Settling In

Friday night's small get together was lovely. It was nice to see the few faces who were unable to attend the surprise party the week before. Jay n' Cheryl, Ray, Jeremy, Laura and Michelle n' Richard all showed up for a beer. Nick also made a two second appearance on his way to the wine festival to drop off a "Mayer" award. (Which looks remarkably similar to a Ken doll painted gold, on a little black stand.) His clever write up read:

A.F.F.J.M.M.S. Award - For Best Chance! 

...that Jim & Mel's friends and family will ever get to know real movie stars

Background Info: The AFFJMMS awards were founded in 2010 when their friends wanted to wish Jim and Mel good luck on their movie, but were short on time and money. The statue was made on a shoe-string budget - literally! One of their friends had some spare change in his pocket and was going to buy some shoelaces. But, once he saw all those glittering treasures of the dollar store he knew it had to be. 

Like the 'Oscar' the AFFJMMS Award has acquired a catchy nickname - the 'Mayer'. Why Mayer? Well, like every hotdog needs a bun, Oscar and Mayer belong together. So, place this Mayer in your display case and, through fate and destiny of the universe, an Oscar will be attracted to join him. 

Yes, admittedly, the quality of the Mayer statuette can be called into question. One might even say he looks like a poorly painted Ken doll glued to a salt shaker... and that is because he is. However unattractive, this statuette is a symbol of your family's and friends' faith in your talents to be successful with this movie - however that success is defined. We wish you the best of luck - now get out there and 'break a leg'!... but, be careful with Mayer, his leg really will break at the slightest touch. 

Association of Friends and Family for Jim and Mel's Movie Success

So. Awesome. :)

After our little evening at Brandt's, Jay, Cheryl, Ray and Jim n' I loitered in our apartment building parking lot talking for a while, when we noticed an owl perched on top of a van nearby. Even though this is kind of irrelevant to the rest of my post, I wanted to mention it because I thought it was pretty cool. I've only ever seen plastic owls in our neighbourhood before.

Anyhow, the next morning, we planned to leave no later than 11:00, but as suspected, we hit the road closer to 2:00. Jay, Cheryl n' Libby needed to go to Van for another eye appointment, so the timing worked perfectly, as they were able to load up everything that we couldn't fit in our wee Hyundai. 

We opted not to drug les chats for the journey, but instead sprayed the car and cages with Feliway, which is essentially a happy cat pheromone spray. It's supposed to trick the cats into thinking that they're in a familiar, comfortable environment.  

I was super impressed with how mellow Tuna was. She mewed twice when we first put her cage in the car, but then was totally quiet the entire way. She's usually the noisy one, so that was definitely a surprise. As for Bemmy, he was very nervous. He's usually the super easy-going one, but instead he was anxiously panting and meowing. So after two or three blocks, we pulled over and let him out of his cage. He paced back n' forth between the back and front seats and continued to meow and pant for about another hour, hissing twice when he looked up at the sun. I don't think we've ever heard him hiss before, so we found this kind of funny. What a strange thing to tick him off! Eventually he settled down, and the next three hours were a breeze. 

When we finally made it to our cozy new home in Maple Ridge, the kittens found their respective hiding places. It's amazing the tight spaces they can squeeze themselves into when they're freaked out of their little minds! After about an hour or two, Emmy was rolling around on the floor and back to his usual self. However, Luna took a bit longer. It wasn't until last night when she joined us on the sofa for a good long petting (about 5+ minutes), which isn't always like her as she's not a very skilled cuddler. Then she happily purred her fuzzy face off as she finally explored her new digs with much less trepidation. 

As I mentioned before, our neighbours upstairs are my cousin A.J., my cousin-in-law Kerry, their cute lil' 3 year old Abby (who will be having her "other birthday" next weekend), and their 11 year old South Korean border, Julia. 

I think it's really cool how things in life fall together... Going on a tangent here, seven years ago, my first B.C. gig was waitressing at a blues bar called the Blue Gator. I would send out update emails to friends n' family now n' then to let them know how my new life was going on the other side of the country. One day I received an email that said, "You sound bored. ~a.j." Attached was a job posting. I hadn't seen A.J. in about ten years and would only receive a group email from him maybe once a year. So needless to say, his letter was pretty random. I knew A.J. worked in radio, but had no idea that he was also a writer, and was actually looking for a new job himself. 

The marketing copywriting position he sent to me was posted by a company called Bridges. I applied, but later learned that the new position had been temporarily nixed, so no one was hired. Two months later, again from out of the blue, A.J. sent me a second job posting. Again for Bridges. Again I applied. This time they hired someone. :)

On my first day, as I was toured around the office, I met a boy who drew cartoons. I guess I could sum it up by saying that the rest is history, but instead I'm gonna go on a tangent within a tangent, by adding that we didn't start dating right away -- I did have a boyfriend after all! But only a couple months after I started this new job, I awoke to a very bad dream that sat in the pit of my stomach for two days. When my then-boyfriend got home from work one evening, I began drilling him with a lightning round of questions. As suspected, I found the ammo I needed to kick him out. 

About a month or so later, I started hanging out with this cute artist co-worker just as friends. The same week we started hanging out, my grandfather passed away, who had always been the most important person in my life. And well, maybe it's just me, but I find all those little details very timely and interesting - especially since Jim shares many of grandpa's same qualities and quirks. ;)  

ANYWAY, now here we are about to enter this exciting new chapter together, and by incredible luck and coincidence, A.J. and Kerry (who have obviously since moved out west) have generously offered us a place to stay right next to the community where we'll be shooting our movie.

Pretty amazing stuff, huh? At least I think so....

So, now we're here and all unpacked, and despite a minor snag with the internet connection to Jim's PC, everything is very cozy n' peachy.

Early this morning before the crack of dawn, Jim left for our new production office at the movie studio in Burnaby. There was no point in me going, since Jim, TC and our location and set design guys are going to be on the road all day scouting locations. Jim wanted me to come along, but I didn't feel it was my place. Plus, I have blogging to catch up on. ;)

This next description will have no meaning to you non-Bridges folks, so please bear with me.... Jim reported back that our space is about as big as Bridges' old office, with an open area in the middle for meetings, surrounded by ten private offices about the size of the corner executive rooms. (So like Ross n' Andrew's old offices.) Apparently one of them is for me, since TC asked Jim if I'd be interested in being his assistant. They figured it made more sense than hiring a stranger. Although no one has actually come right out and asked me yet.... so in my mind, nothing has actually been confirmed. Also, I don't know why Jim n' I wouldn't just share an office? If I'm his assistant, why do I need to waste precious office space sitting in a separate room? Anyhow, I guess I'll see for myself when I go down there - there's a chance that might change. 

Anyhow, it's after noon and I'm still sitting here in my jammies, so I should really grab a shower and get on with my day, painting, exploring, and whatnot.

Just wanted to get you all up to date. :)