28 February 2022 Weird Monday

[scenicdesign71]

After dithering for some time, last Thursday I decided to take this week off to work on my two design projects -- Much Ado and a new play called Don't Look Back, about the biblical Lot and his family fleeing Sodom -- both of which I've been letting slide, and it's been making me anxious.  (This past weekend was the second in a row in which I accomplished Precious Little, a slight uptick from my usual Nothing Whatsoever; but with a whole week in which to buckle down and focus, I am gradually picking up speed).

But on Friday my boss asked for volunteers to work on an outdoor location early this morning, 4am to 7am, after which we could clock out and still get paid for a full day.  (To sweeten the deal still further, he said that the six of us who accepted this mission could also leave work early that same day, Friday, although that didn't end up happening due to unforeseen circumstances).

Figuring a small paycheck this week (for an even smaller time commitment) would be better than none at all -- and that this morning's work would likely remain as brief as advertised, since both its brevity and its even-more-ungodly-than-usual start time were determined by the hard deadline of our camera crew's scheduled arrival at 7am to shoot at 8am -- I figured I might as well.

So this morning I left the house at 3:15 am to travel to Mount Vernon, NY and work for three hours on a bitterly-cold street corner (temporarily transforming a bodega exterior into a different-looking bodega exterior, period-correct for 1991 and more downscale), after which four of us went to a diner for breakfast.  By 9:30am I was home and back in bed, feeling fantastically cozy, if a little disoriented.

And now I have the rest of the week off to keep whatever crazy hours I want in order to get these two designs whipped into shape, at least until the weekend when I will try to start easing back into my work schedule for next week.  And then, after about two more weeks of TV work, our second season will wrap and I will take a couple weeks off before looking for other work to tide me over until we resume in June for Season 3.  Hi-ho, the glamorous life.