Friday was Parent Appreciation Day at Zyla's school, so I was happy I was not needed at Whitney and could attend.  After dropping Zyla at school I came back home to get ready.  Ed and I watched the latest Whitney episode online.  It was really funny.  It had gotten a 1.3 rating.  Not very high but almost what the premier episode had done.  Now that American Idol was back on in the same time slot it was hard to compete.  I arrived back at Zyla's school by 10:30am.  An activity was scheduled.  The class had been reading A Single Shard, a Newbery Medal winner about 12^th century Korean potters.  So we were given clay to make a piece of pottery for the class.  I split Zyla's clay in half so we each had some to work with.  I formed a small vase shape, planning to make her a pencil holder.  I sculpted it into a cat shape and etched in a face and flower on its belly.  She asked me to add cat ears on top, which I did with some of her extra clay.  It was so small it could only hold one pencil so she said it looked like it was getting stabbed in the head!  Zyla worked her clay over a couple of times settling on a bowl shape.  We left our pieces on the table to dry.  The teacher said they would harden up over the weekend and be done.  To end Spirit Week at her school, everyone got ready for the 1^st Friday Mass.  As we gathered outside to walk over to the church, helicopters were flying overhead.  The media was buzzing outside the church.  The children were told to ignore reporters or say ‘No comment'.  It seems a big news story had just been released, Ed texted me that it was on AOL top news.  Cardinal Mahony, who resides at our parish after his retirement last year, was in the spotlight.  Of course I did not see him anywhere around.  The Archbishop Jose Gomez had made an announcement that Cardinal Mahony was relieved of all public duties because of his mishandling of clergy sexual abuse of children back in the 80's.  We all made it inside the church without incident and the reporters were all gone by the time Mass was finished. 

The weekend was slow.  Nothing big was planned, and with Ed's leg elevated on ice it was all for the best.  Zyla's next disk of Full House came so we watched that.  Shameless season 2 first disk came for Ed and I.  I went for a couple of rosary hikes up at Stough; it felt good to get out for some exercise in the crisp clean air.  Nancy, the UPM of Whitney called me Sunday afternoon.  She told me that the girl hired for the guest star role had dropped out when her lines were cut on Friday.  Nancy said that her and Quan, one of the executive producers, immediately suggested I be given the role after the performance I had given running Chelsea's lines last month.  She said as of now the role had no lines, but would require acting out a verbal fight scene in pantomime, that Whitney and Chris's characters are trying to listen in on.  She said I would be paid on contract as a Day Player.  I was very thankful and accepted the role of Susie. 

When I arrived to set Monday, Todd, the 2^nd AD asked if I had received the call over the weekend.  I said yes.  He told me I would be running the part of Susie for rehearsals and the Network Run Thru.  Later in the morning while I was taking notes on Rhea for a Low Bar scene, Whitney showed up and was talking to Andy, our director about the issue of the Susie role.  I heard her saying that she might add lines back to see if the other actress would then come back.  She said alternately they had me in mind, but weren't sure if I had already played a role on the show.  Rebecca, our script supervisor, came to ask if I had ever played a role on the show, to which I said no.  When it was time to block out the scene Susie was in, I went down to set and Joe, our 1^st AD told me where to sit.  The actor Brent Shaw was there who would be playing my other half, as the character Matt.  He had three lines that periodically Whitney's character overhears as we fight at the table behind them.  Before we ran the rehearsal, Whitney changed one of his lines, to be my line.  I did not know if this meant I would not get the part, and maybe they would be calling the other girl back.  I just acted out everything the way Andy directed me to.  Things went smoothly and we nailed the scene during the run thru.  I told Brent I still wasn't 100% sure I had the part, but hoped to be working with him again tomorrow when the scene would be pre-shot.  After the run thru, we blocked out re-shoot scenes from a previous episode.  Todd came to tell me that I needed to go to wardrobe for a fitting.  It was then I was pretty sure I had the part.  Wardrobe fit me in three different blouses, with jeans, took pictures and sent me back to set.  Later, the casting department for Whitney called me saying they were offering me the role of Susie and wanted all my information for the contract.  I finished the blocking for the day wrapping out at 4:30pm.  Todd told me I would be playing Susie tomorrow and asked if I would then be doing stand in afterward.  I said yes.  He told me to be to make-up by 9am.  That night Rebecca texted me congratulations on the role of Susie.  The new call sheets were out and my name was listed next to the character of Susie. 

Tuesday, I woke up and for once did not have to do my make-up before heading into set.  I arrived early for the catered breakfast, then went to hang out in the audience section.  The pre-shoots had started, and Rhea was in them, but no stand ins were needed since we blocked it yesterday.  The call sheet had said TBD regarding a stand in for Rhea, and I was not sure if Todd was going to bring in someone else or not.  It ended up he did not.  Around 8:30am, I went to tell Todd I was there early, and he had me fill out my contract for the role of Susie.  He then told me to go to the hair and make-up room.  Megan did my make up beautifully, then Cammy set my hair to be full with loose curls.  Todd came in the room telling me to go to wardrobe when I was done there.  I walked back into the stages, to the wardrobe room, but no one was there.  I found the girl who had done my fitting the day before and asked her about my clothes.  She said they were in my dressing room.  I did not know anything about a dressing room, so one of the costumes girls walked me to it, on the 2^nd floor of the building next door, where hair and make-up was on the first floor.  Stepping out of the elevator there was my room with my name and character name on the door.  I went inside and found my clothes hanging in the closet.  I quickly got dressed, but did not want to hang out in the room, since it felt so isolated and made me nervous being far from set and not knowing what was going on.  My scene was up next, so I went back to the hair and make-up room to have them finish me before heading into set.  I decided to just hang out where I always do in the audience section and watch the last of the scene they were shooting before mine.  When my scene was up, I walked down to set.  Everyone was so excited for me.  Jeffery was taking lots of picture for me, camera men were yelling out congratulations, everyone coming up to me giving me fist bumps and thumbs up.  My co-actor Brent did not know what to make of it all, saying I had a lot of fans on this set.  He asked me if I had used another stage name because he had tried looking me up on Imdb.  I said yes, that in NY, there was so much drama from security after 9/11 about your driver's license needing to match the name given on the audition list so you could get clearance to enter the elevators that I had changed my acting name to my married name to make things easier.  He asked me to take a picture of him with Whitney and Alex so I did.  Whitney thanked me for playing the role.  After we finished filming, Andy came up and gave me a hug saying I did wonderful.  Joe told me I was wrapped for the day, but I said I had told Todd I would stand in and that there was no other stand in hired for Rhea.  Todd told me to get back to my day job, so I quickly went back to my dressing room and changed, then back to set to stand in for Rhea the rest of the day.  All the stand ins were excited for me, telling me how awesome I was.  It felt really good and I was so happy to be ending the season on such a high note.  At one point when I was standing in for a Low Bar scene one of the camera guys said he had not even recognized me when I had come to set to play Susie.  He could not figure out why everyone was so excited and cheering for this Day Player because it was all so out of context and I looked so different.  He congratulated me on doing such a great job.  The episode I was playing in was called ‘Crazy, Stupid Words' and it had a lot of physical comedy in it.  From suggestive nudity, references to porn, to drama with a tarantula in the bar, I was thrilled to have played a part of this wacky fun episode.  When we finally wrapped out at 7pm, I drove home to a tasty dinner Ed had prepared.  Zyla could not believe my hair and make-up.  She said I looked like a girly-girl, that I looked much younger and she could not take me seriously when I looked like a doll.  She said she was so amazed by my make-up and hair, she thought she might want to be a make-up artist instead of fashion designing costumes and wardrobe when she grew up!  I checked my email and found at least 20 pictures that everyone had emailed me of me being a set star on Whitney.  It was an amazing experience and I thanked God for this blessing in my life.

Wednesday, our last Shownight of Whitney season 2.  Time to say good-bye and finger's crossed for a season 3.  I arrived the stages early and found for the second day in a row a big catered breakfast spread.  I ordered my usual breakfast burrito.  Everyone was in good spirits as I entered the sound stage.  I sat in my usual place in the audience section.  There would not be much to do since we had already blocked out all the scenes for camera.  We had pre-shot half the show already, so the refresh went quickly, then we decided to head over to Teru Sushi on our long walk away lunch break.  A coffee truck and a ice cream sandwich truck arrived a little after 3pm.  Todd asked me if I wanted to be part of the curtain call.  That is at the end of show night when the actors come out one last time as their names are yelled by the announcer.  I did not feel dressed for it, but said if Brent, the other actor who was in the scene with me was doing it, then I would.  I had seen him in the audience section getting ready to watch the show commence.  Todd came back to me later saying Brent was doing it, so I was doing it too.  I went to watch my pre-shot scene on one of the monitors when the show began.  I was happy they kept my line in and as a close up too!  It was one of the fastest show nights ever and by 7pm we were on the last scene of the night.  Todd collected all the actors in the hallway outside Whitney's apartment and told me I would go first.  I had never done this before.  The announcer called my name and I opened Whitney's door and entered her apartment running out waving to the audience who were cheering.  It was pretty surreal.  Then Brent followed, along with the cast one by one, until we were all standing together saying good-night to the audience.  Whitney, Chris, Rhea, Zoe, Tone, Brent and me squeezed in together for a cast picture.  Afterward the entire crew was assembled together in the living room set for a huge cast and crew picture.  Thus ended Whitney Season 2.  I drove home elated.  What a wonderful way to end the season.  Ed and I watched some episodes of Shameless Season 2 before I fell asleep for the night.

Thursday, I was back in Zyla's school library, almost done with my service hours.  Alone again, checking the books in and out, I did not have to send any kids back to class, and for the most part they behaved.  I rescheduled my dentist appointment I had cancelled in December when Zyla got sick.  Then I tried to imagine what Ed and I might do tomorrow night when Zyla would be at her friend's birthday sleep over party all night.  I found a Groupon deal for a comedy club in North Hollywood that sounded like fun.  When I picked up Zyla from school all my plans changed because she had a fever and might not be able to go out over the weekend. 

I took Zyla to the doctor first thing Friday morning for some antibiotics.  She was feeling much better by evening and was not going to miss her friend's birthday party for anything so I dropped her off at the party with instructions to text me every 2 hours and if she did not feel well and wanted to come home.  It had been a crazy day.  Hail in the form of small snowy ice balls had fallen for 20 minutes at our house.  The entire courtyard had what looked like a layer of snow on it.  Yet while we watched the balls plummet down, in the distance was blue skies and sunny weather.  It reminded me of two years ago when Ed and I had gotten caught up in the snowfall of Burbank up at Stough Canyon Nature Center.  With Zyla out for the night, Ed and I headed over to the Ha Ha Comedy Club located in the artsy district of NoHo.  We got there about an hour before the show and had some drinks at the bar before being seated.  What is cool about this comedy club was there were many couches for couples seating, as apposed to the table and chairs left mainly for larger groups.  I liked the décor around the room, very fun atmosphere.  The website did not list the names of the headliners, and none of them were familiar to me, but they kept me laughing all evening. 

Saturday, I woke up from a bunch of crazy dreams about the Whitney show.  The wrap party was only a few short hours away, I was excited!  I picked up Zyla from her sleep over party and brought her home to rest.  She was still getting over the flu, her sore throat and slept most of the day.  Around 5:30pm, we headed over to Ed's cousin Rebecca's place to drop off Zyla for the night then headed to the wrap party.  Thankfully it was only about 15 minutes away at Bugatta's on Melrose.  We had never been there before but found it easily.  The entire club had been rented out for the Whitney party for the evening.  Seeing everyone's familiar faces made me feel at home.  Ed knew a lot of the crew as well, from last years wrap party and Patti's crew beach party last month.  There was a picture booth set up and we took many pictures.  The appetizers came by my booth throughout the night, bringing tasty treats, I sampled them all.  I mainly drank champagne, but did have a sip of Joanne's Lavender Martini, which was very smooth.  At one point I was walking through the bar and ran into Andy who gave me a hug.  Whitney called out my name, as she was hugging someone else, I squeezed her hand in acknowledgement as I walked past.  The bloopers reel started after Whitney gave us all a fun talk about how much she loves and appreciates our crew.  It was a beautiful evening.  At one point Ginny pulled me upstairs to a room that had opened with a dance floor.  Alex, came up to dance too.  I lost all track of time, when the night was suddenly over and it was time to go.  I had left my jacket and purse in the booth of a room that was now empty.  Only my jacket was there.  I asked where my purse was and a manager led me to another bar and a waitress brought it from the back kitchen.  I was thankful they had protected my purse back there, though I had not really worried about it since it was just our Whitney crew in the club that night.  When we picked up Zyla she had developed a really bad earache so we got her home and medicated her.  With Zyla's flu still in force, I did not want to chance going to Disneyland on Sunday, but instead gave her another full day of rest, so we missed out on the Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras and Valentine celebrations in the park.  I had a really bad headache probably from so many glasses of champagne.  We all took it easy, I helped Zyla get her homework done and Ed and I finished watching Shameless season 2.  When I took Zyla to school Monday morning, I looked through my purse and realized it was in disorder and that all my cash had been stolen out of my purse.  It's hard not to place blame, and I assumed it was probably some wait staff who wanted to be paid for protecting my purse in the back kitchen.  I was just thankful everything else was still in there.  When I texted Megan about it, she said Liam's driver's license had been stolen out of his coat pocket at the wrap party.  It was one crazy night!

The week that followed was busy.  Doctor and dentist appointments, as well as filing taxes kept me busy.  I managed to escape outside for some hiking as well.  The usual time spent checking kids books in and out of Zyla's school library, with an unexpected fire drill and her annual walk-a-thon, helped me get closer to finishing up my service hours for the year.  Zyla had to catch up on her service hours as well, so Ed, Zyla and I all headed down to Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades to donate our time to helping Heal the Bay.  We picked up trash on the beach for a few hours.  The high was 80 degrees, the water glittering as the sun rose overhead.  Our friend Andrew came to visit, he was a few short weeks away from graduating and starting his residency as a doctor out of state.  I was going to miss him when he left, but was really impressed with his hard work and dedication.  Monday was a school holiday.  We spent the day down at my sister's house.  Zyla needed science subjects to test for her science fair project.  My sister's family volunteered to study the picture and be quizzed on their memory.  After lunch and a walk down The Strand, we headed home. 

Dark clouds filled the sky, temperatures dropped 30 degrees as we prepared for some rain.  I took a lovely long rosary prayer hike up Stough Canyon.  Jessica's List called with a job for me on Go On, a new NBC show, for Wednesday.

Back to BG work.  My call time was late morning, so I dropped Zyla to school before getting ready.  I was playing a funeral goer on Go On and our location was the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  I was told to wear all black, so I did not bring options.  I pulled into the cemetery and was directed to park on one street by the pond.  A shuttle took me to base camp at the entrance off of Gower.  But since I was early and did not have my voucher I was told to hop in a shuttle van back to catering.  That was behind the mausoleum at the other end of the cemetery.  I had already eaten before coming so I opted out of breakfast.  We were given our vouchers then back on a van to the base camp where wardrobe was.  We were told on the hotline to bring trench coats, but when we arrived to wardrobe they did not want trench coats.  They almost put me in a skirt, but I told them I had not brought shoes to wear with a skirt.  It was still very chilly, but not rainy like the day before.  We had been told to be prepared for rain and muddy grass conditions and wear appropriate shoes.  Thankfully they did not give me a skirt but instead just a suit jacket to wear over my blouse.  After that we were shuttled back to catering which was also holding and sat around for the rest of the afternoon waiting for our scene, which was the sunset shot.  It was chilly in the tent, so I spent most of the day sitting in the sun trying to stay warm, and somewhat out of the winds.  Around 4pm, we were brought to set which was along the road near some graves.  I was part of a funeral party of about 7 people.  I walked behind the two other BG leading the group down the road.  We walk past Matthew Perry and Julie White who approach our group from the grass and stop before stepping off the curb to offer our group condolences on our loss as we pass by.  All the women of the funeral party were given red roses and tissues to hold.  We got to keep our props.  The scene was shot very quickly, then we were wrapped.  I had to hop on a shuttle van to get my voucher back from wardrobe, then shuttle van back to holding.  I signed out and opted out of lunch, which was just then being served, instead going home to spend more time with my family.  A nice relaxing day on set, very peaceful in the graveyard and I made a new friend Melissa who is also with Jessica's List and lives next door to Rhea!

Thursday I was back in Zyla's school library, thankful the other mom, Denise, showed up to help me.  The kids were doing what they do, finding naked pictures in the reference section or art books, making fun of the word Dick in Moby Dick, things like that.  My postal service had not delivered mail for two days to my building.  I emailed and called with complaints.  One of the other tenants said he had gone to the post office the day before and was told our regular mail carrier had an emergency and could not finish her normal delivery of mail.  They would not release his mail to him, which is very frustrating.  That the postal service does not have someone else to deliver the mail when someone is out seems outrageous and to not give us our mail if we go in asking for it seems illegal.  I was told by USPS that they would resolve the issue and call me before the end of the day.  I received no call, but by 2pm that day the mail resumed regular delivery.  That evening Ed went to the Marilyn Manson concert for an early kick off to his upcoming 40^th  birthday celebration. 

Friday I went for a quick rosary hike at Stough, happy for the beautiful weather and time to be outside in nature.  After picking up Zyla and feeding her lunch we headed down to Redondo Beach.  Zyla needed to earn more service hours for school and was excited to be volunteering at the Too Many Bunnies Rabbit Rescue Shelter, where my sister was also a weekly volunteer.  We learned a lot about bunnies and how most often they are dumped at local parks when people tire of the novelty they inspire around Easter time.  I had no idea that they are more like a cat than a caged animal and should be treated as such, with free run of the house, lots of space to move and play.  Unlike cats, they are not predators so they have to be kept safe from other animals that might want to eat them.  Zyla fell in love with the softest dwarf bunny there named EB.  He only had one eye after a predator attack in the park where he was rescued.  He is used as a therapy bunny for children who have suffered a trauma such as loosing an eye.  Linda who runs the rescue was very passionate about her mission with the bunnies and I enjoyed learning more about these adorable creatures.

The rest of the weekend flew by.  We drove all over finding test subjects for Zyla's Science Faire Project on memory.  From friends to family, we collected the data she needed.  Ed and I finished watching Weeds Season 8 along with all the behind the scenes footage.  It was sad to say good-bye to one of our favorite shows.  I loved how they came full circle with season 8 and hoped the predictions of the show eventually would come to fruition. 

The last week of February gave me some free time to go for more rosary hikes, get back to the dentist for more intensive cleaning treatments and find myself on the set of Perception.  I was called to play an FBI agent.  It was an easy gig out at a new mini studio in Sylmar I had never been to.  I woke up just before 4am to get ready, then headed into the Riverfront Stages.  They had just started up their second season and I hoped I could be a regular here in the bullpen scenes.  The crew was very nice and they had some rule going that they appreciate one person each day and would continually be applauding them.  It was fun to hear their joyful atmosphere all day long.  Most of the other BG playing FBI were familiar to me from other sets and I felt at home with my old lighting crew run by Derrick from Better Off Ted working this show as well.  The hair department had asked all girls to have their hair back, so I had mine in a pony tail, but they decided to give me a French braid with the end tucked up into it.  I enjoyed watching Eric McCormack act with Rachael Leigh Cook and was surprised when one of my favorite actors of Party of Five showed up on the set Scott Wolf.  All in all it was a great day, good food, good company.  I wrapped out by 3pm, beating my family home by a few minutes.  Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures arrived from Netflix.  Ed and I began the documentary of the legendary filmmaker's life.  While I have seen many of Kubrick's films in the distant past, his documentary inspired me to want to check out others I had not seen as well as revisiting ones I had.  We were planning to go to the exhibit of Kubrick at the LACMA in a few weeks and to appreciate it more, I wanted to be refreshed on one of my favorite writer/directors.