life so far.  I was privileged to work with people who were so brilliant, I had to wear shades.
I owe this all to my friend Tanya, who talked me into auditioning with her for the 48 Hour Film Project.  The auditions were held at Vision Pulse in Mira Mesa which is owned by Eddie Lain.  Everyone had to present a one minute monologue in front of a room full of directors and producers. What?  Was I nervous?  Nah, just your normal plunging off a cliff into shark infested waters kind of day.  Piece of cake. 
Tanya and I high fived each other after surviving the audition process.  We were both chosen to perform, but on different teams. 
48 Hours is a worldwide competition and this was the San Diego County edition.  We met at a gazebo in Mission Bay on a Friday night where we waited to hear what our genre would be.  There were around 73 teams and each director took turns picking genre cards out of a hat.  If you didn’t like the genre, you could turn it in for a wild card, but then you might get stuck with opera or something you really really really didn’t want.  I was on the Creative Humanoids team and our director, David Barak, was assigned the Superheroes genre.  At first we didn’t know what we were going to do with that, but as it turned out, we had the best cast ever for this theme.  

"Know what I mean?"
Next, we waited to hear the other three components that had to be incorporated into our film.  They were character, line of dialogue and prop.  The character was Mac or Margaret McCarthy, Interpreter.  Line of dialogue was, “You know what I mean?” and prop was garden hose. 
After receiving this crucial information, everyone scurried off to write a script based on their genre and the above mentioned components, and to find a location for filming.  We had 48 hours to complete the film which had to be turned in by 7 PM Sunday night.  Crazy, right?
David and his writers stayed up until the wee hours of Saturday morning writing the script.  Then he texted us to meet at a location he’d found in Santee.  One of the actor’s parents lived in a trailer park there and said we could film in the clubhouse.  We raced over as fast as we could and were given our scripts which we attempted to memorize.  My character was Margaret McCarthy, therapist to the Superheroes, so of course I wore my t-shirt with 3 cocktails parading across the chest and Group Therapy written underneath.   

Pay no attention to my demon eyes. You're supposed to be looking at my chest.
My character was counseling the Superheroes who were having relationship problems.  Our Superheroes were Superman, 

Clark Kent and Storm

Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Batman, Sexy Robin, Thor, Loki, Wolverine, Storm, and The Joker. 
Don't mess with Sexy Robin !


Batman relaxing between takes

 I was the straight man, but the rest of them got to ham it up and ad lib a lot.  
Loki, Sexy Robin, Thor, Thor's hammer
 It was fun to watch their creative minds spin and add their personal touches to lines and movement, and they all did such a great job!  
Hard to tell from this picture, but David Raines is a really nice guy, not evil at all, and very funny.  He was also one of the writers.

This was my first experience in a film which is so different than theater.  There are many intricate details that have to be accounted for; lighting, sound, angle, movement, color ... no wonder there are so many retakes!  Most of us stumbled around with our lines when they took the scripts away because we hadn’t had much time to memorize.  We filmed time after time, practicing, adjusting light and sound.  Just when we all started getting in the right groove, the trailer park manager burst in and shut us down.  Apparently, we didn’t have permission to film there, and we had to leave.  Now. 
We were all very disappointed at this turn of events and tried to be mature and not stick our tongues out at Mr. Killjoy.  This meant we had to pack up all the cameras, lighting and sound equipment as well as the copious amount of junk food brought in to feed the actors.  Then we had to find a new location.  Luckily, Eddie at Vision Pulse was able to accommodate us and we raced over there in the middle of the afternoon.
This actually turned out to be a lot better than the first location, and we were able to complete our indoor and outdoor scenes.   

Lois Lane with Eddie, our HERO!

We all had so much fun, we didn’t want it to end!  There was a scene at the end where all the Superheroes exit the therapist’s office, arguing with each other.  This was all ad lib and Loki and Thor had the brilliant idea of popping beers open and drinking them as they were exiting.  Unfortunately, this scene required numerous takes.  After a while they had to fake opening beer because:  A. they had run out of beer and B. there was a slight beer buzz going on. 
Superman and Wolverine making a beer run.  Hey guys? You forgot my wine and/or martini!
The same thing happened at the end when they were filming Sexy Robin signing her name, picking a donut out of the box on the table, taking a bite and throwing it back in the box.  She had to do this over and over, and I bet she is sick of donuts now.  I’m sure Thor and Loki are sick of beer now too – OK, maybe not.  We filmed until 8 PM Saturday night, then David and his crew had to edit the film and race to turn it in on time Sunday evening.  
Cameraman Robin
 They made it with minutes to spare and, dare I say, the result was impressive.  See it for yourself right here: http://vimeo.com/71394774.
The screening of our film was held in the Gaslamp area while I was still in Cost Rica, so I missed seeing it on the big screen, but I got to attend the Best Of Screening this past Saturday night.  They had a red carpet event for all the actors to get their pictures taken, just like Hollywood!  Huge beachball sized balloons bounced around in the auditorium and a keyboardist/singer entertained us before the event.  All the films were great!  I was so impressed.  The films were judged on talent, creativity, and how the character, line of dialogue and prop were incorporated into the film.  Even though we didn't take home a physical reward, in my eyes, we were winners because we all worked well together and accomplished our goal of turning in a great film within the 48 hour time period.
This was a positive experience in every way.  Even after they had finished filming my scenes, I hung around until the very end so I could hear them say, "That's a wrap!"