Saturday: Girls Just Want to Have Fun

This has been an amazing week. I got a call last Saturday and was asked if I could fly to Tampa FL to do a photo shoot on the following Tuesday. What did I say? YES! Just send me a ticket but make it after 10 AM. I don't do much in the mornings except my morning muse and write. Kind of hard to get these old bones moving before 9 except for my fingers on the keyboard and holding my coffee cup.

The Adventure Begins

So I go to the airport and check in only to find my flight has been changed so I walk to another airline counter. We change flights in Charlotte NC which I thought nice, a great airport. Then I find out I am leaving in less than half an hour at a gate about a gazillion miles away. I walk and slightly run and think I am going to fall down on the ground in pain but I make it. On the plane I wait for the service cart 'cause by then I need a bloody mary. I am picked up at the airport by Jeff and I am so jonesing for a cigarette and I say to Jeff: Can we stop by a convenience store I need a lighter. (Those stupid new regulations won't let you take a lighter on an airplane in case we are planning on taking out some extreme terrorists.) Jeff smiles and I liked him immediately, and said: "I smoke." And I light up and enjoy the view of the Tampa Bay as we drive across the bridge to the office.

The Mother Myriam Show

It was a hoot being treated like a celebrity. Everyone is just as nice as can be and Jeff is introducing me as Mother Myriam. That was a first, but I am sure it will not be a last. The Myriam Show had begun.




I met the direct of the shoot, my wardrobe person, the graphic artist who will be incorporating my pictures into the website, and the list goes on and on. Folks from the call center were coming over to meet me.





Janet had had a dream that when I arrived they would not like my wardrobe and would have to go out and buy new stuff. So I was prepared and the director and wardrobe person was going through what I brought with me and was saying well I am not sure this will work. Maybe we could go shopping. And so it went on and on as they took stuff out of my back pack and hung it up. (BTW remind me next time to just check my luggage... things sure get wrinkled and they are heavy.) Eventually they made up their minds as I amused myself talking to all the folks who make this growing enterprise come to life.





Jeff showed me some ads that had already been run and explained that I had tested well and that everyone was really pleased. I guess that is why the spent all this money to bring little old me (and I do mean old) down to Florida to do the star treatment photography session.

Time Out

Jeff took me to the Hilton where I had a great suite. I fixed a drink and sat down to relax. This fancy new TV threw me off a bit. I tried to turn on some music and got charged for 120 minutes of CDs playing for $9.99. I was shocked and confused as to how I had done that. Then Jeff and Christine showed up to take me to dinner which was absolutely amazing. And back to bed early so I would be rested the next day for the session.

OUCH

2 AM I wake up in absolute pain. My left foot is seizing up like an eagle talon. I no longer get it relaxed and my right foot seizes up like an raptor talon. I am aching from the end of my toes to the top of my head. I realized I must have had muscles in my head I hadn't used in awhile. I walk. I massage. I take a hot bath. I find an aspirin. I make coffee so the aspirin will work better which makes me wide awake. And I watch some stupid movie about a Beverly Hills Girl Scout troupe or something with the blond from Cheers (it actually was pretty funny). I set the alarm on my cell phone so maybe if I am lucky enough to fall asleep I won't miss my time with Jeff pick up at 9:40 AM. Did I sleep? NO! I finally wander downstairs at 7 and have some breakfast. At 8 something I call Jeff and say I am bored and I can't sleep; come and get me.





As we drive to the office, Jeff and I are talking business. It seems that my mind when it can't sleep gets invaded by my creative muse. I must say that my sleepless in Clearwater phase payed off as he loved the ideas... but more of that later.

The Photo Shoot

A make-up stylist! A hair-stylist! A wardrobe person! A director! A photographer! A go-fer!

OH MY GODDESS!

All of these people for just some pictures. My mind is going into the zone to be sure. Now for the joke (smiling at Janet) after all their complaining about the wardrobe, we end of up using exactly what I had brought and it worked perfectly. Five costume changes. What seemed like a thousand snaps of the camera and me telling jokes, reading palms, and generally being amused and three hours have passed. Project coordinators and other big wigs are coming in to look at the pictures on a monitor as the process goes on. I like her like this. That looks good. Try this. Try that. Each change of this or that and the make-up and hair people come in to touch me up. By the last hour I am in excrutiating pain but the show must go on so I say I have an idea... let's use that chair over there for a prop. The best pictures of the day came when I curled up on that chair in my black dress and pearls and finished the second phase of the Mother Myriam Show.

Show me the food!

I am starving. I need food and drink. I am in pain.

I check my email only 300 in the last 24 hours so that was light but no time to answer. Only time to send Skye an email about the closing of the show (grin). But, Jeff wants to consult. I end up with a bigger contract to be editor of the monthly magazine, create some new interactive features including a text messaging feature, and get a contract for some more articles and so forth. It was a profitable day. But I am still hungry. Kelly (an Aquarian and true jewel) rescues me and takes me to a Greek restaurant for this great sandwich of feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and caviar - yummy!

Rescue ME!

I finally get Skye on my cell phone and she wants to know where I am and how to pick me up. I haven't got a clue so I have to wander through this huge building looking for Kelly to be able to tell Skye where to find me. I call Skye and it appears my rescue is on the way. (BTW don't you love those roaming charges? NOT!) Skye says she will be there in 15 or 20 minutes so I do my farewells and go outside to wait for her.





The cell rings! It is Skye. Now where are you again? What is the number on that building. I wander into the sun and look up and see the address and tell her. 10 minutes later the cell is ringing again. Now where are you? I explain again. Anyway it takes her 12 times driving by the place to find it and I am having a heat stroke. She calls again and I say it is next to the Jewish Center of some sort or another. She shows up I am as grumpy as Mark when he misses lunch. I sound like a total drama queen. I am dying. I am going to have a heart attack. I am having a heat stroke. She hugs me and loads me into her very air conditioned car and she heads to the other side of this tropical hell and I collapse on her sofa.

Ah! Sleep!

I finally recover and return to somewhat of a bit of normal. We had a great dinner and visited and I was so pleased to spend time with such a spiritual loving person. She is the perfect Jewish mother and I needed one for Mother Myriam by the time she rescued me.

The End of the Adventure

I arrive at the airport early so Skye can go to work. I get to sit up on a deck and eat a bagel, smoke a ciggie and spill coffee on my pink dress. I arrive in Charlotte and decide no more crampy feet for me and catch a ride on the shuttle to the other end of the airport. Luckily all flights had been delayed and I board with 2 minutes to spare before take off. The last leg of my homeward journey and I am only twenty minutes late. Mark gets me a burger and some chili and I get home and before I collapse onto my bed, Avis has to do her doggie dance of joy. I am to tired to even share the adventure story till the next day.

The Day After

It is 1 AM the day after and I am awake. I make some coffee, create my morning muse, and then work till 11 AM kicking out the work that was contracted. All and all it was an exciting adventure. Who knew that at the age of 61 and 1/2 I would be on the way to celebrity. Models should be 18 with no bags under their eyes. I have to say the one thing that I learned is that when I am wealthy I am going to have my own personal make-up artist and stylist.

Until tomorrow, keep being amused my the quirks of life.