It didn’t seem like a good idea to me when the producer told me that he planned on making a reality TV show about a film crew making a documentary on the NFL mascots. However, I hadn’t worked in about 3 or 4 weeks and my landlords/ roommates were wondering when I would be paying LAST month’s rent, so I figured I could do worse than an all expenses paid trip to Jacksonville the week of the Superbowl and $600 to boot.
After 2 full days of running around Jacksonville, it became really apparent that this whole project was an exercise in futility. Our last location before the DP and I were to be sent home (we refused to camp out in the van for the remainder of the shoot days) was this media party at some golf course called “Saw Grass. “ The DP was grabbing pictures of the mascots teeing off from the 17th tee box when I realized that I had seen this place on TV before. Eventually the DP and I got totally fed up with the whole thing. He handed his camera off to one of the production assistants (the producer’s nephew who was working for free) to do some shooting and we made a break for the bar.
It was my last night in a city that was 1500 miles from my home, I was at a party with lots of free top shelf booze and beautiful women, and I have to admit I did not have the purest intentions in mind. But as usual, when I have less than pure intentions in mind my ability to “close the deal,” --who am I kidding, my ability to even get a woman to engage in a two way conversation with me much less “close the deal”—was extremely weak at best. Eventually I gave up, enjoyed the free booze, gourmet food and Hootie and the Blowfish playing live until the crew was ready to head back to the hotel. Just as we were about to leave I looked up and saw this really cute woman laughing with her friends just a few feet away. I decided that if I could accomplish only one thing that night, I would be doing well to leave this woman knowing that she has a beautiful smile. So I walked up, excused myself , said my peace and began to walk away. She stopped me, asked who I was, struck up a conversation and asked me to join her and her friends for dancing.
I FREAKED. If there’s one thing the world (much less this cute little lady) does not need is to see more of me trying to dance. “Uhhhh…. I have an early flight back to Denver tomorrow,” was all I could think of to say. She handed me her card and we parted ways. Nothing could have prepared me for the ration of sh— that I would have to tolerate from the rest of the crew or from my family after I got home. “You said WHAT?!?!?” said my sister in law, knowing how badly I wanted to meet someone, get married and start a family.
At least I still had her business card. We would exchange a few emails and then phone calls and, well… here we are today. Funny thing is, that was the day before my birthday. It turned out to be the best birthday present EVER!
After 2 full days of running around Jacksonville, it became really apparent that this whole project was an exercise in futility. Our last location before the DP and I were to be sent home (we refused to camp out in the van for the remainder of the shoot days) was this media party at some golf course called “Saw Grass. “ The DP was grabbing pictures of the mascots teeing off from the 17th tee box when I realized that I had seen this place on TV before. Eventually the DP and I got totally fed up with the whole thing. He handed his camera off to one of the production assistants (the producer’s nephew who was working for free) to do some shooting and we made a break for the bar.
It was my last night in a city that was 1500 miles from my home, I was at a party with lots of free top shelf booze and beautiful women, and I have to admit I did not have the purest intentions in mind. But as usual, when I have less than pure intentions in mind my ability to “close the deal,” --who am I kidding, my ability to even get a woman to engage in a two way conversation with me much less “close the deal”—was extremely weak at best. Eventually I gave up, enjoyed the free booze, gourmet food and Hootie and the Blowfish playing live until the crew was ready to head back to the hotel. Just as we were about to leave I looked up and saw this really cute woman laughing with her friends just a few feet away. I decided that if I could accomplish only one thing that night, I would be doing well to leave this woman knowing that she has a beautiful smile. So I walked up, excused myself , said my peace and began to walk away. She stopped me, asked who I was, struck up a conversation and asked me to join her and her friends for dancing.
I FREAKED. If there’s one thing the world (much less this cute little lady) does not need is to see more of me trying to dance. “Uhhhh…. I have an early flight back to Denver tomorrow,” was all I could think of to say. She handed me her card and we parted ways. Nothing could have prepared me for the ration of sh— that I would have to tolerate from the rest of the crew or from my family after I got home. “You said WHAT?!?!?” said my sister in law, knowing how badly I wanted to meet someone, get married and start a family.
At least I still had her business card. We would exchange a few emails and then phone calls and, well… here we are today. Funny thing is, that was the day before my birthday. It turned out to be the best birthday present EVER!
