The Starter Wife (3)

I got lost. I can’t freakin’ believe I got lost, but I did. And not in the conventional, wrong turn kind of way, either. I followed the signs as usual, but at one point there were three production signs, the top two were for a different show and the bottom one was for the one I was on…but they were all pointing to the same driveway and I didn’t see that bottom one in time.

Oh well… I called casting and they helped me get where I was supposed to go. I was only ten minutes late and they weren’t pissed off about it at all.

In fact, I still love this show. The first time I was on was great and so was the second. This third time was no different–well, no different in general, but completely different in practice. Last two times, I was an upscale recovering drug addict. This time, I was a pedestrian with my 1968 Mustang Fastback and it was 1970-something.

I’d dragged a ton of clothes to this gig because, well, I have them, I might as well use them. And for a great change, the costumers loved me.

It was a simple scene, but since there was a flipped car and a bunch of water involved, the set-up was kind of involved. I ended up driving my car to the set before going through hair and make-up.

Since my eyebrows and the front of my hair had been burned off in a small kitchen explosion brought on by team effort stupidity between my husband and I, my hair is a little shorter than usual. When I stopped by the hair trailer, she just sighed and said there wasn’t enough for her to really do anything with it. I just kind of smashed it down and pretended I was Janet from Three’s Company. It’s too short, but I felt the need to try.

Then, in the make-up trailer, the lady started going nuts with me. She drew on eyebrows to hide my stubble and even put fake eyelashes on me to lengthen my burnt lashes. She really had a great time on my eyes and good golly, that’s the best I’ve felt since the explosion. It’s been a little over a week and it just seems to take forever for hair to grow back when you have none. At least the burns on my eyelids, lips and nose are done. They took about five days to heal. Now they’re just a little tender, but no big deal. I just want my facial hair back!

Anyhow, once I was out of there, we sat around in holding for awhile (which was air conditioned…it was getting freakin’ hot and humid outside and we were all thankful for the opportunity to stay cool) before heading to the set. I was saved as a driver and they’d planned on having me drive my Mustang, but it was too loud. Of course. Happens every time.

Instead, I drove one of the other picture cars…through a towering water effect on the first take before they toned it down for the following ones. It was another miserable black vinyl, no air-conditioning car just like my Mustang, so I kinda felt right at home. I just drank a ton of water so I didn’t dehydrate.

Basically, after those four or five takes, we were done, but they were still filming and a few of the other extras worked. I ended up reading a book and/or talking with others there. It wasn’t a bad gig at all. I just wish it wasn’t so hot. That was no fun at all.

Traffic was so bad getting there, that it took me a full two hours. I changed my route on the way home just to change the scenery a little and it took me an hour and a half despite the actual mileage was longer. I’ve certainly learned my lesson!

I got to keep the fake eyelashes as a souvenir and just before actually working, I snapped a picture with my phone. I’m really not supposed to do that, but I was careful not to get anything that’s supposed to be some big secret in the background, so hopefully I won’t get chewed out. I just really wanted to capture the brilliant make-up job I’d been given. It was kind of Twiggy-esque.

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