Thursday, March 15, 2007

Nevermind!!!

At 4:00pm today my boss informed me that we had to get 4 specific cheerleader uniforms to London by tomorrow. Was that possible?

Ummm, let me see. NO. Why do you ask?

The thing about production is, why ask if it's possible or not? If it needs to happen, it needs to happen. If I had to sew those uniforms together myself and ride with them in the cargo bin of a FedEx plane, they were gonna get to London by tomorrow.

Of course our director had very specific ideas about which ones he wanted, and the costume house that owns them had already rented 2 of the 4 uniforms to some unknown TV show called Scrubs or something. Did that deter his plans? Nope. Before I could say, "ain't gonna happen bud," I was in the car trying to get from Santa Monica to Glendale in one hour. In 5:00 LA traffic.

To add insult to injury, (LITERALLY,) two exits into my death race was an accident that warranted 15 police cars to STOP TRAFFIC COMPLETELY on the most traveled freeway in Los Angeles. As I sat there at a dead stop wondering if this person's careless driving would cost me my job, I remembered that Hubbie works just minutes from said costume house, and could get there in a jiffy.

God bless Hubbie. He was there within minutes, (dropping everything at his own job to spare me mine,) and up on a ladder pulling cheer skirts and asking the difference between piping and pleats. Because nothing is ever easy in this business, he could only find a royal blue skirt and navy blue top. Or a burnt orange top and "reddish" skirt without stripes. Exactly the opposite of what we needed.

Traffic finally cleared and I was cruising at a swift 90 down the freeway, running through all the things I'd have to pack. Toothbrush, pajamas, sweater, ZANAX! Holy crap, I'm going to be on a plane longer than on the ground! I hate flying! I hate flying alone even more! Will they book me in business class? Will it matter when we're plummeting to the ground from 30,000 feet? SON OF A!

Usually I have weeks, if not months to prepare myself for a flight. Here I am with hours and it started to sink in. Was this the universe's little way of making me get over my fear of flying?

As I turned off the freeway ramp (on two wheels) and headed for the home stretch, Hubbie had found 2 of the 4 outfits needed. I had 10 minutes to find something comparable to replace the other two and pay for them before closing. Then I'd go home and pack, find my passport, talk to the travel agent, get a hotel, book a car service and forage for ZANAX!

Then, amidst the four voices talking all at once on my cell, I hear, "forget it."

Forget it? What?

"What????" I say.

"Forget it. It's off..." I hear my PA say, clear as a bell.

We all hung up just as I pulled in the driveway to the costume house. I see my Hubbie walking out of the warehouse with his hands in the air just shaking his head, smiling.

"Welcome to my world!!!" I say and go to give him a hug. He lit a cigarette and we had a giggle. I knew it was no use to get mad or pout. It's just another day in production. I'm not surprised. I've been doing this 8 years and episodes like this are as common as traffic in L.A.

What does continue to surprise me is my AWESOME Hubbie's devotion and the amount of support he's able to give. He truly is my knight in shining armor and I love him dearly.