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Channeling the Goddess of Crazy Bizzy ~ Chapter 11 by Jacqueline Nyahay

November 2013 ~

Friday Ed had to head back into work, but thankfully Zyla had off.  I let her sleep in all morning.  I finished watching Dark Water, which surprisingly got better the last half hour, I liked the circle of psychosis.  Read more of The Autobio of Alice B. Toklas, which was not really an autobio.  I felt like I knew nothing of Alice, but facts of her life, what felt like a very shallow read.  I guess Gertrude Stein had written the book for Alice when Alice could not be bothered.  It mostly sounded like the autobio of Gertrude, except again there was hardly any depth.  I liked hearing about all the time they spent with all the famous artist of the 1920's in France, but it was not what I had thought it would be.  I was looking for a story of how Alice felt in relationship with Gertrude.  This book made Alice life seem sort of depressing sitting on the sidelines of Gertrude's life, her life revolving around Gertrude and whomever she was entertaining.  I was not at the core of this person and wished Alice had taken the time to write the book herself, might have been more insightful.  Zyla worked on her history project all afternoon, then she wanted to see Seed of Chucky, so I watched it with her. 

 

Feliz Dia de Los Muertos!  I woke early to get some errands done.  Ed woke and we watched The Ring.  Zyla woke and joined us for the last half of it.  She continually questioned everything during all the horror movies, asking for explanations to supernatural phenomena.  Supernatural magick is beyond explanation I told her, just be quiet and watch the show!  Zyla worked on her English homework all afternoon, while I went to the library to pick up my books on hold.  The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson, a beautifully historic gothic tale of witchcraft, popery and King James I Protestant rule of England.    A magick novella full of dark horrors and passionate resolve.  I loved it and quickly finished the book before dawn of the next day.  More horror movies filled our evening.  Zyla wanted to see A Nightmare on Elm Street the original.  She barely recognized the young Johnny Depp.  What a perfect classic horror film, from the music to the pace it blended perfectly, grabbing hold of you until the bitter end.  Ed and I started The Woman in Black, only making it through the first half.  Clocks turned back one more extra hour.

 

Sunday was mellow.  Ed and I finished Woman in Black before he had to head into work for his school's open house.  I read more of The Autobio of Alice B. Toklas.  I really loved the chapter on the war.  I felt the labor of love Gertrude gave in sharing this piece of history.  Gertrude and Alice were side by side going through so much together and that Gertrude wrote it all out for Alice made it a touching memoir.  I helped Zyla with the last of her weekend homework, took her to the 5pm Mass where she was scheduled to Alter Serve.  Ed joined us, then came home to grill up tasty steaks.  I was not feeling 100% and opted to go to bed early.

 

Monday I dropped Zyla to school, then came home for a date day with Ed.  He was off from school for Veteran's Day, Zyla would be off the following week.  We did a silent rosary hike up Stough, role-played Iraqi POW (think Homeland) at the top.  For lunch we went to Buca di Beppo at Universal City Walk.  We parked down below at the park and took the tram up.  It showed up at perfect timing for us to ride it up.  I got the same meal as last time, mouth watering Chicken Saltimbocca, while Ed got the Linguine Frutti di Mare.  I tried some of his calamari and mussels, which tasted fishier than when I had them at Kabuki the other night.  Maybe it was just the way the marinara worked with it.  For dessert we split an Italian Crème Cake, ooh la la!  We found the tram waiting to take us back down the mountain and returned home.  Ed and I watched the latest episode of Sean Saves the World.  It was the dancing one, which I had loved the little funny moments of.  I picked up Zyla from school, then came home to make dinner.  I started feeling a really bad sore throat coming on, so it became chicken noodle soup night.  I took some meds and went to bed early.  Ed and Zyla had been fighting off throat infections as well, I hoped it passed swiftly.

 

Tuesday, I was coughing but the sore throat felt better.  I downed a bunch of Vitamin C with the rest of my family.  I drove down to see my doctor, then slept the rest of the morning into the afternoon.  Zyla had her last practice day before her big competition of Mock Trial at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown L.A. the next evening.  I finished reading the Autobio of Alice, and started reading Jeanette Winterson's memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal

 

Wednesday, I took some cough meds that made me really drowsy and ended up sleeping all morning.  I sobered off of them, so I could pick up Zyla and take her downtown L.A. to her competition for Mock Trial.  My sweet little Defense Attorney was ready and prepared to get her client Rae Concha off of the murder and drug selling charges.  On the way down I told her about how my agent from Florida had emailed me saying that Charlie Band was looking for me for a movie he was directing and producing.  I sent him a message to his Facebook account through Ed's Facebook.  He called me and offered me a role in his next movie entitled "Trophy Heads" starring six lovely scream queens from the 80's and 90's who had all starred in some of his movies at one time.  We would be playing ourselves.  Charlie explained it would be more of a webisode type thing, because he was not releasing it to DVD, only streaming it on his company website.  I had never had the pleasure to work with my friend Brinke Stevens in a movie, as well as Michele Bauer whom I loved in the Zalman King film Shame, Shame, Shame that I had auditioned for, and Denise Duff, whom I had met at the Full Moon Studios in Hollywood when we did the Entertainment Tonight piece and put our hands in cement to sell at the charity auction.  It sounded fun, I accepted.  I was honored to be part of this historic horror royalty ensemble.  Zyla wanted to know when she could see these old 90's movies I had been in, I did not give her a definite answer.  We ate at the Burger King down the street from the courthouse along with a bunch of her Mock Trial teammates.  Kids Management texted with a job for Zyla on New Girl for Thursday, but I did not know yet if I would be working at SSW, so I could not accept it for her.  We arrived at the courthouse and after checking in through security wandered all over the place until we found our Principal who directed us to the correct courtroom the children would perform in.  Ed joined us and got permission to film the court proceedings.  It was a tough case and the Defense Team was not able to get their client off.  Zyla did win Most Valuable Participant of the Mock Trial People vs. Concha!  Zyla was upset they had not gotten their client off his charges, but I told her, sometimes you do and sometimes you don't but the lawyer still gets paid no matter what.  She took what she learned from the judge's notes and looked forward to doing it again next year.  The team they were up against, who were the Prosecution, had Mock Trial as a daily class at school run by two professional lawyers, so they had a bit of an advantage over Zyla's school who only did it as an after school thing once a week.

 

Thursday, I was not working and headed into Zyla's school to earn some service hours working in the library.  Drama ensued but I could do nothing about it.  Since it had been almost a month since I had been in there, a few of the children had way too many books out and I had to correct the matter.  On top of that they returned so many books that it took me forever just to check them all in and figure out who could check out more.  One child threw a fit that he was not allowed to check out any more books.  He refused to leave the library without more books, clutching them to his chest and kicking his feet on the couch.  This lasted almost the entire hour 3rd grade was in there.  Finally my friend Jodi showed up to help and talked to him, convincing him to go back to class and get the books next time.  She helped shelve the 100's of books checked in while 4th grade came in to check out books.  I finally got a break to help her shelve some of the books as well, getting our job done only 15 minutes past scheduled time.  I went home and fell asleep, still not feeling 100% from my flu symptoms.  I missed a call from Todd the 2nd AD at SSW wanting me to rush call in at noon to play a featured extra role for the run thru.  I felt bad, but did not get the message until I woke up at 2pm, which was too late to go in.  I emailed Joe and let them know what had happened.  They understood and it was all ok.  I had also missed a call from Charlie Band.  He wanted to make sure I had gotten his emails and invited me to dinner with my co-stars the following weekend.  I got a text from Kids Management who wanted Zyla to work on Bad Teacher for Friday, but she had too many things going on and Ed and I both were working.  I got Zyla from school and brought her home to get ready for dance class.  Ed stayed after school to work on his Halloween music video he had shot with the kids, so we did not do The Blue Room, not that I was up for it since I was still feeling ill.  I read more of Jeanette's memoir while Zyla danced, then we came home for dinner and watched Curse of Chucky.  Zyla did not like it as much as the previous two she had seen and did not finish watching the last 30 minutes of it.  She had wanted to see Jennifer Tilly who was only in it at the very end for a couple quick scenes.  I liked it.  It was not a continuation of the last Seed of Chucky movie, but veered off into an alternate possibly of what could have been after the third installment of the series. 

 

Friday, I took Zyla to school at 6:45am to attend a special field trip downtown L.A. for the 5th Annual Cyber Crime Prevention Symposium she had been invited to attend.  The Principal had only asked six students to go out of the entire school.  I had an early call time, so I just headed into the stages after dropping her off.  I read more of Jeanette's memoir, which I really loved.  She had a similar upbringing to me, in that her mom was so over the top religious.  Jeanette had to go through an exorcism when her mom found out she was gay.  I found the chapter about her immersing herself in books really cool, especially when she talked about reading The Autobio of Alice B. Tolkas which I had just finished reading!   On set, I took notes on my girl Megan and for Stacy Keach who was again playing Max's dad Lee.  I was asked to play the featured extra role of the Polish maid who lets Sean and Max into Lee's hotel room for the network run thru.  It was a quick morning.  Everything went smooth.  The ratings for the previous night came in and the episode had done a 1.7!  This was way up compared to all the other episodes and everyone was happy about that.  We still had to wait on adjustments to see whether we would get any back episodes added.  Sean wanted 150 episodes, he was feeling ambitious.  Elaine told me my girl Megan Hilty had gotten married in Vegas over the weekend.  I couldn't believe it I had not known she was even engaged.  It turned out she skipped that part, I was happy for her.  Lunch was not until after the run thru at 1pm, but we finished early and they wrapped us out before we could eat anything.  I went home to relax and start my weekend.  I check online later and found the show had been adjusted down to 1.4, which was still great, almost a million more people watching.  Kids Management called wanting Zyla on Parenthood for Monday.  I wished she could go, but Ed and I were both working.  Ed was running late picking up Zyla from school, so I went to meet her.  She was due to return from her field trip at 3:30pm, but traffic was keeping everyone behind schedule.  Ed had all of Zyla's change of clothes and present for her friend Renzo's Birthday Party out in Valencia.  Zyla arrived to the school and got in my car, then waited another 15 minutes for her dad to arrive to take her to the party.  I went back home to chill, waiting for Ed to join me in some adults only entertainment.  He made record time getting Zyla to the party and arrived back home within the hour.  Flew to the lunar nooner and back before Renzo's mom brought Zyla home.  Ed and I ordered up Dino's for dinner, pizza, pasta and jalapeno dippers that were so incredibly good. 

Saturday I got up early getting my usual errands done.  We all sat down to watch the latest episode of SSW that had done so well.  No wonder it was episode ‘Sean Comes Clean' my favorite episode by far of the season.  Co-starring Bobby Lee as Mr. Chin, this episode was sooooo funny, I could not stop laughing.  I wish every episode were this good.  NBC announced that we got a Back 5.  I was thrilled with the news.  Netflix finally got Lovelace to us after the first disk was lost in the mail.  I enjoyed Amanda Seyfried's performance very much.  It was really well done by an A-list cast and gave a beautiful tribute to the woman behind Deep Throat. 

 

Sunday, Ed had to go film rehearsals for a movie he was working on with Yossi, so Zyla and I had Porto's croissant sandwiches for breakfast and brought home tasty pastries.  She worked on her essay and studied for tests while I read and finished Jeanette's memoir.  I loved her writing, never boring.  Drawn into her quest of self-discovery, finding her birth mom and filling in the gaps of her life, I was proud of the work she had done and looked forward to reading her debut novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.  Later that night, Ed and I watched an episode of The L Word and Bette (Jennifer Beals) was giving a lecture on art and mentioned Jeanette Winterson!  Another affirmation of my synced up life. 

 

Monday, I still had a lingering cough as I headed into set.  I transferred my notes to the new shoot script before heading over to Stage 35 for our pre-shoots in the restaurant.  Yu brought her wife Audrey over to say hi to me.  It was Audrey's first day on set doing BG!  Yu wanted me to help show her the ropes.  I was happy her first day could be on such an amazing set, with great crew and love in the air.  The announcement was officially made that we got the Back 5.  Everyone cheered when Sean came into set.  The morning felt like it went by quickly even though we were a little behind schedule.  When we moved back to Stage 41, we had a few more pre-shoots there, of a scene with Sean and Max in the closet of Max's dad Lee's hotel room.  It was really funny watching their facial expressions on the monitors, I was constantly laughing.  I talked with Audrey a lot during our down time about call in services and getting vouchers.  She had just left the corporate world to join the creative and was not sure where her nitch would be, but exploring options.  For our walk away lunch pizza was served and a coffee truck came.  Alex and I both got Rowdy Zebra's, an ice blended double espresso drink with chocolate and vanilla, yummy.  I had quit drinking coffee in the summer and forgot how amazing it feels.  Elaine said I seemed in a much better talkative mood on my coffee high.  After lunch we blocked out all the scenes for camera, then Matt and I had to stay after with Patti's crew to help figure out lighting on a new scene that had been added.  I still got wrapped by 6pm and made it home in time to join my family at Mimi's for dinner.  They had changed up the entire menu and no longer served what I usually used to get.  I went for the Saint-Malo Pasta, a linguini dish with mussels.  Zyla wanted half my mussels for her pasta dish, so I gave her some.  The Mirassou Pinot Noir was smooth and tasty complimenting my dish beautifully. 

 

Shownight #10!!  I dropped Zyla to school, then hurried home to get ready for set.  All was right with the world at SSW.  The music was playing and our shownight hot breakfast restored.  I sat down and correlated the new pages into my script then ate some eggs and hash browns.  Patti needed Matt and I to help with lighting the last scene that we had helped with the night before.  The camera refresh of all the scenes went well and we broke for walk away lunch at 2pm.  I went home to relax with some vino.  Ed joined me for a lunar nooner before I had to head back into set.  I read the new script, which had around seven guest stars.  I assumed we would all be called in for Thursday.  Matt got wrapped early to join his wife, Diana, at her party to celebrate her episode of NCIS LA that she had directed.  I read a bit from Oranges, talked with the other stand ins, ate some Sharkey's that had been brought in.  Ed's graduate student from Crespi, Jordan was in the audience section and came to visit me in the AD Office.  He talked about how crazy working with Ed and Yossi was the previous weekend.  He was 1st ADing their current movie project.  Before I knew it the night was over by 10pm.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the first disk of Dexter Season 8 waiting for me.  Ed and I watched the first episode of this final season.

 

On my day off I went for a rosary hike up Stough saying my affirmations.  The sun came out hot for mid November, I had to take my jacket off.  I could not believe how warm it was, considering a lot of the country had gotten an early snowfall.  I read for a bit from Oranges, then took a long nap.  I picked up Zyla from Mock Trial practice after school before showering for the evening.  We were meeting our friend Marco who was in town on business.  Zyla got most of her homework done before we headed into Hollywood.  Dinner at the Rainbow Room, now there is a place that never changes, a steady constant on Sunset.  The last time we had been was about a decade ago, Zyla was just a little thing, who had curiously stared at Vince Neil in the booth beside us.  We ended up getting seated in the same booth we had the previous time.  People watching is always fun here as the rockers do come out.  This time Zyla spotted Christophe Liglet of SKINMASK.  His band was playing next door so he came made up in all his rocker make-up.  We said our good-byes to Marco who was planning to return in December with his adorable son Leo.  We encouraged him to move here and leave the harsh craziness of New York. When we got home, Ed and I watched another Dexter episode.  I liked the unpredictability of Deborah's character and how the murders and truth of Dexter were affecting her stability on life.  Joe called saying Elaine could not make it in to set and wanted to know if I could replace her for tomorrow.  I was happy to be working again, playing a guest star role with lines for the network run thru! 

 

Thursday, I took Zyla to school really early, so she could get a parking pass for Diann who was taking her to the courthouse downtown along with a few other kids.  It was the last day of competition for her Mock Trial class.  She would not be performing, but cheering on the Prosecution side of her team.  I finished getting ready and headed into Uni for another day of fun at SSW.  I would be reading the lines for the character Abby who was not cast yet.  It was a fun scene involving the entire cast in a conference room.  I found out my girl Megan would be out of town on Friday and at first Joe told me to take notes so I could run all her scenes.  Later I was told that Victor, the creator of the show, wanted one of his favorite writers to come run all Megan's lines in the scenes on Friday for the run thru.  Joe found this odd, especially considering the director had asked for me to do it and this writer girl was not watching the rehearsals and would have no clue what to do.  Eventually Victor had the writer come down to watch rehearsals over half way through the day.  I thought tomorrow would be interesting to see how well she could pull it off.  After the run thru I went home to relax.  Zyla was downtown at the courthouse, Ed was working with an actress for his horror movie Sin Her Scared.  I read a bit from Oranges then took a little nap.  Everyone got home around 8pm.  Zyla had passionate stories of what had happened in court.  She had to finish her homework, while Ed and I watched another Dexter.  My bonus came from SSW.  The stand ins had been told two weeks ago that a bonus had been approved for us, then it never went through.  We did not know if it was to be a parting gift if the show did not get any back episodes, then thought maybe it was cancelled when we did get the Back 5.  Thankfully it all worked out. 

 

Friday morning I woke to chilly weather.  It looked like it might rain.  It had been so hot lately, I forgot it was November.  I drove Zyla to school, then came home to get ready for set.  I transferred my notes from the day before into the latest script and watched Jessica, who was actually Victor's assistant, run all of Megan's lines for the rehearsals and run thru.  She did a decent job, but I think she tried a little too hard.  She had memorized much of the dialog intimidating the regular actors who were still on book, making them look bad.  She said she did it so she would not let the network down.  I doubt the network cared, she isn't the real actress, just filling in.  She went back to her regular job by days end.  Patti did not need the stand ins for lighting so we were wrapped early.  I picked up Zyla on my way home. 

 

Saturday, I woke early to run errands, then made breakfast before Ed took Zyla to her friend Alessandra's bowling birthday party.  I stayed home to get ready for my dinner with Charlie and the Scream Queens.  Driving under a spooky full moon, I found my way to Ca'Brea easily, and ended up being the first one there.  Charlie had reserved a private party room upstairs in the beautiful Italian restaurant.  His assistant Nakai was there to greet me and offer a mixed drink.  I don't remember what I got but it was some yummy blended martini.  Charlie arrived with his new girlfriend Robin Sydney, an actress in his most current films.  Ry, another assistant arrived as well.  The rest of the Scream Queens poured in one by one, Michelle Baur, Denise Duff, Darcy DeMoss and Brinke Stevens.  So many tasty foods, so much funny conversation.  The Fondi di Carciofi Alla Veneziana appetizer was divine along with shrimp cakes.  Red wine flowed as we devoured the main course a triple treat of Ravioli Alla Zucca Con Salsa alle Noci, Risotto Al Ragu' Di Fenghi Con Erbette Di Bosco and Pennette Con Sofritto Di Verdure, Pomodori, Erbe Aromatiche was amazing.  Viva la Italia!  The evening ended with bites of a few different desserts, Tortino Alla Veneziana, Crema Di Vaniglia, Dolce Ca'Brea and Sorbeti.  Charlie had given each of us a white rose along with a gift, the plush doll Blade from Puppet Master.  We took pictures and said our good byes.  I got home and Zyla thought the doll was for her and immediately took it to make a Vine episode of it walking stalking after her.  A beautiful evening with old friends, I looked forward to making the movie Trophy Heads with them next year. 

 

Sunday Zyla had a huge science project to work on that I helped her with.  She Alter Served at the 1pm Mass.  Ed grilled us up steaks and we all watched more episodes of Glee.  The episodes had taken a dark turn, exploring child abuse and a school shooting.  The season was winding down and with it the memory that these were the last of Cory acting we would see. 

 

Monday, I was back in at SSW early.  The pre-shoots went well, but we fell way behind schedule.  I was happy about all the food, not only did they bring in hot snack before the walk away lunch, but we also got a taco truck!  I ate too much and was stuffed.  Alex told me that her dad was probably going to leave to do the Andy Ackerman show Mulaney with her mom, but that she and I would stay at SSW.  I know her mom Elaine had been concerned that if Alex and I left with Joe to the other show, she did not want to stay by herself at SSW and there were no more stand in spots on the other show.  I was happy to be staying so we could go to the wrap party.  It still felt odd that SSW was taking a month and half off before we shot the Back 5 and the ratings had dropped horribly.  Ed and I watched the current episode and it had its funny moments, but nothing was as funny as the episode with Bobby Lee.  Too bad they all could not be like that.  We wrapped late, about 7pm.  I drove home under the amazingly bright full moon and watched two more episodes of Dexter with Ed before crashing out.

 

Shownight number 11!!  Things were swinging when I arrived to set, music pumping, hot food waiting.  Some random script changes that I correlated into my shoot script.  I sat around most of the morning watching the camera refresh.  All the stand ins were asked to run a scene in the conference room that the 1st team did not feel like doing, since they had pre-shot it yesterday.  The director still wanted a couple extra camera angles which he would get when they ran the scene again in front of the live audience.  We broke for lunch and I went home for our 3-hour break.  Ed brought Zyla home from school and we had just enough time to watch an episode of Dexter before I had to head back into work for the night.  I read the new script, it did not have any guest stars so none of us were called in for Thursday.  The new episode had parrots that spoke, I wondered who would be doing those roles.  Rocky, a crew hand from electric, showed up, visiting set and I hung out with him for a while.  He was thinking of coming back to the show on our Back 5 in January if his doctors said he was healed enough from the shoulder injury.  I read from my latest Jeanette book Written on the Body.  I loved this clever fast paced tale of the many loves and losses of dating lesbians.  Kids Management texted Zyla with a 2-day job on Silicon Valley.  Unfortunately it would be when her grandparents were in town visiting us and since they would not be aloud to set, I felt it unfair to take so much time away from them running Zyla to set.  Zyla agreed with me when I told her about it.  The evening went by quickly, some Zankou Chicken arrived, and before we knew it, we were wrapped.  I arrived home in time to kiss Zyla goodnight and watch another episode of Dexter with Ed.

 

Wednesday, I forgot to eat all day, working on printing up a bunch of stuff for Zyla's science project on plant cells.  She had to create analogies for the different parts and needed pictures to collage onto the project.  In the evening Ed and I watched a bunch of Breaking Bad that were on instant, to get caught up for the last half of the last season being released to DVD the following week. 

 

Thursday, I was not brought into SSW and made it back to Zyla's school library for some service hours.  I was pleasantly surprised that no drama occurred.  The kids seemed much more behaved.  Denise was there to help me out, we had fun catching up.  The weather was moody, with a light rain.  I went home for some intimate one on oneself time before taking a nap.  In the evening Ed and I took Zyla to dance class, then turned north to walk up San Fernando Road.  We opted for Gordon Biersch instead of The Blue Room.  They had tasty drink specials during happy hour.  I enjoyed a rum, strawberry and mint concoction then a spicy bloody mary.  Ed had a martini and a beer.  We leisurely strolled back to Zyla's class, then came home for chili cheese dogs.  Ed and I finished watching the Breaking Bad episodes on instant and were ready for the last half of season 5 which would be out on disk next week. 

 

Friday I had a late morning call of 10:30am, so I took Zyla to school, then came home to get ready for set.  When I arrived to the stages, Matt was already there.  He told me that Todd our 2nd AD had told him that the AD's were leaving the show to do the Mulaney project with Andy and they wanted to take Matt, Michael and me.  I went to talk to Joe, since this was different information than what I had been hearing from Alex and Elaine.  I told him I was available and would go with them, but did not want to take anyone's job and last I heard Elaine was going.  He said Elaine and Alex really loved SSW and wanted to stay there.  When Elaine showed up to set, she told me Joe had said all the girls should stay at SSW.  So again it was different stories from different people and who knew what was actually going to happen.  I would just have to wait and see.  I took notes on my girl, had an easy day, Patti didn't need us so was wrapped out by 3pm. 

 

The weekend went by quickly.  We spent it cleaning the entire house.  Ed's parents were coming to visit for Thanksgiving week.  We moved Roseblood into our room since Ed's mom had a deathly fear of snakes.  We finished watching our Glee and Dexter disks.  I really loved the last season of Dexter, but was sad to see it go. 

 

Monday, I dropped Zyla to school, then headed into the stages.  Todd was there and I told him what Elaine had said.  He said that she was not informed as to what they needed at Mulaney and he wanted me to come with them.  Michael told them he wanted to go too.  I decided not to talk about it with Elaine or Alex because obviously there was some kind of drama going on there.  I just wanted to work, it did not really matter where.  I had an early call time because Patti wanted the stand ins to help with lighting.  But my girl was not in any of the scenes she was lighting, actually Alex girl Sammie/Ellie was, so I just stood in for her since Alex and Elaine had later morning call times.  The day went smooth, we only fell an hour behind, but made it up by days end and I was wrapped by 5pm!  For our walk away lunch the pastrami guy came with the yummy sandwiches.  I got a half and half sub of pastrami and meatballs.  We also got our crew gift, the heavy chocolate brown sweatshirt lined in wool.  It was very warm and cozy.  When I got home, Zyla was just finishing up her homework, then we took Ed's parents out to Granada for some tasty Mexican.

 

Tuesday, shownight number 12!  Would this be the last time I would work at SSW?  It all seemed surreal that it might all be over.  I was excited to see what would happen come January.  The day flew by, I was never used for anything.  I went home on the walk away lunch to relax.  When I returned to the stages, I read for a bit from my newest novel Annabelle by Kathleen Winter.  A story about a child born with both sexes and how the family chose to raise her/him.  Ed took Zyla and his parents into Hollywood to look at stars.  I got home shortly after they did, a little after 10pm.  We all sat down to watch Smash from where we had left off back in September.  It was the episode with special guest star Liza Minnelli who was Ed's mom's favorite. 

 

Thanksgiving week thus commenced.  Zyla and I were on vacation and Ed had a few short hours at work before he could join us.  We prepared for our trip up to Big Bear, then went out for dinner at the Olive Garden toasting to the first day of Hanukkah, L'chaim!  Taking separate cars gave us more room to bring all we thought we would need on the mountain.  I was happy that the snow had cleared and chains were not required.  Crisp cold air awaited us.  We got adjoining rooms with Ed's parents, then headed out to our Thanksgiving feast in the Stillwells Ballroom.  The following day we went to see Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  I loved it, the costumes, locations and of course Jennifer Lawrence made the film.  I looked forward to the next one in the series.  Debbie and her family drove up to meet us getting a room next door to ours.  We had dinner then wandered around The Village during the Tree Lighting Ceremony.  It was so insanely crowded, that Paul and I went back to the hotel bar for drinks while the rest wrestled with shopping through the madness.  On Saturday, Ed, Paul and I went hiking on the Cougar Trail.  The weather was perfect for hiking the 2 miles up to the top where the trail meets up with a portion of the PCT.  I was excited.  We took lots of pictures and made a mini snowman.  Everyone else had gone shopping.  That evening we went to see the original play Christmas in the Mountains performed by CATS at the theatre.  It was a beautiful show, with lots of Christmas carols and the Scrooge story told from a Holcomb Valley perspective.  I did not find it as amazing as previous years shows.  The stage never rotated and the energy was not as intense until the end, but we all enjoyed it.  On our last day in Big Bear we went to Mass to celebrate the first day of Advent.  Ed, Zyla and I all went down the Alpine Slide a few times, before heading to the German restaurant for Sauerbraten.  We made it down the hill quickly and home by 6pm.  A beautiful memorable family trip I would hold in my heart with love.  I was thankful for my many blessings.

 

Continue reading chapter 12 or Channeling the Goddess of Crazy Bizzy.. CLICK HERE!!!

Questions or comments?  Email Jacqueline here at kts@krushtheserpent.com