Talk to my agent

I got home from work on Monday, and my daughter was in my husband's office. By the hushed tones and unintelligible words, I could tell they were talking shop. I smiled a little smile, happy that they have that time to geek out together. It's great to see Kayleigh growing into a capable, curious young woman.

Tuesday found me at a student leader retreat at a sleazy park. The less said publicly about the environment the better. The retreat was OK. I learned a lot, actually. I wasn't happy to learn some of it, though. For instance, one young student leader said, "Like, what is The Clarion? I see it around, and I don't know what it is. Why would I even want to read it?"

I said, "Pick it up!" I didn't smack her.

Then a confirmed rabble-rouser started in: "You know what the problem with The Clarion is?" and he spouted off for a good, long time. Such emotion, such vehemence, such scorn.

I do have my job cut out for me.

Wednesday was decidedly more pleasant, although when the day started, I worried. I looked in the mirror, and the bags under my eyes were even bigger and darker than usual. Just beyond those giant bags, I was green. I thought, "Great. I look completely hungover. At least if I were hungover, I'd've had the pleasure of getting myself into that condition. This is not how I want to appear on film."

Yes, Wednesday was my day to film the New Student Daze video. It will run as a loop in the theater, apparently, welcoming new students to school and telling them what they'll be doing that day to get them ready for the first day of class and beyond.

Did I really want to appear before thousands of students looking like I major in recreational drug use? Not especially. And especially not especially since I wasn't going to get paid. [Have fun with the syntax on that one, folks.]

Add to that, my right contact lens wouldn't stay in place, and my pants have shrunk by about 12 pounds since school started last year. Ah, well. Imagine the demographic we'd reach by my appearance.

After a slow start to the morning, we got filming underway. There were five of us student actors. The Student Life staff appeared in one shot, too. We had trouble with our lines, and the teleprompter was so slow that none of us could actually speak that slowly. So we worked around longer lines by changing the script, handing off lines to other actors, and using cut-scenes. There was a lot of ambient noise and general busyness in the school, so it took a long time to film. We were all over that school and even at the bus stop.

I was the narrator. I originally expressed interest in that part because I thought I could do a voiceover and not actually subject the public to my face. I also thought that since I have a rather monotonous vocal quality (soothing, it's politely been called), people would expect a boring narration, and I'd be perfect. Ah, but I hadn't looked at the script carefully.

We all did a fine job, I think. Major kudos to Penny and Walter, though. Great work - they should do this sort of thing for money.

As for me, well - no autographs, please.

Now - no more bitching that I haven't updated my blog in a week! I'm trying....