It seemed like I blinked and the panda alarm was harassing me awake. My mom was to drive me there, but since she didn't know where to go, my dad rode along to give directions. My dad is always the last one out of the house, while my mom sits in the car growing impatient. Their chemistry is like an older sister/younger brother on the irritability scale. I was to be there for 6:30am, but because my mom needed to be at Wal-Mart at the same time, we trekked out early, having me arrive at 5:25am. I step out of the car, and my dad is giving me directions; I've done background work hundreds of times, managed to travel to simple and impossible destinations while in Vancouver, and despite being told by the casting director to enter the front doors upon arrival, dad is telling me to ask 2 strangers wandering the site, then he gets miffed that I "know everything, and am being too stubborn to listen". I'm not allowed to think for myself or know what I'm doing. Crazy ol'coot!

I enter the front doors, pass through another set, when the alarm goes off. I was unfazed and headed for the Extra's Holding Area: a tiny room, packed with long tables and not enough chairs for too many people, a chicken coop. The room slowly filled with people, students out-numbering the teachers, and Leah, The Wrangler in charge of us entered and recognised me. "You look just like your picture" she says. That's just the thing an actor needs to hear, but I think my photo makes me look sleep-deprived and beat-up. I was the third person to sign in, and when I mentioned that I was a union apprentice, she asks me which union voucher am I, the pink or the yellow. "Actually, I'm brown", and we have a good chuckle. 'twas a good'un! The crew out here are less stressed out, fortunately. Not a moment too soon, we're sent to the set to rehearse the scene. The students sit in a circle, in the gym, and a spot is marked for the actor's stand-in. We, the adults playing the teachers, stand around the students, as if they'd dash off and play hokey or something, I don't know what. The room was slightly cold, so most of us were standing with our arms folded. We were sent back to holding, then when we were sent to the set again to shoot, and with our arms crossed, the director thought we looked like guards, so he coupled us up. Cary Lowell, Richard Gere's wife, showed up in a nice blue blouse and dark blue slacks: spiffy! It took me a while to recognise her, and she stepped in the spot her stand-in stood in. Two of the students had only one line to say to her (I'd have killed, I tell ya, killed to have a line in any film/Tv project!) and after the first student saying, "What goes through your mind?" or something like that, she says (playing a blind woman)"It's hard, yada, yada, yada, BLAAAAAAAAAH!" and we're suppose to laugh, but unless someone starts it off, no one bold enough to utter a sound. "Do you all know how to laugh?" the director says sarcastically. Typical belittling. The first director tells us to laugh a little bit after her scream, then bigger after her other punchline about the scotch tape. "So it's a-ha, a-ha-ha!" I say, and the first director laughs, crediting me with giving her the first laugh of the day. S'nice!

So, we're hurded back to holding, signed out and sent home after only a 3 hour day. I'm leaving the grounds, and I realise I've left my bag inside the building! After getting it back, I walk to the nearest bus stop, stranded all by myself, until another young student extra approaches. Another bus wasn't due for another 40 minutes, so we walked to Polo Park, which turns out to be a 35 minute walk, roughly. So I'm chatting with her, and it's going well, but we didn't exchange names until near the end of our trek. It's Jessica; it's a habit of not remembering other extra's names, for you forget them anyway, and you never know who you'll be working with next. We talked about other extra jobs, her noticing my funky hair, and how she was hit by a car a month ago while crossing the street. We parted ways when we got close to the mall, and I roamed around, buying, "Every Woman's Quick & Easy Car Care" book.

As I boarded the bus, these 2 girls got on: the one in front was a black sister who looked into my eyes and smiled, the other was a white androgynous gal, bordering on butch, unaware of me. Mmmmm! My mind lingered, as I imagined the black girl coming back onto the bus to bat her eyes at me, hypnotising me, while I pictured her stretched out on my bed, with her clothes wadded up on my bedroom floor, awaiting me to give her some luvin'. That sounds funnier than it reads. A moment later, the 2 girls got back on the bus and sat near the back. I managed to glance at her, making eye contact with a simple nod, but got no real acknowledgement from her. Whatever, nothing lost.