Labor Day weekend was mellow.  Looking back at August I was happy with all the work and had actually beat my record for most days worked doing BG/Stand in a month!  I went hiking again, in what felt like forever, praying the rosary up the mountain.  Lining emailed to go hiking the next day and I returned with her.  Ed and I finished watching US of Tara season 3.  I was going to miss the different personalities of Toni Colette and felt sad the show was cancelled.  Sunday we went to the beach for Zyla's school friend's birthday party.  It was so hot in the Valley, but out past Zuma beach on the outskirts of Malibu, the wind was whipping up a chill and I found myself huddled under a blanket in the sand.  All the kiting kiters showed up.  The wind was so crazy they were having a hard time launching off the beach to ride the waves pulled by their kites.  The surfers were living it up as the swells were growing larger and when the tide came in we packed it up for home.  Later that evening we went back to Jodi's for the after party.  A strange twist of events became rainbows in the sky and a slight drizzle that turned into a lightening show for the birthday boy at dusk.  While the kids played outside I cracked open the Vamper Juice.  Ed, Jodi and I all sat down to watch True Blood.  It was all winding down and it felt like the whole season was summed up on episode 11 but then a little cliff hanger gave way to what looked like from the previews a crazy ending for the season finale next week.  On Monday, Labor Day, Zyla went shopping with her friends at the mall.  Ed and I chilled at home, he working on the rewrites to the Wings of Flesh script I had critiqued for him last month.  I read more of Anais Nin Ladders to Fire and found it very strong.  Her fiction blossomed I believe with this story and I was happy she had written four books in this vein and made it into a mini series of sorts.  On Tuesday Zyla went back to school and I got some housework done.  Jessica's called me with a stand in gig for Wednesday on the new Paul Rudd movie This is 40.

I woke up earlier than everyone else to get ready for set.  I had to drive down to Beverly Hills to park at the old Robinson May building where I had parked for that 90210 day a few months back that was on location in Beverly Hills.  We were shooting at the Century City Hospital in Culver City.  After getting my color cover, a blue scrub shirt, I hopped in a van and headed over to set.  Arriving 15 minutes early, I had time to grab some breakfast before watching the rehearsal.  Everyone was really cool, it was day 51 of the 58 day shoot.  I met the other stand ins Lynda and Shane.  Lynda remembered me from another set we had worked together.  Lately I felt like I was always running into the same faces, I guess I had been working long enough for that to be a common occurrence.    There was no rehearsal so the director just told us what he wanted and we did it.  The scene was in the hospital hallway and my actress Nicol Paone was playing the ER Nurse, who approaches Debbie and Larry, played by Leslie Mann and Albert Brooks to give them some information.  After setting up the three cameras, lighting and perfecting the blocking of my girls entrance we went on break for over an hour waiting for the talent to arrive.  I think I went back to set to stand in maybe one more time and the director started calling me Nurse Jackie.  The remainder of the day I spent in holding which was in this abandoned restaurant off the hospital area we were shooting in.  Crafty set up in there and the movie provided a nice spread of food.  I hung out chatting with other BG, talking about Whitney.  Lunch was served an hour early and more BG were showing up for the second scene of the day my girl was not in.  I asked if she had been wrapped, but they said no, that the next scene was a continuation and they were keeping her for safety.  A lot of improv was being used and they never knew if they might want a piece of her in the next scene.  Since she had to stay I had to stay.  So after eating the wonderful lunch outside under the tents and feeling sick because it was just too hot to be eating anything outside, temperatures rising into the 100's, I went back inside to the air conditioning.  A few hours later they finally said I could be wrapped and I signed out and hopped on a shuttle van back to base camp and my car.  I made it home in time to kiss Ed good-bye as he headed out to the Back to School Night at Zyla's school and I stayed home to hang with her and get her ready for bed.  The Vampire Diaries, another family series we liked, arrived from Netflix, but Ed asked us to wait for him to watch it, so Zyla and I watched a Switched at Birth episode instead.  When Ed got home I found out all the details of what Zyla's 5^th grade year would hold, then had some wine and watched more Live Nude Comedy with him.

I blew through Thursday getting my million and one things done before picking up Zyla from school and taking her to gymnastics.  Jessica's List called saying that the casting director was upset because I was listed as booked out all month and was supposed to be on Whitney the following day.  I called back and discovered that they did not like the message I had left on the voice mail the previous week.  Instead of booking me out so I was only available for the Whitney show all month, they booked me out period.  I apologized and was instructed again on exactly how to leave the message to book out for a regular stand in job.  I emailed the casting director with apologies as well.  After that drama I got my call time and had dinner with Ed.  Zyla and I started The Vampire Diaries season 2 which she found scary.  Ed went for a walk with his friend and missed the show, but got home just after Zyla went to bed to drink some wine and chill with me.

Early to rise, I jumped in the shower, getting ready for set.  Dropped Zyla at school and headed over to the stages.  It was good to be back.  I grabbed the call sheet and new script, episode 5, then made my way to the audience section to look it over.  Not only was Amber not coming back, but it looked like Alex wasn't either.  We got two new girl stand ins to replace them.  Now Tiffany was doing Lily and Hillary was doing Whitney.  They seemed cool but it was obviously a different vibe of energy without Amber and Alex.  Ryan was helping them with the details of how our show works.  At 8:30am we got down to business of watching the actors rehearse all the scenes and taking notes.  This episode had it's moments but wasn't quite as funny as the previous episodes.  It was a Halloween episode so I thought that might be a reason, but after the network run through for the producers, writers, etc they had the same concerns so Whitney sat down with the writers working on new changes and tweeks to make it perfect.  My favorite part of the episode was when Chris used his German accent to seduce Whitney.  I loved when he did his German bit on the Live Nude Comedy episode and was happy to see some of his ideas being mixed in.  By 2:20pm I was wrapped for the weekend and went to pick up Zyla from school. 

The weekend was spent helping Zyla with her Family History Report.  She had to write about her first relative to come to America.  I had a copy of the story of her great great grandmother coming over from Sweden and what life was like for her there and why she left and what she encountered in America at the age of 17 in 1900.  Ed also had a great story of Zyla's great grandfather coming over from Austria Hungry at age 14 in 1905.  She was able to incorporate both stories into her report.  Sunday was 9/11 and the last day the pool was open in Burbank.  Zyla had a playdate with her friend Tobey and I hung out with his mom catching up since last July when I had seen her.  Ed and I watched a great movie My Normal that we ended up talking about for days.  Sunday night I headed over to Jodi's for the season finale of True Blood.  It was a bittersweet evening knowing our show was over and our time together probably wouldn't be as often now that school was back in session and everything back to busy. 

Monday morning it was back to the Whitney set.  I dropped Zyla at school and headed over to CBS Radford.  The parking was a nightmare.  CSI NY and some other movie were working on the lot and the parking structures filled up fast.  I was told just to park along the river in the lane of traffic.  Everyone else was doing it but I worried about just leaving my car there until all hours whenever we might finish.  I mean that road closes at 8pm because that gate closes and I just did not like it.  On my lunch break I went to move my car to the parking garage and found plenty of spaces open.  The rewrites that took place over the weekend very much improved the episode and I thought it was a lot funnier.  I was sad to see Chris's German accent bit taken out, but that whole scene was removed and it just didn't work anymore.  I was hoping they would keep it in mind for a future episode because that was my favorite part.  It felt like chaos and it had never been like this before.  It was because the new script had so many changes that scenes from what we rehearsed Friday were all mixed up or reordered into the new script.  We were also working with a new director and just back from the hiatus so things felt nutty.  As the day progressed rewrites were coming in and we were preshooting all these scenes that were complicated and the actors had just been given more new lines so set was stressful and confusing to say the least!  Thankfully a mini cupcake truck came and I had the red velvet one.  Everything was worked out eventually, but we were exhausted.  Andy Ackerman came back to set at 7:30pm so he could direct the reshoots from his episode 2.  All the guy stand ins got wrapped since the scenes only had the girls in them.  We finally wrapped out at 10:30pm and I headed home to crash.

Tuesday was a late morning call time and CBS Radford ran out of parking for most of the Whitney crew.  I was directed to park in a truck fire lane.  Tons of security were on the lot to direct the influx of cars.  I heard Big Brother was shooting on the lot and that was why it was so crowded.  I was hoping they would leave soon, I had never seen the parking situation so out of control on this lot before.  When I got to the stages it seemed like chaos again.  The script had a bunch of new rewrites.  I don't think I was used all day, but watching the mayhem of this episode come together was fascinating and kept us laughing with all the new jokes.  At 3:30pm the second team was used to block out the Mason House scene with the BG because the cast had to go to make up since the audience was coming soon.  We were asked to read the lines, but none of us had the new latest script for this scene.  A bunch were wrangled up for us and we walked through the entire thing for camera.  After we were broke for lunch and the stand ins were told to come back at 9pm.  I skipped the catered meal and went straight home to go out to dinner with Ed and Zyla.  A beautiful orange moon rose up over the mountains.  I returned to the stages 5 hours later, the taping was only half way done.  The stand ins sat around in the AD office, then we were moved to a private room to hang out for 2 ½ hours.  Ryan had gone to Malibu and surfed for 2 hours, the rest of us had just gone home to chill.  Hillary never left the lot and ended up standing in for all our character's for some quick camera thing after lunch.  The show ended and some pick up shots were needed but nothing my girl was in, so I was wrapped out right before midnight. 

On my day off I dropped Zyla at school and headed to the hills hiking my way up the Verdugo Mountain praying the rosary.  Saw so many bunnies!  Shot off emails to friends and family regarding Zyla's Magazine Drive Fund Raiser at school.  Finished reading Anais book Ladders to Fire.  I just really loved it and felt like going back to read it all over again.  It wasn't due for two more weeks.  Got Zyla from school and helped her with homework.  Made dinner and had mellow night with the family.  The following day I went for an early morning hike again, this time a violinist was in the parking lot playing.  His notes drifted up to me as I started up the trail.  Clouds were swirling thick making the path spooky with a nice chill to the air.  I took a longer route and unlike yesterday, no bunnies to be seen.  By the time I got back to my car I saw one bunny as I was driving out.  Went home to shower and get ready to work at Zyla's school helping out with the Magazine Fund Raiser.  I stayed after to help hand out lunches then went home for a few before getting her from school.  Jessica's List called with my call time for Friday and I called back 5 minutes later to confirm on the voice mail.  About 3 hours later Jessica's called again saying I had not confirmed, so I called and confirmed again.  I prayed this weird energy between me and my call in service would end. 

Friday morning I woke up early to get ready for set.  Dropped Zyla at school, then drove over to the lot.  It was a misty morning with a brush of drops falling from the sky.  Everything seemed mellow at the stages, new director, new script.  Alex was back on the call sheet so that meant Hillary would not be.  The rehearsals went smoothly, then we had lunch before the network run through.  After Antar used us for some lighting, wrapping us out at 2:20pm.  I went to pick up Zyla for her big night.  Disney Channel had been previewing the Wizards of Waverly Place episode we filmed last March.  Kids had been coming up to Zyla all week saying they saw her in it.  We were all excited to see the episode featuring us both.  Ed and I took Zyla out to dinner at her favorite restaurant Mimi's to celebrate.  Zyla's friend Samantha invited us over to her house to watch.  On Sunday we found ourselves in the Magic Kingdom on a Star Tours to the Ewok Planet.  That was combined with my favorite Underwater World to make a fantastic ride!  I wanted to be picked as the rebel spy but that did not happen.  We also rode Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, very spooky!  I love wandering around Disneyland weaving in and out of all the different atmospheres sharing time with my family. 

Monday morning was Zyla's picture day at school and she wanted me to straighten her hair.  I thought I would have plenty of time since my call time was noon, but when I woke up in the morning, my phone had a message from Central saying it had been pulled 3 hours!  I quickly got Zyla's hair done and took her to school so I could hurry back home to get ready for set.  Zyla felt like a celebrity at school, tons of kids had seen her episode of Wizards.  I got to set and sat around for 3 hours watching Whitney and Chris do scenes in their apartment living room.  I missed the catered breakfast and had some soup from crafty.  Andy had come back to shoot some retakes of a scene from episode 103 Silent Treatment.  I did not get to see it and wondered what got changed.  Lunch was catered as well, then we finally got to a scene my girl was in.  Rhea looked amazing in her purple dress all dolled up for her date in the Black Market scene.  We skipped doing the Tag scene, it was pushed to Tuesday, moving on to the basketball court scenes.  Those were really funny.  A coffee truck came from Up All Night congratulating the premier.  The show was scheduled for Thursday night at 9:30pm, but was premiering on a Monday in Canada.  I ordered a caramel latte.  Wrapped out a little before 9pm and had to be back at 7:30am.  It was a forced call for everyone because Whitney had to catch a plane late afternoon on Tuesday to do the Letterman Show.

Tuesday morning everyone looked tired.  It was a moody fog filled drive onto the lot.  Alex and Ryan had to be in at 6:30am, I felt for them.  It was weird being on set so early on a Tuesday when we normally have late calls and gear up for a long night with the audience.  But no audience for this episode.  Robson had gone out of town sending his replacement stand in Tony to work with us.  The stars of Two Broke Girls stopped by to see Whitney.  I did not know it at the time but Whitney was the executive producer and co-writer of that show as well!  Everything went so quick and smooth that ahead of schedule I was wrapped out at noon.  Said good-bye to everyone and headed off to hiatus week wondering if Jessica's would find me anymore work. 

My first day off I chilled, went to the library to stock up on Anais.  I had reread Ladders to Fire and wanted the second book Children of the Albatross.  I found it and a huge novel called Cities of the Interior, which was actually a collaboration of all the 5 books in the continuous novel collected in one place.  I also grabbed up the next Diary Volume 5.  I enjoyed Children of the Albatross but not as much as Ladders.  Anais had written a note about the history of the books and bringing them together in the opening of Cities.  I agreed that the books did not demand being read in order and stood independent even though they used the same main characters.  I liked how the story stayed open, like life.  I got an email from Kids Management that T-Mobile had put their email address on a black list and that was why no one on T-Mobile was getting the texts for jobs.  I was really upset.  I called T-Mobile and they said there was no block on my phone but tech support would look into it and they might not get back to me for a week!  I called Kids Management and they said they had texted for Zyla twice in August!  They did a test text to my phone and it did not come through.  Did not get a call from Jessica's so Thursday I went for a short hike, seeing the cutest baby bunny.  Beautiful view, ocean of clouds spread out before me from the top of the mountain.  Headed into Zyla's school to help out with the Magazine Drive again and pass out lunches.  Tonight was the Whitney premier here in the U.S. and I had my fingers crossed for its success.  Jessica's called with a gig for Desperate Housewives, so I packed up my stuff for set before having some vino and chillin with Ed to watch a little Andy Warhol Women in Revolt. 

Friday morning I had a late call time and was able to drop Zyla to school then come home to get ready.  I had to be at Universal by 11am then take a shuttle to wherever the bar scenes were going to play out.  I ended up being shuttled down Ventura Blvd about a block away from CBS Radford.  We checked in and went through wardrobe, who chose my wine colored dress for me to wear.  Back on the shuttle we were driven down the street a few more blocks to set.  It was turning into a hot day with a slight breeze so I was thankful holding was inside the bar with air conditioning.  Vanessa Williams was on set with Felicity Huffman.  One of the BG artist kept singing a little tune every time we would go to set, ‘I'm in love with an actress, an actress named Vanessa'.  I had so much fun with everyone, the vibe was great and laughter filled the air as we pantomimed all day parting in the club/bar atmosphere.  I found out the drama I had been dealing with over T-Mobile not delivering texts from Kids Management stemmed to the adult call in service as well.  Extras Management was having the same issues with T-Mobile blocking their email from texting clients.  A big headache I hoped was cleared up soon so Zyla could work again.  Jessica's called with a gig for Monday on Long Time Gone playing a cashier.  I was thankful for all the SAG jobs.  At 6:30pm we were shuttled back to base camp for lunch.  After we ate, half the BG were picked to stay for an exterior shot of the bar.  I was happily not picked and got wrapped out and shuttled back to Universal.  When I got home Ed pulled up NBC.com and we watched the season premier of Whitney that we had missed the night before.  It was a cute episode.  Then we watched the stand up Christopher Titus: Love is Evol, which was really funny as well. 

Saturday, Ed had to chaperone a school field trip to Magic Mountain.  I took Zyla to her gymnastic class then we headed up to Santa Clarita to a birthday party.  My friend Christa who had given birth last year to her daughter on the freeway was now celebrating Brianna's 1^st year of life.  The weekend was mellow, watched more Vamp Diaries, went to our favorite Byzantine Mass, had dinner with friends on Sunday night and then came home to crash out early.  I had to wake up at 4am Monday morning to get ready for set. 

I headed down to Torrance in the wee hours of the morning.  Thankfully the freeways were clear and I made good time.  Once I arrived at the location to park, the security told me that I was in the wrong place.  A few of us BG were there early and were told to follow the van over to crew parking since we had arrived at base camp.  We were then shuttled to set where breakfast was set up.  Pays to be early, because the rest of the BG who arrived moments later got to stay parked at base camp, but had no shuttle ride to breakfast.  Eventually a van picked us up and brought us back to base camp to check in and go through wardrobe.  We were told to bring 4 outfits, 3 for summer and one for winter to use in the grocery store scenes.  I was the cashier so my outfits did not change much, just the blouses.  Wardrobe ended up giving me 2 of their blouses since there were so many colors we could not use that the principals were in.  After getting that figured out we then lined up in the parking lot showing wardrobe all the changes again just to make sure everyone had it figured out.  We were then shuttled to holding.  It was a tent set up on a grassy lawn a block down the street from the set.  It was amusing sitting there all day.  Watching the cars drive past and stare at us.  We felt like we were on display.  People would do double takes, spin around the block to drive past us again.  One guy yelled out to us, everyone was curious about what we were doing.  I was brought to set for the first scene and saw Katie the PA from Better Off Ted.  She was now an AD!  She was excited to see me and I was not needed in the first scene since they would not see the cashier and I walked back down the street to holding.  Around 10:30am, more BG arrived.  Not everyone was used in the four separate scenes we were shooting but we all had to be ready if picked.  There was no place to change in the grassy lawn and a van had to come pick us up to shuttle us back to base camp to change into our 2^nd look.  Some BG did not care and just changed at holding, but I liked going on the adventure back to base camp, change up the day from sitting in the park.  Lunchtime rolled around and many of us still had not been used.  We listened to stories from one woman who knew the producers of the movie and what had been happening with it.  I guess Meg Ryan was suppose to star in it, but had dropped out last minute.  Then one of the actors had been fired the week before.  I finished reading Children of the Albatross.  Sam Trammell from True Blood all of a sudden appeared and it was surreal seeing him walk up to our grassy lawn and head over to where lunch was set up.  The catering was great, I enjoyed the salmon, steak, salad and veggies they prepared for us.  A little bit after lunch I was called to set and given an apron and name badge.  I took my place behind the register and mimed checking out the groceries since we had to keep quiet for the emotional scene down the aisle of the grocery store.  It was cool working in the same scene as Sam.  After I went back to holding where I sat around until it was time to shuttle back to base camp to change our clothes again for outfit number three.  The weather was amazing so beautiful and I was blessed to enjoy the time outside.  Jessica's called with booking details for the following day on Dexter!  I was going to stand in again on my favorite show!  I was never called back to set again and around 6:30pm I ran into Katie who said I was going to be wrapped out.  I was shuttled back to base camp to get wardrobe back there things and my voucher back.  Then shuttled to the crew parking and making my way home in under an hour!  Supposedly Obama had just flown into town and the freeways were going to be a mess, but I did not notice anything out of the ordinary.  Ed and Zyla had watched the Vamp Diary without me since she had to go to bed, so I watched it as well to catch up with them.  I had a somewhat early call time the following day so I crashed out early.

My days off were spent the same as the previous weeks.  Had a nice hike up the Verdugo Mountains praying my rosary.  Read some Anais Nin.  Worked over at Zyla's school finishing up the last day of the Magazine Drive.  Even added a page to my novel I had not spent time with since May.  Everything smooth.  Central called with my call time for Whitney on Friday.  I felt good about life, blessed by God.  While working on Dexter, Jeff, asked if I had heard about the leaked season premier episode of Dexter.  We talked about whether it was done intentionally for publicity or not.  Rash Hashana started at sundown.  I pulled up the streaming episode online that night, and enjoyed watching the new season of Dexter with Ed.  I was excited about the show getting back to its roots of season 1 and the added Catholic element.

Friday morning I dropped Zyla at school then headed into CBS Radford.  Found parking and hung out in my car for a bit since I was over an hour early.  When I did leave the parking structure on my way to set, Ryan snuck up behind me and scared me.  It was good to see everyone again.  We all shared stories of where we had been on hiatus.  Jeff, the on set decorator gave me some pictures of me standing in with Alex and Amber back from some earlier episodes.  Then Amber texted me saying she was on hiatus from her show and working on the stage across from me on Up all Night.  After the network run through I went outside to see her and show her the pictures.  She missed us as we did her, but her other show gave her an extra day of work.  The day was full of fantastical surprises; Lisa Lampanelli was the guest star!  Since she was blond I was needed to stand in for her as well and took notes for all her movement.  I was so excited she was on the show, I loved her stand up shows.  Todd the 2^nd AD told me I would really have to study and take good notes of Rhea since she would not be at set Monday and I would have to run all her scenes with the principal actors for camera blocking.  It was a fun, silly vibe, everyone refreshed from the time off and ready to have fun.  Antar used us for some camera lighting, then we wrapped out a little before 3pm.  A soft rain had started to fall as I headed back to my car.  Picked up Zyla from school and start my weekend.  No plans and for once I would let the mood and spirit take me where it may.

After an amazing walk at dusk, which sent pinks and purples through the clouds, the sliver of moon shining through, we sat in the outdoor patio of Frontier Walk enjoying some Chinese.  I wanted to see episode 2 of Whitney, which was easy to pull up at nbc.com.  This episode was a million times better than the pilot, everyone was on it, the rhythm amazing.  I remembered the night they shot it, the audience, the energy.  There were a number of lines that had changed.  Whitney is big on improv and rewrites.  I was pleasantly surprised everything was brilliantly hilarious.