Month: January 2014

Have you heard of Studio C? It’s a BYU sketch comedy group that does great sketches, which, unlike SNL, are clean and ok for kids to watch.

Although probably not so great for them to watch them NON stop like they tend to watch things.

Anyway, I saw on facebook that they were taking email requests to be part of their live studio audience, so I sent in an email request.

A couple days later I got an email telling me that my email had been selected, and that I could bring my two guests (Ryan and Jenna) to the taping on Friday night at 6:30.

I arranged to take John to my sister’s house so he wouldn’t be alone (Megan and Natalie would be gone to Youth Conference Friday night), and asked Ryan to come home early so we could get over there by 5:00 and stand in line.

We got there about 5:20, actually. A little later than we had planned, but the line wasn’t that long. We got in line with the other 30 or so people in line and were just prepared to be cold for a while. Then the person behind us asked if this was the stand by line or the ticketed line. Oh no, are there more than one line? Turns out it was the stand by line, so we went inside to the ticketed line, and they gave us a number and told us that if there were seats available, we would get in. WHAT? We missed it? Because we stood in the wrong line? Ugh. We group number 3 in this “stand by even though you have tickets” line. It was 5:30.

Dang. But we’ve been in these kind of stand by lines before, and many times have gotten in. We all had books and stuff to read, and the college students in front of us were playing a fun charades game with their phone, so we weren’t bored.

The two groups in front of us got in. We were number 3. We did not get in. The guy told us that there were over 19 thousand requests for tickets for this taping, and that some general authorities were actually in the audience that night. Great. We were bumped by general authorities.

But we still got to watch all the sketches of the night in a different room, where they piped in the live action. It’s kind of like going to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the conference center and being sent to watch it broadcast in the assembly hall. You still get to see the show, but it’s not quite the same.

The cast did come up to our little room and give high fives, answer a few questions, and generally say thanks for watching. It was a fun night.

My neighbor works as a casting director for a company that does informercials. John did a little bit for a product similar to Dream Lights, and John and I were part of a focus group for Flippeez (one of my cub scouts is in the flippeez commercial there. He’s the one in the blue hat.)

Anyway, a lot of people in our ward and neighborhood are often recruited to participate in these experiences. Monday we had a film crew at our house filming for a new type of shovel.

They needed a walk or driveway that wasn’t shoveled. It turned out to be too cold and everything was frozen, but they ended up using our sidewalk anyway. They just shoveled some snow from the grass onto the sidewalk.

The cat wanted to know what was going on, and why would people be putting snow back ON the walk?

They didn’t need me in the shot. They had filmed enough women and needed more men, so my former home teacher was the “actor” for this one.

(I didn’t want to be in the way at all, so I took these pictures from inside the house)
I won’t show the product because it might not be released yet. But it was fun to watch them film him, then have him talk about the product.

I told Ryan about it, and he’s such a skeptic about everything, he said, “Don’t let them pay you in shovels!” I actually wouldn’t mind trying out that shovel. It can’t be worse than the shovels we have.

Then on Wednesday, I went to their studio and was a test subject for a face lift type product.
(It’s similar to this product, but not the same.) I was supposed to not wear much makeup and don’t do my hair fancy. That sounds about like every day for me. I also had to bring a few different bright colored tops and a dress. Oh, and makeup so I could do myself up for the after shots. When I got there, they took me to a dressing room and looked at my clothing choices, and picked out a pink top with a royal blue sweater. I actually would not have put the two together, but I guess on camera the combination looked good.

I had a few minutes before they needed me, so I did manage to get a couple shots of me. This is the BEFORE.

Then it was my turn. They took me into the studio, where I got to sit on a stool and look into a whole bunch of lights. Seriously, I was practically blinded. I smiled and felt awkward but it wasn’t hard.

Then I got to glam it up for the AFTER shots. I put on quite a bit of makeup, and this little device that tightens the skin. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say more about it. When I went back to the studio to film the after, the camera man said, “Oh, you look SO beautiful, and they let me see myself on camera before they filmed my “testimonials”, and I did look pretty good. The hardest part was talking about the product. Don’t move your head too much or you are out of the shot. Don’t look away. Don’t let your eyes wander. Say the name of the product correctly. Look happy. Anyway, I tried. Don’t know how much, if any of that footage they will use, but it was kind of fun.

They they decided they were going to film me actually putting the thing on. That meant they had to bring the camera and lighting into that dressing room where I took the pictures. I wish I had gotten my camera out to show all the lights, the camera, me and three guys in that room. It was pretty tight, and kind of crazy. I had to look in the mirror, NOT look at the camera, hold up my hair, snap in this little thing, all while smiling. Then I had to ADMIRE myself in all my beauty in the mirror. Really? That was difficult for me, but I have done some ACTING, so it was time to ACT. This took FOREVER as he kept having me do this over and over, getting closer and closer for zoom shots. I was there over almost 2 1/2 hours, when originally I had been scheduled for 1 1/2 hours, but he just kept filming. AWKWARD. The funniest was me looking at myself in the mirror, smiling, and admiring my face and how wonderful it was. NOT NATURAL, I tell you. No one does that, but yet, that’s what they show on commercials.

It was fun, and I do get paid a small amount. So, who knows, maybe someday you’ll see me in a commercial.

Daughter, when asked to take the ceramic nativity down to the storage room: “What would you do if I dropped this box?”
Me, aghast: “You mean that nativity that is very precious to me because it was made by my Grandmother?”
Daughter: “She made that? She didn’t make that!”
Me: “She did make that, and she is dead now and I can’t replace it!”
Daughter: “So, would you kill me?”
Me: I would cry.
Daughter: For how long?
Me: Let’s just NOT drop it and NOT find out, ok?

Two weeks without school! Christmas and New Year’s and My birthday all wrapped up in two weeks.

We were quite lazy around here. After the big parties and things, the kids had nowhere specific to go. We also didn’t have anyone come and stay with us this year. Where are my Arizona peeps and why aren’t they here to entertain us? No worries.

Besides watching a LOT of Netflix, playing a lot of video games, and reading a lot, the kids DID play with friends, we went to Boondocks, went to a movie, and even went out to eat. We went downtown to see some of the Christmas decorations, too. I especially wanted the kids to see the window displays at the Grand America Hotel.

We had fun looking at all the windows and checking off our cards to get our treat at the end.

I wrenched my shoulder, so I did a whole lot of hanging around the house, too.

We played games, cooked, ate lots of goodies, had MORE parties, made more goodies, and capped it all off with flu shots.

At one point I MADE the kids go outside and build snowmen. I really did. I’m like the meanest mom EVER (at least that’s what the kids tell me).

We did manage to do some cleaning and organizing, especially Ryan. He fixed the dishwasher right before the break, fixed the back of my Suburban, and fixed his chair that he broke. Handy guy. Since he had about a week off of work, he was determined to clean up his office. Wow! I wish I had gotten that far on my office. I did a lot of filing, got my music ready for next semester, and nearly cleaned off the desk in my office. We cleaned the mudroom floor (What? There is a floor in there?) and filled 3 HUGE garbage bags full of stuff to donate. The kids also went through and got rid of many of their clothes that don’t fit, and they each got their rooms cleaned and vacuumed at least once.

Megan did work some, and she’s been working on a few art projects, so at least the time is not completely wasted for her. But talk about college or get online to accept the scholarships she has been offered? No WAY! Still got a ways to go with getting that one ready for the next stage of her life.

And I did some knitting. Me. Seriously! I learned how to do this ruffle scarf from a friend in bells, and I worked on it backstage during the Christmas concerts. Then I made two more like that for my girls. I had one more skein of fancy yarn and thought I could try another scarf, although this one isn’t like the others and I hope it’s long enough. We’ll see.

So, yes, I knit now. Who would have guessed it.

While I’m sad to see the end of the vacation, I’m ready for everyone to get back to their routines. Ryan left this morning for a quick trip to VEGAS for the CES trade show. The kids leave tomorrow and I’ll have the house to myself for a few hours. I need to get myself on the treadmill and finish cleaning up my office. And probably go grocery shopping if I can get my coupons organized. I have goals for the month and need to get out of this lazy fog that I’ve been in. I’m sure it will be a great shock to the kids when they have to go to school for the whole day, and they will miss their beloved nexflix, but that’s how it goes.