How time flies!

Today is my 5 year anniversary at my job. Which weirds me out, because when I first decided to take the job, I thought: “I never intended to get into the TV industry, but I’ll try it for 6 months or so.” Cut to today. 5 years later. And me, surprisingly, still loving what I do.

But this anniversary has made me think a lot about my life. Where I thought I’d be vs. where I am. And it made me think about how time flies, and how fortunate I've been. How different things are. It made me nostalgic, and so I decided to share the story of one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. I split this story up into 4 small parts, but I promise I'll be a better blogger and finish it this week! Here we go...

Preface: My dad is in the film industry. It’s not something I talk about that often, because in Los Angeles, it always leads to at least one or two people asking for favors. “Oh, can your give your dad my head shot?” “Oh, can your dad get me a job?” To which the typical answer is, "Sure, but he’s just going to throw it away," or "Not really, no."

Anyway, because of my dad’s job (I won’t say exactly what he does, but he gets to boss a bunch of people around and make sure things go how they’re supposed to, it’s pretty awesome), I’ve had some incredible and unusual opportunities. I’ve been around movie sets my whole life, and I’ve had a chance to meet some really cool people.

This story is from spring of 1999 (holy crap, I can't believe that was 10 years ago!). I was a 16-year-old junior in high school. My dad was working on Reindeer Games. Does anyone remember that gem? Yeah, didn’t think you would. Let me refresh your memory – Ben Affleck starred in a “Christmas” movie about a guy whose cellmate is killed right before he’s scheduled to be released from jail and meet the girl he’s been writing back and forth to, the "girl of his dreams." So naturally, an elated to be out of jail Ben Affleck takes his cellmate’s place in meeting the girl. Trouble ensues, chock filled with violence and bad language (and tons of bad acting).

But here’s the thing: this was 1999. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon had just won the Oscar for Good Will Hunting. Armageddon had been released the summer before. Ben Affleck was on the cusp of major stardom - tall, dark and handsome - and I was a shy, quiet 16-year-old with a HUGE crush. It was my spring break, and my dad was letting my fly up to Canada to spend it working with him.

It was a dream come true – an entire week with my dad (and just the two of us, at that), Ben Affleck, and a movie set.

I anxiously flew by myself to Vancouver, then took a super small plane to a town called Prince George where they were shooting. I arrived on a Saturday afternoon; they were shooting nights. I spent the first night watching a diner scene being filmed, the second night watching the grand finale casino scene.

There was an amazing stunt of a guy being lit on fire and falling out of a two story window. There was director John Frankenheimer (a good friend of my dad’s that I knew from several other movies) giving me gruff advice to never smoke. There was my dad running around yelling at people and making it all happen (I was so proud!). There was Ben Affleck joking around with everyone and greeting screaming fans that were standing out in the cold in the middle of the night, and Charlize Theron hanging out (with her mom, too) being absolutely gorgeous and super nice.

I think that even at 16 I realized what an awesome memory that trip would be, and how lucky I was to be experiencing it.

Parts two, three and four!